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30,074,510 | NWA World Historic Light Heavyweight Championship | 1,146,711,092 | American professional wrestling championship | [
"Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre championships",
"Light heavyweight wrestling championships",
"World professional wrestling championships"
] | The NWA World Historic Light Heavyweight Championship (Campeonato Mundial Historico de Peso Semicompleto de la NWA in Spanish) is a professional wrestling championship promoted by Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). CMLL had held the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship for over 48 years, when the relationship between the promotion and National Wrestling Alliance broke down in March 2010. Blue Demon Jr., the president of NWA Mexico, sent letters to CMLL, telling them to stop promoting the NWA-branded championships since they were no longer part of the NWA. On August 12, 2010, CMLL debuted the new NWA World Historic Light Heavyweight Championship belt and named El Texano Jr., the final CMLL-recognized NWA World Light Heavyweight Champion, as the inaugural champion.
The current champion is Atlantis Jr., who defeated Stuka Jr. to win the championship on February 4, 2023. This is Atlantis Jr.'s first title reign; his current reign is the eighth in the title's history. All title matches take place under best two-out-of-three falls rules.
## Background
The first light heavyweight division professional wrestling championship recognized in Mexico was the Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship, created in 1942, sanctioned by the Mexico City boxing and wrestling commission and promoted by a number of different Mexican professional wrestling promotions including Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL; Spanish for "Mexican Wrestling Enterprise"). In 1953, EMLL joined the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), and in 1957 EMLL was given control of the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship after it had been inactive for around four years. From 1957 on the championship was defended primarily in Mexico on EMLL shows and occasionally in Southern California during the 1970s.
In the late 1980s, EMLL left the NWA to avoid the politics of that organization. While they left the NWA they did retain control of the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship as their main championship of the light heavyweight division, as well as promoting the Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship as the secondary championship. In 1991, EMLL was renamed "Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre" (CMLL; "World Wrestling Council") after which they began to introduce a series of "CMLL" branded world championships. On September 26, 1991, CMLL determined the first ever holder of the CMLL World Light Heavyweight Championship as Jerry Estrada defeated Pierroth Jr. in the finals of a tournament.
In 2010, the NWA, represented by NWA Mexico president Blue Demon Jr., reached out to CMLL and asked them to stop using the NWA-branded championships since they were not part of the NWA. Blue Demon Jr. was in the process of establishing NWA Mexico as a promotion and wanted to use the championship. There had been previous attempts by the NWA to gain back control of the three NWA-branded championships that CMLL used, the light heavyweight championship as well as the NWA World Welterweight Championship and the NWA World Middleweight Championship, but in those instances, CMLL had not responded to those requests at all. The promotion did not directly respond to the latest claim; the NWA Welterweight Champion, Mephisto, commented instead, simply stating that the championships belonged to CMLL. Finally, on August 12, 2010, CMLL debuted the new NWA World Historic Light Heavyweight Championship belt and named El Texano Jr., the final CMLL-recognized NWA World Light Heavyweight Champion, as the inaugural champion. The championship was initially announced as the CMLL Historic Light Heavyweight Championship, but when the belt was unveiled, it was called the "NWA World Historic Light Heavyweight Championship" (Campeonato Mundial Historico de Peso Semicompleto de la NWA in Spanish)
## Reigns
Stuka Jr. is the current NWA World Historic Light Heavyweight Champion, having defeated Hechicero for the championship on August 14, 2018. He is the seventh overall champion and the fifth individual to hold the title. Rey Bucanero is the only wrestler to have won the championship on two occasions and also holds the distinction of holding the record for the longest reign as his first reign with the championship lasted 714 days in total. The first champion, El Texano Jr., held the title for the shortest reign between August and December 2010, a total of 124 days. The championship has been vacated twice, first in 2011 when then-champion Shocker suffered a knee injury and was forced to give up the championship. In early 2015, CMLL vacated the championship once more, this time because champion Diamante Azul had not appeared at CMLL shows for several months. Current champion Hechicero was the first champion to defend the championship at a non-CMLL event as he defeated Caifan on November 27, 2016 in the main event of Lucha Memes Chairo 6 in Naucalpan, State of Mexico. Of all the champions El Texano Jr. and Shocker are the only champions to never have a successful championship defense. Hechicero's 641-day reign from 2016 to 2018 saw Hechicero successfully defend the championship six times, the most of any champion.
## Rules
The official definition by the Mexican lucha libre commission for the light heavyweight division in Mexico is between 92 kg (203 lb) and 97 kg (214 lb). In the 20th century CMLL were generally consistent and strict about enforcing the actual weight limits. However, in the 21st century the official definitions have at times been overlooked for certain champions. One example of this was when Mephisto, officially listed as 90 kg (200 lb), won the CMLL World Welterweight Championship, a weight class with a 78 kg (172 lb) upper limit. While the heavyweight championship is traditionally considered the most prestigious weight division in professional wrestling, CMLL places more emphasis on the lower weight divisions, often promoting those ahead of the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship.
Championship matches usually take place under best two-out-of-three falls rules. On occasion single fall title matches have taken place, especially when promoting CMLL title matches in Japan, conforming to the traditions of the local promotion.
## Tournaments
### 2011
In May 2011 CMLL declared the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship vacant when the then reigning champion Shocker had to undergo knee surgery after suffering an injury and thus would be unable to defend the championship for an undetermined amount of time. CMLL decided to hold a tournament to determine the next champion, splitting the 16 man group of competitors into two groups, each of which would compete in a torneo cibernetico elimination match to find a finalist. After the two torneo cibernetico matches the two winners would face off the following week in a one-on-one best two-out-of-three falls match. Block A of the tournament took place on June 7, 2011, and saw El Hijo del Fantasma win, while Block B took place a week later on June 14 and had Rey Bucanero as the victor. The following week, on June 21, Rey Bucanero defeated El Hijo del Fantasma to become the third ever NWA World Historic Light Heavyweight Champion. Bucanero became the first champion to have not also held the previous NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship.
Block A Cibernetico
Block B Cibernetico
### 2015
Due to the championship being vacated on February 23, 2015, CMLL held a tournament for the vacant light heavyweight championship starting March 1, 2015. La Sombra and Rey Bucanero outlasted Atlantis, Blue Panther, Dragón Rojo Jr., Ephesto, Misterioso Jr., Mr. Águila, Niebla Roja, Stuka Jr., Valiente and Último Guerrero in a 12-man torneo cibernetico elimination match. On March 8, Bucanero defeated La Sombra to win the tournament and the vacant championship.
2015 Torneo Cibernetico
## Title history
## Combined reigns |
2,102,218 | Go First | 1,173,720,209 | Ultra low-cost airline of India | [
"2005 establishments in Maharashtra",
"2023 disestablishments in India",
"Airlines disestablished in 2023",
"Airlines established in 2005",
"Companies based in Mumbai",
"Defunct airlines of India",
"Defunct low-cost airlines",
"Indian companies established in 2005",
"Insolvent companies",
"Wadia Group"
] | Go First, founded as GoAir, was an Indian ultra-low-cost airline based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is owned by the Indian business conglomerate, Wadia Group. In October 2017, it was the fifth largest airline in India with an 8.4% passenger market share. It commenced operations on 4 November 2005 and operated a fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft in an all economy configuration.
In March 2020, the airline operated over 330 daily flights to 36 destinations, including 27 domestic and nine international destinations, from its bases at Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chandigarh, and Kannur. The airline was planning to launch an IPO to raise Rs 36 billion from the primary market and has filed a DRHP for the same with Indian stock market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The airline temporarily ceased its operations on 3 May 2023. She justified this step with problems with its Pratt & Whitney GTF high-bypass turbofan engines which are operated by the entire A320neo fleet of the airline, and filed an application for voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings before the National Company Law Tribunal.
## History
### Foundation
Go First was founded as GoAir on 4 November 2005 by Jeh Wadia, son of Indian industrialist Nusli Wadia. The airline is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Wadia Group. GoAir commenced its operations using an Airbus A320 aircraft and operated its inaugural flight from Mumbai to Ahmedabad on 4 November 2005. The airline initially operated with a single aircraft to four destinations including Goa and Coimbatore with plans to induct 36 aircraft by 2008. In March 2008, the airline announced revised plans to operate 11 aircraft and service new destinations in North East and South India by the end of the year. Increasing fuel prices forced Go First to decrease the existing number of flights in June 2008.
In January 2009, British Airways was interested in buying a stake in the airline. In November 2009, GoAir entered into talks with Indian airline SpiceJet over a possible merger which ended in a no deal.
### Development since 2010
In April 2012, GoAir became the fifth largest airline in India in terms of market share following the demise of Kingfisher Airlines. In 2013, the airline appointed investment bank JP Morgan to scout for potential investors. The airline's growth has been slow compared to other airlines established at the same time such as IndiGo and SpiceJet, which have larger market share, fleet size and destinations served as of 2016.
According to the airline, it is a planned strategy due to the tough aviation environment in India and to focus on maintaining profitability rather than on capturing market share and increasing the destinations and fleet size. As of February 2016, it was the fifth largest carrier in the country with an 8% market share. The airline is planning for an initial public offering (IPO) in 2020. The airline took delivery of its 20th aircraft in June 2016, making it eligible to operate international flights.
GoAir became the sixth Indian domestic carrier to fly internationally when it launched its inaugural flight to Phuket from New Delhi on 11 October 2018.
On 17 March 2020, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, GoAir suspended its international flights. On 13 May 2021, GoAir was rebranded as Go First.
### Bankruptcy
The airline claims to have been largely impacted by supply chain issues of Pratt & Whitney PW1000G engines which power their A320neos. According to the airline, this eventually led to financial trouble and the cancellation of all its flights till 26 May due to a cash crunch and filed for voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings before the National Company Law Tribunal in Delhi on 2 May 2023. It also sued Pratt & Whitney in a US federal court seeking to enforce an arbitral award directing supply of engines as contracted. Pratt & Whitney has disputed these claims.
Go First's bankruptcy plea was heard by the National Company Law Tribunal. The airline was seeking interim directions to continue functioning and requesting restrictions on any adverse regulatory action. However, the tribunal ruled that there is no provision for interim relief under the rules. Go First had to ground half of its fleet of Airbus A320neo planes, resulting in a loss of 108 billion rupees (\$1.3 billion; £1 billion) in revenue and expenses. The airline accused Pratt & Whitney of non-compliance with an emergency arbitrator's order, including supplying "at least 10 serviceable spare leased engines by 27 April 2023". Pratt & Whitney responded by stating that it was complying with the arbitration ruling. Go First's management confirmed that the insolvency proceedings were focused on reviving the airline and not selling it. Go First's CEO, Kaushik Khona, stated that the Wadia Group, have no plans to exit. Due to non-payment of rental dues, leasing companies have repossessed some of Go First's leased planes. According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, Go First was scheduled to operate over 6,225 flights in May, equating to more than 1.1 million seats.
On 26 June it was confirmed that the airline's creditors had approved interim financing of Rs 425 crore aimed at returning it to operation, pending board approval.
In mid-August 2023, the airline sought emergency funding of Rs 100 crore to keep itself afloat. Around a week later, over 150 employees including pilots, cabin crew, ground handling and engineering employees reportedly quit with more than 100 predicted to leave in the very near future. These resignations are following a report that states the airline is struggling to pay their salaries.
## Corporate affairs
The airline is headquartered in the Wadia International Centre in Worli, Mumbai, India. Jehangir Wadia served as the managing director of the airline since its inception until his resignation in 2021. Kaushik Khona is the CEO of Go First.
### Services
Being a budget airline, Go First does not provide complimentary meals on its flights but offers options for buy on board in-flight meals. The airline publishes an in-flight magazine named Go-getter. Go First offers a premium service known as Go Business at a higher fare which provides extra services including seats with greater legroom, free meals, increased baggage allowance and priority boarding. In 2011, the airline launched its frequent flyer programme called Go Club, which provided benefits such as lounge access and free upgrade to Go Business. New membership was discontinued in February 2014.
### Accolades
Go First was rated as the "Best Domestic Airline For Excellence in Quality and Efficient Service" by Pacific Area Travel Writers Association in 2008. The airline was named the "Best Performing Airline" in Asia and Africa of all Airbus A320 operators by Airbus in 2011 based on fleet utilization and other performance metrics.
## Destinations
In March 2020, Go First operated a network of 39 destinations – 29 domestic and 10 international to Thailand (Bangkok and Phuket), Muscat, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, Kuwait City, Singapore, Colombo and Malé. As of now, Go First operates international flights from Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kannur and Kolkata. The airline has a total of 325 daily flights and more than 2200 weekly flights. The airline maintains bases at Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Kannur and Mumbai airports.
The airline commenced its first international operations on 11 October 2018 from Delhi to Phuket, then from Mumbai to Phuket on 12 October, Mumbai and Delhi to Malé on 14 and 17 October respectively.
## Fleet
### Current fleet
Prior to ceasing operations, Go First operated an all Airbus A320 fleet:
### Fleet development
In June 2011, Go First placed an order for 72 Airbus A320neo aircraft worth . Deliveries began in 2016, with an induction rate of 12–15 aircraft per year. In December 2015, Airbus intimated that the deliveries will be delayed by three months due to technical issues and the aircraft will be delivered by the second quarter of the financial year 2015–16. Go First received its first A320neo aircraft on 1 June 2016.
In July 2016, Go First signed a memorandum of understanding with Airbus for 72 Airbus A320neo aircraft valued at , potentially taking the total number of orders to 144. This deal was announced at Farnborough Airshow.
## See also
- List of airlines of India
- Transport in India |
20,038,283 | Angus Paton | 1,165,991,214 | British civil engineer (1905–1999) | [
"1905 births",
"1999 deaths",
"Alumni of University College London",
"British civil engineers",
"Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George",
"Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering",
"Fellows of the Royal Society",
"Jersey people",
"Knights Bachelor",
"People educated at Cheltenham College",
"Presidents of the Institution of Civil Engineers",
"Presidents of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers"
] | Sir Thomas Angus Lyall Paton CMG FRS FREng FICE FIStructE (10 May 1905 – 7 April 1999) was a British civil engineer from Jersey. Paton was born into a family that had founded the civil engineering firms of Easton, Gibb & Son and Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners and he would spend his entire professional career working for the latter. Following his graduation from University College London one of his first jobs was the construction of a dam in Maentwrog in Wales. Paton later became an expert on dams and much of his career was devoted to their construction. In 1931 he undertook an economic survey of Canada which recommended a programme of works for its port system. This report was still being used into the 1970s. During the Second World War Paton was involved with the construction of gun emplacements in the Dardanelles, Turkey and of caissons for the Mulberry Harbours used after the Invasion of Normandy.
After the Second World War, Paton undertook an economic survey of Syria, which made recommendations for port, water infrastructure, irrigation and hydroelectric improvements. This was followed by a similar report on Lebanon and one on the possibility of extending railways from Northern Rhodesia to neighbouring countries. From 1946, Paton worked almost exclusively on hydroelectric projects, beginning with the Owen Falls Hydroelectric Scheme in Uganda. He also worked on the Kariba Dam in Zambia and Zimbabwe, which was the largest dam in the world when built and for which he was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George. He was also involved with the Indus Basin Project, the Aswan High Dam, the Hendrik Verwoerd Dam, the P.K. Le Roux Dam, the Spioenkop Dam and the Tarbela Dam. Paton was knighted in 1973 and retired in 1977, remaining a senior consultant to Gibb and Partners. He spent his retirement in Jersey, where he died at St Helier on 7 April 1999. Paton was dedicated to his professional career and served as President of both the Institution of Civil Engineers (November 1970 – November 1971) and the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers.
## Early life
Angus, the name he preferred, was born on the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands on 10 May 1905. His father, Thomas Lyall Paton, was a journalist and author. His mother, Janet, was the daughter of Easton Gibb, founder of Easton, Gibb & Son, a firm of civil engineering contractors. His uncle on his mother's side, Alexander Gibb, was also a civil engineer and had founded Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners, where Paton would spend his professional career. Paton left Jersey with his family in 1909 and spent a year in England before being sent to school in Boulogne-sur-Mer in France then Lausanne in Switzerland. He returned to England at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. He spent the next six years living in St Leonards-on-Sea in Sussex where he lived next door to his future wife, Joan Delme-Murray.
Paton spent four years at Brunswick preparatory school in Haywards Heath, Sussex before studying at Cheltenham College. He was a good student, which he put down to an excellent maths teacher, a good memory and being "not much good at games". On Alexander Gibb's advice Paton read for a degree in civil engineering at University College London (UCL), where he had won a scholarship at the age of 17. Whilst at UCL Paton earned half-colours for long distance running and became the only student to graduate with a first class honours Bachelor of Science degree in engineering in 1925.
## Work
### Post-graduation
Upon graduation Paton joined Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners, which had been founded in 1922. One of his first jobs there was to assist with the design of a new jetty for Barking Power Station. In 1927 he worked on a dam at Maentwrog in North Wales and between 1932 and 1933 was resident engineer on the Glenlee portion of the Galloway hydro-electric power scheme. Paton was seconded to the Rangoon Port Trust in 1930 to construct a wharf for the export of lead from Burma. This wharf survived a serious earthquake on 5 May 1930 and was opened on 20 February 1931. On 10 April 1931 Paton sailed to Canada to undertake a survey of its ports and outline the additional facilities that would be required in the next 25–50 years. He was assisted in this for six weeks by Ralph Freeman who had designed the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The report was issued on 15 January 1932 but was not implemented until 1935 with the election of William Lyon Mackenzie King as Prime Minister of Canada. The report's findings continued to be in use until the 1970s. Paton was responsible for the construction of a new brewery for Guinness in Park Royal, London from October 1933 to October 1936. This was the biggest job of his career thus far and involved the construction of seven steel framed buildings, a power station, a storage silo, roads and railway sidings. Paton also built industrial and trading estates in Wales, West Cumberland and London. He was made a partner in the firm in 1938.
### Second World War
During the Second World War the running of Gibb and Partners fell largely to Paton and James Guthrie Brown. Gibb and Partners gained a large number of government contracts and within a few weeks of the start of the war in September 1939 the workforce increased by 2000. Paton designed and sited several Royal Ordnance Factories and in March 1940 travelled to Turkey to construct an iron and steel works there. Whilst in Turkey he was contracted to build emplacements to contain guns from mothballed battleships in the Dardanelles. The construction of the emplacements was completed but the guns would later be prevented from reaching the site by the Axis occupation of Greece. Paton made his way back to Britain via Greece, Italy and France and arrived home two days prior to the Italian declaration of war against the Allies on 10 June 1940. He also constructed a plant at Barry in South Wales for the extraction of Magnesium Hydroxide from the sea, a turbine factory for British Thomson-Houston Company and a £7 million underground aircraft engine factory. From 1943–44 Paton supervised the construction, in London Docks, of the precast concrete caissons required for the construction of Mulberry Harbours following the Normandy Landings. From 1944–45 he was in charge of the rebuilding of houses damaged by V-2 rockets in the London districts of Wanstead and Woodford.
### Post-war
In 1945 Paton began construction of a wool factory at Darlington and a Rayon factory at Carrickfergus, both jobs were completed in 1951. In 1946 Paton was put in charge of an economic survey of Syria which required him to traverse the country by aircraft and car. The report, issued in 1947, recommended port, water infrastructure and irrigation improvements and the construction of a hydroelectric power station on the Euphrates River. Paton undertook a similar survey in Lebanon from 1947 to 1948. He was also involved in a report on the possibility of running a railroad from Northern Rhodesia to Dar es Salaam, Mtwara and Nyasaland.
Paton worked extensively in the field of hydroelectric power and became regarded as a world authority on the matter. From 1946 to 1955 he worked on the Owen Falls Hydroelectric Scheme in Uganda which resulted in the complete stoppage of the White Nile for the first time in history. Following the completion of Owen Falls Dam, Paton worked on the first stage of the Kariba Dam on the Zambezi River, of which he said that it was the "highlight of his professional career". Paton made 22 visits to the site, of a total duration of 267 days. The project itself was, at 420 ft high, the largest dam built until then and, despite some of the worst floods on record hitting the project, was completed in 1960 at £5 million under budget. In recognition of his work on the Kariba project Paton was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George on 1 January 1960. As a result of the success of the Kariba project Gibb and Partners became involved with many of the biggest dam projects of the next two decades including works in Sudan, Argentina, South Africa and Pakistan.
Paton was later involved in the second stage of the Kariba Project and in the Aswan High Dam project. In 1955 he became a senior partner in Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners upon the death of Alistair Gibb in a polo accident. From 1960 until 1977, when he retired, Paton was the responsible partner for the firm's involvement in the supervision of the \$1.2 billion World Bank Indus Basin Project. This included the construction of the Mangla Dam between 1962 and 1968.
In 1962 Gibb & Partners was one of two firms chosen (with Coyne et Bellier) by the South African government to build two dams on the Orange River. The first to be constructed was the Hendrik Verwoerd Dam which was officially opened in March 1972. The second, the P.K. Le Roux Dam, was finished in 1977. Following the success of this project Paton was retained to build a third, smaller dam, the Spioenkop Dam, which was finished in 1972. Paton was also involved with the tunnelling and underground powerhouse for the Drakensberg Pumped Storage Scheme. Paton was retained by the World Bank once more in 1967 to supervise the construction of the Tarbela Dam in Pakistan, which was completed in 1976. He also worked on the modernisation of the Royal Mint which involved the move from its 600-year home at Tower Hill to Llantrisant in Wales in time for decimalisation in 1971.
## Retirement
Paton retired from the firm in 1977 but worked for them again as a senior consultant between 1979 and 1985. During this time he worked on the James Bay Project, a large hydroelectric and infrastructure development in Quebec, Canada. Paton spent the last twenty years of his life in retirement in Jersey in the Channel Islands. In his working life he had visited 48 countries and spent 3152 days abroad. During his career with Gibb and Partners he had grown the company from a 400 employee, home-based company to one which employed more than 1500 engineers working in 63 countries. He was also largely responsible for leading the trend of exporting British technical expertise around the world.
Paton made an endowment to the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1986, as a result the Academy awards the Sir Angus Paton Bursary of £7000 annually to a masters student. Paton married on 7 June 1933 to Joan with whom he raised two daughters and two sons. Joan died on 7 January 1964, an event which spurred him to become more involved in his profession. Paton died at St Helier in Jersey on 7 April 1999.
## Personal life
Paton married Eleanor Joan Delmé-Murray on 7 June 1933, they remained married until her death at the age of 53 in 1964. They had two sons and two daughters.
## Professional recognition
### Institutional and committee memberships
In addition to his busy work schedule Paton served his profession on numerous councils and committees. The first of these was as chairman of the Association of Consulting Engineers between 1949 and 1950, an association of which he was made an honorary member in 1984. Paton served on the council of the Institution of Civil Engineers from 1954 to 1959 and again from 1961 to 1966. He was elected vice president of that institution, a position he filled from 1966 to 1970 when he was elected president. Whilst serving as president he started New Civil Engineer magazine to keep members up to date with civil engineering news.
From 1960 to 1965 Paton was a board member of the Hydraulics Research Station of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and from 1964 to 1975 he served on the council of the Construction Industry Research and Information Association. Paton was also the British representative on the committee of the International Commission on Large Dams between 1966 and 1973. From 1968 to 1970 he was chairman of the National Economic Development Council's working party on large industrial construction sites and from 1969 to 1974 was a member of the Natural Environment Research Council. Paton was vice-chairman of the Council of Engineering Institutions from 1971 to 1972 and chairman for 1972 to 1973. From 1974 to 1979 he was chairman of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food flood protection research committee. Paton was also a member emeritus of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers and served as their president in 1980.
### Other honours
Paton was awarded many honours for his contributions to civil engineering. In 1952 he was made an honorary fellow of University College London and he was also a fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers and the American Society of Civil Engineers. Paton was made a fellow of the Royal Society in 1969 and served as one of its vice-presidents for the 1977–78 session. Paton became one of the few practising engineers to have held that post.
He was created a knight bachelor in the Queen's Birthday Honours of 1973 in recognition of his services to the construction industry. This knighthood was personally conferred upon him by Queen Elizabeth II on 7 November 1973. In 1976 Paton became a founding member of the Fellowship of Engineering and received an honorary Doctorate of Science (DSc) in engineering from the University of London in 1977. In 1978 he was made an honorary fellow of Imperial College London and received another honorary DSc in engineering from Bristol University. |
2,503,392 | You Make Me Wanna... | 1,173,189,763 | 1997 single by Usher | [
"1997 singles",
"1997 songs",
"LaFace Records singles",
"Music videos directed by Bille Woodruff",
"Song recordings produced by Jermaine Dupri",
"Songs written by Jermaine Dupri",
"Songs written by Manuel Seal",
"Songs written by Usher (musician)",
"UK Singles Chart number-one singles",
"Usher (musician) songs"
] | "You Make Me Wanna..." is a song by American recording artist Usher. It was released on August 5, 1997, by LaFace Records and Arista Records as the lead single from Usher's second studio album, My Way (1997). "You Make Me Wanna..." was written by Usher along with Jermaine Dupri and Manuel Seal, who both produced the tune. An R&B, soul and pop song in C minor, it makes use of acoustic guitar, hi-hat and bell instrumentation. The song focuses on a love triangle relationship, with the protagonist wishing to leave his girlfriend for his erstwhile best friend, with a hook in which Usher states, "You make me wanna leave the one I'm with and start a new relationship with you". The record won a Billboard Music Award, a Soul Train Music Award, and a WQHT Hip Hop Award, and was nominated for a Grammy Award.
"You Make Me Wanna..." appeared on several record charts, topping the UK Singles Chart and the US Hot R&B Singles, logging the second-longest run by a male artist on the latter. It also reached the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100, US Pop Songs, Canadian Singles Chart, Dutch Top 40 and ARIA Singles Chart. An accompanying music video, directed by Bille Woodruff, shows Usher dancing in various colored rooms and backgrounds, and uses an effect which creates several clones of Usher.
## Background and composition
Usher wrote "You Make Me Wanna..." with Jermaine Dupri and Manuel Seal, who also produced and played musical instruments on the tune. Phil Tan was in charge of recording the song at the Krosswire Studio, in Atlanta, Georgia in 1996. Tan and Dupri mixed the record with assistance from John and Brian Frye at Studio LaCoCo, in Atlanta, Georgia. "You Make Me Wanna..." draws from the genres of R&B, soul and pop, and heavily utilizes the acoustic guitar, while also incorporating hi-hat and bell instrumentation. According to Universal Music Publishing Group's sheet music published at Musicnotes.com, "You Make Me Wanna..." is written in the key of C Minor with a moderate tempo of 88 beats per minute. Usher's voice extends from the low note of B<sub>3</sub> to the high note of C<sub>6</sub>. The song has a basic sequence of Cm–Fm<sub>7</sub>–A–G–G/B as its chord progression. In the song, Usher attempts to seduce his partner's best friend, whom he finds irresistible, creating a love triangle. The song's lyrics are written in second-person narrative, and its hook is the pick-up line, "You make me wanna leave the one I'm with and start a new relationship with you". Usher told Rolling Stone that the song was inspired by one of his own memories of "juggling three women".
## Release
"You Make Me Wanna..." was distributed by LaFace Records and Arista Records. In the United States, it was serviced to rhythmic contemporary radio on July 15, 1997. The song was then released via maxi single on August 5, 1997. On September 9, 1997, the track was added to US contemporary hit radio. "You Make Me Wanna..." was released via cassette single, CD single, and 12-inch vinyl in the UK on January 19, 1998. The vinyl was made available in the US on April 24, 2001. Unauthorized copies of the song were distributed in Europe before its release, due to its popularity. "You Make Me Wanna..." serves as the opening track to Usher's second studio album, My Way, while an extended version concludes the album.
## Critical reception
BBC Music's Christian Hopwood stated that "You Make Me Wanna..." had "universal appeal". Larry Flick from Billboard wrote, "Vocally strumming his notes as gently and powerfully as the guitar player who accompanies him, Usher makes no enemies by professing an attraction to a friend while being involved with another. The track promises to be a hit among all generations and genders as his loyal young female fan base will eagerly jump aboard. Older women will easily fall prey to the very thought of his musings, while men now have an interesting avenue to express similar feelings." Robert Christgau noted "You Make Me Wanna..." as one of the best tracks from My Way. Entertainment Weekly's Whitney Pastorek gave it an A− rating, and complimented its minimal production. The Daily News reviewer called the single "very wonderful". British Music Week gave the single five out of five, remarking that it "looks set to crash into the mainstream". The magazine's Alan Jones praised it as "a superbly sublime and soulful semi-acoustic debut which recalls similarly styled singles from Tony Rich and Babyface. It actually has a very complex vocal, with Usher singing in and around the gaps on his own chorus. A very promising cuitain-raiser." According to Ann Powers of The New York Times, the song "put the spice back in the word 'relationship'." David Fricke from Rolling Stone said it is one thing: "tiptoe love funk with a spare, gangsta air and Usher doing overdubbed ensemble singing like a one-man Blackstreet." When reviewing My Way, Ian Hyland from Sunday Mirror stated that, "Tracks like 'You Make Me Wanna...', 'Nice And Slow' and 'Slow Jam' should put you in the mood". A writer for The Vindicator wrote, "The song is a melodic blend of Usher's smooth, youthful voice and a strong, upbeat rhythm track. Billy Johnson Jr. of Yahoo! Music commended the production on "You Make Me Wanna...", along with that of "Nice and Slow" and "My Way", the second and third singles from My Way, respectively. On Valentine's Day 2004, VH1 listed the song at number six on its "Top 10 Sexy Tunes" for the holiday.
"You Make Me Wanna..." won Usher the Billboard award for Pop Singer of the Year, and the Best R&B/Soul Single, Male category at the 1998 Soul Train Music Awards. Radio station WQHT awarded it the title of Best R&B Song at its inaugural Hip Hop Awards. The singer also received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for the song at the 40th Grammy Awards, but lost to R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly". In the 1997 Pazz & Jop critics' poll administered by The Village Voice, "You Make Me Wanna..." tied for thirtieth place in the singles category with Radiohead's "Paranoid Android".
## Commercial performance
"You Make Me Wanna..." debuted at number twenty-five on the Billboard Hot 100 on the chart dated August 23, 1997. The track peaked at number two for seven consecutive weeks, from October 25 to December 6, 1997. After seven weeks at number two, the song fell into number three, replaced at the runner-up spot by LeAnn Rimes' "How Do I Live", which had also spent seven weeks at number three. In November 1998, the song fell off the chart after forty-six charting weeks. On the Hot R&B Singles component chart, "You Make Me Wanna..." debuted at number four on August 23, 1997, before topping the chart two weeks later. In its first week of release, "You Make Me Wanna..." received 1,329 spins, and by early October 1997, the song had made fifty million listener impressions on US R&B radio. The record spent a total of eleven weeks atop the R&B/Hip Hop Songs, and seventy-one weeks within the chart's 100 positions. "You Make Me Wanna..." stood as the song with the longest run on the genre chart by a male artist until K'Jon's "On the Ocean" lasted longer in 2010. It also spent twenty-nine weeks on the Pop Songs chart, peaking at number seven. On September 3, 1997, "You Make Me Wanna..." received a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting 500,000 shipments, and later that month it was upgraded to platinum status for shipments exceeding one million copies. Though its certification status was not further renewed, it ultimately went on to sell over two million copies domestically. The song ranked at number eighty-eight on the Billboard Hot 100 "All-Time Top Songs", published in July 2008.
"You Make Me Wanna..." entered the UK Singles Chart at number one, on the chart dated January 31, 1998. That same week the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) awarded the song a silver certification for shipping 200,000 units. It only spent one week on top of the chart, being replaced by Aqua's "Doctor Jones". "You Make Me Wanna..." slipped off the chart in May 1998, having had thirteen charting weeks. The BPI has since re-certified the single gold for shipping over 400,000 copies. The song entered the Canadian Singles Chart at number eighty-six on November 10, 1997. It peaked at number six, lasting twenty-two weeks in the chart. In Europe, the song reached the top twenty in France, Germany, Norway and Switzerland, and peaked at number seven in the Netherlands. It spent sixteen weeks in the Australian Singles Chart, climaxing at number six, and was certified Platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), having sold 70,000 copies. "You Make Me Wanna..." reached number fifteen on the New Zealand Singles Chart, occupying twenty-six weeks in the chart. The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand certified the song gold.
## Music video
The accompanying music video for "You Make Me Wanna..." was directed by Bille Woodruff. It starts with Usher sitting in an orange wall recess, reaching for a guitar, before cutting to a scene of him standing in a white-and-purple circular room, wearing an open shirt. It moves to a blue backdrop where Usher advances, flanked by four dancers. The scene is replaced by five clones of Usher dancing and sitting on chairs. The video continues with the singer performing dance routines throughout; interspersed are scenes of Usher singing the song on a background of blue pipes. Toward the end of the video, he takes off his shirt in the circular room, and finally Usher and his backup dancers step out of their shoes and walk away.
## Track listings
- Maxi-single
1. "You Make Me Wanna..." – 3:39
2. "You Make Me Wanna..." (JD remix) – 3:39
3. "You Make Me Wanna..." (Lil' Jon's Eastside Remix) – 4:26
4. "You Make Me Wanna..." (Timbaland Remix) – 3:58
5. "You Make Me Wanna..." (instrumental) – 3:17
6. "You Make Me Wanna..." (Lil Jon's Eastside remix instrumental) – 3:57
- CD single
1. "You Make Me Wanna..."
2. "You Make Me Wanna..." (Tuff Jam Classic Garage Mix)
3. "You Make Me Wanna..." (Tuff Jam Classic Garage instrumental)
4. "You Make Me Wanna..." (Tuff Jam UVM Dub Mix)
5. "You Make Me Wanna..." (instrumental Dub Mix)
- 12-inch vinyl
1. "You Make Me Wanna..." – 3:39
2. "You Make Me Wanna..." (JD's Remix) – 3:39
3. "You Make Me Wanna..." (Lil' Jon's Eastside Remix) – 3:58
4. "You Make Me Wanna..." (Timbaland's Remix) – 4:26
5. "You Make Me Wanna..." (a cappella) – 3:39
6. "You Make Me Wanna..." (instrumental) – 3:17
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts
### Decade-end charts
### All-time charts
## Certifications
## See also
- List of number-one singles from the 1990s (UK)
- List of number-one R&B singles of 1997 (U.S.)
- List of Billboard Rhythmic number-one songs of the 1990s
- List of RPM number-one dance singles of 1997 |
33,102 | Battle of Kursk | 1,173,250,281 | 1943 tank battle in the Soviet Union | [
"1943 in Russia",
"1943 in the Soviet Union",
"August 1943 events",
"Battles and operations of the Soviet–German War",
"Battles of World War II involving Germany",
"Battles of World War II involving the Soviet Union",
"Conflicts in 1943",
"July 1943 events",
"Tank battles involving Germany",
"Tank battles involving the Soviet Union",
"Tank battles of World War II"
] | The Battle of Kursk was a major World War II Eastern Front large-scale battle between the forces of Germany and the Soviet Union near Kursk in southwestern Russia during the late summer of 1943; it ultimately became the largest tank battle in history and resulted in a Soviet victory. It is considered by some to be the turning point of the European theatre of war instead of the Battle of Stalingrad several months earlier.
The battle began with the launch of the German offensive Operation Citadel (German: Unternehmen Zitadelle), on 5 July, which had the objective of pinching off the Kursk salient with attacks on the base of the salient from north and south simultaneously. After the German offensive stalled on the northern side of the salient, on 12 July the Soviets commenced their Kursk Strategic Offensive Operation with the launch of Operation Kutuzov (Russian: Кутузов) against the rear of the German forces on the same side. On the southern side, the Soviets also launched powerful counterattacks the same day, one of which led to a large armoured clash, the Battle of Prokhorovka. On 3 August, the Soviets began the second phase of the Kursk Strategic Offensive Operation with the launch of Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev (Russian: Полководец Румянцев) against the German forces on the southern side of the salient.
The Germans hoped to weaken the Soviet offensive potential for the summer of 1943 by cutting off and enveloping the forces that they anticipated would be in the Kursk salient. Hitler believed that a victory here would reassert German strength and improve his prestige with his allies, who he thought were considering withdrawing from the war. It was also hoped that large numbers of Soviet prisoners would be captured to be used as slave labour in the German armaments industry. The Soviet government had foreknowledge of the German intentions, provided in part by British intelligence's Tunny intercepts. Aware months in advance that the attack would fall on the neck of the Kursk salient, the Soviets built a defence in depth designed to wear down the German armoured spearhead. The Germans delayed the offensive while they tried to build up their forces and waited for new weapons, giving the Red Army time to construct a series of deep defensive belts and establish a large reserve force for counter-offensives.
The battle was the final strategic offensive that the Germans were able to launch on the Eastern Front. Because the Allied invasion of Sicily began during the battle, Adolf Hitler was forced to divert troops training in France to meet the Allied threat in the Mediterranean, rather than using them as a strategic reserve for the Eastern Front. Hitler cancelled the offensive at Kursk after only a week, in part to divert forces to Italy. Germany's extensive losses of men and tanks ensured that the victorious Soviet Red Army enjoyed the strategic initiative for the remainder of the war. The Battle of Kursk was the first time in the Second World War that a German strategic offensive was halted before it could break through enemy defences and penetrate to its strategic depths. Though the Red Army had succeeded in winter offensives previously, their counter-offensives after the German attack at Kursk were their first successful summer offensives of the war.
## Background
As the Battle of Stalingrad slowly ground to its conclusion, the Red Army moved to a general offensive in the south, in Operation Little Saturn. By January 1943, a 160-to-300-kilometre-wide (99 to 186 mi) gap had opened between German Army Group B and Army Group Don, and the advancing Soviet armies threatened to cut off all German forces south of the Don River, including Army Group A operating in the Caucasus. Army Group Center came under significant pressure as well. Kursk was retaken by the Soviets on 8 February 1943, and Rostov on 14 February. The Soviet Bryansk, Western, and newly created Central Fronts prepared for an offensive which envisioned the encirclement of Army Group Centre between Bryansk and Smolensk. By February 1943 the southern sector of the German front was in strategic crisis.
Since December 1942, Field Marshal Erich von Manstein had been strongly requesting "unrestricted operational freedom" to allow him to use his forces in a fluid manner. On 6 February 1943, Manstein met with Hitler at his headquarters in Rastenburg to discuss the proposals he had previously sent. He received an approval from Hitler for a counteroffensive against the Soviet forces advancing in the Donbas region. On 12 February 1943, the remaining German forces were reorganised. To the south, Army Group Don was renamed Army Group South and placed under Manstein's command. Directly to the north, Army Group B was dissolved, with its forces and areas of responsibility divided between Army Group South and Army Group Centre. Manstein inherited responsibility for the massive breach in the German lines. On 18 February, Hitler arrived at Army Group South headquarters at Zaporizhia just hours before the Soviets liberated Kharkov, and had to be hastily evacuated on the 19th.
Once given freedom of action, Manstein intended to utilise his forces to make a series of counterstrokes into the flanks of the Soviet armoured formations, with the goal of destroying them while retaking Kharkov and Kursk. The II SS Panzer Corps had arrived from France in January 1943, refitted and up to near full strength. Armoured units from the 1st Panzer Army of Army Group A had pulled out of the Caucasus and further strengthened Manstein's forces.
The operation was hastily prepared and did not receive a name. Later known as Third Battle of Kharkov, it commenced on 21 February, as 4th Panzer Army under General Hoth launched a counter-attack. The German forces cut off the Soviet mobile spearheads and continued the drive north, retaking Kharkov on 15 March and Belgorod on 18 March. A Soviet offensive launched on 25 February by the Central Front against Army Group Centre had to be abandoned by 7 March to allow the attacking formations to disengage and redeploy to the south to counter the threat of the advancing German forces under Manstein. Exhaustion of both the Wehrmacht and the Red Army, coupled with the loss of mobility due to the onset of the spring rasputitsa, resulted in the cessation of operations for both sides by mid-March. The counteroffensive left a Soviet salient extending 250 kilometres (160 mi) from north to south and 160 kilometres (99 mi) from east to west into the German area of control, centred on the city of Kursk.
