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Of whom did Margaret Asquith say if he was not a great man at least he was a great poster | Lord Kitchener
Lord Kitchener
Primary Sources
Horatio Kitchener, the third child and second son of Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Horatio Kitchener (1805–1894), was born near Ballylongford, County Kerry, Ireland , on 24th June 1850. According to Keith Neilson : "His father was an unpopular, tenant-evicting, improving landowner, a domestic martinet, and an eccentric who used newspapers instead of blankets in bed."
Kitchener's mother suffered from tuberculosis and the family moved to Switzerland in 1864. Kitchener attended an English boarding-school at Renaz. Teased about his strange Irish accent, he devoted himself to his books, and became fluent in French and German. In 1867 he moved to Cambridge to complete his secondary education. He wanted to study at the Royal Military Academy . He took the examination in January 1868, passing twenty-eighth out of fifty-six. Kitchener was not a very talented student but on 4th January, 1871, he was commissioned into the Royal Engineers . He spent the next two years at the School of Military Engineering in Chatham.
Kitchener came to the attention of Brigadier-General George Richards Graves of the War Office staff and was appointed as his aide-de-camp in 1873. The following year he was seconded to the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF). Kitchener was a talented linguist and learnt Arabic during this period. He was also respected as a skilled negotiator with local people.
In 1878 he was seconded to the Foreign Office and given the task of mapping Cyprus . In June 1879 he was appointed military vice-consul, to Kastamonu Province in Turkey . In March 1880 he returned to Cyprus at the request of the new high commissioner, Robert Biddulph , and for the next two years continued his survey.
Egypt
Kitchener secured a posting to Egypt early in 1883, at the same time as being promoted captain. In March 1884 General Charles George Gordon was under siege in Khartoum . The British public called for action but it was not until November that the Khartoum Relief Expedition under the leadership of Field Marshal Garnet Wolseley began. Kitchener was an intelligence officer on the mission and he continually pressed Wolseley to push forward more rapidly. By the time they reached the city Gordon was dead.
Keith Neilson has pointed out: "Despite the expedition's failure to save Gordon, Kitchener emerged with credit and some fame. Promoted brevet lieutenant-colonel in June 1885, he resigned his Egyptian commission and returned to England, where his fame had been spread by the press and his father. The press had a crucial role in creating the Kitchener legend. Kitchener used his new status as a social lion to make many connections which later proved useful."
Governor-General
In 1886 Kitchener was appointed as governor-general of the eastern Sudan . Most of his time was spent dealing with Osman Digna , a major slave trader and a follower of of the Muhammad Ahmad . During a skirmish in January 1888 Kitchener was shot in the jaw. He returned to England on leave, where Lord Salisbury , the prime minister, arranged for him to be adjutant-general of the Egyptian Army, a post he took up in September 1888. He was given the additional position of inspector-general of police in the autumn of 1889.
Kitchener was made commander-in-chief of the Egyptian Army on 13th April 1892. Keith Neilson has argued: "This offended many who believed he owed his appointment more to his assiduous cultivation of the powerful than to his abilities. Such a view was reinforced by his tour of country houses when on leave in England, and by the prominent persons, including the prince of Wales, who stayed with him in Egypt. Kitchener however immediately set about reforming the Egyptian army, gathering around him a cadre of eager young officers... The fact that Kitchener surrounded himself with similar groups throughout his career, and never married, led to speculations that he was a homosexual."
In 1897 Major General Kitchener decided to attempt the reconquest of the Sudan . Kitchener applied to London for a group of special service officers to participate in his largely Egyptian force. George Henderson suggested that Douglas Haig should be sent to serve under Kitchener. It was during this period that the two men became friends.
Battle of Omdurman
Kitchener's army took Abu Hamed on 7th August, 1897. Later that month they occupied Berber. He had to halt his advance until he received reinforcements. A new campaign began with the capture of Atbara on 8th April, 1898. They reached the Mahdist capital, Omdurman, four months later. The Battle of Omdurman began on 2nd September. Kitchener commanded a force of 8,000 British regulars and a mixed force of 17,000 Sudanese and Egyptian troops. Abdullah al-Taashi , the successor to Muhammad Ahmad , had around 50,000 men at his disposal.
The battle began in the early morning. The British artillery opened fire, inflicting severe casualties on the Ansar forces before they even came within range of the Maxim guns. The frontal attack ended quickly, with around 4,000 Ansar casualties. It has been claimed that none of the attackers got closer than 50m to the British trenches. Later that day Kitchener was able to take control of Omdurman.
Winston Churchill wrote: "Thus ended the Battle of Omdurman - the most signal triumph ever gained by the arms of science over barbarians. Within the space of five hours the strongest and best-armed savage army yet arrayed against a modern European Power had been destroyed and dispersed, with hardly any difficulty, comparatively small risk, and insignificant loss to the victors."
Paul Halsall has pointed out: "The Dervish Army, approximately 52,000 strong, suffered losses of 20,000 dead, 22,000 wounded, and some 5,000 taken prisoner - an unbelievable 90% casualty rate! By contrast, the Anglo-Egyptian Army, some 23,000 strong, suffered losses of 48 dead, and 382 wounded - an equally unbelievable 2% casualty rate, thus showing the superiority of modern firepower!"
Kitchener had returned home to England to a mixed welcome. As Keith Neilson explained: "As he rose Kitchener provoked continued resentment and criticism. Anti-imperialists hated his imperial victories and triumphs. Some British officers were jealous of his success, and for varied reasons there was among senior officers much suspicion of him... Despite radicals' and others' criticism of Kitchener's behaviour, particularly his desecration of the Mahdi's tomb at Omdurman and his taking of the latter's skull, the British public lionized the sirdar... and he was frequently mobbed when he appeared in public."
Boer War
Kitchener served as governor-general of Sudan from 19th January to 18th December 1899. However, on the outbreak of the Boer War he was sent to South Africa , where he was chief of staff to the commander-in-chief, Field Marshal Frederick Roberts . Kitchener was in charge of the forces at Paardeberg . Lieutenant General Thomas Kelly-Kenny , commanding the British 6th Division, wanted to lay siege and bombard the force led by Piet Cronjé into surrender. Lieutenant General Herbert Kitchener overruled Kelly-Kenny and ordered the infantry and mounted troops into a series of uncoordinated frontal assaults against the entrenched Boers. Armed with the modern weapons the Sudanese had wholly lacked, the British were shot down in large numbers. It is thought that not a single British soldier got within 200 yards of the Boer lines. During the attack 24 officers and 279 men were killed and 59 officers and 847 men wounded.
After this disaster it was decided to return to the strategy first suggested by Lieutenant General Kelly-Kenny. While Paardeberg was besieged Roberts sent Kitchener to repair the railway system in the Orange Free State . In June 1900, Kitchener was sent to Pretoria to deal with Christian De Wet . For the next two months Kitchener pursued the Boer guerrillas. As Keith Neilson points out: "To deal with the Boers' guerrilla tactics, Kitchener used two complementary methods. The first was to divide the country up into a grid by building a series of blockhouses and barbed-wire fences, and by instituting drives along these grids using columns of mounted troops. It was owing to the rugged terrain and the Boers' familiarity with the countryside that this policy was not initially successful. Kitchener's second method was resource denial, achieved by destroying Boer farms and - continuing and intensifying the process begun under Roberts - gathering the occupants, mostly women and children, into forty-six 'refugee' or ‘concentration’ camps where they could not aid the commandos."
Scorched Earth Policy
In October 1900, Emily Hobhouse formed the Relief Fund for South African Women and Children . An organisation set up: "To feed, clothe, harbour and save women and children - Boer, English and other - who were left destitute and ragged as a result of the destruction of property, the eviction of families or other incidents resulting from the military operations". Except for members of the Society of Friends , very few people were willing to contribute to this fund.
Hobhouse arrived in South Africa on 27th December, 1900. After meeting Alfred Milner , she gained permission to visit the concentration camps that had been established by the British Army . However, Lord Kitchener objected to this decision and she was now told she could only go to Bloemfontein .
Hobhouse left Cape Town on 22nd January, 1901, and arrived at Bloemfontein two days later. There were at the time eighteen hundred people in the camp. Emily discovered "that there was a scarcity of essential provision and that the accommodation was wholly inadequate." When she complained about the lack of soap she was told, "soap is an article of luxury". She nevertheless succeeded ultimately to have it listed as a necessity, together with straw and kettles in which to boil the drinking water. Over the next few weeks Emily visited several camps to the south of Bloemfontein, including Norvalspont, Aliwal North, Springfontein, Kimberley and Orange River. She was also allowed to visit Mafeking. Everywhere she directed the attention of the authorities to the inadequate sanitary accommodation and inadequate rations.
Concentration Camps
Hobhouse argued that Kitchener’s "Scorched Earth" policy included the systematic destruction of crops and slaughtering of livestock, the burning down of homesteads and farms, and the poisoning of wells and salting of fields - to prevent the Boers from resupplying from a home base. Civilians were then forcibly moved into the concentration camps. Although this tactic had been used by Spain ( Ten Years' War ) and the United States ( Philippine-American War ), it was the first time that a whole nation had been systematically targeted.
Hobhouse decided that she had to return to England in an effort to persuade the Marquess of Salisbury and his government to bring an end to the British Army's scorched earth and concentration camp policy. David Lloyd George and Charles Trevelyan took up the case in the House of Commons and accused the government of "a policy of extermination" directed against the Boer population. William St John Fremantle Brodrick , the Secretary of State for War argued that the interned Boers were "contented and comfortable" and stated that everything possible was being done to ensure satisfactory conditions in the camps.
Lord Kitchener
In August, 1901, the British government established a commission headed by Millicent Fawcett to visit South Africa . While the Fawcett Commission was carrying out the investigation, the government published its own report. According to the New York Times : “The War Office has issued a four-hundred-page Blue Book of the official reports from medical and other officers on the conditions in the concentration camps in South Africa. The general drift of the report attributes the high mortality in these camps to the dirty habits of the Boers, their ignorance and prejudices, their recourse to quackery, and their suspicious avoidance of the British hospitals and doctors.”
The Fawcett Commission confirmed almost everything that Emily Hobhouse had reported. After the war a report concluded that 27,927 Boers had died of starvation, disease and exposure in the concentration camps. In all, about one in four of the Boer inmates, mostly children, died. However, the South African historian, Stephen Burridge Spies argues in Methods of Barbarism: Roberts and Kitchener and Civilians in the Boer Republics (1977) that this is an under-estimate of those who died in the camps.
After the Boer War was brought to an end by the signing of the Peace Treaty of Vereeniging , Kitchener became commander-in-chief in India (1902-09) and military governor of Egypt (1911-14). J. B. Priestley met Kitchener at this time: "I had a close view, finding him older and greyer than the familiar pictures of him. The image I retained was of a rather bloated purplish face and glaring but somehow jellied eyes."
First World War
On the outbreak of the First World War , the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith , appointed Kitchener as Secretary of War. Kitchener, he first member of the military to hold the post, was given the task of recruiting a large army to fight Germany. A.J.P. Taylor has pointed out: "He startled his colleagues at the first cabinet meeting which he attended by announcing that the war would last three years, not three months, and that Great Britain would have to put an army of millions into the field. Regarding the Territorial Army with undeserved contempt, he proposed to raise a New Army of seventy divisions and, when Asquith ruled out compulsion as politically impossible, agreed to do so by voluntary recruiting."
Kitchener asked for an initial one hundred thousand - 175,000 men volunteered in the single week ending 5th September. With the help of a war poster that featured Kitchener and the words: "Join Your Country's Army", 750,000 had enlisted by the end of September. Thereafter the average ran at 125,000 men a month until June 1915 when numbers joining up began to slow down.
According to his biographer, Keith Neilson : "Kitchener brought to his new office both strengths and weaknesses. He had waged two wars in which he had dealt with all aspects of warfare, including both command and logistics. He was used to being in charge of large enterprises, he was not afraid to take responsibility and make decisions, and he enjoyed public confidence. However, he had no experience of modern European war, almost no knowledge of the British army at home, and a limited understanding of the War Office. Perhaps most importantly, he had no experience of working in a cabinet. Nevertheless in the opening stage of the war he, Asquith, and Churchill formed a dominant triumvirate in the cabinet." Arthur Conan Doyle complained: "Kitchener grew very arrogant. He had flashes of genius but was usually stupid. He could not see any use in Munitions. He was against tanks. He was against Welsh and Irish divisions. But he was a great force in recruiting."
Kitchener told Asquith that he expected the war to last at least three years with millions of casualties. He argued that the British Army must concentrate its efforts on the Western Front . However, after coming under considerable pressure from Winston Churchill , he First Lord of the Admiralty, he did agree to support the Gallipoli campaign in February 1915. By the time Kitchener withdrew the troops from the the area in January, 1916, Allied casualties totaled over 250,000 men.
The Gallipoli disaster damaged Kitchener's reputation as a military strategist. Kitchener also came under attack for a shortage of military supplies. Lord Kitchener offered to resign but Herbert Asquith decided to keep him as his Secretary of War. Lord Northcliffe attacked Kitchener in the Daily Mail : "Lord Kitchener has starved the army in France of high-explosive shells. The admitted fact is that Lord Kitchener ordered the wrong kind of shell - the same kind of shell which he used largely against the Boers in 1900. He persisted in sending shrapnel - a useless weapon in trench warfare. He was warned repeatedly that the kind of shell required was a violently explosive bomb which would dynamite its way through the German trenches and entanglements and enable our brave men to advance in safety. This kind of shell our poor soldiers have had has caused the death of thousands of them."
Lord Kitchener telling Herbert Asquith and Winston Churchill that things are not as
bad as they look. Cartoon from the German magazine, Simplicissimus (May, 1915)
The journalist, Charles Repington , had a more positive view of Kitchener but was still critical of his role in the war: "The services which he rendered in the early days of the war cannot be forgotten. They transcend those of all the lesser men who were his colleagues, some few of whom envied his popularity. His old manner of working alone did not consort with the needs of this huge syndicalism, modern war. The thing was too big. He made many mistakes. He was not a good Cabinet man. His methods did not suit a democracy. But there he was, towering above the others in character as in inches, by far the most popular man in the country to the end, and a firm rock which stood out amidst the raging tempest."
In the spring of 1916 Herbert Asquith decided to send Kitchener to Russia in an attempt to rally the country in its fight against Germany. On 5th June 1916, Horatio Kitchener was drowned when the HMS Hampshire on which he was traveling to Russia, was struck a mine off the Orkneys . C. P. Scott , the editor of the Manchester Guardian , remarked: "he could not have done better than to have gone down, as he was a great impediment lately".
| Lord Kitchener |
Garnet comes in many colours but what is the commonest | Lord Kitchener
Lord Kitchener
Primary Sources
Horatio Kitchener, the third child and second son of Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Horatio Kitchener (1805–1894), was born near Ballylongford, County Kerry, Ireland , on 24th June 1850. According to Keith Neilson : "His father was an unpopular, tenant-evicting, improving landowner, a domestic martinet, and an eccentric who used newspapers instead of blankets in bed."
Kitchener's mother suffered from tuberculosis and the family moved to Switzerland in 1864. Kitchener attended an English boarding-school at Renaz. Teased about his strange Irish accent, he devoted himself to his books, and became fluent in French and German. In 1867 he moved to Cambridge to complete his secondary education. He wanted to study at the Royal Military Academy . He took the examination in January 1868, passing twenty-eighth out of fifty-six. Kitchener was not a very talented student but on 4th January, 1871, he was commissioned into the Royal Engineers . He spent the next two years at the School of Military Engineering in Chatham.
Kitchener came to the attention of Brigadier-General George Richards Graves of the War Office staff and was appointed as his aide-de-camp in 1873. The following year he was seconded to the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF). Kitchener was a talented linguist and learnt Arabic during this period. He was also respected as a skilled negotiator with local people.
In 1878 he was seconded to the Foreign Office and given the task of mapping Cyprus . In June 1879 he was appointed military vice-consul, to Kastamonu Province in Turkey . In March 1880 he returned to Cyprus at the request of the new high commissioner, Robert Biddulph , and for the next two years continued his survey.
Egypt
Kitchener secured a posting to Egypt early in 1883, at the same time as being promoted captain. In March 1884 General Charles George Gordon was under siege in Khartoum . The British public called for action but it was not until November that the Khartoum Relief Expedition under the leadership of Field Marshal Garnet Wolseley began. Kitchener was an intelligence officer on the mission and he continually pressed Wolseley to push forward more rapidly. By the time they reached the city Gordon was dead.
Keith Neilson has pointed out: "Despite the expedition's failure to save Gordon, Kitchener emerged with credit and some fame. Promoted brevet lieutenant-colonel in June 1885, he resigned his Egyptian commission and returned to England, where his fame had been spread by the press and his father. The press had a crucial role in creating the Kitchener legend. Kitchener used his new status as a social lion to make many connections which later proved useful."
Governor-General
In 1886 Kitchener was appointed as governor-general of the eastern Sudan . Most of his time was spent dealing with Osman Digna , a major slave trader and a follower of of the Muhammad Ahmad . During a skirmish in January 1888 Kitchener was shot in the jaw. He returned to England on leave, where Lord Salisbury , the prime minister, arranged for him to be adjutant-general of the Egyptian Army, a post he took up in September 1888. He was given the additional position of inspector-general of police in the autumn of 1889.
Kitchener was made commander-in-chief of the Egyptian Army on 13th April 1892. Keith Neilson has argued: "This offended many who believed he owed his appointment more to his assiduous cultivation of the powerful than to his abilities. Such a view was reinforced by his tour of country houses when on leave in England, and by the prominent persons, including the prince of Wales, who stayed with him in Egypt. Kitchener however immediately set about reforming the Egyptian army, gathering around him a cadre of eager young officers... The fact that Kitchener surrounded himself with similar groups throughout his career, and never married, led to speculations that he was a homosexual."
In 1897 Major General Kitchener decided to attempt the reconquest of the Sudan . Kitchener applied to London for a group of special service officers to participate in his largely Egyptian force. George Henderson suggested that Douglas Haig should be sent to serve under Kitchener. It was during this period that the two men became friends.
Battle of Omdurman
Kitchener's army took Abu Hamed on 7th August, 1897. Later that month they occupied Berber. He had to halt his advance until he received reinforcements. A new campaign began with the capture of Atbara on 8th April, 1898. They reached the Mahdist capital, Omdurman, four months later. The Battle of Omdurman began on 2nd September. Kitchener commanded a force of 8,000 British regulars and a mixed force of 17,000 Sudanese and Egyptian troops. Abdullah al-Taashi , the successor to Muhammad Ahmad , had around 50,000 men at his disposal.
The battle began in the early morning. The British artillery opened fire, inflicting severe casualties on the Ansar forces before they even came within range of the Maxim guns. The frontal attack ended quickly, with around 4,000 Ansar casualties. It has been claimed that none of the attackers got closer than 50m to the British trenches. Later that day Kitchener was able to take control of Omdurman.
Winston Churchill wrote: "Thus ended the Battle of Omdurman - the most signal triumph ever gained by the arms of science over barbarians. Within the space of five hours the strongest and best-armed savage army yet arrayed against a modern European Power had been destroyed and dispersed, with hardly any difficulty, comparatively small risk, and insignificant loss to the victors."
Paul Halsall has pointed out: "The Dervish Army, approximately 52,000 strong, suffered losses of 20,000 dead, 22,000 wounded, and some 5,000 taken prisoner - an unbelievable 90% casualty rate! By contrast, the Anglo-Egyptian Army, some 23,000 strong, suffered losses of 48 dead, and 382 wounded - an equally unbelievable 2% casualty rate, thus showing the superiority of modern firepower!"
Kitchener had returned home to England to a mixed welcome. As Keith Neilson explained: "As he rose Kitchener provoked continued resentment and criticism. Anti-imperialists hated his imperial victories and triumphs. Some British officers were jealous of his success, and for varied reasons there was among senior officers much suspicion of him... Despite radicals' and others' criticism of Kitchener's behaviour, particularly his desecration of the Mahdi's tomb at Omdurman and his taking of the latter's skull, the British public lionized the sirdar... and he was frequently mobbed when he appeared in public."
Boer War
Kitchener served as governor-general of Sudan from 19th January to 18th December 1899. However, on the outbreak of the Boer War he was sent to South Africa , where he was chief of staff to the commander-in-chief, Field Marshal Frederick Roberts . Kitchener was in charge of the forces at Paardeberg . Lieutenant General Thomas Kelly-Kenny , commanding the British 6th Division, wanted to lay siege and bombard the force led by Piet Cronjé into surrender. Lieutenant General Herbert Kitchener overruled Kelly-Kenny and ordered the infantry and mounted troops into a series of uncoordinated frontal assaults against the entrenched Boers. Armed with the modern weapons the Sudanese had wholly lacked, the British were shot down in large numbers. It is thought that not a single British soldier got within 200 yards of the Boer lines. During the attack 24 officers and 279 men were killed and 59 officers and 847 men wounded.
After this disaster it was decided to return to the strategy first suggested by Lieutenant General Kelly-Kenny. While Paardeberg was besieged Roberts sent Kitchener to repair the railway system in the Orange Free State . In June 1900, Kitchener was sent to Pretoria to deal with Christian De Wet . For the next two months Kitchener pursued the Boer guerrillas. As Keith Neilson points out: "To deal with the Boers' guerrilla tactics, Kitchener used two complementary methods. The first was to divide the country up into a grid by building a series of blockhouses and barbed-wire fences, and by instituting drives along these grids using columns of mounted troops. It was owing to the rugged terrain and the Boers' familiarity with the countryside that this policy was not initially successful. Kitchener's second method was resource denial, achieved by destroying Boer farms and - continuing and intensifying the process begun under Roberts - gathering the occupants, mostly women and children, into forty-six 'refugee' or ‘concentration’ camps where they could not aid the commandos."
Scorched Earth Policy
In October 1900, Emily Hobhouse formed the Relief Fund for South African Women and Children . An organisation set up: "To feed, clothe, harbour and save women and children - Boer, English and other - who were left destitute and ragged as a result of the destruction of property, the eviction of families or other incidents resulting from the military operations". Except for members of the Society of Friends , very few people were willing to contribute to this fund.
Hobhouse arrived in South Africa on 27th December, 1900. After meeting Alfred Milner , she gained permission to visit the concentration camps that had been established by the British Army . However, Lord Kitchener objected to this decision and she was now told she could only go to Bloemfontein .
Hobhouse left Cape Town on 22nd January, 1901, and arrived at Bloemfontein two days later. There were at the time eighteen hundred people in the camp. Emily discovered "that there was a scarcity of essential provision and that the accommodation was wholly inadequate." When she complained about the lack of soap she was told, "soap is an article of luxury". She nevertheless succeeded ultimately to have it listed as a necessity, together with straw and kettles in which to boil the drinking water. Over the next few weeks Emily visited several camps to the south of Bloemfontein, including Norvalspont, Aliwal North, Springfontein, Kimberley and Orange River. She was also allowed to visit Mafeking. Everywhere she directed the attention of the authorities to the inadequate sanitary accommodation and inadequate rations.
Concentration Camps
Hobhouse argued that Kitchener’s "Scorched Earth" policy included the systematic destruction of crops and slaughtering of livestock, the burning down of homesteads and farms, and the poisoning of wells and salting of fields - to prevent the Boers from resupplying from a home base. Civilians were then forcibly moved into the concentration camps. Although this tactic had been used by Spain ( Ten Years' War ) and the United States ( Philippine-American War ), it was the first time that a whole nation had been systematically targeted.
Hobhouse decided that she had to return to England in an effort to persuade the Marquess of Salisbury and his government to bring an end to the British Army's scorched earth and concentration camp policy. David Lloyd George and Charles Trevelyan took up the case in the House of Commons and accused the government of "a policy of extermination" directed against the Boer population. William St John Fremantle Brodrick , the Secretary of State for War argued that the interned Boers were "contented and comfortable" and stated that everything possible was being done to ensure satisfactory conditions in the camps.
Lord Kitchener
In August, 1901, the British government established a commission headed by Millicent Fawcett to visit South Africa . While the Fawcett Commission was carrying out the investigation, the government published its own report. According to the New York Times : “The War Office has issued a four-hundred-page Blue Book of the official reports from medical and other officers on the conditions in the concentration camps in South Africa. The general drift of the report attributes the high mortality in these camps to the dirty habits of the Boers, their ignorance and prejudices, their recourse to quackery, and their suspicious avoidance of the British hospitals and doctors.”
The Fawcett Commission confirmed almost everything that Emily Hobhouse had reported. After the war a report concluded that 27,927 Boers had died of starvation, disease and exposure in the concentration camps. In all, about one in four of the Boer inmates, mostly children, died. However, the South African historian, Stephen Burridge Spies argues in Methods of Barbarism: Roberts and Kitchener and Civilians in the Boer Republics (1977) that this is an under-estimate of those who died in the camps.
After the Boer War was brought to an end by the signing of the Peace Treaty of Vereeniging , Kitchener became commander-in-chief in India (1902-09) and military governor of Egypt (1911-14). J. B. Priestley met Kitchener at this time: "I had a close view, finding him older and greyer than the familiar pictures of him. The image I retained was of a rather bloated purplish face and glaring but somehow jellied eyes."
First World War
On the outbreak of the First World War , the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith , appointed Kitchener as Secretary of War. Kitchener, he first member of the military to hold the post, was given the task of recruiting a large army to fight Germany. A.J.P. Taylor has pointed out: "He startled his colleagues at the first cabinet meeting which he attended by announcing that the war would last three years, not three months, and that Great Britain would have to put an army of millions into the field. Regarding the Territorial Army with undeserved contempt, he proposed to raise a New Army of seventy divisions and, when Asquith ruled out compulsion as politically impossible, agreed to do so by voluntary recruiting."
Kitchener asked for an initial one hundred thousand - 175,000 men volunteered in the single week ending 5th September. With the help of a war poster that featured Kitchener and the words: "Join Your Country's Army", 750,000 had enlisted by the end of September. Thereafter the average ran at 125,000 men a month until June 1915 when numbers joining up began to slow down.
According to his biographer, Keith Neilson : "Kitchener brought to his new office both strengths and weaknesses. He had waged two wars in which he had dealt with all aspects of warfare, including both command and logistics. He was used to being in charge of large enterprises, he was not afraid to take responsibility and make decisions, and he enjoyed public confidence. However, he had no experience of modern European war, almost no knowledge of the British army at home, and a limited understanding of the War Office. Perhaps most importantly, he had no experience of working in a cabinet. Nevertheless in the opening stage of the war he, Asquith, and Churchill formed a dominant triumvirate in the cabinet." Arthur Conan Doyle complained: "Kitchener grew very arrogant. He had flashes of genius but was usually stupid. He could not see any use in Munitions. He was against tanks. He was against Welsh and Irish divisions. But he was a great force in recruiting."
Kitchener told Asquith that he expected the war to last at least three years with millions of casualties. He argued that the British Army must concentrate its efforts on the Western Front . However, after coming under considerable pressure from Winston Churchill , he First Lord of the Admiralty, he did agree to support the Gallipoli campaign in February 1915. By the time Kitchener withdrew the troops from the the area in January, 1916, Allied casualties totaled over 250,000 men.
The Gallipoli disaster damaged Kitchener's reputation as a military strategist. Kitchener also came under attack for a shortage of military supplies. Lord Kitchener offered to resign but Herbert Asquith decided to keep him as his Secretary of War. Lord Northcliffe attacked Kitchener in the Daily Mail : "Lord Kitchener has starved the army in France of high-explosive shells. The admitted fact is that Lord Kitchener ordered the wrong kind of shell - the same kind of shell which he used largely against the Boers in 1900. He persisted in sending shrapnel - a useless weapon in trench warfare. He was warned repeatedly that the kind of shell required was a violently explosive bomb which would dynamite its way through the German trenches and entanglements and enable our brave men to advance in safety. This kind of shell our poor soldiers have had has caused the death of thousands of them."
Lord Kitchener telling Herbert Asquith and Winston Churchill that things are not as
bad as they look. Cartoon from the German magazine, Simplicissimus (May, 1915)
The journalist, Charles Repington , had a more positive view of Kitchener but was still critical of his role in the war: "The services which he rendered in the early days of the war cannot be forgotten. They transcend those of all the lesser men who were his colleagues, some few of whom envied his popularity. His old manner of working alone did not consort with the needs of this huge syndicalism, modern war. The thing was too big. He made many mistakes. He was not a good Cabinet man. His methods did not suit a democracy. But there he was, towering above the others in character as in inches, by far the most popular man in the country to the end, and a firm rock which stood out amidst the raging tempest."
In the spring of 1916 Herbert Asquith decided to send Kitchener to Russia in an attempt to rally the country in its fight against Germany. On 5th June 1916, Horatio Kitchener was drowned when the HMS Hampshire on which he was traveling to Russia, was struck a mine off the Orkneys . C. P. Scott , the editor of the Manchester Guardian , remarked: "he could not have done better than to have gone down, as he was a great impediment lately".
| i don't know |
In which country is the Bay of Pigs | Bay of Pigs Invasion - Cold War - HISTORY.com
Bay of Pigs Invasion
A+E Networks
Introduction
On January 1, 1959, a young Cuban nationalist named Fidel Castro (1926-) drove his guerilla army into Havana and overthrew General Fulgencio Batista (1901-1973), the nation’s American-backed president. For the next two years, officials at the U.S. State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) attempted to push Castro from power. Finally, in April 1961, the CIA launched what its leaders believed would be the definitive strike: a full-scale invasion of Cuba by 1,400 American-trained Cubans who had fled their homes when Castro took over. However, the invasion did not go well: The invaders were badly outnumbered by Castro’s troops, and they surrendered after less than 24 hours of fighting.
| Cuba |
Who took over the England cricket captaincy from Alex Stewart in 1999 | Bay of Pigs
Bay of Pigs
▼ Primary Sources ▼
Bay of Pigs
In the three years that followed the Cuban Revolution , 250,000 Cubans out of a population of six million left the country. Most of these were from the upper and middle-classes who were financially worse off as a result of Castro's policies.
Of those who stayed, 90 per cent of the population, according to public opinion polls, supported Fidel Castro . However, Castro did not keep his promise of holding free elections. Castro claimed the national unity that had been created would be destroyed by the competing political parties in an election.
Castro was also becoming less tolerant towards people who disagreed with him. Ministers who questioned the wisdom of his policies were sacked and replaced by people who had proved their loyalty to him. These people were often young, inexperienced politicians who had fought with him in the Sierra Maestra.
Politicians who publicly disagreed with him faced the possibility of being arrested. Writers who expressed dissenting views and people he considered deviants such as homosexuals were also imprisoned.
In March 1960 Richard Bissell had drafted a top-secret policy paper entitled: A Program of Covert Action Against the Castro Regime (code-named JMARC). This paper was based on PBSUCCESS, the policy that had worked so well in overthrowing President Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954. In fact, Bissell assembled the same team as the one used against Arbenz: ( Tracy Barnes , David Atlee Phillips, David Morales , Jake Esterline , Rip Robertson , E. Howard Hunt and Gerry Droller Frank Bender). The only one missing was Frank Wisner , who had suffered a mental breakdown in 1956. Added to the team was Desmond FitzGerald , William Harvey and Ted Shackley .
The policy involved the creation of an exile government, a powerful propaganda offensive, developing a resistance group within Cuba and the establishment of a paramilitary force outside Cuba. In Guatemala this strategy involved persuading Jacobo Arbenz to resign. Richard Bissell knew of course that Fidel Castro would never agree to that. Therefore, Castro had to be removed just before the invasion took place. If this did not happen, the plan would not work. In August 1960 Dwight Eisenhower authorized $13m to pay for JMARC.
Sidney Gottlieb of the CIA Technical Services Division was asked to come up with proposals that would undermine Castro's popularity with the Cuban people. Plans included a scheme to spray a television studio in which he was about to appear with an hallucinogenic drug and contaminating his shoes with thallium which they believed would cause the hair in his beard to fall out.
These schemes were rejected and instead Bissell decided to arrange the assassination of Fidel Castro . In September 1960 Richard Bissell and Allen W. Dulles , the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), initiated talks with two leading figures of the Mafia, Johnny Roselli and Sam Giancana . Later, other crime bosses such as Carlos Marcello , Santos Trafficante and Meyer Lansky became involved in this plot against Castro.
Robert Maheu , a veteran of CIA counter-espionage activities, was instructed to offer the Mafia $150,000 to kill Fidel Castro . The advantage of employing the Mafia for this work is that it provided CIA with a credible cover story. The Mafia were known to be angry with Castro for closing down their profitable brothels and casinos in Cuba. If the assassins were killed or captured the media would accept that the Mafia were working on their own.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation had to be brought into this plan as part of the deal involved protection against investigations against the Mafia in the United States. Castro was later to complain that there were twenty ClA-sponsered attempts on his life. Eventually Johnny Roselli and his friends became convinced that the Cuban revolution could not be reversed by simply removing its leader. However, they continued to play along with this CIA plot in order to prevent them being prosecuted for criminal offences committed in the United States .
John F. Kennedy was given a copy of the JMARC proposal by Bissell and Allen W. Dulles in Palm Beach on 18th November, 1960. According to Bissell, Kennedy remained impassive throughout the meeting. He expressed surprise only at the scale of the operation. The plan involved a 750 man landing on a beach near the port of Trinidad , on the south coast of Cuba . The CIA claimed that Trinidad was a hotbed of opposition to Castro. It was predicted that within four days the invasion force would be able to recruit enough local volunteers to double in size. Airborne troops would secure the roads leading to the town and the rebels would join up with the guerrillas in the nearby Escambray Mountains.
In March 1961 John F. Kennedy asked the Joint Chiefs of Staff to vet the JMARC project. As a result of plausible deniability they were not given details of the plot to kill Castro. The JCS reported that if the invaders were given four days of air cover, if the people of Trinidad joined the rebellion and if they were able to join up with the guerrillas in the Escambray Mountains, the overall rating of success was 30%. Therefore, they could not recommend that Kennedy went along with the JMARC project.
At a meeting on 11th March, 1961, Kennedy rejected Bissells proposed scheme. He told him to go away and draft a new plan. He asked for it to be less spectacular and with a more remote landing site than Trinidad. It appears that Kennedy had completely misunderstood the report from the JCS. They had only rated it as high as a 30% chance of success because it was going to involve such a large landing force and was going to take place in Trinidad, near to the Escambray Mountains . After all, Fidel Castro had an army and militia of 200,000 men.
Richard Bissell now resubmitted his plan. As requested, the landing was no longer at Trinidad. Instead he selected Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs). This was 80 miles from the Escambray Mountains. What is more, this journey to the mountains was across an impenetrable swamp. As Bissell explained to Kennedy, this means that the guerrilla fallback option had been removed from the operation.
As Allen W. Dulles recorded at the time: We felt that when the chips were down, when the crisis arose in reality, any action required for success would be authorized rather than permit the enterprise to fail. In other words, he knew that the initial invasion would be a disaster, but believed that Kennedy would order a full-scale invasion when he realized that this was the case. According to Evan Thomas ( The Very Best Men ): Some old CIA hands believe that Bissell was setting a trap to force U.S. intervention. Edgar Applewhite, a former deputy inspector general, believed that Bissell and Dulles were building a tar baby. Jake Esterline was very unhappy with these developments and on 8th April attempted to resign from the CIA. Bissell convinced him to stay.
On 10th April, 1961, Bissell had a meeting with Robert Kennedy . He told Kennedy that the new plan had a two out of three chance of success. Bissell added that even if the project failed the invasion force could join the guerrillas in the Escambray Mountains. Kennedy was convinced by this scheme and applied pressure on those like Chester Bowles , Theodore Sorenson and Arthur Schlesinger who were urging John F. Kennedy to abandon the project.
On 13th April, Kennedy asked Richard Bissell how many B-26s were going to be used. He replied sixteen. Kennedy told him to use only eight. Bissell knew that the invasion could not succeed without adequate air cover. Yet he accepted this decision based on the idea that he would later change his mind when the chips were down. The following day B-26 planes began bombing Cuba's airfields. After the raids Cuba was left with only eight planes and seven pilots. Two days later five merchant ships carrying 1,400 Cuban exiles arrived at the Bay of Pigs.
Allen W. Dulles was in Puerto Rico during the invasion. He left Charles Cabell in charge. Instead of ordering the second air raid he checked with Dean Rusk . He contacted Kennedy who said he did not remember being told about the second raid. After discussing it with Rusk he decided to cancel it.
Instead the operation tried to rely on Radio Swan, broadcasts being made on a small island in the Caribbean by David Atlee Phillips , calling for the Cuban Army to revolt. They failed to do this. Instead they called out the militia to defend the fatherland from American mercenaries.
At 7 a.m. on 18th April, Richard Bissell told John F. Kennedy that the invasion force was trapped on the beaches and encircled by Castros forces. Then Bissell asked Kennedy to send in American forces to save the men. Bissell expected him to say yes. Instead he replied that he still wanted minimum visibility.
After the air raids Cuba was left with only eight planes and seven pilots. Two days later five merchant ships carrying 1,400 Cuban exiles arrived at the Bay of Pigs . Two of the ships were sunk, including the ship that was carrying most of the supplies. Two of the planes that were attempting to give air-cover were also shot down.
That night Bissell had another meeting with John F. Kennedy . This time it took place in the White House and included General Lyman Lemnitzer, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Admiral Arleigh Burke, Chief of Naval Operations. Bissell told Kennedy that the operation could still be saved if American warplanes were allowed to fly cover. Admiral Burke supported him on this. General Lemnitzer called for the Brigade to join the guerrillas in the Escambray Mountains. Bissell explained this was not an option as their route was being blocked by 20,000 Cuban troops.
Within seventy-two hours all the invading troops had been killed, wounded or had surrendered. Bissell had a meeting with John F. Kennedy about the Bay of Pigs operation. Kennedy admitted it was his fault that the operation had been a disaster. Kennedy added: "In a parliamentary government, I'd have to resign. But in this government I can't, so you and Allen (Dulles) have to go."
As Evan Thomas points out in The Very Best Men : "Bissell had been caught in his own web. "Plausible deniability" was intended to protect the president, but as he had used it, it was a tool to gain and maintain control over an operation... Without plausible deniability, the Cuba project would have turned over to the Pentagon, and Bissell would have have become a supporting actor."
After the CIA's internal inquiry into this fiasco, Allen W. Dulles was forced to resign as Director of the CIA (November, 1961) by President John F. Kennedy . He did not actually sack Bissell. Instead he offered him the post as director of a new science and technology department. Bissell turned down the offer and in February 1962 he left the CIA and was replaced as head of the Directorate for Plans, by Richard Helms . He now introduced a campaign that involved covert attacks on the Cuban economy.
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In which sport could a half nelson be used | How to Do a Half-nelson | iSport.com
How to Do a Half-nelson
How to Do a Half-nelson
The half-nelson, or simply “the half,” is one of the most well-known wrestling techniques in the world. Why? Because it works! The half is used to turn and pin an opponent on his back from the top position. Typically, the half-nelson is the first move that beginning wrestlers learn from the top position, but many wrestlers have been known to win national and international championships using this basic technique. Read each step carefully to learn the fundamentals of this invaluable maneuver.
1. Cover & Pressure
To start the half, you need to be covering your opponent in such a way that your body is on top of and aligned with his. Make sure your chest is making contact with his back. Staying on your toes will add some extra pressure to your opponent’s body and it’ll make it more difficult for your opponent to escape. Straddle the leg that is on the same side of your opponent’s body as the arm you want to do the half-nelson on.
Faces of Wrestling ...
Date of Birth: September 28, 1958
College: Syracuse University (Alumni)
Affiliation: Phoenix High School (New York, USA)
Style: Freestyle/Folkstyle
Getting to know Gene: Saying Gene was a standout at every level of wrestling would be an understatement. Gene didn’t just dominate his competition — he demolished it. In 1,356 career wins, Gene pinned 886 of his opponents, including national, world, and Olympic champions! He did this by using variations of one move that he learned as a kid: The half-nelson.
2. Stuff the Head
In order to turn your opponent on his back, you will need to keep his head down. You will use your hand, or forearm, of the arm that is closest to your opponent’s head to do this. For example, if you are straddling your opponent’s left leg, you will push your opponent’s head down with your right arm.
Put pressure on the back of his head and, if you can, try to keep his head in contact with the mat. The pressure that you apply to the back of your opponent’s head must be constant. You can apply as much pressure as you need to keep his head down, but you cannot strike or grind the back of your opponent’s head with your hand or forearm.
3. Scoop
Bring your other arm underneath the armpit of your opponent’s arm that you’re putting the half on (if you’re putting the half on your opponent’s left arm, use your left arm). Depending on the length of your arms, though, you might be focusing on your opponent’s elbow rather than his armpit.
While still applying pressure to the back of his head, snake your arm (that is now in his armpit) up and over the top of your opponent’s head. This is the “scoop.” Try to get your arm as far under the armpit and over the top of his head as possible. This will make your half “deep,” or tighter. The tighter you get the move at this stage, the higher your chances are of turning and pinning your opponent. One way to get your arm deeper is to grip the far side of your opponent’s neck at the base of the head.
4. Hop Off & Drive
Once you have secured a deep enough half on your opponent, you’re ready to turn him. Hop off your opponent’s body on the same side of the body that you’re controlling his arm. Use your legs and drive diagonally towards the ear on the opposite side of your opponent’s head (if you’re using your left arm to turn your opponent, drive towards his right ear).
As you drive, try and pull your opponent’s head toward the armpit of the arm you’re controlling. Keep your chest low on his body, and use your chest to pressure against his. Make sure to stay on your toes while you drive, and do not rest on your knees. Doing so will relieve all the pressure off of your opponent. So, stay on your toes and keep the pressure on.
Hot Tip: Using Both Arms
There are many different variations of the half, many of which require you to do something with your free arm as you are doing the half (the arm that isn’t snaked under your opponent’s armpit). Some of these include holding the far wrist, keeping a tight waist, or securing an arm-bar on the opposite side of your opponent’s body. For the basic purposes of learning the half, don’t worry about your free arm for right now. Just know that you will be using it in the future!
5. Secure & Settle
As you drive your opponent onto his back, you must tighten the hold you have on his head. Essentially, you want your opponent’s head tightly secured in the bend if your elbow:
As you are about to turn your opponent, roll your forearm (of the arm that’s snaked around the top of his head) forward so that you can use your tricep to push the back of your opponent’s head closer to your body. Again, this is not a strike with your elbow.
From here, your half should be deep enough that you are able to wrap your arm completely around the base of your opponent’s head. Your half is deep enough when your knuckles can touch his chest.
Make sure your chest is in direct contact with your opponent’s chest so that both bodies form the shape of a “T.” From here, sink your hips down to the mat so that your opponent cannot counter you. Stay on your toes to keep the pressure on his body, and pull his head up with your arm so he cannot bridge.
Pin & Win!
Adding the half-nelson to your technical arsenal will help you secure more wins in the long run. The ability to pin an opponent is very critical to your success as a wrestler because you’ll be competitive against anyone. The earlier you perfect the half-nelson, the quicker you’ll be able to dominate the competition from the top position. So, get out there and practice!
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Who was the Russian leader at the time of the Cuban missile crisis | Half nelson - definition of half nelson by The Free Dictionary
Half nelson - definition of half nelson by The Free Dictionary
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/half+nelson
Also found in: Thesaurus , Wikipedia .
half nelson
n.
A wrestling hold in which one arm is passed under the opponent's arm from behind to the back of the neck.
half′ nel′son
n.
a hold in which a wrestler, from behind the opponent, passes one arm under the corresponding arm of the opponent and locks the hand on the back of the opponent's neck. Compare full nelson.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun
1.
half nelson - a wrestling hold in which the holder puts an arm under the opponent's arm and exerts pressure on the back of the neck
nelson - any of several wrestling holds in which an arm is passed under the opponent's arm from behind and the hand exerts pressure on the back of the neck
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References in periodicals archive ?
In a review of Half Nelson (Canberra Times, 2007), the director Ryan Fleck is quoted as saying: "[My father] told me he was doing this thing [on dialectics for kids, see footnote 7] and I looked at it and thought, oh, this is great, this idea of opposing forces.
dvd
Try praising Canadian Ryan Gosling for his turn as a crack-addicted teacher in the plodding but well-executed Half Nelson.
The erudite critic: it's time to guess the Oscar winners. What better way to sound hip than by picking underdogs while using big words
His rivals up for the award - Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland, who is the bookies' favourite; Leonardo DiCaprio for Blood Diamond; Ryan Gosling for Half Nelson, and Will Smith for The Pursuit of Happyness - are all expected to attend the bash.
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After Britain lost the war of American Independence which part of North America did they retain | Why did Britain lose the American War of Independence / Revolutionary War? - Quora
Quora
The United States of America
Why did Britain lose the American War of Independence / Revolutionary War?
Britain was the world's greatest superpower at the time, with soldiers who fought on 5 continents and an irresistible navy. Britain massacred rebels and civilians in Jamaica and India around the same time and retained those colonies. Why not the 13 colonies of North America?
I keep coming across explanations that, upon further study, turn out to be false: The colonists used cover rather than fighting out in the open, the colonists alone had rifled barrels, the colonists alone had bayonets. Why couldn't Britain win this one?
Humphrey Clarke , MA in Modern History - University of St Andrews
Because of this:
and this...
and this...
Britain won many times in the battlefield but lost in the taverns. Taverns were plentiful and they were the social network of colonial life. Some areas of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania had them every few miles. One could get mail in a tavern, hire a hand, talk to friends, sell crops, buy land, and eat some good chow. In these places, capable and literate American settlers, many of whom had three or four generations on American soil, debated ideas, mustered militias and formed opinions. And after an apple jack and a roasted hen, with the warmth of a fireplace, one might even talk about throwing off the yoke of the Mother Country.
It didn't start out immediately with a call for war. It started with a protest of the Stamp Act, other Intolerable acts, non-compliance, boycott and overall a call for assertion of American rights. I would argue that in those debates in homes, taverns and colonial assemblies (and assemblies were often conducted in taverns), London didn't have 'a man' in the tavern to argue their side. And so the resistance swelled and went from lobby to boycott to arms gathering, to arms-using.
The colonies before being fully united were gathering news from each other and thus a blow in New England was felt in the Middle States and eventually South. Here's what Christopher Marshall, a "fighting Quaker' and patriot leader in Philadelphia writes about how Philadelphia reacted to the crackdown in Boston in 1775.
Christopher Marshall writes:
"This being the day when the cruel act for blocking the harbor of Boston took effect, many of the inhabitants of this city, to express their sympathy and show their concern for their suffering brethren in the common cause of liberty, had their shops shut up, their houses kept close from hurry and business; also the ring of bells at Christ Church were muffled, and rung a solemn peal at intervals, from morning till night; the colors of the vessels in the harbor were hoisted half-mast high; the several houses of different worship were crowded, where divine service was performed, and particular discourses, suitable to the occasion, were preached by F. Alison, Duffield, Sprout, and Blair. Sorrow, mixed with indignation, seemed pictured in the countenance of the inhabitants, and indeed the whole city wore the aspect of deep distress, being a melancholy occasion." -- Passages from the Remembrances of Christopher Marshall, p. 6.
There was already by 1775 a national network, fueled by tavern talk, so that events in Boston could lead to protests in Philadelphia and Virginia.
All of this popular appeal for resistance might have been satisfied by better policies towards America, by meaningful olive branches, perhaps even by having American MPs in Parliament, but absent those steps, popular appeal was lost and it was never broken during the war.
Britain's armies were large and had many victories, swallowing large parts of American territory, holding the commercial center of New York for all of the war and holding Boston, MA, Charleston, S.C., Newport, R.I. and Philadelphia, PA at different times.
When they captured Charleston, South Carolina, they had access to The Pink House, operating as a tavern since 1750.
Then it was pink because of the Bermuda stone that it was made of. But the trouble maker in Charleston was McCrady's Tavern. There the resistance in that city was plotted. McCrady, in fact, ran the militia. And when the British captured Charleston they locked him up.
The popular opinion so long developing in McCrady's, the Green Dragon, Fraunces in New York, City Tavern in Philadelphia, building against England meant that the American 'army' was not a stable puny force running around the woods, but a fair representation of the populace's mood and one that could be enlarged by new recruits and embodied local militias to match threats. It did shrink some too, as recruits left. But unlike the British, the American army had access to more people. Howe and other commanders had hoped for popular support, they got some, but not enough to negate the need for an imported army.
Popular opinion meant that Britain had a devil of a time supplying its army because foraging teams sent out from Boston or New York during their occupation were met with resistance. Popular opinion meant that no matter how many East Enders Britain could drill into its army, it had 2.4 million people to subdue, and its army of 194,000 max strength British Army during the American War of Independence split across a Continent, was no match.
Popular opinion meant that Howe needed to garrison areas that he conquered, such as Trenton and Princeton, leaving small amounts of Hessian and British troops. Easy prey for Washington's counterattacks in the famous battles in those towns. Popular support meant Britain could ravage seaports but often got caught in the back woods be it in King's Mountain or the deadly CowPens, or the fields near Monmouth courthouse where they tried to flee to get to their ferry back to their seaport safety under the sniping of patriot bullets.
The American people thought of themselves as such. They were for the most part people born in the United States or born in Ulster or Germany. Most outside the wealthier Americans had not visited Britain. They were angry about the Stamp Acts, Sugar Acts, Iron Acts. They were angry about restrictions on trade, angry about limits on Western expansion (read my child's future homestead and my economic growth), angry about taxes and angry about controls on harbors and ports. And heck by 1775, the British army was out and out attacking American seaports and hiring mercenaries to do the King's bidding. So much of the discussion,
the cooperation between colonies, the drafting of plans, sometimes the meeting of rebel governments, happened in taverns. The British did not have representatives at these meetings. By the time they did, they needed muskets and bayonets to get in. (Shame of it is for the British, they had in the early colonial days, encouraged the taverns as a way of having militia meetings and fostering commerce.)
I especially like the creative name of this one -- the Man Full of Trouble Tavern in Philadelphia.
Taverns in the Middle States were of a mixed and cautious opinion in the lead up to war of course. But they played a role even in the 'swing' areas. Lest we forget the founding of the U.S. Marines which happened in, well you probably know what I'll say: A tavern. The Tun Tavern in Philadelphia.
From "Oh Say Did You Know" by Fred DuBose
An early brew house, the Tun Tavern served many Revolutionary War leaders with good bear and Red Hot Beef Steak prepared by Peggy Mullan, the wife of the tavern owner. On November 10, 1775 when the Continental Congress authorized a marine corps, Robert Mullan was appointed Chief Marine recruiter. The tavern served as the first recruiting station.
Not only that, the Indian Queen also in Philadelphia was a fav spot of Thomas Jefferson when he was crafting the Declaration of Independence.
It must have been a scene. But you can't eat oysters there in 2015. You can eat these delicious oysters here, at the City Tavern:
from its website:
and In 1774, as the breech with great Britain widened, politics were the dominant topic of conversation at City Tavern. In May, leading citizens held a meeting in the Long Room to shape Pennsylvania's response to the "intolerable acts." Three months later, as the delegates to the First Continental Congress began to arrive in Philadelphia, the Tavern was thrust center stage in the dispute with England From that time until the close of the century, City Tavern knew the patronage of the great and near-great of the American Revolution.
When they decided the question and war came, the taverns had new roles. Helpful roles. As locations of battlefields, as important points on the map, as supply and information depots, as a place to get a fresh horse, and and as gathering places for armed men. The first to tackle the British were at Lexington, and that militia was organized here..
It is often said that Britain was so powerful, it could have easily won, but that ignores some logistics. Britain was a naval power and its army at the time of the Revolution was a measly 45,000 spread around the world. The Pennsylvania militia alone could (on paper) get near that. Population was the American's power base. The British had more people, but the Americans were growing faster in population. That fact was lost on no one. Raising an army and sending them across the ocean is a very onerous task for a population. The British grew their army to four times the size with some drastic steps, including the drafting of prisoners and hiring of German mercenaries. But it still was not overwhelming considering the American population and the militias. Supporting an army for a sustained conflict by sea once you've recruited them is difficult. There were some terrible supply issues and to win the British needed on the ground support from the American people. They got some on the ground support, but never enough as London wanted or imagine.
You've heard the talk about a third/a third and a third, that support and opposition to Independence was even, but that was a misquote of John Adams (he was talking about the French Revolution, years later). Resistance to British excess was very popular, armed revolution was more controversial but still had popular support. The American populace, with some exceptions, were won over by the idea of American Rights and eventually revolution by the time of 1775. Most states sent delegates to Philadelphia with instructions to vote for independence. Many movies and the musical 1776 distort the reality that most states (MA, RI, NH, CT, VA, GA, MD) had pro-independence majorities before Jefferson wrote a word. The debate in Congress was to try to get Middle States and the Carolinas to be unanimous. Some judges and towns had already declared independence or sent governors packing. Pennsylvania's western counties rose in a militia that numbered tens of thousands. Philadelphia also armed as of 1775.
Loyalism had its proponents, especially in Middle States, Quakers, Scots, French Indian War Veterans with British land grants, merchants and among elites with British business or commissions, but never a full third across the Continent. In New England, planter Virginia, or in Scots-Irish enclaves, Loyalism would be hard to find support for King and Parliament at all.
There was some indifference of course, some wait and see, but still mostly support for the Revolution. Americans ate up the pamphlet of Thomas Paine and pushed their colonies to declare independence and form state governments. They formed militias and took arms against British soldiers, whom they considered violators of their American rights. Before the declaration was signed. On June 10th, 1776 in a forgotten event those armed men, led by the Committee of Privates of Philadelphia mustered on the mall in front of what is now Independence Hall and surveyed the battalion of two thousand - they demanded the colony throw out its charter and allow pro-independence minded people to lead the provincial convention.
By May 20th, a crowd of 4,000 appeared in the State House Yard in Philadelphia to demonstrate popular support for independence. William Hogeland describes this in his Declaration! (available on Google books:)
Was the current government of Pennsylvania competent to the exigencies of affairs (as Congress had put it)? The crowd favoring independence, be created by a constitution, on advice of the city committee, the authority of the people, and the support of the Congress? The crowd said yes
Just to put that in perspective, that's something like a crowd of 200,000 appearing in Philadelphia today with its current population. Leaders got the message. By June 24, 1776, a few days before the United States was born, the provincial of Pennsylvania declared independence.
"We the Deputies of the People of Pennsylvania, assembled in FULL PROVINCIAL CONFERENCE, for forming a Plan for executing the Resolve of Congress of the 15th of May last, " for suppressing all Authority in this Province derived from the Crown of Great-Britain: and for establishing a Government upon the Authority of the People only.
This in a Middle State. So I do think that representations that America was divided in half are off. It wasn't. In New England and Virginia, the declarations already had been made. After that, those seeking reconcile with Britain felt the heat of popular opinion. John Dickinson didn't appear for the next vote in Continental Congress.
There was no Gallup to take polls at that time, but it's pretty clear, Great Britain's approvals were not high.
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Oh and as to the Americans fighting in the woods, Indian style, as old stories used to tell us (I must credit my history teacher for debunking it). When they fought the British, the men of Lexington lined up against them. For as long as they could...
The British lined up and volleyed in a superior fashion and in that case, dispersed them.
So, that stuff about the Americans always fighting in the trees like Indians while the Brits were so gentleman-like they fought in the open is not true. Though the works at Bunker Hill did help.
and at Kings mountain, both sides fought in the woods.
Some of the talk about "fighting in the woods" and the like might be reductionism and refer more to Saratoga - where this was critical because of the type of land, or King's Mountain,
or Concord, where there was some crossfiring by troops that were parallel to the road the British were taking, which likely put them in the woods. However there was also a force in front and behind in a triangle, until the British could outrun them.)
"The regulars soon reached a point in the road now referred to as the "Bloody Angle" where the road rises and curves sharply to the left through a lightly-wooded area. [84] At this place, the militia company from Woburn had positioned themselves on the southeast side of the bend in the road in a rocky, lightly-wooded field. Additional militia flowing parallel to the road from the engagement at Meriam's Corner positioned themselves on the northwest side of the road, catching the British in a crossfire, while other militia companies on the road closed from behind to attack. Some 500 yards (460 m) further along, the road took another sharp curve, this time to the right, and again the British column was caught by another large force of militiamen firing from both sides. In passing through these two sharp curves, the British force lost thirty soldiers killed or wounded, and four colonial militia were also killed, including Captain Jonathan Wilson Bedford , Captain Nathan Wyman of Billerica , Lt. John Bacon of Natick , and Daniel Thompson of Woburn . The British soldiers escaped by breaking into a trot, a pace that the colonials could not maintain through the woods and swampy terrain. Colonial forces on the road itself behind the British were too densely packed and disorganized to mount more than a harassing attack from the rear. [85] "
Not surprisingly the nearest location to this part of the battle was, you guessed it, a tavern. Brook's House.
But the reality is it's when the American army got more drilled and better adapted the modern fighting techniques that they had a chance. So some of the talk of Americans fighting like Indians or like guerrillas is the fantasy of the underdog story and some of it is based in a little reality here or there. The Americans did a) surprise b) fight while retreating to fight another day and c) attack supply lines, all of which might lead people to think it was some kind of guerrilla war. What they were not interested in doing is remaining in the woods and ceding the whole countryside to the British.
Bayonets? British and their Hessian allies had plenty of bayonets. Ouch!
But the reason there were always numbers to fight the British at these various engagement was that the popular tide was with the patriot cause.
--
I focus on popular opinion. That's what feeds an army. But I do acknowledge that you can't overlook the military side. Because a few different events - George Washington doesn't escape New York for instance, a loss at Saratoga, and the British would really change events and thus change the 'tavern talk,' and convince enough sunshine patriots to abandon the cause.
I have no doubt that popular will would not sustain a fool's errand, if the entire war was like the Battle of Long Island, redcoats storming and Washington running. It wasn't. There were enough American victories at the right times to sustain the popular support, support critical for keeping militia ranks full, recruiting Continentals and raising money.
It should be remembered that the British had a well-trained army, made some great moves, kept the fight going for a long time -- 6 years between Bunker Hill and Yorktown, nearly crushed Washington in the first encounter under his command, and controlled a lot of what we know call American territory throughout the war. With control of the sea lane they were able to send troops to any part of the Continent and force Washington to split up his army defending these attacks.
To some degree, Britain lost the "battle in the taverns" long before, probably at the time of the first King George, but it took until 1775 to seal the deal. Colonies governed themselves for the most part. Massachusetts had already rebelled, expelled a governor and presented themselves to London as gentlemen and merchants running a colony. Larger New England absolutely considered itself independently governing and only part of the Empire for defense purposes, not for administration. South Carolina overthrew its English owners in 1719. Maryland was given to the Baron of Baltimore by Charles II. Pennsylvania was a charter colony and thus had assumed a control of its governance.
Indeed, it could be called the "American Assertion" instead of the Revolution. In this way it might be different from India or Jamaica. There were already established governments with colonial assemblies in the colonies, and at the time of Revolution the people from the Assemblies were among the first to form state governments and committees of Public Safety, easily bypassing British rule. The colonies already had the militia system which mean Americans were armed and trained. By the time the King sent the troops over, it was like they were attacking a foreign country.
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Updated Jan 2, 2013
For similar reasons to USA losing in Vietnam, and Russia losing in Afghanistan.
All three were remote wars where there was little over-whelming need for the occupying power to actually win, fighting a motivated local army who -crucially- had massive support from a (rival) super-power as part of a proxy war to weaken the occupying power.
In all three cases there was a split in the locals: some who supported the (losing) occupying power, which makes the 'brave locals resisting the occupiers' narrative somewhat simplistic.
Ultimately though, it simply wasn't worth fighting that hard: the value of the country at stake wasn't worth the cost of the war when the locals could draw on someone else's resources.
It is not appreciated that USA just wasn't that significant to England - economically, Jamaica was far more important at the time.
Of the three conflicts, UK probably came out of the defeat relatively well: perhaps better than USA in Vietnam and certain better than USSR in Afghanistan.
Even the backers didn't always profit from their proxy-victory:
France bankrupted itself in funding the war in order to weaken UK - which led indirectly to its revolution in 1789, while America's training & support of Muhajadeen is costing us dearly today in 'blow back'
Updated Nov 20, 2015 · Upvoted by
Chris Harz , Worked for the RAND Corp., DoD, DARPA, NATo
‘The noble lord mentions the inpractibility of conquering America. I cannot think the noble lord can be serious on this matter. Suppose the colonies do abound in men, what does that signify? They are raw, undisciplined, cowardly men. I wish instead of 40 or 50,000 of these brave fellows, they would produce in the field at least 200,000, the more the better, the easier would be the conquest.
’The Earl of Sandwich (1775)
For the British Empire the war of American Independence ended in a humiliating and quite unexpected defeat. This answer looks at the reasons why the British Government was unable to quell the rebellion and ultimately lost the war which, in its later stages became a global conflict. As with many of my answers on Quora - it will of necessity be so long it will make your eyes bleed. If you can’t handle that, too bad.
But first, two issues with previous answers:
Were the 13 Colonies really that important?
I see some answers which portray the mainland colonies as not much of a loss for Britain and which cite the Caribbean sugar colonies as more important. Some ministers at the time did in fact point out that the northern colonies of New England contributed little economically and were expensive to defend. The Southern colonies were seen as more commercially advantageous due to rice and tobacco exports (this was the thinking behind the Southern Strategy in the war. While the Caribbean was a vital part of the Atlantic economy (worth about £50- 60 million in 1775) the economy of the mainland colonies was growing rapidly. In 1700 the colonies were one of the least significant parts of the British Empire but by time of the revolution they had exceeded the Caribbean in terms of total British trade (imports and exports combined with re-exports). By 1776 the 13 colonies accounted for 17% of total British trade, while the Caribbean accounted for 15%. The American colonies were also the most important market for British products during the 18th century accounting for 37% of British domestic exports.
The colonies then, were important economically – however the majority in the British leadership saw them as important for reasons that had more to do with European Imperatives; namely the balance of power. Backing down in the row with the colonies would involve considerable loss of face and would provoke – as one ambassador put it – ‘the scorn of Europe’. Others believed that American resources were vital for the struggle against the Bourbons – for example as an essential pool of seamen for the navy (stop giggling there at the back). Shipbuilding was also an important concern; in 1774 30% of Britain’s merchant fleet was American made. In general the opinion in British ruling circles was that America was vital to maintain Britain’s European position; not for financial reasons but for strategic and moral reasons.
We now obviously view the situation through the lens of the separate histories of the United States and Britain; viewing them in turn as separate entities. At the end of the revolution however it seemed as if Britain itself had been partitioned. In 1770 the population of the 13 colonies was perhaps 2,148,000. Although this may seem small it needs to be seen against a total population in Britain and Ireland of perhaps 11,971,000 with another 436,000 in the West Indies. In relinquishing her colonies therefore, Britain was losing some 14-15% of her population and a territory the size of a continent. Worse still the population of the American Colonies was growing at a rapid rate and was closer to 3 million (including slaves) by the time independence had been achieved (it had only been a mere 251,000 in 1700). None of this was lost on contemporaries.
Britain’s Vietnam?
I see it also argued that the conflict was the equivalent of Britain’s Vietnam. This has been argued in some works on the period – for example ‘A few Bloody Noses’ by Robert Harvey. In some sense this is a decent comparison – the conflict posed important questions about Britain’s strength as a world power - but it risks misrepresenting the conflict. Unlike Vietnam or Iraq the 13 colonies were part of the British Empire and settled mainly by British colonists who prided themselves on being extensions of British society overseas (leaving aside substantial populations of Germans and a large African slave population). The war was a rebellion and a civil war within the British Atlantic World.
Could the Brits have won?
There is a tendency to view the American Revolution as an inevitable success. This view tends to emphasise the sheer futility of subduing an entire continent in rebellion; especially when the rebels had no specific nerve centre and benefited from space, resources, a diffuse leadership and military and political autonomy. For example, if Washington’s army had been cut off in New York in 1776 the British would still have had to occupy America with a force numbering 40,000 troops - a seemingly impossible task.
In fact the British had a decent strategy and set of war aims that might have been successful in the event of a decisive victory. The aim for the British – principally Lord North and the Howe brothers was for the restoration of government under consent under the crown. The way was thereby open for a compromise victory whereby the rebel leaders – men of means with a lot to lose - could have been placated and brought back under control. A precedent for this was the resolution to the Rákóczi Uprising (1703–11) which had been successfully supressed by the Habsburgs. What was needed was a decisive military victory that would bring the Americans to the negotiating table. In addition to this the British would need to keep the rebels from obtaining a European ally which would provide them with the backing needed to resist; or if the Americans did succeed in obtaining an ally (most likely France) to tie this ally down through European alliances and coalitions.
The failure to achieve either of these objectives was the reason that Britain ultimately lost the war.
The failure to achieve a decisive victory in America
The British military lost because – despite winning most of the engagements it took part in - it never really got its army to where it needed to be in order to land a decisive blow. At the eruption of the conflict the British army numbered a mere 27,000 men. By six years into the war a large scale mobilisation occurred – including the recruitment of German mercenaries from allied states - and British manpower increased to 150,000 troops. This was an impressive force but most of these were never deployed to North America. At the time of Yorktown only around 35,000 regulars were stationed in the mainland colonies and these were spread thin over a large area. The Americans were also short of troops but the British did not have enough of a relative advantage to be able to capitalise. Two options would have been to arm more Loyalists or do more with emancipated slaves but neither of these were pursued with enough vigour. When British armies did capture cities - such as at Philadelphia and New York - they were inevitably tied down with garrison duty and unable to mount offensive operations. Logistics made the problems worse with the army reliant on provisions from overseas. Many supply ships fell to storms, privateers or enemy action so that British armies were effectively tethered to coasts and rivers.
I recall a conversation some years ago between myself and my wife (who hails from Boston). When explaining the American victory in the War of Independence to me she said that it had resulted because the colonists had hid behind trees and sniped at the British while they stupidly marched very slowly towards them in bright red outfits (they might just as well have painted targets on themselves). Actually – as I should have said at the time – the Americans were pretty faithful to the European style of warfare and fought in much the same way (nor were the British shy about deploying irregular forces). At Bunker Hill, New York, Saratoga, Brandywine, Charleston, Guilford Court House and Camden the Americans chose to fight fixed European engagements and contrived to lose most of them. George Washington for example was recently voted the most formidable military opponent ever faced by Britain. In a certain sense (keeping his army intact and resilient) this is true but his performance at times was so bad at times he was nearly sacked in favour of General Gates. He succeeded in maintaining a siege of Boston and forcing a British retreat but he also ordered the disastrous invasion of Canada and presided over the near collapse of his army at New York in 1776.He was successful at conducting raids at Princeton and Trenton but he also lost at Brandywine and Germantown later that year. In the entire war after the Princeton and Trenton raids he had only one success – the shining exception of Yorktown.
If this was the case then why were the British unable to make the most of their victories? The answer lies in the fact that the rebels were able to avoid major confrontations under disadvantageous circumstances. The single opportunity the British had to destroy the bulk of Washington’s army was in 1776. After this the Continental army’s strategy was not to engage the British army where it would not have the opportunity to retreat. During their defeats the rebel commanders were pragmatic and were able to withdraw in good order. British commanders found it difficult to pursue retreating forces, often because of a lack of provisions and a lack of manpower reserves for attending to the wounded while remaining on the offensive. The ubiquitous woods and high fences of the American landscape provided a further barrier and the challenges of operating in America let to physical and mental exhaustion among the British army.
The best resource for turning an American tactical retreat into a rout was cavalry. While these were deployed successfully at the battle of Camden (Tarleton’s dragoons) they were very short in numbers. Only two cavalry corps were despatched to America and these were spread very thin. Inevitably many were lost on the sea voyage over and there were severe difficulties obtaining replacements. In any event cavalry were effective really against large broken masses of troops. American commanders were successful in both leaving the field in good order and using rebel horse to give cover.
As a result British force won most of the engagements in the war but their victories only succeeded in cutting deeply into their limited manpower supply; they failed to neutralise the rebel field armies and failed to convince colonial public opinion the British army was invincible.
There were probably only two chances for Britain to win the conflict. Howe probably had the best chance in 1776. Instead due to excessive caution; he failed to trap the rebels on Long Island. He then permitted them to escape from Manhattan and retreat across New Jersey. By the end of 1776 Washington’s army was disintegrating due to its voluntaristic character; men simply laid down their arms and headed home (the Trenton raid was in part an effort at a recruitment drive to persuade veterans to re-enlist). Howe’s chance went when he failed to act in conjunction with Burgoyne’s invasion from Canada. After this the British switched to a maritime strategy centring on the control of ports and coastal areas.
The second chance to win the conflict was in 1780 with the Southern Strategy. The Americans by this stage were facing exhaustion and war weariness; their army was living hand to mouth and at risk of mutiny. Hyperinflation had left the economy of the colonies in ruins and reduced household wealth by 45%. A decisive battlefield victory at this point would probably not have won back the Northern colonies but might have resulted in the British retaining the South which was more valuable economically. Instead the British in the South were drawn into a struggle with partisans and Cornwallis made the disastrous decision to march north into Virginia. Here he was defeated – mainly due to a massive failure of British Foreign Policy and a global war in which the odds were increasingly stacked against the Crown’s forces.
A failed Foreign Policy - How Britain lost America in Europe
In the early to mid-eighteenth century Britain won three wars in succession; the Spanish Succession, the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War. In each case the wars were won because Britain led an international coalition against France and successfully cultivated European Alliances. By the end of the War of Independence the conflict had ceased to be between Britain and the rebellious colonists’ instead the war was now a worldwide conflagration between Britain and France, Spain and Holland. Britain was also in a state of cold war with Russia, Austria, Prussia and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Denmark and Sweden. The entry of the three most significant European naval powers into the war between 1778 and 1780 turned the balance on the high seas temporarily but fatally against Britain. Clearly British’s diplomacy had failed miserably.
Britain after the Seven Years War was more focused on its imperial and naval destiny at the expense of its strategic position in the Europe State System; so much so that by the time of the revolution it had been isolated in Europe for 10 years. This attitude was perhaps encapsulated by the figure of George III who rarely went to Hanover and seemed to many to embrace Britain over continental commitments. British involement with Europe courts dimminished and this retreat to the sidelines left Britain deprived of influence. This was a favourable situation for the rebels who – like the English revolutionaries of 1642 and 1688 – sought a foreign intervention to defend their cause.
The most likely candidate for a European ally on the American side was France. The Comte de Vergennes – the French foreign minister – wanted to diminish Britain as a world power but was uneasy about the Americans as allies (the rebellious subjects of a lawful monarch and a potential future threat). He also needed time to be able to complete the Bourbon naval building programme. Lord Germain’s tactic to counter this threat was to seek decisive victory in America and isolate the continent from Europe. As we have seen both of these ultimately failed – the American armies remained intact and the navy was unable to protect trade or prevent the supply of European munitions to America. In 1778 France entered the war.
The trigger for French intervention was partly the British defeat at Saratoga (where most guns on the American side were supplied by the French) – but the main factor was British attempts to negotiate with and conciliate the rebels. This was too little too late but the measures were enough to provoke the French into action for fear of an Anglo-American rapprochement. With France’s entry Britain now faced a mortal threat in Europe. In Ireland rebellion by Irish Jacobites became a constant threat. King George III’s German territories were now exposed to an attack by the French and the Austrians and the French could now put pressure on the other German principalities to withdraw their mercenaries. As a result Britain was forced into mass-mobilisation and to spread its forces more thinly.
The priority now was to keep Spain from joining France and by doing so prevent a union between the two Bourbon fleets. The prospect for doing so seemed good in 1778 given France and Spain’s divergence of interests and the distain the Spanish government felt towards the American colonists (not wanting to create a precedent for rebellion). Another priority was to find another alliance in Europe that could contain the French. The best prospect for this was the rupture between the Austrians and the Prussians over the Bavarian succession – this might have had the effect of drawing in the French on the side of the Elector Palatine. In the event this did not happen; no European power was prepared to ally with Britain. Furthermore Vergennes was determined not to be dragged into a European war and intended to concentrate on the colonial struggle (he was heedful of the critiques of Louis XVI’s foreign policy).
Britain therefore had little hope of a continental diversion which would tie up the French; all the more important to keep the Spanish on-side. Despite offering the Spanish West Florida as a sweetener the Spanish were intent on recovering Gibraltar and Minorca so the offer was rejected. Spain entered the war in 1779, thereby shifting the naval balance against Britain and making her position in the Mediterranean precarious. By 1780 the Franco-Spanish fleet exceeded that of Britain by 44% and the French were able to begin picking off British sugar isles (including Grenada, the second most important). By 1779 while the British were engaged in their Southern Strategy in the colonies the British Isles were also threatened by a Franco-Spanish invasion fleet and Ireland was in ferment. 30,000 troops were assembled in northern French ports and an armada stood poised.
Luckily for the British the invasion was called off due to the weather and Bourbon timidity. At the same time associations appeared in England to agitate for parliamentary reform; these brought forth mobs and domestic unrest – much of it driven by international failure and the low standing of the ministry and Crown.
After the Spanish declared war the main hope was to secure Russia and Austria and thereby create an alliance which would force France to break off the war in America. Russia proved anti-British and more interested in whacking the Ottoman Empire. Negotiations with Austria showed promise but ultimately went nowhere. In 1780 Russia, Austria, Prussia, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Holland, Denmark and Sweden signed an armed neutrality agreement which was intended to protect neutral shipping against the British. This served to highlight Britain’s complete isolation and it was followed the entry of the Dutch into the war.
Beginning in 1778 with the entry of France, the widening of the war began to have serious effects on the conflict in America and rendered the theatre a strategic backwater. The focus of the War of American Independence shifted to the West Indies and India and the main event became the struggle between Britain and France; primarily a naval fight for the security of home waters. The British army had to be scattered more widely as it now had to guard scattered possessions in the Caribbean, India, Africa and the Mediterranean. The Royal navy lost its superiority to the Spanish and the French, thereby leading to the battle of the Chesapeake and the encirclement of Cornwallis’s army at Yorktown. Secret French aid sustained the rebels and provided them with supplies and arms. While the Royal navy was able to support and reinforce the army in the pre-Bourbon stage of the war it was no longer able to do so subsequently. Tied down by global commitments, the flow of troops to America ceased. After Yorktown offensive operations in the American theatre virtually ground to a halt and the colonies were effectively conceded.
Conclusion
At the end of the war the British had not been entirely unsuccessful. They had been able to sustain their position in India, hold on to Canada, Jamaica, Gibraltar and Madras, clobber the Dutch and defeat the French fleet in 1782. They had however relinquished the 13 colonies, Florida, Tobago, Senegal and Minorca. The first of these was the biggest loss and was held – incorrectly – by contemporaries to herald the decline of Britain as a world power. Instead trade between Britain and America expended rapidly and Britain built a second empire in the East. France slid into terminal decline, suffered a collapse in state credit and lost its European allies thereby opening the door for its own revolution in 1789.
Addendum
The most controversial element of this question seems to be the issue of how important the 13 colonies actually were for the British Empire. It is true that the Caribbean was seen as the economic engine of the empire (although, as I pointed out, the mainland colonies were increasingly important) Jamaica alone produced 40% of the sugar and 90% of the rum in Britain’s Empire. You can see the relative importance of the colonies through this chart of export values from 'British Atlantic, American Frontier' Stephen J. Hornsby.
At the same time India was believed by ministers to be a fiscal gold mine; Bengal for example had a population of around 20 million and was reckoned to have a public revenue of around a quarter of that of the British Isles.
I disagree though with the idea that the Caribbean was vastly more important in the contemporary British mindset. That would have been true through most of the eighteenth century but in the intervening period the American mainland underwent a massive population explosion. Various projections doing the rounds at the time suggested that by 1786 the 13 colonies would have 4 million inhabitants with corresponding economic benefits to Britain – this meant that by the time of the revolution they loomed larger than the Caribbean in terms of British strategy (The best demonstration of this is the fact that Britain relinquished some islands she had won in the Seven Years War in order to hold on to Canada). State power was measured in terms of population as well as financial power.
The problem is that 18th century British statesman did not make decisions based on pure economics. If it were a straightforward question of money then the West Indies were more valuable. However, the fact is that British policy was not driven primarily by commercial factors; the primacy was given to strategic considerations. They thought in terms of the European balance of power and America’s role within that. Similarly Ireland and Scotland were seen as part of Britain European grand strategy; for example – if Ireland fell it offered a back door to England or contribute to her encirclement.
The importance of America was two-fold – firstly that backing down would destroy British credibility (a collapse of authority undermined Britain’s position as a Great power) and secondly that ministers and peers believed that it was the valuable resources of America which has enabled them to face the united efforts of the House of Bourbon in the Seven Years War. It was also felt that the monopoly of American trade supported British power - most crucially in any conflict with the Bourbons (France and Spain) - and that, without political links, it would be impossible to maintain economic relationships.
So the British did care about North America - that's why they conducted the largest military mobilisation undertaken hitherto (from 72 battalions in 1774, to 118 in 1783 & 16,000 seamen at the outbreak of the war - to 60,000 in 1778 and 100,000 in 1780.
Updated Feb 19, 2016
TL;dr:
A point which is poorly understood and not addressed in any of the other answers is that events in India played a big part in the overall picture. Many ignore the fact that India is The Empire, perhaps the only Empire they had.
The American Revolution coincided at a time when the British were embroiled in several important wars to consolidate their power in India. India (which had several crucial resources, the world's largest GDP and more than a fifth of the world's population) was far more important/crucial to the British interests when compared to the undeveloped American colonies. India was the pivot round which the whole Imperial edifice had been built and revolved. The self-governing dominions except in the hours of war contributed little, if anything, to the prosperity and strength of the Empire.
At the time they were stretched too thin having spent most of their soldiers/money fighting the Indians and the French, they neither had the will-power or strength to fight for a poor, distant and isolated colony when there was a much larger piece of pie at stake.
Long version:
Question details:
Britain was the world's greatest superpower at the time, with soldiers who fought on 5 continents and an irresistible navy. Britain massacred rebels and civilians in Jamaica and India around the same time and retained those colonies. Why not the 13 colonies of North America?
Another answerer :
The British were not yet an unstoppable empire
Some ice, some desert, and a small slice of India.
That small slice of India is crucial to this story. Those "rebels" from India were among the richest, most powerful kingdoms and empires in the world. It was a time of battle across India, were the British had to play a delicate game of divide-and-rule diplomacy and fight several large wars (Mysore, Maratha Empire, Sikh Empire) to set up a stable foot-hold in the region.
As an aside- the world map reflecting the relative size of countries:
Famed generals such as the Duke of Wellington ie. Arthur Wellesley (who defeated Napoleon and regarded as one of the greatest defensive commanders of all time) and Sir David Baird (who drove the French from Egypt, captured Cape Town) had to test their mettle against the likes of the legendary Tipu Sultan (regarded as one of the greatest enemy commanders to face the British) first.
Indian Wealth and Resources:
The British supply of gun-powder were seemingly infinite at the time, as they controlled India's saltpetre production (largest in the world).
India supplied crucial raw materials and provided a huge market for British goods. In the late 1800s, British exports to India accounted for over 20% of their total exports. Indian 'exports' to Britain like cotton, tea, spices ended up as finished goods in India or were further exported to other countries. Their wealth was further supplemented through loot and taxes.
Lala Lajpat Rai (famed Indian author/leader, martyr of the Independence movement)in his 1917 book.
Many ignore the fact that India is The Empire, perhaps the only Empire they have. She is the pivot round which the whole Imperial edifice had been built and revolved. The self-governing dominions except in the hours of war contributed little, if anything, to the prosperity and strength of the Empire.
India, on the other hand, has always been the “milchcow.”She had supplied the British Isles with food, and with raw products to be turned into manufactured articles; she has supplied labour to develop the colonies; she had fought for the Empire in almost every hemisphere. She afforded a vast field for all kinds of experiments; she is the training camp for engineers and generals from the British Isles. This point was frankly admitted by Lord Robertsin the evidence he gave before the Royal Commission on Indian Expenditures when he said: “From the point of view of training, India is a very great strength to the United Kingdom.”
Take a loot at this this history of world GDP, observe the periods of 1700-1820, why Britain chose to focus on India and considered it to be its "crown jewel" should be obvious.
Labour:
India also held nearly a fifth of the world's population (estimated to be more than 200 million in 1800) providing a huge pool of cheap labourers/soldiers. An estimated 3 million Indians (many of them indentured labourers) were shipped out of India by Britain from 1830-1917, for comparison the entire population of U.S.A was around 5 million in 1800.
Army:
By 1805 the combined strength of the three presidencies armies was 154,500, making them one of the largest standing armies at the time. Having such a large population under the crown proved useful, for eg. Around 1 million Indian men volunteered during WW1 and 2.5 million men volunteered in WW2 making them the largest all-volunteer force in history.
Anglo-Indian Wars:
Several important Anglo-Indian Wars coincided with the American Revolution (1765-1783) and the subsequent "U.S Second war for Independence" ie. the War of 1812.
The challenge in North America, was tame in comparison to action in India. At the Battle of Yorktown 1781, where Cornwallis finally surrendered to the French-Americans troops, the total number of soldiers on both sides were 25,000. 17,000 French and American troops surrounded 8,000 of Cornwallis troops. Similarly about 20,000 troops (5000 of which were British) in total fought at the Battle of Saratoga 1777.
The British had just established presence in India at Bengal after their decisive win at the Battle of Plassey 1757 where the Robert Clive (a ruthless man but considered to be among Britains greatest Generals) defeated the Nawab of Bengal after conspiring with the Nawab's army chief during the Seven Years War (1756-1763). Post war, they gained control of Bengal and captured Calcutta (which remained the British Capital until 1911).
This was followed by the Battle of Buxar 1764 where 50,000 troops participated (10,000 British) which rang the death knells of the richest empire of its time ie, the Mughal Empire giving the British about 1/8th of India.
Indian map around 1770, the British are in a precarious position.
Anglo-Mysore War (1767-1799):
Napoleon, while still not the Emperor of France, sought an alliance with Tipu Sultan. Napoleon came as far as conquering Egypt in an attempt to link with Tipu Sultan against the British, their common enemy. In February 1798, Napoleon wrote a letter to Tipu Sultan appreciating his efforts of resisting the British annexation and plans.
Napoleon believed that by establishing a permanent presence in Egypt (nominally part of the neutral Ottoman Empire) the French would obtain a staging point for operations against British India, in conjunction with the legendary Tipu Sultan, that might successfully drive the British out of the war. The campaign would sever the chain of communication that connected Britain with India, whose trade generated the wealth Britain required to prosecute the war successfully.
At Aboukir and Acre: A Story of Napoleon's Invasion of Egypt
The idea of a possible Tipu-Napoleon alliance alarmed the British Governor General Sir Richard Wellesley so much that he immediately started large scale preparations for a final battle against Tipu Sultan. The Naval legend Horatio Nelson ( Nelson voted greatest British military hero of all time ) demolished the possibility of a Tipu-Napoleon alliance at the Battle of the Nile.
After facing several defeats, things came to a head at the Battle of Srirangapatinam, where the British put everything they had, behind their military campaign against Tipu Sultan, where the British allies fielded 50,000 troops under David Baird and Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington against Tipu's 30,000. Tipu used as many as 6,000 jurzail-burdars, or “rocket-men” during these battles. These "Mysorean rockets" were the first instance of rockets deployed for military use.
Account of an English officer:
"So pestered were we with the rocket boys that there was no moving without danger from the destructive missiles ...". He continued: "the rockets and musketry from 20,000 of the enemy were incessant. No hail could be thicker. Every illumination of blue lights was accompanied by a shower of rockets, some of which entered the head of the column, passing through to the rear, causing death, wounds, and dreadful lacerations from the long bamboos of twenty or thirty feet, which are invariably attached to them'."
The Congreve Rockets (used in the Napolenic wars and Anglo-US war of 1812, ie. the Battle of Baltimore) were directly based of the Mysorean design. They get a mention in The Star Spangled Banner, the national anthem of the United States:
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air.
The Anglo-Maratha Wars (1771-1818):
Coinciding with the War in America and the Mysore wars was also a series of pitched battles between the British and the Marathas. The Maratha Empire which held the largest territory in India, sent a large force into north India to persuade the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II (a powerful figurehead) to enter Maratha protection and established regency over Delhi.
The Maratha army, especially its infantry, was praised by many of its enemies, ranging from Duke of Wellington to Ahmad Shah Abdali (founder of Afghanistan, another legendary General).
Frequently involving tens of thousands of troops, British energies were frequently divided. The Duke of Wellington after defeating Marathas noted that the Marathas although poorly led by their Generals, regular infantry and artillery matches the level of Europeans, he also warned other British officers from underestimating Marathas in battlefield.
The Duke of Wellington cautioned one British general that:
"You must never allow Maratha infantry to attack head on or in close hand to hand combat, as in that your army will cover itself with utter disgrace".
Even when he carried on to became the Prime Minister of Britain, he held Maratha infantry in utmost respect, claiming it to be one of the best in world. However, at the same time he noticed the poor leadership of Maratha Generals, who were often responsible for their defeats.
Charles Metcalfe, one of the "ablest of the British Officials in India" and later acting Governor-General, wrote in 1806:
India contains no more than two great powers, British and Mahratta, and every other state acknowledges the influence of one or the other. Every inch that we recede will be occupied by them.
At the end of the Angl0-Maratha Wars,n 1818 the British finally controlled most of India.
The end result of these wars around 1823, but the Sikhs were coming:
After the Anglo-Maratha Wars, the Sikh Wars continued to plague British rule in India. This was apart from suppressing nearly another 200 revolts in India.
The rich and landed American leadership, sensed the stretch and exploited the ready-made opportunity to take over Britain’s American possessions. They found a ready made supporters in the European Bourbon royal family (Catholic rulers of France and Spain).
With this support, America could win against a stretched Protestant British Government which was fighting many wars in India. Much like how Romans had taken over Alexander’s Mediterranean territories and expanded into Europe and Asia Minor.
India was the priced "crown jewel" in the British empire, for 18th century Britain, forced to choose between their American possessions and India, it was a no-brainer.
The Indian prize was essential for the ’emerging’ British imperial agenda – and more prestigious. Essential because of India’s industrial capacity in shipbuilding, steel and gunpowder – all essential to Britain. Prestigious, no doubt, as India was the land that Semiramis, Cyrus The Great, Alexander, Rome, Abbasids, Aghlabids, Fatimids, Ummayads and Genghis Khan had failed to conquer.
The British conquest of India has no parallel in history. It is the most romantic and the most subtle of all political revolutions that have taken place in the world. In the preface to the second volume of Sir William Hunter’s “History of British India,” the editor has said:
“ As early as 1687 the Court of Directors hoped to lay the foundations of a large, well-founded, sure English dominion in India for all time to come.”
For Britain, the ‘conquest’ of India was vastly more economically rewarding and more challenging (ie. more glorious) than defeating some freedom-fighters in an isolated colony.
Quotes taken from:
PS:
The below is my response to the following comment:
"However I have to make the important qualification that on the eve of the American Revolution the North American colonies were of greater commercial advantage to Britain than India; mainly as a huge market for British manufactures. The mainland colonies accounted for something in the region of 17% of British trade and their loss was seen as threatening the position of the West Indian colonies. In terms of contemporary importance, India would have been seen as below the West Indies and below the 13 colonies in terms of importance."
My response:
I think a lot of folk severely underestimate the historical importance of India, in part due to its third-world post-colonial status. It was the mythical golden goose of its times, a historic land of riches to be plundered.
The Romans (Pliny in the "Natural History") have left on record bitter complaints of the constant drain of gold and silver from their country into India, — a complaint repeated by Englishmen as late as the eighteenth century; in Thornton’s “Description of Ancient India.”
“Ere yet the Pyramids looked down upon the valley of the Nile,-- when Greece and Italy, those cradles of European civilisation, nursed only the tenants of a wilderness,-- India was the seat of wealth and grandeur. A busy population had covered the land with the marks o its industry; rich of the most coveted productions of Nature annually; rewarded the toil of husbandmen; skilful artisans converted the rude produce of the soil into fabrics of unrivalled delicacy and beauty; and architects and sculptors joined in constructing works, the solidity of which has not, in some instances, been overcome by the evolution of thousands of years
Such is the picture of ancient India drawn by a British historian, by no means partial to India, in the opening paragraphs of his “History of British India.”
For more than a century and a half (1603-1757) the profits of the East India Company were made by the importation of Indian manufactures into England. During that time, England was the purchaser and India the vendor of manufactured goods, largely for cash.
At the time of the American independence the U.S accounted for 1% of the world's GDP, India was the largest at 25% (and historically so since about 0 AD). India's share of world manufacturing output fell from 24.5% in 1750 to a paltry 2.8% in 1880 and 1.4% in 1913.
The British also held the world's largest saltpetre deposits (for gunpowder in India).
What do these numbers mean?
It's hard to give a realistic estimate of what the figures given below would mean in todays era but from https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency/results.asp#mid ,
£1,000,000 in 1770 would have been worth around £87,000,000 in today's money (2016).
Carribean Trade:
Exports from the West Indies were valued at £3,000,000 during 1770.
Calculating the rate of return of the Caribbean colonies to Britain ie. the costs of imperial defense subtracted from the profits accrued, Robert P.Thomas arrived at a figure of £660,750 or less than 2% on invested capital. In comparison with India the Imperial Service troops were maintained by the Indian Princes at their own cost and used by the British for Imperial purposes.
In effect these colonies could be viewed as retarding British economic growth as the capital invested in West Indies could have earned higher returns if invested elsewhere.
American Trade;
The total value of American trade was around £3,000,000 (with debts of £4.4 million and tax income of £60,000. For comparison the collections made by the British in just one of the Indian provinces ie. Bengal during 1790-91 were £2,680,000.
Indian Trade:
The net amount remitted to England by the representatives of the East India Company on account of revenues, after defraying all the civil and military charges from 1765 to 1771 amounted to a little over £4,300,000.The total amounts raised totaled a little over £13,000,000. This is besides the loot,taxes and war gains.
As Jevonhas observed, “Asia is the great reservoir and sink of the precious metals.”
“These hoards, the saving of millions of human beings for centuries, the English seised and took to London, as Romans had taken the spoils of Greece and Pontus to Italy. What the value of the treasure was, no man can estimate but it must have been many hundreds of millions of pounds – a vast sum in proportion to the stock of the precious metals then owned by Europeans.”
There is no record extant of the diamonds, rubies and other precious stones, worth millions, which were removed from India during this time. Total land revenues averaged £15,000,000 per annum in the 1800's.
Montgomery Martin wrote in 1838 :
"For half a century we have gone on draining from two to three and sometimes £4,000,000. a year from India, which has been remitted to Great Britain to meet the deficiencies of commercial speculations, to pay the interest of debts, to support the home establishment, and to invest on England's soil the accumulated wealth of those whose lives have been spent in Hindustan. I do not think it possible for human ingenuity to avert entirely the evil effects of a continued drain of three or four million pounds a year from a distant country like India, and which is never returned to it in any shape.
This annual drain of £3,000,000 on British India, amounted in thirty years at 12 per cent, (the usual Indian rate) compound interest to the enormous sum of £723,997,917 sterling; ... So constant and accumulating a drain even on England would soon have impoverished her; "
By 1882, Mr. A. J. Wilson, late editor of Investor's Review, an authority on finance, fixed the "drain/tribute" figure alone at £30,000,000 per annum.
Conclusion:
The total Indian trade and revenue was many many times worth over the entire American and the Caribbean combined.
Another comment:
"Unlike America - would be generally compliant and yielding of its autonomies. "
Response:
I don't think the any historical British figure ever held such an opinion (the British had to quash over 200 revolts between 1750-1850, faced some of the richest and most powerful kingdoms in the world), you could go ahead and re-read my answer (edited for ease of reading and added quotes from relevant British sources).
Unsurmountable odds were met with skillful diplomacy and masterful conspiracies, the foothold in Bengal for example was won by Clive making a deal with a recently demoted Army General (Mir Jafar) to stand down during the Battle of Plassey, which gained him Bengal (and Calcutta). Similarly Mysore could never been defeated without the help of the Nizam of Hyderabad (who provided >>10,000's of troops).
India was never conquered by the English sword not by military valour, but by a subtle and cunning diplomacy. To have used more direct means, based upon an avowed determination to subdue the country by force of arms, would have roused the warring chiefs to a sense of mutual danger, and united them against the common enemy.
When Clive, in 1765, requested resources to conquer Hindustan for Great Britain, Pitt refused, saying it was beyond the resources of the government. The conquest of India had to be accomplished in the only way England could afford to do it, at India’s expense. Lulled by professions of a purely commercial interest, the native kingdoms vied with one another in extending opportunities of trade to the British, in return for military services rendered by these armed merchants in subduing local rivals. Too late they found that the mailed fist which encompassed the ruin of their enemies was turned with equal effectiveness against themselves!
A house divided against itself cannot stand, and betrayed by their own rivalry, they sold their country to a foreign power.
Philip Francis, in an epigrammatic speech delivered on Indian affairs in 1787, describes the process thus:
“ From factories to forts, from forts to fortifications, from fortifications to garrisons, from garrisons to armies, and from armies to conquests, the gradations were natural, and the results inevitable; where we could not find a danger we were determined to find a quarrel.”
Majority of the material was sourced from the following 1917 book written by Lala Lajpat Rai (A great author/leader and martyr of the Indian Independence movement):
| Canada |
Who was the last Viceroy of India | THE AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE
The American Revolutionary War (1775�1783), also known as the American War of Independence , was a conflict that erupted between Great Britain and revolutionaries within thirteen British colonies, who declared their independence as the United States of America in 1776. The war was the culmination of the American Revolution, a colonial struggle against political and economic policies of the British Empire. The war eventually widened far beyond British North America; many Native Americans also fought on both sides of the conflict.
Throughout the war, the British were able to use their naval superiority to capture and occupy coastal cities, but control of the countryside (where most of the population lived) largely eluded them. After an American victory at Saratoga in 1777, France , Spain , and the Netherlands entered the war against Great Britain. French involvement proved decisive, with a naval victory in the Chesapeake leading to the surrender of a British army at Yorktown in 1781. The Treaty of Paris in 1783 recognized the independence of the United States.
Emanuel Leutze's stylized depiction of Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851) is an iconic image of American history
Armies, militias, and mercenaries
Colonists were divided over which side to support in the war; in some areas, the struggle was a civil war . The Revolutionaries (also known as Americans or Patriots) had the active support of about 40 to 45 percent of the colonial population. About 15 to 20 percent of the population supported the British Crown during the war, and were known as Loyalists (or Tories). Loyalists fielded perhaps 50,000 men during the war years in support of the British Empire. After the war, some 70,000 Loyalists departed the United States, most going to Canada , Great Britain, or to British colonies in the Caribbean.
When the war began, the Americans did not have a regular army (also known as a "standing army"). Each colony had traditionally provided for its own defenses through the use of local militia. Militiamen served for only a few weeks or months at a time, were reluctant to go very far from home, and were thus generally unavailable for extended operations. Militia lacked the training and discipline of regular soldiers, but were occasionally effective against regular troops. American militia were sometimes adept at partisan warfare, and were particularly effective at suppressing Loyalist activity when British regulars were not in the area.
Seeking to coordinate military efforts, the Continental Congress established (on paper) a regular army�the Continental Army�in June 1775, and appointed George Washington as commander-in-chief. The development of the Continental Army was always a work in progress, and Washington reluctantly augmented the regular troops with militia throughout the war. Although as many as 250,000 men may have served as regulars or as militiamen for the Revolutionary cause in the eight years of the war, there were never more than 90,000 total men under arms for the Americans in any given year. Armies in North America were small by European standards of the era; the greatest number of men that Washington personally commanded in the field at any one time was fewer than 17,000.
Early in 1775, the British Army consisted of about 36,000 men worldwide, but wartime recruitment steadily increased this number. Additionally, over the course of the war the British hired about 30,000 German mercenaries, popularly known in the colonies as "Hessians" because many of them came from Hesse-Kassel. Germans would make up about one-third of the British troop strength in North America. By 1779, the number of British and German troops stationed in North America was over 60,000, though these were spread from Canada to Florida.
Blacks and Native Americans
African-Americans, slaves and free blacks, served on both sides during the war. Black soldiers served in northern militias from the outset, but this was forbidden in the South, where slaveowners feared arming slaves. In November 1775, Lord Dunmore, the Royal Governor of Virginia, issued a proclamation promising freedom to runaway slaves who fought for the British; Sir Henry Clinton issued a similar edict in New York in 1779. Tens of thousands of slaves escaped to the British lines, although possibly as few as 1,000 served under arms. Many of the rest served as orderlies, mechanics, laborers, servants, scouts and guides, although more than half died in smallpox epidemics that swept the British forces, and a number were driven out of the British lines when food ran low. Despite Dunmore's promises, the majority were not given their freedom.
Due to manpower shortages, Washington lifted the ban on black enlistment in the Continental Army in January 1776. All-black units were formed in Rhode Island and Massachusetts; many were slaves promised freedom for serving in lieu of their masters. Another all-black unit came from Haiti with French forces. At least 5,000 black soldiers fought for the Revolutionary cause.
Most American Indians east of the Mississippi River were affected by the war, with many communities dividing over the question of how to respond to the conflict. Most Native Americans who joined the fight fought against the United States, since native lands were threatened by expanding American settlement. An estimated 13,000 warriors fought on the British side; the largest group, the Iroquois Confederacy, fielded about 1,500 men.
War in the north, 1775�1777
Massachusetts
Before the war, Boston, Massachusetts had been the scene of much revolutionary activity, leading to the effective abolition of the provincial government of Massachusetts by the British parliament in 1774. Popular resistance to these measures, however, compelled the newly appointed royal officials in Massachusetts to resign or to seek refuge in Boston. Lieutenant General Thomas Gage, the British Commander-in-Chief, North America, commanded four regiments of British regulars (about 4,000 men) from his headquarters in Boston, but the countryside was in the hands of the Revolutionaries.
On the night of April 18, 1775, General Gage sent 900 men to seize munitions stored by the colonial militia at Concord, Massachusetts. Riders alerted the countryside, and when the British troops entered Lexington on the morning of April 19, they found 75 minutemen formed up on the village common. Shots were exchanged, and the British moved on to Concord, where there was more fighting. By the time the British began the return march to Boston, thousands of militiamen had arrived on the scene, inflicting much damage upon the detachment. With the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the war had begun.
The militia then converged on Boston, bottling up the British in the city. About 4,500 more British soldiers arrived by sea, and on June 17, 1775, British forces under General William Howe seized the Charlestown peninsula at the Battle of Bunker Hill. The Americans fell back, but British losses were so heavy that the attack was not followed up. The siege was not broken, and Gage was soon replaced by Howe as the British commander-in-chief.
In July 1775, newly appointed General Washington arrived outside Boston to take charge of the colonial forces and to organize the Continental Army. The standoff continued throughout the fall and winter. In early March 1776, heavy cannons that had been captured at Fort Ticonderoga were placed on Dorchester Heights, overlooking the British positions. Howe's situation was now untenable, and the British evacuated the city on March 17, 1776, sailing for temporary refuge in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Washington then took most of the Continental Army to fortify New York City.
Canada
During the long standoff at Boston, the Continental Congress sought a way to seize the initiative elsewhere. Congress had initially invited the French Canadians to join them as the fourteenth colony, but when that failed to happen, an invasion of Canada was authorized. The goal was to remove British rule from the primarily francophone province of Quebec (comprising present-day Quebec and Ontario).
Two expeditions were undertaken. On September 16, 1775, Brigadier General Richard Montgomery marched north from Fort Ticonderoga with about 1,700 militiamen, capturing Montreal on November 13. General Guy Carleton, the governor of Canada, escaped to Quebec City. The second expedition, led by Colonel Benedict Arnold, was a logistical nightmare, with many men succumbing to smallpox. By the time Arnold reached Quebec City in early November, he had but 600 of his original 1,100 men. Montgomery's force joined Arnold's, and they attacked Quebec City on December 31, but were soundly defeated by Carleton. The remaining Americans held on outside Quebec City until the spring of 1776, and then withdrew.
Another attempt was made by the Americans to push back towards Quebec, but failed at Trois-Rivi�res on June 8, June 1776. Carleton then launched his own invasion, and defeated Arnold at the Battle of Valcour Island in October. Arnold fell back to Fort Ticonderoga, where the invasion of Canada had begun. The invasion of Canada ended as a disaster for the Americans, but Arnold's efforts in 1776 delayed a full-scale British counteroffensive until the Saratoga campaign of 1777.
New York and New Jersey
Having withdrawn his army from Boston, General Howe now focused on capturing New York City. To defend the city, General Washington divided his 20,000 soldiers between Long Island and Manhattan. (While British troops were assembling on Staten Island for the campaign, Washington had the newly issued Declaration of American Independence read to his men.) On August 27, 1776, after landing about 22,000 men on Long Island, the British drove the Americans back to Brooklyn Heights. Howe then laid siege to fortifications there, but Washington managed to evacuate his army to Manhattan.
On September 15, Howe landed about 12,000 men on lower Manhattan, quickly taking control of New York City. The Americans withdrew to Harlem Heights, where they skirmished the next day, but held their ground. When Howe moved to encircle Washington's army in October, the Americans again fell back, and a battle at White Plains was fought on October 28, 1776. Once more Washington retreated, and Howe returned to Manhattan and captured Fort Washington in mid November, taking nearly 3,000 prisoners.
General Lord Cornwallis continued to chase Washington's army through New Jersey, until the Americans withdrew across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania in early December. With the campaign at an apparent conclusion for the season, the British entered winter quarters. Although Howe had missed several opportunities to crush the diminishing rebel army, he had killed or captured over 5,000 Americans. He controlled much of New York and New Jersey, and was in a good position to resume operations in the spring, with the rebel capital of Philadelphia in striking distance.
The outlook of the Continental Army was bleak. "These are the times that try men's souls," wrote Thomas Paine, who was with the army on the retreat. The army had dwindled to fewer than 5,000 men fit for duty, and would be reduced to 1,400 after enlistments expired at the end of the year. Congress had abandoned Philadelphia in despair, although popular resistance to British occupation was growing in the countryside.
Washington decided to take the offensive, stealthily crossing the Delaware on Christmas night and capturing nearly 1,000 Hessians at the Battle of Trenton on December 26, 1776. Cornwallis marched to retake Trenton, but was outmaneuvered by Washington, who successfully attacked the British rearguard at Princeton on January 3, 1777. Washington then entered winter quarters at Morristown, New Jersey, having given a morale boost to the American cause. New Jersey militia continued to harass British and Hessian forces throughout the winter.
Saratoga and Philadelphia
When the British began to plan operations for 1777, they had two main armies in North America: Carleton's army in Canada, and Howe's army in New York. In London, Lord George Germain approved campaigns for these armies which, because of miscommunication, poor planning, and rivalries between commanders, did not work in conjunction. Although Howe successfully captured Philadelphia, the northern army was lost in a disastrous surrender at Saratoga. Both Carleton and Howe would resign after the 1777 campaign.
Saratoga campaign
The first of the 1777 campaigns was an expedition from Canada led by General John Burgoyne. The goal was to seize the Lake Champlain and Hudson River corridor, effectively isolating New England from the rest of the American colonies. Burgoyne's invasion had two components: he would lead about 10,000 men along Lake Champlain towards Albany, New York, while a second column of about 2,000 men, led by Barry St. Leger, would move down the Mohawk River valley and link up with Burgoyne in Albany.
Burgoyne set off in June , and recaptured Fort Ticonderoga in early July. Thereafter, his march was slowed by Americans who destroyed bridges and felled trees in his path. A detachment was sent out to seize supplies, but was decisively defeated by American militia in August, depriving Burgoyne of nearly 1,000 men.
Meanwhile, St. Leger�half of his force American Indians led by Joseph Brant�had laid siege to Fort Stanwix. American militiamen and their Indian allies marched to relieve the siege, but were ambushed and scattered at the Battle of Oriskany on August 6. When a second relief expedition approached, this time led by Benedict Arnold, St. Leger broke off the siege and returned to Canada.
Burgoyne's army was now reduced to about 6,000 men. Despite these setbacks, he determined to push on towards Albany�a fateful decision which would later produce much controversy. An American army of 8,000 men, commanded by the General Horatio Gates, had entrenched about 10 miles (16 km) south of Saratoga, New York. Burgoyne tried to outflank the Americans, but was checked at the first battle of Saratoga in September. Burgoyne's situation was desperate, but he now hoped that help from Howe's army in New York City might be on the way. It was not: Howe had instead sailed away on an expedition to capture Philadelphia. American militiamen flocked to Gates's army, swelling his force to 11,000 by the beginning of October. After being badly beaten at the second battle of Saratoga, Burgoyne surrendered on October 17.
Saratoga is often regarded as the turning point of the war. Revolutionary confidence and determination, suffering from Howe's successful occupation of Philadelphia, was renewed. More importantly, the victory encouraged France to enter the war against Great Britain. For the British, the war had now become much more complicated.
Washington and Lafayette look over the troops at Valley Forge
Philadelphia campaign
Meanwhile, having secured New York City in 1776, in 1777 General Howe concentrated on capturing Philadelphia, the seat of the Revolutionary government. He moved slowly, landing 15,000 troops in late August at the northern end of Chesapeake Bay. Washington positioned his 11,000 men between Howe and Philadelphia, but was driven back at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777. The Continental Congress once again abandoned Philadelphia, and on September 26, Howe finally outmaneuvered Washington and marched into the city unopposed. Washington unsuccessfully attacked the British encampment in nearby Germantown in early October, and then retreated to watch and wait.
Washington and his army encamped at Valley Forge in December 1777, about 20 miles (32 km) from Philadelphia, where they would stay for the next six months. Over the winter, 2,500 men (out of 10,000) died from disease and exposure. The next spring, however, the army emerged from Valley Forge in good order, thanks in part to a training program supervised by Baron von Steuben.
Meanwhile, there was a shakeup in the British command, with General Clinton replacing Howe as commander-in-chief. French entry into the war had changed British strategy, and Clinton abandoned Philadelphia in order to reinforce New York City, now vulnerable to French naval power. Washington shadowed Clinton on his withdrawal, and forced a battle at Monmouth on June 28, 1778, the last major battle in the north. Clinton's army escaped to New York City in July, just before a French fleet under Admiral d'Estaing arrived off the American coast. Washington's army returned to White Plains. Although both armies were back where they had been two years earlier, the nature of the war had now changed.
An international war, 1778�1783
In 1778, the colonial rebellion in North America became an international war. After learning of the American victory at Saratoga, France signed the Treaty of Alliance with the United States on February 6, 1778. Spain entered the war as an ally of France in June 1779, a renewal of the Bourbon Family Compact. Unlike France, Spain refused to recognize the independence of the United States�Spain was not keen on encouraging similar rebellions in the Spanish Empire. The Netherlands also became a combatant in 1780. All three countries had quietly provided financial assistance to the American rebels since the beginning of the war, hoping to dilute Britain's emerging superpower status.
Widening of the naval war
When the war began, the British had overwhelming naval superiority over the American colonists. The Royal Navy had over 100 ships of the line, although this fleet was old and in poor condition, a situation which would be blamed on Lord Sandwich, the First Lord of the Admiralty. During the first three years of the war, the Royal Navy was primarily used to transport troops for land operations and to protect commercial shipping. The American colonists had no ships of the line, and relied extensively on privateering to harass British shipping. The Continental Congress authorized the creation of a small Continental Navy on October 13, 1775, which was primarily used for commerce raiding. John Paul Jones became the first well-known American naval hero, capturing the HMS Drake on April 24, 1778, the first victory for any American military vessel in British waters.
"The Siege and Relief of Gibraltar", 13 September 1782, by John Singleton Copley
French entry into the war meant that British naval superiority was now contested. The Franco-American alliance began poorly, however, with failed operations at Rhode Island in 1778 and Savannah, Georgia in 1779. Part of the problem was that French and American military priorities were not identical: France hoped to capture British possessions in the West Indies before helping to secure American independence. While French financial assistance to the American war effort was already of critical importance, French military aid to the Americans would not show positive results until the arrival in July 1780 of an expeditionary force led by the Comte de Rochambeau.
Spain entered the war with the goal of invading England, as well as recapturing Gibraltar and Minorca, which had been lost to the British in 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession. The Franco-Spanish invasion of England never materialized. Gibraltar was besieged for more than three years, but the British garrison there was resupplied after Admiral Sir George Rodney's victory in the "Moonlight Battle" on 16 January 1780. Further Franco-Spanish efforts to capture Gibraltar were unsuccessful. On February 5, 1782, Spanish and French forces captured Minorca, which Spain retained after the war.
West Indies and Gulf Coast
The West Indies saw much action, with a number of islands changing hands, especially in the Lesser Antilles. Ultimately, at the Battle of the Saintes in April 1782, a victory by Rodney's fleet over the French Admiral de Grasse dashed the hopes of France and Spain to take Jamaica and other colonies from the British. On May 8, 1782, Count Bernardo de G�lvez, the Spanish governor of Louisiana, captured the British naval base at New Providence in the Bahamas. Nevertheless, except for the French retention of the small island of Tobago, sovereignty in the West Indies was returned to the status quo ante bellum in the 1783 peace treaty.
On the Gulf Coast, G�lvez seized three British Mississippi River outposts in 1779: Manchac, Baton Rouge, and Natchez. G�lvez then captured Mobile in 1780 and forced the surrender of the British outpost at Pensacola in 1781. His actions led to Spain acquiring East and West Florida in the peace settlement, as well as controlling the mouth of the Mississippi River after the war�which would prove to be a major source of tension between Spain and the United States in the years to come. (Spanish Florida would ultimately be acquired by the United States in 1819.)
India and the Netherlands
The Franco-British war spilled over into India in 1780, in the form of the Second Anglo-Mysore War. The two chief combatants were Tipu Sultan, ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore and a key French ally, and the British government of Madras. The Anglo-Mysore conflict was bloody but inconclusive, and ended in a draw in 1784.
Also in 1780, the British struck against the United Provinces of the Netherlands in order to preempt Dutch involvement in the League of Armed Neutrality, a declaration of several European powers that they would conduct neutral trade during the war. Great Britain was not willing to allow the Netherlands to openly give aid to the American rebels. Agitation by Dutch radicals and a friendly attitude towards the United States by the Dutch government�both influenced by the American Revolution�also encouraged the British to attack. The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War lasted into 1784 and was disastrous to the Dutch mercantile economy.
Southern theater
During the first three years of the American Revolutionary War, the primary military encounters were in the north. After French entry into the war, the British turned their attention to the southern colonies, where they hoped to regain control by recruiting Loyalists. This southern strategy also had the advantage of keeping the Royal Navy closer to the Caribbean, where the British needed to defend their possessions against the French and Spanish.
On December 29, 1778, an expeditionary corps from Clinton's army in New York captured Savannah, Georgia. An attempt by French and American forces to retake Savannah failed on October 9, 1779. Clinton then besieged Charleston, capturing it on May 12, 1780. With relatively few casualties, Clinton had seized the South's biggest city and seaport, paving the way for what seemed like certain conquest of the South.
The remnants of the southern Continental Army began to withdraw to North Carolina, but were pursued by Colonel Banastre Tarleton, who defeated them at the Waxhaws on May 29, 1780. With these events, organized American military activity in the region collapsed, though the war was carried on by partisans such as Francis Marion. Cornwallis took over British operations, while Horatio Gates arrived to command the American effort. On August 16, 1780, Gates suffered one of the worst defeats in U.S. military history at the Battle of Camden, setting the stage for Cornwallis to invade North Carolina.
The tables were quickly turned on Cornwallis, however. One wing of his army was utterly defeated at the Battle of Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780. Kings Mountain was noteworthy because it was not a battle between British redcoats and colonial troops: it was a battle between Loyalist and Patriot militia. Tarleton�s troops were subsequently defeated at the Battle of Cowpens on January 17, 1781 by American General Daniel Morgan.
General Nathanael Greene, Gates's replacement, proceeded to wear down the British in a series of battles, each of them tactically a victory for the British, but giving no strategic advantage to the victors. Greene summed up his approach in a motto that would become famous: "We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again." Unable to capture or destroy Greene's army, Cornwallis moved north to Virginia.
In March 1781, General Washington dispatched General Lafayette to defend Virginia. The young Frenchman skirmished with Cornwallis, avoiding a decisive battle while gathering reinforcements. "The boy cannot escape me," Cornwallis is supposed to have said. However, Cornwallis was unable to trap Lafayette, and so he moved his forces to Yorktown, Virginia in July in order to link up with the British navy.
George Rogers Clark's 180 mile (290 km) winter march led to the
capture of General Henry Hamilton, Lieutenant-Governor of Canada
Northern and western theater
West of the Appalachian Mountains and along the Canadian border, the American Revolutionary War was an "Indian War." The British and the Continental Congress both courted American Indians as allies (or urged them to remain neutral), and many Native American communities became divided over what path to take. Like the Iroquois Confederacy, tribes such as the Cherokees and the Shawnees split into factions. Some Delawares signed the first American Indian treaty with the United States, but others joined the British.
The British had a shortage of regular troops after Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga in 1777, and so a greater effort was made to recruit American Indians. The British supplied their native allies from forts along the Great Lakes, and tribesmen staged raids in New York, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. As had often been true in previous conflicts, warfare between Europeans and American Indians resulted in each side attacking the other where they were most vulnerable�their homes and villages. Joint Iroquois-Loyalist attacks in the Wyoming Valley and at Cherry Valley in 1778 provoked the scorched earth Sullivan Expedition into western New York during the summer of 1779. In this border war, every person�man, woman, or child�was a potential casualty.
In the Ohio Country and the Illinois Country, the Virginia frontiersman George Rogers Clark attempted to neutralize British influence among the Ohio tribes by capturing the outposts of Kaskaskia and Vincennes in the summer of 1778. When General Henry Hamilton, the British commander at Detroit, retook Vincennes, Clark returned in a surprise march in February 1779 and captured Hamilton himself. However, a decisive victory in the West eluded the United States even as their fortunes had risen in the East. The low point on the frontier came in 1782 with the Gnadenh�tten massacre, when Pennsylvania militiamen�unable to track down enemy warriors�executed nearly 100 Christian Delaware noncombatants, mostly women and children. Later that year, in the last major encounter of the war, a party of Kentuckians was soundly defeated by a superior force of British regulars and Native Americans.
Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown (John Trumbull, 1797)
American flag right, French Monarchy white flag left. Despite painting's title, Cornwallis (claiming illness) was not present. Washington is on horseback in the background because the British commander was absent and military protocol dictated Washington have a subordinate (Benjamin Lincoln) accept the surrender
Yorktown and the war's end
The northern, southern, and naval theaters of the war converged in 1781 at Yorktown, Virginia. In early September, French naval forces defeated a British fleet at the Battle of the Chesapeake, cutting off Cornwallis's supplies and transport. Washington hurriedly moved his troops from New York, and a combined Franco-American force of 17,000 men commenced the siege of Yorktown in early October. Cornwallis's position quickly became untenable, and he surrendered his army on October 19, 1781.
The surrender at Yorktown was not the end of the war: the British still had 30,000 troops in North America, and still occupied New York, Charleston, and Savannah. Both sides continued to plan upcoming operations, and fighting continued on the western front, in the south, and at sea.
In London, however, political support for the war plummeted after Yorktown, causing Prime Minister Lord North to resign soon afterwards. In April 1782, the British House of Commons voted to end the war in America. Preliminary peace articles were signed in Paris in November 1782, though the formal end of the war did not occur until the Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783 and the United States Congress ratified the treaty on January 14, 1784. The last British troops left New York City on November 25, 1783.
Great Britain negotiated the Paris peace treaty without consulting her Indian allies, and ceded all American Indian territory between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River to the United States. Full of resentment, Native Americans reluctantly confirmed these land cessions with the United States in a series of treaties, but the fighting would be renewed in conflicts along the frontier in the coming years, the largest being the Northwest Indian War.
Casualties
The total loss of life resulting from the American Revolutionary War is unknown. As was typical in the wars of the era, disease claimed more lives than battle. The war took place during a massive North American smallpox epidemic which probably killed more than 130,000 people. Historian Joseph Ellis suggests that Washington's decision to have his troops inoculated may have been the commander-in-chief's most important strategic decision.
An estimated 25,000 American Revolutionaries died during active military service. About 8,000 of these deaths were in battle; the other 17,000 deaths were from disease, including about 8,000 who died while prisoners of war. The number of Revolutionaries seriously wounded or disabled by the war has been estimated from 8,500 to 25,000. The total American military casualty figure was therefore as high as 50,000.
About 171,000 seamen served for the British during the war; about 25 to 50 percent of them had been pressed into service. About 1,240 were killed in battle, while 18,500 died from disease. The greatest killer was scurvy, a disease known at the time to be easily preventable by issuing lemon juice to sailors, a step not taken by the Admiralty due to what historian Piers Mackesy characterized as "administrative apathy". About 42,000 British seamen deserted during the war.
Approximately 1,200 Germans were killed in action and 6,354 died from illness or accident. About 16,000 of the remaining German troops returned home, but roughly 5,500 remained in the United States after the war for various reasons, many eventually becoming American citizens. No reliable statistics exist for the number of casualties among other groups, including Loyalists, British regulars, American Indians, French and Spanish troops, and civilians.
Historical assessment
Historians have often sought to explain why Great Britain lost a war which few at the time expected them to lose. Britain had a number of military advantages at the outset: vastly superior naval power, a professional military (by 18th century standards), and far greater financial resources. Furthermore, the Americans often faced shortages of military supplies, and had a traditional distrust of central government and standing armies which made the maintenance of a national military force extremely difficult.
On the other hand, the British had significant military disadvantages. Distance was a major problem: most troops and supplies had to be shipped 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean. The British usually had logistical problems whenever they operated away from port cities, while the Americans had local sources of manpower and food, and were more familiar with (and acclimated to) the territory. Additionally, ocean travel meant that British communications were always about two months out of date: by the time British generals in America received their orders from London, the military situation had usually changed.
Suppressing a rebellion in America also posed other problems. Since the colonies covered a large area and had not been united before the war, there was no central area of strategic importance. In Europe, the capture of a capital often meant the end of a war; in America, when the British seized cities such as New York and Philadelphia, the war continued unabated. Furthermore, the large size of the colonies meant that the British lacked the manpower to control them by force. Once any area had been occupied, troops had to be kept there or the Revolutionaries would regain control, and these troops were thus unavailable for further offensive operations. The British had sufficient troops to defeat the Americans on the battlefield, but not enough to simultaneously occupy the colonies. This manpower shortage became critical after French and Spanish entry into the war, because British troops had to be dispersed in several theaters, where previously they had been concentrated in America.
The British also had the difficult task of fighting the war while simultaneously retaining the allegiance of Loyalists. Loyalist support was important, since the goal of the war was to keep the colonies in the British Empire, but this imposed a number of military limitations. Early in the war, the Howe brothers served as peace commissioners while simultaneously conducting the war effort, a dual role which may have limited their effectiveness. Additionally, the British could have recruited more slaves and American Indians to fight the war, but this would have alienated many Loyalists, even more so than the controversial hiring of Germans. The need to retain Loyalist allegiance also meant that the British were unable to use the harsh methods of suppressing rebellion employed in Ireland and Scotland . Even with these limitations, many potentially neutral colonists were nonetheless driven into the ranks of the Revolutionaries because of the war.
American Revolutionary War
Clockwise from top left: Battle of Bunker Hill, Death of Montgomery at Quebec, Battle of Cowpens, "Moonlight Battle"
Date:
Notes
There are other variations on the name of the war, including "War of American Independence" and "War of the American Revolution". British writers generally favor "American War of Independence" or "War of American Independence". In the United States, the "American" part of the title is usually understood, and the war is generally called the "Revolutionary War". Americans often use the terms Revolutionary War and American Revolution interchangeably, not always making a distinction between the war and events leading up to it (such as the Boston Tea Party).
Percentage of Loyalists and Patroits: Robert M. Calhoon, "Loyalism and Neutrality" in The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, p. 247; number of Loyalist troops: Mark M. Boatner, Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, p. 663.
Effectiveness of American militia: Jeremy Black, War for America: The Fight for Independence, 1775-1783, p. 59. The effectiveness of the militia in the Revolution has long been debated by historians: see Boatner, p. 707.
Number of Patriots under arms: Boatner, p. 264. Boatner says the largest force Washington commanded was "under 17,000"; Christopher Duffy (The Military Experience in the Age of Reason, 1715�1789, p. 17) estimates Washington's maximum was "only 13,000 troops". By comparison, Duffy notes that Frederick the Great usually commanded from 23,000 to 50,000 in battle.
British troop strength: Black, pp. 27-29. Number of Germans hired: Boatner, pp. 424-26.
British usage of escaped slaves: Sidney Kaplan and Emma Nogrady Kaplan, The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution, pp. 71-89.
Revolutionary all-black units: Kaplan and Kaplan, pp. 64-69.
Total number of warriors: James H. Merrell, "Indians and the New Republic" in The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, p. 393. Number of Iroquois warriors: Boatner, p. 545.
Number of British troops still in America: Piers Mackesy, The War for America: 1775�1783, p. 435.
Smallpox epidemic: Elizabeth Anne Fenn, Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775�82, p. 275. A great number of these smallpox deaths occurred outside the theater of war�in Mexico or among American Indians west of the Mississippi River. Washington and inoculation: Ellis, His Excellency: George Washington, p. 87.
American dead and wounded: John Shy, A People Numerous and Armed, pp. 249�50. The lower figure for number of wounded comes from Chambers, p. 849.
British seamen: Mackesy, p. 6, 176.
Black, p. 44�5.
Black, p. 39; Don Higginbotham, "The War for Independence, to Saratoga", in The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, p. 298, 306.
Higginbotham, p. 298, 306; Black, p. 29, 42.
Harsh methods: Black, pp. 14�16; slaves and Indians: Black, p. 35, 38. Neutrals into Revolutionaries: Black, p. 16.
References
Black, Jeremy. War for America: The Fight for Independence, 1775�1783. St. Martin's Press (New York) and Sutton Publishing (UK), 1991. ISBN 0312067135 (1991), ISBN 0312123469 (1994 paperback), ISBN 0750928085 (2001 paperpack). Analysis from a noted British military historian.
Boatner, Mark Mayo, III. Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. New York: McKay, 1966; revised 1974. ISBN 0811705781. Military topics, references many secondary sources available at that time.
Chambers, John Whiteclay II, ed. in chief. The Oxford Companion to American Military History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN 0195071980.
Duffy, Christopher. The Military Experience in the Age of Reason, 1715�1789. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1987. ISBN 0689119933.
Ellis, Joseph J. His Excellency: George Washington. New York: Knopf, 2004. ISBN 1400040310.
Fenn, Elizabeth Anne. Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775�82. New York: Hill and Wang, 2001. ISBN 0809078201.
Greene, Jack P. and J.R. Pole, eds. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell, 1991; reprint 1999. ISBN 1557865477. Collection of essays.
Kaplan, Sidney and Emma Nogrady Kaplan. The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution. Amherst, Massachusetts: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1989. ISBN 0870236636.
Mackesy, Piers. The War for America: 1775�1783. London, 1964. Reprinted University of Nebraska Press, 1993, ISBN 0803281927. Highly regarded examination of British strategy and leadership.
Shy, John. A People Numerous and Armed: Reflections on the Military Struggle for American Independence. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976 (ISBN 0195020138); revised University of Michigan Press, 1990 (ISBN 0472064312). Collection of essays.
Further reading
These are some of the standard works about the war in general which are not listed above; books about specific campaigns, battles, units, and individuals can be found in those articles.
Hibbert, Christopher. Redcoats and Rebels: The American Revolution through British Eyes. New York: Norton, 1990. ISBN 039302895X.
Higginbotham, Don. The War of American Independence: Military Attitudes, Policies, and Practice, 1763�1789. Northeastern University Press, 1983. ISBN 0930350448. Overview of military topics; online in ACLS History E-book Project.
Kwasny, Mark V. Washington's Partisan War, 1775�1783. Kent, Ohio: 1996. ISBN 0873385462. Militia warfare.
Middlekauff, Robert. The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763�1789. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984; revised 2005. ISBN 0195162471. American viewpoint from French and Indian War to inauguration of President Washington.
Ward, Christopher. The War of the Revolution. 2 volumes. New York: Macmillan, 1952. History of land battles in North America.
Weintraub, Stanley. Iron Tears: America's Battle for Freedom, Britain's Quagmire: 1775�1783. Free Press, 2004. Examination of the British political viewpoint.
Wood, W. J. Battles of the Revolutionary War, 1775�1781. Originally published Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin, 1990; reprinted by Da Capo Press, 1995. ISBN 0306806177 (paperback); ISBN 0306813297 (2003 paperback reprint). Analysis of tactics of a dozen battles, with emphasis on American military leadership.
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What was the Sunday Mirror called prior to 1964 | BBC ON THIS DAY | 15 | 1964: The Sun newspaper is born
1964: The Sun newspaper is born
The Sun newspaper is published today for the first time.
It is replacing the Mirror Group's Daily Herald, which has been losing readers and advertising revenue for several years.
The newest arrival on Fleet Street is promising to follow a "radical" and "independent" agenda - unlike its predecessor which had strong ties to the Labour party. The TUC sold its 49% stake in the paper in 1960.
Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) and the International Press Corporation (IPC) took over ownership of the Herald in 1961.
It was previously owned by Odhams Press, which had seen it reach a circulation of two million in 1933, the highest in the world at the time.
The Sun is a radical newspaper
Sydney Jacobson, Editor
In a bid to broaden the Herald's appeal once more, MGN, is relaunching the paper as the Sun, with the slogan "A paper born of the age we live in".
Editor Sydney Jacobson said his new paper would be "totally independent, no ties with any party or movement... totally free to make up its own mind."
The paper's launch coincides with the announcement of a general election next month.
Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home, whose Conservative party has been in power for 13 years, will be up against the man described as Labour's thrusting new grammar school boy, Harold Wilson.
Asked where his party's loyalties would lie in the coming election battle, Mr Jacobson replied: "The Sun is a radical newspaper. Can a radical newspaper support the present government?"
It is a competitive time for newspapers. Faced with rising costs, the Daily Sketch was the first to raise its cover price from 3d to 4d in June, but others are expected to follow suit.
The Daily Mirror - The Sun's stablemate - has a current circulation of five million but even so it is not expected to be able to resist the price increase beyond the end of the year.
The Mirror Group is splashing out on free beer and christening mugs for new babies to promote the Sun's arrival and Herald's demise.
| Daily Mirror |
What was the name of the sport only newspaper launched in March 1998 | History of Newspapers by the NMA
William Caxton sets up the first English printing press in Westminster.
1549
First known English newsletter: Requests of the Devonshyre and Cornyshe Rebelles.
1621
First titled newspaper, Corante, published in London.
1649
Cromwell suppressed all newsbooks on the eve of Charles I's execution.
1690
Worcester Postman launched. (In 1709 it starts regular publication as Berrow's Worcester Journal, considered to be the oldest surviving English newspaper).
1702
Launch of the first regular daily newspaper: The Daily Courant.
1709
First Copyright Act; Berrow's Worcester Journal, considered the oldest surviving English newspaper, started regular publication.
1712
First Stamp Act; advertisement, paper and stamp duties condemned as taxes on knowledge. Stamford Mercury believed to have been launched.
1717
The Kentish Post and Canterbury Newsletter launched. It took on its current name, Kentish Gazette, in 1768.
1718
Leeds Mercury started (later merged into Yorkshire Post).
1737
Belfast News Letter founded (world's oldest surviving daily newspaper).
1748
Aberdeen Journal began (Scotland's oldest newspaper - now the Press & Journal).
1772
Hampshire Chronicle launched, Hampshire's oldest paper.
1788
Daily Universal Register (est. 1785) became The Times.
1791
Harmsworth (then Northcliffe) bought The Observer.
1906
Newspaper Proprietors Association founded for national dailies.
1907
National Union of Journalists founded as a wage-earners union.
1915
Rothermere launched Sunday Pictorial (later Sunday Mirror).
1922
Death of Northcliffe. Control of Associated Newspapers passed to Rothermere.
1928
Northcliffe Newspapers set up as a subsidiary of Associated Newspapers. Provincial Newspapers set up as a subsidiary of United Newspapers.
1931
Audit Bureau of Circulations formed.
1936
Britain's first colour advertisement appears (in Glasgow's Daily Record).
1944
Iliffe took over BPM Holdings (including Birmingham Post).
1946
Guild of British Newspaper Editors formed (now the Society of Editors).
1953
General Council of the Press established.
1955
Month-long national press strike. Daily Record acquired by Mirror Group.
1959
Manchester Guardian becomes The Guardian. Six-week regional press printing strike.
1960
Photocomposition and web-offset printing progressively introduced.
1964
The Sun launched, replacing Daily Herald. Death of Beaverbrook. General Council of the Press reformed as the Press Council.
1969
Murdoch's News International acquired The Sun and News of the World.
1976
Nottingham Evening Post is Britain's first newspaper to start direct input by journalists.
1978
The Times and The Sunday Times ceased publication for 11 months.
1980
Association of Free Newspaper founded (folded 1991). Regional Newspaper Advertising Bureau formed.
1981
News International acquired The Times and the Sunday Times.
1983
Industrial dispute at Eddie Shah's Messenger group plant at Warrington.
1984
Mirror Group sold by Reed to Maxwell (Pergamon). First free daily newspaper, the (Birmingham) Daily News, launched by husband & wife team Chris & Pat Bullivant.
1986
News International moved titles to a new plant at Wapping. Eddie Shah launchedToday, first colour national daily launched. The Independent launched.
1987
News International took over Today.
1988
RNAB folded. Newspaper Society launched PressAd as its commercial arm. Thomson launched Scotland on Sunday and Sunday Life.
1989
Last Fleet Streetpaper produced by Sunday Express.
1990
First Calcutt report on Privacy and Related Matters. Launch of The European (by Maxwell) and Independent on Sunday.
1991
Press Complaints Commission replaced the Press Council. AFN folded. Death of Robert Maxwell (November). Management buy-out of Birmingham Post and sister titles. Midland Independent Newspapers established.
1992
Management buy-out by Caledonian Newspapers of Lonrho's Glasgow titles, The Herald and Evening Times.
1993
Guardian Media Group bought The Observer. UK News set up by Northcliffe and Westminster Press as rival news agency to the Press Association. Second Calcutt report into self-regulation of the press.
1994
Northcliffe Newspapers bought Nottingham Evening Post for £93m. News International price-cutting sparked off new national cover-price war.
1995
Lord Wakeham succeeded Lord McGregor as chairman of the PCC. Privacy white paper rejected statutory press controls. Most of Thomson's regional titles sold to Trinity. Newsquest formed out of a Reed MBO. Murdoch closes Today(November).
1996
A year of buyouts, mergers and restructuring in the regional press. Regionals win the battle over cross-media ownership (Broadcasting Act). Newspaper Society launches NS Marketing, replacing PressAd.
1997
Midland Independent Newspapers is bought by Mirror Group for £297 million. Human Rights and Data Protection bills are introduced.
1998
Fourth largest regional press publisher, United Provincial Newspapers, is sold in two deals: UPN Yorkshire and Lancashire newspapers sold to Regional Independent Media for £360m and United Southern Publications sold to Southnews for £47.5m. Southern Newspapers changes its name to Newscom, following acquisitions in Wales and the West (including UPN Wales in 1996). Death of Lord Rothermere. Chairmanship of Associated Newspapers passes to his son Jonathan Harmsworth. Death of David English, editor-in-chief of Daily Mailand chairman of the editors' code committee.
1999
Trinity merges with Mirror Group Newspapers in a deal worth £1.3 billion. Newsquest is bought by US publisher Gannett for £904 million. Portsmouth & Sunderland Newspapers is bought by Johnston Press for £266m. Major regional press groups launch electronic media alliances (eg, This is Britain, Fish4 sites.) Freedom of Information bill introduced. Associated launches London's free commuter daily, Metro.
2000
Newscom is sold to Newsquest Media Group for £444m, Adscene titles are sold to Southnews (£52m)and Northcliffe Newspapers, Belfast Telegraph Newspapers are sold by Trinity Mirror to Independent News & Media for £300m, Bristol United Press is sold to Northcliffe Newspapers Group, and Southnews is sold to Trinity Mirror for £285m. Daily Express and Daily Star are sold by Lord Hollick's United News & Media to Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell. Launch of Scottish business daily Business a.m. and more Metro daily frees. Newspaper Society launches internet artwork delivery system AdFast. Communications white paper published.
2001
RIM buys six Galloway and Stornaway Gazette titles, Newsquest buys Dimbleby Newspaper Group and Johnston Press buys four titles from Morton Media Group. UK Publishing Media formed. Sunday Business changes name to The Businessand publishes on Sunday and Monday.
2002
Johnston Press acquires Regional Independent Media's 53 regional newspaper titles in a £560 million deal. Northcliffe Newspapers Group Ltd acquires Hill Bros (Leek) Ltd. Queen attends Newspaper Society annual lunch. New PCC chairman, Christopher Meyer, announced. Draft Communications Bill published. The Sunand Mirror engage in a price war.
2003
Conrad Black resigns as chief executive of Hollinger International, owner of Telegraph group. Claverly Company, owner of Midland News Association, buys Guiton Group, publisher of regional titles in the Channel Islands. Archant buys 12 London weekly titles from Independent News & Media (December) and the remaining 15 the following month (January 04). Independent begins the shift to smaller format national newspapers when it launched its compact edition. Sir Christopher Meyer becomes chairman of the Press Complaints Commission. DCMS select committee chaired by Gerald Kaufman into privacy and the press. Government rejects calls for a privacy law.
2004
Phillis Report on Government Communications published (January). Barclay Brothers buy Telegraph group and poach Murdoch Maclennan from Associated to run it. Kevin Beatty moves from Northcliffe Newspapers to run Associated Newspapers. Trinity Mirror sells Century Newspapers and Derry Journal in Northern Ireland to 3i. Tindle Newspapers sells Sunday Independent in Plymouth to Newsquest. The Times goes compact (November).
2005
Johnston Press buys Score Press from EMAP for £155m. Launch of free Liteeditions for London Evening Standard and Manchester Evening News. The Timesputs up cover price to 60p, marking the end of the nationals’ price war. The Guardian moves to Berliner format after £80m investment in new presses. DMGT puts Northcliffe Newspapers up for sale; bids expected to open at £1.2 billion. Johnston Press buys Scotsman Publications from Barclay Brothers for £160m.
2006
DMGT sale of Northcliffe group aborted but DC Thomson acquires Aberdeen Press & Journal. Trinity Mirror strategic review: Midlands and South East titles put up for sale. Growth of regional press digital platforms. Manchester Evening Newscity edition goes free. Government threat to limit Freedom of Information requests. Associated and News International both launch free evening papers in London during the autumn.
2007
Archant Scotland acquired by Johnston Press. Northcliffe Media buys three regional newspaper businesses from Trinity Mirror; Kent Regional Newspapers, East Surrey and Sussex Newspapers and Blackmore Vale Publishing. Dunfermline Press Group acquires Berkshire Regional Newspapers from Trinity Mirror. Tindle Newspapers buys 27 local weekly newspapers from Trinity Mirror which retains its Midlands titles.
The government abandons plans to tighten Freedom of Information laws and limit media access to coroners’ courts. Former Hollinger International chief executive Conrad Black is sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison for fraud. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation buys Dow Jones, owner of the Wall Street Journal, appointing News International boss Les Hinton as chief executive.
2008
The global economic downturn hit advertising revenues and shares of media companies fell sharply during the year. John Fry was announced as Tim Bowdler’s successor at Johnston Press in September. The Independentannounced a plan to move to DMGT’s Kensington building to cut costs in November. The BBC Trust rejected plans for local video that would have a negative impact on regional titles in the same month following a sustained campaign by the NS.
2009
Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev acquires the London Evening Standardfrom Daily Mail & General Trust and the title is subsequently relaunched as a free newspaper. Baroness Peta Buscombe is appointed chairman of the Press Complaints Commission.
2010
Britain officially emerges from the longest and deepest recession since the war. Lebedev acquires the Independent and Independent on Sunday from Independent News & Media for a nominal fee of £1. Trinity Mirror acquires GMG Regional Media, publisher of 32 titles, from Guardian Media Group for £44.8 million.
News International erects paywalls around its online content for The Times and The Sunday Times. Eleven regional print titles are launched by seven publishers in the first six months of the year. Newly-elected coalition government announces it will look at the case for relaxing cross-media ownership rules and stop unfair competition from council newspapers. The Independent launches i, a digest newspaper to complement their main title, and the first daily paper to be launched in the UK in almost 25 years.
2011
In April, following campaigning by the NS and the industry, a revised Local Authority Publicity Code came into effect to crack down on council newspapers. In July, The News of The World was closed after 168 years of publication. The Prime Minister announced an inquiry led by Lord Justice Leveson into the role of the press and police in the phone-hacking scandal. In October, Lord Hunt of Wirral was appointed chairman of the Press Complaints Commission.
Five regional daily titles switched to weekly during the year. Local cross media ownership rules were abolished. Kent Messenger Group’s proposed acquisition of seven Northcliffeweekly titles was referred to the Competition Commission by the OFT forcing the deal to be abandoned. Northcliffe Media announced the subsequent closure of Medway News and the East Kent Gazette.
2012
The London 2012 Olympics and Diamond Jubilee saw national and local press titles produce a host of supplements, special editions and other initiatives in digital and print to help their readers celebrate the events.
In November, the press industry came together to progress plans for a new, tougher, independent system of self regulation following publication of Lord Justice Leveson's report into the role of the press and police in the phone-hacking scandal. MailOnline became the world's biggest newspaper website with 45.348 million unique users.
The creation of a new local media business Local World was announced. Led by former chief executive of publishers Mecom and Mirror Group David Montgomery, Local World is created from the newspapers and websites of Northcliffe Media and Iliffe News & Media.
2013
Significant progress was made by the newspaper and magazine industry in setting up the Independent Press Standards Organisation - the new regulator for the press called for by Lord Justice Leveson. More than 90 per cent of the national press, the vast majority of the regional press, along with major magazine publishers, signed contracts to establish IPSO. Led by Sir Hayden Phillips, the independent appointments procedures were well underway, with the regulator due to launch on 1 May 2014.
Politicians, publishers and press freedom organisations from across the globe railed against the Government's Royal Charter for press regulation which Culture Secretary Maria Miller admitted could become redundant if IPSO was successful. The Guardian prompted heated debate over the issue of mass surveillance after publishing a series of stories based on information leaked by the US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
The local press was widely praised for its coverage of floods which blighted communities with Prime Minister David Cameron singling out the Eastern Daily Press in particular. Local papers created thousands of jobs distributing Regional Growth Fund cash to small businesses.
2014
A new voice for the £6 billion national, regional and local UK news media sector was launched in the form of the News Media Association, formed by the merger of the Newspaper Society and the Newspaper Publishers’ Association.
In a climate of grave threats to press freedom, the importance of newspaper journalism was highlighted through stories such as The Times’ exposure of the Rotherham abuse scandal and The Yorkshire Post’s Loneliness campaign.
The Independent Press Standards Organisation, the new press regulator, launched in September with the vast majority of local and national publishers signed up to it.
2015
In October 2015, Trinity Mirror announced the acquisition of Local World for £220 million, demonstrating the publisher’s firm belief in the future of local news media.
Newspapers grew their UK monthly print and online reach to more than 47 million people, more than Google’s 45 million, with newsbrands driving nearly a billion social media interactions over the course of the year.
The importance of news media in holding power to account was emphasised through agenda agenda-setting campaigns such as The Sunday Times’ exposure of corruption within football world governing body Fifa and Sunday Life’s hard hitting campaign to expose and abolish the cruel practice of illegal puppy farming.
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What is the monthly magazine published by the Consumer’s Association called | Reviews and expert advice from Which?
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Name British Television's longest running comedy series | AMA Publications
AMA Publications
Page Content
The American Marketing Association publishes a variety of magazines, journals and e-newsletters directed to both practitioners and academics. Considered leaders in their respective fields, these publications provide readers with leading-edge ideas, strategic thinking and practical solutions to challenges facing marketers.
Marketing News
Marketing News has a fresh take on all aspects of marketing, from advertising to sales, B-to-B to CPG, research to promotion. The monthly magazine looks at the issues driving marketing, including strategy, innovation, best practices, branding, technology and globalization. Marketing News also covers the industry's basics, the core concepts around which winning programs are built. And Marketing News tells these stories through case studies and conversations with marketing's thought leaders. AMA members and subscribers find relevant and timely content in every issue.
Marketing Insights
Marketing Insights is the AMA's bimonthly magazine written for marketers, those who work with research and those who work with the resulting insights—which, in this data-driven marketplace, encompasses marketers of every industry. The magazine thinks beyond the survey or analysis to the actionable insights that can be parsed from the data, and can lead to a deeper understanding of customers, competitors and the marketplace as a whole. With a forward-looking editorial strategy, Marketing Insights provides coverage of traditional research theories, techniques and tools, tempered with content focusing on business insights and analytics activities, allowing marketers from both sides of the research equation to see how information is best gathered and acted on to drive profitable business growth.
Marketing Health Services
Marketing professionals looking for new ways to market their health care organization need look no further. Marketing Health Services, a quarterly magazine specifically aimed at senior-level health care marketers and managers, offers targeted information, practical strategies and thought-provoking commentary to help achieve your goals and shape your vision. Marketing Health Services tackles some of the biggest issues facing health care marketers today, including e-health, DTC marketing, legislative developments, healthcare ROI and database marketing. Regular features include revealing case studies as well as roundtables with the leading thinkers in the constantly changing field.
Journal of Marketing
For more than seven decades, Journal of Marketing has been a vibrant outlet for the communication of ideas and thought leadership in marketing, bridging the gap between theory and application. By providing thought-provoking, in-depth articles covering vital aspects of the marketing industry, Journal of Marketing is the premier publication for academics and practitioners. Each issue includes original research on all aspects of marketing.
Journal of Marketing Research
Journal of Marketing Research delves into the latest thinking in marketing research, from philosophy and theories to methods and techniques. Written for technically oriented research analysts, educators and statisticians, Journal of Marketing Research covers a wide range of marketing research concepts, methods, and applications. You'll read about new techniques, contributions to knowledge based on experimental methods, and developments in related fields that have a bearing on marketing research.
Journal of International Marketing
Readers rely on Journal of International Marketing for the latest in global marketing issues. Geared both to international marketing and business scholars and to senior- and mid-level practitioners, Journal of International Marketing features analysis of the latest marketing theories, in-depth articles and coverage of new methods. Also included are scholarly and managerially relevant articles on international marketing and timely insights from executives on new trends and tactics. Journal of International Marketing is the foremost resource on today's international marketing environment.
Journal of Public Policy & Marketing
Addressing the dynamic relationship between marketing and the public interest, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing is a source for understanding today's most important issues. Each issue features a wide-ranging forum for the research, findings and discussion of marketing subjects related to business and government, including issues of nutrition and health, ethics and social responsibility, antitrust, privacy, and copyright and trademarks, as well as policy implications from the Federal Trade Commission and the Food and Drug Administration. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing illustrates the important role of marketing in the legal and regulatory venues.
e-Newsletters
The AMA's portfolio of e-newsletters delivers timely, topical marketing content tailored to your areas of interest, from general marketing news and insights, to industry-specific updates, to career advice, to global thought leadership, and information on the burgeoning fields of marketing research, Big Data and analytics.
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Only one British P.M. has been assassinated, but who shot him | 'I've given you the chance to help, but you haven't. Now someone is going to have to die' | From the Observer | The Guardian
The Observer
'I've given you the chance to help, but you haven't. Now someone is going to have to die'
From the assassination of Sweden's foreign minister Anna Lindh to the massacre in Dunblane, the final trigger for some of the most notorious murders was a cry for help that fell on deaf ears. Now, a new cop-and-doc squad is intercepting - and rehabilitating - the deranged loners whose 'end-of-the-road' letters might spell someone else's death sentence. David Rose reports
The Observer
'I've given you the chance to help, but you haven't. Now someone is going to have to die'
From the assassination of Sweden's foreign minister Anna Lindh to the massacre in Dunblane, the final trigger for some of the most notorious murders was a cry for help that fell on deaf ears. Now, a new cop-and-doc squad is intercepting - and rehabilitating - the deranged loners whose 'end-of-the-road' letters might spell someone else's death sentence. David Rose reports
Sunday 26 August 2007 12.17 EDT
First published on Sunday 26 August 2007 12.17 EDT
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This article was amended on Friday 18th June to delete a reference to Mr Elad Shetreet. Mr Shetreet's Response is here
The handwritten letter, sent to the office of a prominent Tory MP, had a chilling finality. 'I've given you the chance to help, but you haven't,' it said. 'Now someone is going to have to die.'
Its author, a man from the north of England, had written to other high-profile politicians in the preceding months, claiming that the government owed him £300bn for acts of 'criminal negligence' perpetrated by Freemasons, and pleading for their assistance. Later, he claimed that the same MPs had betrayed him, by arranging a coded attack on him to be published in a national newspaper: 'People have died for less,' he wrote.
The man had not yet committed a crime nor made a specific threat to kill. His letters suggested there were grounds to fear for his sanity, but he had never been seen by anyone from his local mental health services. But there was good cause to feel uneasy.
According to consultant psychiatrist David James, one of the world's leading experts in this unusual field, many people who write such 'end of the road letters' may never do anything dangerous. Others will take steps to confront the recipients of their messages face-to-face, if only to embarrass them. Some, however, will attempt to carry out their threat - of murder or assassination. And in the past, some have succeeded.
Assessing the risk and providing treatment to those who may pose it might look like an urgent necessity, but until last year there has been no facility in Britain to deal with such cases systematically. Now it exists: a central unit to which all unsolicited and potentially worrying letters to royals and 'protected politicians' are sent, read and evaluated, as well as examples of bizarre or threatening behaviour at 'iconic locations' such as Downing Street or the royal palaces.
FTAC, the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre, looks unprepossessing: a simple, open-plan office with blue industrial carpet in a stucco town house opposite Buckingham Palace. But its appearance is deceptive, for FTAC represents a new and radical departure - the first ever specialist squad that brings together a full-time complement of mental health professionals with the police, funded jointly by the Department of Health and the Home Office. (FTAC's officers are drawn from London's Metropolitan police, but it has national responsibilities.)
This month, The Observer Magazine was given exclusive access to FTAC and its staff. David James - whose research helped to found the centre, and who now co-directs it - outlines its mission: 'We have discovered that letters written to prominent individuals can be a powerful tool in detecting people suffering from untreated psychotic illness,' he says. But FTAC isn't just about preventing murders that haven't yet occurred, and is much less about protecting the powerful by using psychiatrists' powers to detain patients under the Mental Health Act. Its real innovation is to marry crime prevention with a new way of finding and helping those with therapeutic needs: 'This is an area where the interests of security and public health overlap,' James says. 'We're not just providing protection: we're helping to find care and treatment for those whose lives are being destroyed by untreated mental illness.' Some of the patients first identified by FTAC, James says, are now leading 'functional and relatively normal' lives.
Only one British prime minister has ever been assassinated - Spencer Perceval, who was shot through the heart in the lobby of the House of Commons in May 1812. His killer, John Bellingham, was tried, sentenced and hanged within the week. His was an early example of the type of case that now, James hopes, would be picked up by FTAC.
Bellingham's obsessive pursuit of what he saw as 'justice' began when he was imprisoned in the port of Archangel, for an unpaid debt of 2,000 roubles he owed to some Russian merchants. Lord Granville Leveson-Gower, the British ambassador, eventually secured his release. But Bellingham, who returned to Britain in 1809, accused Leveson-Gower of 'culpable misconduct' in failing to protect him from the Russian authorities. Over the next three years, Bellingham petitioned parliament and sought compensation from several government ministers, but to no avail. Finally, he composed an archetypal end-of-the-road letter, to the police magistrates of Bow Street. 'I consider His Majesty's Government to have completely endeavoured to close the door of justice,' it said. 'Should this reasonable request be finally denied, I shall then feel justified in executing justice myself.'
Afterwards, Bellingham presented himself at the Treasury, where he warned officials that he now considered he had 'carte blanche' to exact whatever revenge he chose. He started visiting the Commons, watching where ministers sat in order to recognise them. Finally, having purchased two pistols and a greatcoat in which to conceal them, he lay in wait by the doors to the debating chamber, shooting Perceval as he approached.
'Bellingham had a lot in common with more modern cases,' James says. 'He saw the government's refusal to redress his grievance as the working of a conspiracy. The world for him was black or white: it had no shades of grey. And having tried every legitimate avenue, he thought he had no choice but to do what he was driven to, and that it was right.'
Before the establishment of FTAC, James, together with FTAC psychologist Lulu Preston and a team of international academics, began a series of studies of 'fixated' people such as Bellingham - a condition James defines as 'obsessive preoccupations pursued to an irrational and pathological degree'. His unit's sources include thousands of letters stored in police archives, security agency records in the UK and abroad, and official files on 24 non-terrorist violent attacks on politicians in Europe since 1990. FTAC has found some striking patterns. Of the 24 attacks, James says, five involved deaths (two of them were mass murders), while another eight led to serious injuries. About half of the assailants were clearly psychotic; most of the rest were either drunk (four) or politically motivated. However, it was the mentally disordered who were responsible for most of the fatal incidents and serious injuries, and most had given warnings which had gone unrecognised.
One of the worst took place on 27 September 2001, when a 57-year-old salesman named Friedrich Leibacher walked into the regional parliament chamber in the Swiss canton of Zug, armed with an assault rifle, an automatic pistol, a revolver and a pump-action shotgun. In the ensuing mayhem, he killed 14 people and badly wounded a further 15, before turning one of his weapons on himself.
The cause of his bloody spree was a dispute going back to 1998, when he had an altercation with a bus driver, Bert Betschart, who told him - wrongly, Leibacher claimed - that he could smell alcohol on his breath. It was the start of an escalating campaign, in which Leibacher complained about Betschart to the transport authorities, threatened him with a gun in a restaurant, and wrote ever more extravagant letters of complaint to officials and public figures. Finally the canton sued Leibacher for defamation, while he filed various countersuits against both Betschart and the authorities. On the day before the shooting, seven of his cases had been thrown out of court.
Vexatious, no-hope legal actions, James says, are often 'a very bad sign'. They formed part of the background to the murder of Andrew Pennington, an assistant to Nigel Jones, the Liberal Democrat MP for Cheltenham, who was run through six times with a samurai sword at Jones's surgery in January 2000. Pennington's killer, Robert Ashman, 50, was a water company official who had been made redundant, then lost his home and marriage, only to become convinced that he was the victim of a conspiracy between Lloyds-TSB, Cheltenham council, the Gloucestershire chief constable and the Inland Revenue.
Like Leibacher, Ashman had launched numerous law suits against those he saw as his tormentors, and in the eight years before he killed Jones's assistant he had visited his surgery between 50 and 100 times. His propensity to commit violence when he thought he was in the right was already well-established: in 1992 he had broken the ribs of a council tax collector when served with a legal summons for non-payment. On that occasion he avoided a jail sentence - thanks in part to a letter to the court from Nigel Jones, who stated the attack was 'out of character'.
Another murderer who slipped through the net was Richard Durn, whose case is one of the 24 on file at FTAC. In March 2002, Durn, a 33-year-old Parisian, killed eight councillors and wounded 19 as they sat through a late-night meeting in the town hall at Nanterre, in Paris. Durn, who a day later leapt to his death from the window of a police station, had told local Green councillors that 'there was a problem with democracy at the town hall'. What troubled many in France was the fact that Durn had been receiving psychiatric treatment for 20 years, and had previously threatened a doctor with a firearm, yet as the member of a gun club he was in legal possession of the two Glock semi-automatic pistols and the .357 Magnum he used to kill his victims.
Some of the perpetrators James has studied were highly delusional. Adelheid Streidel, who stabbed the then Saarland prime minister and Germany's future finance minister Oskar Lafontaine in April 1990, believed that Jesus Christ had ordered her to expose a secret network of 'killing factories', where abducted victims were dismembered and new beings fashioned from their body parts. If she could not bring the truth to light by public demonstrations, Streidel thought Jesus wanted her to 'kill a politician'.
In the same year, a schizophrenic named Dieter Kaufmann shot the German interior minister Wolfgang Schauble at a political rally, inflicting injuries that confined him to a wheelchair. Kaufmann had for seven years complained of government transmitters torturing him by transmitting pain into his body. He had spent years writing letters of complaint, had been to his MP and had twice tried to take legal action against the government. But no one had taken any notice. In the end, he could stand it no longer and felt driven to take matters into his own hands.
Mijailo Mijailovic, 25, also had a long history of paranoid psychosis. The unemployed son of Serbian immigrants, he murdered the Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh in a Stockholm shopping mall in September 2003. An obsessive-compulsive who had to count the tiles in a toilet before he could leave, he had complained of hearing voices and had 'morbid thoughts about politicians', a group he saw as representative of a society that had rejected him. In prison, he became convinced that Tom Cruise was his brother and would 'help me find a girl'. After several months on anti-psychotic medication, his condition markedly improved.
In studying 23 attacks on the British royal family between 1778 and 2003, James and his colleagues found similar evidence of fixation and psychosis. One of the most notorious cases was the attempted kidnapping of Princess Anne from her car in the Mall in 1974, in which Ian Ball, 26, shot and wounded four people, including her chauffeur and bodyguard. A chronic schizophrenic, Ball is still in Broadmoor. Of those who threatened the royals, James says, 39 per cent stated they had 'reached a position of last resort'. Almost all these cases, both political and royal, shared three common factors, says James: 'The perpetrators were fixated. Information was coming in, but there was no system to assess it. And the attacks were potentially preventable.'
Media coverage of FTAC to date has portrayed it as something akin to the psychiatric hospitals used to lock up dissidents in the Soviet Union. In the Mail on Sunday's words, it is 'Blair's Secret Stalker Squad', armed with 'sweeping powers to check more than 10,000 suspects' files', and the ability to 'legally detain people for an indefinite period without trial, criminal charges, or even evidence of a crime having been committed and with very limited rights of appeal'. The truth is both less dramatic and more interesting.
At the heart of its psychiatric department are three senior forensic mental health nurses, who work with James and other part-time psychiatrists and psychologists. All bear in mind one of the overriding lessons from the studies of past attacks - that warning letters and other signals do not usually consist of threats to a specified individual, but, as James puts it, 'broader evidence of gross disturbance and psychopathology'. The letter to the prominent Tory MP made no threat to kill him - but stated that 'someone' had to die.
Often, says Robbie Forfar, FTAC's head nurse, spotting such warnings from the hundreds of communications now being referred by bodies such as the Royal Household and the Palace of Westminster is not hugely difficult. Concealing the names of those to whom they relate, he shows me details of some recent cases: a man who believes he has been the target of a hostile campaign by MI5 for many years; another whose letters to a prince about the 'mind machine' that controls him are getting steadily angrier and more bitter; a third who left his car illegally parked outside a government building, saying when challenged he had a message from God for Prince Charles. (Inside the vehicle was an authentic-looking imitation weapon. Police later found swords and airguns when they visited him at home.)
Such individuals may pose a much greater threat to themselves than to others.
'There have been cases of people showing up at public buildings dressed in combat fatigues, armed with fake weapons,' Forfar says. 'Given the current security climate, they are putting themselves at serious risk.'
FTAC's mental health staff don't just provide analysis, however. Because doctors can talk to doctors, it means that James and his colleagues can establish whether the letter-writers and others who come to their notice have already been receiving treatment, overcoming what would otherwise be insuperable barriers of patient confidentiality. And, most important, it allows the unit to refer those who come to its attention to their local mental health services.
Meanwhile, FTAC's cops - six PCs, an intelligence analyst and a detective sergeant, led by Detective Inspector Tom Kerrigan and the unit's co-director, DCI Bob Garratt - make enquiries into subjects' backgrounds. A past record of violence will, of course, be of particular concern. Often, Forfar and one of the PCs will visit someone together, to assess their level of threat: 'We try to persuade them to get help. We try to build a rapport,' he says.
All this may well reduce the overall risk of attack. But according to James, it has a still more valuable function. At least half of the approximately 200 cases FTAC has dealt with were completely unknown to the mental health services, or had ceased all treatment for previous illness long ago. 'What we're doing is putting pieces of the jigsaw together that were previously held separately,' James says. 'We are discovering people who are extremely ill, but who have fallen out of the networks of care. FTAC plugs them back in. We have found a new way of getting help to people whose lives are literally being ruined by their delusions and fixations. We're getting them back in touch with their families, and giving them the means to reclaim a functional life.'
Of the cases FTAC has referred - it does not, James stresses, have any vaunted 'sweeping powers' to section people on its own - 40 per cent have been admitted to hospital, at least initially, and slightly fewer treated as outpatients, including the man who wrote to the Tory MP that 'someone is going to have to die'. Some 6.5 per cent were dealt with at court, having come to FTAC's attention after being charged. The rest either disappeared or left the country. Of those who received treatment, almost all have avoided trouble with the law: as a means of preventing crime, FTAC is unusually successful.
There has been a further, unexpected benefit. Psychotic people who communicate with politicians may already be causing other kinds of trouble. One man, mired in a complex delusion that linked his unjust eviction from a previous flat, 'Nazi' royals and global political events, turned out quite separately to be stalking a woman who lived nearby. When the police searched his home, they found hundreds of pornographic, threatening letters. 'We had him sectioned. He was seriously ill,' James says, 'but he responded well to treatment. Now he's in remission, back in the community and the threat to this woman appears to be lifted.'
In another case, a man from Wales made repeated and bizarre attempts to contact the Duke of Edinburgh. FTAC's investigations established that he had two convictions for rape and a psychiatric history. He was living in a hostel where staff were becoming seriously concerned by his highly sexualised behaviour: 'He had raped before when he was ill, and he was starting to relapse.' When he started back on medication, both the approaches to Prince Philip and the sexualised behaviour stopped.
Identifying the mentally ill through their communications with royals could, says James, prevent serious crimes. On 7 March 1996, the Queen received a letter from a man who wrote that he felt ostracised from his fellow men, an injustice that she could right: 'I turn to you as a last resort and am appealing, for I may be able to regain my self-esteem in society.' His name was Thomas Hamilton. The following week, he killed 16 children and a teacher, and then shot himself, at a primary school in Dunblane.
For FTAC's police officers, says Bob Garratt, the unit 'is unlike anything we've ever done before. In normal police work you research a suspect when a crime has taken place. By definition, the people we're dealing with have usually not committed an offence.' Also, he adds, 'Police officers often talk of coming across people with "harmless delusions". They may not be harmless at all. What the officers mean is because their sufferers aren't acting on their delusions violently at that moment, they have no powers. People have to be behaving very bizarrely indeed before the police can take action under the Mental Health Act.'
Putting the police in the same office as mental health staff has a big impact, according to Garratt: 'Instead of trying to get people punished, and potentially stigmatising them, the police are part of the service that can help.'
Co-locating police and mental health services may in time bring benefits that extend well beyond those people fixated on politicians and royals. 'Diversion' - keeping mentally ill offenders out of the criminal justice system - is a long-held government ambition, one to which James has devoted a substantial part of his career. It is also one that has, for the most part, failed, and numerous studies have revealed that thousands of prisoners in the UK have a serious mental illness.
Could the approach pioneered through FTAC - the identification of those with a psychiatric illness before they offend - have wider application? Garratt and James believe so. 'We could be setting up local, mini-FTACs,' Garratt says, with mental health staff working much more closely with police intelligence units, perhaps even listening to the messages that come through control rooms.
'Only a few years ago, when the police came across a case of domestic violence, we would treat it as something that didn't concern us,' Garratt says. 'Such an attitude now would be unthinkable. A little bit later we made an analogous change in our attitude to homophobic crime. Maybe the time is coming,' he says, 'for a similar shift in the way we deal with mental illness - and FTAC could be the start.'
· This article was amended on September 2 2007. We said Adelheid Streidel stabbed the then Saarland Prime Minister and Germany's future finance minister Oskar Lafontaine in April 1990 'and so consigned him to a wheelchair for life'. We are happy to record that this was not the case: he made a full recovery. This has been corrected.
| John Bellingham |
What kind of drink is Barack which is a favourite drink of Hungarians | Spencer Perceval deserves better from posterity - Telegraph
History
Spencer Perceval deserves better from posterity
He was the only British prime minister to be assassinated, but he should be remembered for his achievements.
Prime Minister Spencer Perceval shot by John Bellingham in the House of Commons, May 11, 1812 Photo: Hulton Archive
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We are approaching the 200th anniversary of the death of a largely forgotten prime minister. Yet it is odd that he should be ignored. Spencer Perceval is unique – our only prime minister to be assassinated – but he has several other claims on our attention.
For a start, he had an interesting and unconventional youth. The younger son of an extravagant earl, he had to make his own way, which he did, as a lawyer. He fell in love with the daughter of a rich businessman, who was unimpressed by the suitor’s lineage and sought to reserve his chick for a rich man. But true love prevailed. On her 21st birthday, Jane climbed out of her father’s drawing-room window and the pair eloped. They began married life in rented lodgings above a carpet shop in Bedford Row. Overcrowding pursued them. Jane Perceval bore 12 surviving children; their Downing Street must have recalled the tale of the old woman who lived in a shoe.
If the elopement makes Perceval sound like a Regency buck, that is an erroneous impression. A committed evangelical, he was profoundly religious (one reason why he hated slavery). He and his fellow-evangelicals believed that his accession to the premiership was an example of divine providence, and his co-religionists were thrown into confusion by his murder: what did the Almighty mean by it all?
His faith was the bedrock of his political seriousness, which was just as well; he became premier in 1809, at one of the worst moments in modern British history. With one brief interlude, we had been at war with the French for almost 20 years. Earl St Vincent, as commander of the Channel Fleet, had assured the Admiralty in 1801: “I do not say that the French will not come. I say only they will not come by sea.” Nor did they; Nelson saw to that. But they went almost everywhere else.
In 1806, after Austerlitz, a wearied, mortally stricken Pitt said: “Roll up that map of Europe. It will not be needed these 10 years.” Events would prove him unduly pessimistic, but not for several years. Around the end of the decade, the war seemed to have reached an expensive stalemate – and there were other reasons for public discontent.
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Britain faced interlocking crises: economic, social and political. The war was bad for trade, just at a time when the agricultural and industrial revolutions were causing widespread and disruptive changes. Technological advances create jobs and reduce prices. But those who benefit are usually ungrateful. Inevitably, there are also job losses and other dislocations. Those who suffer are usually vociferous.
In Perceval’s era, this was encouraged by a widespread feeling that the government lacked legitimacy. In the House of Commons, rotten boroughs were bought and sold, while growing cities remained unrepresented. Large swaths of the upper middle class, who would have been horrified at the idea of universal suffrage, were pressing for parliamentary reform so that people like them could have a vote.
At the pinnacle of British society was one of the richest and most powerful aristocracies in all history. But plenty of pamphleteers pointed out that similar arrangements had prevailed in pre-1789 France. During those troubled decades, it often seemed that the British ruling class was a mere glittering meniscus, atop dark and turbid waters. Even if Bonaparte could not leap across the Channel, there was a constant fear that the revolutionary infection might do so. As the nobility dined in splendour in their palaces in the new London squares, it was as if British sans-culottes were pressing their eyes to the windows and summoning the diners towards the tumbrils and the guillotine.
In 1809, three years after his death, Pitt still dominated British politics: his steadfastness, as the pilot who had weathered the storm, but also his failure, as a man put on earth to be a reformer and moderniser, who had to abandon those goals when shot and shell imposed their agenda. Pitt won loyalty as well as respect, and many of the young men of British politics were proud to proclaim themselves his disciples: among them Spencer Perceval, whom Pitt himself regarded as one of his ablest acolytes.
Perceval’s performance justified his master’s praise. An outstanding debater, and a man of obvious moral depth, he was popular with everyone who knew him. This enabled him to hold everything together. While PM, he also acted as Chancellor and made sure that there was enough money to fight the war without crippling the economy. With no military background, he proved himself a sound judge of military merit, especially when it came to Wellington. Back in London, the “croakers” were carping about the cost of his campaigns and the shortage of victories. Perceval stood firm, thus enabling the Great Duke to win battles, and immortal fame. Perceval’s contribution should not be forgotten, just because he was struck down in the darkest hour before the dawn.
A newly published book, Why Spencer Perceval Had to Die by Andro Linklater, indulges in a conspiracy theory. There is only one problem: an entire lack of evidence. There is no reason to doubt the normal version: that the assassin was an obsessive failed businessman who was only just sane enough to be hanged.
In May 1812, it seemed the war might go on for ever. Yet within six months, Napoleon was retreating from Moscow; within a year Wellington was approaching the Pyrenees. Lord Liverpool, Perceval’s successor, was prime minister for 15 years. If he had not been shot, those could have been Perceval’s years, and he would have deserved them.
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What is the collective noun for a group of leopards | What is a group of leopards called?
What is a group of leopards called?
Collective Noun for Leopards
The collective noun for leopards is the word you would use to describe a group of leopards.
We have identified the following word(s) that you could call a group of leopards:
leap
lepe
Used in a sentence, you could say "Look at the leap of leopards", where "leap" is the collective noun that means group.
As you can see, you simply substitute the word "group" with one of the collective nouns on our list above when describing a group of leopards.
| LEAP |
What type of bird is a Jonathan Livingstone | The Collective Nouns of Animals on Safari | Travel Yourself
The Collective Nouns of Animals on Safari
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While on Safari in South Africa along with my friends Mike , Kate , JD and our tourism rep friend David we found ourselves on the discussion of collective nouns. For animals like Lions we all knew they were called a “pride”, a “murder of crows” and Elephants were a “herd” but we were quite surprised to find out the collective nouns of the other animals that we saw on Safari in South Africa.
The collective noun for Zebras? A Dazzle! A Dazzle of Zebras! I think it probably takes the cake for the best animal collective noun ever.
Aren’t they just dazzling? What…?
A Venue of Vultures! If they were flying in the sky and circling they would be called a Kettle. Some might even call them a “committee” .
A “journey” of Giraffes! Or you could also use the collective noun “tower” for Giraffes.
The collective noun for Dung Beetles? A “shitload” of dung beetles… not sure if I believe this one but it is pretty hilarious.
A “Leap” of Leopards. Not so scary sounding, just imagine them leaping on you for dinner. That makes it better.
Also known as a “herd” of Elephants I think I prefer a “Memory” of Elephants.
Previous to visiting South Africa I had never heard of a Kudu before, however after I saw one for the first time I learned a collective noun for them is A “Forkl” of Kudu. Interesting… not sure what a forkl is either but I do know that Kudu taste damn delicious on the braai (South African BBQ).
Cheetah’s are known as a “coalition”, sounds kind of top secret doesn’t it?
And these guys are my favourites as well, their collective noun is a “Crash”. Love it!
Ok… Maybe I didn’t see these guys on Safari but I did see them on Boulders Beach in Cape Town, South Africa. There are several collective nouns for Penguins and my favorites are a “raft” for when they are in the water together and a “waddle” for when they are on land. So cute!
It was definitely a fun little learning experience to hear these collective nouns while on Safari. One of the coolest things we heard as well is that Wildebeest are known as an “implausibility” and although we did see some it was ironically an implausibllity for me to get a good photo of one!
What are some of the coolest collective nouns you have ever heard of?
Related Posts:
We have a ‘parade’ of elephants rather than a herd
Your zebra certainly dazzles!
Also interesting: a ‘murder’ of crows –
A fascinating study
Adding to your animals, though not in SA
A sleuth of bears
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In botany to which family do the two species of rape belong | Agavaceae: Agave Family Back To Alphabet Table
Note: This Family Sometimes Lumped With The Liliaceae
Agave atrovirens Pulque Plant [Pulque is the fermented juice from the base of flower stalk; leaves of central cone are removed and the sap is allowed to collect in the cavity; mescal and tequila are distilled pulque; other species of Agave are also used for pulque.]
A. sisalina Sisal [Strong fibers from leaves.]
Phormium tenax New Zealand Flax [Strong leaf fibers 3 to 7 feet long.]
Sansevieria metalaea and other spp. Bowstring Hemp [Strong fiber from leaves; sometimes placed in the Liliaceae.]
Cordyline fruticosa Ti Plant [Many uses for fibrous leaves of this Polynesian plant.]
Amaranthus caudatus Jataco or Achita [Edible leaves used as a potherb; nutritious seeds cooked and eaten like cereal grains.]
Amaranthus retroflexus Pigweed [Edible leaves and seeds.]
A. cruentus, A. powellii, A. hypochondriacus Amaranth [Edible seeds ground into flour; amaranth flour was important South American cereal during pre-Columbian times; grown by the Aztecs and southwest Indians for millennia, the small seeds are rich in lysine and the young leaves are high in calcium and iron.]
Amaryllidaceae: Amaryllis Family Back To Alphabet Table
Note: This Family Sometimes Lumped With The Liliaceae
The following plants with edible bulbs are often placed in the lily family but are more correctly members of the Amaryllis Family--Amaryllidaceae:
Allium cepa Onion and Shallot [Edible bulbs; including many different varieties.]
A. ampeloprasum (A. porrum) Leek [Delicious edible bulb and leaves.]
A. sativum Garlic [Edible bulb; valuable seasoning and medicinal herb.]
A. schoenoprasum Chives [Leaves used for garnish and herb.]
Pleiogynium solandri (P. timorense) Burdekin Plum
Mangifera indica Mango
P. lentiscus Gum Mastic
P. chinensis Chinese Pistache
Pachycormus discolor Elephant Tree [Native to Baja California; also see elephant trees (Bursera spp.) in Burseraceae.]
Gluta renghas Rengas Tree [Tropical Malaysian tree with beautiful heartwood; dangerous to work because of urushiol in resin.]
Melanorrhoea usitata Burmese Lacquer Tree [Sap contains urushiol.]
Semecarpus anacardium India Marking Nut Tree [Sap contains urushiol.]
Metopium toxiferum and Comocladia dodonaea [Caribbean shrubs that contain urushiol.]
Schinus molle Peruvian Pepper Tree [Female trees are the source of pink peppercorns.]
S. terebinthifolius Brazilian Pepper Tree [Female trees are the source of pink peppercorns.]
Toxicodendron vernicifluum Lacquer Tree. [From milky sap which darkens upon oxidation; sap contains urushiol.]
Note: Shellac is prepared from a resinous secretion on the twigs of several tree species by an insect, Tachardia lacca or Laccifer lacca. This insect is a member of the order Homoptera along with aphids, scale insects, mealy bugs, and cicadas. Confectioner's glaze (also known as pharmaceutical glaze) is an alcohol based solution of food grade shellac. It extends the shelf life of candies and tablets and protects them from moisture. It also masks the unpleasant odor and taste of certain medicinal tablets and aids in swallowing. Since the shellac coating is insoluble in stomach acids, it is used in time-released pills.
T. diversilobum, T. radicans, and T. vernix Poison Oak, Poison Ivy, and Poison Sumac. All are painful experiences to hypersensitive people. Dermatitis reactions can also occur from handling the shells of cashew nuts and from eating mangoes.
Apium graveolens Celery [Edible leaf stalks or petioles.]
Carum carvi Caraway
Coriandrum sativum Coriander [Seeds used as a tasty seasoning; aromatic leaves (called cilantro) used as garnish and in salsa and guacamole dishes.]
Cuminum cyminum Cumin
Daucus carota Carrot [Edible taproot; also called Queen Ann's lace when flowering.]
Foeniculum vulgare Fennel [Edible petioles; seeds used like anise for licorice flavoring in cady, medicines, perfumes, liquor and soap; true licorice from root of a perennial legume.
Pastinaca sativa Parsnip [Edible taproot; similar to the deadly poisonous water hemlock.]
Petroselinum crispum Parsley [Leaves used as garnish and possibly to freshen breath after eating.]
Pimpinella anisum Anise
Note: Two very poisonous species in this family with parsnip-like roots and parsely-like leaves that you do NOT want to use as greens in salads or cooked as vegetables. They typically grow along streams or in wet bottom lands:
1. Cicuta douglasii Water Hemlock [One large taproot in a salad can be fatal to an adult human; causes convulsions.]
2. Conium maculatum Poison Hemlock [The infamous hemlock supposedly used on Socrates; purple dots on stems; can be fatal without convulsions.
Agathis australis Kauri Pine [Important New Zealand source of copal resins for varnishes.]
A. dammara (A. alba) Amboina Pine [Another source of copal resins from East Indies & Malaysia.]
Araucaria columnaris Cook Pine or New Caledonia Pine [Timber tree native to New Caledonia with beautiful grain (knots) produced by whorls of limbs along main trunk.]
A. heterophylla Norfolk Island Pine [Timber tree with beautiful grain (knots) produced by whorls of limbs along main trunk.]
Note: Baltic amber is the polymerized resin from ancient coniferous forests dating back about 50 million years. The semiprecious gem called Whitby jet is the carbonized remains of ancient conifer forests dating back about 160 million years.
Arecaceae: Palm Family (Palmae): Back To Alphabet Table
Calamus spp. Rattan [From several species of climbing palms.]
Calamus (Daemonorops) draco Dragon's Blood [Bright red dye from resinous fruit; dragon's blood dye also obtained from resinous sap of Dracaena draco & D. cinnabari (Dracaenaceae).]
Ceroxylon andicola Wax Palm [From trunk.]
Copernicia prunifera (C. cerifera) Carnauba Wax Palm [Exudation on leaves.]
C. alba Carnaday Wax Palm [Waxy cuticle used as secondary industrial source of wax.]
Bactris gasipaes Pejibaye Palm [Small palm with spiny trunk; clusters of small orange fruits common in marketplace of Costa Rica during summer months.]
Butia capitata Jelly Palm [A South American palm native to Brazil; fleshy mesocarp of drupes with delicious flavor of apricots.]
Hyphaene ventricosa Vegetable Ivory Palm [From hard endosperm.]
Jubaea chilensis Chilean Wine Palm [Wine made from fermented sap.]
Metroxylon amicarum Ivory Nut Palm
Phytelephas aequatorialis Ivory Nut Palm [Hard endosperm used for buttons, chessmen, poker chips, dice, knobs, etc; today largely replaced with plastic polymers.]
Phoenix dactylifera Date Palm
Elaeis guineensis African Oil Palm [Seeds high in saturated fats.]
Serenoa repens Saw Palmetto [Small palm native to Florida Everglades region; berries used as herb to maintain healthy prostate gland.]
Areca catechu Betel-Nut Palm [Seeds commonly chewed by people throughout the far eastern region.]
Cocos nucifera Coconut. [The nutritious meat or "copra" within the seed is endosperm tissue (coconut milk is liquid endosperm); the "coconut apple" is a spongy, sweet mass of cotyledon tissue inside the seed cavity that dissolves and absorbs the endosperm; the "coir" fibers come from the fibrous husk or mesocarp.]
There are 2 main types or varieties of coconuts. The niu kafa types have an elongate, angular fruit, up to 6 inches in diameter, with a small egg-shaped nut surrounded by an unusually thick husk. Niu vai types have a larger more spherical fruit, up to 10 inches in diameter, with a large, spherical nut inside a thin husk. The niu kafa type represents the ancestral, naturally-evolved, wild-type coconut, disseminated by floating. The niu vai type was derived by domestic selection for increased endosperm ("meat" and "milk") and is widely dispersed and cultivated by humans. Both types of fruit can float, but the thicker, angular husk adapts the niu kafa type particularly well to remote atoll conditions where it can be found today.
Asteraceae: Sunflower Family (Compositae) Back To Alphabet Table
Anthemis nobilis Chamomile [From dried flower heads; weedy species called mayweed (A. cotula) in San Diego County.]
Matricaria chamomilla German Chamomile [From dried flower heads; weedy species called pineapple weed (M. matricarioides) in San Diego County.]
Artemisia dracunculus Tarragon. [Leaves used for seasoning.]
A. absinthium Wormwood or Absinthe [Vicent van Gogh (1853-1890) suffered from epilepsy and was treated with digoxin from the foxglove plant (Digitalis purpurea). His famous work, "The Starry Night" contains yellow circles around the stars, which are similar to visual problems described by patients with digoxin toxicity even today. Van Gogh also drank the liqueur absinthe on a regular basis. Absinthe is a green, bitter liqueur primarily flavored with wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), a European herbaceous perennial related to the native sagebrush species (Artemisia) of the western United States. Absinthe also contains thujone, a terpenoid component of many essential oils, including those found in Artemisia and the coniferous genus Thuja. Research has shown that thujone not only fuels creativity, but also that an overdose of the compound causes yellow-tinged vision. Either absinthe or digoxin toxicity may have contributed to van Gogh's increasing use of the color yellow in the last years of his life; or perhaps van Gogh may simply have loved the color yellow.]
Carthamus tinctorius Safflower. [Oil from seeds.]
Cichorium endivia Endive [Leaves used as garnish and herb.]
C. intybus Chicory. [Taproot roasted and ground, used as an adulterant in coffee; a weed in western U.S.]
Cynara scolymus Globe Artichoke [Immature flower heads are cooked and eaten; the tender receptacle and "meaty" phyllaries are dipped in butter.]
C. cardunculus Cardoon or Thistle Artichokes [Globe artichoke derived from this species and may be only be a variety rather than a separate species; inner leaves and petioles (leaf stalks) are edible; flower heads used for dry flower arrangements.]
Echinacea purpurea Echinacea [Herb used to boost immune system.]
Helianthus annuus Sunflower [Tasty, nutritious edible seeds produced in large heads; also valuable unsaturated oil from seeds.]
H. tuberosus Jerusalem Artichoke [Sunflower with edible tubers similar to small potatoes.]
Lactuca sativa Lettuce [Leafy compact head; many varieties, romaine lettuce with more elongate leaves; related to prickly lettuce (L. serriola), a common weedy species in San Diego County.]
Parthenium argentatum Guayule [Only important U.S. source of rubber.]
Silybum marianum Milk Thistle [A prickly herb used to detoxify the liver.]
Tagetes lemmonii Scented Marigold [An aromatic shrub with fragrant foliage used for a tea.]
Taraxacum officinale Dandelion [Leaves used in salads and cooked as a vegetable.]
Tragopogon porrifolius Salsify or Oyster Plant [Cooked taproot with flavor of oysters; weedy species in western U.S. resemble large, blue-flowered dandelions; cross pollination with yellow-flowered T. dubius resulting in sterile diploid (2n=12) and fertile tetrapolid (2n=24) hybrids; in fertile, blue-flowered tetraploids, all haploid sets (n=6) from each parent have a homologous set of chromosomes to pair up with during synapsis of meiosis I; hence viable gametes and seeds are produced.]
Bangiaceae: Porphyra Family Back To Alphabet Table
Porphyra species. Nori [This genus includes a number of species of intertidal red algae that are collected for food in Asian countries; nori is commonly cultivated in shallow muddy bays of Japan; the dried blades are packaged and sold in Asian markets throughout the world; nori provides the tasty black wrapper around sushi, and is also wrapped around crackers and used in soups.]
Bangia fusco-purpurea Cow Hair or Hair Seaweed [An intertidal alga with a slender hairlike thallus; this species is eaten like fine pasta in many Asian dishes.]
Berberidaceae: Barberry Family Back To Alphabet Table
Podophyllum peltatum May Apple or Mandrake. [Podophyllum resin or podophyllin from roots and rhizomes; used as an emetic and cathartic; the antineoplasmic glucoside called podophyllotoxin is used in chemotherapy treatment for certain tumors.]
Berberis aquifolium Oregon Grape [The berries of several North American species are used in jams and pies; berries of several Middle Eastern species are dried and used like raisins.]
Berberis spp. Barberry. [Alternate host of wheat rust (Puccinia graminis), a serious fungus disease of wheat.]
Boraginaceae: Borage Family Back To Alphabet Table
Alkanna tinctoria) Dyer's Bugloss [Roots a source of the deep red phenolic dye alkannin (alkanet) used on textiles, vegetable oils, medicines and wine; commonly used today as a food coloring.]
Cordia sebestena Ziricote [This Caribbean tree is also known as cericote and geiger tree; the beautiful, dark wood is used in wood carving.]
C. subcordata Kou [A Polynesian species with a beautiful, dark-grained hardwood used in wood carving.]
Borago officinalis Borage [Leaves & flowers eaten in salads and brewed into tea.]
Echium vulgare Viper's Bugloss [Blue flowers added to salads and cooked like spinach.]
E. amoenum Gaozaban [Flowers used for a popular medicinal tea in Iran; a rich source of antioxidants, including rosmarinic acid and bioflavonoids.]
Brassicaceae: Mustard Family (Cruciferae) Back To Alphabet Table
Armoracia lapathifolia (A. rusticana) Horseradish [Pungent relish obtained from the large taproot; a delicious condiment with meat and seafood.]
Eutrema wasabi (Wasabia japonica) Japanese Horeseradish or Wasabi [The fleshy rhizome is the source of the green paste called "wasabi" that is commonly served with sashimi (raw fish) in Japan.]
Lepidium meyenii (also L. peruvianum) Maca [A wild mustard native to the Andes of South America; the dried, radishlike roots are cooked to form a sweet, aromatic porridge called mazamorra; powdered maca root is sold as a nutritious herb and food supplement; nineteen species of Lepidium are native and naturalized in California.]
Brassica campestris (B. rapa ssp. sylvestris) Field Mustard [A common weed in the western U.S.]
B. nigra (Black Mustard) & B. alba (White Mustard) [Seeds used for mustard condiment; black mustard is a common weedy species in San Diego County; mustard gas is a synthetic chemical containing sulfur and chlorine, it is not made from mustard seeds.]
B. rapa [Rapifera Group] Turnip [Edible root; sometimes referred to as B. campestris; turnip greens from edible leaves; n=10.]
B. rapa [Chinensis Group] Bok Choy (Pak-choi). [Cultivated in Asia for succulent leaves.]
B. rapa [Pekinensis Group] Chinese Cabbage
B. napus Rapeseed Oil and Canola Oil [Unsaturated oil from seeds; 3rd most important edible oil in U.S. after soybean & cottonseed oils.]
B. oleracea [Includes following varieties: cabbage (leafy head), kale (non-heading leafy sprout), collards (nonheading leafy sprout), broccoli (immature inflorescence and stalk or peduncle), cauliflower (immature inflorescence), brussels sprouts (tall-stemmed cabbage with small edible heads or buds along stem), kohlrabi (enlarged, edible, basal stem above the ground); all varieties with n=9 and 2n=18; broccoflower a hybrid between broccoli and cauliflower.]
B. napobrassica Rutabaga [Tetraploid hybrid between cabbage (n=9) and turnip (n=10); resulting fertile polyploid with 38 chromosomes, 2 sets of cabbage chromosomes (9 + 9) and 2 sets of turnip chromosomes (10 + 10).]
Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum (Nasturtium officinale) Water Cress [An aquatic weed in southern California; edible leaves.]
Isatis tinctoria Woad [Important blue dye used in Europe during 1500s and 1600s; the glucoside dye indican in leaves; one of dyes used by Robin Hood's men for their green clothing.]
Raphanus sativus Radish [A very common weed in San Diego County; edible taproot with many varieties, including white and red radishes; giant oriental radishes 4 feet long and 40 pounds; the large Asian radish called "daikon" belongs to the Longipinnata group of radishes.]
Note: The bigeneric hybrid (Raphanobrassica) or Rabbage is a cross between the radish (Raphanus n=9) and cabbage (Brassica n=9). The diploid hybrid has two sets of chromosomes, one set (R) from the radish parent and one set (C) from the cabbage parent. [Note: The word "set" is defined here as one haploid set of chromosomes.] Since each set includes 9 chromosomes, the diploid rabbage has a total of 18 chromosomes. The diploid hybrid (RC) is sterile because the radish and cabbage sets of chromosomes are not completely homologous, and fail to pair up during synapsais of meiosis I. A fertile tetraploid (4n=36) hybrid (RRCC) has also been developed. It produces viable gametes and seeds because the radish chromosomes have another radish set to pair up with (RR), and the cabbage chromosomes have another set to pair up with (CC). Unfortunately this wonder plant has the leaves of the radish and the roots of the cabbage.
Boswellia carteri Frankincense. [Resin obtained from bark.]
Commiphora abyssinica Myrrh
Protium copal Guatemalan Incense
Bursera simaruba Gumbo Limbo
B. odorata and B. microphylla Elephant Tree [Native to Baja California; also see another elephant tree (Pachycormus discolor) in Anacardiaceae.]
Cactaceae: Cactus Family Back To Alphabet Table
Opuntia spp. Prickly Pear. [Stem segments edible and called "nopales" in Mexico; ripened fruit called "tuna" or "pitaya dulce."]
Opuntia ficus-indica and other spp. Source of the brilliant red cochineal dye [Actual dye from the red body fluids of cochineal insect (Dactylopius coccus), a homopteran related to aphids, scale insects and mealy bugs; female cochineal insects are brushed from the cactus pads, dried, and pigments extrated from dried bodies; one pound of dye represents about 70,000 insects; source of carmine red stain used in microbiology classes; cactus were introduced into Australia for this dye with disastrous consequences; by 1925, 60 million acres of valuable range land covered by prickly pear cactus.]
Hylocereus undatus Dragon Fruit [Sweet fruit similar in flavor to lime and kiwi fruit.]
Lophophora williamsii Peyote. [Source of alkaloid mescaline.]
Trichocereus pachanoi San Pedro Cactus [Another South American source of mescaline.]
Beta vulgaris Beets [Other varieties include sugar beets and Swiss chard; sweet taproot used for beets and sugar beets; tender leaves used for Swiss chard.]
Chenopodium album Lamb's Quarters [An edible weed in California; tender leaves cooked and eaten like spinach.]
C. quinoa Quinoa [South American herb with edible seeds that are cooked and eaten like a cereal grain; used by native people since pre-Columbian times.]
Spinacia oleracea Spinach [Leaves consumed through pipe by Popeye; very nourishing vegetable rich in iron and folic acid.]
Family also includes Russian thistle or tumbleweed (Salsola tragus) and halophytic salt marsh species, such as pickleweed (Salicornia).
Combretaceae: Combretum Family Back To Alphabet Table
Anogeissus latifolia Gum Ghatti [A natural gum from the sap of a tree native to dry, deciduous forests of India and Sri Lanka; the common name "ghatti" is derived from the word "ghat" or mountain pass; this gum was originally carried by people over mountain passes or "ghats" to ports in India; the gum has properties intermediate between gum arabic and karaya gum; because it is a superior oil emulsifier with a higher viscosity, it is used in liquid and paste waxes and for fat soluble vitamins.
Terminalia catappa Tropical Almond [Malaysian tree naturalized along seashores of the Old and New World tropics, including Florida and the Hawaiian Islands; the oval, flattened, one-seeded fruit is commonly dispersed by ocean currents; the seed superficially resembles an almond and is eaten by natives.
Convolvulaceae: Morning Glory Family Back To Alphabet Table
Turbina corymbosa and Ipomoea tricolor Ololiuqui [New World morning glories with seeds containing the alkaloid ergine (d-lysergic acid amide), better known as natural LSD.]
Ipomoea batatas Sweet Potato [Edible, fascicled storage roots; many delicious varieties, including red "yams" and white sweet potatoes.]
Ipomoea aquatica Water Spinach [A popular, aquatic green vegetable in Asian countries.]
Note: True yams belong to the genus Dioscorea (Dioscoreaceae).
Cupressaceae: Cypress Family Back To Alphabet Table
Juniperus spp. Junipers (e.g. J. communis) [Berries (cones) used to flavor gin; sloe gin flavored with sloe plum (Prunus spinosa).]
Cupressus spp. Cypress [10 endemic species in California; distributed throughout the state in arboreal islands; cones, foliage & bark variation in populations due to selection (glandular vs. eglandular foliage) and genetic drift.]
Chamaecyparis lawsoniana Port Orford Cedar
Calocedrus decurrens Incense Cedar
Thuja plicata Western Red Cedar
Cupressocyparis leylandii Leyland Cypress [A bigeneric hybrid between Monterey cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa) and Alaska cedar (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis).
There are other species used for lumber often called cedars.
Cycadaceae: Cycad Family Back To Alphabet Table
Cycas revoluta Sago Palm [Seeds eaten fresh and roasted; ground seeds should be thoroughly washed because they contain cycasin, a potent carcinogen; the heart of the trunk is baked and eaten, and is the source of sago, a starchy material also obtained from the central pith of palm trunks; sago starch is used in cooking and baking, like the starchy rhizomes of arrowroot (Marantiaceae) and achira (Cannaceae).]
C. circinalis [The large seeds used as in C. revoluta.]
Note: Seeds of additional species of cycads are used for food, including the African genus Encephalartos in the family Zamiaceae; in tropical and temperate climates, cycads are used extensively in landscaping.
Euphorbiaceae: Euphorbia Family Back To Alphabet Table
Croton tiglium Croton [Croton oil from seeds; it is one of the most powerful purgatives known.]
Aleurites moluccana Candlenut or Kukui Nut [Seeds rich in unsaturated oil; seeds polished and used for necklaces in Hawaii.]
A. fordii Tung Oil [Outstanding unsaturated oil that dries fast and leaves a glossy finish on wood.]
Sapium sebiferum Chinese Tallow Tree
S. biloculare Arizona Jumping Bean
Sebastiana pavoniana Mexican Jumping Bean
Euphorbia pulcherrima Poinsettia
Hippomane mancinella Manchineel Tree [Apple-like fruits poisoned Columbus' crew on his 2nd voyage to Caribbean in 1493.]
Hura crepitans Monkey Pistol or Sandbox Tree [Interesting tropical tree with exploding seed capsules.]
Cnidoscolus angustidens Mala Mujer [Painful plant with stinging trichomes similar to nettle but much worse!]
Euphorbia antisyphilitica Candelilla Wax [From stems.]
Hevea brasiliensis Para Rubber Tree [Most important source of natural rubber.]
Manihot glaziovii Ceara Rubber Tree [Lesser known New World source of rubber latex.]
M. esculenta Cassava [Tapioca from storage roots.]
Ricinus communis Castor Bean [Castor oil from seeds; seeds also contain the protein ricin which is more poisonous gram for gram than cyanide or rattlesnake venom; grows wild in the western U.S.]
Fabaceae: Pea Family (Leguminosae) Back To Alphabet Table
Legumes containing water soluble gums and natural dyes:
Acacia senegal Gum Arabic [From trunk.]
Astragalus spp. (incl. A. gummifer) Gum Tragacanth [Spiny "locoweeds" of Near East and Asia Minor; especially Zagros Mountains of Western Iran; valuable white gum in stems.]
Astragalus membranaceus Astagalus Root or Huang Ch'i [A Chinese Herbal Remedy For Boosting The Immune System.]
Ceratonia siliqua Carob Tree [Pods ground into carob flour; also the source of locust bean gum.]
Indigofera tinctoria Indigo [Beautiful blue dye from leaves.]
Caesalpinia echinata Brazilwood [Red dye from heartwood; source of the histological stain brazilin; wood also used for violin bows; planted on campus; major factor in colonization of Brazil by Portuguese.]
Caesalpinia sappan Sappanwood [Important red dye from heartwood before aniline dyes.]
Haematoxylum campechianum Logwood [Valuable red heartwood dye during 1500s & 1600s; major factor in colonization of British Honduras by England which later became Belize; source of the histological stains hematoxylin and hematein.]
Pterocarpus santalinus Red Sandalwood [Blood Red Dye From The Wood.]
True gums, such as locust bean gum from the carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua), gum arabic from Acacia senegal, gum tragacanth from Astragalus gummifera, and algin from the giant bladder kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera), are complex polysaccharides (made of many sugar molecules joined together) and are used as emulsifiers and thickening agents.
Astragalus Root: Popular Chinese Herbal Remedy
Inga edulis Ice Cream Bean
Dipteryx odorata Tonka Bean [Seeds from the egg-shaped fruits of this tropical South American tree are used as a substitute for vanilla; the seeds contain the fragrant phenolic compound coumarin which is used in the perfume industry.]
Glycyrrhiza glabra Licorice [From roots.]
Pachyrhizus erosus Jicama [From large taproot.]
Tamarindus indicus Tamarind
Medicago sativa Alfalfa
Trifolium pratense and T. repens Red and White Clover
Melilotus albus, M. indicus and M officinalis White, Indian and Yellow Sweet Clover [Wet or moldy sweet clover contains the anticoagulant compound dicoumarin (a double phenolic ring); dicoumarin is used in rat poison; it is formed by the union of 2 single-ring coumarin molecules; coumarin is found in fresh clover & alfalfa and produces the aroma of new mown hay.]
Many species in the legume family have edible seeds (beans) and pods. The following is only a partial list of the many species, some with dozens of cultivated varieties:
Phaseolus lunatus (P. limensis) Lima Bean
P. vulgaris Common Bean & Kidney Bean
P. coccineus Red Runner Bean
Faba vulgaris Fava Bean (Broad Bean)
Glycine max (G. hispida) Soybean
Lens culinaris (Lens esculenta) Lentil
Pisum sativum Pea
Cajanus cajan Pigeon Pea [Common vegetable seen in Caribbean marketplace.]
Cicer arietinum Chick Pea (Garbanzo Bean)
Vigna unguiculata Black-Eyed Pea (Cowpea, Southern Pea)
V. angularis Chinese Red Bean (Azuki Bean)
V. umbellata Rice Bean (Red Bean)
V. radiata Mung Bean
Dovyalis abyssinica Abyssinian Gooseberry
D. caffra Kei Apple or Umkokolo
D. hebecarpa Ceylon Gooseberry or Ketembilla [Note: The Florida gooseberry or tropical apricot is an artificial hybrid between D. abyssinica and D. hebecarpa.]
Flacourtia cataphracta Runealma Plum
F. indica Madagascar Plum or Ramontchi
F. inermis Martinique Plum or Lovi-Lovi
F. rukam Rukam or Indian Prune
Pangium edule Buah Keluak or Kepayang [Also known as the kepayang tree of Indonesia & Malaysia; oily, hard-shelled seeds superficially resemble Brazil nuts; meaty seeds are edible after poisonous hydrocyanic acid is removed by soaking and boiling them in water; fermented seeds (called kluwak nuts) become chocolate-brown, greasy and slippery; cooked seeds are used in a number of Malaysian and Indonesian dishes.]
Gelidiaceae & Gracilariaceae: Agar Families Back To Alphabet Table
Note: These are two families of red algae in the Division Rhodophyta:
Gelidium cartilagineum (and other species) Gelidium [An intertidal red alga used for agar.]
Gracilaria spp. Gracilaria [Another intertidal red alga used for agar.]
Alginates, carrageenans and agars are hydrophilic (water-loving) polysaccharides closely related to gums. Like gums, they absorb water and are used as thickening agents, emulsifiers and to prevent the formation of ice crystals in frozen deserts. They are also referred to as phycocolloids because they all come from algae (phyco) and they form jelly-like, colloidal suspensions in water. Agar is a phycocolloid obtained from several genera of red algae, including Gelidium and Gracilaria. Chemically, agar is similar to carrageenan, except that it has the superior quality of forming stiff gels in smaller concentrations. Agar gels have a superior capacity for changing into a liquid when heated, and then readily cooling back into a gel. They are unsurpassed for nutrient media used for tissue culture and in bacteriology (microbiology).
Note: This is a family of red algae in the Division Rhodophyta:
Chondrus crispus Irish Moss [An intertidal red alga species used for carrageenan.]
Alginates, carrageenans and agars are hydrophilic (water-loving) polysaccharides closely related to gums. Like gums, they absorb water and are used as thickening agents, emulsifiers and to prevent the formation of ice crystals in frozen deserts. They are also referred to as phycocolloids because they all come from algae (phyco) and they form jelly-like, colloidal suspensions in water. Carrageenans are extracted from a red alga called Irish moss (Chondrus crispus). Agar is another phycocolloid obtained from several red algae genera, including Gelidium and Gracilaria. Chemically, agar is similar to carrageenan, except that it has the superior quality of forming stiff gels in smaller concentrations.
Lactobacillaceae: Lactobacillus Family Back To Alphabet Table
[Also The Streptococcaceae, Propionibacteriaceae & Acetobacteraceae.]
Lactobacillus acidophilus Acidophilus Milk Bacteria [This bacteria converts lactose (milk sugar) into lactic acid, thus making it more digestible to lactose intolerant people.]
L. bulgaricus Yogurt Bacteria [A bacteria used in most yogurt and some cheese cultures; L. delbrueckii is also listed for yogurt.]
L. casei Cheese Bacteria [Promote the formation of cheese due to their action on milk protein (casein).]
L. plantarum Pickle Bacteria. [A lactic acid bacteria used in vegetable fermentations to produce pickles and fermented cabbage called sauerkraut.]
Streptococcus thermophilus in the Streptococcaceae is another yogurt-forming bacteria. Streptococcus species are also used in the production of sour cream, butter, buttermilk and cheese. The propionic acid which produces the odor and flavor of Swiss cheese comes from Propionibacterium freudenreichii ssp. shermanii of the Propionibacteriaceae. The unique flavor and odor of limburger cheese is produced by Brevibacterium linens of the Brevibacteriaceae. And the acetic acid of vinegar is produced by vinegar bacteria (Acetobacter aceti) of the Acetobacteraceae.
Lamiaceae: Mint Family (Labiatae) Back To Alphabet Table
Lavandula officinalis (L. angustifolia ssp. angustifolia) Lavender
Marrubium vulgare Horehound [Common in local hills near Palomar College.]
Melissa officinalis Balm or Lemon Balm [Leaves used as a flavoring for salads, soups and tea.]
Mentha piperita Peppermint
M. spicata Spearmint [Wild along San Luis Rey River Of San Diego County.]
Monarda didyma Bee Balm or Bergamot [Dried leaves and flowers used to make an aromatic tea; other species also used, including M. citriodora (lemon bee balm or lemon bergamot) and M. austromontana (Mexican bergamot); Note: The bergamot used in Earl Gray tea comes from Citrus bergamia (Rutaceae).]
Nepeta cataria Catnip
Laminariaceae & Lessoniaceae: Kelp Families Back To Alphabet Table
Note: These are two families of brown algae in the Division Phaeophyta:
Macrocystis pyrifera Giant Kelp [A large kelp or seaweed growing in the kelp beds just beyond the surf zone along the coast of southern California; the large stipes and blades of this species are harvested by kelp cutters and are an important source of algin.]
Laminaria spp. Kelp. [Another species of brown alga that commonly grows in the intertidal zone. This species is harvested for food and algin.]
Alginates, carrageenans and agars are hydrophilic (water-loving) polysaccharides closely related to gums. Like gums, they absorb water and are used as thickening agents, emulsifiers and to prevent the formation of ice crystals in frozen deserts. They are also referred to as phycocolloids because they all come from algae (phyco) and they form jelly-like, colloidal suspensions in water. Alginates (also called algin) are obtained from species of Laminaria and another macroscopic brown algae called giant bladder kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) that grows along the coast of southern California. In some fast food restaurants, shakes without the word "milk" were thickened with algin. For this reason they were called shakes rather than milk shakes. Carrageenans are extracted from a red alga called Irish moss (Chondrus crispus), and agar is another phycocolloid obtained from several red algae genera, including Gelidium and Gracilaria. Note: some species of brown algae kelp or seaweed are cooked and used for soups in Japan.
Lecanoraceae & Umbilicariaceae: Edible Rock Lichens Back To Alphabet Table
Lecanora esculenta Schirsad [Also thought to be the Biblical "mana" by some scholars.]
Umbilicaria phaea Rock Tripe [Several species from the northern latitudes are eaten.]
Rock lichens have played an important role in the survival of native people and explorers. In addition to providing food for their animals, Indians, Eskimos and Laplanders eat certain lichens. Leafy lichens called rock tripes (Umbilicaria) are eaten raw and are boiled into a thick, mucilaginous soup. Rock tripes are also added to salads or deep fried, and are considered a delicacy in Japan. Throughout history, peasants of Persia have avoided mass starvation by eating the abundant crustose rock lichen Lecanora esculenta. This lichen readily becomes detached in small patches and is blown off the rocks by wind, often accumulating in crevices and under shrubs. It is mixed with meal and made into a kind of bread called "schirsad" in Turkey and northern Iran. In fact, some biblical scholars think this lichen may have been the "manna" which saved the starving Israelites during their exodus from Egypt. Another source of manna in the arid Middle East desert is the dried sap exudate from several species of trees and shrubs inhabiting this region.
Lecythidaceae: Lecythis Family Back To Alphabet Table
Bertholletia excelsa Brazil Nut [A giant tree of the Amazon rain forest in South America; the hard brown seeds are produced in large, thick-walled capsules weighing up to 5 pounds; seeds contain 65% to 70% unsaturated fat and literally burn like a candle.]
Lecythis ollaria Paradise Nut [Another giant rain forest tree with seeds produced in a thick, woody, potlike capsule.]
Couroupita guianensis Cannonball Tree [Large, fragrant, bat-pollinated blossoms develop on woody stalks that push out of the main trunk; the flowers give rise to cannonball-like fruits up to 8 inches in diameter that remain attached to the tangled flower stalks.]
Liliaceae: Lily Family Back To Alphabet Table
Aloe vera (A. barbadensis) Aloe [Gelatinous glycoside called aloin from succulent leaves used in soothing lotions, hemorrhoidal salves and shampoos.]
Asparagus officinalis Asparagus [Delicious, edible sprouting stems; stems contain methyl mercaptans which cause significant odor in urine when broken down by some people; genus also includes the asparagus "ferns" used in landscaping.]
Chlorogalum pomeridianum Soap Plant [In local hills.]
Colchicum autumnale Autumn Crocus [Alkaloid colchicine from the bulblike corms.]
Smilax officinalis and other tropical American species. Sarsaparilla. [Flavoring from dried roots widely used in carbonated beverages and medicines; along with wintergreen (and sometimes ginger) this was the primary flavoring used in the original recipes for old-fashioned root beer; like many other beverages sold today, most of the popular root beers contain synthetic flavorings; several species of this trailing perennial herb are native throughout North America.]
Buddleia davidii Butterfly Bush [Species of Buddleia are commonly grown as ornamentals for their showy clusters of blue and purple flowers; the fragrant flowers attract a variety of colorful adult butterflies.]
Fagraea berteroana [Native tree in Australia and Pacific Islands; Fragrant flowers used in perfumes and leis.]
Strychnos nux-vomica Strychnine Tree [Alkaloid strychnine from seeds.]
S. toxifera [One of the species containing a form of the alkaloid curarine which is used as an arrow poison.]
Note: Curare also obtained from bark and stems of Chondrodendron tomentosum (Menispermaceae). This is the source of curare for the Botany 115 Plant Family Exam #4.
Malvaceae: Mallow Family Back To Alphabet Table
Gossypium spp. Cotton [Epidermal hairs on seeds; different varieties have different lengths of hairs or staple; fruit called a boll; also cottonseed oil; although called a fiber, cotton is not derived from fiber cells; the two primary old world species are the diploids G. arboreum and G. herbaceum while the main domesticated New World species are the tetraploids G. barbadense and G. hirsutum.]
Hibiscus cannabinus Kenaf or Gambo Hemp [Yields stem fibers 5 to 10 ft. long.]
H. tiliaceus Beach Hibiscus [Useful source of bast fibers for cordage.]
H. esculentus (Abelmoschus esculentus) Okra [This vegetable is actually a fruit.]
H. sabdariffa Sorrel and Roselle [Reddish capsules harvested at Christmas time in Dominica for a popular drink; roselle fibers similar to kenaf.]
Malva sylvestris & possibly M. pseudolavatera High Mallow [The tender young leaves are eaten in salads and cooked like spinach; the purple flowers yield a natural coloring for drinks and herbal teas; the common weed called cheeseweed (M. parviflora) is also cooked and eaten as a vegetable.]
Thespesia populnea Milo or Beach Hibiscus [Beautiful dark wood used for carvings and bowls.]
Azadirachta india Neem Tree [Oil from seeds used in soaps, shampoos, skin care; leaves used in Indian foods.]
Melia azedarach Chinaberry Tree [Commonly cultivated in southern California.]
Swietenia macrophylla Honduras Mahogany
S. mahogani West Indian Mahogany [Found in Florida Keys.]
Sandoricum koetjape Santol or Kechapi [Malaysian tree with yellowish or reddish-brown, juicy fruits that smell like ripe peaches.]
Menispermaceae: Moonseed Family Back To Alphabet Table
Chondodendron tomentosum Curare [A deadly extract from the bark and stems of this Amazonian vine is used to coat the darts of blowguns.]
Note: Extracts from species of Strychnos, including S. toxifera of the logania family (Loganiaceae), are also used for curare. Another potent alkaloid used to coat the darts of South American blowguns comes from the skin of poison dart frogs of the family Dendrobatidae.
Artocarpus altilis (A. communis) Breadfruit
A. heterophyllus Jackfruit
Castilla elastica Panama Rubber
Ficus carica Edible Fig [Hundreds of cultivated varieties, some requiring a pollinator wasp (incl. 'Smyrna' & 'Calimyrna') and some which are parthenocarpic, incl 'Mission' and 'Kadota'.]
Ficus pumila Creeping Fig [Juice from the syconia is cooked and then cooled to make a gelatinous material called grass jelly, a refreshing beverage consumed in China.]
F. elastica India Rubber Tree
F. religiosa [One of the trees inhabited by lac insect that produces shellac.]
Broussonetia papyrifera Paper Mulberry [In Palomar College Arboretum; the bark is also used for tapa cloth.]
Brosimum utile & B. alicastrum Milk Tree or Palo de Vaca [In Costa Rica, the milky sap is used by locals as a substitute for cream in their coffee.]
Maclura pomifera Osage Orange [Hardest of all native hardwoods of eastern U.S.]
Morus spp. Mulberry [Some with edible fruits including the black mulberry (M. nigra); M. alba primary food for silkworm.]
Native to the Indo-Malaysian region, the jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) is grown throughout the tropics for its pulpy, edible fruits which may reach nearly 3 feet (1 m) in length and weigh up to 75 pounds (34 kg). Jackfruit and its close relative, breadfruit (A. altilis), belong to the diverse Mulberry Family (Moraceae). You have probably heard of the story of Captain Bligh, who tried to bring a load of breadfruit cuttings from Tahiti to the Caribbean in 1789 aboard the H.M.S. Bounty. Enchanted with the Tahitian way of life, his crew mutinied on the voyage.
Eucalyptus camaldulensis Red Gum [Source of gum kino, a phenolic compound.]
E. globulus Blue Gum [Oil of eucalyptus (eucalyptol) from leaves.]
Pimenta dioica Allspice or Pimento [From dried unripe fruits.]
Pimenta racemosa Bay Rum Tree [Essential oil from leaves used in cologne.]
Psidium guajava Guava [Fruit rich in vitamins A, B, and C.]
P. cattleianum Strawberry Guava [Planted on campus.]
Feijoa sellowiana Pineapple Guava [Planted on Campus.]
Syzygium (Eugenia) aromaticum Clove [From unopened flower buds.]
Syzygium (Eugenia) malaccensis Mountain or Malay Apple
Syzygium (Eugenia) jambos Malayan Rose Apple
Syzygium (Eugenia) paniculatum Australian Brush Cherry
Eugenia uniflora Surinam Cherry
Myrciaria cauliflora Jaboticaba [Cauliflorous tree from Brazil with purple, grapelike berries that develop from the trunk and limbs.]
Leptospermum scoparium New Zealand Tea Plant [Leaves brewed into a tea to provide vitamin C for Captain Cook's crew.]
See New Zealand Tea Plant Used By Captain Cook's Crew
The name "gum" can be traced back to the voyage of Captain James Cook to the South Pacific in 1770. Captain Cook discovered the east coast of Australia, called New Holland at that time. In one harbor, the ship's naturalists found so many unusual and beautiful plants that they named it Botany Bay. Eight years later, a fleet of eleven English ships reached Botany Bay with 1,530 people, 736 of them convicts. This marked the establishment of England's most important prison camp of the nineteenth century, and the European settlement of a vast land called Australia. The actual discovery of the genus Eucalyptus is credited to the ship's botanist, Joseph Banks (later Sir Joseph Banks). One of the newly discovered species "red bloodwood" (E. gummifera) had a reddish gum exuding from its trunk, and the naturalists called it a "gum tree."
Other species of eucalyptus with persistent bark fall into five additional groups, called ironbarks (bark hard and deeply fissured), peppermint barks (bark finely fibrous), stringy barks (bark long and fibrous), boxes (bark rough and fibrous), and bloodwoods (bark rough, cracked and scaly on trunk and large limbs). Another group of large trees, called ashes, have rough bark on the trunk but smoother bark on the branches. In fact, the mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans) rivals the California redwoods as the world's tallest trees. With about 500 described species dominating more than 80 percent of Australia's forests, it is convenient to categorize them within different groups based upon their bark type. In fact, one of the most striking species with thick, deeply furrowed, persistent black bark is the red ironbark (E. sideroxylon), commonly planted at Palomar College. In addition to tree forms, there are numerous drought resistant, shrubby eucalyptus called mallees. Some of these resprout from subterranean lignotubers like many of our chaparral shrubs. One of these (Eucalyptus macrocarpa) produces spectacular red blossoms and the largest seed capsules of any eucalyptus. Some mallees of parched desert regions store water in their roots, a fact well-known to Australian aborigines.
See Photos Of Eucalyptus In Article About Hardwoods
Chemically the eucalyptus "gums" are rich in tannins (kinotannic acid) and are similar to another phenolic compound called catechu. They are known in the trade as kinos or gum kinos and are used as tannins to convert animal hide into leather. One of the main Australian sources of kino is the common red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis), naturalized throughout San Diego County. Kino gums are also used medicinally as astringents to relieve throat irritation, dysentery and diarrhoea. True polysaccharide gums, such as locust bean gum from the carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua), and chicle, a terpene gum from the latex sap of the sapodilla tree (Achras zapota), are chemically quite different. They all probably serve to seal off wounds and prevent bacterial and fungal infections.
Oil of eucalyptus (eucalyptol) is a volatile terpene compound (called an essential oil) which is distilled from the leaves of several species. It is used for flavorings, dentifrices, cough drops, and for the synthesis of menthol. The lemony fragrance from the leaves of lemon-scented gum (E. citriodora) is due to another volatile terpene called citronellal. One of the reasons that few plants will grow well beneath naturalized gum forests in southern California is that volatile terpenes from fallen leaves are leached into the soil, thereby inhibiting seed germination and growth of competing species.
The wood of different species of eucalyptus varies considerably, from wood as soft as pines to very hard, close-grained wood as dense as oak and hickory. Eucalypts constitute most of the forest vegetation of Australia and are one of the most important hardwood timber resources in the world. There are a number of species that provide excellent lumber for furniture, wood-carving and construction, including karri (E. diversicolor), spotted gum (E. maculata), blackbutt (E. pilularis), and jarrah (E. marginata). In fact, jarrah is stronger and more durable than oak and resistant to termites and marine borers.
During the late 1800s and early 1900s several species of gums (including E. camaldulensis and E. globulus) were extensively planted in California for lumber, firewood, windbreaks and railroad ties. Although the species selected for extensive plantings grew into forests very rapidly, the wood proved very undesirable for lumber and railroad ties because of extensive splitting during the drying process. Today, these extensive forests have forever changed the character of coastal southern and central California.
Nelumbonaceae: Water Lotus Family Back To Alphabet Table
Nelumbo nucifera Asian Water Lotus [The seeds are eaten raw and roasted; the thick, starchy rhizomes are boiled, stir-fried and pickled.]
Nostocaceae: Nostoc Family (Kingdom Monera) Back To Alphabet Table
Nostoc commune Star Jelly [A freshwater cyanobacterium that is eaten raw, dried, stir-fried and in soups. It is sold dried in Asian markets.]
Nostoc flagelliforme Fat Choy or Fa Cai [A filamentous, terestrial cyanobacterium of northern and northwestern China; the Cantonese and Mandarin names mean "hair vegetable" because the hair-like strands resemble black hair when dry.]
Fraxinus spp. Ash [Beautiful light open-grain wood.]
Jasminum officinale Jasmine [From flowers, used for perfume & teas.]
Olea europaea Olive [Native to the Mediterranean region; fresh olives (drupes) are extremely bitter due to oleuropein, a phenolic glucoside; olives soaked in lye (sodium hydroxide) to remove the bitter oleuropein; olives picked green are oxidized in air to produce black color; green olives kept submerged will retain green color; pitted green olives often stuffed with pimento, a bright red Capsicum cultivar; unlike most unsaturated plant oils which come from seeds, monounsaturated olive oil is obtained from the pulp or mesocarp of the fruit; virgin olive oil is obtained from the 1st pressing.]
Syringa vulgaris Lilac [Not the same as California lilac or Ceanothus.]
Vanilla planifolia (V. fragrans) Vanilla [From fermented and dried seed capsules called vanilla beans.]
V. pompona West Indian Vanilla
Note: Imitation vanilla flavorings sold in markets are synthetic vanillin containing artificial food coloring & preservatives; vanillin is a phenolic compound derived from lignin.
Oscillatoriaceae: Oscillatoria Family (Kingdom Monera) Back To Alphabet Table
Spirulina platensis Spirulina [A cyanobacterium found in alkaline and saline water; it is dried into a powder and sold as a nutritious, high protein food supplement.]
Averrhoa carambola Carambola [An elongate, angular fruit composed of 5 carpels with a star-shaped cross section; the tartness is due to calcium oxalate crystals in the flesh which dissolve in the saliva forming oxalic acid.]
Averrhoa bilimbi Cucumber Tree [An interesting Malayan tree with edible cauliflorous fruits.]
Oxalis albicans ssp. californica, O. corniculata ssp. corniculata, and O. cernua Oxalis or Sour Grass [Native and naturalized species on the Palomar College campus.]
Billardiera cymosa Sweet Appleberry [Native to Australia; fruits eaten by Aborigines.]
Billardiera longiflora Purple Appleberry [Native to Australia; evergreen climbing shrub.]
Billardiera scandens Appleberry [Native to Australia; edible fruit used in baked pastries.]
[An extremely important family for lumber and wood distillation products.]
Abies balsamea Canada Balsam [Oleoresin from bark used as a mounting medium for microscope work.]
Other species of Abies Fir [Used for boxes, crates, and Christmas trees.]
Picea spp. Spruce. [Wood used for pulpwood, boxes, etc. Because it is resonant it is much used for sounding boards of pianos and the bodies of violins and similar instruments; Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) is used for boats, oars, and other products; spruce gum comes from the sapwood of red spruce (P. rubens); very beautiful conifers.]
Pinus spp. Pines. [Economically important lumber trees.]
Pines are very important lumber trees, e.g. eastern white pine (P. strobus), lodgepole pine (P. contorta), and ponderosa pine (P. ponderosa); raw turpentines are oleoresins (liquid resins containing essential oils) exuded as pitch; "spirits" of turpentine from distilled pitch; rosin is left after the volatile "spirits of turpentine" are removed; most raw turpentine from longleaf pine (P. palustris), loblolly pine (P. taeda) and slash pine (P. elliottii); slash pine also used in pulpwood industry for making paper; European sources of turpentines include cluster pine (P. pinaster) and Scotch pine (P. sylvestris).
Pseudotsuga menziesii Douglas Fir [Most important timber tree in U.S.; common type of wood (plywood and 2 X 4's) sold at lumber yards.]
Tsuga spp. Hemlock (e.g. T. canadensis) [Also used for lumber, etc; bark is chief domestic source of tannin in U.S.]
Larix spp. Larch [Wood used for building construction, fences, etc.]
Other wood distillation products from pine family (mostly pines) is wood alcohol (methanol); however, hardwood angiosperms are the main source.
Also pine nuts from the following species of Pinyon Pines: P. monophylla, P. edulis, and P. quadrifolia.
Other native California pines: P. sabiniana (digger pine), P. coulteri (Coulter pine), P. torreyana (Torrey pine).
Pignolia Nuts from Italian Stone Pine (P. pinea) also planted on Palomar College campus.
Plantaginaceae: Plantain Family Back To Alphabet Table
Plantago spp. Plantain or Psyllium [The thickening and swelling of soluble fiber extracts such as Metamucil� and Hydrocil� involves imbibition. These plant products contain a mucilaginous gum derived from the husks of psyllium seeds (Plantago psyllium and P. ovata). Psyllium powder readily absorbs water and forms a smooth bulky mass that moves through the intestinal tract. Insoluble fiber comes from the indigestible cellulose cell walls of fruits and vegetables. Both types of fiber are beneficial in maintaining a healthy colon, particularly in older adults with diverticulosis.]
Poaceae: Grass Family (Gramineae) Back To Alphabet Table
This Is A Very Important Family For People And Herbivorous Animals!
1. Food for people and livestock: Rice (Oryza sativa), wheat (Triticum aestivum), rye (Secale cereale), oats (Avena sativa), barley (Hordeum vulgare), corn or maize (Zea mays), teosinte (Zea mexicana) the ancestor of corn (madre de maíz); sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), and many other species; also bamboo shoots used in Chinese and Cantonese foods.
Rye (Secale cereale) is a diploid plant (2n) composed of 2 sets of chromosomes (DD), each set with 7 chromosomes (D=7). [Note: The word "set" is defined here as one haploid set of chromosomes.] Therefore, the diploid number, or number of chromosomes in the rye sporophyte (DD), is 14. Bread wheat is a hexaploid (6n) composed of 6 sets of chromosomes (AA, BB & CC), each set with 7 chromosomes (A=7, B=7, C=7). Therefore, the number of chromosomes in the wheat hexaploid sporophyte (AABBCC) is 42. Triticale (Triticosecale) is a bigeneric hybrid between wheat (Triticum aestivum n=21) and rye (Secale cereale n=7). The resulting hybrid (ABCD) contains one set of rye chromosomes (D) and 3 sets of wheat chromosomes (ABC), a total of 28 chromosomes (7 + 21). It is sterile because the rye (D) set has no homologous set to pair up with during synapsis. This sterile hybrid seedling is treated with colchicine to produce a plant with twice as many chromosomes (i.e. 2A's, 2B's, 2C's and 2 D's), a total of 56. The fertile hybrid is an octoploid (8n) because it contains 8 sets of chromosomes. The diploid rye plant (DD) can also be crossed with tetraploid durum wheat (T. turgidum AABB) to produce a sterile triploid hybrid with 3 sets of chromosomes (ABD). This hybrid is treated with colchicine to produce a fertile hexaploid (6n) version of triticale (AABBDD).
Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum ) is derived from wild emmer wheat of Syria. Emmer wheat is a tetraploid hybrid (4n=28) between einkorn wheat (T. monococcum or a relative) and a grass similar to the present-day goat grass (T. speltoides = Aegilops speltoides); or possibly T. longissima or T searsii. The original diploid (2n=14) emmer wheat was probably sterile because it contained only 2 sets of chromosomes, one from the einkorn parent (n=7) and one from the goat grass parent (n=7). Through a natural doubling of the chromosomes, a fertile tetraploid emmer wheat with 4 sets of chromosomes was produced. A mutation in the tetraploid emmer wheat, causing the bracts (glumes) enclosing the grain to break away readily, gave rise to the tetraploid durum wheat (T. turgidum or T. turgidum var. durum). The readily detachable grain makes the separation of the grain from the chaff relatively easy and is why durum wheat is called a "free-thrashing" type of wheat.
Tetraploid wheat also contains two proteins that combine to form a tenacious complex called gluten. Because of gluten, the wheat flour becomes elastic when mixed with water and kneaded, and when yeast is added, it rises into firm loaves. Yeast cells in the dough undergo fermentation and release carbon dioxide which becomes trapped in the glutinous protein mass. Baking "sets" the dough by drying the starch and denaturing the gluten protein. As the dough bakes, the carbon dioxide gas expands into larger bubbles, thus producing the porous, spongy texture of bread. Corn does not make good loaves of bread because it lacks gliadin, one of the key proteins of gluten. Consequently, corn bread crumbles and falls apart easily.
See Photo Comparison Of Corn Bread & Wheat Bread
Bread wheat (T. aestivum) is also a free-thrashing type of wheat. It is a hexaploid (6n) hybrid, four sets from an emmer wheat parent and two additional sets from a wild, weedy species (T. tauschii = Aegilops squarrosa). The endosperm of this hybrid wheat is especially high in protein and surpasses other wheats for bread making.
2. Main source of sugar (sucrose): Sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum).
3. Alcoholic Beverages:
a. Beer. Malt sugar (maltose) from germinating barley; starch inside grains converted into maltose.
b. Sake. Made from fermented rice.
c. Other distilled beverages. Whiskey made from maize, rye, etc.; bourbon made primarily from maize; scotch made from barley malt; vodka made from wheat; rum is made from sugar cane; gin is made from barley malt and rye, and flavored with oil of juniper; brandy is distilled from wine or other fruit juices (it may be 65 to 70 percent alcohol or 130 to 140 proof; some German whiskies are made from potatoes.
4. Various types of timber bamboo used for construction and scaffolding: Bambusa, Dendrocalamus, etc.
5. Oil of Citronella: From leaves of Cymbopogon nardus.
6. Job's Tears (Coix lacryma-job) [A fascinating grass used for bead jewelry.]
Polygonaceae: Buckwheat Family Back To Alphabet Table
Fagopyrum sagittatum Buckwheat [Flour from achenes.]
Eriogoum Wild Buckwheat [A large genus of shrubs, annuals and perennials in California; one of the largest genera in California with over 112 different species; rivaled in size (in California) only by the genus Carex.]
Coccoloba uvifera Sea Grape [A spawling shrub or small tree along the shores of Caribbean islands; grapelike clusters of fruits noted by Columbus on his first voyage to the New World.]
Rheum rhaponticum Rhubarb [Eat petioles (leaf stalks) only because leaf blades contain high levels of toxic oxalates.]
Rumex hymenosepalus Wild Rhubarb [Wild in several coastal riverbeds, such as the San Dieguito Riverbed); also a tanning material from roots called canaigre containing about 30% tannin.]
Pseudomonadaceae: Pseudomonas Family Back To Alphabet Table
Xanthomonas campestris Xanthan Bacteria [Xanthan gum is produced by fermenting corn sugar with this bacteria; the bacteria produce xanthan as part of their cell walls; xanthan gum is used in many food products, including salad dressings and low cholesterol egg substitutes made from egg whites and vegetable gums.]
Pteridacaceae: Bracken Fern Family Back To Alphabet Table
Pteris ensiformis Hoko-shida or Sword Brake [In Asian countries the young, uncurling fronds (called fiddleheads) are cooked and eaten with rice or other vegetables.]
Pteridium aquilinum Braken Fern [Another species with edible fiddleheads; in San Diego County the gathering of fiddleheads is strictly prohibited because local populations of bracken fern could be decimated.]
Resedaceae: Mignonette Family Back To Alphabet Table
Reseda luteola Dyer's Weld
According to the textbook for this course Plants In Our World by B. B. Simpson and M. C. Ogarzaly (1995), woad was one of the dyes used to make the green outfits worn by Robin Hood's men deep in Sherwood forest. Their clothing was dipped in a blue dye bath of woad, and then in a bath of yellow weld from the leaves of Reseda luteola, a member of the mignonette family (Resedaceae). The mixture of blue and yellow produced the characteristic green color associated with England's legendary bandit who robbed from the rich and gave to the poor.
Rhamnaceae: Buckthorn Family Back To Alphabet Table
Rhamnus purshiana Cascara Sagrada [Laxative cascara from bark.]
Ziziphus jujuba Jujube [Small fleshy drupe; also one of the trees inhabited by the lac insect, a source of shellac.]
Roccellaceae: Rocella Family Back To Alphabet Table
Roccella tinctoria Roccella [The thallus of this lichen contains phenolic acids which serve as a purple-red dye; orcein, a purple-red chromosomal stain found in every microbiology laboratory, is derived from this lichen species.]
Lichen acids were the source of important dyes for cotton and wool in medieval Europe. Two purple and red dyes, orchil and cudbear, were obtained from the lichens Roccella and Ochrolechia. Lichen dyes were dissolved in human urine, and the yarns were immersed in this mixture. Ammonia salts in the urine functioned as mordants to make the dyes permanent. Pine lichen or wolf moss (Letharia vulpina), a beautiful chartreuse fruticose lichen that grows on the bark of pines and fir throughout the mountains of the Pacific United States, contains a mildly toxic yellow dye called vulpinic acid. The striking canary-yellow porcupine quills woven into the baskets of Klamoth and Yurok Indians were dyed with this lichen. A brownish dye from the foliose lichen Parmelia omphalodes is used to this day on hand-woven Harris tweeds from the Outer Hebrides.
Some lichens contain various phenolic acids and essential oils that produce fragrant odors in scented soaps and help fix the aroma of fine perfumes. For centuries a lovely fruticose lichen called oak moss (Evernia prunastri) has been collected in Europe for making perfume.Through a complex process of solvent extraction and distillation, oak moss has become an important ingredient in the manufacture of perfumes and high-quality cosmetics. This remarkable lichen occurs in California, but air pollution has eliminated it throughout most of its former range in southern California. Oak moss still clings to the branches of ponderosa pines on Palomar Mountain in San Diego County.
Kluyveromyces marxianus Nutritional Food Yeast
Saccharomyces cerevisiae and S. uuvarum Beer, Wine and Bread Yeasts
Torulaspora delbrueckii Sherry Yeast
Because of their ability to ferment sugars, yeast fungi play a major role in the beer, wine and baking industries. In the brewery, ethyl alcohol (ethanol) from the fermentation process is the primary industrial product; in the bakery, carbon dioxide released from the fermentation process causes the dough to rise. There are numerous optimal strains of these fungi adapted for specific types of fermented products. Go to the grass family (Poaceae) to see the numerous alcoholic beverages made from yeast fermentation. Note: The yeast responsible for kefir grains and sourdough bread is Torulopsis holmii in the family Cryptococcaceae.
Salicaceae: Willow Family Back To Alphabet Table
Populus balsamifera Balsam Poplar; P. deltoides Cottonwood;
P. tremuloides Quaking or White Aspen [Uses include a soft wood for boxes, etc. and as pulpwood in manufacture of paper.]
Santalaceae: Sandalwood Family Back To Alphabet Table
Santalum album Sandalwood [The valuable scented heartwood of this Old World species is the source of sandalwood oil; other species of sandalwood are also highly prized for their wood; deforestation of native Hawaiian forests was originally due to the exportation of sandalwood.]
Note: Red sandalwood (Pterocarpus santalinus) belongs to the legume family (Fabaceae). The powdered wood of red sandalwood is used for a bright red dye.
Acras zapota (Manilkara zapota) Sapodilla or Naseberry Tree [Chicle, the latex sap of the sapodilla tree, commonly used in chewing gums, is actually an elastic terpene polymer (polyterpene) similar to natural rubber.]
Chrysophyllum cainito Star Apple [Interesting fruit of the Caribbean marketplace.]
Palaquium gutta Gutta-Percha [The milky latex sap yields a polyterpene rubber with a number of remarkable uses, from the cores of golf balls to root canals of your teeth.]
Pouteria sapota (Calocarpum sapota & C. mammosum) Mamey Sapote [Tropical American tree; large dark browm seeds used in Indian necklaces.]
Pouteria campechiana Eggfruit or Canistel [Tropical American tree with delicious, fleshy fruit containing large, brown, shiny seeds.]
Simmondsiaceae: Jojoba Family Back To Alphabet Table
Note: Jojoba was formerly placed in the Buxaceae.
Simmondsia chinensis Jojoba [Native shrubs; seeds are edible; oil from seeds used as substitute for whale oil; oil used for wax, polish, and candles.]
Solanaceae: Nightshade Family Back To Alphabet Table
Atropa belladonna Belladonna [Alkaloid atropine from lvs.]
Capsicum annuum Red, Wax, Bell and Jalapeno Chile Peppers. [Many different varieties of peppers; paprika from dried fruit of one variety.]
C. baccatum South American Peppers Known as "Ajis."
C. chinense Habanero Peppers [Very hot!]
C. frutescens Tabasco Peppers
C. pubescens South American "Rocotos" and Mexican "Manzanos."
Datura stramonium Jimsonweed [Source of drug stramonium from leaves and flowering tops; contains the alkaloids hyoscyamine, scopolamine and atropine; Indians used liquid from crushed roots of D. stramonium, D. wrightii and D. meteloides for hallucinogenic effect during puberty ritual; drug is very poisonous and is dangerous.]
Duboisia hopwoodii Pituri [Alkaloid scopolamine from leaves.]
Hyoscyamus niger Black Henbane [Alkaloid hyoscyamine from leaves.]
Lycopersicon esculentum Tomato
P. peruviana Cape Gooseberry or Poha
Nicotiana tabacum Tobacco
Solanum melongena Eggplant [Numerous cultivars and the almagro eggplant landrace.]
S. tuberosum Potato [Edible tubers; average baked tuber about 100 kilocalories, unless topped with mounds of butter and sour cream.]
S. quitoense Naranjilla [A large perennial herb of the Andes with orange, tomatolike fruits.]
Note: Black Pepper is from dried unripe fruit (berry) of Piper nigrum, a member of the family Piperaceae.
Sterculiaceae: Sterculia Family Back To Alphabet Table
Cola nitida & Cola acuminata Cola-Nut [Seeds used in soft drinks & contain alkaloid caffeine.]
Theobroma cacao Cacao [Seeds contain alkaloid theobromine and are source of chocolate; sweet chocolate has sugar and milk added.]
Sterculia urens Gum Karaya or Sterculia Gum [Native to rocky hills and plateaus of India, the sap of this tree is the source of a valuable water-soluble gum that forms a strong adhesive gel when mixed with a small amount of water; because of its resistance to bacterial and enzymatic breakdown, it has been used for dental adhesives and as a binder in bologna and other lunch meats; it is also used in salad dressings, cheese spreads, whipped toppings and hair setting gels.
S. lychnophora Poontalai or Pang da Hai [Seeds imbibe water and expand into a gelatinous mass that is used to make a beverage in southeast Asia.]
S. foetida Java Olive [Although the flowers have a putrid odor, the seeds are eaten raw, roasted or fried.]
Theaceae: Tea Family (Ternstroemiaceae) Back To Alphabet Table
Camellia sinensis Tea [Leaves are source of the many varieties of green & black teas.]
The grade of tea depends on the age of the leaves. In "golden tips" the youngest bud only is used; in "orange pekoe" the smallest leaf; in "pekoe" the second leaf; in "pekoe souchong" the third leaf; in "souchong" the fourth leaf; and in "congou" the fifth and largest leaf to be gathered. In green tea the leaves are dried and appear dull green; in black tea the leaves are fermented and then dried; "oolong tea" is only partially fermented and is intermediate between black and green. The various pekoes, souchongs, and congous are black teas, while gunpowder and hyson are the most important grades of green tea.
T. magnatum White Truffle
T. gibbosum Oregon White Truffle
Of all the edible fungi, truffles (Tuber spp.) are perhaps the most fascinating. They are truly the ne plus ultra of mushroom cuisine. Truffles are the fruiting bodies (ascocarps) of mycorrhizal ascomycetous fungi. Unlike other common forest mushrooms, truffles are subterranean and resemble small pebbles or clods of dirt beneath the soil. Truffles emit the odor of certain mammalian steroids and are irresistible to some mammals, including female pigs. This particular steroid is found in the saliva and breathe of male pigs (boars) and explains the natural lust and talent sows have for truffle hunting. Pigs and dogs can detect truffles from as far away as 50 yards, and there is even a case of a dog jumping over a hedge and running across a field to find a choice truffle under a beech tree 100 yards away. Since the fabled truffles of France and Italy retail for more than $500 a pound, a good swine or canine truffle sniffer is a valuable asset.
Vitis labrusca North American Grape [Many varieties, including the Concord grape.]
Vitis vinifera European Wine Grape [Many varieties of wine grapes and edible table grapes.]