### German plans and preparation
The heavy losses sustained by the army since the opening of Operation Barbarossa had resulted in a shortage in infantry and artillery. Units were in total 470,000 men understrength. For the Wehrmacht to undertake an offensive in 1943, the burden of the offensive, in both attacking the Soviet defences and holding ground on the flanks of the advance, would have to be carried primarily by the panzer divisions. On 10 March, Manstein presented a plan whereby the German forces would pinch off the Kursk salient with a rapid offensive commencing as soon as the spring rasputitsa had subsided.
On 13 March, Hitler signed Operational Order No. 5, which authorised several offensives, including one against the Kursk salient. As the last Soviet resistance in Kharkov petered out, Manstein attempted to persuade Günther von Kluge, commander of Army Group Centre, to immediately attack the Central Front, which was defending the northern face of the salient. Kluge refused, believing that his forces were too weak to launch such an attack. Further Axis advances were blocked by Soviet forces that had been shifted down from the Central Front to the area north of Belgorod. By mid-April, amid poor weather and with the German forces exhausted and in need of refitting, the offensives of Operational Order No. 5 were postponed.
On 15 April, Hitler issued Operational Order No. 6, which called for the Kursk offensive operation, codenamed Zitadelle ("Citadel"), to begin on 3 May or shortly thereafter. The directive was drafted by Kurt Zeitzler, the OKH Chief of Staff. For the offensive to succeed it was deemed essential to attack before the Soviets had a chance to prepare extensive defences or to launch an offensive of their own. Some military historians have described the operation using the term blitzkrieg (lightning war); other military historians do not use the term in their works on the battle.
Operation Citadel called for a double envelopment, directed at Kursk, to surround the Soviet defenders of five armies and seal off the salient. Army Group Centre would provide General Walter Model's 9th Army to form the northern pincer. It would cut through the northern face of the salient, driving south to the hills east of Kursk, securing the rail line from Soviet attack. Army Group South would commit the 4th Panzer Army, under Hermann Hoth, and Army Detachment Kempf, under Werner Kempf, to pierce the southern face of the salient. This force would drive north to meet the 9th Army east of Kursk. Manstein's main attack was to be delivered by Hoth's 4th Panzer Army, spearheaded by the II SS Panzer Corps under Paul Hausser. The XLVIII Panzer Corps, commanded by Otto von Knobelsdorff, would advance on the left while Army Detachment Kempf would advance on the right. The 2nd Army, under the command of Walter Weiss, would contain the western portion of the salient.
On 27 April, Model met with Hitler to review and express his concern for reconnaissance information which showed the Red Army constructing very strong positions at the shoulders of the salient and having withdrawn their mobile forces from the area west of Kursk. He argued that the longer the preparation phase continued, the less the operation could be justified. He recommended completely abandoning Citadel, allowing the army to await and defeat the coming Soviet offensive, or radically revising the plan for Citadel. Though in mid-April, Manstein had considered the Citadel offensive profitable, by May he shared Model's misgivings.
Hitler called his senior officers and advisors to Munich for a meeting on 4 May. Hitler spoke for about 45 minutes on the reasons to postpone the attack, essentially reiterating Model's arguments. A number of options were put forth for comment: going on the offensive immediately with the forces at hand; delaying the offensive further to await the arrival of new and better tanks; radically revising the operation, or cancelling it altogether. Manstein advocated an early attack, but requested two additional infantry divisions, to which Hitler responded that none were available. Kluge spoke out strongly against postponement and discounted Model's reconnaissance materials. Albert Speer, the minister of Armaments and War Production, spoke about the difficulties of rebuilding the armoured formations and the limitations of German industry to replace losses. General Heinz Guderian argued strongly against the operation, stating "the attack was pointless". The conference ended without Hitler coming to a decision, but Citadel was not aborted. Three days later, OKW, Hitler's conduit for controlling the military, postponed the launch date for Citadel to 12 June.
Following this meeting, Guderian continued to voice his concerns over an operation that would likely degrade the panzer forces that he had been attempting to rebuild. He considered the offensive, as planned, to be a misuse of the panzer forces, as it violated two of the three tenets he had laid out as the essential elements for a successful panzer attack. In his opinion, the limited German resources in men and materiel should be conserved, as they would be needed for the pending defence of western Europe. In a meeting with Hitler on 10 May he asked,
> Is it really necessary to attack Kursk, and indeed in the east this year at all? Do you think anyone even knows where Kursk is? The entire world doesn't care if we capture Kursk or not. What is the reason that is forcing us to attack this year on Kursk, or even more, on the Eastern Front?
Hitler replied, "I know. The thought of it turns my stomach." Guderian concluded, "In that case your reaction to the problem is the correct one. Leave it alone."
Despite reservations, Hitler remained committed to the offensive. He and the OKW, early in the preparatory phase, were hopeful that the offensive would revitalise German strategic fortunes in the east. As the challenges offered by Citadel increased, he focused more and more on the expected new weapons that he believed were the key to victory: principally the Panther tank, but also the Ferdinand tank destroyer and greater numbers of the Tiger heavy tank. He postponed the operation in order to await their arrival. Receiving reports of powerful Soviet concentrations behind the Kursk area, Hitler further delayed the offensive to allow for more equipment to reach the front.
With pessimism for Citadel increasing with each delay, in June, Alfred Jodl, the Chief of Staff at the OKW, instructed the armed forces propaganda office to portray the upcoming operation as a limited counteroffensive. Due to concerns of an Allied landing in the south of France or in Italy and delays in deliveries of the new tanks, Hitler postponed again, this time to 20 June. Zeitzler was profoundly concerned with the delays, but he still supported the offensive. On 17–18 June, following a discussion in which the OKW Operations Staff suggested abandoning the offensive, Hitler further postponed the operation until 3 July. Finally, on 1 July, Hitler announced 5 July as the launch date of the offensive.
A three-month quiet period descended upon the Eastern Front as the Soviets prepared their defences and the Germans attempted to build up their forces. The Germans used this period for specialised training of their assault troops. All units underwent training and combat rehearsals. The Waffen-SS had built a full-scale duplicate Soviet strong point that was used to practice the techniques for neutralizing such positions. The panzer divisions received replacement men and equipment and attempted to get back up to strength. The German forces to be used in the offensive included 12 panzer divisions and 5 panzergrenadier divisions, four of which had tank strengths greater than their neighbouring panzer divisions. However, the force was markedly deficient in infantry divisions, which were essential to hold ground and to secure the flanks. By the time the Germans initiated the offensive, their force amounted to around 777,000 men, 2,451 tanks and assault guns (70 percent of the German armour on the Eastern Front) and 7,417 guns and mortars.
### Soviet plans and preparation
In 1943 an offensive by the Soviet Central, Bryansk and Western Fronts against Army Group Centre was abandoned shortly after it began in early March, when the southern flank of the Central Front was threatened by Army Group South. Soviet intelligence received information about German troop concentrations spotted at Orel and Kharkov, as well as details of an intended German offensive in the Kursk sector through the Lucy spy ring in Switzerland. The Soviets verified the intelligence via their spy in Britain, John Cairncross, at the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, who clandestinely forwarded raw decrypts directly to Moscow. Cairncross also provided Soviet intelligence with identifications of the Luftwaffe airfields in the region. Soviet politician Anastas Mikoyan wrote that on 27 March 1943, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin notified him of a possible German attack in the Kursk sector. Stalin and some senior officers were eager to strike first once the rasputitsa ended, but a number of key officers, including Deputy Supreme Commander Georgiy Zhukov, recommended a strategic defensive before going on the offensive. In a letter to the Stavka and Stalin, on 8 April, Zhukov wrote:
> In the first phase the enemy, collecting their best forces—including 13–15 tank divisions and with the support of a large number of aircraft—will strike Kursk with their Kromskom-Orel grouping from the north-east and their Belgorod-Kharkov grouping from the south-east... I consider it inadvisable for our forces to go over to an offensive in the near future in order to forestall the enemy. It would be better to make the enemy exhaust himself against our defences, and knock out his tanks and then, bringing up fresh reserves, to go over to the general offensive which would finally finish off his main force.
Stalin consulted with his frontline commanders and senior officers of the General Staff from 12 to 15 April 1943. In the end he and the Stavka agreed that the Germans would probably target Kursk. Stalin believed the decision to defend would give the Germans the initiative, but Zhukov countered that the Germans would be drawn into a trap where their armoured power would be destroyed, thus creating the conditions for a major Soviet counteroffensive. They decided to meet the enemy attack by preparing defensive positions to wear out the German groupings before launching their own offensive. Preparation of defences and fortifications began by the end of April, and continued until the German attack in early July. The two-month delay between the German decision to attack the Kursk salient and its implementation allowed the Red Army ample time to thoroughly prepare.
The Voronezh Front, commanded by Nikolai Vatutin, was tasked with defending the southern face of the salient. The Central Front, commanded by Konstantin Rokossovsky, defended the northern face. Waiting in reserve was the Steppe Front, commanded by Ivan Konev. In February 1943, the Central Front had been reconstructed from the Don Front, which had been part of the northern pincer of Operation Uranus and had been responsible for the destruction of the 6th Army at Stalingrad.
The Central and Voronezh Fronts each constructed three main defensive belts in their sectors, with each subdivided into several zones of fortification. The Soviets employed the labour of over 300,000 civilians. Fortifying each belt was an interconnected web of minefields, barbed-wire fences, anti-tank ditches, deep entrenchments for infantry, anti-tank obstacles, dug-in armoured vehicles, and machine-gun bunkers. Behind the three main defensive belts were three more belts prepared as fallback positions; the first was not fully occupied or heavily fortified, and the last two, though sufficiently fortified, were unoccupied with the exception of a small area in the immediate environs of Kursk. The combined depth of the three main defensive zones was about 40 kilometres (25 mi). The six defensive belts on either side of Kursk were 130–150 kilometres (81–93 mi) deep. If the Germans managed to break through these defences they would still be confronted by additional defensive belts to the east, manned by the Steppe Front. These brought the total depth of the defences to nearly 300 kilometres (190 mi).
The Voronezh and Central Fronts dug 4,200 kilometres (2,600 mi) and 5,000 kilometres (3,100 mi) of trenches respectively, laid out in criss-cross pattern for ease of movement. The Soviets built more than 686 bridges and about 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) of roads in the salient. Red Army combat engineers laid 503,663 anti-tank mines and 439,348 anti-personnel mines, with the highest concentration in the first main defensive belt. The minefields at Kursk achieved densities of 1,700 anti-personnel and 1,500 anti-tank mines per kilometre, about four times the density used in the defence of Moscow. For example, the 6th Guards Army of the Voronezh Front, was spread out over nearly 64 kilometres (40 mi) of front and was protected by 69,688 anti-tank and 64,430 anti-personnel mines in its first defensive belt with a further 20,200 anti-tank and 9,097 anti-personnel mines in its second defensive belt. Furthermore, mobile obstacle detachments were tasked with laying more mines directly in the path of advancing enemy armoured formations. These units, consisting of two platoons of combat engineers with mines at division level and one company of combat engineers normally equipped with 500–700 mines at corps level, functioned as anti-tank reserves at every level of command.
In a letter dated 8 April, Zhukov warned that the Germans would attack the salient with a strong armoured force:
> We can expect the enemy to put [the] greatest reliance in this year's offensive operations on his tank divisions and air force, since his infantry appears to be far less prepared for offensive operations than last year ... In view of this threat, we should strengthen the anti-tank defences of the Central and Voronezh fronts, and assemble as soon as possible.
Nearly all artillery, including howitzers, guns, anti-aircraft and rockets, were tasked with anti-tank defence. Dug-in tanks and self-propelled guns further strengthened the anti-tank defences. Anti-tank forces were incorporated into every level of command, mostly as anti-tank strong points with the majority concentrated on likely attack routes and the remainder amply spread out elsewhere. Each anti-tank strong-point typically consisted of four to six anti-tank guns, six to nine anti-tank rifles, and five to seven heavy and light machine guns. They were supported by mobile obstacle detachments as well as by infantry with automatic firearms. Independent tank and self-propelled gun brigades and regiments were tasked with cooperating with the infantry during counterattacks.
Soviet preparations also included increased activity of Soviet partisans, who attacked German communications and supply lines. The attacks were mostly behind Army Group North and Army Group Centre. In June 1943, partisans operating in the occupied area behind Army Group Centre destroyed 298 locomotives, 1,222 railway wagons and 44 bridges, and in the Kursk sector there were 1,092 partisan attacks on railways. These attacks delayed the build-up of German supplies and equipment, and required the diversion of German troops to suppress the partisans, delaying their training for the offensive. Central Partisan Headquarters coordinated many of these attacks. In June Soviet Air Forces (VVS) flew over 800 sorties at night to resupply the partisan groups operating behind Army Group Centre. The VVS also provided communication and sometimes even daylight air-support for major partisan operations.
Special training was provided to the Soviet infantry manning the defences to help them overcome the tank phobia that had been evident since the start of the German invasion. Soldiers were packed into trenches and tanks were driven overhead until all signs of fear were gone. This training exercise was referred to by the soldiers as "ironing". In combat, the soldiers would spring up in the midst of the attacking infantry to separate them from the spearheading armoured vehicles. The separated armoured vehicles – now vulnerable to infantry armed with anti-tank rifles, demolition charges and molotov cocktails – could then be disabled or destroyed at point-blank range. These types of attacks were mostly effective against the Ferdinand tank destroyers, which lacked machine guns as secondary armament. The soldiers were also promised financial rewards for each tank destroyed, with the People's Commisariat of Defence providing a bounty of 1,000 roubles for each destroyed tank.
The Soviets employed maskirovka (military deception) to mask defensive positions and troop dispositions and to conceal the movement of men and materiel. These included camouflaging gun emplacements, constructing dummy airfields and depots, generating false radio-traffic, and spreading rumours among the Soviet frontline troops and the civilian population in the German-held areas. Movement of forces and supplies to and from the salient took place at night only. Ammunition caches were carefully concealed to blend in with the landscape. Radio transmission was restricted and fires were forbidden. Command posts were hidden and motor transport in and around them forbidden.
According to a Soviet General Staff report, 29 of the 35 major Luftwaffe raids on Soviet airfields in the Kursk sector in June 1943 were against dummy airfields. According to historian Antony Beevor, in contrast, Soviet aviation apparently succeeded in destroying more than 500 Luftwaffe aircraft on the ground. The Soviet deception efforts were so successful that German estimates issued in mid-June placed the total Soviet armoured strength at 1,500 tanks. The result was not only a vast underestimation of Soviet strength, but a misperception of Soviet strategic intentions.
The main tank of the Soviet tank arm was the T-34 medium tank, on which the Red Army attempted to concentrate production. The tank arm also contained large numbers of the T-70 light tank. For example, the 5th Guards Tank Army roughly contained 270 T-70s and 500 T-34s. In the salient itself the Soviets assembled a large number of lend-lease tanks. These included U.S.-manufactured M3 Lees and British-built Churchills, Matildas and Valentines. However, the T-34 made up the bulk of the Soviet armour. Without including the deeper reserves organised under the Steppe Front, the Soviets massed about 1,300,000 men, 3,600 tanks, 20,000 artillery pieces and 2,792 aircraft to defend the salient. This amounted to 26 percent of the total manpower of the Red Army, 26 percent of its mortars and artillery, 35 percent of its aircraft and 46 percent of its tanks.
### Contest for aerial supremacy
By 1943 the Luftwaffe's strength on the Eastern Front had started to weaken after Stalingrad, and the siphoning of resources to North Africa. The Luftwaffe forces in the east were further depleted with fighter units being shifted back to Germany to defend against the escalating Allied bombing campaign. By the end of June, only 38.7 percent of the Luftwaffe's total aircraft remained in the east. In 1943 the Luftwaffe could still achieve local aerial superiority by concentrating its forces. The majority of German aircraft left available on the Eastern Front were slated for Citadel. The goal of the Luftwaffe remained unchanged. The priority of the German air fleet(s) was to gain aerial supremacy, then to isolate the battlefield from enemy reinforcements, and finally, once the critical point had been reached in the land battle, to render close air support.
The changing strengths between the two opponents prompted the Luftwaffe to make operational changes for the battle. Previous offensive campaigns had been initiated with Luftwaffe raids against opposing airfields to achieve aerial superiority. By this point in the war Red Army equipment reserves were extensive and the Luftwaffe commanders realised that aircraft could be easily replaced, making such raids futile. Therefore, this mission was abandoned. In addition, previous campaigns had made use of medium bombers flying well behind the frontline to block the arrival of reinforcements. This mission, however, was rarely attempted during Citadel.
The Luftwaffe command understood that their support would be crucial for the success of Operation Citadel, but problems with supply shortfalls hampered their preparations. Partisan activity, particularly behind Army Group Center, slowed the rate of re-supply and cut short the Luftwaffe's ability to build up essential stockpiles of petrol, oil, lubricants, engines, munitions, and, unlike Red Army units there were no reserves of aircraft that could be used to replace damaged aircraft over the course of the operation. Fuel was the most significant limiting factor. To help build up supplies for the support of Citadel, the Luftwaffe greatly curtailed its operations during the last week of June. Despite this conservation of resources, the Luftwaffe did not have the resources to sustain an intensive air effort for more than a few days after the operation began.
For Citadel, the Luftwaffe confined its operations to the direct support of the forces on the ground. In this mission the Luftwaffe continued to make use of the Junkers Ju 87 "Stuka" dive-bombers. A new development to this aircraft was the "Bordkanone" 3,7 cm calibre cannon, one of which could be slung under each wing of the Stuka in a gun pod. Half of the Stuka groups assigned to support Citadel were equipped with these Kanonenvogel (literally "cannon-bird") tankbuster aircraft. The air groups were also strengthened by the recent arrival of the Henschel Hs 129, with its 30 mm MK 103 cannon, and the F-subtype ground attack ("jabo") version of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190.
In the months preceding the battle, Luftflotte 6 supporting Army Group Center noted a marked increase in the strength of the opposing VVS formations. The VVS formations encountered displayed better training, and were flying improved equipment with greater aggressiveness and skill than the Luftwaffe had seen earlier. The introduction of the Yakovlev Yak-9 and Lavochkin La-5 fighters gave the Soviet pilots near parity with the Luftwaffe in terms of equipment. Furthermore, large numbers of ground-attack aircraft, such as the Ilyushin Il-2 "Shturmovik" and the Pe-2, had become available as well. The Soviet Air Force also fielded large numbers of aircraft supplied via lend-lease. Huge stockpiles of supplies and ample reserves of replacement aircraft meant the Red Army and VVS formations would be able to conduct an extended campaign without slackening in the intensity of their effort.
## Opposing forces
### Germans
For the operation, the Germans used four armies along with a large portion of their total tank strength on the Eastern Front. On 1 July, the 9th Army of Army Group Centre based in the northern side of the salient contained 335,000 men (223,000 combat soldiers); in the south, the 4th Panzer Army and Army Detachment "Kempf", of Army Group South, had 223,907 men (149,271 combat soldiers) and 100,000–108,000 men (66,000 combat soldiers) respectively. The 2nd Army, that held the western side of the salient contained an estimated 110,000. In total, the German forces had a total strength of 777,000–779,000 men, and the three attacking armies contained 438,271 combat soldiers. Army Group South was equipped with more armoured vehicles, infantry and artillery than the 9th Army of Army Group Center. The 4th Panzer Army and Army Detachment "Kempf" had 1,377 tanks and assault guns, while the 9th Army possessed 988 tanks and assault guns.
German industry produced 2,816 tanks and self-propelled guns between April and June, of which 156 were Tigers and 484 Panthers. At Kursk, a total of 259 Panther tanks, about 211 Tigers, and 90 Ferdinands were used.
The two new Panther battalions – the 51st and 52nd – together equipped with 200 Panthers, for which the offensive had been delayed, were attached to the Großdeutschland Division in the XLVIII Panzer Corps of Army Group South. With the 51st and 52nd Battalions arriving on 30 June and 1 July, the two units had little time to perform reconnaissance or to orient themselves to the terrain they found themselves in. This was a breach of the methods of the Panzerwaffe, considered essential for the successful use of armour. Though led by experienced panzer commanders, many of the tank crews were new recruits and had little time to become familiar with their new tanks, let alone train together to function as a unit. The two battalions came direct from the training ground and lacked combat experience. In addition, the requirement to maintain radio silence until the start of the attack meant that the Panther units had little training in battalion-level radio procedures. Furthermore, the new Panthers were still experiencing problems with their transmissions, and proved mechanically unreliable. By the morning of 5 July, the units had lost 16 Panthers due to mechanical breakdown, leaving only 184 available for the launching of the offensive.
July and August 1943 saw the heaviest German ammunition expenditure on the Eastern Front up to that point, with 236,915 tons consumed in July and 254,648 in August. The previous peak had been 160,645 tons in September 1942.
### Red Army
The Red Army used two Fronts for the defence of Kursk, and created a third front behind the battle area which was held as a reserve. The Central and Voronezh Fronts fielded 12 armies, with 711,575 men (510,983 combat soldiers) and 625,591 men (446,236 combat soldiers) respectively. In reserve, the Steppe Front had an additional 573,195 men (449,133). Thus the total size of the Soviet force was 1,910,361 men, with 1,426,352 actual combat soldiers.
Soviet armour strength included 4,869 tanks (including 205 KV-1 heavy tanks) and 259 SPGs (including 25 SU-152s, 56 SU-122s and 67 SU-76s) Overall a third of the Soviet tanks at Kursk were light tanks, but in some units this proportion was considerably higher. Of the 3,600 tanks in the Central and Voronezh Fronts in July 1943, 1,061 were light as T-60 and T-70 tanks. With very thin armour and small guns, they were unable to effectively engage the frontal armour of German medium and heavy tanks or AFVs.
The most capable Soviet tank at Kursk was the T-34. However, the original version was armed only with a 76.2mm gun, which struggled against uparmoured Panzer IVs, and the frontal armour of Tigers and Panthers was essentially impenetrable. Only the SU-122 and SU-152 self-propelled guns had the power to destroy the Tiger at short range, but they were not equal to the Tiger's 88mm gun at long range, and there were very few SU-122s and SU-152s at Kursk.
### Comparison of strength
#### Operation Citadel
#### Red Army offensive phase
### Preliminary actions
Fighting started on the southern face of the salient on the evening of 4 July 1943, when German infantry launched attacks to seize high ground for artillery observation posts prior to the main assault. During these attacks, a number of Red Army command and observation posts along the first main belt of defence were captured. By 16:00, elements of the Panzergrenadier Division "Großdeutschland", 3rd and 11th Panzer Divisions had seized the village of Butovo and proceeded to capture Gertsovka before midnight. At around 22:30, Vatutin ordered 600 guns, mortars and Katyusha rocket launchers, of the Voronezh Front, to bombard the forward German positions, particularly those of the II SS Panzer Corps.
To the north, at Central Front headquarters, reports of the anticipated German offensive came in. At around 02:00 5 July, Zhukov ordered his preemptive artillery bombardment to begin. The hope was to disrupt German forces concentrating for the attack, but the outcome was less than hoped for. The bombardment delayed the German formations, but failed in the goal of disrupting their schedule or inflicting substantial losses. The Germans began their own artillery bombardment at about 05:00, which lasted 80 minutes in the northern face and 50 minutes in the southern face. After the barrage, the ground forces attacked, aided by close air support provided by the Luftwaffe.
In the early morning of 5 July, the VVS launched a large raid against German airfields, hoping to destroy the Luftwaffe on the ground. This effort failed, and the Red Army air units suffered considerable losses. The VVS lost 176 aircraft on 5 July, compared to the 26 aircraft lost by the Luftwaffe. The losses of the VVS 16th Air Army operating in the northern face were lighter than those suffered by the 2nd Air Army. The Luftwaffe was able to gain and maintain air superiority over the southern face until 10–11 July, when the VVS began to obtain ascendancy but the control of the skies over the northern face was evenly contested until the VVS began to gain air superiority on 7 July, which it maintained for the rest of the operation.
## Operation along the northern face
Model's main attack was delivered by XLVII Panzer Corps, supported by 45 Tigers of the attached 505th Heavy Tank Battalion. Covering their left flank was XLI Panzer Corps, with an attached regiment of 83 Ferdinand tank destroyers. On the right flank, XLVI Panzer Corps consisted at this time of four infantry divisions with just 9 tanks and 31 assault guns. To the left of XLI Panzer Corps was XXIII Army Corps, which consisted of the reinforced 78th Assault Infantry Division and two regular infantry divisions. While the corps contained no tanks, it did have 62 assault guns. Opposing the 9th Army was the Central Front, deployed in three heavily fortified defensive belts.
### Initial German advance
Model chose to make his initial attacks using infantry divisions reinforced with assault guns and heavy tanks, and supported by artillery and the Luftwaffe. In doing so he sought to maintain the armoured strength of his panzer divisions to be used for exploitation once the Red Army defences were breached. Once a breakthrough had been achieved the panzer forces would move through and advance towards Kursk. Jan Möschen, a major in Model's staff, later commented that Model expected a breakthrough on the second day. If a breakthrough did occur the briefest delay in bringing up the panzer divisions would give the Red Army time to react. His corps commanders thought that a breakthrough was extremely unlikely.
Following a preliminary bombardment and Red Army counter bombardments, the 9th Army opened its attack at 05:30 on 5 July. Nine infantry divisions and one panzer division, with attached assault guns, heavy tanks and tank destroyers, pushed forward. Two companies of Tiger tanks were attached to the 6th Infantry Division and were the largest single grouping of Tigers employed that day. Opposing them were the 13th and 70th Armies of the Central Front.
The 20th Panzer and 6th Infantry Divisions of the XLVII Panzer Corps spearheaded the advance. Behind them the remaining two panzer divisions followed, ready to exploit any breakthrough. The heavily mined terrain and fortified positions of the 15th Rifle Division slowed the advance. By 08:00 safe lanes had been cleared through the minefield. That morning information obtained from prisoner interrogation identified a weakness at the boundary of the 15th and 81st Rifle Divisions caused by the German preliminary bombardment. The Tigers were redeployed and struck towards this area. Red Army formations countered with a force of around 90 T-34s. In the resulting three-hour battle, Red Army armoured units lost 42 tanks while the Germans lost two Tigers and a further five more immobilized with track damage. While the Red Army counter-attack was defeated and the first defensive belt breached, the fighting had delayed the Germans long enough for the rest of 29th Rifle Corps of the 13th Army – initially deployed behind the first belt – to move forward and seal the breach. Red Army minefields were covered by artillery fire, making efforts to clear paths through the fields difficult and costly. Goliath and Borgward IV remote-controlled engineer mine-clearing vehicles met with limited success. Of the 653rd Heavy Panzerjäger Battalion's 45 Ferdinands sent into battle, all but 12 of them were immobilized by mine damage before 17:00. Most of these were later repaired and returned to service, but the recovery of these very large vehicles was difficult.
On the first day, the XLVII Panzer Corps penetrated 6 mi (9.7 km) into the Red Army defences before stalling, and the XLI Panzer Corps reached the heavily fortified small town of Ponyri, in the second defensive belt, which controlled the roads and railways leading south to Kursk. In the first day, the Germans penetrated 5 to 6 mi (8.0 to 9.7 km) into the Red Army lines for the loss of 1,287 men killed and missing and a further 5,921 wounded.
### Red Army counter-attack
Rokossovsky ordered the 17th Guards and 18th Guards Rifle Corps with the 2nd Tank Army and 19th Tank Corps, backed up by close air support, to counterattack the German 9th Army the following day on 6 July. However, due to poor coordination, only the 16th Tank Corps of the 2nd Tank Army commenced the counterattack on the dawn of 6 July after the preparatory artillery barrage. The 16th Tank Corps, fielding about 200 tanks, attacked the XLVII Panzer Corps and ran into the Tiger tanks of the 505th Heavy Tank Battalion, which knocked out 69 tanks and forced the rest to withdraw to the 17th Guards Rifle Corps of the 13th Army. Later that morning, the XLVII Panzer Corps responded with its own attack against the 17th Guards Rifle Corps entrenched around the village Olkhovatka in the second defensive belt. The attack commenced with an artillery barrage and was spearheaded by the 24 serviceable Tigers of the 505th Heavy Tank Battalion, but it failed to break the Red Army defence at Olkhovatka, and the Germans suffered heavy casualties. Olkhovatka was on a high ground that provided a clear view of much of the frontline. At 18:30, the 19th Tank Corps joined the 17th Guards Rifle Corps further bolstering resistance. Rokossovsky also decided to dig in most of his remaining tanks to minimize their exposure. Ponyri, defended by the 307th Rifle Division of the 29th Rifle Corps, was also concertedly attacked on 6 July by the German 292nd and 86th Infantry, 78th Assault Infantry and 9th Panzer Divisions, but the Germans were unable to dislodge the defenders from the heavily fortified village.
### Ponyri and Olkhovatka
Over the next three days from 7 to 10 July, Model concentrated the effort of the 9th Army at Ponyri and Olkhovatka, which both sides considered as vital positions. In response, Rokossovsky pulled forces from other parts of the front to these sectors. The Germans attacked Ponyri on 7 July, and captured half of the town after intense house-to-house fighting. A Soviet counterattack the following morning forced the Germans to withdraw, and a series of counterattacks ensued by both sides with control of the town being exchanged several times over the next few days. By 10 July, the Germans had secured most of the town, but Soviet counterattacks continued. The back and forth battles for Ponyri and the nearby Hill 253.5 were battles of attrition, with heavy casualties on both sides. It became referred to by the troops as "mini-Stalingrad". The war diary of the 9th Army described the heavy fighting as a "new type of mobile attrition battle". German attacks on Olkhovatka and the nearby village of Teploe failed to penetrate the Soviet defences; including a powerful concerted attack on 10 July by about 300 German tanks and assault guns from the 2nd, 4th, and 20th Panzer Divisions, supported by every available Luftwaffe air power in the northern face.
On 9 July a meeting between Kluge, Model, Joachim Lemelsen and Josef Harpe was held at the headquarters of the XLVII Panzer Corps. It had become clear to the German commanders that the 9th Army lacked the strength to obtain a breakthrough, and their Soviet counterparts had also realized this, but Kluge wished to maintain the pressure on the Soviets in order to aid the southern offensive.
While the operation on the northern side of the salient began with a 45-kilometre-wide (28 mi) attack front, by 6 July it had been reduced to 40-kilometre-wide (25 mi). The following day the attack frontage dropped to 15-kilometre-wide (9.3 mi), and on both the 8 and 9 July penetrations of only 2-kilometre-wide (1.2 mi) occurred. By 10 July, the Soviets had completely halted the German advance.
On 12 July the Soviets launched Operation Kutuzov, their counter-offensive upon the Orel salient, which threatened the flank and rear of Model's 9th Army. The 12th Panzer Division, thus far held in reserve and slated to be committed to the northern side of the Kursk salient, along with the 36th Motorized Infantry, 18th Panzer and 20th Panzer Divisions were redeployed to face the Soviet spearheads.
## Operation along the southern face
At around 04:00 on 5 July, the German attack commenced with a preliminary bombardment. Manstein's main attack was delivered by Hoth's 4th Panzer Army, which was organized into densely concentrated spearheads. Opposing the 4th Panzer Army was the Soviet 6th Guards Army, which was composed of the 22nd Guards Rifle Corps and 23rd Guards Rifle Corps. The Soviets had constructed three fortified defensive belts to slow and weaken the attacking armoured forces. Though they had been provided superb intelligence, the Voronezh Front headquarters had still not been able to pinpoint the location where the Germans would place their offensive weight.
### Initial German advance
#### XLVIII Panzer Corps
The panzergrenadier division Großdeutschland (Walter Hörnlein), was the strongest division in the 4th Panzer Army. It was supported on its flanks by the 3rd and 11th Panzer Divisions. The Panzer IIIs and IVs of the Großdeutschland had been supplemented by a company of 15 Tigers, which were used to spearhead the attack. At dawn on 5 July, Großdeutschland, backed by heavy artillery support, advanced on a three-kilometre front upon the 67th Guards Rifle Division of the 22nd Guards Rifle Corps. The Panzerfüsilier Regiment, advancing on the left wing, stalled in a minefield and subsequently 36 Panthers were immobilized. The stranded regiment was subjected to a barrage of Soviet anti-tank and artillery fire, which inflicted numerous casualties. Engineers were moved up and cleared paths through the minefield but suffered casualties in the process. The combination of fierce resistance, minefields, thick mud and mechanical breakdowns took its toll. With paths cleared, the regiment resumed its advance towards Gertsovka. In the ensuing battle, many casualties were suffered including the regimental commander Colonel Kassnitz. Due to the fighting, and the marshy terrain south of the village, surrounding the Berezovyy stream, the regiment once more bogged down.
The panzergrenadier regiment of Großdeutschland, advancing on the right wing, pushed through to the village of Butovo. The tanks were deployed in a Panzerkeil (arrow) formation to minimise the effects of the Soviet Pakfront defence, with the Tigers leading and the Panzer IIIs, IVs and assault guns fanning out to the flanks and rear. They were followed by infantry and combat engineers. Attempts by the VVS to impede the advance were repulsed by the Luftwaffe.
The 3rd Panzer Division, advancing on the left flank of Großdeutschland, made good progress and by the end of the day had captured Gertsovka and reached Mikhailovka. The 167th Infantry Division, on the right flank of the 11th Panzer Division, also made sufficient progress, reaching Tirechnoe by the end of the day. By the end of 5 July, a wedge had been created in the first belt of the Soviet defences.
#### II SS Panzer Corps
To the east, during the night of 4–5 July, SS combat engineers had infiltrated no-man's land and cleared lanes through the Soviet minefields. At dawn, 5 July, the three divisions of II SS Panzer Corps – SS Panzergrenadier Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, 2nd SS Panzergrenadier Division Das Reich and the 3rd SS Panzergrenadier Division Totenkopf – attacked the 52nd Guards Rifle Division of the 6th Guards Army. The main assault was led by a spearhead of 42 Tigers among 494 tanks and assault guns attacking on a twelve-kilometre front. Totenkopf, the strongest of the three divisions, advanced towards Gremuchhi and screened the right flank. The 1st SS Panzergrenadier Division advanced on the left flank towards Bykovka. The 2nd SS Panzer Division advanced between the two formations in the center. Following closely behind the tanks were the infantry and combat engineers, coming forward to demolish obstacles and clear trenches. The advance was well supported by the Luftwaffe, which greatly aided in breaking Soviet strong points and artillery positions.
By 09:00 hours, the II SS Panzer Corps had broken through the Soviet first belt of defence along its entire front. While probing positions between the first and second Soviet defensive belts, at 13:00, the 2nd SS Panzer Division vanguard came under fire from two T-34 tanks, which were destroyed. Forty more Soviet tanks soon engaged the division. The 1st Guards Tank Army clashed with the 2nd SS Panzer Division in a four-hour battle, resulting in the Soviet tanks withdrawing. The engagement bought enough time for units of the 23rd Soviet Guards Rifle Corps, lodged in the Soviet second belt, to prepare itself and be reinforced with additional anti-tank guns. By the early evening, 2nd SS Panzer Division had reached the minefields on the perimeter of the Soviet second belt of defence. The 1st SS Division had secured Bykovka by 16:10, then pushed forward towards the second belt of defence at Yakovlevo but its attempts to break through were rebuffed. By the end of the day, the 1st SS Division had sustained 97 dead, 522 wounded and 17 missing and lost about 30 tanks. Together with the 2nd SS Panzer Division, it had forced a wedge far into the defences of the 6th Guards Army.
The 3rd SS Panzer Division was making slow progress. They had managed to isolate the 155th Guards Regiment, 52nd Guards Rifle Division (of the 23rd Guards Rifle Corps), from the rest of the division but its attempts to sweep the regiment eastward into the flank of the neighbouring 375th Rifle Division (of the 23rd Guards Rifle Corps) had failed when the regiment was reinforced by the 96th Tank Brigade. Hausser, the commander of II SS Panzer Corps, requested aid from the III Panzer Corps to his right but it had no units to spare. By the end of the day, the 3rd SS Division had made very limited progress due in part to a tributary of the Donets river. The lack of progress undermined the advance made by its sister divisions and exposed the right flank of the corps to Soviet forces. The temperatures, reaching over 30 degrees Celsius, and frequent thunderstorms made fighting conditions difficult.
The 6th Guards Army, which confronted the attack by the XLVIII Panzer Korps and II SS Panzer Korps, was reinforced with tanks from the 1st Tank Army, the 2nd Guards Tank Corps and the 5th Guards Tank Corps. The 51st and 90th Guards Rifle divisions were moved up to the vicinity of Pokrovka (not Prokhorovka, 40 kilometres (25 mi) to the north-east), in the path of the 1st SS Panzer Division. The 93rd Guards Rifle Division was deployed further back, along the road leading from Pokrovka to Prokhorovka.
#### Army Detachment Kempf
Facing Army Detachment Kempf, consisting of III Panzer Corps and Corps Raus (commanded by Erhard Raus), was the 7th Guards Army, dug in on the high ground on the eastern bank of the Northern Donets. The two German corps were tasked with crossing the river, breaking through the 7th Guards Army and covering the right flank of the 4th Panzer Army. The 503rd Heavy Tank Battalion, equipped with 45 Tigers, was also attached to the III Panzer Corps, with one company of 15 Tigers attached to each of the corps' three panzer divisions.
At the Milkhailovka bridgehead, just south of Belgorod, eight infantry battalions of the 6th Panzer Division crossed the river under heavy Soviet bombardment. Part of a company of Tigers from the 503rd Heavy Tank Battalion was able to cross before the bridge was destroyed. The rest of the 6th Panzer Division was unable to cross further south due to a traffic jam at the crossing, and remained on the western bank of the river throughout the day. Those units of the division that had crossed the river attacked Stary Gorod, but were unable to break through due to poorly cleared minefields and strong resistance.
To the south of the 6th Panzer Division, the 19th Panzer Division crossed the river but was delayed by mines, moving forward 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) by the end of the day. Luftwaffe bombed the bridgehead in a friendly fire incident, wounding 6th Panzer Division commander Walther von Hünersdorff and Hermann von Oppeln-Bronikowski of the 19th Panzer Division. Further south, infantry and tanks of 7th Panzer Division crossed the river. A new bridge had to be built specifically for the Tigers, causing further delays. Despite a poor start, the 7th Panzer Division eventually broke into the first belt of the Soviet defence and pushed on between Razumnoe and Krutoi Log, advancing 10 kilometres (6.2 mi), the furthest Kempf got during the day.
Operating to the south of 7th Panzer Division, were the 106th Infantry Division and the 320th Infantry Division of Corps Raus. The two formations attacked across a 32 kilometres (20 mi) front without armour support. The advance began well, with the crossing of the river and a swift advance against the 72nd Guards Rifle Division. Corps Raus took the village of Maslovo Pristani, penetrating the first Red Army defence line. A Soviet counter-attack supported by about 40 tanks was beaten off, with the assistance from artillery and flak batteries. After having suffered 2,000 casualties since the morning and still facing considerable resistance from the Soviet forces, the corps dug in for the night.
Delaying the progress of Kempf allowed Red Army forces time to prepare their second belt of defence to meet the German attack on 6 July. The 7th Guards Army, which had absorbed the attack of III Panzer Corps and Corps "Raus", was reinforced with two rifle divisions from the reserve. The 15th Guards Rifle Division was moved up to the second belt of defence, in the path of the III Panzer Corps.
### Development of the battle
By the evening of 6 July, the Voronezh Front had committed all of its reserves, except for three rifle divisions under the 69th Army; yet it could not decisively contain the 4th Panzer Army. The XLVIII Panzer Corps along the Oboyan axis, where the third defensive belt was mostly unoccupied, now had only the Red Army second defensive belt blocking it from breakthrough into the unfortified Soviet rear. This forced the Stavka to commit their strategic reserves to reinforce the Voronezh Front: the 5th Guards and 5th Guards Tank Armies, both from the Steppe Front, as well as the 2nd Tank Corps from the Southwestern Front. Ivan Konev objected to this premature piecemeal commitment of the strategic reserve, but a personal call from Stalin silenced his complaints. In addition, on 7 July Zhukov ordered the 17th Air Army – the air fleet serving the Southwestern Front – to support the 2nd Air Army in serving the Voronezh Front. On 7 July, the 5th Guards Tank Army began advancing to Prokhorovka. 5th Guards Tank Army commander, Lieutenant General Pavel Rotmistrov, described the journey:
> By midday, the dust rose in thick clouds, settling in a solid layer on roadside bushes, grain fields, tanks and trucks. The dark red disc of the sun was hardly visible. Tanks, self-propelled guns, artillery tractors, armoured personnel carriers and trucks were advancing in an unending flow. The faces of the soldiers were dark with dust and exhaust fumes. It was intolerably hot. Soldiers were tortured by thirst and their shirts, wet with sweat, stuck to their bodies.
The 10th Tank Corps, then still subordinate to the 5th Guards Army, was rushed ahead of the rest of the army, arriving at Prokhorovka on the night of 7 July, and 2nd Tank Corps arrived at Korocha, 40 km (25 mi) southeast of Prokhorovka, by morning of 8 July. Vatutin ordered a powerful counterattack by the 5th Guards, 2nd Guards, 2nd and 10th Tank Corps, in all fielding about 593 tanks and self-propelled guns and supported by most of the Front's available air power, which aimed to defeat the II SS Panzer Corps and therefore expose the right flank of XLVIII Panzer Corps. Simultaneously, the 6th Tank Corps was to attack the XLVIII Panzer Corps and prevent it from breaking through to the free Soviet rear. Although intended to be concerted, the counterattack turned out to be a series of piecemeal attacks due to poor coordination. The 10th Tank Corps' attack began on the dawn of 8 July but they ran straight into the antitank fire of the 2nd and 3rd SS Divisions, losing most of its forces. Later that morning, the 5th Guards Tank Corps' attack was repelled by the 3rd SS Division. The 2nd Tank Corps joined in the afternoon and was also repelled. The 2nd Guards Tank Corps, masked by the forest around the village Gostishchevo, 16 km (10 mi) north of Belgorod, with its presence unknown to the II SS Panzer Corps, advanced towards the 167th Infantry Division. But it was detected by German air reconnaissance just before the attack had materialized, and was subsequently decimated by German ground-attack aircraft armed with MK 103 anti-tank cannons and at least 50 tanks were destroyed. This marked the first time in military history an attacking tank formation had been defeated by air power alone. Although a fiasco, the Soviet counterattack succeeded in stalling the advance of the II SS Panzer Corps throughout the day.
By the end of 8 July, II SS-Panzer Corps had advanced about 29 kilometres (18 mi) since the start of Citadel and broken through the first and second defensive belts. However, slow progress by the XLVIII Panzer Corps caused Hoth to shift elements of the II SS-Panzer Corps to the west to help the XLVIII Panzer Corps regain its momentum. On 10 July the full effort of the corps was shifted back to its own forward progress. The direction of their advance now shifted from Oboyan due north to the northeast, toward Prokhorovka. Hoth had discussed this move with Manstein since early May, and it was a part of the 4th Panzer Army's plan since the outset of the offensive. By this time, however, the Soviets had shifted reserve formations into its path. The defensive positions were manned by the 2nd Tank Corps, reinforced by the 9th Guards Airborne Division and 301st Anti-tank Artillery Regiment, both from the 33rd Guards Rifle Corps.
Though the German advance in the south was slower than planned, it was faster than the Soviets expected. On 9 July, the first German units reached the Psel River. The next day, the first German infantry crossed the river. Despite the deep defensive system and minefields, German tank losses remained lower than the Soviets'. At this point, Hoth turned the II SS Panzer Corps away from Oboyan to attack toward the northeast in the direction of Prokhorovka. The main concern of Manstein and Hausser was the inability of Army Detachment Kempf to advance and protect the eastern flank of the II SS Panzer Corps. On 11 July, Army Detachment Kempf finally achieved a breakthrough. In a surprise night attack, the 6th Panzer Division seized a bridge across the Donets. Once across, Breith made every effort to push troops and vehicles across the river for an advance on Prokhorovka from the south. A linkup with the II SS Panzer Corps would result with the Soviet 69th Army becoming encircled.
### Battle of Prokhorovka
Throughout 10 and 11 July, the II-SS Panzer Corps continued its attack toward Prokhorovka, reaching within 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) of the settlement by the night of 11 July. That same night, Hausser issued orders for the attack to continue the next day. The plan was for the 3rd SS Panzer Division to drive northeast until it reached the Karteschewka-Prokhorovka road. Once there, they were to strike southeast to attack the Soviet positions at Prokhorovka from the flanks and rear. The 1st and 2nd SS Panzer divisions were to wait until 3rd SS Panzer Division attack had destabilised the Soviet positions at Prokhorovka; and once underway, the 1st SS Panzer Division was to attack the main Soviet defences dug in on the slopes southwest of Prokhorovka. To the division's right, the 2nd SS Panzer Division was to advance eastward, then turn southward away from Prokhorovka to roll up the Soviet lines opposing the III Panzer Corps' advance and force a gap. During the night of 11 July, Rotmistrov moved his 5th Guards Tank Army to an assembly area just behind Prokhorovka in preparation for a massive attack the following day. At 5:45 Leibstandarte headquarters started receiving reports of the sound of tank engines as the Soviets moved into their assembly areas. Soviet artillery and Katyusha regiments were redeployed in preparation for the counterattack.
At around 08:00, a Soviet artillery barrage began. At 08:30, Rotmistrov radioed his tankers: "Steel, Steel, Steel!", the order to commence the attack. Down off the west slopes, before Prokhorovka, came the massed armour of five tank brigades from the Soviet 18th and 29th Tank Corps of the 5th Guards Tank Army. The Soviet tanks advanced down the corridor, carrying mounted infantrymen of the 9th Guards Airborne Division on the tanks. To the north and east, the 3rd SS Panzer Division was engaged by the Soviet 33rd Guards Rifle Corps. Tasked with flanking the Soviet defences around Prokhorovka, the unit first had to beat off a number of attacks before they could go over onto the offensive. Most of the division's tank losses occurred late in the afternoon as they advanced through mine fields against well-hidden Soviet anti-tank guns. Although the 3rd SS succeeded in reaching the Karteschewka-Prokhorovka road, their hold was tenuous and it cost the division half of its armour. The majority of German tank losses suffered at Prokhorovka occurred here. To the south, the Soviet 18th and 29th Tank Corps had been thrown back by the 1st SS Panzer Division. The 2nd SS Panzer Division also repelled attacks from the 2nd Tank Corps and the 2nd Guards Tank Corps. Luftwaffe local air superiority over the battlefield also contributed to the Soviet losses, partly due to the VVS being directed against the German units on the flanks of II SS Panzer Corps. By the end of the day, the Soviets had fallen back to their starting positions.
Neither the 5th Guards Tank Army nor the II SS Panzer Corps accomplished their objectives. Although the Soviet counterattack failed with heavy losses, throwing them back onto the defensive, they did enough to stop a German breakthrough.
## Termination of Operation Citadel
On the evening of 12 July, Hitler summoned Kluge and Manstein to his headquarters at Rastenburg in East Prussia. Two days earlier, the Western Allies had invaded Sicily. The threat of further Allied landings in Italy or along southern France made Hitler believe it was essential to stop the offensive and move forces from Kursk to Italy. Kluge welcomed the news, as he was aware that the Soviets were initiating a massive counter-offensive against his sector but Manstein was less welcoming. Manstein's forces had just spent a week fighting through a maze of defensive works and he believed they were on the verge of breaking through to more open terrain, which would allow him to engage and destroy the Soviet armoured reserves in a mobile battle. Manstein stated, "On no account should we let go of the enemy until the mobile reserves he [has] committed [are] completely beaten". Hitler agreed temporarily to allow the continuance of the offensive in the southern part of the salient but the following day he ordered Manstein's reserve – the XXIV Panzer Corps – to move south to support the 1st Panzer Army.
The offensive continued in the southern part with the launch of Operation Roland on 14 July. After three days, on 17 July, the II SS Panzer Corps was ordered to end its offensive operations and begin to withdraw, marking the end of Operation Roland. One division was transferred to Italy and the other two were sent south to meet new Soviet offensives. The strength of the Soviet reserve formations had been greatly underestimated by German intelligence and the Red Army soon went onto the offensive. In his post-war memoirs Verlorene Siege (Lost Victories), Manstein was highly critical of Hitler's decision to call off the operation at the height of the tactical battle; however, the veracity of Manstein's claims of a near victory is debatable as the quantity of Soviet reserves was far greater than he realized. These reserves were used to re-equip the mauled 5th Guards Tank Army, which launched Operation Rumyantsev a couple of weeks later. The result was a battle of attrition Manstein's forces were ill-prepared for and which they had little chance of winning.
During Operation Citadel, the Luftwaffe flew 27,221 sorties in support with 193 combat losses (a 0.709 per cent loss rate per sortie). Soviet units from 5 to 8 July conducted 11,235 sorties with combat losses of 556 aircraft (4.95 per cent per sortie). Germans were destroying Soviet armour and aircraft at a ratio of 1:6. Despite German unit performance, the Wehrmacht was now lacking strategic reserves. In the fall of 1943 just 25 per cent of Luftwaffe day fighters were on the Eastern Front, due to British and US air attacks on Italy and Germany.
## Soviet Kursk Strategic Offensive Operation
During the defensive preparations in the months leading up to Citadel, the Soviets also planned and prepared counteroffensive operations that would be launched after the German offensive had halted.
### In the north: Operation Kutuzov
Soviet offensive operations for the summer of 1943 were planned to begin after the strength of the German forces had been dissipated by their Kursk offensive. As the German momentum in the north slowed, the Soviets launched Operation Kutuzov on 12 July against Army Group Centre in the Orel salient, directly north of the Kursk salient. The Bryansk Front, under the command of Markian Popov, attacked the eastern face of the Orel salient while the Western Front, commanded by Vasily Sokolovsky, attacked from the north. The Western Front's assault was led by the 11th Guards Army, under Lieutenant General Hovhannes Bagramyan, and was supported by the 1st and 5th Tank Corps. The Soviet spearheads sustained heavy casualties, but pushed through and in some areas achieved significant penetrations. These thrusts endangered German supply routes and threatened the 9th Army with encirclement. With this threat, 9th Army was compelled to go over fully to the defensive.
The thinly stretched 2nd Panzer Army stood in the way of this Soviet force. The German commanders had been wary of such an attack and forces were quickly withdrawn from the Kursk offensive to meet the Soviet offensive.
Operation Kutuzov reduced the Orel salient and inflicted substantial losses on the German military, paving the way for the liberation of Smolensk. Soviet losses were heavy, but were replaced. The offensive allowed the Soviets to seize the strategic initiative, which they retained for the remainder of the war.
### In the south: Operation Rumyantsev
Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev was intended as the main Soviet offensive for 1943. Its aim was to destroy the 4th Panzer Army and Army Detachment Kempf, and cut off the extended southern portion of Army Group South. After the heavy losses sustained by the Voronezh Front, during Operation Citadel, the Soviets needed time to regroup and refit, delaying the start of the offensive until 3 August. Diversionary attacks, launched two weeks earlier across the Donets and Mius Rivers into the Donbas, drew the attention of German reserves and thinned the defending forces that would face the main blow. The offensive was initiated by the Voronezh Front and Steppe Fronts against the northern wing of Army Group South. They drove through the German positions, making broad and deep penetrations. By 5 August, the Soviets had liberated Belgorod.
By 12 August, the outskirts of Kharkov had been reached. The Soviet advance was finally halted by a counter-attack by the 2nd and 3rd SS Panzer Divisions. In the ensuing tank battles, the Soviet armies suffered heavy losses in armour. After this setback, the Soviets focused on Kharkov. After heavy fighting the city was liberated on 23 August. This battle is referred to by the Germans as the Fourth Battle of Kharkov, while the Soviets refer to it as the Belgorod–Kharkov offensive operation.
## Results
The campaign was a strategic Soviet success. For the first time, a major German offensive had been stopped before achieving a breakthrough; the maximum depth of the German advance was 8–12 kilometres (5.0–7.5 mi) in the north and 35 kilometres (22 mi) in the south. The Germans, despite using more technologically advanced armour than in previous years, were unable to break through the deep Soviet defences and were caught off guard by the significant operational reserves of the Red Army. This result changed the pattern of operations on the Eastern Front, with the Soviet Union gaining the operational initiative. The Soviet victory was costly, with the Red Army losing considerably more men and materiel than the German Army. The Soviet Union's larger industrial potential and pool of manpower allowed them to absorb and replace its losses. Guderian wrote:
> With the failure of Zitadelle we have suffered a decisive defeat. The armoured formations, reformed and re-equipped with so much effort, had lost heavily in both men and equipment and would now be unemployable for a long time to come. It was problematical whether they could be rehabilitated in time to defend the Eastern Front ... Needless to say the [Soviets] exploited their victory to the full. There were to be no more periods of quiet on the Eastern Front. From now on, the enemy was in undisputed possession of the initiative.
With victory, the initiative firmly passed to the Red Army. For the remainder of the war the Germans were limited to reacting to Soviet advances, and were never able to regain the initiative or launch a major offensive on the Eastern Front. The Western Allied landings in Italy opened a new front, further diverting German resources and attention.
Though the location, plan of attack and timing were determined by Hitler, he blamed the defeat on his General Staff. Unlike Stalin, who gave his commanding generals the liberty to make important command decisions, Hitler's interference in German military matters progressively increased while his attention to the political aspects of the war decreased. The opposite was true for Stalin; throughout the Kursk campaign, he trusted the judgment of his commanders, and as their decisions led to battlefield success, it increased his trust in their military judgment. Stalin stepped back from operational planning, only rarely overruling military decisions, resulting in the Red Army being entrusted with higher levels of autonomy during the war.
All told, 239 Red Army personnel were bestowed the USSR's highest degree of distinction, the title Hero of the Soviet Union (HSU), for their valour in the Battle of Kursk. Two women, Guards Senior Sergeants Mariya Borovichenko and Zinaida Mareseva, were awarded the HSU title posthumously for their valour under fire while serving as combat medics. Borovichenko was assigned to the 32nd Guards Artillery Regiment, 13th Guards Rifle Division, 5th Guards Army and Mareseva served in a medical platoon in the 214th Guards Rifle Regiment, 73rd Guards Rifle Division, 7th Guards Army.
## Casualties
The casualties suffered by the two combatants are difficult to determine, due to several factors. German equipment losses were complicated by the fact that they made determined efforts to recover and repair tanks. Tanks disabled one day might be back in action the next day. German personnel losses are clouded by the lack of access to German unit records, which were seized at the end of the war. Many were transferred to the United States national archives and were not made available until 1978, while others were taken by the Soviet Union, which declined to confirm their existence.
### Soviet losses
The Russian military historian Grigoriy Krivosheyev, who based his figures on the Soviet archives, is considered by historian David Glantz as the most reliable source for Soviet casualty figures. His figures are supported by German historian Karl-Heinz Frieser. The German historian Roman Töppel disagreed. Having consulted the armies and units archives, he writes that Krivosheyev's figures on Soviet losses at Kursk are underestimated by 40%. Krivosheyev calculated total Soviet losses during the German offensive as 177,877. The Central Front suffered 15,336 irrecoverable casualties and 18,561 medical casualties, for a total of 33,897. The Voronezh Front suffered 27,542 irrecoverable casualties and 46,350 medical casualties, for a total of 73,892. The Steppe Front suffered 27,452 irrecoverable casualties and 42,606 medical casualties, for a total of 70,085.
During the two Soviet offensives, total casualties amounted to 685,456 men. During Operation Kutuzov, Soviet losses amounted to 112,529 irrecoverable casualties and 317,361 medical casualties, for a total loss of 429,890. The Western Front reported 25,585 irrecoverable casualties and 76,856 medical casualties. The Bryansk Front suffered 39,173 irrecoverable casualties and 123,234 medical casualties. The Central Front lost 47,771 irrecoverable casualties and 117,271 medical casualties. Soviet losses during Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev totaled 255,566 men, with 71,611 listed as irrecoverable casualties and 183,955 as medical casualties. The Voronezh Front lost 48,339 irrecoverable casualties and 108,954 medical casualties, for a total of 157,293. The Steppe Front lost 23,272 irrecoverable casualties and 75,001 medical casualties, for a total of 98,273.
Soviet equipment losses during the German offensive came to 1,614 tanks and self-propelled guns destroyed or damaged of the 3,925 vehicles committed to the battle. Soviet losses were roughly three times those of the Germans. During Operation Kutuzov, 2,349 tanks and self-propelled guns were lost out of an initial strength of 2,308; a loss of over 100 percent. During Polkovodets Rumyantsev, 1,864 tanks and self-propelled guns were lost out of the 2,439 employed. The loss ratio suffered by the Soviets was roughly 5:1 in favour of the Germans. Large Soviet reserves of equipment and their high rate of tank production enabled the Soviet tank armies to quickly replace lost equipment and maintain their fighting strength. The Red Army repaired many of its damaged tanks; many Soviet tanks were rebuilt up to four times to keep them in the fight. Soviet tank strength went back up to 2,750 tanks by 3 August due to the repair of damaged vehicles.
According to the historian Christer Bergström, Soviet Air Forces losses during the German offensive amounted to 677 aircraft on the northern flank and 439 on the southern flank. Total casualties are uncertain. Bergström's research indicates total Soviet air losses between 12 July and 18 August, during the German offensive and the Operation Kutuzov counteroffensive, were 1,104 aircraft.
### German losses
In Soviet and German data, the human losses figures are not equivalent. In Soviet figures, both combat and non-combat losses (sick, desert, accident...) were counted. In German, they did not count non-combat losses, and did not take into account the number of the missing, or died in hospitals from wounds, they counted only "front-line losses".
Karl-Heinz Frieser, who reviewed the German archive record, calculated that during Operation Citadel 54,182 casualties were suffered. Of these, 9,036 were killed, 1,960 were reported missing and 43,159 were wounded. The 9th Army suffered 23,345 casualties, while Army Group South suffered 30,837 casualties. Throughout the Soviet offensives, 111,114 casualties were suffered. In facing Operation Kutuzov, 14,215 men were killed, 11,300 were reported missing (presumed killed or captured) and 60,549 were wounded. During Polkovodets Rumyantsev, 25,068 casualties were incurred, including 8,933 killed and missing. Total casualties for the three battles were about 50,000 killed or missing and 134,000 wounded (per German military medical data).
However, German personnel losses are clouded by the lack of access to German unit records, which were seized at the end of the war Heersarzt 10-Day Casualty Reports per Army/Army Group are based on the reports of the German troops, the numbers are understated. According to the 10-day reports, the losses of the 6th German Army from 11 to 31 August 1943 were only 5,122 men (in the report of the commander of this army, General Carl Holidt, and the commander of the GA "South", Field Marshal Erich von Manstein, they reported this army lost 6,814 non-commissioned officers and soldiers only from 18 to 21 August). According to Niklas Zetterling with Anders Frankson, the 9th German Army lost from 4 to 9 July 1943 were 26,692 men; 1.46 times more than Heersarzt 10-Day reports. According to Stephen Newton, as of 5 July, the average number of infantry divisions in the 4th Tank Army and OG "Kempf" was 17,369, while the tank and motorized divisions were 18,410. On 30 August 1943, the average number of infantry divisions in the 4th Tank Army and OG "Kempf" was 8,269 men, and the tank and motorized divisions – 10,745 men. Then the average loss of personnel in the Battle of Kursk (excluding replenishment) is the same for infantry divisions were 9,100 men (52%), for tank and motorized divisions were 7,665 men (41%). At the same time, the losses of Army Group Center in the Battle of Kursk can be estimated by extrapolating the above estimate of the losses of the 4th Panzer Army and OG Kempf to the losses of Army Group Center. It should be considered that the losses of the Wehrmacht in the Battle of Kursk were 380,000 to 430,000 men. The German lost in the Battle of Kursk can be estimated from the balance of the armed forces of Germany from 1 June 1943 to 1 June 1944. The Wehrmacht's lost for this period were 3,705,500 men. The average two-month lost – 623,000 men, and the lost of the Wehrmacht in the Battle of Kursk accounted for 61–75 percent of the Wehrmacht's total losses in July–August 1943. Estimated at 380,000–430,000 casualties in the Battle of Kursk does not contradict the balance of its strength.
During Operation Citadel, 252 to 323 tanks and assault guns were destroyed. By 5 July, when the Battle of Kursk started, there were only 184 operational Panthers. Within two days, this had dropped to 40. On 17 July 1943 after Hitler had ordered a stop to the German offensive, Heinz Guderian sent in the following preliminary assessment of the Panthers,
> Due to enemy action and mechanical breakdowns, the combat strength sank rapidly during the first few days. By the evening of 10 July there were only 10 operational Panthers in the frontline. 25 Panthers had been lost as total write-offs (23 were hit and burnt and two had caught fire during the approach march). A hundred Panthers were in need of repair (56 were damaged by hits and mines and 44 by mechanical breakdown) and 60 percent of the mechanical breakdowns could be easily repaired. Approximately 40 Panthers had already been repaired and were on the way to the front. About 25 still had not been recovered by the repair service... On the evening of 11 July, 38 Panthers were operational, 31 were total write-offs and 131 were in need of repair. A slow increase in the combat strength is observable. The large number of losses by hits (81 Panthers up to 10 July) attests to the heavy fighting.
By 16 July, Army Group South counted 161 tanks and 14 assault guns lost. Up to 14 July, the 9th Army reported they had lost as write-offs 41 tanks and 17 assault guns. These losses break down as 109 Panzer IVs, 42 Panthers, 38 Panzer IIIs, 31 assault guns, 19 Ferdinands, 10 Tigers and three flame tanks. Before the Germans ended their offensive at Kursk, the Soviets began their counter-offensive and pushed the Germans back into a steady retreat. Thus, a report on 11 August 1943 showed that the numbers of write-offs in Panthers swelled to 156, with only 9 operational. The German Army was forced into a fighting retreat and increasingly lost tanks in combat as well as from abandoning and destroying damaged vehicles. On the Eastern Front, 50 Tiger tanks were lost during July and August, with some 240 damaged. Most of these occurred during their offensive at Kursk. Between 600 and 1,612 tanks and assault guns sustained damage in the period from 5 to 18 July. The total number of German tanks and assault guns destroyed during July and August on the Eastern Front amount to 1,331. Of these, Frieser estimates that 760 were destroyed during the Battle of Kursk. and Beevor writes that "the Red Army had lost five armoured vehicles for every German panzer destroyed". Töppel's estimate is higher, up to 1,200 were destroyed In total at least 2,952 German tanks and assault guns were destroyed or damaged during the battle of Kursk.
Frieser reports Luftwaffe losses at 524 aircraft, with 159 lost during the German offensive, 218 destroyed during Operation Kutuzov and 147 lost during Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev. In reviewing the reports of the quartermaster of the Luftwaffe, Bergström presents different figures. Between 5 and 31 July, Bergström reports 681 aircraft lost or damaged (335 for Fliegerkorps VIII and 346 for Luftflotte 6) with 420 being written off (192 from Fliegerkorps VIII and 229 from Luftflotte 6). |
61,915,825 | Nino Tkeshelashvili | 1,159,291,594 | Georgian feminist, suffragist, writer (1874–1956) | [
"1874 births",
"1956 deaths",
"20th-century educators",
"20th-century women educators",
"20th-century women writers from Georgia (country)",
"Educators from the Russian Empire",
"Feminists from Georgia (country)",
"People from Georgia Governorate",
"People from Kutaisi",
"People from Tiflis Governorate",
"Schoolteachers from Georgia (country)",
"Suffragists from Georgia (country)",
"Suffragists from the Russian Empire",
"Women's rights activists from Georgia (country)",
"Writers from Tbilisi",
"Writers from the Russian Empire"
] | Nino Tkeshelashvili (Georgian: ნინო ტყეშელაშვილი, 1874–1956) was a Georgian teacher, writer and women's rights activist. Born into an intellectual family in 1874, she completed the schooling available to her in Tiflis and then worked for a time in Didi Jikhaishi as a Russian language teacher. In 1903, she went to study dentistry in Moscow, where she became involved in the revolutionary student movement during the 1905 Russian Revolution. Returning to Tiflis the following year, she began to meet women writers and activists participating in the struggle for women's rights. She joined the Union of Georgian Women for Equal Rights in 1906, but three years later left the organization and co-founded the Caucasian Women's Society with a breakaway group of feminists.
As chair of the new society, Tkeshelashvili was active in the struggle for women's suffrage, in advancing the education of workers and the poor, working towards improved employment conditions and higher education for women, while addressing concerns in connection with women's health and sexuality. Around 1912, she began contributing to magazines and newspapers, addressing the issues facing women. With developments following the 1917 Russian Revolution, feminists hoped that the new Georgian Republic would heed their demands for civic and political equality. Instead, state policy created the Zhenotdel (Women's Bureau) in 1919, which limited women's free participation in society. Together with other feminists, Tkeshelashvili continued to press for equal participation until Stalin's state policies abolished the Zhenotdel and neutralized their efforts. She turned to writing, mainly writing for children in the Soviet era. When the Soviet Union dissolved, Georgian feminists rediscovered the history of Tkeshelashvili and other early associates.
## Early life
Nino Tkeshelashvili was born in 1874 in Tiflis (known after 1936 as Tbilisi) in the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire. Her father, whose family had been priests in the Georgian Orthodox Church, worked in agriculture and was an avid reader. Her mother was a close relative of the poet Akaki Tsereteli. From a young age, Tkeshelashvili enjoyed reading works from her father's library and was influenced by displaced revolutionaries who were frequent visitors in her parents' home. These included Ilia Bakhtadze, a journalist using the pen name Ilia Khoneli; the novelist Leo Kiacheli; and Archil Abashidze. She attended their discussions and dreamed of going to Russia to attend high school, like her brother. Though she completed the local school and earned a medal, she was unable to attend teacher training courses.
Through her parents, Tkeshelashvili met Niko Nikoladze, who was living in Didi Jikhaishi, in the Imereti region of western Georgia with his wife, Olga Guramishvili-Nikoladze (Georgian: ოლღა გურამიშვილი-ნიკოლაძე, 1855-1940) one of the first Georgian women to study abroad. Educated in Switzerland, Guramishvili returned to Georgia, where she was involved in pedagogy. She became a mentor to Tkeshelashvili, encouraging her to become a Russian-language teacher at the school she headed in Didi Jikhaishi. Besides teaching, she actively participated in literary evenings and read books from Nikoladze's library. In 1903, Tkeshelashvili went to Moscow, finally able to attend courses at dental school. She became involved in student radicalism and agitated with the intelligentsia for democratic reforms. At the end of the 1905 Russian Revolution, Tsar Nicholas conceded to terms that created the Duma, which had legislative oversight, while protecting freedom of conscience, speech, and assembly for the citizenship.
## Career
Returning to Tiflis in 1906, Tkeshelashvili found that the movement to expand civil and political rights had reached Georgia. She lived in a boarding house belonging to Ivane Machabeli. One of the other tenants, Mariam Demuria [ka], was closely involved in public works projects. Demuria worked as a journalist and regularly gave lectures to the general public. She also ran a Sunday school to offer education to workers and hired Tkeshelashvili to teach Russian language courses. Through her work with Demuria, Tkeshelashvili gained a wider circle of friends and met other women writers, like Ekaterine Gabashvili, who was involved in the feminist movement. She joined the Union of Georgian Women for Equal Rights, which began planning a conference for all Russian women to be held in Tiflis in 1908. Tkeshelashvili gave the opening address, calling on women to work for their freedom and cultural development.
After the conference, recognizing that they wanted a more international approach than the Union of Georgian Women offered, a group led by Tkeshelashvili parted in 1909 to form the Caucasian Women's Society (Georgian: კავკასიელ ქალთა საზოგადოება) (CWS). Among the 135 founding members were Gabashvili, Babilina Khositashvili, Nino Kipiani and Kato Mikeladze. Besides supporting women's suffrage, the CWS established clubs for working women in which they taught literacy and sewing. Tkeshelashvili hosted literary evenings where speakers presented talks on the Russian classics. The CWS also mounted a strong campaign to uphold women's "moral standards", labeling prostitution a "social evil". They invited women to attend debates that discussed social issues such as prostitution, education for the poor, employment conditions, higher education, and women's health and sexuality, among other topics.
Around 1912, Tkeshelashvili began publishing translations and original works in კვალი (Trace) and the children's magazine ჯეჯილი (Jejili, meaning "wheat shoots"), founded by Anastasia Tumanishvili-Tsereteli. That year, she also joined the editorial staff of ნაკადული (The Stream), where she met writers Nino Nakashidze and Akaki Tsereteli. Writing under the pseudonym სუფრაჟისტკას (Suffragist), Tkeshelashvili published works urging the political and civic equality of women. In 1914, during World War I, the Caucasian Women's Society began operating free canteens and sewing clothes for soldiers. Tkeshelashvili also increased her literary output, writing for such journals as the Reference Sheet, The Rock, Theater and Life, and the Voice of Georgian Woman among others. One of her articles from the period, ქალი რევოლუციონურ კულტურის ფრონტზე (A Woman at the Front of Revolutionary Culture), evaluated women's economic dependence on men and confinement by social roles which tied them to the family. She postulated that Lenin's revolutionary ideas would free women from laws that were discriminatory.
Tkeshelashvili took courses at the Kutaisi Women's Gymnasium and between 1917 and 1918 was active in the Georgian independence movement, following the collapse of the Russian Empire at the end of the 1917 Revolution. When the Democratic Republic of Georgia was being formed, she participated in the district elections for the Social Democratic Party of Georgia, held at the Gymnasium, and was shocked that out of 20 candidates there was only one woman. When she lamented the numbers to the audience, the party chair asked her to name qualified candidates. Tkeshelashvili gave him five names, but none were added to the ballot. She and other members of the Caucasian Women's Society cut all ties with the Social Democratic Party, recognizing that there was no genuine interest in their goals. Instead, the Party began promoting their own policies and became increasingly hostile to grassroots initiatives. In 1919 the Zhenotdel was founded which enacted government policies from the top down ignoring the real needs of women.
The feminists continued to fight vigorously for their rights, meeting in private homes to discuss how best to continue their struggle. At one such meeting, Tkeshelashvili presented a story, მგალობელი ჩიტების ზეიმი (Mourning Birds Celebration) in which other women acted out the parts. It was an allegory of the feminist struggle and after its presentation, the other women dubbed her the მერცხალას (the Swallow), which she took on as a new pseudonym. In 1924, she wrote and participated in the public mock-trial, ქრისტინეს გასამართლება (Judging Christine) in which she protested the remnants of capitalism that continued to victimize women. The performance was very popular and was presented at theaters and workers' palaces.
In 1930, Stalin abolished the Zhenotdel, effectively neutralizing the women's movement. Officially, a woman's primary obligation became motherhood and domestic work, a secondary function being social productivity. Feminists transformed from seeking equality to writing children's fiction, as it was an approved activity for women. From that time, Tkeshelashvili wrote children's short stories and fables, which were run as features in Georgian magazines and newspapers. Her best works were ხუხულები (Hooks) and ასლამაზა (Alamosa) but other well-known pieces included სპილო და მტაცებლები (Elephant and Predators), მგალობელი ჩიტები (Mourning Birds), and ვირი (Donkey).
## Death and legacy
Tkeshelashvili died in her home town in 1956. Like most feminists of the times, her activism for women's rights was forgotten in the Soviet era. Her 1990 biography listed her as a writer but since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Georgian feminists have been exploring their past and reclaiming the stories of early contributors like Tkeshelashvili.
## See also
- List of Georgian women writers |
9,755,768 | Love Among the Walnuts | 1,171,032,626 | Book by Jean Ferris | [
"1998 American novels",
"1998 children's books",
"American children's novels",
"Harcourt (publisher) books",
"Novels about death",
"Satirical novels"
] | Love Among the Walnuts: or How I Saved My Family from Being Poisoned is a farcical, satirical young adult novel with fairy tale elements written by Jean Ferris. The story revolves around a young man, Sandy, whose family is poisoned by his scheming uncles in a bid to gain the family fortune. He moves them to Walnut Manor, a neighboring convalescent home, where, with the help of the nurse Sunnie, he tries to save his family and benefit the manor's misunderstood residents.
Love Among the Walnuts was first published on September 1, 1998, by Harcourt. Reviews of the work have been mostly positive, with focus on the story's style and tone. It was listed as a YALSA Best Book for Young Adults and placed third on the ranked Teens' Top Ten Books list, both in 1999.
## Plot
Horatio Alger Huntington-Ackerman, a successful businessperson, marries Mousey Huntington-Ackerman (née Malone), a striving actor, and has a child named Sandy. They move with their butler Bentley and his wife Flossie to a new country estate called Eclipse with no neighbors except the residents of Walnut Manor, a convalescent home. One evening when Sandy is a young adult, his uncles Bart and Bernie visit Eclipse. The uncles feed the family a poisoned birthday cake in an attempt to inherit the family fortune, sending everyone but Sandy and Bentley into a coma.
A court ruling mandates that a doctor be present to oversee care for the comatose patients ("the sleepers"). To meet this requirement, Sandy moves them next door to Walnut Manor. There, he meets Dr. Waldemar, the director of the facility, and Sunnie Stone, a nurse hired to care for the sleepers. While Bentley researches a cure of the sleepers' comas, Sandy and Sunnie acquaint themselves with the other patients of Walnut Manor and ultimately fall in love with one another.
With the help of Dr. Waldemar and the manor's residents, Sandy and Sunnie discover that Walnut Manor's patients were placed in the facility's care by their relatives, who, as Walnut Manor's board of directors, have been embezzling from the home. They expose the board of directors' misdeeds and Bentley revives the sleepers from their coma. Sandy, Sunnie, Dr. Waldemar, and the residents of Walnut Manor together thwart Bart and Bernie and send them to prison.
## Publication and genre
Love Among the Walnuts was first published on September 1, 1998, by Harcourt. Reviewers recommended various appropriate reading ranges, including ages 12–14 and ages 10 and older.
The novel has been characterized as a farce, satire, and fairy tale. Alethea K. Helbig and Agnes Regan Perkins wrote that story's exploration of familial greed was "in the style of a Victorian melodrama" and Connie Tyrrell Burns, in School Library Journal, described the story as "a British farce without the off-color humor". In their review of young adult literature that had received recognition by major literary publications between 1997 and 2001, Helbig and Perkins described Love Among the Walnuts as one of few recognized titles with humorous elements. They described the central theme of the novel as "the value to personal and group well-being of loving-kindness and caring".
## Reception
Love Among the Walnuts received mostly positive reviews. Helbig and Perkins commented that "the large cast consists of individualized, complementary, and affectionately handled characters" and the novel's themes "are conveyed with skill and invention". Publishers Weekly praised the story for its "cast of offbeat characters and some punchy dialogue" while writing that its "plot will have more appeal for adults than children." In The Horn Book Magazine, Anne St. John commented that Sandy's "emotional responses and internal struggles will ring true with teenagers who are coming of age in a time of turmoil". According to Elaine McGuire of Voice of Youth Advocates, Love Among the Walnuts is "dripping with charm but never cloying ... a fabulous book with lots of lessons about our sickeningly fast-paced '90s lifestyles." Paula Rohrlick, writing in Kliatt, compared Love Among the Walnuts favorably to Ferris's later work, Once Upon a Marigold, describing both stories as "madcap".
For certain reviewers, the tone and style reinforced the novel's quality. In School Library Journal, Burns commented that Love Among the Walnuts "is intentionally melodramatic, coincidental, improbable, and hilarious. The restrained, tongue-in-cheek tone heightens the humor of this spoof." Kirkus Reviews compared the tone and plot of the story to that of a film directed by Preston Sturges or Frank Capra, describing how it "has an unconventional style and offbeat sense of humor that will delight readers or exhaust them, depending on their tolerance for screwball comedies." Nancy Hinkel, then Associate Editor at Alfred A. Knopf and Crown Books for Young Readers, wrote that the story has "great writing, original ideas, and real style" as well as "a good dose of dry humor that slips past if you're not paying attention." Helbig and Perkins described the novel's style as "fast moving, engaging, and witty."
Several reviews indicated reservations in recommending Love Among the Walnuts. Publishers Weekly wrote that "Sandy's accelerated growth from a baby in the nursery to an adult smitten with Sunny (in the space of a chapter) early on in the novel leaves young readers little to identify with." Kirkus Reviews commented that "a financial subplot and a muddle of characters, defined by their eccentricities, clog the pacing" of the story while St. John in The Horn Book Magazine said that "some of the characters are two-dimensional".
Love Among the Walnuts was one of 50 fiction titles selected as a 1999 Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) Best Book for Young Adults and was ranked third (after J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Louis Sachar's Holes) on YALSA's list of Teens' Top Ten Books of 1999. |
12,486,304 | Orange-headed tanager | 1,166,585,729 | Species of bird from South America | [
"Birds described in 1837",
"Birds of Brazil",
"Birds of South America",
"Taxonomy articles created by Polbot",
"Thlypopsis"
] | The orange-headed tanager (Thlypopsis sordida) is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae. Native to South America, it is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela, where it inhabits successional vegetation, cerrado, riparian forest, shrub, brush, and open woodland. Males of the species have sandy-gray , cinnamon to buff , white on the center of the lower breast, belly, and tail, and rufous-orange and yellow heads. Females are similar but duller.
The orange-headed tanager is omnivorous, feeding on insects, spiders, fruit, and seeds. It forages in an active manner, gleaning prey while hopping or, more infrequently, catching it in flight. Nesting has been recorded in December, and clutches contain two bluish-white eggs with brown markings. The species is listed as being of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on the IUCN Red List due to its large range and stable population.
## Taxonomy and systematics
The orange-headed tanager was originally described in 1837 as Nemosia sordida by the French ornithologists Frédéric de Lafresnaye and Alcide d'Orbigny on the basis of specimens from Bolivia. It was then moved to the genus Thlypopsis, of which it is the type species, by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis in 1851. The name of the genus, Thlypopsis, is from the Ancient Greek thlupis, a word for an unknown species of small bird, and opsis, meaning appearance. The specific name sordida is from the Latin sordidus, meaning dirty or shabby. Orange-headed tanager is the official common name designated by the International Ornithologists' Union.
### Subspecies
There are three recognized subspecies of the orange-headed tanager:
- T. s. sordida (Lafresnaye and d'Orbigny, 1837): The nominate subspecies, it is found from eastern Bolivia to Brazil, south to Paraguay and northern Argentina.
- T. s. chrysopis (Sclater and Salvin, 1880): Originally described as a separate species, it is found in southern Colombia, eastern Ecuador and Peru, and western Brazil. It differs from the nominate in having pure gray and light grayish-brown sides and breasts.
- T. s. orinocensis Friedmann, 1942: It is found in central Venezuela. It has pale gray upperparts tinged grayish-cinnamon.
## Description
The orange-headed tanager is a small, thin-billed tanager that has an average length of 13 cm (5.1 in) and a weight of 14–19 g (0.49–0.67 oz). Its proportions are similar to those of a New World warbler. Males of the nominate subspecies have rufous-orange and sides of the head, becoming bright yellow on the lores, ocular region (area surrounding eye), and throat. The upperparts are sandy-gray, with dusky and flight feathers, the latter of which are edged with gray. The underparts are buff to cinnamon and turn whitish on the center of the lower breast, belly, and . The bill is dark, the iris is dark brown, and the legs are gray.