There are many varieties of grapes. In the European tightskins, which are used for wines, the skin does not separate readily from the pulp. Grapes are one of the oldest cultivated plants. They have been grown in Egypt for 6,000 years. They were highly developed by Greeks and Romans. Fermentation is brought about through the action of wild yeasts which are present on the skins of the fruit (whitish powder). The maximum alcoholic content of natural wines is about 12 to 16% (24 to 32 proof). Higher alcoholic content will kill the yeast cells. Brandy is made from distilled wines and has a much higher alcoholic content (up to 140 proof!). Red wines are made from grapes with colored skins (with anthocyanin), while white wines are made from white grapes (or red grapes with skins removed). In dry wines the sugar is almost completely fermented. In sweet wines fermentation is stopped before all the sugar is converted. The North American grapes are larger and more hardy than the European. The fruit is round with a more watery flesh and a thin skin that slips off very easily. They are used for eating and for making grape juice (concord grapes), jams, and jellies. Of course, grapes are also the source of raisins.
Zygophyllaceae: Caltrop Family Back To Alphabet Table
Guaicum officinale Ligum Vitae [One of the world's hardest ironwoods (specific gravity of 1.37); used for bushing blocks on propeller shafts of steamships; also source of gum guaiac, resin providing the natural, self-lubrication qualities of the wood; resin used medically to test for presence of hidden blood; peroxidase enzymes in blood cells oxidize chemicals in resin, resulting in a blue-green color change.]
Tribulus terrestris Puncture Vine [Old World sprawling weed that is responsible for many punctured bicycle tires in the American southwest.]
Larrea tridentata Creosote Bush [Dominant shrub of Colorado Desert of southwestern U.S. and Mexico.]
One of the most common questions asked by my students on desert field trips is whether creosote comes from the creosote bush. The answer is an unequivocal no. The commercial source of creosote is derived from the distillation of coal tar. It is produced by high temperature carbonization of bituminous coal. Wood creosote is obtained from the distillation of wood tar from several woods of the eastern United States. Wood creosote is a mixture of phenolic compounds that are used medicinally as an antiseptic and expectorant. Under no circumstances should coal tar creosote be taken internally. Although creosote bush does not grow in the chaparral plant community of California, the dried leaves of this shrub are the source of "chaparral tea," a controversial herbal remedy with antitumor properties. The leaves contain a powerful antioxidant that apparently destroys tumor cells; however, there are reported cases of liver toxicity, including toxic hepatitis and jaundice.
| Mustard |
What is the name of the theme music used in The Lone Ranger T.V. series | Rape | Article about rape by The Free Dictionary
Rape | Article about rape by The Free Dictionary
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/rape
Related to rape: rapped , rapping
rape,
name applied to each of the six obsolete territorial divisions (Hastings, Pevensey, Lewes, Bramber, Arundel, and Chichester) into which Sussex, England, is divided.
rape,
in law, the crime of sexual intercourse without the consent of the victim, often through force or threat of violence. The victim is deemed legally incapable of consenting if she or he is known to be mentally incompetent, intoxicated, drugged, or below the age of consent age of consent,
the age at which, according to the law, persons are bound by their words and acts. There are different ages at which one acquires legal capacity to consent to marriage, to choose a guardian, to conclude a contract, and the like.
..... Click the link for more information. at the time of the rape. Such cases are known as statutory rape, and evidence of consent is not deemed relevant in court. Although the term rape has traditionally applied to the male use of force in sexual relations with females, applicable laws have been revised in many jurisdictions to include possibilities where a male is the victim.
Issues surrounding rape and the law have been fiercely debated for years in the United States, and recent efforts—particularly by feminist groups—have had marked success in expanding victims rights victims rights,
rights of victims to have a role in the prosecution of the perpetrators of crimes against them. Nearly all U.S. states have enacted some victims rights legislation.
..... Click the link for more information. . One important reform, which has been in effect in most states in recent years, has been the removal of statutes requiring that rape victims physically resist the attack. Prior to this reform, victims of rape were required to display clear signs of injury in order to prove that they did not consent to sexual relations. Another reform has made marital rape a crime in many circumstances, with South Dakota becoming the first state to institute such law reforms in 1975. In the 1980s, "date rape," or acquaintance rape, became an important issue, particularly on college campuses. Victims of date rape contend that they were raped by an individual with whom they were acquainted. In many such cases, the establishment of guilt becomes difficult, particularly in cases where the victim displays no physical evidence of violence and there is only the testimony of the victim. In international law, rape was designated (2000) a war crime war crimes,
in international law, violations of the laws of war (see war, laws of). Those accused have been tried by their own military and civilian courts, by those of their enemy, and by expressly established international tribunals.
..... Click the link for more information. by the Yugoslav tribunal established by the United Nations at The Hague. Rape can cause profound psychological trauma in its victims.
Bibliography
See D. E. Russell, The Politics of Rape (1984); S. Tomaselli and R. Porter, ed., Rape (1986); Z. Adler, Rape on Trial (1987); S. Estrich, Real Rape (1987).
rape,
in botany, annual herb (Brassica napus) of the family Cruciferae ( mustard mustard,
common name for the Cruciferae, a large family chiefly of herbs of north temperate regions. The easily distinguished flowers of the Cruciferae have four petals arranged diagonally ("cruciform") and alternating with the four sepals.
..... Click the link for more information. family), belonging to the same genus as the cabbage, the mustard plant, and the turnip (which it resembles in appearance). The origin of the rape is uncertain, and it is now known only as a cultivated plant. The seeds have been valued since ancient times for their oil content (30% to 45%). The oil, expressed or extracted by solvents, is used for lubricating, cooking, and illuminating purposes, for fuel, and for the manufacture of soap and synthetic rubber. Canola oil is also obtained from rape and is becoming widely used as a cooking oil because it has none of the deleterious effects of cholesterol and is completely digestible. A cake made of the seed residue is a valuable stock feed and a good nitrogenous fertilizer. Major producing areas include China, India, and Europe; the United States is one of the chief importers of the oil. Rape is also grown for forage, particularly for hogs; it is also sown as a cover crop (e.g., in orchards). Rape seed is used in birdseed mixtures. In North America, the plant is cultivated chiefly for forage—especially in the northern states and in Canada, because it can be grown as a winter-hardy biennial. Other similar species of Brassica are sometimes cultivated, especially in Asia for oil production. Rape is classified in the division Magnoliophyta Magnoliophyta
, division of the plant kingdom consisting of those organisms commonly called the flowering plants, or angiosperms. The angiosperms have leaves, stems, and roots, and vascular, or conducting, tissue (xylem and phloem).
..... Click the link for more information. , class Magnoliopsida, order Capparales, family Brassicaceae (Cruciferae).
Rape
a criminal act of sexual relations between a man and a woman, against the woman’s will and with the use of physical force, threats, or exploitation of the helpless state of the victim. According to Soviet criminal law, sexual relations regarded as rape are considered to have been committed if a helpless state is exploited, that is, when the victim, as a result of her physical or psychological state (physical defects, young age, unconsciousness, disturbed mental activity, or some other abnormal condition), could not understand the nature and significance of the act committed with her or could not offer resistance to the perpetrator, who in turn was aware that the victim was in such a helpless condition.
The law enumerates the following aggravating circumstances: the threat of murder, the threat to cause or the causing of serious bodily injury, or the committing of a rape by an individual who had previously committed such a crime. Especially aggravating circumstances include rapes attended by especially grave consequences; rapes committed by a group of individuals; rapes committed by particularly dangerous recidivists; and the rape of a minor.
A severe punishment has been established for rape—deprivation of freedom from three to seven years. Rapes committed under aggravating circumstances are punished by terms of five to ten years imprisonment. Rapes committed under especially aggravating circumstances can be punished by the deprivation of freedom for a term of eight to 15 years, followed sometimes by exile for a term of two to five years, or they can be punished by the death penalty.
Rape
(Brassica napus, including B. napus ssp. oleifera), an annual winter or spring plant of the family Cruciferae. Unknown in the wild state, rape has been cultivated since 4000
B.C.
It appeared in Russia in the 19th century. Rape was produced by crossing B. campestris and B. oleracea.
The plant is glaucous throughout. Its stem is 50–150 cm tall. The basal leaves are arranged in a rosette and are covered with very scattered hairs; they are lyrate and pinnately cleft. The stem leaves vary in shape from lyrate (lower ones) to elongate-lanceolate (upper ones). The inflorescence is a raceme. The small flowers are yellow or, less commonly, white. The pods are long (5–10 cm) and narrow (3–4 mm). The fat content is 33–40 percent in the seeds of the spring variety and as much as 40–50 percent in the seeds of the winter variety. There are no pronounced morphological differences between the spring and winter varieties. Winter rape is only slightly winter-hardy and drought resistant.
Rape oil is used in the manufacture of margarine; it is also used by the soap, leather, textile, and metallurgical industries. The oil cake contains about 32 percent protein, 9 percent fat, and 30 percent nonnitrogenous extractive substances. After the removal of harmful glycosides, the oil cake makes a valuable concentrated feed for cattle. Winter rape is an excellent forage plant for all farm animals and yields up to 300 centners of green mass per hectare (ha). Rape that is planted in the autumn is a good early-spring nectar bearer.
The best soils for rape cultivation are deep, patterned clays and loams having a large reserve of nutrient matter and a water-permeable subsoil. The worldwide planting area of rape is about 10 million ha. The plant is raised mainly in India, China, and Canada. In the USSR, winter rape is grown mainly in the forest-steppe zone of the Ukrainian SSR, and spring rape in the northern part of the forest-steppe zone of the Ukrainian SSR. Winter rape that is to be used for animal feed may be grown in almost all the steppe and forest-steppe zones of the USSR. The seed yield is 10–30 centners per ha for winter rape and 8–15 centners per ha for spring rape.
V. P. S
| i don't know |
Which cricketer was nicknamed Chilly | CRICKET PLAYERS & NICKNAMES ... endless! by Chinaroad
Australia's 1948 tour of England � The Invincibles
Australian national cricket team � Baggy Greens
Bangladeshi national cricket team � The Tigers
Canadian national cricket team � One Man Band
New Zealand national cricket team � The Black Caps, The Kiwis
South African national cricket team � The Proteas
West Indian national cricket team � The Windies, The Calypsos
Indian national cricket team � The Men in Blue
Pakistani national cricket team� The Stars
Officials, umpires and commentators
Harold Bird � Dickie Bird
Henry Blofeld � Blowers
Brent Bowden � Billy
Steve Bucknor � Slow Death
Bill Ferguson � Fergie
Bill Frindall � The Bearded Wonder
Brian Johnston � Johnners
Christopher Martin-Jenkins � CMJ
Don Mosey � The Alderman
David Shepherd � Shep
Bryan Waddle � Wads
Players
Bobby Abel � The Guv'nor
Jimmy Adams � Padams
Paul Adams � Gogga ("insect" in Afrikaans), A frog in a blender (for his unusual bowling action)
Ajit Agarkar � Bombay Duck (for his horror streak of ducks against Australia)
Jonathan Agnew � Aggers
Shoaib Akhtar � Rawalpindi Express
Wasim Akram � Prince of Pakistan, Was, Sultan of Swing
Terry Alderman � Clem (after Clem Jones, mayor of Brisbane, curator of Gabba and an alderman)
Mark Alleyne � BooBoo
Mohinder Amarnath � Jimmy, Amarnought
Surinder Amarnath � Tommy
Warwick Armstrong � the Big Ship
Jason Arnberger � Cheesy
Geoff Arnold � Horse
Shahid Afridi � The Boom
Michael Atherton � Athers
B
Trevor Bailey � The Boil, Barnacle
Omari Banks � Bankie, Cowheb
Richie Benaud � Diamonds
Tino Best � The Best, Ntini
Michael Bevan � Bevvo
Andrew Bichel � Bic
Jack Blackham � Black Jack
David Boon � Boonie, Keg on Legs, Stumpy
Allan Border � A.B., Captain Grumpy
Ian Botham � Beefy,The Both,Guy
Mark Boucher � Guinness, Billy
Nicky Boje � Bodge
Nathan Bracken � Bracks
Don Bradman � The Don
Ian Bell � Belly, the team baby
C
Andy Caddick � Caddyshack
Chris Cairns � B.A. (Bad Attitude)
Shivnarine Chanderpaul � Tiger
Ian Chappell � Chapelli
Ewen Chatfield � Chats, Farmer (Mer) or The Naenae Express
Stuart Clark � Sarfraz, Stu
Michael Clarke � Pup
Paul Collingwood � Nice Ginger, Colly
Herbie Collins � Horseshoe
Corey Collymore � Screw
Jeremy Coney � Mantis
Colin Cowdrey � Kipper
Jeff Crowe � Chopper
Martin Crowe � Hogan
D
Adam Dale � Chipper
Joe Darling � Paddy
Phillip DeFreitas � Half-Chocolate, Daffy
Aravinda de Silva � Mad Max
Fanie de Villiers � Vinnige Fanie ("Fast Fanie" in Afrikaans)
Kapil Dev � The Haryana Express
Mahendra Singh Dhoni � Mahi
Graham Dilley � Pica
Boeta Dippenaar � Dipps
Allan Donald � White Lightning
Brett Dorey � Hunky, John
J.W.H.T. Douglas � Johnny Won't Hit Today
Rahul Dravid � Jammy, The Wall
E
Bruce Edgar � Bootsy
F
Damien Fleming � Flemo
Stephen Fleming � Flange
Duncan Fletcher � Fletch
Keith Fletcher � The Gnome of Essex
Andrew Flintoff � Freddy, Twiggy, Fred, family man
James Foster � The Child
Graeme Fowler � Foxy
C. B. Fry � Lord Oxford, Charles III, Almighty
G
Saurav Ganguly � Maharaj, Prince of Calcutta, Dada, Bengal Tiger
Joel Garner � Big Bird
Sunil Gavaskar � Sunny, The Little Master
Chris Gayle � Cramps, Crampy
Herschelle Gibbs � Scooter, The Sack Man
Adam Gilchrist � Churchy, Gilly, The Demolition Man
Ashley Giles � Ash, the King of Spain
Jason Gillespie � Dizzy
Darren Gough � Rhino, Goughy, the Dazzler, Dancing Darren
E. M. Grace � The Coroner
W.G. Grace � The Doctor
Mark Greatbatch � Paddy
Clarrie Grimmett � The Old Fox, Grum
Subhash Gupte � Fergie
H
Brad Haddin � BJ, Harry, Guildo
Richard Hadlee � Paddles
Andrew Hall � Brosh, Merv, Hally
Stephen Harmison � Harmy (or Harmi), Tinker, GBH (Grievous Bodily Harmison)
Chris Harris � Harry, Lugs
Ian Harvey � Freak
Nathan Hauritz � Horry
Matthew Hayden � Haydos, Unit
Nantie Hayward � Wayward Hayward
George Headley � Black Bradman
Ian Healy � Heals
Hunter Hendry � Stork
Paul Hitchcock � Alfred
Jack Hobbs � The Master
Brad Hogg� George, Hoggy, The Postman
Matthew Hoggard � Hoggy, Shrek
Michael Holding � Whispering Death
Bob Holland � Dutchy
Albert Hornby � Monkey
James Hopes � Hopesy, Jimbo, Catfish
Merv Hughes � Fruitfly, Swerve, Swerv'n Merv'n
Simon Hughes � Yozzer
Nasser Hussain � Nass (by the commentators)
Michael Hussey � The Huss, Mr Cricket
I
Inzamam ul Haq � Aloo (potato), Inzy
Bert Ironmonger � Dainty
J
Ridley Jacobs � Ras Bell, Riddler
Sanath Jayasuriya � The Matara Mauler
Gilbert Jessop � The Croucher
Dean Jones � Deano, Legend (nickname he gave to himself).
Sylvester Joseph � Bouncing
K
Mohammed Kaif � Kaifu
Jacques Kallis � Kalahari, Jackes
Danish Kaneria � Nani Dani
Michael Kasprowicz � Kasper
Simon Katich � Stiffler, Kat
Justin Kemp � Daryll (Shane Warne's sledging)
Imran Khan � The Lion of Lahore, The King of Swing
Michael Klinger � Maxy
Lance Klusener � Zulu
Anil Kumble � Jumbo
L
Justin Langer � BNG, Brown Nose Gnome, Alf
Charl Langeveldt � Langes
Brian Lara � The Prince
Gavin Larsen � The Postman (apparently he always delivered!)
Harold Larwood � Lol
Bill Lawry � Phantom, Phanta, The corpse with pads on (he loved Phantom comics)
Geoff Lawson � Henry
VVS Laxman � Very Very Special
Brett Lee � Bing, Oswald
Warren Lees � Wally
Darren Lehmann � Boof, Shrek
Henry Leveson-Gower � Shrimp
Dennis Lillee � D.K., F.O.T (F*****g Old Tart)
Denis Lindsay � Sporty
Clive Lloyd � Super Cat
David Lloyd � Bumble
Martin Love � Lovey, Pumper
M
Charles Macartney � Governor-General
Stuart MacGill � Stuey, Magilla
Ken Mackay � Slasher
Jimmy Maher � Mahbo
Ashley Mallett � Rowdy
Sanjay Manjrekar � Sanj
Vijay Manjrekar � The Wanderer
Charles Marriott � Father Marriott
Geoff Marsh � Swampy
Rod Marsh � Iron Gloves, Bacchus
Xavier Marshall � X, Mad Max
Frederick Martin � Nutty
Damien Martyn � Marto
Lloyd Mash � Monster, Bangers (in the UK)
Greg Matthews � Mo
Glenn McGrath � Pigeon
Graham McKenzie � Garth
Craig McMillan � Macca
Colin Miller � Funky
Keith Miller � Nugget
Tom Moody � Long
Dave Mohammed � Tadpole
Danny Morrison � Deke
John Morrison � Mystery
Runako Morton � Ronnie
Muttiah Muralitharan � The Smiling Assassin, Murali, MuMu, Master technician
Saqlain Mushtaq � Saqi, Professor (wears glasses and outsmarts the batsman)
Shoaib Malik � Terminator
N
Andre Nel � Nella
Mfuneko Ngam � Chewey (Chewey'N gam)
Monty Noble � Mary Ann
Makhaya Ntini � Macky
O
Chris Old � Chilly (from C.Old)
Bill O'Reilly � Tiger
Kerry O'Keeffe � Skull
P
Milford Page � Curly
Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi � Tiger
Parthiv Patel � Bachcha (child in Hindi)
Kevin Pietersen � K.P.
Graeme Pollock � The Little Dog
Peter Pollock � The Big Dog
Shaun Pollock � Polly, Ginger, The Nibbler
Ricky Ponting � Punter
Ashwell Prince � Ashy P
Q
Abdul Qadir � Qadu
R
Carl Rackemann � Mocca
Venkatapathy Raju � Muscles
Denesh Ramdin � Shoppy
Ravi Rampaul � Frisco Kid
Mark Ramprakash � Bloodaxe
Ranjitsinhji � Black Prince of Cricketers, Ranji, Smith
Derek Randall � Arkle
Yalaka Venugopal Rao � Venu
Abdul Razzaq � Razzler
Bruce Reid � Chook
Paul Reiffel � Pistol
Dave Renneburg � Big Shine
Harold Rhodes � Dusty Rhodes
Vivian Richards � Master Blaster, the Master
Mark Richardson � Rigor, Rig
Greg Ritchie � Fat Cat
Steve Rixon � Stumper
Jacques Rudolph � Jackie
Ken Rutherford � Ruds or Rudder
S
Mohammed Sami � Salami, The Karachi Express
Virender Sehwag � Veeru, New Tendulkar
Paul Sheahan � Timbers
Bob Simpson � Simmo
Navjot Singh Sidhu � Sherry, Jonty Singh, Sixer Sidhu
Matthew Sinclair � Skippy
Harbhajan Singh � The Turbanator, Bhajji (by team-mates)
Yuvraj Singh � Yuvi
Michael Slater � Slats
Peter Sleep � Sounda
Sir Aubrey Smith � Round the Corner
Ian Smith � Stockley
Graeme Smith � Biff
Jim Smith � Big Jim
Martin Snedden � Sneds
Fred Spofforth � Demon
Javagal Srinath � Babu
Keith Stackpole � Stacky
Brian Statham � George
Edward Stevens � Lumpy
Alec Stewart � Wizenedone, Gaffer
Andrew Strauss � Straussy
Pieter Strydom � Striker
Scott Styris � Pig
Andrew Symonds � Symo, Roy, Golden Bollocks
T
Mark Taylor � Tubby
Sachin Tendulkar � Tendiya, Little Master, The Master Blaster, Slashin Sachin
Alan Thomson � Froggie
Jeff Thomson � Two-up
Graham Thorpe � The Shagger
Ernie Toshack � The Dark Prince
Marcus Trescothick � Banger, Tresco
Fred Trueman � Fiery Fred
Hugh Trumble � Little Eva
Daryl Tuffey � Hightower
Phil Tufnell � The Cat, Tuffers
Charlie Turner � Terror
Frank Tyson � Typhoon
U
Shaun Udal � Shaggy
Derek Underwood � Deadly
V
Michael Vaughan � Virgil, Vaughny
Dilip Vengsarkar � Colonel
Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan � Venkat
Daniel Vettori � Lucas, Danny
Lou Vincent � Flusher
Maharajkumar of Vizianagram � Vizzy
W
Max Walker � Tangles
Doug Walters � Freddie, Bikki
Shane Warne � Warney, Hollywood, The Sheikh of Tweak
Shane Watson � Watto
Steve Waugh � Tugga, Iceman
Mark Waugh � Junior, Afghanistan (The forgotten waugh)
Cameron White � Carn
Craig White � Chalky
Jeff Wilson � Goldie
Paul Wilson � Blocker
Matthew Windows � Steamy
Paul Wiseman � Whizz
Bill Woodfull � The Rock
John Wright � Shake
Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis � The Two W's, The Sultans of Reverse Swing
Clyde Walcott, Everton Weekes and Frank Worrell � The Three W's
XYZ
| Chris Old |
Which Grand Prix did Alain Prost win 5 times in the 80’s | Ashes to cashes for the Sainsbury’s England cricket hero Chris Old | Metro News
Ashes to cashes for the Sainsbury’s England cricket hero Chris Old
Metro News Reporter for Metro.co.uk Friday 18 May 2012 9:25 am
He was a hero in one of England’s greatest cricket victories but former bowler Chris Old is now enjoying the quiet life working in his local Sainsbury’s.
Chris Old working at Sainsbury’s in Truro, Cornwall (Picture: APEX)
The former bowler, nicknamed ‘Chilly’ because he appeared as ‘C.Old’ on the scoreboard, now works in the magazine section at one the supermarket’s stores in Cornwall.
He helped England bowl and bat their way to victory in 1981 against Australia and it earned him less than £3,000 in the days before Sky Sports.
The 63-year-old has been working at the store in Truro for two and a half years after selling a fish and chip restaurant he ran with his wife.
And many of his current colleagues have no idea what he used to do.
‘Perhaps I could have made more of it but that’s not the sort of person I am,’ he said.
‘Some [people] do recognise me – and it’s pleasing when they do because I’m still very proud of my cricket career.
‘It’s generally older people because it’s over 30 years ago since I played in Test matches for England.’
Historic win: A bearded Chris Old joins Ian Botham and Geoff Boycott on the balcony in 1981
He currently works part-time in the store for 24 hours a week where he earns the minimum-wage.
Despite his switch to the retail sector, Old admits he will always look back fondly on his cricketing days.
‘The Ashes series of 1981 still seems special to people,’ he added.
‘A lot of people say they remember where they were when they watched it.
‘So it’s nice when you get recognised for that.’
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Which British battleship was sank by a submarine while in Scapa Flow | Ahoy - Mac's Web Log - The Sinking of British Battleship, HMS Royal Oak, at Scapa Flow, by German Submarine, U-47
The Sinking of British Battleship, HMS Royal Oak, at Scapa Flow, by German Submarine, U-47
This Marshall Islands stamp depicts Gunter Prien sinking Royal Oak, after he penetrated Scapa Flow
Over two World Wars, Scapa Flow in the Orkneys, was the main Fleet Anchorage in the British Isles for the Royal Navy,
During WW1, the German Submarine UB-116 commanded by Oberleutnant Hans Joachim Emsmann had, in October 1918, attempted to penetrate this British Base, but had come to grief on a mine, and was lost with all hands.
Just after going to war against Britain in September 1939, the German U-Boat Commander, Admiral Donitz, was keen to upset both the Royal Navy, and her First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, by breaching the defences of Scapa Flow and sinking a major Naval Vessel.
In September 1939, U-14 had carried out a patrol in that area and brought back valuable information about the approaches to this major Fleet Base.
In addition, the Luftwaffe, on the 26th. of September, had managed to obtain excellent photographs of this seemingly impregnable anchorage. At least the British believed it was inviolable; but not so, thought Donitz.
The defences of Britain's major naval base were still not complete 6 weeks after the commencement of hostilities with Germany.
Donitz studied the reconnaissance photographs, and decided that a 50 foot gap existed between the blockships which had been sunk in the northern end of the most eastern entrance in Kirk Sound, and he thought that a surfaced Submarine could penetrate this narrow access at the time of slack water.
But, a night attack would be mandatory.
On Sunday the 1st. of October 1939, Donitz sent for one of his best submarine Captains, Kapitanleutnant (equivalent to our Lieutenant Commander) Gunter Prien, and offered him the mission of taking his U-Boat, U-47, into Scapa Flow to sink a major British warship.
Prien had been born at Leipzig in Saxony in 1909 , and left school at 14, to become a cabin boy at sea.
He rose to be a Merchant Marine officer, but come the depression, he was out of a job. Somewhat embittered by being unemployed in his early twenties, Prien joined the Nazi Party in 1932, and in the following year joined the Navy as an Ordinary Seaman. He was quickly seen as Officer material, became a Cadet, joined the Submarine service and by 1938 had risen to command level.
When WW2 broke out, Prien was in command of U-Boat 47, and had recently been married.
It was made quite clear to Prien, that he could refuse this task without damaging his bright career, but Prien after studying the plans overnight, decided to accept this formidible challenge.
On the 8th. of October 1939, Prien took U-47 through the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kanal and cleared her into the North Sea. Whilst enroute to Scapa Flow he took particular care to avoid any vessels that might betray his whereabouts. At 2331 (11.31 PM) on the 13th of October (obviously not a superstitious sailor) Prien commenced his run into the British Naval stronghold.
Because of the strong currents obtaining in this area, he chose the slack water period (the time in between the tide changing from ebbing to flowing or vice versa, when there is no actual water movement) and navigated his boat on the surface, between vessels sunk in the channels by the British, designed to stop such a passage by a U-Boat or any other enemy craft.
At one stage of Prien's approach, he was so close to the shore that a passing car's headlights illuminated his crawling submarine, but he continiued undetected.
Just after midnight on the 13/14th of October, he noted in his War Diary at 0027 (2.27 AM) " WIR SINDIN SCAPA FLOW!!" (WE are in Scapa Flow!!)
For the Royal Navy it was fortunate that the major units of the Home Fleet had not yet returned to Scapa Flow after chasing a strong German Naval Force, led by the Battlecruiser Gneisenau, which had sortied into the North Sea.
Inside the anchorage, Prien looked for any likely targets and sighted two large ships to his north. At 0058 (58 minutes past midnight) he fired a spread of 3 torpedoes, and after 3.5 minutes, one explosion was heard. Prien was pleasantly suprised when it did not appear to attract any attention from the British.
He swung his boat, and then fired the stern tube, but without any success.
His crew rapidly reloaded the torpedo tubes and at 0122 (1.22 AM) another 3 fish were fired. 3 minutes later, explosions were heard, and the 31,000 ton Battleship, HMS Royal Oak sank in 13 minutes, leaving only 375 survivors.
She took 24 Officers and 809 Sailors with her to a watery grave.
Amongst her survivors was the only Australian on board. Lieutenant Commander F.N. Cook RAN.
Royal Oak was the second largest ship sunk in the war by a German U-Boat.
Notwithstanding the swift incoming currents, Prien was able to pilot his U-47 away from the hunting British Destroyers, and he slipped out of Scapa Flow to head for home.
The British wrongly announced that they had sunk the offending U-Boat.
On the 14th. of October, the BBC announced :
"This is the BBC Home Service. Here is the news bulletin. As it was reported late this morning, the Secretary of the Admiralty regrets to announce that HMS Royal Oak has been sunk, it is believed by U-Boat action. Fifteen survivors have been landed....."
Prien had achieved a magnificent coup, he took his boat back to Wilhelshaven, arriving there on the 17th of October at 1144, (11:44 AM )
The entire crew were flown to Berlin to be personally greeted by Hitler, and Prien was awarded The Knight's Cross, and Hitler entertained the crew to lunch.
Prien in his U-Boat career, sank 31 ships for a total of 194,103 tons, and was involved in 10 patrols, spending 237 days at sea on this duty.
He went missing on the 7th of March 1941, in the North Atlantic, near the Rockall Banks, it is not certain how he or U-47 died, but for many years it was believed that HMS Wolverine was responsible for sinking this U-Boat. Later intelligence suggests that Wolverine actually attacked a different German Submarine.
The loss of U-47 may have been caused by mines, by its own circling torpedoes, or by an attack by HMS Camellia and HMS Arbutus, both Royal Navy corvettes.
By whatever means he was killed, Gunter Prien, who had lived by the Sword, had now died by the Sword.
Germany had lost one of her U-Boat aces.
Appendix 1 is an extract from Gunter Prien's Log of U-47, covering his penetration of Scapa Flow, and sinking of the British Battleship HMS Royal Oak, in September 1939.
Appendix 1
Extract from Log of U-47, 15th Sept. - 21st Oct. 1939.
Time Position, Wind, etc. Incidents
8/10/39
1100 Heligoland Bight. Wind SE 1. Cloudy Left port (Kiel) on special operations, Operational Order North Sea No. 16, through Kiel Canal, Heligoland Bight, and Channel 1.
Exact positions cannot be given as under special orders all secret documents were destroyed before carrying out of order
9/10/39
South of Dogger Bank. Wind SSE 4-5. Overcast, very dark night. Lying submerged. After dark, surfaced and proceeded on our way. Met rather a lot of fishing vessels.
10/10/39
North of Dogger Bank. Wind SSE 7. Overcast. During day lay submerged; at night continued on course.
11/10/39
Devil's Hole. Wind ESE 7-8, Overcast During day lay submerged off Orkneys. Surfaced in the evening and came in to the coast in order to fix exact position of ship. From 2200 to 2230 the English are kind enough to switch on all the coastal lights so that I can obtain the most exact fix. The ship's position is correct to within 1.8 nautical miles, despite the fact that since leaving Channel 1 there was no possibility of obtaining an accurate fix, so that I had to steer by dead reckonings and soundings.
13/10/39
E. of Orkney Islands. Wind NNE 3-4, light clouds, very clear night, Northern Lights on entire horizon. At 0437 lying submerged in 90 meters of water. Rest period for crew. At 1600 general stand-to. After breakfast at 1700, preparations for attack on Scapa Flow. Two torpedoes are placed in rapid loading position before tubes 1 and 2.
Explosives brought out in case of necessity of scuttling. Crew's morale splendid. Surfaced at 1915. After warm supper for entire crew, set course for Holm Sound. Everything goes according to plan until 2307, when it is necessary to submerge on sighting a merchant ship just before Rose Ness. I cannot make out the ship in either of the periscopes, in spite of the very clear night and the bright lights. At 2331, surfaced again and entered Holm Sound. Following tide. On nearer approach, the sunken blockship in Skerry Sound is clearly visible, so that at first I believe myself to be already in Kirk Sound, and prepare for work. But the navigator, by means of dead reckoning, states that the preparations are premature, while I at the same time realize the mistake, for there is only one sunken ship in the straits. By altering course hard to starboard, the imminent danger is averted. A few minutes later, Kirk Sound is clearly visible.
13/10/39 contd.
It is a very eerie sight. On land everything is dark, high in the sky are the flickering Northern Lights, so that the bay, surrounded by English mountains, is directly lit up from above. The blockships lie in the sound, ghostly as the wings of a theatre. I am now repaid for having learnt the chart beforehand, for the penetration proceeds with unbelievable speed. In the meantime I had decided to pass the blockships on the Northern side. On a course of 270 I pass the two-masted schooner, which is lying on a bearing of 315 in front of the real boom, with 15 meters to spare. In the next minute the boat is turned by the current to starboard. At the same time I recognize the cable of the northern blockship at an angle of 45 degrees ahead. Port engine stopped, starboard engine slow ahead, and rudder hard to port, the boat slowly touches bottom. The stern still touches the cable, the boat becomes free, it is pulled round to port, and brought on to course again with difficult rapid maneuvering, but; we are in Scapa Flow.
14/10/39
0027 It is disgustingly light. The whole bay is lit up. To the south of Cava there is nothing. I go farther in. To port, I recognize the Hoxa Sound coastguard, to which in the next few minutes the boat must present itself as a target. In that event all would be lost; at present South of Cava there is no shipping; so before staking everything on success, all possible precautions must be taken.
0055 Therefore, turn to port is made. We proceed north by the coast. Two battleships are lying there at anchor, and further inshore, destroyers. Cruisers not visible, therefore attack on the big fellows. Distance apart, 3000 meters.
0116 (time queried in pencil, 0058 suggested) Estimated depth, 7.5 meters. Impact firing. One torpedo fixed on the northern ship, two on the southern. After a good 3 1/2 minutes, a torpedo detonates on the northern ship; of the other two nothing is to be seen.
0121 (queried to 0102) (suggested time 0123, in pencil) About! Torpedo fired from stern; in the bow two tubes are loaded; three torpedoes from the bow. After three tense minutes comes the detonation on the nearer ship. There is a loud explosion, roar, and rumbling. Then come columns of water, followed by columns of fire, and splinters fly through the air. The harbor springs to life. Destroyers are lit up, signaling starts on every side, and on land 200 meters away from me cars roar along the roads. A battleship has been sunk, a second damaged, and the other three torpedoes have gone to blazes. All the tubes are empty. I decide to withdraw, because: (1) With my periscopes I cannot conduct night attacks while submerged. (See experience on entering.) (2) On a bright night I cannot maneuver unobserved in a calm sea. (3) I must assume that I was observed by the driver of a car which stopped opposite us, turned around, and drove off towards Scapa at top speed. (4) Nor can I go further north, for there, well hidden from my sight, lie the destroyers which were previously dimly distinguishable.
0128 At high speed both engines we withdraw. Everything is simple until we reach Skildaenoy Point. Then we have more trouble. It is now low tide, the current is against us. Engines at slow and dead slow, I attempt to get away. I must leave by the south through the narrows, because of the depth of the water. Things are again difficult. Course, 058, slow - 10 knots. I make no progress. At high speed I pass the southern blockship with nothing to spare. The helmsman does magnificently. High speed ahead both, finally 3/4 speed and full ahead all out. Free of the blockships - ahead a mole! Hard over and again about, and at 0215 we are once more outside. A pity that only one was destroyed. The torpedo misses I explain due to faults of course, speed, and drift. In tube 4, a misfire. The crew behaved splendidly throughout the operation. On the morning of 13/10, the lubricating oil was found to have 7-8% water in it. All hands worked feverishly to change the oil, i.e. to get rid of the water and
to isolate the leaking point. The torpedo crews loaded their tubes with remarkable speed. The boat was in such good form that I was able to switch on to charge in the harbor and pump up air.
0215 Set SE course for base. I still have 5 torpedoes for possible attacks on merchantmen.
0630 57° 58' N, 01° 03' W Lay submerged. The glow from Scapa is still visible for a long time. Apparently they are still
1935 ENE 3-4, light clouds, occasional rain, visibility bad towards land, otherwise good dropping depth charges. Off again, course 180°. This course was chosen in the hope that we might perhaps catch a ship inshore, and to avoid U-20.
15/10/39
0600 56° 20' N, 0° 40' W Submerged and lay at 72 meters. From 1000 onwards, depth charges were dropped from time to time in the distance. 32 depth charges were definitely counted. So I lie low, submerged, until dusk.
1823 Wind NE 5, sea 4, swell from E, cloudy, visibility good. Surfaced. On surfacing, Norwegian steamer "METEOR" lies ahead. W/T traffic from the steamer is reported in error from the W/T office; I therefore fire a salvo far ahead of the steamer which is already stopped. The steamer is destined for Newcastle on Tyne, with 238 passengers. Steamer immediately allowed to proceed. It is reported later by the W/T office that the steamer did not make any signals.
16/10/39
0702 54° 57' N, 2° 58' E, Wind NNW 2-3, visibility good. General course 180°. Submerged on the Dogger Bank. 3 drifting mines sighted, 54° 58' N, 2° 56' E. No measures taken, owing to the proximity of fishing vessels. Proceeded submerged throughout the day.
1856 54° 51' N, 3° 21' E, Wind NW 2, light clouds, visibility good. Surfaced. Course 128°. Steered course of 128° into Channel 1.
17/10/39
0404 Channel 1 passed. From 0404 to 0447 chased fishing vessel escort ship no. 808; gave recognition signal eight times - no reply received. This fool did not react until V/S was used at a distance of 500-600 meters. With such guardships, an incident such as my operation could occur in our waters also.
1100 Entered port - Wilhelmshaven III.
1144 Tied up.
1530 Crew flown to Kiel and Berlin
20/10/39
1600 Crew returned. Sailed for Kiel.
2330 Met an armed fishing trawler at anchor with riding lights in the stretch between Elbe I and Elbe II. I pass him with darkened ship at a distance of 40 meters. Apparently he sees nothing, because no recognition signal is made.
21/10/39
0120 Tied up at Brunsbüttel Lock.
1300 Tied up at Holtenau Lock.
Operation completed.
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Which cavalry regiment was Custer’s last command | U-47 IN SCAPA FLOW
U-47 IN SCAPA FLOW
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On the night of 13 October 1939, in an extraordinary feat of seamanship, Gunther Prien coaxed U-47 through a narrow, treacherous gap in Scapa Flow's defences. Once inside he torpedoed the British battleship ROYAL OAK - which sank in minutes, killing 833 of her crew. This book provides an account of one of the most daring naval raids in history. Drawing on the latest underwater archaeological research, this study explains how Prien and his crew navigated the North Sea and Kirk Sound to land a devastating blow to the British.
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Scapa Flow was supposed to be the safe home base of the British Navy - nothing could penetrate the defences of this bastion. Yet, On the night of 13 October 1939, in an extraordinary feat of seamanship, Gunther Prien coaxed U-47 through a narrow, treacherous gap in Scapa Flow's defences. Once inside he torpedoed the British battleship ROYAL OAK - which sank in minutes, killing 833 of her crew - before taking his U-boat safely back out to sea. How was Gunther Prien's submarine able to slip through to sink the mighty Royal Oak?
This book provides the answer with an account of one of the most daring naval raids in history. Drawing on the latest underwater archaeological research, this study explains how Prien and his crew navigated the North Sea and Kirk Sound to land a devastating blow to the British. It reveals the level of disrepair that Scapa Flow had fallen into, and delves into the conspiracy theories surrounding the event, including an alleged cover-up by the then First Sea Lord, Winston Churchill.
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Which wars began with the Battle of St. Albans and finished with the Battle of Bosworth | Second Battle of St Albans | Military Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia
Second Battle of St Albans
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Second Battle of St Albans
St Albans in Hertfordshire, England
Result
Stoke Field
The Second Battle of St Albans was a battle of the English Wars of the Roses fought on 17 February 1461, at St Albans . The army of the Yorkist faction under the Earl of Warwick attempted to bar the road to London north of the town. The rival Lancastrian army used a wide outflanking manoeuvre to take Warwick by surprise, cut him off from London, and drive his army from the field. The victors also released the feeble King Henry VI , who had been Warwick's prisoner, from his captivity. However, they ultimately failed to take advantage of their victory.
Contents
Edit
The Wars of the Roses were fought between the supporters of the House of Lancaster, represented by the mentally unstable King Henry VI, and those of the rival House of York.
Richard of York quarrelled with several of Henry's court during the late 1440s and early 1450s. He was respected as a soldier and administrator, and was believed by his own supporters to have a better claim to the throne than Henry. York and his friends finally openly rebelled in 1455. At the First Battle of St Albans , York gained a victory, but this did not resolve the causes of the conflict. After several attempts at reconciliation, fighting resumed in 1459. At the Battle of Northampton in 1460, Richard of York's nephew, the Earl of Warwick, defeated a Lancastrian army and captured King Henry, who had taken no part. York returned to London from exile in Ireland and attempted to claim the throne, but his supporters were not prepared to go so far. Instead, an agreement was reached, the Act of Accord , by which York or his heirs were to become king after Henry's death.
This agreement disinherited Henry's young son Edward of Westminster . Henry's queen, Margaret of Anjou , refused to accept the Act of Accord and took Edward to Scotland to gain support there. York's rivals and enemies meanwhile raised an army in the north of England. York and his brother-in-law, the Earl of Salisbury (Warwick's father), led an army to the north late in 1460 to counter these threats, but they drastically underestimated the Lancastrian forces. At the Battle of Wakefield , the Yorkist army was destroyed and York, Salisbury and York's second son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland , were killed in the fighting or were executed after the battle.
Campaign
Edit
The victorious Lancastrian army began advancing south towards London. It was led by comparatively young nobles such as the Duke of Somerset , the Earl of Northumberland and Lord Clifford , whose fathers had been killed by York and Warwick at the First Battle of St Albans. The army contained a substantial contingent from the West Country, but many of its men were from the Scottish Borders or Scotland, who subsisted largely on plunder in their march south.
The death of Richard of York left his eighteen-year old son Edward, Earl of March, as the Yorkist claimant for the throne. He led one Yorkist army in the Welsh Marches , while Warwick led another in London and the south east. Naturally, they intended to combine their forces to face Margaret's army, but Edward was delayed by the need to confront another Lancastrian army from Wales led by Jasper Tudor . On 2 February, Edward defeated Tudor's army at the Battle of Mortimer's Cross .
Warwick, with the captive King Henry in his train, meanwhile moved to block Margaret's army's route to London. He took up position north of St Albans astride the main road from the north (the ancient Roman road known as Watling Street ), where he set up several fixed defences, including cannon and obstacles such as caltrops and pavises studded with spikes, and partly manned by Burgundian mercenaries equipped with handguns. [1] Part of his defences used the ancient Belgic earthwork known as Beech Bottom Dyke . Warwick's forces were divided into three "Battles", [n 1] as was customary at the time. He himself led the Main Battle in the centre. The Duke of Norfolk led the Forward (or Vaward) Battle on the right and Warwick's brother John Neville commanded the Rear Battle on the left.
Although strong, Warwick's lines faced north only. Margaret knew of Warwick's dispositions, probably through Sir Henry Lovelace, the steward of Warwick's own household. Lovelace had been captured by the Lancastrians at Wakefield but had been spared from execution and released, and he believed he had been offered the vacant Earldom of Kent as reward for betraying Warwick. [2] Late on 16 February, Margaret's army swerved sharply west and captured the town of Dunstable . About 200 local people under the town butcher tried to resist them, but were easily dispersed. Warwick's "scourers" (scouts and patrols and foraging parties) failed to detect this move.
Battle
Edit
From Dunstable, Margaret's forces moved south-east at night, towards St Albans. The leading Lancastrian forces attacked the town shortly after dawn. Storming up the hill past the Abbey, they were confronted by Yorkist archers in the town centre who shot at them from the house windows. This first attack was repulsed. As they regrouped at the ford across the River Ver , the Lancastrian commanders sought another route into the town. This was found and a second attack was launched along the line of Folly Lane and Catherine Street. This second attack met with no opposition and the Yorkist archers in the town were now outflanked. They continued to fight house to house however, and were not finally overcome for several hours. [3]
Having gained the town itself, the Lancastrians turned north towards John Neville's Rear Battle, positioned on Bernards Heath . In the damp conditions, [n 2] many of the Yorkists' cannon and handguns failed to fire as their powder was dampened. Warwick found it difficult to extricate his other units from their fortifications and turn them about to face the Lancastrians, so that the Yorkist battles straggled into action one by one instead of in coordinated fashion. The Rear Battle, attempting to reinforce the defenders of the town, was engaged and dispersed. The Kentish contingent in the Yorkist army under the traitor Lovelace defected at this point, causing further confusion in the Yorkist ranks. [3] [4]
By late afternoon, the Lancastrians were attacking north-east out of St Albans to engage the Yorkist Main and Vaward battles under Warwick and Norfolk. As dusk set in (which would have been in the very early evening at this time of year and in the poor weather), Warwick realised that his men were outnumbered and increasingly demoralised, and withdrew with his remaining forces (about 4,000 men) to Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire. [3]
Aftermath
Edit
As the Yorkists retreated, they left behind the bemused King Henry, who is supposed to have spent the battle sitting under a tree, singing. Two knights ( Lord Bonville and Sir Thomas Kyriell , a veteran leader of the Hundred Years War ) had sworn to let him come to no harm, and remained with him throughout. The next morning Margaret asked her son, the seven-year-old Edward of Westminster, how, not whether, the two knights were to die. Edward, thus prompted, sent them to be beheaded. [5] John Neville had been captured but was spared execution, as the Duke of Somerset feared that his own younger brother who was in Yorkist hands might be executed in reprisal. [6]
Henry knighted the young Prince Edward, who in turn knighted thirty Lancastrian leaders. One was Andrew Trollope , an experienced captain who had deserted the Yorkists at the Battle of Ludford Bridge in 1459 and who was reckoned by many to have planned the Lancastrian victories at Wakefield and Saint Albans. At Saint Albans, he had injured his foot stepping on one of Warwick's caltrops, but he nevertheless claimed to have killed fifteen Yorkists. [6]
Although Margaret and her army could now march unopposed on to London, they did not do so. The Lancastrian army's reputation for pillage caused the Londoners to bar the gates. This in turn caused Margaret to hesitate, as did the news of Edward of March's victory at Mortimer's Cross. The Lancastrians fell back through Dunstable, losing many Scots and Borderers who deserted and returned home with the plunder they had already gathered. Edward of March and Warwick entered London on 2 March, and Edward was quickly proclaimed King Edward IV of England. Within a few weeks he had confirmed his hold on the throne with a decisive victory at the Battle of Towton .
Perhaps the most significant person to be killed at the battle of Saint Albans, at least in terms of its dynastic results, was John Grey of Groby , whose widow Elizabeth Woodville became the queen of Edward IV in 1464.
550th Anniversary commemoration
Edit
On 26 & 27 February 2011 to commemorate the 550th anniversary year of the battle the Battlefields Trust hosted a conference on the battle, close to the battle site. This featured authentic recreations from The Medieval Siege Society , with a guided tour of the battlefield, and culminated in a Requiem Mass for the fallen at St Saviours Church conducted by Father Peter Wadsworth. [7]
See also
| Wars of the Roses |
What is the name given to the slits in castle walls that archers fired through | Wars of the Roses: Battle of Bosworth Field
Wars of the Roses: Battle of Bosworth Field
Wars of the Roses: Battle of Bosworth Field
Henry VII receives Richard's crown. Public Domain
Updated January 14, 2016.
Battle of Bosworth Field: Conflict & Date:
The Battle of Bosworth Field was fought August 22, 1485, during the Wars of the Roses (1455-1485).
Armies & Commanders:
Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond
John de Vere, Earl of Oxford
5,000 men
Thomas Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley
6,000 men
Battle of Bosworth Field: Overview:
In the wake of a failed uprising against Yorkist King Richard III in 1483, Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, was forced to flee to Brittany. That Christmas he proclaimed his intention to marry Elizabeth of York, the daughter of the late King Edward IV, in an effort to unite the Houses of York and Lancaster and advance his own claim to the English throne. Betrayed by the Duke of Brittany, Henry and his supporters were compelled to move to France the following year. On April 16, 1485, Richard's wife Anne Neville died clearing the way for him to marry Elizabeth instead.
This threatened Henry's efforts to unite his supporters with those of Edward IV who saw Richard as a usurper.
Richard's position was undercut by rumors that he had Anne killed to allow him to marry Elizabeth which alienated some of his backers. Eager to prevent Richard from marrying his prospective bride, Henry mustered 2,000 men and sailed from France on August 1. Landing at Milford Haven seven days later, he quickly captured Dale Castle. Moving east, Henry worked to enlarge his army and gained the support of several Welsh leaders.
Alerted to Henry's landing on August 11, Richard ordered his army to muster and assemble at Leicester. Moving slowly through Staffordshire, Henry sought to delay battle until his forces had grown. A wildcard in the campaign were the forces of Thomas Stanley, Baron Stanley and his brother Sir William Stanley. During the Wars of the Roses, the Stanleys, who could field a large number of troops, had generally withheld their loyalty until it was clear which side would win. As a result, they had profited from both sides and been rewarded with lands and titles.
Before departing France, Henry had been in communication with the Stanleys to seek their support. Upon learning of the landing at Milford Haven, the Stanleys had mustered around 6,000 men and had effectively screened Henry's advance. During this time, he continued to meet with the brothers with the goal of securing their loyalty and support. Arriving at Leicester on August 20, Richard united with John Howard, Duke of Norfolk, one of his most trusted commanders, and the next day was joined by Henry Percy, Duke of Northumberland.
Pressing west with around 10,000 men, they intended to block Henry's advance. Moving through Sutton Cheney, Richard's army assumed a position to the southwest on Ambion Hill and made camp. Henry's 5,000 men camped a short distance away at White Moors, while the fence-sitting Stanleys were to the south near Dadlington. The next morning, Richard's forces formed on the hill with the vanguard under Norfolk on the right and the rearguard under Northumberland to the left. Henry, an inexperienced military leader, turned command of his army over to John de Vere, Earl of Oxford.
Dispatching messengers to the Stanleys, Henry asked them to declare their allegiance. Dodging the request, the Stanleys stated that they would offer their support once Henry had formed his men and issued his orders. Forced to move forward alone, Oxford formed Henry's smaller army into a single, compact block rather than dividing it into the traditional "battles." Advancing towards the hill, Oxford's right flank was protected by a marshy area. Harassing Oxford's men with artillery fire, Richard ordered Norfolk to move forward and attack.
After exchanges of arrows, the two forces collided and hand-to-hand combat ensued. Forming his men into an attacking wedge, Oxford's troops began to gain the upper hand. With Norfolk under heavy pressure, Richard called for aid from Northumberland. This was not forthcoming and the rearguard did not move. While some speculate that this was due to personal animosity between the duke and king, others argue that the terrain prevented Northumberland from reaching the fight. The situation worsened when Norfolk was struck in the face with an arrow and killed.
With the battle raging, Henry decided to move forward with his lifeguard to meet the Stanleys. Spotting this move, Richard sought to end the fight by killing Henry. Leading forward a body of 800 cavalry, Richard skirted around the main battle and charged after Henry's group. Slamming into them, Richard killed Henry's standard bearer and several of his bodyguards. Seeing this, Sir William Stanley led his men into the fight in defense of Henry. Surging forward, they nearly surrounded the king's men. Pushed back towards the marsh, Richard was unhorsed and forced to fight on foot. Fighting bravely to the end, Richard was finally cut down. Learning of Richard's death, Northumberland's men began to withdraw and those battling Oxford fled.
Battle of Bosworth Field - Aftermath:
Losses for the Battle of Bosworth Field are not known with any precision though some sources indicate that the Yorkists suffered 1,000 dead, while Henry's army lost 100. The accuracy of these numbers is a subject of debate. After the battle, legend states that Richard's crown was found in a hawthorn bush near where he died. Regardless, Henry was crowned king later that day on a hill near Stoke Golding. Henry, now King Henry VII, had Richard's body stripped and thrown over a horse to be taken to Leicester. There it was displayed for two days to prove that Richard was dead. Moving to London, Henry consolidated his hold on power, establishing the Tudor Dynasty. Following his official coronation on October 30, he made good his pledge to marry Elizabeth of York. While Bosworth Field effectively decided the Wars of the Roses, Henry was forced to fight again two years later at the Battle of Stoke Field to defend his newly-won crown.
Selected Sources
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Which film star and singer said your not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on | Streams of Consciousness - Top 10 List - Top Ten List - Top 10 Drinking Quotes Of All Time - Booze Quotes - Dean Martin Quote - Dylan Thomas Quote - Billy Carter Quote - Tom Waits - W.C. Fields - Ernest Hemingway - Charles Bukowski - Frank Sinatra - George Jean Nathan quote
Top 10 Drinking Quotes Of All Time
#10 - Anonymous
"Reality is an illusion that occurs due to the lack of alcohol."
#09 - Dean Martin [1917-95]
"You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on."
#08 - Dylan Thomas [1914-53]
"An alcoholic is someone you don't like who drinks as much as you do."
#07 - Billy Carter [1937-88]
"Beer is not a good cocktail-party drink, especially in a home where you don't know where the bathroom is."
#06 - Tom Waits [1949- ]
"I'd rather have a free bottle in front of me than a prefrontal lobotomy." [Editor's Note: This quote has been widely attributed to Dorothy Parker.]
#05 - W.C. Fields [1880-1946]
"Somebody left the cork out of my lunch."
#04 - Ernest Hemingway [1899-1961]
"Drinking is a way of ending the day."
#03 - Charles Bukowski [1920-94]
"There was nothing really as glorious as a good beer shit - I mean after drinking twenty or twenty-five beers the night before. The odor of a beer shit like that spread all around and stayed for a good hour-and-a-half. It made you realize that you were really alive.”
#02 - Frank Sinatra [1915-98]
"I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day."
#01 - George Jean Nathan [1882-1958]
"I drink to make other people interesting."
User Comments - Add a Comment
scay - 2007-10-21 01:24:43
the frank sinatra quote is wrong. it should read "I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day." otherwise it makes no sense
Raven - 2007-10-21 02:40:23
Number 2 is punctuated incorrectly. It should read, "I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day."
Anonymous - 2007-10-21 04:50:52
#2 is a mis-quote. The punctuation is wrong. It should read: "I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day."
anonimouse - 2007-10-21 08:31:01
"Mr. Churchill, you're drunk!" "And you, Madam, are ugly. But in the morning I shall be sober."
Tyler - 2007-10-21 08:36:23
Anyone reading other comments before writing their own? Cheers
jake - 2007-10-21 08:42:57
i have no problem with the quote that talks about getting drunk every morning. that's my morning routine. PABST BLUE RIBBON, baby!!!
Steve - 2007-10-21 08:46:13
The Frank Sinatra quote is wrong. It should read: "I drink for people who don't feel sorry. When they feel me up in the morning, that's as good as they'll wake up all day."
grim - 2007-10-21 08:54:16
#6 is also wrong. He actually said "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy." Where'd you get that "free" and "pre-" nonsense.
oldfart namvet - 2007-10-21 10:04:38
You forgot the Nixon years favorite: "Hold my beer and watch this"
Anonymous - 2007-10-21 10:41:17
Homer Simpson: "To alcohol, the cause of and solution to all of life's problems"
Forgodsake - 2007-10-21 10:50:21
# Sinatra. The punctuation is quoted wrongly, it should read blah blah blah
RatPackPete - 2007-10-21 13:15:06
#2 wasn't said by Frank at all, it was Dean Martins line.
Anonymous - 2007-10-21 13:51:02
Oscar Wilde - "Work is the curse of the drinking classes"
Thumax - 2007-10-21 14:28:16
#2 actually quotes the wrong source. Joe E. Lewis, a comedian, actually is the originator. Frank Sinatra used the line in a movie about Joe E. Lewis's life. "The Joker is Wild"
timc - 2007-10-21 20:37:57
"Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- Benjamin Franklin
Tom Goodfellow - 2007-10-21 22:34:55
A woman drove me to drink and I didn't even have the decency to thank her - W.C. Fields
Polly Sigh - 2007-10-22 11:24:50
Boy, that steve sure is smart! Gregg Schroeder of the Society of Hysterical Idealogical Trends agrees, but wants to add that we cannot forget one of the most famous quotes; "The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get" Joe Walsh.
Gator - 2007-10-22 14:17:09
"I always keep a bottle handy in case I see a snake, which I also keep handy." W.C. Fields
buster flatts - 2007-10-25 08:27:18
Number two is backwards... Frank was facing the other direction when he said that!
Geekette - 2007-10-29 16:22:48
i like Dean Martin's quote the best.. why? i can relate with a personal experience :) Cheers everyone!
Eddie Random - 2007-10-29 21:55:56
"Not everyone who drinks is a poet. Some of us drink because we're not poets..." - From 'Arthur' as quoted by Dudley Moore. Truer words were never spoken
beansie - 2007-10-30 19:33:58
"Drunkenness . . . is temporary suicide." -- Bertrand Russell
Julie - 2007-11-19 11:36:20
From quite a few of the other top ten lists that I have read here, I'm not surprised that you found a quote with the word "shit" included. I am suprised that no one used "fuck" in a quote! How tame!!
Llewellyn - 2007-11-30 00:28:04
In terms of alcohol in general , it is stimulating to the mind.. those that do not drink are missing out
john green - 2007-12-30 06:24:09
they missed out the winston churchill quote, so the did'nt do much research
Barry - 2008-01-22 09:41:35
"Id like to hook up a vodka IV going please"
Benny Hill - 2008-01-23 00:08:52
Before I met her, I drank and swore without reason--- Now I have a reason.
SoberNow - 2008-01-25 02:11:58
Please we get it... the frank sinatra quote was wrong... please...go have a bottle of Jack Daniels and stop reposting the same thing everyone else already said. This is the second time someone mentioned this... where is the Jack Daniels.
ThanksDrinking - 2008-01-30 10:40:01
The Jack Daniels is over at www.ThanksDrinking.com My Personal favorite is "Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut" - Ernest Hemmingway
dherkes - 2008-03-07 05:04:45
I don't think that Dean Martin actually drank. It was part of his stage presence, his act.
Apache24 - 2008-03-09 14:29:11
Here's to all the kisses I've snatched, and vice versa.
Sean - 2008-04-05 11:38:22
The Frank Sinatra Quote is also wrong because it was a Dean Martin Joke!
PS - 2008-05-13 07:18:32
Peter Griffin - " Let's drink 'til we don't feel feelings!"
cypert2 - 2008-12-10 08:18:11
Another good one from Churchill. Bernard Montgomery the WWII British general was a proud teetotlar and said "I never smoke or have a drink and I am 100% healthy." When Churchill heard this his reply was "I have a smoke and a drink every day and I am 200% healthy!"
Impartial Observer - 2008-12-17 16:30:46
Reminds me of my safari in Africa. Somebody forgot the corkscrew and for several days we had to live on nothing but food and water. W. C. Fields
some drunk - 2009-01-02 15:05:04
Great cheers - "may all your ups and downs in life, happen in between the sheets" - not sure.
Sara - 2009-01-13 22:42:33
#9, attributed here to Dean Martin, was actually said by Joe E. Lewis. Dean was quoting Joe. #2 wasn't Frank Sinatra either, but is also Joe E. Lewis, as someone else previously said. But then again, Dean and Frank were a bit more well-known then poor Mr. Lewis!
Vinay - 2009-04-05 08:37:13
"I drink to make other people interesting." ---- THE BEST! :) SO SO TRUE! :D
chimeri - 2009-07-31 02:52:51
"Oh shit look out for the...."- Billy Martin
chrismoose - 2009-09-24 10:54:27
Frank did say it actually...Sinatra at the Sands...live album c1965. I listen to it regularly so there.
Steve33 - 2009-09-29 19:45:21
I was trying to remember the Sinatra Album that he said it on ,thanks for the info "Live at the Sands" It was however part of his act so if Dean said it then we can go to an Oscar Wilde Story Wilde said"I wish I'd said that" to which his friends replied, "You will Oscar....you will..."
Sean - 2009-11-16 12:08:00
The Sinatra quote is wrong, Dean Martin said that.
mr.pussy - 2009-12-17 07:27:05
Reality is an illusion that occurs due to the lack of alcohol." thats bob marely
emanon - 2010-02-05 19:03:22
Probably the better W.C. Field's quote is "One time we were on a safari, someone forgot the corkscrew and all we had to live on was food and water".
Anonymous - 2010-05-23 14:18:54
havent you guys got better things to comment on? Really!!!!!!!!!
Danny Westhorpe - 2010-06-11 15:41:58
Unknown - Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, "It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver."
Dajax - 2010-06-26 04:57:06
The Tom Waits quote should just use frontal lobotomy. PREfrontal lobotomy ruins the rhythm of the line.
Maria Dimova - 2010-07-24 01:32:21
Damn, people! you obviously dont drink!
Larry - 2010-07-28 22:54:32
"Before Smirnoff, accountancy was my life." - from a Smirnoff ad poster.
ElwoodBlues - 2010-08-08 19:01:00
St. Arnold, the patron saint of Brewers and Hop pickers: "through man's sweat, and God's love, beer came into the world."
RByram - 2010-08-10 13:27:06
I got a bottle of wine for my wife. Good trade I think.
naaaty chauhan - 2010-08-16 00:44:09
# 2 is d best one... i love that
eat it - 2010-11-01 10:32:33
'' One last drink please '' - Jack Daniel's last words
Sikandar ceNNA - 2010-11-22 05:59:27
drink, drink and just drink
Valerie - 2010-11-27 22:32:04
That was Dean Martin, not Frank. Skip to 4:14 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRyChNnZmYI
Christine Asbury. - 2011-02-09 13:33:43
Dudee, seriously, shut up. i bet ya'lls breaths stink when ya'll drink. gosh. lord. ugh. OMG! dirty heffers. [: get over drinking, pendaho. SUCKERSSS BAAAAHAAAAAA. [:
99 Bottles of - 2011-02-22 18:27:21
I can definitely say the Sinatra quote was made on track 21 (A Few Last Words aka Sinatra Closing Monologue) of "Sinatra at The Sands with Count Basie & His Orchestra" but he attributes it to "General Irving Lincoln" in the track. A good album if you want to listen to a slice of history. I suspect this was a Rat Pack phrase that was shared freely. For the grammar freaks out there, the exact phrasing he uses on the record is, "We feel sorry for people that don’t drink because when you get up in the morning that's as good as you’re gonna feel for the rest of the day.”
clankityQ - 2011-02-27 01:08:51
what the hell? is everybody here an English teacher? shut the fuck up, quit ruining it for everybody
Pat - 2011-03-21 23:59:43
He who drinks gets drunk, He who gets drunk goes to sleep, He who goes to sleep does not sin, He who does not sin goes to Heaven so let's all drink and go to Heaven.
Tessa - 2011-03-27 14:48:00
Great and funny quotes, here is one of my favs: Love and alcohol are a lot alike… under the influence, you can make some pretty messed up decisions
Angelina - 2011-04-28 21:24:29
Better Waits quote - "I don't have a drinking problem, except for when I can't get a drink"
hamma - 2011-05-01 04:11:06
" i feel sorry for people " quote is by Dean Martin ...NOT Frank Sinatra are peoiple fukn stupid get it rite
vansh 2 cool - 2011-05-16 06:34:03
u see...i am a good man! i only drink alot so that there is less booze for chidren!!!
Freeway - 2011-06-23 07:35:52
I will drink until I loose my breath!!!!!!!
Anonymous - 2011-07-21 05:07:02
Some of us are very bright. A "quote" is only a "quote" when quoted verbatim. As soon as you start correcing it grammatically it is not a quote anymore.
A Fan - 2011-07-22 14:17:10
"Alcohol, The Cause and Solution to All of Life's Problems." -Homer
Mike - 2011-12-07 21:50:05
The guy is right. Number 9 WAS Dean Martin. And i IS screwed up.
Kevin - 2011-12-08 13:38:48
i think both dean martin and sinatra's quotes are wrong, check this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz2cZx118P0
kishor - 2012-02-06 12:09:41
its true i drink jst for a forgeting da pain
Gnu - 2012-07-27 04:41:33
I'm not an alcoholic, I only drink when I'm awake!
Coach 9-19-13 - 2013-09-19 17:33:12
You know you have had too much Red Wine when you order when you order another Wed Rine.
Chris - 2013-09-22 10:55:14
I thought that Dean Martin said what you attribute to Frank Sinatra. Are you sure it was Frank?
tintinkerouac - 2013-11-15 16:13:28
Missed a great one... I like to have a martini, Two at the very most. After three I'm under the table, after four I'm under my host. -- Dorothy Parker
Mark - 2014-01-19 10:09:59
I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered. - George Best
GranCarlos - 2014-06-11 15:11:29
ever heard? "... the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad, So I had one more for dessert." - Mr Cash ladies and gents
markis - 2014-07-07 08:06:02
For the record it wasn't Dean or Frank who said I feel sorry for those who don't drink...They both used it in their act...But it was first said by Jack Lemmon in the film Under the Yum Yum Tree.
fargo - 2015-01-29 21:33:56
"Now, don't say you can't swear off drinking. It's easy! I've done it a thousand times." - W.C. Fields
JimyP - 2015-02-15 07:54:28
#6 should read: "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than to have a frontal lobotomy." Period.
nick7076 - 2015-02-23 17:02:56
I am not an alcoholic, alcoholics go to meetings. I am a drunk, we go to parties.
Keenen - 2015-03-19 12:25:08
If your not drinking your not enjoying the fine moments in life that make drinking worth while....
The 13th Step - 2015-04-09 11:26:11
"I'm too drunk to taste this chicken." - Colonel Sanders
fah q - 2015-04-11 23:16:43
the sinatra quote is actually by Dean martin #2
SLiM - 2015-09-10 22:36:51
"He who comes forth with a fifth on the forth, may not come forth on the fifth." -Mark Twain
Anonymous - 2015-10-31 20:06:33
I hate people who don't drink alcohol. They sit there observing you and counting. But then I sit there counting them of how many cups of tea they drink. whats the difference.
to soon old - 2015-11-06 10:05:00
You are all sober... get off thuis page ya bunch of grammer nazie's.
Anonymous - 2015-11-30 21:09:37
#2 It wasn't Frank https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9yAFE2ccPs 13:30 Dean Martin
Matthew Nerz - 2015-12-05 00:39:22
Why are people CORRECTING incorrect grammar in quotes?!?! Even if the quoter cited quotee incorrectly(but, especially if they did not)?
| Dean Martin |
Who said (when speaking of cars) you can have any colour you want as long as its black | John Wayne - Biography - IMDb
John Wayne
Biography
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Jump to: Overview (5) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (3) | Trade Mark (5) | Trivia (238) | Personal Quotes (170) | Salary (50)
Overview (5)
6' 4" (1.93 m)
Mini Bio (1)
John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison in Iowa, to Mary Alberta (Brown) and Clyde Leonard Morrison, a pharmacist. He was of English, Ulster-Scots, and Irish ancestry.
Clyde developed a lung condition that required him to move his family from Iowa to the warmer climate of southern California, where they tried ranching in the Mojave Desert. Until the ranch failed, Marion and his younger brother Robert E. Morrison swam in an irrigation ditch and rode a horse to school. When the ranch failed, the family moved to Glendale, California, where Marion delivered medicines for his father, sold newspapers and had an Airedale dog named "Duke" (the source of his own nickname). He did well at school both academically and in football. When he narrowly failed admission to Annapolis he went to USC on a football scholarship 1925-7. Tom Mix got him a summer job as a prop man in exchange for football tickets. On the set he became close friends with director John Ford for whom, among others, he began doing bit parts, some billed as John Wayne . His first featured film was Men Without Women (1930). After more than 70 low-budget westerns and adventures, mostly routine, Wayne's career was stuck in a rut until Ford cast him in Stagecoach (1939), the movie that made him a star. He appeared in nearly 250 movies, many of epic proportions. From 1942-43 he was in a radio series, "The Three Sheets to the Wind", and in 1944 he helped found the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, a Conservative political organization, later becoming its President. His conservative political stance was also reflected in The Alamo (1960), which he produced, directed and starred in. His patriotic stand was enshrined in The Green Berets (1968) which he co-directed and starred in. Over the years Wayne was beset with health problems. In September 1964 he had a cancerous left lung removed; in March 1978 there was heart valve replacement surgery; and in January 1979 his stomach was removed. He received the Best Actor nomination for Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) and finally got the Oscar for his role as one-eyed Rooster Cogburn in True Grit (1969). A Congressional Gold Medal was struck in his honor in 1979. He is perhaps best remembered for his parts in Ford's cavalry trilogy - Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and Rio Grande (1950).
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Ed Stephan
Spouse (3)
Slow talk and distinctive gravelly voice
Distinctive cat-like walk
Often starred with Maureen O'Hara
Westerns and war movies
Trivia (238)
Holds the record for the actor with the most leading parts - 142. In all but 11 films he played the leading part.
Ranked #16 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. (October 1997)
Born at 1:00pm-CST.
Sons with Josephine: Michael Wayne (producer) (died 2003, age 68) and Patrick Wayne (actor); daughters Toni Wayne (died 2000, age 64) and Melinda Wayne .
Most published sources refer to Wayne's birth name as Marion Michael Morrison. His birth certificate, however, gives his original name as Marion Robert Morrison. According to Wayne's own statements, after the birth of his younger brother in 1911, his parents named the newborn Robert Emmett and changed Wayne's name from Marion Robert to Marion Michael. It has also been suggested by several of his biographers that Wayne's parents actually changed his birth name from Marion Robert to Marion Mitchell. In "Duke: The Life and Times of John Wayne" (1985), Donald Shepherd and Robert F. Slatzer state that when Wayne's younger brother was born, "the Duke's middle name was changed from Robert to Mitchell. . . . After he gained celebrity, Duke deliberately confused biographers and others by claiming Michael as his middle name, a claim that had no basis in fact."
His production company, Batjac, was originally to be called Batjak, after the shipping company owned by Luther Adler 's character in the film Wake of the Red Witch (1948). A secretary's typo while she was drawing up the papers resulted in it being called Batjac, and Wayne, not wanting to hurt her feelings, kept her spelling of it.
In the comic "Preacher", his ghost appears in several issues, clothed in his traditional gunfighter outfit, as a mentor to the hero of the series, Jesse Custer.
Great-uncle of boxer/actor Tommy Morrison , aka "The Duke".
An entry in the logbook of director John Ford 's yacht "Araner", during a voyage along the Baja peninsula, made a reference to one of Wayne's pranks on Ward Bond : "Caught the first mate [Wayne] pissing in [Ward] Bond's flask this morning - must remember to give him a raise."
He and his drinking buddy, actor Ward Bond , frequently played practical jokes on each other. In one incident, Bond bet Wayne that they could stand on opposite sides of a newspaper and Wayne wouldn't be able to hit him. Bond set a sheet of newspaper down in a doorway, Wayne stood on one end, and Bond slammed the door in his face, shouting "Try and hit me now!" Wayne responded by sending his fist through the door, flooring Bond (and winning the bet).
His favorite drink was Sauza Commemorativo Tequila, and he often served it with ice that he had chipped from an iceberg during one of his voyages on his yacht, "The Wild Goose".
He was offered the lead in The Dirty Dozen (1967), but went to star in and direct The Green Berets (1968) instead. The part was eventually given to Lee Marvin . He also felt that the film portrayed the military in a bad light.
The evening before a shoot he was trying to get some sleep in a Las Vegas hotel. The suite directly below his was that of Frank Sinatra (never a good friend of Wayne), who was having a party. The noise kept Wayne awake, and each time he made a complaining phone call it quieted temporarily but each time eventually grew louder. Wayne at last appeared at Sinatra's door and told Frank to stop the noise. A Sinatra bodyguard of Wayne's size approached saying, "Nobody talks to Mr. Sinatra that way." Wayne looked at the man, turned as though to leave, then backhanded the bodyguard, who fell to the floor, where Wayne knocked him out by crashing a chair on top of him. The party noise stopped.
He was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity.
His spoken album "America: Why I Love Her" became a surprise best-seller and Grammy nominee when it was released in 1973. Reissued on CD in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, it became a best-seller all over again.
Pictured on one of four 25¢ US commemorative postage stamps issued on Friday, March 23rd, 1990 honoring classic films released in 1939. The stamp featured Wayne as The Ringo Kid in Stagecoach (1939). The other films honored were Beau Geste (1939), The Wizard of Oz (1939), and Gone with the Wind (1939).
Upon being cast by Raoul Walsh in Fox's The Big Trail (1930) the studio decided his name had to be changed. Walsh said he was reading a biography on General "Mad" Anthony Wayne and suggested that name. The studio liked the last name but not the first and decided on "John Wayne" as the final rendition.
He once made a cameo appearance on The Beverly Hillbillies (1962). In episode, The Beverly Hillbillies: The Indians Are Coming (1967). And when asked how he wanted to be paid, his answer, in return, was "Give me a fifth of bourbon - that'll square it.".
In 1973 he was awarded the Gold Medal from the National Football Foundation for his days playing football for Glendale High School and USC.
Arguably Wayne's worst film, The Conqueror (1956), in which he played Genghis Kahn, was based on a script that director Dick Powell had every intention of throwing into the wastebasket. According to Powell, when he had to leave his office at RKO for a few minutes during a story conference, he returned to find a very enthused Wayne reading the script, which had been in a pile of possible scripts on Powell's desk, and insisting that this was the movie he wanted to make. As Powell himself summed it up, "Who am I to turn down John Wayne?".
Among his favorite leisure activities were playing bridge, poker, and chess.
He was buried at Pacific View Cemetery in Corona del Mar, California, (a community within his hometown of Newport Beach). His grave finally received a plaque in 1999.
Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1974.
Grandfather of actor Brendan Wayne .
Because his on-screen adventures involved the slaying of a slew of Mexicans, Native Americans and Japanese, he has been called a racist by his critics. They believe this was strengthened by a Playboy Magazine interview in which he suggested that blacks were not yet qualified to hold high public office because "discrimination prevented them from receiving the kind of education a political career requires". Yet all of his three wives were of Latin descent.
He was voted the 5th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
Just on his sheer popularity and his prominent political activism, the Republican party in 1968 supposedly asked him to run for President of the USA, even though he had no previous political experience. He turned them down because he did not believe America would take a movie star running for the President seriously. He did however support Ronald Reagan 's campaigns for governor of California in 1966 and 1970, as well as his bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1976.
Wayne was initiated into DeMolay in 1924 at the Glendale Chapter in Glendale California.
Received the DeMolay Legion of Honor in 1970.
He was a Master Mason.
Pictured on a 37¢ USA commemorative stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series, issued on Thursday, September 9th, 2004. The first-day ceremonies were held at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
Was a member of the first class to be inducted into the DeMolay Hall of Fame on Monday, November 13th, 1986.
Although he complained that High Noon (1952) was "un-American", he was gracious enough to collect Gary Cooper 's Oscar on his behalf. He was mainly afraid the movie would hurt 'Coop's career. He later teamed up with director Howard Hawks to tell the story his way in Rio Bravo (1959).
He had English, Scots-Irish (Northern Irish), and Irish ancestry.
He was voted the 4th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Premiere Magazine.
Was named the #13 greatest actor on The 50 Greatest Screen Legends list by the American Film Institute
He turned down Gregory Peck 's role in Twelve O'Clock High (1949).
Posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, by President Jimmy Carter in 1980.
Brother of Robert E. Morrison .
Addressed the Republican National Convention on its opening day in 1968.
On Monday, June 11th, 1979, the flame of the Olympic Torch at the Coliseum in Los Angeles, was lit for honoring him, in memory. It remained lit until the funeral four days later, Friday, June 15th, 1979.
Maureen O'Hara presented him with the People's Choice Award for most popular motion picture actor in 1976.
During the filming of The Undefeated (1969), he fell from his horse and fractured three ribs. He couldn't work for almost two weeks. Then he tore a ligament in his shoulder and couldn't use one arm at all. The director, Andrew V. McLaglen , could only film him from an angle for the rest of the picture. His only concern throughout was not to disappoint his fans, despite being in terrible pain.
According to movie industry columnist James Bacon , Wayne's producers issued phony press releases when he was hospitalized for cancer surgery in September 1964, claiming the star was being treated for lung congestion. "Those bastards who make pictures only think of the box office," he told Bacon, as recounted in 1979 by the columnist. "They figure Duke Wayne with cancer isn't a good image. I was too doped up at the time to argue with them, but I'm telling you the truth now. You know I never lie." After Bacon broke the story of the Duke's cancer, thousands of cancer victims and their relatives wrote to Wayne saying that his battle against the disease had given them hope.
He underwent surgery to have a cancerous left lung removed on Thursday, September 17th, 1964, in a six-hour operation. Press releases at the time reported that Wayne was in Los Angeles' Good Samaritan Hospital to be treated for lung congestion. When Hollywood columnist James Bacon went to the hospital to see Wayne, he was told by a nurse that Wayne wasn't having visitors. According to a Monday, June 27th, 1978, "Us" magazine article, Wayne said to his nurse from his room, "Let that son of a bitch come in." When Bacon sat down in his room, Wayne told him, "Well, I licked the Big C." Wayne confessed that his five-packs-a-day cigarette habit had caused a lung tumor the size of a golf ball, necessitating the removal of the entire lung. One day following surgery, Wayne began coughing so violently he ruptured his stitches and damaged delicate tissue. His face and hands began to swell up from a mixture of fluid and air, but the doctors didn't dare operate again so soon. Five days later they drained the fluid and repaired the stitches. On Tuesday, December 29th, 1964, Wayne held a press conference at his Encino ranch, against the advice of his agent and advisers, where he announced, "I licked the Big C. I know the man upstairs will pull the plug when he wants to, but I don't want to end my life being sick. I want to go out on two feet, in action." Before he had left the hospital on October 19th, Wayne received the news that his 52-year-old brother Robert E. Morrison had lung cancer.
Regretted playing Temujin in The Conqueror (1956) so much that he visibly shuddered whenever anyone mentioned the film's name. He once remarked that the moral of the film was "not to make an ass of yourself trying to play parts you're not suited for."
In 1978, after recovering from open heart surgery, he had a script commissioned for a film called "Beau John" in which he would star with Ron Howard , but due to his declining health it never happened. According to Howard, they saw each other at a function, and Wayne said to him that he had the script and said "It's me and you kid, or it's NOBODY!".
In November 2003 he once again commanded a top-ten spot in the annual Harris Poll asking Americans to name their favorite movie star. No other deceased star has achieved such ranking since Harris began asking the question in 1993. In a 2001 Gallup Poll, Americans selected Wayne as their favorite movie star of all time. He has been in the top-ten of the Harris poll each and every year it has come out, and usually in the top three. He is the only deceased actor to ever appear in this poll.
He made several films early in his career as a "singing" cowboy. His singing voice was supplied by a singer hidden off camera.
In 1971 he displayed a sense of humor when he appeared on The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour (1969) in his usual western screen costume, flashing the peace sign to the show's other guests that week, the then-hot rock band Three Dog Night .
Of his many film roles, his personal favorite was that of Ethan Edwards from The Searchers (1956). Wayne even went so far as to name his son Ethan after that character.
In 1979, as it became known that Wayne was dying of cancer, Barry Goldwater introduced legislation to award him the Congressional Gold Medal. Maureen O'Hara and Elizabeth Taylor flew to Washington to give testimony, and signed statements in support of the motion from Frank Sinatra , Gregory Peck , Jack Lemmon , Kirk Douglas , James Stewart and Katharine Hepburn were read out. The bill was passed unanimously, and the medal was presented to the Wayne family in the following year.
In 1974, with the Vietnam war still continuing, The Harvard Lampoon invited Wayne to The Harvard Square Theater to award him the "Brass Balls Award" for his "Outstanding machismo and a penchant for punching people". Wayne accepted and arrived riding atop an armored personnel carrier manned by the "Black Knights" of Troop D, Fifth Regiment. Wayne took the stage and ad-libbed his way through a series of derogatory questions with adroitness, displaying an agile wit that completely won over the audience of students.
Although on May 14, 1979, John Wayne's son Michael did arrange a visit to his father by Archbishop Marcos McGrath of Panama, it was not until June 11, 1979, two days before he died, that John Wayne would be baptized (likely conditionally) by Fr. Robert Curtis, UCLA Medical Center chaplain.
Mentioned in many songs, including Jimmy Buffett 's "Incommunicado", Tom Lehrer 's "Send The Marines", Ray Stevens ' "Beside Myself", Paula Cole 's "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?", Queen 's "Bicycle Race" and Bruce Dickinson 's (of Iron Maiden fame) "Sacred Cowboys".
Along with Charlton Heston , Wayne was offered and turned down the role of Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell in Steven Spielberg 's 1941 (1979), because he felt the film was an insult to World War II veterans, and also due to his own declining health.
Underwent surgery for an enlarged prostate in December 1976.
According to "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows" (8th Edition, pg. 495), Wayne was the first choice to play Marshal Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke (1955), but declined because he did not want to commit to a weekly TV series. He did, however, recommend his friend James Arness for the role, and gave the on-camera introduction in the pilot episode. In reality Wayne was never offered a TV series in the mid-1950s as he was a major movie star.
His performance as Ethan Edwards in The Searchers (1956) is ranked #87 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).
After meeting the late Superman (1978) star Christopher Reeve at the 1979 Academy Awards, Wayne turned to Cary Grant and said, "This is our new man. He's taking over.".
In 1973 Clint Eastwood wrote to Wayne, suggesting they star in a western together. Wayne wrote back an angry response criticizing the revisionist style and violence of Eastwood's latest western, High Plains Drifter (1973). Consequently Eastwood did not reply and no film was made.
His final public appearance was to present the Best Picture Oscar to The Deer Hunter (1978) at The 51st Annual Academy Awards (1979). It was not a film Wayne was fond of, since it presented a very different view of the Vietnam War than his own movie, The Green Berets (1968), had a decade earlier.
He allegedly turned down Dirty Harry (1971) because he felt the role of Harry Callahan was too far removed from his screen image. When he saw the movie he realized it wasn't so different from the roles he had traditionally played, and made two cop dramas of his own, McQ (1974) and Brannigan (1975). Director Don Siegel later commented, "Wayne couldn't have played Harry. He was too old. He was too old to play McQ, which was a poor copy of Bullitt (1968)".
He made three movies with Kirk Douglas , despite the fact that the two men had very different political ideologies. Wayne was a conservative Republican while Douglas was a very liberal Democrat. Wayne criticized Douglas for playing Vincent van Gogh in Lust for Life (1956), and publicly criticized him for hiring blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo , one of the "Hollywood Ten", to write the screenplay for Spartacus (1960). Douglas later praised Wayne as a true professional who would work with anybody if he felt they were right for the part. The two made three movies together, but avoided discussing politics.
One of the most unusual Oscar moments happened when anti-war liberal Barbra Streisand presented Vietnam war hawk Wayne with his Best Actor Oscar at The 42nd Annual Academy Awards (1970).
Wayne publicly criticized director Sam Peckinpah for his film The Wild Bunch (1969), which he claimed "destroyed the myth of the Old West".
The inscription on the Congressional Gold Medal awarded to him in 1979 reads, simply, "John Wayne, American."
Although never hailed as a great actor in the classic sense, Wayne was quite accomplished on stage in high school. He even represented Glendale High School in the prestigious 1925 Southern California Shakespeare Competition, performing a passage from "Henry VIII".
Despite being best known as a conservative Republican, Wayne's politics throughout his life were fluid. He later claimed to have considered himself a socialist during his first year of college. As a young actor in Hollywood, he described himself as a liberal, and voted for Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1936 presidential election. In 1938 he attended a fund raiser for a Democratic candidate in New York, but soon afterwards "realized Democrats didn't stand for the same things I did". Henry Fonda believed Wayne called himself a liberal just so he wouldn't fall out with director John Ford , an activist liberal Democrat. It really wasn't until the 1940s that Wayne moved fully to the right on the political spectrum. But even then, he was not always in lockstep with the rest of the conservative movement - a fact that was nonetheless unknown to the public until 1978, when he openly differed with the Republican Party over the issue of the Panama Canal. Conservatives wanted America to retain full control, but Wayne, believing that the Panamanians had the right to the canal, sided with President Jimmy Carter and the Democrats to win passage of the treaty returning the canal in the Senate. Carter openly credited Wayne with being a decisive factor in convincing some Republican Senators to support the measure.
According to Michael Munn's "John Wayne: The Man Behind the Myth", in 1959, Wayne was personally told by Nikita Khrushchev , when the Soviet Premier was visiting the United States on a goodwill tour, that Joseph Stalin and China's Zedong Mao had each ordered Wayne to be killed. Both dictators had considered Wayne to be a leading icon of American democracy, and thus a symbol of resistance to Communism through his active support for blacklisting in Hollywood, and they believed his death would be a major morale blow to the United States. Khrushchev told Wayne he had rescinded Stalin's order upon his predecessor's demise in March 1953, but Mao supposedly continued to demand Wayne's assassination well into the 1960s.
His performance as Ethan Edwards in The Searchers (1956) is ranked #23 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.
After seeing Wayne's performance in Red River (1948), directed by rival director Howard Hawks , John Ford is quoted as saying, "I never knew the big son of a bitch could act."
During his conservative political speeches in the late 1960s and early 1970s, students opposed to his political stances would often walk out of or boycott university film classes that screened his films.
Returned to Harvard in January 1974, at the height of his political activism, for a celebrity roast of himself. During the ceremony, the head said, "We're not here to make fun of you, we're here to hurt your feelings." Later, Wayne said jokingly, "You know, I accepted this invitation over a wonderful invitation to a Jane Fonda rally.".
Wore a toupee in every film from Wake of the Red Witch (1948) for the rest of his illustrious career.
During the filming of The Wings of Eagles (1957) he didn't wear it at all for the latter part of the film, showing the character in later life. Wayne's hairpiece can be seen to fall off during a fight scene in North to Alaska (1960).
Following his retirement from making movies in 1976, Wayne received thousands of letters from fans who accused him of selling out by advertising insurance in television commercials. Wayne responded that the six-figure sum he was offered to star in the advertisements was too good to refuse.
It was no surprise that Wayne would become such an enduring icon. By the early 1970s his contemporaries Humphrey Bogart , Tyrone Power , Errol Flynn , Clark Gable , Spencer Tracy , Paul Muni and Gary Cooper were dead. James Cagney and Cary Grant both retired from acting at 62. The careers of other stars declined considerably--both Henry Fonda and James Stewart ended up working on television series that wound up being canceled. Wayne, however, continued to star in movies until 1976, remaining one of the top ten US box-office stars until 1974.
The fact that all three of his wives were Latin-American surprised Hollywood; this was the only "non-American" aspect of his life. "I have never been conscious of going for any particular type," Wayne said in response to a challenge from the press, "it's just a happenstance".
Wayne's westerns were full of action but usually not excessively violent. "Fights with too much violence are dull," claimed Wayne, insisting that the straight-shooting, two-fisted violence in his movies have been "sort of tongue-in-cheek." He described the violence in his films as "lusty and a little humorous," based on his belief that "humor nullifies violence." His conservative taste deplored the increasing latitude given to violence and sex in Hollywood. In the 1960s he launched a campaign against what he termed "Hollywood's bloodstream polluted with perversion and immoral and amoral nuances." Most of his westerns steered clear of graphic violence.
Wayne tried not to make films that exploited sex or violence, deploring the vulgarity and violence in Rosemary's Baby (1968), which he saw and did not like, and A Clockwork Orange (1971) or Last Tango in Paris (1972) which he had no desire to see. He thought Deep Throat (1972) was repulsive - "after all, it's pretty hard to take your daughter to see it." And he refused to believe that Love Story (1970) "sold because the girl went around saying 'shit' all the way through it." Rather, "the American public wanted to see a little romantic story." He took a strong stance against nudity: "No one in any of my pictures will ever be served drinks by a girl with no top to her dress." It was not sex per se he was against. "Don't get me wrong. As far as a man and a woman are concerned, I'm awfully happy there's a thing called sex," he said, "It's an extra something God gave us, but no picture should feature the word in an unclear manner." He therefore saw "no reason why it shouldn't be in pictures," but it had to be "healthy, lusty sex."
During a visit to London in January 1974 to appear on The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour (1969) and Parkinson (1971), Wayne caught pneumonia. For a 66-year-old man with one lung this was very serious, and eventually he was coughing so hard that he damaged a valve in his heart. This problem went undetected until March 1978, when he underwent emergency open heart surgery in Boston. Bob Hope delivered a message from the The 50th Annual Academy Awards (1978), saying, "We want you to know Duke, we miss you tonight. We expect you to amble out here in person next year, because there is nobody who can fill John Wayne's boots." According to Loretta Young , that message from Hope made Wayne determined to live long enough to attend the Oscars in 1979.
On Friday, January 12th, 1979, Wayne entered hospital for gall bladder surgery, which turned in a nine and a half hour operation when doctors discovered cancer in his stomach. His entire stomach was removed. On May 2nd, Wayne returned to the hospital, where the cancer was found to have spread to his intestines. He was taken to the 9th floor of the UCLA Medical Center, where President Jimmy Carter visited him, and Queen Elizabeth II sent him a get well card. He went into a coma on Sunday, June 10th, 1979, and died at 5:35 P.M., in the late afternoon the next day, Monday, June 11th, 1979.
Although it has often been written that Wayne was dying of cancer when he made The Shootist (1976), his final film, this is not actually true. Following the removal of his entire left lung in 1964, he was cancer-free for the next 12 years. It wasn't until Christmas 1978 that he fell seriously ill again, and in January of the following year the cancer was found to have returned.
Ranked in the top four box office stars, as ranked by Quigley Publications' annual poll of the Top Ten Money Making Stars, an astounding 19 times from 1949 to 1972. (Only Clint Eastwood , with 21 appearances in the Top 10 to the Duke's 25, has been in the Top 10, let alone the top four, more times.) He made the top three a dozen times, the top two nine times, and was the #1 box office champ four times (1950, '51, '54 and 1971).
Was named the #1 box office star in North America by Quigley Publications, which has published its annual Top 10 Poll of Money-Making Stars since 1932. In all, the Duke was named to Quigley Publications' annual Top 10 Poll a record 25 times. ( Clint Eastwood , with 25 appearances in the Top 10, is #2, and Wayne's contemporary Gary Cooper , with 18 appearances, is tied for #3 with Tom Cruise .) Wayne had the longest ride on the list, first appearing on it in 1949 and making it every year but one (1958) through 1974. In four of those years he was No. 1.
In a 1960 interview Wayne criticized the homosexual themes of Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) and They Came to Cordura (1959).
Wayne appeared in a very uncomplimentary light in the Public Enemy song "Fight the Power," from the 1990 album "Fear of a Black Planet". Wayne has frequently come under fire for alleged racist remarks he made about black people and Native American Indians in his infamous Playboy magazine interview from May 1971. He was also criticized by some for supporting Senator Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election, after Goldwater had voted against the Civil Rights Act. However; it turned out that Goldwater was not as intolerant as people thought, and was quite progressive in his thinking on integration, but hindsight tends to rule the day.
Wayne denounced the subject of homosexuality in Tennessee Williams ' Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) as "too disgusting even for discussion"--even though he had not seen it and had no intention of seeing it. "It is too distasteful," he claimed, "to be put on a screen designed to entertain a family, or any member of a decent family." He considered the youth-oriented, anti-establishment film Easy Rider (1969) and Midnight Cowboy (1969), which to his dismay won the Best Picture Oscar in 1970, as "perverted" films. Especially when early in "Midnight Cowboy" Jon Voight dons his newly acquired Western duds and, posing in front of a mirror, utters the only words likely to come to mind at the moment one becomes a cowboy: "John Wayne!" Wayne told Playboy magazine, "Wouldn't you say that the wonderful love of these two men in 'Midnight Cowboy', a story about two fags, qualifies as a perverse movie?".
In 1971, owing to the success of Big Jake (1971), he was #1 at the US box office for the last time.
By the early 1960s, 161 of his films had grossed $350 million, and he had been paid as much as $666,000 to make a movie.
Due to his political activism, in 1968 Wayne was asked to be the segregationist Governor of Alabama George Wallace 's running mate in that year's presidential election. Wayne's response made headlines: "Wayne Wallace candidates? Wayne SAID 'B------t!'", as if he was shouting to the reporters.
While visiting the troops in Vietnam in June 1966, a bullet struck Wayne's bicycle. Although he was not within 100 yards of it at the time, the newspapers reported he had narrowly escaped death at the hands of a sniper.
In December 1978, just a month before he was diagnosed with stomach cancer, he joined Bob Hope and Johnny Carson in offering his services to speak out publicly against government corruption, poverty, crime and drug abuse.
Producer-director Robert Rossen offered the role of Willie Stark in All the King's Men (1949) to Wayne. Rossen sent a copy of the script to Wayne's agent, Charles K. Feldman ,who forwarded it to Wayne. After reading the script, Wayne sent it back with an angry letter attached. In it, he told Feldman that before he sent the script to any of his other clients, he should ask them if they wanted to star in a film that "smears the machinery of government for no purpose of humor or enlightenment", that "degrades all relationships", and that is populated by "drunken mothers; conniving fathers; double-crossing sweethearts; bad, bad, rich people; and bad, bad poor people if they want to get ahead." He accused Rossen of wanting to make a movie that threw acid on "the American way of life." If Feldman had such clients, Wayne wrote that the agent should "rush this script . . . to them." Wayne, however, said to the agent that "you can take this script and shove it up Robert Rossen's derriere." Wayne later remarked that "to make Huey Long a wonderful, rough pirate was great, but, according to this picture, everybody was shit except for this weakling intern doctor who was trying to find a place in the world." Broderick Crawford , who had played a supporting role in Wayne's Seven Sinners (1940),eventually got the part of Stark. In a bit of irony, Crawford was Oscar-nominated for the part of Stark and found himself competing against Wayne, who was nominated the same year for Sands of Iwo Jima (1949). Crawford won the Best Actor Oscar.
His image was so far-reaching that when Emperor Hirohito visited America in 1975, he asked to meet the veteran star. Wayne was quoted in the Chicago Sun Times as saying, "I must have killed off the entire Japanese army."
Allegedly thrust his Best Actor Oscar for True Grit (1969) to Richard Burton at the The 42nd Annual Academy Awards (1970), telling the Welsh actor, "You should have this, not me."
During the Vietnam War he was highly critical of teenagers who went to Europe to dodge the draft, calling them "cowards", "traitors" and "communists".
Despite his numerous alleged anti-gay remarks in interviews over the years,Wayne co-starred with Rock Hudson in The Undefeated (1969), even though he knew of the actor's homosexuality. In this Civil War epic, the champion of political conservatism worked well with and even became good friends with Hudson, Hollywood's gayest (although it wasn't publicly known at the time) leading man.They remained good friends until Wayne's death in 1979.
In 1971 Wayne and James Stewart were traveling to Ronald Reagan 's second inauguration as Governor of California when they encountered some anti-war demonstrators with a Vietcong flag. Stewart's stepson Ronald had been killed in Vietnam in 1969. Wayne walked over to speak to the protesters and within minutes the flag had been lowered.
In the final years of his life, with the resignation of President Richard Nixon and the end of the Vietnam War, Wayne's political beliefs appeared to have moderated. He attended the inauguration of President Jimmy Carter on 20 January 1977, and along with his fellow conservative James Stewart he could be seen applauding Jane Fonda at AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Henry Fonda (1978). Later in 1978, Wayne uncharacteristically sided with the Democrats and President Carter against his fellow conservative Republicans over the issue of the Panama Canal, which Wayne believed belonged to the people of Panama and not the United States of America.
Offered Charlton Heston the roles of Jim Bowie and Col. William Travis in The Alamo (1960), saying the young actor would be ideal for either part. Heston declined the offer because he did not want to be directed by Wayne, and because he feared the critical response to the ideologically conservative movie. Wayne intended the epic to be an allegory for America's Cold War with the Soviet Union.
Separated from his wife Pilar Wayne in 1973, though they never divorced. When Louis Johnson, his business partner, sold all of their holdings in Arizona, The 26 Bar Ranch and the Red River Land and Cattle Company, Wayne's children got one half of it, $24,000,000. Pilar had already been taken care of at their separation.
Although media reports suggested he was to attend Elvis Presley 's funeral in August 1977, Wayne didn't show up for it. Presley had once been considered for Glen Campbell 's role in True Grit (1969). The reason Presley did not appear in the film, was that his manager told Wayne that the only way Presley would appear is for and outrageous sum of money, plus top billing OVER Wayne, so needless to say, those demands were not met.
Re-mortgaged his house in Hollywood in order to finance The Alamo (1960). While the movie was a success internationally, it lost him a great deal of money personally. For the next four years he had to make one film after another, including The Longest Day (1962), for which he was paid $250,000 for four days work. By early 1962 his financial problems were resolved.
Honored with an Army RAH-66 helicopter, named "The Duke". Many people attended the naming ceremony in Washington, DC, on May 12, 1998, including his children and grandchildren, congressmen, the president of the USO Metropolitan Washington, dignitaries and many military personnel. His eldest son Michael Wayne said at the ceremony, "John Wayne loved his country and he loved its traditions".
In 1973 he was honored with the Veterans of Foreign Wars highest award
The National Americanism Gold Medal.
Produced and starred in a 1940s radio show about an alcoholic detective titled "Three Sheets to the Wind".
When he was honored with a square at the Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood the sand used in the cement was brought in from Iwo Jima, in honor of his film Sands of Iwo Jima (1949).
"The Greatest Cowboy Star of All Time" was the caption to a series of comic books dedicated to him. The "John Wayne Adventure Comics" were first published in 1949.
His image appeared on a wide variety of products including: 1950 popcorn trading cards given at theaters, 1951 Camel cigarettes, 1956 playing cards, Whitman's Chocolates and - posthumously - Coors beer. The money collected on the Coors beer cans with his image went to the John Wayne Cancer Institute. One of the most unusual was as a puppet on H.R. Pufnstuf (1969), who also put out a 1970 lunch box with his image among the other puppet characters.
Barry Goldwater visited the set of Stagecoach (1939) during filming. They had a long friendship and in 1964 Wayne helped in Goldwater's presidential campaign.
After his third wife Pilar Wayne left him in 1973, Wayne became (happily) involved with his secretary Pat Stacy for the remaining six years of his life.
Cited as America's favorite movie star in a Harris Poll conducted in 1995.
In his films Wayne often surrounded himself with a group of friends/fellow actors (often unknown names but recognized faces), such as Ward Bond , Jim Hutton , Bruce Cabot , Ben Johnson , Edward Faulkner , Jay C. Flippen , Richard Boone , Chuck Roberson and his son, Patrick Wayne .
Directed most of The Comancheros (1961) because credited director Michael Curtiz was dying of cancer and was often too ill to work. Wayne refused to be credited as a co-director.
Gave the eulogy at the funerals of Ward Bond , John Ford and Howard Hawks .
Had plastic surgery to remove the lines around his eyes in 1969, which left him with black eyes and forced him to wear dark glasses for two weeks. He also had surgery to remove the jowls around his mouth.
Worked with Robert Mitchum 's youngest son Christopher Mitchum in three films, Chisum (1970), Rio Lobo (1970) and Big Jake (1971). Wayne had intended on Christopher becoming part of his regular stock company of supporting actors, but fell out with him in 1973 in an argument over politics. Wayne told him, "I didn't know you was a pinko.".
Some of his films during the mid-1950s were less successful, forcing Wayne to work with pop singers in order to attract young audiences. He acted alongside Ricky Nelson in Rio Bravo (1959), Frankie Avalon in The Alamo (1960) and Fabian in North to Alaska (1960).
Wayne was buried in secret and the grave went unmarked until 1999, in case Vietnam War protesters desecrated the site. Twenty years after his death he finally received a headstone made of bronze which was engraved with a quotation from his infamous Playboy interview.
Wayne nearly got into a fight with British film critic Barry Norman on two occasions, both times over politics. In November 1963, on the set of Circus World (1964), the two had a serious argument over Barry Goldwater 's presidential campaign. Nearly six years later, while Wayne was promoting True Grit (1969), the two nearly came to blows on a train over the Vietnam War. Despite this, Norman wrote favorably of Wayne as an actor in his book "The Hollywood Greats" (1986).
Listed in the 1910 U.S. Census as Marion R. Morrison, living with his parents in Madison, Iowa.
In 1920, lived at 404 N. Isabel Street, Glendale, California, according to U.S. Census.
While filming True Grit (1969), Wayne was trying to keep his weight off with drugs - uppers for the day, downers to sleep at night. Occasionally, he got the pills mixed up, and this led to problems on a The Dean Martin Show (1965) taping in 1969. Instead of taking an upper before leaving for the filming, he took a downer - and was ready to crash by the time he arrived on the set. "I can't do our skit," Wayne reportedly told Martin when it was time to perform. "I'm too doped up. Goddamn, I look half smashed!" Naturally, Martin didn't have a problem with that. "Hell, Duke, people think I do the show that way all the time!" The taping went on as scheduled.
Although he actively supported Ronald Reagan 's failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1976, Wayne paid a visit to the White House as a guest of President Jimmy Carter for his inauguration. "I'm pleased to be present and accounted for in this capital of freedom to witness history as it happens - to watch a common man accept the uncommon responsibility he won 'fair and square' by stating his case to the American people - not by bloodshed, be-headings, and riots at the palace gates. I know I'm a member of the loyal opposition - accent on the loyal. I'd have it no other way.".
Pilar Wayne wrote in her book "My Life with The Duke": "Duke always said family came first, career second, and his interest in politics third. In fact, although he loved the children and me, there were times when we couldn't compete with his career or his devotion to the Republican Party.".
After Ronald Reagan 's election as Governor of California in 1966, Wayne was exiting a victory celebration when he was asked by police not to leave the building - a mob of 300 angry anti-war demonstrators were waiting outside. Instead of cowering indoors, Wayne confronted the demonstrators head on. When protesters waved the Viet Cong flag under his nose, Wayne grew impatient. "Please don't do that fellows," Duke warned the assembled. "I've seen too many kids your age wounded or dead because of that flag. So I don't take too kindly to it." The demonstrators persisted, so he chased a group of them down an alley.
In 1975, for the first time since his arrival in Hollywood 47 years earlier, he did not act in any movies. Production began in January of the following year for his last, The Shootist (1976).
In 1967 Wayne wrote to Democratic President Lyndon Johnson requesting military assistance for his pro-war film about Vietnam. Jack Valenti told the President, "Wayne's politics are wrong, but if he makes this film he will be helping us." Wayne got enough firepower to make The Green Berets (1968), which became one of the most controversial movies of all time.
In 1960 Frank Sinatra hired a blacklisted screenwriter, Albert Maltz , to write an anti-war screenplay for a film to be called "The Execution of Private Slovik", based on a William Bradford Huie book about the only US soldier to be executed for desertion during World War II. Wayne, who had actively supported the Joseph McCarthy anti-Communist witch hunts for nearly 20 years, recalled, "When I heard about it, I was so goddamn mad I told a reporter, 'I wonder how Sinatra's crony, Senator John F. Kennedy , feels about Sinatra hiring such a man'. The whole thing became a minefield . . . I heard that Kennedy put pressure on Frank and he had to back down . . . He ended up paying Maltz $75,000 not to write the goddamn thing". The film wasn't made for another 14 years ( The Execution of Private Slovik (1974)).
Campaigned for Sam Yorty in the 1969 election for Mayor of Los Angeles.
His great-nephew Tommy Morrison was diagnosed with HIV in 1996.
Announced his intention to campaign for Senator Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election after Goldwater had voted against the Civil Rights Act. Although diagnosed with lung cancer and forced to undergo major surgery in September, Wayne still managed to host a TV special for Goldwater in October.
Directed most of Big Jake (1971) himself because director George Sherman , an old friend from Wayne's days at Republic, was in his mid-60s and ill at the time, and not up to the rigors of directing an action picture in the wilds of Mexico, where much of the film was shot. Wayne refused to take co-director credit.
His TV appearances in the late 1960s showed that Wayne had overcome his indifference to television. In addition to appearing on The Dean Martin Show (1965), The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour (1969), he became a semi-regular visitor to Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967), often good-naturedly spoofing his macho image and even dressing up as The Easter Bunny in a famous 1972 episode.
After he finally won the Best Actor Oscar for True Grit (1969) his career declined. Chisum (1970), seemingly having little to do with Wayne, was released to mixed reviews and moderate business. Rio Lobo (1970) received very poor critical reception and proved to be a commercial disappointment. Big Jake (1971), pumped up with graphic action scenes and plenty of humor, made twice as much money as either of the previous two films. However, The Cowboys (1972) struggled to find an audience when first released, despite the fact that it received positive reviews and featured a very different performance from Wayne as an aging cattleman. The Train Robbers (1973) was largely forgettable and Cahill U.S. Marshal (1973) garnered him his worst reviews since The Conqueror (1956). His attempts to emulate Clint Eastwood as a tough detective were generally ridiculed due to his age, increasing weight and the predictable nature of the plots. McQ (1974) was only a moderate success and Brannigan (1975), although it was a better picture, made even less money. A sequel to True Grit (1969) titled Rooster Cogburn (1975), co-starring Katharine Hepburn , was critically reviled, but managed to be a minor hit. For the first time Wayne gave serious thought to retirement; however, he was able to make one final movie, a stark story of a gunfighter dying of cancer called The Shootist (1976) which, although Wayne received some of the best reviews of his career, struggled to get its money back.
Wayne did not serve during World War II. Knee injuries he received in college kept him from running the distances required by military standards.
Was a member of the conservative John Birch Society.
Campaigned for Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential election.
At the Memorial Day finale at Knott's Berry Farm in Anaheim in 1964, Wayne and Rock Hudson flanked Ronald Reagan as the future President led 27,000 Goldwater enthusiasts in a roaring Pledge of Allegiance.
In 1965, after his battle with lung cancer, Wayne moved out of Hollywood to Newport Beach, where he lived until his death 14 years later. His house was demolished after he died.
During the early 1960s Wayne traveled extensively to Panama. During this time, the star reportedly purchased the island of Taborcillo off the main coast of Panama. It was sold by his estate after his death and changed many hands before being opened as a tourist attraction.
Lauren Bacall once recalled that while Wayne hardly knew her husband Humphrey Bogart at all, he was the first to send flowers and good wishes after Bogart was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in January 1956.
Along with Humphrey Bogart , Wayne was regarded as the heaviest smoker in Hollywood, sustaining five packs of unfiltered Camels until his first battle with cancer in 1964. While recovering from losing his lung he began to chew tobacco, and then he started smoking cigars.
He lost the leading role in The Gunfighter (1950) to Gregory Peck because of his refusal to work for Columbia Pictures after Columbia chief Harry Cohn had mistreated him years before as a young contract player (Cohn had heard a rumor, which turned out to be untrue, that Waynel was pursuing a young starlet that Cohn was already having an affair with, and had him blackballed among the other Hollywood studios). Cohn had bought the _"The Gunfighter" project specifically with Wayne in mind for it, but Wayne's grudge was too deep, and Cohn sold the script to Twentieth Century-Fox, which cast Peck in the role Wayne badly wanted but refused to bend for. When the Reno Chamber of Commerce named Peck the top western star for 1950 and presented him with the Silver Spurs award, an angry Wayne said, "Well, who the hell decided that you were the best cowboy of the year?". Wayne also reportedly turned down the lead in "Twelve O'Clock High," which also became an iconic part for Peck.
He was badly sunburnt while filming 3 Godfathers (1948) and was briefly hospitalized.
Robert Aldrich , then president of the Directors Guild of America, stated in support of awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to Wayne in 1979: "It is important for you to know that I am a registered Democrat and, to my knowledge, share none of the political views espoused by Duke. However, whether he is ill- disposed or healthy, John Wayne is far beyond the normal political sharp-shooting in this community. Because of his courage, his dignity, his integrity, and because of his talents as an actor, his strength as a leader, his warmth as a human being throughout his illustrious career, he is entitled to a unique spot in our hearts and minds. In this industry, we often judge people, sometimes unfairly, by asking whether they have paid their dues. John Wayne has paid his dues over and over, and I'm proud to consider him a friend, and am very much in favor of my Government recognizing in some important fashion the contribution that Mr. Wayne has made.".
He regarded Rio Bravo (1959) as the film marking his transition into middle age. At 51 Wayne was starting to get overweight and he believed he was too old to play the romantic lead any more. His last four movies since The Searchers (1956) had been unsuccessful, and he felt the only way to keep audiences coming was to revert to playing "John Wayne" in every film.
Broke his leg while filming Legend of the Lost (1957).
Fittingly, Wayne was buried in Orange County, the most Republican district in the United States. The conservative residents admired Wayne so much that they named their international airport after him. It is about four miles from the cemetery where he is buried.
At one time Wayne was considered for Rock Hudson 's role as rancher Bick Benedict in George Stevens 's epic western Giant (1956).
He had intended to make a trilogy of films featuring the character Rooster Cogburn, but the third film was canceled after Rooster Cogburn (1975) proved to be only a moderate hit at the box office. The third film was intended to be called "Sometime".
In the mid-1930s Wayne was hired by Columbia Pictures to make several westerns for its "B" unit. Columbia chief Harry Cohn , a married man, soon got the idea that Wayne had made a pass at a Columbia starlet with whom Cohn was having an affair. When he confronted Wayne about it Wayne denied it, but Cohn called up executives at other studios and told them that Wayne would show up for work drunk, was a womanizer and a troublemaker and requested that they not hire him. Wayne didn't work for several months afterward, and when he discovered what Cohn had done, he burst into Cohn's office at Columbia, grabbed him by the neck and threatened to kill him. After he cooled off he told Cohn that "as long as I live, I will never work one day for you or Columbia no matter how much you offer me." Later, after Wayne had become a major star, he received several lucrative film offers from Columbia, including the lead in The Gunfighter (1950), all of which he turned down cold. Even after Cohn died in 1958, Wayne still refused to entertain any offers whatsoever from Columbia Pictures, including several that would have paid him more than a a million dollars.
The Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger , issued a proclamation making 26 May 2007 "John Wayne Day" in California.
Bought a 135-foot yacht called "The Wild Goose" in 1962. Wayne agreed to make Circus World (1964), a film he hated, just so he could sail the vessel to Europe.
In 1962 he was paid a record $250,000 for four days work on The Longest Day (1962), and in the following year he was paid the same amount for two days work on The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).
On 20 August 2007, the Republican Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver announced that Wayne will be inducted into the California Hall of Fame located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts in Sacramento on 5 December 2007.
After undergoing major lung surgery in 1964, Wayne would sometimes have to use an oxygen mask to breathe for the rest of his life. An oxygen tank was always kept in his trailer on locations. His breathing problems were particularly severe on airplanes, and while filming True Grit (1969) and Rooster Cogburn (1975), due to the high altitude. No photographs were allowed to be taken by the press of the veteran star breathing through an oxygen mask.
Often stated how he wished his first Oscar nomination had been for She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) instead of Sands of Iwo Jima (1949).
Ranked #11 in the 100 Most Influential People in the History of the Movies, according to the authors of the Film 100 Web site.
He has 25 appearances in the Top 10 at the US Box Office: 1949-1957 and 1959-1974.
Prior to making The Big Trail (1930), director Raoul Walsh told Wayne to take acting lessons. Wayne duly took three lessons, but gave up when the teacher told him he had no talent.
He was a member of the National Rifle Association (NRA).
Voice actor Peter Cullen based the voice of his most famous character, heroic Autobot leader Optimus Prime from Transformers (2007), on the voice of John Wayne.
In the late 1970s Wayne made a series of commercials for the Great Western Savings Bank in Los Angeles. The day after the first one aired, a man walked into a GW Bank branch in West Hollywood with a suitcase, asked to see the bank manager, and when he was shown to the manager's desk, he opened up the suitcase to reveal $500,000 in cash. He said, "If your bank is good enough for John Wayne, it's good enough for me." He had just closed his business and personal accounts at a rival bank down the street and walked to the GW branch to open accounts there because John Wayne had endorsed it.
Actor and later California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger cited Wayne as a role model from his childhood.
On Wednesday, January 25th, 1950, he became the 125th star to put his hand and footprints outside of Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
His Oscar win for True Grit (1969) was widely seen as more of a lifetime achievement award, since his performance had been criticized as over-the-top and hammy. In his Reader's Digest article on Wayne from October 1979, Ronald Reagan wrote that the award was both in recognition of his whole career, and to make up for him not receiving nominations for Red River (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and The Searchers (1956).
The Shootist (1976) is widely considered the best final film by any major star, rivaled only by Clark Gable 's role in The Misfits (1961) and Henry Fonda 's role in On Golden Pond (1981).
During his career his movies grossed an estimated half a billion dollars worldwide.
Spoilers: Of the near 200 films Wayne made, he died in only eight: Reap the Wild Wind (1942) (octopus attack), The Fighting Seabees (1944) (gunshot/explosion), Wake of the Red Witch (1948) (drowning), Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) (gunshot wounds), The Alamo (1960) (lance/explosion), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) (natural causes), The Cowboys (1972) (gunshot wounds) and The Shootist (1976) (shotgun wounds). His fate in The Sea Chase (1955) is undetermined - he may have died when his ship sank, or he (and Lana Turner ) may have made it to shore.
His father died of a heart attack in March 1937.
He very much wanted the role of Wild Bill Hickok in The Plainsman (1936), which he felt certain would make him a star, but director Cecil B. DeMille wanted Gary Cooper instead.
Michael Caine recalled in his 1992 autobiography "What's It All About?" that Wayne gave him two pieces of advice when they first met in Hollywood early in 1967. Firstly, on acting, Wayne told him, "Talk low, talk slow, and don't talk too much." Then Wayne added, "And never wear suede shoes. One time I was taking a piss when a guy next to me turned round and said, 'John Wayne!', and pissed all over my shoes.".
His first wife Josephine Alicia Saenz died of cancer in 2003, at the age of 94.
Actors Steve McQueen , Sylvester Stallone , Arnold Schwarzenegger , Bruce Willis and Chuck Norris all cited Wayne as a huge influence on them, both professionally and personally. Like Wayne, each man rose to fame playing men of heroic action. Also, like Wayne, each man is a supporter of conservative causes and the Republican party, the exception being McQueen who, although a lifelong Republican, died in 1980.
Gave Sammy Davis Jr. the first cowboy hat he ever wore in a film.
After leaving the stage, during 1979's Academy Awards ceremony, he was greeted by his old pal Sammy Davis Jr. , who gave him a big bear hug. Davis later told a friend he regretted hugging Wayne so hard in his fragile condition, but he was told that "Duke Wouldn't have missed that hug for anything" (the idea of the 125-pound Davis worrying about hugging him "too hard" was a sad commentary on Wayne's failing health).
Wayne was asked to be the running mate for Alabama Governor George Wallace , who was running for the US presidency on a segregationist ticket in 1968, but Wayne vehemently rejected the offer and actively campaigned for Richard Nixon . He addressed the Republican National Convention on its opening day in August 1968.
In his later years Wayne lived near Newport Beach, just south of Los Angeles, where he had a beach house and a yacht, "The Wild Goose". His house has been torn down, but The Wild Goose sails on. It's now a tour boat offering dinner cruises to Wayne fans young and old alike. Originally a decommissioned Navy minesweeper, it was rebuilt and customized by Wayne as a yacht; the custom interior has polished wood almost everywhere you look. It was there that in his later years he often entertained, hosting card games with his good friends Dean Martin , Sammy Davis Jr. and other name stars of the time.
On Monday, May 18th, 1953, during divorce proceedings from his second wife Esperanza Baur , Wayne's annual gross income was publicly revealed to be $502,891.
Visited Stepin Fetchit in hospital in 1976 after the actor had suffered a stroke which ended his career.
He considered Maureen O'Hara one of his best friends; over the years he was more open to her than anyone. When asked about her he always replied, "The greatest guy I ever knew." They were friends for 39 years, from 1940 until his death in 1979. Today she is considered by many to be his best leading lady; they starred in five films together. She referred to a wing in her home as the "John Wayne Wing".
Great Western Savings erected a bronze statue by Harry Jackson of Wayne on a horse at its headquarters in Beverly Hills. Although the building was later bought by Larry Flynt , the statue still stands at its original location.
He appeared in at least one film for every year from 1926-76, a record of 51 consecutive years. He did not act in a movie in 1975, though both Brannigan (1975) and Rooster Cogburn (1975) were released in that year.
Aa a young man, Ethan Wayne was never allowed to leave the house without carrying cards that his father had autographed to hand out to fans.
According to Mel Brooks in his commentary of Blazing Saddles (1974), he wanted Wayne as The Waco Kid. Wayne told Brooks that he thought the script was "funny as hell", but said it was "too dirty," and his fans would never accept him in the role. He also said he would do anything he could to help him get the picture made, and be the first in line to see it when it came out.
In 1959 he was considered for the role of the sergeant in a film that director Samuel Fuller wanted to make about his war experiences, "The Big Red One". When the film was finally made in 1980, The Big Red One (1980), the role went to Lee Marvin after Fuller asked that Wayne be replaced so as not to overshadow his film's story.