Females have duller upperparts than males, less extensive yellow on the head, and duller yellow on the face and throat. Immatures are similar to females, but are even duller, with grayish-olive upperparts and paler underparts.
### Vocalizations
The orange-headed tanager's calls include a high-pitched tseet, seet, or sit, often given rapidly multiple times, a quick high-pitched chittering sit-it-t-t-t-t-t-t, and a slower seet-a. The solo song varies geographically: in northern Peru and Ecuador, it is a high-pitched, rising and falling, and spasmodic pits’a, see-a, pits’a, see-ee, while it is a seet, sit, a see-fits-za in northwestern Argentina. In Bolivia and northern Peru, a high-pitched seet seet t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-d-dit has been recorded in flight or while perched, which may be either a duet or chatter. In eastern Brazil, the year-round song has several song types, with the most common one being a thin, high-pitched tsap-tsip, tsip, tsip-tsop-tswit. A high-pitched, trilled tsi . . . . tsrrrri has also been recorded from Brazil.
## Distribution and habitat
The orange-headed tanager is native to South America, where it is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela. It is the only member of its genus that is found in the lowlands of the Amazon rainforest. In Venezuela and the western Amazon, it inhabits successional vegetation like tall Gynerium grasses, willows, Tessaria and Cecropia shrubbery, and young secondary growth near rivers and on river islands. In the southern Amazon, it inhabits dry to semi-humid cerrado, open woodland canopies, shrub, parks, and thinner riparian forest (forest next to waterbodies). In northwestern Argentina, it inhabits scrub, brush, and the edges of drier open woodland, and is seldom observed in uninterrupted forest.
The orange-headed tanager generally inhabits elevations up to 800 m (2,600 ft), but is only found up to 100 m (330 ft) in Venezuela and 400 m (1,300 ft) in Colombia. Local populations in Bolivia can inhabit elevations as high as 1,500 m (4,900 ft). In Brazil and Argentina, the species has been recorded seasonally migrating from the Andes to lowlands during the austral winter.
## Behavior and ecology
The orange-headed tanager is found in pairs or groups of 3–4 individuals, occasionally in mixed-species foraging flocks.
### Diet
The orange-headed tanager is an omnivorous species, having been recorded feeding on orthopterans (grasshoppers, crickets, and locusts), beetles, flies, spiders, fruit, and seeds. It forages in an active, New World warbler-like manner, gleaning insects from foliage with rapid hops, or less commonly hovering or sallying to catch prey in the air.
### Breeding
The orange-headed tanager has been recorded nesting in December, building a cup-shaped nest about 2 m (6.6 ft) above the ground. Eggs are laid in clutches of two, and are bluish-white with brown markings. The shiny cowbird has been recorded as a brood parasite of the orange-headed tanager.
## Status
The orange-headed tanager is listed as being of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on the IUCN Red List due to its large range and stable population. It is threatened in parts of its range due to land conversion, but occurs in a number of protected areas and is locally common on river islands and in river floodplains. |
66,916,511 | Island No. 2 | 1,154,221,680 | Island in California | [
"Islands of Northern California",
"Islands of Solano County, California",
"San Pablo Bay"
] | Island No. 2 is a mostly-submerged island in Solano County, California. Formerly swampland, it was reclaimed into productive farmland, and became the subject of lengthy legal disputes in the early 20th century. Since then, it has become again submerged, and is now part of the Napa-Sonoma Marshes Wildlife Area.
## Geography
Island No. 2 is in the Napa River, upstream of San Pablo Bay (an embayment of San Francisco Bay). Its coordinates are , and the United States Geological Survey measured its elevation as 3 ft (0.91 m) in 1981. As part of the Napa-Sonoma Marshes Wildlife Area (in which it is designated Napa River Unit Pond 2), the area is "regularly used by hunters, fishermen, bird watchers, photographers, and hikers".
## History
Many of the islands at the mouth of the Napa River were first discovered by Europeans in an 1823 Spanish expedition led by Francisco Castro. The land became part of the new state of California upon its 1850 statehood, at which time it was used mostly to hunt waterfowl. This land was reclaimed, and the swamps drained, at some point in the mid-to-late-1800s; Island No. 2 was contained within Survey No. 115. By the end of the 19th century, "most marshland in the [area] was diked, drained, and being used for livestock grazing and farmland". Island No. 2, along with Island No. 1, Green Island and Tubbs Island, are labeled on a 1902 USGS map of the area.
In the early 1900s, Island No. 2 (like the neighboring Island No. 1, also known as "Cross Island") was owned by L.E. Cross. Later, it came into the possession of David T. Hanbury, an "English scion" and millionaire who owned several breweries and wineries in England and California. Hanbury farmed the land, and had "men over on the Island".
On October 21, 1908, the island was deeded to David's wife Marie Eleanor Hanbury, a "former Benicia hello girl". On December 29, in what the Napa Weekly Journal described as "one of the most interesting documents ever placed on record in Napa County", a mortgage on Island No. 2 was executed by Marie "with the utmost secrecy"; David was unable to sign the document "owing to illness". At the time, the 867-acre (351 ha) island had an estimated value between \$80,000 and \$125,000 (\$ and \$ in ). The Weekly Journal hypothesized that the mortgage had been executed in order to pay the Hanburys’ debts in Vallejo.
Later, on the morning of January 19, 1909, the Napa County Recorder's office recorded a deed in which David Hanbury sold Island No. 2 to his brother John McKenzie Hanbury, of London, for a sum of \$10 (\$ in ). This deed had been executed in San Francisco on January 8, 1908; it was, however, entered into the county record nearly a month after the transfer of the island to Marie. Around February 1909, David fractured a rib while "endeavoring to get into a bath tub at Island No. 2".
David claimed that the deed transferring the island to his brother "was either obtained from him under the influence of drugs or was a forgery", saying that "it is at least odd that, if it was made more than a year ago, it was not recorded until after the genuine deed to the property which I made to my wife". In February, he and Marie Eleanor left for England; the Napa Journal said that "while it was reported that the trip was made for the benefit of the husband's health, it was believed that the real purpose was to reach an amicable understanding with the brother in Old England". David engaged an attorney, Hiram Johnson, to "establish the validity of [his] wife's deed to the property". On December 4, John's claims to the island were dismissed.
By 1910, divorce proceedings between David T. Hanbury and Marie Eleanor were underway; the Napa Weekly Journal said that during these proceedings "the title to the famous island passed rapidly from Hanbury to his wife, then to his brother John, the English brewer, and again to the Napa Bank, and all around the circle again". By May, they had "[settled] their marital troubles" and gone to live in Santa Cruz. On May 22, 1910, Marie Eleanor gave birth to a son, David Mackenzie Hanbury.
David T. Hanbury died in October 1910, at the White Sulphur Springs in Solano County, having gone there for treatment of his poor health. In February 1911, his estate was appraised; Island No. 2 was valued at \$34,680 (\$ in ). In 1914, a Stockton company leased Island No. 2 and planned "extensive cultivation of the area". In 1916, W.L. Williamson and F. Henritty were arrested on charges of disturbing the peace, after a "quarrel over a lease on Island No. 2".
By 1920, the island was again in legal dispute; David Mackenzie was at that point half owner of the island (held in trust by the Anglo-California Trust Company). William Banta, David Mackenzie's uncle and legal guardian, was sued by the British members of the family for ownership of Island No. 2 and other properties in the estate. The island was put up for public auction in June 1925. In November 1926, some interest in the property was sold from Ellen Weinstein, Estelle Meyer and others to a Z.S. Israelsky. In December 1927, another notice of guardian's sale was issued, again for Island No. 2 being sold by its owner David Mackenzie Hanbury. In February 1928, a transaction was recorded in which the Anglo-California Trust Company sold Island No. 2 to a Nat Boas; on the same day, Nat Boas also acquired Z.S. Israelsky's interest in said property.
In 1927, construction started on a bascule bridge connecting to Island No. 2 from Vallejo; a cofferdam was placed in April, and construction was "nearly finished" by September.
By 1928, there existed a Hanbury Island Gun Club on the island, at which were located a "handsome new club house with 8 bedrooms, a huge club room, kitchen, pantry, showers, lavatories and all other modern conveniences" in addition to "a keeper's cottage, outhouses, blinds, ponds, levees, etc".
While Island No. 2 had been shown as dry land surrounded by levees in 1916 USGS maps, by 1942 it is shown as having significant amounts of marsh and water in its interior. By 1949, its interior is shown as almost entirely marshlands, although the "Lachman Club" remains on its northwest side. This remains the case in 1951, but by 2012 no club is shown, and the island is shown as completely submerged. In the 1990s, Island No. 2 became part of the Napa-Sonoma Marshes Wildlife Area, managed by the California Department of Fish and Game. |
34,597,321 | Edward Milford | 1,165,571,881 | Australian Army officer | [
"1894 births",
"1972 deaths",
"Australian Army personnel of World War II",
"Australian Commanders of the Order of the British Empire",
"Australian Companions of the Distinguished Service Order",
"Australian Companions of the Order of the Bath",
"Australian generals",
"Australian military personnel of World War I",
"Australian people of English descent",
"Graduates of the Staff College, Camberley",
"Military personnel from Melbourne",
"People from Prahran, Victoria",
"Royal Military College, Duntroon graduates"
] | Major General Edward James Milford (10 December 1894 – 10 June 1972) was an Australian Army officer who fought in the First and the Second World Wars.
Born in Melbourne, Milford graduated from the Royal Military College in 1915. Commissioned as a lieutenant in the Australian Imperial Force, he served with the Field Artillery of the 2nd Division for most of the First World War. Remaining in the military for the interwar period, he held a number of postings in ordnance and artillery in Australia and England. During the early years of the Second World War, he served as master-general of the ordnance. He later commanded the 5th and 7th Divisions during the New Guinea and Borneo campaigns. He accepted the surrender of Japanese forces in Dutch Borneo on 8 September 1945. He retired from the army in 1948, due to an illness which was later found to be a misdiagnosis, and died in 1972 at the age of 77.
## Early life
Milford was born to English immigrants James E. Milford on 10 December 1894 in Melbourne. He attended Wesley College and then in 1913, encouraged by his headmaster, entered the Royal Military College at Duntroon.
## Military career
### First World War
Following graduation from Duntroon in 1915, Milford was commissioned as a lieutenant in the First Australian Imperial Force (First AIF) and was assigned to the 4th Field Artillery Brigade, 2nd Division. Serving initially in the Middle East, he was posted to the Western Front in March 1916. He held regimental and staff positions until being wounded in September 1917, by which time he had been promoted to major. His wounds were such that he was evacuated to England for treatment. Upon recovery, he returned to the 4th Field Artillery Brigade. In command of the 11th Battery from February 1918, he was recommended for, and awarded, the Distinguished Service Order as well as a mention in despatches for his efforts in controlling artillery support during operations on the Somme and the Battle of Amiens.
### Interwar period
Milford opted to undertake training in ordnance in England after the war, and on 13 November 1919 married Wynne Rae Gray. He held a number of ordnance-related postings in both England and Australia, and attended the British Army Staff College at Camberley. He served for a time as chairman of the Resource Committee dedicated to "hardware, general stores and clothing" (there were seven such committees, each dedicated to a specific area of defence resources), which reported to the Defence Resources Board. At the time of the outbreak of the Second World War, he was director of artillery at Army headquarters in Melbourne, where he had been posted for four years.
### Second World War
In March 1940, Milford was assigned to the newly formed 7th Division as commander of the division's artillery, one of a number of officers from the Staff Corps appointed to the division. He traveled to the Middle East in October but was destined to spend only a few weeks in his position before being recalled to Australia in January 1941 to take up the post of master-general of the ordnance. He was also promoted to temporary major general, the first Duntroon graduate to reach the rank of general. In his new appointment, he was tasked with co-ordination of private and government manufacturers and producers to provide logistic support for Australia's soldiers, both at home and overseas. He was also involved with a committee investigating the supply requirements of each of the services and the available resources, as well as the development of new weapons. When the Owen gun, an Australian designed and manufactured submachine gun, was brought to his attention, he initially favoured the use of the Sten, even though it proved to be less reliable than the Owen.
#### New Guinea campaign
In 1942, Milford was commander of the 5th Division, then based in Queensland and intended for operations against the Japanese Empire. He landed with elements of his division at Milne Bay on the eastern tip of New Guinea on 14 January 1943 and began operations on nearby Goodenough Island. The island had recently been captured from the Japanese but only a small Australian garrison was present to guard against any attempt by the enemy to take it back. Dummy buildings and fortifications were built to give the Japanese the impression that the Australian presence on Goodenough was greater than it actually was, and may have deterred them from attempting to retake the island. By April the Japanese threat to Goodenough had receded and an air strip was under construction.
In late August 1943, the 5th Division moved to the Morobe Province of New Guinea to replace the 3rd Division, which was then participating in the Salamaua–Lae campaign. Milford was tasked with continuing offensive operations against the Japanese around Salamaua to divert resources away from the nearby Japanese base in the town of Lae. Once the neighbouring 9th Division commenced their attack to capture Lae on 4 September by landing east of the town to begin an encircling movement, the 5th Division moved to take Salamaua, which eventually fell to the Australians on 11 September.
Salamaua was intended to become a large base for the Allied forces in the region, but when Lieutenant General Edmund Herring inspected the area immediately following its capture it was deemed not suitable. Instead, Herring directed Milford to establish the base at newly captured Lae. Milford supervised the construction of roads and supply depots of the "Lae Fortress" until 3 November, when he was made general staff officer of the New Guinea Force (NGF). He would be recommended for an appointment as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his leadership and service in Lae and with the NGF.
#### Borneo campaign
In July 1944, he succeeded his friend (and fellow Duntroon classmate) Major General George Vasey as commander of the 7th Division. The division had been resting and refitting in Australia since its withdrawal in early 1944 from New Guinea following the Ramu Valley campaign, which had been conducted in the aftermath of the capture of Lae.
In early 1945, planning was underway for Operation Oboe Two, an amphibious assault to capture Balikpapan, a seaport on Borneo. The 9th Division was originally designated for the operation, but in April it was decided to utilise the 7th Division instead, and it duly embarked from Cairns to Morotai, the staging post for the assault. Operation Oboe Two would transpire to be the largest amphibious operation mounted by the Australian military. Despite opposition from the American naval commanders providing support for the operation, Milford decided to land his forces at Klandasan, a southern suburb of Balikpapan which although heavily defended, had suitable beaches for landing troops. By landing at Klandasan, Milford hoped to achieve tactical surprise and anticipated fire support from the United States Navy would help counter the coastal defences of the Japanese. The battle of Balikpapan began on 1 July with a naval barrage of the landing area, supported by bombers of the Royal Australian Air Force, with the division landing relatively unopposed by mid morning. By 1pm, the beachhead was secure and Milford, together with Generals Douglas MacArthur and Leslie Morshead made an inspection of the area. At this late stage of the war it was clear that the war would soon end, and extensive use was made of divisional artillery (which Milford had raised during his earlier spell with the division in 1940) rather than needlessly risk soldiers' lives. By 21 July, Balikpapan was secure and the Japanese were retreating into Borneo. Milford ordered a halt to further offensive action and instructed his outlying forces to hold their position, thus concluding a successful operation.
The war was now rapidly drawing to a close and upon the surrender of the Japanese Empire in August, Milford was ordered to accept the surrender of the representative commander of the Japanese forces, which numbered around 8,500 troops, in Dutch-Borneo. On 8 September, Milford observed the surrender of the Japanese military governor of the area, Vice Admiral Michiaki Kamada, in a ceremony held aboard HMAS Burdekin which was anchored off the coast of Dutch Borneo.
## Later life
Milford remained the commander of the 7th Division, as well as the Morotai occupation force, until March 1946. He returned to Melbourne, replacing Major General John Chapman as Deputy Chief of General Staff on 11 March. An appointment as adjutant general followed in May. He retired on 23 April 1948 due to ill health but this was due to an incorrect diagnosis of prostate cancer. In 1946, he had been recommended for appointment as a Companion of the Order of the Bath for his leadership during Operation Oboe Two, and was duly presented with the Order in 1949.
Milford died in Macleod, Melbourne on 10 June 1972, and was survived by his son (a 1944 graduate of the Royal Military College at Duntroon). |
1,041,577 | Mark Henry | 1,172,883,701 | American wrestler, weightlifter and radio personality (born 1972) | [
"1971 births",
"20th-century African-American sportspeople",
"20th-century professional wrestlers",
"21st-century African-American sportspeople",
"21st-century professional wrestlers",
"African-American male professional wrestlers",
"All Elite Wrestling personnel",
"American male professional wrestlers",
"American male weightlifters",
"American powerlifters",
"American strength athletes",
"ECW Heavyweight Champions/ECW World Heavyweight Champions",
"Living people",
"Medalists at the 1995 Pan American Games",
"Nation of Domination members",
"Olympic weightlifters for the United States",
"Pan American Games bronze medalists for the United States",
"Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States",
"Pan American Games medalists in weightlifting",
"Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States",
"People from Silsbee, Texas",
"Professional wrestlers from Texas",
"Sportspeople with dyslexia",
"WWE Hall of Fame inductees",
"WWF European Champions",
"Weightlifters at the 1992 Summer Olympics",
"Weightlifters at the 1995 Pan American Games",
"Weightlifters at the 1996 Summer Olympics",
"World Heavyweight Champions (WWE)"
] | Mark Jerrold Henry (born June 12, 1971) is an American former powerlifter, Olympic weightlifter, strongman, and professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as a commentator/analyst, coach, and talent scout. He is best known for his 25-year career in WWE.
Henry is a two-time Olympian (1992 and 1996) and a gold, silver, and bronze medalist at the Pan American Games in 1995. As a powerlifter, he was WDFPF World Champion (1995) and a two-time U.S. National Champion (1995 and 1997) as well as an all-time raw world record holder in the squat and deadlift. Currently, he still holds the WDFPF world records in the squat, deadlift and total and the USAPL American record in the deadlift since 1995. He is credited for the biggest raw squat and raw powerlifting total ever performed by a drug tested athlete, regardless of weight class, as well as the greatest raw deadlift by an American citizen.
In weightlifting, Henry was a three-time U.S. National Weightlifting Champion (1993, 1994, 1996), an American Open winner (1992), a two-time U.S. Olympic Festival Champion (1993 and 1994) and a NACAC champion (1996). He holds all three Senior US American weightlifting records of 1993–1997.
In strongman, Henry won the inaugural Arnold Strongman Classic in 2002.
Since joining the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) in 1996, he became a one-time WWF European Champion and a two-time world champion, having held the ECW Championship in 2008, and WWE's World Heavyweight Championship in 2011. First winning the ECW Championship, he became only the fourth African-American world champion in WWE history (after The Rock, Booker T, and Bobby Lashley).
In April 2018, Henry was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2018.
## Early life
Henry was born in the small town of Silsbee in East Texas, 90 miles northeast of Houston. As a child, he was a big wrestling fan and André the Giant was his favorite wrestler. While attending a wrestling show in Beaumont, Texas, young Henry tried to touch André as he was walking down the aisle, but tripped over the barricade. André picked him up out of the crowd and put him back behind the barricade. When Henry was 12 years old, his father, Ernest, died of complications from diabetes. When he was 14 years old, Henry was diagnosed with dyslexia.
Henry comes from a family in which almost all of the men are larger than average, especially his great uncle Chudd, who was 6 ft 7 in, weighed approximately 500 lb (230 kg), never had a pair of manufactured shoes, and was known as the strongest man in the Piney Woods of East Texas.
Henry played football in high school until his senior year, when he strained ligaments in his wrist during the first game of the year and scored below 700 on the SAT.
## Powerlifting career
By the time Mark Henry was in the fourth grade, he was and weighed 225 lb (102 kg). His mother bought a set of weights for him when he was ten years old. During Henry's freshman year at Silsbee High School, he was already able to squat 600 lb (270 kg), which was well over the school record. As an 18-year-old high school senior, Henry was called "the world's strongest teenager" by the Los Angeles Times, and made it into the headlines in early 1990 for winning the National High School Powerlifting Championships and setting teenage lifting world records in the squat 832 lb (377 kg) and total 2,033 lb (922 kg). By the time Henry finished high school, he was a three-time Texas state champion with state and national records in all four powerlifting categories—the squat at 832 lb (377 kg), bench press at 525 lb (238 kg) and deadlift at 815 lb (370 kg) as well as the total at 2,033 lb (922 kg).
At the Texas High School Powerlifting Championships in April 1990, Terry Todd, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Texas at Austin and former weightlifter, spotted Henry and persuaded him to go to Austin after he graduated to train in the Olympic style of weightlifting. In July 1990 at the USPF Senior National Powerlifting Championships, 19-year-old Henry came second only to the legendary six-time World Powerlifting Champion Kirk Karwoski. While powerlifting relies primarily on brute strength and power, which Henry obviously possessed, Olympic weightlifting is considered more sophisticated, involving more agility, timing, flexibility and technique. There have been few lifters in history who have been able to be successful in both lifting disciplines. Mastering the technique of weightlifting usually takes many years of practice, but Henry broke four national junior records in weightlifting after only eight months of training. In April 1991, he won the United States National Junior Championships; 20 days later he placed fourth at the U.S. Senior National Championships, and finished sixth at the Junior World Weightlifting Championships in Germany two months later. Only few weeks afterwards, he became 1991's International Junior Champion in Powerlifiting as well. In Henry's first year in competitive weightlifting, he broke all three junior (20 and under) American records 12 times, and became the United States' top Superheavyweight, surpassing Mario Martinez.
At the age of 19, Henry had already managed to qualify for the weightlifting competition at the 1992 Summer Olympics, where he finished tenth in the Super- Heavyweight class. Ten months before the 1992 Olympics, Henry had begun training with Dragomir Cioroslan, a bronze medalist at the 1984 Summer Olympics, who said that he had "never seen anyone with Mark's raw talent". After the Olympics, Henry became more determined to focus on weightlifting and began competing all over the world. In late 1992 he took the win at the USA Weightlifting American Open and further proved his dominance on the American soil by winning not only the U.S. National Weightlifting Championships, but also the U.S. Olympic Festival Championships in 1993 and 1994. At the 1995 Pan American Games Henry won a gold, silver and bronze medal.
Having reached the pinnacle of weightlifting on a National and continental level, he competed again in powerlifting and shocked the world by winning the ADFPA U.S. National Powerlifting Championships in 1995 with a 2,314.8 lb (1,050.0 kg) raw Powerlifting Total. Despite competing without supportive equipment in contrast to the other competitors, Henry managed to outclass the lifter in second place by 286 lb (130 kg), defeating not only five-time IPF World Powerlifting Champion and 12 time USAPL National Powerlifting Champion Brad Gillingham, but also America's Strongest Man of 1997 Mark Philippi. In the process he set all-time world records in the raw deadlift at 903.9 lb (410.0 kg) and the squat without a squat suit at 948.0 lb (430.0 kg) as well as the all-time drug tested raw total at 2,314.8 lb (1,050.0 kg). Later that same year in October, he competed in the drug-free Powerlifting World Championships and won again, even though he trained on the powerlifts only sparingly—due his main focus still being on the two Olympic lifts. He not only become World Champion by winning the competition but also bettered his previous all-time squat world record to 953.5 lb (432.5 kg) and his all-time drug tested world record total to 2,336.9 lb (1,060.0 kg).
In 1996 Henry became the North America, Central America, Caribbean Islands (NACAC) Champion. He earned the right to compete at the Olympics by winning the U.S. National Weightlifting Championships in the Spring of 1996 for a third time. During his victory Henry became Senior US American record holder (1993–1997) in the Snatch at 396.83 lb (180.00 kg), Clean and jerk at 485 lb (220 kg), and Total at 881.8 lb (400.0 kg), improving all of his three previous personal bests. This 881.85 kg (1,944.1 lb) total, in the opinion of many experts in track field of international lifting—including Dragomir Cioroslan, the '96s coach of the U.S. team—was the highest ever made by an athlete who had never used anabolic steroids—who was lifetime drugfree. By that time, at the age of 24, Henry was generally acknowledged as the strongest man in the world, even by many of the Eastern Bloc athletes who outrank him in weightlifting. No one in the history of the sports had ever lifted as much as him in the five competitive lifts—the snatch and the clean and jerk in weightlifting—the squat, bench press and deadlift in powerlifting. To this day, his five lift total is still the greatest in history by a fair amount—making him arguably one of the strongest men that ever lived and stamp him, according to lifting statistician Herb Glossbrenner, as history's greatest lifter.
In the months prior to the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, Henry received more attention and publicity than any lifter in recent United States history. He guested at Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and The Oprah Winfrey Show and was featured on HBO Inside Sports and The Today Show. He was also featured in dozens of magazines including U.S. News & World Report, People Vanity Fair, ESPN The Magazine and Life where he was photographed nude by famed artist Annie Lebowitz. During this period he connected with WWE owner Vince McMahon for the first time, which led to him signing a 10-year deal as professional wrestler.
Henry improved his lifts to 407 lb (185 kg) in the snatch and 507 lb (230 kg) in the clean-and-jerk during his final eight weeks of preparation for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Henry at 6-foot-4-inches tall and 414 lb (188 kg) bodyweight, became the largest athlete in Olympic history and was voted captain of the Olympic weightlifting team. Unfortunately, he suffered a back injury during the competition and was unable to approach his normal performance level. Due to the injury he had to drop out after his first clean and jerk attempt and finished with a disappointing 14th place. His appearance at the Olympics proved to be his last official competition in Olympic weightlifting, as he retired from weightlifting, vowing never to return unless the sport is "cleaned up" of anabolic steroid use.
Since his career start as a professional wrestler shortly after the Olympics, he broke his leg in the fall of 1996. But by the summer of the following year he had rehabilitated it enough to be able to compete at the USAPL National Powerlifting Championships 1997, where he won the competition to become the U.S. National Powerlifting Champion in the Super Heavyweight class again. He had planned to continue heavy training in powerlifting, although his travel schedule as a professional wrestler with the WWF (now WWE) has made sustained training difficult. Mark's WWF contract was unique in many ways, allowing him at least three months off each year from wrestling, so he can train for the national and world championships in weightlifting or powerlifting. Barring injury, Mark had originally hoped to return to the platform in late 1998, to lift for many more years, and to eventually squat at least 1,100 lb (500 kg) without a "squat suit" and to deadlift 1,000 lb (450 kg).
Although in early 1998 he was still able to do five repetitions in the bench press with 495 lb (225 kg), three repetitions in the squat with 855 lb (388 kg) (with no suit and no knee wraps), and three repetitions in the standing press with 405 lb (184 kg) in training, while traveling with the World Wrestling Federation, he never returned to compete again in official championships in favor of his wrestling career. He weighed 380 lb (170 kg) at that time, and his right upper arm was measured at 24" by Terry Todd. By basically ending his lifting career at the age of 26, it is probable that he never reached his full physical potential as a professional lifter. Henry remains the youngest man in history to squat more than 900 pounds without a squat suit as well as the youngest to total more than 2,300 pounds raw – he's the only person ever to have accomplished any of these feats at under 25 years of age.
### Personal powerlifting records
Powerlifting Competition Records:
done in official Powerlifting full meets
- Squat – 953.5 lb (432.5 kg) raw with knee wraps (done on October 29, 1995 WDFPF)
→ former all-time unequipped squat world record for over a decade in SHW class until 2010 (+regardless of weight class until 2007)
→ current WDFPF world record squat in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current drug tested all-time world record squat without a suit in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1995
→ currently heaviest walked-out raw squat of all time (without a monolift) regardless of weight class or federation since 1995
- Deadlift – 903.9 lb (410.0 kg) raw (done on July 16, 1995, ADFPA (USAPL))
→ former all-time raw world record deadlift in SHW class until 2010 (+regardless of weight class until 2009)
→ current all-time highest raw deadlift ever pulled by an American in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1995
→ current Open Men American record deadlift in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current all-time US national championship record deadlift in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current USAPL American record deadlift in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current drug tested raw world record deadlift (in SHW class only) since 1995
- Powerlifting Total – 2,336.9 lb (1,060.0 kg) (953.5 + 518 + 865 lb (432.5 + 235.0 + 392.4 kg) / 2,336.9 lb (1,060.0 kg) (953.5 + 518.1 + 865.3 lb (432.5 + 235.0 + 392.5 kg)) raw with wraps (done on October 29, 1995 WDFPF)
→ current WDFPF world record in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since 1995
→ current drug tested all-time world record unequipped powerlifting total in SHW class (+regardless of weight class)
Career aggregate Powerlifting Total (best official lifts) – 2,442.7 lb (1,108.0 kg) (953.5 + 585.3 + 903.9 lb (432.5 + 265.5 + 410.0 kg))
Powerlifting Gym Records (unofficial):
- Squat – 1,006 lb (456 kg)
- Bench press – 585–600 lb (265–272 kg)
- Deadlift – 925 lb (420 kg)
Career aggregate Powerlifting Total (best unofficial lifts) – 2,531 lb (1,148 kg) (1,006 + 600 + 925 lb (456 + 272 + 420 kg))
- Front Squat – 770 lb (350 kg)
- Behind-the-neck-press – over 400 lb (180 kg)
Weightlifting Competition Records:
done in official competition
- Snatch: 396.8 lb (180.0 kg) (done at 1996's U.S. Nationals)
→ Senior US American snatch record 1993–1997 in SHW class (+regardless of weight class)
- Clean and jerk: 485.0 lb (220.0 kg) (done at 1996's U.S. Nationals)
→ Senior US American clean&jerk record 1993–1997 in SHW class
- Weightlifting Total: 881.8 lb (400.0 kg) – snatch: 396.8 lb (180.0 kg) / clean&jerk: 485.0 lb (220.0 kg) (done at 1996's U.S. Nationals)
→ Senior US American weightlifting total record 1993–1997 in SHW class (+regardless of weight class)
Weightlifting Gym Records (unofficial):
all three done in training after the 1996's U.S. Nationals, but prior to the Olympics '96
- Snatch: 407 lb (185 kg)
- Clean&jerk: 507 lb (230 kg)
- Weightlifting Total: 914 lb (415 kg)
### Combined lifting records
- official weightlifting total + official powerlifting total = Combined Supertotal:
881.8 lb (400.0 kg) + 2,336.9 lb (1,060.0 kg) = 3,218.7 lb (1,460.0 kg) raw with wraps
→ current all-time highest combined weightlifting/powerlifting total in history (since 1996\*)
- 5 official weightlifting & powerlifting lifts combined – the snatch + the clean-and-jerk and the squat + bench press + deadlift = Five-Lift-Combined-Total:
396.8 lb (180.0 kg) + 485.0 lb (220.0 kg) + 953.5 lb (432.5 kg) + 858.3 lb (389.3 kg) + 903.9 lb (410.0 kg) = 3,324.5 lb (1,508.0 kg)
→ current all-time highest 5 lift total in history (since 1996\*)
\* both combined all-time records had previously been held by legendary powerlifter Jon Cole
Holding these all-time records in the lifting sports makes Mark Henry arguably one of the strongest men in history. Having achieved this at the very young age of 24 while being lifetime drug-free makes it even more impressive. Many experts in the field, including Bill Kazmaier, Jan and Terry Todd, Dr. Robert M. Goldman, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Muscle & Fitness magazine and Flex magazine, consider him to be "one of the Strongest Men that ever lived" or even "the most naturally gifted strongman in history".
When asked in September 2003, who the strongest man in the world is today [2003], Bill Kazmaier, considered by many to be the greatest strongman of all time, stated: "It would have to be Mark Henry. [...] I think he's one of the strongest men in the history of the world, without a doubt."
## Professional wrestling career
### World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment/WWE
#### Early career (1996–1997)
At the age of 24, Henry made his first appearance on World Wrestling Federation (WWF) programming on the March 11, 1996 episode of Monday Night Raw, where he press slammed Jerry Lawler, who was ridiculing Henry while interviewing him in the ring. After Henry competed in the 1996 Summer Olympics, the WWF signed him to a ten-year contract. Trained by professional wrestler Leo Burke, his first feud in the WWF was with Lawler. At the pay-per-view event, SummerSlam in August 1996, Henry came to the aid of Jake Roberts who was suffering indignity at the hands of Lawler. His debut wrestling match was at In Your House: Mind Games on September 22, 1996, where he defeated Lawler. The feud continued on the live circuit during subsequent weeks. On the November 4 episode of Raw, Henry served as a cornerman for Barry Windham in a match against Goldust. He was set to team with Windham, Marc Mero and Rocky Maivia to take on the team of Lawler, Goldust, Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Crush at Survivor Series, but was replaced by Jake Roberts when he was forced to withdraw from the event due to injury. On the November 17 episode of Superstars, Henry defeated Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Crush and Goldust in a tug of war contest. HHenry also worked a couple of shows for United States Wrestling Association. Henry's career was then stalled as, over the next year, he took time off to heal injuries and engage in further training.
In November 1997, he returned to the ring, making his televised return the following month. By the end of the year, he was a regular fixture on WWF programming, defeating The Brooklyn Brawler on the December 15 episode of Raw, and beating The Sultan on the December 27 episode of Shotgun.
#### Nation of Domination and Sexual Chocolate (1998–2000)
Henry joined the faction with Farooq, The Rock, Kama Mustafa, and D'Lo Brown on January 12, 1998. After The Rock usurped Farooq's position as leader, Henry switched loyalties to The Rock. He also competed at WrestleMania XIV in a tag team Battle Royal with Brown as his partner, but they did not win. After short feuds against Ken Shamrock and Vader, Henry participated in his faction's enmity against D-Generation X, which included a romantic storyline with DX member Chyna. When The Nation disbanded, he engaged in a short feud with The Rock, defeating him at Judgment Day: In Your House with help from Brown, and then forming a permanent team with Brown, gaining Ivory as a manager.
During the next year, Henry gave himself the nickname "Sexual Chocolate", adopting a ladies' man character. He first resumed his storyline with former enemy Chyna, but it ended with her betraying him in a controversial angle including a transvestite. During a match at the August 1999 SummerSlam pay-per-view between Brown and Jeff Jarrett for the WWF Intercontinental and WWF European Championships (both held at the time by Brown), Henry turned on Brown and helped Jarrett win the match and the titles. The next night, Henry was awarded the European title by Jarrett in return for his help. Henry lost the title one month later to Brown at the Unforgiven pay-per-view.
The night after he tried to make up with Brown and later in the week claimed to be a sex addict resulting in him attending a sex therapy session a week later where he claimed that he lost his virginity at eight years old to his sister, and had just slept with her two days ago. He was part of a storyline about him overcoming sex addiction, which he accomplished thanks to The Godfather.
After this twist, Henry turned into a fan favorite, and was seen on television romancing WWF veteran wrestler Mae Young as part of the "Sexual Chocolate" character. He feuded with Viscera during this time, as part of a storyline where Viscera splashed Mae Young while she was carrying Henry's child. Young later gave birth to a hand.
#### Ohio Valley Wrestling and strongman competitions (2000–2002)
In 2000, Henry was sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) to improve his conditioning and wrestling skills. In OVW, he teamed with Nick Dinsmore to compete in a tournament for the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship in mid-2001. He also worked a couple of matches for Heartland Wrestling Association. Later that year, Henry's mother died, causing him to go on hiatus from wrestling. He felt he had to compete in the "Super Bowl of weight lifting"—the Arnold Strongman Classic—in honor of his mother, who gave him his first weight set when he was a child.
Four months prior to the contest, Henry began lifting the heaviest of weights and trained for the first time since 1997 for a major lifting competition. He had never been a professional strongman before, but in the coming contest he was to face the very best of the best of professional strongmen, such as the \#1 ranked strongman in the world, and defending World's Strongest Man competition winner of 2001 Svend Karlsen, World's Strongest Man winner of 2006 Phil Pfister, World Powerlifting Champion of 2001 and equipped deadlift world record holder Andy Bolton, World Muscle Power Champion, Olympic weightlifting Champion Raimonds Bergmanis, and reigning America's Strongest Man of 2001 Brian Schoonveld.
On February 22, 2002, in Columbus, Ohio the competition, consisting of four events, designed to determine the lifter with the greatest overall body power, began. Henry surprised everybody when he won the first event, setting a world record in the process by lifting the Apollon's Axle three times overhead. Only three men in history had ever been able to press it at all. By deadlifting 885 lb (401 kg) for two repetitions in the second event and easily pushing a 5,000 lb (2,300 kg) or more Hummer with nearly flat tires in the third event, Henry kept his lead continuously throughout the competition and never gave it up again. In the final "Farmer's Walk"-event Henry quickly carried the roughly 850 lb (390 kg) of railroad ties up an incline, winning the whole competition convincingly to capture the winning prize — a US\$75,000 Hummer, a vacation cruise and \$10,000 cash.
Since Henry had only trained for four months and defeated the crème-de-là-crème of worldwide strongmen, who had been practicing for years, his win was a shock for strongman experts worldwide, but remained basically unnoticed by the wrestling audience. Henry proved to be worthy of the title "World's Strongest Man" not only by winning the contest, but also by achieving it in record time. By doing so he was again seen as the legit "strongest man in the world" by many lifting experts for a second time since 1996.
#### Various feuds (2002–2007)
Henry returned to the WWF in April 2002 and was sent to the SmackDown! brand, where he developed an in-ring persona of performing "tests of strength" while other wrestlers took bets on the tests, but the gimmick met with little success. During this time he competed against such superstars as Chris Jericho and Christian. After being used sporadically on WWE (formerly WWF) television during 2002, as he was training for a weightlifting contest, and suffering a knee injury, Henry was sent back to OVW for more training.
In August 2003, Henry returned to WWE television on the Raw roster as a heel where he found some success as a member of "Thuggin' And Buggin' Enterprises", a group of African Americans led by Theodore Long who worked a race angle in which they felt they were victims of racism and were being held down by the "white man". During that time, Henry was involved in a brief program with World Heavyweight Champion Goldberg when former champion, Triple H, put a bounty on Goldberg. This was followed by a brief rivalry with Shawn Michaels, before he engaged in a rivalry with Booker T. After defeating Booker T twice, once in a street fight and once in a six-man tag team match, he lost to Booker T at the Armageddon pay-per-view in December 2003. At a practice session in OVW in February 2004, Henry tore his quadriceps muscle, and was out for over a year after undergoing surgery. Henry was then utilized by WWE as a public relations figure during his recovery, before returning to OVW to finish out 2005.
During the December 30 episode of SmackDown!, Henry made his return to television, as he interfered in a WWE Tag Team Championship match, joining with MNM (Joey Mercury, Johnny Nitro, and Melina), to help them defeat Rey Mysterio and Batista for the championship. A week later on SmackDown!, Henry got in a confrontation with the World Heavyweight Champion, Batista, and went on to interfere in a steel cage match between MNM and the team of Mysterio and Batista, helping MNM to retain their titles. Henry then had another match with Batista at a live event where Batista received a severely torn triceps that required surgery, forcing him to vacate his title. On the January 10, 2006 episode of SmackDown!, Henry was involved in a Battle Royal for the vacant World Heavyweight Championship. He was finally eliminated by Kurt Angle, who won the title.
A week later, Henry received assistance from Daivari, who turned on Angle and announced that he was the manager of Henry. With Daivari at his side, Henry faced Angle for the World Heavyweight Championship at the 2006 Royal Rumble in January, losing when Angle hit him with a chair (without the referee seeing) and pinned him with a roll-up.
On the March 3 episode of SmackDown!, Henry interfered in a World Heavyweight Championship match between Angle and The Undertaker, attacking the latter when he was seconds from possibly winning the title. Henry then performed a diving splash on Undertaker, driving him through the announcer's table. Henry was then challenged to a casket match by Undertaker at WrestleMania 22. Henry vowed to defeat The Undertaker and end his undefeated streak at WrestleMania, but The Undertaker defeated him. There were talks about Henry ending the streak backstage, but did not succeed. In an interview on Heavy, Henry stated that the decision was close and that if they did ask him about it he would have refused, stating he did not want to carry that weight. Henry had a rematch against The Undertaker on the April 7 episode of SmackDown!. It ended in a no-contest when Daivari introduced his debuting client, The Great Khali. Khali went to the ring and attacked The Undertaker, starting a new feud and ending Henry's.
During the rest of April and May, Henry gained a pinfall victory over the World Heavyweight Champion, Rey Mysterio in a non-title match. Henry entered the King of the Ring Tournament, and lost to Bobby Lashley in the first round. He later cost Kurt Angle his World Heavyweight Championship opportunity against Mysterio, when he jumped off the top rope and crushed Angle through a table. Henry was then challenged by Angle to face off at Judgment Day, Henry then sent a "message" to Angle by defeating Paul Burchill. At Judgment Day, Henry defeated Angle by countout. Although winning, Angle got his revenge after the match by hitting Henry with a chair and putting him through a table.
Henry later went on what was referred to as a "path of destruction", causing injuries to numerous superstars. Henry "took out" Chris Benoit and Paul Burchill on this path of destruction, and attacked Rey Mysterio and Chavo Guerrero Jr. These events led up to a feud with the returning Batista, whom Henry had put out of action with a legitimate injury several months beforehand. When Batista returned he and Henry were scheduled to face one another at The Great American Bash in July. Weeks before that event, however, on the July 15, 2006 Saturday Night's Main Event XXXIII, Henry was involved in a six-man tag team match with King Booker and Finlay against Batista, Rey Mysterio, and Bobby Lashley. During the match, Henry was injured, canceling the scheduled match at The Great American Bash, as Henry needed surgery. Doctors later found that Henry completely tore his patella tendon off the bone and split his patella completely in two.
Henry returned on the May 11, 2007 episode of SmackDown!, after weeks of vignettes hyping his return. He attacked The Undertaker after a World Heavyweight Championship steel cage match with Batista, allowing Edge to take advantage of the situation and use his Money in the Bank contract. Henry then began a short feud with Kane, defeating him in a Lumberjack Match at One Night Stand. Shortly after, Henry made an open challenge to the SmackDown! locker room, which nobody ever accepted. In the coming weeks he faced various jobbers—wrestlers who consistently lose to make their opponents look stronger—and quickly defeated them all. On the August 3 episode of SmackDown!, he claimed that nobody accepted the open challenge to step into the ring with him because of what he had done to The Undertaker, presenting footage of his assault on The Undertaker. The Undertaker responded over the following weeks, playing various mind games with Henry. Henry finally faced The Undertaker again at Unforgiven in September, losing to him after being given a Last Ride. Two weeks later, Henry lost a rematch to The Undertaker after The Undertaker performed a chokeslam on Henry.
#### ECW Champion (2007–2009)
After a short hiatus, Henry returned to WWE programming on the October 23 episode of ECW, attacking Kane, along with The Great Khali and Big Daddy V. Henry then began teaming with Big Daddy V against Kane and CM Punk, and was briefly managed by Big Daddy V's manager, Matt Striker. At Armageddon, Henry and Big Daddy V defeated Kane and Punk. Before WrestleMania XXIV aired, Henry participated in a 24-man battle royal to determine the number one contender for the ECW Championship, but failed to win.
As part of the 2008 WWE Supplemental Draft, Henry was drafted to the ECW brand. At Night of Champions, Henry defeated Kane and Big Show in a triple threat match to capture the ECW Championship in his debut match as an ECW superstar. This was his first world championship in WWE, which also made him the fourth African-American world champion in WWE history. Upon winning the title, it was made exclusive to the ECW brand once again. Henry's title win came nearly a full decade after he was awarded the European Championship, which was back in 1999 and the only title he held in WWE. A few weeks later, Hall of Famer Tony Atlas returned to WWE to act as Henry's manager. Shortly after, ECW General Manager, Theodore Long, unveiled a new, entirely platinum ECW Championship belt design. In August, Henry defended the title against Matt Hardy at SummerSlam after getting himself disqualified; however championships cannot change hands via disqualification, meaning that Henry retained the title. Henry later lost the title to Hardy at September's Unforgiven in the Championship Scramble match.
Henry attempted to regain the championship throughout the end of 2008, and had a match against Hardy at No Mercy, but failed as he was unsuccessful. Henry and Atlas then engaged in a scripted rivalry against Finlay and Hornswoggle, which included Henry losing a Belfast Brawl to Finlay at Armageddon. At the start of 2009, Henry qualified for the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania 25, and was involved in a series of matches with the other competitors on Raw, SmackDown, and ECW. He was unsuccessful at WrestleMania, however, as CM Punk won the match. In May, Henry began a rivalry with Evan Bourne, which began after Bourne defeated Henry by countout on the May 26 episode of ECW.
#### Tag team championship pursuits (2009–2011)
On June 29, Henry was traded to the Raw brand and redebuted for the brand that night as the third opponent in a three-on-one gauntlet match against WWE Champion Randy Orton, which he won, turning Henry into a face in the process. In August 2009, Henry formed a tag team with Montel Vontavious Porter and the two challenged the Unified WWE Tag Team Champions Jeri-Show (Chris Jericho and The Big Show) for the title at Breaking Point, but were unsuccessful. They stopped teaming afterwards, becoming involved in separate storylines, until the February 15, 2010 episode of Raw in which they defeated the Unified WWE Tag Team Champions The Big Show and The Miz in a non-title match. The next week they challenged The Big Show and The Miz in a title match but were unsuccessful. At Extreme Rules, Henry and MVP fought for a chance to become number one contenders to the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship, but were the second team eliminated in a gauntlet match by The Big Show and The Miz. Ultimately, The Hart Dynasty (Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith) won the match.
Henry mentored Lucky Cannon in the second season of NXT. Cannon was eliminated on the August 10 episode of NXT. In September, Henry began teaming with Evan Bourne, starting at the Night of Champions pay-per-view, where they entered a Tag Team Turmoil for the WWE Tag Team Championship. They made it to the final two before being defeated by Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre. The team came to an end in October when Bourne suffered an injury and was taken out of action. Henry then formed a team with Yoshi Tatsu on the November 29 episode of Raw, defeating WWE Tag Team Champions Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater, after a distraction by John Cena. They received a shot at the championship the next week, in a fatal four-way elimination tag team match, which also included The Usos and Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov. Henry and Tatsu were the first team eliminated in the match.
#### World Heavyweight Champion (2011–2012)
On the April 25, 2011 episode of Raw, Henry was drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2011 WWE draft. In the main event of the night, Henry attacked his teammates John Cena and Christian, turning heel in the process. On the May 27 episode of SmackDown, Henry participated in a Triple Threat match against Sheamus and Christian to decide the number one contender to the World Heavyweight Championship, which was won by Sheamus. On the June 17 episode of SmackDown, Henry was scheduled to face an angry and emotionally unstable Big Show, who warned Henry not to get into the ring; Henry ignored the warning and Big Show assaulted him before the match could begin. This act ignited a feud between the two; Henry attacked Big Show both backstage and during matches while on the July 1 episode of SmackDown, Big Show's music played during Henry's match against Randy Orton, causing Henry to be counted out and costing him a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship. Henry reacted by destroying the audio equipment and attacking a technician. Henry faced Big Show in a singles match at Money in the Bank and won. After the match, Henry crushed Big Show's leg with a chair, (kayfabe) injuring him, an act Henry later referenced as an induction into the "Hall of Pain". Henry did the same to Kane on the next episode of SmackDown, and in the months ahead, Vladimir Kozlov and The Great Khali suffered the same fate.
On the July 29 episode of SmackDown, Henry was informed that he could no longer compete as no one dared to fight him, but Sheamus interrupted, saying that he wasn't afraid of Henry before slapping him. At SummerSlam, Henry defeated Sheamus by count-out after slamming him through a ring barricade. On the August 19 episode of SmackDown, Henry won a 20-man Battle Royal to become the number one contender for the World Heavyweight Championship to face Randy Orton at Night of Champions, and throughout weeks on SmackDown and Raw, Henry regularly attacked Orton, getting an advantage over him. At Night of Champions, Henry defeated Orton to win the World Heavyweight Championship for the first time. Henry successfully defended the title against Orton at Hell in a Cell in a Hell in a Cell match.
On the October 7 episode of SmackDown, Big Show returned and chokeslammed Henry through the announce table, thus earning a title shot against Henry at Vengeance. During the match, Henry superplexed Big Show from the top rope, causing the ring to collapse from the impact and the match to be ruled a no contest. Henry began a feud with the Money in the Bank briefcase holder Daniel Bryan on the November 4 episode of SmackDown, challenging Bryan to a non-title match to prove that Bryan could not become champion. During the match, Big Show knocked out Henry, making him win by disqualification. Big Show then urged Bryan to cash in his contract, but Henry recovered and attacked both Bryan and Big Show before the match could start. At Survivor Series, Henry retained the World Heavyweight Championship against Big Show after a low blow that disqualified Henry. Angered by Henry's cowardice, Big Show crushed Henry's ankle with a steel chair. On the November 25 episode of SmackDown, Henry was knocked out again by Big Show, at which point Bryan cashed in his briefcase for a title match and quickly pinned Henry. However, SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long revealed that Henry was not medically cleared to compete and voided the match, so Henry remained champion and the briefcase was returned to Bryan. Later that night, Bryan won a fatal-four-way match to face Henry for the World Heavyweight Championship in a steel cage. On the November 29 episode of SmackDown, Henry defeated Bryan in a steel cage match to retain the World Heavyweight Championship.
Then at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, Henry lost the World Heavyweight Championship to Big Show in a chairs match. After the match, Henry knocked Big Show out, resulting in Daniel Bryan cashing in his Money in the Bank contract to win his first World Heavyweight Championship. On the January 20 episode of SmackDown, Bryan retained the championship against Henry in a lumberjack match after Bryan provoked the lumberjacks to come in and attack them to cause a no contest. At the 2012 Royal Rumble event, Henry faced Bryan and Big Show in a triple threat steel cage match for the World Heavyweight Championship; Bryan escaped the cage to retain the title. On the February 3 episode of SmackDown, Henry was suspended indefinitely (in storyline) by SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long, after Henry physically accosted Long as he demanded a one-on-one rematch that night with Bryan. In reality, Henry had hyper-extended his knee the previous week. Henry returned to in-ring action on the February 20 episode of Raw, losing to Sheamus. On the April 2 and 9 episodes of Raw, Henry faced CM Punk for the WWE Championship which he won by count-out and disqualification; as a result, Punk retained his title. On the April 16 episode of Raw, Punk defeated Henry in a no-disqualification, no count-out match to retain the WWE Championship. On May 14, Henry announced he was going under a career-threatening surgery for an injury.
#### Final feuds (2013–2017)
After a nine-month absence, Henry made his return on the February 4, 2013 episode of Raw, brutally attacking Daniel Bryan, Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara. Four days later on SmackDown, Henry defeated Randy Orton to earn a spot in the number one contenders' Elimination Chamber match for the World Heavyweight Championship at Elimination Chamber. At the pay-per-view on February 17, Henry eliminated Daniel Bryan and Kane before being eliminated by Randy Orton. After his elimination, Henry attacked the three remaining participants before being escorted out by WWE officials. Henry then began a feud with Ryback after several non-verbal confrontations. On the March 15 episode of SmackDown, Henry was defeated by Ryback via disqualification, following interference from The Shield. Afterward, Henry delivered the World's Strongest Slam to Ryback three times in a row. On April 7 at WrestleMania 29, Henry defeated Ryback in a singles match. Later that month, Henry reignited a feud with Sheamus by repeatedly attacking Sheamus backstage. Henry and Sheamus then challenged each other in tests of strength, but with Sheamus unable to best Henry, he resorted to attacking Henry with Brogue Kicks. After Sheamus (during his match) Brogue Kicked Henry (who was on commentary), Henry snapped and brutally whipped Sheamus with a belt. This led to a strap match on May 19 at Extreme Rules, where Sheamus emerged victorious. With the loss to Sheamus, Henry declared that he was "going home".
After being absent from television due to injuries, Henry used social media to tease his retirement. On the June 17 episode of Raw, Henry returned, interrupting WWE Champion John Cena and delivering an emotional retirement speech, which was revealed as a ruse when Henry gave Cena a World's Strongest Slam after concluding his speech. The segment was highly praised by fans and critics. With Henry stating his intent to challenge for the "only title he's never held", he was granted a WWE Championship match against Cena at Money in the Bank. On July 14 at the pay-per-view, Henry failed in his title challenge against Cena after submitting to the STF. The following night on Raw, Henry cut a promo to congratulate Cena on his win and asked for a rematch for SummerSlam, but was ultimately attacked by The Shield, turning face in the process for the first time since 2011. Henry continued his face turn the following week, by confronting The Shield and teaming together with The Usos to fend them off. Henry and the Usos went on to lose to The Shield in two six-man tag team matches, the first on the July 29 episode of Raw, and the second on the August 7 episode of Main Event. On the August 12 episode of Raw, Henry competed in a Battle Royal to determine the number one contender for the United States Championship, but was the last man eliminated by Rob Van Dam. After the match, Henry and Van Dam were confronted by The Shield, before the returning Big Show came to their aid. Four days later on SmackDown, Henry, Show, and Van Dam defeated The Shield in a six-man tag team match. After a suspected hamstring injury on August 31 at the TD Garden in Boston Massachusetts, Henry was cleared to compete. Henry, however, took time off and during his time off, he dropped down to 405 lb (184 kg) and shaved his head bald.
Henry returned to in-ring action on November 24 at Survivor Series, answering Ryback's open challenge and defeating him. On the January 6, 2014 episode of Raw, Henry tried to confront Brock Lesnar during separate encounters after Lesnar's return, resulting in Henry receiving an F-5 the first time and then Lesnar injured Henry's arm after getting it in a kimura lock hold, causing Henry to wail in pain and be absent. He returned on February 10 episode of Raw, and answered Dean Ambrose's open challenge for the United States Championship, but was unable to win the title due to interference by the rest of The Shield. In March, Henry suffered another attack from Lesnar, this time resulting in Henry receiving an F-5 through the announcing table.
On the August 4 episode of Raw, Henry defeated Damien Sandow after a few months absence. That same week on SmackDown, Henry formed a tag team with Big Show to defeat RybAxel (Ryback and Curtis Axel). On the August 18 episode of Raw, Henry entered a feud with Rusev by attacking him. This set up a match between Henry and Rusev at Night of Champions, which he lost by submission. The following night on Raw, he lost to Rusev again by knockout via submission. On the October 27 episode of Raw, Henry attacked Big Show during their tag team match against Gold and Stardust, and turning heel in the process. On the November 3 episode of Raw, Henry lost to Big Show via disqualification and slammed Big Show onto the steel steps. On the November 10 Raw, he joined The Authority's team to face John Cena's team at Survivor Series. On November 23 at Survivor Series, Henry was the first to be eliminated from Team Authority 50 seconds into the match after being knocked out by Big Show. Henry then took another hiatus due to an unspecified injury.
Henry returned on the March 12, 2015 episode of SmackDown, confronting Roman Reigns for having a lack of identity and for not being respected, resulting in Reigns attacking Henry. The attack caused Henry to become a believer in Reigns, and turning face in the process. Henry was unsuccessful in the Elimination Chamber match for the vacant Intercontinental Championship at Elimination Chamber, replacing Rusev who was injured, but was eliminated by Sheamus At Royal Rumble pre-show on January 24, 2016, Henry teamed with Jack Swagger to win a Fatal 4-Way tag team match to earn their spots in the Royal Rumble match. Despite this victory, Henry entered the Rumble match at \#22 and lasted only 47 seconds when he was quickly eliminated by The Wyatt Family. At WrestleMania 32, Henry entered his third André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, where he made it to the final six competitors until being eliminated by Kane and Darren Young.
On July 19, at the 2016 WWE draft, Henry was drafted to Raw. On the August 1 episode of Raw, Henry claimed he still "had a lot left in him" when he spoke of reviving the Hall of Pain and his participation in the Olympics. Raw General Manager Mick Foley gave Henry a United States Championship match, but Henry would lose by submission to Rusev. In October, Henry allied himself with R-Truth and Goldust in a feud against Titus O'Neil and The Shining Stars (Primo and Epico), in which Henry's team came out victorious. Henry returned at the Royal Rumble on January 29, 2017, as entrant number 6, only to be eliminated by Braun Strowman. He unsuccessfully competed in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 33.
#### Retirement and WWE Hall of Famer (2017–2021)
Following WrestleMania 33, Henry retired and transitioned into a backstage producers role. He later made his return in a backstage cameo at the Raw 25 Years event in January 2018. On March 19, 2018, it was announced that Henry would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Big Show, who was one of his closest friends in WWE. On April 27, at the Greatest Royal Rumble, Henry participated in the event's Royal Rumble match, scoring 3 eliminations, but was himself eliminated by Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler. In early 2019, Henry took on a backstage mentoring role helping talent work on their off-air attitude, including cleanliness and respect in the locker room.
Henry appeared on the January 4, 2021 episode of Raw, on its Raw Legends Night special, where in he appeared riding on a scooter due to an injured leg. He was verbally confronted by Randy Orton in what was his final appearance in WWE.
### All Elite Wrestling (2021–present)
Henry made his debut for All Elite Wrestling (AEW) on May 30, 2021, at Double or Nothing where it was announced that he will be a part of the commentary team for its new show AEW Rampage, as well as a coach.
## Personal life
Henry has an older brother named Pat. He lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Jana, son Jacob, and daughter Joanna. He also has a two-foot ferret named Pipe. He drives a Hummer that he won in the 2002 Arnold Strongman Classic. On September 10, 2012, Henry served as one of the pallbearers for actor Michael Clarke Duncan's funeral.
In March 2019, Henry pledged to donate his brain to CTE research once he dies.
## Filmography
### Film
### Video games
Henry appears in the following licensed wrestling video games:
## Championships, records, and accomplishments
### Powerlifting
- Championships Participation – High School Level
- Two times 1st place in Texas State High School Powerlifting TEAM Championships (in Division I under Silsbee High School)
- 1st place in Texas State High School Powerlifting Championships 1988 in SHW division
- 1st place in Texas State High School Powerlifting Championships 1989 in SHW division
- 1st place in Texas State High School Powerlifting Championships 1990 in SHW division
- 1st place in National High School Powerlifting Championships 1990 in SHW division at age 18
- results: Powerlifting Total – 2,033 lb (922 kg) (832 + 501 + 700 lb (377 + 227 + 318 kg)+
- Championships Participation – Junior&Senior Level
- 1st place in International Junior (20–23) Powerlifting Championships 1991 in SHW division at age 20
- 2nd place in Men's USPF Senior National Championships 1990 in SHW division at age 19
- results: Powerlifting Total – 2,006.2 lb (910.0 kg) (365.0 + 212.5 + 332.5 lb (165.6 + 96.4 + 150.8 kg)
- 1st place in ADFPA (USAPL) National Powerlifting Championships 1995 in SHW division at age 24
- results: Powerlifting Total – 2,314.8 lb (1,050.0 kg) (948.0 + 462.9 + 903.9 lb (430.0 + 210.0 + 410.0 kg) raw with wraps
- 1st place in WDFPF World Powerlifting Championships 1995 in SHW division at age 24
- results: Powerlifting Total – 2,336.9 lb (1,060.0 kg) (953.5 + 518.1 + 865.3 lb (432.5 + 235.0 + 392.5 kg) raw with wraps
- 1st place in USAPL National Powerlifting Championships 1997 in SHW division at age 26
- results: Powerlifting Total – 2,248.7 lb (1,020.0 kg) (903.9 + 496.0 + 848.8 lb (410.0 + 225.0 + 385.0 kg) raw with wraps
- Records\*
- Teen III (18–19 years) Level
- Teen-age World Records in the squat at 832 lb (377 kg) and total at 2,033 lb (922 kg) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) set in April 1990 at The National High School Powerlifting Championships at age 18
- Teen-age US American Records in the squat at 832 lb (377 kg), bench press 501 lb (227 kg), dead lift 700 lb (320 kg) and total at 2,033 lb (922 kg) set in April 1990 at The National High School Powerlifting Championships at age 18
- Texas state and US American Teen-age record holder in all four powerlifting categories – the squat at 832 lb (377 kg), bench press at 525 lb (238 kg) and deadlift at 815 lb (370 kg) as well as the total at 2,033 lb (922 kg) at age 19.
- Current Texas state and US American Teen-age record holder in the squat at 936.75 lb (424.90 kg) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1991
- Collegiate Level
- Current Texas State Collegiate Record holder in the squat at 936.75 lb (424.90 kg) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1991 (best in America as well but not registered as such)
- Junior Level (20–23 years)
- Current Texas State Junior Record holder in the deadlift at 850 lb (390 kg) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1995 (best in America as well but not registered as such)
- Senior Level (24+ years)
- Current Texas State Record holder in the squat at 954 lb (433 kg), the deadlift at 950 lb (430 kg) and the total at 2,337 lb (1,060 kg) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since 1995
- Former All-time raw (unequipped) squat World Record holder at 948 lb (430 kg) (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) from July 16, 1995, to October 29, 1995
- Former All-time raw (unequipped) squat World Record holder at 953.5 lb (432.5 kg) (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class from October 29, 1995, to June 7, 2010\*\* (+regardless of weight class until November 4, 2007\*\*\*)
- Former All-time raw (unequipped) deadlift World Record holder at 903.9 lb (410.0 kg) (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class from July 16, 1995, to May 23, 2010\*\*\*\* (+regardless of weight class until July 4, 2009\*\*\*\*\*)
- Current All-time drug-tested raw (unequipped) squat World Record holder at 953.5 lb (432.5 kg) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since October 29, 1995
- Current All-time drug-tested raw (unequipped) deadlift World Record holder at 903.9 lb (410.0 kg) in SHW class only since July 16, 1995
- Current All-time drug-tested raw (unequipped) Powerlifting Total World Record holder at 2,336.9 lb (1,060.0 kg) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since October 29, 1995
- Current All-time American Record holder in the raw deadlift at 903.9 lb (410.0 kg) (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class) since July 16, 1995
- Current American Record holder in the deadlift at 903.9 lb (410.0 kg) (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since July 16, 1995
- Current All-time US National Championship Record holder in the deadlift at 903.9 lb (410.0 kg) (drug-tested as well as non drug-tested) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since July 16, 1995
- Federation Records
- World Drug-Free Powerlifting Federation (WDFPF) World Records
- Current WDFPF World Record holder in the squat at 953.5 lb (432.5 kg), the deadlift at 865.3 lb (392.5 kg) and the total at 2,336.9 lb (1,060.0 kg) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since October 29, 1995 (categorized as "open equipped", despite performed in singlet&knee sleeves only/without suit)
- U.S.A. Powerlifting (USAPL) US American Records
- Current USAPL US American Record holder in the deadlift at 903.9 lb (410.0 kg) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since July 16, 1995
- Current US National Championship Record holder in the deadlift at 903.9 lb (410.0 kg) in SHW class (+regardless of weight class and equipment) since July 16, 1995
- Special Powerlifting Honors
- "The World's Strongest Teen-ager" by the Los Angeles Times in April 1990.
- Mark Henry was voted in the All-time Top 25 All-Mens US Powerlifting Nationals Team in 2007.
- Mark Henry is the only human in history who has not only squatted more than 900 lb (410 kg) without a squat suit, but also deadlifted more than 900 lb (410 kg) raw.
- Mark Henry is the only human in history to have squatted more than 900 lb (410 kg) without a squat suit and deadlifted more than 900 lb (410 kg) raw in one and the same powerlifting meet.
- Mark Henry's 948 lb (430 kg) raw squat and 903.9 lb (410.0 kg) deadlift, done on July 16, 1995, is the highest raw "squat-pull-2-lift-total" (squat+deadlift=1,851.9 lb (840.0 kg)) ever lifted in a competition. (Andrei Malanichev's 948 lb (430 kg) squat and 881.8 lb (400.0 kg) deadlift = 1,829.8 lb (830.0 kg) on October 22, 2011, being the 2nd highest ever; Mark Henry's 953.5 lb (432.5 kg) squat and 865.3 lb (392.5 kg) deadlift = 1,818.8 lb (825.0 kg) being the 3rd highest, Benedikt Magnusson's 837.75 lb (380.00 kg) squat and 975.5 lb (442.5 kg) deadlift = 1,813.3 lb (822.5 kg) being the 4th highest; Malanichev's 992 lb (450 kg) squat and 815 lb (370 kg) deadlift = 1,808 lb (820 kg) being the 5th; Don Reinhoudt's 904.5 lb (410.3 kg) squat and 885.5 lb (401.7 kg) deadlift = 1,790 lb (810 kg) being th 6th)
- Mark Henry does not only hold the greatest all-time drug-tested raw (unequipped) Powerlifting Total in history at 2,336.9 lb (1,060.0 kg), but also the second greatest in history at 2,314.8 lb (1,050.0 kg).
- incomplete
- - surpassed by Robert Wilkerson (SHW class) of the United States with a 975 lb (442 kg) raw squat with knee wraps on June 7, 2010, at the Southern Powerlifting Federation (SPF) Nationals (open competition, not drug-tested) as the all-time raw world record in the SHW class
- - surpassed by Sergiy Karnaukhov (308-pound-class) of Ukraine] with a 970 lb (440 kg) raw squat with knee wraps on November 4, 2007 as the all-time raw "regardless of weight class" world record
- - surpassed by Andy Bolton (SHW class) of the United Kingdom with a 953 lb (432 kg) raw deadlift on May 23, 2010 (open competition, not drug-tested) as the all-time raw world record in the SHW class (+regardless of weight class)
- - surpassed by Konstantin Konstantinovs (308-pound-class) of Latvia] with a 939 lb (426 kg) raw deadlift without a belt on July 4, 2009 (drug-tested competition) as the all-time raw "regardless of weight class" world record
### Weightlifting
- Olympic Games
- Olympic Games team member representing USA at the Olympics 1992 in Barcelona, Spain, finishing 10th place in SHW division at age 21
- Team Captain of the Olympic Weightlifting team representing USA at the Olympics 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia, finishing 14th in SHW division due to back injury at age 25
- Pan American Games
- Silver Medalist in the Olympic weightlifting Total in SHW (+108) division at the Pan American Games 1995 in Mar del Plata, Argentina at age 23
- result: total – 804 pounds
- Gold Medalist in the Snatch in SHW (+108) division at the Pan American Games 1995 in Mar del Plata, Argentina at age 23
- result: snatch – 391 1/4 pounds, setting an American record
- Bronze Medalist in Clean and jerk in SHW (+108) division at the Pan American Games 1995 in Mar del Plata, Argentina at age 23
- result: clean and jerk – snatch 412 3/4 pounds
- North America, Central America, Caribbean Islands (NACAC) Championships
- 1st place in North America, Central America, Caribbean Islands Championships 1996 in SHW (+108 kg) division
- U.S. National Weightlifting Championships
- 1st place in U.S. National Junior Weightlifting Championships 1991 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 19
- results: total: 326.0 kg – snatch: 156.0 kg / clean&jerk: 170.0 kg
- 4th place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1991 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 19
- results: total: 325.0 kg – snatch: 150.0 kg / clean&jerk: 175.0 kg
- 3rd place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1992 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 20
- results: total: 365.0 kg – snatch: 165.0 kg / clean&jerk: 200.0 kg
- 1st place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1993 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 21
- results: total: 385.0 kg – snatch: 175.0 kg / clean&jerk: 210.0 kg
- 1st place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1994 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 22
- results: total: 387.5 kg – snatch: 172.5 kg / clean&jerk: 215.0 kg
- 1st place in U.S. Senior National Weightlifting Championships 1996 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 24
- results: total: 400.0 kg – snatch: 180.0 kg / clean&jerk: 220.0 kg
- Mark Henry was voted as the \#1 outstanding lifter of the championships
- U.S. Olympic Festival Championships
- 1st place in U.S. Olympic Festival Championships 1993 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 22
- 1st place in U.S. Olympic Festival Championships 1994 in SHW (+108 kg) division at age 23
- USA Weightlifting American Open Championships
- 2nd place in the American Open Weightlifting Championships 1991 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 20
- 1st place in the American Open Weightlifting Championships 1992 in SHW (+110 kg) division at age 21
- RECORDS
- Junior US American record holder (+110 kg) in the Snatch at 162.5 kg, Clean and jerk at 202.5 kg, and Total at 362.5 kg (1986–1992)
- Senior US American record holder (+108 kg) in the Snatch at 180.0 kg, Clean and jerk at 220.0 kg, and Total at 400.0 kg (1993–1997)
### Strength athletics
- Arnold Classic
- Arnold Strongman Classic – Winner 2002
- First man in history to one-hand clean and push press the "unliftable" Thomas Inch dumbbell (172 lb (78 kg); 2 3/8" (6.03 cm) diameter handle)
- The Second Strongest Man That Ever Lived according to Flex Magazine
- International Sports Hall of Fame
- International Sports Hall of Fame (Class of 2012)
### Professional wrestling
- Cauliflower Alley Club
- Iron Mike Mazurki Award (2019)
- George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
- Frank Gotch Award (2021)
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated''
- Most Improved Wrestler of the Year (2011)
- Ranked No. 9 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2012
- Ranked No. 472 of the top 500 greatest wrestlers in the "PWI Years" in 2003
- World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment/WWE
- ECW Championship (1 time)
- World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- WWF European Championship (1 time)
- WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2018)
- Slammy Award (3 times)
- "Holy \$#!+ Move of the Year" (2011) Big Show and Mark Henry implode the ring after Henry superplexed him at Vengeance
- Feat of Strength of the Year (2013) Pulling two trucks with his bare hands
- Match of the Year (2014) – Team Cena vs. Team Authority at Survivor Series
## See also
- List of strongmen
- List of powerlifters |
3,135,955 | Raid of Nassau | 1,157,916,722 | 1776 battle of the American Revolutionary War | [
"1776 in the Bahamas",
"1776 in the British Empire",
"1776 in the Caribbean",
"Amphibious operations",
"Amphibious operations involving the United States",
"Battles involving Great Britain",
"Battles involving the United States",
"Battles of the American Revolutionary War",
"Conflicts in 1776",
"History of the Colony of the Bahamas",
"Nassau, Bahamas",
"United States Marine Corps in the 18th and 19th centuries",
"Wars involving the Bahamas"
] | The Raid of Nassau (March 3–4, 1776) was a naval operation and amphibious assault by American forces against the British port of Nassau, Bahamas, during the American Revolutionary War. The raid, designed to resolve the issue of gunpowder shortages, resulted in the seizure of two forts and large quantities of military supplies before the raiders drew back to New England, where they fought an unsuccessful engagement with a British frigate.
During the American Revolutionary War, the Patriot forces suffered from a shortage of gunpowder. In response to such shortages, the Second Continental Congress ordered an American fleet under the command of Esek Hopkins to patrol the Virginia and Carolina coastlines; secret orders were possibly given to Hopkins instructing him to raid Nassau, where stocks of gunpowder removed from Virginia had been sent.
The fleet departed Cape Henlopen, Delaware, on February 17, 1776, arriving at The Bahamas on March 1. Two days later, two hundred Continental Marines came ashore, seizing Fort Montagu but not advancing upon the town, where the gunpowder was stored. Governor Montfort Browne had most of Nassau's gunpowder loaded aboard ships sailing for St. Augustine. On March 4, the marines captured Nassau.
Occupying Nassau for two weeks, the Americans seized any remaining military supplies they found before departing. The fleet engaged in an unsuccessful action on April 6 with HMS Glasgow before returning to New London, Connecticut. Though the raid was successful, the failure to capture Glasgow and crew complaints led to several investigations and courts martial, and Hopkins was censured and dismissed in 1778.
## Background
When the American Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, Lord Dunmore, the colonial governor of Virginia, ordered Royal Navy sailors under his command to remove the gunpowder from the Williamsburg gunpowder magazine to the island of New Providence in the British colony of the Bahamas, in order to keep it from falling into the hand of Patriot militia. The colonial governor of the Bahamas, Montfort Browne, was alerted by British general Thomas Gage in August 1775 that the American Patriots might make attempts to seize the gunpowder stored in the Bahamas.
The desperate shortage of gunpowder available to the Continental Army led the Second Continental Congress to organize a naval expedition, with the intention of seizing military supplies stored at Nassau. While the official orders issued by the Congress to Esek Hopkins, the naval officer selected to lead the expedition, included only instructions for patrolling the Virginia and Carolina coastlines and raiding British naval targets, additional instructions may have been given to Hopkins in secret meetings held by the Congress' naval committee. The instructions that Hopkins issued to his fleet's captains before it set sail from Cape Henlopen, Delaware, on February 17, 1776, included instructions to rendezvous at the Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas.
Hopkins' fleet consisted of Alfred, Hornet, Wasp, Fly, Andrew Doria, Cabot, Providence, and Columbus. In addition to ships' crews, the fleet carried 200 Continental Marines under the command of Samuel Nicholas. In spite of gale force winds, the fleet remained together for two days, when Fly and Hornet became separated from the fleet. Hornet was forced to return to port for repairs, and Fly eventually rejoined the main fleet at Nassau, after the raid took place. Hopkins did not let the apparent loss of the two ships dissuade him; he had intelligence that much of the British fleet was in port due to high winds.
## Prelude
Browne received further intelligence in late February that an American fleet was assembling off the Delaware coast, but apparently took no significant actions to prepare a defense. New Providence's harbor had two primary defenses, Fort Nassau and Fort Montagu. Fort Nassau was located in Nassau, but was poorly equipped to defend the port against amphibious attacks, as its walls were not strong enough to support the action of the fort's 46 cannons. As a result, Fort Montagu had been constructed, in 1742, on the eastern end of the harbor, overlooking its entrance. At the time of the raid, Fort Montagu was equipped with 17 cannons, although most of the gunpowder and ordnance was located at Fort Nassau.
Hopkins' fleet arrived at Great Abaco Island on March 1, 1776. The fleet captured two Loyalist-owned sloops, one of which was captained by Loyalist Gideon Lowe of Green Turtle Cay, and pressed their owners to serve as pilots. George Dorsett, a local ship's captain, travelled from Abaco to Nassau and alerted Browne to the presence of the American fleet. The American landing force was transferred to the two captured sloops and Providence the next day, and plans were formulated for the assault on Nassau. While the main fleet held back, the three ships carrying the landing force were to enter Nassau's port at daybreak on March 3, and gain control of the town before the alarm could be raised.
The decision to land at daybreak turned out to be a mistake, as the alarm was raised in Nassau when the three ships were spotted in the morning light, rousing Browne from his bed. He ordered four guns fired from Fort Nassau to alert the colonial militia; two of the guns came off their mounts when they were fired. At 7:00 a.m. he held a discussion with Samuel Gambier, one of his councilors, over the idea that the gunpowder should be removed from the islands on Mississippi Packet, a fast ship docked in the harbor. They ultimately refrained from acting on the idea, but Browne ordered thirty mostly-unarmed militiamen to occupy Fort Montagu before retiring to his house to make himself "a little decent".
## Battle
### Landing and capture
When the guns at Fort Nassau were heard by the attackers, they realized the element of surprise was lost and aborted the assault. The elements of the fleet then rejoined in Hanover Sound, roughly six nautical miles east of Nassau. There Hopkins held council, and a new plan of attack was developed. According to now-discredited accounts, Hopkins' lieutenant, John Paul Jones, suggested a new landing point and then led the action. Jones was unfamiliar with the local waters, unlike many of the captains present in the council. It is more likely that the landing force was led by Cabot's lieutenant, Thomas Weaver, who was also familiar with the area. With the force enlarged by 50 sailors, the three ships, with Wasp offering additional covering support, carried it to a point south and east of Fort Montagu, where they made an unopposed landing between 12:00 and 2:00 pm. This was the first amphibious landing conducted by what would become the United States Marine Corps.
A British lieutenant named Burke led a detachment out from Fort Montagu to investigate the American activity. Given that he was severely outnumbered, he opted to send a flag of truce to determine their intentions. From this he learned that their objective was the seizure of powder and military stores. In the meantime, Browne arrived at Fort Montagu with another eighty militiamen. Upon learning the size of the advancing force, he ordered three of the fort's guns fired, and withdrew all but a few men back to Nassau. He himself retired to the governor's house, and most of the militiamen also returned to their homes rather than attempting to resist the Americans. Browne sent Burke out to parley with the American force a second time, in order to "wait on the command officer of the enemy to know his errand and on what account he had landed his troops."
The firing of Montagu's guns had given Nicholas cause for concern, but his men had by now occupied the fort, and he was consulting with his officers on their next move when Burke arrived. They obligingly repeated to Burke that they had arrived to take the powder and weapons, and were prepared to assault the town. Burke brought this news back to Browne around 4:00 pm. Rather than advance further on Nassau, Nicholas and his force, consisting of 200 marines and 50 sailors, remained at Fort Montagu that night. Browne held a war council that evening, in which the decision was made to attempt the removal of the gunpowder. At midnight, 162 of 200 barrels of gunpowder were loaded onto Mississippi Packet and HMS St John, and at 2:00 am they sailed out of Nassau harbor, bound for St. Augustine, Florida. This feat was made possible because Hopkins had neglected to post even a single ship to guard the harbor's entrance channels, leaving the fleet safely anchored in Hanover Sound. Nicholas' marines occupied Nassau without resistance the next morning after a leaflet written by Hopkins was distributed throughout the town. They were met en route by a committee of the town's leaders, who offered up the town's keys.
### Return voyage
Hopkins and his fleet remained at Nassau for two weeks, loading as much military supplies as would fit onto the ships, including the remaining 38 casks of gunpowder. He pressed into service a local sloop, Endeavour, to carry some of the material. Browne complained that the American officers consumed most of his liquor stores during the occupation, and also wrote that he was taken in chains like a "felon to the gallows" when he was arrested and taken onboard Alfred.
During their sojourn at Nassau, Fly arrived. Her captain reported that she and Hornet had fouled their rigging together and that Hornet suffered significant damage as a consequence. On March 17, the fleet sailed for Block Island off Newport, Rhode Island, with Browne and other colonial officials as prisoners of war. The return voyage was uneventful until the fleet reached the waters of Long Island. On April 4, they encountered and captured HMS Hawk, and the next day captured Bolton, which was laden with stores that included more armaments and powder. The fleet finally met resistance on April 6, when it encountered HMS Glasgow, a sixth-rate frigate. In the ensuing action, the outnumbered Glasgow managed to escape capture, severely damaging Cabot in the process, wounding her captain, Hopkins' son John Burroughs Hopkins, and killing or wounding eleven others. The fleet sailed into the harbor at New London, Connecticut, on April 8.
## Aftermath
While Hopkins was initially lauded for the successful raid, the failure to capture Glasgow and crew complaints about some of the captains in the fleet led to a variety of investigations and court-martials. As a result of these, Providence's captain was relieved of his command, which was given to Jones. Jones, who had performed well in the engagement with Glasgow in spite of a crew reduced in number by disease, thereafter received a captain's commission in the Continental Navy, where he went on to engage in several naval engagements off Nova Scotia.
The manner by which Hopkins distributed the spoils was criticized by several congressmen, and his failure to follow his orders to patrol the Virginia and Carolina coasts resulted in censure from the Continental Congress. After a series of further missteps and accusations, Hopkins was dismissed from the navy on January 2, 1778, having spent the last two years blockaded in Narragansett Bay by the British. Reports of Hopkins torturing British prisoners of war, as claimed by fellow naval officers Richard Marven and Samuel Shaw, contributed to his dismissal.