In the DVD documentary for 1941 (1979), Steven Spielberg says he first met Wayne at the memorial service for Joan Crawford . The two became friends and Spielberg offered the role of Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell to Wayne. He sent Wayne the script and got a call back the same day, criticizing Spielberg for making a film that Wayne felt was anti-American. The two remained friends and never discussed the film again. Spielberg says that later on Wayne pitched him a script idea about a camel race in Morocco starring Wayne and long-time friend and co-star Maureen O'Hara . Spielberg says it sounded like a good idea. However, Wayne later passed away and the film was never made.
Longtime friend of Harry Morgan .
Was a Boy Scout.
Was the acting mentor to actor James Arness .
In April 2014, he was honored as Turner Classic Movie's Star of the Month.
When wife Chata charged that Wayne had an affair with Gail Russell in their divorce proceedings, the actor countered that Nicky Hilton Rothschild had become a constant house-guest of Chata's.
In response to the Californian senate voting against celebrating May 26 as "John Wayne Day" in 2016, the state of Texas declared that it would celebrate "John Wayne Day".
Wayne's name consistently came up over the years for proposals that he portray WWII General George S. Patton. Through the 1950's studios proposed films about Patton, but Patton's family objected to such projects and objected to Wayne specifically. In the mid 1960's he was director 'Michael Anderson''s choice to play Patton in a Columbia Pictures epic, "16th of December: The Battle of the Bulge", which had the blessing of Eisenhower and the Defence Department, but the project was abandoned after Warner Brothers appropriated the title Battle of the Bulge (1965) for a generic war film with Henry Fonda . Finally Wayne was considered in the role for Patton (1970) ultimately played by George C. Scott , turning it down at one point, a decision he reportedly later regretted.
Is portrayed by David James Elliott in Trumbo (2015).
Often billed as 6'4", although Wayne said his exact height was 6'3 3/4".
Shortly before he began filming Legend of the Lost (1957) Wayne was devastated when the US government sided with the Soviet Union during the Suez Crisis, and took no action in response to the Soviet invasion of Hungary. Wayne believed Richard Nixon learned from the mistakes of November 1956 to correctly handle the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
In 2014 Marc Eliot's book "American Titan: Searching for John Wayne" alleged that Wayne deliberately avoided enlisting in the armed forces during World War II because he was afraid it would end the affair he was having with Marlene Dietrich . He also feared military service might end his career as he would be too old to be "an action-oriented leading man".
According to the families of John Wayne, legendary directory John Ford , and Harry Carey Jr. , Wayne's iconic "rolling walk" was developed during the filming of the classic Stagecoach (1939) by Duke and character actor Paul Fix , Carey's father-in-law (who wasn't in the film). This walk helped set Wayne apart from everyone else, and gave him more of an "edge" over other male actors of the day.
He appeared as a guest on the second episode of The Dean Martin Show (1965).
In 1960 he publicly condemned Frank Sinatra for trying to make a film version of "The Execution of Private Slovik" to be written by the blacklisted screenwriter Albert Maltz . Sinatra was forced to abandon the project after pressure from John F. Kennedy , whose presidential campaign he was actively supporting.
One of the referendum issues on the California ballot in the 1972 elections was a proposition that would have rigidly codified public obscenity laws, encouraging arrests of pornography peddlers. Wayne, and nearly two thirds of California's voters, found the proposition repressive and untenable. In a radio commercial he told voters, "You don't get rid of a bad situation with a badly written law, or cut off a foot to cure a sore toe.".
He separated from his third wife Pilar in 1967 while he was filming The Green Berets (1968). However they did not publicly announce their separation until 1973.
Plans to declare 26 May as John Wayne Day in California were rejected in April 2016 over allegedly racist comments the actor made in his May 1971 interview with "Playboy" magazine. In a State Assembly vote several legislators objected to having a day commemorating his birthday due to his "disturbing views towards race". The resolution was lost by 36-19 votes.
Publicly condemned the UK for sitting out the Vietnam War.
He paid a visited to Burt Lancaster on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands where they were filming The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977). There on the set Wayne met Exotic Animal Trainers Ralph Helfer and his wife Toni Helfer where two of their black Leopards bred and gave birth on location.
He has appeared in seven movies that have been selected by the Library Of Congress for the National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant. Stagecoach (1939), Red River (1948), The Quiet Man (1952), The Searchers (1956), Rio Bravo (1959), How the West Was Won (1962), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).
He turned down the lead role in MacArthur (1977) that went to Gregory Peck .
He was offered Kirk Douglas ' role in The Big Sky (1952), but he was unavailable.
He was considered for the role of James Averill in Heaven's Gate (1980) that went to Kris Kristofferson .
He was considered for James Stewart 's role in John Ford 's Two Rode Together (1961), but was unavailable.
He was the original choice for the role of Captain Jonathan Clarke in The World in His Arms (1952) that went to Gregory Peck .
He was going to star opposite Gary Cooper in Ride the High Country (1962), but Cooper's death put an end to it.
He was considered for Laurence Olivier 's role in The Betsy (1978).
He was considered for the role of Dusty Rivers in North West Mounted Police (1940) that went to Gary Cooper .
He was the original choice for the role of Lewton 'Lewt' McCanles in Duel in the Sun (1946) that went to Gregory Peck .
He wanted to star as Wild Bill Hickok in The Plainsman (1936), as he was sure that it would make him a star. But Cecil B. DeMille chose Gary Cooper instead.
He was considered for Richard Widmark 's role in Death of a Gunfighter (1969).
He was originally cast in Welcome to L.A. (1976), but due to budget overruns and delays, he had to be replaced by Denver Pyle .
He was the original choice for the lead role in Vera Cruz (1954) that went to Gary Cooper .
He was offered the role of Sam Colton in Plainsman and the Lady (1946), but he didn't like the script--and didn't want to work with Vera Ralston again--and refused it. It was then given to Bill Elliott .
He was considered for Robert Mitchum 's role in Young Billy Young (1969).
He was originally considered for Lee Marvin 's role in Monte Walsh (1970).
He turned down Anthony Quinn 's role in Across 110th Street (1972).
He was a vocal supporter of extending the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and invading eastern Europe to drive out the occupying Soviets.
He refused to make westerns outside the United States, even though many westerns were filmed in Italy and Spain, and later Israel.
Edward Asner accused him of being anti-Semitic when they made El Dorado (1967).
He said he became a committed anti-Communist after reading about the Russian Revolution.
Personal Quotes (170)
I never trust a man that doesn't drink.
[at Harvard in 1974, on being asked whether then-President Richard Nixon ever advised him on the making of his films] No, they've all been successful.
[on presenting the Best Picture Oscar in 1979] Oscar and I have something in common. Oscar first came to the Hollywood scene in 1928. So did I. We're both a little weatherbeaten, but we're still here and plan to be around for a whole lot longer.
When people say a John Wayne picture got bad reviews, I always wonder if they know it's a redundant sentence, but hell, I don't care. People like my pictures and that's all that counts.
[When asked if he believed in God] There must be some higher power or how else does all this stuff work?
[Time Magazine interview, 1969] I would like to be remembered, well . . . the Mexicans have a phrase, "Feo fuerte y formal". Which means he was ugly, strong and had dignity.
[poem, "The Sky", he read on his 1969 Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967) appearance] The sky is blue, the grass is green. Get off your ass and join the Marines.
[upon accepting his Oscar for True Grit (1969)] If I'd known this was all it would take, I'd have put that eyepatch on 40 years ago.
I'm an American actor. I work with my clothes on. I have to. Riding a horse can be pretty tough on your legs and elsewheres.
[on Native Americans:] I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.
When I started, I knew I was no actor and I went to work on this Wayne thing. It was as deliberate a projection as you'll ever see. I figured I needed a gimmick, so I dreamed up the drawl, the squint and a way of moving meant to suggest that I wasn't looking for trouble but would just as soon throw a bottle at your head as not. I practiced in front of a mirror.
Communism is quite obviously still a threat. Yes, they are human beings, with a right to their point of view . . .
[on being asked about his "phony hair" at Harvard in 1974] It's not phony. It's real hair. Of course, it's not mine, but it's real.
I never had a goddamn artistic problem in my life, never, and I've worked with the best of them. John Ford isn't exactly a bum, is he? Yet he never gave me any manure about art. He just made movies and that's what I do.
God-damn, I'm the stuff men are made of!
I was overwhelmed by the feeling of friendship, comradeship, and brotherhood . . . DeMolay will always hold a deep spot in my heart.
[on the Oscars] You can't eat awards -- nor, more to the point, drink 'em.
I made up my mind that I was going to play a real man to the best of my ability. I felt many of the western stars of the twenties and thirties were too goddamn perfect. They never drank or smoked. They never wanted to go to bed with a beautiful girl. They never had a fight. A heavy might throw a chair at them, and they just looked surprised and didn't fight in this spirit. They were too goddamn sweet and pure to be dirty fighters. Well, I wanted to be a dirty fighter if that was the only way to fight back. If someone throws a chair at you, hell, you pick up a chair and belt him right back. I was trying to play a man who gets dirty, who sweats sometimes, who enjoys kissing a gal he likes, who gets angry, who fights clean whenever possible but will fight dirty if he has to. You could say I made the western hero a roughneck.
[on America] I can tell you why I love her. I have a lust for her dignity. I look at her wonderfully classic face, and I see hidden in it a sense of humor that I love. I think of wonderful, exciting, decent things when I look at her . . .
Courage is being scared to death - and saddling up anyway.
I stick to simple themes. Love. Hate. No nuances. I stay away from psychoanalyst's couch scenes. Couches are good for one thing.
Every country in the world loved the folklore of the West - the music, the dress, the excitement, everything that was associated with the opening of a new territory. It took everybody out of their own little world. The cowboy lasted a hundred years, created more songs and prose and poetry than any other folk figure. The closest thing was the Japanese samurai. Now, I wonder who'll continue it.
I am a demonstrative man, a baby picker-upper, a hugger and a kisser - that's my nature.
I don't act . . . I react.
I have found a certain type calls himself a liberal . . . Now I always thought I was a liberal. I came up terribly surprised one time when I found out that I was a right-wing conservative extremist, when I listened to everybody's point of view that I ever met, and then decided how I should feel. But this so-called new liberal group, Jesus, they never listen to your point of view . . .
There's been a lot of stories about how I got to be called Duke. One was that I played the part of a duke in a school play--which I never did. Sometimes, they even said I was descended from royalty! It was all a lot of rubbish. Hell, the truth is that I was named after a dog!
Westerns are closer to art than anything else in the motion picture business.
We must always look to the future. Tomorrow - the time that gives a man just one more chance - is one of the many things that I feel are wonderful in life. So's a good horse under you. Or the only campfire for miles around. Or a quiet night and a nice soft hunk of ground to sleep on. A mother meeting her first-born. The sound of a kid calling you dad for the first time. There's a lot of things great about life. But I think tomorrow is the most important thing. Comes in to us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday.
I do not want the government to take away my human dignity and insure me anything more than a normal security. I don't want handouts.
I don't think a fella should be able to sit on his backside and receive welfare. I'd like to know why well-educated idiots keep apologizing for lazy and complaining people who think the world owes them a living. I'd like to know why they make excuses for cowards who spit in the faces of the police and then run behind the judicial sob sisters. I can't understand these people who carry placards to save the life of some criminal, yet have no thought for the innocent victim.
I want to play a real man in all my films, and I define manhood simply: men should be tough, fair, and courageous, never petty, never looking for a fight, but never backing down from one either.
I don't want ever to appear in a film that would embarrass a viewer. A man can take his wife, mother, and his daughter to one of my movies and never be ashamed or embarrassed for going.
I am an old-fashioned, honest-to-goodness, flag-waving patriot.
You can't whine and bellyache because somebody else got a good break and you didn't.
I think that the loud roar of irresponsible liberalism . . . is being quieted down by a reasoning public. I think the pendulum is swinging back. We're remembering that the past can't be so bad. We built a nation on it. We have to look to tomorrow.
Very few of the so-called liberals are open-minded . . . they shout you down and won't let you speak if you disagree with them.
Some people tell me everything isn't black and white. But I say why the hell not?
High Noon (1952) was the most un-American thing I have ever seen in my whole life. The last thing in the picture is ol' Coop [ Gary Cooper ] putting the United States marshal's badge under his foot and stepping on it. I'll never regret having run [screenwriter Carl Foreman ] out of this country.
God, how I hate solemn funerals. When I die, take me into a room and burn me. Then my family and a few good friends should get together, have a few good belts, and talk about the crazy old time we all had together.
I've always had deep faith that there is a Supreme Being, there has to be. To me that's just a normal thing to have that kind of faith. The fact that He's let me stick me around a little longer, or She's let me stick around a little longer, certainly goes great with me -- and I want to hang around as long as I'm healthy and not in anybody's way.
I have tried to live my life so that my family would love me and my friends respect me. The others can do whatever the hell they please.
My problem is that I'm not a handsome man like Cary Grant , who will be handsome at 65. I may be able to do a few more man-woman things before it's too late, but then what? I never want to play silly old men chasing young girls, as some of the stars are doing. I have to be a director - I've waited all these years to be one. The Alamo (1960) will tell what my future is.
[on The Green Berets (1968)] When I saw what our boys are going through - hell - and how the morale was holding up, and the job they were doing, I just knew they had to make this picture.
I'm quite sure that the concept of a government-run reservation would have an ill effect on anyone. But that seems to be what the socialists are working for now - to have everyone cared for from cradle to grave.
This may come as a surprise to you, but I wasn't alive when reservations were created - even if I do look that old. I have no idea what the best method of dealing with the Indians in the 1800s would have been. Our forefathers evidently thought they were doing the right thing.
I'm not going to give you those I-was-a-poor-boy-and-I-pulled-myself-up-by-my-bootstraps-stories, but I've gone without a meal or two in my lifetime, and I still don't expect the government to turn over any of its territory to me. Hard times aren't something I can blame my fellow citizens for. Years ago, I didn't have all the opportunities, either. But you can't whine and bellyache 'cause somebody else got a good break and you didn't, like these Indians are. We'll all be on a reservation soon if the socialists keep subsidizing groups like them with our tax money.
Look, I'm sure there have been inequalities. If those inequalities are presently affecting any of the Indians now alive, they have a right to a court hearing. But what happened 100 years ago in our country can't be blamed on us today.
[asked whether the Native American Indians should be allowed to camp on their land at Alcatraz] Well, I don't know of anybody else who wants it. The fellas who were taken off it sure don't want to go back there, including the guards. So as far as I am concerned, I think we ought to make a deal with the Indians. They should pay as much for Alcatraz as we paid them for Manhattan. I hope they haven't been careless with their wampum.
[on Superman (1978) star Christopher Reeve after meeting him at the 1979 Academy Awards] This is our new man. He's taking over.
I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to the point of responsibility. I don't believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people.
Have you ever heard of some fellows who first came over to this country? You know what they found? They found a howling wilderness, with summers too hot and winters freezing, and they also found some unpleasant little characters who painted their faces. Do you think these pioneers filled out form number X6277 and sent in a report saying the Indians were a little unreasonable? Did they have insurance for their old age, for their crops, for their homes? They did not! They looked at the land, and the forest, and the rivers. They looked at their wives, their kids and their houses, and then they looked up at the sky and they said, "Thanks, God, we'll take it from here."
Don't ever for a minute make the mistake of looking down your nose at westerns. They're art--the good ones, I mean. They deal in life and sudden death and primitive struggle, and with the basic emotions--love, hate, and anger--thrown in. We'll have westerns films as long as the cameras keep turning. The fascination that the Old West has will never die. And as long as people want to pay money to see me act, I'll keep on making westerns until the day I die.
If it hadn't been for football and the fact I got my leg broke and had to go into the movies to eat, why, who knows, I might have turned out to be a liberal Democrat.
[on why he never wrote an autobiography] Those who like me already know me, and those who don't like me wouldn't want to read about me anyway.
I don't think John Ford had any kind of respect for me as an actor until I made Red River (1948) for Howard Hawks . I was never quite sure what he did think of me as an actor. I know now, though. Because when I finally won an Oscar for my role as Rooster Cogburn in True Grit (1969), Ford shook my hand and said the award was long overdue me as far as he was concerned. Right then, I knew he'd respected me as an actor since Stagecoach (1939), even though he hadn't let me know it. He later told me his praise earlier, might have gone to my head and made me conceited, and that was why he'd never said anything to me, until the right time.
I play John Wayne in every picture regardless of the character, and I've been doing all right, haven't I?
Talk low, talk slow and don't talk too much.
That little clique back there in the East has taken great personal satisfaction reviewing my politics instead of my pictures. But one day those doctrinaire liberals will wake up to find the pendulum has swung the other way.
I was 32nd in the box office polls when I accepted the presidency of the Alliance [The Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, a right-wing political organization he helped start]. When I left office eight years later, somehow the folks who buy the tickets had made me number one.
[on Frank Capra ] I'd like to take that little Dago son of a bitch and tear him into a million pieces and throw him into the ocean and watch him float back to Sicily where he belongs.
Television has a tendency to reach a little. In their westerns, they are getting away from the simplicity and the fact that those men were fighting the elements and the rawness of nature and didn't have time for this couch-work.
Mine is a rebellion against the monotony of life. The rebellion in these kids, particularly the S.D.S.-ers and those groups, seems to be a kind of dissension by rote.
Just think of it. At the Alamo there was a band of only 185 men of many nationalities and religions, all joined in a common cause for freedom. Those 185 men killed 1000 of Santa Anna's men before they died. But they knew they spent their lives for the precious time Sam Houston needed.
[on the studios' blacklisting of alleged "subversives" in Hollywood] If it is for the FBI, I will do anything for them. If they want me to I will even be photographed with an agent and point out a Communist for them. Tell Mr. Hoover [FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover ] I am on his side.
You know, I hear everybody talking about the generation gap. Frankly, sometimes I don't know what they're talking about. Heck, by now I should know a little bit about it, if I'm ever going to. I have seven kids and 18 grandkids and I don't seem to have any trouble talking to any of them. Never have had, and I don't intend to start now.
[on The Conqueror (1956)] The way the screenplay reads, this is a cowboy picture, and that's how I am going to play Genghis Khan. I see him as a gunfighter.
[1979] I've known Jane Fonda since she was a little girl. I've never agreed with a word she's said, but would give my life defending her right to say it.
That Redford [ Robert Redford ] fellow is good. Brando [ Marlon Brando ]. Ah, Patton (1970) - George C. Scott . But the best of the bunch is Garner - James Garner . He can play anything. Comedy westerns, drama - you name it. Yeah, I have to say Garner is the best around today. He doesn't have to say anything
just make a face and you crack up.
To me, The Wild Bunch (1969) was distasteful. It would have been a good picture without the gore. Pictures go too far when they use that kind of realism, when they have shots of blood spurting out and teeth flying, and when they throw liver out to make it look like people's insides. "The Wild Bunch" was one of the first to go that far in realism, and the curious went to see it. That may make the bankers and stock promoters think that it is a necessary ingredient for successful motion pictures. They seem to forget the one basic principle of our business - illusion. We're in the business of magic. I don't think it hurts a child to see anything that has the illusion of violence in it. All our fairy tales have some kind of violence - the good knight riding to kill the dragon, etc. Why do we have to show the knight spreading the serpent's guts all over the candy mountain?
I read someplace that I used to make B-pictures. Hell, they were a lot farther down the alphabet than that . . . but not as far down as R and X. I think any man who makes an X-rated picture ought to be made to take his own daughter to see it.
Screw ambiguity. Perversion and corruption masquerade as ambiguity. I don't trust ambiguity.
I'm not preaching a sermon from the mount, you know. This is just my own opinion. But it does seem to me that when our industry got vulgar and cheap, we began losing our regular customers. Sure, people are curious, and they'll go see any provocative thing once - maybe even four or five times - but eventually they'll just stay home and watch television. There used to be this little Frenchman in Hollywood who made all these risqué movies . . . what the hell was his name? . . . Lubitsch [ Ernst Lubitsch , who was actually German]! He could make pictures as risqué as anything you'll see today, but he made them with taste and illusion. The only sadness in my heart for our business is that we are taking all the illusion out of it. After all, it's pretty hard to take your daughter to see Deep Throat (1972).
Not that I had thoughts of becoming a song and dance man, but, like most young actors, I did want to play a variety of roles. I remember walking down the street one day, mumbling to myself about the way my career was going, when suddenly I bumped into Will Rogers . "What's the matter, Duke?" he asked, and I said things weren't going so well. "You working?" he asked, and I said, "Yep." "Keep working, Duke," he said and smiled and walked away.
I think it was sad that Brando [ Marlon Brando ] did what he did. If he had something to say, he should have appeared that night and stated his views instead of taking some little unknown girl and dressing her up in an Indian outfit. What he was doing was trying to avoid the issue that was really on his mind, which was the provocative story of Last Tango in Paris (1972). Let's just say I haven't made a particular point of seeing that particular picture. Brando is one of the finest actors we've had in the business, and I'm only sorry he didn't have the benefit of older, more established friends - as I did - to help him choose the proper material in which to use his talent.
Watergate is a sad and tragic incident in our history. They were wrong, dead wrong, those men at Watergate. Men abused power, but the system still works. Men abused money, but the system still works. Men lied and perjured themselves, but the system still works.
It's kind of a sad thing when a normal love of country makes you a super patriot. I do think we have a pretty wonderful country, and I thank God that He chose me to live here.
[December 1973] They're trying to crucify Nixon [ Richard Nixon ], but when they're writing the history of this period, Watergate will be no more than a footnote. Believe me, I have a high respect for the bulldogged way in which our President has been able to continue to administrate this government, in spite of the articulate liberal press - whose only purpose is to sell toilet paper and Toyotas - and in spite of the ambitious politicians who would deny him the help and encouragement that a man needs to face the problems of this country. I endorsed Spiro Agnew 's attitudes, but I knew nothing of his private affairs. I was sadly disappointed to discover his feet of clay.
The only way to get 520,000 men home - men who had been practically sneaked into Vietnam in the first place - was to make the decision to mine Haiphong Harbor. President [ Richard Nixon ] had the courage to make that decision, and when the other side started using prisoners of war as pawns, he had to make the awesome decision to bomb Hanoi. Which he did, and then he brought our prisoners of war home. Richard Nixon and I have had a long acquaintance. I respected him as a goodly man - winning or losing
over the years, and I think he should be standing in the crowning
glory today for his accomplishments. Instead, they've chosen to blame him for the gradual growth of hypocrisy and individual ambition that have made our political system distasteful to the public.
[on his separation from third wife Pilar Wayne in 1973] We have separated, and it's a sad incident in my life. It is family and personal. I'd rather keep it that way.
[1973] My build-up was done through constant exposure. By the time I went overseas to visit our boys during the Second World War, they had already seen my movies when they were back home. Now their kids are grown up and their kids are seeing my movies. I'm part of the family . . . I think Steve McQueen and Robert Redford have a chance of becoming lasting stars. And certainly that big kid - what the hell's his name? Jesus, I have such a hard time remembering my own name sometimes. Oh, you know the one I mean, that big kid, the one that's been directing some of his own movies lately. Yeah, that's the one - Clint Eastwood !
Once I was working in a movie with Harry Carey and his wife Olive [ Olive Carey ], and I was complaining about being typed. "Duke," Ollie said, "look at Harry over there - would you like to see Harry Carey play any other way?". "Of course not," I said. "Well," Ollie said, "the American public doesn't want to see you any other way, either. So wake up, Duke! Be what they want you to be." See, I'm not against Women's Lib. Ollie gave me some real good advice.
John Ford was like a father to me, like a big brother. I got word that he wanted to see me at his home in Palm Springs, and when I got there, he said, "Hi Duke, down for the deathwatch?" "Hell no," I said, "you'll bury us all." But he looked so weak. We used to be a triumvirate - Ford and me and a guy named Ward Bond . The day I went to Palm Springs, Ford said, "Duke, do you ever think of Ward?" "All the time," I said. "Well, let's have a drink to Ward," he said. So I got out the brandy, gave him a sip and took one for myself. "All right, Duke," he said finally, "I think I'll rest for a while." I went home, and that was Pappy Ford's last day.
[1973] I've been allowed a few more years - I hope. My lung capacity is naturally limited now, but I had a pretty good set before the disease hit me, so it isn't too noticeable in my everyday life.
[After failing to win the Best Actor Oscar for Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)] The best way to survive an Oscar is to never try to win another one. You've seen what happens to some Oscar winners. They spend the rest of their lives turning down scripts while searching for the great role to win another one. Hell, I hope I'm never even nominated again. It's meat-and-potato roles for me from now on.
[on The Alamo (1960)] This picture is America. I hope that seeing the battle of the Alamo will remind Americans that liberty and freedom don't come cheap. This picture, well, I guess making it has made me feel useful to my country.
[1960] I suddenly found out after 25 years I was starting out all over again. I would just about break even if I sold everything right now.
[12/29/64] I've had lung cancer, the big C. But I've beaten the son of a bitch. Maybe I can give some poor bastard a little hope by being honest. I want people to know cancer can be licked. My advisers all told me that the public doesn't want its movie heroes associated with serious illness like cancer, that it destroys their image. Well, I don't care much about images, and, anyway, I would have thought there was a lot better image in the fact that John Wayne had cancer and licked it.
[1966] I drink for comradeship, and when I drink for comradeship, I don't bother to keep count.
[1962] I'm a progressive thinker, even though I'm not in the liberal strain.
[1971] Get a checkup. Talk someone you like into getting a checkup. Nag someone you love into getting a checkup. And while you're at it, send a check to the American Cancer Society. It's great to be alive.
[1971] Well, you like . . . each picture for . . . a different reason. But I think my favorite will always be the next one.
[on television] I don't know if I love it or hate it, but there sure has never been any form of entertainment so . . . so . . . available to the human race with so little effort since they invented marital sex.
[1976] And to all you folks out there, I want to thank you for the last fifty years of my career. And I hope I can keep at it another fifty years - or at least until I can get it right.
[1979] Listen, I spoke to the man up there on many occasions and I have what I always had: deep faith that there is a Supreme Being. There has to be, you know; it's just to me, that's just a normal thing, to have that kind of faith. The fact that He's let me stick around a little longer certainly goes great with me, and I want to hang around as long as I'm healthy and not in anybody's way.
[6/78] I'm a greedy old man. Life's been good to me, and I want some more of it.
Sure I wave the American flag. Do you know a better flag to wave? Sure I love my country with all her faults. I'm not ashamed of that, never have been, never will be. I was proud when President Nixon [ Richard Nixon ] ordered the mining of Haiphong Harbor, which we should have done long ago, because I think we're helping a brave little country defend herself against Communist invasion. That's what I tried to show in The Green Berets (1968) and I took plenty of abuse from the critics. Did you ever see reviews like that? Reviews with hatred and nastiness.
[his speech at The 42nd Annual Academy Awards (1970)] Wow! Ladies and gentlemen, I'm no stranger to this podium. I've come up here and picked up these beautiful golden men before, but always for friends. One night I picked up two: one for Admiral John Ford and one for our beloved Gary Cooper . I was very clever and witty that night - the envy of, even, Bob Hope . But tonight I don't feel very clever, very witty. I feel very grateful, very humble, and I owe thanks to many, many people. I want to thank the members of the Academy. To all you people who are watching on television, thank you for taking such warm interest in our glorious industry. Good night.
When you come slam bang up against trouble, it never looks half as bad if you face up to it.
A man's got to have a code, a creed to live by, no matter his job.
When the road looks rough ahead, remember the Man Upstairs and the word "Hope". Hang onto both and tough it out.
We've made mistakes along the way, but that's no reason to start tearing up the best flag God ever gave to any country.
[on his third wife Pilar Wayne ] I can tell you why I love her. I have a lust for her dignity. I look at her wonderfully classic face, and I see hidden in it a sense of humor that I love. I think of wonderful, exciting, decent things when I look at her.
The West - the very words go straight to that place of the heart where Americans feel the spirit of pride in their western heritage - the triumph of personal courage over any obstacle, whether nature or man.
There's a lot of yella bastards in the country who would like to call patriotism old-fashioned. With all that leftist activity, I was quite obviously on the other side. I was invited at first to a coupla cell meetings, and I played the lamb to listen to 'em for a while. The only guy that ever fooled me was the director Edward Dmytryk . I made a picture with him called Back to Bataan (1945). He started talking about the masses, and as soon as he started using that word - which is from their book, not ours - I knew he was a Commie.END.
My main object in making a motion picture is entertainment. If at the same time I can strike a blow for liberty, then I'll stick one in.
I think those blacklisted people should have been sent over to Russia. They'd have been taken care of over there, and if the Commies ever won over here, why hell, those guys would be the first ones they'd take care of - after me.
I said there was a tall, lanky kid that led 150 airplanes across Berlin. He was an actor, but that day, I said, he was a colonel. Colonel Jimmy Stewart [ James Stewart ]. So I said, "What is all this crap about Reagan [ Ronald Reagan ] being an actor?"
The Green Berets (1968) made $7,000,000 in the first three months of its release. This so-called intellectual group aren't in touch with the American people, regardless of [ J. William Fulbright 's] blatting, and Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern and Ted Kennedy . In spite of them the American people do not feel that way. Instead of taking a census, they ought to count the tickets that were sold to that picture.
In spite of the fact that Rooster Cogburn would shoot a fella between the eyes, he'd judge that fella before he did it. He was merely trying to make the area in which he was marshal livable for the most number of people.
I wrote to the head man at General Motors and said, "I'm gonna have to desert you if you don't stop making cars for women.'"
Paul Newman would have been a much more important star if he hadn't always tried to be an anti-hero, to show the human feet of clay.
Contrary to what people think, I'm no politician, and when I have something to say I say it through my movies.
[on Donovan's Reef (1963)] The script really called for a younger guy. I felt awkward romancing a young girl at my age.
[on Jet Pilot (1957)] It is undoubtedly one of my worst movies ever.
[on Cahill U.S. Marshal (1973)] It just wasn't a well done picture. It needed better writing, it needed a little better care in making.
I had the feeling my career was going to decline back in '68. I'd just had a big hit with The Green Berets (1968), but I wasn't getting any younger and I knew Hellfighters (1968) wasn't going to set the box office on fire. Then I read a script for a film called True Grit (1969).
[on High Plains Drifter (1973)] That isn't what the West was all about. That isn't the American people who settled this country.
[on Raoul Walsh ] I've been very lucky in the men I've worked with. Raoul Walsh -- the heartiness and lustiness he gave to pictures I thought was tremendous.
[on They Came to Cordura (1959)] How they got Gary Cooper to do that one! To me, at least, it simply degrades the Medal of Honor. The whole story makes a mockery of America's highest award for valor. The whole premise of the story was wrong, illogical, because they don't pick the type of men the movie picked to win the award, and that can be proved by the very history of the award.
[on Republic Pictures' chief Herbert J. Yates ' failed attempts to make a star out of wife Vera Ralston ] Yates was one of the smartest businessmen I ever met. I respected him in many ways, and he liked me. But when it came to the woman he loved, his business brains just went flyin' out the window.
[on The Fighting Kentuckian (1949)] Yates [Republic Pictures studio chief Herbert J. Yates ] made me use Vera Hruba [Republic star Vera Ralston , who was also Yates' mistress] . . . I've always been mad at Yates about this, because we lost the chance to have one damn fine movie.
I know what the critics think--that I can't act. What is a great actor anyway? Of course, you could say a great actor is one who can play many different parts, like [ Laurence Olivier ] can. But all the parts I play are tailor-made for me.
[on reactions to The Green Berets (1968)] The left-wingers are shredding my flesh, but like Liberace , we're bawling all the way to the bank.
[about the death of James Stewart 's son, who was killed in Vietnam] Jesus, that was a terrible thing about Gloria and Jimmy Stewart's kid getting killed over there. It makes you want to cry. At least Jimmy was over there to see the kid a few months ago. That's something. But it makes you want to cry. And [ Robert Taylor ]'s going was terrible. He was terminal since they opened him up. I know what he went through. They ripped a lung out of me. I thank God I'm still here. All the real motion picture people have always made family pictures. But the downbeats and the so-called intelligentsia got in when the government stupidly split up the production companies and the theaters. The old giants--[ Louis B. Mayer ], [ Irving Thalberg ], even Harry Cohn , despite the fact that personally I couldn't stand him--were good for this industry. Now the goddamned stock manipulators have taken over. They don't know a goddamned thing about making movies. They make something dirty, and it makes money, and they say, "Jesus, let's make one a little dirtier, maybe it'll make more money". And now even the bankers are getting their noses into it. I'll give you an example. Take that girl, Julie Andrews , a refreshing, openhearted girl, a wonderful performer. Her stint was Mary Poppins (1964) and The Sound of Music (1965). But she wanted to be a Theda Bara . And they went along with her, and the picture fell flat on its ass. A [ Samuel Goldwyn ] would have told her, "Look, my dear, you can't change your sweet and lovely image".
But you know, I'm very conscious that people criticize Hollywood. Yet we've created a form, the Western, that can be understood in every country. The good guys against the bad guys. No nuances. And the horse is the best vehicle of action in our medium. You take action, a scene, and scenery, and cut them together, and you never miss. Action, scene, scenery. But when you think about the Western--ones I've made, for example. Stagecoach (1939), Red River (1948), The Searchers (1956), a picture named Hondo (1953) that had a little depth to it--it's an American art form. It represents what this country is about. In True Grit (1969), for example, that scene where Rooster shoots the rat. That was a kind of reference to today's problems. Oh, not that "True Grit" has a message or anything. But that scene was about less accommodation, and more justice. They keep bringing up the fact that America's for the downtrodden. But this new thing of genuflecting to the downtrodden, I don't go along with that. We ought to go back to praising the kids who get good grades, instead of making excuses for the ones who shoot the neighborhood grocery man. But, hell, I don't want to get started on that!
But back to True Grit (1969). Henry Hathaway used the backgrounds in such a way that it became almost a fantasy. Remember that one scene, where old Rooster is facing those four men across the meadow, and he takes the reins in his teeth and charges? Fill your hands, you varmints! That's Henry at work. It's a real meadow, but it looks almost dreamlike. Henry made it a fantasy and yet he kept it an honest Western. You get something of that in the character of Rooster. Well, they say he's not like what I've done before, and I even say that, but he does have facets of the John Wayne character, huh? I think he does. Of course, they give me that John Wayne stuff so much, claim I always play the same role. Seems like nobody remembers how different the fellas were in The Quiet Man (1952). Or Sands of Iwo Jima (1949). Or She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), where I was 35 playing a man of 65. To stay a star, you have to bring along some of your own personality. Thousands of good actors can carry a scene, but a star has to carry the scene and still, without intruding, allow some of his character into it.
[on True Grit (1969)] And that ending. I liked that. You know, in the book Mattie loses her hand from the snakebite, and I die, and the last scene in the book has her looking at my grave. But the way Marguerite Roberts wrote the screenplay, she gave it an uplift. Mattie and Rooster both go to visit her family plot, after she gets cured of the snakebite. By now it's winter. And she offers to let Rooster be buried there some day, seeing as how he has no family of his own. Rooster's happy to accept, long as he doesn't have to take her up on it too quick. So then he gets on his horse and says, "Come and see a fat old man sometime". And then he spurs the horse and jumps a fence, just to show he still can.
[in 1973] Hell yes, I'm a liberal. I listen to both sides before I make up my mind. Doesn't that make you a liberal? Not in today's terms, it doesn't. These days, you have to be a fucking left-wing radical to be a liberal. Politically, though . . . I've mellowed.
I'm glad I won't be around much longer to see what they do with it. The men who control the big studios today are stock manipulators and bankers. They know nothing about our business. They're in it for the buck. The only thing they can do is say, "Jeez, that picture with what's-her-name running around the park naked made money, so let's make another one. If that's what they want, let's give it to them." Some of these guys remind me of high-class whores. Look at 20th Century-Fox, where they're making movies like Myra Breckinridge (1970). Why doesn't that son of a bitch Darryl F. Zanuck get himself a striped silk shirt and learn how to play the piano? Then he could work in any room in the house. As much as I couldn't stand some of the old-time moguls - especially Harry Cohn - these men took an interest in the future of their business. They had integrity. There was a stretch when they realized that they'd made a hero out of the goddamn gangster heavy in crime movies, that they were doing a discredit to our country. So the moguls voluntarily took it upon themselves to stop making gangster pictures. No censorship from the outside. They were responsible to the public. But today's executives don't give a damn. In their efforts to grab the box office that these sex pictures are attracting, they're producing garbage. They're taking advantage of the fact that nobody wants to be called a bluenose. But they're going to reach the point where the American people will say, "The hell with this!" And once they do, we'll have censorship in every state, in every city, and there'll be no way you can make even a worthwhile picture for adults and have it acceptable for national release.
Every time they rate a picture, they let a little more go. Ratings are ridiculous to begin with. There was no need for rated pictures when the major studios were in control. Movies were once made for the whole family. Now, with the kind of junk the studios are cranking out-and the jacked-up prices they're charging for the privilege of seeing it - the average family is staying home and watching television. I'm quite sure that within two or three years, Americans will be completely fed up with these perverted films.
But don't get me wrong. As far as a man and a woman is concerned, I'm awfully happy there's a thing called sex. It's an extra something God gave us. I see no reason why it shouldn't be in pictures. Healthy, lusty sex is wonderful.
When you get hairy, sweaty bodies in the foreground, it becomes distasteful, unless you use a pretty heavy gauze. I can remember seeing pictures that Ernst Lubitsch made in the '30s that were beautifully risqué--and you'd certainly send your children to see them. They were done with intimation. They got over everything these other pictures do without showing the hair and the sweat. When you think of the wonderful picture fare we've had through the years and realize we've come to this shit, it's disgusting. If they want to continue making those pictures, fine. But my career will have ended. I've already reached a pretty good height right now in a business that I feel is going to fade out from its own vulgarity.
Perhaps we have run out of imagination on how to effect illusion because of the satiating realism of a real war on television. But haven't we got enough of that in real life? Why can't the same point be made just as effectively in a drama without all the gore? The violence in my pictures, for example, is lusty and a little bit humorous, because I believe humor nullifies violence. Like in one picture, directed by Henry Hathaway [ The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)], this heavy was sticking a guy's head in a barrel of water. I'm watching this and I don't like it one bit, so I pick up this pick handle and I yell, "Hey!" and clock him across the head. Down he went--with no spurting blood. Well, that got a hell of a laugh because of the way I did it. That's my kind of violence.
[on True Grit (1969)] In my other pictures, we've had an explosion or something go off when a bad word was said. This time we didn't. It's profanity, all right, but I doubt if there's anybody in the United States who hasn't heard the expression "son of a bitch" or "bastard". We felt it was acceptable in this instance. At the emotional high point in that particular picture, I felt it was OK to use it. It would have been pretty hard to say "you illegitimate sons of so-and-so!".
Rooster Cogburn's attitude toward life was maybe a little different, but he was basically the same character I've always played.
They made me a singing cowboy. The fact that I couldn't sing--or play the guitar--became terribly embarrassing to me, especially on personal appearances. Every time I made a public appearance, the kids insisted that I sing "The Desert Song" or something. But I couldn't take along the fella who played the guitar out on one side of the camera and the fella who sang on the other side of the camera. So finally I went to the head of the studio and said. "Screw this, I can't handle it." And I quit doing those kind of pictures. They went out and brought the best hillbilly recording artist in the country to Hollywood to take my place. For the first couple of pictures, they had a hard time selling him, but he finally caught on. His name was Gene Autry . It was 1939 before I made Stagecoach (1939)--the picture that really made me a star.
Rio Lobo (1970) certainly wasn't any different from most of my Westerns. Nor was Chisum (1970), the one before that. But there still seems to be a very hearty public appetite for this kind of film--what some writers call a typical John Wayne Western. That's a label they use disparagingly . . . If I depended on the critics' judgment and recognition, I'd never have gone into the motion-picture business.
Sure it did--even if it took the industry 40 years to get around to it [awarding him an Oscar]. But I think both of my two previous Oscar nominations--for She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)--were worthy of the honor. I know the Marines and all the American armed forces were quite proud of my portrayal of Stryker, the Marine sergeant in "Iwo". At an American Legion convention in Florida, General Douglas MacArthur told me, "You represent the American serviceman better than the American serviceman himself." And, at 42, in "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" I played the same character that I played in True Grit (1969) at 62. But I really didn't need an Oscar. I'm a box-office champion with a record they're going to have to run to catch. And they won't.
Let's say I hope that I appeal to the more carefree times in a person's life rather than to his reasoning adulthood. I'd just like to be an image that reminds someone of joy rather than of the problems of the world.
Luckily so far, it seems they kind of consider me an older friend, somebody believable and down-to-earth. I've avoided being mean or petty, but I've never avoided being rough or tough. I've only played one cautious part in my life, in Allegheny Uprising (1939). My parts have ranged from that rather dull character to Ralls in Wake of the Red Witch (1948), who was a nice enough fella sober, but bestial when he was drunk, and certainly a rebel. I was also a rebel in Reap the Wild Wind (1942) with Cecil B. DeMille . I've played many parts in which I've rebelled against something in society. I was never much of a joiner. Kids do join things, but they also like to consider themselves individuals capable of thinking for themselves. So do I.
Entertainers like Steve Allen and his cronies who went up to Northern California and held placards to save the life of that guy Caryl Chessman . I just don't understand these things. I can't understand why our national leadership isn't willing to take the responsibility of leadership instead of checking polls and listening to the few that scream. Why are we allowing ourselves to become a mobocracy instead of a democracy? When you allow unlawful acts to go unpunished, you're moving toward a government of men rather than a government of law; you're moving toward anarchy. And that's exactly what we're doing. We allow dirty loudmouths to publicly call policemen pigs; we let a fella like William Kunstler make a speech to the Black Panthers saying that the ghetto is theirs, and that if police come into it, they have a right to shoot them. Why is that dirty, no-good son of a bitch allowed to practice law?
Quite obviously, the Black Panthers represent a danger to society. They're a violent group of young men and women - adventurous, opinionated and dedicated - and they throw their disdain in our face. Now, I hear some of these liberals saying they'd like to be held as white hostages in the Black Panther offices and stay there so that they could see what happens on these early-morning police raids. It might be a better idea for these good citizens to go with the police on a raid. When they search a Panther hideout for firearms, let these do-gooders knock and say, "Open the door in the name of the law" and get shot at.
They're standing up for what they feel is right, not for what they think is right--'cause they don't think. As a kid, the Panther ideas probably would have intrigued me. When I was a little kid, you could be adventurous like that without hurting anybody. There were periods when you could blow the valve and let off some steam. Like Halloween. You'd talk about it for three months ahead of time, and then that night you'd go out and stick the hose in the lawn, turn it on and start singing "Old Black Joe" or something. And when people came out from their Halloween party, you'd lift the hose and wet them down. And while you were running, the other kids would be stealing the ice cream from the party. All kinds of rebellious actions like that were accepted for that one day. Then you could talk about it for three months afterward. That took care of about six months of the year. There was another day called the Fourth of July, when you could go out and shoot firecrackers and burn down two or three buildings. So there were two days a year. Now those days are gone. You can't have firecrackers, you can't have explosives, you can't have this, don't do this, don't do that. Don't . . . don't . . . don't. A continual "don't" until the kids are ready to do almost anything rebellious. The government makes the rules, so now the running of our government is the thing they're rebelling against. For a lot of those kids, that's just being adventurous. They're not deliberately setting out to undermine the foundations of our great country. They're doing their level worst--without knowing it. How 'bout all the kids that were at the Chicago Democratic Convention? They were conned into doing hysterical things by a bunch of activists. A lot of Communist-activated people. I know Communism's a horrible word to some people. They laugh and say, "He'll be finding them under his bed tomorrow." But perhaps that's because their kid hasn't been inculcated yet. Dr. Herbert Marcuse , the political philosopher at the University of California at San Diego, who is quite obviously a Marxist, put it very succinctly when he said, "We will use the anarchists."
[ Herbert Marcuse ] has become a hero only for an articulate clique. The men that give me faith in my country are fellas like Spiro Agnew , not the Marcuses. They've attempted in every way to humiliate Agnew. They've tried the old Rooseveltian thing of trying to laugh him out of political value of his party. Every comedian's taken a crack at him. But I bet if you took a poll today, he'd probably be one of the most popular men in the United States. Nobody likes Spiro Agnew but the people. Yet he and other responsible government leaders are booed and pelted when they speak on college campuses.
Well, when I went to USC, if anybody had gone into the president's office and shit in his wastepaper basket and used the dirt to write vulgar words on the wall, not only the football team but the average kid on campus would have gone to work on the guy. There doesn't seem to be respect for authority anymore; these student dissenters act like children who have to have their own way on everything. They're immature and living in a little world all their own. Just like hippie dropouts, they're afraid to face the real competitive world.
I figure if we're going to send even one man to die, we ought to be in an all-out conflict. If you fight, you fight to win. And the domino theory is something to be reckoned with, too, both in Europe and in Asia. Look at what happened in Czechoslovakia and what's happened all through the Balkans. At some point we have to stop communism. So we might as well stop it right now in Vietnam.
Many of us were being invited to supposed social functions or house parties--usually at well-known Hollywood writers' homes--that turned out to be Communist recruitment meetings. Suddenly, everybody from makeup men to stagehands found themselves in seminars on Marxism. Take this colonel I knew, the last man to leave the Philippines on a submarine in 1942. He came back here and went to work sending food and gifts to U.S. prisoners on Bataan. He'd already gotten a Dutch ship that was going to take all this stuff over. The State Department pulled him off of it and sent the poor bastard out to be the technical director on my picture Back to Bataan (1945), which was being made by Edward Dmytryk . I knew that he and a whole group of actors in the picture were pro-Reds, and when I wasn't there, these pro-Reds went to work on the colonel. He was a Catholic, so they kidded him about his religion: They even sang "The Internationale" at lunchtime. He finally came to me and said, "Mr. Wayne, I haven't anybody to turn to. These people are doing everything in their power to belittle me." So I went to Dmytryk and said, "Hey, are you a Commie?" He said, "No, I'm not a Commie. My father was a Russian. I was born in Canada. But if the masses of the American people want communism, I think it'd be good for our country." When he used the word "masses," he exposed himself. That word is not a part of Western terminology. So I knew he was a Commie. Well, it later came out that he was. I also knew two other fellas who really did things that were detrimental to our way of life. One of them was Carl Foreman , the guy who wrote the screenplay for High Noon (1952), and the other was Robert Rossen , the one who made the picture about Huey Long , All the King's Men (1949). In Rossen's version of "All the King's Men", which he sent me to read for a part, every character who had any responsibility at all was guilty of some offense against society. To make Huey Long a wonderful, rough pirate was great; but, according to this picture, everybody was a shit except for this weakling intern doctor who was trying to find a place in the world. I sent the script back to Charles Feldman , my agent, and said, "If you ever send me a script like this again, I'll fire you." Ironically, it won the Academy Award. "High Noon" was even worse. Everybody says "High Noon" is a great picture because Dimitri Tiomkin wrote some great music for it and because Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly were in it. So it's got everything going for it. In that picture, four guys come in to gun down the sheriff. He goes to the church and asks for help and the guys go, "Oh well, oh gee." And the women stand up and say, "You're rats. You're rats. You're rats." So Cooper goes out alone. It's the most un-American thing I've ever seen in my whole life. The last thing in the picture is ole Coop putting the United States marshal's badge under his foot and stepping on it. I'll never regret having helped run Foreman out of this country. Running him out of the country is just a figure of speech. But I did tell him that I thought he'd hurt Gary Cooper's reputation a great deal. Foreman said, "Well, what if I went to England?" I said, "Well, that's your business." He said, "Well, that's where I'm going." And he did.
I've always followed my father's advice: He told me, first, to always keep my word and, second, to never insult anybody unintentionally. If I insult you, you can be goddamn sure I intend to. And, third, he told me not to go around looking for trouble. Well, I guess I have had some problems sticking to that third rule, but I'd say I've done pretty damn well with the first and second. I try to have good enough taste to insult only those I wish to insult. I've worked in a business where it's almost a requirement to break your word if you want to survive, but whenever I signed a contract for five years or for a certain amount of money, I've always lived up to it. I figured that if I was silly enough to sign it, or if I thought it was worth while at the time, that's the way she goes. I'm not saying that I won't drive as hard a bargain as I can. In fact, I think more about that end of the business than I did before, ever since 1959, when I found that my business manager was playing more than he was working. I didn't know how bad my financial condition was until my lawyer and everybody else said, "Let's all have a meeting and figure out exactly where you stand." At the conclusion of that meeting, it was quite obvious that I wasn't in anywhere near the shape that I thought I was or ought to be after twenty-five years of hard work. If they'd given me the time to sell everything without taking a quick loss, I would have come out about even. Oil and everything else. Not enough constructive thinking had been done. Then there was the shrimp fiasco. One of my dearest friends was Robert Arias, who was married to the ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn . While his brother Tony was alive, we had control of about seventy per cent of the shrimp in Panama. We were also buying some island property near the Panama Canal. We were going to put in a ship-repair place. There were tugs standing down there at $150 a day to drag ships back up to the United States, because repair prices in the Canal Zone were so high. But our plans fell through when Tony was killed in an airplane accident. Around a half a million dollars was lost. If anything happened to me now, I have the right amount of insurance. I hope and pray, for my estate. I'm about as big a rancher as there is in Arizona, so I have outside interests other than my motion-picture work. The turning point was the moment I decided to watch what was being done with my money.
I had two operations six days apart - one for a cancer that was as big as a baby's fist, and then one for edema. I wasn't so uptight when I was told about the cancer. My biggest fear came when they twisted my windpipe and had to sew me back together a second time. When my family came in to see me and I saw the looks on their faces, I figured, "Well, Jeez, I must be just about all through. I kept my spirits up by thinking about God and my family and my friends and telling myself, "Everything will be all right." And it was. I licked the Big C. I know the man upstairs will pull the plug when he wants to, but I don't want to end up my life being sick. I want to go out on two feet - in action. The operation hasn't impeded anything except that I get short of breath quickly. Particularly in the higher altitudes, that slows me down. I still do my own fights and all that stuff. I'd probably do a little bit more if I had more wind, but I still do more than my share. Nobody else does anything any more than I do, whether they're young or old.
I don't have to assert my virility. I think my career has shown that I'm not exactly a pantywaist. But I do take pride in my work, even to the point of being the first one on the set in the morning. I'm a professional.
What the hell, in my racket I've fallen off a lot of horses. I even fell off on purpose in True Grit (1969). But that fall in The Undefeated (1969) was irritating because I tore some ligaments in my shoulder. I don't have good use of one arm anymore, and it makes me look like an idiot when I'm getting on a horse.
There's been no top authority saying what marijuana does to you. I really don't know that much about it. I tried it once, but it didn't do anything to me. The kids say it makes them think they're going thirty miles an hour when they're going eighty. If that's true, marijuana use should definitely be stopped. When I went to Hong Kong, I tried opium once, as a clinical thing. I heard it didn't make you sick the first time, and Jesus, it just didn't affect me one way or the other, either. So I'm not a very good judge of how debasing it is.
Well, at one time in my career, I guess sexuality was part of my appeal. But God, I'm 63 years old now. How the hell do I know whether I still convey that? Jeez. It's pretty hard to answer a question like, "Are you attractive to broads?" All that crap comes from the way I walk, I guess. There's evidently a virility in it. Otherwise, why do they keep mentioning it? But I'm certainly not conscious of any particular walk. I guess I must walk different than other people, but I haven't gone to any school to learn how.
If a guy wants to wear his hair down to his ass, I'm not revolted by it. But I don't look at him and say, "Now there's a fella I'd like to spend next winter with."
Winston Churchill 's the most terrific fella of our century. If I had to make a speech on the subject of Communism, I could think of nobody that had a better insight or that said things concerning the future that have proven out so well. Let me read to you from a book of his quotes. While [ Franklin D. Roosevelt ] was giving the world Communism, Churchill said, "I tell you--it's no use arguing with a Communist. It's no good trying to convert a Communist, or persuade him. You can only deal with them on the following basis . . . you can only do it by having superior force on your side on the matter in question--and they must also be convinced that you will use--you will not hesitate to use these forces if necessary, in the most ruthless manner. You have not only to convince the Soviet government that you have superior force--but that you are not restrained by any moral consideration if the case arose from using that force with complete material ruthlessness. And that is the greatest chance of peace, the surest road to peace. Churchill was unparalleled. Above all, he took a nearly beaten nation and kept their dignity for them.
If I had it to do over again, I'd probably do everything I did. But that's not necessarily the right thing to do.
You're going to think I'm being corny, but this is how I really feel: I hope my family and my friends will be able to say that I was an honest, kind and fairly decent man.
[About his close friend Maureen O'Hara ] There's only one woman who has been my friend over the years and by that I mean a real friend, like a man would be. That woman is Maureen O'Hara. She's big, lusty, and absolutely marvelous, definitely my kind of woman. She's a great guy. I've had many friends and I prefer the company of men. Except for Maureen O'Hara.
[on Maureen O'Hara ] She is a woman who speaks her mind and that impressed me, despite my old-fashioned chauvinistic ways! She is feminine and beautiful, but there is something about her that makes her more like a man. It's her stubbornness and her willingness to stand up to anyone--even John Ford .
[April 1944, on Victory Committee USO tour] What go me was the way those kids out there kept their sense of humor. Through hard work, battle, or deadly monotony, they could laugh. Healthy beefing, sure, but no squawks. Taking it, day after day, and no complaining. It got me.
[1/46, interview in "Screenland" magazine] The picture business has grown up since I got into it 15 years ago, has acquired a dignity that is beyond reproach. Hollywood is, today, a quiet town compared to other places I have been and can, moreover, be pretty proud of itself, having pushed more charities, given more time to selling war bonds and more talent to entertaining servicemen than any other town in any other part of the country.
In B-pictures all we ever did is tell a story. He's gone to Red Gap! Where's Red Gap? There's Red Gap! Let's git after him to Red Gap. Here's Red Gap! But in A-pictures you reacted more to the situations.
You may think all my parts are the same. That's just what I want you to think. You get lost on the screen if your personality doesn't show through.
Couches are for one thing only.
Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. It comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday.
[in 1971] I licked the Big C. I know the man upstairs will pull the plug when he wants to, but I don't want to end my life being sick. I want to go out on two feet--in action.
[in 1971] Republic Pictures gave me a screen credit on one of the early pictures and called me Michael Burns. On another one they called me Duke Morrison. Then they decided Duke Morrison didn't have enough prestige. My real name, Marion Michael Morrison, didn't sound American enough for them. So they came up with John Wayne. I didn't have any say in it, but I think it's a great name. It's short and strong and to the point. It took me a long time to get used to it, though. I still don't recognize it when somebody calls me John . . .
[At his divorce trial in 1953] I deeply regret I'm going to have to sling mud.
(On Howard Hawks ) "Oh, yeah, Hawks and I had a few fights along the way," Wayne said, "but he accepted me as an expert, which I was, and we did not have any more trouble, and I was always happy to work for Hawks."
The guy you see on the screen really isn't me. I'm Duke Morrison and I never was and never will be a film personality like John Wayne. I know him well. I'm one of his closest students. I have to be. I make a living out of him.
Salary (50)
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Who described a cauliflower as a cabbage with a college education | Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education. - Mark Twain - BrainyQuote
Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.
Find on Amazon: Mark Twain
Cite this Page: Citation
| Mark Twain |
Which Roman road ran from Chester to Dover | curried | Betty Rosbottom
Betty Rosbottom
Food Writer, Cookbook Author, Cooking Teacher
Reply
Mark Twain described cauliflower as cabbage with a college education. He had a point. This ivory, globe-shaped vegetable has a more subtle taste than its humble counterpart. My guess is that Twain would have liked the way cauliflower is used in the winter soup recipe that follows.
Florets, cut from a large head, are simmered along with some sautéed leeks in an aromatic broth. It’s this flavorful stock scented with assertive seasonings of pungent, sweet, and hot spices that make this potage distinctive. Pureed, the resulting mixture is creamy and smooth. In a blind taste test, you might not recognize the cauliflower immediately, but the vegetable is there playing an important background role. Continue reading →
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What is the name of the dress worn by Chinese women with the long split in the side | Cheongsam: Chinese Dress, Qipao ,Chinese jacket, Custom made dress, Chinese Clothing, Chinese Gift
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The cheongsam is a female dress with distinctive Chinese features and enjoys a growing popularity in the international world of high fashion.
The name "cheongsam," meaning simply "long dress," entered the English vocabulary from the dialect of China's Guangdong Province (Cantonese). In other parts of the country including Beijing, however, it is known as "qipao", which has a history behind it.
When the early Manchu rulers came to China proper, they organized certain people, mainly Manchus, into "banners" (qi) and called them "banner people" (qiren), which then became loosely the name of all Manchus. The Manchu women wore normally a one-piece dress which, likewise, came to be called "qipao" or "banner dress." Although the 1911 Revolution toppled the rule of the Qing (Manchu) Dynasty, the female dress survived the political change and, with later improvements, has become the traditional dress for Chinese women.
Easy to slip on and comfortable to wear, the cheongsam fits well the female Chinese figure. Its neck is high, collar
closed, and its sleeves may be either short, medium or full length, depending on season and taste. The dress is buttoned on the right side, with a loose chest, a fitting waist, and slits up from the sides, all of which combine to set off the beauty of the female shape.
The cheongsam is not too complicated to make. Nor does it call for too much material, for there are no accessories like belts, scarves, sashes or frills to go with it.
Another beauty of the cheongsam is that, made of different materials and to varying lengths, they can be worn either on casual or formal occasions. In either case, it creates an impression of simple and quiet charm, elegance and neatness. No wonder it is so much liked by women not only of China but of foreign countries as well.
| Cheongsam |
What is the official religion of Benin (formerly Dahomey) | What Do Chinese Women Wear? | Our Everyday Life
What Do Chinese Women Wear?
by Melissa Monks
The ch'i-p'ao is a popular modern garment
Related Articles
Traditional Chinese dress is ornate, brightly colored and beautiful. Designed to convey elegance, but also to communicate through symbolism, the dress of Chinese women is rooted in a long history.
Traditional Designs
The pien-fu consists of a tunic, usually silk or satin, extending to the knees. Under the tunic, women wear billowing pants or a long skirt. The ch'ang-p'ao is a long, loose fitting, one piece garment. Historically, the most popular traditional garment is the shen-i which is a tunic and skirt or pants sewn together.
Ornamentation
Because of the simplicity of traditional dress, color and ornamentation are important to the overall design and elegance of a garment. Ornamentation can include embroidered edging, intricate patterns, and draped silks. Color is steeped in symbolism, white, for example, represents autumn and green represents spring.
Modern Dress
Today, women often wear the ch'i-p'ao, a long, one piece dress, wrapped and fastened under the arm. The dress can be tight fitting or loose and made from many different fabrics.
References
University of California Los Angeles: Chinese Clothing- Five Thousand Years' History
About the Author
Melissa Monks began writing professionally in 2003 and spent four years writing for the Beutler Heating and Air company newsletter. She also spent two years as a content director for StoryMash.com, publishing projects and blogs, and has worked as a research assistant for One On One, a company publishing educational material. Monks received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Utah.
Photo Credits
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Which men’s magazine was originally going to be called Stag Party | 'Playboy' was originally called 'Stag Party' - News18
'Playboy' was originally called 'Stag Party'
First published: September 20, 2012, 8:48 PM IST | Updated: September 20, 2012
The first issue of the magazine was published in 1953, and featured screen goddess Marilyn Monroe.
New Delhi: Playboy chief Hugh Hefner says initially he wanted to call his world-famous magazine Stag Party but decided to change it to Playboy at the last minute.
It was Hefner's associate Eldon Sellers who suggested the title Playboy, the 86-year-old revealed in an interview to legendary tennis player Vijay Amritraj on CNN IBN's show 'Dimensions'.
"I wasn't going to call the magazine Playboy. I wanted to call the magazine Stag Party, influenced by a cartoon book that I had. I was looking for a male figure of some kind and I thought of an animal in tuxedo will set us apart," Hefner told Amritraj during a conversation at the Los Angeles-based Playboy mansion.
"At the very last minute I got a letter from the lawyer of Stag magazine saying that it was an infringement on their title. I was literally about a month from publishing date and I was already having second thoughts about the title. So at the very last minute changed the name and changed the image and called it Playboy and rest as you say is history," he added.
The interview will be aired Saturday, with a repeat telecast Sunday.
Playboy is a US men's magazine. It is popular for boldly featuring photographs of nude women, apart from regular articles and stories.
The first issue of the magazine was published in 1953, and featured screen goddess Marilyn Monroe.
| Playboy |
What top-selling UK newspaper was produced on Sundays for the first time in 2012 | Hugh M. Hefner - Biography - IMDb
Hugh M. Hefner
Biography
Showing all 62 items
Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (3) | Trade Mark (2) | Trivia (44) | Personal Quotes (8)
Overview (4)
5' 9" (1.75 m)
Mini Bio (1)
Hugh M. Hefner was born on April 9, 1926 in Chicago, Illinois, USA as Hugh Marston Hefner. He is a producer, known for The House Bunny (2008), Beverly Hills Cop II (1987) and Bettie Page Reveals All (2012). He has been married to Crystal Hefner since December 31, 2012. He was previously married to Kimberley Conrad and Mildred Williams .
Spouse (3)
( 25 June 1949 - 1959) (divorced) (2 children)
Trade Mark (2)
Smokes a pipe often attends press conferences dressed in his bed robe
Always seen with a collection of girlfriends when in public
Trivia (44)
Graduated from Steinmetz High School (Chicago, IL). As a child often visited the now demolished Mont Clare Theatre in Chicago. Graduated from the University of Illinois.
Creator and publisher of Playboy Magazine.
Has a species of rabbit named in his honor (Sylvilagus palustris hefneri).
Older brother of Keith Hefner .
Originally worked on the publishing staff of "Child Life" magazine.
First magazine publisher to become a major celebrity.
Arrested in Chicago, Illinois, USA in 1963 for possessing "indecent" photos of actress Jayne Mansfield in 1963's movie, Promises..... Promises! (1963).
Created the world-famous Playboy Mansion of Los Angeles in 1971.
Hefner had a Genius IQ of 152 in H.S., but was described as an "unenthusiastic" student.
Parents Glenn Hefner and Grace Hefner were from Phelps County, Nebraska.
Served in the U.S. Army in WWII after graduating from Steinmetz H.S. in Chicago, IL (1944).
At one time owned a 119-foot long DC-9 jet called the "Big Bunny". The jet was painted black with the well known white playboy bunny logo on its tail. It was equipped with a galley, living room, disco, movie and video equipment, wet bar and sleeping quarters for 16 guests.
Hefner and Jenna Jameson share the same birthday (April 9th).
Marilyn Monroe was the centerfold in the very first issue of his Playboy Magazine in December 1953. This was the only issue to name its playmate "Sweetheart of the Month". In the March 1965 issue, Playboy Magazine featured the first African-American centerfold: Jennifer Jackson . Playboy Magazine was originally going to be titled "Stag Party".
Plays a major role in the James Bond short story "A Midsummer Night's Doom" by Raymond Benson .
Pictured on a souvenir sheet issued by Grenada & the Grenadines on 1 December 2003, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Playboy Magazine. Six stamps in the sheet feature various Playboy covers, including the first issue with Marilyn Monroe and the May 1964 cover with Playmate of the Year Donna Michelle .
Claims to be a direct descendant of pilgrim leader William Bradford.
A brass plaque over the front door of his Chicago mansion reads, "Si Non Oscillas, Noli Tintinnare", which roughly translates from Latin as "If You Don't Swing, Don't Ring".
A full-size replica of him is on display at the Madame Tussaud's Interactive Wax Museum at the Venetian Casino/Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. Unlike the other models, Hefner's likeness is not wax, but rather silicone.
In 1988 turned his empire over to his daughter Christie Hefner .
Was raised by rigid Methodist parents. His mother was one of the 45 investors Hefner recruited to launch "Playboy."
Adamantly against drug use, and refuses to allow them in any of his houses. Anyone caught doing drugs at any Playboy Mansion is subject to immediate and permanent expulsion.
Owns the burial vault next to Marilyn Monroe 's. She is interred at Westwood Memorial Park, Los Angeles, California, USA, in the Corridor of Memories, crypt #24.
Children: Christie Hefner (born on Saturday, November 8th, 1952) and David Paul Hefner, (born on Tuesday, August 30th, 1955) by Mildred Williams ; Cooper Hefner and Marston Hefner by Kimberley Conrad . David owns a computer consulting firm.
Used to work for Esquire magazine. He left to found Playboy after being denied a pay raise of $5 a week.
In 2005, Hugh attempted to create and Indian version of Playboy for India, which would feature South Asian women and Indian pop culture articles, but no nudity. He wanted to have Bollywood superstar Aishwarya Rai Bachchan on the cover of the first issue. The magazine was rejected.
He grew up in the Montclare neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois.
Has a round-the-clock kitchen staff to serve him his meals on a tray in bed. He also has his own drawer of cookies in the Playboy Mansion's kitchen.
Personally interviewed every "Girl of the Month" in his magazine's 50-plus years.
Has had legal battles with Hustler Magazine, over his photo collections.
Magazine mogul "Jerry Caesar" from Dragnet (1987) is based partly on him and Larry Flynt .
Mentioned by Arsenio Hall (as Rev. Brown) in Coming to America (1988) while giving a sermon.
Lived with Barbi Benton [1969-1976].
Formerly engaged to Crystal Hefner . Harris called off the engagement days before their wedding in June 2011, but Hefner allowed her to keep her engagement ring and customized Bentley. [December 26, 2010].
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What is the oldest English Sunday newspaper | History of Newspapers by the NMA
William Caxton sets up the first English printing press in Westminster.
1549
First known English newsletter: Requests of the Devonshyre and Cornyshe Rebelles.
1621
First titled newspaper, Corante, published in London.
1649
Cromwell suppressed all newsbooks on the eve of Charles I's execution.
1690
Worcester Postman launched. (In 1709 it starts regular publication as Berrow's Worcester Journal, considered to be the oldest surviving English newspaper).
1702
Launch of the first regular daily newspaper: The Daily Courant.
1709
First Copyright Act; Berrow's Worcester Journal, considered the oldest surviving English newspaper, started regular publication.
1712
First Stamp Act; advertisement, paper and stamp duties condemned as taxes on knowledge. Stamford Mercury believed to have been launched.
1717
The Kentish Post and Canterbury Newsletter launched. It took on its current name, Kentish Gazette, in 1768.
1718
Leeds Mercury started (later merged into Yorkshire Post).
1737
Belfast News Letter founded (world's oldest surviving daily newspaper).
1748
Aberdeen Journal began (Scotland's oldest newspaper - now the Press & Journal).
1772
Hampshire Chronicle launched, Hampshire's oldest paper.
1788
Daily Universal Register (est. 1785) became The Times.
1791
Harmsworth (then Northcliffe) bought The Observer.
1906
Newspaper Proprietors Association founded for national dailies.
1907
National Union of Journalists founded as a wage-earners union.
1915
Rothermere launched Sunday Pictorial (later Sunday Mirror).
1922
Death of Northcliffe. Control of Associated Newspapers passed to Rothermere.
1928
Northcliffe Newspapers set up as a subsidiary of Associated Newspapers. Provincial Newspapers set up as a subsidiary of United Newspapers.
1931
Audit Bureau of Circulations formed.
1936
Britain's first colour advertisement appears (in Glasgow's Daily Record).
1944
Iliffe took over BPM Holdings (including Birmingham Post).
1946
Guild of British Newspaper Editors formed (now the Society of Editors).
1953
General Council of the Press established.
1955
Month-long national press strike. Daily Record acquired by Mirror Group.
1959
Manchester Guardian becomes The Guardian. Six-week regional press printing strike.
1960
Photocomposition and web-offset printing progressively introduced.
1964
The Sun launched, replacing Daily Herald. Death of Beaverbrook. General Council of the Press reformed as the Press Council.
1969
Murdoch's News International acquired The Sun and News of the World.
1976
Nottingham Evening Post is Britain's first newspaper to start direct input by journalists.
1978
The Times and The Sunday Times ceased publication for 11 months.
1980
Association of Free Newspaper founded (folded 1991). Regional Newspaper Advertising Bureau formed.
1981
News International acquired The Times and the Sunday Times.
1983
Industrial dispute at Eddie Shah's Messenger group plant at Warrington.
1984
Mirror Group sold by Reed to Maxwell (Pergamon). First free daily newspaper, the (Birmingham) Daily News, launched by husband & wife team Chris & Pat Bullivant.
1986
News International moved titles to a new plant at Wapping. Eddie Shah launchedToday, first colour national daily launched. The Independent launched.
1987
News International took over Today.
1988
RNAB folded. Newspaper Society launched PressAd as its commercial arm. Thomson launched Scotland on Sunday and Sunday Life.
1989
Last Fleet Streetpaper produced by Sunday Express.
1990
First Calcutt report on Privacy and Related Matters. Launch of The European (by Maxwell) and Independent on Sunday.
1991
Press Complaints Commission replaced the Press Council. AFN folded. Death of Robert Maxwell (November). Management buy-out of Birmingham Post and sister titles. Midland Independent Newspapers established.
1992
Management buy-out by Caledonian Newspapers of Lonrho's Glasgow titles, The Herald and Evening Times.
1993
Guardian Media Group bought The Observer. UK News set up by Northcliffe and Westminster Press as rival news agency to the Press Association. Second Calcutt report into self-regulation of the press.
1994
Northcliffe Newspapers bought Nottingham Evening Post for £93m. News International price-cutting sparked off new national cover-price war.
1995
Lord Wakeham succeeded Lord McGregor as chairman of the PCC. Privacy white paper rejected statutory press controls. Most of Thomson's regional titles sold to Trinity. Newsquest formed out of a Reed MBO. Murdoch closes Today(November).
1996
A year of buyouts, mergers and restructuring in the regional press. Regionals win the battle over cross-media ownership (Broadcasting Act). Newspaper Society launches NS Marketing, replacing PressAd.
1997
Midland Independent Newspapers is bought by Mirror Group for £297 million. Human Rights and Data Protection bills are introduced.
1998
Fourth largest regional press publisher, United Provincial Newspapers, is sold in two deals: UPN Yorkshire and Lancashire newspapers sold to Regional Independent Media for £360m and United Southern Publications sold to Southnews for £47.5m. Southern Newspapers changes its name to Newscom, following acquisitions in Wales and the West (including UPN Wales in 1996). Death of Lord Rothermere. Chairmanship of Associated Newspapers passes to his son Jonathan Harmsworth. Death of David English, editor-in-chief of Daily Mailand chairman of the editors' code committee.
1999
Trinity merges with Mirror Group Newspapers in a deal worth £1.3 billion. Newsquest is bought by US publisher Gannett for £904 million. Portsmouth & Sunderland Newspapers is bought by Johnston Press for £266m. Major regional press groups launch electronic media alliances (eg, This is Britain, Fish4 sites.) Freedom of Information bill introduced. Associated launches London's free commuter daily, Metro.
2000
Newscom is sold to Newsquest Media Group for £444m, Adscene titles are sold to Southnews (£52m)and Northcliffe Newspapers, Belfast Telegraph Newspapers are sold by Trinity Mirror to Independent News & Media for £300m, Bristol United Press is sold to Northcliffe Newspapers Group, and Southnews is sold to Trinity Mirror for £285m. Daily Express and Daily Star are sold by Lord Hollick's United News & Media to Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell. Launch of Scottish business daily Business a.m. and more Metro daily frees. Newspaper Society launches internet artwork delivery system AdFast. Communications white paper published.
2001
RIM buys six Galloway and Stornaway Gazette titles, Newsquest buys Dimbleby Newspaper Group and Johnston Press buys four titles from Morton Media Group. UK Publishing Media formed. Sunday Business changes name to The Businessand publishes on Sunday and Monday.
2002
Johnston Press acquires Regional Independent Media's 53 regional newspaper titles in a £560 million deal. Northcliffe Newspapers Group Ltd acquires Hill Bros (Leek) Ltd. Queen attends Newspaper Society annual lunch. New PCC chairman, Christopher Meyer, announced. Draft Communications Bill published. The Sunand Mirror engage in a price war.
2003
Conrad Black resigns as chief executive of Hollinger International, owner of Telegraph group. Claverly Company, owner of Midland News Association, buys Guiton Group, publisher of regional titles in the Channel Islands. Archant buys 12 London weekly titles from Independent News & Media (December) and the remaining 15 the following month (January 04). Independent begins the shift to smaller format national newspapers when it launched its compact edition. Sir Christopher Meyer becomes chairman of the Press Complaints Commission. DCMS select committee chaired by Gerald Kaufman into privacy and the press. Government rejects calls for a privacy law.
2004
Phillis Report on Government Communications published (January). Barclay Brothers buy Telegraph group and poach Murdoch Maclennan from Associated to run it. Kevin Beatty moves from Northcliffe Newspapers to run Associated Newspapers. Trinity Mirror sells Century Newspapers and Derry Journal in Northern Ireland to 3i. Tindle Newspapers sells Sunday Independent in Plymouth to Newsquest. The Times goes compact (November).
2005
Johnston Press buys Score Press from EMAP for £155m. Launch of free Liteeditions for London Evening Standard and Manchester Evening News. The Timesputs up cover price to 60p, marking the end of the nationals’ price war. The Guardian moves to Berliner format after £80m investment in new presses. DMGT puts Northcliffe Newspapers up for sale; bids expected to open at £1.2 billion. Johnston Press buys Scotsman Publications from Barclay Brothers for £160m.
2006
DMGT sale of Northcliffe group aborted but DC Thomson acquires Aberdeen Press & Journal. Trinity Mirror strategic review: Midlands and South East titles put up for sale. Growth of regional press digital platforms. Manchester Evening Newscity edition goes free. Government threat to limit Freedom of Information requests. Associated and News International both launch free evening papers in London during the autumn.
2007
Archant Scotland acquired by Johnston Press. Northcliffe Media buys three regional newspaper businesses from Trinity Mirror; Kent Regional Newspapers, East Surrey and Sussex Newspapers and Blackmore Vale Publishing. Dunfermline Press Group acquires Berkshire Regional Newspapers from Trinity Mirror. Tindle Newspapers buys 27 local weekly newspapers from Trinity Mirror which retains its Midlands titles.
The government abandons plans to tighten Freedom of Information laws and limit media access to coroners’ courts. Former Hollinger International chief executive Conrad Black is sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison for fraud. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation buys Dow Jones, owner of the Wall Street Journal, appointing News International boss Les Hinton as chief executive.
2008
The global economic downturn hit advertising revenues and shares of media companies fell sharply during the year. John Fry was announced as Tim Bowdler’s successor at Johnston Press in September. The Independentannounced a plan to move to DMGT’s Kensington building to cut costs in November. The BBC Trust rejected plans for local video that would have a negative impact on regional titles in the same month following a sustained campaign by the NS.
2009
Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev acquires the London Evening Standardfrom Daily Mail & General Trust and the title is subsequently relaunched as a free newspaper. Baroness Peta Buscombe is appointed chairman of the Press Complaints Commission.
2010
Britain officially emerges from the longest and deepest recession since the war. Lebedev acquires the Independent and Independent on Sunday from Independent News & Media for a nominal fee of £1. Trinity Mirror acquires GMG Regional Media, publisher of 32 titles, from Guardian Media Group for £44.8 million.
News International erects paywalls around its online content for The Times and The Sunday Times. Eleven regional print titles are launched by seven publishers in the first six months of the year. Newly-elected coalition government announces it will look at the case for relaxing cross-media ownership rules and stop unfair competition from council newspapers. The Independent launches i, a digest newspaper to complement their main title, and the first daily paper to be launched in the UK in almost 25 years.
2011
In April, following campaigning by the NS and the industry, a revised Local Authority Publicity Code came into effect to crack down on council newspapers. In July, The News of The World was closed after 168 years of publication. The Prime Minister announced an inquiry led by Lord Justice Leveson into the role of the press and police in the phone-hacking scandal. In October, Lord Hunt of Wirral was appointed chairman of the Press Complaints Commission.
Five regional daily titles switched to weekly during the year. Local cross media ownership rules were abolished. Kent Messenger Group’s proposed acquisition of seven Northcliffeweekly titles was referred to the Competition Commission by the OFT forcing the deal to be abandoned. Northcliffe Media announced the subsequent closure of Medway News and the East Kent Gazette.
2012
The London 2012 Olympics and Diamond Jubilee saw national and local press titles produce a host of supplements, special editions and other initiatives in digital and print to help their readers celebrate the events.
In November, the press industry came together to progress plans for a new, tougher, independent system of self regulation following publication of Lord Justice Leveson's report into the role of the press and police in the phone-hacking scandal. MailOnline became the world's biggest newspaper website with 45.348 million unique users.
The creation of a new local media business Local World was announced. Led by former chief executive of publishers Mecom and Mirror Group David Montgomery, Local World is created from the newspapers and websites of Northcliffe Media and Iliffe News & Media.
2013
Significant progress was made by the newspaper and magazine industry in setting up the Independent Press Standards Organisation - the new regulator for the press called for by Lord Justice Leveson. More than 90 per cent of the national press, the vast majority of the regional press, along with major magazine publishers, signed contracts to establish IPSO. Led by Sir Hayden Phillips, the independent appointments procedures were well underway, with the regulator due to launch on 1 May 2014.
Politicians, publishers and press freedom organisations from across the globe railed against the Government's Royal Charter for press regulation which Culture Secretary Maria Miller admitted could become redundant if IPSO was successful. The Guardian prompted heated debate over the issue of mass surveillance after publishing a series of stories based on information leaked by the US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
The local press was widely praised for its coverage of floods which blighted communities with Prime Minister David Cameron singling out the Eastern Daily Press in particular. Local papers created thousands of jobs distributing Regional Growth Fund cash to small businesses.
2014
A new voice for the £6 billion national, regional and local UK news media sector was launched in the form of the News Media Association, formed by the merger of the Newspaper Society and the Newspaper Publishers’ Association.
In a climate of grave threats to press freedom, the importance of newspaper journalism was highlighted through stories such as The Times’ exposure of the Rotherham abuse scandal and The Yorkshire Post’s Loneliness campaign.
The Independent Press Standards Organisation, the new press regulator, launched in September with the vast majority of local and national publishers signed up to it.
2015
In October 2015, Trinity Mirror announced the acquisition of Local World for £220 million, demonstrating the publisher’s firm belief in the future of local news media.
Newspapers grew their UK monthly print and online reach to more than 47 million people, more than Google’s 45 million, with newsbrands driving nearly a billion social media interactions over the course of the year.
The importance of news media in holding power to account was emphasised through agenda agenda-setting campaigns such as The Sunday Times’ exposure of corruption within football world governing body Fifa and Sunday Life’s hard hitting campaign to expose and abolish the cruel practice of illegal puppy farming.
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Which American magazine calls itself the Bible of Boxing | A short history of the world's oldest Sunday newspaper | Media | theguardian.com
The Observer
A short history of the world's oldest Sunday newspaper
Revolutions, wars, famines and disasters have shared space with celebrations of mankind's achievements in the arts, science, literature and sport since The Observer's launch in 1791
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What was the name of the hit theme from the Van Der Valk T.V. series | VAN DER VALK THEME (EYE LEVEL) by the SIMON PARK ORCHESTRA.wmv - YouTube
VAN DER VALK THEME (EYE LEVEL) by the SIMON PARK ORCHESTRA.wmv
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Uploaded on Oct 2, 2011
The Theme track from the 70s detective series.
The title role played by Barry Foster.
Played here by The Simon Park Orchestra.
Category
| Eye Level |
Who were the first vocal group to top the UK charts way back in the 50's | Van Der Valk - Series 1-5 - Complete [DVD] [1972]: Amazon.co.uk: Barry Foster, Susan Travers, Michael Latimer, Joanna Dunham, Nigel Stock: DVD & Blu-ray
By Kenneth M. Pizzi on 22 Jan. 2008
Format: DVD Verified Purchase
Van der Valk is truly an absorbing and entertaining detective drama that featured the late talented actor Barry Foster as Commissaris Piet Van Der Valk of the Amsterdam Police. With an catchy opening theme called "Eye Level," the series was not only shot on location around quaint Amsterdam and its canals, but was filled with a number of engaging stories involving murder, kidnapping, blackmail, illicit drugs, and prostitution with many elite, high-profile suspects.
Those expecting a crime drama on the order of "Mannix" or the popular UK series "The Professionals" are likely to be disappointed. Van der Valk is a detective drama similar to the popular series "Columbo" here in the US or "Bergerac" in the UK. But unlike Peter Falk's exasperating detective from the LAPD, Foster's character has a certain appeal: a cynical and hardened yet sophisticated cop with a taste for fine wines, classical music, and quoting Baudelaire.
Supporting cast is also excellent with Susan Travers as Van der Valk's wife, Arlette, and Michael Latimer as Inspector Johnny Kroon, Van der Valk's rookie detective-in-training clearly recalling the chemistry between Karl Malden and Michael Douglas in the popular "Streets of San Francisco" soon to be released here in the US on DVD. Unfortunately, this set is not remastered very well; some episodes seem fare better than others when viewed on anything larger than a 40 in plasma or LCD television.
By Marcia TOP 100 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on 9 Jan. 2012
Format: DVD
Set against the cosmopolitan backdrop of Amsterdam, with its reputation for drugs and prostitution, this series explores the world of Police officer Van der Valk. He is a blond curly haired detective who searches out common criminals involved in subversive activity.
This classic British TV series is presented here in the complete box set. It is an interesting set with some excellent episodes.
Series one began with six episodes in 1972. This series has mostly studio based scenes with most of the drama taking place in the office of Van der Valk. But the series works well mainly because of the outstanding acting by Barry Foster who played Van der Valk.
Van der Valk is a sophisticated character. He likes fine wine and classical music and he is tough on criminals. He doesn't hesitate to speak his mind. This is a very strong character and the role is played perfectly by Barry Foster.
Series three is much better with plenty of outside location scenes, There is improved editing and production. The scripts are better too with some excellent stories. The series ended and it was revived again in 1977. Once again the episodes have strong stories, production and acting. There is a new actress playing the wife of Van der Valk.
These episodes from the 1970s are all excellent and offer not only good production but plenty of scenes of life in 70s Amsterdam. There are two other things the series was famous for. Firstly it features the DAF car, an automatic car that was very popular in Europe and thanks to this series became popular in the UK. Secondly the shows theme music was recorded by the Simon Park Orchestra and released as a single that topped the UK pop charts in 1973.
The series was revived again for a third time in 1991. Read more ›
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By Eric Mckevitt on 24 May 2009
Format: DVD Verified Purchase
I really enjoyed this series when first shown on ITV and as it has never been repeated, unlike other shows, rewatching them again on this excellent box set is like seeing a news series of 32 episodes! I loved every moment of this fine show. As the series progresses the production, stories, acting and filming get better. Amsterdam is one of my favourite cities so seeing shots of it from the 70's onwards is fantatsic. I highly recommend this series to anyone who remembers this series and who likes good detective shows set in a picturesque city. Why this has not been repeated on TV I will never know.
1 Comment 38 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
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By Victor HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER on 15 Mar. 2010
Format: DVD Verified Purchase
Moody, grouchy detective, often clashing with his superiors, working off inspired hunches, drinks too much, episodes that rely on characters rather than mystery and finally a great catchy theme tune. No, not Morse but Van der Valk, the Dutch detective wrestling with the criminal underbelly of Amsterdam. First screened in the early `70s, and sporadically reappearing over the years until the early `90s, this was great TV and has stood the test of time.
The cases always seem to tackle difficult social issues, and often reflect very nicely the tension between the Dutch acceptance of drugs and prostitution and the need to keep the streets safe. The scripts are always intelligent, nicely paced and thoughtful, which is an important part of great drama. The other half is the actors, and in Barry Foster the character of Piet Van der Valk is brought nicely to life. A range of guest actors (including the ever reliable Geoffrey Bayldon in a particularly memorable episode) flesh out the other roles. Finally, the streets of Amsterdam are used to great effect, and really add to the mood. Along with a great sound track (the theme was the ever popular `Eye Level' by the Simon Park Orchestra) this had all the ingredients for classic telly, and that is exactly what we got.
All 32 episodes are collected here on eleven discs. There are five normal size DVD cases collected together into one sturdy cardboard outer. There are limited liner notes, consisting purely of episode synopses, and no extras. All episodes are colour, mono sound and the original 4.3 aspect ratio. For the price it isn't bad I guess, but the picture quality is pretty poor at times, and for this I am docking a couple of stars. Read more ›
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What was the Shadows last number one | Instrumental #1s - ukcharts.20m.com
ukcharts.20m.com
Instrumentals at Number One
Commentary by Theo Morgan-Gan
Over the years, 24 instrumentals have topped the charts. Russ Conway, Eddie Calvert and Winifred Atwell have done it twice, and the Shadows have done it a whopping five times. That's right no singing just instruments or in the case of the last two, just computer aided plain dance music.
--1-- THE SONG FROM MOULIN ROUGE - Mantovani and his Orchestra
14 August 1953 for 1 week
The first instrumental track to claim the top spot did so for just one week, and was taken from the film Moulin Rouge. Annunzio Paolo Mantovani was born in Italy on 15 November 1905. He moved to England at the age of 16 with his parents. In the 1930s he formed his own orchestra, which began to be known for its 'cascading strings', and in the 1940s started formally recording with the legendary Decca label. He soon became as popular on record as he had been on radio. He recorded a US-aimed album in 1951, and a song from that album, 'Charmaine' reached the US Top 10 and sold a million copies. His first hit in Britain was a version of White Christmas, which hit #6 over Christmas of 1952 and spent three weeks on the chart. In 1953, with still enduring popularity, his version of the theme from Moulin Rouge, which starred Jos� Ferrer as French painter Henri de Toulouse Lautrec on his knees, eventually hit #1 in its twelfth week. The song spent a lengthy 21 weeks on chart on its first run. It re-entered at #10 in November for one week, and a month later in December it spent a week at the bottom of the chart (#12). Percy Faith had the biggest hit version in America, but Mantovani once again hit the 10 and both versions sold a million. The orchestra went on to have a few more hits, until 1957, when the machine stopped. Mantovani, who backed David Whitfield on most of his recordings, died on 31 March 1981.
--2-- OH MEIN PAPA Eddie Calvert
8 January 1954 for 9 weeks
The instrumental with the most weeks on top. 'The Man With The Golden Trumpet', Eddie Calvert was born 13 March 1922, Lancashire, UK and was the first British instrumentalist to score two #1s and to earn a US gold disc. Trumpeter Eddie Calvert's version of schmaltzy song Oh Mein Papa hit #1 in its fourth week on chart and was a soaraway success. Eddie Fisher recorded a fully vocal version, but for some this was far too emotional for them. Calvert's purely instrumental version was the perfect answer. Fisher had to make do with #9 here, while the roles were reversed in the States; Fisher's version hit the top, and Calvert's could only peak at #6.
This was also a monumental #1 of sorts the first of what has come to be at least 75 #1s to be recorded at the now legendary Abbey Road studios.
Eddie Calvert died on 7 August 1978 in South Africa.
--3-- LET'S HAVE ANOTHER PARTY Winifred Atwell
3 December 1954 for 5 weeks
This was the sixth hit for 'Queen of the Ivories' Winifred Atwell, whose series of popular hit piano medleys gave her 117 weeks on chart. Born on 27 April 1914 in Tunapuna, Trinidad, Atwell was the first black artist to top the chart. The chart-topping medley hit the summit in its second week, and is comprised of the songs: Another Little Drink Won't Do Us Any Harm, Broken Doll, Bye Bye Blackbird, Honeysuckle and The Bee, I Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight, Lily of Laguna, Nellie Dean, Sheik of Araby, Somebody Stole My Gal, When The Red Robin (Comes Bob Bob Bobbin' Along).
--4-- CHERRY PINK AND APPLE BLOSSOM WHITE Perez Prado
29 April 1955 for 2 weeks
Demez Perez Prado was born in Cuba on 11 December 1916 and began to lead a Havana-based orchestra in the pre-Fidel Castro days, the Orquestra Casino de la Playa. He first recorded this song in 1951. In 1955, he was called upon to re-record it. Why? The makers of new film Underwater, starring Jane Russell, wanted it as their theme. He agreed, and the single hit #1 in its fsixth week on the British charts. It was even bigger in the States, where it resided for 10 weeks at number one. Prado had a few more hits until the late 1950s. He died on 14 September 1989 at the age of 72. In 1995, as a result of a Guinness beer advertisement, Guaglione, never before released in Britain, reached #2 and spent a formidable 24 weeks on chart.
--5-- CHERRY PINK AND APPLE BLOSSOM WHITE - Eddie Calvert
27 May 1955 for 4 weeks
After some very heavy competition in the Top 20, Eddie Calvert's version of Cherry Pink
finally hit the top in its eighth week on chart. It helped Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White to become the only instrumental to be #1 in two different versions, and became the one with what is easily the shortest gap between versions hitting the top. Indeed, there was only one two week #1 in between these two. Funnily enough, this perhaps proved movies don't always lead to success this version spent longer at #1 and had more time on chart.
--6-- POOR PEOPLE OF PARIS Winifred Atwell
13 April 1956 for 3 weeks
The second chart-topper for Ms Atwell from Trinidad hit the top in its fifth week. Atwell, actually a qualified chemist, went first to New York and then to London to study piano. She got her break upon realising boogie piano was more lucrative. She was 42 at the time this was number one so a happy birthday for her, made even more happy by the fact that she was then the oldest female to top the chart, and is today still second, with only Cher ahead (54 at the time of her last chart-topper). This was also the second French instrumental to top the chart. Winifred died on 28 February 1983 in Sydney, Australia.
--7-- HOOTS MON Lord Rockingham's XI
28 November 1958 for 3 weeks
Strangely titled party hit Hoots Mon hit the top in its sixth week, and became the first instrumental to reach #1 in more than two years, breaking the run of at least one instrumental atop the charts each year from 1953-56. That record was swiftly broken, starting with this, when at least one instrumental topped the chart in each of six consecutive years, from 1958-63. Harry Robinson had the luck of leading the band Lord Rockingham's XI, which was the house band for Jack Good's television show Oh Boy!. Their recording of Hoots Mon, based on a traditional Scottish folk song called One Hundred Pipers, was constantly plugged on the show, and became extremely popular. It is known as an instrumental, although it and the follow up Wee Tom contained a little spoken Scottish ("Hoots Mon! There's a moose loose about this hoose!"). Surprisingly, for the rockers' role in a single which sold over half a million copies, they were paid just �6 each to record it at Decca's studios in West Hampstead. The follow up spent a brief time on the chart, only hitting #16. Hoots Mon returned to the charts for one week in 1993 as a result of it being featured in a Maynard's Wine Gums advertisement so it looks like Harry and co are set to remain one-hit wonders.
--8-- SIDE SADDLE Russ Conway
27 March 1959 for 4 weeks
Russ Conway was born Trevor Stanford on 2 September 1927 and he joined the Merchant Navy at the ripe old age of 15 in 1942. Two years later in 1944 he had joined the Royal Navy. After having been involved in a somewhat vicious combat with a bread slicer which cut off the top of the third finger on his right hand Mr Stanford was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal (though surely not for this escapade with a bread slicer?), so he became Trevor Stanford DSM.
Whilst in service, Stanford had taught himself the piano, and soon began playing to clubs. Dancer Irving Davies recommended him to producer Norman Newell. The rest is history. Side Saddle hit number one in its sixth week. It lingered a while, spending 30 weeks on the chart, a run at that time second only to Frankie Laine's 36 weeks for I Believe, and still the most weeks on chart for a number one instrumental though well outdone by Mr Acker Bilk's #2 hit Stranger On The Shore, which sold a million, spent an astonishing 55 weeks on chart and still remains one of the best selling singles of all time in Britain.
Russ had started just as fellow piano player Winifred Atwell had done, with a series of hit medleys, in Conway's case, Party Pops and More Party Pops. Further success was still to come...
--9-- ROULETTE Russ Conway
19 June 1959 for 2 weeks
Russ hit the big time with this and thus became the only solo instrumentalist to have consecutive #1s. Just eight weeks after Side Saddle had dropped from #1, and with just two number one hits in between, this glided to the top in its sixth week. It helped Russ to spend the most weeks on the British chart in 1959 an astonishing 79, a massive feat considering the chart was only a top 30 then, a run which pales today's acts who spend 40 weeks or so on the Top 75 in a year into insignificance. And of course, he was the biggest-selling artist of 1959.
Hits for Russ petered out in the mid-sixties. He suffered a nervous breakdown around that time, but was restored to full health and continued performing until well into his sixties.
Russ Conway died in December 2000, but many still fondly remember his nine-and-a-half-fingered piano playing.
--10-- APACHE Shadows
25 August 1960 for 5 weeks
This was only the beginning for the massive Shadows, Britain's biggest band pre-Beatles. Hitting #1 in its sixth week, it got the Shadows off to a great start as they rocketed to fame. Well, not really their start, was this. They had actually previously featured on 11 weeks worth of #1 hits with Cliff Richard, credited with him. They were for one #1 with him, his first, known as the Drifters, but changed that name just as the American group of the same name (known for hits such as Saturday Night At The Movies) issued an injunction for name duplication. They still have the most #1s for any instrumental act in history and have the third most weeks on chart by any act, with over 700. The group comprised of Hank B. Marvin on lead guitar, Bruce Welch on rhythm guitar, Jet Harris on bass and Tony Meehan on drums.
The song was first heard by the Shadows when they were busy touring across Britain. A fellow artiste on the bill, Jerry Lordan, played them the ditty on his ukelele. Bert Weedon had already recorded it, but no one had any plans to release it. The Shadows jumped in with their version, which promptly knocked their own record, Please Don't Tease, on which they were credited as Cliff Richard's backing band, off the top. He was also their boss; the feat of knocking a manager/mentor off #1 is indeed rare done also in 1999 when another male group, Westlife, knocked their manager Ronan Keating's debut #1 off the top with their second #1. The Shadows swept the annual awards polls in 1960; including being voted Britain's top Instrumental Group of the Year and Apache being voted the Record of the Year by highly regarded paper New Musical Express.
--11-- ON THE REBOUND Floyd Cramer
18 May 1961 for 1 week
Floyd Cramer was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, on 27 November 1933 and was actually pianist on Elvis Presley's early RCA hits. The "Nashville" sound of the late 50s and early 60s came to be based on the guitar style of Chet Atkins and Les Paul, the bass of Bill Black, the drums of D.J. Fontana and the piano of Floyd Cramer. This single - the follow-up to the US #1 First Date - hit #1 in its sixth week. Floyd never had a big hit again, with his subsequent two hits only hitting #36 and #46. Floyd died at the age of 64 on 31 December 1997.
--12-- KON-TIKI Shadows
5 October 1961 for 1 week
The Shadows fifth hit and their second #1. The line-up of the group on the recording is the same, but by the time it had peaked at #1 drummer Tony Meehan was replaced by the drummer from Marty Wilde's Wildcats, Brian Bennett. This proved to be a wise move, as the Wildcat's hits soon dried up, and the Shadows were still having Top 10 albums in 1990.
--13-- WONDERFUL LAND Shadows
22 March 1962 for 8 weeks
The third #1 for the Shadows, showing no signs of slowing down. A second #1 for the Shadows to be written by Jerry Lordan, who himself had three minor hits in 1960. His talents clearly lay in songwriting though. The record had a distinctive horn section, cleverly arranged by Norrie Paramor who coincidentally also produced the only instrumental with more weeks on top than this one, Eddie Calvert's Oh Mein Papa. It hit #1 quickly, in its fourth week.
--14-- NUT ROCKER B Bumble and the Stingers
17 May 1962 for 1 week
Reaching #1 in its fifth week after charting during the Shadows lengthy stay atop, Nut Rocker made history by being the first instrumental to replace another at the top. It created a classic from a classic, by refurbishing Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. B Bumble and the Stingers became the ultimate one-hit wonders this was their only record to chart. Nut Rocker was re-issued in 1972 and was Top 20 once again, spending 11 weeks on the chart to bring the record's total to 26 weeks on chart.
--15-- TELSTAR Tornados
4 October 1962 for 5 weeks
Alan Caddy, Heinz Burt, Roger Jackson, George Bellamy and Clem Cattini made up the Tornados, who played a wee ditty named after the American communications satellite that had been launched earlier in the year. The organ-driven tune reached #1 in its sixth week, and also raced up the USA charts to the top as well. The record spent 25 weeks on the chart. It was followed up by a Top 5 hit, and then a few flops. That was the end for the Tornados.
--16-- DANCE ON! Shadows
24 January 1963 for 1 week
Peter Gormley, the Shadows manager, was on the lookout for songs for the Shadows to record when he heard this one which came amongst the pile of tapes mounting on his desk. It was written by the three members of vocal group the Avons, who had a massive #3 hit in 1959 Seven Little Girls Sitting In The Back Seat and not much else. Their fourth and final hit came in early 1961 with Rubber Ball, a Bobby Vee cover, which could only muster #30 while his version was a big Top 5 hit, entering a week later. That same week a version also entered from Marty Wilde and his group the Wildcats, which beat the Avons again to peak at #9. Brian Bennett was then a Wildcat and later joined the Shadows, so this was the only kind of connection for the Avons with a #1 hit, which hit the top in its seventh week. The song was also later denied the chance to have a place on the rather exclusive list of songs to be Top 10 in an instrumental and vocal version, with Kathy Kirby's version only managing #11. It thus failed to join the likes of Oh Mein Papa (see earlier), Annie's Song, Amazing Grace (see later) and Don't Cry For Me Argentina.
--17-- DIAMONDS Jet Harris and Tony Meehan
31 January 1963 for 3 weeks
For the second time in chart history, an instrumental song took over from another atop the charts. Terence 'Jet' Harris was born 6 July 1939 in Kingsbury, Middlesex and David Joseph Anthony Meehan was born in Hampstead on 2 March 1943, and thus with them knocking the Shadows off the top came another Shadows connection. Harris and Meehan played with groups on several hits in 1958, until Mr Cliff Richard took them on to play drums and bass for his backing band the Drifters who obviously became the Shadows. This one peaked at the top in its fourth week. After a further two big Top 5 hits that year, which actually both spent the same amount of weeks on the chart as their #1, the duo parted ways.
--18-- FOOT TAPPER Shadows
29 March 1963 for 1 week
This one was quite a poignant and significant #1 in many ways. Firstly it was the final chart topper for the Shads, although they did continue to score a further 21 hits until 1981, including six Top Tenners. It was also a third consecutive topper for producer Norrie Paramor, and a second consecutive #1 for Bruce Welch as a co-writer, and as a performer he of course featured on the previous Cliff Richard and the Shadows #1, Summer Holiday. This again broke another record it was a second consecutive #1 from the same film, and a third in total from the feature presentation film Summer Holiday, the first from the film to hit number one being The Next Time/Bachelor Boy, another number from Cliff Richard and the Shadows. Other films went on to score just as good chart success, such as Grease and Saturday Night Fever in the late 70s, and most recently notable is Bridget Jones's Diary having 4 hits from the soundtrack on the UK Top 40 chart, but no film has come close to this one's incredible run of chart success. The soundtrack also hit #1 in the album charts for a massive 14 weeks. Finally, as the Shadows stopped making #1s, there ceased to be an instrumental #1 for some time
--19-- THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY Hugo Montenegro and His Orchestra and Chorus
13 November 1968 for 4 weeks
The first instrumental to hit #1 in over five years did so in style. Montenegro was born in New York in 1925, and later moved to California after serving in the US Navy, and became well-known for scores such as for the film Hurry Sundown and the TV show The Man From U.N.C.L.E. He also acted as arranger and conductor for major calypso artist and label mate Harry Belafonte. This one was taken from a spaghetti western film, starring Clint Eastwood, and it featured Tommy Morgan on electric harmonica, Elliot Fisher on electric violin, Manny Klein on piccolo trumpet and Arthur Smith on the ocarina, which provided the unique introduction. A short while later Hugo narrowly avoided being a permanent fix in the one-hit wonder list by being one of just two artists to have their #1 follow up and last single hit the dizzy heights of #50.
--20-- ALBATROSS Fleetwood Mac
29 January 1969 for 1 week
A massive hit here. Despite only spending a week atop, Albatross hit #1 in its ninth week, and spent a lengthy total this time around of 20 weeks on the chart. Then again the record was a bestseller in 1975, just failing to be the only instrumental (or single of any sort) to hit #1 twice, peaking at #2 and giving the record a total of 35 weeks on chart. The hits kept flowing for the Mac, and after the re-issue of Albatross the British group expanded to include three Americans who helped them to make the bestselling album Rumours, which took 49 weeks to hit the top of the albums listings and was one of the biggest selling albums of the 1970s in the UK.
--21-- AMAZING GRACE The Pipes and Drums and Military Band of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards
15 April 1972 for 5 weeks
After yet another lengthy gap between instrumental #1s, this time of three years, the first hit to feature the Scottish bagpipes and the act with the longest artist name to hit #1 hit the top in its third week. The traditional arrangement of Amazing Grace was already well familiar to pop fans in Judy Collins' vocal version, which spent a formidable 67 weeks on the chart between 1970 and 73, yet peaking no higher than #5. This version first appeared on the album Farewell To The Greys, a tribute to the Royal Scots Greys (2nd Dragoon) that on 2 July 1971 had merged with the 35th Caribiniers (Prince of Wales Dragoon Guards) to form a new regiment. At this time they were stationed in West Germany, unaware that an album track of theirs was gaining huge listener reaction after being played on radio, starting with BBC Radio Two. The huge reaction and public demand forced RCA to release it as a single. It spent 24 weeks on the chart initially, and after two more minor hits it re-entered at Christmas to give it a total of 27 weeks on chart. Combined with Judy Collins version, Amazing Grace has spent 94 weeks on chart to be the nation's second most popular ditty, after Frank Sinatra's My Way.
--22-- EYE LEVEL Simon Park Orchestra
29 September 1973 for 4 weeks
Oxford music graduate Simon Park led this orchestra. Park was born in 1946 in Market Harborough and began tinkling the ivories at the age of 5 in 1951.
Eye Level was the first television theme tune to rise all the way to #1. It was taken from the show Van der Valk, based on the detective thriller novels of Nicholas Freeling. Around the time of the first series, Eye Level was released but failed to make much of an impression, only hitting #41 in November 1972. Momentum gathered as viewing figures rapidly increased for the second series. It was quickly re-released by popular demand (just like the aforementioned). It thus hastily rose all the way in its third week of release and spent four weeks at #1, selling a million copies. After a few long breaks for instrumentals, the longest was now to come.
--23-- DOOP Doop
19 March 1994 for 3 weeks
One of the most recent instrumental number ones harked back to an era even before the charts began. After a massive 20 year gap, another ditty with absolutely no vocal in it finally hit #1. Garnefski and Ridderhof, two producers from The Hague in the Netherlands achieved this with a strange fusion of 1920s Charleston jazz that was spruced up with the techniques of 1990s house. Despite being widely believed to be an instrumental, it must be noted that the title word is repeated relentlessly at one point in the song by excited flapper girls. After entering at #3 behind Mariah Carey's Without You, it jumped all the way to #1. After three weeks there, and another two weeks in the Top 5, it dropped quite rapidly. It became the 10th bestselling single that year, and the Doop boys look forever destined to end up on the ultimate one-hit wonder list after a follow up, Huckleberry Jam, completely failed the Top 75.
--24-- FLAT BEAT Mr Oizo
3 April 1999 for 2 weeks
Quite surprisingly, this instrumental chart topper, the final one for the moment, is the only one to go straight to the top. But perhaps not so surprising really given the hype it received. Levi's, the jeans makers, were making yet another advertisement, and again was to use music and for the second time, after Stiltskin, decided to use a completely new tune. Early in 1999, adverts started being shown with this music.
The adverts featured a furry little bear called Flat Eric who became synonymous with the campaign and song. The most famous of these adverts was one where a man was driving along the road in his car, and next to him in the front of the car was little Eric. The car was stopped by the police, who demanded to look in the boot of the car. The man opened it up, and would you believe it, the man had filled the boot with neat piles of Levi's jeans. Of course, while all this was going on, that wee ditty was playing.
The record-buying public soon got used to it, and support built up. It was, to be honest, a tad on the repetitive side, so when it had to be played on the radio, the edit was a mere two minutes. It was of course a bit longer on recorded vinyl, tape or CD. The only vocal or spoken part is at the start, when a lady on the phone says: "Oh yeah, I used to know Quentin. He's a real jerk." But that can hardly exempt it from instrumental status.
It crashed into the top spot, selling over 200,000 copies in its first week alone and 678,000 in total to make it the 9th bestselling single of 1999.
Behind all this had to be a recording artiste of course. It was Quentin Dupieux, a French underground techno artist. After all this he bowed out of the mainstream voluntarily, saying he never intended to make mainstream music and it was always intended for the underground.
Oh, and on top of that came the merchandising (bar those ever-so-radical engineered jeans): key rings, badges
and a puppet of the cute lil' character as well.
So how long until the next instrumental #1? Well, dance music is always on the up, and a fair amount of those massive dance choons have not vocals whatsoever. So it can't be too far away
| Foot Tapper |
Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt were which pop duo | Instrumental #1s - ukcharts.20m.com
ukcharts.20m.com
Instrumentals at Number One
Commentary by Theo Morgan-Gan
Over the years, 24 instrumentals have topped the charts. Russ Conway, Eddie Calvert and Winifred Atwell have done it twice, and the Shadows have done it a whopping five times. That's right no singing just instruments or in the case of the last two, just computer aided plain dance music.
--1-- THE SONG FROM MOULIN ROUGE - Mantovani and his Orchestra
14 August 1953 for 1 week
The first instrumental track to claim the top spot did so for just one week, and was taken from the film Moulin Rouge. Annunzio Paolo Mantovani was born in Italy on 15 November 1905. He moved to England at the age of 16 with his parents. In the 1930s he formed his own orchestra, which began to be known for its 'cascading strings', and in the 1940s started formally recording with the legendary Decca label. He soon became as popular on record as he had been on radio. He recorded a US-aimed album in 1951, and a song from that album, 'Charmaine' reached the US Top 10 and sold a million copies. His first hit in Britain was a version of White Christmas, which hit #6 over Christmas of 1952 and spent three weeks on the chart. In 1953, with still enduring popularity, his version of the theme from Moulin Rouge, which starred Jos� Ferrer as French painter Henri de Toulouse Lautrec on his knees, eventually hit #1 in its twelfth week. The song spent a lengthy 21 weeks on chart on its first run. It re-entered at #10 in November for one week, and a month later in December it spent a week at the bottom of the chart (#12). Percy Faith had the biggest hit version in America, but Mantovani once again hit the 10 and both versions sold a million. The orchestra went on to have a few more hits, until 1957, when the machine stopped. Mantovani, who backed David Whitfield on most of his recordings, died on 31 March 1981.
--2-- OH MEIN PAPA Eddie Calvert
8 January 1954 for 9 weeks
The instrumental with the most weeks on top. 'The Man With The Golden Trumpet', Eddie Calvert was born 13 March 1922, Lancashire, UK and was the first British instrumentalist to score two #1s and to earn a US gold disc. Trumpeter Eddie Calvert's version of schmaltzy song Oh Mein Papa hit #1 in its fourth week on chart and was a soaraway success. Eddie Fisher recorded a fully vocal version, but for some this was far too emotional for them. Calvert's purely instrumental version was the perfect answer. Fisher had to make do with #9 here, while the roles were reversed in the States; Fisher's version hit the top, and Calvert's could only peak at #6.
This was also a monumental #1 of sorts the first of what has come to be at least 75 #1s to be recorded at the now legendary Abbey Road studios.
Eddie Calvert died on 7 August 1978 in South Africa.
--3-- LET'S HAVE ANOTHER PARTY Winifred Atwell
3 December 1954 for 5 weeks
This was the sixth hit for 'Queen of the Ivories' Winifred Atwell, whose series of popular hit piano medleys gave her 117 weeks on chart. Born on 27 April 1914 in Tunapuna, Trinidad, Atwell was the first black artist to top the chart. The chart-topping medley hit the summit in its second week, and is comprised of the songs: Another Little Drink Won't Do Us Any Harm, Broken Doll, Bye Bye Blackbird, Honeysuckle and The Bee, I Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight, Lily of Laguna, Nellie Dean, Sheik of Araby, Somebody Stole My Gal, When The Red Robin (Comes Bob Bob Bobbin' Along).
--4-- CHERRY PINK AND APPLE BLOSSOM WHITE Perez Prado
29 April 1955 for 2 weeks
Demez Perez Prado was born in Cuba on 11 December 1916 and began to lead a Havana-based orchestra in the pre-Fidel Castro days, the Orquestra Casino de la Playa. He first recorded this song in 1951. In 1955, he was called upon to re-record it. Why? The makers of new film Underwater, starring Jane Russell, wanted it as their theme. He agreed, and the single hit #1 in its fsixth week on the British charts. It was even bigger in the States, where it resided for 10 weeks at number one. Prado had a few more hits until the late 1950s. He died on 14 September 1989 at the age of 72. In 1995, as a result of a Guinness beer advertisement, Guaglione, never before released in Britain, reached #2 and spent a formidable 24 weeks on chart.
--5-- CHERRY PINK AND APPLE BLOSSOM WHITE - Eddie Calvert
27 May 1955 for 4 weeks
After some very heavy competition in the Top 20, Eddie Calvert's version of Cherry Pink
finally hit the top in its eighth week on chart. It helped Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White to become the only instrumental to be #1 in two different versions, and became the one with what is easily the shortest gap between versions hitting the top. Indeed, there was only one two week #1 in between these two. Funnily enough, this perhaps proved movies don't always lead to success this version spent longer at #1 and had more time on chart.
--6-- POOR PEOPLE OF PARIS Winifred Atwell
13 April 1956 for 3 weeks
The second chart-topper for Ms Atwell from Trinidad hit the top in its fifth week. Atwell, actually a qualified chemist, went first to New York and then to London to study piano. She got her break upon realising boogie piano was more lucrative. She was 42 at the time this was number one so a happy birthday for her, made even more happy by the fact that she was then the oldest female to top the chart, and is today still second, with only Cher ahead (54 at the time of her last chart-topper). This was also the second French instrumental to top the chart. Winifred died on 28 February 1983 in Sydney, Australia.
--7-- HOOTS MON Lord Rockingham's XI
28 November 1958 for 3 weeks
Strangely titled party hit Hoots Mon hit the top in its sixth week, and became the first instrumental to reach #1 in more than two years, breaking the run of at least one instrumental atop the charts each year from 1953-56. That record was swiftly broken, starting with this, when at least one instrumental topped the chart in each of six consecutive years, from 1958-63. Harry Robinson had the luck of leading the band Lord Rockingham's XI, which was the house band for Jack Good's television show Oh Boy!. Their recording of Hoots Mon, based on a traditional Scottish folk song called One Hundred Pipers, was constantly plugged on the show, and became extremely popular. It is known as an instrumental, although it and the follow up Wee Tom contained a little spoken Scottish ("Hoots Mon! There's a moose loose about this hoose!"). Surprisingly, for the rockers' role in a single which sold over half a million copies, they were paid just �6 each to record it at Decca's studios in West Hampstead. The follow up spent a brief time on the chart, only hitting #16. Hoots Mon returned to the charts for one week in 1993 as a result of it being featured in a Maynard's Wine Gums advertisement so it looks like Harry and co are set to remain one-hit wonders.
--8-- SIDE SADDLE Russ Conway
27 March 1959 for 4 weeks
Russ Conway was born Trevor Stanford on 2 September 1927 and he joined the Merchant Navy at the ripe old age of 15 in 1942. Two years later in 1944 he had joined the Royal Navy. After having been involved in a somewhat vicious combat with a bread slicer which cut off the top of the third finger on his right hand Mr Stanford was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal (though surely not for this escapade with a bread slicer?), so he became Trevor Stanford DSM.
Whilst in service, Stanford had taught himself the piano, and soon began playing to clubs. Dancer Irving Davies recommended him to producer Norman Newell. The rest is history. Side Saddle hit number one in its sixth week. It lingered a while, spending 30 weeks on the chart, a run at that time second only to Frankie Laine's 36 weeks for I Believe, and still the most weeks on chart for a number one instrumental though well outdone by Mr Acker Bilk's #2 hit Stranger On The Shore, which sold a million, spent an astonishing 55 weeks on chart and still remains one of the best selling singles of all time in Britain.
Russ had started just as fellow piano player Winifred Atwell had done, with a series of hit medleys, in Conway's case, Party Pops and More Party Pops. Further success was still to come...
--9-- ROULETTE Russ Conway
19 June 1959 for 2 weeks
Russ hit the big time with this and thus became the only solo instrumentalist to have consecutive #1s. Just eight weeks after Side Saddle had dropped from #1, and with just two number one hits in between, this glided to the top in its sixth week. It helped Russ to spend the most weeks on the British chart in 1959 an astonishing 79, a massive feat considering the chart was only a top 30 then, a run which pales today's acts who spend 40 weeks or so on the Top 75 in a year into insignificance. And of course, he was the biggest-selling artist of 1959.
Hits for Russ petered out in the mid-sixties. He suffered a nervous breakdown around that time, but was restored to full health and continued performing until well into his sixties.
Russ Conway died in December 2000, but many still fondly remember his nine-and-a-half-fingered piano playing.
--10-- APACHE Shadows
25 August 1960 for 5 weeks
This was only the beginning for the massive Shadows, Britain's biggest band pre-Beatles. Hitting #1 in its sixth week, it got the Shadows off to a great start as they rocketed to fame. Well, not really their start, was this. They had actually previously featured on 11 weeks worth of #1 hits with Cliff Richard, credited with him. They were for one #1 with him, his first, known as the Drifters, but changed that name just as the American group of the same name (known for hits such as Saturday Night At The Movies) issued an injunction for name duplication. They still have the most #1s for any instrumental act in history and have the third most weeks on chart by any act, with over 700. The group comprised of Hank B. Marvin on lead guitar, Bruce Welch on rhythm guitar, Jet Harris on bass and Tony Meehan on drums.
The song was first heard by the Shadows when they were busy touring across Britain. A fellow artiste on the bill, Jerry Lordan, played them the ditty on his ukelele. Bert Weedon had already recorded it, but no one had any plans to release it. The Shadows jumped in with their version, which promptly knocked their own record, Please Don't Tease, on which they were credited as Cliff Richard's backing band, off the top. He was also their boss; the feat of knocking a manager/mentor off #1 is indeed rare done also in 1999 when another male group, Westlife, knocked their manager Ronan Keating's debut #1 off the top with their second #1. The Shadows swept the annual awards polls in 1960; including being voted Britain's top Instrumental Group of the Year and Apache being voted the Record of the Year by highly regarded paper New Musical Express.
--11-- ON THE REBOUND Floyd Cramer
18 May 1961 for 1 week
Floyd Cramer was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, on 27 November 1933 and was actually pianist on Elvis Presley's early RCA hits. The "Nashville" sound of the late 50s and early 60s came to be based on the guitar style of Chet Atkins and Les Paul, the bass of Bill Black, the drums of D.J. Fontana and the piano of Floyd Cramer. This single - the follow-up to the US #1 First Date - hit #1 in its sixth week. Floyd never had a big hit again, with his subsequent two hits only hitting #36 and #46. Floyd died at the age of 64 on 31 December 1997.
--12-- KON-TIKI Shadows
5 October 1961 for 1 week
The Shadows fifth hit and their second #1. The line-up of the group on the recording is the same, but by the time it had peaked at #1 drummer Tony Meehan was replaced by the drummer from Marty Wilde's Wildcats, Brian Bennett. This proved to be a wise move, as the Wildcat's hits soon dried up, and the Shadows were still having Top 10 albums in 1990.
--13-- WONDERFUL LAND Shadows
22 March 1962 for 8 weeks
The third #1 for the Shadows, showing no signs of slowing down. A second #1 for the Shadows to be written by Jerry Lordan, who himself had three minor hits in 1960. His talents clearly lay in songwriting though. The record had a distinctive horn section, cleverly arranged by Norrie Paramor who coincidentally also produced the only instrumental with more weeks on top than this one, Eddie Calvert's Oh Mein Papa. It hit #1 quickly, in its fourth week.