Browne was eventually exchanged for American general William Alexander, who had been captured at the Battle of Long Island; after his return, Browne was severely criticized for his handling of the whole affair. Nassau remained relatively poorly defended and was again subjected to the threat of an American attack in January 1778. It was then captured by Spanish forces under the command of Bernardo de Gálvez in 1782, but was recaptured by Loyalists the next year; the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the war, confirmed the islands as being under British control.
The U.S. Navy ship USS Nassau (LHA-4), a Tarawa-class amphibious assault ship, is named specifically in recognition of this battle, while the Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate USS Nicholas (FFG-47) is named after Samuel Nicholas.
## See also
- List of American Revolutionary War battles |
27,424,646 | SMS Irene | 1,173,513,260 | Protected cruiser of the German Imperial Navy | [
"1887 ships",
"Irene-class cruisers",
"Ships built in Stettin"
] | SMS Irene was a protected cruiser or Kreuzerkorvette of the German Imperial Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) and the lead ship of the Irene class. She had one sister, Prinzess Wilhelm; the two ships were the first protected cruisers built by the German Navy. Irene was laid down in 1886 at the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin, launched in July 1887, and commissioned into the fleet in May 1888. The cruiser was named after Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine, sister-in-law of Kaiser Wilhem II. As built, the ship was armed with a main battery of fourteen 15 cm (5.9 in) guns and had a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph).
Irene saw extensive service with the German fleet in the first years of her career, frequently escorting Kaiser Wilhelm II's yacht on cruises throughout Europe. In 1894, she was deployed to East Asian waters; she was in dock for engine maintenance in November 1897 when Otto von Diederichs seized the naval base Jiaozhou Bay, and so she was not present during the operation. She was present in the Philippines in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Manila Bay between American and Spanish squadrons during the Spanish–American War in 1898. Irene eventually returned to Germany in 1901. She remained in service until early 1914, when she was retired from front-line service and converted into a submarine tender. She served in this capacity until 1921, when she was sold for scrap and broken up the following year.
## Design
Irene was 103.7 meters (340 ft) long overall and had a beam of 14.2 m (47 ft) and a draft of 6.74 m (22.1 ft) forward. She displaced 4,271 t (4,204 long tons) normally and up to 5,027 t (4,948 long tons; 5,541 short tons) at full load. Her propulsion system consisted of two Wolfsche 2-cylinder, double-expansion steam engines that drove a pair of screw propellers. Steam was provided by four coal-fired fire-tube boilers, which were ducted into a pair of funnels. These provided a top speed of 18 kn (33 km/h; 21 mph) and a range of approximately 2,490 nautical miles (4,610 km; 2,870 mi) at 9 kn (17 km/h; 10 mph). She had a crew of 28 officers and 337 enlisted men.
The ship was armed with a main battery of four 15 cm RK L/30 guns in single pedestal mounts, supplied with 400 rounds of ammunition in total. They had a range of 8,500 m (27,900 ft). Irene also carried ten shorter-barreled 15 cm RK L/22 guns in single mounts. These guns had a much shorter range, at 5,400 m (17,700 ft). The gun armament was rounded out by six 3.7 cm revolver cannon, which provided close-range defense against torpedo boats. She was also equipped with three 35 cm (13.8 in) torpedo tubes with eight torpedoes, two launchers were mounted on the deck and the third was in the bow, below the waterline.
The ship's main armor protection consisted of a curved deck that was 50 mm (2 in) on the flat portion, increasing in thickness toward the sides to 75 mm (3 in), where it sloped downward to the side of the hull. The conning tower had sides that were 50 mm thick.
### Modifications
The ship was modernized in Wilhelmshaven in 1903; work lasted until 1905. The ship's armament was significantly improved; the four L/30 guns were replaced with 15 cm SK L/35 guns with an increased range of 10,000 m (11,000 yd). A secondary battery of eight 10.5 cm (4.1 in) SK L/35 quick-firing (QF) guns was installed in place of the L/22 guns, and six 5 cm (2 in) SK L/40 QF guns were added.
## Service history
Irene was the first protected cruiser built by the German navy. She was ordered under the contract name "Ersatz Elisabeth" and was laid down at the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin in 1886. She was launched on 23 July 1887, after which fitting-out work commenced. She was commissioned into the German navy on 25 May 1888.
In the summer of 1888, Irene joined the fleet that steamed to Great Britain to celebrate the coronation of Kaiser Wilhelm II. She was assigned to the I Division, along with the ironclad corvettes Sachsen and Baden and the casemate ironclad Oldenburg. The Kaiser's brother, Prince Heinrich commanded the division, his flag flying in Irene. The fleet then held training maneuvers in the North Sea under command of Rear Admiral Friedrich Hollmann. Over the winter of 1889–1890, Irene and the II Division of the fleet went into the Mediterranean to escort the Kaiser's yacht, Hohenzollern. Prince Heinrich remained in command of Irene during the cruise. The Kaiser made state visits to Turkey and Italy, and called in ports throughout the region, including Athens and Venice. Irene and the rest of the squadron returned to Germany in April 1890.
In August 1890, Irene again escorted Hohenzollern to Britain, to participate in the Cowes Regatta. Directly thereafter, the two ships steamed to the island of Helgoland to celebrate the ceremonial transfer from Britain; there, the entire German fleet joined Irene and Hohenzollern for the ceremonies. In late November 1894, Irene was dispatched to Casablanca to protest the murder of a German businessman in the city. She then proceeded on to Asian waters to join the German naval presence in the region in the aftermath of the First Sino-Japanese War. Under Rear Admiral Paul Hoffmann, Irene became the flagship of the Cruiser Division, along with three older cruisers. By 1895, she had been joined by her sister Prinzess Wilhelm, the rebuilt old ironclad Kaiser, the light cruiser Cormoran, the corvette Arcona, and the gunboat Iltis.
In 1896, Otto von Diederichs arrived in Asia to command the Cruiser Division; he spent the year reconnoitering the region for a suitable naval base. Late in the year, Irene had to put into Hong Kong for extensive engine maintenance, which was completed on 30 November. She rejoined the fleet on 3 December. In the meantime, Diederichs had completed the seizure of the Jiaozhou Bay Leased Territory; the Cruiser Division was sent reinforcements and promoted to the East Asia Squadron. Irene was assigned to the I Division of the squadron. In the Spring of 1898, Irene was sent to Shanghai for periodic maintenance.
During the Spanish–American War in 1898, Irene steamed to Manila in the Philippines in the aftermath of the Battle of Manila Bay; she arrived in the harbor on 6 May. By 27 June, Irene had been joined by several other German warships, including Kaiserin Augusta, Diederichs's flagship. On the 27th, Irene was steaming into Manila Bay when she was stopped by the American revenue cutter Hugh McCulloch. On 5 July, Diederichs dispatched Irene to survey Subic Bay and to evacuate any German nationals in the area that were threatened by Filipino insurgents. While steaming off Isla Grande, Irene encountered the rebel ship Companie de Filipinas, which was threatening the Spanish garrison at Isla Grande. The rebel commander came aboard Irene to inform her captain of his activities; Obenheimer informed him that any act of war committed under the rebel flag was an act of piracy under international law. The rebels therefore agreed to return to port. Obenheimer inspected both the Spanish garrison on the island and the nearby rebel base in Olongapo. After unsuccessfully searching for German nationals in the area, Irene evacuated the noncombatants on Isla Grande on 7 July; while steaming out of Subic Bay, Irene encountered the American warships Raleigh and Concord without issue.
The American press exaggerated the encounter between Irene and the American ships, which prompted Diederichs to decide to send Irene away from the area to deflate tensions between the two countries. After returning to Manila and debarking the non-combatants, Irene was ordered to depart the Philippines. Irene relieved Arcona in Jiaozhou, which was in turn ordered to steam to the Caroline and Mariana Islands to observe the American capture of Guam. Irene coaled in Mariveles before departing for Jiaozhou on 9 July. While in Jiaozhou, Irene conducted crew training. She returned to Manila in November, but remained there only briefly, before she was replaced by Kaiserin Augusta. Irene returned to Germany after 1901; in 1903 she went into drydock at the Imperial Shipyard in Wilhelmshaven for modernization, which was completed by 1905. She was stricken on 17 February 1914 and used as a submarine tender, based in Kiel. In 1916, she was transferred to Wilhelmshaven. She remained there until 26 November 1921, when she was sold for scrapping for 909,000 Marks. She was broken up the following year in Wilhelmshaven. |
42,726,913 | 2014 FA Community Shield | 1,162,025,105 | null | [
"2014 sports events in London",
"2014–15 in English football",
"Arsenal F.C. matches",
"August 2014 sports events in the United Kingdom",
"FA Community Shield",
"Manchester City F.C. matches"
] | The 2014 FA Community Shield (also known as The FA Community Shield supported by McDonald's for sponsorship reasons) was the 92nd FA Community Shield, an annual English football match played between the winners of the previous season's Premier League and FA Cup. The game was played between Arsenal, who beat Hull City in the final of the 2013–14 FA Cup, and Manchester City, champions of the 2013–14 Premier League. Watched by a crowd of 71,523 at Wembley Stadium in London, Arsenal won the match 3–0.
This was Arsenal's 20th Community Shield appearance and Manchester City's 10th. The only time the two teams previously met in the Shield was in 1934, when Arsenal won 4–0. The 2014 staging of the event was the first to use vanishing spray, following its success at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. In the lead up to the match Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini defended his club's transfer recruitment, after it was questioned by the Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger.
Alexis Sánchez was one of three players who made their competitive debuts for Arsenal in the match; for Manchester City, goalkeeper Willy Caballero was selected ahead of Joe Hart. Arsenal began the game more strongly and took the lead when Santi Cazorla scored in the 22nd minute. Their lead was extended two minutes before half time, as Aaron Ramsey finished off a counter-attacking move. Arsenal scored their third of the match soon after the hour mark; Olivier Giroud's shot from outside the penalty box dipped over Caballero and into his goal.
Arsenal's victory was the biggest in the Community Shield in 16 years. Wenger was pleased with his team's performance and felt the win would provide a confidence boost for the coming season. Pellegrini's reaction was indifferent; he believed the absence of several first team players was linked to their poor show.
## Background
Founded in 1908 as a successor to the Sheriff of London Charity Shield, the FA Community Shield began as a contest between the respective champions of the Football League and Southern League, although in 1913 it was played between an Amateurs XI and a Professionals XI. In 1921, it was played by the league champions of the top division and FA Cup winners for the first time. As part of a sponsorship deal between The Football Association and American restaurant chain McDonald's, the match was officially referred to as "The FA Community Shield supported by McDonald's".
Manchester City qualified for the 2014 FA Community Shield as winners of the 2013–14 Premier League. The club saw off competition from Liverpool and won their second league title in three years with victory against West Ham United on the last day. The other Community Shield place went to Arsenal, who defeated Hull City in extra time to win the final of the 2013–14 FA Cup. It ended a run of nine years without a trophy for the club.
Manchester City made their 10th Community Shield appearance; prior to this, they won four (1937, 1968, 1972, 2012) and lost five – one of which against Arsenal in 1934. By contrast, Arsenal made their 20th Community Shield appearance, a record bettered only by Manchester United (29) and Liverpool (21). Arsenal had won 12 times, 11 of which were won outright, most recently in 2004.
The match was televised live in the United Kingdom on BT Sport; the network obtained rights to the Community Shield in July 2013 as part of a four-year deal with the BBC to air live FA Cup football.
## Build-up
Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger used his press conference before the match to look ahead to the new season. He wanted his team to build on their FA Cup success and said that the Community Shield "...will be the best way to prepare for the start of the League season next week." Wenger was surprised his opponents Manchester City had taken midfielder Frank Lampard from their own franchise club New York City FC on loan; he questioned whether this was a way to bypass UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules. Of Bacary Sagna's move from Arsenal to Manchester City in the summer, Wenger told reporters: "I made him a proposal to stay for three years, but he chose them. Had he chosen a long time ago? Maybe – it looks to me like he agreed it a long time before." Wenger also revealed Arsenal had received offers for defender Thomas Vermaelen; on the day of the Community Shield match the player transferred to Barcelona.
Manuel Pellegrini, the manager of Manchester City, said before the game that winning the Shield "would be the ideal start to the campaign." He was conscious of his team's poor start to the previous season and wanted them to do better, particularly away from home. Pellegrini did not see the game against Arsenal as a "friendly", and expected his opponents to provide a good test for Manchester City in the Shield match and thereafter in the league season. He was satisfied overall with the club's transfer activity during the summer, in particular praising goalkeeper Willy Caballero. When asked about Wenger's comments about Manchester City, he retorted: "As a manager we have enough problems with our own teams to be talking about other teams." Pellegrini expressed his belief that Lampard's transfer was not done by underhand tactics – "we didn’t spend any money in bringing him from New York City to Manchester City," and added the player was not offered a contract to remain at Chelsea.
Aaron Ramsey, who scored Arsenal's winning goal in the FA Cup final, was adamant their recent success would make his teammates determined to win more. He aimed for victory in the Community Shield, as it would provide a platform for what he described as "a tough opening couple of games in the Premier League." Samir Nasri, who left Arsenal to join Manchester City in 2011, in the lead-up to the match described the abuse he received from Arsenal supporters since his transfer as "stupid." He went on to explain: "They see it as treason or that I betrayed them but it’s not like that. I just look what’s best for me ... For the fans the only reason [to leave] has to be for the money. But it isn’t just for the money."
Both clubs received an allocation of approximately 26,000 tickets. Manchester City fans were housed in the east end of Wembley, while Arsenal fans occupied the west. Ticket prices stayed the same for the third consecutive year and were advertised at a cost of between £20 and £45; the tickets went on general sale for Manchester City fans on 22 July 2014. Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis was upset by the low allocation: "We have expressed our disappointment to the FA regarding the ticket allocation for both the FA Cup final and FA Community Shield."
Michael Oliver was selected as the referee for the Shield match; it marked the fifth time he refereed at Wembley Stadium. The game was the first in English football to use vanishing spray, designed to help referees mark free-kick positions. This came after the spray's success at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. English rock band Embrace provided pre-match entertainment and Britain's Got Talent finalist Lucy Kay sung the national anthem before the match commenced.
## Match
### Team selection
Manchester City were predicted to line up in a 4–2–3–1 formation, with Nasri and James Milner as wide men. Due to a specified pre-season programme, Pellegrini had agreed to excuse several players from the match, namely Martín Demichelis, Vincent Kompany, Pablo Zabaleta, Bacary Sagna, Fernandinho, Frank Lampard and Sergio Agüero. Striker Álvaro Negredo was also unavailable for selection because of an injury. Arsenal were expected to line up similarly to Manchester City, with Ramsey as a holding midfielder, and Tomáš Rosický in an advanced role behind Olivier Giroud. Goalkeeper David Ospina was ruled out of the game with a thigh injury; German internationals Per Mertesacker, Mesut Özil and Lukas Podolski did not feature as they were given extended time off following their national side's success at the World Cup.
When the teamsheets were released, Wenger's selection showed Rosický and Giroud would start the match as substitutes and competitive debuts were given to Mathieu Debuchy, Calum Chambers and Alexis Sánchez. Arsenal employed a 4–1–4–1 formation to start the game, with a defensive midfielder (Mikel Arteta) sitting between a flat back four and a four-man midfield; Yaya Sanogo led the Arsenal attack as a lone centre-forward.
Manchester City organised themselves slightly differently, with two defensive midfielders and an attacking midfielder – Stevan Jovetić – playing behind the main striker, Edin Džeko. Caballero and Fernando made their debuts for the club, while Bruno Zuculini was named on the bench. The team lined up in a 4–2–3–1 formation. There were no English players in the Manchester City starting XI.
### Summary
#### First half
Manchester City got the match underway and won the first corner kick of the match in the fifth minute. In the eighth minute, Debuchy crossed the ball from the right, but Sanogo's attempt to head the ball was impeded by Clichy. An Arsenal corner minutes after resulted in Manchester City reacting with a counter-attack; the ball eventually reached an unmarked Nasri in the penalty area, but the midfielder's shot on goal was blocked by Debuchy's arm. Manchester City appealed for a penalty kick, which was not given by referee Oliver. Arsenal continued to build pressure in Manchester City's half and scored the opening goal. Sanogo kept possession of the ball and passed to Wilshere, who was tackled. The ball then fell to Santi Cazorla, who created space for himself and shot into the bottom right hand corner of Caballero's goal. A corner taken by Nasri in the 22nd minute was greeted by jeers from the Arsenal supporters, as was his every touch of the ball. Near the half-hour mark Arsenal countered through Sánchez, but his pass to Ramsey was quickly intercepted. From a corner, Sanogo directed his header straight at Caballero. As the game went on Manchester City began to gather momentum, with Aleksandar Kolarov finding success from attacking Arsenal's right. Despite improved play, Manchester City were losing 0–2 after 42 minutes when Sanogo began the move by keeping possession and finding Ramsey with a pass. The midfielder took one touch to side-step Matija Nastasić and another to put the ball into the net. Arsenal came close to scoring a third goal just before half-time when Sanogo and Sánchez exchanged passes near the Manchester City area, but Caballero came out of his penalty box to break up the move.
#### Second half
Arsenal made a triple substitution before the second half commenced – Laurent Koscielny, Sánchez and Sanogo came off for Nacho Monreal, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Olivier Giroud. Manchester City meanwhile replaced Nasri with David Silva. In contrast to the first 45 minutes, Manchester City started well; three minutes after the start of the half, Kolarov collected the ball from Silva and charged forward, but his cross on the left flank was cleared by Monreal. In the 50th minute, Fernando was shown the game's first and only yellow card for fouling Wilshere. Manchester City continued to fashion opportunities: Navas beat his opponent Kieran Gibbs on the right and crossed the ball in the Arsenal area. Jovetić's header was kept out by Wojciech Szczęsny and on the rebound he struck the ball over the goal. Szczęsny denied Jovetić again in the 56th minute, diving to his right to clear. Manchester City made two changes on the hour, bringing on Milner and Bruno Zuculini for Džeko and Yaya Touré. A shot by Giroud from 25 yards (23 m) dipped over Caballero and landed in the net to make it 3–0 to Arsenal. Manchester City responded with some opportunities to score – Jovetić's attempt at an overhead kick went over the bar in the 65th minute, and minutes later Szczęsny saved from Zuculini in a collision which required treatment for both players. Both teams made more substitutions in the final third of the game – for Arsenal Mathieu Flamini, Rosický and debutant Joel Campbell replaced Wilshere, Cazorla and Ramsey respectively, while Manchester City brought on Micah Richards and Scott Sinclair in place of Kolarov and Navas. Near the end, Szczęsny came out of his penalty box and cleared the ball with his head, but inadvertently collided with Sinclair.
### Details
### Statistics
## Post-match
The trophy was presented to Arteta by former Arsenal player and assistant coach Pat Rice. Arsenal's win marked the biggest victory in the Community Shield since 1998. Wenger was delighted with his team's performance and described their play in the first half as complete. He noted that although Arsenal lost possession in the second half and looked "less fluent", the team retained "spirit and organisation". He described the win as significant because it gave Arsenal a confidence boost going into the season and suggested it was important to beat a top-six league team because of their poor record last season. Wenger was happy with how Arsenal's new signings came through the match and reserved special praise for Chambers: "He played with a maturity and intelligence that I was really impressed with." Olivier Giroud, the man of the match, said of his goal: "I tried instinctively to shoot and to hit the target. I was a bit lucky but that's what I wanted to do."
Pellegrini was not overly concerned by Manchester City's defeat and said: "The season starts next Sunday," referring to their league campaign. He admitted Arsenal had played the better football in the first half, but felt his team were much improved in the second – "we had possession and chances to score but we didn't." Pellegrini felt the absence of several Manchester City players had a bearing on the result and said he planned to talk to the players to get them ready for the season ahead. Of Caballero's inclusion ahead of Joe Hart, the manager said: "That was one game more for the pre-season." City's stand-in captain Touré, like his manager, was not despondent about the result; he described playing Arsenal as a "good test" for the team.
FA General Secretary Alex Horne hinted afterwards that the Community Shield could be played overseas, though not any time before 2018 because of the existing contract with Wembley Stadium. He described it as an interesting idea and told reporters: "The NBA are doing it and we know that Spanish football and Italian football are looking at doing that with their own Supercup-type games."
An average of 860,000 viewers watched the match live on BT Sport, down by almost 2,000,000 on the previous year's Community Shield which was aired on ITV. The channel's coverage peaked at 1.2 million viewers (8.4% of the audience share) during the second half.
## See also
- 2014–15 Premier League
- 2014–15 FA Cup |
24,780 | Five precepts | 1,171,509,889 | Basic code of ethics for Buddhist lay people | [
"Buddhism and society",
"Buddhism and violence",
"Buddhist belief and doctrine",
"Buddhist ethics",
"Buddhist oaths",
"Codes of conduct"
] | The five precepts (Sanskrit: pañcaśīla; Pali: pañcasīla) or five rules of training (Sanskrit: pañcaśikṣapada; Pali: pañcasikkhapada) is the most important system of morality for Buddhist lay people. They constitute the basic code of ethics to be respected by lay followers of Buddhism. The precepts are commitments to abstain from killing living beings, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and intoxication. Within the Buddhist doctrine, they are meant to develop mind and character to make progress on the path to enlightenment. They are sometimes referred to as the Śrāvakayāna precepts in the Mahāyāna tradition, contrasting them with the bodhisattva precepts. The five precepts form the basis of several parts of Buddhist doctrine, both lay and monastic. With regard to their fundamental role in Buddhist ethics, they have been compared with the ten commandments in Abrahamic religions or the ethical codes of Confucianism. The precepts have been connected with utilitarianist, deontological and virtue approaches to ethics, though by 2017, such categorization by western terminology had mostly been abandoned by scholars. The precepts have been compared with human rights because of their universal nature, and some scholars argue they can complement the concept of human rights.
The five precepts were common to the religious milieu of 6th-century BCE India, but the Buddha's focus on awareness through the fifth precept was unique. As shown in Early Buddhist Texts, the precepts grew to be more important, and finally became a condition for membership of the Buddhist religion. When Buddhism spread to different places and people, the role of the precepts began to vary. In countries where Buddhism had to compete with other religions, such as China, the ritual of undertaking the five precepts developed into an initiation ceremony to become a Buddhist layperson. On the other hand, in countries with little competition from other religions, such as Thailand, the ceremony has had little relation to the rite of becoming Buddhist, as many people are presumed Buddhist from birth.
Undertaking and upholding the five precepts is based on the principle of non-harming (Pāli and Sanskrit: ahiṃsa). The Pali Canon recommends one to compare oneself with others, and on the basis of that, not to hurt others. Compassion and a belief in karmic retribution form the foundation of the precepts. Undertaking the five precepts is part of regular lay devotional practice, both at home and at the local temple. However, the extent to which people keep them differs per region and time. People keep them with an intention to develop themselves, but also out of fear of a bad rebirth.
1. The first precept consists of a prohibition of killing, both humans and all animals. Scholars have interpreted Buddhist texts about the precepts as an opposition to and prohibition of capital punishment, suicide, abortion and euthanasia. In practice, however, many Buddhist countries still use the death penalty. With regard to abortion, Buddhist countries take the middle ground, by condemning though not prohibiting it fully. The Buddhist attitude to violence is generally interpreted as opposing all warfare, but some scholars have raised exceptions found in later texts.
2. The second precept prohibits theft and related activities such as fraud and forgery.
3. The third precept refers to sexual misconduct, and has been defined by modern teachers with terms such as sexual responsibility and long-term commitment.
4. The fourth precept involves falsehood spoken or committed to by action, as well as malicious speech, harsh speech and gossip.
5. The fifth precept prohibits intoxication through alcohol, drugs, or other means. Early Buddhist Texts nearly always condemn alcohol, and so do Chinese Buddhist post-canonical texts. Smoking is sometimes also included here.
In modern times, traditional Buddhist countries have seen revival movements to promote the five precepts. As for the West, the precepts play a major role in Buddhist organizations. They have also been integrated into mindfulness training programs, though many mindfulness specialists do not support this because of the precepts' religious import. Lastly, many conflict prevention programs make use of the precepts.
## Role in Buddhist doctrine
Buddhist scriptures explain the five precepts as the minimal standard of Buddhist morality. It is the most important system of morality in Buddhism, together with the monastic rules. Śīla (Sanskrit; Pali: sīla) is used to refer to Buddhist precepts, including the five. But the word also refers to the virtue and morality which lies at the foundation of the spiritual path to enlightenment, which is the first of the three forms of training on the path. Thus, the precepts are rules or guidelines to develop mind and character to make progress on the path to enlightenment. The five precepts are part of the right speech, action and livelihood aspects of the Noble Eightfold Path, the core teaching of Buddhism. Moreover, the practice of the five precepts and other parts of śīla are described as forms of merit-making, means to create good karma. The five precepts have been described as social values that bring harmony to society, and breaches of the precepts described as antithetical to a harmonious society. On a similar note, in Buddhist texts, the ideal, righteous society is one in which people keep the five precepts.
Comparing different parts of Buddhist doctrine, the five precepts form the basis of the eight precepts, which are lay precepts stricter than the five precepts, similar to monastic precepts. Secondly, the five precepts form the first half of the ten or eleven precepts for a person aiming to become a Buddha (bodhisattva), as mentioned in the Brahmajala Sūtra of the Mahāyāna tradition. Contrasting these precepts with the five precepts, the latter were commonly referred to by Mahāyānists as the śrāvakayāna precepts, or the precepts of those aiming to become enlightened disciples (Sanskrit: arhat; Pali: arahant) of a Buddha, but not Buddhas themselves. The ten–eleven bodhisattva precepts presuppose the five precepts, and are partly based on them. The five precepts are also partly found in the teaching called the ten good courses of action, referred to in Theravāda (Pali: dasa-kusala-kammapatha) and Tibetan Buddhism (Sanskrit: daśa-kuśala-karmapatha; ). Finally, the first four of the five precepts are very similar to the most fundamental rules of monastic discipline (Pali: pārajika), and may have influenced their development.
In conclusion, the five precepts lie at the foundation of all Buddhist practice, and in that respect, can be compared with the ten commandments in Christianity and Judaism or the ethical codes of Confucianism.
## History
The five precepts were part of Early Buddhism and are common to nearly all schools of Buddhism. In Early Buddhism, the five precepts were regarded as an ethic of restraint, to restrain unwholesome tendencies and thereby purify one's being to attain enlightenment. The five precepts were based on the pañcaśīla, prohibitions for pre-Buddhist Brahmanic priests, which were adopted in many Indic religions around 6th century BCE. The first four Buddhist precepts were nearly identical to these pañcaśīla, but the fifth precept, the prohibition on intoxication, was new in Buddhism: the Buddha's emphasis on awareness (Pali: appamāda) was unique.
In some schools of ancient Indic Buddhism, Buddhist devotees could choose to adhere to only a number of precepts, instead of the complete five. The schools that would survive in later periods, however, that is Theravāda and Mahāyāna Buddhism, were both ambiguous about this practice. Some early Mahāyāna texts allow it, but some do not; Theravāda texts do not discuss such selective practice at all.
The prohibition on killing had motivated early Buddhists to form a stance against animal sacrifice, a common religious ritual practice in ancient India. According to the Pāli Canon, however, early Buddhists did not adopt a vegetarian lifestyle.
In Early Buddhist Texts, the role of the five precepts gradually develops. First of all, the precepts are combined with a declaration of faith in the Triple Gem (the Buddha, his teaching and the monastic community). Next, the precepts develop to become the foundation of lay practice. The precepts are seen as a preliminary condition for the higher development of the mind. At a third stage in the texts, the precepts are actually mentioned together with the triple gem, as though they are part of it. Lastly, the precepts, together with the triple gem, become a required condition for the practice of Buddhism, as laypeople have to undergo a formal initiation to become a member of the Buddhist religion. When Buddhism spread to different places and people, the role of the precepts began to vary. In countries in which Buddhism was adopted as the main religion without much competition from other religious disciplines, such as Thailand, the relation between the initiation of a layperson and the five precepts has been virtually non-existent. In such countries, the taking of the precepts has become a sort of ritual cleansing ceremony. People are presumed Buddhist from birth without much of an initiation. The precepts are often committed to by new followers as part of their installment, yet this is not very pronounced. However, in some countries like China, where Buddhism was not the only religion, the precepts became an ordination ceremony to initiate laypeople into the Buddhist religion.
In China, the five precepts were introduced in the first centuries CE, both in their śrāvakayāna and bodhisattva formats. During this time, it was particularly Buddhist teachers who promoted abstinence from alcohol (the fifth precept), since Daoism and other thought systems emphasized moderation rather than full abstinence. Chinese Buddhists interpreted the fifth precept strictly, even more so than in Indic Buddhism. For example, the monk Daoshi (c. 600–683) dedicated large sections of his encyclopedic writings to abstinence from alcohol. However, in some parts of China, such as Dunhuang, considerable evidence has been found of alcohol consumption among both lay people and monastics. Later, from the 8th century onward, strict attitudes of abstinence led to a development of a distinct tea culture among Chinese monastics and lay intellectuals, in which tea gatherings replaced gatherings with alcoholic beverages, and were advocated as such. These strict attitudes were formed partly because of the religious writings, but may also have been affected by the bloody An Lushan Rebellion of 775, which had a sobering effect on 8th-century Chinese society. When the five precepts were integrated in Chinese society, they were associated and connected with karma, Chinese cosmology and medicine, a Daoist worldview, and Confucian virtue ethics.
## Ceremonies
### In Pāli tradition
In the Theravāda tradition, the precepts are recited in a standardized fashion, using Pāli language. In Thailand, a leading lay person will normally request the monk to administer the precepts by reciting the following three times:
> "Venerables, we request the five precepts and the three refuges [i.e. the triple gem] for the sake of observing them, one by one, separately". (Mayaṃ bhante visuṃ visuṃ rakkhaṇatthāya tisaraṇena saha pañca sīlāniyācāma.)
After this, the monk administering the precepts will recite a reverential line of text to introduce the ceremony, after which he guides the lay people in declaring that they take their refuge in the three refuges or triple gem.
He then continues with reciting the five precepts:
1. "I undertake the training-precept to abstain from onslaught on breathing beings." (Pali: Pāṇātipātā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi.)
2. "I undertake the training-precept to abstain from taking what is not given." (Pali: Adinnādānā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi.)
3. "I undertake the training-precept to abstain from sexual misconduct." (Pali: Kāmesumicchācāra veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi.)
4. "I undertake the training-precept to abstain from false speech." (Pali: Musāvādā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi.)
5. "I undertake the training-precept to abstain from alcoholic drink or drugs that are an opportunity for heedlessness." (Pali: Surāmerayamajjapamādaṭṭhānā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi.)
After the lay people have repeated the five precepts after the monk, the monk will close the ceremony reciting:
> "These five precepts lead with good behavior to bliss, with good behavior to wealth and success, they lead with good behavior to happiness, therefore purify behavior." (Imāni pañca sikkhāpadāni. Sīlena sugatiṃ yanti, sīlena bhogasampadā, sīlena nibbutiṃ yanti, tasmā sīlaṃ visodhaye.)
### In other textual traditions
The format of the ceremony for taking the precepts occurs several times in the Chinese Buddhist Canon, in slightly different forms.
One formula of the precepts can be found in the Treatise on Taking Refuge and the Precepts (simplified Chinese: 归戒要集; traditional Chinese: 歸戒要集; pinyin: Guījiè Yāojí):
1. As all Buddhas refrained from killing until the end of their lives, so I too will refrain from killing until the end of my life.
2. As all Buddhas refrained from stealing until the end of their lives, so I too will refrain from stealing until the end of my life.
3. As all Buddhas refrained from sexual misconduct until the end of their lives, so I too will refrain from sexual misconduct until the end of my life.
4. As all Buddhas refrained from false speech until the end of their lives, so I too will refrain from false speech until the end of my life.
5. As all Buddhas refrained from alcohol until the end of their lives, so I too will refrain from alcohol until the end of my life.
Similarly, in the Mūla-Sarvāstivāda texts used in Tibetan Buddhism, the precepts are formulated such that one takes the precepts upon oneself for one's entire lifespan, following the examples of the enlightened disciples of the Buddha (arahant).
## Principles
The five precepts can be found in many places in the Early Buddhist Texts. The precepts are regarded as means to building good character, or as an expression of such character. The Pāli Canon describes them as means to avoid harm to oneself and others. It further describes them as gifts toward oneself and others. Moreover, the texts say that people who uphold them will be confident in any gathering of people, will have wealth and a good reputation, and will die a peaceful death, reborn in heaven or as a human being. On the other hand, living a life in violation of the precepts is believed to lead to rebirth in an unhappy destination. They are understood as principles that define a person as human in body and mind.
The precepts are normative rules, but are formulated and understood as "undertakings" rather than commandments enforced by a moral authority, according to the voluntary and gradualist standards of Buddhist ethics. They are forms of restraint formulated in negative terms, but are also accompanied by virtues and positive behaviors, which are cultivated through the practice of the precepts. The most important of these virtues is non-harming (Pāli and Sanskrit: ahiṃsa), which underlies all of the five precepts. Precisely, the texts say that one should keep the precepts, adhering to the principle of comparing oneself with others:
> "For a state that is not pleasant or delightful to me must be so to him also; and a state that is not pleasing or delightful to me, how could I inflict that upon another?"
In other words, all living beings are alike in that they want to be happy and not suffer. Comparing oneself with others, one should therefore not hurt others as one would not want to be hurt. Ethicist Pinit Ratanakul argues that the compassion which motivates upholding the precepts comes from an understanding that all living beings are equal and of a nature that they are 'not-self' (Pali: anattā). Another aspect that is fundamental to this is the belief in karmic retribution.
In the upholding or violation of the precepts, intention is crucial. In the Pāli scriptures, an example is mentioned of a person stealing an animal only to set it free, which was not seen as an offense of theft. In the Pāli commentaries, a precept is understood to be violated when the person violating it finds the object of the transgression (e.g. things to be stolen), is aware of the violation, has the intention to violate it, does actually act on that intention, and does so successfully.
Upholding the precepts is sometimes distinguished in three levels: to uphold them without having formally undertaken them; to uphold them formally, willing to sacrifice one's own life for it; and finally, to spontaneously uphold them. The latter refers to the arahant, who is understood to be morally incapable of violating the first four precepts. A layperson who upholds the precepts is described in the texts as a "jewel among laymen". On the other hand, the most serious violations of the precepts are the five actions of immediate retribution, which are believed to lead the perpetrator to an unavoidable rebirth in hell. These consist of injuring a Buddha, killing an arahant, killing one's father or mother, and causing the monastic community to have a schism.
## Practice in general
Lay followers often undertake these training rules in the same ceremony as they take the refuges. Monks administer the precepts to the laypeople, which creates an additional psychological effect. Buddhist lay people may recite the precepts regularly at home, and before an important ceremony at the temple to prepare the mind for the ceremony.
The five precepts are at the core of Buddhist morality. In field studies in some countries like Sri Lanka, villagers describe them as the core of the religion. Anthropologist Barend Terwiel found in his fieldwork that most Thai villagers knew the precepts by heart, and many, especially the elderly, could explain the implications of the precepts following traditional interpretations.
However, Buddhists vary in how strict they follow them. Devotees who have just started keeping the precepts will typically have to exercise considerable restraint. When they become used to the precepts, they start to embody them more naturally. Researchers doing field studies in traditional Buddhist societies have found that the five precepts are generally considered demanding and challenging. For example, anthropologist Stanley Tambiah found in his field studies that strict observance of the precepts had "little positive interest for the villager ... not because he devalues them but because they are not normally open to him". Observing precepts was seen to be mostly the role of a monk or an elderly lay person. More recently, in a 1997 survey in Thailand, only 13.8% of the respondents indicated they adhered to the five precepts in their daily lives, with the fourth and fifth precept least likely to be adhered to. Yet, people do consider the precepts worth striving for, and do uphold them out of fear of bad karma and being reborn in hell, or because they believe in that the Buddha issued these rules, and that they therefore should be maintained. Anthropologist Melford Spiro found that Burmese Buddhists mostly upheld the precepts to avoid bad karma, as opposed to expecting to gain good karma. Scholar of religion Winston King observed from his field studies that the moral principles of Burmese Buddhists were based on personal self-developmental motives rather than other-regarding motives. Scholar of religion Richard Jones concludes that the moral motives of Buddhists in adhering to the precepts are based on the idea that renouncing self-service, ironically, serves oneself.
In East Asian Buddhism, the precepts are intrinsically connected with the initiation as a Buddhist lay person. Early Chinese translations such as the Upāsaka-śila Sūtra hold that the precepts should only be ritually transmitted by a monastic. The texts describe that in the ritual the power of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas is transmitted, and helps the initiate to keep the precepts. This "lay ordination" ritual usually occurs after a stay in a temple, and often after a monastic ordination (Pali: upsampadā); has taken place. The ordained lay person is then given a religious name. The restrictions that apply are similar to a monastic ordination, such as permission from parents.
In the Theravāda tradition, the precepts are usually taken "each separately" (Pali: visuṃ visuṃ), to indicate that if one precept should be broken, the other precepts are still intact. In very solemn occasions, or for very pious devotees, the precepts may be taken as a group rather than each separately. This does not mean, however, that only some of the precepts can be undertaken; they are always committed to as a complete set. In East Asian Buddhism, however, the vow of taking the precepts is considered a solemn matter, and it is not uncommon for lay people to undertake only the precepts that they are confident they can keep. The act of taking a vow to keep the precepts is what makes it karmically effective: Spiro found that someone who did not violate the precepts, but did not have any intention to keep them either, was not believed to accrue any religious merit. On the other hand, when people took a vow to keep the precepts, and then broke them afterwards, the negative karma was considered larger than in the case no vow was taken to keep the precepts.
Several modern teachers such as Thich Nhat Hanh and Sulak Sivaraksa have written about the five precepts in a wider scope, with regard to social and institutional relations. In these perspectives, mass production of weapons or spreading untruth through media and education also violates the precepts. On a similar note, human rights organizations in Southeast Asia have attempted to advocate respect for human rights by referring to the five precepts as guiding principles.
## First precept
### Textual analysis
The first precept prohibits the taking of life of a sentient being. It is violated when someone intentionally and successfully kills such a sentient being, having understood it to be sentient and using effort in the process. Causing injury goes against the spirit of the precept, but does, technically speaking, not violate it. The first precept includes taking the lives of animals, even small insects. However, it has also been pointed out that the seriousness of taking life depends on the size, intelligence, benefits done and the spiritual attainments of that living being. Killing a large animal is worse than killing a small animal (also because it costs more effort); killing a spiritually accomplished master is regarded as more severe than the killing of another "more average" human being; and killing a human being is more severe than the killing of an animal. But all killing is condemned. Virtues that accompany this precept are respect for dignity of life, kindness and compassion, the latter expressed as "trembling for the welfare of others". A positive behavior that goes together with this precept is protecting living beings. Positive virtues like sympathy and respect for other living beings in this regard are based on a belief in the cycle of rebirth—that all living beings must be born and reborn. The concept of the fundamental Buddha nature of all human beings also underlies the first precept.
The description of the first precept can be interpreted as a prohibition of capital punishment. Suicide is also seen as part of the prohibition. Moreover, abortion (of a sentient being) goes against the precept, since in an act of abortion, the criteria for violation are all met. In Buddhism, human life is understood to start at conception. A prohibition of abortion is mentioned explicitly in the monastic precepts, and several Buddhist tales warn of the harmful karmic consequences of abortion. Bioethicist Damien Keown argues that Early Buddhist Texts do not allow for exceptions with regard to abortion, as they consist of a "consistent' (i.e. exceptionless) pro-life position". Keown further proposes that a middle way approach to the five precepts is logically hard to defend. Asian studies scholar Giulio Agostini argues, however, that Buddhist commentators in India from the 4th century onward thought abortion did not break the precepts under certain circumstances.