--14-- NUT ROCKER B Bumble and the Stingers
17 May 1962 for 1 week
Reaching #1 in its fifth week after charting during the Shadows lengthy stay atop, Nut Rocker made history by being the first instrumental to replace another at the top. It created a classic from a classic, by refurbishing Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. B Bumble and the Stingers became the ultimate one-hit wonders this was their only record to chart. Nut Rocker was re-issued in 1972 and was Top 20 once again, spending 11 weeks on the chart to bring the record's total to 26 weeks on chart.
--15-- TELSTAR Tornados
4 October 1962 for 5 weeks
Alan Caddy, Heinz Burt, Roger Jackson, George Bellamy and Clem Cattini made up the Tornados, who played a wee ditty named after the American communications satellite that had been launched earlier in the year. The organ-driven tune reached #1 in its sixth week, and also raced up the USA charts to the top as well. The record spent 25 weeks on the chart. It was followed up by a Top 5 hit, and then a few flops. That was the end for the Tornados.
--16-- DANCE ON! Shadows
24 January 1963 for 1 week
Peter Gormley, the Shadows manager, was on the lookout for songs for the Shadows to record when he heard this one which came amongst the pile of tapes mounting on his desk. It was written by the three members of vocal group the Avons, who had a massive #3 hit in 1959 Seven Little Girls Sitting In The Back Seat and not much else. Their fourth and final hit came in early 1961 with Rubber Ball, a Bobby Vee cover, which could only muster #30 while his version was a big Top 5 hit, entering a week later. That same week a version also entered from Marty Wilde and his group the Wildcats, which beat the Avons again to peak at #9. Brian Bennett was then a Wildcat and later joined the Shadows, so this was the only kind of connection for the Avons with a #1 hit, which hit the top in its seventh week. The song was also later denied the chance to have a place on the rather exclusive list of songs to be Top 10 in an instrumental and vocal version, with Kathy Kirby's version only managing #11. It thus failed to join the likes of Oh Mein Papa (see earlier), Annie's Song, Amazing Grace (see later) and Don't Cry For Me Argentina.
--17-- DIAMONDS Jet Harris and Tony Meehan
31 January 1963 for 3 weeks
For the second time in chart history, an instrumental song took over from another atop the charts. Terence 'Jet' Harris was born 6 July 1939 in Kingsbury, Middlesex and David Joseph Anthony Meehan was born in Hampstead on 2 March 1943, and thus with them knocking the Shadows off the top came another Shadows connection. Harris and Meehan played with groups on several hits in 1958, until Mr Cliff Richard took them on to play drums and bass for his backing band the Drifters who obviously became the Shadows. This one peaked at the top in its fourth week. After a further two big Top 5 hits that year, which actually both spent the same amount of weeks on the chart as their #1, the duo parted ways.
--18-- FOOT TAPPER Shadows
29 March 1963 for 1 week
This one was quite a poignant and significant #1 in many ways. Firstly it was the final chart topper for the Shads, although they did continue to score a further 21 hits until 1981, including six Top Tenners. It was also a third consecutive topper for producer Norrie Paramor, and a second consecutive #1 for Bruce Welch as a co-writer, and as a performer he of course featured on the previous Cliff Richard and the Shadows #1, Summer Holiday. This again broke another record it was a second consecutive #1 from the same film, and a third in total from the feature presentation film Summer Holiday, the first from the film to hit number one being The Next Time/Bachelor Boy, another number from Cliff Richard and the Shadows. Other films went on to score just as good chart success, such as Grease and Saturday Night Fever in the late 70s, and most recently notable is Bridget Jones's Diary having 4 hits from the soundtrack on the UK Top 40 chart, but no film has come close to this one's incredible run of chart success. The soundtrack also hit #1 in the album charts for a massive 14 weeks. Finally, as the Shadows stopped making #1s, there ceased to be an instrumental #1 for some time
--19-- THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY Hugo Montenegro and His Orchestra and Chorus
13 November 1968 for 4 weeks
The first instrumental to hit #1 in over five years did so in style. Montenegro was born in New York in 1925, and later moved to California after serving in the US Navy, and became well-known for scores such as for the film Hurry Sundown and the TV show The Man From U.N.C.L.E. He also acted as arranger and conductor for major calypso artist and label mate Harry Belafonte. This one was taken from a spaghetti western film, starring Clint Eastwood, and it featured Tommy Morgan on electric harmonica, Elliot Fisher on electric violin, Manny Klein on piccolo trumpet and Arthur Smith on the ocarina, which provided the unique introduction. A short while later Hugo narrowly avoided being a permanent fix in the one-hit wonder list by being one of just two artists to have their #1 follow up and last single hit the dizzy heights of #50.
--20-- ALBATROSS Fleetwood Mac
29 January 1969 for 1 week
A massive hit here. Despite only spending a week atop, Albatross hit #1 in its ninth week, and spent a lengthy total this time around of 20 weeks on the chart. Then again the record was a bestseller in 1975, just failing to be the only instrumental (or single of any sort) to hit #1 twice, peaking at #2 and giving the record a total of 35 weeks on chart. The hits kept flowing for the Mac, and after the re-issue of Albatross the British group expanded to include three Americans who helped them to make the bestselling album Rumours, which took 49 weeks to hit the top of the albums listings and was one of the biggest selling albums of the 1970s in the UK.
--21-- AMAZING GRACE The Pipes and Drums and Military Band of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards
15 April 1972 for 5 weeks
After yet another lengthy gap between instrumental #1s, this time of three years, the first hit to feature the Scottish bagpipes and the act with the longest artist name to hit #1 hit the top in its third week. The traditional arrangement of Amazing Grace was already well familiar to pop fans in Judy Collins' vocal version, which spent a formidable 67 weeks on the chart between 1970 and 73, yet peaking no higher than #5. This version first appeared on the album Farewell To The Greys, a tribute to the Royal Scots Greys (2nd Dragoon) that on 2 July 1971 had merged with the 35th Caribiniers (Prince of Wales Dragoon Guards) to form a new regiment. At this time they were stationed in West Germany, unaware that an album track of theirs was gaining huge listener reaction after being played on radio, starting with BBC Radio Two. The huge reaction and public demand forced RCA to release it as a single. It spent 24 weeks on the chart initially, and after two more minor hits it re-entered at Christmas to give it a total of 27 weeks on chart. Combined with Judy Collins version, Amazing Grace has spent 94 weeks on chart to be the nation's second most popular ditty, after Frank Sinatra's My Way.
--22-- EYE LEVEL Simon Park Orchestra
29 September 1973 for 4 weeks
Oxford music graduate Simon Park led this orchestra. Park was born in 1946 in Market Harborough and began tinkling the ivories at the age of 5 in 1951.
Eye Level was the first television theme tune to rise all the way to #1. It was taken from the show Van der Valk, based on the detective thriller novels of Nicholas Freeling. Around the time of the first series, Eye Level was released but failed to make much of an impression, only hitting #41 in November 1972. Momentum gathered as viewing figures rapidly increased for the second series. It was quickly re-released by popular demand (just like the aforementioned). It thus hastily rose all the way in its third week of release and spent four weeks at #1, selling a million copies. After a few long breaks for instrumentals, the longest was now to come.
--23-- DOOP Doop
19 March 1994 for 3 weeks
One of the most recent instrumental number ones harked back to an era even before the charts began. After a massive 20 year gap, another ditty with absolutely no vocal in it finally hit #1. Garnefski and Ridderhof, two producers from The Hague in the Netherlands achieved this with a strange fusion of 1920s Charleston jazz that was spruced up with the techniques of 1990s house. Despite being widely believed to be an instrumental, it must be noted that the title word is repeated relentlessly at one point in the song by excited flapper girls. After entering at #3 behind Mariah Carey's Without You, it jumped all the way to #1. After three weeks there, and another two weeks in the Top 5, it dropped quite rapidly. It became the 10th bestselling single that year, and the Doop boys look forever destined to end up on the ultimate one-hit wonder list after a follow up, Huckleberry Jam, completely failed the Top 75.
--24-- FLAT BEAT Mr Oizo
3 April 1999 for 2 weeks
Quite surprisingly, this instrumental chart topper, the final one for the moment, is the only one to go straight to the top. But perhaps not so surprising really given the hype it received. Levi's, the jeans makers, were making yet another advertisement, and again was to use music and for the second time, after Stiltskin, decided to use a completely new tune. Early in 1999, adverts started being shown with this music.
The adverts featured a furry little bear called Flat Eric who became synonymous with the campaign and song. The most famous of these adverts was one where a man was driving along the road in his car, and next to him in the front of the car was little Eric. The car was stopped by the police, who demanded to look in the boot of the car. The man opened it up, and would you believe it, the man had filled the boot with neat piles of Levi's jeans. Of course, while all this was going on, that wee ditty was playing.
The record-buying public soon got used to it, and support built up. It was, to be honest, a tad on the repetitive side, so when it had to be played on the radio, the edit was a mere two minutes. It was of course a bit longer on recorded vinyl, tape or CD. The only vocal or spoken part is at the start, when a lady on the phone says: "Oh yeah, I used to know Quentin. He's a real jerk." But that can hardly exempt it from instrumental status.
It crashed into the top spot, selling over 200,000 copies in its first week alone and 678,000 in total to make it the 9th bestselling single of 1999.
Behind all this had to be a recording artiste of course. It was Quentin Dupieux, a French underground techno artist. After all this he bowed out of the mainstream voluntarily, saying he never intended to make mainstream music and it was always intended for the underground.
Oh, and on top of that came the merchandising (bar those ever-so-radical engineered jeans): key rings, badges
and a puppet of the cute lil' character as well.
So how long until the next instrumental #1? Well, dance music is always on the up, and a fair amount of those massive dance choons have not vocals whatsoever. So it can't be too far away
| i don't know |
What does the musical term presto mean | Presto - Italian Musical Terms - BPM of Presto
By Brandy Kraemer
Definition:
The Italian musical term presto is an indication to play in a quick, lively tempo ; faster than vivace .
BPM of Presto:
| Fast |
Which German battleship was scuttled at the River Plate in 1939 | presto - Wiktionary
presto
See also: prestó , prestò , and přesto
Contents
presto (not comparable )
(music) Very fast or quickly; a directive for the musician(s) to play in a very quick tempo .
Used by magicians when performing a trick ; ta-da ; voilà .
So I put my hand into the hat and presto! Out comes a rabbit!
| i don't know |
In which conflict did these three battles occur, Memphis, Antietam and Fredericksburg | » See all American Civil War Articles
Civil War Summary: The American Civil War, 1861–1865, resulted from long-standing sectional differences and questions not fully resolved when the United States Constitution was ratified in 1789. With the defeat of the Southern Confederacy and the subsequent passage of the XIII, XIV and XV amendments to the Constitution, the Civil War’s lasting effects include abolishing the institution of slavery in America and firmly redefining the United States as a single, indivisible nation rather than a loosely bound collection of independent states.
Milestones
It was a war that saw many “firsts.” The long list of Civil War firsts include America’s first income tax, the first battle between ironclad ships, the first extensive use of black soldiers and sailors in U.S. service, the first use of quinine to treat typhoid fever, America’s first military draft, and many others. There were advances in medical treatment, military tactics, the chaplain service, and other fields. Over the course of the Civil War weapons ranged from obsolete flintlocks to state-of-the-art repeaters. During the Civil War, women took on new roles, including running farms and plantations and spying; some disguised themselves as men and fought in battle. All of the nation’s ethnic groups participated in the war, including Irish, Germans, American Indians, Jews, Chinese, Hispanics, etc.
Other Names for the Civil War
Northerners have also called the Civil War the War to Preserve the Union, the War of the Rebellion (War of the Southern Rebellion), and the War to Make Men Free. Southerners may refer to it as the War Between the States or the War of Northern Aggression. In the decades following the conflict, those who did not wish to upset adherents of either side simply called it The Late Unpleasantness. It is also known as Mr. Lincoln’s War and, less commonly, as Mr. Davis’ War.
Troop Strength and Casualties
Between April 1861 and April 1865, an estimated 1.5 million troops joined the war on the side of the Union and approximately 1.2 million went into Confederate service. An estimated total of 600,000 were killed in action or died of disease. More than twice that number were wounded but survived at least long enough to muster out. Casualties of the Civil War cannot be calculated exactly, due to missing records (especially on the Southern side) and the inability to determine exactly how many combatants died from wounds, drug addiction, or other war-related causes after leaving the service. An untold number of civilians also perished, primarily from disease as entire towns became hospitals.
Naval Battles
Most naval actions occurred on rivers and inlets or in harbors, and include history’s first clash between two ironclads, the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (a captured and converted ship formerly called the Merrimac), at Hampton Roads, Virginia , on March 9, 1862. Other actions include the Battle of Memphis (1862), Charleston Harbor (1863), and Mobile Bay (1864), and the naval sieges of Vicksburg in 1862 and again in 1863. The most famous clash between ocean-going warships was the duel between USS Kearsarge and CSS Alabama off Cherbourg, France, June 19, 1864. Throughout the war, the Union had a decided advantage in both numbers and quality of naval vessels.
The War Between The States Begins
On April 10, 1861, knowing that resupplies were on their way from the North to the federal garrison at Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, provisional Confederate forces in the city demanded the fort’s surrender. The fort’s commander, Major Robert Anderson, refused. On April 12, the Confederates opened fire with cannon. At 2:30 p.m. the following day, Major Anderson surrendered.
On April 15, Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to put down the Southern rebellion, a move that prompted Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas and North Carolina to reverse themselves and vote in favor of session. (Most of the western section of Virginia rejected the session vote and broke away, ultimately forming a new, Union-loyal state, West Virginia .)
The United States had always maintained only a small professional army; the nation’s founders had feared a Napoleon might rise up and use a large army to overthrow the government and make himself a dictator. Many graduates of the U.S. Army’s military academy, West Point, resigned their commissions in order to fight for the South—this was especially true in the cavalry arm, but no members of the artillery “went South.” The Lincoln Administration had to rely on large numbers of volunteers from the states and territories.
In Richmond, Virginia, the President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis , faced a similar problem in raising and equipping armies. Neither side expected a war of long duration. Volunteers were asked to serve for 90 days. “One big battle, and it’ll be over,” was the commonly expressed belief on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line. Southerners thought Northerners too weak and cowardly to fight. Northerners thought a dependence upon slave labor had rendered Southerners too weak both physically and morally to present a serious battlefield threat. Both sides were due for a rude awakening.
The Challenges of North and South
To win the war would require Lincoln’s armies and navy to subdue an area from the East Coast to the Rio Grande, from the Mason-Dixon Line to the Gulf of Mexico. To prevent a Northern victory, the South would have to defend that same large area, but with a smaller population and less industry than the North could ultimately bring to bear. A short war would favor the South, a long one the North.
Theaters of War
Actions in the war were divided into the Eastern Theater, primarily comprised of Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and the coast of North Carolina. The Atlantic Coast farther south was the Lower Seaboard Theater. The Western Theater began west of the Alleghenies (West Virginia excepted) and continued to the Mississippi River, but it also included the interior of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Events farther west are considered to have occurred in the Trans-Mississippi Theater and the Far West.
1861
The first inland clash between significant bodies of troops occurred on the morning of June 3, 1861, when 3,000 Union volunteers surprised 800 Confederates at Philippi in (West) Virginia. Lasting less than half an hour, the affair would barely qualify as a skirmish later in the war, but the Union victory there and subsequent ones in the region elevated the reputation of Major General George B. McClellan , commander of the Department of the Ohio.
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The first real battle took place July 21, 1861, on the hills around Bull Run creek outside Manassas, Virginia, a railroad junction some 30 miles south of the Northern capital at Washington City (Washington, D.C.) and about 90 miles north of the Confederate capital at Richmond on July. It is known as the First Battle of Bull Run (Northern name) or the First Battle of Manassas (Southern name). During the war, the North named battles for the nearest body of water, and the South used the name of the nearest town.
The Union army made progress early in the battle, but Confederate reinforcements arrived late in the day from the Shenandoah Valley and routed the Federals. The unfortunate Union commander, Irvin McDowell, was made the scapegoat and was replaced with an officer who had some victories to his credit: George Brinton McClellan.
On September 10, a Union victory at Carnifax Ferry in the Big Kanawha Valley of (West) Virginia virtually ended Confederate control in most of the western counties, although there would be raids and guerilla warfare there. A successful naval invasion of North Carolina took place in August.
The Western Theater saw only minor skirmishing. Kentucky was attempting to remain neutral and had vowed to take sides against whichever side first moved troops into it. That was the Confederacy, which felt compelled to establish Mississippi River forts and establish camps within the state to repel any attempted Union move south.
Near Springfield, Missouri, in the Trans-Mississippi, the South won a major battle on August 10, 1861. The Battle of Wilson’s Creek , also known as the Battle of Oak Hills, saw some 12,000 Confederates defeat less than 5,500 Union soldiers and take control of southwestern Missouri, but the Southerners did not immediately pursue northward. The Union commander, Nathaniel Lyon, was killed, the first Federal general to die in action during the war. The South had already lost Brigadier General Robert S. Garnett in a skirmish at Carrick’s Ford, (West) Virginia, and Brigadier General Bernard E. Bee at First Manassas. After Wilson’s Creek, Confederate forces won another Missouri victory at the First Battle of Lexington, September 13–20, 1861.
During the fall and winter, both sides swelled their ranks, trained troops, and obtained additional weapons, food and equipment, and horses and mules for the coming year’s campaigns.
1862
If 1861 had disabused Americans north and south of the notion this would be a short war, 1862 showed how terrible its cost in human life would be, beginning with the two bloody days of the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee and continuing through a series of battles in Virginia and America’s bloodiest single day, the Battle of Antietam in Maryland.
The year saw the first clash between ironclad warships, in the Battle of Hampton Roads . Lincoln announced his Emancipation Proclamation . The South found two heroes: Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson , for his Shenandoah Valley Campaign, and Robert E. Lee , who took command of the main Confederate army. Lincoln would be hard-pressed to find a commander Lee could not out-general. Farther south along the Atlantic Coast, Federals captured territory in North and South Carolina and Georgia, but lost a chance to shorten the war when they were turned back at the Battle of Secessionville, South Carolina.
In the Western Theater, Union forces made deep penetrations into Dixie, beginning the year along the Ohio River and finishing it in control of Middle and West Tennessee, with outposts in Mississippi. Even New Orleans was under the Stars and Stripes again.
Beyond the Mississippi, initial Confederate successes in New Mexico territory were nullified by a defeat at Glorietta Pass. Texans lynched 50 Unionists in what became known as the Great Hanging at Gainesville and attacked German immigrants trying to leave the state, executing nine of the wounded after the Battle of the Nueces.
In August, starving Sioux Indians in Minnesota, angered because they’d not received badly needed payments promised by their treaty, began an uprising that killed at least 113 white men, women and children. Three hundred Sioux were sentenced to hang, but Lincoln cut that number to 38—still the largest mass execution in U.S. history.
Antietam and Shiloh
If 1861 had disabused Americans north and south of the notion this would be a short war, 1862 showed how terrible its cost in human life would be, beginning with the two bloody days of the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee and continuing through a series of battles in Virginia and America’s bloodiest single day, the Battle of Antietam in Maryland. September saw simultaneous Confederate invasions into Maryland and Kentucky in September. Neither, however, was long lived.
The year 1862 ended—and the new year would begin—with another bloodbath, on the banks of Stones River outside Murfreesboro , Tennessee. Overall, the scales were still nearly balanced between the two sides in their struggle to restore the Union or to establish a Southern Confederacy.
1863
The tide of war shifted noticeably in favor of the Union in 1863, despite a brilliant victory by Robert E. Lee in the Battle of Chancellorsville , a battle that cost the life of his daring lieutenant Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. Lee then suffered a major defeat at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in early July. The victor, George Gordon Meade , did not pursue aggressively, and the Confederate “Gray Fox” escaped to fight another day. The two antagonists met again in November in a confused, inconclusive affair known as the Mine Run Campaign.
Battle of Chancellorsville
On April 17, the Army of the Potomac , under yet another commander, Maj. Gen. Joseph “Fighting Joe” Hooker , attempted to outflank Lee at Fredericksburg by crossing the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers above the town. In response, Lee divided his force, leaving part of it to guard the river at Fredericksburg. On April 30, Hooker and Lee collided near a mansion called Chancellorsville in a densely thicketed area of woods known as The Wilderness. After a brilliant flank attack that disorganized Hooker’s right, Lt. Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was mortally wounded by his own men in the darkness. He died May 10. Lee, learning the Federals had captured Fredericksburg, divided his force again and defeated them at Salem Church. Hooker gave up the campaign and withdrew on the night of May 5–6. The Battle of Chancellorsville is regarded as Lee’s most brilliant victory. Read more about the Battle of Chancellorsville .
Vicksburg, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga
The “Confederate Gibraltar,” Vicksburg , Mississippi, fell to Ulysses S. Grant on July 4 after a 47-day siege. Confederates won their greatest victory in the Western Theater at the Battle of Chickamauga in September, but failed to capitalize on it and in late November were routed from the hills above Chattanooga , opening the road to Atlanta for the Union’s Western armies. Grant was placed in command of all Western armies, a prelude to an even greater promotion that would come the following spring.
Two massacres marked 1863. In response to raids by Shoshoni Indians in the Idaho Territory of the far northwest, U.S. troops under Col. Patrick E. Connor attacked the camp of Chief Bear Hunter on January 29. A number of Shoshoni women, children and old men were killed along with Hunting Bear’s warriors in the Bear River Massacre (Massacre at Boa Ogoi). On August 21, Confederate guerrillas under Captain William C. Quantrill sacked and burned Lawrence, Kansas, a center for pro-Union, anti-slavery Jayhawkers and Redlegs, killing 150–200 men and boys.
Gettysburg
In mid-June, Lee led his Army of Northern Virginia into Maryland and Pennsylvania in his second invasion of the North, hoping to take pressure off Virginia’s farms during the growing season and seeking a victory on Northern soil. His men encountered the Army of the Potomac, now under George Gordon Meade, at a crossroads town in southeastern Pennsylvania on July 1. Capturing the town but failing to take the high ground around it, Lee assailed the Union flanks the next day. The fighting on the Union left was particularly costly to both sides, memorializing Little and Big Round Top, Devil’s Den, the each Orchard and the Wheatfield. On the right, the Confederates nearly broke through on Culp’s and Cemetery hills before being repulsed. On July 3, Lee made perhaps his greatest mistake of the war, ordering a frontal attack across open ground against the Union center on Cemetery Ridge. Known as “Pickett’s Charge” for the commander of the largest Confederate division involved, George Pickett, the attack failed, leaving thousands of Southern soldiers dead and wounded. On Independence Day, a wagon train of wounded over 14 miles long began Lee’s retreat. With the Confederate’s loss of Vicksburg, Mississippi, that same day, July 4, 1863, is often described as the turning point of the Civil War. Read more about the Battle Of Gettysburg
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The year also saw an event unique in American history. Counties of western Virginia had refused to leave the Union when the state seceded in 1861. On June 20, 1863, West Virginia entered the Union as the 35th state, although the U.S. Constitution requires a mother state’s permission before a new state can be carved out of it.
At the end of 1863, both sides still had significant forces, and the Confederates enjoyed good defensive terrain in Virginia and North Georgia. If they could inflict enough losses on their Northern opponents, they might win at the ballot box what they could not on the field of battle: Lincoln was vulnerable and in the 1864 elections might be replaced by a Democrat who would make peace with the Confederacy.
1864
Since the beginning of the war, Lincoln had sought in vain for a general who understood that destroying the Confederate armies in Virginia was more important than capturing Richmond, and who wouldn’t turn back in the face of a defeat in battle. He believed he’d found that man in Ulysses S. Grant, who was put in charge of all Union armies in March 1864. “Unconditional Surrender” Grant proved Lincoln right, but the cost in lives led many, including the president’s wife, Mary, to call the general a “butcher.”
The Wilderness
Following his promotion, Grant attached himself to the North’s largest army, the Army of the Potomac , while leaving George Gordon Meade , the victor of Gettysburg, in command of that force. On May 2, the Army of the Potomac crossed Virginia’s Rapidan River. Three days later, it collided with Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia in a wooded area thick with underbrush, known as The Wilderness, near the old Chancellorsville battlefield, site of Lee’s most brilliant victory. There was no such clear-cut outcome this time. After two blood-soaked days of close-quarters fighting, Grant maneuvered his army to outflank Lee’s right. Lee anticipated the move, and the two armies tore at each other again for two weeks in May around Spotsylvania Courthouse . Again, Grant sidestepped, and again Lee met him in the Battle of the North Anna. Grant intended to “fight it out along this line if it takes all summer,” and the two armies clashed again and again, moving ever southward. At Cold Harbor, Grant made one of the worst mistakes of his career, suffering 7,000 casualties within 20 minutes while Lee’s losses were negligible. Eventually, the Federals maneuvered their opponents so close to Richmond and Petersburg—a town essential to the Confederates’ supply line—that Lee had to give up his ability to maneuver and settle into trench warfare. The siege of Richmond and Petersburg had begun. Read more about the Battle Of The Wilderness
Petersburg and Richmond
On July 30, the Union exploded a mine beneath a portion of the Confederate works around Petersburg. A tardy advance by a large number of Union soldiers into the 30-foot-deep crater it created allowed the Southerners time to recover. They poured fired into the densely packed Federals; eventually, the fighting was hand-to-hand. Angered by the blast and the presence of black troops, the Confederates gave no quarter and the Battle of the Crater resulted in 4,000 Union casualties for no gain. Read more about the Battle Of Petersburg
Although much of Lee’s army was tied down in the defense of Richmond and Petersburg, other portions resisted Union advances in the Shenandoah Valley. After a victory at Lynchburg in June, Jubal A. Early took his Army of the Valley across the Potomac and boldly marched on the Northern capital at Washington, D.C. A desperate delaying action on July 9 at Monocacy, Maryland, by an outnumbered force under Lew Wallace—the future author of Ben Hur—bought the capital time to prepare. When Early attacked Fort Stevens outside the city on July 11—12, President and Mrs. Lincoln came out to watch the fighting. After Early retired back down the Shenandoah Valley, Grant ordered Philip Sheridan to lay waste to the Valley. On October 9, Early surprised Sheridan’s camps on Cedar Creek near Winchester. Sheridan galloped to the sound of the guns, arriving in time to halt the Union rout and crushed the Confederates, effectively ending Early’s ability to take offensive actions to protect the Valley.
When Grant went east his friend and subordinate, William Tecumseh Sherman , took command of the armies of the Tennessee and the Cumberland at Chattanooga. While Grant bludgeoned and sidestepped his way toward Richmond, Sherman was slugging through the mountains of North Georgia. There, Confederate general Joseph Johnston made superb use of terrain to slow the Federal advance. After a series of clashes followed by maneuvers around Johnston’s defenses, Sherman lost patience and ordered a frontal assault on Kennesaw Mountain that cost 3,000 Union lives compared with 1,000 for the Confederates. But gradually, his armies closed in on the rail center of Atlanta. Finally, on September 2, Sherman’s men entered Atlanta after the Confederate army, now under the command of John Bell Hood , evacuated the town, setting fire to it before leaving.
The capture of Atlanta was one of the most crucial events of the war. The South’s last remaining hope was that war-weary Northern voters might turn Lincoln out of the White House in the November elections and replace him with a Peace Democrat. The Democrats had nominated George B. McClellan, the former commander of the Army of the Potomac, as their candidate. The party made many missteps during the campaign, and for the first time ever, the North allowed soldiers to vote in the field. Both of those contributed to Lincoln winning a second term, but had Sherman not taken Atlanta, the long casualty rolls from Grant’s Overland Campaign and the on-going stalemate around the Confederate capital might have been enough to convince Northerners to “give peace a chance” and vote against Lincoln and the war.
Sherman’s March To The Sea
Sherman left Atlanta November 15 on his march to the sea. Along the way, he intended to “make Georgia howl,” letting his men live off the land and burning all they couldn’t take with them. He reached Savannah by Christmas, leaving a 60-mile wide swath of ashes, wrecked railroads and utter destruction behind him. Read more about Sherman’s March To The Sea
In an attempt to pull Sherman back into Tennessee, John Bell Hood swung the Army of Tennessee through upper Alabama and struck north for Nashville. Sherman detached George Thomas and the Army of the Cumberland to deal with him. At the town of Franklin, Hood ordered frontal assaults that after five hours of intense fighting, left his army in tatters; five generals were dead. Hood’s reduced force then besieged Nashville—the most heavily fortified city in America after Washington, D.C. After an ice storm melted, Thomas came out of his works and finished the job of shattering the Confederate army. Its remnants withdrew to Tupelo, Mississippi.
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In the spring of 1864, Nathan Bedford Forrest began an expedition that reached Paducah, Kentucky, on the Ohio River before rampaging against Federal installations in West Tennessee. Stories that his men massacred Union soldiers, particularly members of the United States Colored Troops captured at Fort Pillow , a poorly designed Mississippi River fort north of Memphis, gained instant credence in the North, but two official inquiries were unable to reach a conclusion about what had actually happened. At New Johnsonville, Tennessee, Forrest gained the distinction of commanding the only cavalry group ever to defeat gunboats, when they sunk or frightened crews into scuttling four ships.
On the Gulf Coast of Alabama on August 5, Admiral David G. Farragut steamed into the Battle of Mobile Bay with 18 ships. Tradition has it that when he was warned about torpedoes (mines) in the bay he responded, “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!” After Farragut’s ships defeated the unfinished ironclad CSS Tennessee, Union infantry captured forts Gaines and Morgan, sealing off the mouth of the bay, but the city of Mobile remained defiant.
By the end of 1864, the Confederacy had nothing left but courage and tenacity. With Lincoln’s re-election , no viable hope remained for a negotiated peace. The smoke rising above Georgia and the thousands of bodies strung out from Nashville to Atlanta to Petersburg and the gates of Washington said there would be no military victory. Legislators of North Carolina pressed Jefferson Davis to make peace before their state suffered Georgia’s fate but to no avail. The South would fight on, no matter cost.
1865
The noose around the Confederacy was strangling it. In mid-January Fort Fisher in North Carolina fell to a combined land and naval force. The port city of Wilmington followed a month later. Sherman’s bummers were advancing north. When they reached South Carolina, where the rebellion had begun, any bit of restraint they may have shown elsewhere was pitched aside. By February 20, the state capital of Columbia was captured; fires destroyed much of the city, but whether they were set deliberately by Sherman’s troops or by retreating Confederates or accidentally by Union soldiers celebrating with too much alcohol has been long debated. Sherman’s men continued on through North Carolina, setting fire to the pine forests that played an important role in the state’s economy. What remained of the Confederate forces, once more under the command of Joseph Johnston, was far too small to stop the juggernaut.
Outside Petersburg, Virginia , Lee launched a costly failed attack against the besiegers’ Fort Steadman on March 25. When Federals under Phil Sheridan captured the crossroads at Five Forks, cutting Lee’s supply line, he withdrew from the Petersburg–Richmond trenches and headed southwest, hoping to link up with Johnston coming up from the south. Before leaving Richmond, the Confederates set fire to the town. On April 9, at Appomattox Courthouse , after discovering Federals had beaten him to a supply cache, he surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant. Despite his nickname of “Unconditional Surrender” Grant and his policy of waging total war against the South to end the rebellion, Grant offered generous terms, realizing this surrender would virtually end the war.
Johnston surrendered to Sherman at Bentonville, North Carolina, on April 26. Sherman extended even more generous terms than Grant had but endured the embarrassment of having to go back to Johnston with harsher conditions. Between Lee and Johnston’s surrenders, an event had occurred that reduced the North’s compassion toward their proud, defeated enemies.
Lincoln Assassinated
On the night of April 14, John Wilkes Booth , a staunchly pro-slavery Confederate sympathizer, slipped into the President’s Box at Ford’s Theater in Washington and fired a single bullet into the back of Abraham Lincoln’s head. Lincoln died the next morning, the first American president to be assassinated. Booth was shot weeks later while trying to escape from a barn in Virginia. All those captured who were believed to be his co-conspirators in the plot were hanged, including Mary Surratt, who owned the boarding house where the plotters met.
Jefferson Davis, who had escaped Richmond, was captured in Georgia on May 10 and imprisoned for two years at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, before being released on $100,000 bond.
One after another, the remaining Confederate forces surrendered. Their last army in the field was surrendered by Cherokee Chief Stand Watie in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) on June 23.
The Last Battle
The last land battle, a Confederate victory, occurred May 12–13 at Palmito (or Palmetto) Ranch in south Texas, where word of Lee’s surrender had not yet been received. Far across the Atlantic on November 6, 1865, the sea raider CSS Shenandoah surrendered to a British captain; had the ship’s crew surrendered in America, they risked hanging as pirates.
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On Christmas Day, 1868, President Andrew Johnson issued an amnesty proclamation to all former Confederates, including Jefferson Davis. Only one Confederate was executed, Henry Wirtz, commander of the notorious prison camp at Andersonville. Officially known as Fort Sumter, Andersonville was the largest prison camp in the south and was infamous for its ill treatment of Union prisoners who lacked adequate food and medicine. Southerners have long protested that the death rate in Northern prison camps was higher than that of Andersonville, and Wirtz should not have been punished for war crimes. Learn more about the Andersonville Prison Camp
Causes
There were numerous causes that led to the Civil War, many of which developing around the fact that the North was becoming more industrialized while the South remained largely agrarian. Some causes of the Civil War include:
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Which country is the maker of the Exocet missile | The Battle of Vicksburg Summary & Facts | Civilwar.org
May 18 - July 4, 1863
Warren County, Mississippi
It is one of the more remarkable campaigns of the American Civil War. For many a hard fought month, Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee had been trying to wrest away the strategic Confederate river fortress of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Previous, direct attempts to take this important town high above the Mississippi River were blocked by deft rebel counter moves and some of the most pernicious terrain in the entire Western theater.
In late April 1863, Grant undertook a new and bold campaign against Vicksburg and the Confederate defenders under John Pemberton. After conducting a surprise landing below Vicksburg at Bruinsburg, Mississippi, Grant’s forces moved rapidly inland, pushing back the threat posed by Joseph E. Johnston’s forces near Jackson. Once his rear was clear, Grant again turned his sights on Vicksburg.
Union victories at Champion Hill and Big Black Bridge weakened Pemberton’s forces, leaving the Confederate chief with no alternative but to retreat to Vicksburg's defenses. The Federals assailed the Rebel stronghold on May 19 and 22, but were repulsed with such great loss that Grant determined to lay siege to the city to avoid further loss of life. Soldiers and civilians alike endured the privations of siege warfare for 47 days before the surrender of Pemberton’s forces on July 4, 1863. With the Mississippi River now firmly in Union hands, the Confederacy's fate was all but sealed.
Note: Casualty figures include the 29,491 officers and men and surrendered by Pemberton.
Unvexing the Father of Waters
Historian Terrence J. Winschel discusses Ulysses S. Grant's campaign to capture Vicksburg and open the Mississippi River.
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Which Greek general invaded India in 326 B.C. | Hindu Wisdom - India and Greece
c o n t e n t s
Indian civilization is distinctive for its antiquity and continuity. Apart from its own vitality, the continuity of Indian civilization is largely due to its ability to adapt to alien ideas, harmonize contradictions and mould new thought patterns. Her constant contacts with the outside world also gave India the opportunity to contribute to other civilizations. Whilst other ancient civilizations have long ceased to exist, Indian civilization has continued to grow despite revolutionary changes. The ancient cultures of Egypt, Mesopotamia and Persia have not survived. But in India today, Hindus seek inspiration from concepts similar to those originally advanced by their ancestors.
Jawaharlal Nehru says in his book The Discovery of India " Till recently many European thinkers imagined that everything that was worthwhile had its origins in Greece or Rome. Sir Henry Maine has said somewhere that except the blind forces of nature, nothing moves in this world which is not originally Greek."
However, Indian contacts with the Western world date back to prehistoric times. Trade relations, preceded by the migration of peoples, inevitably developed into cultural relations. This view is not only amply supported by both philological and archaeological evidence, but by a vast body of corroborative literary evidence as well: Vedic literature and the Jatakas, Jewish chronicles, and the accounts of Greek historians all suggest contact between India and the West. Taxila was a great center of commerce and learning. "Crowds of eager scholars flowed to it for instruction in the three Vedas and in the eighteen branches of knowledge." Tradition affirms that the great epic, the Mahabharata, was first recited in the city." (An Advance History of India, R. C. Majumdar, H. C. Raychanduri p.64) Buddha is reputed to have studied in Taxila. Pythagorean and Platonic philosophy owe their origin to Indian thought and spirituality.
Alexander's raid, which was so significant to Western historians, seemed to have entirely escaped the attention of Sanskrit authors. From the Indian point of view, there was nothing to distinguish his raid in Indian history. Jawaharlal Nehru says, " From a military point of view his invasion, was a minor affair. It was more of a raid across the border, and not a very successful raid at that."
Indian Thought and the West
Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, has said,
"The Europeans are apt to imagine that before the great Greek thinkers, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, there was a crude confusion of thought, a sort of chaos without form and void. Such a view becomes almost a provincialism when we realize that systems of thought which influenced countless millions of human beings had been elaborated by people who never heard the names of the Greek thinkers."
(source: Eastern Religions and Western Thought - By Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan p. 350).
There has been too much inclination among Western writers to idealize the Greeks and their civilization, and they have tended to discover too much of the contemporary world in the Greek past. In fact almost everything was traced to ancient Greece. In all that concerned intellectual activity and even faith, modern civilization was considered to be an overgrown colony of Hellas. The obvious Greek failings, their shortcomings and the unhealthy features of their civilization, was rationalized and romanticized.
In the words of Sir Charles Eliot, who affirms that "it is clearly absurd for Europe as a whole to pose as a qualified instructor in humanity and civilization. He writes: "If Europeans have any superiority over Asiatics it lies in practical science, finance and administration, not in philosophy, thought or art. Their gifts are authority and power to organize; in other respects their superiority is imaginary."
(source: Hinduism and Buddhism - By Sir Charles Elliot Curzon Press ISBN 0700706798 volume I (1920), pp. xcvi and xcviii )
Modern research, however, has marred this comforting image and is helping to put Greek culture into its proper historical perspective showing that, like any other culture, it inherited something from preceding civilizations, profited from the progress of its neighboring cultures (like India and Persia) and, in turn, bequeathed much to later generations.
We are not completely in the dark on the question of Indian influence on Greece. Speaking of ascetic practices in the West, Professor Sir Flinders Patrie (1853-1942) British archaeologist and Egyptologist, author of Egypt and Israel (1911) observes:
" The presence of a large body of Indian troops in the Persian army in Greece in 480 B.C. shows how far west the Indian connections were carried; and the discovery of modeled heads of Indians at Memphis, of about the fifth century B.C. shows that Indians were living there for trade. Hence there is no difficulty in regarding India as the source of the entirely new ideal of asceticism in the West."
(source: Eastern Religions and Western Thought - By Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan p. 150).
Gods of heaven
It is significant to note that although the Indians and Greeks (Yavanas) had come from the same Indo-European stock, they met as strangers in the sixth century B.C. Persian Empire. Soon, however, the cousins became associates in a a common cultural enterprise. Similarities in language, associated by similarities in religious beliefs, indicate that these two peoples must have either been in close contact at some early period or have had a common origin, even though neither had any recollection of those times.
For example, the gods of heaven (Varuna - Ouranos; Dyaus - Zeus ) and the dawn (Ushas - Aurora) were common to the Greeks and Indians. The most prominent characteristics of the gods of both races was their power of regulating the order of nature and banishing evil. The Olympian religion of the Greeks and Vedic beliefs had a common background. The Greek concept of logos was very close to the vedic Vac, which corresponds to the Latin Vox.
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Both Greeks and Romans habitually tried to understand the religions of India by trying to fit them as far as possible into Greco-Roman categories. Deities in particular were spoken of, not in Indian but in Greek terms and called by Greek names. Thus Shiva was identified as 'Dionysos', and Hare Krishna as ' Hercules'.
In a passage of the Rig Veda, Vac is praised as a divine being. Vac is omnipotent, moves amongst divine beings, and carries the great gods, Mitra, Varuna, Indra and Agni, within itself. The doctrine of Vac teaches that "all gods live from Vac, also all demi-gods, animals and people. Vac is the eternal being, it is the first-born of the eternal law, mother of the Vedas and navel of immortality." Vedic Aryans attached such great importance to the spoken word that one who could not correctly pronounce Sanskrit was called barbar (meaning stammering).
The Greek barbaroi had the same meaning. The brisk intercourse between India and Greece is attested by the fact that a special rule was inserted in the great grammar of Panini to distinguish three feminine forms of yavana: a Greek woman was yavani, the curtain was yavanika, and the Greek script was yavanani. There is also a striking similarity between the social life described in the Homeric poems- the Illiad and Odyssey- and that found in the Vedas. Homeric gods, like the heroes who believed in them, often rode in the horse driven chariots. Horse-chariotry was a feature of the life of the Indo-European people. The Homeric idea of a language of the gods is also found in Sanskrit, Greek, Old Norse, and Hittite literatures. Some scholars, like Fiske, have even asserted that elements of the Trojan war story are to be found in the war between the bright deities, and the night demons as described in the Rig Veda. It is clear from Homer that even they used articles of Indian merchandise which were known by names of Indian origin, such as Kassiteros (Sanskrit, Kastira), elephas (Sanskrit, ibha), and ivory.
Alain Danielou (1907-1994), son of French aristocracy, author of numerous books on philosophy, religion, history and arts of India, remarks that: "the Greeks were always speaking of India as the sacred territory of Dionysus and historians working under Alexander the Greek clearly mentions chronicles of the Puranas as sources of the myth of Dionysus." He quotes Clement of Alexandria who admitted that "we the Greeks have stolen from the Barbarians their philosophy."
Alexander's Insignificant Raid
The Alexander mythos
Alexander is supposed to have invaded the Punjab in 326 B.C. Every schoolboy is taught and is expected to know, that he invaded India's Northwest. Strangely, this event, so significant to Western historians, seemed to have entirely escaped the attention of Sanskrit authors. Nowhere did Sir William Jones, (1746-1794),who came to India as a judge of the Supreme Court at Calcutta and pioneered Sanskrit studies, find any mention of Greeks or any sign of Greek influence.
(source: India Discovered - By John Keay p. 33).
British historian Vincent A. Smith, conservatively appraised the impact of Alexander's invasion as follows:
"The Greek influence never penetrated deeply (into the Indic civilization)...On the other hand, the West learned something from India in consequence of the communications opened up by Alexander's adventure. Our knowledge of the facts is so scanty and fragmentary that it is difficult to make any positive assertions with confidence, but it is safe to say that the influence of Buddhist ideas on Christian doctrine may be traced in the Gnostic forms of Christianity, if not elsewhere. The notions of Indian philosophy and religion which filtered into the Roman empire flowed through channels opened by Alexander."
(source: In Search of The Cradle of Civilization: : New Light on Ancient India - By Georg Feuerstein, Subhash Kak & David Frawley p. 252-253).
Even more than the Vedas and the Epics, Sindh figures very prominently in, of all places, the annals of Sikander that is Alexander. British historians used to talk of Alexander as ``the world conqueror'' who ``came and saw and conquered'' every land he had visited. He is still advertised in Indian text-books as the victor in his war with India's Porus (Puru).
However, the facts as recorded by Alexander's own Greek historians tell a very different tale. And Marshal Zhukov , the famous Russian commander in World War II, said at the Indian Military Academy, Dehra Dun, a few years back, that India had defeated Alexander.
Alexander fared badly enough with Porus in the Punjab. Indeed, Porus put him on the spot when he told him: ``To what purpose should we make war upon one another. if the design of your coming to these parts be not to rob us of our water or our necessary food, which are the only things that wise men are indispensably obliged to fight for? As for other riches and possessions, as they are accounted in the eyes of the world, if I am better provided of them than you, I am ready to let you share with me; but if fortune has been more liberal to you than to me, I have no objection to be obliged to you.'' Alexander had no reply to the questions posed by Porus. Instead, with the obstinacy of a bully, he said: ``I shall contend and do battle with you so far that, howsoever obliging you are, you shall not have the better of me.'' But Porus did have the better of Alexander. In the fighting that ensued, the Greeks were so terrified of Indian prowess that they refused to proceed farther, in spite of Alexander's angry urgings and piteous lamentations. Writes Plutarch, the great Greek historian: ``This last combat with Porus took off the edge of the Macedonians' courage and stayed their further progress in India.... Alexander not only offered Porus to govern his own kingdom as satrap under himself but gave him also the additional territory of various independent tribes whom he had subdued.'' Porus emerged from his war with Alexander with his territory doubled and his gold stock augmented. So much for Alexander's ``victory'' over Porus. However, what was to befall him in Sindh, was even worse. In his wars in Iran. Afghanistan, and north-west India, Alexander had made so many enemies that he did not dare return home by the same route he had come. He had, therefore, decided to travel via Sindh. But in Multan the Mallas gave him hell.
(source: Alexander's Waterloo in Sindh - By K R Malkhani).
According to Indian historian Dr. R. C. Majumdar, "The invasion of Alexander has been recorded in minute details by the Greek historians who naturally felt elated at the progress of their hero over unknown lands and seas. From the Indian point of view, there was nothing to distinguish his raid in Indian history. It can hardly be called a great military success as the only military achievement to his credit were the conquest of petty tribes and States by installments. He never approached even within a measurable distance of what may be called the citadel of Indian military strength, and the exertions he had to make against Poros, the ruler of a small district between the Jhelum and the Chenab, do not certainly favor the hypothesis that he would have found it an easy task to subdue the mighty Nanda empire."
According to Paul Masson-Oursel and others, "The importance of this Indian campaign of Alexander has been exaggerated. It had no decisive influence on the destinies of India, for its results were short-lived.
H. G. Rawlinson, refers to the invasion, " had no immediate effect, and passed off like countless other invasions, leaving the country almost undisturbed."
Vincent A. Smith " India remained unchanged. She was never Hellenised. She continued to live her life of splendid isolation, and forgot the passing of the Macedonian storm. No Indian author, Hindu, Buddhist, or Jain, makes even the faintest illusion to Alexander or his deeds."
(Source: Ancient India - By V. D. Mahajan 1994. published by S. Chand & Company New Delhi. p. 265-268)
Jawaharlal Nehru in his book Discovery of India says, " From a military point of view his invasion, was a minor affair. It was more of a raid across the border, and not a very successful raid at that." He met with such stout resistance from a border chieftain that the contemplated advance into the heart of India had to be reconsidered. If a small ruler on the frontier could fight thus, what of the larger and more powerful kingdom further south? Probably this was the main reason why his army refused to march further and insisted on returning."
(source Discovery of India - By Jawaharlal Nehru p. 114-115).
Another myth is propagated by the Western historians that Alexander was noble and kind king, he had great respects for brave and courageous men, and so on. The truth is other-wise. He was neither a noble man nor did he have a heart of gold. He had meted out very cruel and harsh treatment to his earlier enemies. Basus of Bactria fought tooth and nail with Alexander to defend the freedom of his motherland. When he was brought before Alexander as a prisoner, Alexander ordered his servants to whip him and then cut off his nose and ears. He then killed him. Many Persian generals were killed by him.
The murder of Kalasthenese, nephew of Aristotle, was committed by Alexander because he criticised Alexander for foolishly imitating the Persian emperors. Alexander also murdered his friend Clytus in anger. His father's trusted lieutenant Parmenian was also murdered by Alexander. The Indian soldiers who were returning from Masanga were most atrociously murdered by Alexander in the dead of night. These exploits do not prove Alexander's kindness and greatness, but only an ordinary emperor driven by the zeal of expanding his empire.
(source: Alexander, the Ordinary - By Prof. Dinesh Agarwal).
Alexander�s raid of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, finally turned out to be a overthrow of the Achaemenid dynasty, usurpers of the Assyrian Empire. Unable to make headway into India, as the Indian Brahmins had helped and influenced Indian princes to organize and support the Indian war against Alexander . Greek sources cite, after this realization, at �The City of Brahmans�, Alexander massacred an estimated 8000-10,000 of these non-combatant Brahmans.
Alexander�s massacres in India, a colonial historian informs us (without naming a source), earned him an �epithet � assigned (to) him by the Brahmins of India, The Mighty Murderer.� This Indian Brahmanic characterization of Alexander , commonly taught to English schoolchildren and present in English college texts , as The Mighty Murderer, curiously disappeared from Western-English texts soon after 1860 � and instead now �a positive rose-tinted aura surrounds Alexander� � !
Since Indian texts were completely silent about the very existence of Alexander, colonial Western historians had a free run. Using hagiographic Greek texts as the base, Alexander became the conqueror of the world.
(source: The Alexander mythos - 2ndlook.wordpress.com).
The religious scripture of ancient Iranians was the Avesta. The Avesta available today is only a fraction of what existed thousands of years ago. When Alexander captured Iran (Persia) in 326 B. C. after a bloody war, he destroyed each copy of the Avesta available. After return of political stability Persian priests tried to salvage the Avesta and much had to be written from memory. Another cruel legacy of Alexander.
(source: Vedic Physics - By Raja Ram Mohan Roy p. 8)
Marshal Zhukov, the famous Russian commander in World War II, said at the Indian Military Academy, Dehra Dun, a few years back, that India had defeated Alexander
Indian Philosophy
By contrast, philosophical thought in India in the sixth century B.C. had become quite mature. It had reached a stage which could have been arrived at only after long and arduous philosophical quest. Jainism and Buddhism, the latter enormously influential in Indian and neighboring cultures, had emerged by this time. But even before their advent, the philosophical reflections of the early Upanishads (900-600 B.C.) had set forth the fundamental concepts of Hindu thought which have continued to dominate the Indian mind.
It is perhaps necessary to point out that there has often been a wide divergence between Indian and Western interpretations of Indian thought. Dr. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy once even declared that a true account to Hinduism may be given in a categorical denial of most of the interpretation that have been made by Westerners or Western-trained Indians.
The tradition of Indian philosophic thought is as complex as it is long. The complexities of Indian philosophy have arisen through centuries of deep reflection on the many aspects of human experience, and, in the search for some reality behind the external world, various methods have been restored to ranging from experimental to the purely speculative. It is the oldest philosophical tradition in the world is to be traced in the ancient Vedas. Although the religious and philosophical spirit of India emerges distinctly in the Rig Veda, the Upanishads are its most brilliant exposition, for the Vedic civilization was naturalistic and utilitarian, although it did not exclude the cosmological and religious speculation.
Older than Plato or Confucius, the Upanishads are the most ancient philosophical works and contain the mature wisdom of India's intellectual and spiritual attainment. They have inspired not only the orthodox system of Indian thought but also the so-called heterodox schools such as Buddhism. In profundity of thought and beauty of style, they have rarely been surpassed not only in Indian thought but in the Western and Chinese philosophical traditions as well.
The Upanishads have greatly influenced Indian culture throughout history and have also found enthusiastic admirers abroad. Schopenhauer was almost lyrical about them. Max Muller said: " The Upanishads are the .... sources of .....the Vedanta philosophy, a system in which human speculation seems to me to have reached its very acme." The Upanishads are saturated with the spirit of inquiry, intellectual analysis, and a passion for seeking the truth.
India, is the home of philosophy. Certainly India is a country where philosophy has always been very popular and influential. An American scholar has stated that teachers of philosophy in India were as numerous as merchants in Babylonia. The sages have always been heroes of the Indians. If philosophy did emerge in India earlier than in Greece, and if the two countries were in close contact soon after this emergence, it is not unlikely that Indian thought had some influence on Greek philosophy.
Indian Inspiration of Pythagoras
The similarity between the theory of Thales, that water is the material cause of all things, and the Vedic idea of primeval waters as the origin of the universe, was first pointed out by Richard Garbe. The resemblances, too, between the teachings of Pythagoras (ca. 582-506 B.C.) and Indian philosophy are striking. It was Sir William Jones, the founder of comparative philology, who first pointed out the pointed out the similarities between Indian and Pythagorean beliefs. Later, other scholars such as Colebrooke, Garbe, and Winternitz also testified to the Indian inspiration of Pythagoras.
Professor H. G. Rawlinson writes: " It is more likely that Pythagoras was influenced by India than by Egypt. Almost all the theories, religions, philosophical and mathematical taught by the Pythagoreans, were known in India in the sixth century B.C., and the Pythagoreans, like the Jains and the Buddhists, refrained from the destruction of life and eating meat and regarded certain vegetables such as beans as taboo" "It seems that the so-called Pythagorean theorem of the quadrature of the hypotenuse was already known to the Indians in the older Vedic times, and thus before Pythagoras (ibid). (Legacy of India 1937, p. 5).
Professor Maurice Winternitz is of the same opinion: "As regards Pythagoras, it seems to me very probable that he became acquainted with Indian doctrines in Persia." (Visvabharati Quarterly Feb. 1937, p. 8).
It is also the view of Sir William Jones (Works, iii. 236), Colebrooke (Miscellaneous Essays, i. 436 ff.). Schroeder (Pythagoras und die Inder), Garbe (Philosophy of Ancient India, pp. 39 ff), Hopkins (Religions of India, p. 559 and 560) and Macdonell (Sanskrit Literature, p. 422).
(source: Eastern Religions and Western Thought - By Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan p. 143).
Ludwig von Schr�der German philosopher, author of the book Pythagoras und die Inder (Pythagoras and the Indians), published in 1884, he argued that Pythagoras had been influenced by the Samkhya school of thought, the most prominent branch of the Indic philosophy next to Vedanta.
Watch Scientific verification of Vedic knowledge
"Nearly all the philosophical and mathematical doctrines attributed to Pythagoras are derived from India."
Orphic religion, Pythagorean philosophy, Neo-Platonism, Stoicism and several others not so well-known have been influenced by the Samkhya-Vedanta thought of India. In pre-Christian centuries Persia served as a middle ground between India, and Greece. It is known that Indian archers with their long bows, one end of which was planted in the ground, fought in Darius's war against Greece. Brahmins and Buddhists were in Greece before Socrates. Later Alexandria became a great center of commerce and learning, where Buddhists and Brahmins congregated and where Neo-Platonism was born. The great astronomical observatory at Ujjayini (now Ujjain) in central India was linked to Alexandria in Egypt. The first Greek book about India was perhaps written by Scylax, a Greek sea-captain whom Darius commissioned to explore the course of the Indus about 510 B.C. (Herodotus, iv. 44 ).
An American Mahant: Rama-priya Das poses in a yoga posture. His body is covered with ashes from holy sadhu-fires. A bead (made of sacred tulsi wood) hangs on a thread around his neck and over his left shoulder he wears a string which may only be worn by �twice-born�, high-caste Hindus and sadhus of this sect.
(image source: Sadhu: Holy Men of India - By Dolf Hartsuiker.
***
Vitsaxis G. Vassilis, in his book Plato and the Upanishads , argues that exponents of literature, science, philosophy and religion traveled regularly between the two countries. He points to accounts by Eusebius and Aristoxenes, of the visits of Indian sages to Athens and their meetings with Greek philosophers. And reference to the visit of Indians to Athens is found in the fragment of Aristotle preserved in the writings of Diogenes Laertius who was also one of Pythagoras� biographers.
The essence of Socratic and Platonic philosophy has remained unintelligible in the West because of lack of insight into Indian thought. Plato's view of Reality is the same as that of the Upanishads. His method of attaining knowledge of the Good is that of Vedanta. In the Phaedo, Plato describes silent meditation as withdrawal of the senses from their objects and as stilling the processes of mind.
The Greek theoria of the Pythagoreans, of Socrates and Plato, from which the world 'theater' comes is the vision or darshana of the Upanishads. Plato mentions that philosophic wisdom can only be communicated directly from a teacher to disciple, like lighting one lamp by another. The Timaeus indicates after the manner of the Upanishads that the receiver of philosophic truth must be a fit person - fit by character and not by reason of intellect alone. Platonic thought is so un-Greek in the sense in which Greek thought is generally taken, namely, purely rationalism, that some philosopher, such as Nietzsche, have called it " un-Hellenic."
According to Voltaire, "The Greeks, before the time of Pythagoras, traveled into India for instruction. The signs of the seven planets and of the seven metals are still almost all over the earth, such as the Indians invented: the Arabians were obliged to adopt their cyphers."
(source: The Philosophy of History p. 527).
Some sources even credit Pythagoras with having traveled as far as India in search of knowledge, which may explain some of the close parallels between Indian and Pythagorean philosophy and religion. These parallels include:
a belief in the transmigration of souls;
the theory of four elements constituting matter;
the reasons for not eating beans;
the structure of the religio-philosophical character of the Pythagorean fraternity, which resembled Buddhist monastic orders; and
the contents of the mystical speculations of the Pythagorean schools, which bear a striking resemblance of the Hindu Upanishads.
According to Greek tradition, Pythagoras, Thales, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Democritus and others undertook journey to the East to study philosophy and science. By the time Ptolmaic Egypt and Rome�s Eastern empire had established themselves just before the beginning of the Common era, Indian civilization was already well developed, having founded three great religions � Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism � and expressed in writing some subtle currents of religious thought and speculation as well as fundamental theories in science and medicine.
(source: The crest of the peacock: Non-European roots of Mathematics - By George Gheverghese Joseph p. 1 - 18). For more refer to chapter on Hindu Culture1 ).
Pythagoras was particularly influenced by Indian philosophy. Professor R. G. Rawlinson remarks that:
"almost all the theories, religious, philosophical, and mathematical, taught by the Pythagorians were known in India in the sixth century B.C."
Even Aristotle, the great rationalist and empiricist, upheld so strongly by teachers of philosophy in the West, is not fully understood. Aristotle speaks of intellect in the same sense as do the Upanishads- intellect which is not thinking logically but which grasps truth immediately. The Indian term for intellect is buddhi, the purest understanding.
The thought of Plotinus is Hindu. Eusebius in his biography of Socrates, relates an incident recorded in the fourth century B.C. in which Socrates met a Brahmin in the agora or the market place. The Brahmin asked Socrates what he was doing. Socrates replied that he was questioning people in order to understand man. At this, the Brahmin laughed and asked how one could understand man without knowing God.
The Socrates conception of freedom and virtue is that of the Upanishads. Socrates defined virtue as knowledge. Virtue is character, the realization of the essence of man. Know thyself, which is exactly the same as the Upanisadic command, Atmanam biddhi. In the Gita, knowledge or wisdom is defined as character. Virtue, comes from the Vedic word vira (hero, man).
Greek philosophy began in Asia Minor and Greek writers refer to the travels of Pythagoras, and others, to the East to gain wisdom. According to his biographer Iamblichus,
"Pythagoras traveled widely, studying the esoteric teachings of the Egyptians, Assyrians, and even Brahmins." According to Gomprez, "It is not too much to assume that the curious Greek who was a contemporary of Buddha, and it may be of Zoraster, too, would have acquired a more or less exact knowledge of the East, in the age of intellectual fermentation, through the medium of Persia."
Pythagoras's theorem discovered in India in 800 BC according to renowned historian Dick Teresi. author and coauthor of several books about science and technology, including The God Particle . He is cofounder of Omni magazine and has written for Discover, The New York Times Magazine, and The Atlantic Monthly.
"Two thousand years before Pythagoras, philosophers in northern India had understood that gravitation held the solar system together, and that therefore the sun, the most massive object, had to be at its center."
"Our Western mathematical heritage and pride are critically dependent on the triumphs of ancient Greece. These accomplishments have been so greatly exaggerated that it often becomes difficult to sort out how much of modern math is derived from Greece and how much from...the Indians and so on.
"Our modern numerals 0 through 9 were developed in India. Mathematics existed long before the Greeks constructed their first right angle. On the other hand George Cheverghese Joseph (author of The Crest of the Peacock : Non-European Roots of Mathematics) points out that the early Indian mathematics contained in the Sulbasutras (The Rules of the Cord) contain their own version of the Pythagorean theorem as well as procedure for obtaining the square root of 2 correct to five decimal places. The Sulbasutras reveal a rich geometric knowledge that preceded the Greeks."
(source: Lost Discoveries : The Ancient Roots of Modern Science - By Dick Teresi p. 32). For more on Dick Teresi refer to chapter on Quotes301_320 ).
Vivekananda said that Samhkya was the basis of the philosophy of the whole world. " There is no philosophy in the world that was not indebted to Kapila. (Kapila is the founder of the Sankhya philosophy). Krishna says in the Gita that, among the perfected sages, he is Kapila. Pythagoras came to India and studied his philosophy and that was the beginning of the philosophy of the Greeks. Later it formed the Alexandrian school, and still later the Gnostic."
Panini, who speaks of the Greek script as yavanani lipi. The Prakrit equivalent of yavana, viz. yona, is used in the inscriptions of Ashoka to describe the Hellenic princes of Egypt, Cyrene, Macedonia, Epirus, and Syria.
"It is believed that the Dravidians from India went to Egypt and laid the foundation of its civilization there. the Egyptians themselves had the tradition that they originally came from the South, from a land called Punt, which an historian of the West, Dr. H.R. Hall, thought referred to some part of India.
The Indus Valley civilization is, according to Sir John Marshall who was in charge of the excavations, the oldest of all civilizations unearthed (c. 4000 B.C.) It is older than the Sumerian and it is believed by many that the latter was a branch of the former.
Some people called the Brahui who dwell in Baluchistan which is at present a part of Pakistan, still speak the Dravidian language. It is likely that their ancestors were the people who sailed across the narrow waters at the entrance of the Persian Gulf to Oman and then to Aden along the southern littoral of Arabia, crossing over to Africa at the narrow strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, near Somaliland and proceeding north along the Nile Valley."
(Source: The Bhagvad Gita: A Scripture for the Future - Translation and Commentary by Sachindra K. Majumdar p. 28).
"We hear of Arabian trade with Egypt as far back as 2743 B.C. probably as ancient as was the trade with India."
(source: The Story of civilizations - Our Oriental Heritage ISBN: 1567310125 1937 vol. 4 p. 157).
Klaus K. Klostermaier, in his book A Survey of Hinduism pg 18 says:
"For several centuries a lively commerce developed between the ancient Mediterranean world and India, particularly the ports on the Western coast. The most famous of these ports was Sopara, not far from modern Bombay, which was recently renamed Mumbai. Present day Cranganore in Kerala, identified with the ancient Muziris, claims to have had trade contacts with Ancient Egypt under Queen Hatsheput, who sent five ships to obtain spices, as well as with ancient Israel during King Soloman's reign. Apparently, the contact did not break off after Egypt was conquered by Greece and later by Rome.
According to I .K. K. Menon:
"there is evidence of a temple of Augustus near Muziris (Cranganore, Kerala) and a force of 1200 Roman soldiers stationed in the town for the protection of Roman commerce." Large hoards of Roman traders, who must have rounded the southern tip of India to reach that place."
(Note: The ancient Alexandrian port of Muziris, now Cranganore, Kerala is where the Romans built a temple to Augustus in the first century.)
Thus, both upon archaeological and historical grounds, India is the mother of civilizations. Material skill and spiritual ideas spread from the Indus valley to Nineveh and Babylon, to the entire Middle East, to the Nile Valley and thence to Greece and Rome.
Other Indic Influences:
American mathematician, A. Seindenberg has demonstrated that the Sulbhasutras, the ancient Vedic mathematics, have inspired all the mathematic sciences of the antique world from Babylonia to Egypt and Greece". "Arithmetic equations from the Sulbhasutras were used in the observation of the triangle by the Babylonians and the theory of contraries and of inexactitude in arithmetic methods, discovered by Hindus, inspired Pythagorean mathematics." writes Abraham Seidenberg.
In astronomy, too, Indus were precursors: Jean-Claude Bailly (1736�93) 18th century French astronomer and politician. His works on astronomy and on the history of science (notably the Essai sur la th�orie des satellites de Jupiter) were distinguished both for scientific interest and literary elegance and earned him membership in the French Academy, the Academy of Sciences, and the Academy of Inscriptions. Bailly had already noticed that:
"the Hindu astronomic systems were much more ancient than those of the Greeks or even the Egyptians the movement of stars which was calculated by Hindus 4,500 years ago, does not differ even by a minute from the tables which we are using today." And he concludes: "The Hindu systems of astronomy are much more ancient than those of the Egyptians - even the Jews derived from the Hindus their knowledge." There is also no doubt that the Greeks heavily borrowed from the "Indus."
Alain Danileou (1907-1994), son of French aristocracy, author of numerous books on philosophy, religion, history and arts of India, including Virtue, Success, Pleasure, & Liberation : The Four Aims of Life in the Tradition of Ancient India . He was perhaps the first European to boldly proclaim his Hinduness. He settled in India for fifteen years in the study of Sanskrit. He had a wide effect upon Europe's understanding of Hinduism. He has remarks that:
"the Greeks were always speaking of India as the sacred territory of Dionysus and historians working under Alexander the Great clearly mention chronicles of the Puranas as sources of the myth of Dionysus." Alain Danielou quotes Clement of Alexandria who admitted that "we the Greeks have stolen from the Barbarians their philosophy."
We know that the Greeks had translated the Bhagvad-gita and French philosopher and historian Roger-Pol Droit writes in his classic "L'oubli de l'Inde (India forgotten) "that there is absolutely not a shadow of a doubt that Greeks knew all about Indian philosophy."
William Jones (1746-1794) came to India as a judge of the Supreme Court at Calcutta. He pioneered Sanskrit studies. A linguist of British India, his admiration for Indian thought and culture was almost limitless. He noted that "the analogies between Greek Pythagorean philosophy and the Sankhya school, are very obvious."
(source: Arise O' India - By Francois Gautier ISBN 81-241-0518-9 Har-Anand Publications 2000. p. 21-22).
Jean-Paul Droit, French philosopher, and Le Monde journalist, recently wrote in his book "The Forgetfulness of India, that:
"The Greeks loved so much Indian philosophy that Demetrios Galianos had even translated the Bhagavad-Gita"
The Roman Empire - A Gangster State?
According to Peter Beckman, author of 'A History of Pi: " While Alexandria had become the world capital of thinkers, Rome was becoming the capital of thugs. Rome was not the first state of organized gangsterdom nor was it the last; but it was the only one that managed to bamboozle posterity into an almost universal admiration. Few rational men admire the Huns, the Nazis or the Soviets; but for centuries, schoolboys have been expected to read Julius Caesar's militaristic drivel. They have been led to believe that the Romans had attained an advanced level in the sciences, the arts, law, architecture, engineering and everything else.
It is my opinion that the alleged Roman achievements are largely a myth; and I feel it is time for this myth to be debunked a little. What the Romans excelled in was bullying, bludgeoning, butchering and blood bath. They enslaved peoples whose cultural level was far above their own. They not only ruthlessly vandalized their countries, but they also looted them, stealing their art treasures, abducting their scientists and copying their technical know-how, which the Romans' barren society was rarely able to improve on.
Then there is Roman engineering: The Roman roads, acquaducts, the Coliseums. Warfare, alas, has always been beneficial to engineering. In a healthy society, engineering design gets smarter and smarter; in gangster states, it gets bigger and bigger.
The architecture of the Coliseums and other places of Roman entertainment are difficult to judge without recalling what purpose they served. It was here that gladiators fought to the death; that prisoners of war, convicts and Christians were devoured by a many as 5,000 wild beasts at a time; and that victims were crucified or burned alive for the entertainment of Roman civilization. When the Roman screamed for ever more blood, artificial lakes were dug and naval battles as many as 19,000 gladiators were staged until the water turned red with blood. The only Roman emperors who did not throw Christians to the lions were the Christian emperors. They (Christians) threw the pagans to the lions with the same gusto and for the same crime - having a different religion.
Romans were not primitive savages, but were sophisticated killers. The Roman contribution to sciences was mostly limited to butchering antiquity's greatest mathematicians, burning the Library of Alexandria. and it demonstrates an abysmal ignorance of sciences. Pliny tells us that in India there is a species of men without mouths who subsist by smelling flowers.
Yet most historians extol the achievements of Rome. "it accustomed the Western races to the idea of a world-state, and by pax romana....."
(source: A History of Pi - by Peter Beckan St. Martin's Press; ; 19th edition (August 1976) 0312381859 p. 55-59).
Did You Know
Iron with Mettle
Ancient India developed advanced metallurgical technology that made it possible to cast a remarkable iron pillar, dating to about 300 B.C.E. Still standing today in Delhi. This solid shaft of wrought iron is about 24 feet high and 16 inches in diameter. It has been exposed to weather and pollution since its erection, yet shows minimal corrosion, a technology lost to current ironmakers. Even with today's advances, only four foundries in the world could make this piece and none were able to keep it rust-free.
The earliest known metal expert (some 2,200 years ago) Rishi Pantanjali. His book Loha Shastra, "metal manual" describes in detail metal preparation.
The pillar is a solid shaft of iron sixteen inches in diameter and 23 feet high. What is most astounding about it is that it has never rusted even though it has been exposed to wind and rain for centuries! The pillar defies explanation, not only for not having rusted, but because it is apparently made of pure iron, which can only be produced today in tiny quantities by electrolysis! The technique used to cast such a gigantic, solid pillar is also a mystery, as it would be difficult to construct another of this size even today. The pillar stands as mute testimony to the highly advanced scientific knowledge that was known in antiquity, and not duplicated until recent times. Yet still, there is no satisfactory explanation as to why the pillar has never rusted!
| Alexander the Great |
What type of weapon was the German nebelwerfer | Khyber Pass
Khyber Pass
"Khyber is a Hebrew word meaning a fort"
The Khyber Pass is a 53-kilometer (33-miles) passage through the Hindu Kush mountain range. It connects the northern frontier of Pakistan with Afghanistan. At its narrowest point, the pass is only 3 meters wide. On the north side of the Khyber Pass rise the towering, snow-covered mountains of the Hindu Kush. The Khyber Pass is one of the most famous mountain passes in the World. It is one of the most important passes between Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is the best land route between India and Pakistan and has had a long and often violent history. Conquering armies have used the Khyber as an entry point for their invasions. It was also been a major trade route for centuries.
Khyber Pass, mountain pass in western Asia, the most important pass connecting Afghanistan and Pakistan, controlled by Pakistan. The Khyber Pass winds northwest through the Sefid Koh Range near Peshawar, Pakistan to Kabul , Afghanistan, varying in width from 3 to 137 m. The mountains on either side can be climbed only in a few places. The pass is walled by precipitous cliffs that vary in height from about 180 to 300 m. The pass reaches its highest elevation at the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The history of the Khyber Pass as a strategic gateway dates from 326 B.C., when Alexander the Great and his army marched through the Khyber to reach the plains of India. From their, he sailed down Indus River and led his army across the desert of Gedrosia. In the A.D. 900s, Persian, Mongol, and Tartar armies forced their way through the Khyber, bringing Islam to India. Centuries later, India became part of the British Empire, and British troops defended the Khyber Pass from the British Indian side. During the Afghan Wars the pass was the scene of numerous skirmishes between Anglo-Indian soldiers and native Afghans. Particularly well known is the battle of January 1842, in which about 16,000 British and Indian troops were killed. The British constructed a road through the pass in 1879 and converted it into a highway during the 1920s. A railroad was also built here in the 1920s.
The Khyber, in its chequered history, has seen countless invasions. It witnessed the march of Aryans and victorious advance of Persian and Greek armies. It also saw the Scythians, White Huns, Seljuks, Tartars, Mongols, Sassanians, Turks, Mughals and Durranis making successive inroads into the territories beyond Peshawar Valley and Indus. The very sight of the Khyber reminds one of the conquerors who forced their way through its dangerous defiles. It is this Pass through which the subcontinent was invaded time and again by conquerors like Timur, Babar, Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah Abdali. Again, it was through this Pass that the Russian invasion of the subcontinent was feared by the British in the 19th century. The story of Khyber Pass is composed of such colour and romance, such tragedy and glory that fact really looks stranger than fiction in this case. The Khyber Pass has been a silent witness to countless great events in the history of mankind. As one drives through the Pass at a leisurely pace, imagination unfolds pages of history.
The Aryans descending upon the fertile northern plains in 1500 BC subjugating the indigenous Dravidian population and settling down to open a glorious chapter in history of civilization. The Persian hordes under Darius (6 century B.C.) crossing into the Punjab to annex yet another province to the Archaemenian Empire. The armies of Alexander the Great (326 BC) marching through the rugged pass to fulfill the wishes of a young, ambitious conqueror. The terror of Ghenghis Khan enwraping the majestic hills and turning back towards the trophies of ancient Persia. The White house bringing fire and destruction in their wake, the Scythians and the Parthians, the Mughals and the Afghans, conquerors all, crossing over to leave their impact and add more chapters to the diverse history of this subcontinent.
The Muslim armies first passed through in 997 AD under the command of Subuktagin and later his celebrated son, Mahmud of Ghaznawi, marched through with his army as many as seventeen times between 1001-1030 AD. Some of his campaigns were directed through the Khyber Pass. Shahabuddin Muhammad Ghaur, a renowned ruler of Ghauri dynasty, crossed the Khyber Pass in 1175 AD to consolidate the gains of the Muslims in India. He used Khyber Pass again in 1193 to measure strength with Pirthvi Raj Chouhan and show his mettle on the field of Tarain. This battle helped Muslims carve out a Muslim Kingdom in India. In 1398 AD Amir Timur, the firebrand from Central Asia, invaded India through the Khyber Pass and his descendant Zahiruddin Babur made use of this pass first in 1505 and then in 1526 to establish a mighty Mughal empire.In 1672, it was the Khyber Pass where the Afridis under the able leadership of Ajmal Khan defeated Muhammad Amin Khan's army and besides inflicting losses, both in men and material, on the enemy, the Afridis captured about 10,000 Mughal soldiers. Nadir Shah Afshar of Iran used the Khyber Valley in 1739 AD to attach Delhi. The famous Afghan King, Ahmad Shah Abdali, crossed the Khyber Pass in 1761 AD and crushed the Marattha confederacy on the field of Panipat (India). The Khyber Valley saw a great deal of fighting between 1839-1919. During the First Afghan War (1839-42) General Pollock used the Khyber Pass on his way to Afghanistan to retrieve the British honour. Again, in 1878, the British forces marched through the Khyber Pass to launch an offensive against the Afghans in the Second Afghan War (1878-79). In 1897 a revolt flared up on the frontier region and the valleys of Khyber started vibrating with the echoes of war.
The year 1919 again saw the movement of British troops through the Khyber during the Third Afghan War. The valiant sons of Khyber converged upon Peshawar in 1930 to give vent to their feelings of resentment against the indiscriminate firing of the British troops on freedom lovers in the famous Qissa Khawani Bazaar. The chapter of fighting in Khyber, however, came to a close with the dawn of Independence in August, 1957. Since the establishment of Pakistan, the situation has changed altogether and the sentinels of Khyber are now interested in the welfare of their country-Pakistan - with which is linked their own future. But one thing remains unchanged. The invasion of the Khyber Pass is still on. Conquerors no longer traverse it, tourist do. The Khyber Pass is attracting thousands of tourists every year, besides a large number of foreign dignitaries, including Heads of States and Government leaders.
For hundreds of years, great camel caravans traveled through the Khyber Pass, bringing goods to trade. These ancient merchants and traders brought luxurious silks and fine porcelain objects from China to the Middle East. Often, they stopped at Herat, the great oasis in western Afghanistan. The traders traveled in caravans as a protection against the hazards of travel. Even so, they were often robbed by local tribesmen when traveling through the Khyber Pass.
The Khyber Pass today........
Today, two highways thread their way through the Khyber Pass-one for motor traffic, and one for the traditional caravans. A railway line also travels to the head of the pass. Recently, the Khyber Pass has been used to transport refugees from the Afghan civil war into Pakistan, and transport arms into Afghanistan. The highway over the Khyber Pass links Kabul to Peshawar. Villages lie on each side of the Khyber Pass. The people of the Khyber Pass are mainly Pashtuns .
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What is the last field event in the decathlon | decathlon | athletics | Britannica.com
Decathlon
high jump
Decathlon, athletic competition lasting two consecutive days in which contestants take part in 10 track-and-field events. It was introduced as a three-day event at the Olympic Games in 1912. Decathlon events are: (first day) 100-metre dash , running long (broad) jump, shot put , high jump , and 400-metre run; (second day) 110-metre hurdles, discus throw , pole vault , javelin throw , and 1,500-metre run. Competitors are scored for their performance in each event according to a table established by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
Bruce Jenner celebrating his decathlon victory at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal.
Tony Duffy/Allsport
The table has been changed periodically to keep pace with improvements in world records. The first one was used from 1912 to 1936, while the decathlon was still a three-day event; a second from 1936 to 1950 (with minor revisions in 1952); and a third from 1952 to 1964. All emphasized excellent performances in the individual events. A fourth table in use from 1964 to 1985 and a fifth introduced in 1985 favoured the athlete who could score evenly in all 10 events.
The American athlete Jim Thorpe was the first Olympic decathlon champion. Akilles Järvinen of Finland , James Bausch of the United States , and Hans Sievert of Germany were leading competitors under the first table, with Sievert setting the final record of 8,790.46 points in 1934.
Glenn Morris of the United States, with a world record of 7,900 points in 1936, and Bob Mathias of the United States, with two Olympic titles and a record of 8,042 points in 1950, excelled under the second table. Mathias also set the first record of 7,887 under the third table in 1952, but this was later broken several times, by Rafer Johnson of the United States, Vasily Kuznetsov of the Soviet Union , and Yang Chuan-kwang of Taiwan , who set the final record of 9,121 points in 1963.
Bob Mathias throwing the discus during the decathlon competition at the 1952 Olympic Games in …
©AFP/Getty Images
Rafer Johnson participating in the shot put event of the decathlon at the 1960 Olympic Games in …
AP
Outstanding performers under the fourth table included Bruce Jenner of the United States and Daley Thompson of Great Britain. Dan O’Brien of the United States and Tomàs Dvoràk of the Czech Republic were among the athletes who excelled under the fifth table.
Learn More in these related articles:
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On which West Indian island was John Barnes born | Track and Field Events | MomsTeam
Track and Field Events
Track & Field
The Events
This section will first list the standard events in the Olympic Games since the events and rules established by the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations), the international governing body for Track & Field, usually trickle down to the national, collegiate, and with some modifications, to the age-group level. We will then go over the differences in events for indoor track & field, as well as differences one would see for high school age and younger kids.
There are 44 events in the Track & Field competition of an Olympic Games making the sport, by far, the most contested of all Olympic sports. These 44 events can be divided in to their different event areas beginning by separating track events (all of the running and walking events), from field events (all of the throwing and vaulting events). There are also two multi-events, the decathlon and heptathlon, which combine disciplines from both track and field.
The Track Events
Sprints: 100 meters, 200 meters, 400 meters
Middle Distance: 800 meters, 1500 meters
Distance: 3,000 meter Steeplechase, 5,000 meters (5K), 10,000 meters (10K), Marathon (26.2 miles)
Hurdles: 100 meter hurdles (women), 110 meter hurdles (men), 400 meter hurdles
Relays: 4 x 100 meters relay, 4 x 400 meters relay
Walks: 20 kilometer race walk, 50 kilometer race walk
100m
This event is essentially an all-out sprint from the gun to the finish line. Perfecting the start is essential as is learning to run at top speed while staying relaxed. It is run on the straightaway of the track.
200m
Very similar to the 100m, but success in this event requires additional strength to enable the athlete to maintain a fast pace over the entire 200 meter distance. The majority of short sprinters compete in both events. It covers ½ of the oval.
400m
The long sprint. This event requires a combination of speed, strength and tolerance for pain. The fast pace the athletes run usually results in the formation of lactic acid by the 300 meter mark, which causes a sensation of burning and fatigue in the muscles. It is one full lap of a standard size outdoor track.
800m
A "tweener" event. There are 800m specialists but athletes in this event usually either are good sprinters who can run both the 400m and 800m, or they have good endurance and can run both the 800m and 1500m well. This event requires excellent natural endurance, as well as good speed for a strong finish. It is two laps around a standard outdoor track.
1500m
The "metric mile." The relationship between the 1500m and the 800m is very similar to that between the 200m and 100m. It requires the same basic skill set with some added strength and endurance to cover the additional distance. Athletes must have the endurance to maintain a demanding pace for nearly a full mile, but must be prepared to sprint home with a strong finish over the final lap of this 3 ¾ lap race.
3000m Steeplechase
This is one of the most interesting events in track & field- a distance race with hurdles. While covering this 7 ½ lap distance, the athletes must traverse four barriers placed on the track. One of the barriers is placed in front of a water pit that must also be negotiated on each lap. Unlike the lightweight hurdles used for the hurdling events, these heavy wooden barriers will not budge if hit. Some steeplechasers hurdle the barriers cleanly, but most step on them with one foot to clear them. Steeplechasers are usually also very capable 5000m runners.
5000m
This 12 1/2 lap race is equivalent to 3.1 miles of running at a hard pace. Exceptional endurance is required, as is a healthy amount of speed for the intense race to the finish line frequently seen in 5k races.
10000m
This is the longest event contested solely on the track. It is for those who have the strongest cardio-pulmonary systems capable of keeping enough oxygen flowing to the muscles while maintaining a punishing pace for 6.2 miles or 25 laps around the track.
100mh/110mh
An all out sprint while traversing 10 hurdles placed between the start and the finish. The men's event is 10 meters longer and the hurdles are higher. The men's event is sometimes called the high hurdles.
400mh
Also known as the intermediate hurdles, this event requires the speed of a sprinter, the strength of an 800 meter runner and the technical skill of a 100 or 110 meter hurdler. This race also involves ten hurdles, but unlike the short hurdle race where runners will use the same lead leg and trail leg over each hurdle, in the intermediate hurdles they must be able to use either leg as their lead leg.
4 x 100m Relay/
400m Relay
Four athletes each run approximately 100m or one quarter of the track. It is not just the speed of the runners, but the precision of their baton passes that determines how well the team does. Each baton exchange must be made within a marked zone on the track. Failure to exchange the baton in the zone results in disqualification. For the 4 x 100m, the baton pass is usually "blind" meaning that the outgoing runner does not look at the baton but extends her hand back to receive it while running close to maximum speed and facing forward.
4 x 400m Relay/
1600m
Relay Traditionally, this is the last event contested at most track meets. Each athlete runs one full lap and exchanges the baton in a zone near the finish line. For this relay the outgoing athlete generally turns his face and watches the baton exchange. The incoming athlete, who is finishing the final meters of a tough 400m, is usually quite tired so the outgoing athlete has to accelerate to racing speed while being cautious not to go too fast before getting the baton.
20 Kilometer Race Walk
Both race walking events are endurance events and usually contested on a road course. Race walk requires a complex physical motion involving the feet, legs, hips, back and arms. A primary rule of race walking is that at no time can both feet be in the air at the same time. Judges watch for this running motion and disqualify athletes who accidentally allow one foot to leave the ground before the other has landed. 20 kilometers is 12.4 miles.
50 Kilometer Race Walk
This is the longest of all the track & field events, covering more than 30 miles of intense racing. This event requires exceptional endurance and cardiovascular ability, not only for the competitions, but also for the training involved to be successful in this event.
The Field Events
Horizontal Jumps: Long Jump, Triple Jump
Vertical Jumps: High Jump, Pole Vault
Throws: Discus Throw, Javelin Throw, Hammer Throw, Shot Put
Long Jump
Who can jump the farthest? That is what the Long Jump boils down to. Jumpers start at one end of the runway and take a flying leap in to a pit of sand. A board, 20 cm wide, near the end of the runway, marks the take off point and the distance jumped is measured from the end of the board to the spot where the athlete first breaks the sand. If any part of the jumper's feet goes beyond the board during takeoff, the jump is ruled a foul and will not be measured or counted.
Triple Jump
This event requires exceptional abdominal strength as the jumper must use the momentum from her run-up to make three separate jumps before landing in the sand pit. The jumper first takes off and lands with the same foot (the hop phase), takes off again from that same foot and lands on the opposite foot (skip phase), and then takes off from that landing foot to leap into the sand. Maintaining correct body position and alignment in the air during the three phases is a crucial component to completing a lengthy jump.
High Jump
Who can jump the highest? (Well, the highest, without a pole). That is the point of the high jump. High jumpers run a curved approach, then, at a precise spot, translate that forward motion in to vertical motion as they drive their arms, shoulders, hips and opposite leg in to the air to get as much height as possible. They lay first their head, then shoulders, back, hips and legs over the bar. Having impeccable technique to put all of these steps together is crucial, but being naturally long and lean is a big plus as well. Athletes have three misses at each height before being eliminated from the competition. Whoever clears the highest bar wins, although ties are frequent in the HJ.
Pole Vault
Athletes sprint down the runway carrying a long pole. At the end of the runway they plant the pole in to a box, bend the pole down and catapult themselves over the bar. An event not suited to those with a fear of flying, but those with a background in gymnastics have done well transitioning to the vault. The same rules as the high jump apply: each athlete has three attempts to successfully clear a height in order to remain in the competition.
The Throws
The name of the game in all of the throwing events is distance. The farthest throw wins. Amongst the throwing events the other similarities that they share is: 1) the athlete' s feet must remain within a designated area to launch the throw; and 2) the implement must land within a designated area, the sector, to be considered a fair throw that will be measured.
Discus Throw
The discus requires ballet-like footwork as the athlete rotates through a series of spins to build momentum to hurl the discus nearly the entire length of the track. The disc is thrown out of a high-sided steel mesh cage that protects bystanders from errant throws. In the cage is a circle that designates the throwing area. Stepping out of the circle during a throw constitutes a foul and the throw will not be measured. Each competitor is allowed three initial throws with the longest distance determining her place in the standings. After the first three throws the competition can be narrowed to allow only a set number of the top placers in the standings to take an additional three throws to determine the final order of finish.
Hammer Throw
The Hammer shares many similarities with the discus including the cage, the circle and the spinning approach to the throw. The major difference is that the implement being thrown is a steel ball on the end of a wire. Distances achieved are also similar to that of the discus.
Javelin Throw
The javelin is a long, spear-like implement with a sharp tip on the end. Athletes take a running approach before launching their javelins, and often their bodies, in to the air. The trick is to get the maximum forward motion on the approach without stepping over the line. As in the other throws, if the athlete steps over the designated throwing line, the result is a foul and an unmeasured throw. Another tricky thing about the Javelin is that it must land tip down to be considered fair. The small country of Finland is the cradle of this event and has consistently produced the most accomplished practitioners.
Shot Put
The shot is a steel ball, and the competition is to see who can put, or throw it the farthest. As in the Discus and Hammer a circle delineates the fair area from which the put must be launched. There are two techniques for generating the momentum to get maximum distance on one's put. The glide involves starting in a crouched position, shot tucked between neck and shoulder under the chin, then taking a large, powerful stride backwards towards the launching point while turning the body and uncoiling the legs to release the put up and out towards the landing area. New putters usually master the glide technique before graduating to the spin. Spinners will do one to 1 ½ rotations before releasing the shot from the edge of the circle and, often, hopping around on tiptoe to keep themselves from over-rotating out of the circle thereby fouling and nullifying their puts.
The Multi-Events
Decathlon-
The winner of the Olympic title in this event is known as the greatest athlete in the world as it requires showing mastery of ten different events across the track & field spectrum to succeed in the decathlon. The decathlon events are these, in competition order:
Day 1: 100 Meters, Long Jump, Shot Put, High Jump, 400 Meters
Day 2: 110 Meter Hurdles, Discus Throw, Pole Vault, Javelin, 1500 Meters
Modifications
Age Group Track & Field Events
Now that you have an understanding of the Olympic Track & Field program, you have the big picture. This is a good time to point out the myriad modifications that you might encounter in age group, or youth track & field. The basic model is that, the younger the age group, the fewer events officially contested. For obvious reasons, there are several events that young children, generally pre-adolescent, are not developmentally ready to learn and contest. Obvious examples would be the hurdles, pole vault and long distance events like the 3000 meters and 5000meters (the longest event for kids 10 and under is 1500 meters).
Even in high school there continue to be modifications. Some states have eliminated the javelin and pole vault due to safety concerns And some states contest modified distances for common events. For instance, the 400 meter hurdles is the official distance for the Olympic Games and collegiate track, but many high schools run the 300 meter hurdles instead (even though at the USATF Junior Nationals the kids run 400 meter hurdles in the high school age divisions). They also run the 2000 meter Steeplechase instead of the full 3000 meters. For more detailed information about which high school events are contested in your state, get in touch with your state education department' s athletics division. For more information about the events offered for each age group by the two major youth track & field organizations, the Amateur Athletics Union (AAU) and USA Track & Field (USATF), check their championship meet results online at www.aauathletics.org and www.usatf.org .
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Which bird was shown on the reverse side of a farthing | farthing | derrickjknight
derrickjknight
On a bright, sunny, morning I rambled around the garden, down the lane, along Roger’s footpath and back.
From our patio can be seen a rhododendron, geranium palmatums, petunias, foxgloves, and fennel.
The centre of the Phantom Path gives a view towards that shown above. We can also see that the clematis Star of India and an unnamed white rose frolic together on the Gothic Arch.
This red rose, aptly named Altissimo, climbs between Elizabeth’s bed and the rose garden.
a sentinel to the Back Path.
The morning sun burns out detail on the right hand side of Downton Lane, glinting on the back of a shade-seeking orange ladybird,
just filtering through shrubbery on the left.
This gate must have once led into a garden beyond it.
Roger is growing barley this year.
Across the left hand field a large vessel sedately traversed the horizon as yachts skimmed along a deep blue Christchurch Bay.
To my right clouds slid silently over Downton.
All I could hear were the strings of countless insects’ wings.
The pong of fermenting slurry filled my nostrils.
Back home, a far more appetising aroma greeted me. Jackie was preparing a sausage casserole for Sam’s visit tomorrow. I suppose I can defer my gratification until then.
This afternoon we planted other flowers, such as heucheras and penstemons into the rose garden, offering some variation.
The rose Deep Secret has now revealed all.
During my childhood, we used to brighten our copper pennies by rubbing them on the bricks of the school wall. Old bricks, not modern paving ones that don’t crumble into dust on the application of friction. So, when Jackie unearthed a tiny coin encrusted with thick verdigris, I was off in search of an old brick. They are not hard to find in the garden of Old Post House. I cleaned enough to know what a treasure we had found, but, since we were now afraid of scrubbing off any more detail, Jackie finished the job with Hob Brite, a rather gentler abrasive.
We had exhumed a small coin, bearing, on the obverse, the somewhat pockmarked head of Queen Victoria; on the reverse, Britannia, the date 1893, and its denomination. So soon after the previous post, we had found a farthing . Serendipity or what? How long had that lain in the soil? Who had dropped it? We will never know.
The previous posting featured a wren, which did not appear on the reverse until the pattern coin of Edward VIII (so called because it had not yet been approved by the time of his abdication in 1936). The little bird first replaced Britannia in 1937, during the reign of the father of Queen Elizabeth II, King George VI, who succeeded his older brother.
For tonight’s dinner, barbecue sauce flavoured the spare ribs; Jackie’s rice and green beans came with it. She drank Hoegaarden and I slurped Dao. This last verb was Jackie’s suggestion, when she pointed out that I had quaffed more than once recently. Not exactly couth, but there you have it.
P.S. Further research suggests that our coin is in fact bronze.
13
For Jessica’s old friend Mary it was frogs; for Jackie’s sister Helen it is owls; for us it is mugs with birds on them, or in France, chickens.
I speak of collections built up by friends. This is how it works. One person presents you with a frog, an owl, or a mug. These are noticed by others who give you another. Before you know where you are you are overrun with them.
Sheila observed that a lot of our mugs depicted birds. We identified those on her morning coffee cup as wrens, our smallest common avians. The conversation developed into a discussion about the farthing. Until it was abolished in 1961 this, being our smallest piece of coinage, bore a wren on the reverse side. When we were all children one could buy a pink shrimp sweet, blackjack or fruit salad chew for a farthing each. A pair of shoes was available for £1/19/11¾ (a farthing under £2 in pre-decimal coinage).
erratum slip: My friend Geoff Austin informs me he has a Victorian half-farthing.
After a shopping trip to New Milton we visited Braxton Gardens near Everton, where the rose garden has now been refurbished.
On the way home, Jackie deposited me at Paddy’s Gap Car Park. I walked on, following in yesterday’s footsteps. A brisk sea breeze cooled the cliff top on this muggy, overcast, day.
Shorefield Country Park now carries a hoarding explaining why the older chalets were demolished, burnt, and replaced during the winter.
A couple were cleaning the outside of their static caravan. ‘You wouldn’t like to come and do ours when you’ve finished, would you?’, I quipped. Quick as a flash, ‘No’, the man replied with jocularity, ‘I’d prefer you to come and do this one’. I responded with ‘I asked for that, didn’t I?’. ‘You did’, laughingly returned the woman.
This evening we dined on roast chicken; roast potatoes, peppers, and mushrooms; Yorkshire pudding; sage and onion stuffing; cauliflower, peas, and carrots; followed by lemon cheesecake. I drank more of the malbec.
| Wren |
What is the French Stock Exchange called | British Farthing coins for sale | Chooglin Art
Buy original British pre-decimal FARTHING (¼d) coins
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About: the British Farthing Coin, originally a fourthing, or fourth part of a penny was Britain’s tiniest coin with a history stretching back to the 13th century. Fondly remembered by many, the Farthing was a most popular coin. Farthings were often used in "just under" pricing such as £4.19.1134d., or 4s.1134d., instead of £5 or 5 shillings respectively. No Farthings were minted after 1956 and were not legal tender after 1960. Most, if not all the Farthing coins we sell are over 60 years old and generally post 1936 with the affectionately remembered Wren, one of Britain’s smallest birds on the reverse of the coin.
The Penny Farthing bicycle obtained its name from the penny and farthing coins of the time, the wheels looked like the difference in size between these two coins.
The word Farthing was used in many British sayings, including 'Not worth a brass farthing' - a farthing was never worth much, and a brass one even less!
'I haven't got two farthings to rub together' (because I am so poor). When the farthing got abolished, then the saying got changed to 'two ha'pennies' instead.
These attractive Farthing coins are increasingly rare. Our circulated Farthing (1/4d) coins are each unique and a differing shade of red brown colour creating a beautiful, eye catching lustre.
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What is the currency of Bulgaria | BGN - Bulgarian Lev rates, news, and tools
BGN - Bulgarian Lev
Bulgaria, Lev
The Bulgarian Lev is the currency of Bulgaria. Our currency rankings show that the most popular Bulgaria Lev exchange rate is the BGN to GBP rate . The currency code for Leva is BGN, and the currency symbol is лв. Below, you'll find Bulgarian Lev rates and a currency converter. You can also subscribe to our currency newsletters with daily rates and analysis, read the XE Currency Blog , or take BGN rates on the go with our XE Currency Apps and website.
| Lev |
What is the name given to the male honeybee | Money & Duty Free for Bulgaria
Money & duty free for Bulgaria
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Currency & Money
Currency information :
Lev (BGN; symbol лв) = 100 stotinki. Notes are in denominations of лв100, 50, 20, 10, 5, 2 and 1. Coins are in denominations of лв1 and 50, 20, 10, 5, 2 and 1 stotinki.
Note: (a) The Lev is tied to the Euro at a fixed rate; €1 = лв1.955. (b) Notes dated 1997 and earlier are now out of circulation.
Credit cards :
American Express, Diners Club, MasterCard and Visa are accepted in large cities, in larger hotels and car hire offices, and in some restaurants and shops, mainly in Sofia . However, Bulgaria is still a country that operates mainly on cash.
ATM :
ATMs are widespread, although it is best to check with the relevant bank/card provider prior to travel. Not all Bulgarian bank machines accept every overseas credit or debit card; it may take more than one attempt to withdraw cash successfully.
Travellers cheques :
Accepted in major hotels and restaurants, although cash is far more common. To avoid additional exchange rate charges, travellers are advised to take traveller's cheques in US Dollars, Pounds Sterling or Euros.
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The import and export of local currency is prohibited. The import of foreign currency is unlimited, provided it is declared on arrival. The export of foreign currency is limited to the amount declared upon arrival.
Currency exchange :
Visitors are advised to exchange money at banks, at large hotels and at independent currency exchange offices, where the rates are clearly displayed. Travellers should not be tempted by a 'better rate' offered at unofficial sources on the street. It is illegal for commission to be charged when changing money at official offices. No store, bank or bureau de change will accept mutilated, torn or excessively dirty foreign currency.
Bulgaria duty free
Bulgaria is within the European Union. If you are travelling from the UK , you are entitled to buy fragance, skincare, cosmetics, Champagne, wine, selected spirits, fashion accessories, gifts and souvenirs - all at tax-free equivalent prices.
If you are travelling from within the EU, there is no limit on the amount or value of goods you may import, providing your goods are for personal consumption.
If you are arriving from a non-EU country, the following goods may be imported into Bulgaria by persons over 17 years of age without incurring customs duty:
• 200 cigarettes or 100 cigarillos or 50 cigars or 250g of tobacco (if arriving by air).
• 40 cigarettes or 20 cigarillos or 10 cigars or 50g (if arriving overland).
• 4L of wine and 16L of beer and 1L of spirits over 22% or 2L of alcoholic beverages less than 22%.
• Other goods up to the value of €430 for air and sea travellers and €300 for other travellers.
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What was used to dry ink before blotting paper | Sand Used Instead Of Blotting Paper - Fountain & Dip Pens - First Stop - The Fountain Pen Network
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Sand Used Instead Of Blotting Paper
Started by ashbridg , May 30 2010 01:15
Please log in to reply
18 replies to this topic
Location:Richmond, Virginia
Posted 30 May 2010 - 01:15
In the days before blotting paper people sprinkled sand on documents to absorb wet ink. The sand box, usually made of tin, sometimes of wood, was a common desk article along with the wafer box and ink stand.
Blotting paper appeared in America during the 1840�s or 1850�s. But the use of sand continued, especially in Holland and Italy. The 1888 edition of Notes and Queries, located at the University of Virginia, contains some interesting stories about the continued use of sand to absorb ink.
T. Adolphus Trollope writes: �In Italy at the present day the use of blotting paper, save by English and Americans, is almost unknown. The public offices are liberally supplied with sand, with the result of rendering all of the desks and tables grimy to a very disagreeable degree.�
He goes on to say when opening a letter, �[N]ot only will a quantity of loose sand fall from the sheet, but the abundantly used ink will render up to the smirched fingers a considerable quantity of the gritty material.�
Moreover, this sand is not the kind one might think. Trollope continues: �The sand used is not fine sand such as one might find at the seashore, but a much coarser variety, sometimes red, but more generally blue, and is�singularly disagreeable when well-saturated with half-dried ink.�
A train traveler, R. H. Busk, says of his tour in North Germany: �My pocket-book was constantly incommoded, for instance, with the grit off the luggage schein, as it was handed to me at the various railway stations.� This anachronism is almost humorous�a guy complaining his wallet got dirty from the sand on his baggage check.
Another contributor, identified as W.C.B., writes: �Fine sand for drying writing-ink is still used, I believe, in the offices of some old-fashioned solicitors. I think I saw it in use in Gray�s Inn in 1869. There are a few of the old school left who prefer letter-paper, folded and sealed with a wafer, to the modern gummed envelope.�
This continued use of sand boxes into the 1860�s, well after the advent of blotting paper, by a British law firm offers modern pen users an insight into the mindset of early document writers. For the lawyer the importance of sand is a matter of decorum, like the black judicial robe or powdered wig. Sprinkling a page with sand is a ritual. Fine white sand drizzling off the paper when a letter is opened has a powerful impact on the reader.
Letter writers in the days before blotting paper lived in a world of dip pens, ink wells, candles, wafers, and sand. For many people today the only gestalt involved in writing a letter is scaring up a sheet of ink jet paper and a ballpoint pen. It must be a thrill to receive an elegantly written letter on cotton paper, sanded and sealed. Imagine trying to send a �sanded� letter today. The Postal Service would shut down the mail stream and call in Homeland Security, thinking it was an anthrax attack. Times have certainly changed.
Ashbridg
Posted 30 May 2010 - 01:26
Hi Ash,
The 'sand' was called 'ponce'. It was crushed up sand, salt or in some cases, cuttlefish-bones, which was used to blot ink because of its absorbent qualities. The ponce was stored in a 'ponce-pot' which was kept on the desk. It had a salt-shaker like appearance so that you could shake the ponce onto your writing, dry it, and then pour the used ponce back into the pot. I've never actually seen one in real life, though, although I think they're pretty nifty.
I thought ponce-pots had died out by the 19th century, though...?
http://www.throughouthistory.com/ - My Blog on History & Antiques
Location:North Carolina
Posted 30 May 2010 - 01:29
The "sand" that was commonly used to dry ink (in absence of blotting paper) prior to the 20th century was, as I've understood, actually gum sandarac. Actual sand wouldn't do the job; the tiny grains of stone (limestone, quartz, basalt, etc. depending where the sand came from) that comprise sand aren't at all absorbent. If you see an old Robin Hood movie or similar costume drama and watch someone shaking what looks like sand from what looks like a fat salt shaker onto a freshly inked document, that's gum sandarac. And yes, it tended to pick up color (by absorbing ink), and was often collected and reused until it was too saturated with ink to do its job. I can certainly agree it would be most unpleasant stuff, if you found a desk covered with it.
If you do use "sand" on a letter, I'd certainly recommend brushing it all away before putting the letter into the envelope...
Does not always write loving messages.
Does not always foot up columns correctly.
Does not always sign big checks.
Flag:
Posted 30 May 2010 - 01:47
For some reason, I always thought it was Gum Sandarac with Cuttlebone ground up. That's pounce. I've got a pouncebag (gum sandarac with cuttlebone in a piece of fabric bag..) I pounce the paper before I write. (usually post cards that have a shiny paper base) the sandarac helps the ink from feathering and helps it dry. You get a finer line with it.
I've never heard of using "sand" or salt or anything else like that.
Science is a way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility.
-Carl Sagan
Posted 30 May 2010 - 06:30
Basically Hollywood is wrong..the quill was trimmed except for a sand brushing tip.
A full feathered quill is too heavy, and offered too much surface for the normal heavy duty drafts that were normal in house and office.
Also, standing up at a writing desk was SOP, in one wanted the clerk working not sitting down. 12 hour work day.
Justice Frankfurter @1940's +, a US Supreme Court Justice, continued standing up to write even as Supreme Court Justice.
Without three or more parties in Parliament/Congress there is no democracy; only oligarchy.
Due to Mauricio's improved definition of Super-flex, I try not use the term Easy Full Flex, but fail...sigh.
Semi-flex is an “almost” flex; not a ‘flex’ nib. It is great for regular writing with a touch of flair. It can give you some fancy; but it is not made for real fancy writing. For bit more of that get a maxi-semi-flex. Both spread tines 3X. Those are not "Flex" nibs.
Wider than Normal does not exist. Wider than Japanese does. Every company has it's very own standard + slop/tolerance. Developed from the users of it's pens and inks only; not the users or inks of other companies pens. The size you grind a nib to, is your standard only. Paper and ink matter to nib width. Thank god for 1/2 sizes or it would be boring.
Location:Germany
Posted 30 May 2010 - 15:24
I've often found ink stands with spaces for two wells - I always assumed it was for two different colors of ink (red and black). Now I'm wondering if one space was for the "sand/gum" shaker.
Does anyone know?
Depends on when...and "all" sand shakers were shakers, you wouldn't want to pour a mound of sand on your letter. I have seen, bid on and lost, on ink well set, two ink wells and a sand shaker, or one shaker and one inkwell, a couple of times....pre 1840...1780's. I'm not an expert on them. But a sand shaker, with a perforated top, is what sand was kept in.
My replica 1894-5 Montgomery Ward Catalog offers no sand shakers...it does offer a double ink well with a sponge jar for stamps and envelops.
Or paper clips....or a place to hold extra dip pens...the pens was what nibs were called then. In the US...as it was said Blotter paper came in, and sand was passe`; not up to date...and back in that time, not up to date was shameful.....
In that many worked with accounting a black and a red ink was normal in a double set of ink wells. I've seen enough that were still slightly stained so.
The side opening inkwell sets some times, were for sharing, two desks, one inkwell set between them.
Without three or more parties in Parliament/Congress there is no democracy; only oligarchy.
Due to Mauricio's improved definition of Super-flex, I try not use the term Easy Full Flex, but fail...sigh.
Semi-flex is an “almost” flex; not a ‘flex’ nib. It is great for regular writing with a touch of flair. It can give you some fancy; but it is not made for real fancy writing. For bit more of that get a maxi-semi-flex. Both spread tines 3X. Those are not "Flex" nibs.
Wider than Normal does not exist. Wider than Japanese does. Every company has it's very own standard + slop/tolerance. Developed from the users of it's pens and inks only; not the users or inks of other companies pens. The size you grind a nib to, is your standard only. Paper and ink matter to nib width. Thank god for 1/2 sizes or it would be boring.
Location:Fogelsville, PA
Posted 30 May 2010 - 16:00
The "sand" that was commonly used to dry ink (in absence of blotting paper) prior to the 20th century was, as I've understood, actually gum sandarac. Actual sand wouldn't do the job; the tiny grains of stone (limestone, quartz, basalt, etc. depending where the sand came from) that comprise sand aren't at all absorbent. If you see an old Robin Hood movie or similar costume drama and watch someone shaking what looks like sand from what looks like a fat salt shaker onto a freshly inked document, that's gum sandarac. And yes, it tended to pick up color (by absorbing ink), and was often collected and reused until it was too saturated with ink to do its job. I can certainly agree it would be most unpleasant stuff, if you found a desk covered with it.
If you do use "sand" on a letter, I'd certainly recommend brushing it all away before putting the letter into the envelope...
Gum sandarac was used to prepare the paper to write not to dry the ink as the gum could become wetted{ Reference Richard Huloet's Abecedarium (1552)} rather fine sand would wick the ink using capillary action.
Dear Art, English, Music Business and History Majors,
Please stop complaining about not having jobs. Your major only included about 60 credits and you had time to go out on weekends.
We're even.
191 posts
Posted 25 July 2010 - 19:03
I know very little about this subject, but I was just reading Pen, Ink and Evidence, by Joe Nickell, which seems very authoritative. I believe there is a confustion between two different things here. Sandarac was used to prepare unsized paper or parchment for writing,so the ink would not be absorbed too quickly. Calais and other types of beach sand were used to blot via capillary action. Many old documents show silica from the sand.
Now what I would like to know is where to find fine, clean beach sand, such as is used in hour glasses.
Steve
Flag:
Posted 25 July 2010 - 20:49
I know very little about this subject, but I was just reading Pen, Ink and Evidence, by Joe Nickell, which seems very authoritative. I believe there is a confustion between two different things here. Sandarac was used to prepare unsized paper or parchment for writing,so the ink would not be absorbed too quickly. Calais and other types of beach sand were used to blot via capillary action. Many old documents show silica from the sand.
Now what I would like to know is where to find fine, clean beach sand, such as is used in hour glasses.
Steve
I love that book Pen, Ink and Evidence and recommend it to those interested in pen history. We've got lots lot fine white sand in our sand blaster. PM me if it's not readily available at your hardware store. I used it on letters that I wrote in dip pen for a while and it was fun... buy messy.
I finally realized that my problem was using coated paper that left the ink sitting on top.
Location:Germany
Posted 25 July 2010 - 21:07
"""Now what I would like to know is where to find fine, clean beach sand, such as is used in hour glasses."""
Up to a couple of months ago I'd recommended the White Beaches of Alabama.
I don't know what Miami is going to do now. Before late at night just before sun up, big dump trucks from Alabama use to deliver Miami's white beaches nightly.
The white beach of Miami was long ago, but was artificially maintained, for many decades.
Without three or more parties in Parliament/Congress there is no democracy; only oligarchy.
Due to Mauricio's improved definition of Super-flex, I try not use the term Easy Full Flex, but fail...sigh.
Semi-flex is an “almost” flex; not a ‘flex’ nib. It is great for regular writing with a touch of flair. It can give you some fancy; but it is not made for real fancy writing. For bit more of that get a maxi-semi-flex. Both spread tines 3X. Those are not "Flex" nibs.
Wider than Normal does not exist. Wider than Japanese does. Every company has it's very own standard + slop/tolerance. Developed from the users of it's pens and inks only; not the users or inks of other companies pens. The size you grind a nib to, is your standard only. Paper and ink matter to nib width. Thank god for 1/2 sizes or it would be boring.
Posted 26 July 2010 - 00:35
...The white beach of Miami was long ago, but was artificially maintained, for many decades.
From what I've read, the Miami Beach project (from the 1970's erosion?) has been completed for several years now. Reportedly Europe and Australia have hosted some of the larger beach nourishment projects throughout the world, too. The U.S. "Third Coast", aka the Great Lakes has seen a lot of serious erosion in recent years, although I'm not aware of nourishment projects, probably due to lack of funding. One stretch of formerly beautiful Lake Michigan beach that I enjoyed as a kid is now gone and is the shoreline road on the cliff is in danger of being washed away.
Okay, the thread can now be returned to it's regularly scheduled topic.
Bill
191 posts
Posted 26 July 2010 - 03:11
I know very little about this subject, but I was just reading Pen, Ink and Evidence, by Joe Nickell, which seems very authoritative. I believe there is a confustion between two different things here. Sandarac was used to prepare unsized paper or parchment for writing,so the ink would not be absorbed too quickly. Calais and other types of beach sand were used to blot via capillary action. Many old documents show silica from the sand.
Now what I would like to know is where to find fine, clean beach sand, such as is used in hour glasses.
Steve
I love that book Pen, Ink and Evidence and recommend it to those interested in pen history. We've got lots lot fine white sand in our sand blaster. PM me if it's not readily available at your hardware store. I used it on letters that I wrote in dip pen for a while and it was fun... buy messy.
I finally realized that my problem was using coated paper that left the ink sitting on top.
Thanks! I knew there must be a common source somewhere. I will start at Home Depot! Steve
Location:Germany
Posted 26 July 2010 - 13:11
It was not so much the "erosion" of the Miami beach, as it was it changed to the normal sand colored beach in the mid-late '60s and the advertisement was White Sands of Miami. So Miami's white sand was imported from Alabama.
Without three or more parties in Parliament/Congress there is no democracy; only oligarchy.
Due to Mauricio's improved definition of Super-flex, I try not use the term Easy Full Flex, but fail...sigh.
Semi-flex is an “almost” flex; not a ‘flex’ nib. It is great for regular writing with a touch of flair. It can give you some fancy; but it is not made for real fancy writing. For bit more of that get a maxi-semi-flex. Both spread tines 3X. Those are not "Flex" nibs.
Wider than Normal does not exist. Wider than Japanese does. Every company has it's very own standard + slop/tolerance. Developed from the users of it's pens and inks only; not the users or inks of other companies pens. The size you grind a nib to, is your standard only. Paper and ink matter to nib width. Thank god for 1/2 sizes or it would be boring.
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Sand Used Instead Of Blotting Paper
Started by ashbridg , May 30 2010 01:15
Please log in to reply
18 replies to this topic
Location:Richmond, Virginia
Posted 30 May 2010 - 01:15
In the days before blotting paper people sprinkled sand on documents to absorb wet ink. The sand box, usually made of tin, sometimes of wood, was a common desk article along with the wafer box and ink stand.
Blotting paper appeared in America during the 1840�s or 1850�s. But the use of sand continued, especially in Holland and Italy. The 1888 edition of Notes and Queries, located at the University of Virginia, contains some interesting stories about the continued use of sand to absorb ink.
T. Adolphus Trollope writes: �In Italy at the present day the use of blotting paper, save by English and Americans, is almost unknown. The public offices are liberally supplied with sand, with the result of rendering all of the desks and tables grimy to a very disagreeable degree.�
He goes on to say when opening a letter, �[N]ot only will a quantity of loose sand fall from the sheet, but the abundantly used ink will render up to the smirched fingers a considerable quantity of the gritty material.�
Moreover, this sand is not the kind one might think. Trollope continues: �The sand used is not fine sand such as one might find at the seashore, but a much coarser variety, sometimes red, but more generally blue, and is�singularly disagreeable when well-saturated with half-dried ink.�
A train traveler, R. H. Busk, says of his tour in North Germany: �My pocket-book was constantly incommoded, for instance, with the grit off the luggage schein, as it was handed to me at the various railway stations.� This anachronism is almost humorous�a guy complaining his wallet got dirty from the sand on his baggage check.
Another contributor, identified as W.C.B., writes: �Fine sand for drying writing-ink is still used, I believe, in the offices of some old-fashioned solicitors. I think I saw it in use in Gray�s Inn in 1869. There are a few of the old school left who prefer letter-paper, folded and sealed with a wafer, to the modern gummed envelope.�
This continued use of sand boxes into the 1860�s, well after the advent of blotting paper, by a British law firm offers modern pen users an insight into the mindset of early document writers. For the lawyer the importance of sand is a matter of decorum, like the black judicial robe or powdered wig. Sprinkling a page with sand is a ritual. Fine white sand drizzling off the paper when a letter is opened has a powerful impact on the reader.
Letter writers in the days before blotting paper lived in a world of dip pens, ink wells, candles, wafers, and sand. For many people today the only gestalt involved in writing a letter is scaring up a sheet of ink jet paper and a ballpoint pen. It must be a thrill to receive an elegantly written letter on cotton paper, sanded and sealed. Imagine trying to send a �sanded� letter today. The Postal Service would shut down the mail stream and call in Homeland Security, thinking it was an anthrax attack. Times have certainly changed.
Ashbridg
Posted 30 May 2010 - 01:26
Hi Ash,
The 'sand' was called 'ponce'. It was crushed up sand, salt or in some cases, cuttlefish-bones, which was used to blot ink because of its absorbent qualities. The ponce was stored in a 'ponce-pot' which was kept on the desk. It had a salt-shaker like appearance so that you could shake the ponce onto your writing, dry it, and then pour the used ponce back into the pot. I've never actually seen one in real life, though, although I think they're pretty nifty.
I thought ponce-pots had died out by the 19th century, though...?
http://www.throughouthistory.com/ - My Blog on History & Antiques
Location:North Carolina
Posted 30 May 2010 - 01:29
The "sand" that was commonly used to dry ink (in absence of blotting paper) prior to the 20th century was, as I've understood, actually gum sandarac. Actual sand wouldn't do the job; the tiny grains of stone (limestone, quartz, basalt, etc. depending where the sand came from) that comprise sand aren't at all absorbent. If you see an old Robin Hood movie or similar costume drama and watch someone shaking what looks like sand from what looks like a fat salt shaker onto a freshly inked document, that's gum sandarac. And yes, it tended to pick up color (by absorbing ink), and was often collected and reused until it was too saturated with ink to do its job. I can certainly agree it would be most unpleasant stuff, if you found a desk covered with it.
If you do use "sand" on a letter, I'd certainly recommend brushing it all away before putting the letter into the envelope...
Does not always write loving messages.
Does not always foot up columns correctly.
Does not always sign big checks.
Flag:
Posted 30 May 2010 - 01:47
For some reason, I always thought it was Gum Sandarac with Cuttlebone ground up. That's pounce. I've got a pouncebag (gum sandarac with cuttlebone in a piece of fabric bag..) I pounce the paper before I write. (usually post cards that have a shiny paper base) the sandarac helps the ink from feathering and helps it dry. You get a finer line with it.
I've never heard of using "sand" or salt or anything else like that.
Science is a way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility.
-Carl Sagan
Posted 30 May 2010 - 06:30
Basically Hollywood is wrong..the quill was trimmed except for a sand brushing tip.
A full feathered quill is too heavy, and offered too much surface for the normal heavy duty drafts that were normal in house and office.
Also, standing up at a writing desk was SOP, in one wanted the clerk working not sitting down. 12 hour work day.
Justice Frankfurter @1940's +, a US Supreme Court Justice, continued standing up to write even as Supreme Court Justice.
Without three or more parties in Parliament/Congress there is no democracy; only oligarchy.
Due to Mauricio's improved definition of Super-flex, I try not use the term Easy Full Flex, but fail...sigh.
Semi-flex is an “almost” flex; not a ‘flex’ nib. It is great for regular writing with a touch of flair. It can give you some fancy; but it is not made for real fancy writing. For bit more of that get a maxi-semi-flex. Both spread tines 3X. Those are not "Flex" nibs.
Wider than Normal does not exist. Wider than Japanese does. Every company has it's very own standard + slop/tolerance. Developed from the users of it's pens and inks only; not the users or inks of other companies pens. The size you grind a nib to, is your standard only. Paper and ink matter to nib width. Thank god for 1/2 sizes or it would be boring.