Ordering another person to kill is also included in this precept, therefore requesting or administering euthanasia can be considered a violation of the precept, as well as advising another person to commit abortion. With regard to euthanasia and assisted suicide, Keown quotes the Pāli Dīgha Nikāya that says a person upholding the first precept "does not kill a living being, does not cause a living being to be killed, does not approve of the killing of a living being". Keown argues that in Buddhist ethics, regardless of motives, death can never be the aim of one's actions.
Interpretations of how Buddhist texts regard warfare are varied, but in general Buddhist doctrine is considered to oppose all warfare. In many Jātaka tales, such as that of Prince Temiya, as well as some historical documents, the virtue of non-violence is taken as an opposition to all war, both offensive and defensive. At the same time, though, the Buddha is often shown not to explicitly oppose war in his conversations with political figures. Buddhologist André Bareau points out that the Buddha was reserved in his involvement of the details of administrative policy, and concentrated on the moral and spiritual development of his disciples instead. He may have believed such involvement to be futile, or detrimental to Buddhism. Nevertheless, at least one disciple of the Buddha is mentioned in the texts who refrained from retaliating his enemies because of the Buddha, that is King Pasenadi (Sanskrit: Prasenajit). The texts are ambiguous in explaining his motives though. In some later Mahāyāna texts, such as in the writings of Asaṅga, examples are mentioned of people who kill those who persecute Buddhists. In these examples, killing is justified by the authors because protecting Buddhism was seen as more important than keeping the precepts. Another example that is often cited is that of King Duṭṭhagāmaṇī, who is mentioned in the post-canonical Pāli Mahāvaṃsa chronicle. In the chronicle, the king is saddened with the loss of life after a war, but comforted by a Buddhist monk, who states that nearly everyone who was killed did not uphold the precepts anyway. Buddhist studies scholar Lambert Schmithausen argues that in many of these cases Buddhist teachings like that of emptiness were misused to further an agenda of war or other violence.
### In practice
Field studies in Cambodia and Burma have shown that many Buddhists considered the first precept the most important, or the most blamable. In some traditional communities, such as in Kandal Province in pre-war Cambodia, as well as Burma in the 1980s, it was uncommon for Buddhists to slaughter animals, to the extent that meat had to be bought from non-Buddhists. In his field studies in Thailand in the 1960s, Terwiel found that villagers did tend to kill insects, but were reluctant and self-conflicted with regard to killing larger animals. In Spiro's field studies, however, Burmese villagers were highly reluctant even to kill insects.
Early Buddhists did not adopt a vegetarian lifestyle. Indeed, in several Pāli texts vegetarianism is described as irrelevant in the spiritual purification of the mind. There are prohibitions on certain types of meat, however, especially those which are condemned by society. The idea of abstaining from killing animal life has also led to a prohibition on professions that involve trade in flesh or living beings, but not to a full prohibition of all agriculture that involves cattle. In modern times, referring to the law of supply and demand or other principles, some Theravādin Buddhists have attempted to promote vegetarianism as part of the five precepts. For example, the Thai Santi Asoke movement practices vegetarianism.
Furthermore, among some schools of Buddhism, there has been some debate with regard to a principle in the monastic discipline. This principle states that a Buddhist monk cannot accept meat if it comes from animals especially slaughtered for him. Some teachers have interpreted this to mean that when the recipient has no knowledge on whether the animal has been killed for him, he cannot accept the food either. Similarly, there has been debate as to whether laypeople should be vegetarian when adhering to the five precepts. Though vegetarianism among Theravādins is generally uncommon, it has been practiced much in East Asian countries, as some Mahāyāna texts, such as the Mahāparanirvana Sūtra and the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, condemn the eating of meat. Nevertheless, even among Mahāyāna Buddhists—and East Asian Buddhists—there is disagreement on whether vegetarianism should be practiced. In the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, biological, social and hygienic reasons are given for a vegetarian diet; however, historically, a major factor in the development of a vegetarian lifestyle among Mahāyāna communities may have been that Mahāyāna monastics cultivated their own crops for food, rather than living from alms. Already from the 4th century CE, Chinese writer Xi Chao understood the five precepts to include vegetarianism.
Apart from trade in flesh or living beings, there are also other professions considered undesirable. Vietnamese teacher Thich Nhat Hanh gives a list of examples, such as working in the arms industry, the military, police, producing or selling poison or drugs such as alcohol and tobacco.
In general, the first precept has been interpreted by Buddhists as a call for non-violence and pacifism. But there have been some exceptions of people who did not interpret the first precept as an opposition to war. For example, in the twentieth century, some Japanese Zen teachers wrote in support of violence in war, and some of them argued this should be seen as a means to uphold the first precept. There is some debate and controversy surrounding the problem whether a person can commit suicide, such as self-immolation, to reduce other people's suffering in the long run, such as in protest to improve a political situation in a country. Teachers like the Dalai Lama and Shengyan have rejected forms of protest like self-immolation, as well as other acts of self-harming or fasting as forms of protest.
Although capital punishment goes against the first precept, as of 2001, many countries in Asia still maintained the death penalty, including Sri Lanka, Thailand, China and Taiwan. In some Buddhist countries, such as Sri Lanka and Thailand, capital punishment was applied during some periods, while during other periods no capital punishment was used at all. In other countries with Buddhism, like China and Taiwan, Buddhism, or any religion for that matter, has had no influence in policy decisions of the government. Countries with Buddhism that have abolished capital punishment include Cambodia and Hong Kong.
In general, Buddhist traditions oppose abortion. In many countries with Buddhist traditions such as Thailand, Taiwan, Korea and Japan, however, abortion is a widespread practice, whether legal or not. Many people in these countries consider abortion immoral, but also think it should be less prohibited. Ethicist Roy W. Perrett, following Ratanakul, argues that this field research data does not so much indicate hypocrisy, but rather points at a "Middle Way" in applying Buddhist doctrine to solve a moral dilemma. Buddhists tend to take "both sides" on the pro-life–pro-choice debate, being against the taking of life of a fetus in principle, but also believing in compassion toward mothers. Similar attitudes may explain the Japanese mizuko kuyō ceremony, a Buddhist memorial service for aborted children, which has led to a debate in Japanese society concerning abortion, and finally brought the Japanese to a consensus that abortion should not be taken lightly, though it should be legalized. This position, held by Japanese Buddhists, takes the middle ground between the Japanese neo-Shinto "pro-life" position, and the liberationist, "pro-choice" arguments. Keown points out, however, that this compromise does not mean a Buddhist Middle Way between two extremes, but rather incorporates two opposite perspectives. In Thailand, women who wish to have abortion usually do so in the early stages of pregnancy, because they believe the karmic consequences are less then. Having had abortion, Thai women usually make merits to compensate for the negative karma.
## Second precept
### Textual analysis
The second precept prohibits theft, and involves the intention to steal what one perceives as not belonging to oneself ("what is not given") and acting successfully upon that intention. The severity of the act of theft is judged by the worth of the owner and the worth of that which is stolen. Underhand dealings, fraud, cheating and forgery are also included in this precept. Accompanying virtues are generosity, renunciation, and right livelihood, and a positive behavior is the protection of other people's property.
### In practice
The second precept includes different ways of stealing and fraud. Borrowing without permission is sometimes included, as well as gambling. Psychologist Vanchai Ariyabuddhiphongs did studies in the 2000s and 2010s in Thailand and discovered that people who did not adhere to the five precepts more often tended to believe that money was the most important goal in life, and would more often pay bribes than people who did adhere to the precepts. On the other hand, people who observed the five precepts regarded themselves as wealthier and happier than people who did not observe the precepts.
Professions that are seen to violate the second precept include working in the gambling industry or marketing products that are not actually required for the customer.
## Third precept
### Textual analysis
The third precept condemns sexual misconduct. This has been interpreted in classical texts to include any form of sexual misconduct, which would therefore include inappropriate touching and speech, with a married or engaged person, fornication, rape, incest, sex with a minor (under 18 years, or a person "protected by any relative"), and sex with a prostitute. In later texts, details such as intercourse at an inappropriate time or inappropriate place are also counted as breaches of the third precept. Masturbation goes against the spirit of the precept, because of wrongful fantasy. As a manner of uncelibacy, it is not prohibited for laypeople.
The third precept is explained as preventing profound spiritual damage to oneself others. The transgression is regarded as more severe if the other person is a good person. Virtues that go hand-in-hand with the third precept are contentment, especially with one's partner, and recognition and respect for faithfulness in a marriage, and respect for the sexual nature of oneself and others.
### In practice
The third precept is interpreted as avoiding harm to another by using sexuality in the wrong way. This means not engaging with inappropriate partners, but also respecting one's personal commitment to a relationship. In some traditions, the precept also condemns adultery with a person whose spouse agrees with the act, since the nature of the act itself is condemned. Furthermore, flirting with a married person may also be regarded as a violation. Though prostitution is discouraged in the third precept, it is usually not actively prohibited by Buddhist teachers. With regard to applications of the principles of the third precept, the precept, or any Buddhist principle for that matter, is usually not connected with a stance against contraception. In traditional Buddhist societies such as Sri Lanka, pre-marital sex is considered to violate the precept, though this is not always adhered to by people who already intend to marry.
In the interpretation of modern teachers, the precept includes any person in a sexual or a dependent relationship, for example as someone's child, with another person, as they define the precept by terms such as sexual responsibility and long-term commitment. Some modern teachers include masturbation as a violation of the precept, others include certain professions, such as those that involve sexual exploitation, prostitution or pornography, and professions that promote unhealthy sexual behavior, such as in the entertainment industry.
## Fourth precept
### Textual analysis
The fourth precept involves falsehood spoken or committed to by action. Avoiding other forms of wrong speech are also considered part of this precept, consisting of malicious speech, harsh speech and gossip. A breach of the precept is considered more serious if the falsehood is motivated by an ulterior motive (rather than, for example, "a small white lie"). The accompanying virtue is being honest and dependable, and involves honesty in work, truthfulness to others, loyalty to superiors and gratitude to benefactors. In Buddhist texts, this precept is considered second in importance to the first precept, because a lying person is regarded to have no shame, and therefore capable of many wrongs. Untruthfulness is not only to be avoided because it harms others, but also because it goes against the Buddhist ideal of finding the truth.
### In practice
The fourth precept includes avoidance of lying and harmful speech. Some modern teachers such as Thich Nhat Hanh interpret this to include avoiding spreading false news and uncertain information. Work that involves data manipulation, false advertising or online scams can also be regarded as violations. Terwiel reports that among Thai Buddhists, the fourth precept is also seen to be broken when people insinuate, exaggerate or speak abusively or deceitfully.
## Fifth precept
### Textual analysis
The fifth precept prohibits intoxication through alcohol, drugs or other means, and its virtues are mindfulness and responsibility, applied to food, work, behavior, and with regard to the nature of life. Awareness, meditation and heedfulness can also be included here. Medieval Pāli commentator Buddhaghosa writes that whereas violating the first four precepts may be more or less blamable depending on the person or animal affected, the fifth precept is always "greatly blamable", as it hinders one from understanding the Buddha's teaching and may lead one to "madness". In ancient China, Daoshi described alcohol as the "doorway to laxity and idleness" and as a cause of suffering. Nevertheless, he did describe certain cases when drinking was considered less of a problem, such as in the case of a queen distracting the king by alcohol to prevent him from murder. However, Daoshi was generally strict in his interpretations: for example, he allowed medicinal use of alcohol only in extreme cases. Early Chinese translations of the Tripitaka describe negative consequences for people breaking the fifth precept, for themselves and their families. The Chinese translation of the Upāsikaśila Sūtra, as well as the Pāli version of the Sigālovāda Sutta, speak of ill consequences such as loss of wealth, ill health, a bad reputation and "stupidity", concluding in a rebirth in hell. The Dīrghāgama adds to that that alcohol leads to quarreling, negative states of mind and damage to one's intelligence. The Mahāyāna Brahmajāla Sūtra describes the dangers of alcohol in very strong terms, including the selling of alcohol. Similar arguments against alcohol can be found in Nāgārjuna's writings. The strict interpretation of prohibition of alcohol consumption can be supported by the Upāli Sūtra's statement that a disciple of the Buddha should not drink any alcohol, "even a drop on the point of a blade of grass". However, in the writing of some Abhidharma commentators, consumption was condemned depending on the intention with which alcohol was consumed. An example of an intention which was not condemned is taking alcohol in a small amount as a form of medicine.
### In practice
The fifth precept is regarded as important, because drinking alcohol is condemned for the sluggishness and lack of self-control it leads to, which might lead to breaking the other precepts. In Spiro's field studies, violating the fifth precept was seen as the worst of all the five precepts by half of the monks interviewed, citing the harmful consequences. Nevertheless, in practice it is often disregarded by lay people. In Thailand, drinking alcohol is fairly common, even drunkenness. Among Tibetans, drinking beer is common, though this is only slightly alcoholic. Medicinal use of alcohol is generally not frowned upon, and in some countries like Thailand and Laos, smoking is usually not regarded as a violation of the precept. Thai and Laotian monks have been known to smoke, though monks who have received more training are less likely to smoke. On a similar note, as of 2000, no Buddhist country prohibited the sale or consumption of alcohol, though in Sri Lanka Buddhist revivalists unsuccessfully attempted to get a full prohibition passed in 1956. Moreover, pre-Communist Tibet used to prohibit smoking in some areas of the capital. Monks were prohibited from smoking, and the import of tobacco was banned.
Thich Nhat Hanh also includes mindful consumption in this precept, which consists of unhealthy food, unhealthy entertainment and unhealthy conversations, among others.
## Present trends
In modern times, adherence to the precepts among Buddhists is less strict than it traditionally was. This is especially true for the third precept. For example, in Cambodia in the 1990s and 2000s, standards with regard to sexual restraint were greatly relaxed. Some Buddhist movements and communities have tried to go against the modern trend of less strict adherence to the precepts. In Cambodia, a millenarian movement led by Chan Yipon promoted the revival of the five precepts. And in the 2010s, the Supreme Sangha Council in Thailand ran a nationwide program called "The Villages Practicing the Five Precepts", aiming to encourage keeping the precepts, with an extensive classification and reward system.
In many Western Buddhist organizations, the five precepts play a major role in developing ethical guidelines. Furthermore, Buddhist teachers such as Philip Kapleau, Thich Nhat Hanh and Robert Aitken have promoted mindful consumption in the West, based on the five precepts. In another development in the West, some scholars working in the field of mindfulness training have proposed that the five precepts be introduced as a component in such trainings. Specifically, to prevent organizations from using mindfulness training to further an economical agenda with harmful results to its employees, the economy or the environment, the precepts could be used as a standardized ethical framework. As of 2015, several training programs made explicit use of the five precepts as secular, ethical guidelines. However, many mindfulness training specialists consider it problematic to teach the five precepts as part of training programs in secular contexts because of their religious origins and import.
Peace studies scholar Theresa Der-lan Yeh notes that the five precepts address physical, economical, familial and verbal aspects of interaction, and remarks that many conflict prevention programs in schools and communities have integrated the five precepts in their curriculum. On a similar note, peace studies founder Johan Galtung describes the five precepts as the "basic contribution of Buddhism in the creation of peace".
## Theory of ethics
Studying lay and monastic ethical practice in traditional Buddhist societies, Spiro argued ethical guidelines such as the five precepts are adhered to as a means to a higher end, that is, a better rebirth or enlightenment. He therefore concluded that Buddhist ethical principles like the five precepts are similar to Western utilitarianism. Keown, however, has argued that the five precepts are regarded as rules that cannot be violated, and therefore may indicate a deontological perspective in Buddhist ethics. On the other hand, Keown has also suggested that Aristotle's virtue ethics could apply to Buddhist ethics, since the precepts are considered good in themselves, and mutually dependent on other aspects of the Buddhist path of practice. Philosopher Christopher Gowans disagrees that Buddhist ethics are deontological, arguing that virtue and consequences are also important in Buddhist ethics. Gowans argues that there is no moral theory in Buddhist ethics that covers all conceivable situations such as when two precepts may be in conflict, but is rather characterized by "a commitment to and nontheoretical grasp of the basic Buddhist moral values". As of 2017, many scholars of Buddhism no longer think it is useful to try to fit Buddhist ethics into a Western philosophical category.
### Comparison with human rights
Keown has argued that the five precepts are very similar to human rights, with regard to subject matter and with regard to their universal nature. Other scholars, as well as Buddhist writers and human rights advocates, have drawn similar comparisons. For example, the following comparisons are drawn:
1. Keown compares the first precept with the right to life. The Buddhism-informed Cambodian Institute for Human Rights (CIHR) draws the same comparison.
2. The second precept is compared by Keown and the CIHR with the right of property.
3. The third precept is compared by Keown to the "right to fidelity in marriage"; the CIHR construes this broadly as "right of individuals and the rights of society".
4. The fourth precept is compared by Keown with the "right not to be lied to"; the CIHR writes "the right of human dignity".
5. Finally, the fifth precept is compared by the CIHR with the right of individual security and a safe society.
Keown describes the relationship between Buddhist precepts and human rights as "look[ing] both ways along the juridical relationship, both to what one is due to do, and to what is due to one". On a similar note, Cambodian human rights advocates have argued that for human rights to be fully implemented in society, the strengthening of individual morality must also be addressed. Buddhist monk and scholar Phra Payutto sees the Human Rights Declaration as an unfolding and detailing of the principles that are found in the five precepts, in which a sense of ownership is given to the individual, to make legitimate claims on one's rights. He believes that human rights should be seen as a part of human development, in which one develops from moral discipline (Pali: sīla), to concentration (Pali: samādhi) and finally wisdom (Pali: paññā). He does not believe, however, that human rights are natural rights, but rather human conventions. Buddhism scholar Somparn Promta disagrees with him. He argues that human beings do have natural rights from a Buddhist perspective, and refers to the attūpanāyika-dhamma, a teaching in which the Buddha prescribes a kind of golden rule of comparing oneself with others. (See §Principles, above.) From this discourse, Promta concludes that the Buddha has laid down the five precepts in order to protect individual rights such as right of life and property: human rights are implicit within the five precepts. Academic Buntham Phunsap argues, however, that though human rights are useful in culturally pluralistic societies, they are in fact not required when society is entirely based on the five precepts. Phunsap therefore does not see human rights as part of Buddhist doctrine.
## See also
- Dhammika Sutta
- Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, five principles applied in geopolitics, for which the same term is used
- Five Vows of Jainism |
2,070,674 | Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy | 1,162,405,541 | National Basketball Association trophy | [
"Awards established in 1977",
"National Basketball Association Finals",
"National Basketball Association awards"
] | The Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy is the championship trophy awarded annually by the National Basketball Association (NBA) to the winner of the NBA Finals. The trophy originally kept the Walter A. Brown Trophy name of its predecessor until being renamed in 1984.
The current design, depicting a basketball over a hoop and basket, was first awarded in 1977 still under its original name, which was changed in honor of former NBA commissioner Larry O'Brien who served from 1975 to 1984. Before joining the NBA, O'Brien was the United States Postmaster General under President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1965 to 1968.
## History
A new trophy was created for the 1977 NBA Finals. The inaugural winners were the Portland Trail Blazers, who defeated Philadelphia 76ers in six games. Unlike the original championship trophy, the new trophy was given permanently to the winning team and a new one was made every year, similar to the Vince Lombardi Trophy, awarded annually to the winning team of the NFL's Super Bowl and the Commissioner's Trophy, awarded annually to the winning team of Major League Baseball's World Series. The 1982–83 76ers were the last team to win the Brown Trophy, sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers in 1983.
In 1984, the trophy was renamed to the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy, in honor of Larry O'Brien, who served as NBA commissioner from 1975 to 1984. The Boston Celtics were the inaugural winners of the renamed trophy, defeating the Los Angeles Lakers in seven games in the 1984 NBA Finals.
As part of a series of redesigned awards as part of its 75th anniversary season, the trophy design was once again changed. The most notable change is the two discs replacing the square foundation of the previous design. According to the designer of the new trophy, the square foundation was seen as an awkward way to hold the trophy, and the round discs will make it easier to carry and lift. The two discs function like the metal bands of the National Hockey League (NHL)'s Stanley Cup. The top disc shows the league's first 75 championship teams from 1947 to 2021, while the bottom disc will have the next 25 championship teams from 2022 to 2046, in time for the association's 100th anniversary. The resigned trophy's ball and net are also slanted to the right, or forward, to represent the league's continued desire to be progressive.
## Description
The trophy is two feet tall and is made of 15.5 pounds of sterling silver and vermeil with a 24 karat gold overlay. The basketball depicted on top is the same size as a real basketball. The trophy was designed by artist Victor Solomon for the NBA's 75th anniversary season and is manufactured by Tiffany & Co. The championship team maintains permanent possession of the trophy (although one exception exists, as described below). The year and winning team names are engraved on the trophies, and are often prominently displayed in the winning team's arena.
After the sale of the Houston Rockets from Leslie Alexander to Tilman Fertitta in late 2017, Alexander maintained the ownership of the team's 1993-94 and 1994-95 trophies as mementos of his ownership. Thus, the team commissioned Tiffany to create replica versions of both Larry O'Brien trophies (and replacing the 1993-94 trophy, which was unexpectedly dropped and dented by reserve center Richard Petruška during the celebration), which were publicly unveiled on September 20, 2018.
## Promotion
Although the Larry O'Brien Trophy has been compared with the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup, it has never been as prominent as the NHL trophy. To reduce this discrepancy, the NBA has been actively promoting the O'Brien Trophy in recent years to generate more recognition and an iconic status for the trophy. The trophy appeared on logos for the NBA Finals for the most part. After the Detroit Pistons won the NBA Finals in 2004, the trophy was toured around the state of Michigan, marking the first time the trophy toured around the state of the winning team. In 2005, the NBA Legends Tour was launched in New York City. As part of the tour, the O’Brien Trophy was showcased in various cities—including those that were hosting the playoffs—for fans' autograph and photo sessions. It was escorted by many former players, including Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Russell. In May 2007, the NBA unveiled the NBA Headquarters on Second Life, an Internet-based virtual reality environment. With this launch, fans could take pictures with the championship trophy in the virtual Toyota Larry O'Brien Trophy Room. In August 2007, the trophy traveled to Hong Kong for the first time as part of the NBA Madness Asia Tour. Leading up to the 2023 NBA Finals, the trophy went on a "bucket list", traveling to various locations across sports and entertainment, as well as meeting numerous celebrities. This coincided with the launch of new social media accounts made specifically for the trophy itself.
## By franchise
This table lists the 17 teams that have won the Larry O' Brien Championship Trophy since it was introduced in 1977. It includes trophies awarded before it was renamed in 1984. For a complete history of NBA championship teams, see List of NBA champions.
## See also
- List of NBA champions |
238,536 | Stefan Dragutin | 1,173,011,481 | King of Serbia from 1276 to 1282 | [
"1316 deaths",
"13th-century Serbian monarchs",
"13th-century births",
"14th-century Serbian monarchs",
"Burials at Serbian Orthodox monasteries and churches",
"Christian monarchs",
"Eastern Orthodox royal saints",
"History of Syrmia",
"Medieval Hungarian nobility",
"Medieval history of Vojvodina",
"Nemanjić dynasty",
"Serbian saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church",
"Sons of kings",
"Year of birth unknown"
] | Stefan Dragutin (Serbian Cyrillic: Стефан Драгутин, Hungarian: Dragutin István; c. 1244 – 12 March 1316), was King of Serbia from 1276 to 1282. From 1282, he ruled a separate kingdom which included northern Serbia, and (from 1284) the neighboring Hungarian banates (or border provinces), for which he was unofficially styled "King of Syrmia".
He was the eldest son of King Stefan Uroš I of Serbia and Queen Helen. Dragutin married Catherine of Hungary, likely after his father concluded a peace treaty with her grandfather, Béla IV of Hungary, in 1268. By 1271, he received the title of "young king" in recognition of his right to succeed his father. He rebelled against his father, and with Hungarian assistance, forced him to abdicate in 1276.
Dragutin abandoned Uroš I's centralizing policy and ceded large territories to his mother in appanage. After a riding accident, he abdicated in favor of his brother Milutin in 1282, but retained the northern regions of Serbia along the Hungarian border. Two years later, his brother-in-law, Ladislaus IV of Hungary, granted him three banates—Mačva (or Sirmia ulterior), Usora and Soli. He was the first Serbian monarch to rule Belgrade. With his brother's support, he also occupied the Banate of Braničevo in 1284 or 1285.
In theory, Dragutin was a vassal both to his brother (for his Serbian territories), and to the Hungarian monarchs (for the four banates), but in practice he ruled his realm as an independent ruler from the 1290s. His conflicts with Milutin developed into open war in 1301, and he frequently raided the neighboring Hungarian lords from 1307. Most of the Serbian noblemen supported Dragutin, but he was forced to make peace with Milutin after Milutin's mercenaries routed him in 1311 or 1312. Before his death, he entered a monastery and died as the monk taking the name of Theoctistus, the fifth century Byzantine saint. On the list of Serbian saints, Dragutin is venerated on 12 November or 30 October (Old Style and New Style dates).
## Early life
Dragutin was the eldest son of King Stefan Uroš I of Serbia, and Helen of Anjou. The place and date of his birth are unknown. In 1264, the monk Domentijan recorded that the "fourth generation" of the descendants of Stefan Nemanja was already old enough "to ride a horse and carry a warrior's lance". As Domentijan is obviously referring to Dragutin, the historian Miodrag Purković concluded Dragutin must have been twenty and dated his birth to around 1244.
The date of Dragutin's marriage with Catherine of Hungary is also unknown. His father and her grandfather, Béla IV of Hungary, most probably arranged the marriage during the peace negotiations that followed Uroš I's invasion of Mačva in 1268, but an earlier date cannot be excluded. Mačva was a Hungarian border province to the north of Serbia which had been governed by Béla IV's daughter, Anna, on behalf of her minor son, Béla. Uroš I launched a plundering raid against the province, but he was captured and forced to seek a reconciliation. Catherine's father, Stephen V, had been bearing the title of "younger king" as his father's co-ruler and heir and the same title was bestowed on Dragutin in recognition of his exclusive right to inherit Serbia from his father. The Peace of Pressburg between Stephen V and King Ottokar II of Bohemia is the oldest extant document which describes Dragutin as a "younger king".
Decades later, Danilo II, Archbishop of Serbia, recorded that Dragutin's Hungarian in-laws also expected that Uroš would cede parts of his realm to Dragutin to allow him to rule them independently. The peace agreement may have explicitly prescribed the division of Serbia between Uroš I and Dragutin, according to Aleksandar Krstić and other historians. After spending years strengthening his central government, Uroš was reluctant to divide his kingdom with his son. Dragutin and his wife were living in his father's court when a Byzantine envoy visited Serbia in the late 1260s.
Dragutin rose up against his father in 1276. Whether he wanted to persuade his father to share power with him, or he was afraid of being disinherited in favor of his younger brother, Milutin, cannot be determined. Dragutin's brother-in-law, Ladislaus IV of Hungary, sent Hungarian and Cuman troops to Serbia to assist him. Dragutin routed his father near Gacko in the autumn of 1276. Uroš abdicated without further resistance and entered the Sopoćani Monastery where he died a year later.
## Reign
### Serbia
The archbishop of Serbia, Joanikije I, abdicated after the fall of Uroš I. His abdication may have been to protest Dragutin's usurpation of the throne, or he may have been forced to resign because of his close relationship with the dethroned monarch. Soon after ascending the throne, Dragutin gave large parts of Serbia—including Zeta, Trebinje and other coastal territories, and Plav—to his mother in appanage. The lands of Helen's appanage included the core territories of the former Kingdom of Duklja and developed into a province of the heirs to the Serbian throne after her death. Milutin accompanied their mother to her realm and settled in Shkodër.
Serbia's relationship with the Republic of Ragusa had been tense during the last years of Uroš I's reign, although his wife secretly supported the republic. Dragutin reconciled shortly after he had ascended the throne. Charles I of Anjou, King of Sicily, wanted to include Dragutin in a coalition against the Byzantine Empire. The two kings exchanged letters about this issue in 1279.
Dragutin fell off his horse and broke his leg in early 1282. His injury was so severe a council was called in Deževo to make decisions about governing Serbia. At the council, Dragutin abdicated in favor of Milutin, but the circumstances of his abdication are uncertain. Decades later, Dragutin recounted that he had already come into conflict with Milutin, and that he had ceded the government to Milutin only provisionally, until he recovered. Archbishop Danilo II wrote that Dragutin abdicated because he regarded the riding accident as God's punishment for his acts against his father, but the Archbishop also referred to unspecified "serious troubles" that contributed to Dragutin's decision. The Byzantine historian, George Pachymeres, was informed that Dragutin's abdication had been definitive, but Pachymeres also mentioned an agreement between the two brothers that secured the right of Dragutin's (unnamed) son to succeed Milutin.
### Sirmia ulterior
Inscriptions on frescos and diplomatic correspondence provide evidence that Dragutin was styled "king" after his abdication, but Milutin's supreme position is evident. Dragutin continued to style himself as king in his charters and on his coins. Dragutin and Milutin wore royal insignias seen on a fresco in St. Achillius Church, which was Dragutin's endowment near Arilje, but Dragutin is depicted with fewer royal emblems. Actually, Serbia was divided between Dragutin and Milutin at Dragutin's abdication, with Dragutin retaining the northern region along the Hungarian border, including the recently opened silver mine at Rudnik. He also held territories in western Serbia on the river Lim, thus he was his brother's most powerful vassal. Ladislaus IV of Hungary granted Mačva, Usora and Soli to Dragutin in the second half of 1284. Relatives of the Hungarian monarchs, most recently Dragutin's mother-in-law, Elizabeth the Cuman, had held the same territories in appanage, and Dragutin continued to rule them as a Hungarian vassal. Mačva was also known as Sirmia ulterior, hence Dragutin's contemporaries often styled him as "King of Srem". He took up his seat at Debrc on the Sava, but he also regularly stayed in Belgrade. He was the first Serbian monarch to rule this town.
Dragutin administered his realm independently of his brother. He supported the Franciscans' missions in Bosnia and allowed the establishment of a Catholic see in Belgrade. Two Cuman or Bulgarian warlords, Darman and Kudelin, had seized a former Hungarian banate, the Banate of Braničevo. Dragutin invaded Braničevo with Hungarian assistance in 1284 or 1285 but could not defeat them. Darman and Kudelin hired Cuman and Tatar troops and began raiding Dragutin's realm. Dragutin sought help from Milutin and the two brothers met in Mačkovac. After they joined their forces and defeated Darman and Kudelin, Dragutin seized Braničevo in 1291 or 1292. The new Hungarian monarch, Andrew III, also supported their military action, but Andrew's weak position in Hungary enabled Dragutin to strengthen his independence.
Dragutin's sister-in-law, Mary, had laid claim to Hungary after the death of her brother, Ladislaus IV. Dragutin was allegedly willing to support her and her son, Charles Martel of Anjou. Charles Martel, who regarded himself the lawful king of Hungary, granted Slavonia to Dragutin's son, Vladislav, in 1292, but most Hungarian noblemen and prelates remained loyal to Andrew III. Dragutin also sought a reconciliation with Andrew, and Vladislav married Constance, the granddaughter of Andrew's uncle, Albertino Morosini in 1293. Dragutin took advantage of the disintegration of Hungary during the last decade of the 13th century and became one of the dozen "oligarchs" (or powerful lords) who ruled vast territories independently of the monarch.
Dragutin supported his brother's attacks against the Byzantine territories in Macedonia in the 1290s. After Milutin had made peace with the Byzantine Empire in 1299, dozens of Serbian noblemen, who had benefited from the war, moved to Dragutin's realm. Tensions between the two brothers grew rapidly, most probably because Milutin wanted to secure the succession in Serbia for his own sons. In 1301, open war broke out and Milutin occupied Rudnik after taking it from Dragutin. According to Ragusan reports, a peace treaty was made in late 1302, but Dragutin's troops or allies pillaged Milutin's silver mines at Brskovo in 1303. The armed conflict lasted for more than a decade, but its details are unknown. The parties allegedly avoided fighting pitched battles and Dragutin kept his realm almost intact, although income from the silver mines enabled Milutin to hire mercenaries.
Charles Martel's son, Charles Robert, came to Hungary to assert his claim to the throne in 1300. His grandfather, Charles II of Naples, listed Dragutin and Dragutin's wife among Charles Robert's principal supporters. Between the summer of 1301 and May 1304, Charles Robert spent much of his time in the powerful Ugrin Csák's domains, which were located to the north of Dragutin's realm, implying that Charles Robert's relationship with Dragutin was cordial. For unknown reasons, Dragutin's troops pillaged Csák's domains in 1307, but Csák launched a counter-attack and defeated Dragutin's army on an unknown date, sometime before 13 October 1307. Dragutin made an alliance with Charles Robert's opponent, Ladislaus Kán, who ruled Transylvania in the 1300s. Dragutin's Orthodox son married Kán's daughter, for which the papal legate, Gentile Portino da Montefiore, excommunicated Kán at the end of 1309. Historian Alexandar Krstić proposes that Dragutin wanted to secure the Hungarian throne for his elder son, Vladislav, and the Serbian throne for his younger son, Urošica. Records of the destruction that Dragutin and his troops wreaked in Valkó and Szerém Counties most probably refer to Dragutin's frequent raids against Ugrin Csák's territories in 1309 and 1310. His ally John Smaragd led Dragutin's army, but was defeated by Paul Garai, Ugrin's commander. Dragutin also seized properties of the Archbishopric of Kalocsa, which prevented the newly elected Archbishop Demetrius from visiting Rome before the end of 1312. His conflict with Charles Robert forced him to fight on two fronts. He could continue the war against his brother after Serbian noblemen rose up against Milutin in the early 1310s. The Serbian prelates remained loyal to Milutin and helped him to hire Tatar, Jassic and Turkish mercenaries. After Milutin inflicted a decisive defeat on Dragutin in late 1311 or 1312, the prelates mediated a peace treaty between them most probably in 1312. Dragutin had to acknowledge his brother as the lawful king, but his Serbian appanage (including the silver mine at Rubnik) was fully restored to him. Dragutin sent reinforcements to help his brother's fight against the powerful Ban of Croatia, Mladen II Šubić of Bribir, in 1313. According to Krstić, Dragutin obviously made a peace treaty with Charles Robert in Sremska Mitrovica in February 1314. In 1314 or 1316, Dragutin signed his brother's charter of the grant to the Banjska Monastery as "the former king".
Dragutin became a monk and adopted the name Teoctist shortly before his death. According to Archbishop Danilo II's biography, while he was dying, he stated he could not be venerated as a saint. He died on 12 March 1316. He was buried in the Đurđevi Stupovi Monastery. He is regarded as the second founder of the monastery, which had been built by his great-grandfather, Stephen Nemanja. On the list of Serbian saints, Dragutin is venerated on 12 November or 30 October (Old Style and New Style dates). He was succeeded, in his northern domains, by his son, Stefan Vladislav II. |
43,875,844 | Renaissance Girls | 1,122,351,693 | null | [
"2013 singles",
"2013 songs",
"Electropop songs",
"Oh Land songs",
"Songs with feminist themes",
"Songs written by Oh Land"
] | "Renaissance Girls" is a song by Danish recording artist Oh Land, taken from her third studio album Wish Bone (2013). It was released as the album's lead single on 6 August 2013 by Tusk or Tooth and A:larm Music. The track was written by Nanna Øland Fabricius, while David Andrew Sitek solely produced it. Musically an electropop song, the lyrics discuss finding a balance between societal roles and tasks that a woman might perform, alongside accomplishing her dreams. Oh Land questions why the term "renaissance men" exists when there is no female counterpart.
Oh Land described the writing process as inspiring, and claimed that the single notices what it is like to be a woman in today's society. "Renaissance Girls" was well received by music critics, who appreciated the singer's empowering lyrics. An accompany music video was released on 7 August 2013 and features Oh Land and backup dancers performing choreography within an abandoned warehouse. For the visual, the singer wanted it to be simple yet spontaneous, and features wardrobes provided by fashion designer Phillip Lim.
## Background and release
After taking a yearlong hiatus following the release of her eponymous second studio album, Oh Land (2011), she began to start writing and recording new material for an upcoming project. Oh Land enlisted the help of TV on the Radio's David Andrew Sitek, who she praised as a "brilliant instrumentalist"; the pair collaborated for the aforementioned project, which would later become her third record, Wish Bone (2013). The singer billed the record as her "most directly personal album that [she has] done to date", and also claimed that the lyrics stood out for being extremely vulnerable. "Renaissance Girls" was released for digital consumption on 6 August 2013 through Tusk or Tooth and A:larm Music.
"Renaissance Girls" was released on 6 August 2013 as a digital download in her home country of Denmark, through Tusk or Tooth and A:larm Music. In the United States and Europe, it was made available as a 12-inch single and digital download on the same day. A digital extended play featured a remix of the single was released in the same year, on 27 August by Federal Prism Records. A CD single was also issued from the same label in 2013.
## Music and lyrics
An electropop song, "Renaissance Girls" lasts three minutes and nine seconds. For the track's entire duration, she sings with constant staccato over a furious melody. Michelle Geslani of Consequence of Sound called it an "off-kilter electro-pop [...] girl-power anthem". Geslani stated it was "abuzz with a swarm of busy, twinkling beats". Lyrically, Oh Land sings about performing common household tasks, followed by reaching her goals: "Doing the laundry and planning for the future / Is the nature of a renaissance girl". The singer also claims to giving birth to three children, yet still "remaining a virgin". Oh Land commented on her inspiration in the lyrics of "Renaissance Girls":
> The inspiration is taken from my own life, but also all my girlfriends who are very strong, confident girls who want to be their best in all levels of life. They’re kind of like overachievers and never seem to be satisfied with how [much] they achieve in life. I can see that with myself as well because you expect so much from yourself. You expect yourself to be the best friend, have a great career, be really talented and be able to cook—you just have to be great at everything. I think genders have been washed out a little bit -- like you have to have masculine qualities as well as feminine. It’s just a song that recognizes what it takes to be a girl today, and it’s quite a lot.
Additionally, the singer acknowledged that the term "Renaissance Man" is given to artistic individuals like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, but that the female equivalent has never existed. She claimed the release serves as "an ode" to her friends who are "good at doing everything at once". She speaks of the dedication in lines such as "I can be an engine / Buzzing like a bee / I'm a real independent". Both the lyrics and production were considered reminiscent of Oh Land's previous work, according to Sam Lansky of Idolator.
## Critical reception
"Renaissance Girls" received generally favourable reviews from music critics. Geslani from Consequence of Sound applauded the single's message, which she described as: "We can basically do anything we want". A reviewer from CMJ New Music Monthly acclaimed the recording by claiming that "Oh Land might just give Superwoman a run for her money". A critic from Pretty Much Amazing praised Sitek's production on the track, but Slant Magazine's Jesse Cataldo disliked the song, along with album tracks "Bird in an Aeroplane" and "Love a Man Dead". He claimed they all make use of a "shimmering simplicity and hypnotic circularity" formula, that becomes "stale" after a while. On a different note, Kayleigh Watson from Renowned for Sound described "Renaissance Girls" as a highlight, in addition to calling it an "addictively catchy number that calls to the modern, independent woman". Jennifer Joh from Neon Tommy also was positive towards the song, which she found to be "dazzling and exuberant", while James Christopher Monger of AllMusic called it "ultimately infectious".
## Music video
An accompanying music video to "Renaissance Girls" was released on 7 August 2013 through YouTube. In the visual, the singer performs choreography alongside a "juxtaposition of dance of scenery". Other scenes display semi trucks and cement mixers driving away from a building that Oh Land and several individuals are dancing in. Fashion designer Phillip Lim lent several outfits of his to Oh Land for the video, which she declared was "so simple and clean, but [it] still has a playfulness to it". The singer commented on the video's synopsis:
> We really wanted to do something that just shows who I am. We weren't trying to make a better version of myself. It was really more about fun and being spontaneous. All of the mistakes were allowed to be there, which was the same for the song. The way that the song was recorded was very live. We played everything live, we didn't stop to edit ourselves, it was very intuitive and I wanted the video to have that energy, as well.