Location:Germany
Posted 30 May 2010 - 15:24
I've often found ink stands with spaces for two wells - I always assumed it was for two different colors of ink (red and black). Now I'm wondering if one space was for the "sand/gum" shaker.
Does anyone know?
Depends on when...and "all" sand shakers were shakers, you wouldn't want to pour a mound of sand on your letter. I have seen, bid on and lost, on ink well set, two ink wells and a sand shaker, or one shaker and one inkwell, a couple of times....pre 1840...1780's. I'm not an expert on them. But a sand shaker, with a perforated top, is what sand was kept in.
My replica 1894-5 Montgomery Ward Catalog offers no sand shakers...it does offer a double ink well with a sponge jar for stamps and envelops.
Or paper clips....or a place to hold extra dip pens...the pens was what nibs were called then. In the US...as it was said Blotter paper came in, and sand was passe`; not up to date...and back in that time, not up to date was shameful.....
In that many worked with accounting a black and a red ink was normal in a double set of ink wells. I've seen enough that were still slightly stained so.
The side opening inkwell sets some times, were for sharing, two desks, one inkwell set between them.
Without three or more parties in Parliament/Congress there is no democracy; only oligarchy.
Due to Mauricio's improved definition of Super-flex, I try not use the term Easy Full Flex, but fail...sigh.
Semi-flex is an “almost” flex; not a ‘flex’ nib. It is great for regular writing with a touch of flair. It can give you some fancy; but it is not made for real fancy writing. For bit more of that get a maxi-semi-flex. Both spread tines 3X. Those are not "Flex" nibs.
Wider than Normal does not exist. Wider than Japanese does. Every company has it's very own standard + slop/tolerance. Developed from the users of it's pens and inks only; not the users or inks of other companies pens. The size you grind a nib to, is your standard only. Paper and ink matter to nib width. Thank god for 1/2 sizes or it would be boring.
Location:Fogelsville, PA
Posted 30 May 2010 - 16:00
The "sand" that was commonly used to dry ink (in absence of blotting paper) prior to the 20th century was, as I've understood, actually gum sandarac. Actual sand wouldn't do the job; the tiny grains of stone (limestone, quartz, basalt, etc. depending where the sand came from) that comprise sand aren't at all absorbent. If you see an old Robin Hood movie or similar costume drama and watch someone shaking what looks like sand from what looks like a fat salt shaker onto a freshly inked document, that's gum sandarac. And yes, it tended to pick up color (by absorbing ink), and was often collected and reused until it was too saturated with ink to do its job. I can certainly agree it would be most unpleasant stuff, if you found a desk covered with it.
If you do use "sand" on a letter, I'd certainly recommend brushing it all away before putting the letter into the envelope...
Gum sandarac was used to prepare the paper to write not to dry the ink as the gum could become wetted{ Reference Richard Huloet's Abecedarium (1552)} rather fine sand would wick the ink using capillary action.
Dear Art, English, Music Business and History Majors,
Please stop complaining about not having jobs. Your major only included about 60 credits and you had time to go out on weekends.
We're even.
191 posts
Posted 25 July 2010 - 19:03
I know very little about this subject, but I was just reading Pen, Ink and Evidence, by Joe Nickell, which seems very authoritative. I believe there is a confustion between two different things here. Sandarac was used to prepare unsized paper or parchment for writing,so the ink would not be absorbed too quickly. Calais and other types of beach sand were used to blot via capillary action. Many old documents show silica from the sand.
Now what I would like to know is where to find fine, clean beach sand, such as is used in hour glasses.
Steve
Flag:
Posted 25 July 2010 - 20:49
I know very little about this subject, but I was just reading Pen, Ink and Evidence, by Joe Nickell, which seems very authoritative. I believe there is a confustion between two different things here. Sandarac was used to prepare unsized paper or parchment for writing,so the ink would not be absorbed too quickly. Calais and other types of beach sand were used to blot via capillary action. Many old documents show silica from the sand.
Now what I would like to know is where to find fine, clean beach sand, such as is used in hour glasses.
Steve
I love that book Pen, Ink and Evidence and recommend it to those interested in pen history. We've got lots lot fine white sand in our sand blaster. PM me if it's not readily available at your hardware store. I used it on letters that I wrote in dip pen for a while and it was fun... buy messy.
I finally realized that my problem was using coated paper that left the ink sitting on top.
Location:Germany
Posted 25 July 2010 - 21:07
"""Now what I would like to know is where to find fine, clean beach sand, such as is used in hour glasses."""
Up to a couple of months ago I'd recommended the White Beaches of Alabama.
I don't know what Miami is going to do now. Before late at night just before sun up, big dump trucks from Alabama use to deliver Miami's white beaches nightly.
The white beach of Miami was long ago, but was artificially maintained, for many decades.
Without three or more parties in Parliament/Congress there is no democracy; only oligarchy.
Due to Mauricio's improved definition of Super-flex, I try not use the term Easy Full Flex, but fail...sigh.
Semi-flex is an “almost” flex; not a ‘flex’ nib. It is great for regular writing with a touch of flair. It can give you some fancy; but it is not made for real fancy writing. For bit more of that get a maxi-semi-flex. Both spread tines 3X. Those are not "Flex" nibs.
Wider than Normal does not exist. Wider than Japanese does. Every company has it's very own standard + slop/tolerance. Developed from the users of it's pens and inks only; not the users or inks of other companies pens. The size you grind a nib to, is your standard only. Paper and ink matter to nib width. Thank god for 1/2 sizes or it would be boring.
Posted 26 July 2010 - 00:35
...The white beach of Miami was long ago, but was artificially maintained, for many decades.
From what I've read, the Miami Beach project (from the 1970's erosion?) has been completed for several years now. Reportedly Europe and Australia have hosted some of the larger beach nourishment projects throughout the world, too. The U.S. "Third Coast", aka the Great Lakes has seen a lot of serious erosion in recent years, although I'm not aware of nourishment projects, probably due to lack of funding. One stretch of formerly beautiful Lake Michigan beach that I enjoyed as a kid is now gone and is the shoreline road on the cliff is in danger of being washed away.
Okay, the thread can now be returned to it's regularly scheduled topic.
Bill
191 posts
Posted 26 July 2010 - 03:11
I know very little about this subject, but I was just reading Pen, Ink and Evidence, by Joe Nickell, which seems very authoritative. I believe there is a confustion between two different things here. Sandarac was used to prepare unsized paper or parchment for writing,so the ink would not be absorbed too quickly. Calais and other types of beach sand were used to blot via capillary action. Many old documents show silica from the sand.
Now what I would like to know is where to find fine, clean beach sand, such as is used in hour glasses.
Steve
I love that book Pen, Ink and Evidence and recommend it to those interested in pen history. We've got lots lot fine white sand in our sand blaster. PM me if it's not readily available at your hardware store. I used it on letters that I wrote in dip pen for a while and it was fun... buy messy.
I finally realized that my problem was using coated paper that left the ink sitting on top.
Thanks! I knew there must be a common source somewhere. I will start at Home Depot! Steve
Location:Germany
Posted 26 July 2010 - 13:11
It was not so much the "erosion" of the Miami beach, as it was it changed to the normal sand colored beach in the mid-late '60s and the advertisement was White Sands of Miami. So Miami's white sand was imported from Alabama.
Without three or more parties in Parliament/Congress there is no democracy; only oligarchy.
Due to Mauricio's improved definition of Super-flex, I try not use the term Easy Full Flex, but fail...sigh.
Semi-flex is an “almost” flex; not a ‘flex’ nib. It is great for regular writing with a touch of flair. It can give you some fancy; but it is not made for real fancy writing. For bit more of that get a maxi-semi-flex. Both spread tines 3X. Those are not "Flex" nibs.
Wider than Normal does not exist. Wider than Japanese does. Every company has it's very own standard + slop/tolerance. Developed from the users of it's pens and inks only; not the users or inks of other companies pens. The size you grind a nib to, is your standard only. Paper and ink matter to nib width. Thank god for 1/2 sizes or it would be boring.
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Which musical instrument is sometimes called the clown of the orchestra | Instrument Families of the Orchestra: String, Woodwind, Brass & Percussion - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com
Instrument Families of the Orchestra: String, Woodwind, Brass & Percussion
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Lesson Transcript
Instructor: Liz Diamond-Manlusoc
Liz has taught music for K-12 and beyond. She holds a master's degree in Education Media and Design Technology.
There are so many instruments in the orchestra! What similarities and differences can one find between them? How do the instruments work? Find out about the string, woodwind, brass and percussion families in this lesson!
The Orchestra
Ah, the orchestra. The pinnacle of sophistication, acting as the backdrop for the hoity-toity elite and commercials for expensive cars. But really, it's just a group of musicians getting together to make music. How do they make these instruments work? Which instruments are related and why?
The Four Families of the Orchestra
To start, we can break the instruments into four families. Each family is grouped by the way the instrument produces vibration. This kind of classification gives us the string family, the woodwind family, the brass family and the percussion family.
The String Family
When you think of the orchestra, you most likely think of the violin, or at least some sort of string instrument. This is probably because they make up the majority of the instruments in the orchestra, so good thinking! All string instruments use string vibration to produce sound, so it makes sense that they are called the string family! There are four main string instruments. These are the violin, the viola, the cello and the bass. Each of these instruments can be plucked or bowed.
The instruments in the string family vary in size.
As you can see here, the main difference between the four instruments is their size. As with any instrument, the smaller it is, the higher the pitches it plays, and the larger the instrument is, the lower the pitches it plays. A very common arrangement would have the violins playing the melody and the violas, cellos and basses playing supporting roles. This is not always the case, but it's important to know.
These instruments are some of the oldest instruments made for the modern orchestra, and some early orchestral music is even written solely for this section. Lastly, the harp and the piano are sometimes included in the string family, just depending on the time period when the music was being played.
The Woodwind Family
The next largest section of the orchestra is usually the woodwind family. Most woodwind instruments use a small piece of wood called a reed to produce their vibration. The reed vibrates when air is blown across it. This is how instruments like the clarinet work. Saxophones also use a reed. This is why they are classified as a woodwind and not a brass instrument. As far as instruments go, saxophones are fairly new, having only been created in the mid-1840s. Because of this, there aren't really many orchestral pieces that include saxophones.
Some woodwind instruments have a reed that has two parts called a double reed. Instruments like the oboe and the bassoon use a double reed. In this case, both reeds vibrate and tend to create a nasal sound.
There's also one woodwind which uses just the 'wind' part - it's the flute. The flute does not have a reed. Instead, the player just blows across a hole in the instrument, much like you would do if you were blowing across the top of a pop bottle.
You might have noticed that this family has all the instruments with a ton of buttons, or keys as they're actually called, on them. One of the most challenging parts of playing a woodwind instrument is just knowing which keys to press down and getting your fingers to the right spots without getting tangled. Once mastered, a woodwind player can play quickly with ease, as you can hear in Bach's 'Partita for Flute.' In the orchestra, the higher-pitched woodwinds, like the flute and oboe, tend to play the melody, while lower-pitched woodwinds, like the bassoon, tend to play supporting harmonic parts.
The Brass Family
It's on to the brass family. The brass family gets its name from the shiny material that its instruments are made from. All brass instruments use the player's lip vibration and air to make sound. The player's lips vibrate rapidly against a metal mouthpiece, and the buzzing sound produced bounces and echoes its way through the instrument to make a tone you are probably familiar with.
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| Bassoon |
What would an American call the icing on a cake | Orchestra | Parts of a Symphonic Orchestra | History of Orchestral Music
The Orchestra
An orchestra is a group of musicians who play together on various instruments. Sometimes it performs alone ,at other times it plays along with a group of singers. Orchestras give concerts and play for ballets or operas. They also provide background music for movies and TV shows.
When we speak of orchestras we usually mean symphony orchestras. They have many instruments and play mostly classical music which is performed in concerts.
Some symphony orchestras have only professional musicians. The most famous are in the larger cities of the world. Among them are the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Boston and London Symphony.
Orchestral music is written in the form of a score, which shows the notes that are played by each instrument. Every musician only sees the notes that he or she plays. The conductor stands in front of the orchestra and directs the musicians .
An orchestra can have up to 20 kinds of different instruments. Large symphony orchestras can have a hundred musicians . Smaller ones like chamber orchestras have between 5 and 40 players. They originally were small enough to play in a chamber or hall.
A Philharmonic Orchestra - Pedro Sánchez
Sections of an Orchestra
A modern orchestra consists of four sections or families of instruments. The string section is the most important part of a symphony orchestra. It has more than half of the musicians and consists of violins, violas , cellos and string basses . The violinists play high sounds and are divided into two groups. The first violins and the second violins usually play different parts. The leading first violinist is the concertmaster of the orchestra. He helps the other musicians tune their instruments and serves as the assistant . Cellos and string basses play low sounds .
The woodwind section consists of flutes, bassoons , oboes and clarinets. An orchestra can have between two and four of each of these instruments. Sometimes these musicians change instruments , for example, a flutist may switch to a piccolo . These two instruments have high piercing tones , whereas the bassoon may have the lowest tones of the whole orchestra.
The brass section has several trumpets, French horns, trombones and one tuba . These instruments are especially important in the loud, exciting parts of the music. Trumpets and horns play the higher parts, trombones and tubas dominate the lower parts. This section is located mostly at the centre and back of the orchestra.
The percussion section has all sorts of instruments, especially those that you can hit, rattle or shake . The drums are the best known among these instruments. In a symphony orchestra, kettledrums or timpani make the music more exciting . Other percussion instruments include bells, cymbals , gongs, tambourines or xylophones.
Other instruments like the harp , piano or saxophone may be added to the orchestra if they are needed.
The Conductor
A conductor directs the musicians with a stick, called the baton. But he does important things before the performance . He chooses the music that is to be played at a concert and decides how it should be played- loud or soft, fast or slow. Then he calls the musicians to rehearsals where he often lets sections or individual musicians play their parts over and over again until the sound is perfect.
History of the Orchestra
The word orchestra was first used by the ancient Greeks and meant the front part of a stage . During the Middle Ages it also included the musicians on the stage . The first orchestras were organized by kings and queens of France and in Italian churches and places during the late 6th and early 7th centuries . Most of these orchestras used stringed instruments and played for ballets, operas and at dance parties.
By the early 1700s some European composers , like Johann Sebastian Bach or George Frederic Handel, wrote music just for orchestras. Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang A. Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven perfected the classical symphony in the late 1700s and early 1800s. In the 20th century composers like Richard Strauss or Igor Stravinsk y created musical works that needed large ensembles . Later on electronic instruments were added and new sounds created .
among = along with, together with
ancient = old
assistant = someone who helps his boss
bassoon = a musical instrument like a long wooden tube; it produces a low sound
brass = musical instruments that are made of metal
century = a hundred years
chamber orchestra = a small group of musicians who play classical music together
common = something that can be found very often
composer = a person who writes music
conductor = someone who stands in front of a group of musicians and directs them
consist of = is made up of
create = make, write
cymbal = a musical instrument in the form of a thin round metal plate, which you play by hitting it with a stick or by hitting two of them together
decide = choose
direct = to be in control of
divide = separate
dominate = here: they are the most important instruments in this section
ensemble = group of musicians who play regularly
especially = above all
flutist = someone who plays the flute
harp = large instrument with strings that you play with your fingers
include = contain, consist of
kettledrum = large metal drum with a round bottom
late = the last years of ...
leading = the best or most important
located = is found
musicians = people who play music
note = a symbol on paper that stands for a musical sound
percussion = musical instruments that you hit or shake
perfect = to do something so long that you can do it very very well
perform = to play in front of people
performance = presentation of music in front of people
piccolo = musical instrument that looks like a small flute
piercing = very high , sharp and not so nice to hear
professional = to do something for money
provide = give
rattle = shake quickly many times
rehearsal = when all the musicians practise before a performance
section = part
serve = work as, operate as
several = many
shake = to move an object quickly from one side to another
stage = higher area of a hall or theatre on which the musicians sit when they perform
string = instruments that have strings
string bass = a very large musical instrument shaped like a violin that the musician plays standing up
switch = change
symphony = long piece of music, usually in four parts that is written for an orchestra
tone = sound
trombone = a large metal instrument that you play by blowing into it and sliding a long tube in and out to change sounds
tuba = a large metal instrument that consists of a curved tube with a wide opening that points straight up; it produces a very low sound
tune = to make a musical instrument play the right tone
various = different
viola = a wooden instrument that you play like a violin ; but it is larger and has a lower sound
whereas = while, but
woodwind = musical instruments made of wood or metal that you play by blowing air into them. They usually have finger holes.
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What do the English know American root beer as | What is root beer? | HowStuffWorks
What is root beer?
NEXT PAGENEXT
The English language has lots of words that are used in two or three different ways. For example, the word "cabinet" can mean "storage space in your kitchen" or "a group of folks who advise the president." Beer is a word with two meanings. It can mean an alcoholic beverage made from cereal grains, or a non-alcoholic beverage flavored by root extracts. Root beer, birch beer and ginger beer are three common forms of this non-alcoholic sort of beer.
In the case of root beer, the flavoring comes from the root of the sassafras tree or the sarsaparilla vine. Originally, the root was brewed like a tea to make an extract, but now it is much easier to buy the extract ready-made.
Up Next
| Ginger beer |
Which French Noblewoman murdered Jean-Paul Marrat in his bath | What is root beer? | HowStuffWorks
What is root beer?
NEXT PAGENEXT
The English language has lots of words that are used in two or three different ways. For example, the word "cabinet" can mean "storage space in your kitchen" or "a group of folks who advise the president." Beer is a word with two meanings. It can mean an alcoholic beverage made from cereal grains, or a non-alcoholic beverage flavored by root extracts. Root beer, birch beer and ginger beer are three common forms of this non-alcoholic sort of beer.
In the case of root beer, the flavoring comes from the root of the sassafras tree or the sarsaparilla vine. Originally, the root was brewed like a tea to make an extract, but now it is much easier to buy the extract ready-made.
Up Next
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What is the name of Britain’s only prison ship | BBC - Dorset - History - Portland's prison ship
You are in: Dorset > History > Local History > Portland's prison ship
HMP Weare
Portland's prison ship
Portland was once home to the UK's one and only prison ship. It closed in 2006, but Britain's large prison population means that some still look to prison ships as a solution to overcrowding. BBC Dorset looks back at HMP Weare.
HMP Weare was sold off in 2006 after conditions on board were criticised by the Chief Inspector for Prisoners.
He complained that the inmates had no exercise and no access to fresh air. He said it was "unsuitable, expensive and in the wrong place". So Portland's prison ship – Britain's first and only prison ship – was closed down.
The ship was built in the 1980s as a barracks for troops, before being shipped to New York where it was used as a prison, before coming to Portland.
The 400-man prison was opened as a temporary measure in 1997, originally for a period of three years.
Views from Portland
Help playing audio/video
But after its closure in 2006 there was soon speculation that the government was thinking about buying the ship back.
It had already been sold to a Nigerian shipping company to provide accommodation to oil workers.
The problem was a prison population at record levels, up by 90% since 1993.
The advantage of prison ships, it was argued, is that they are cheaper to run, and can be bought more quickly.
Ultimately, it wasn't an option the government decided to go for, so HMP Weare remains the only example of a prison ship the UK has seen.
Leave your comment on prison ships. Are they good idea? Would you like to see them brought back into use?
last updated: 09/04/2008 at 16:24
created: 29/01/2007
| HM Prison Weare |
On which North London estate was policeman Keith Blakelok savagely murdered | BBC - Dorset - History - Portland's prison ship
You are in: Dorset > History > Local History > Portland's prison ship
HMP Weare
Portland's prison ship
Portland was once home to the UK's one and only prison ship. It closed in 2006, but Britain's large prison population means that some still look to prison ships as a solution to overcrowding. BBC Dorset looks back at HMP Weare.
HMP Weare was sold off in 2006 after conditions on board were criticised by the Chief Inspector for Prisoners.
He complained that the inmates had no exercise and no access to fresh air. He said it was "unsuitable, expensive and in the wrong place". So Portland's prison ship – Britain's first and only prison ship – was closed down.
The ship was built in the 1980s as a barracks for troops, before being shipped to New York where it was used as a prison, before coming to Portland.
The 400-man prison was opened as a temporary measure in 1997, originally for a period of three years.
Views from Portland
Help playing audio/video
But after its closure in 2006 there was soon speculation that the government was thinking about buying the ship back.
It had already been sold to a Nigerian shipping company to provide accommodation to oil workers.
The problem was a prison population at record levels, up by 90% since 1993.
The advantage of prison ships, it was argued, is that they are cheaper to run, and can be bought more quickly.
Ultimately, it wasn't an option the government decided to go for, so HMP Weare remains the only example of a prison ship the UK has seen.
Leave your comment on prison ships. Are they good idea? Would you like to see them brought back into use?
last updated: 09/04/2008 at 16:24
created: 29/01/2007
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Which criminal who was executed was made into a romantic hero in the novel Rookwood | David Wootton reviews ‘Dick Turpin’ by James Sharpe · LRB 3 February 2005
by James Sharpe
Profile, 258 pp, £8.99, January 2005, ISBN 1 86197 418 3
Dick Turpin was executed in York on a cold spring Saturday in 1739. In those days, before the invention of the trapdoor drop, the prisoner was expected to climb a ladder, the noose around his neck, and step off into space. Turpin, dressed in finery suitable for a wedding or a funeral, died admirably, for he ‘went off this stage with as much intrepidity and unconcern, as if he had been taking horse to go on a journey’. This contemporary description indirectly acknowledges Turpin’s status as a self-defined gentleman (his father was a butcher), for gentlemen took horse, while the poor walked. For weeks, Turpin had been ‘eating, drinking and carousing’, ‘joking, drinking and telling stories’ with an unending stream of visitors to the York jail: his jailer had made £100 selling them drink. Some of those who had laughed and joked with him were gathered that Saturday in the Blue Boar tavern, where his body was laid out after it had been cut down from the scaffold; a few of them had been appointed by Turpin to secure his corpse, which they did by burying it deep in the churchyard the next day. At 3 a.m. on the Tuesday, however, the body was found to have been dug up, presumably to be sold for dissection. A mob gathered and reclaimed it, carrying it through the streets ‘in a sort of triumph’, and reburied it in a coffin filled with lime to ensure its rapid decomposition. Within a few days, a broadside ballad was published called ‘Turpin’s Rant’, a song which survived into the last century as a folksong, ‘Turpin Hero’, the chorus of which is: ‘For I’m the hero, the Turpin hero, I am the great Dick Turpin Ho.’ ‘Turpin Hero’ is the source of Joyce’s title for the forerunner to Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, ‘Stephen Hero’.
Turpin is no hero to James Sharpe, who sets out to cut him down to size, just another ‘callous, brutal and violent’ criminal, an ‘unpleasant thug’, hardly distinguishable from so many others, so that when The Lives of Noted Highwaymen was published around 1750 he was not deemed worthy of inclusion. Within the limits he sets himself, Sharpe’s book is admirable: in the first two-thirds he provides an account of Turpin’s life, of 18th-century highwaymen and of the criminal justice system of the day which could scarcely be bettered. Before he became a highwayman Turpin belonged to a gang of poachers in Essex. When they robbed a 70-year-old farmer, Joseph Lawrence, in 1735, they beat him on the bare buttocks, poured boiling water over him, and sat him on the fire in order to force him to say where his money was kept. Turpin played an active part in torturing Lawrence, though not in raping his maidservant, Dorothy Street. When he was eventually arrested, four years later, he was living in Yorkshire under the pseudonym of John Palmer. He came to the attention of the authorities only because, returning one day from hunting, he had shot a tame bird; reprimanded by a bystander, he replied that if the man would only stay while he charged his piece, he would shoot him too.
Charles Harper, in his Half-Hours with the Highwaymen (1908), wrote, as Sharpe wryly records: ‘It would be a thankless task to present the highwayman as he really was: a fellow rarely heroic, generally foul-mouthed and cruel, and often cowardly … I do not think that the historian who came to the subject in this cold scientific spirit of a demonstrator in surgery would be widely read.’ Sharpe’s intention is to prove Harper wrong by at long last anatomising Turpin before the public gaze. He takes pride in bringing to his task the skills of a professional historian, determined to ‘get history right’. He sets out to expose the stories told about Turpin since his death as factually incorrect. Turpin is said, for example, to have been born and to have drunk in the Spaniards Inn on Hampstead Heath, where his father was the landlord – even though the Spaniards was not a pub until after Turpin’s death. So, too, he is supposed to have drunk at the Trafalgar Tavern in Greenwich, although the battle of Trafalgar took place in 1805. In the process Sharpe asks, but never answers, a central question: ‘If, as anthropologists remind us, myths have a deeper purpose or significance, what can be read into the invocation of Turpin?’
Sharpe is uncomfortable with myths. For him, Turpin’s brave death is a fact, recorded by eyewitnesses. He knows that it is also an enactment of a myth, that contemporaries called the scaffold a ‘stage’ because the condemned man was playing his part in a drama, but he does not dwell on Turpin’s self-representation. The one thing almost everyone knows about Turpin is that he rode his mare Black Bess from London to York in the course of a single night. This turns out to be a myth – there was no Black Bess, no ride from London to York – yet it has passed for fact since 1834 when Harrison Ainsworth published a novel called Rookwood, in which the story is first told. What interests Sharpe about this story (which he has read in the much abbreviated fifth edition) is that it is false: what should have interested him is that Ainsworth’s readers (and the book was an enormous bestseller) thought it was true. To understand why they thought so we need to ask just what is being represented in the story of the ride from London to York.
Ainsworth’s source for Black Bess was a poem of 1825 which begins: ‘Bold Turpin upon Hounslow Heath/His black mare Bess bestrode.’ But the origins of Turpin’s ride lie much further back, in Daniel Defoe’s Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain, in which the story is told of a highwayman who had successfully established an alibi by riding in a single day, without a change of horses, from Chatham in Kent to York, where he arrived in the afternoon: the jury refused to believe such a feat was possible. Defoe’s story is ironic, because of course the jury was right: such a ride is straightforwardly impossible. Chatham to York is a journey of more than two hundred miles, as is London to York. In the longest-established endurance horse race, the one-hundred-mile Tevis Cup, the record is held by a horse called R.C. Hans, who completed the course in 10 hours and 46 minutes; only nine times since 1961, when records began, has the race been won in under 12 hours. Defoe and Ainsworth were thus describing horses going twice as far (and therefore twice as fast) as any horse could go in a 12-hour ride. Readers in the 1830s knew a good deal about horses: why were they prepared to believe this incredible story?
First, Ainsworth gave every appearance of having a scrupulous regard for the facts in the part of his story (a mere subplot within a larger historical romance) that was concerned with highwaymen. The rest of the story is about ghosts, graves, Gypsy curses and bolts of lightning, and no one for a moment can have believed it to be true. ‘I may observe,’ Ainsworth wrote in the preface to the fourth edition (the one I have used), ‘that I have not, as yet, been able to obtain satisfactory evidence that the extraordinary equestrian feat, attributed to him by oral tradition, and detailed in this work, was ever actually accomplished. History is silent on this head.’ His readers seem to have been convinced that, far from acknowledging that he had made the whole thing up, Ainsworth was insisting that his story was surely true, whatever the historians might say. And there is one feature that traps even the most wary reader into thinking of it as true. Why did Turpin ride? Not to establish an alibi; or to escape his pursuers, for he tells them he is bound for York in order to ensure they follow. He rides for immortality. ‘The eye of posterity was upon him … Multitudes, yet unborn, he knew would hear, and laud his deeds. He trembled with excitement.’ This is a moment of extraordinary audacity, for as Ainsworth writes, posterity has yet to hear of Turpin’s ride; by claiming it as already famous Ainsworth denied his own part in its invention; he transmuted it from fiction into fact.
Ainsworth’s readers believed partly because they wanted to believe, just as modern readers have wanted to believe in Philip Marlowe or James Bond, the highwayman being the 19th-century equivalent of the private eye or secret agent. Ainsworth himself identified with Turpin. (He claimed to have written his hundred-page account of the ride to York in the same time as the journey took. ‘My pen,’ he wrote, ‘literally scoured over the pages. So thoroughly did I identify with the highwayman, that, once I started, I found it impossible to halt.’) He was so eager that his readers too should identify with him that his critics complained he was writing ‘thieves’ literature’. ‘The road, we must beg to repeat, is still open – the chances are greater than they ever were … we are sadly in want of highwaymen!’ he insisted. The last highwayman had been executed in 1831, however, and none of Ainsworth’s readers took up his invitation.
Ian Fleming had been a secret agent, and was in part his own model for Bond. Ainsworth, the eldest son of a wealthy Manchester lawyer, had spent his childhood reading about highwaymen, but was no highwayman himself, though he had Turpin’s contempt for respectable society. ‘We have not had the pleasure of being acquainted with Mrs Ainsworth,’ a correspondent wrote in Fraser’s Magazine, ‘but we are sincerely sorry for her – we deeply commiserate her case.’ Ainsworth, he gives us to understand, is a ‘lady-killer’, he is ‘this Turpin of the cabriolet’. He did not expect his readers literally to become highwaymen, or even lady-killers; but he did expect them to identify with Turpin’s courage, audacity and sangfroid. In a world in which zero-tolerance policing was rapidly reducing the opportunities for criminals, and in which the strains of respectability were pressing ever more tightly around the urban middle classes, the highwayman represented someone able to perform a social role while remaining detached from the conventions he exploited, able to pass freely in society without ever belonging to it. Every highwayman claimed to be a gentleman, and those who knew Turpin as John Palmer claimed ‘he lived like a gentleman’; but he was tried and executed as a labourer. To be a highwayman was to be an artist in social legerdemain. It was this internal detachment, this freedom from the anxieties of respectability, that Ainsworth offered his readers. Twenty-five years later, himself caught up in an illicit relationship with a woman, John Stuart Mill was to write On Liberty, in which he identified a new species of liberty: freedom from the tyranny of public opinion. Ainsworth’s Turpin was attractive to his readers because he embodied precisely this freedom. In contrast, the rest of the novel, which centres on a curse that dooms the eldest Rookwood son in each generation to kill his wife (a curse which reminds one that onlookers wanted to commiserate with Mrs Ainsworth), is about inescapable fate.
Turpin’s ride to York is not just about immortality and liberty; it also, obviously, has to do with speed: ‘The torrent leaping from the crag – the bolt from the bow – the air-cleaving eagle – thoughts themselves are scarce more winged in their flight.’ Black Bess flies along at twenty miles an hour. Turpin is enraptured, maddened, furious, intoxicated by speed. ‘The vehement excitement of continued swift riding produces a paroxysm in the sensorium, amounting to delirium.’
Hall, cot, tree, tower, glade, mead, waste or woodland, are seen, passed, left behind, and vanish as in a dream. Motion is scarcely perceptible – it is impetus! Volition! The horse and her rider are driven forward, as it were, by self-accelerated speed. A hamlet is visible in the moonlight. It is scarcely discovered ere the flints sparkle beneath the mare’s hoofs. A moment’s clatter upon the stones, and it is left behind … He was gone, like a meteor, almost as soon as he appeared.
Peter Campbell described Turner’s Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway of 1844 as an exercise in ‘the poetry of speed’ ( LRB, 3 June 2004 ). Rookwood was written a decade earlier. The Great Western was yet to be built; work on the London and Birmingham (the first major railway line out of London) was just beginning; but the Liverpool and Manchester had been completed in 1830, and one of Stephenson’s engines had covered 15 miles in 25 minutes, an average of 36 mph; its normal speed was 20 mph. Nothing was more common than to compare locomotives to horses. Stephenson, for example, talks of holding ‘the reins of our horse’, and we still talk about ‘horsepower’. In Rookwood the metaphor is reversed. ‘Bess was a paragon,’ Ainsworth writes.
We ne’er shall look upon her like again, unless we can prevail upon some Bedouin Chief to present us with a brood mare, and then the racing world shall see what a breed we shall introduce into this country. Eclipse, Childers, or Hambletonian, shall be nothing to our colts, and even the rail-road slow travelling compared with the speed of our new nags.
Ainsworth’s achievement in Rookwood was thus to knit together past and future, to imagine, at a time when the stagecoach took four days to get from York (with a 5 a.m. start) to London, what it would be like to make the journey at railroad speeds. His readers wanted to believe in Black Bess because they wanted to halt the pace of change around them, to think of speed as animal not mechanical. Rookwood is the first, reluctant novel of the steam age.
This doesn’t occur to Sharpe. His idea of the historian as someone who gets at the facts means that he can give a fine account of the activities of Turpin and the Essex gang, but it makes him quite unfitted to be a reader of Rookwood. His argument is that the real Turpin was (despite ‘Turpin Hero’) rather insignificant; the heroic Turpin is the invention of Ainsworth. In which case a book about Turpin needs to handle fiction with the same confidence that it handles fact. Sharpe could have been provoked by his subject into reinventing the idea of what history is: instead, his conclusion, ‘Dick Turpin and the Meaning of History’, retreats to the old cliché that the business of the historian is to deal in facts. David Starkey complains that the history syllabus in schools places far too little emphasis on facts, and far too much on critical thinking. Sharpe wants the best of both worlds, facts and critical thinking hand in hand. But a history that could answer the question ‘What can be read into the invocation of Turpin?’ would have to deal in more than just facts and go beyond the kind of source criticism that is normally meant by ‘critical thinking’.
The language of fact and fiction, critical and uncritical thinking, is useful if one wants to address the question of whether Turpin was a thug. But it hardly helps one address the question of why Rookwood appealed to the imagination of its readers. To understand this one needs to place side by side Ainsworth’s account of Turpin’s ride on Black Bess and the account given by the actress Fanny Kemble of her ride beside Stephenson on the footplate of his Northumbrian (‘a snorting little animal which I felt rather inclined to pat’) in 1830. They reached a speed of 35 mph:
You can’t imagine how strange it seemed to be journeying on thus, without any visible cause of progress other than the magical machine, with its flying white breath and rhythmical, unvarying pace … swifter than a bird flies. You cannot conceive what that sensation of cutting the air was … When I closed my eyes this sensation of flying was quite delightful, and strange beyond description; yet strange as it was, I had a perfect sense of security and not the slightest fear.
The year before, the MP Thomas Creevey had travelled by train, not exposed on the footplate but sitting safely in a carriage, at the relatively sedate speed of 23 mph. He wrote: ‘But the quickest motion is to me frightful; it is really flying, and it is impossible to divest yourself of the notion of instant death to all upon the least accident happening. It gave me a headache which has not left me yet.’ With this new sensation of flying came a new understanding of what courage and sangfroid might be: Kemble had it and Creevey didn’t.
Ainsworth wanted to take the side of the Kembles of this world against the Creeveys, and Turpin’s ride was his way of doing so. In this respect Rookwood is the first, enthusiastic novel of the steam age. In its complex ambivalence about the steam engine – enthusiastic about speed, reluctant to acknowledge the supremacy of machinery – it encapsulated a turning point in history. It is this ambivalence that gave life to the myth of Dick Turpin almost a hundred years after he stepped so calmly off the scaffold. While I wouldn’t want to persuade Sharpe that Turpin was a better man than he imagines, I would certainly want to suggest that Rookwood is a much more interesting novel than he recognises.
| Dick Turpin |
Which circus did Coco the Clown star in for over thirty years | Harrison Ainsworth Rookwood :: essays research papers
Harrison Ainsworth Rookwood
Length: 1202 words (3.4 double-spaced pages)
Rating: Excellent
In the early nineteenth century, an interest in criminals and the common highwayman
arose in Europe. Many magazines in London, such as Bentley’s Miscellany, Fraser’s
Magazine, and The Athenaeum featured sections that were reserved for stories about
highwayman and their numerous adventures. The growing interest in the subject inspired
many authors to write about the various exploits of popular criminals and highwayman .
Some prominent examples of this type of novel were Edward Bulwer’s Paul Clifford
(1830) and Eugene Aram (1832); Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist (1838-39) and Barnaby
Rudge (1841); and William Harrison Ainsworth Rookwood (1834) and Jack Sheppard
(1839-40). Several of these novels were based upon famous crimes and criminal careers
of the past (Eugene Aram, Dick Turpin in Rookwood, and Jack Sheppard); others derived
from contemporary crime (Altick, 1970, p. 72). Although many authors chose to base
their stories on criminals, William Harrison Ainsworth’s Rookwood and Jack Sheppard
are two of the best examples of the theme of ‘crime and punishment’ in the nineteenth
century.
Ainsworth started his writing career as a writer of Gothic stories for various
magazines. Gothic elements are included in Ainsworth’s novel: the ancient hall, the
family vaults, macabre burial vaults, secret marriage, and so forth (John, 1998, p. 30).
Rookwood is a story about two half-brothers in a conflict over the family inheritance.
The English criminal who Ainsworth decides to entangle in Rookwood was Dick Turpin,
a highwayman executed in 1739. However, echoing Bulwer, Ainsworth’s explanation for
his interest in Dick Turpin (like Bulwer’s explanation in his choice of Eugene Aram as a
subject) is personal and familial (John, 1998, p. 31). Though the basis of the novels seem
similar, Ainsworth treated Dick Turpin in a different way than Bulwer treated Eugene
Aram. Ainsworth romanticizes history, but basically sticks to the facts (as far as he knew
them). Perhaps more importantly, Ainsworth does not pretend that the Turpin he invents
is the real Dick Turpin, nor does he attempt to elevate Turpin’s social class status (John,
1998, p. 32). Ainsworth recalls lying in bed listening to the exploits of ‘Dauntless Dick’,
as narrated by his father. Despite Ainsworth’s infatuation with the criminal, the real
Turpin was no more interesting a character than an ordinary cat burglar. Besides
highway robbery, his affairs included stealing sheep and breaking into farmer’ houses,
sometimes with the aid of confederates; and he took a turn at smuggling (Hollingsworth,
1963, p. 99). Although Turpin appears in a considerable part of the novel, he really has
no effect on the plot. He stole a marriage certificate, but the incident was not important
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to the plot. Although Turpin does not have much to do with the plot, he helps the novel
celebrate the life of a highwayman. Ainsworth’s Turpin was essentially innocent and
good-natured, though courageous and slightly rash. He was very chivalrous and
attractive in the eyes of the lady. An example of Turpin’s personality is shown in an
incident in Rookwood when he goes to a party at Rookwood Hall under the alias of Mr.
Palmer. He makes a heavy wager against the capture of himself to a lawyer/thief catcher.
Unreal as he was, Turpin undoubtedly was the cause Rookwood’s success. Rookwood
went into five editions in three years. This fact shows that Ainsworth’s enthusiasm with
criminals found its favor with the public.
The success of Dick Turpin in Rookwood repeated in Ainsworth’s Jack Sheppard
(1839); in both cases the fact that the criminals were given a crude vitality and
individualizing speech entirely denied to other characters was taken to indicate the
approval of their actions (Horsman, 1990, p. 88). The novel was separated in three
‘epochs’, 1703, 1715, and 1724. Its plot is less complicated than that of Rookwood. It is
the story of two boys that are brought up as brothers: one (Thames Darrell) virtuous and
one, (Sheppard), good hearted but mischievous. Jack Sheppard, like Rookwood, was
written as a romance, but not in a Gothic setting. Unlike Rookwood, the whole story
centers around Jack and his antics. Throughout the novel Ainsworth stuck to history as
best as he could. The real Jack Sheppard was born in 1702 and hanged at Tyburn on
November 16, 1724, at the age of 21. He became a carpenter’s apprentice when he was
15. The record shows that he never committed a crime until the age of 20. One may
wonder why Ainsworth chose a character with such a short career in the crime business.
The answer lies in the fact that the real Jack Sheppard was known for his daring escapes
from incarceration. First, he escaped from a small prison called St. Giles Round-House.
After he was reincarcerated, he and Edgeworth Bess (a supposed romantic interest of
Sheppard at the time) escaped from Clerkenwell. The feats that probably made Sheppard
most famous was his two escapes from the famous Newgate prison. These escapes were
the ‘meat’ of the story. Ainsworth very rarely went into detail about the actual robberies,
but described the escapes in great detail. For example, he escaped from Newgate the first
time by slipping through a crack in the bars of the jail. One of the peculiarities of the
event was that only one bar was removed for the escape. Questions have been raised
whether or not it is possible for any human, besides a child, to fit through a gap that
small. After the escape, Sheppard was caught and returned to Newgate 11 days later. On
October 15, he made his most famous escape of all, this time from a deeper part of the
penitentiary. Sheppard was left unattended during the evening. He slipped his unusually
small hands out of the heavy irons that bounded him, removed an iron bar fixed in a
chimney, and worked his way to freedom through an incredible series of locked doors
and walls. After he had escaped, he hid, but he left London only once. Jack went to see
his mother, while on her death bed she begs him to leave the country, but Jack refuses to
leave. After she dies, Jack goes to her funeral, and in front of everyone bows at his
mother’s grave. He is apprehended by authorities and never escapes from prison again.
The personality of Jack Sheppard won the hearts of readers everywhere. Upon
completion of the novel, it was dramatized at an incredible rate. Eight versions of the
novel were produced in London--an unheard of number of dramatizations of that time.
As a serial in Bentley’s Miscellany, Jack Sheppard ran for thirteen months, through
February 1840. Bentley issued the book in three volumes in October 1839, shortly after
Ainsworth had completed the novel. The sales were tremendous. Jack Sheppard sold
3,000 copies in a week.
Exactly why there was so much enthusiasm for these types of novels is a matter
for wonder. Ainsworth’s novels had, it is true, the elements to make a popular success: a
spotless hero and an underdog to sympathize with, both pitted against a fearful villain; a
glimpse of aristocracy, a suggestion of sex, hairbreadth adventures, and plenty of virtuous
emotions (Hollingsworth, 1963, p. 140). Rookwood and Jack Sheppard are prime
examples of the ‘criminal’ theme that was popular in the early nineteenth
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What was the title of Nightmare on Elm Street 6 | Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) - IMDb
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Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare ( 1991 )
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Freddy Krueger returns once again to haunt both the dreams of Springwood's last surviving teenager and a woman with a deep connection to him.
Director:
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The pregnant Alice finds Freddy Krueger striking through the sleeping mind of her unborn child, hoping to be reborn into the real world.
Director: Stephen Hopkins
Freddy Krueger returns once again to terrorize the dreams of the remaining Dream Warriors, as well as those of a young woman who may know the way to defeat him for good.
Director: Renny Harlin
A demonic force has chosen Freddy Krueger as its portal to the real world. Can Heather play the part of Nancy one last time and trap the evil trying to enter our world?
Director: Wes Craven
A teenage boy is haunted in his dreams by Freddy Krueger who is out to possess him in order to continue his murder spree in the real world.
Director: Jack Sholder
Survivors of undead serial killer Freddy Krueger - who stalks his victims in their dreams - learn to take control of their own dreams in order to fight back.
Director: Chuck Russell
Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees return to terrorize the teenage population. Except this time, they're out to get each other, too.
Director: Ronny Yu
A boat of graduating high school students bound for Manhattan pulls Jason Voorhees along for the ride. Look out, New York - here comes Hell in a hockey mask.
Director: Rob Hedden
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.5/10 X
Several people are hunted by a cruel serial killer who kills his victims in their dreams. While the survivors are trying to find the reason for being chosen, the murderer won't lose any chance to kill them as soon as they fall asleep.
Director: Wes Craven
Years after Tommy Jarvis chained him underwater at Camp Crystal Lake, the dormant Jason Voorhees returns to the camp grounds when he is accidentally released from his prison by a telekinetic teenager.
Director: John Carl Buechler
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 5.9/10 X
Tommy Jarvis goes to the graveyard to get rid of Jason Voorhees' body once and for all, but inadvertently brings him back to life instead. The newly revived killer once again seeks revenge, and Tommy may be the only one who can defeat him.
Director: Tom McLoughlin
After being mortally wounded and taken to the morgue, murderer Jason Voorhees spontaneously revives and embarks on a killing spree as he makes his way back to his home at Camp Crystal Lake.
Director: Joseph Zito
Having revived from his wound, Jason Voorhees; now donning a new appearance, refuges at a cabin near Crystal Lake. As a group of co-eds reside there for their vacation, Jason continues his spree.
Director: Steve Miner
Edit
Storyline
In part six of the Nightmare on Elm Street series, dream monster Freddy Krueger has finally killed all the children of his hometown, and seeks to escape its confines to hunt fresh prey. To this end, he recruits the aid of his (previously unmentioned) daughter. However, she discovers the demonic origin of her father's powers and meets Dad head-on in a final showdown (originally presented in 3-D). Written by David Thiel <[email protected]>
They saved the best for last. See more »
Genres:
Rated R for horror violence, and for language and drug content | See all certifications »
Parents Guide:
13 September 1991 (USA) See more »
Also Known As:
A Nightmare on Elm Street 6: The Dream Lover See more »
Filming Locations:
New Line Cinema's first film in 3D. See more »
Goofs
(at around 1h 13 mins) When young Freddy is getting ready to smash the gerbil, we see him sneak it off the table as he puts it down. See more »
Quotes
John Doe : Not again. He's not gonna get me again. Nothing is gonna make get off this bed.
[bedroom catches fire]
See more »
Crazy Credits
A text that appears before the opening credits reads: "Do you know the terror of he who falls asleep? To the toes he is terrified, Because the ground gives the way under him, And the dream begins..." -- Friedrich Nietzsche Then the text changes to: "Welcome to Prime Time, bitch." -- Freddy Krueger See more »
Connections
Engineered and Produced by Michael Vail Blum
Courtesy of Metal Blade Records
(Sacramento, CA) – See all my reviews
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) was the last film to feature Freddy Krueger as a solo act (not as an entity or a co-star). The years of killing have taken a toll upon the town of Springwood. It has gotten to the point that the little city has become a virtual ghost town. The parents who killed Freddy Krueger so many years ago have all paid the ultimate price. Only the mad inhabit the town and the survivors are scattered everywhere. But that doesn't stop Freddy from seeking out his final revenge. No matter how they try to stop him, he always comes back for more. But this time he finds out a little more about his old life. Can the kids finally stop Freddy for good? What is this secret that is buried in Freddy's twisted mind? to find out you'll have to watch Freddy's Dead. the end was originally filmed in 3-D.
A fitting way to end the franchise. Freddy learns something about himself and his perverted life and he gets to go out in a bang! Lisa Zane, Yaphet Kotto and Freddy Krueger star in this final installment. Rosanne, Tom Arnold and Johnny Depp make special appearances. A whole lot better than the last one but it's filled with a few dated jokes. If you enjoy the series then you don't want to miss out on this one.
I have to recommend this movie for Freddy fans.
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| Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare |
From which American soap was The Colbys a spin off | A Nightmare on Elm Street 6: Freddy's Dead (1991) Review | Horror Movie
A Nightmare on Elm Street 6: Freddy's Dead Review
Synopsis:
Freddy Krueger returns once again to haunt both the dreams of Springwood's last surviving teenager and a woman with a deep connection to him.
Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) is an American comedy thriller horror movie that is also known as A Nightmare on Elm Street 6: Freddy’s Dead The Final Nightmare (1991). This movie was intended to be the last in its series, but it did so well Wes Craven ‘s New Nightmare was made and became New Line Cinema‘s first 3D movie release. Director and writer Rachel Talalay (Tank Girl (1995), Wildfire (2005), What About Brian (2006)) did a fantastic job with this horror slasher classic. My review might be biased because I am a huge fan of the Nightmare on Elm Street series. Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare contains sexual references, violence, bad language, suspense, thrills, sitting on the edge of your seat scenes, drug use, frightening scenes and lots of horror moments.
Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare takes place ten years after A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child. Freddy Krueger thought he killed all the kids in Springwood, Ohio, but he was wrong, one of the kids survived. Maggie Burroughs (Lisa Zane - Monkeybone (2001), Bad Influence (1990), The Nurse (1997)) works with troubled teenagers as a caseworker in a shelter for young kids. The boy was trying to escape Springwood by flying to someplace new. He was thrown to across the street of 1428 Elm street from his airplane. Freddy Krueger ( Robert Englund - Freddy vs. Jason (2003), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)) caught up to him and threw him causing him to hit his head and have amnesia. The boy woke up with a newspaper clipping of Loretta Krueger, a missing person and some caffeine pills. The boy is called John Doe (Shon Greenblatt - Odd Man (1998), Newsies (1992), There Goes My Baby (1994)) and Maggie became interested in him. She started to have nightmares that have to do with the newspaper article that John had with him.
Maggie decides to take John to Springwood in the effort to jog back his memories and also to solve the reason she has the nightmares. On their way to Springwood, they discover three kids from the shelter has hidden in the vehicle because they want to leave the shelter. Carlos (Ricky Dean Logan - Back to the Future Part III (1990), Back to the Future Part II (1989), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)) suffers a hearing impairment after being physically abused severely. Spencer (Breckin Meyer - Garfield (2004), Rat Race (2001), Road Trip (2000)) is a rebellious drug addict because of his father being controlling. Tracy (Lezlie Deane - 976-EVIL (1988), Girlfriend from Hell (1989), To Protect and Serve (1992)) was sexually abused by her father that caused her to be very disturbed and troubled.
Maggie discovers the adults are all abnormal/insane and soon discovers that they cannot leave the town. Watch the movie and see what happens to them and why they cannot leave the town. How is Maggie connected to Freddy? It was a shocker for me to find out the answer. I love everything about this movie, and it receives a score of seven because it is not the best in the series.The acting was on point; setting was perfect, sound/music was great and the scare effects did it for me.
About A Nightmare on Elm Street 6: Freddy's Dead (1991)
Title: A Nightmare on Elm Street 6: Freddy's Dead
Original Title: A Nightmare on Elm Street 6: The Dream Lover, A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 666: Freddy's Dead, A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 6: Freddy's Dead, A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 6: The Final Nightmare
AKA: Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
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Which supermodel has been seen in adverts for the Citroen Xsara wearing very little | Citroën Xsara (1997-2004) | Blandness and the bare blonde
Blandness and the bare blonde
last update April 24th, 2013
1997-2004 Citroën Xsara
Blandness and the bare blonde
What does one want from a compact car? Inertia-reel, height-adjustable seat belts? An alarm warning that the key has been left in the ignition? Tell-tale child locks on the rear doors?
When these features are celebrated at a car's launch, as thoughtful as the design team has been, it is fairly clear that the show is over before it has begun.
And when a Citroën is launched in such fashion, it's high time to declare that PSA's ownership of the brand is verging on the criminal.
Francophonic name and dutiful Chevrons apart, little inside or out gave any indication that the Xsara was from the company once responsible for some of the most technologically innovative and characterful cars in the world.
Jealousy, or economies of scale?
With the 1997 Xsara, things came to a head. Since acquiring Citroën in 1974, Sochaux had kept an increasingly tight leash on its engagingly wayward charge. Xsara was the abject manifestation of this. Little inside or out gave any indication that this was the great-granddaughter of the genial 1970 GS, or in any sense a car from the same people who had given the world such innovative cars as the Traction Avant and DS; other-worldly pods like the SM and CX, or the characterful budget transport that had been the 2CV, Dyane, and Ami.
Some said it was down to jealousy; had Peugeot not crushed a gaggle of gloriously complex SM coupés upon taking Citroën over, declaring them "unsaleable?"
Others talked of rationality forced by economies of scale and the "sober realities" of the global market.
Certainly, Xsara was an important car. The "lower mid-range" segment accounted for 4 million European sales in 1996, 31% of the total market. 80% of this was shared between Germany, Britain, France, Italy, and Spain.
Citroën was convinced that its heritage meant nothing to its potential customers. Consumers, research found, had become less interested in learning about brands, and more adept at avoiding the devices and strategies employed by advertisers to get their attention.
So, to get the market's attention, Citroën resorted to the most base device of all.
Manufacturing an image
The use of sex in advertising changed dramatically in the '90s, according to Australian University of New England professor Gail Hawkes. "Under the pressures of close competition for very similar products in the world market," Hawkes writes, "globalizing capitalism recognized the necessity to use the power of sexual imagery in new ways."
Whereas items such as the Pirelli calendar had used sex to attract male attention, in a specific and enclosed, secluded context, to products related to blue-collar male work, the new decade saw explicit sexual imagery appearing on prime-time television, billboards, and mainstream magazines of all genres.
Cars, Hawkes points out, were now "sold to both sexes not by their mechanical features but by the pleasurable sensations experienced through bodily contact with them."
Most interestingly, Hawkes suggests that the trend began when Claudia Schiffer performed an elegant striptease and threw her lace knickers out of the driver's window of a Citroën Xsara.
Citroën, again, was a pioneer. Of sorts.
Though consumers were increasingly cynical about the advertising that assailed them, sex rendered them powerless. Processing it required no attention, resulting in implicit learning; i.e.: if we put a supermodel next to a car, the two will be associated. And the use of sex to sell a car could draw attention to the car itself, resulting in explicit learning; i.e.: there's a new compact Citroën in town.
Citroën's marketing team, prepped to emphasize sensuality rather than specifications, was fairly thrilled with the news that they'd be promoting a car called the "Xsara." Such an engagingly Francophonic, feminine appellation!
Citroën's marketing team, prepped to emphasize sensuality rather than specifications, was fairly thrilled with the news that they'd be promoting a car called the "Xsara."
"Xsara" continued a tradition of sorts that Citroën names (where the company had chosen to apply names) ended in "A" - Athena, LNA, Visa, Xantia. Credit for the name, Citroënet's Julian Marsh suggests, goes to Pierre Bessis, also responsible for "Citroën Xanae" (a concept), and Renaults "Scénic," "Clio," and "Mégane." For Bessis, Xsara conjured up images of the queen of Babylon, mating femininity with "Xsar" or "Tsar," connoting unbridled luxury, and "Sahara," which implied a long distance journey (Citroën, at one point, reportedly contemplated a 4x4 version).
Far from road rage, gridlocks, accidents, and breakdowns, "Xsara" got back to the business of selling dreams and loose promises.
But when the marketing team clapped eyes on the final product, they cannot have been too pleased.
Contrary to its feminine, engagingly Francophonic appellation, Xsara was fairly dowdy and, at the rear and particularly in coupé form, not a little dumpy.
The compact car they were charged with selling was fairly dowdy and, at the rear and particularly in coupé form, not a little dumpy. Selling a mundane car in this most mundane of segments, from a manufacturer hardly known for such predictability, would be a challenge.
Still, if the designers and engineers had not been inspired to improvise, the advertising people would have to compensate. If there was nothing about the Xsara to arrest the male gaze, nothing particularly dreamy or sensual about it; well, they'd just call in Claudia Schiffer and charge the company £3 million for the privilege.
The German supermodel bore an uncanny resemblance to French sex symbol Brigitte Bardot (also once connected with Citroën). Schiffer had flogged Revlon, Chanel, and L'Oreal cosmetics; Ebel watches, and Ferrero Rocher chocolates. To credibly stand behind a nondescript compact Citroën, the tall blonde would have to provide all the on-screen sensuality she could muster.
Would you really buy a car because a well-known model decides she doesn't need to wear her expensive lingerie when driving it?
And so, in May 1998, television screens showed her walking down the stairs and entering her Xsara, progressively taking all her clothes off before driving away naked; because, apparently, "the only thing to be seen in is a Citroën Xsara coupé."
Nondescript compact causes quite a stir
Britain's Independent Television Commission, used to receiving about three complaints per ad, received a full one hundred and twenty-one, complaining that the Citroën spot was degrading to women; that it was sexist, and that its gratuitous use of a woman's body was unacceptable.
Surprisingly, Spain was even more offended, although the reason for this became evident when it was revealed that most of the members of the country's Advertising Observatory, who intervened to prevent the ad from being run, were women.
It's not clear whether the response would have been quite so harsh if the Xsara had offered at least a modicum of the sultry seductiveness of its co-star. Indeed, there was little evidence of a feminine touch to the Xsara's lines, which even Citroën described as a "robust."
But in the end the dichotomy worked, and the ads achieved exceptional levels of awareness. The experience recalled a period line by Chrysler's outspoken outgoing vice-president Bob Lutz that, to sell a robust, masculine vehicle like the Dodge Ram pickup truck, one put not a builder, but Cindy Crawford, in front of it.
For the record, the ITC did not uphold the complaints, remarking that "the nudity in this light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek advertisement was not explicitly filmed." Most viewers, it noted, "would not share the complainants' view that the tone of the advertisement was unacceptably offensive, degrading, or sexist." The Spanish authorities, too, relented.
If you thought that all the fuss and high retention levels would translate to sales, you'd be wrong.
One Spanish female journalist hit the nail on the head when she asked, "would you really buy a car because a well-known model decides she doesn't need to wear her expensive lingerie when driving it?"
If you thought that all the fuss and high retention levels would translate to sales, you'd be wrong
As authors Flemming Hansen and Lars Bech Christensen explain, "when the Citroën Xsara ad featured Claudia Schiffer taking off her clothes, implicit memory would have stored her and linked her to the Citroën Xsara... implicit memory would have stored the concept 'striptease' and linked it to the Xsara.
"But what implicit memory cannot do is reason; i.e.: work out conclusions, which need to be interpreted. Implicit memory is subconscious and simply cannot make use of the full range of working memory which we use when we are actively concentrating... it cannot analyze and understand complex messages in advertising.
"It cannot work out that Claudia Schiffer is taking her clothes off because the Xsara is so well-equipped 'it's the only thing to be seen in.'"
Hansen & Christensen go on to note that the evidence from research was that both these messages were unknown to the vast majority of TV viewers. "Unless you understand why Claudia Schiffer is taking her clothes off, then all you are left with is the rather dated sexist concept of using scantily-clad models to strip in order to sell cars," the authors conclude.
"How motivating this was can be judged by the reported lack of sales success of what was apparently an extremely well-equipped car."
Humdrum hardware, albeit tuned with typical thoroughness
Underneath, like all Citroëns since the 1980s, the Xsara rode on Peugeot corporate hardware. It was a rework of the Citroën ZX (which, to be fair, had come before the Peugeot 306 it had spawned). As with the ZX, Citroën had been permitted neither to install its trademark hydraulics nor to tweak the suspension to something approaching genuine brand character.
That said, putting aside expectations of what the Citroën brand stood for, a Peugeot platform and suspension was not an entirely bad place to start. If it was not the most fluid of designs, the Xsara did have fluid handling, thanks to a rear axle design shared with the much praised Xantia.
On a conventional rear suspension system, the lateral forces experienced during cornering caused the rear wheels to steer slightly in the opposite direction to the front wheels, causing a destabilizing effect on the car. But the rear axle of the Xsara, as in the Xantia, acted to make the rear wheels steer slightly in the same direction as the front wheels. This movement, up to a possible 3 degrees, gave a significant improvement in roadholding and handling.
Peugeot handling guru Jean Baudin always said that the way the rear suspension behaves has a vital effect on how a car steers. Channel the forces the right way and you can have a car eager to respond to a driver's inputs, a car whose trajectory is finely controllable on the accelerator as much as with the steering wheel.
75-horsepower 1.4-liter gasoline and 68-horsepower 1.9-liter diesel models could hardly make use of such a chassis, but the XU 90-horsepower 1.6-liter and 103/ 112-horsepower 1.8-liter gasoline Xsaras (badged VTR) were reasonably fluid drives, and the 90-horsepower 1.9 TD turbodiesel made a case for itself in the burgeoning diesel market.
So the Xsara gripped well, handled with a modicum of adjustability, and offered comfy seats as a token reminder of what the brand stood for. Certainly, they were a sight better than those in the 2003 C3.
Xsara VTS so very nearly special
For more enthusiastic drivers, but the prize of the range was the first sporting Xsara, the VTS, powered by the same 2-liter, 16-valve engine as in the Peugeot 306 GTi, developing 167 horsepower and with the option of an automatic transmission. On the road, however, even the VTS, despite the awesome threat of its on-limit lift-off oversteer, could not remedy the Xsara in the eyes of enthusiasts. It was not a bad car, but it lacked flair or indeed any unique selling points. The brakes were reasonable enough, but the steering felt heavy and lifeless.
But if Citroën could use Claudia Schiffer to sell soporific cars, it also had French rally sensation Sébastien Loeb to make its chassis seem quite extraordinary. In that regard, if in few others, the Xsara was a return to some very special roots.
Citroën's first major involvement in rallying came about after a PR man took a gamble and lent one of the firm's revolutionary ID19s to Paul Coitelloni for the 1959 Monte Carlo Rally. He won the event and Citroën's competition department, under the legendary Rene Cotton, was born. The big Citroëns were good at long distance rallies such as the Liege-Sofia-Liege and Moroccan Rally, but they also won in Corsica, regularly won Coupes des Alpes and, controversially, won the Monte Carlo again in 1966 when BMC was excluded.
By the time the WRC was created in 1973, Citroën was a bit outclassed. The factory tried first the V6 SM and then the 2400CX, but made little impression. The Group B BX 4TC in 1986 was a disaster, and the program lasted only a few rallies. The mini-Group B program with the Visa Mille Pistes 4x4 did rather better.
When Citroën inherited the Rallye-Raid program from Peugeot in 1991, it was the start of something big. Using two-liter, Group A kit cars, Citroën developed the Xsara WRC, which became the WRC benchmark.
The roadgoing Xsara had as much to do with its 300 bhp, six-speed, four-wheel-drive WRC counterpart as it was likely to be Claudia's choice of coupé, but Citroën made its £35 million annual rally budget count. As rival Ford cut back, the Xsara won the World Rally Championship in 2003, 2004, and 2005, becoming the first Citroën ever to win, while Loeb three consecutive driver's championship titles from 2004 to 2006. Also driving the Xsara WRC were the celebrated Carlos Sainz and Colin McRae.
Packaging, functionality, fit, and finish
Bertone's sleek Xantia of 1993 had set the template for the Citroëns of the '90s. The Xsara aped some of the cues of its larger sister, but the sleekness was lost. The point of Xsara's sheetmetal was space, not sexiness, and its purpose was to envelope one of the largest interiors in the class.
Sure, the Xsara looked more oval - and thus more modern - than the ZX it replaced. But functionality and packaging were the Xsara's key selling points.
Fit and finish, always an issue with the ZX, was improved. Citroën boasted of phased interior lights, a rear parcel shelf which stowed away in the trunk lid, a driver's footrest, and boot-lid gas struts (standard equipment, one should point out, on every Yugo ever built). To be fair, every Xsara also got power steering, with a steering wheel adjustable for both height and reach, central and remote locking (a fairly rare standard feature among European compacts in 1997), air conditioning, and an indicator showing the distance to be covered to the next service. ABS became standard equipment in 1999.
And whether in hatchback, coupé, or wagon forms, this car boasted a spacious layout; figure a trunk of 408 liters and, in coupé form, the ability to seat, if at a pinch, a genuine five passengers.
Epilogue
Over the Xsara's life, through 2004, Rover's 200 and 400 went from mainstream British top-sellers to niche cars; Mazda's 323 became a player when it morphed into the sporting Mazda3, and Volkswagen's Golf became the new standard for interior quality in the compact class.
The Golf had the conservative end of the segment long sewn up. Conservative buyers who were not partial to it had the Opel Astra to look forward to. Those who placed reliability at the fore bought a Toyota Corolla or Honda Civic, with the Nissan Almera looking on as an outside bet.
As a challenger with the benefit of a heritage of innovation, Citroën should have been trying to do something different. Like Ford, for instance. The humdrum Escort evolved into the 1999 Focus, a sharp design and a sharper drive. Renault for 2002, launched a Mégane that buyers loved and others hated; Honda (in Europe) did the same for 2006. Fiat, on the other hand, was not such a quick learner, replacing the oddball Bravo/a with the Stilo, a Golf facsimile that ignored the basic truth that no one walked into a Fiat showroom looking for a Volkswagen.
And what was true for the Stilo and Fiat, also held for Citroën's Xsara.
A mundane appearance did not mean an uneventful ownership experience. In a 2001 survey, J.D. Power & Associates placed Xsara 89th in quality among 138 models.
photo: alpha deux cents
More to the point, survey results dashed Citroën's hopes that buyers would link Xsara's mundane appearance to a sound and predictable ownership experience. In 2003, following interviews with more than 24,000 owners of cars registered between September 2000 and August 2001, J.D. Power & Associates placed Xsara 89th in quality among 138 models, together with the Daewoo Leganza and Hyundai Coupe, significantly worse than the 58th place secured by the Peugeot 306 (whose platform it shared), and well under the 6th-place Corolla (the segment leader), 7th-place Škoda Octavia, and 13th-place Honda Civic.
Among Xsara's quality woes was paint that seemed easy to scratch and may well have been too thinly applied.
As with most such surveys, the reality was not quite as dramatic. Xsara's key issues were the electrical system (airbag lights, instrumentation, engine management control on gasoline models, indicator switch), short brake life, paint that seemed easy to scratch and may well have been too thinly applied, and the delicate suspension components typical of French cars of this era.
What did Citroën stand for in the compact class? The Xsara could boast neither innovation, nor did its reliability stand out, nor did it hold its value well.
Nonetheless, the problem was clear. The compact Citroën could boast neither innovation, nor reliability, nor did it hold its value well at all; which begged the question, what - apart from considerable discounts - did Citroën stand for in this class?
Citroën's worldwide sales were up, and the brand accounted for almost half of PSA's total sales. But in France it was a different story.
Back when it had launched the Ami 6 break in the mid-60s, Citroën had controlled as much as 30% of its home market. In 1980, that figure was halved; and in 1998, Citroën took just 11.6% of French car sales.
The Citroëns LN (1977), LNA (1979), AX (1987), 1991 ZX (the Xsara's direct predecessor) and Saxo (1996) had all been fairly dull rebadges of subcompact and compact Peugeot models. And if those cars had been steps in the wrong direction, the 1997 Xsara was unnecessarily relentless in its display of how severely the PSA Group could erode and evade Citroën's core brand values.
Of greatest concern was that Citroën had misread the market. By the millennium, following a host of consolidations in the industry, most carmakers were launching a renewed push to develop brands with strong, individualistic characters.
Jean-Martin Folz, previously managing director of PSA's automotive division, ascended to the chairmanship in 1997, replacing the long-serving Calvet. He'd once been general manager of the food group Eridiana Beghin Say, so his car-guy credentials were at least as questionable as his predecessor's. But he recognized that PSA was in danger of going against the grain in a most undesirable sense.
Folz in 2000 decided that Citroën should return to the individualistic style of the past. According to the new mission statement, "PSA/ Peugeot-Citroën will launch attractive Peugeot and Citroën vehicles with different personalities that draw upon the Group's innovative capacity and bring customers attractive, high-performance cars that respect the environment."
Plans were made for a new compact, the C4. It would herald a completely new approach, one more worthy of Citroën's heritage.
While Peugeot was about to turn the delightful 306 into the staid, heavy, but spacious 2001 307, Citroën's new compact was four years away. In the interim, Folz tasked his stylists with the difficult job of giving the Xsara more character.
A facelift for 2001 linked Xsara to the Picasso people mover and the new C5. Hood, bumper, and headlights made for the same unfortunate, goggle-eyed stare as that pair's. Other changes included a wider track, variable power steering for better fuel economy, larger wheels, a new rear hatch, and minor interior tweaks including four standard airbags and optional side curtain airbags. The 1.4-liter gasoline and 1.9-liter turbodiesel engines were carried over, but the 110-horsepower 1.6-liter gasoline and 2-liter HDI diesel motors were new. A detuned version of the 2-liter gasoline engine, rated at 137 horsepower, debuted in the VTS range.
The Citroën GS, the compact that had established expectations for Citroën in the segment, turned 33 in 2004. As did Claudia Schiffer, now married.
That year, Xsara, GS' great granddaughter, gave way to the C4. Citroën and Claudia went their separate ways.
But the Xsara lived on as the Xsara Picasso, an MPV rival to the Renault Megane Scénic pioneer and leader, built in 1,736,727 examples over an 11-year period. It had individual seating for five in a body which offered both flair and functionality. Xsara Picasso succeeded where the Xsara had failed; and where Peugeot, too, was flailing. Peugeot was perhaps too conservative to make a smooth transition to tall, MPV-like cars, and its 307 felt heavy and lethargic to boot.
But Xsara Picasso, on the back of an inspired advertising campaign that featured recalcitrant robots, became, in 2002, Britain's top-selling MPV.
On balance, the heavy, tall Peugeot 307 was more detrimental to Peugeot than Xsara to Citroën. 307 made every Peugeot for a decade both visually and dynamically heavy, while Xsara gave birth to the successful and endearing Picasso.
photo: Lady Wulfrun
| Claudia Schiffer |
Which British industry’s advertising slogan in the eighties was We’re getting there | Claudia Schiffer | Celebrity Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia
Schiffer has appeared on several talk shows and sitcoms, such as Larry King Live , The Late Show with David Letterman , Late Night with Conan O'Brien , Dharma & Greg and Arrested Development . She was also in boyband Westlife 's music video for " Uptown Girl ", and in 2000, she made a cameo appearance in Bon Jovi 's video for " Say It Isn't So ".
She has released four exercise videos, entitled Claudia Schiffer's Perfectly Fit, which were successful and reached the bestsellers list. [2] Schiffer has hosted the French Fashion Awards and the World Music Awards in Monaco . [2]
With fellow models Christy Turlington , Naomi Campbell , and Elle Macpherson , Schiffer was joint owner of a chain of restaurants called the Fashion Café in 1995. [3] Schiffer remains a prominent figure in German society and helped present and carry the trophy with Pelé during opening ceremonies at the 2006 World Cup . She also presented Prince William with a polo trophy in 2002. [1]
When talking about the model profession at present, she said: "Supermodels, like we once were, don't exist any more." She has said Gisele Bündchen was the only person who comes close to earning the supermodel title. [18]
Personal life
Perfectly Fit (1996) (V) .... Herself
Around Claudia Schiffer (1995) (TV) .... Herself/Interviewer
Schönsten Frauen der Welt - Claudia Schiffer, Die (1995) (TV) .... Herself
Prêt-à-Porter (film)|Prêt-à-Porter (1994) (uncredited) .... Herself
Noche de tu vida, La (1993) (TV) .... Herself - Hostess
Notable TV Guest Appearances:
Corazón de... 19 July 2005 .... Herself
Wetten, dass..? episode: "Wetten, dass..? aus Klagenfurt" (episode # 1.147) 28 February 2004 .... Herself
Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development (uncredited) in episode: "Charity Drive" (episode # 1.5) 30 November 2003 .... Balboa Towers Security
Dharma & Greg episode: "This Diamond Ring" (episode # 5.19) 2 April 2002 .... Gretchen
Dharma & Greg episode: "I Think, Therefore I Am in Trouble" (episode # 5.16) 19 March 2002 .... Gretchen
Wetten, dass..? episode: "Wetten, dass..? aus Braunschweig" (episode # 1.133) 26 January 2002 .... Herself
The Howard Stern Radio Show 7 October 2000 .... Herself
Russell Gilbert Live (episode # 1.11) 17 June 2000 .... Herself
Late Night with Conan O'Brien 13 April 2000 .... Herself
Futurama (voice) in episode: "A Head in the Polls" (episode # 2.7) 12 December 1999 .... Herself
Caiga quien caiga 19 October 1997 .... Herself
Mad TV (episode # 1.17) 6 April 1996 .... Herself
De tú a tú 18 February 1993
Wetten, dass..? episode: "Wetten, dass..? aus Basel" (episode # 1.70) 2 November 1991 .... Herself
Trivia
In 2002, Forbes estimated her net worth at about $ 55 million ( £ 38 million).
In 2006, at the age of 35, she had her ears pierced especially for the photoshoot for her 2006 Accessorize advertising campaign. Her contract for the campaign included an additional payment to cover the need for her to pierce her ears so as to be able to wear the pierced earrings she was required to model during the photoshoot. Since then, she has continued to wear pierced earrings, with her favorites being either a pair of small diamond studs, or a pair of large gold hoops.
She used to be a smoker, but gave up before her first pregnancy. Prior to that, she appeared in a number of photoshoots smoking cigarettes or cigars.
The version of the " Sawing a Woman in Half " illusion she performed with Copperfield is called " Clearly Impossible ". In this version of the illusion, she would lay down on the "table", and her head and feet would be firmly held by members of the audience. She would then be covered by a special clear-sided box, from which her head and feet projected, and which allowed an uninterrupted view of her body throughout the illusion. Once her neck and ankles had been firmly locked in place by stocks, the audience member who had been holding her head would join Copperfield in sawing through her middle using a large two-person saw. After she had been completely sawed through, two large metal divider blades would be inserted through the cut and her two halves separated. As her feet had been firmly held by the second audience member all the time from before she was covered by the box, and because the box allowed her body to be clearly seen throughout the sawing through and separation, the illusion gave the impression that she had indeed been divided into two pieces.
In addition to being sawed in half in Copperfield's Clearly Impossible illusion, she was also occasionally sawed in half in his antique version of the Buzz Saw illusion. This had previously belonged to actor and magician Orson Welles , who had used it to saw in half various celebrities including his wife Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe .
She didn't learn to drive a car until she was 28, in May 1999, when she learned how to drive especially for appearing in TV adverts for Citroen cars.
Her measurements are 36C-24-36.
While at school, she spent two months in the UK as part of a cultural exchange programme between her school in Emmerich and King Edward the Seventh Secondary School in Kings Lynn, Norfolk.
Quotes
(Claiming that supermodels are now extinct) "In order to become a supermodel one must be on all the covers all over the world at the same time so that people can recognise the girls. That is, for now, not least because the advertising industry is very much taken nowadays by pop stars and actresses. Supermodels, like we once were, don't exist any more.
"The first time David sawed me in half, I did feel quite nervous. But it was a lot of fun to do, and I didn't feel a thing as he sawed through me and pulled me apart. Now, being sawed in half is definitely my favorite part of being in David's shows."
"I've met women who have way better bodies in their 40s because they've been working on them for all these years."
"I just love to shock people. Yesterday my friend said, "What a great top, is it Stella?" I said, "No, it's Mango, £25." I'm never head-to-toe in anything. I like to mix things from Prada, things from Marc Jacobs. But, you know, you can spend several thousand pounds on something, wear it for one day and the button falls off. I get really ****** off when you spend so much money."
"I really love working with David in his shows, especially being sawed in half. Feeling the saw go through me is such an amazing sensation, and it’s always such a thrill to look over and see my legs on the other side of the stage and know I’m in two pieces…"
"I love wearing flat shoes, but I am not one of those girls who walks around in sweat pants and sneakers. I think I have something going on with shoes. Flat shoes. I buy them in several colors at once. High heels are for work and they have always been uncomfortable for me. I'm amazed when I see mothers wearing high heels. If your kids run off you can't run after them."
"I'm not really a big jewelry person - never have been. Normally, all I wear is my wedding ring, a watch, and a small cross on a chain around my neck. Of course, now I've got pierced ears, I'll often wear earrings too, but not always. If I do, its usually a pair of diamond studs my husband gave me, although if I'm feeling especially bold, I've got some big hoops I love to wear too."
"I like being a housewife but, unfortunately, I haven't mastered cooking. For all the other household jobs, I help out when I can."
"My favorite shoot from the early days of working with Guess was the Greece shoot. I remember I tried Ouzo for the first time and was ill for the rest of the day, but the pictures were amazing and we laughed so much."
"If there is a potential down-side to being a magician's wife, it's that your husband does keep wanting to saw you in half, stick swords through you, and that sort of thing. Fortunately, I really enjoy working with David as well as being married to him, so I don't mind at all when he does saw me in half, chop my head off or ask to do anything else like that to me."
"I love being pregnant. You can do whatever you want. You don't feel guilty, because I used to feel guilty about having a day off. And, you know, something really strange happened to me. Before my pregnancies, I was someone who had to watch their weight."
"I was really surprised when I had my ears pierced because I thought it would be quite painful, but I actually didn't feel it at all. All I felt as they did each ear was the gun grip my earlobe, then there was a loud 'click' sound that made me jump a little, and then I felt the grip of the gun release and a slight downward tug on my earlobe. Although I was expecting it, the one thing I didn't feel was the earrings actually going through my earlobes. And, even after they told me they had finished, I didn't really believe I actually had pierced ears until I looked in the mirror and saw the earrings there in my ears."
(On her debut fashion collection in 2011) "The idea of it is effortless chic - it's based on my life and the clothes I need. I have 15 minutes to get dressed in the morning before taking the children to school. I want to throw on clothes but still look chic, then I want to go from school to a meeting and then out for dinner by only changing a handbag or my earrings or something … It's simple and lovely to wear but still really chic and very high quality - that's all I wanted."
"My role model is Audrey Hepburn, I admire her a lot. I'd like to have her grace and charisma, which are qualities you acquire not in youth, but only with life experience. I'd like to be more happy with myself. I've never liked myself very much, I've always thought I should be more extroverted - more this, more that. But you have to learn to accept yourself as you are. That's my goal for the future."
(On her cravings during her third pregnancy) "I'd love a beer, that's all I've been craving. I didn't even like it before I was pregnant. Alcohol's bad for you when you're pregnant, but I just want beer."
"It did feel really strange the first time I changed earrings after I'd had my ears pierced, especially when I took out the little gold starter earrings that I'd been wearing for the past six weeks. Once I'd taken them out, I could finally see the holes I now have in my earlobes, and that just seemed really weird to see and feel them there."
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Chas and Dave sang Gertcha on which brewery’s advert | Three Courage Best Ads - YouTube
Three Courage Best Ads
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Uploaded on May 13, 2008
Here are three classic ads for bitter featuring the dulcet tones of Chas & Dave. Written by John Webster.
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| Courage |
Which brand of cigarettes did former U.S. President Ronald Reagan advertise in the fifties | 2013 - Gertcha! The Emi Years (Disc 03) Odds & Sods - Chas And Dave - Listen to Free Music by Chas And Dave on Pandora Internet Radio
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Chas And Dave
British novelty duo Chas & Dave (singer/guitarist Charles "Chas" Hodges and singer/bassist Dave Peacock) issued their debut recording, One Fing 'n' Anuvver, in 1976. The pair formed their own record label shortly thereafter, Rockney, before embarking on a tour supporting the British doo wop revival act the Darts , with drummer Mick Burt in tow. The duo's first EMI album, Rockney (1978), with its single " Strummin'," started to build a following for Chas & Dave, but their real breakthrough came in the wake of a performance at a pub where they were seen by advertising man John Webster, who thought their sound and image, and a particular song they were doing called "Gertcha," were all perfect for a campaign he was about to begin for Courage beer.
The song, slowed down and with new lyrics, became part of an excruciatingly funny commercial that boosted sales of Courage Best and earned the duo a wide national following for the first time -- and "Gertcha" became a national phenomenon. Other Courage Best commercials, even more amusing than the first and built around the Chas & Dave singles "Margate" and "Rabbit," among others, followed over the next 18 months. In the process, the duo and its records were embraced by the nation's beer drinkers and television viewers -- "Rabbit" would climb to number eight in the winter of 1980; the football anthem "Ossie's Dream" hit number five in the spring of 1981; and "Ain't No Pleasing You" barely missed hitting the top of the charts, peaking at number two in the spring of 1982.
Ensuing singles failed to match the success of their predecessors, until 1986's "Snooker Loopy" hit number six on the charts. But the single would prove to be their last hit, as the duo appeared to focus on other interests soon after, including running a pub along with sporadic TV appearances and live shows. Chas & Dave returned in the early 21st century with such old-time rock & roll releases as 2000's You're Never Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll, 2001's Rock 'n' Roll Party, and 2002's The World of Chas & Dave, Vol. 2. ~ Greg Prato & Bruce Eder
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Who recorded Nobody Does It Better for one of the Bond films | YouTube
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What is Blofeld’s christian name in the Bond films | Top 10 James Bond Theme Songs
Top 10 James Bond Theme Songs
Summary
James Bond films are known for their iconic theme songs. From the twanging guitar of the original instrumental theme, to Shirley Bassey's strong vocals, many of the songs have been successes in their own rights. Here are our favourite ten.
#10 License To Kill
In tenth place we have the Empress of Soul, Gladys Knight, singing the titles for Licence to Kill . Long time Bond composer John Barry, who had worked on the series since Dr. No , fell ill, and couldn't work on the music. But the theme song, composed by Jeffrey Cohen, Walter Afanasieff and Narada Walden, was based on the horn melody from Goldfinger , for which Barry received a royalty.
Licence to Kill was significantly less poppy than the prior two Bond films, and fitted the more serious, grittier theme of the film. Gladys' vocals are softer than usual, and the lyrics go well with the music. The song hit number 6 in the UK charts, but wasn't as successful in America. It's a good song, and a great match for the film.
#9 From Russia With Love
The theme song for From Russia With Love was almost two themes in one. The full theme, composed by Lionel Bart and sung by English musician Matt Monro, was played over the end credits. It coupled soft and laid back music, with Monro's bold vocals. It could be considered the most classical of all Bond themes, and is certainly distinct in the series.
The second aspect of the theme was the opening titles of the film. Fully instrumental, they opened with an intense, fast paced and sharp brass and drum arrangement, that was aptly titled "James Bond is Back". After this brief celebration, came John Barry's lively, upbeat version of the Monro tune, which eventually blends into Monty Norman's James Bond Theme. The opening music was fantastic, and it was refreshing to have two different versions to open and close the film.
#8 You Only Live Twice
The You Only Live Twice theme was sung by Nancy Sinatra and composed by John Barry, with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse, who had also penned the lyrics for Goldfigner . The music is of particular note, a solid composition with an authentic Japanese twist. So authentic in fact that it has been used in numerous low budget Japanese films, albeit probably unlicensed.
The lyrics are better than many of the Bond themes, and Sinatra's voice beautifully blends in with the melody. You Only Live Twice is one of the most critically acclaimed Bond themes, and has been covered by many artists, including Shirley Bassey.
#7 Nobody Does It Better
Picture the opening scene of The Spy Who Loved Me . Bond gets chased by a swarm of assassins when skiing in Austria. He shoots one of them with his gadget ski-pole, does impressive gymnastics to avoid bullets and knock-out one of the henchmen, but still has men on his tail. In a tense escape, he skis off the edge of a mountain, saved by a hidden Union Jack parachute. And then plays the theme song Nobody Does it Better. Perfection!
Nobody Does it Better was the first Bond song to diverge from the film's title. Sung by Carly Simon, it was a truly beautiful song, and a commercial success, charting at #2 in the UK and #7 in the US. The song has been used in numerous other films, and is a favourite among fans.
#6 Live and Let Die
The theme for Live and Let Die was sung by ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, and scored by George Martin, who had most recently worked with McCartney on the Beatles album Abbey Road. The lyrics and music were written by Paul and is wife Linda, but she didn't take part in the recording. Live and Let Die was the first Bond film not to feature John Barry, who had fallen out with producer Harry Saltzman.
The absence of Barry gave the producers an opportunity to drastically change the style of the music, choosing a rock song for the first time in the series. Live and Let Die was a big commercial success, and charted on both sides of the ocean. The music was very impactful, and was integrated very well into many scenes throughout the film.
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Which country provided the back drop for the Bond film You Only Live Twice | James Bond Retrospective: You Only Live Twice (1967)
10 Reasons To Take Up Running
James Bond Retrospective: You Only Live Twice (1967)
Sean Connery made the shock announcement during the making of You Only Live Twice that this would be his final Bond film....
Flipboard
To mark the 50th Anniversary of one of the most successful movie franchises of all time and as James Bond prepares for his 23rd official outing in Skyfall later this year, I have been tasked with taking a retrospective look at the films that turned author Ian Flemings creation into one of the most recognised and iconic characters in film history. After the phenomenal box-office success of Thunderball in 1965 the Bond series producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman were left looking for an out of this world adventure for Bonds fifth outing, You Only Live Twice. When Richard Maibaum the screenwriter of all the previous films became unavailable the producers hired popular short story and childrens writer Roald Dahl to pen the screenplay. Dahl had been a close friend of Fleming but described the original novel as Flemings worst book. Taking only a handful of ideas from the story, Dahl wrote an almost completely original screenplay disregarding much of Flemings plot and adding elements from a rejected script by screenwriter Harold Jack Bloom. As before, many of the crew members from the last four films returned including editor Peter Hunt, production designer Ken Adam, art director Peter Lamont, stunt co-ordinator Bob Simmons and special effects director John Stears. With a budget of $9.5 million, just half a million more than Thunderball the producers brought in a new director, Lewis Gilbert who already had an established track record of well regarded films such as Reach For The Sky, Carve Her Name With Pride and Alfie. Gilbert was persuaded by Saltzman and Broccoli to put his own stamp on the series and in the process was to make the most ambitious Bond film to date. James Bond
During the promotional tour for Thunderball, Sean Connery had begun to show the early signs of disillusion with the role. The burden of leading the franchise and the amount of time required to publicise the movies were beginning to take their toll on his blossoming career as well as the fear that the role could lead to typecasting. Connery made the shock announcement during the making of You Only Live Twice that this would be his final Bond film.
Classic Line
(About to make love to Helga Brandt)
James Bond: Oh the things I do for England.
The usual twinkle in his eye that had been evident since From Russia With Love is sadly missing from his performance in You Only Live Twice. He seems jaded and a little bored by the role, lacking the spark that had defined his portrayal of the character. Contributing factors may have included a number of changes in the production team for the fifth film in the series, a new director and screenwriter as well as the fact that Connery was given a hard time by the Japanese press during the making of the film which may have also affected his performance. One thing was for sure that it was the right decision to leave the role before completely running out of steam. He would leave a legacy that would be hard to beat and would prove to be the standard against which all that would follow would be compared. Pre-Credits & Theme Song
In a change of form after the previous two films opening sequences that featured scenes bearing little relation to the main storyline, You Only Live Twice opens with a scene setting in motion the main plot thread for the movie. Beginning in space during a US mission by NASA, an astronaut makes his way out of the space capsule for a space walk. Moments later his mission is literally cut short by a mysterious spacecraft that intercepts the NASA craft mid-flight, opening its nose cone to swallow the US capsule. With the US and Russian space programs in full swing during the sixties and NASAs Apollo missions only two years away from making the first moon landing, the space race was a hot topic of the day making it inevitable that it would be an obvious choice of storyline for Bond to become involved in some way. The second part of the pre-credits sequence sees Bond very briefly enjoying the company of a Chinese girl in a Hong Kong boudoir. As she steps away from the bed it folds up against the wall with Bond still on it as a number of gunmen sweep in and fire machine guns at the underside of the bed. As the bed is folded back down it is revealed that Bond is dead and Maurice Binders Japanese infused opening titles begin. The actress playing the Chinese girl is Tsai Chin who would make a return to the Bond films almost forty years later appearing in Casino Royale as a poker player in the tournament where Bond takes on Le Chiffre. This part of the opening sequence is so brief and lacking the thrills of the pre-credits scenes of both Goldfinger and Thunderball making it one of the series least memorable openers. The title song was written by John Barry and lyricist Leslie Bricusse and for the first time was performed by a non-British star, Nancy Sinatra, daughter of Frank. Barrys elegant score uses motifs from the title music throughout the film resulting in one of his finest musical accompaniments for the whole series. The Movie When a US spacecraft is hijacked mid-flight, the Americans initially suspect it to be the work of the Soviet Union. British secret service agent James Bond is assigned to the case which leads him to Japan where he is partnered with his opposite number in the Japanese secret service Tiger Tanaka. Together they discover that the true mastermind behind the hijack is Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the leader of SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion). When a Soviet rocket suffers the same fate as the US spacecraft tensions reach an all time high between the two superpowers. Bond uncovers Blofelds secret underground base hidden inside a volcano where he is plotting to spark a nuclear strike between the two countries by disrupting their space programs.
Unlike many of Bonds later globetrotting adventures, You Only Live Twice is confined to just the one country. It totally embraces Japanese culture and spends a lot of screen time on a number of Japanese traditions from sumo wrestling to a lengthy wedding scene culminating in a tea ceremony. The observations of the countrys customs seem overlong and are mere padding for a screenplay lacking in excitement. They are, however, played out with respect but when the decision is made to make Bond look more Japanese things take a turn for the worse. It is a largely pointless scene and the transformation is racially dubious and far from convincing, not least the fact that at 6ft 2in he towers above most of the people around him.
The character of Tiger Tanaka, played by Tetsuro Tanba, is essentially a Japanese version of CIA agent Felix Leiter. He is still a likeable character and plays an important role in the overall plot of the film. He is Bonds link to the Japanese way of life and provides invaluable training and assistance from his ninja army for the climactic battle. The final assault on Blofelds lair is a large scale affair with some jaw-dropping stunt work and features the now legendary stuntman Vic Armstrong in one of his first films as one of the ninjas abseiling into the base. Blofelds volcano lair remains one of the largest, most elaborate sets ever built at Pinewood Studios. The set had its own monorail running around the edge and was big enough to house the full scale rocket used by Blofeld to hijack the US and Soviet spacecraft, it was also possible to fly a helicopter in through the roof to the landing pad in the centre of the base. Designed by Ken Adam, the set is probably his most famous creation for the Bond films and not only featured the main base but also housed Blofelds living quarters complete with piranha pools.
Adding to the films epic scale, the cinematography was provided by the incomparable Freddie Young who had previously captured the ambitious scope of Lawrence Of Arabia and Dr. Zhivago for director David Lean. He provides Bond with some unforgettable shots beautifully framing the gargantuan sets as well as capturing some imaginative footage of the action scenes. In particular a spectacular rooftop chase is seen from above with the camera pulling back to reveal Bond fighting his way through dozens of goons all taking place in one wide shot. This fifth film is a far cry from the relatively low key likes of Dr. No and From Russia With Love. The excesses of Goldfinger and Thunderball are exaggerated to create Bonds biggest adventure to date. While Dahls screenplay may be slightly flawed in its approach, essentially borrowing elements from the previous films, it all somehow works to create an overall familiarity that helped shape the mould of the classic Bond. The Bond Villain
After several brief glimpses in From Russia With Love and Thunderball and with a build-up not afforded many villains in film history, the face of the leader of SPECTRE, Ernst Stavro Blofeld is finally revealed in You Only Live Twice. Sadly however it is not quite the staggering reveal that one would hope following such anticipation but this could be attributed to the fact that the actor playing the role was changed after the cameras had already begun to roll. Czech actor Jan Werich had been the first choice to take the role but conflicting reports suggest he was either fired or fell ill shortly after shooting had commenced. Established screen actor Donald Pleasance was brought in by Broccoli and Gilbert as a replacement and he soon settled into the role by trying to put his own stamp on the character. Initially suggesting he should play the character with a hump, a limp, a beard or a lame hand before finally deciding to go with the scar across the eye.
Classic Line
Blofeld: James Bond. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Ernst Stavro Blofeld. They told me you were assassinated in Hong Kong.
James Bond: Yes, this is my second life.
Blofeld: You only live twice, Mr. Bond.
While Pleasance is undoubtedly a fine actor he does not quite imbue enough menace into the character of Blofeld. Instead he is played as more of a feeble, diminutive man who relies on others to take care of business. While he may be one of the greatest criminal minds, Blofeld is clearly no real match for Bond and would certainly come out worse in a physical fight but then that is probably why he surrounds himself with henchmen. Pleasances interpretation of Blofeld is possibly the most recognised and iconic of all the Bond villains setting a standard that would be followed throughout the series and often used as the starting point for Bond parodies.
After the previous films henchmen heavy approach, You Only Live Twice is surprisingly light on supporting villains. Obviously inspired by the success of Fiona Volpe in Thunderball, another redheaded bad girl steps up to take down Bond. SPECTREs Number 11, Helga Brandt played by German actress Karin Dor. While not quite as ruthless as Volpe, she takes a similar approach in seducing Bond only to then attempt to kill him by leaving him pilotless in a stricken light aircraft as she parachutes to safety. When her plan inevitably fails she is at the mercy of Blofeld who, as we have seen before does not tolerate failure, before going on to drop her into his tank of man-eating piranhas in a graphic death scene performed by Dor herself.
Classic Line
Mr. Osato: You should give up smoking. Cigarettes are very bad for your chest.
Helga Brandt: Mr. Osato Believes in a healthy chest
(Bond eyes Helgas breasts)
James Bond: Really?
Blofelds other henchmen include Mr. Osato, possibly one of the least threatening villains of the series and the 6ft 8in Hans, Blofelds personal bodyguard who with his blonde hair and muscular frame brings From Russia With Loves Red Grant to mind but lacks the style and wit that made that character so memorable. The Bond Girl
You Only Live Twice is highly unusual in that the main Bond girl role is effectively split between two characters of which we learn very little over the course of the film. The first is Aki, an agent with the Japanese secret service played by Akiko Wakabayashi. As soon as Bond arrives in Tokyo she is by his side with an uncanny knack of arriving just in time to rescue him in her white Toyota sports car. Incidentally, this is the only Bond film that does not feature him driving a car himself and the Toyota used in the film had to be modified with a soft top to accommodate Connery who proved too tall for the standard model. Aki is a feisty and likeable sidekick who remains with Bond throughout most of the film until her death at the hands of a ninja assassin who, planning to kill Bond with poison delivered on a thread from above while he sleeps, inadvertently kills Aki instead.
Classic Line
Aki: I think I will enjoy very much serving under you.
The second Bond girl is Kissy Suzuki played by Mie Hama with whom Bond is paired in an arranged marriage. Her name is never actually mentioned and it is only listed as Kissy during the end credits, the surname is taken from the character in the book. She serves very little purpose in the overall story and despite the fact that one of her main roles is to swim for help from Tanaka, she could not actually swim herself and was doubled by Connerys wife Diane Cilento wearing a black wig. Kissy seems to be merely someone for Bond to end up with in the final scene purely to maintain the Bond tradition. Gadgets
Bonds main gadget in You Only Live Twice is also one of his most well known only rivalled by the Aston Martin DB5 from Goldfinger. Designed by former RAF Wing Commander Ken Wallis, Little Nellie, a WA-116 gyrocopter painted in a distinctive yellow and black livery and heavily armed with machine guns and rocket launchers proves to be one of the highlights of the film. Coming to Bond courtesy of Q branch, housed in four large packing cases and assembled in a neat stop-frame montage, Little Nellie steals the show during an exciting set-piece. Piloted by its creator the gyrocopter holds its own against a squadron of enemy helicopters in a spectacular aerial battle that proved to be very challenging to film. With 85 take-offs and more than 5 hours flying time the sequence was filmed on location in both Japan and Spain after the Japanese government refused to allow any explosions over their national park. James Bond Will Return.. The film was the first Bond film to be released during the summer rather than the traditional October/ November release date and was the first to be screened for a Royal premiere. There seemed to be no stopping Bond at the box-office with the film once again grossing over $100million however this was the first film not to out-gross the previous movie leading some to speculate that a change of direction would not necessarily be a bad thing for the franchise. With Connery out of the picture for the next adventure, producers Broccoli and Saltzman knew they had a tough act to follow but the search had to begin for a new Bond.. To catch up on previous installments of the James Bond Retrospective click below: Dr. No , From Russia With Love , Goldfinger , Thunderball
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What is the nineteenth hole on a golf course | You Only Live Twice Reviews & Ratings - IMDb
IMDb
58 out of 85 people found the following review useful:
One of the most entertaining Bond movies.
from Groningen, The Netherlands
21 March 2006
It's not the best but it most certainly is one of the most entertaining Bond movies to watch. Because of that reason, "You Only Live Twice" is one of my favorite Bond movies.
Basically the movie is just simple silly fun. The story is very simple and at the same time also totally unbelievable but also because of this the movie is extremely entertaining to watch. As an action movie this movie is really great. The movie is truly filled with many spectacular, if a tad over-the-top action sequences. Most action sequences don't even make sense that they occur in the movie, once you really start thinking about it but that is all part of the charm of this entertaining movie. It's a very imaginative movie that has some unforgettable sequences in it, that are both thrilling as well as spectacular.
The movie is mostly set in the culturally rich Japan. It works as a perfect backdrop for the movie and the strange unusual culture helps to make the movie an imaginative filled one. Also sequences like with 'Little Nellie' and the end fight set in the hollowed-out volcano add to the adventurous and imaginative feeling of the movie.
Ken Adam is also one of the reasons why everything in the movie works so well. As a production designer he made the right backdrops for the story and made several elements of the movie work out surprising well, such as mainly all of the sequences in the hollowed-out volcano.
Also the musical score by John Barry and the cinematography by Freddie Young are worth mentioning.
Sean Connery is good and fun as always as James Bond and he still showed good form in this movie. This time Ernst Stavro Blofeld was played by legendary actor Donald Pleasence. He takes the movie to an even higher level. He plays the best Blofeld out of the long series of Bond movies, along with Telly Savalas who played the villainous character in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service".
This is a fantastic fast paced, action filled movie, that has some spectacular and unforgettable sequences in it, especially toward the ending. One of my personal favorite Bond movies, of which I never grow tired of watching it.
8/10
from Xanadu
20 November 2004
This one is a triumph for Ken Adam's sets. The volcano base is the most memorable feature of the film. Oh, the story is fun and the gadgets are cool, but those sets really sell the film. They would inspire countless imitations and variations throughout the years.
Finally, we get to see Bloefeld, and it's a bit of a letdown. Donald Pleasance is a fine actor, but he's not quite supervillain material; more of the serial killer variety, in the mold of Peter Lorre. Still, he is by far the superior on-screen version.
The Japanese cast are all outstanding. Special mention should be made of Peter Maivia, grandfather of Dwayne Johson, aka The Rock. He and the stuntmen create a brutal fight scene, second only to the train fight in FRWL, although this is perhaps more inventive.
As for gadgets, outside of the jetpack from Thundrball and Goldfinger's Aston Martin, Little Nellie is the coolest ride. The aerial scenes are spectacular and are one of the highpoints of the whole series.
This film really marks the end of the ultra-cool Bond films. After this, they tend to go down in quality, taken as a whole. Some have better stories and villains, some have better stunts, but they are never the complete package that the earlier films were. Still, this one (along with Goldfinger and Thunderball) would inspire every spy work that would follow; from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. to Our Man Flint, Marvel Comics' Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.e.L.D., to the X-Men. Everyone stole an idea from here.
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28 out of 29 people found the following review useful:
Bond goes East.
from the Mad Hatter's tea party.
19 September 2009
This particular 007 entry (which was intended to be Sean Connery's last before he would agreed to return one more time for his sixth shot as 006 in 'Diamonds are Forever (1971)' and lets not the forget the unofficial 'Never Say Never Again' in 1983) was the first Bond film I encountered and from that it has always remained a total favourite. "You Live Only Twice" we see Bond travel to the land of the rising sun (Japan) in what is quite an expansive concept (dazzling set-designs with spectacular non-stop action) and very well-budgeted effort that lingers on a extremely comic-book-like tone (thanks largely to Roald Dahl's industriously well-guided screenplay that plays its cards close to the chest) with its characters, atmospherics and set-pieces that for me would make it one of the most creative and exciting inclusions to the series.
Bond heads to Japan racing to uncover the true mastermind behind the space-jacking that could see another world war, as British sources believe that the mysterious rocket ship which has seized American and Russian space shuttles originates from there, but those countries believe otherwise than each other for the acts.
Couple of things which made it more the memorable would be that it's the first chance we get to see arch villain SPECTRE Agent #1 Ernst Blofeld's face, than just the hand stroking the cat
although the first hour we get enough of that. It's a devilishly meaty Donald Pleasence who just seemed the part of Blofeld. Now who didn't love the hidden lair that was in an inactive volcano, and of course Blofeld's pool of pet piranhas. The inventive gadget novelty was really making a mark, just look the deadly mini-copter named 'Nelly' and the dangerous effects of smoking around others. Strangely enough the (witty) script seemed to spit out a few self-knowing quips involving cigarettes, which became rather odd. Director Lewis Gilbert (who would go on to control the very similar in story-structure "The Spy Who Loved Me" and then following that the plain goofy "Moonraker") does a tersely capable job with a fast moving pace that shifted from one well organized set-piece to another (like the chase on-top of a rooftop in a fishing docks that's masterfully captured by cinematographer Freddie Young) to finally finish on a barnstorming climax (with none other than ninjas) and then a familiarly fitting final frame. Sean Connery might look a little tired (a bit funny trying to make himself look like Japanese under make-up), but remains just as charismatic and fittingly lean when it came to getting down and dirty (Bond and his tussle with Blofeld's massive henchman Hans comes to mind). The bond girls shape up nicely in the form of Akiko Wakabayashi, Mie Hama and the stunning German redhead Karin Dor. Tetsurô Tanba was good as Bond's Japanese counterpart. Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell and Desmond Llewelyn treat us to their iconic roles. John Barry's classy music score has a smoothly oriental touch, which can get actively copious when called for and theme song "You Only Live Twice" is enticingly sung by Nancy Sinatra.
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43 out of 64 people found the following review useful:
One Of The Best Bond Movies
from Isle Of Bute, Scotland
23 July 2005
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
I notice this movie has warranted much criticism and some people have gone as far as dubbing it as the worst of the Connery Eon productions ! What you mean it's worse than DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER ? I don't think so and it's certainly better than than THUNDERBALL which spends most of its time with Connery - Or more likely a stuntman - submerged under water . At least with this movie we get to see Connery's manly handsome features
I do agree there are certain flaws to the screenplay . One is the plot which lacks logic . Spectre are manipulating the superpowers into starting a nuclear war ! Can anyone see what a ridiculous idea this is ? There is some historical context to this since Mao thought because of the large population of China if there was a third world war his country would come up trumps and if I remember correctly he stated in the mid 1960s that " Even if we lose 300 million of our citizens China would still survive " which just goes to show that he wasn't perhaps the cleverest of people . It's insinuated heavily without being spelt out that China is paying Spectre to cause the war but what is Blofeld getting out of this apart from 100 million dollars in gold bullion ? At least in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME you can understand why the villain would want to see a nuclear holocaust but Blofeld seems entirely ignorant that you wouldn't be able to trade or spend anything after world war three .
There's also a few other little irritants . Much of the movie is beautifully paced but Bond's burial at sea is again illogical and holds up the story . I mean why don't the Royal Navy just dump a weighted down dummy into the sea and come to think of it doesn't the " Bond is dead " charade just seem entirely stupid in the first place ? How if Bond was alive the Hong Kong police say he was dead ? Were they part of the conspiracy ? For an intricate plot it seems to involve a ridiculous number of people for it to work effectively . Same as the Bond pretends to be a Japanese fisherman subplot . Couldn't the Japanese secret service just land him on the island via boat instead of putting him in a ninja training camp ? There's also something else that is totally unexplained : Bond rescues two Soviet cosmonauts and an American astronaut then one of these characters disappears from the narrative when Bond and the two others knock out the Spectre spacemen then these two characters likewise disappear from the story . It might sound anal of me but I was very annoyed that I never found out what happened to the three space kidnap victims
Despite these flaws YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE is a tremendously entertaining movie . As I said from one or two unnecessary elements ( This would become a serious problem in the latter movies ) it's beautifully paced and contains some great set pieces with special mention going to the chase scene on top of a warehouse and this is the movie where we finally get to see the face of Blofeld . Again I notice that some people aren't all that impressed with Donald Pleasence's performance but I think it's an excellent portrayal of a megalomaniac , he's aloof and attached , almost Hitlerite and compare it to the campy style other actors have played him in
Perhaps not as good as DOCTOR NO or GOLDFINGER but this Bond film is much better than most other in the franchise
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24 out of 30 people found the following review useful:
Welcome to Japan Mr Bond
from TOP SECRET
26 September 2001
You Only Live Twice is pure Comic Book entertaiment. James Bond is very much the superhero character he was in Goldfinger, and every scene is like a panel in a Comic Book and filled with entertaining excitement. In truth, it is though the feel and style that was vibrant throughout Goldfinger [1964] leapfrogged the dull Thunderball [1965] and found it's way to Japan. Twice is a beautiful looking and sounding addition to the Bond movies, and one is glad Sean Connery didn't really resign from the role of Bond and did indeed Live Twice.
By jettisoning most of Ian Flemmings original story You Only Live Twice, in wich an amnesiac Bond Hunts down Blofeld in Japanese castles, Broccoli and Saltzman have ridden themselves of the same problem evident in Thunderball : Slow Movement, Uninterested Audiences. Thunderball may have been a success, but this was probably due to the Bondmania wich raged through the mid sixties like a giant inferno. Luckily for the fans of the eye popping spectacles the Bond series is famous for, You Only Live Twice contains no such problems of dreary moments of boardom. In its place we have a Space Age actioneer written by childrens author Roald Dahl, and an entertaining and swift director in Lewis Gilbert, who seems more suited to Bond than any director yet.
It has been said before, but the real star of the show is Ken Adams sets. His wondefull Volcano set wich Blofeld uses is one of the most memorable in Cinema history. Add to this the Japanese sets, the Submarines [M's Offices], Tanaka's Lair, and the real sense of Japanese authenticy. Adam deserves an Oscar for this movie alone. For his total contributions to Bond and other movies, there is no Award yet created.
Donald Pleasence makes a very creepy Blofeld. He is perhaps the ultimate Blofeld. His scenes with the other cast members show the complete acting skills of a fine actor. Twice also contains one of Desmonde Lywellyn's funniest performances as Q,and one of Q's finest creations, the Little Nellie Helicopter. Little Nellie is every Bond fans dreams, personally i think it would be lovely to soar above rural England in Nellie, let alone Japan! Some guys have all the luck! Twice also has one of John Barry's most beautiful themes,and songs sung by Nancie Sinatra.
The only real let down this time is Sean Connery. He makes any Bond film look good, but this time doesn't look as though he is enjoying himself all that much. This is a petty bacause Twice itself is a very impressive and enjoyable Bond movie, with some of the best sets, Action sequences and Acting in the entire series.
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30 out of 44 people found the following review useful:
Q introduces 'Little Nellie,' a flying version of the Aston Martin
16 October 2001
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Throughout Bond's career, the SPECTRE chief had lurked behind the scenes, masterminding horrific crimes and dispensing ruthless punishments to those who disappointed him
The "You Only Live Twice" mission revealed that evil had a human face
Blofeld's love of animals extended beyond his white Persian cat: he also kept piranhas
His fishy friends, capable of stripping a person to a skeleton in minutes, were not just for show
'You Only Live Twice' takes place entirely in Japan... The script is a return to a 'From Russia with Love' type plot in which SPECTRE, backed by Red China, enters the space race by playing off the Russians and Americans... The agent of his plans is a specially designed Intruder rocket which captures spacecraft and returns them to SPECTRE chief Blofeld's secret Japanese volcano hideout...
To trick SPECTRE into lowering his guard on British Secret Service activities in Japan, Bond manages to fake his own death... Under the eye of SPECTRE agents, he is given a proper Naval burial at sea aboard a destroyer in Hong Kong, and his body is sent to the bottom of the harbor where a team of frogmen recover it and bring it to a waiting submarine...
Bond, wearing his full Commander's uniform, is alive, thanks to a special aqualung, and he reports to M aboard the submarine...To avoid further detection, he is placed in one of the submarine's torpedo tubes and fired towards the Hong Kong shore to investigate the missing satellites...
His contact is Henderson (Charles Graywho later played Blofeld in 'Diamond Are Forever'), who informs Bond of Tiger Tanaka (Tetsuro Tamba), the youthful head of the Japanese Secret Service... Tanaka forged a strong working relationship with Bond
The centers of his operation were an underground Tokyo HQ with its own subway train, an ancient castle, and a training school for his Ninja force
Although the film does develop a flavor for the Far Eastwith its beautiful women, emerging technology, and ancient customsthe movie's story is a less than compelling one
Impressive set pieces take over center stage at the expense of a sustained dramatic structure
And "You Only Live Twice" jumps up from villain to villain, escapade to escapade, until the final assault on the volcano rocket base puts 007 up against Blofeld for the first time
In spite of pushing aside a bowl of oysters, and drinking his favorite martini 'stirred, not shaken,' plus Russian vodka and Japanese sake, Bondlacking his usual charm is given little to do in the story
The women in the film are actually much more interesting than him
Aki and Kissy are the advance guard of the new Bond girlless breathless females who have more equality on the firing line
In other words, they hold their own with Bond and help him out of more than a few scrapes with death
Aki (Akiko Wakabayashi) is 007's guardian angel in Tokyo
She drives an exotic Toyota 2000 sports car, and wears fancy Western outfits
Kissy (Mie Hama) managed to resist Bond's advancesat least until the mission was accomplished
Helga Brandt (Karin Dor) turns out to be totally unaffected by Bond's charm... Schooled in the Fiona Volpe-style of assassination, she decides to give Bond a taste of what she has to offer before leaving him to figure a way to escape the falling plane...
Nevertheless 'You Only Live Twice' isn't a bad film, and it does star the best Bond... It also holds off high points: John Barry's most romantic musical sequences, Freddie Young's cinematography, and Moneypennyvery smart in naval uniformconnives to have Bond say 'I love you,' a password chosen for this mission...
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17 out of 19 people found the following review useful:
Bond-san, Blofeld, Asian Delights and Production Value Supreme.
from United Kingdom
1 May 2012
You Only Live Twice is directed by Lewis Gilbert and written by Roald Dahl. It stars Sean Connery, Tetsuro Tamba, Teru Shimada, Akiko Wakabayashi, Mie Hama, Karin Dor and Donald Pleasence. Music is scored by John Barry and cinematography by Freddie Young.
Bond 5 and Connery once again tackles the role of 007. With American and Soviet space craft mysteriously vanishing from space, both nations are laying the blame at the other's door. Sensing a nuclear war could break out, M assigns Bond to Japan to investigate if there might be a third party stirring the hornets nest. Teaming up with the Japanese secret service, Bond uncovers evidence that SPECTRE is behind the plot to pitch the East and the West against each other.
This organisation does not tolerate failure.
Thunderball had broke box office records for Bond, gadgetry, outlandish stunts and a quip on the tongue had proved most profitable. It was planned originally that On Her Majesty's Secret Service would be number 5 in the series, but a change of tack to go for You Only Live Twice as the story gave producers Broccoli & Saltzman the scope for a giganticus enormous production. However, it may be set in Japan and feature a Bond/Blofeld conflict, but Roald Dahl's script bares little resemblance to Ian Fleming's source novel. Although a massive financial success with a Worldwide gross of over $111 million, Bond 5 took $30 million less than Thunderball. Strange since this is a better film. Can we attribute the drop to it being a space age saga? Maybe, the rebirth of sci-fi was a few years away, and of course Bond had lost some fans who had grown tired, like Connery, of 007 relying on gadgets instead of brains and brawn to complete his missions. There was also the rival Casino Royale production, as bad as it was, to contend with, while the spy boom created by Bond had been overkilled elsewhere and was on the wane.
Extortion is my business. Go away and think it over, gentlemen. I'm busy.
True enough that You Only Live Twice has flaws, though they are far from being film killers if you like the gadgets and hi-techery side of the franchise? Connery announced once production was over that he was leaving the role of Bond behind. He had been close to breaking point after Thunderball, but finally the media circus, typecasting, the fanaticism and the character merely being a cypher for outrageous sequences, led Connery to finally call it a day. His displeasure shows in performance, oh it's professional, very much so, but the swagger and machismo from the earlier films has gone. Although Dahl's script tones down the "cheese" dialogue and unfolds as a plot of considerable World peril worth, characterisations are thinly drawn, making this reliant on production value and action sequences. Thankfully both are top dollar. And the ace up its sleeve is the long awaited face to face meeting of Bond and Blofeld.
The firing power inside my crater is enough to annihilate a small army. You can watch it all on TV. It's the last program you're likely to see.
Ken Adam's set design is fit to grace any epic in film history, as is Freddie Young's photography around the Japanese locales, Barry lays a beautiful Bond/Oriental score all over proceedings and Nancy Sinatra's title song is appealingly catchy. The action is excellently constructed by Gilbert (helming the first of three Bond movies on his CV), with the final battle at Blofeld's volcano crater base full of explosions, flying stunt men, expert choreography and meaty fights. Along the way we have been treated to Ninjas, Piranhas, poison, aeroplane peril and the awesome Little Nellie versus the big boy copter smack down! Then there's that Bond/Blofeld confrontation. Well worth the wait, with Pleasence visually scary with bald head (setting the marker for bald villainy to follow in TV and cinema it seems) and scar across his eye. Pleasence is also very low key with his menace, which is perfect, we don't want pantomime and the scenes with Bond work wonderfully well.
It made less than the film before it and it has fierce critics in Bond and Fleming circles. But it's a Bond film that pays rich rewards on revisits, where the artistry on show really shines through in this HD/Upscale age. 8/10
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14 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
Old school Bond, but still one of the most fun Bond movies.
8 June 2007
My Take: Another fun Bond entry. Great Bond, fun villains, neat gadgets, and enjoyable action.
"You Only Live Twice" is business as usual for Bond. Not much new, and Connery seemed bored playing his role (explaining his disappearance in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service"). There is a lot to like in this film. Connery in "You Only Live Twice" is easily comparable to FROM Russia WITH LOVE and GOLDFINGER, but as Bond, he already has established that he is the best in the business and YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE does give him much to do.
This film does carry the original tradition of Bond. This time around, Bond is sent to Japan to investigate the disappearances of American space shuttles. While the United States suspect it's Russian interference and threaten to retaliate, the Brits faked 007's assassination, in order to clear the way for Bond to investigate what really is going on.
Some areas of YOLT are pretty campy (some of the patterns for the AUSTIN POWERS parodies are pretty evident), but the camp is part of the fun. It's a throwback to the good ol' not-to-be-taken-seriously adventure espionage fun. This is formula Bond, but loaded with great action, neat gadgetry ("Little Nellie" is one of the most beloved Q gadgets) and the glorious sets by the one-and-only Bond veteran Ken Adam make it another high-flying, if not exactly groundbreaking, Bond adventure and one of he series' more fun entries.
Rating: **** out of 5.
28 September 2005
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
An entertaining and fast-paced fifth entry for Sean Connery as James Bond, You Only Live Twice audaciously (and cheekily) chooses to ignore the plot of the original novel and instead hurtles along its own merry route. Working from a screenplay by children's' author Roald Dahl, director Lewis Gilbert fashions a thoroughly enjoyable slice of escapism, brimming over with witty dialogue and outrageous action sequences.
Following the "swallowing up" of an American space shuttle in orbit by an unmarked enemy shuttle, the U.S angrily accuses Russia of stealing their spacecraft and threatens to declare war if any similar incidents take place during their forthcoming launch. The British remain unconvinced that the Russians had anything to do with the crime, as they suspect the enemy shuttle (the one which swallowed up the American craft) actually came down somewhere in Japan. James Bond (Sean Connery) is sent to Japan to figure out what is going on before it's too late. He quickly establishes that his old adversaries SPECTRE are the masterminds behind the scheme, but try as he might he cannot trace their operations base, which seems to be concealed in a remote volcanic region. Aided by the head of the Japanese Secret Service, Tiger Tanaka (Tesuro Tamba), Bond races against the clock as Armageddon beckons in an effort to find the criminal lair and put an end to SPECTRE's sinister plot.
You Only Live Twice is totally different to the first two movies in the series (Dr. No and From Russia With Love) because it is intentionally extravagant and far-fetched. This is more a continuation of the style of Bondage we came to know and love in number 3 (Goldfinger) and number 4 (Thunderball). If anything, this one reaches an apotheosis of sorts in terms of ludicrous set pieces. Connery is brilliant as Bond (he had really had his fill of the character by this point, but was professional enough to hide his boredom while the cameras were rolling). Also, Nancy Sinatra belts out one of the greatest theme tunes ever to grace the series. And Ken Adam deserves to be showered with accolades for his amazing set designs, the pinnacle of which is the volcanic base used by SPECTRE (to this day, it remains the best baddie's lair ever seen in a movie). You Only Live Twice might not be one for the purists, but for anyone wanting to be exhilarated and entertained it really hits the mark.
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21 out of 34 people found the following review useful:
Understated Bond Film
from United States
6 October 2006
When I first saw this in a drive-in in 1967, the opening sequence of this with Bond being shot did not make a big impression as this is the first Bond film I had ever seen. After the credits, the snatching of a space craft made an impression as it looked very much like the simulations CBS used to broadcast of the real flights. While this plot & some of the special effects seem a little dated & far fetched now with the passage of time, Sean Connery is great as his usual Bond self in this one. Donald Pleasance is very effective as the heavy Blofeldt, one of several actors who took a turn at it.
The scenery of 1960's Toyko, Japan are nostalgic now. The thing which makes this Bond a little special is the understated way the humor is handled. Using "I Love You" as a password for one thing. Of course, the irony of the line "This can save your live - this cigarette," is still pretty effective. All the regulars in the series are here with Q much in evidence. This one is still a very pleasant diversion for a rainy afternoon.
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What was the first European country to import tobacco | Tobacco: The Early History of a New World Crop - Historic Jamestowne Part of Colonial National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)
Tobacco: The Early History of a New World Crop
TOBACCO: The Early History of a New World Crop
Hail thou inspiring plant! Thou balm of life,
Well might thy worth engage two nations' strife;
Exhaustless fountain of Britannia's wealth;
Thou friend of wisdom and thou source of health.
-from an early tobacco label
Tobacco, that outlandish weed
It spends the brain, and spoiles the seede
It dulls the spirite, it dims the sight
It robs a woman of her right.
-Dr. William Vaughn, 1617
As these two verses show, tobacco use has long been a controversial subject, considered by turns a vice, a panacea, an economic salvation and a foolish and dangerous habit. However, it was perceived, by the end of the seventeenth century tobacco had become the economic staple of Virginia, easily making her the wealthiest of the 13 colonies by the time of the American Revolution.
The Old World encountered tobacco at the dawn of the European Age of Exploration. On the morning of October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus set foot on a small island in the Bahamas. Believing himself to be off the coast of Asia, the Admiral dressed in his best to meet the local inhabitants. The Arawaks offered him some dried leaves as a token of friendship. Those leaves were tobacco. A few days later, a party from Columbus' ship docked off the coast of Cuba and witnessed local peoples there smoking tobacco through Y-shaped tubes which they inserted in their noses, inhaling smoke until they lost consciousness.
By 1558, Frere Andre Thevet, who had traveled in Brazil, published a description of tobacco which was included in Thomas Hacket's The New Found World a decade later:
There is another secret herb . . . which they [the natives of Brazil] most commonly bear about them, for that they esteem it marvellous profitable for many things. . . . The Christians that do now inhabit there are become very desirous of this herb. . . .
Early on, the medicinal properties of tobacco were of great interest to Europe. Over a dozen books published around the middle of the sixteenth century mention tobacco as a cure for everything from pains in the joints to epilepsy to plague. As one counsel had it, "Anything that harms a man inwardly from his girdle upward might be removed by a moderate use of the herb."
In 1560, Jean Nicot, a French ambassador, learned about the curative properties of tobacco when he was on assignment in Portugal. When he returned to France, he used the New World herb to cure the migraine headaches of Catherine de Medicis. The French became enthusiastic about tobacco, calling it the herbe a tous les maux, the plant against evil, pains and other bad things. By 1565, the plant was known as nicotaine, the basis of its genus name today.
By this time, Europeans were discovering recreational uses of tobacco as well as its medicinal ones. As the opening speech of Moliere's Don Juan explains:
. . . there is nothing like tobacco. It's the passion of the virtuous man and whoever lives without tobacco isn't worthy of living. Not only does it purge the human brain, but it also instructs the soul in virtue and one learns from it how to be a virtuous man. Haven't you noticed how well one treats another after taking it. . . tobacco inspires feelings, honor and virtue in all those who take it.
Although it is likely that both Nicotiana rustica and Nicotiana tabacum, the two major species of tobacco, were grown as curiosities in the gardens of English botanists and apothecaries, smoking the herb for recreation was virtually unknown until mid-sixteenth century. The general English population was most likely first introduced to tobacco by Sir John Hawkins, who displayed it with the riches he accrued from a voyage to Florida in 1565.
Probably the most famous Englishman associated with the introduction of tobacco is Sir Walter Ralegh. Settlers rescued from his Roanoke Island expedition in 1586 had picked up the habit of tobacco smoking (or "drinking" as it came to be called). Hariot remarks in his account of 1588 that:
We ourselves during the time we were there used to suck it after their [the Native Americans'] manner, as also since our return, and have found many rare and wonderful experiments of the virtues thereof, of which the relation would require a volume of itself: the use of it by so many of late, men and women of great calling as else, and some learned Physicians also, is sufficient witness.
In addition to sponsoring this expedition, Sir Walter also is credited with the introduction of pipe smoking in court circles, where it was at first perceived as a strange and even alarming habit. Tradition tells the tale of Sir Walter's own servant coming upon his master with a smoking pipe, thinking he was on fire and drenching him with a bucket of water. Another legend depicts Ralegh introducing the habit of tobacco-drinking to his sovereign Elizabeth I.
Smoking quickly became the rage among the young court dandies, who loitered around in St. Paul's practicing smoke tricks with such evocative names as the "Gulpe," the "Retention" and the "Cuban Ebolition."
There were those, however, who were convinced that the use of tobacco was both unhealthful and aesthetically distasteful. In a 1602 pamphlet Worke for Chimney-sweepers, the anonymous author commands:
But hence thou Pagan Idol: tawny weed.
Come not within our Fairie Coasts to feed,
Our wit-worn gallants, with the scent of thee,
Sent for the Devil and his Company.
Other authors were less reluctant to expose their identities. In 1604, King James I of England published his pamphlet A Counterblaste to Tobacco, in which he describes smoking as:
A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and the black stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.
Part of James' disaffection for tobacco may be attributed to his personal dislike of Sir Walter Ralegh. Another factor was the Spanish monopoly over the production and distribution of the plant, which was worth its weight in silver at the end of the sixteenth century. James I solved the former problem by beheading his enemy; his financial difficulty was at an end a decade after the publication of his pamphlet. An English source had been found for tobacco.
In 1606, two years after the publication of Counterblaste, the King granted a charter to the Virginia Company of London. In addition to claiming land for England and bringing the faith of the Church of England to the native peoples, the Virginia Company was also enjoined both by the crown and its members to make a tidy profit by whatever means it found expedient.
After the settlers landed on Jamestown Island in the spring of 1607, they quickly began searching for ways to make a fortune both for themselves and the Company. The gold and jewels they had hoped to find were nonexistent. Harvesting raw materials like fish, lumber and furs was difficult. Industries such as glassblowing, pitch and tar production, silk cultivation and mining required skilled labor and too much start-up time.
Within a few years of the founding of Virginia, both the settlers and the Company were beginning to give up hope of a profit. Fortunately for all concerned, help was on the way. In the spring of 1610, the young John Rolfe arrived at Jamestown, a member of the party which had been delayed by shipwreck on the Bermuda Islands.
This new settler observed the Powhatan Indians growing N. rustica. An English pamphlet of the time reported that:
The people in the South parts of Virginia esteeme it [tobacco] exceedingly . . . ; they say that God in the creation did first make a woman, then a man, thirdly great maize, or Indian wheat, and fourthly, Tobacco.
Rolfe, however, was not impressed with the quality of N. rustica, which his contemporary William Strachey characterized as "poore and weake, and of a byting tast. . .," inferior in quality to the fine Spanish weed N. tabacum. Perhaps, however, the crop of the Powhatans gave Rolfe the idea of trying to grow N. tabacum in Virginia soil for himself.
How Rolfe came by fine Trinadad tobacco seed is not known, but he was growing it experimentally by 1612 in Virginia. Rolfe's agricultural attempt was an unqualified success. By 1614, Ralph Hamor, a secretary of the Colony, reported:
. . . Tobacco, whose goodnesse mine own experience and triall induces me to be such, that no country under the Sunne, may, or doth affoord more pleasant, sweet and strong Tobacco, then I have tasted. . . . I doubt not, [we] will make and returne such Tobacco this yeere, that even England shall acknowledge the goodnesse thereof.
Although Sir Thomas Dale, deputy-governor of Virginia, initially limited tobacco cultivation in the fear that the settlers would neglect basic survival needs in their eagerness to finally get rich, 2,300 pounds of tobacco were exported to the Mother Country in 1615-16. True, this was a paltry amount compared with the over 50,000 pounds imported from Spain in the same period, but it was a start. In 1616, Rolfe visited England with his new wife Pocohontas and presented James I with a pamphlet in which the Virginian modestly revealed tobacco as "the principall commoditie the colony for the present yieldeth."
Little did Rolfe guess how important his tobacco crop would become to the economic survival of Virginia. Initially, the settlers went overboard, with predictable results. A description of Jamestown in 1617 paints a bleak picture:
"but five or six houses, the church downe, the palizado's broken, the bridge in pieces, the well of fresh water spoiled; the storehouse used for the church. . . , [and] the colony dispersed about, planting tobacco."
Conditions eventually stabilized, thanks to tight governmental controls. Virginia economy flourished. By 1630, the annual import of Virginia tobacco in England was not less than half a million pounds. By 1640, London was receiving nearly a million and a half pounds a year. Virginia tobacco was acknowledged as equal, if not superior, in quality to the Spanish weed. Soon English tobacconists were extolling the virtues of Virginia tobacco with labels bearing such verses as:
Life is a smoke! -- If this be true,
Tobacco will thy Life renew;
Then fear not Death, nor killing care
Whilst we have best Virginia here.
Tobacco was and is a controversial crop. For Virginians at the beginning of the seventeenth century, however, James I's "noxious weed" would ensure economic survival of the colony by becoming the Golden Weed of Virginia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Berkeley, Edmund and Dorothy Smith Berkeley, editors. The Reverend John Clayton: The Parson with a Scientific Mind. Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia, 1965.
Breen, T. H. Tobacco Culture. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1988.
Dickson, Sarah Augusta. Panacea or Precious Bane: Tobacco in Sixteenth Century Literature. New York: New York Public Library, 1954.
Herndon, Melvin. Tobacco in Colonial Virginia: "The Sovereign Remedy." Williamsburg, Virginia: Virginia 350th Anniversary Celebration Corporation, 1957.
James I. A Counterblaste to Tobacco. London: R. B., 1604; reprint, New York: Da Capo Press, 1969.
Kulikoff, Allan. Tobacco and Slaves. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1986.
Mackinzie, Compton. Sublime Tobacco. Gloucester, England: Allan Sutton Publishing Limited, 1957; reprint, 1984.
Middleton, Arthur. Tobacco Coast. Newport News, Virginia: Mariners' Museum, 1953.
Ray, Oakley. Drugs, Society and Human Behavior. Saint Louis, Missouri: The C. V. Mosby Company, 1978.
Robert, Joseph C. The Story of Tobacco in America. New York: A. A. Knopf, 1949.
Virginia: Four Personal Narratives. New York: Arno Press, 1972.
Lee Pelham Cotton
| France |
What type of books were written by Moody and Sankey | No Title
A Capsule History of Tobacco
IN THE BEGINNING . . .
Huron Indian myth has it that in ancient times, when the land was barren and the people were starving, the Great Spirit sent forth a woman to save humanity. As she traveled over the world, everywhere her right hand touched the soil, there grew potatoes. And everywhere her left hand touched the soil, there grew corn. And when the world was rich and fertile, she sat down and rested. When she arose, there grew tobacco . . .
TOBACCO TIMELINE
Copyright 1993-2001 Gene Borio
SOURCES: Thanks to tobacco researcher Larry Breed (LB) for his contributions. He recently found a little tome called "This Smoking World" (1927), and shared some of its events (TSW). I am also beginning to incorporate events referenced in Richard Kluger's monumental Ashes to Ashes (RK), The American Tobacco Story (ATS), Corti's "A History of Smoking (1931), Elizabeth Whelan's A Smoking Gun, and Susan Wagner's Cigarette Country (1971). Another important source is Bill Drake's wonderful The European Experience With Native American Tobacco (BD). Many will be interested in the 1989 Surgeon General report segment, "ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE OF THE HEALTH CONSEQUENCES OF SMOKING" (PDF, 93 pp).
Prelude
Prehistory: Although small amounts of nicotine may be found in some Old World plants, including belladonna and Nicotiana africana, and nicotine metabolites have been found in human remains and pipes in the Near East and Africa, there is no indication of habitual tobacco use in the Ancient world, on any continent save the Americas.
1607: JAMESTOWN saga begins
1610: ENGLAND: Sir Francis Bacon writes that tobacco use is increasing and that it is a custom hard to quit. (LB)
1610: ENGLAND: Edmond Gardiner publishes William Barclay's The Trial of Tobacco and provides a text of recipies and medicinal preparations. BArclay defends tobacco as a medicine but condemns casual use(LB)
1612: CHINA: Imperial edict forbidding the planting and use tobacco.(TSW)
1612: JAMESTOWN: John Rolfe raises Virginia's first commercial crop of "tall tobacco."
1613-89: RUSSIA: Tobacco prohibition under the early Romanoffs (AHS)
1614-04: JAMESTOWN: John Rolfe and Rebecca (nee Pocahontas) are married
1614: ENGLAND: First sale of native Virginia tobacco in England; Virginia colony enters world tobacco market, under English protection
1614: ENGLAND: "[T]here be 7000 shops, in and about London, that doth vent Tobacco" -- The Honestie of this Age, Prooving by good circumstance that the world was never honest till now, by Barnabee Rych Gentleman (BD)
1614: ENGLAND: King James I makes the import of tobacco a Royal monopoly, available for a yearly fee of 14,000.
1614: LITERATURE: Nepenthes, or the Vertues of Tabacco, by William Barclay; Edinburgh, 1614. Touts tobacco's medicinal qualities, and recommends exclusively tobacco of American origin (BD)
1614: SPAIN: King Philip III establishes Seville as tobacco center of the world.
Attempting to prevent a tobacco glut, Philip requires all tobacco grown in the Spanish New World to be shipped to a central location, Seville, Spain. Seville becomes the world center for the production of cigars. European cigarette use begins here, as beggars patch together tobacco from used cigars, and roll them in paper(papeletes). Spanish and Portuguese sailors spread the practice to Russia and the Levant.
1616: Tobacco Nation Discovered. The French discover an Iroquoian branch of American Indians in present-day Ontario, Canada, and term them the Tobacco Nation, or Tionontati, because of their large tobacco fields. After attack by the Iroquois, the remnants of the Tobacco Nation, along with many Huron refugees, settled SW of Lake Superior. They were soon assimilated into one tribe, known as the Wyandot. In 1990 there were about 2,500 Wyandot left in the US.
1616-06-03: JAMESTOWN: John Rolfe and Pocahontas arrive in London
1617: Dr. William Vaughn writes:
Tobacco that outlandish weede
It spends the braine and spoiles the seede
It dulls the spirite, it dims the sight
It robs a woman of her right
1617: MONGOLIA: Emperor places dealth penalty on using tobacco.(TSW)
1618-48: THE THIRTY YEARS WAR spurs an expansion of smoking. (AHS)
1618-48: ENGLAND: SIR WALTER RALEIGH, popularizer of tobacco in England, is beheaded for treason. Upon Ralegh's tobacco box, found in his cell afterwards, is the inscription, "Comes meus fuit illo miserrimo tempo." ("It was my comfort in those miserable times.")
1619: ENGLAND: An unhappy King James I incorporates British pipe makers; London clay pipe makers were formed into a charter body with a coat of arm of a Moor holding a pipe and roll of tobacco. (TSW)
1619: JAMESTOWN: First Africans brought into Virginia. John Rolfe writes in his diary, "About the last of August came in a dutch man of warre that sold us twenty negars." They were needed for the booming tobacco crop, but had been baptized, so--as Christians--they could not be enslaved for life, but only indentured, just like many of the English colonists, for 5-7 years
1619: ECONOMY: Tobacco is being used as currency. It will continue to be so used for 200 years in Virginia, for 150 years in Maryland, adjusting to the vagaries of shifting values and varying qualities. (see 1727, "Tobacco Notes")
1619: JAMESTOWN: First shipment of women--meant to become wives for the settlers--arrives. A prospective husband must pay for his chosen mate's passage with 120 lbs. of tobacco.
1619-07-30: JAMESTOWN: The first representative legislative assembly in America is held. The Virginia Colony's General Assembly meets in the choir of the Jamestown church from July 30-August 4. This assembly contained the embryo of representative self-government. The first law passed is a law concerning the economics of the tobacco trade: tobacco shall not be sold for under 3 shillings per pound.
1619-12-04: BERKELEY, VA: The very first American Thanksgiving celebrates a good tobacco crop. The holiday was abandoned after the Indian Massacre of 1622.
1620s: KOREA: Within only a few decades, tobacco has become a national pastime.
1620: ENGLAND: 40,000 lbs of tobacco are imported from Virginia. (LB)
1620: ENGLAND: King James proclaims rules of tobacco growing and import: limits tobacco sales to 100 weight of tobacco per man; restricts imports to Virginia colony, and establishes stamps or seals. Quanity has risen and quality has declined so drastically that growers could get no more than 3 shillings/lb. James suggested colonists concentrate more on corn, livestock and potash.
1620: BUSINESS: Trade agreement between the Crown & Virginia Company bans commercial tobacco growing in England, in return for a 1 shilling/lb. duty on Virginia tobacco.
1620 (about): JAPAN: Prohibition in Japan (AHS)
1621: Sixty future wives arrive in Virginia and sell for 150 pounds of tobacco each. Price up since 1619.(TSW)
1621: ENGLAND: Tobias Venner publishes "A briefe and accurate treatise, comcerning....tobacco" claiming medicinal properties, but condeming use for pleasure. (LB)
1624: REGULATION: POPE URBAN VIII threatens excommunication for snuff users; sneezing is thought too close to sexual ecstasy
1624: ENGLAND establishes a royal tobacco monopoly.
1624: NEW YORK CITY is born. The town of New Amsterdam was established on lower Manhattan At this time, the western area of what is now Greenwich Village, NY, is known to Native Americans as (var.) Sapponckanican-- "tobacco fields," or "land where the tobacco grows."
1628: REGULATION: SHAH SEFI punishes two merchants for selling tobacco by pouring hot lead down their throats. (TSW)
1629: FRANCE: RICHELIEU puts a Customs duty on the import of tobacco.
1629: Niewu Amsterdam's Gov. Wouter Van Twiller appropriates a farm belonging to the Dutch West India Company in the Bossen Bouwery ("Farm in the woods") area of Manhattan, in what is now Greenwich Village, and begins growing tobacco. The Minetta Spring provides water.
1630: SWEDEN learns to smoke.(AHS)
1631: AGRICULTURE: European-style cultivation of tobacco begins in Maryland
1632: REGULATION: MASSACHUSETTS forbids public smoking
1633: AGRICULTURE: CONNECTICUT is settled; first tobacco crop raised in Windsor.
1633: REGULATION: TURKEY: Sultan Murad IV orders tobacco users executed as infidels. As many as 18 a day were executed. Some historians consider the ban an anti-plague measure, some a fire-prevention measure.
1634: REGULATION: RUSSIA: Czar Alexis creates penalties for smoking: 1st offense is whipping, a slit nose, and trasportation to Siberia. 2nd offense is execution.(TSW) (BD)
1634: REGULATION: EUROPE: Greek Church claims that it was tobacco smoke that intoxicated Noah and so bans tobacco use.(TSW)
1635: AGRICULTURE: FRANCE: The first tobacco farms are begun in Clairac.
1635: REGULATION: FRANCE: King allows sale of tobaccco only following prescription by physician.(TSW)
1636: BUSINESS: SPAIN: Tabacalera, the oldest tobacco company in the world, is created.
1637: REGULATION: FRANCE: King Louis XIII enjoys snuff and repeals restricions on its use.(TSW)
1638: REGULATION: CHINA: Use or distribution of tobacco is made a crime punishable by decapitation. Snuff, introduced by the Jesuits in the mid-17th century, soon became quite popular, from the court on down, and remained so during much of the Qing dynasty (mid-17th century - 1912.)
1639: REGULATION: NEW YORK CITY: Governor Kieft bans smoking in New Amsterdam
1640: The western area of what is now Greenwich Village, NY, is known to Native Americans as (var.) Sapponckanican-- "tobacco fields," or "land where the tobacco grows."
In 1629, Niewu Amsterdam's Gov. Wouter Van Twiller appropriated a farm belonging to the Dutch West India Company in the Bossen Bouwery ("Farm in the woods") area of Manhattan island, and began growing tobacco. The first Dutch references to the Indians' name for the area appear around 1640.
1642: POPE URBAN VIII'S Bull against smoking in the churches in Seville. (AHS)
1647: REGULATION: TURKEY: Tobacco ban is lifted. Pecevi writes that tobaco has now joined coffee, wine and opium as one of the four "cushions on the sofa of pleasure."
1647: REGULATION: Colony of Connecticut bans public smoking: citizens may smoke only once a day, "and then not in company with any other."
1648: Smoking generally prohibited. Writers now hostile to it. (AHS)
1650: REGULATION: Colony of Connecticut General Court orders -- no smoking by person under age of 21, no smoking except with physicians order.(TSW)
1650: Spread of smoking in Austria. (AHS)
1650: REGULATION: Pope Innocent X's Bull against smoking in St Peter's, Rome.(AHS)
1657: REGULATION: Prohibition in Switzerland.(AHS)
1659: ITALY: VENICE establishes the first tobacco appalto.
. . . a contract whereby the exclusive right to import, manufacture, and trade in tobacco was farmed out [by the state] to a private person for a certain consideration
(AHS)
1660: ITALY: Pope ALEXANDER VII farms out tobacco monopolies
1660: ENGLAND: THE RESTORATION OF THE MONARCHY The court of Charles II returns to London from exile in Paris, bringing the French court's snuffing practice with them; snuff becomes an aristocratic form of tobacco use. During Charles' reign (1660-1685), the growing of tobacco in England, except for small lots in physic gardens, is forbidden so as to preserve the taxes coming in from Virginian imports..
1660: The Navigation Act mandates that 7 enumerated items--one of which was tobacco--may only be shipped to England or its colonies.
1661: VIRGINIA Assembly begins institutionalizing slavery, making it de jure.
1665-66: HEALTH: EUROPE: THE GREAT PLAGUE Smoking tobacco is thought to have a protective effect. Smoking is made compulsory at Eton to ward off infection.
1665: HEALTH: ENGLAND: Samuel Pepys describes a Royal Society experiment in which a cat quickly dies when fed "a drop of distilled oil of tobacco."
1666: AGRICULTURE: Maryland faces oversupply; bans production of tobacco for one year.
1670: AUSTRIA: COUNT KHEVENHILLER's appalto is established.
1674: RUSSIA: Smoking Can Carry the Death Penalty.
1674: FRANCE: LOUIS XIV establishes a tobacco monopoly.
1675: REGULATION: SWITZERLAND: The Berne town council establishes a special Chambres de Tabac to deal with smokers, who face the same dire penalties as adulterers.
1676: RUSSIA: the smoking ban is lifted.
1676: TAXES: Heavy taxes levied in tobacco by Virginia Governor BERKELEY lead to BACON'S REBELLION, a foretaste of American Revolution. (ATS)
1679: Abraham a Santa Clara and the plague in Vienna.
1682: VIRGINIA: The Tobacco Riots
1683: Massachusetts passes the nation's first no-smoking law. It forbids the smoking of tobacco outdoors, because of the fire danger. Soon after, Philadelphia lawmakers approve a ban on "smoking seegars on the street." Fines are used to buy fire-fighting equipment.
1689-1725: RUSSIA: PETER THE GREAT advocates smoking, repeals bans.
1693: ENGLAND: Smoking banned in Commons chamber: "no member do presume to take tobacco in the gallery of the House or at a committee table"
1698: RUSSIA: PETER THE GREAT establishes a trade monopoly with the English, against Church wishes.
1699: LOUIS XIV and his physician, FAGON, oppose smoking.
The Eighteenth Century--Snuff holds sway
ENGLAND: George III's wife known as "Snuffy Charlotte"
FRANCE: Napoleon said to have used 7 lb. of snuff per month
HEALTH: Lung cancer, an extremely rare disease, is first described.
1701: HEALTH: MEDICINE: Nicholas Andryde Boisregard warns that young people taking too much tobacco have trembling, unsteady hands, staggering feet and suffer a withering of "their noble parts."
I701-40: PRUSSIA: Tobacco councils of Frederick I and Frederick William I. (AHS)
1705: VIRGINIA Assembly passes a law legalizing lifelong slavery. . . . all servants imported and brought into this country, by sea or land, who were not christians in their native country . . . shall be . . . slaves, and as such be here bought and sold notwithstanding a conversion to christianity afterwards."
1713: LEGISLATION: Inspection regulations passed to keep up standards of Virginia leaf exports (not effective until 1730). (ATS)
1719: LEGISLATION: FRANCE: Smoking is prohibited. Exceptions: the Franche-Comt, Flanders and Alsace.
1724: REGULATION: Pope Benedict XIII learns to smoke and repeals papal bulls against clerical smoking.(TSW)
1727: ECONOMY: "Tobacco notes" Become Legal Tender in Virginia. Tobacco Notes attesting to quality and quantity of one's tobacco kept in public warehouses are authorized as legal tender in Virginia. Used as units of monetary exchange throughout 18th Century. The notes are more convenient than the acutal leaf, which had been in use as money for over a century.
1730: LEGISLATION: Virginia Inspection Acts come into effect, standardizing and regulating tobacco sales and exports to prevent the export of "trash tobacco"--shipments diluted with leaves and household sweepings, which were debasing the value of Virginia tobacco. Inspection warehouses were empowered to verify weight and kind and kind of tobacco.
1730: VIRGINIA: BUSINESS: First American tobacco factories begun in Virginia--small snuff mills
1747: LEGISLATION: Maryland passes its own Maryland Inspection Act to control quality of exports.
1750: RHODE ISLAND BUSINESS: Gilbert Stuart builds snuff mill in Rhode Island, ships his products in dried animal bladders
1753: SWEDEN: Swedish Botanist Carolus Linnaeus names the plant genus, nicotiana. and describes two species, nicotiana rustica. and nicotiana tabacum."
1755-10: Virginia's tobacco crop fails because of extended drought conditions.
1758: LEGISLATION: Virginia Assembly passes wildly unpopular "Two Penny Act," forbidding payment in percentage of tobacco crop to some public officials, such as the Anglican clergy. The crop was small at this period, making tobacco a seller's market. The law mandating a regular salary for these officials severely cut the clergy's real income.
1759: GEORGE WASHINGTON, having gained 17,000 acres of farmland and 286 slaves from his new wife, MARTHA DANDRIDGE CUSTIS (these added to his own 30 slaves), harvests his first tobacco crop. The British market is unimpressed with its quality, and by 1761, Washington is deeply in debt.
1760: BUSINESS: Pierre Lorillard establishes a "manufactory" in New York City for processing pipe tobacco, cigars, and snuff. P. Lorillard is the oldest tobacco company in the US.
1761: HEALTH: ENGLAND: Physician John Hill publishes "Cautions against the Immoderate Use of Snuff" -- perhaps the first clinical study of tobacco effects. Hill warns snuff users they are vulnerable to cancers of the nose.
1761: HEALTH: ENGLAND: Dr. Percival Pott notes incidence of cancer of the scrotum among chimneysweeps, theorizing a connection between cancer and exposure to soot.
1762: General Israel Putnam introduces cigar-smoking to the US. After a British campaign in Cuba, "Old Put" returns with three donkey-loads of Havana cigars; introduces the customers of his Connecticut brewery and tavern to cigar smoking (BD)
1763: Patrick Henry argues a tobacco case, the "Parson's Cause."
The clergy had been paid in tobacco until a late 1750s Virginia law which decreed they should be paid in currency at the fixed rate of 2 cent/lb. When tobacco began selling for 6 cents/lb, the clergy protested, and the law was vetoed by the Crown. The old Virginia law was still sometimes adhered to, however, and some clergy sued their parishes. Henry defended one such parish (Hanover County) in court. He berated England's interference in domestic matters, and convinced the jury to give the plaintiff/clergyman only one penny in damages.
1770: Demuth Tobacco shop, the oldest tobacco shop in the nation is established by Christopher Demuth at 114 E. King St., Lancaster, PA.
1771-12-17: REGULATION: FRANCE: French official is condemned to be hanged for admitting foreign tobacco into the country.
1776: AMERICAN REVOLUTION Along "Tobacco Coast" (the Chesapeake), the Revolutionary War was variously known as "The Tobacco War." Growers had found themselves perpetually in debt to British merchants; by 1776, growers owed the mercantile houses millions of pounds. British tobacco taxes are a further grievance. Tobacco helps finance the Revolution by serving as collateral for the loan Benjamin Franklin won from France--the security was 5 million pounds of Virginia tobacco. George Washington once appealed to his countrymen for aid to the army: "If you can't send money, send tobacco." During the war, it was tobacco exports that the fledgling government used to build up credits abroad. And, when the war was over, Americans turned to tobacco taxes to help repay the revolutionary war debt.
1779: Pope Benedict XII opens a tobacco factory
1780-1781: VIRGINIA: "TOBACCO WAR" waged by Lord Cornwallis to destroy basis of America's credit abroad (ATS)
1781: Thomas Jefferson suggests tobacco cultivation in the "western country on the Mississippi." (ATS)
1788: BUSINESS: Spanish NEW ORLEANS opened for export of tobacco by Americans in Mississippi valley. (ATS)
1789-1799: FRENCH REVOLUTION French masses begin to take to the cigarito, as the form of tobacco use least like the aristocratic snuff. The hated tobacco monopoly is abolished (to be resurrected by Napoleon)
1791: HEALTH: ENGLAND: London physician John Hill reports cases in which use of snuff caused nasal cancers
.
1794: TAXES: The U.S Congress passes the first federal excise tax on tobacco products. The tax of 8 cents applies only to snuff, not the more plebian chewing or smoking tobacco. The tax is 60% of snuff's usual selling price. James Madison opposed the tax, saying it deprive poorer people of innocent gratification
1795: HEALTH: Sammuel Thomas von Soemmering of Maine reports on cancers of the lip in pipe smokers
1798. HEALTH: Famed physician Benjamin Rush writes on the medical dangers of tobacco and claims that smoking or chewing tobacco leads to drunkenness.
1798. The United States Marine Hospital Service is established. The service will become the Public Health Service in 1912 and had been made part of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare in 1953.
The Nineteenth Century--The Age of the Cigar
1800s: FRANCE: "Lorettes" -- prostitutes near the Notre Dame de Lorettes church--are the first women to smoke publicly.
1800: CANADA: Tobacco begins being commercially grown in Southern Ontario.
1804-06: LEWIS AND CLARK explore Northwest, using gifts of tobacco as "life insurance."
1805-7: CERIOLI isolates nicotine, the "essential oil" or "essence of tobacco"
1805-12-25: LEWIS AND CLARK: First Christmas in the Northwest. The Lewis & Clark party, having built a winter encampment at Fort Clatsop (OR), celebrates Christmas. Clark writes: "at day light this morning we we[re] awoke by the discharge of the fire arm of all our party & a Selute, Shoute and a Song which the whole party joined in under our windows, after which they retired to their rooms were Chearfull all the morning-- after brackfast we divided our Tobacco which amounted to 12 carrots one half of which we gave to the men of the party who used tobacco, and to those who doe not use it we make a present of a handkerchief."
1806-03-07: LEWIS AND CLARK. Patrick Gass, holed up with the expedition in Fort Clatsup, OR, writes, "Among our other difficulties, we now experience the want of tobacco. We use crabtree bark as a substitute."
1809: SCIENCE: FRANCE: Louis Nicolas Vanquelin isolates nicotine from tobacco smoke.
1810: CONNECTICUT: Cuban cigar-roller brought to Suffield to train local workers. (ATS)
1811: POETRY: A Farewell to Tobacco Charels Lamb
1820: American traders open the Santa Fe trail, find ladies of that city smoking "seegaritos." (ATS)
1822:Hermbstdt isolates nicotine and calls the causa efficiens of nicotianas Nicotianin."
1826: ENGLAND is importing 26 pounds of cigars a year. The cigar becomes so popular that within four years, England will be importing 250,000 pounds of cigars a year.
1827: ENGLAND: First friction match invented. Chemist John Walker calls his invention "Congreves," after the rocket maker. Later they became known as "lucifers", then "matches."
1828: GERMANY: Heidelberg students Ludwig Reimann and Wilhelm Heinrich Posselt are credited with first isolating nicotine in a pure form; write exhaustive dissertations on the pharmacology of nicotine, concluding it is a "dangerous poison."
1830s: First organized anti-tobacco movement in US begins as adjunct to the temperance movement. Tobacco use is considered to dry out the mouth, "creating a morbid or diseased thirst" which only liquor could quench..
1830: PRUSSIA: Prussian Government enacts a law that cigars , in public, be smoked in a sort of wire-mesh contraption designed to prevent sparks setting fire to ladies' "crinolines" and hoop skirts. (BD)
1832: TURKEY: Invention of the paper-rolled cigarette? While Southwest Indians, Aztecs and Mayans had used hollow reeds, cane or maize to fashion cylindrical tobacco-holders, and Sevillians had rolled cigar-scraps in thrown-away paper (papeletes), an Egyptian artilleryman [in the Turk/Egyptian war] is credited with the invention of the cigarette as we know it. In the siege of Acre, the Egyptian's cannon crew had improved their rate of fire by rolling the gunpowder in paper tubes. For this, he and his crew were rewarded with a pound of tobacco. Their sole pipe was broken, however, so they took to rolling the pipe tobacco in the paper. The invention spread among both Egyptian and Turkish soldiers. And thus . . . (Good-Bye to All That, 1970)
1832: AGRICULTURE: TUCK patents curing method for Virginia leaf.
1832: BOOKS: Domestinc Manners of the Americans by Frances Trollope
1833-02-27 RELIGION: In Kirtland, OH, Mormon founder Joseph Smith announces to church leaders that God opposes strong drinks, hot drinks and tobacco. This proclamation becomes known as the "Word of Wisdom," but considered as counsel or advice, rather than a commandment.
1832: BOOKS: American Notes by Charles Dickens
1836: USA: Samuel Green of the New England Almanack and Farmers Friend writes that tobacco is an insectide, a poison, a fillthy habit, and can kill a man. (LB)
1839: AGRICULTURE: NORTH CAROLINA: SLADE "yallercure" presages flue-cured Bright tobacco. Charcoal used in flue-curing for the first time in North Carolina. Not only cheaper, its intense heat turns the thinner, low-nicotine Piedmont leaf a brilliant golden color. This results in the classic American "Bright leaf" variety, which is so mild it virtually invites a smoker to inhale it.(RK), (ATS) (Legend has it that one night, an 18-year-old slave named Peter was assigned to keep watch over a barn of tobacco on the Slade Farm, tending the fire, feeding it just enough wood to push a steady, smoky heat through the barn. He fell asleep, and only woke up after a rainstorm had cooled the barn--and drenched his wood. Desperate, he got some charcoal from the blacksmith shop and used it to superheat the barn. This process accidentally turned the tobacco golden, and imbued it with a mild, buttery taste. Thus was the bright-leaf tobacco industry was born.)
1840: BUSINESS: Miflin Marsh begins Marsh Wheeling Cigars in his Wheeling, WV, home.
1842: CHINA: OPIUM WAR. Treaty of Nanjing forces China to accept opium from British traders
1843: FRANCE: SEITA monopoly begins manufacture of cigarettes.
1843: MEDICINE: The correct molecular formula of nicotine is established
1845: JOHN QUINCY ADAMS writes to the Rev. Samuel H. Cox: "In my early youth I was addicted to the use of tobacco in two of its mysteries, smoking and chewing. I was warned by a medical friend of the pernicious operation of this habit upon the stomach and the nerves.''
1845: BOOKS: Prosper Merimee's novel, Carmen, about a cigarette girl in an Andalusian factory, is published
1846-1848: MEXICAN WAR US soldiers bring back from the Southwest a taste for the darker, richer tobacco favored in Latin countries--cigarros and cigareillos--leading to an explosive increase in the use of the cigar. (The South remains firmly attached to chewing tobacco.)
1847: ENGLAND: Philip Morris opens shop; sells hand-rolled Turkish cigarettes.
1848: GERMANY: REGULATION: Abolition of the last restrictions in Berlin (AHS)
1848: ITALY: "Tobacco War" erupts as Italians protest AUSTRIAN control of the tobacco monopoly.
1849: BUSINESS: J.E. Liggett and Brother is established in St. Louis, Mo., by John Edmund Liggett
1849: CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH: One commentator writes of this period: "I have seen purer liquors, better seegars, finer tobacco, truer guns and pistols, larger dirks and bowie knives, and prettier cortezans, here in San Francisco than in any place I have ever visited, and it is my unbiased opinion that California can and does furnish the best bad things that are obtainable in America."
1852:Washington Duke, a young tobacco farmer, builds a modest, two-story home near Durham, NC, for himself and his new bride. The house, and the log structure which served as a "tobacco factory" after the Civil War may still be seen at the Duke Homestead Museum.
1852: Matches are introduced, making smoking more convenient.
1853-1856: EUROPE: CRIMEAN WAR British soldiers learn how cheap and convenient the cigarettes ("Papirossi") used by their Turkish allies are, and bring the practise back to England. The story goes that the English captured a Russian train loaded with provisions--including cigarettes...
1854: ENGLAND: BUSINESS: London tobacconist Philip Morris begins making his own cigarettes. Old Bond Street soon becomes the center of the retail tobacco trade.
1854: FRIEDRICH TIEDEMANN writes the first exhaustive treatment on tobacco.
1855: J.E. Lundstrom invents the safety match, which requires a special striking surface.
1855: "Annual Report of the New York Anti-Tobacco Society for 1855" calls tobacco a "fashionable poison," warns against addiction and claims half of all deaths of smokers between 35 and 50 were caused by smoking.
1856-1857: ENGLAND: A running debate among readers about the health effects of tobacco runs in the British medical journal, Lancet. The argument runs as much along moral as medical lines, with little substantiation.(RK)
1856-1857: ENGLAND: The country's first cigarette factory is opened by Crimean vet Robert Gloag, manufacturing "Sweet Threes" (GTAT)
1856: PEOPLE: James Buchanan "Buck" Duke is born to Washington "Wash" Duke, an independent farmer who hated the plantation class, opposed slavery, and raised food and a little tobacco.
1858: Treaty of Tianjin allows cigarettes to be imported into China duty free
1858: First Chinese Immigrant arrives in New York City, Sells Cigars. Ah Ken moves into a house on Mott St., opens a cigar store on Park Row. ( Low Life, Sante, 1991)
1859: Reverend George Trask publishes tract "Thoughts and stories for American Lads: Uncle Toby's anti-tobacco advice to his nephew Billy Bruce". He writes, "Physicians tell us that twenty thousand or more in our own land are killed by [tobacco] every year (LB)
1860: The Census for Virginia and North Carolina list 348 tobacco factories, virtually all producing chewing tobacco. Only 6 list smoking tobacco as a side-product (which is manufactured from scraps left over from plug production).
1860: BUSINESS: Manufactured cigarettes appear. A popular early brand is Blackwell Tobacco Company's Bull Durham, which rose to become the most famous brand in world, and gave rise to the term "bull pen" for a baseball dugout.
1860: BUSINESS: MARKETING: Lorillard wraps $100 bills at random in packages of cigarette tobacco named "Century," in order to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the firm (BD)
1861-1865: USA: THE CIVIL WAR: Tobacco is given with rations by both North and South; many Northerners are introduced to tobacco this way. During Sherman's march, Union soldiers, now attracted to the mild, sweet "bright" tobacco of the South, raided warehouses--including Washington Duke's--for some chew on the way home. Some bright made it all the way back. Bright tobacco becomes the rage in the North.
1862: THE CIVIL WAR: First federal USA tax on tobacco; instituted to help pay for the Civil War, yields about three million dollars.(TSW)
1863: SUMATRA: Nienhuys creates Indonesian tobacco industry Dutch businessman Jacobus Nienhuys travels to Sumatra seeking to buy tobacco, but finds poor growing and production facilities; his efforts to rectify the situation are credited with establishing the indonesian tobacco industry.
1863: US Mandates Cigar Boxes. Congress passes a law calling for manufacturers to create cigar boxes on which IRS agents can paste Civil War excise tax stamps. The beginning of "cigar box art."
1864: CIVIL WAR: The first federal cigarette excise tax is imposed to help pay for the Civil War.
1864: AGRICULTURE: WHITE BURLEY first cultivated in Ohio Valley; highly absorbent, chlorophyll-deficient new leaf proves ideal for sweetened chewing tobacco.
1864: BUSINESS: 1st American cigarette factory opens and produces almost 20 million cigarettes.
1865-70: NEW YORK CITY: Demand for exotic Turkish cigarettes grows in New York City; skilled European rollers imported by New York tobacco shops. (ATS)
1868: UK: Parliament passes the Railway Bill of 1868, which mandates smoke-free cars to prevent injury to non-smokers.
1868/69?: BUSINESS: Allen & Gintner's Sweet Caporals brand is introduced.
1871: BUSINESS: R.A. Patterson founds the "Lucky Strike" company, named for the 1849 California Gold Rush.
1873: BUSINESS: Philip Morris dies. (Yes, that Philip Morris)
His wife, Margaret, and brother, Leopold, take over.
1873: Myers Brothers and Co. markets "Love" tobacco with theme of North-South Civil War reconcilliation.
1874: BUSINESS: Washington Duke, with his sons Benjamin N. Duke and James Buchanan Duke, builds his first tobacco factory
1874: BUSINESS: Samuel Gompers creates the first Union label; persuades a consortium of California cigar makers to apply a label that attest the cigar has been untouched by Chinese labor.
1875: BUSINESS: Allen and Ginter offer a reward of $75,000 for cigarette rolling machine. (LB)
1875: BUSINESS: R. J. Reynolds founds R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company to produce chewing tobacco, soon producing brands like Brown's Mule, Golden Rain, Dixie's Delight, Yellow Rose, Purity.
1875: BUSINESS: Richmond, VA: Allen & Ginter cigarette brands ("Richmond Straight Cut No. 1," "Pet") begin using picture cards to stiffen the pack and give the buyer a premium. Some themes: "Fifty Scenes of Perilous Occupations," "Flags of All Nations," boxers, actresses, famous battles, etc. The cards are a huge hit.(RK)
1875: ART: Georges Bizet's opera, Carmen, based on Merimee's novel about a cigarette girl in an Andalusian factory, opens.
1876: CENNTENNIAL CELEBRATION: PHILADELPHIA: Allen & Ginter's cigarette displays are so impressive that some writers thought the Philadelphia exposition marked the birth of the cigarette as well as the telephone. (CC)
1876: Benson & Hedges receives its first royal warrant from Edward VII, Prince of Wales.
1878: BUSINESS: J.E. Liggett & Brother incorporates as Liggett & Myers Company. By 1885 Liggett is world's largest plug tobacco manufacturer; doesn't make cigarettes until the 1890's
1878: BUSINESS: Trading cards and coupons begin being widely used in cigarette packs. Edward Bok suggested to a manufacturer that the blank "cardboard stiffeners" in the "cigarette sandwich', might have biographies on one side and pictures on the other. The American News Company-distributed Marquis of Lorne cigarettes were the first to have the new picture cards in each pack (GTAT)
1880: ENGLAND: BUSINESS: Leopold Morris buys Margaret's share of the Philip Morris business, and brings in a new partner.
1880s: USA: Women's Christian Temperance Movement publishes a "Leaflet for Mothers' Meetings" titled "Narcotics", by Lida B. Ingalls. Discusses evils of tobacco, especially cigarettes. Cigarettes are "doing more to-day to undermine the constitution of our young men and boys than any other one evil" (p. 7). (LB)
1880s: Cigarette cards, previously only used as stiffeners, begin displaying pictures.
1880s: ADVERTISING: Improvements in transportation, manufacturing volume, and packaging lead to the ability to sell the same branded product nationwide. What can be sold nationwide can and must be advertised nationwide. Advertising agencies sprout like wildflowers. The most advertised product throughout most of the 19th century: elixirs and patent medicines of the "cancer cure" variety.
1880s: ENGLAND: BUSINESS: Mssrs. Richard Benson and William Hedges open a tobacconist shop near Philip Morris in London.(RK)
1880s. BUSINESS: JB Duke's aggressive saleman Edward Featherston Small hires a cigarette saleswoman, Mrs. Leonard.
In .St. Louis, when retailers ignored him, Small advertised for a saleswoman. A petite, thin-lipped widow, a Mrs. Leonard, applied for the job and was accepted. This little stunt gave the Dukes thousands of dollars of free publicity in the local newspapers.
(CC)
. Duke's factory produces 9.8 million cigarettes, 1.5 % of the total market.
1883: BUSINESS: Oscar Hammerstien receives patent on cigar rolling machine.(TSW)
1883: US ends the 1862 Civil War excise tax on cigars, helping to usher in a 40-year Golden Age of cigar smoking.
1884: BUSINESS: Duke heads to New York City to take his tobacco business national and form a cartel that eventually becomes the American Tobacco Co. Duke buys 2 Bonsack machines. , getting one of them to produce 120,000 cigarettes in 10 hours by the end of the year. In this year Duke produces 744 million cigarettes, more than the national total in 1883. Duke's airtight contracts with Bonsack allow him to undersell all competitors.
1885: ENGLAND: BUSINESS: Leopold Morris joins with Joseph Grunebaum to establish Philip Morris & Company and Grunebaum, Ltd.
1886: BUSINESS: Patent received for machine to manufacture plug tobacco. (LB)
1886: BUSINESS: Tampa, FL: Don Vicente Martinez Ybor opens his first cigar factory. Others follow. Within a few years, Ybor city will become the cigar capital of the US.
1886: BUSINESS: JB Duke targets women with "Cameo" brand.
1887: ENGLAND: BUSINESS: Leopold Morris and Grunebaum dissolve their partnership. Company becomes Philip Morris & Co., Ltd.
1887: PALESTINE: A traveler reports that the Arabs of the Syrian Desert get giddy and headaches from a few whiffs of tobacco. They smoke a local plant 'Hyoscyamus'. (LB)
1887: USA: Advice from the cigar and tobacco price list of M. Breitweiser and Brothers of Buffalo, Item #5 -- "If you think smoking injurious to your health, stop smoking in the morning". (LB)
1887: USA: Two men held pipe smoking contest that lasted one and a half hours. Victory was declared when one man filled his pipe for the tenth time, his oppenent did not. (LB)
1887: BUSINESS: His contracts with Bonsack unknown to his competitors, Buck Duke slashes prices, sparking a price war he knew he'd win.
1887: BUSINESS: Connorton's Tobacco Brand Directory of the United States lists St. Louis as No. 1 in tobacco output.
1889: SCIENCE: Nicotine and nerve cells reported on. Langley and Dickinson publish landmark studies on the effects of nicotine on the ganglia; they hypothesize that there are receptors and transmitters that respond to stimulation by specific chemicals. (RK)
1889: USA: ADVERTISING: Buck Duke spends an unheard-of $800,000 in billboard and newspaper advertising.
1889-04-23: BUSINESS: The five leading cigarette firms, including W. Duke Sons & Company, unite. James Buchanan "Buck" Duke emerges as the president of the new American Tobacco Company.
1889: Lung cancer is an extremely rare disease: there are only 140 documented cases worldwide ( Kaminsky M. Ein primres Lungencarcinom mit verhornten Plattenepithelien. Greifswald: Inaug. Diss, 1898.)
c.1890s: USA: Women's Christian Temperance Movement publishes "Narcotics", by E. B. Ingalls. Pamphlet discusses evils of numerous drugs, tobacco, cocaine, ginger, hashish, and headache medicines. Offers 16 suggestions to workers. (LB)
c.1890s: INDONESIA: BUSINESS: "Kretek" cigarettes invented. The story is that Noto Semito of Kudus was desperate to cure his asthma. He rolled tobacco mixed with crushed cloves in dried corn leaves--and cured his respiratory ailments. He then Began manufacturing clove cigarettes under the name BAL TIGA (Three Balls). He became a millionaire, but competition was so fierce he eventurally died penniless in 1953.
1890: BUSINESS: Peak of chewing tobacco consumption in U. S., three pounds per capita. (ATS)
1890: "Tobacco" appears in the US Pharmacopoeia, an official government listing of drugs.
1890: REGULATION: 26 states and territories have outlawed the sale of cigarettes to minors (age of a "minor" in a particulary state could be anything from 14-24.)
1890: REGULATION: PAKISTAN: The Railways Act prohibits smoking in railway compartments without the consent of fellow passengers. (Repealed in 1959 by then-provicial governemtn of West Pakistan)
1890: BUSINESS: Dukes establish the American Tobacco Company, which will soon monopolize the entire US tobacco industry. ATC will be dissolved in Anti-Trust action in 1911.
1890: LITERATURE: My Lady Nicotine, by Sir James Barrie, London
1892: REGULATION: Reformers petition Congress to prohibit the manufacture, importation and sale of cigarettes. The Senate Committee on Epidemic Diseases, while agreeing that cigarettes are a public health hazard, finds that only the states have the authority to act. The committee urges the petitioners to seek redress from state legislatures.
1892: BUSINESS: Book matches are invented, but are a technological failure. Since the striking surface was inside the book, all the matches caught fire often. By 1912, the technology would be perfected.
1893: SCIENCE: Pure nicotine is first synthesized by Pictet and Crepieux.
1893: REGULATION: The state of Washington bans the sale and use of cigarettes. The law is overturned on constitutional grounds as a restraint of free trade.
1894: BUSINESS: By now, Philip Morris passes from the troubled Morris family, to the control of William Curtis Thompson and his family (RK).
1894: BUSINESS: Brown & Williamson formed as a partnership in Winston-Salem, NC,, making mostly plug, snuff and pipe tobacco. (RK).
1894: LITERATURE: Under Two Flags by Ouida (Louise de la Ramee). Cigarette, the waif heroine "Rides like an Arab, Smokes like a Zouave." Cigarette is describes as "Enfant de L'armee, Femme de la Fume, Soldat de la France."
1895: ADVERTISING: First known motion picture commercial is made, an ad for Admiral cigarettes produced by Thomas A. Edison's company.
1896: REGULATION: Smoking banned in the House; chewing still allowed
1898: SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR: Congress raises taxes on cigarettes 200%
1898: LITIGATION: Tennessee Supreme Court upholds a total ban on cigarettes, ruling they are "not legitimate articles of commerce, because wholly noxious and deleterious to health. Their use is always harmful."
1899: Lucy Payne Gaston, who claims that young men who smoke develop a distinguishable "cigarette face," founds the Chicago Anti-Cigarette League, which grows by 1911 to the Anti-Cigarette League of America, and by 1919 to the Anti-Cigarette League of the World.
1899: TAXES: The Senate Finance Committee, in secret session, rolls back the wartime excise tax on cigarettes.(RK)
1899: BUSINESS: Benson & Hedges open a tony shop on 5th Avenue in New York City, providing elegant cigarettes for the carriage trade.
1899: BUSINESS: Liggett & Myers taken into Duke's Tobacco Trust. Duke has finally won the Bull Durham brand of chew. Bull Durham is the most famous trademark in the world, giving rise to the term �bull pen� (from a Bull Durham ad painted behind the Yankees� dugout), and �shooting the bull� (most likely from chewing tobacco). The bull was advertised all over the world, and even painted on the Great Pyramid of Egypt.
1899: BUSINESS: KOREA: Korea Tobacco and Ginseng (KTG) is founded as a state monopoly on ginseng. The monopoly was expanded to include tobacco in 1921.
1899: BUSINESS: RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company incorporates..
1899: BUSINESS: Pall Mall brand is introduced by Butler & Butler Tobacco Co. in New York.
Twentieth Century--The Rise of the Cigarette
1900-1950: Growing Pains
1971-01-02: REGULATION: TV: Cigarette ads are taken off TV and radio as Cigarette Smoking Act of 1969 takes effect. Broadcast industry loses c. $220 Million in ads (Ad Age, "History of TV Advertising"). The last commercial on US TV is a Virginia Slims ad, aired on the Johnny Carson Tonight show, Jan. 1, 1971.
1971-01-03: Joseph Cullman, then Chairman of the Board of Philip Morris, Inc., is interviewed on CBS' Face the Nation. The interviewers asked Cullman if he was aware of a massive study [which] showed that babies of smoking mothers were had a greater incidence of low birth weight than non-smoking mothers, that smoking mothers had an increased risk of stillbirth and infant death within 28 days of birth. Cullman said he was aware of the study and its results. He said, "Some women would prefer having smaller babies." Another exchange:, "Well, I think, Mr. Ubell, in this case your premise is wrong. I merely have to refer to the Surgeon General's Advisory Committee report; that report stated categorically that cigarettes are not addictive.
UBELL: I didn't say that they were addictive. I said that nicotine is a drug, within the meaning of a term of drug, meaning a chemical --
MR. CULLMAN: It's more important for the industry to take the word of the Surgeon General's committee; they said that cigarettes are not addictive. . . the Surgeon General's committee largely exonerated nicotine as a health hazard of any consequence to the public. I have to lean on that. After all, the Surgeon General's committee met for nine months or longer, and they concluded that nicotine is not a hazard to health.>
1971-04: Cigarette manufacturers agree to put health warnings on advertisements. This agreement is later made into law.
1971-12-23: Nixon Administration declares "War on Cancer"
1972: 6TH Surgeon General's Report: The Health Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General
Surgeon General's Report addresses "public exposure to air pollution from tobacco smoke" and danger of smoking to the unborn child.
1972: LEGISLATION: Tobacco advertisements, direct mail and point-of-sale material are all required to carry health warnings
1972: MIT Professor David Wilson founds MASH an affiliate of ASH.
1972: BUSINESS: Philip Morris Inc. acquires 100 percent of Mission Viejo Company, a community development and home-building firm.
1972: BUSINESS: Philip Morris Inc.'s revenues top $2 billion.
1972: BUSINESS: Marlboro becomes the best-selling cigarette in the world
1972: BUSINESS: Marlboro Lights introduced, promising lower tar and nicotine.
1972: PROPAGANDA: "In 1967, five persons in the U.S. officially died of bunions. One died of headache. One died of emotional instability!" -- Tobacco Institute Backgrounder, 5th in a series of "background papers on the smoking and health controversy." Bates # TIMN 0078551 http://my.tobaccodocuments.org/tdo/view.cfm?CitID=13981
1972-05: BUSINESS: Tobacco Institute memorandum from Fred Panzer (VP) to TI President Horace R. Kornegay, Panzer describes the industry's strategy for defending itself in litigation, politics, and public opinion as "brilliantly conceived and executed over the years" in order to "cast doubt about the health charge" by using "variations on the theme that, `the case is not proved.'" The memorandum urges more intensive lobbying, and advocates public relations efforts to provide tobacco industry sympathizers with evidence "that smoking may not be the causal factor [in disease]." Until now, the industry has supplied symmpathizers with "too little in the way of ready-made credible alternatives."
1972: DOCUMENTS: RJR research scientist Claude Teague writes in a memo, "the tobacco industry may be thought of as being a specialized, highly ritualized and stylized segment of the pharmaceutical industry." Significantly, he added that,"Tobacco products, uniquely, contain and deliver nicotine, a potent drug with a variety of physiological effects. . . Happily for the tobacco industry, nicotine is both habituating and unique in its variety of physiological actions, hence no other active material or combination of materials provides equivalent 'satisfaction..'"
1972-05-24: DOCUMENTS: PM scientist Al Udow writes memo stating that rival brand Kool had the highest nicotine "delivery" of any king-size on the market. "This ties in with the information we have from focus group sessions and other sources that suggest that Kool is considered to be good for 'after marijuana' to maintain the 'high' or for mixing with marijuana, or 'instead." He wrote that Kool's high nicotine is a reason for its success, and that "we should pursue this thought in developing a menthol entry. . . The lessened taste resulting from the lowered tar can be masked by high menthol or other flavors. Many menthol smokers say they are not looking for high tobacco taste anyway. . . A widely held theory holds that most people smoke for the narcotic effect (relaxing, sedative) that comes from the nicotine. The 'taste comes from the 'tar' (particulate matter) delivery. . . . Although more people talk about 'taste,' it is likely that greater numbers smoke for the narcotic value that comes from the nicotine."
1972-09: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: Boston, MA: Gary Huber's "Tobacco and Health Research Program, aka "The Harvard Project" begins, the result of a $2.8 million grant to Harvard, the largest ever for a University. It will run until 1980, generating 239 medical publications, including 27 books and 54 peer-reviewed scientific papers ("Civil Warriors," pp. 288-89)
1973: 7TH Surgeon General's Report: The Health Consequences of Smoking 1973 Finds cigar and pipe smokers' health risks to be less than cigarette smokers, but more than nonsmokers.
1973: ETS: Nixon Administration Surgeon General Dr. Jesse Steinfeld is fired after angering tobacco executives by urging restrictions on secondhand smoke.
1973: ETS: Civil Aeronautics Board requires all airlines to create nonsmoking sections. This is the first federal restriction on smoking in public places.
1973: Arizona becomes the first state (in modern times) to pass a comprehensive law restricting smoking in public places.
1973: SPORTS: Marlboro Cup horse racing begins.
1973: SPORTS: Tennis' "Battle of the Sexes." Billie Jean King, wearing Virginia Slims colors, and Virginia Slims sequins on her chest, defeats Bobby Riggs..
1973: SCIENCE: RJR report on success of PM's Marlboro and B&W's Kool brands states, "A cigarette is a system for delivery of nicotine to the smoker in attractive, useful form. At normal smoke pH, at or below 6.0, the smoke nicotine is...slowly absorbed by the smoker. . . As the smoke pH increases above about 6.0, an increasing portion of the total smoke nicotine occurs in free form, which is rapidly absorbed by the smoker and...instantly perceived as a nicotine kick."
1973: BUSINESS: Philip Morris' Tobacco Research Center in Richmond is dedicated.
1973-07-12: BUSINESS: RJR director of marketing and planning R.A. Blevins Jr writes in a memo that free nicotine, advertising expenditures and cigarette size of Winstons and Marlboros all affected market share "independently and collectively," but that "the variability due to 'free nicotine' was significant and its contribution was over and above that of advertising expenditures and [cigarette size]."
1973-07-12: BUSINESS: RJR senior scientist Frank Colby sends Blevins a memo suggesting that the company "develop a new RJR youth-appeal brand based on the concept of going back--at least halfway--to the technological design of the Winston and other filter cigarettes of the 1950s," a cigarette which "delivered more 'enjoyment' or 'kicks' (nicotine)." Colby said that "for public relations reasons it would be impossible to go back all the way to the 1955-type cigarettes."
1974: 8TH Surgeon General's Report: The Health Consequences of Smoking 1974
1974-01-07: Monticello, Minnesota decides to go non-smoking for a day, in a "D-Day" organized by Lynn Smith. The event goes statewide in November, and in 1977 goes national--the first Great American Smokeout.
1974: SPORTS: UST creates the Copenhagen Skoal Scholarship Awards Program for student athletes (in conjunction with the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Assn.)
1974: LITIGATION: Rose Cipollone, now 49, switches to True cigarettes.
1974: ADVERTISING: Joe Camel is born. Used in Poster for French ad campaign for Camel cigarettes.
1974: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: Harrogate lab in England is closed down.
1974: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: PM pollsters try to find out why competing brands like Kool were slowing Marlboro's growth among young smokers.
1974: BUSINESS: Johnny Roventini retires after a 40-year career as Philip Morris pitchman.
1974: CANADA: The Canadian Council on Smoking and Health is formed. Charter members include the Canadian Cancer Society, the Canadian Heart Foundation, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Lung Association. The Non-Smokers' Rights Association is also formed. (NCTH)
1974: US Trade Act. The threat of punitive tariffs, as provided under Section 301, will be used to force Asian markets considered to have "unfair" or "discriminatory" trade restrictions to open up to U.S. tobacco companies' products and advertising.
1974-07-1\5: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: Family Practice News covered Alvan R. Feinstein's address to the annual meeting of the Association of American Physicians with this headline: "Smoking Link to Lung Ca[ncer] Termed Diagnostic Bias." The article reads "The more cigarettes a person says he smokes, the more likely he is to be checked by his physician for lung cancer. Thus, cigarette smoking may be contributing more to the diagnosis of lung cancer than to the disease, said Dr. Feinstein of Yale University." Bates #: TITX 0002372 ( http://my.tobaccodocuments.org/tdo/view.cfm?CitID=127054 )
1975: 9TH Surgeon General's Report: The Health Consequences of Smoking 1975
1975: 3rd World Conferfence on Tobacco or Health: New York, NY
1975. Military stops distribution of free cigarettes in C-rations and K-rations.
1975: THAILAND bans smoking on city buses.
1975. BUSINESS: RJR's low tar/nicotine "NOW" cigarette released.
1975. BUSINESS: American Brands assumes control of Britain's Gallaher's
1975: BUSINESS: PM's Marlboro overtakes Winston as the best-selling cigarette in the U.S.
1975: BUSINESS: Philip Morris' net earnings top $200 million.
1975-08-01: REGULATION: MINNESOTA Clean Indoor Air Act, the nation's first statewide anti-second-hand smoke law goes into effect to protect "the public health and comfort and the environment by prohibiting smoking in public places and at public meetings, except in designated smoking areas." It is the first law to require separation of smokers' and nonsmokers.
1975-08-26: REGULATION: Madison, Wisconsin passes an ordinance limiting smoking, the first community in the nation to do so; the effort was led by Margo Redmond of GASP.
1976: 10TH Surgeon General's Report: The Health Consequences of Smoking: Selected Chapters from 1971 through 1975 Reports
1976: REGULATION: Federal Election Committee resolves charges that high-ranking RJR executives were funneling illegal campaign contributions to Republican presidential candidates from 1964 through 1972. The monies were said to have been paid in the form of personal gifts as high as $10,000 each from individual corporate officials, who were repaid from an off-the-books "slush fund," drawn from RJR's overseas customers. No jail terms, no fines: Charles B. Wade, Smith and Peoples had to resign; Alex Galloway, a former chairman who was also implicated during the internal investigation, had retired in 1973. . . Lawyers threatened lawsuits if the exact details of the scandal got out.
1976-05-29: REGULATION: Resignations of Wade, Smith & Peoples becomes public.
1976: LITIGATION: Norma Broin, a 20-year-old non-smoking Mormon, gets a job as a flight attendant for American Airlines (Broin vs. Philip Morris, et.al.)
1976: SOCIETY: Formation of the Cigarette Pack Collectors Association and first of its conventions. (LB)
1976: LITIGATION: Donna Shimp sues New Jersey Bell Telephone for not protecting her from second-hand smoke. Ruling in her favor, the judge said, "if such rules are established for machines, I see no reason why they should not be held in force for humans."
1976: BUSINESS: Philip Morris exceeds $4 billion in revenues.
1976: MARKET SHARE: Philip Morris' share of the U.S. cigarette market increases to 25.1%; the international tobacco company's share increases to 5.1%.
1981: 14TH Surgeon General's Report: The Health Consequences of Smoking -- The Changing Cigarette : A Report of the Surgeon General
.
1981: "A formalized "Blueprint for Action," drafted in 1981 by more than 200 smoking control "experts" attending a National Conference on Smoking OR Health, is often identified as the catalyst for a dramatic change (in anti-smoking activity."-- "The Anti-Smoking Movement"
1981: CONSUMPTION: Annual consumption peaks at 640 billion cigarettes, 60% of which are low-tar brands.
1981: LITIGATION: Rose Cipollone loses a lobe of her right lung to cancer; continues to smoke cigarettes.
1981: LITIGATION: CBS Chicago news commentator Walter Jacobsen accuses Brown & Williamson of engaging in a lurid advertising campaign to get young people to smoke.
1981 Massachusetts GASP files suit against BAY Transit authority for not enforcing smoking restrictions.
1981: BUSINESS: Hamish Maxwell, 57, becomes CEO of Philip Morris (1981-1991), succeeding George Weissman
1981: Insurance companies begin offering discounts for nonsmokers on life insurance premiums
1981: Stanton Glantz at UCSF receives a copy of " Death in the West"
1981: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: 1981 PM study investigates the link between pricing and smoking levels
Dick Schweiker was proposed as Secretary of DHHS (a conservative) and a relatively unknown surgeon by the name of C. Everett Koop was proposed as SG. The latter was considered an ultraconservative and darling of the far right because of his public stand on abortion. Jesse Helms was Koops sponsor in the Senate. Schweiker rescued the Office on Smoking and Health from
1981-01: The Hirayama Study. Takeshi Hirayama, chief of epidemiology of the Research Institute at Tokyo's National Cancer Center, and his associates studied for fourteen years 92,000 nonsmoking wives of smoking husbands to learn what their risk was of contracting lung cancer, compared to a similarly sized control group married to nonsmokers. Nonsmoking wives married to axsmokers or current smokers of up to fourteen cigarettes a day showed a 40 percent elevated risk of lung cancer over wives married to nonsmokers; those married to husbands smoking fifteen to nineteen cigarettes a day had a 60 percent higher risk; and those whose husbands smoked a pack or more a day had a 90 percent heightened risk. The findings were savaged by letters to the BMJ (by, among others, Theodore Sterling, whose projects received $5M in CTR funds between 1973 and 1990),-- and by the Tobacco Institute in full page ads all across the US. Meanwhile, Brown and Williamson documents show that, although the tobacco industry was publicly attacking Hirayama's paper, several of its own experts were privately admitting that his conclusions were valid. B&W counsel J. Wells said both German and British scientists paid by the tobacco industry had reviewed the work and "they believe Hirayama is a good scientist and that his non-smoking wives publication is correct."15 (J. Wells, Re Smoking and Health - Tim Finnegan, Memo to E. Pepples, 1981, 24 July) Non-smoking wives of heavy smokers have a higher risk of lung cancer: a study from Japan (BMJ, V. 282: pp. 183-185, 17 January 1981
1981-02: David Stockton's Office of Management and Budget "zeroes out" the Office on Smoking and Health in its FY 82 budget. Health and Human Services Secretary Dick Schweiker battles Stockton and the White House to get half the funding restored.
1982: 15TH Surgeon General's Report: The Health Consequences of Smoking -- Cancer: A Report of the Surgeon General
1982: CONSUMPTION: 624 billion cigarettes were sold in the US this year, the most ever.
1982: BUSINESS: Harrods' (department store) name goes on a a cigarette; this is one of the first instances of tobacco companies "renting names" of other companies (See "Harley Davidson" cigarettes) (LB).
1982: BUSINESS: Philip Morris Credit Corp. is incorporated.
1982: BUSINESS: Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. is founded.
1982: HEALTH: Surgeon General's Report (Koop) finds possibility that second-hand smoke may cause lung cancer.
1982: LITIGATION: Rose Cipollone loses her right lung to cancer; continues to sneak cigarettes.
1982: LEGISLATION: Congress passes the No Net Cost Tobacco Program Act, requiring the government's Commodity Credit Corporation, which pays for the government tobacco purchases, to recover all the money it spends on the price-support program. Now taxpayers no longer pay for losses incurred by the program, though they still pay about $16 million a year in administrative costs to run it
1982: Dallas hotelier Lyndon Sanders opens the Non-Smokers Inn; By 1990 an economic slump forced the Non-Smokers Inn to change its policy -- and its name.
1982-01-01: CHINA: The China National Tobacco Corporation is founded.
1983: 16TH Surgeon General's Report: The Health Consequences of Smoking: Cardiovascualr Disease; A report of the Surgeon General Cites smoking as a major cause of coronary heart disease
1983: MARKET SHARE: Philip Morris U.S.A. gains market share for the 21st consecutive year, to reach 34.4 percent, overtaking RJR to become the #1 tobacco co. in the US in sales. For the 30th consecutive year, Philip Morris announces record revenues ($13 billion) and earnings ($904 million).
1983: BUSINESS: US Tobacco introduces Skoal Bandits -- a starter product, with the tobacco contained in a pouch like a tea bag.
1983: LITIGATION: Cipollone suit filed; Rose finally quits smoking.
1983: REGULATION: San Francisco passes first strong workplace smoking restrictions, banning smoking in private workplaces
1983-06-06: MEDIA: Newsweek runs a 4 page article, "Showdown on Smoking" on the nonsmokers' rights movement. Despite months of TI input, the removal of the item from Cover Story status, and the deletion of 3 sidebars (on health effects, political donations/industry lobbying, and a poor business prognosis), TI felt, "the article contains sufficient errors and indicatons of superficiality and poor research so as to leqave an anti-smoking bias in readers' minds." Issues of Newsweek before & after carried 7-10 pages of cigarette ads, but the June 6 issue carried none. According to Larry C. White's Merchants of Death, the estimated loss of revenue as a result of publishing the article: $1 million.
1983: USA: BUSINESS: The creative director of a New York advertising agency spoke of working on tobacco advertisements, "We were trying very hard to influence kids who were 14 to start smoking". (Medical J of Australia, 5 March 1983, p.237). (LB)
1984: 17TH Surgeon General's Report: The Health Consequences of Smoking: Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease, A Report of the Surgeon General Cites smoking as a major cause of chronic obstructive lung disease.
1984: The Advocacy Institute, which pioneered the use of electronic media for tobacco control advocacy through the creation of the Smoking Control Advocacy Resource (SCARCNet), is founded
1984: UK: British Medical Association uses black edged postcards to notify MPs of smoking related deaths
1984: CESSATION: FDA approves nicotine gum as a "new drug" and quit-smoking aid
1984: LITIGATION: Rose Cipollone dies of lung cancer at 58.
1984: REGULATION: Tobacco industry is required to turn over a general list of cigarette additives annually to the Department of Health and Human Services' Office on Smoking and Health. The List is then locked in a safe. Disclosure to any other party is a crime. OSH allowed to study the list, but lacks funds.
1984: BUSINESS: Hamish Maxwell becomes president and CEO of Philip Morris Inc.
1984: BUSINESS: The Bakery, Confectionary and Tobacco Workers International Union (BC&T) and the Tobacco Institute joined forces by establishing the Tobacco Industry Labor Management Committee. The purpose is to "contribute to greater cooperation among the various segments of the tobacco industry, in order to improve job security and economic development through public education and research address problems facing the tobacco industry". (LB)
1994: 24th Surgeon General's Report: Preventing Tobacco Use Among Young People : A Report of the Surgeon General
1994: OSHA proposes severe workplace smoking restrictions.
1994: Brown & Williamson tries to force Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., to hand over confidential documents that Waxman's subcommittee obtained in its investigation of the tobacco industry. B&W's case was argued in court, and lost, by Kenneth Starr.
1994: MEDIA: Frank Blethen's Seattle (Wash.) Times becomes the largest US newspaper to refuse tobacco advertising.
"These ads were designed to kill our readers," said Times president H. Mason Sizemore, "so we decided to refuse them."
1994: BANS: McDonald's bans smoking in all 11,000 of its restaurants
1994: BANS: Dept. of Defense imposes restrictions on smoking at all US military bases worldwide
1994: BUSINESS: William Murray is appointed chairman of Philip Morris Cos.; Geoffrey C. Bible is named president and CEO.
1994: BUSINESS: Financial World ranks Marlboro the world's No. 2 most valuable brand behind Coca-Cola (value: $33 billion)
1994: BUSINESS: Philip Morris sends out an estimated 19 million Marlboro promotional items; briefly becomes #3 mail order house in the US
1994: CANADA: LEGISLATION: Bigger and stronger warning messages are required on cigarette packs: (NCTH)
"Cigarettes are addictive;"
1905: POLITICS: Indiana legislature bribery attempt is exposed, leading to passage of total cigarette ban
In 1905, a clumsy attempt at bribery virtually forced the Indiana legislature into prohibiting cigarettes. The measure had been passed by the Senate with the intention of embarrassing certain reform leaders in the House; the House as a whole was expected to hoot it down. However, right before the vote, Representative Ananias Baker dramatically held aloft a sealed envelope and announced that it had been given to him by a lobbyist from the Tobacco Trust, with instructions to vote against the bill, He opened it with a flourish: five $20 bills dropped out. The display seemed to confirm a prediction by the state's largest tobacco dealer, reported in an Indianapolis newspaper a few days earlier, that the trust would "buy up the whole House" before it would permit passage of the bill. Baker left his colleagues little choice but to vote for the bill, lest they be suspected of having been influenced by similar envelopes. --Smithsonian, July 1989; "In the 1800s, antismoking was a burning issue" by Cassandra Tate
1913: Finally freed from Duke's American Tobacco Co., RJ Reynolds introduces Camel cigarette brand
The massive, months-long "The Camels are Coming" campaign builds anticipation for Camels. Camel, like Prince Albert before it, consisted of a then-unique blend of 3 tobaccos, piedmont Bright, a flavored and sweetened burley from Kentucky, and 10% Turkish leaf. The half-price brand (10 cents for 20) is an instant hit, gaining 33% of the market by 1917, and 45% by 1923. Soon after, the American Tobacco Company introduces Lucky Strike and Liggett & Myers introduces Chesterfield, each with similar blends. The "modern" cigarette has arrived.
1911: Dr. Charles Pease states position of the NonSmokers' Protective League of America
In a letter to the New York Times dated November 10, 1911, he writes:
The right of each person to breathe and enjoy fresh and pure air--air uncontaminated by unhealthful or disagreeable odors and fumes is a constitutional right, and cannot be taken away by legislatures or courts, much less by individuals pursuing their own thoughtless or selfish indulgence.
1950: Morton Levin publishes first major study definitively linking smoking to lung cancer
Levin was then the director of Cancer Control for the New York State Department of Health. His epidemiological survey of Buffalo patients between 1938 and 1950 appeared in The Journal of the American Medical Association. His shocking and controversial conclusion: smokers were statistically twice as likely to develop lung cancer as non-smokers.
1952: Hollingsworth & Vose gets 100% indemnity agreement from Lorillard on filters
1952: East Walpole, Massachusettes-based manufacturer Hollingsworth & Vose Co. writes a "100 percent indemnity agreement" into its contract with Lorillard. Hollingsworth supplied asbestos-laden material for filters used in Lorillard's Kent cigarettes. The agreement required Lorillard to pay all legal costs and damages stemming from lawsuits over the filter's health effects.
1954-01-04 Tobacco Industry Research Committee (TIRC) Announced.
Tobacco Industry Research Committee (TIRC) announces in a nationwide 2-page ad, A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers
The ads were placed in 448 newspapers across the nation, reaching a circulation of 43,245,000 in 258 cities.
TIRC's first scientific director noted cancer scientist Dr. Clarence Cook Little, former head of the National Cancer Institute (soon to become the American Cancer Society). Little's life work lay in the genetic origins of cancer; he tended to disregard environmental factors.
From the complaint filed by the state of Florida in its 1995 lawsuit against tobacco companies:
59. In response to the publication of Dr. Wynder's study in 1953, the presidents of the leading tobacco manufacturers, including American Tobacco Co., R.J. Reynolds, Philip Morris, U.S. Tobacco Co., Lorillard, and Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation- ration, hired the public relations firm of Hill and Knowlton, Inc., to deal with the "health scare" presented by smoking. Acting in concert, at a public relations strategy meeting, the participants decided to organize a committee to be specifically charged with the "public relations" function. . . . As a result of these efforts, the Tobacco Institute Research Committee ("TIRC"), an entity later known as The Council for Tobacco Research ("CTR"), was formed.
60. The TIRC immediately ran a full-page promotion in more than 400 newspapers aimed at an estimated 43 million Americans. That piece was entitled "A Frank Statement To Cigarette Smokers" . . .
A FRANK STATEMENT TO CIGARETTE SMOKERS:
RECENT REPORTS on experiments with mice have given wide publicity to a theory that cigarette smoking is in some way linked with lung cancer in human beings.
Although conducted by doctors of professional standing, these experiments are not regarded as conclusive in the field of cancer research. However, we do not believe results are inconclusive, should be disregarded or lightly dismissed. At the same time, we feel it is in the public interest to call attention to the fact that eminent doctors and research scientists have publicly questioned the claimed significance of these experiments.
Distinguished authorities point out:
That medical research of recent years indicates many possible causes of lung cancer.
That there is no agreement among the authorities regarding what the cause is.
That there is no proof that cigarette smoking is one of the causes.
That statistics purporting to link cigarette smoking with the disease could apply with equal force to any one of many other aspects of modern life. Indeed the validity of the statistics themselves is questioned by numerous scientists.
We accept an interest in people's health as a basic responsibility, paramount to every other consideration in our business
We believe the products we make are not injurious to health.
We always have and always will cooperate closely with those whose task it is to safeguard the public health.
For more than 300 years tobacco has given solace, relaxation, and enjoyment to mankind. At one time or another during those years critics have held it responsible for practically every disease of the human body. One by one these charges have been abandoned for lack of evidence.
Regardless of the record of the past, the fact that cigarette smoking today should even be suspected as a cause of a serious disease is a matter of deep concern to us.
Many people have asked us what we are doing to meet the public's concern aroused by the recent reports. Here is the answer:
We are pledging aid and assistance to the research effort into all phases of tobacco use and health. This joint financial aid will of course be in addition to what is already being contributed by individual companies.
For this purpose we are establishing a joint industry group consisting initially of the undersigned. This group will be known as TOBACCO INDUSTRY RESEARCH COMMITTEE.
In charge of the research activities of the Committee will be a scientist of unimpeachable integrity and national repute. In addition there will be an Advisory Board of scientists disinterested in the cigarette industry. A group of distinguished men from medicine, science, and education will be invited to serve on this Board. These scientists will advise the Committee on its research activities.
This statement is being issued because we believe the people are entitled to know where we stand on this matter and what we intend to do about it.
*******
From The Facts about Smoking(Consumer Reports Books
The [tobacco] industry also created the Tobacco Industry Research Committee (TIRC). Although the stated purpose of the TIRC was to encourage research on smoking, its chief accomplishment was to put forward the idea that scientists themselves held differing opinions about whether or not smoking was dangerous. For example, in 1954, a front-page article in The New York Times reported that a majority of doctors and scientists attending the American Cancer Society meeting believed that smoking caused cancer, but in the third paragraph of the article a representative of the TIRC is quoted as saying that the poll was "biased, unscientific and filled with shortcomings." In 1954, when Drs. Graham and Wynder reported that tobacco tar painted onto the skin of mice caused cancer, the TIRC countered with: "Doctors and scientists have often stressed the many pitfalls present in all attempts to apply flatly to humans any findings resulting from animal experiments. " Whatever the validity of the TIRC's criticisms, they served to encourage skepticism in the public's mind about scientific reports of the dangers of smoking. The tobacco industry also established the Tobacco Institute, whose avowed purpose was to promote "public understanding of the smoking and health controversy and . . . knowledge of the historic role of tobacco and its place in the national economy." In the first issue of Tobacco News, the institute's president said: "The Institute and this publication believe that the American people want and are entitled to accurate, factual, interesting information about this business [tobacco] which is so important in the economic bloodstream of the nation and such a tranquilizer in our personal lives."
*******
From PR Watch:
Hill & Knowlton's role is described as follows in a 1994 lawsuit, State of Mississippi vs. the Tobacco Cartel:
The presidents of the leading tobacco manufacturers ... hired the public relations firm of Hill & Knowlton .... As a result of these efforts, the Tobacco Institute Research Committee (TIRC), an entity later know as The Council for Tobacco Research (CTR), was formed.
The Tobacco Industry Research Committee immediately ran a full-page promotion in more than 400 newspapers ... entitled "A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers."... The participating tobacco companies recognized their "special responsibility" to the public, and promised to learn the facts about smoking and health ... to sponsor independent research on the subject .... to cooperate closely with public health officials ....
After thus beginning to lull the public into a false sense of security concerning smoking and health, the Tobacco Industry Research Committee continued to act as a front for tobacco industry interests. Despite the initial public statements and posturing, ... there was a coordinated, industry-wide strategy designed actively to mislead and confuse the public about the true dangers associated with smoking cigarettes. Rather than work for the good of the public health, ... the tobacco trade association, refuted, undermined, and neutralized information coming from the scientific and medical community.
There is no question that the tobacco industry knew what scientists were learning about tobacco. The TIRC maintained a library with cross-indexed medical and scientific papers from 2,500 medical journals; as well as press clippings, government reports and other documents. TIRC employees culled this library for scientific data with inconclusive or contrary results regarding tobacco and the harm to human health. These were compiled into a carefully selected 18-page booklet, titled "A Scientific Perspective on the Cigarette Controversy," which was mailed to over 200,000 people, including doctors, members of Congress and the news media.
*******
From Merchants of Death: by Larry C. White
The year 1954 marked the beginning of the cigarette Big Lie. It was in this year that the cigarette companies got together to plot the strategies that would keep them viable far into the future, strategies that still guide their response to the fact that their products kill 10 percent of their customers.
Speaking frankly to investors in June of 1954, O. Parker McComas, then president of Philip Morris, said that the health problem must be taken seriously--that is, "carefully evaluated for its effect on industry public relations, as well as its effect on the consumer market." Therefore, he said, Philip Morns had joined with "practically all elements of industry" to form the Tobacco Industry Research Committee. There were great expectations for the TIRC: "We hope that the work of TIRC will open new vistas not only in research, but in liaison between industry and the scientific world." As for the nature of the TIRC, McComas said that it was similar to other industries' organizations such as the American Meat Institute, the American Petroleum Institute, and so on.
This was not for consumption by the general public, of course. An ad was run in newspapers across the country on January 4, 1954, that announced the formation of the TIRC and touted the committee's objectivity. "In charge of the research activities of the Committee will be a scientist of unimpeachable integrity and national repute. In addition, there will be an Advisory Board of scientists disinterestedin the cigarette industry. A group of distinguished men from medicine, science, and education will be invited to serve on this Board. These scientists will advise the Committee on its research activities."
***
There would be no pro-cigarette studies funded by the committee--fakes would be too easily discredited. Instead, research would be done around the periphery--keeping scientists busy on incidental issues, diverting attention from the main point: the link between cigarettes and disease. For example, one of the committee's first priorities was funding of studies on why people smoke. Another favored area for research was whether some people have a genetic predisposition to cancer. This could keep scientists busy indefinitely.
Still, it was obvious that independent scientists would continue to investigate the health effects of smoking. . . The basic public relations strategy was to emphasize the few studies that did not prove that smoking caused disease. What could never be mentioned was that a study that does not prove a relationship between smoking and disease cannot logically prove the opposite--that no relationship exists. . . With the advent of the TIRC, the cigarette companies could say that no one spent more on research on smoking and health than they did. Most important, the TIRC would serve the function of creating a controversy. The current name of the committee is the Council for Tobacco Research and it still serves the function of making it seem like there is a valid difference of opinion among scientists about whether smoking is dangerous.
The value of the Tobacco Industry Research Committee to the industry was revealed only a few months after its creation. At a meeting in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in early June of 1954, the American Cancer Society announced that a majority of cancer researchers, chest surgeons, and pathologists believed that smoking might lead to lung cancer. This news was carried on the front page of The New York Times on June 7, 1954. But, unlike pre-1954 articles that had allowed the news to stand alone, this article included in its third paragraph a denunciation of the statement.
Timothy V. Hartnett, chairman of the Tobacco Industry Research Committee, called the poll of doctors "biased, unscientific and filled with shortcomings."
***
In February of 1956, Dr. Evarts A. Graham reported on another study in which he had painted mice with tobacco tars. He had been criticized for his earlier study of this kind because he had used only one type of mouse. In this new study he used other strains and also painted rabbits' ears with the tars. Again, he induced cancer.
This time the industry was ready for him--thanks to the Tobacco Industry Research Committee. When newspapers reported Dr. Graham's study they also reported the response of the TIRC: "Doctors and scientists have often stressed the many pitfalls present in all attempts to apply flatly to humans any findings resulting from animal experiments." To a scientist, the response was worthless, but it was enough to cast doubt in the public's mind. Most important for the industry, the TIRC provided smokers with some ammunition, some arguments that justified their not quitting.
1963-07-17: LITIGATION: B&W's General Counsel Addison Yeaman writes in a memo, "Moreover, nicotine is addictive. We are, then, in the business of selling nicotine, an addictive drug effective in the release of stress mechanisms."
In context, Yeaman was concerned about the upcoming Surgeon General's report, and was writing of "the so-called 'beneficial effects of nicotine': 1) enhancing effect on the pituitary-adrenal response to stress; 2) regulation of body weight."
Moreover, nicotine is addictive. We are, then, in the business of selling nicotine, an addictive drug effective in the release of stress mechanisms. But cigarettes -- we will assume the Surgeon General's Committee to say -- despite the beneficent effect of nicotine, have certain unattractive side effects: 1) They cause, or predispose to, lung cancer. 2) They contribute to certain cardiovascular disorders. 3) They may well be truly causative in emphysema, etc., etc. We challenge those charges and we have assumed our obligation to determine their truth or falsity by creating the new Tobacco Research Foundation. In the meantime (we say) here is our triple, or quadruple or quintuple filter, capable of removing whatever constituent of smoke is currently suspect while delivering full flavor -- and incidentally -- a nice jolt of nicotine. And if we are the first to be able to make and sustain that claim, what price Kent?
1964-01-11: First Surgeon General's Report released.
From Smoking and Health:
Cigarette smoking is causally related to lung cancer in men; the magnitude of the effect of cigarette smoking far outweighs all other factors... Cigarette smoking is much more important than occupational exposures in the causation of lung cancer in the general population ... Cigarette smoking is the most important of the causes of chronic bronchitis in the United States, and increases the risk of dying from chronic bronchitis and emphysema ... Although the causative role of cigarette smoking in deaths from coronary disease is not proven the Committee considers it more prudent from the public health viewpoint to assume that the established association has causative meaning than to suspend judgment until no uncertainty remains.
President John F. Kennedy had won the 1960 Presidential election by only 0.1 percent of the vote. His vice-president, Lyndon Johnson had successfully delivered the crucial Southern vote. Kennedy had an ambitious program to implement, and was fully aware many congressional committees were dominated by tobacco state legislators.
Yet the 1962 Royal College of Physicians' Report increased public pressure on Kennedy to take a public stand. At a press conference on May 23, 1962, Kennedy said in reply to a question on the subject, "That matter is sensitive enough and the stock market is in sufficient difficulaty without my giving you an answer which is not based on complete information, which I don't have, and, therefore, perhaps I will be glad to respond to that question in more detail next week."
Kennedy soon acceded to American health groups' long-standing request to create a Presidential Commission to study the matter.
Surgeon General Luther Terry worked closely with the tobacco industry on the commission. The industry was presented with a list of 150 "outstanding medical scientists" and were allowed to cross out any names they wished. Terry remembers only 3 or 4 were so eliminated. Industry views were made known to the committee members.
The scientists worked for a year in a sub-basement of the Nataional Library of Medicine in Bethesday, MD., and when their report was to be printed, it received the same clasification as a state secret.
On a carefully-chosen Saturday morning (to prevent a disastrous slide on Wall St.), January 11, 1964, at 9 AM, 200 reporters were physically locked into the State Department's auditorium to hear a two hour briefing by surgeon general Dr. Luther L. Terry and a panel of experts. The top-secret measures were felt necessary because of the bold and closely-guarded conclusion reached in a 357-page brown paperback book the reporters received titled Smoking and Health.
When the press conference was over, the reporters ran madly to the telephones. In 1964, in a country where over 50% of adult males smoked, a multi-billion dollar industry seemed to hang by the book's astounding verdict: smoking causes cancer.
Cigarette smoking is a health hazard of sufficient importance in the United States to warrant appropriate remedial action.
At the time, 46% of all Americans smoked; smoking was accepted in offices, airplanes and elevators, and TV programs were sponsored by cigarette brands.
Within 3 months of Terry's report, cigarette consumption had dropped 20%, but, as was the pattern in England following the Royal Physicians' Report, was soon to climb back with a vengeance.
"It was a very dramatic and courageous thing to do," said Joseph Califano, the top domestic policy aide to then-President Johnson.
But the Johnson Administration had enough wars--domestic and foreign--to fight. The Administration didn't want to pull its resources from poverty and civil rights to undertake action which would undoubtedly entail severe social, economic and regional disruptions. "We wanted to get schools integrated, the voters' rights act passed, fair housing passed. And all of those things required us to take on the whole phalanx of Southern states," Califano said.
Smoking rates since 1965, from National Health Interview Surveys compiled by the U.S. Office on Smoking and Health.
% US Adult
The Surgeon General's Advisory Committee:
Dr. Terry acted as chairman
Dr. James M. Hundley, assistant surgeon general, acted as vice chairman.
The members, announced on October 27, 1962, were:
Dr. Stanhope Bayne-Jones, former dean, Yale School of Medicine
Dr. Walter J. Burdette, head of the Department of Surgery, University of Utah School of Medicine
William G. Cochran, professor of Statistics, Harvard University
Dr. Emmanuel Farber, chairman, Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh
Louis F. Fieser, professor of Organic Chemistry, Harvard University
Dr. Jacob Furth, professor of Pathology, Columbia University
Dr. John B. Hickam, chairman, Department of Internal Medicine, Indiana University
Dr. Charles LeMaistre, professor of Internal Medicine, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School
Dr. Leonard M. Schuman, professor of Epidemiology, University of Minnesota School of Public Health
Dr. Maurice H. Seevers, chairman, Department of Pharmacology, University of Michigan.
1979-01: Report of the US Surgeon-General, Dr Julius B. Richmond.
Cigarette smoking is causally related to lung cancer in both men and women... is a significant causative factor in cancer of the larynx... is a significant causal factor in the development of oral cancer... is a causal factor in the development of cancer of the esophagus... is related to cancer of the pancreas... is one of the three major independent risk factors for heart attack... and sudden cardiac death in adult men and women... a major risk factor in arteriosclerotic peripheral vascular disease... a cause of chronic obstructive lung disease... increases the risk of fetal death through maternal complications... contributes to the risk of their infants being victims of the 'sudden infant death syndrome' [cot death].6
1980: US Surgeon General special report: The Health Consequences of Smoking for Women
The rise in lung cancer death rates is currently much steeper in women than in men. It is projected that ... the lung cancer death rate will surpass that of breast cancer in the early 1980s... The risk of spontaneous abortion, fetal death, and neonatal death increases directly with increasing levels of maternal smoking during pregnancy.
1991-02-07: AUSTRALIA: The AFCO Case: Federal Court examines 1986 ETS studies, finds data valid
Transcripts:
THE 1991 AFCO Decision ...there is a strong public interest in the respondent being prevented from making the statement that there is little evidence and nothing which proves that cigarette smoke causes disease in non-smokers. Active smokers are likely to be misled or deceived by the statement into believing that theirsmoking does not prejudice the health of non-smokers, particularly small children. Non-smokers are likely to be deceived or misled by the statement into believing that cigarette smoke does not affect their own health or the health of their children. These are serious matters. -- Justice Trevor Morling, Australian Federal Court, February 7, 1991
In 1986, the Tobacco Institute of Australia ran newspaper ads that claimed there was "little evidence and nothing which proves scientifically that cigarette smoke causes disease in nonsmokers."
The Australian Federation of Consumer Organizations (AFCO) brought suit in Australian Federal Court under the Trade Practices Act.
Heavy guns and major resources of both sides were thrown into the case, which lasted 30 months. 320 reports were presented, including evidence from noted ETS-critic and Cato Institute lecturer Gary Huber (The financial connection between Huber's work and the tobacco industry was not revealed until Business Week broke the story in 1994).
The main evidence for the plaintiffs were reports from 1986 by the US Surgeon General, the National Research Council (US), the National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia) and the Froggatt inquiry into health and smoking (Britain).
The court found that even in 1986 there was "overwhelming evidence" that ETS triggers respiratory attacks in children, and "compelling scientific evidence that cigarette smoke causes lung cancer in non-smokers."
In a 211-page judgement, the court found that the TIA's advertised statement breached the Trade Practices Act and was likely to mislead people on the effects of ETS. Justice Trevor Morling granted an injunction which prevented the Tobacco Institute from running similar ads.
The Journal of the American Medical Association said in reference to the case,
"It is not surprising that the tobacco industry, which for decades has continued to obfuscate the causal link between smoking and disease despite massive evidence, should feel threatened by studies that show that nonsmokers may be harmed and killed by their products. After all, in 1991, the evidence that ETS causes lung cancer was reviewed and found, by a federal court in Australia, to be 'compelling.' And it's not surprising that scientist-editors at JAMA, who have read the evidence on both sides, believe that ETS is a great danger to nonsmokers and are depressed by industry tactics. . .
"It is interesting that the judge in the Australian case was generally critical of the narrow approach of the statistical experts called by the Tobacco Institute of Australia, and their tendency to be 'overcritical' of parts of every study while sometimes demanding "unattainable standards" of proof of causation. He was more favorably impressed by the broader approach of the epidemiologists, who stressed the importance of the pattern that emerged from all these studies -- studies 'supported by strong biological plausibility.'"
The officers who appeared before Henry Waxman's (D-CA) Committee beginning April 14, 1994, were:
William Campbell, CEO, Philip Morris
James Johnston, CEO, RJR Tobacco Co
Joseph Taddeo, President, U.S. Tobacco Co
Andrew Tisch, CEO, Lorillard Tobacc
Thomas Sandefur, CEO, Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co
Ed Horrigan, CEO, Liggett Group
Donald Johnston, CEO, American Tobacco Co.
The following was the most famous exchange (April 15, 1994):
REP. WYDEN: Let me ask you first, and I'd like to just go down the row, whether each of you believes that nicotine is not addictive. I've heard virtually all of you touch on it--yes or no, do you believe nicotine is not addictive?
WILLIAM I. CAMPBELL (Philip Morris): I believe that nicotine is not addictive, yes.
REP. WYDEN: Mr. Johnston...
JAMES JOHNSTON (RJReynolds): Uh, Congressman, cigarettes and nicotine clearly do not meet the classic definition of addiction. There is no intoxication--
REP. WYDEN: We'll take that as a no. And again, time is short, if you can just, I think each of you believe nicotine is not addictive, I'd just like to have this for the record.
JOSEPH TADDEO (US Tobacco): "I don't believe that nicotine or our products are addictive."
ANDREW TISCH (P Lorillard): I believe that nicotine is not addictive.
EDWARD HORRIGAN (Ligget Group): I believe that nicotine is not addictive.
THOMAS SANDEFUR (Brown & Williamson): I believe that nicotine is not addictive.
DONALD JOHNSTON (American Tobacco Co.): And I too believe that nicotine is not addictive.
1994-05-31: FTC Clears Joe Camel
1994-05-31: the FTC votes 3-2 not to file a complaint that the R.J. Reynolds "Joe Camel" advertising campaign encourages children to buy cigarettes. Two commissioners issued strongly dissenting opinions.
"Although it may seem intuitive to some that the Joe Camel advertising campaign would lead more children to smoke or lead children to smoke more, the evidence to support that intuition is not there," a commission statement said.
Commissioners Mary L. Azcuenaga, Deborah Owen and Roscoe Starek III voted against taking any further action. Dennis Yao and Chairwoman Janet Steiger issued strongly dissenting statemtents:
"I have reason to believe that the Camel campaign induced underage people to start smoking and that proceedings against such ads would be in the interest of the public," Steiger said.
Yao said, "There is evidence that the carton character has appeal to minors and that Camel has increased its market share among minors. There is also evidence that the decade-and-a-half decrease in smoking among minors has slowed down in the time since the Joe Camel campaign began."
The FTC's province was to determine not if the ads encouraged kids to smoke, but whether the ads encouraged kids to do something illegal--_buy_ cigarettes.
The Commissioners were forced to act under pressure from attorneys general of 27 states (who urged a ban in Sept. of 1993), the Surgeon General Antonia Novello, and the entire FTC staff (in August of 1993) urging them to ban Joe Camel.
The FTC seemed unwilling to address First Amendment legal issues that are, in the words of one observer, "on the periphery of settled law . . . I think it's an ugly baby that showed up on their doorstep. They don't know what to do with it."
While the decision was pending--with 2 Commissioners having already voted to ban, and the others hanging fire--another observer, Art Amolsch, publisher of the newsletter FTC:Watch, said, "It is a volatile issue, and I have a feeling there are some commissioners who would prefer not to vote, not to go on the record on this."
Had the FTC voted against the campaign, the matter would then have been turned over to an Administrative law judge, leading to a case that probably would have dragged on for years.
Fred Danzig, editor of the trade weekly Advertising Age, said, "We long ago called for RJR to kill the campaign on their own . . . Whether they're right or wrong is hardly the issue anymore because the public perception is that RJR is trying to lure kids to cigarette smoking simply by using a cartoon character."
Some issues that keep the pot stirring:
In 1991, 3 years into the campaign, over half of 3-6 year olds recognized Joe Camel, more than recognized Mickey Mouse or Ronald McDonald. 91% of six-year-olds match Joe Camel with his product, and Camel's share of the kid market had jumped by a factor of 50.
Nicholas Price, the British creator of the image (for an adult magazine in France in 1974), has said he is "mortified" that the character is being used to target kids.
After a 15 year decline, youth smoking rose in 1988--the first full year of the Joe Camel campaign.
1995-07-21 Two reports find alarming increases in cigarette smoking among minors in the US:
Trends in Smoking Initiation Among Adolescents and Young Adults -- United States, 1980-1989 (CDC)
The Monitoring the Future Study (Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan. This study covers the years 1991-1994)
This document's URL is: http://www.tobacco.org/History/Tobacco_History.html
***********************
�2001 Gene Borio, Tobacco BBS (212-982-4645). WebPage: http://www.tobacco.org). Original Tobacco BBS material may be reprinted in any non-commercial venue if accompanied by this credit
***********************
| i don't know |
In literature who was Cedric Errol | · June 27, 2015 ·
Did you know?
"Cedie" originally came from a children's book called "Little Lord Fauntleroy" in 1885, written by the same author of "A Little Princess" (Sarah, ang munting prinsesa) and "The Secret Garden" (Si Mary at ang lihim na hardin). It was then created into an anime "Shoukoushi Cedie" in 1988 and was first shown in local television in 1992.
How old were you when you first watch Cedie on the television?
...
| Little Lord Fauntleroy |
How many teats does a nanny goat have | Little Lord Fauntleroy - Android Apps on Google Play
Little Lord Fauntleroy
Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Virtual Entertainment, 2015
Series: World classic books
Little Lord Fauntleroy is the first children's novel written by author. The novel is included in the top 100 of the world literature.
In a shabby New York side street in the mid-1880s, young Cedric Errol lives with his mother (known only as Mrs. Errol or "Dearest") in genteel poverty after the death of his father, Captain Cedric Errol. One day, they are visited by an English lawyer named Haversham with a message from Cedric's grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt. With the deaths of his father's elder brothers, Cedric has now inherited the title Lord Fauntleroy and is the heir to the Earldom and a vast estate. Cedric's grandfather wants him to live in England and be educated as an English aristocrat. The Earl despises America and is deeply disappointed with Cedric's father, his favourite son, for marrying an American. He offers his son's widow a house and guaranteed income, but he refuses to have anything to do with her, even after she declines his money.
However, the Earl is impressed by the appearance and intelligence of his American grandson, and is charmed by his innocent nature. Cedric believes his grandfather to be an honorable man and benefactor, and the Earl cannot disappoint him. He therefore becomes a benefactor to his tenants, to their delight.
A pretender to Cedric's inheritance appears, his mother claiming that he is the son of the Earl's eldest son. However, the claim is investigated and proven by Cedric's loyal friends in New York, one of whom – a bootblack– recognises the woman as the missing wife of his brother and the alleged heir as his own nephew. The Earl is reconciled to his American daughter-in-law, realising that she is far superior to the imposter.
The Earl planned to teach his grandson how to be an aristocrat. Instead, Cedric teaches his grandfather that an aristocrat should practice compassion towards those dependent on him. He becomes the man Cedric always innocently believed him to be. Cedric's mother is invited by the Earl to live in the ancestral castle, and Cedric's old friend Mr. Hobbs, the New York City grocer, who came to England to help investigate the false claim, decides to stay to help look after Cedric.
-- From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Look for other books on our site http://books.virenter.com
Read more
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Which breed of terrier is the smallest in stature as recognised by The Kennel Club | All about toy dog breeds | Pets4Homes
All About Toy Dog Breeds
Pin it
The name 'toy dog' is a catch-all title used by The Kennel Club to refer to dogs which are naturally small in stature (but often have large personalities!) and may come from any one of a wide variety of different types. Some doggy designations such as spaniels and terriers have specific breeds within their type which are classed as 'toy' dogs, while other animals from the same overall grouping may be full sized. Other terms which are often used when talking about toy dogs include lap dogs (referring to a dog which is small enough to comfortably sit on your lap) and 'teacup sized' to designate the very smallest of toy dogs which are even tinier than the usual half pint toy types! Depending on their breed, toy dogs may either have simply always been naturally small with their diminutive size being a basic trait of the breed, or in the case of dogs such as the English Toy Terrier, were selectively bred down from larger dogs to produce a smaller breed in its own right which shares many of the traits of their full sized cousins.
The general qualities of toy dog breeds
Other than the fact that all toy dogs are of course small in stature, there really are very few other similarities between toy dog types across the range! Some toy dogs are quiet and prone to laziness, and are not keen on vigorous exercise; others are full of beans and require a significant amount of stimulation. Some are easygoing, laid back and great with children, others considerably more high maintenance. As many toy dog breeds are specially bred descendants of other larger breeds such as those in the terrier and spaniel groupings, specific toy dogs depending on their types and origins may in fact have more in common with larger dogs of the same ancestry than they do with other small dogs of different breeds.
A list of toy dog breeds
What makes a dog a 'toy dog' or how they come to be defined as such varies from country to country and even with regional variations; the term toy dog is generally taken to be a catch-all phrase to denote any small dog of either a pure or mixed breed. The Kennel Club in the UK recognises a full twenty three dogs as being of a 'toy breed' for showing purposes; the current list consists of:
Yorkshire Terrier
Advantages and disadvantages of keeping a toy dog breed
The first and most obvious advantage of keeping a toy dog rather than a dog of a larger breed is the fact that by virtue of their small size, they do not require as much living space as larger dogs. They require smaller bedding, kennels, crates and general accommodation, eat less, cost less to spay or neuter, flea and worm, and can be kept perfectly happily in smaller houses and flats while still being able to stretch their legs and move around freely. However, it would be a mistake to think that keeping a toy dog is automatically going to be easier or require less maintenance than keeping a larger dog; While they may be more similar in stature to cats, toy dogs are still 100% canine, and need to be treated as such! Just like larger dogs, toy dogs need to be walked at least once a day (or more often for more active breeds) interacted with regularly, correctly trained, played with and stimulated, and provided with companionship. Toy dogs are no more suited to being left enclosed and unsupervised for long periods of time while their owners are at work than any larger dog is, and they require all of the same time and financial commitment to their lifelong care as any other type of dog. As has been mentioned, there is a great amount of variation between different types of toy dog breeds in terms of their temperament, personality and exercise requirements. Some of the smaller dogs such as the Chihuahua only require short walks and light exercise, whereas others such as the English Toy Terrier and Italian Greyhound love long walks and energetic play. It's important to remember when walking any toy dog that they only have little legs, and you will need to account for their shortened pace and the fact that they will become tired more quickly than taller dogs, and plan their walks accordingly! Because of their specific breeding as lap dogs and companion animals, many of the toy dog breeds such as the Chinese Crested dog are not particularly hardy, and cannot weather the vagaries of hot and cold weather very well, so you will need to take special care of their requirements to make sure that they are happy and healthy. Similarly, generations of inbreeding and selective breeding to certain breed standards have caused an elevated assortment of risk factors and predilection to a range of potentially inherited conditions and genetic traits in some toy dog breeds, such as in the case of the Pug dog and the Cavalier King Charles spaniel. It's important to research each breed thoroughly and take every dog you might be considering on a case by case basis before making your final selection. Toy dogs have a lot to recommend them for a wide variety of reasons- If you are considering buying a toy dog because you have a particular love of a breed, or have restricted space but are prepared and willing to take care of all of their requirements and day to day care both now and in the long term, then choosing a toy dog breed to join your family may well be the perfect choice for you. Happy hunting!
| Yorkshire Terrier |
How many bones are there in a giraffe's neck | All about toy dog breeds | Pets4Homes
All About Toy Dog Breeds
Pin it
The name 'toy dog' is a catch-all title used by The Kennel Club to refer to dogs which are naturally small in stature (but often have large personalities!) and may come from any one of a wide variety of different types. Some doggy designations such as spaniels and terriers have specific breeds within their type which are classed as 'toy' dogs, while other animals from the same overall grouping may be full sized. Other terms which are often used when talking about toy dogs include lap dogs (referring to a dog which is small enough to comfortably sit on your lap) and 'teacup sized' to designate the very smallest of toy dogs which are even tinier than the usual half pint toy types! Depending on their breed, toy dogs may either have simply always been naturally small with their diminutive size being a basic trait of the breed, or in the case of dogs such as the English Toy Terrier, were selectively bred down from larger dogs to produce a smaller breed in its own right which shares many of the traits of their full sized cousins.
The general qualities of toy dog breeds
Other than the fact that all toy dogs are of course small in stature, there really are very few other similarities between toy dog types across the range! Some toy dogs are quiet and prone to laziness, and are not keen on vigorous exercise; others are full of beans and require a significant amount of stimulation. Some are easygoing, laid back and great with children, others considerably more high maintenance. As many toy dog breeds are specially bred descendants of other larger breeds such as those in the terrier and spaniel groupings, specific toy dogs depending on their types and origins may in fact have more in common with larger dogs of the same ancestry than they do with other small dogs of different breeds.
A list of toy dog breeds
What makes a dog a 'toy dog' or how they come to be defined as such varies from country to country and even with regional variations; the term toy dog is generally taken to be a catch-all phrase to denote any small dog of either a pure or mixed breed. The Kennel Club in the UK recognises a full twenty three dogs as being of a 'toy breed' for showing purposes; the current list consists of:
Yorkshire Terrier
Advantages and disadvantages of keeping a toy dog breed
The first and most obvious advantage of keeping a toy dog rather than a dog of a larger breed is the fact that by virtue of their small size, they do not require as much living space as larger dogs. They require smaller bedding, kennels, crates and general accommodation, eat less, cost less to spay or neuter, flea and worm, and can be kept perfectly happily in smaller houses and flats while still being able to stretch their legs and move around freely. However, it would be a mistake to think that keeping a toy dog is automatically going to be easier or require less maintenance than keeping a larger dog; While they may be more similar in stature to cats, toy dogs are still 100% canine, and need to be treated as such! Just like larger dogs, toy dogs need to be walked at least once a day (or more often for more active breeds) interacted with regularly, correctly trained, played with and stimulated, and provided with companionship. Toy dogs are no more suited to being left enclosed and unsupervised for long periods of time while their owners are at work than any larger dog is, and they require all of the same time and financial commitment to their lifelong care as any other type of dog. As has been mentioned, there is a great amount of variation between different types of toy dog breeds in terms of their temperament, personality and exercise requirements. Some of the smaller dogs such as the Chihuahua only require short walks and light exercise, whereas others such as the English Toy Terrier and Italian Greyhound love long walks and energetic play. It's important to remember when walking any toy dog that they only have little legs, and you will need to account for their shortened pace and the fact that they will become tired more quickly than taller dogs, and plan their walks accordingly! Because of their specific breeding as lap dogs and companion animals, many of the toy dog breeds such as the Chinese Crested dog are not particularly hardy, and cannot weather the vagaries of hot and cold weather very well, so you will need to take special care of their requirements to make sure that they are happy and healthy. Similarly, generations of inbreeding and selective breeding to certain breed standards have caused an elevated assortment of risk factors and predilection to a range of potentially inherited conditions and genetic traits in some toy dog breeds, such as in the case of the Pug dog and the Cavalier King Charles spaniel. It's important to research each breed thoroughly and take every dog you might be considering on a case by case basis before making your final selection. Toy dogs have a lot to recommend them for a wide variety of reasons- If you are considering buying a toy dog because you have a particular love of a breed, or have restricted space but are prepared and willing to take care of all of their requirements and day to day care both now and in the long term, then choosing a toy dog breed to join your family may well be the perfect choice for you. Happy hunting!
| i don't know |
What is on the badge of the Yugoslavian club Red Star | Yugoslav medals and badges
YUGOSLAV MEDALS AND BADGES
YU3189.Order of the Yugoslav Crown 3rd class. Instituted by King
Alexander I in October 10, 1929 for civil and military merit. $375.00
YU3004.Order of the Yugoslav Crown 5th class. $175.00
YU3007.Commemorative medal for the War of 1876/1878. $69.95
YU3010.Commemorative medal for the War of 1913. $39.95
YU3025.Serbian WW1 Commemorative medal. $39.95
YUM3190.Order of the Cross of Takovo 5th class.Instituted 1868. $275.00
YUM3139.MILOS OBILICH Bravery medal. 1913. $89.95
YUM3009.Serbian Balkan War Commeration Medal. 1912. $39.95
YUM3016.Silver medal for Zelous service.1913. $69.95
YUM3008.Commemorative Medal for the War of 1876/1878. $79.95
YUM3011.Commemorative Medal for the 25th Anniversary of the
Liberation of Southern Serbia.1937. $89.95
Yugoslav communist era Peoples Army breast badges
Gilt and red enamel with coat of arms of the Socialist Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia.$29.95
YU506.Yugoslav Army best soldier badges.Soldier with helmet,
Yugoslav flag with red star, and inscription "JNA".$15.00
YM192.A rare Yugoslav BADGE issued in 1947 to commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the Soviet October Revolution. Red enameled flag with small 5-pointed golden star and sickle and hammer, a laurel branch and inscription
"1947 - 30 Years of the Country of Socialism."$20.00
POLICE. Gilded bronze wide wings over a ring which has in the middle five pointed
red star and inscription "JNA" (Yugoslav Peoples' Army). $29.95
YU3141.Airforce badge for the 98th sqadron. $45.00
YU3141B.Airforce badge for the 241st sqadron. $45.00
YU3052.Pre military training badge. Missing pin on reverse. $15.00
YU3053A.Yugoslav Shock Worker badges.Awarded to the participants of the
Youth Working Brigades of Tito's time. Dated 1979 - 1983. $30.00
Para
enameled in white and blue, with red five pointed star and in image of a
plane in gilt. In form of a parachute, w/o pendant. Screw on backside. $45.00
YU728.Another very rare Yugoslav PARACHUTE BADGE, for PARACHUTE STUDENTS. White enameled parachute on dark blue field, with a red enameled five
pointed star rimmed in gold on top. Screw on backside. $25.00
Police
YU1099.Medium size BREAST BADGE FOR THE YUGOSLAV CIVILIAN TRAFFIC POLICE. Gilded bronze wide wings over a ring which has in the middle five pointed
red star. Rare. $35.00
Yugoslav communist era Peoples Army medals and orders
YU3050.Yugoslav Order of Labor 3rd class. Given to Individuals, collectives,
military units for outstanding activity in production. $39.95
YU143.Yugoslav MEDAL FOR LABOR.Gilt bronze. With original pentagonal ribbon,
blue and red stripes. In original case.$25.00
YM 144.Yugoslav Army Excellent Marksman medal.Gilt bronze; triangular blue-white-red original ribbon on a metal base.$15.00
YU152.A luxury medals and insignia set in a special display leatherette case,
which contains: Medal of the 40th Anniversary of the Yugoslav People's Army,
Medal of the 50th Anniversary of the Yugoslav People's Army, Badge of the General Staff Academy,
Miniature of the Medal of Bravery and Miniature of the Order of Merit to the People.
In perfect condition. $125.00
Model I - with 5 torches, Russian make. Silver and enamel; with screw on
reverse and very low serial number (No. 751) in original case.$95.00
YU3047.Order of Brotherhood and Unity 2nd class. Pinback in original case.
Silver and enamel. $65.00
YM141A.MEDAL OF MERIT TO THE PEOPLE. Type I - Inscription in Cyrillic letters.
Gilt bronze. With original pentagonal ribbon, red and blue strips, also with ribbon
bar and in original case.$45.00
YM141B.As above with ribbon bar,no case. In issue paper. $15.00
Misc. medals
YU1336.A very rare Serbian TRAFFIC POLICE MEDAL called "Social
Acknowledgement for the Safety on Roads in Serbia". White metal, with a
small metal ribbon. In even more rare original cardboard case with
inscriptions in gilt on the lid and inside. $45.00
173.A Danish TITO MEDAL. Issued in Copenhagen in 1977 by Danish
sculptor Frode Bahnsen in the series of famous WORLD WAR II COMMANDERS.
Art medal (w/o loop), brass, 40 mm. Portraying Tito's bust, and English
inscriptions. Rare numbered issue, this is No. 123.$35.00
Miniature Medals
| Red star |
Who was the first coloured Wimbledon singles champion | Hat Army Badge Type Shop - Collectibles Station
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On which racecourse did Frankie Dettori ride all seven winners at one meeting | Racing: The day Dettori's Magnificent Seven left the bookies in tears | The Independent
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Racing: The day Dettori's Magnificent Seven left the bookies in tears
It is 10 years since Ascot witnessed the mug punter's revenge as Frankie Dettori rode all seven winners. Chris McGrath recounts the joy and the despair of a unique event
Friday 22 September 2006 23:00 BST
Click to follow
The Independent Online
However briefly he seduced outsiders into his sport, on that heady day at Ascot 10 years ago, Frankie Dettori gave them a lasting lesson in its least ephemeral qualities. Imagine some other unfathomable landmark: Tiger Woods, say, shooting 18 consecutive birdies. Anyone who witnessed such a feat would marvel with a sense of communal privilege. When Dettori won all seven races on one of the most competitive cards of the year, however, it was the most intense experience not only in his own life, but many others, too.
Never mind the pyramid of professional stories beneath each of those seven pinnacles - the years of patience and preparation vindicated by each horse that day. For many others to whom the day became unforgettable, 28 September, 1996 dawned with no more promise or interest than a thousand other Saturdays. Before dusk, Dettori would spin them faster and faster round his carousel, seemingly out of control, pivoting wildly round the molten fulcrum of his own instincts.
Just as Dettori, through the afternoon, gradually harnessed himself to some intuitive momentum, beyond his own skill and ambition - everyone agrees he would never have won the seventh race had it been the first - so those with fortunes at stake became helpless, stricken, sick to their stomachs. The ordinary rules of engagement between bookmaker and punter crumbled into anarchy. And, when Dettori deliriously crossed the line a seventh time, with Pat Eddery in blazing, resentful pursuit, he completed an incalculable rout.
It was the Mug Punter's revenge. At 25, this effusive Italian was the natural focus of any impulsive bet. And none could be more frivolous than the blind combination of all seven of his mounts on a day such as this.
True, Gordon Richards once went through a six-race card at Chepstow, part of a spree of 12 consecutive winners over three days. But this meeting at Ascot, as will be seen again today, was the sort where any jockey would settle for one winner. As Dettori himself said that morning: "I could have an each-way chance in the first, and I may win the third."
Mary Bolton was immune to such pragmatism. She and her husband, John, had come up to London from Somerset to celebrate their wedding anniversary. She was to spend the day shopping, while he went to Ascot. To give his wife an interest, John made her a present of a bet at Ladbrokes in Dover Street, Mayfair. She elected a permutation of Frankie's mounts, including a £5 each-way accumulator. "It was because of his character," Mary explained later. "All his smiling and silly nonsense when he wins."
Hers was just one of dozens of similar stories, up and down the nation. Many, inevitably, were poignantly mirrored by the disabled man who combined the first six, before changing his mind and ripping up his betting slip; or by the cleaner who had 50p on each of the seven. She collected £19. Had she added a 50p accumulator, she would have won £12,047.50 at starting prices, and around £120,000 if taking the morning odds.
In turn, the difference between those two payouts would become a gripping sub-plot. Gradually, the High Street betting shop chains realised that they were horribly exposed. After Decorated Hero won the fourth, their liability managers began to sweat. After Fatefully won the next, off-duty bosses started to call in. In the starting price system, the tail wags the dog. Off-course bets are settled at the final odds in the racecourse betting ring. The shop chains protect their own position by "sending" bets into the ring, so forcing down the price about a particular horse.
When Lochangel won the sixth, a £1 accumulator was worth £8,365.50. That sum would now run on to Fujiyama Crest, the animal happily innocent of his role in the drama developing around the final race. He had been available at 12-1 in the morning. Those who had lacked the prescience to take those odds would have their bets settled at starting price. For the off-course market, it was imperative to crush the odds against Fujiyama Crest.
And then something unaccountable happened. The mechanics of the system, a daily reflex of market forces, suddenly broke down. Bookmakers in the ring realised that they could lay 2-1 against a horse whose chance in reality was closer to 12-1. And flesh and blood took over. Instead of meekly cutting the odds lower still, they laid Fujiyama Crest for every penny they had, or thought they might have, if they sold their houses, cars and dependents.
That stand immeasurably raised the stakes on Fujiyama Crest. Barry Dennis, the egregious ring bookmaker, laid the horse to lose £23,000. During the previous 30 years, his biggest loss in one day had been £5,000. Even watching the race, he remained convinced he had done the right thing. As Dettori made the running, he waited for the inevitable challenges.
He told Graham Sharpe, author of The Magnificent Seven, what was going through his mind: "Don't panic, something is coming on the outside - this is going to beat him. I knew he couldn't ride all seven, it isn't possible. Half a furlong out - I do not know the challenger but he simply must get up. Twenty yards to go. Reality - it is not going to get up. Frankie's done it. I stood on my stool, staring, not hearing a thing, in a trance."
Dennis drove home in silence, his staff too frightened to speak. When he got home, his wife greeted him cheerily. "Hello darling," she said. "Good day?" Dennis told her Dettori had ridden all seven winners. " Fantastic!" she said. "What a great achievement." Dennis collapsed into a chair, sobbing.
And he had got away lightly, compared with some. Gary Wiltshire went on to Milton Keynes greyhounds facing liabilities of £800,000. "The first bet I took was a pound," he said. "It was going to be a long way back."
Ladbrokes had inoculated themselves against such unpredictable dramas with a maximum payout of £500,000. The Boltons were due £900,000, but were not too despondent, having initially persuaded themselves that they had won only £300,000. Fred Done flashed a message on to his betting shop screens: "Reward, dead or alive: good-looking Italian kid, last seen in Ascot area."
At the precise moment when Fujiyama Crest passed the post, the clock stopped in a north London betting shop. The proprietor never changed it. He does not need anniversaries to remind him what happened that day.
The Magnificent Seven Where are they now?
By Sue Montgomery
* WALL STREET Odds 2-1
A three-year-old when winning the Cumberland Lodge Stakes, he is the only one of the seven not still alive. He raced once more, when eighth in the Breeders' Cup Turf, but died after a suffering a bout of colic in Dubai that winter.
* DIFFIDENT Odds 12-1
The Diadem Stakes was the best of Diffident's seven wins and at the age of 14, the son of Nureyev is now a star stallion in India. He stands at the Poonawalla Stud, at Pune, where he has sired local Guineas and Oaks winners.
* MARK OF ESTEEM Odds 100-30
Mark Of Esteem's defeat of Bosra Sham in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes made him the best in Europe that year. Now 13, the Darshaan horse has made an excellent fist of his second career at Darley Stud, sire of this year's Derby winner Sir Percy and top sprinter Reverence.
* DECORATED HERO Odds 7-1
Decorated Hero carried top weight of 9st 13lb in the Tote Festival Handicap. The Warning gelding, now 14, raced for two more seasons - winning 14 of his 33 races - before finding a home at the British Racing School in Newmarket, where he helps teach aspiring Dettoris.
* FATEFULLY Odds 7-4
After taking the Rosemary Stakes, Fatefully won once more and is now a broodmare for Gainsborough Stud. She has produced six foals, including Nassau Stakes winner Favourable Terms. Now 13, she is pregnant to Selkirk.
* LOCHANGEL Odds 5-4
Lochangel scored her maiden two-year-old victory in the Blue Seal Stakes and went on to win the Nunthorpe Stakes at four. The daughter of Night Shift has not been as good as a producer for Littleton Stud, with one minor winner. She is due to Danehill Dancer.
* FUJIYAMA CREST Odds 2-1
Fujiyama Crest had a chequered career after winning the Gordon Carter Handicap, descending to claiming company after several changes of stable. The 14-year-old gelding, whose eight wins included one over hurdles, is now happily retired as the Dettori family pet.
'9-4 Fujiyama and 9-4 me for the Job Centre'
Gary Wiltshire: The Bookie
A hulk of a man, this on-course bookmaker faced several lean years after taking a dauntless stand against a flood of money from betting shop chains for Dettori's seventh mount, Fujiyama Crest. Wiltshire stood next to his pitch on the rails and bellowed: "9-4 Fujiyama! And 9-4 me for the Job Centre!" Later, he explained: "The odds were miles wrong. I was laying 2-1 about a horse I made a 10-1 shot."
He faced ruin, owing over £800,000. He sold his house and cars and scraped money together selling Christmas paper in Oxford Street. After that he " worked every hour God made", betting at six race meetings and six dog tracks every week, and "settled every bet". He vows he would do the same again.
Darren Yates: The Punter
His joinery business in Morecombe, Lancashire, was in trouble, and his wife had insisted that he end his compulsive habit of backing Dettori. Yates had reluctantly agreed, but secretly staked £67.58 in combining all seven of Dettori's mounts.
Yates spent much of the afternoon playing centre-half for his local football team. After a 4-0 hiding, he popped into the pub and discovered that Dettori had won the first four races.
By the end of the afternoon, he had won £550,000. In a good week Yates earned £300, and had just been refused a building society loan. He had feared that he would have to lay off his six staff.
He has since doubled the size of his business and moved house.
Magnificent Seven: How Frankie Dettori Achieved the Impossible by Graham Sharpe published by Aurum at £7.99. ISBN 978 1 84513 162 3
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Who was the first F1driver to to win a Grand Prix for four different teams | Seven is not this bookmaker’s lucky number – Sports Journalists' Association
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“Dettori Day”, nearly 15 years ago, delighted punters and had the bookies running for cover. Not quickly enough in the case of Gary Wiltshire, who tells his story in a new book reviewed by ANTON RIPPON
On the Saturday morning of September 28, 1996, bookmaker Gary Wiltshire was driving along the M40, heading for Worcester racecourse where he had decided to pitch for the day. But a huge tailback of traffic made him change his mind. Abandoning the humble fare of a Midlands jumps meeting, Wiltshire decided to turn around and head for Ascot instead.
It was a decision that was to change his life forever. He was about to become the biggest casualty of Dettori Day.
As Wiltshire set up on his lowly rails pitch, around the country, and on the course, mug punters were filling out slips for multiple bets and accumulators on some of Frankie Dettori’s seven rides at Ascot. Some fools were even placing money on Dettori to win all seven races, something that had never been done in the history of horseracing.
Long, long ago, Gordon Richards and Alec Russell had each gone through a six-race card at far humbler meetings. But winning all seven races at a prestigious meeting like that Ascot Saturday? Come off it.
The day started quietly for Wiltshire, who was hardly involved as Dettori won the first race, then the second, then third … and then the fourth. Suddenly interest picked up. The BBC, who had planned to show only the first four races, decided to stick with the remainder of the meeting.
It was the fifth race, the Rosemary Dated Stakes, that began Wiltshire’s nightmare. Dettori was riding a filly called Fatefully, who in the morning prices had been quoted at 9/2. But in the Ascot betting ring, the big firms were now trying to limit the damage from Dettori having ridden the first four winners. Fatefully opened at 5/2 and was well backed down to 13/8.
At that point Wiltshire was £800 up on the day. Hardly big money, but modestly respectable. Now he decided to make some real money. Fatefully was being offered at less than 2/1 for what, a few hours earlier, had been a more than double those odds. Do me a favour.
Wiltshire started laying bets on Fatefully. Fatefully, with Dettori on board, started at 7/4 and won by a neck.
It wasn’t fear – or common sense – that prevented Wiltshire from getting involved in the sixth race. Along with everyone else, he simply fancied Dettori to win it on the 5/4 favourite, Loch Angel.
In the seventh race, though, Dettori was aboard an old gelding named Fujiyama Crest. In the morning papers, Fujiyama Crest had been generally around 12/1 and at one stage had even gone out to 20/1. But now punters around Britain were putting their money on history being made. Of course, this meant that Fujiyama Crest’s odds were tumbling.
But even all that weight of money didn’t mean that the horse could run any faster.
As far as Gary Wiltshire was concerned, Fujiyama Crest was still “a dog”. And laying “dogs” had long been how the jolly, fat bookmaker had made a living so comfortable that he owned a five-bedroomed house near Towcester, a cottage in Norfolk, a villa in Portugal, two Mercedes E320 convertibles, and several racehorses.
The bookmaker had no problem in taking a £5,000 bet at 4/1 from fellow bookie Roy Christie. That was the start of the avalanche that was about to engulf Gary Wiltshire.
With the big bookmakers on the rails now going as low as 6/4, and the off-course bookies trying to force the price to a damage-limiting odds-on, the man who should have been having a quiet day at Worcester was still calling out 3/1 and attracting plenty of takers. It was the proverbial licence to print money. Or so he thought.
Seventh heaven: Dettori, having ridden his ultimate winner at Ascot
By the off, Fujiyama Crest was down to 2/1 around the course. But Wiltshire’s little pitch was where all the focus was. On that single race, he had taken almost £1 million in bets, nearly half a million of it from Coral alone, at odds varying from 7/2 to 9/4.
And, of course, as we all now know, Lanfranco Dettori rode Fujiyama Crest to victory by a neck. History had indeed been made. And Gary Wiltshire had been ruined.
That night, at Milton Keynes dogs, the first bet he took was from a punter who wanted £1 on a 2-1 shot. It was going to be a long way back.
But back he fought. And that was probably why, at the end of it all, he chose to write his autobiography, Winning It All Back, in which Wiltshire tells not only the full story of that fateful day at Ascot, and its blistering aftermath, but also how he came to be a bookmaker in the first place and all the roller-coaster moments of a life more full of fun and laughter than of gloom and doom.
From working on a flower stall in Leather Lane market (a regular patron was “keen gardener” Violet Kray, doting mum of Ronnie and Reggie) to fame as the Bookie Who Lost A Million, Wiltshire’s story is fast and entertaining.
He refers to himself as a Cockney when, in fact, he was born and raised in Islington. Of course, a cheery Cockney is a better image for a Jack-the-Lad bookie, but as Wiltshire is (cliché alert) already a larger-than-life character, there is no need for such embellishment.
From the age of five or six, he could calculate odds, and all he ever wanted to do was be a bookie. It seems to be in his blood: his paternal grandfather and his maternal grandmother both liked a daily punt. At an early age he sought counselling for a gambling addiction.
He was a good young footballer, although it takes some imagination to picture the 32st “Belly From Telly” – he is a familiar face on BBC’s horseracing coverage and on Sky’s nights at the dogs programmes – as a goalkeeper once good enough to play for Islington schoolboys and attract Leyton Orient’s brief attention.
After his Ascot nightmare, Wiltshire had two stark choices: walk away from his legally unenforceable gambling debts and be warned off every racecourse, his bookmaking career over; or sell everything he owned, pay off every penny, and start again.
Wiltshire chose the latter course. His first port of call was to see Coral’s Trevor Beaumont, who told him, “You’ve got a good name and, if you say you will pay, then I know you will.” And he did.
Winning It All Back by Gary Wiltshire (Racing Post, £18.99)
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In what sport do the Sheffield Hatters participate | BBC News | Race
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A lower proportion of people from ethnic minorities take part in sport, compared with the national average.
A study by the English Sports Council, Sport England, revealed that many people from ethnic minorities were keen to give sport it a go - but said they did not have access to facilities.
Some also cited racist incidents which had put them off - one in ten men of African or Caribbean origin said they had had a negative experience in sport because of their ethnicity.
Sport England is trying to increase the profile of sport and its health and social benefits in ethnic minority communities around Britain.
The council awards grants of up to �5,000 to organisations which encourage ethnic minority participation in sport. Local athletics groups and organisations like Sheffield's Pitsmoor Somali Club are among those who have already benefited from extra cash.
Successful sports
Some sports have already been successful in achieving a broader racial mix of participants, but there is still room for improvement.
Basketball: Growing in popularity
Basketball is hugely popular with young black players, partly because of its accessibility to those living in inner cities.
Black American role models such as Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson have also helped to promote the game and make it fashionable.
Two years ago, a fifth of the 4,000 players registered at National League level were from an African or Caribbean background. However only 1.4% were Asian.
The game also suffers from stereotyping.
Researchers from Leeds Metropolitan University spoke to spectators at several league basketball games. They discovered that while 82.3% of spectators though basketball was a �natural' sport for African-Caribbeans, only 65.1% considered it a �natural' sport for Asians.
The researchers also concluded that the national structure of basketball in the UK was dominated by a white hierarchy.
Sporting Equals, a partnership between Sport England and the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), believes the picture is similar in many other sports.
Their strategy is to tackle inequality in management and club structures to bring better racial equality and less discrimination at all levels.
"The high profile sports obviously get more coverage," says Novlette Rennie, Sporting Equals' project manager.
"But in terms of the internal workings of an organisation we sometimes don't hear about what happens behind closed doors."
Click here to watch an interview with Novlette Rennie
In March, the former head of the CRE Lord Ouseley called on the Football Association to explain why there were no black members on the FA's council.
He claimed that the game was run "by an old boys network," and bemoaned the lack of representation of ethnic minorities on county associations.
Charter for sport
All this could change as the Football Association prepares to sign up to Sporting Equals' Racial Equality Charter for Sport.
By signing the charter, organisations pledge to fight racism and promote racial equality at all levels of their sport.
"We're really pleased that the Football Association is coming on board," says Novlette.
"As one of the most high profile sports in Britain, I think it's really important that the FA demonstrates its commitment publicly. Then when we do hear examples of racism taking place, people will be confident that the FA will be taking action."
Around 30 national associations have already signed up to the charter and are making moves to improve racial equality in their sports.
Another seven - including governing bodies for cricket, hockey, basketball and tennis - are working their way through a set of standards to help them work towards better racial equality.
"Rugby League, for example, has produced and translated an information leaflet that targets a number of ethnic minority communities," explains Novlette.
"Some sports have given coaching scholarships for ethnic minorities and are looking at mentoring programmes for people to go on to committees and management.
"They are also looking at role models and some have actually reviewed their publicity and promotional material to reflect the diversity of our society."
Sporting Equals is also actively promoting the grant scheme to help groups providing sporting activities.
"The success of that is beginning to make a difference," says Novlette. "But we've still got a long way to go."
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A lower proportion of people from ethnic minorities take part in sport, compared with the national average.
A study by the English Sports Council, Sport England, revealed that many people from ethnic minorities were keen to give sport it a go - but said they did not have access to facilities.
Some also cited racist incidents which had put them off - one in ten men of African or Caribbean origin said they had had a negative experience in sport because of their ethnicity.
Sport England is trying to increase the profile of sport and its health and social benefits in ethnic minority communities around Britain.
The council awards grants of up to �5,000 to organisations which encourage ethnic minority participation in sport. Local athletics groups and organisations like Sheffield's Pitsmoor Somali Club are among those who have already benefited from extra cash.
Successful sports
Some sports have already been successful in achieving a broader racial mix of participants, but there is still room for improvement.
Basketball: Growing in popularity
Basketball is hugely popular with young black players, partly because of its accessibility to those living in inner cities.
Black American role models such as Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson have also helped to promote the game and make it fashionable.
Two years ago, a fifth of the 4,000 players registered at National League level were from an African or Caribbean background. However only 1.4% were Asian.
The game also suffers from stereotyping.
Researchers from Leeds Metropolitan University spoke to spectators at several league basketball games. They discovered that while 82.3% of spectators though basketball was a �natural' sport for African-Caribbeans, only 65.1% considered it a �natural' sport for Asians.
The researchers also concluded that the national structure of basketball in the UK was dominated by a white hierarchy.
Sporting Equals, a partnership between Sport England and the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), believes the picture is similar in many other sports.
Their strategy is to tackle inequality in management and club structures to bring better racial equality and less discrimination at all levels.
"The high profile sports obviously get more coverage," says Novlette Rennie, Sporting Equals' project manager.
"But in terms of the internal workings of an organisation we sometimes don't hear about what happens behind closed doors."
Click here to watch an interview with Novlette Rennie
In March, the former head of the CRE Lord Ouseley called on the Football Association to explain why there were no black members on the FA's council.
He claimed that the game was run "by an old boys network," and bemoaned the lack of representation of ethnic minorities on county associations.
Charter for sport
All this could change as the Football Association prepares to sign up to Sporting Equals' Racial Equality Charter for Sport.
By signing the charter, organisations pledge to fight racism and promote racial equality at all levels of their sport.
"We're really pleased that the Football Association is coming on board," says Novlette.
"As one of the most high profile sports in Britain, I think it's really important that the FA demonstrates its commitment publicly. Then when we do hear examples of racism taking place, people will be confident that the FA will be taking action."
Around 30 national associations have already signed up to the charter and are making moves to improve racial equality in their sports.
Another seven - including governing bodies for cricket, hockey, basketball and tennis - are working their way through a set of standards to help them work towards better racial equality.
"Rugby League, for example, has produced and translated an information leaflet that targets a number of ethnic minority communities," explains Novlette.
"Some sports have given coaching scholarships for ethnic minorities and are looking at mentoring programmes for people to go on to committees and management.
"They are also looking at role models and some have actually reviewed their publicity and promotional material to reflect the diversity of our society."
Sporting Equals is also actively promoting the grant scheme to help groups providing sporting activities.
"The success of that is beginning to make a difference," says Novlette. "But we've still got a long way to go."
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Who had a U.K. No 1 in the 90's with Love is all Around | "Love Is All around Wet Wet Wet Again" - The Journal (Newcastle, England), November 29, 2004 | Online Research Library: Questia
Article excerpt
Byline: By Sam Wonfor
It looked like the well had run dry for Wet Wet Wet fans when the band split up at the back end of the 90s. But the boys are back back back, and looking forward to thrilling a Tyneside crowd this week, as Sam Wonfor discovers.
When Wet Wet Wet got back together last year, after a seven-year hiatus brought about by a messy split, they weren't sure whether anyone would still be interested. They were quickly reassured.
"When we started doing in-store appearances at record shops, we were worried it was going to be a few people and their dog, you know," says drummer Tommy Cunningham.
"So it was great that they came out in their droves.
"We're still in people's hearts, and that makes us feel vindicated, it makes it worth it. It obviously felt like unfinished business to everyone else out there as well."
Wet Wet Wet certainly had enormous success in the 80s and 90s. Three of their songs got to No 1, and one ( the inescapable Love Is All Around ( had the longest stay at No 1 for a UK act, topping the charts for 15 weeks.
Although it's currently fashionable for 80s bands to stage comebacks, it came as a great surprise when Wet Wet Wet announced they were getting back together to write some new songs for their Greatest Hits album.
For when the band split in 1999, there seemed to be little chance of them ever reforming. The beginning of the end came in 1997 when Wet Wet Wet, which also includes lead singer Marti Pellow, bassist Graeme Clark and keyboard player Neil Mitchell, gathered at their company offices in Glasgow to discuss royalties.
Previously the money had been split equally, but the band wanted to cut Tommy's quarter share. Disgusted, he walked out. Without him, the other band members limped on for a bit, touring the following year, but the damage was done.
"It's weird," says Tommy, "because the time of our biggest successes was the most painful. The most joyous was when we've been on the bones of our arses. When a Lear jet becomes ordinary, you know there's a problem."
Tommy went back to `normal' life, becoming a family man and running a number of businesses. …
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| Wet Wet Wet |
What does B.B. King call his favourite guitar | Love is all around Wet Wet Wet again. - Free Online Library
Love is all around Wet Wet Wet again.
<a href="https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Love+is+all+around+Wet+Wet+Wet+again.-a0125398329</a>
Citations:
MLA style: "Love is all around Wet Wet Wet again.." The Free Library. 2004 MGN Ltd. 19 Jan. 2017 https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Love+is+all+around+Wet+Wet+Wet+again.-a0125398329
Chicago style: The Free Library. S.v. Love is all around Wet Wet Wet again.." Retrieved Jan 19 2017 from https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Love+is+all+around+Wet+Wet+Wet+again.-a0125398329
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Byline: By Sam Wonfor
It looked like the well had run dry for Wet Wet Wet fans when the band split up at the back end of the 90s. But the boys are back back back, and looking forward to thrilling a Tyneside crowd this week, as Sam Wonfor discovers.
When Wet Wet Wet got back together last year, after a seven-year hiatus brought about by a messy split, they weren't sure whether anyone would still be interested. They were quickly reassured.
"When we started doing in-store appearances at record shops, we were worried it was going to be a few people and their dog, you know," says drummer Tommy Cunningham.
"So it was great that they came out in their droves.
"We're still in people's hearts, and that makes us feel vindicated, it makes it worth it. It obviously felt like unfinished business to everyone else out there as well."
Wet Wet Wet certainly had enormous success in the 80s and 90s. Three of their songs got to No 1, and one ( the inescapable Love Is All Around ( had the longest stay at No 1 for a UK act, topping the charts for 15 weeks.
Although it's currently fashionable for 80s bands to stage comebacks, it came as a great surprise when Wet Wet Wet announced they were getting back together to write some new songs for their Greatest Hits album.
For when the band split in 1999, there seemed to be little chance of them ever reforming. The beginning of the end came in 1997 when Wet Wet Wet, which also includes lead singer Marti Pellow, bassist Graeme Clark and keyboard player Neil Mitchell, gathered at their company offices in Glasgow to discuss royalties.
Previously the money had been split equally, but the band wanted to cut Tommy's quarter share. Disgusted, he walked out. Without him, the other band members limped on for a bit, touring the following year, but the damage was done.
"It's weird," says Tommy, "because the time of our biggest successes was the most painful. The most joyous was when we've been on the bones of our arses. When a Lear jet becomes ordinary, you know there's a problem."
Tommy went back to `normal' life, becoming a family man and running a number of businesses. Graeme Clark kept in touch with both Neil and Marti, who pursued an unsuccessful solo career followed by a successful stage career, as well as overcoming a heroin addiction that almost killed him.
It seemed for a long time that a reunion was out of the question. But though the band barely spoke to each other, their families had stayed in touch. And the four band members were finally forced into the same room by the death of Marti's mother Margaret last year.
"Enough time had passed to forget what had happened. What mattered back then didn't really matter any more," says Graeme Clark.
"The pain was gone," says Tommy. "It was all gone."
With their friendship renewed, they eventually decided to meet up after hearing that their record label, Mercury, was planning a new Greatest Hits album.
"It wasn't a difficult decision to get back together," says Graeme Clark. "But there was a worry about whether we'd still be able to do it, and whether it would be the same. Once we got over that, it was fine. We started thinking about where we should go and what we should do."
"We wanted to add some new songs to the Greatest Hits," Marti says, "because we wanted to show not only what we were about, but where we're at right here and now. Most greatest hits are money for old rope, and that's not what it's about.
"It's about: `Can we do that again?' And, more importantly, it was about whether we could rekindle the friendship and have that spark again."
Wednesday sees the band start a 15-date arena tour of the UK which arrives at Newcastle's Metro Radio Arena on Saturday.
"Being back in this band fills a void for me," says Tommy. "Normal life I love, but there was no-one else I could relate to who'd been through the experiences I'd been through for 15 years of my life. It's all relevant again now."
In fact, the only problem seems to be Marti's forgetting the words to Wet Wet Wet's hits. He even forgot the words to Love Is All Around while performing recently.
"I forget the words to songs all the time," he sighs. "When you've got a couple of thousand songs in your head, it's hard. Cut me some slack."
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Who played the part of Fleur in The Forsyte Saga | The Forsyte Saga (TV Mini-Series 1967) - IMDb
The Forsyte Saga
The extended Forsyte family live a more than pleasant upper middle class life in Victorian and later Edwardian England. The two central characters are Soames Forsyte and his cousin Jolyon ... See full summary »
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The Forsyte Saga (TV Mini-Series 2002)
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The trials of the British aristocratic Bellamy family and their household staff.
Stars: Gordon Jackson, David Langton, Jean Marsh
Louisa Trotter works her way up from being a skivvy to being the Queen of cooks, cook to the King, and owner of the Bentinck Hotel. Her life and happenings among the guests and staff of the... See full summary »
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James Onedin marries Anne Webster in order to get his hands on a ship. However the marriage turns out to be one of true love. James is ruthless in his attempt to get a shipping line started... See full summary »
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Stars: Glenda Jackson, Ronald Hines, Robert Hardy
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When a crusade against the Church of England's practice of self-enrichment misfires, scandal taints the cozy community of Barchester when their local church becomes the object of a scathing, investigative report.
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By what nickname was William 11 known | The Forsyte Saga Cast | List of All The Forsyte Saga Actors and Actresses
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Alice Patten The Forsyte Saga, Charles II: The Power and The Passion
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Amanda Root The Forsyte Saga, Daniel Deronda, The Robinsons
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Amanda Ryan The Forsyte Saga, David Copperfield, Attachments
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Ann Bell Tenko, Double First, An Unofficial Rose
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Barbara Flynn Cracker, Open All Hours, The Vanishing Man
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Beatriz Batarda The Forsyte Saga
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Ben Miles Dracula, Coupling, The Forsyte Saga
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Christian Coulson The Forsyte Saga
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Corin Redgrave The Forsyte Saga, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
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Damian Lewis Homeland, Band of Brothers, Life
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Eric Porter Sherlock Holmes, The Glittering Prizes, The Jewel in the Crown
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Fay Compton Sanctuary (UK), The Forsyte Saga
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Gillian Kearney Shameless, Brookside, The Forsyte Saga
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Gina McKee The Forsyte Saga, The Silence, The Lost Prince
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Ioan Gruffudd Ringer, Ben 10: Alien Force, Forever
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Joanna David Pride and Prejudice, The Forsyte Saga, War and Peace
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John Carlisle Emergency – Ward 10, The Forsyte Saga, Kavanagh QC
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John Welsh The Duchess of Duke Street, The Forsyte Saga, Softly^! Softly
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Judy Campbell The Forsyte Saga, The Nanny (UK)
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Julian Ovenden Foyle's War, The Assets, Cashmere Mafia
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Kenneth More The Forsyte Saga, Father Brown
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Lana Morris Howards' Way, The Forsyte Saga
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Margaret Tyzack EastEnders, I^! Claudius, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
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Michael York Jesus of Nazareth, Space, Judith Krantz's Till We Meet Again
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Nyree Dawn Porter The Protectors, The Forsyte Saga, Never A Cross Word
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Rupert Graves Sherlock, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, The Forsyte Saga
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Susan Hampshire Monarch of the Glen, The 100 Greatest Musicals, The Barchester Chronicles ...
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Alistair Petrie The Forsyte Saga, Emma
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Robert Lang The Chronicles of Narnia, The Forsyte Saga, Tenko
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Joseph O'Conor The Barchester Chronicles, The Forsyte Saga
;
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Who was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover | House of Hanover - YouTube
House of Hanover
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The House of Hanover (the Hanoverians) is a deposed German royal dynasty which has ruled the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg (German: Braunschweig-Lüneburg), the Kingdom of Hanover, the Kingdom of Great Britain, the Kingdom of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It succeeded the House of Stuart as monarchs of Great Britain and Ireland in 1714 and held that office until the death of Victoria in 1901. They are sometimes referred to as the House of Brunswick and Lüneburg, Hanover line. The House of Hanover is a younger branch of the House of Welf, which in turn is the senior branch of the House of Este.
Queen Victoria was the granddaughter of George III, and was an ancestor of most major European royal houses. She arranged marriages for her children and grandchildren across the continent, tying Europe together; this earned her the nickname "the grandmother of Europe". She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover; her son King Edward VII belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father, Prince Albert. Since Victoria could not inherit the German kingdom and duchies under Salic law, those possessions passed to the next eligible male heir, her uncle Ernest Augustus I of Hanover, the Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale—the fifth son of George III.
The current head of the House of Hanover is Ernst August V, Prince of Hanover.
for more informations: http://www.welfen.de/ (in german)
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In which town did Mrs. Simpson get her divorce before marrying Edward V111 | The House of Hanover / Useful Notes - TV Tropes
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The royal dynasty that ruled Great Britain and Ireland from 1714 to 1901. Victorian Britain and Queen Victoria get separate entries, since Victoria spent so long on the throne. King Edward VII and his successors ( The House of Windsor ) have their own pages, and are not Hanoverians (instead being of Queen Victoria's Prince Consort Albert's house of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha) due to the whole male succession thing .
The dynasty originated from the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg (also known as Hanover, after the ruler's residence when it became an Electorate), in what is now essentially the German state of Lower Saxony .note So we suppose the Saxons did take back the country, eh? The House of Hanover then was the younger branch of the House of Brunswick, which is descended from the medieval House of Welf (Romanized: Guelph). Their first dynastic contact with Britain happened in 1168, when Duke Henry the Lion married Matilda, daughter of King Henry II of England. Since the House of Hanover was officially called the House of Brunswick-Luneburg (Braunschweig-Lüneburg), it is no surprise to see the Canadian province of New Brunswick being so named in 1784, even though the city of Brunswick lay outside George III's German realm.
On a less-lofty note, the Hanover dynasty were notably large of frame , with all the Hanoverian monarchs being at least somewhat on the hefty side at some point in their reigns; in some circumstances it made them look regally portly, but in other circumstances...well...just look at what we have to say about George IV below. Also, we should note here that it was a grand Hanoverian tradition for the Hanoverians to get into personal disputes and pissing contests with their eldest sons; this had a few lasting effectsnote Sir Robert Walpole 's rise to the position of Prime Minister was in part the product of his mediation of George I's problems with the future George II, and many of the modern royal duties of the monarchy — cutting ribbons, going on state visits to friendly countries, etc. — were established because they were concessions Victoria made to her son Edward, who was constantly angry at her for not giving him enough to do. but more importantly the disputes are often hilarious in hindsight.
George I of Great Britain
Lived: 28 May 1660 �- 11 June 1727 Parents: Ernest Augustus, Prince of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Calenberg, later Elector of Hanover and Princess Sophia of the Palatinate Reigned (in Britain): 1 August 1714 �- 11 June 1727 Consort: Duchess Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Celle
George I (German: Georg) did not become King of Great Britain and Ireland until the age of 54, and had possibly less interest in ruling the country than any other actual monarch before or since. During his early life, he'd served in the wars against Louis XIV of France, for which he was made a prince-electornote Theoretically his father had already been made an elector in 1692, but that promotion was only ratified by the Imperial Diet during the course of the War of Spanish Succession, by which time Ernestus Augustus had long dead. and the hereditary (and purely ceremonial) arch-treasurernote The arms of that office - the golden imperial crown on red - are on the central shield of the dynastic arms seen at the top of this page. of the Holy Roman Empire . George married his first cousin, Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Celle, for her huge tracts of land (to wit, the adjoining duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle) and an accompanying income of 1,000 thaler per year; this marriage was engineered by George's mother , who was famously shrewd at arranging strategic marriages for her children and other relatives, even if both bride and groom had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the marriage (as happened in the case of George and Sophia Dorothea). As you might expect in such circumstances, the marriage was a bad one, and Sophia Dorothea was suspected of cheating on George. Her supposed lover was murdered, possibly with George's knowledge, and after the ensuing divorce she was placed in a Luxury Prison Suite for the rest of her life. He never remarried, but had numerous mistresses, two of whom became known to the British people as "the ugly one" and "the fat one".
Ascended to the dukedom of Hanover in 1698 on the death of his father. The removal of Catholics from the line of succession to the British throne (56 of them were ahead of his family), and the death of the incumbent first-in-line, rather unexpectedly placed his mother Sophia—a granddaughter of James I—as heir presumptive to the reigning Queen Anne. Sophia was hardly young and died in 1714, just before Anne herself. George found himself heir and headed for the United Kingdom, but got stuck for a while at The Hague due to wind problems.
George, not having been anywhere near close to succeeding to the British throne until during his late forties, did not speak English, found communication with his British ministers difficult, and generally preferred Hanover to Britain anyway. Therefore, during his reign, Parliament became the dominant body in British government and the first "Prime Minister" (a title not yet in formal existence) emerged, Robert Walpole.
The South Sea Bubble
Proving that speculation is nothing new...
The South Sea Company held a monopoly on English trade with South America, particularly the Transatlantic Slave Trade, which was really getting going at this time (one of the effects of the War of the Spanish Succession was that Britain obtained the asiento
, the exclusive right to sell slaves to Spanish colonies). The company was granted this monopoly by promising to finance England's ever rising national debt racked up after years of uninterrupted global warfare. The monopoly, unfortunately, was much less profitable than expected, so the company changed gears and ran what could be considered a proto- Ponzi scheme to make up for the cash difference.
Thus, the company bought a large portion of the British national debt and begun selling shares by the thousands. Engaging in practices that were distinctly dodgy to drive up the price, such as bribery, paying people to buy shares, and "selling" shares to politicians. The politicians didn't actually pay for them and then sold them back, thus increasing the share price. There were also increasingly ludicrous rumours profits being circulated by Company shills, including for a time, one Daniel Defoe.
Other companies joined in. (Some choice example are the company for inventing a wheel for perpetual motion, capital one million, and the notorious company "for carrying on an Undertaking of great Advantage; but nobody to know what it is." The proprietor of the latter company raised the then-huge sum of two thousand pounds in one day, and promptly skipped town.) In fact, mania for stock trading was at such a fever pitch that the South Sea Company, fearing that these new stocks would divert the needed funds required to hold up the scheme, had the government shut many of them down for attempted fraud.
By 1720, the price had reached its peak and people were selling en masse. Those who had bought shares on credit saw the price collapse and many ended up bankrupt. The banks had to write off a load of debt they could not get back. Parliament was recalled, investigated and found massive fraud going on. This was not the first "bubble"note The Dutch had famously suffered a tulip bubble
in the 1630s, and there were probably others before then and it certainly wasn't the last. The UK still have not completely paid off all of the South Sea debt to this day.
King George was not directly involved, but the government became rather unpopular as a result.
George was often ridiculed in England for his wooden mannerisms and supposed inability to speak English (he handled royal business in French, and may have picked up the language later in life), but by and large, contemporary accounts held him to be a better choice than the Stuarts. His treatment of his wife did however embitter his son against him, starting a tradition among the Hanovers and Wettins/Windsors of father-son animosity that lasted until the reign of Edward VII. He died on a visit to Hanover, and was buried there, making him the last British monarch not to be buried in England.note In fact, with the exception of his son George II, all of his successors have been buried in Windsor - even Edward VIII.
George II of Great Britain
Lived: 30 October 1683 �- 25 October 1760 Parents: King George I and Princess Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick and Luneburg Reigned: 11 June 1727 — 25 October 1760 Consort: Princess Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach
Perhaps best known for the Jacobite rebellion of 1745 when Bonnie Prince Charlie marched a Scottish army as far as Derby before turning back and being defeated at Culloden.
George was also the last British monarch to lead an army in battle (at Dettingen, in 1743), at the age of 60 no less.
Also, Britain reformed its calendar in 1752, omitting eleven days to switch from the Julian to Gregorian calendars, and also changing the start of the new year from 25 March to 1 January. The second of September was followed by the fourteenth, and dates were referred to as Old Style or New Style according to which calendar was being used. Most of the Continent had switched some time ago.
The song that became the UK's national anthem, 'God Save The King', was written and first performed during George II's reign � and remains used to this day, as 'God Save The Queen' .
As a point of trivia, Georg August was not only the last British Monarch born outside of Englandnote (Of his successors there, so far only Edward VIII and George VI have been born outside of Central London) but the last hereditary ruler of Hanover to be born any closer than Berlin.
In Germany he is primarily remembered for founding the University of Göttingen (known to this day as the Georg-August-Universtiät or Georgia Augusta ), one of the most modern and innovative of German universities in the 18th century.
His wife and consort, Caroline of Ansbach, is considered to have been one of the most powerful and beloved of modern royal consorts. Wise, compassionate, and devoted to her faith, Caroline turned down the Catholic King of Spain (and Holy Roman Emperor) to marry George, then merely a minor Protestant German princeling. As Princess of Wales and Queen she was beloved by not just Hanoverians but Jacobites as well, who (despite their religious differences) saw her as a voice of moderation, compassion, and reason. As an ally of Robert Walpole she had a great deal of influence on her husband and on the government of the day, but this was seen mainly in a positive light even by Walpole's opponents.note They didn't have much faith in George at the time, and saw Caroline as both smarter and more politically astute than her husband. Her early death in 1737 left both the country and George bereft; he never considered remarrying. Paradoxically, George was both a devoted husband and notorious philanderer; all of his mistresses were cleared with his wife beforehand.
George and Frederick carried on the Hanoverian tradition of mutual dislike between father and son; when George's ship was feared lost in a gale in the North Sea, his eldest son Frederick (the Prince of Wales) held a dinner party in celebration. Caroline's early deathnote from a hernia complicated by uterine rupture and a strangulated bowel - and unsuccessful surgery without anaesthetic to correct the problem was attributed by George to the rage she felt at Frederick over the stunt. Luckily for George (and possibly the nation) Frederick predeceased his father.
George's death was itself one of the more interesting royal deaths in British history. Being, like most members of his dynasty, rather a large man , with the wholly unhealthy diet characteristic of the 18th-century European upper classes, we shouldn't be too surprised that he died of heart disease (specifically, his right ventricle had ruptured as a result of an aortic aneurysm). However, the chain of events leading to it is darkly amusing: after finishing his morning hot chocolate, the King went to the loo to conduct his morning labours (did we mention that on account of the aforementioned awful diet, he had chronic constipation?), and a few minutes later his valet heard a crash. Yes, George II died taking a shit .
Eventually living to the age of 77, George was to this point the longest-lived monarch the land had ever seen. As holder of this record he was succeeded, as on the throne, by:
George III of the United Kingdom
Lived: 4 June 1738 �- 29 January 1820 Parents: Prince Frederick, Prince of Wales and Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha Reigned: 25 October 1760 — 29 January 1820 Consort: Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
"I glory in the name of Britain".
The grandson of George II (his father Frederick, Prince of Wales having died young, as mentioned above), George III came to the throne aged just 22, and went on to become both the longest-lived and longest-reigning sovereign in British history by this point. The first Hanoverian to have been born in England and raised speaking English, he in fact never visited Hanover in his long life. Unlike his two predecessors, who were mostly interested in their German territories, George's attentions were firmly fixed on Britain; at his coronation speech, he famously proclaimed, "I glory in the name of Briton".note Or "Britain"; nobody's quite sure, but either way the point is the same. He nevertheless also accepted the principle of constitutional monarchy; his occasional fights with Parliament were rarely all that contentious, and although he experimented with trying to control the government from outside the Cabinet he was never fully invested in that and gave it up as a fool's errand after the end of the American War of Independence. He took a personal interest in agriculture (fitting, given that Britain's Agricultural Revolution
reached its height during his reign), and wrote pamphlets on agriculture under the pseudonym Ralph Robinson. These interests earned him the popular appellation "Farmer George".
Four major events happened during his reign: the American and French Revolutions , the Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland (1800), and The Napoleonic Wars , after which the electorate of Hanover was upgraded to a kingdom. Since George was content to let Parliament run things most of the time (particularly when the Tories were in charge), it's best to just read those articles for further information.
A perhaps atypically-successful family man for a British monarch, George and his queen Charlotte had a happy marriage (despite first meeting only on their wedding day, when he was already King) and 15 children, of whom eleven lived to the age of at least 60. He was also a remarkably relaxed king, preferring to live in the countryside and much more informally than many of his more traditional courtiers would like; Queen Charlotte agreed with him, going on walks through country towns with him without any servants . A man of great personal piety (spending hours in prayer daily) and morality (never taking a mistress and never drinking to excess, and abhorring the womanizing , boozing , card-playing habits of his brothers and, later, his sons), he is generally remembered as a good king in Britain. The Americans have a more complex perspective , but even then most historians believe him to be Mis-blamed —he only had a significant role in the American crisis after the Boston Tea Party (which was beginning of the revolt's turn toward anti-monarchical sentiment ), at which point his support for a military response was just one of several trump cards the hawks in Parliament had over the doves. It's worth noting that after the USA achieved independence, he commented that "I was the last person to consent to the separation [of America and Britain], but I will be the first to accept the friendship of the United States as an independent power." (We should also note that until very shortly before the beginning of the War of Independence, many Americans liked him too—and they liked his wife even more: both Charlotte, North Carolina and Mecklenburg County in which it sits are named for her. Ironically, the city became known as a "hornet's nest of rebellion" during the War of Independence.) He opposed Catholic Emancipation, but only because he believed it would violate the coronation oath he took to 'defend the [Protestant] faith'. Alas, he is also remembered for going quite insane (probably due to porphyria), leading to...
The Regency (1811-1820)
In 1811, it was thought best that His Majesty, having gone completely cuckoo (this was not the first time, mind), should be quietly removed from power. His son, the Prince of Wales (Prinny), took over and was the nominal monarch for the next nine years. (It should be noted that from the Civil War onwards, Parliament had been growing in power - over the last century or so it had blossomed. Prinny, thankfully, did not have all that much power.)
The setting of a million historical romance novels. It's something about the tight trousers.
George IV of the United Kingdom
Lived: 12 August 1762 �- 26 June 1830 Parents: King George III and Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz Reigned: 29 January 1820 — 26 June 1830 Consort: Princess Caroline, Duchess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
Prinny officially got the job in 1820. Once known as the First Gentleman of Europe (mainly because he dressed well and bathed regularly: his devotion to the dress and hygiene habits of Beau Brummell are responsible for popularising Brummell's understated, clean-cut look and fixed the essential standards of taste for men's fashion—good fabric, a simple, elegant cut, dark colours—to this day), he had largely degenerated into an obese Dirty Old Man (one of his less uncomplimentary nicknames before he became King was the "Prince of Whales") whose main preoccupation was depriving his wife , Caroline, of her rights as queen. His daughter and heir, Charlotte, had died in childbirth in 1817, so at least part of his reign was spent watching his brothers scramble to produce a viable heir of the next generation.
He was widely seen as a lazy, amoral wretch who lived only to eat and drink; by the time he ascended to the throne, he had grown too fat and lethargic even to womanize. One courtier said of him, "A more contemptible, cowardly, selfish, unfeeling dog does not exist....There have been good and wise kings but not many of them...and this I believe to be one of the worst." This from a friend .
The only remotely noteworthy aspect of George IV's reign was his about-face on the Catholic Question: after being very supportive of Catholic emancipation earlier in his life (and secretly marrying one), George publicly announced his opposition to the Catholic Relief Act of 1829 (which gave Catholics the vote). Fortunately, Parliament forced it through anyway - probably due to his opposition. Upon his death, The Times eulogized him with the line,"there never was an individual less regretted by his fellow-creatures than this deceased king...If he ever had a friend � a devoted friend in any rank of life � we protest that the name of him or her never reached us."
A number of early Charles Dickens works are actually set during this time, including Little Dorrit and The Pickwick Papers. Also, he was a bit into studying birds and subscribed to Audubon's famous Birds of America series.
William IV of the United Kingdom
Lived: 21 August 1765 �- 20 June 1837 Parents: King George III and Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz Reigned: 26 June 1830 �- 20 June 1837 Consort: Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen
"Sailor Billy", as he was known, was actually the third son of George III (the second son Frederick, or the literal Grand Old Duke of York
, had died some years previously). As such, he was sent into the Navy where he proved to everyone's surprise a thoroughly competent officer; none other than Horatio Nelson wrote of him, "In his professional line, he is superior to two-thirds, I am sure, of the [Naval] list; and in attention to orders, and respect to his superior officer, I hardly know his equal."
In the civilian world William was notorious for his casual manners, including his preference for walking as opposed to being driven in a royal carriage. He shocked society by openly living with his mistress and acknowledging her children - one of whom was the maternal ancestor of future Prime Minister David Cameron . He also sparked controversy with his political activities, first forcing his father to raise him to a dukedom by threatening to run for the House of Commonsnote which he could have done at the time as a mere Prince, but not as a Duke, then as the Duke of Clarence attacking government policies in the House of Lords. While no-one could have predicted he would become King years later, none of this seemed appropriate for a royal. Funnily enough, all of this—except for the political stuff—would be seen as preferable or at least not particularly objectionable in a monarch today (even the openly living with the mistress bit, although today we would simply expect the monarch to marry her and not some random foreign princess and have done with it), but at the time it was not universally agreed he was an improvement on his brother (many opted for "both awful").
After Princess Charlotte's death, he married Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen in a double ceremony with his brother Prince Edward, who married Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (the mother of Queen Victoria ). It was happy marriage, though Adelaide couldn't produce the coveted heir, giving birth to two daughters, one who died shortly after birth and one who lived only four months, and two stillborn boys. Because of her tragic history of childbirth and personal piety and modesty (and for taming her husband), Adelaide was very popular with the British people; when the new colony of South Australia was established in 1836, they named its capital city Adelaide after her.
Having no legitimate children of his own he was quite fond of Victoria, and towards the end of his life infamously told Victoria's mother publicly and to her face that his main goal now was only to live long enough to see his niece's 18th birthday, as he thought her mother " surrounded by evil advisers and (...) incompetent to act with propriety " in the case of a regency government. He managed this by a few weeks.
It was in William's reign that the Reform Act of 1832 was passed (extending the franchise to poor men and fundamentally weakening the power of the House of Lords). His reign also saw the enactment of laws against child labour (although not banning it entirely), the abolition of slavery, and the first state provisions for the poor were made.
William IV is of interest for another reason - he remains the last British monarch to actually use his "reserve powers" without the permission of Parliament, in this case by appointing a Prime Minister against Parliament's will. This wasn't the flourish of remaining monarchical authority it seemed, though, since he actually didn't do this of his own accord but in response to a request from other powerful political figures. Even in the 19th century, though, the political fuss this act caused showed just how much the reality of the monarch as 'ruler' had been shattered.
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Lived: 24 May 1819 �- 22 January 1901 Parents: Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld Reigned: 20 June 1837 — 22 January 1901 Consort: Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
William IV outlived both of his legitimate children, so when he died the Crown came to his niece, Victoria. (Hanover itself, meanwhile, passed out of personal union with Great Britain and into the hands of William's younger brother Ernest Augustus, as the throne of Hanover couldn't be inherited by a woman.) Her reign was long and eventful; she became both the longest-lived British sovereign (the third time this had occurred in the last five monarchs) and longest-reigning monarch in British history, only surpassed in either category by the present Queen Elizabeth II. See Queen Victoria , Victorian Britain , and Victorian London for more on this period. Her eldest son, Edward VII, marked the beginning of The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (from the house name of Prince Albert), known today as The House of Windsor .
(And for the sake of completeness....)
Ernest Augustus I of Hanover
Lived: 5 June 1771 �- 18 November 1851 Parents: King George III and Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz Reigned: 20 June 1837 �- 18 November 1851 Consort: Duchess Frederica of Mecklenburg, Princess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
The fifth son of George III, he was sent to Hanover in his youth for education, military training, and to get him away from the influence of the heir. By 1793 had received a lifelong facial scar on the front lines of The War of the First Coalition , and was created Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale six years later. Of course his time on the continent helped develop his arch-conservative political views, which alongside scandals up to and including actual interference in the elections for a seat in the House of Commons made him increasingly unpopular in Britain. He moved to Berlin with his new wife (twice widowed, the second time conveniently after meeting Ernest) in 1818, but being happily married upon the death of his only legitimate niece gave him a real chance at the British throne.
His return to Britain in the late 1820s (The House of Commons would only increase his allowance if his young son was being reared locally) heralded his return to politics including fierce opposition to Catholic Emancipation, rumors of him siring a child on his sister Princess Sophia , and loose talk from the Orange Order Lodges he had backed for years shunting aside first-in-line heir Victoria of Kent in favor of the Duke of Cumberland.
"Leave, before you are pelted out."
It is note likely that The Duke of Wellington said this to the face of the late King William's brother after the Anglo-Hanoveran Union of the Crowns ended in 1837, but the Duke of Cumberland was not a popular man in Britain and the populace of Hanover would have preferred passing him over in favor of the current Viceroy had the Hanoveran heir's younger brother Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge not refused outright to lend himself to such a thing. Tellingly, one of the first things King Ernst August did was suspend a constitution that was passed under King Wilhelm and dissolving the Hanoveran Parliament convened under itnote (Taking care to not void all the laws passed by it) on the basis that he was not consulted and it undercut the power of the monarch. This and his high-handed response to several protesting professors at his old alma mater of Göttingen University (the "Göttingen Seven", which included the Brothers Grimm) met with yet more hostility from his birthplace.
On a different note, he made no opposition to Catholic or Jewish emancipation in Hanover itself. He saw the pledges to protect the Anglican Faith his house took upon gaining the British throne did not apply to the continental domains. While he avoided bloodshed during the widespread 1848 revolutions, Ernst August did finally cave and pass a new constitution a few years before his death at age 80.
George V of Hanovernote Yes, relation
Lived: 27 May 1819 �- 12 June 1878 Parents: King Ernest Augustus of Hanover and Duchess Frederica of Mecklenburg, Princess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz Reigned: 18 November 1851 �- 20 September 1866 Consort: Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg
Born in Berlin and spending most of his formative years in Britain, he was 18 when he arrived in Hanover as the new Crown Prince... and completely blind due to childhood illnesses. His father had some hopes of getting him married off to his first cousin Victoria of Kent with an eye toward reuniting Great Britain and Hanover in the next generation, but that did not work out. Ernst August did override all attempts to set his only living child aside from the Hanoverian succession due to his blindness and instructed his son in the art of rulership.
It ultimately did not go well.
Georg V's 15 year reign was plagued with conflict between the crown and parliament, ending with a dispute over whether to stay out of the 1866 Austro-Prussian war. He won and sided with his Viennese ally... then was forced to flee with his family to Austria and found himself formally deposed when Prussia overran the outmatched and strategically vulnerable North German kingdom . He died in Parisian exile twelve years later.
The House of Hanover, in the shape of Georg's grandson Ernst August, eventually made up with the House of Hohenzollern, the ruling dynasty of Prussia, which had meantime unified Germany, in 1913. Ernst August married Emperor Wilhelm II's only daughter Viktoria Luise and at the same time was made reigning Duke of Brunswick (the duchy had been administered by regents following the death of the last male heir of the elder line of the House of Brunswick). But during World War I the Titles Deprivation Act of 1917 stripped the House of Hanover of their titles of nobility in UK. In 1918 Ernst August was forced to abdicate in the course of the November Revolution, and the new Weimar Republic then abolished all German titles of nobility, including those of the House of Hanover. Some of the family members would go on to support the Nazis in 1930s, only to to turn against them in 1940s, as many German nationalists did, and wound up in concentration camps by the end of World War II for their troubles.
Georg's descendants are still around. His current heir, Ernst August Prinz von Hannover, is married to Princess Caroline of Monaco. If he chose, he could apply to the UK Privy Council to have the dukedom of Cumberland returned to him.
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In which month do British monarchs have their official birthday | Why do British monarchs have two birthdays? - Ask History
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June 13, 2014 By Elizabeth Harrison
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Did you know that Buckingham Palace has a helipad and a lake? Get the facts and history behind the Queen's official London residence.
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Why do British monarchs have two birthdays?
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There are many advantages and responsibilities that come with being the reigning monarch of England, but one surprising perk is getting two birthdays each year. This year Saturday, June 11 marks the Queen’s official birthday, and will be celebrated around the Commonwealth. However, Elizabeth II was actually born on April 21.
The British monarch’s official birthday is not held on the same day each year, but instead is observed on a Saturday in June, usually the first or second weekend of the month. So why the moveable feast? Mostly because of the weather. The sovereign’s official birthday involves a lot of outdoor activities—such as the Trooping of the Colour military parade—and so the festivities were assigned a date when it was likely to be nice out. This shifted-birthday tradition dates back to 1748, when the annual summer military cavalcade became a celebration of the king as well as the armed forces—even though George II’s birthday was in October. Since then a monarch’s official birthday has generally been held in the summer, often quite removed from their actual day of birth. Elizabeth II’s great-grandfather Edward VII was born in November, but his official birthday celebration was always held in May or June. Elizabeth’s son Charles was also born in November and will most likely follow the convention when he ascends the throne.
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Who was the first test tube baby | The Queen's two birthdays | The Royal Mint
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Her Majesty The Queen was born on 21 April 1926. She was the first child of The Duke and Duchess of York, who later became King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
Christened Elizabeth Alexandra Mary in the private chapel at Buckingham Palace, Princess Elizabeth spent much of her early years enjoying a quiet family life with her parents and sister Princess Margaret.
In 1936, when her grandfather, King George V died, her uncle came to the throne as King Edward VIII. Before the end of the year, King Edward VIII abdicated and Princess Elizabeth's father acceded to the throne as King George VI. On the death of her father George VI in 1952, Princess Elizabeth became Queen at the age of 25.
The Queen is married to Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh and has four children and eight grandchildren.
Her Majesty The Queen celebrates two birthdays every year: her actual birthday on 21 April and her official birthday on a Saturday in June.
Official celebrations to mark a sovereign's birthday have often been held on a day other than the actual birthday, particularly when the actual birthday has not been in the summer. King Edward VII, for example, was born on 9 November, but his official birthday was marked throughout his reign in May or June when there was a greater likelihood of good weather for the Birthday Parade, also known as Trooping the Colour.
Trooping the Colour is carried out by fully trained and operational troops from the Household Division (Foot Guards and Household Cavalry) on Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall, watched by members of the Royal Family, invited guests and members of the public.
During the ceremony, the Queen is greeted by a Royal salute and carries out an inspection of the troops. For many years The Queen rode on horseback, usually on her favoured horse Burmese, however in recent years the Queen has ridden in a carriage.
After the massed bands have performed a musical ‘troop’, the escorted Regimental Colour is carried down the ranks.
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Where in the body would you find rod cells and cone cells | The Rods and Cones of the Human Eye
Rods and Cones
The retina contains two types of photoreceptors, rods and cones. The rods are more numerous, some 120 million, and are more sensitive than the cones. However, they are not sensitive to color. The 6 to 7 million cones provide the eye's color sensitivity and they are much more concentrated in the central yellow spot known as the macula. In the center of that region is the " fovea centralis ", a 0.3 mm diameter rod-free area with very thin, densely packed cones.
The experimental evidence suggests that among the cones there are three different types of color reception. Response curves for the three types of cones have been determined. Since the perception of color depends on the firing of these three types of nerve cells, it follows that visible color can be mapped in terms of three numbers called tristimulus values . Color perception has been successfully modeled in terms of tristimulus values and mapped on the CIE chromaticity diagram .
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Cone Details
Current understanding is that the 6 to 7 million cones can be divided into "red" cones (64%), "green" cones (32%), and "blue" cones (2%) based on measured response curves . They provide the eye's color sensitivity. The green and red cones are concentrated in the fovea centralis . The "blue" cones have the highest sensitivity and are mostly found outside the fovea, leading to some distinctions in the eye's blue perception .
The cones are less sensitive to light than the rods , as shown a typical day-night comparison . The daylight vision (cone vision) adapts much more rapidly to changing light levels, adjusting to a change like coming indoors out of sunlight in a few seconds. Like all neurons, the cones fire to produce an electrical impulse on the nerve fiber and then must reset to fire again. The light adaption is thought to occur by adjusting this reset time.
The cones are responsible for all high resolution vision. The eye moves continually to keep the light from the object of interest falling on the fovea centralis where the bulk of the cones reside.
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"Blue" Cone Distinctions
The "blue" cones are identified by the peak of their light response curve at about 445 nm. They are unique among the cones in that they constitute only about 2% of the total number and are found outside the fovea centralis where the green and red cones are concentrated. Although they are much more light sensitive than the green and red cones, it is not enough to overcome their disadvantage in numbers. However, the blue sensitivity of our final visual perception is comparable to that of red and green, suggesting that there is a somewhat selective "blue amplifier" somewhere in the visual processing in the brain.
The visual perception of intensely blue objects is less distinct than the perception of objects of red and green. This reduced acuity is attributed to two effects. First, the blue cones are outside the fovea, where the close-packed cones give the greatest resolution. All of our most distinct vision comes from focusing the light on the fovea. Second, the refractive index for blue light is enough different from red and green that when they are in focus, the blue is slightly out of focus ( chromatic aberration ). For an "off the wall" example of this defocusing effect on blue light, try viewing a hologram with a mercury vapor lamp . You will get three images with the dominant green, orange and blue lines of mercury, but the blue image looks less focused than the other two.
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Rod Details
The rods are the most numerous of the photoreceptors , some 120 million, and are the more sensitive than the cones . However, they are not sensitive to color. They are responsible for our dark-adapted, or scotopic , vision. The rods are incredibly efficient photoreceptors. More than one thousand times as sensitive as the cones, they can reportedly be triggered by individual photons under optimal conditions. The optimum dark-adapted vision is obtained only after a considerable period of darkness, say 30 minutes or longer, because the rod adaption process is much slower than that of the cones.
The rod sensitivity is shifted toward shorter wavelengths compared to daylight vision, accounting for the growing apparent brightness of green leaves in twilight.
While the visual acuity or visual resolution is much better with the cones, the rods are better motion sensors. Since the rods predominate in the peripheral vision, that peripheral vision is more light sensitive, enabling you to see dimmer objects in your peripheral vision. If you see a dim star in your peripheral vision, it may disappear when you look at it directly since you are then moving the image onto the cone-rich fovea region which is less light sensitive. You can detect motion better with your peripheral vision, since it is primarily rod vision.
The rods employ a sensitive photopigment called rhodopsin.
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Rods Do Not See Red!
The light response of the rods peaks sharply in the blue; they respond very little to red light. This leads to some interesting phenomena:
Red rose at twilight: In bright light, the color-sensitive cones are predominant and we see a brilliant red rose with somewhat more subdued green leaves. But at twilight, the less-sensitive cones begin to shut down for the night, and most of the vision comes from the rods. The rods pick up the green from the leaves much more strongly than the red from the petals, so the green leaves become brighter than the red petals!
The ship captain has red instrument lights. Since the rods do not respond to red, the captain can gain full dark-adapted vision with the rods with which to watch for icebergs and other obstacles outside. It would be undesirable to examine anything with white light even for a moment, because the attainment of optimum night-vision may take up to a half-hour. Red lights do not spoil it.
These phenomena arise from the nature of the rod-dominated dark-adapted vision, called scotopic vision .
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What does the Salk vaccine protect against | Rods & Cones
Rods & Cones
There are two types of photoreceptors in the human retina, rods and cones.
Rods are responsible for vision at low light levels (scotopic vision). They do not mediate color vision, and have a low spatial acuity.
Cones are active at higher light levels (photopic vision), are capable of color vision and are responsible for high spatial acuity. The central fovea is populated exclusively by cones. There are 3 types of cones which we will refer to as the short-wavelength sensitive cones, the middle-wavelength sensitive cones and the long-wavelength sensitive cones or S-cone, M-cones, and L-cones for short.
The light levels where both are operational are called mesopic.
The bottom figure shows the distribution of rods and cones in the retina. This data was prepared from histological sections made on human eyes.
In the top figure, you can relate visual angle to the position on the retina in the eye.
Notice that the fovea is rod-free and has a very high density of cones. The density of cones falls of rapidly to a constant level at about 10-15 degrees from the fovea. Notice the blind spot which has no receptors.
At about 15°-20° from the fovea, the density of the rods reaches a maximum. (Remember where Hecht, Schlaer, and Pirenne presented their stimuli.) A longitudinal section would appear similar however there would be no blind spot. Remember this if you want to present peripheral stimuli and you want to avoid the blind spot.
Here is a figure from the textbook that shows the changes in the size of the photoreceptors with eccentricity. The bottom graph shows individual variations in the density of cones.
Here are schematic diagrams of the structure of the rods and cones:
This figure shows the variety in the shapes and sizes of receptors across and within species.
Here is a summary of the properties and the differences in properties between the rods and cones:
Properties of Rod and Cone Systems
Rods
Results from degree of spatial integration
Achromatic: one type of pigment
Chromatic: three types of pigment
Color vision results from comparisons between cone responses
Pigments
If you look above at the schematic diagram of the rods and cones, you will see that in the outer segments of rods the cell membrane folds in and creates disks. In the cones, the folds remain making multiple layers. The photopigment molecules reside in membranes of these disks and folds. They are embedded in the membranes as shown in the diagram below where the two horizontal lines represent a rod disk membrane (either the membrane on the top or bottom of the disk) and the circles represent the chain of amino acids that make up a rhodopsin molecule. Rhodopsin is the photopigment in rods.
Each amino acid, and the sequence of amino acids are encoded in the DNA. Each person possesses 23 pairs of chromosomes that encode the formation of proteins in sequences of DNA. The sequence for a particular protein is called a gene. In recent years, researchers have identified the location and chemical sequence of the genes that encode the photopigments in the rods and cones.
This figure shows the structure of the rhodopsin molecule. The molecule forms 7 columns that are embedded in the disk membrane. Although not shown in this schematic, the columns are arranged in a circle like the planks of a barrel. (Another molecule called a chromophore binds within this barrel.)
Each circle is an amino-acid which are the building blocks of proteins. Each amino acid is encoded by a sequence of three nucleic acids in the DNA.
Before identifying the genetic sequence of human rhodopsin, it was sequences in other animals. Here is shown the comparison between the bovine (cow) sequence and the human sequence. They are very similar with only a small number of differences (the dark circles). Even when there is a difference it may not be functionally significant.
The gene for human rhodopsin is located on chromosome 3.
The Receptor Mosaic
This figure shows how the three cone types are arranged in the fovea. Currently there is a great deal of research involving the determination of the ratios of cone types and their arrangement in the retina.
This diagram was produced based on histological sections from a human eye to determine the density of the cones. The diagram represents an area of about 1° of visual angle. The number of S-cones was set to 7% based on estimates from previous studies. The L-cone:M-cone ratio was set to 1.5. This is a reasonable number considering that recent studies have shown wide ranges of cone ratios in people with normal color vision. In the central fovea an area of approximately 0.34° is S-cone free. The S-cones are semi-regularly distributed and the M- and L-cones are randomly distributed.
Throughout the whole retina the ratio of L- and M- cones to S-cones is about 100:1.
Spatial Acuity Estimate From Mosaic
From the cone mosaic we can estimate spatial acuity or the ability to see fine detail.
In the central fovea, there are approximately 150,000 cones/ sq. mm. The distance between cone centers in the hexagonal packing of the cones is about 0.003 mm. To convert this to degrees of visual angle you need to know that there are 0.29 mm/deg so that the spacing is 0.003/0.29 = 0.013° between cone centers.
The Nyquist frequency, f, is the frequency at which aliasing begins. That is a grating pattern of cos(2*pi(N/2+f)) above the Nyquist frequency is indistinguishable from the signal cos(2*pi(N/2-f)) below the Nyquist frequency where N is the number of sample points per unit distance. The Nyquist frequency is f = 1/N. The value of N = 1/0.0102 = 97. Therefore f = 48 cycles per degree.
In actuality, the foveal Nyquist limit is more like 60 cycles per degree. This may be a result of the hexagonal rather than the rectangular packing of the cone mosaic. The optics of the eye blur the retinal image so that this aliasing is not produced. Using laser interferometry, the optics of the eye can be bypassed so we can reveal this aliasing. We will discuss this in more detail in the chapter on visual acuity.
The mosaic of the retina in addition to the processing in the visual system produces another ability to see fine resolution and ascertain alignment of object called hyperacuity. People have the ability to see misalignment of objects of 5 seconds of arc (which is 1/5 of a cone width). This corresponds to seeing the misalignment in headlights 39 miles away. Maybe you can try working this out to see if I am exaggerating.
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If you are suffering from singultus what is wrong with you | Hiccups: Causes and Treatments - Medical News Today
Hiccups: Causes and Treatments
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Hiccups are sudden, involuntary contractions of the diaphragm which occur at the same time as a contraction of the voice box (larynx) and total closure of the glottis, effectively blocking air intake. The glottis is the middle part of the larynx, where the vocal cords are located.
Hiccups may also be spelled "hiccoughs" and are medically known as SDF (synchronous diaphragmatic flutter) or singultus.
Hiccups can often occur for no apparent reason. It's common to get a bout of hiccups every now and again and there is no need for alarm should you get one. In the majority of cases, hiccups resolve without any treatment within a few minutes.
Hiccups can occur individually or in bouts and commonly happen rhythmically, meaning that the interval between each hiccup is relatively constant. Most people find them to be a minor nuisance. However, prolonged hiccups can became a serious medical problem and require treatment. Prolonged hiccups affect men much more than women. When attacks last longer than a month, the hiccups are termed intractable.
Fast facts on hiccups
Here are some key points about hiccups. More detail and supporting information is in the main article.
Experts are still divided on why hiccups occur.
Some medical conditions such as stroke and asthma are associated with a higher incidence of hiccups.
Prolonged cases of hiccups can lead to complications such as insomnia and depression .
Cases of hiccups that last for longer than 48 hours should be referred to a doctor.
There are many tips that are known to help patients with hiccups.
For prolonged cases of hiccups, drugs such as muscle relaxants can be prescribed.
Some causes of hiccups can be avoided, such as alcohol and eating too quickly.
Most cases of hiccups resolve without treatment.
Causes of hiccups
Experts have yet to reach a definitive conclusion on what the mechanisms are that cause hiccups, or why they occur. According to studies, the following circumstances, conditions and illnesses have been associated with a higher risk of developing hiccups:
Hot food has irritated the phrenic nerve. The phrenic nerve is near the esophagus.
When there is gas in the stomach, which presses against the diaphragm.
Too much food is eaten.
Food is eaten too rapidly.
There is a sudden change in temperature.
Fizzy drinks are consumed.
Some people get hiccups after eating spicy foods.
After eating dry breads.
Many people anecdotally report hiccups after consuming alcoholic beverages.
Some medications, such as opiates, benzodiazepines, anesthesia, corticosteroids, barbiturates, and mythyldopa are known to cause hiccups.
Some medical conditions are linked to a higher incidence of hiccups, such as:
Gastrointestinal conditions, including IBD (inflammatory bowel disease), a small bowel obstruction, or GERD (gastro-esophageal reflux disease).
Respiratory conditions, such as pleurisy , pneumonia or asthma.
Conditions which affect the CNS ( central nervous system ), including a traumatic brain injury , encephalitis , a brain tumor , or stroke.
Conditions which irritate the vagus nerve, such as meningitis , pharyngitis or goitre .
Psychological reactions, including grief, excitement, anxiety , stress , hysterical behavior, or shock.
Conditions which affect metabolism, including hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia , or diabetes .
Often, hiccups occur unexpectedly and neither the patient nor the doctor can identify their likely cause.
Possible complications of hiccups
If a patient has prolonged hiccups, complications may develop, including:
Weight loss - in some cases the hiccups are not only long-term, but occur at short intervals, making it hard for the patient to eat properly.
Insomnia - if the prolonged hiccups persist during the sleeping hours, the patient will find it hard to get to sleep, and/or stay asleep.
Fatigue - people with prolonged hiccups may become exhausted, especially if they cannot sleep or eat properly.
Communication problems - persistent hiccups may make it harder for the patient to communicate orally.
Depression - patients with long-term hiccups have a considerably higher risk of developing clinical depression.
Post-surgical wound healing - if the patient is hiccupping all day long, post-surgical wounds will probably take much longer to heal. Some patients may have a higher risk of developing infections, or start bleeding after surgery.
On the next page we look at tests for patients with prolonged hiccups and we examine the treatment options for hiccups.
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What was the Bishop of London’s official residence before 1973 | Hiccups/throwing up/heartburn/acidreflux - Symptoms - Acid Reflux
Hiccups/throwing up/heartburn/acidreflux
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My husband randomly gets acid reflux/heartburn. He smokes about one pack a day. Recently he gets really bad heartburn and asks me to get him bread he eats it and it sorta subsides after a while. On three different occasions he had heartburn and continued to eat his meal. While he was eating he got the HICCUPS and they lasted for 24 hours until he couldnt stand it any longer and went in the bathroom forced himself to throw up and the hiccups STOPPED. Shortly after that since it was like 24 hours since he last ate he wanted to try eating again. During his meal he only ate the english muffin on his plate again came along the HICCUPS!! So I said go make yourself throw up I didnt want to see him suffer with hiccups again and being miserable for 24 hours again... so he did... up came the english muffin and the hiccups STOPPED! I am sorry if this is so grose to everyone but its really making me scared. I have done alot of reading on here trying to figure out what needs to be done when we go to the doctor because YES I am making him go get checked even though he doesnt want to.. but my question is... What tests do I want him to get ordered.. meaning I dont want him to go to the doctor and let them just precsribe him with acid reflux/heartburn medication because it is deeper than that. I mean there is a reason for him having this going on and dont want it masked with medication.. so what tests can be ordered for him and if anyone has any information please pass it along.. also he has been smoking for like 15 years and is normal weight and works out everyday he is in the ARMY. Please help if you can. Thank you! Niki
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What boating aid has a fluke, a stock and a shank | * Fluke (Boating) - Definition,meaning - Online Encyclopedia
Fluke: Irregular shift s in the wind .
Flukes: The blades of anchor .
Flush: Level, flush-decked is when the deck -level from stem to stern is the same.
Fluke
The flattened and broadened area of an anchor which digs in the bottom . Also known as the Palm .
Fluxgate ...
fluke - The shovel-shaped part of an anchor 's "arms"; used to dig into the ground to prevent dragging .
flush deck - A deck without any above or below deck structures, such as a cabin or cockpit .
FLUKES : The palms or broad holding portions at the arm extremities of an anchor , which penetrate the ground .
FLUX : A fusible material or gas used to dissolve or prevent the formation of oxides, nitrides, or other undesirable inclusions formed in welding and brazing.
Fluke - the wedge-shaped part of an anchor 's arms that digs into the bottom
Flush Deck - a deck with no superstructure or upward protruding cabin
Flying - a term describing a sail not bent to any spar or stay and controlled by its halyard , tackline and sheet ...
Fluke:
(1) The portion of an anchor that digs secure ly into the bottom , holding the boat in place.
(2) The two triangular parts which make up a whale's tail .
Fluke - The palm of an anchor .
Fo'c'sle An abbreviation of forecastle . Refers to that portion of the cabin which is farthest forward . In square - rigger s often used as quarters for the crew .
Following Sea - An overtaking sea that comes from astern .
Fluke - Digging spade portion of an anchor
Fluxgate Compass - Electronic compass with a remote magnetic direction sensor
Fog - Any form of haze or restricted visibility. Plot DR carefully in fog ...
FLUKE; The broad flat blade of an anchor designed to dig into the seabed. {alt; any occasion when it digs in on the first try}
FLUSH deck A deck which straddles the width of the boat without any obstruction s such as a cabin .
Following Sea : An overtaking sea that comes from astern .
Fluke: The wedge-shaped part of an anchor 's arms that digs into the bottom .
Folding propeller : A propeller with folding blades, furling to reduce drag on a sailing vessel when not in use.
Flukes
The broad triangular plates at the extremity of the arms of an anchor terminating in a point called the bill.
A fluke-style anchor
American Richard Danforth invented the Danforth pattern in the 1940s for use aboard landing craft . It uses a stock at the crown to which two large flat triangular flukes are attached.
PALM . The fluke of an anchor . Also a piece of leather fitted over the thumb and palm of the hand with a flat thimble to receive the head of the needle to press against in sewing canvas .
PARALLEL . Anything that runs in a line , keeping equal distances from each other.
To draw up the flukes of the anchor towards the top of the bow , in order to stow it, after having been catted by means of the davit .
Flag
A general name for colours worn and used by ships of war.
fluke -- the digging end of the anchor ; also wind irregularity
Fo'c'sle An abbreviation of forecastle . Refers to that portion of the cabin which is farthest forward . In square - rigger s often used as quarters for the crew .
Foot For a triangular sail , the bottom edge.
Fluke: The barbs or hooks of anchor s
Foils: Underwater parts of a boat
Foresail : The lowest square sail on the most forward mast ...
fluke - the digging end of the anchor ; also wind irregularity
Following Sea -An overtaking sea that comes from astern .
Fo'c'sle / fore castle The extreme forward compartment of the vessel
Force 8 -- gale force wind on the Beaufort Wind Scale ...
It has pivoting flukes that dig into the ground as tension is placed on the anchor . It does not have a stock .Danger zone The area encompassed from dead ahead of your boat to just abaft your starboard beam . You must stand clear of any boat in the "danger zone".
The bight of his cable has swept our anchor ; that is, the double part of the cable of another ship , as she range d about , has entangled itself under the stock or fluke of our anchor . 2. also a small bay between two points of land.
It has pivoting flukes that dig into the ground as tension is placed on the anchor .
Davit (s) - A small crane that projects over the side of the boat to raise or lower objects (such as smaller boats) from or to the water.
fluke -- the digging end of the anchor ; also wind irregularity
foremast ...
(Figure 10) The Danforth is a lightweight anchor that has very good holding power because of the large size of its flukes. It will foul easily in kelp and weeds and needs a good length of chain to keep the shank from being lifted too high which can result in breaking out the anchor .
Unbend the cable from the ring; make the end fast round the crown shank and flukes with a clove hitch a, and bring the end a back to s, and stop it round the cable with a piece of spunyarn ; take the cable back to the shackle and stop it as at b.
An anchor trip line is used to pull up an anchor when the flukes snag on something on the bottom . Occasionally the anchor may hook around a rock, but usually snags occur in harbor s where the bottom is littered with old mooring chain and other debris.
Stock -stabilized, pivoting fluke anchor s (like Danforths) work best in this application, particularly in mud - U.S. Navy tests show use of tandem anchor s increases total holding power by as much as 30 percent over the same two anchor s if deployed separately.
fisherman anchor - Kedge anchor . A traditionally shaped anchor having flukes perpendicular to the stock of the anchor and connected by a shank . These are less common than modern anchor s such as the plow and lightweight anchor s.
flake - To fold a sail in preparation for storage.
A heavy iron object with flukes, lowered by a line to the bottom of a body of water to prevent a vessel from drift ing.
Avast
{N/A} ...
" Anchor 's up and down" - The anchor 's flukes have broken free of the bottom , and the shank is more or less vertical. The crown of the anchor is still resting on the bottom .
- Small Scope Ratio increases the angle of pull and in turn reduces the holding power of the anchor flukes. Heavy rode chain and can be used to mitigate this from occurring. The heavier chain will help keep the angle of pull low when the scope ratio is also low.
1) To free an anchor by hauling on a tripline at the flukes. 2) To raise or lower a yard while turning it parallel to the mast .
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| Anchor, Shropshire |
What was the number of the last manned moon mission | Patent US4781142 - High performance marine anchor - Google Patents
High performance marine anchor
US 4781142 A
Abstract
The present invention is a drag embedment marine anchor having a fluke and shank which are fixed relative to each other during operation. The fluke is symmetrical about its central longitudinal axis and has two pointed front tips for penetrating soil. The elongated shank extends upwardly along the longitudinal axis of the fluke and is rotatably pinned to a trunion at approximately the geometric center of the fluke, to reduce the bending moment in the shank. The attitude of the shank is fixed relative to the fluke at various attitudes by a stopper, to accommodate different soil conditions. The fluke is wedge-shaped in side elevation, and has stabilizer fins protruding upwardly from a stern transom, the stabilizer fins extending beyond the top surface of the fluke to correct yaw. The fluke is formed from a hollow shell having a smooth top surface and a plurality of stiffening ribs depending from its bottom. The ribs create a frictional drag force which facilitates the intitial penetration of the fluke tips into the sea floor. The fluke is preferably fabricated from welded metal plate, cast metal, reinforced concrete or reinforced concrete lined with metal plate.
Images(3)
What is claimed is:
1. A drag embedment marine anchor, comprising:
a fluke which is symmetrical about a central longitudinal axis, said fluke having a wedge-shaped exterior when viewed in side elevation and having two pointed front tips for penetrating soil, said fluke having a transom which forms a substantially squared off stern;
a pair of stabilizer fins extending upwardly from said stern transom beyond the top surface of said fluke, said stabilizer fins providing a drag on said fluke as it advances through soil which shifts the pressure center of the fluke behind the geometric center of the fluke, said stabilizer fin also providing a restoring moment on the anchor as it yaws;
an elongated shank extending upwardly from said fluke from a location along said central longitudinal axis, said shank having an arcuate, convex leading edge forming the only curvature between a front end of said shank and a rear end of said shank, the front end of said shank being secured to a mooring chain and the rear end of said shank being secured to the fluke at approximately the geometric center of the fluke so that the bending moment induced in said shank is minimized as the anchor is pulled by the mooring chain through the soil; and
said fluke is comprised of a hollow shell having a smooth top surface and a plurality of stiffening ribs depending from the bottom of said shell, said ribs being spaced to define voids therebetween which are adapted to be filled with soil as the anchor sinks into the sea floor, said ribs stiffening the shell and also providing a frictional drag force as the anchor is pulled along the sea floor, to aid the initial penetration of the fluke tips into the soil.
2. The anchor of claim 1, wherein the shank is adjustable to various, fixed attitudes relative to the fluke, to compensate for varying soil conditions.
3. The anchor of claim 2, wherein said shank is rotatably pinned to a fixed trunion located on the fluke, said shank also being pinned to the fluke by a stopper which passes through a hole in the shank and through an aligned hole in the fluke to maintain the shank in a stationary position, the attitude of said shank being adjustable by removing the stopper, pivoting the shank about the trunion and pinning the shank to the fluke through a different hole in the fluke.
4. The anchor of claim 3, wherein said trunion extends above the top surface of the fluke and said stiffening ribs depend vertically downward from said shell, said shank being pinned by said stopper to a pair of ribs which are parallel to said shank and form a slot within which the rear end of the shank pivots.
5. The anchor of claim 1, wherein the leading edge of the shank is tapered to form a knife edge along the mid-section of said shank.
6. The anchor of claim 1, wherein the mid-section of said shank is hollow, and reinforced by ribs which are normal to the longitudinal axis of the shank, said ribs stiffening the shank to withstand increased side bending loads on the shank.
7. The anchor of claim 6, wherein the trailing edge of the shank includes openings which communicate with the hollow portion of the shank.
8. The anchor of claim 1, wherein said fluke is formed from reinforced concrete.
9. The anchor of claim 8, wherein the top surface of said fluke is formed from a metal plate which is lined on the underside with reinforced concrete.
10. The anchor of claim 1, wherein said stern transom and stabilizer fins form an obtuse angle with the bottom edge of the shell.
11. The anchor of claim 1, wherein at least one of said stiffening ribs is substantially normal to the longitudinal axis of the fluke.
12. The anchor of claim 11, wherein the majority of said ribs are orthogonally oriented relative to each other, and form a waffle pattern.
13. A drag embedment marine anchor, comprising:
a fluke comprised of a hollow shell, said shell having a smooth top surface and a bottom edge which surrounds the periphery of the unenclosed underside of said fluke;
an elongated shank secured to the fluke at one end and extending upwardly from said fluke; and
a plurality of stiffening ribs depending from the bottom of said shell, said ribs being spaced to define voids therebetween, said voids adapted to be filled with soil as the anchor sinks into the sea floor, at least one of said ribs being oriented substantially normal to the longitudinal axis of said fluke so as to cause friction between the fluke underside and the sea floor as the fluke advances along the sea floor.
14. The anchor of claim 13, wherein the ribs extend no further than the plane of said bottom edge.
15. The anchor of claim 13, wherein said fluke and stiffening ribs are formed from reinforced concrete.
16. The anchor of claim 15, wherein the top surface of said fluke is formed from metal plate which is lined on its underside with reinforced concrete.
17. The anchor of claim 13, wherein said ribs form a waffle pattern on the underside of the fluke.
18. The anchor of claim 17, wherein the majority of said ribs are orthogonally oriented relative to each other.
19. A drag embedment marine anchor, comprising:
a fluke which s symmetrical about a central longitudinal axis;
an elongated shank extending upwardly from said fluke from a location along said axis, said shank having an arcuate, convex leading edge forming the only curvature between one end of said shank which is directly attached to said fluke and another end of said shank which is attached to a mooring line, the curvature of said shank causing the line of force through the shank to be proximate the neutral axis of the shank, so as to reduce stress along the leading edge of said shank.
20. The anchor of claim 19 wherein the pressure center of the fluke is located to the rear of the geometric center of the fluke, and said shank is secured to the fluke so that the shank passes through both the geometric center and pressure center of the fluke.
21. The anchor of claim 19 wherein the line of force through the shank is above the neutral axis of the shank so that a moment is created which reduces the tensile stress on the leading edge of the shank.
22. The anchor of claim 19 wherein the leading edge of said shank is tapered.
23. The anchor of claim 19 wherein the midsection of said shank is hollow, and is reinforced by ribs which are oriented normal to the longitudinal axis of the shank, said ribs stiffening the shank to withstand increased side bending loads on the shank.
24. The anchor of claim 23 wherein a trailing edge of said shank includes openings which communicate with the hollow portion of the shank, so as to permit concrete to be poured into said shank.
25. The anchor of claim 19 wherein said shank is rotatably pinned to a fixed trunion located on the fluke, said shank also being pinned to the fluke in one other location by a single stopper which passes through a hole in the shank and through an aligned hole in the fluke to maintain the shank in a stationary position, the attitude of said shank being adjustable by removing the stopper, pivoting the shank about the trunion, and the pinning the shank to the fluke through a different hole in the fluke.
26. A drag embedment marine anchor, comprising:
a fluke which is symmetrical about a central longitudinal axis;
an elongated shank extending upwardly from said fluke from a location along said axis, said shank having one end which is attached to said fluke and another end which is attached to a mooring line, the midsection of said shank being hollow, and reinforced by at least one rib which is oriented substantially normal to the longitudinal axis of the shank, said rib being substantially planar and abutting the entire periphery of the interior of said hollow midsection so as to form a plurality of separated, independent, hollow compartments, said rib stiffening the shank to withstand increased side bending loads on the shank, the remainder of said shank being solid.
27. The anchor of claim 26 wherein a trailing edge of said shank includes openings which communicate with the hollow compartments of the shank, so as to permit concrete to be poured into said shank and retained within said compartments.
28. The anchor of claim 26 wherein a trailing edge of said shank is provided with elongate openings extending along the length of said hollow compartments, wherein said openings substantially provide the sole access into each of said hollow compartments, so as to permit said shank and rib to be formed together from cast metal without requiring machining of said shank to form said hollow compartments.
29. A drag embedment marine anchor comprising:
a fluke which is symmetrical about a central longitudinal axis;
an elongated shank extending upwardly from said fluke from a location along said axis, said shank having one end which is attached to said fluke and another end which is attached to a mooring line, wherein said shank is substantially solid with the exception of a plurality of hollow compartments formed in the midsection of said shank, said shank including a rib which is integral with the shank, said rib extending across and completely separating said hollow compartments, and wherein a trailing edge of said solid section of said shank is provided with elongate openings along the length of said hollow compartments, wherein said openings provide the sole access into each of said hollow compartments, so as to permit said shank and rib to be formed together from cast metal without requiring machining of said shank to form said hollow compartments.
Description
This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 736,466, filed May 21, 1985, now abandoned.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to marine anchors, and more particularly to a drag embedment anchor.
Drag embedment anchors are comprised of two major components, a fluke and a shank. Generally, the fluke is relatively flat and has a large surface area, with two pointed front tips which penetrate the soil on the sea floor as the anchor is dragged. When the anchor is completely embedded in the soil on the sea floor, the pressure of the soil on the fluke is a major component of the holding power of the anchor. A typical fluke is formed from a flat plate stiffened by external ribs, or from a wedge-shaped box stiffened by internal ribs.
The shank is generally a long, thin member which is fastened near the stern of the fluke at one end, and to a mooring line at the other end. In most anchors, the shank is coincident with the central longitudinal axis of the fluke when the anchor is viewed from above. The shank serves to transmit forces between the fluke and the mooring line.
There are two broad categories of drag embedment anchors within which most anchors can be classified. The first category includes traditional or swing shank anchors. Traditional anchors have shanks which are straight and rotatably secured to the fluke at a single hinge point so that the shank can pivot to a limited degree on either side of the fluke. As the anchor is dragged along the sea floor, one side of the fluke will face downward, toward the sea floor. Once the fluke tips penetrate the soil, the shank will swing to the other side of the fluke. Since either side of the fluke can be facing downward, the fluke is symmetrical in shape.
The second broad category of anchors includes the modern, or fixed shank type. The flukes of these anchors have a defined top surface and underside since the attitude of the shank is fixed relative to the fluke during operation. The shank extends upwardly from the top surface of the fluke. In order to be able to penetrate the soil, most of these anchors must land on the sea floor with the fluke beneath the shank and with the fluke's bottom side resting on the sea floor.
An important parameter for measuring anchor performance is the holding efficiency, or the ratio of the holding power over the weight of the anchor. Due to the fluke symmetry of the swing shank anchors, extra weight is added to the anchor, thus reducing efficiency. Fixed shank anchors eliminate some of the redundant structure of the traditional anchors.
Anchor designs of both types may be adjusted to accommodate varying soil conditions. The attitude of the shank relative to the fluke should be changed to assist the initial penetration and ultimate depth of the flukes within the soil. The softer the soil is, the wider the "fluke opening angle" should be. However, the means for adjusting the fluke opening angle on previous anchors have suffered from various drawbacks. In swing shank anchors, this angle can be varied by fastening a stopper to the fluke which limits the rotation of the shank past a certain point. However, the stopper is removed when a wide fluke opening angle is desired, and must be stored and handled when not in use. Further, the weight of the stopper reduces efficiency of the anchor when the stopper is in use. Fixed shank anchors such as the "Stevshark", manufactured by Vryhof Ankers, Holland, have shanks which can be fixed at various attitudes without removable parts. However, to adjust the fluke opening angle, the Stevshark requires the laborious fastening and unfastening of a plurality of nuts and bolts which secure the shank to the fluke. Some of the fixed shank anchors do not have any angle adjustment option.
Another problem for both types of anchors is that of initially penetrating the soil as the anchor is being dragged along the sea floor. Previous swing shank anchors have utilized "tripping palms", formed by widening the stern of the fluke to create a V-shaped base on which the anchor rests when the fluke and shank are both in a vertically upright position. As the anchor is pulled by the mooring line, the tripping palms ensure that the fluke will "trip" over and engage the sea floor so that the fluke tips will penetrate the soil, and so the shank will swing open relative to the fluke. While tripping palms have proved successful, their added weight detracts from the anchor's holding efficiency, especially since after the anchor has fully penetrated the soil, the tripping palms serve no further purpose.
Another drawback of previous anchor designs has been their poor control of roll and yaw instability both before and after the anchor has fully penetrated the soil. Yaw is defined as rotation of the anchor about an axis which is normal to the top surface of the fluke, while roll is rotation about the central longitudinal axis of the fluke. Most previous anchors have had their shanks attached near the rear or stern of the fluke, which is far behind the fluke's pressure center. The pressure center is defined as the point on the top surface of the fluke through which the resultant force due to the soil pressure passes. Due to the relative location of the pressure center and the shank attachment point, the shank is effectively pushing the fluke forward, which creates instability.
When the fluke's tips encounter uneven loading, the anchor will yaw. The forces acting on the fluke tips which cause yaw will also cause rolling of the anchor. As the anchor yaws, the shank becomes angled relative to the mooring line. When the yawing force acting on the fluke tips is coupled with a component of the mooring line force on the shank, a roll moment is created.
To stabilize yaw and roll, traditional anchors have been designed with outriggers or stocks, which are elongated tubular bars that protrude outwardly to the sides of the fluke and generally normal to the axis of the shank. While stocks have been helpful in minimizing yaw and roll, their weight reduces the overall efficiency of the anchor.
Thus, there is a need for a drag embedment marine anchor which is lightweight, efficient, adjustable for various soil conditions, easily makes initial penetration, and stabilizes yaw and roll.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is comprised of a drag embedment marine anchor having a fluke which is symmetrical about a longitudinal central axis and which has a wedge-shaped exterior when viewed in side elevation. The fluke has pointed front tips to penetrate the soil and a transom which forms a squared-off stern. Extending upwardly from the stern transom and above the top surface of the fluke are a pair of stabilizer fins. When the anchor yaws, the differential in soil pressure on the stabilizer fins creates a restoring moment. The stabilizer fins also provide a drag on the fluke as it proceeds through the soil, which effectively shifts the pressure center behind the geometric center of the fluke.
The present anchor further includes an elongated shank which is secured to the fluke at approximately the geometric center of the fluke. Due to this positioning of the fluke, the bending moment induced in the shank is minimized, thus allowing the use of a lighter shank which improves efficiency.
The fluke is preferably formed from a hollow shell which has a smooth top surface and a plurality of stiffening ribs which depend downwardly from the bottom of the shell. In addition to providing structural reinforcement, the stiffening ribs create a frictional drag force on the bottom of the anchor as the anchor is pulled along the sea floor, which when coupled with the mooring line force creates a moment which rotates the fluke tips into the soil to aid initial penetration.
Preferably, the attitude of the shank relative to the fluke can be adjusted to compensate for varying soil conditions. The shank is rotatably pinned to a trunion at the geometric center of the fluke, and is also pinned to the fluke by a removable stopper so that the shank is maintained in a stationary position during use. By removing the stopper, pivoting the shank about the trunion and pinning the shank to a fluke at a different stopper location, the attitude of the shank can be quickly varied without the use of additional structural components.
To lower the center of gravity of the anchor and to further minimize the bending moment on the shank, the shank preferably curves downwardly towards the fluke, so that the leading edge of the shank forms a convex arc. Preferably, the mid-section of the shank is hollow and is also tapered along the leading edge to form a knife edge. The hollow section of the anchor is preferably reinforced with ribs which are normal to the lengthwise axis of the shank.
The disclosed embodiment of the anchor is configured so that the fluke can be formed from either cast metal, welded metal plate, reinforced concrete, or reinforced concrete which is lined with metal plate.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the rear of the present anchor.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the front of the present anchor.
FIG. 3 is a cross-section of the anchor in FIG. 1, taken along line 3--3.
FIG. 4 is a cross-section of the anchor in FIG. 1, taken along line 4--4.
FIG. 5 is a partial plan view of the underside of the present anchor.
FIG. 6 is a cross-section of the fluke as fabricated from metal plate and reinforced concrete.
FIG. 7 is a cross-section of the hollow shank on the anchor of FIG. 1, taken along lines 7--7.
FIG. 8 is a side elevation showing the anchor as it is dragged along the sea floor.
FIG. 9 is a schematic force diagram showing the tensile force and bending moment acting on the shank in FIG. 11.
FIG. 10 is a schematic stress distribution diagram of the stress on the shank of FIG. 11.
FIG. 11 is a side elevation of the anchor showing the location of external forces on the shank during operation of the anchor.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the present anchor 10 consists of a fluke 12 and a shank 14. The fluke 12 is symmetrical about a central longitudinal axis 16, and has two front tips 18 which are pointed to help penetrate the soil. Referring to FIG. 4, the fluke is preferably formed from a hollow shell 20 which has an unenclosed underside 22 and a top surface 24 which is formed from a plurality of smooth, planar surfaces which intersect along the ridges 26. As best shown in FIGS. 3 and 8, the fluke 12 is wedge-shaped when viewed in side elevation. The top surface 24, a bottom edge 28 (not shown), and a stern transom 30 form the three sides of the wedge shape. The stern or rear end of the shell 20 is enclosed by the stern transom 30, which may be normal to the bottom edge 28, or alternatively, form an obtuse angle with the bottom edge 28.
A pair of stabilizer fins 32 extend upwardly from the stern transom 30, and above the top surface 24 of the fluke 12. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the stabilizer fins 32 each have a front surface 34 with a large surface area which creates a stabilizing drag force on the anchor 10 as the anchor 10 is embedded within the soil, as discussed in more detail below.
The shank 14 is a thin, elongated member which is pinned to the fluke 12 by a trunion 36 which extends above the top surface 24 of the fluke 12. The shank 14 extends upwardly from the fluke 12 along the central longitudinal axis 16 of the fluke 12. At the free end of the shank is a shackle 38, which is used to connect a mooring line (not shown) to the shank.
Preferably, along the mid-section of the shank, the leading edge 40 of the shank 14 is tapered to form a knife edge, to reduce the resistance of the shank 14 as it advances through soil. The shank 14 also curves downwardly toward the fluke 12 so that the leading edge 40 forms a convex arc. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 7, the shank 14 is preferably hollow along its mid-section and reinforced by structural ribs 42, which are normal to the lengthwise axis of the shank. Between ribs, the hollow portions of the shank are unenclosed along the trailing edge 44 of the shank, so that the shank 14 may be easily formed from cast metal. Due to the hollow construction of the shank 14, unnecessary weight is reduced. The ribs 42 and the hollow construction serve to strengthen the shank 14 so that it may withstand a large side bending moment, such as when the anchor 10 yaws.
As shown in FIG. 3, the shank 14 is rotatable about the trunion 36 so that the attitude of the shank 14 relative to the fluke 12 can be fixed at various positions. To maintain the shank 14 at a stationary position, the tail end of the shank 14 is also pinned to the fluke 12 by a stopper 46. The stopper 46 passes through a hole in the shank as well as through one of several sets of aligned holes 48,50, in a pair of vertical, central ribs 52. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the central ribs 52 form a slot within which the tail end of the shank 14 can rotate. When the shank is pinned to the upper holes 50, the shank 14 (shown in broken lines in FIG. 3) is close to the fluke 12 resulting in a small fluke opening angle, as is desirable for use with hard soils. Alternatively, the shank 14 may be pinned to the lower holes 48, which increases the fluke opening angle to accommodate softer soils. The adjustments to the fluke opening angle are easily made since only the stopper 46, which is easily accessible through the unenclosed underside 22 of the fluke 12, must be relocated. Further, the stopper 46 is an integral part of the anchor 10 regardless of the attitude of the shank 14, and thus does not have to be stored and handled separately.
Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, a plurality of stiffening ribs 54, 56, and 58 depend vertically downward from the bottom surface 60 of the shell 20. Preferably, the majority of the ribs 54, 56, 58 form a waffle pattern, as illustrated in FIG. 5. The ribs 54, 56, 58 are preferably orthogonal relative to each other, however, a waffle pattern may be formed by the intersection of the ribs at other angular orientations. As shown in FIG. 4, several of the ribs 56, including the central ribs 52 are sufficiently elongated to be flus with the plane formed by the bottom edge 28. Alternatively, any of the ribs 52, 54, 56, 58 may extend below the bottom edge 28.
The ribs 54, 56, 58 provide structural reinforcement so that the fluke shell 20 is stiffened, and so that thinner, lighter plate can be used to form the shell 20. The ribs also facilitate the initial penetration of the fluke tips 18 within the soil. Since only the bottom edge 28 and several of the more elongated ribs 52 and 56 contact the sea floor when the anchor 10 lands, the weight of the anchor 10 will more rapidly cause the anchor 10 to sink within the soil and bury the fluke tips 18, even before the anchor 10 is dragged along the sea floor. Unlike a tripping palm, which serves the same purpose, the unique underside 22 of the present anchor 10 does not provide resistance once the anchor 10 has fully penetrated the soil, since none of the ribs 56 protrude beyond the bottom edge 28.
In operation, the anchor 10 is dropped into the water and falls freely until it lands on the sea floor. The anchor 10 lands on the underside 22 of the fluke 12, in the orientation shown in FIGS. 3 and 8. The anchor 10 is then dragged along the sea floor by the mooring line, which is sufficiently long so that the force F is substantially horizontal in orientation, as shown in FIG. 8.
The ribs create a frictional drag force on the underside 22 of the fluke 12 as the anchor 10 is pulled along the sea floor. As shown in FIG. 8, the force F of the mooring line and the frictional drag force D on the underside 22 of the fluke 12 create a moment C which will cause the anchor 10 to rotate so the fluke tips 18 will quickly begin penetration of the soil. The frictional force D is largely generated by a rib 58 and the stern transom 30 which have large surfaces that are normal to the central longitudinal axis 16 of the fluke 12, which corresponds to the anchor's direction of travel. Alternatively, the ribs 54, 56 and 58 may be replaced by other friction generating surfaces, such as cleats or scoops.
The trunion 36 is preferably located at approximately the geometric center of the fluke's top surface 24. The geometric center is usually coincident with the pressure center of the fluke, however, as shown in FIG. 11, the overall pressure center P is located behind the trunion 36 (geometric center) on the present anchor 10. This is due to the effect of the soil pressure on the stabilizer fins 32 as the fluke 12 progresses through soil. As a result, the shank 14 is effectively pulling the fluke 12 through the soil, which provides for much greater stability than if the shank attachment point were behind the overall pressure center P, resulting in a pushing of the fluke through the soil.
The fins 32 further stabilize the anchor 10 by creating a restoring moment as the anchor yaws. When the first fluke tip 18 encounters a higher resistance than the second fluke tip 18, the anchor 10 will pivot or yaw about the first fluke tip. As the anchor 10 pivots, the stabilizer fin 32 on the side of the second tip is accelerated into firm, undisturbed soil with the front surface 34 of the fin 32 substantially normal to the direction of motion of the fin 32, which provide increased soil pressure on the fin 32 and a greater drag force. However, the front surface 34 of the fin 32 on the side of the first tip rotates substantially tangentially through soil that has already been agitated and displaced by the anchor 10, and thus the fin 32 is not subjected to any additional soil pressure and does not create any additional drag force. The differential in drag forces on the two fins 32 creates a restoring moment which automatically corrects the yaw of the anchor 10.
By correcting the yaw, the stabilizer fins 32 also help to eliminate roll, which is induced by yaw. As the anchor 10 yaws, the shank 14 becomes angled relative to the mooring line, when viewed from above. As a result, there is a component of the mooring line force F acting at the shackle 38 that is normal to the axis of the shank 14. That force component on the shank 14 is counteracted by force components in the opposite direction, acting at the trunion 36 and at the fluke tip 18 that encountered the yaw-causing obstruction. A moment which induces roll is created by these counteracting force components due to the vertical distance between the shackle 38, and the fluke tip 18. As the stabilizer fins 32 correct yaw, the angle between the mooring line and shank 14 is minimized, which in turn reduces the force components normal to the shank 14, and ultimately results in less roll.
The anchor 10 is also designed to minimize stress on the shank, which allows the use of a lighter shank 14 and increases overall anchor efficiency. As shown in FIG. 11, once the anchor 10 has fully penetrated the soil, the force F of the mooring line on the shank 14 is counteracted by an equal and opposite force, R. The force R is induced on the shank 14 by the fluke 12, and is the resultant force of the soil pressure on the fluke 12, passing through the overall pressure center P, as discussed above. The line of force 62 between forces F and R passes through the shank 14, and is preferably located above the neutral axis 64 of the shank 14. Due to the distance between the line of force 62 and the neutral axis 64 a bending moment M is induced in the shank 14, the moment M being proportional to the distance between the line of force 62 and the neutral axis 64. FIG. 9 shows both the force F and the moment M acting on the shank 14 at the section taken along line AB, the point at which the distance between the line of force 64 and neutral axis 64 is greatest, resulting in the greatest moment M. The force F is further divided into two orthogonal force components T and V. Force component T is a tension force normal to section AB and force component V is a shear force tangent to section AB.
By translating the force T and moment M into the stress distribution diagram of FIG. 10, it can be seen that the stress on the shank 14 is the least at point B, which is also the thinnest point of the shank 14 due to the knife edge shape of the leading edge 40. This is due to the compressive stress on the shank 14 below the neutral axis 64, caused by the moment M, which offsets the tensile stress of force T. Due to this favorable stress distribution, the amount of material required to fabricate the shank 14 can be greatly reduced, thus decreasing the weight of the anchor 10, and increasing the anchor's efficiency.
This favorable stress distribution is achieved by designing the shank 14 so that it passes through the pressure center P and the geometric center of the fluke. Further, the shank curves downwardly, toward the fluke 12 along its leading edge 40, so that the leading edge 40 forms a convex arc. The curvature of the shank 14 also lowers the center of gravity of the anchor 10, so it is less prone to roll. As a result, the distance between the neutral axis 64 and the line of force 62 is minimized, and thus the stress caused by bending moment M is small relative to that caused by force F. Preferably, the line of force 62 is above the neutral axis 64 so that the moment M is clockwise, or pointing towards the leading edge 40, which will cause a compressive stress on the thinner leading edge 40 to relieve the tension of force F.
In previous fixed shank anchors, the neutral axis has been above the line of force, and separated by a large distance. Thus, the stress on the shank caused by the bending moment is greater than the stress due to the mooring line force, resulting in an overall increase in stress throughout the shank, and, in particular, an increase in the tension along the leading edge of the shank.
The anchor 10 is designed so that it may be fabricated from a large variety of materials and manufacturing methods. In particular, the fluke 12 can easily be manufactured from a cast metal, or be formed by welding metal plates together. For example, the shell 20 can be formed from a plurality of metal plates which are welded together along ridges 26. Alternatively, the entire fluke 12 can be made from reinforced concrete, since the stiffening ribs 54, 56 and 58 will provide sufficient structure to support the shell 20. As shown in FIG. 6, the fluke 12 can be formed from a combination of metal plate 68 and reinforced concrete 70. The metal plate 68 forms a lining into which the concrete 70 can be poured. The use of concrete is particularly advantageous in the fabrication of large-scale anchors, due to the lower cost of concrete relative to metal, the relative ease with which concrete can be formed, and since less corrosion maintenance is required for concrete.
Patent Citations
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What is the capital of Egypt | What is the Capital of Egypt? - Capital-of.com
Dates of religious and Civil
holidays around the world.
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Capital of Egypt
The Capital City of Egypt is the city of Cairo. The population of Cairo in the year 2006 was 7,734,334 (17,856,000 in the metropolitan area).
Egypt is an Arabic speaking country on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea.
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What is the more common name for the blister beetle | Luxor: Ancient Egyptian Capital
Luxor: Ancient Egyptian Capital
By Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor |
June 25, 2013 05:24pm ET
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Luxor is a modern-day Egyptian city that lies atop an ancient city that the Greeks named “Thebes” and the ancient Egyptians called “Waset.”
Located in the Nile River about 312 miles (500 kilometers) south of Cairo the World Gazetteer website reports that, as of the 2006 census, Luxor and its environs had a population of more than 450,000 people. The name Luxor “derives from the Arabic al-uksur, ‘the fortifications,’ which in turn was adapted from the Latin castrum,” which refers to a Roman fort built in the area, writes William Murnane in the "Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt" (Oxford University Press, 2001).
A red granite obelisk and two seated statues of Ramesses II guard the entrance to the Luxor Temple.
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The ancient city of Luxor served at times as Egypt’s capital and became one of its largest urban centers. “On the East Bank, beneath the modern city of Luxor, lie the remains of an ancient town that from about 1500 to 1000 B.C. was one of the most spectacular in Egypt, with a population of perhaps 50,000,” write archaeologists Kent Weeks and Nigel Hetherington in their book "The Valley of the Kings Site Management Masterplan" (Theban Mapping Project, 2006).
In ancient times, the city was known as home to the god Amun, a deity who became associated with Egyptian royalty. In turn, during Egypt’s “New Kingdom” period between roughly 1550-1050 B.C., most of Egypt’s rulers chose to be buried close to the city in the nearby Valley of the Kings. Other famous sites near the city, which were built or greatly expanded during the New Kingdom period, include Karnak Temple , Luxor Temple, the Valley of the Queens and Queen Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple at Deir al-Bahari.
“Of all the ancient cities, no other city reached the glory of Thebes in supremacy,” writes Egyptologist Rasha Soliman in her book "Old and Middle Kingdom Theban Tombs" (Golden House Publications, 2009). “Thebes is the largest and wealthiest heritage site in the world.”
Origins
Weeks and Hetherington point out that the area of Luxor has evidence of habitation going back 250,000 years. Soliman notes that during the Old Kingdom period (roughly 2650-2150 B.C.), the time the Great Pyramids were built at Giza, the ancient city at Luxor was a provincial administration centre.
It would take on new importance after the Old Kingdom collapsed, a time called the “first intermediate period.” During this period, the ancient city at Luxor became the capital of a local kingdom, one that in time succeeded in uniting the country.
The king who accomplished this reunification, named Nebhepetre Mentuhotep (who reigned about 4,000 years ago), is believed to have accomplished this feat in his 39th year of rule. Soliman notes that a mortuary temple for him was built near the city at a place called Deir al-Bahari. “The mortuary complex includes an unexcavated valley temple and a causeway 1,200 meters (4,000 feet) long,” writes Soliman. “It ended at the temple’s garden where statues of the king were placed.” The king’s tomb was located in the nearby hills and contains a passageway descending 490 feet (150 meters) into the ground.
Although Mentuhotep’s successors would move their court north, away from the city, construction at Karnak Temple appears to have picked up at this time.
Pillars of hieroglyphs line the Medinet Habu, or Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III.
Credit: EastVillage Images Shutterstock
New Kingdom renaissance
Construction near the city would flourish during Egypt’s New Kingdom period, between roughly 1550 and 1050 B.C. Most of the kings who reigned during this time chose to be buried in the nearby Valley of the Kings and a number of queens, princesses and princes were buried in the nearby Valley of the Queens. The pharaohs also built nearby mortuary temples and greatly expanded Karnak Temple. [ Related: Ancient Shoes Turn Up in Egypt Temple ]
Luxor Temple, located on the east bank of the Nile River, was built to celebrate Egypt’s Opet Festival. “Most of the temple of Luxor in its present state was built by Amenhotep III (c. 1410–1372) in three phases,” writes Murnane. This temple would later be connected to Karnak through an avenue of “700 sandstone human-headed sphinxes,” writes a team of UCLA researchers working on the Digital Karnak project. This avenue ran for about two miles (3 kilometers).
During the Opet festival statues of Amun, Mut (his wife), Khonsu (their son) and the king were carried between the two temples writes Egyptologist Pat Remler in her book "Egyptian Mythology, A to Z" (Chelsea House, 2010). “When the procession reached Luxor Temple it was greeted with a joyous reception by various groups of dancers, singers and musicians,” she writes.
Home of Amun
While the city did serve as Egypt’s capital for parts of the New Kingdom period its use as a place for royal burials, and great temples, appears to be largely due to religious reasons.
The city was considered the home of the god Amun and so close was the relationship between this god and Egyptian royalty that Egyptian queens actually credited the deity with fathering their children.
“Amun was often credited by the queens of Egypt as having fathered their children. When Queen Hatshepsut came to power, she inscribed the story of her divine birth, from the union of Amun and her mother Queen Ahmose, on the wall of her mortuary temple at Deir al-Bahri (near the city),” writes Remler in her book.
Valley of the Kings
The Valley of the Kings was the burial place for most of the New Kingdom rulers. All of the royal tombs appear to have been looted to some degree with the most spectacularly well-preserved being that of King Tutankhamun, discovered by Howard Carter’s team in 1922.
The Valley of the Kings “was chosen as the burial place for most of Egypt's New Kingdom rulers for several reasons,” writes the Theban Mapping Project team on their website.
“As the crow flies, the Valley is very close to the cultivated banks of the river. It is small, surrounded by steep cliffs, and easily guarded. The local limestone, cut millions of years ago by torrential rains to form the Valley, is of good quality. And towering above the Valley is a mountain, al Qurn (‘the horn’ in Arabic), whose shape may have reminded the ancient Egyptians of a pyramid, and is dedicated to the goddess Meretseger.”
New tombs are still being discovered today with two, KV 63 and 64, being unearthed within the last decade. Additionally former antiquities minister Zahi Hawass said in a recent lecture at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum that there are more tombs yet to be found. "The tomb of Thutmose II, not found yet, the tomb of Ramesses VIII is not found yet, all the queens of dynasty 18 [1550-1292 B.C.] were buried in the valley and their tombs not found yet," he said.
In addition to tombs the royal rulers built great mortuary temples close to the valley, the most well known of these mortuary temples was built at Deir al-Bahri by the female pharaoh Hatshepsut and contains three colonnaded terraces , which lead to a sanctuary. The temple’s decoration including scenes of the Egyptians voyaging to a distant land, probably located in Eritrea or southeast Sudan, called “Punt.”
Valley of the Queens
The Valley of the Queens, located near the Valley of the Kings, was known to the ancient Egyptians as ta set neferu “the place of the children of the king,” writes Alessandro Bongioanni, an adjunct professor at the University of Turin, in his book "Luxor and the Valley of the Kings" (White Star Publishers, 2004). It contained the tombs of princes, princesses, court dignitaries and, later on, queens, about 100 burials in all.
The more spectacular tomb is that of Nefertari, the wife of Ramesses II, the pharaoh who is known for the temples he built at Abu Simbel .
“Nefertari’s tomb, similar in structure to those of the pharaohs that have been excavated in the Valley of the Kings, presents an admirable example of refined relief painting on a white background that magnifies both its freshness and liveliness,” writes Bongioanni. The ceiling has astronomical motifs and on the walls “most of the iconographic and textual repertoire appears to have been taken from chapters of the Book of the Dead,” Bongioanni notes.
One particularly interesting illustration shows Nefertari playing a board game called “senet,” with “the aim of winning otherworldly salvation.”
Deir el-Medina
Located between the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens is a village we call Deir el-Medina and which the ancient Egyptians called Set Maat “the place of truth.”
In this village “lived a number of civil servants, stonecutters, and draftsmen/artists who prepared the tombs of their kings and queens,” writes Leonard Lesko in the book "Pharaoh’s Workers: The Villagers of Deir el Medina" (Cornell University Press, 1994).
These skilled laborers, some of them foreigners, might have been what we would consider middle class. The place they lived in, however, did have a harsh environment. Deir el-Medina has no trees and the “barren hillsides that surround it reflect the heat of the desert sun on it,” writes Lesko.
This walled village was in operation until close to the time the New Kingdom ended and has yielded a number of papyri and ostraka, indicating that a sizable proportion of the population could write. The Guinness Book of World Records notes that it was the location of the first recorded workers strike in history which occurred during the reign of Ramesses III (reign 1186–1155 B.C.). The strikers were not the only ones unhappy with the pharaoh as recent research has confirmed that he was later assassinated.
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Who was Brigitte Bardot’s third husband | Brigitte Bardot's extraordinary life: husbands, lovers and suicide attempts
Brigitte Bardot's extraordinary life: husbands, lovers and suicide attempts
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Sixties sex bomb Brigitte Bardot has had a life as epic as her fame and with the drama of her films.
She had more than 100 lovers, including women. She also tried to kill herself at least four times, the same number of husbands she has had, according to a new book on the French actress, model and chanteuse.
Her first suicide attempt was at the tender age of 16.
She had just fallen in love with Roger Vadim, then a director's assistant, six years her senior, after meeting him at a movie casting.
They began an intense affair but when Bardot's wealthy Parisian parents found out, they threatened to send her away to England.
In retaliation, Bardot, whose first magazine cover was on Elle at age 15, tried to kill herself.
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Bardot turned on the oven and placed her head inside only to be discovered by her parents just in time.
They relented, permitting the relationship but forbade the couple from marrying until Bardot was 18.
Sure enough, in 1952 when Bardot was 18 years old, she married for the first time.
Bardot was intoxicated by the charismatic Frenchman.
"He made on her the impression of a 'wild wolf', Bardot wrote, 'he looked at me, scared me, attracted me, I didn't know where I was anymore'," writes Ginette Vincendeau, the author of the book, Brigitte Bardot: The Life, The Legend, The Movies. "She wanted him."
But not for long.
Vadim made his directorial debut in December 1956, And God Created Woman, starring his wife.
On set, however, Bardot fell in love with her co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant and, after four short years of marriage, she and Vadim divorced.
"I knew what was happening and rather expected it," Vadim is quoted as saying. "I would always prefer to have that kind of wife, knowing she is unfaithful to me rather than possess a woman who just loved me and no one else.
"I wanted a woman with spirit, with joie de vivre … a woman with a sense of adventure and sexual curiosity."
Bardot was certainly abundant in these qualities.
After her affair with Trintignant, she went on to bed as many as 100 men and women, the book says.
She eventually met and married her second husband, French actor Jacques Charrier, with whom she had her only child.
Bardot has been vocal about not wanting to be a mother and resenting her pregnancy.
In her memoirs Initiales BB, she describes her horror at finding herself pregnant in 1959, aged 25: "I looked at my flat, slender belly in the mirror like a dear friend upon whom I was about to close a coffin lid."
She revealed, in an attempt to abort the child, repeatedly punching herself in the stomach and begging her doctor for morphine.
The revelations lead to a lawsuit by her ex-husband and son, Nicolas, who was raised by Charrier after their three-year marriage ended.
Bardot was ordered to pay her son damages for the hurt inflicted by the book, in which she referred to her unborn son as a "cancerous tumour" and said she would have "preferred to give birth to a little dog". http://www.independent.co.uk/news/bardot-in-the-doghouse-for-wishing-her-son-was-a-puppy-1271393.html
On her 26th birthday in 1960, shortly after Nicolas was born, Bardot tried to take her life again, downing a bottle of sleeping pills and slitting her wrists at her villa in France, the new book reveals.
Unsurprisingly, Bardot has had a deeply troubled relationship with Nicolas.
She was not invited to his 1982 wedding and did not see him for a decade, but they are believed to have reconciled recently after she became a great-grandmother for the first time.
"I'm not made to be a mother," Bardot confessed years later. "I'm not adult enough – I know it's horrible to have to admit that, but I'm not adult enough to take care of a child."
After more suicide attempts and more husbands (her third husband, German playboy Gunter Sachs shot himself in 2011), Bardot turned her attentions to animal rights activism and established a foundation to care for "suffering animals" in 1986.
"I gave my youth and my beauty to men, I am now giving my wisdom and my experience, the best of myself, to animals," Bardot is quoted as saying.
Bardot married her fourth husband, politician, Bernard d'Ormale in 1992. The couple live together, along with a menagerie of stray animals, at a secluded property in St Tropez.
"I can no longer walk. I can no longer swim. But I'm lucky when I see how animals suffer. Suddenly, I discover that I have nothing to complain [about]."
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What was the name of Gene Vincent’s backing group | Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot
Nationality: France
Executive summary: Voulez-vous danser avec moi?
Arguably film's first sex kitten, Brigitte Bardot grew up in a wealthy, conservative French Catholic family. She was named for her mother's favorite doll, and as a child wore braces on her teeth and glasses to correct astigmatism. Bardot began studying ballet at the age of five, and at 13 she danced alongside Leslie Caron at the Conservatoire Nationale de Danse. At 14, she blossomed and was photographed for the cover of Elle magazine. At 15, Bardot met her future first ex-husband Roger Vadim , and attempted suicide when her parents refused permission for her to marry until she was 18. They married when she turned 18, and divorced five years later.
She moved from modeling to acting, and played a 17-year-old nymphet (at 22) in Vadim's And God Created Woman, a role that made Bardot known internationally. She embodied a natural yet innocent sexuality that was a precursor to the sexual liberation movement of the 1960s. The actress eschewed the Catholic principles of her childhood, saying "It is better to be unfaithful than to be faithful without wanting to be." Brigitte Bardot was one of the first women to wear a bikini, and later she and her friends would be the first to sunbathe topless at St. Tropez in the late 1960s. She was the first international star to be as popular as any homegrown pinup in the US.
Long prone to depression, Bardot has attempted suicide multiple times. "I really wanted to die at certain periods in my life. Death was like love, a romantic escape. I took pills because I didn't want to throw myself off my balcony and know people would photograph me lying dead below." On her 26th birthday she attempted her most publicly known suicide attempt, swallowing a bottle of sleeping pills and slitting her wrists.
Bardot retired from films at 39, to focus on her love of animals and her increasingly odd political activism. She sold her home, her jewels, and other personal effects in 1986 to start the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, which works for animal rights across the world. She has been outspoken to the point of causing international offense on the behalf of animals, and once stole a mynah bird on a French street because its owner, whom she beat with an umbrella, was "abusing" it by giving it a hamburger and fries.
Political incorrectness has dogged Bardot in recent years, being fined by the French government no fewer than four times in recent years for "inciting hatred" with her books. Her views that gays are "fairground freaks", that racially mixed marriages are an abomination, and that France is being "Islamized" have been problematic, as has her denunciation of the ritual slaughter of sheep during the Muslim feast of Eid. Bardot was an outspoken supporter of France's failed fascist presidential candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen .
Father: Charles Bardot ("Pilou", engineer)
Mother: Anne-Marie Mucel Bardot (homemaker)
Sister: Marie-Jean Bardot ("Mijarout")
Husband: Roger Vadim (film director, m. 1952, div. 1957)
Husband: Jacques Charrier (French actor, b. 1936, m. 1959, div. 1962))
Son: Nicholas Charrier
Husband: Gunter Sachs (millionaire, heir to Fichtel & Sachs, b. 1932, d. 2011 suicide)
Husband: Bernard d'Ormale (right wing, allegedly racist politician)
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