The visual opens with a scene of trucks pulling away from a large, brick building. Oh Land is then seen wearing pink overalls entering the building and sitting down in a folding chair towards the center. As the first verse begins, she stands up and dances around the open space, which continues into the chorus. For the second verse, she is joined by four background dancers, who are now sitting in chairs, much like Oh Land. The singer has changed outfits and is now shown knitting. The next scene has the five women standing spaced apart, before they all begin dancing again. Two female children watch the dancers with curiosity. For the song's refrain, Oh Land rides an all-terrain vehicle, before the video concludes with a large group of children joining the women for a final dance.
The video was positively viewed by critics, including by Lauren Musacchio of Rolling Stone, who called the video's storytelling "fun". A reviewer from Baeble Music shared a similar opinion, in addition to praising its playfulness.
## Track listings and formats
Denmark Digital download
1. "Renaissance Girls" – 3:09
2. "Renaissance Girls (Yeah, Yeah, Yeah's Remix)" – 3:41
Europe CD single
1. "Renaissance Girls" – 3:09
2. "Renaissance Girls (Nick Zinner Remix)" – 3:41
Europe Digital download
1. "Renaissance Girls" – 3:25
Europe Remix EP
1. "Renaissance Girls (Nick Zinner Remix)" – 3:40
2. "Renaissance Girls" – 3:11
3. "Renaissance Girls (Instrumental)" – 3:09
United States 12-inch single
- A1. "Renaissance Girls" – 3:11
- A2. "Renaissance Girls (Nick Zinner Remix)" – 3:41
- B1. "Renaissance Girls" – 3:11
- B2. "Renaissance Girls (Instrumental)" – 3:09
## Release history |
1,139,951 | Mattias Öhlund | 1,169,930,860 | Swedish ice hockey player (born 1976) | [
"1976 births",
"Ice hockey people from Norrbotten County",
"Ice hockey players at the 1998 Winter Olympics",
"Ice hockey players at the 2002 Winter Olympics",
"Ice hockey players at the 2006 Winter Olympics",
"Ice hockey players at the 2010 Winter Olympics",
"Living people",
"Luleå HF players",
"Medalists at the 2006 Winter Olympics",
"National Hockey League All-Stars",
"National Hockey League first-round draft picks",
"Olympic gold medalists for Sweden",
"Olympic ice hockey players for Sweden",
"Olympic medalists in ice hockey",
"Piteå HC players",
"Sportspeople from Piteå",
"Swedish expatriate ice hockey players in Canada",
"Swedish expatriate ice hockey players in the United States",
"Swedish ice hockey defencemen",
"Tampa Bay Lightning players",
"Vancouver Canucks draft picks",
"Vancouver Canucks players"
] | Kenneth Mattias Öhlund (born 9 September 1976) is a Swedish former professional ice hockey defenceman who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Vancouver Canucks and Tampa Bay Lightning. Öhlund played two seasons in the Swedish Allsvenskan, the second highest tier of hockey in Sweden, with Piteå HC before being selected by the Canucks 13th overall in the 1994 NHL Entry Draft. He then joined Luleå HF of the Elitserien, the highest league in Sweden, winning the Le Mat Trophy as league champions in 1996. He began his NHL career with Vancouver in 1997–98, the start of an 11-year tenure with the club in which he became the Canucks' all-time leader in points for a defenceman (since surpassed by Alexander Edler). Öhlund would play the final two seasons of his professional career with the Tampa Bay Lightning before retiring in 2011. A serious eye injury before his third NHL season was the first of many injuries Öhlund has sustained over his career, and he only played a full season twice in his 13-year NHL career.
Internationally, Öhlund represented Sweden in numerous tournaments, beginning with three World Junior Championships that included Best Defenceman honours as part of a silver medal effort in 1996. He has since competed in three World Championships, earning gold in 1998, and three Winter Olympics, earning gold in 2006.
## Playing career
### Sweden
Öhlund began his playing career with Piteå HC in his hometown, playing two seasons with the team. As a large, mobile defenceman, he was heavily scouted by scouts from several NHL teams during his final season with Piteå. He was the Vancouver Canucks' first pick, 13th overall, in the 1994 NHL Entry Draft. Rather than join the Canucks, Öhlund stayed in Sweden as a result of a dispute over his contract with the team. He joined a new team, Luleå HF of the top-flight Elitserien. In his first Elitserien season, he scored 16 points in 34 games. The following season, he scored 14 points in 38 games as Luleå HF won the Le Mat Trophy as champions of the Elitserien, their first league championship. Appearing in 47 games with Luleå during the 1996–97 season, Öhlund recorded seven goals and nine assists.
### Vancouver Canucks
Four years after being drafted by the Canucks, Öhlund was set to be eligible to re-enter the NHL Entry Draft when he signed a contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs on August 1, 1997. Worth US\$10 million over five years, including a signing bonus of \$7.5 million, it was considerably more than the maximum rookie contract of \$850,000 per year the Canucks, as the team that drafted Öhlund, were allowed to offer. Under league rules, the Canucks were given one week to either match the contract or trade Öhlund's NHL rights to the Maple Leafs. Rather than lose him, the Canucks agreed to the contract on August 7.
As part of a promotion for the 1998 Winter Olympics, the first to allow NHL participation in the ice hockey tournament, the Canucks opened the 1997–98 season with a pair of games against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in Tokyo. Öhlund thus played his first NHL game in Japan on October 3, 1997. He scored his first goal against Félix Potvin of the Toronto Maple Leafs on October 9, as well as earning his first assist in that game. Playing 77 games as a rookie, he tied Jyrki Lumme for the team lead in scoring among defencemen with 7 goals and 30 points. In recognition of his play during the season, he was awarded the Babe Pratt Trophy, given to the Canucks' best defenceman. In addition, Öhlund was nominated for the Calder Memorial Trophy as the best rookie in the league, finishing second in voting to Sergei Samsonov of the Boston Bruins with 11 first-place ballots to Samsonov's 43. His 30 points, the fifth best total among first year players and highest by a rookie defenceman, helped him earn a position on the NHL All-Rookie Team.
In his second season in the NHL, Öhlund was selected to the annual NHL All-Star Game as a replacement for an injured player. Playing for the World team, composed of NHLers from outside North America, Öhlund scored one goal and had an assist as the North American team won, 8–6. With 9 goals and 35 points in 74 games, Öhlund led the Canucks' defencemen in scoring and placed fifth overall on the team.
Prior to the start of the 1999–2000 season, in a pre-season game against the Ottawa Senators on September 21, 1999, a puck deflected off Öhlund's stick and struck him in the right eye. The injury forced Öhlund to miss the first 38 games of the season. He underwent surgery to correct his vision and returned to the Canucks the same season and scored 20 points in 42 games, again winning the Babe Pratt Trophy as the Canucks' best defenceman. The following year, he missed an additional 17 games after undergoing surgery once more to relieve building internal pressure on his eye. Playing in his first game back in the lineup on November 28, 2000, Öhlund scored the game-winning goal for the Canucks in a 4–1 win over the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. Öhlund played the final 65 games of the season, scoring 8 goals and 28 points. He also made his Stanley Cup playoffs debut, recording four points in four games.
The 2001–02 season saw Öhlund play 81 games and record a career-high 36 points, with an additional two points in six playoff games. A knee injury during the 2002–03 season led Öhlund to miss several games; while he only scored 2 goals in the 59 games he played in, Öhlund set a career-high in assists with 27. That was followed by appearing in a career-high 13 playoff games, where he had three goals and four assists for seven points. In 2003–04, Öhlund tallied a career-high 14 goals and played in all 82 games with Vancouver for the first time in his career. For his efforts, Öhlund was named the winner of the Babe Pratt Trophy.
The 2004–05 season was cancelled due to the 2004–05 NHL lockout. Like many other NHL players, Öhlund played in Europe, joining his former team, Luleå HF, on December 21. However, eight days later, after playing two games with the team and scoring one goal, Öhlund left the team. As well as briefly playing in Sweden, Öhlund took part in a charity hockey match set up by Canucks teammate Brad May and held in Vancouver on December 12, 2004. Including several NHL players, the game raised nearly \$1 million for charity. The NHL resumed play for the 2005–06 season; Öhlund recorded 33 points in 78 games, including leading Canucks defencemen with 13 goals, winning the Babe Pratt Trophy for the fourth time in his career.
Early in the 2007–08 season, Öhlund received a four-game suspension, the first of his career, for an incident near the end of a November 16, 2007, game against the Minnesota Wild. In the third period, Wild forward Mikko Koivu hit Öhlund, and Öhlund retaliated by slashing Koivu in the leg with his stick, breaking Koivu's fibula. After returning from the suspension, Öhlund became the Canucks' all-time leader in goals among defencemen, scoring the game-tying goal against the Edmonton Oilers on December 15, 2007, to pass former teammate Jyrki Lumme with 84 goals. After bone chips were detected in his knee in early March 2008, Öhlund underwent knee surgery on March 13 and missed the remainder of the season. The leading scorer amongst Canucks defencemen at the time of the surgery, Öhlund finished second amongst the defencemen with 24 points in 53 games.
With the departure of Markus Näslund in the 2008 off-season, Öhlund became the longest serving player on the Canucks' roster. Before the beginning of the 2008–09 season, Öhlund was named (along with Ryan Kesler and Willie Mitchell) as alternate captains to goaltender Roberto Luongo, who replaced Näslund as captain. Due to the limitations of having a goalie as captain, Öhlund was designated the captain's traditional duty of taking ceremonial faceoffs. Beginning the season 22 points behind Jyrki Lumme and Dennis Kearns for the franchise's all-time point-scoring record for a defenceman, Öhlund surpassed the mark on March 15, 2009, with an assist in a 4–2 win against the Colorado Avalanche for his 322nd point as a Canuck. He played all 82 games for the second time in his career, and finished tied for third on the team for points by a defenceman with 25.
Over 11 seasons with the Canucks, Öhlund registered team records of 93 goals and 325 points as a defenceman (both since passed by Alexander Edler). His 232 assists ranked fourth among all-time Canucks defencemen, while his 770 games played was second among defencemen and fifth overall. In his latter years with the Canucks, Öhlund served as a mentor while being paired with fellow defenceman and Swedish native Alexander Edler, who was beginning his NHL career.
### Tampa Bay Lightning
Becoming an unrestricted free agent in the off-season, Öhlund signed a seven-year, \$26.25 million contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning on July 1, 2009. Brought in as a mentor to fellow Swedish defenceman Victor Hedman, whom the Lightning drafted second overall in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, Öhlund was named an alternate captain of the Lightning. His first game with the Lightning was on October 3, 2009, against the Atlanta Thrashers; Öhlund had one assist in the game. The following month, he suffered an ankle injury after catching his skate into ice during a game against the Los Angeles Kings on November 14, 2009. He returned after missing seven games. He re-injured the ankle in March 2011 after colliding with Christian Hanson during a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, causing him to miss an additional eight games. Öhlund finished his first season with the Lightning with no goals and 13 assists in 67 games. Offensively, it marked the lowest point total of his career and the first time he did not score a goal during the regular season during his NHL career up to that point. Despite his reduced offensive statistics, he remained a key defenceman on the Lightning roster, leading the team with 22 minutes and 47 seconds of average ice time per game and 116 blocked shots.
In the off-season, Öhlund underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee. Though he aggravated the knee at the beginning of the Lightning's training camp in September 2010, he continued to play in pre-season games. However, due to inflammation and fluid build-up in the knee, he was sidelined for the first eight games of the 2010–11 season. Later in the season, he began suffering from a deep bone bruise on his left knee that he continued to play in spite of. In late-February and early-March 2011, he was subsequently sidelined two games with a lower-body injury. Öhlund failed to score a goal for the second consecutive regular season in 2010–11, recording 5 assists in 72 games, a career-low. His ice time reduced significantly as he ranked sixth among team defencemen with an average of 18 minutes and 43 seconds per game. After finishing 12th overall in the Eastern Conference the previous season, the Lightning qualified for the 2011 playoffs as the fifth seed. In Game 2 of the opening round against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Öhlund registered his first goal with the Lightning, scoring into an empty net in a 5–1 win. He added two assists over the course of a career-high 18 playoff games as Tampa Bay was eliminated by the eventual Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals. In an interview the following year, Öhlund recalled the 2010–11 season as "the most fun [he] had playing hockey, ever".
Prior to the start of the 2011–12 season, Öhlund began experiencing inflammation in his right knee. The Lightning placed him on injured reserve on October 4, 2011; a week later, he underwent arthroscopic surgery on both knees. After there was optimism he was close to returning to the lineup in December, he suffered a setback with his left knee and underwent further surgery in February 2012. During his recovery, he told reporters with Swedish newspaper Expressen that he was unsure whether he could continue playing.
His contract with the Lightning expired July 1, 2016. He was until that date listed on the team roster but was on injured reserve since 2011, with hockey experts citing him alongside Chris Pronger and Marc Savard as players who have not officially retired while letting their contracts continue, but who will not play in the NHL again.
"For a long period of time I've been trying to get better and better, but clearly the longer you don't play, the likelihood of playing again gets smaller and smaller each day, especially at my age," Öhlund told the Tampa Tribune in April 2013. "I don't know long term what my situation will be, but I'm sure it will be figured out shortly."
Öhlund was inducted into the Canucks' Ring of Honour on December 16, 2016.
## International play
Early in his career, Öhlund was selected to play in three World Junior Championships for Sweden. Beginning in 1994, he contributed two assists in seven games as part of a silver medal effort. As the medals were determined by a round-robin format, Sweden fell one point short of Canada, losing 6–4 to them in their final and deciding game. After a bronze medal in 1995, Öhlund returned for a third straight World Junior tournament in 1996 to record five assists and was named the tournament's Best Defenceman. He was additionally named to the Tournament All-Star Team as he captured his second World Junior silver medal.
Öhlund made his debut for the Swedish senior national team in 1997 at the World Championships, his first of three appearances in the tournament. He scored 2 goals and added 1 assist in 11 games as Sweden captured a silver medal. He returned the following year in 1998 to match his previous statistical output while earning his first gold medal with Sweden. In his third World Championship appearance, the 2001 World Championships, Öhlund tallied five points to help Sweden to a bronze medal.
The 1998 Winter Olympics was the first of three consecutive Olympic games Öhlund appeared in. He played in all four games for Sweden and registered one assist as Sweden finished in a tie for fifth place, out of medal contention. Four years later, Öhlund was selected for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. However, in pre-Olympic drug testing by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Öhlund tested positive for the banned substance acetazolamide. The substance was inadvertently ingested after Öhlund took Diamox, a drug he had used previously while undergoing eye surgery. As the ingestion was unintentional, he was cleared to play. After a dominant round-robin, Sweden was eliminated by Belarus in the quarter-final game, considered one of the biggest upsets in international hockey history and the darkest moment in Swedish hockey history. Öhlund finished the tournament with two points in four games.
In the following Olympics, Öhlund helped Sweden to the 2006 gold medal in Turin. After earning two assists in six games, Öhlund was forced out of the tournament after getting hit into the boards and fracturing his ribs during a game against Switzerland. Unable to play in the final against Finland, he nevertheless received a gold medal from the IOC. Canucks teammates Daniel and Henrik Sedin, who also played on the championship team, offered to give Öhlund one of their gold medals if the IOC would not give him one, while his replacement on the team, Niklas Kronwall, made the same offer.
Additionally, Öhlund competed in the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, which preceded the 2004–05 NHL lockout. In four games, he recorded one goal and one assist.
## Personal life
Growing up in Piteå, Öhlund idolised fellow Swedish defenceman Börje Salming, who played 17 seasons in the NHL. He is married to wife Linda and has a daughter, Hannah, and a son, Viktor. They reside in Tampa during the hockey season, and return to Piteå during the summer.
## Career statistics
### Regular season and playoffs
### International
### All-Star Games
- All stats taken from NHL.com
## Awards
### NHL
### International
### Vancouver Canucks team awards |
16,143,599 | Haruka Tomatsu | 1,168,791,048 | Japanese actress (born 1990) | [
"1990 births",
"21st-century Japanese singers",
"21st-century Japanese women singers",
"Anime singers",
"Japanese stage actresses",
"Japanese video game actresses",
"Japanese voice actresses",
"Living people",
"Seiyu Award winners",
"Singers from Ichinomiya, Aichi",
"Sony Music Entertainment Japan artists",
"Voice actresses from Aichi Prefecture"
] | Haruka Tomatsu (戸松 遥, Tomatsu Haruka, born February 4, 1990) is a Japanese actress and singer, employed by Music Ray'n. She received the Rookie of the Year award at the 3rd Seiyu Awards and the Synergy Award at the 9th Seiyu Awards. Tomatsu voiced Asuna Yuuki in Sword Art Online, Zero Two in Darling in the Franxx, Lala Satalin Deviluke in To LOVE-Ru, Kyoko Hori in Horimiya, Morgiana in Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic and Naruko "Anaru" Anjo in Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day.
Tomatsu began a singing career in 2008, performing the song "Naissance" which was used as the ending theme to the television drama series Here Is Greenwood. Her second single "Motto Hade ni Ne" was used as the opening theme to Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens. In 2009, she became part of the music unit Sphere, alongside Aki Toyosaki, Minako Kotobuki and Ayahi Takagaki. She released her first album Rainbow Road in 2010, and two compilation albums in 2016.
## Career
### Acting and Voice acting
Tomatsu was born in Ichinomiya, Aichi. Her voice acting career began when she participated in an audition held by Sony Music Entertainment Japan subsidiary Music Ray'n from 2005 to 2006. In January 2006, she participated in the Tōhō Cinderella audition held by Tōhō Entertainment.
Tomatsu made her voice acting debut in 2007, playing a student in Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight!. That same year, she played her first starring role as Corticarte Apa Lagranges in Shinkyoku Sōkai Polyphonica.
After graduating from high school, Tomatsu moved to Tokyo in 2008 to go to university and to continue her voice acting career. That same year, she played the roles of Shiho Sannomiya in Zettai Karen Children, Lala Satalin Deviluke in To Love-Ru, and Nagi in Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens. She then made her live-action debut as Mieko Nitta in the drama series Here Is Greenwood. She also played the role of Ami Misaki in the television drama series RH Plus. She received the Rookie of the Year Award at the 3rd Seiyu Awards.
In 2012, Tomatsu played Asuna Yuuki in Sword Art Online. In 2013, she received the Best Supporting Actress Award at the 7th Seiyu Awards, and the Synergy Award for her role in Yo-Kai Watch at the 9th Seiyu Awards. In 2018, she appeared as herself in the television drama series Koe Girl!, which featured her as a voice actress taking care of the series' main characters; the series also featured footage from one of her concerts. She also played Zero Two in Darling in the Franxx. In 2021 she played Kyoko Hori in Hori-san to Miyamura-kun.
### Music
Tomatsu performed the song "Sekai de Ichiban Yabai Koi" (世界で一番ヤバイ恋), which was used as the fourth ending theme for the series Kyōran Kazoku Nikki. Her next release was the song "Naissance", which was used as the ending theme to the drama series Here Is Greenwood. "Naissance", her first single, was released on September 3, 2008. Her second single and first anime-related single, "Motto Hade ni ne!" (motto☆派手にね!), was used as the opening theme to the anime television series Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens; the single was released on October 28, 2009. Her third single "Musuhi no Toki" (産巣日の時) was released on November 26, 2008; the title track is used as the ending theme to Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens.
In 2009, Music Ray'n formed the music unit Sphere, which consists of Tomatsu, Aki Toyosaki, Minako Kotobuki and Ayahi Takagaki. Her fourth single "Koi no Uta" (こいのうた) was released on May 13, 2009; the title track is used as the ending to the anime series Shinkyoku Sōkai Polyphonica S. This was followed by her fifth single "Girls, Be Ambitious", which was released on February 8, 2010; the title track is used as the ending theme to the anime series Sound of the Sky. She released her first solo album Rainbow Road on February 24, 2010; the album peaked at No. 15 on the Oricon weekly charts and charted for four weeks. She then released her sixth single "Nagisa no Shooting Star" (渚のSHOOTING STAR) on August 16, 2010. Her seventh single "Baby Baby Love", used as the ending theme to the 2010 anime television series Motto To Love-Ru, was released on November 3, 2010.
Her eighth single, "Oh My God", was released on July 25, 2011; the title track was used as the anime series Nekogami Yaoyorozu. This was followed by her ninth single "Yume Sekai" (ユメセカイ, lit. "Dream World") which was released on July 25, 2012; the title track was used as the first ending theme to the anime television series Sword Art Online. Her next release was her tenth single "Q&A Recital!" (Q&A リサイタル!) which was released on October 29, 2012. Her second solo album Sunny Side Story, released on January 16, 2013, peaked at No. 5 on the Oricon weekly charted and charted for five weeks.
Her eleventh single, "Pachi Pachi Party", was released on July 22, 2013, and her 12th single "Hikari Gift" (ヒカリギフト, Hikarigifuto) was released on January 27, 2014. She released her 13th single "Fantastic Soda!!" on August 11, 2014. This was followed by her 14th single "Courage", released on December 3, 2014, and used as the second opening theme to the anime television series Sword Art Online II. It became her best performing single to date, peaking at No. 4 on the Oricon weekly charts and charting for eleven weeks. Her third solo album Harukarisk\*Land, released on March 18, 2015, peaked at No. 5 on the Oricon weekly charts and charted for four weeks.
Tomatsu released her fifteenth single "Step A Go! Go!" on October 12, 2015. This was followed by her sixteenth single "Cinderella Symphony" (シンデレラ☆シンフォニー), which was released on February 29, 2016. She then released two best albums titled Tomatsu Haruka Best Selection (Sunshine) (戸松遥 BEST SELECTION -sunshine-) and Tomatsu Haruka Best Selection (Starlight) (戸松遥 BEST SELECTION -starlight-) on June 15, 2016. In July 2016, as part of Sphere, she made her North American live debut at Anime Expo. Her seventeenth single "Monokuro/Two of Us" (モノクロ/Two of us) was released on November 7, 2016; the song "Two of Us" is used as the theme song to the video game Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization. Her eighteenth single, "Uchōten Traveller" (有頂天トラベラー), was released on October 23, 2017; the title track is used as the ending theme to the anime series PriPri Chi-chan!!. She released her fourth solo album Colorful Gift on May 14, 2018. Her 18th single "Try & Joy" was released on September 5, 2018. Her 19th single "Resolution" was released digitally on October 13, 2019, and received a physical release on November 20, 2019; the title song is used as the third opening theme to the anime series Sword Art Online: Alicization.
## Personal life
Tomatsu announced her marriage on her blog on January 11, 2019. She announced the birth of her first child, a girl, on February 9, 2021.
## Filmography
### Anime
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------|
| 2007 | Bokurano | Futaba Yamura | |
| Engage Planet Kiss Dum | Mayura | Episode 1 | |
| Les Misérables: Shōjo Cosette | Audrey | | |
| Moetan | Sumi Kuroi | | |
| Shinkyoku Sōkai Polyphonica | Corticarte Apa Lagranges | First main role in a TV anime series | |
| Sky Girls | Yayoi Makihara | | |
| 2008 | Hell Girl: Three Vessels | Hidemi Kashiwagi | |
| Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens | Nagi | | |
| Kemeko Deluxe! | M.M. | | |
| Kyōran Kazoku Nikki | Senko Himemiya/Chika Midarezaki | | |
| Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season | Mileina Vashti | | |
| Mōryō no Hako | Kanako Yuzuki | | |
| Shina Dark | Garlet Fey Sowauge | | |
| To Love Ru | Lala Satalin Deviluke | | |
| Zettai Karen Children | Shiho Sannomiya | | |
| 2009 | You're Under Arrest: Full Throttle Season 3 | Kaori Takano | |
| A Certain Scientific Railgun | Kinuho Wannai | | |
| Asura Cryin''' | Misao Minakami | | |
| Basquash! | Rouge | | |
| Canaan | Yunyun | | |
| Cross Game | Aoba Tsukishima | | |
| GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class | Yamaguchi Kisaragi | | |
| Modern Magic Made Simple | Yumiko Cristina Ichinose | | |
| Nyan Koi | Akari Kirishima, Kotone Kirishima | | |
| Polyphonica Crimson S | Corticarte Apa Lagranges | | |
| Samurai Harem: Asu no Yoichi | Ayame Ikaruga | | |
| Sora no Manimani | Hime Makita | | |
| Student Council's Discretion | Miyashiro Kanade | | |
| White Album | Mizuki Mana | | |
| 2010 | Asobi ni Iku yo! | Manami Kinjō | |
| Demon King Daimao | Eiko Teruya | | |
| Durarara | | Rio Kamichika | |
| Inazuma Eleven | Kudou Fuyuka | | |
| Katanagatari | Princess Hitei | | |
| Ladies versus Butlers! | Hedyeh | | |
| Mitsudomoe | Hitoha Marui | | |
| Motto To Love Ru | Lala Satalin Deviluke | | |
| Otome Yōkai Zakuro | Byakuroku | | |
| Shiki | Megumi Shimizu | | |
| Sound of the Sky | Maria | Tomatsu is the singer of the ED 'Girls, Be Ambitious' | |
| Star Driver | Matsuri Hyou | | |
| Tatakau Shisho | Noloty Maruchie | | |
| 2011 | Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day | Naruko Anjō | |
| Beelzebub | Angelica, Yuka Hanazawa | | |
| C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control | Mashu | | |
| Hanasaku Iroha | Yuina Wakura | | |
| Inazuma Eleven GO | Shinsuke Nishizono | | |
| Mitsudomoe Zoryochu! | Hitoha Marui | | |
| Nekogami Yaoyorozu | Mayu | | |
| Softenni | Yayoi Hiragishi/Uzuki Hiragishi | | |
| The Idolmaster | Ai Hidaka | Episode 10 | |
| Working' | | Mitsuki Mashiba | |
| 2012 | Accel World | Megumi Wakamiya | |
| Bodacious Space Pirates | Gruier Serenity | | |
| Good Luck Girl! | Ranmaru Rindou | | |
| Inazuma Eleven GO: Chrono Stone | Shinsuke Nishizono | | |
| Kokoro Connect | Nana Nishino | | |
| Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic | Morgiana | | |
| My Little Monster | Shizuku Mizutani | | |
| Natsuiro Kiseki | Yuka Hanaki | | |
| Queen's Blade Rebellion | Tarnyang | | |
| Sword Art Online | Asuna Yuuki | | |
| To Love Ru Darkness | Lala Satalin Deviluke | | |
| Waiting in the Summer | Ichika Takatsuki | | |
| 2013 | A Certain Scientific Railgun S | Kinuho Wannai | |
| Coppelion | Ibara Naruse | | |
| Hyakka Ryōran: Samurai Bride | Mataemon Araki | | |
| Magi: The Kingdom of Magic | Morgiana | | |
| Maoyu | Older Sister Maid | | |
| My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU | Kaori Orimoto | | |
| Pocket Monsters XY | Jessica | | |
| Pretty Rhythm: Rainbow Live | Bell Renjōji | | |
| Samurai Flamenco | Mari Maya | | |
| The World God Only Knows: Goddesses | Lune | | |
| Unlimited Psychic Squad | Shiho Sannomiya | | |
| Valvrave the Liberator | Saki Rukino | | |
| Wanna Be the Strongest in the World | Rio Kazama | | |
| Yozakura Quartet \~Hana no Uta\~ | Kishi Tōka | | |
| 2014 | HappinessCharge PreCure! | Iona Hikawa/Cure Fortune | |
| Inazuma Eleven GO Galaxy | Neol Lotts, Shinsuke Nishizono | | |
| Lord Marksman and Vanadis | Eleonora Viltaria | | |
| Sakura Trick | Haruka Takayama | | |
| Sword Art Online II | Asuna Yuuki | | |
| The Irregular at Magic High School | Sayaka Mibu | | |
| Wake Up, Girls! | Karina | | |
| Yo-Kai Watch | Keita Amano | | |
| 2015 | Absolute Duo | Imari Nagakura | |
| Durarara | x2 | Rio Kamichika | |
| Gate | Piña Co Lada | | |
| Gintama | Ginko Sakata | Genderswapped form of Gintoki Sakata appearing in the Dekobokko Arc (Episodes 275–277) | |
| Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? | Eina Chūru | | |
| Mikagura School Suite | Nyamirin | | |
| My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU TOO! | Kaori Orimoto | | |
| Punch Line | Rabura Chichibu | | |
| To Love Ru Darkness 2nd | Lala Satalin Deviluke | | |
| Tokyo Ghoul √A | Nashiro Yasuhisa | | |
| Working | ! | Mitsuki Mashiba | |
| Yo-Kai Watch Season 2 | Keita Amano | | |
| 2016 | Gate 2nd Season | Piña Co Lada | |
| Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash | Mutsumi | | |
| Matoi the Sacred Slayer | Claris Tonitolus | | |
| Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn RE:0096 | Micott Bartsch | | |
| Sweetness and Lightning | Shinobu Kojika | | |
| ReLIFE | Rena Kariu | | |
| Terraformars Revenge | Yuriko Minamoto | | |
| The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. | Kuriko/Kusuko Saiki | Female form of Kusuo Saiki | |
| Time Travel Girl | Akira Hayase | | |
| WWW.Working | | Hana Miyakoshi | |
| 2017 | Our love has always been 10 centimeters apart | Natsuki Enomoto | |
| Scum's Wish | Sanae Ebato | | |
| The Saga of Tanya the Evil | Mary Sioux | | |
| Tsuredure Children | Hotaru Furuya | | |
| Two Car | Misaki Nagai | | |
| 2018 | Darling in the Franxx | Code:002 | |
| Goblin Slayer | Sword Master | | |
| Inazuma Eleven: Ares no Tenbin | Hanta Hattori, Akane Miyano | | |
| Inazuma Eleven: Orion no Kokuin | Hanta Hattori | | |
| Persona 5: The Animation | Haru Okumura | | |
| Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon | Mina | | |
| Sword Art Online: Alicization | Asuna Yuuki | | |
| Violet Evergarden | Iris Cannary | | |
| 2019 | Demon Lord, Retry! | Killer Queen | |
| Fruits Basket | Aritamis Donpanina Taios | | |
| How Clumsy you are, Miss Ueno | Kitanaga | | |
| How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? | Rumika Aina | | |
| Miru Tights | Ren Aikawa | ONA | |
| O Maidens in Your Savage Season | Sonoe Jūjō | | |
| Oresuki | Sumireko "Pansy" Sanshokuin | | |
| Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld | Asuna Yuuki | | |
| Wasteful Days of High School Girls | Akane "Wota" Kikuchi | | |
| Yatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikki | Monaka Yatogame | | |
| 2020 | A Certain Scientific Railgun T | Kinuho Wannai | |
| Beyblade Burst Superking | Hikaru Asahi | ONA | |
| Yatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikki 2 Satsume | Monaka Yatogame | | |
| 2021 | Horimiya | Kyoko Hori | |
| Idoly Pride | Rio Kanzaki | | |
| Peach Boy Riverside | Winny | | |
| Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World 2nd Season | Fortuna | | |
| Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town | Mena | | |
| Yatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikki 3 Satsume | Monaka Yatogame | | |
| 2022 | Call of the Night | Seri Kikyō | |
| Cardfight | Vanguard will+Dress | Yurina Nukata | |
| Girls' Frontline | M4A1 | | |
| Shaman King | Teruko Amano | | |
| Uncle from Another World | Tsundere Elf/Suzailgiererzegalnelvzegilreagranzelga Elga | | |
| Yatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikki 4 Satsume | Monaka Yatogame | | |
| 2023 | Ayakashi Triangle | Yayoi Toba | |
| Horimiya: The Missing Pieces | Kyoko Hori | | |
| Insomniacs After School | Yui Shiromaru | | |
| Saint Cecilia and Pastor Lawrence | Mel | | |
| The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen | Tiara | | |
| | | | |
### Films
### Original video animation (OVA)
### Video games
### Television drama
### Drama CDs
- Aion – Seine Miyazaki
- Kyōran Kazoku Nikki – Senko Himemiya/Chika Midarezaki
- Shinako-i drama CD (しなこいっドラマCD<sup> [ja]</sup>) – Reiko Ibata
- To Love Ru – Lala Satalin Deviluke
- Twinkle Stars – Sakuya Shiina
- Hanikami, Kanojo wa Koi o Suru ~ Hana Mihen – Satsuki Myoga
### Dubbing
#### Live-action
#### Animation
## Discography
### Albums
- Rainbow Road (2010)
- Sunny Side Story (2013)
- Harukarisk*Land (2015)
- Best Selection \~Starlight/Sunshine\~ (2016)
- Best Selection \~Starlight\~ (2016)
- Best Selection \~Sunshine\~ (2016)
- Colorful Gift (2018)
### Singles
- "Mahō Shōjo Magical-tan" (魔法少女マジカルたん!) (July 25, 2007) (Moetan Opening theme)
- "Naissance" (September 3, 2008)
- "Motto Hade Ni Ne!" (October 29, 2008) (Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens Opening theme)
- "Musuhi no Toki" (November 26, 2008) (Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens Ending theme)
- "Koi no Uta" (May 13, 2009) (Shinkyoku Sōkai Polyphonica Crimson S Ending theme)
- "Girls, Be Ambitious" (January 27, 2010) (Sound of the Sky Ending theme)
- "Nagisa no Shooting Star" (August 4, 2010)
- "Monochrome" (October 3, 2010) (Star Driver Insert song)
- "Baby Baby Love" (March 11, 2011) (Motto To Love-Ru Ending theme)
- "Oh My God" (July 13, 2011) (Nekogami Yaoyorozu Ending theme)
- "Yume Sekai" (July 25, 2012) (Sword Art Online Ending theme)
- "Q&A Recital!" (October 17, 2012) (My Little Monster Opening theme)
- "My Independent Destiny" (2012) (Sword Art Online Character song as Asuna Yuuki)
- "White Flower Garden" (2012) (Sword Art Online Character song as Asuna Yuuki)
- "Pachi Pachi Party" (July 10, 2013)
- "Hikari Gift" (January 15, 2014)
- "Fantastic Soda!!" (July 30, 2014)
- "Holy Lonely Justice" HappinessCharge PreCure! (Cure Fortune Character Song)
- "Get Music!" Pretty Rhythm Rainbow Live (Bell (Beru) Renjouji Character Song)
- "Courage" (December 3, 2014) (Sword Art Online II'' 2nd opening theme)
- "STEP A GO! GO!" (September 30, 2015)
- "Cinderella ☆ Symphony" (シンデレラ☆シンフォニー) (February 17, 2016)
- "Monokuro / Two of Us" (October 26, 2016)
- "Ubiquitous db" (feat. Rina Hidaka) (2017) (Sword Art Online Ordinal Scale Song As Asuna Yuuki)
- "Uchouten Traveler" (有頂天トラベラー) (October 11, 2017) (PriPri Chi-chan! 3rd ending theme)
- "TRY & JOY" (September 5, 2018) |
40,047,409 | Year of Luigi | 1,169,254,613 | Celebration of fictional character Luigi | [
"2013 in video gaming",
"Anniversaries",
"Luigi",
"Luigi video games",
"Mario (franchise)",
"Year of Luigi"
] | The Year of Luigi was the 30th-anniversary celebration of the fictional character Luigi. He was created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto for the 1983 arcade game Mario Bros. and has appeared frequently as a minor or supporting character in the Mario franchise since. Due to Nintendo's decision to develop Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon and Mario & Luigi: Dream Team at the same time, they declared 2013 the Year of Luigi. According to Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo staff members also had the urge to develop games focused on Luigi, and considered the character underrepresented compared to Mario. It was announced via Nintendo Direct on February 14, 2013, by Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata and ended on March 18, 2014.
Games released in The Year of Luigi include Dark Moon, Dream Team, New Super Luigi U, and Dr. Luigi, all starring Luigi as the protagonist, and with little or no appearance of Mario. References to Luigi and to the Mario Bros. remix titled Luigi Bros., are in Super Mario 3D World. These games were received generally positively, and critics praised the focus on Luigi.
Nintendo released a wide array of Luigi-themed merchandise via Club Nintendo exclusives across the celebration, such as limited collectible pins, coins, a soundtrack selection, and an exclusive Nintendo 3DS XL in July. The company rebranded a Chicago "L" train and Clark/Lake station with Year of Luigi and New Super Luigi U promotion and released a parkour-themed mockumentary about Luigi, both in August. Canadian actor Danny Wells, who portrayed Luigi in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, died that November. In October 2019, Nintendo celebrated the "Month of Luigi" to promote Luigi's Mansion 3.
## History
During a February 2013 Nintendo Direct, the CEO of Nintendo Satoru Iwata, wearing Luigi's cap, announced that Nintendo would be observing the Year of Luigi to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the character's inception. In the Nintendo Direct, Nintendo announced Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, New Super Luigi U, and information about Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. According to Iwata, Nintendo often used Luigi as a supporting character behind his twin brother Mario, so the celebration would focus on Luigi as the primary character. According to Polygon and GameSpot interviews in March with Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo "never really had much in the way of games that have Luigi in the starring role". He cited Luigi's global fan base and that many staff members at Nintendo had wanted to develop games focused exclusively on him because he is more timid than Mario. When they began development for Dark Moon and Dream Team, both of which use Luigi as a primary protagonist, they declared 2013 as the Year of Luigi.
In March 2013, Nintendo made three Miiverse forums—two about the Year of Luigi and one specifically for Dark Moon—for posts and drawings concerning the character. Some Nintendo employees, such as Takashi Tezuka, Yoshihito Ikebata, and Miyamoto, made Miiverse posts to encourage user interaction. This is Miyamoto's first Miiverse post. Later, on August 12, Nintendo partnered with the Chicago Transit Authority to temporarily redesign a Chicago "L" Brown Line train with a green color scheme and Luigi artwork for the celebration; the Brown Line was renamed the "Luigi Line" for the day. A Luigi costumed character was on that train to meet riders through the day. The design also included promotion for New Super Luigi U, and there were kiosks placed at the Clark/Lake station with a playable demonstration. The Luigi-designed train remained in service through September 8. Also in August, Nintendo released the mockumentary Finding Luigi – Legend of Parkour on YouTube, opening with various interviews with parkour athletes who praise Luigi's popularity and skill in the parkour industry, then mysteriously vanish. Two men go on a quest to find and interview Luigi. The mockumentary justifies why Luigi jumps higher than Mario in New Super Luigi U and Super Mario 3D World.
On November 28, 2013, Canadian actor Danny Wells died in Toronto, Ontario at age 72. He voiced and acted in various films and television shows, including as a live-action Luigi in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! spanning 52 episodes. His death was mourned by critics.
In a December Nintendo Direct, Nintendo announced Dr. Luigi, which was released in late December in North America and in mid-January internationally. When Siliconera asked Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé if the Year of Luigi would end in 2013, he confirmed that Nintendo planned on releasing exclusive Luigi-themed content into the following year. February 18, 2014 was the one-year anniversary of The Year of Luigi, but Miyamoto declared on Miiverse that the celebration would continue until March 18, closing its three Miiverse forums. His final post there expressed thanks for the celebration's reception, and some posts were displayed on Nintendo's website. During and following the event, critics speculated future celebrations that could focus on other characters or franchises by Nintendo.
## Games
### Full releases
#### Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon
At the beginning of the February Nintendo Direct, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon received major announcements on its gameplay and new game-modes, marking the first Luigi-oriented game for the celebration. A Luigi's Mansion sequel was announced at E3 2011 tentatively titled Luigi's Mansion 2, and revealed the game and a 2012 holiday release date at E3 2012. The game was delayed to the first half of 2013 for an unspecified reason. In the February Direct, presented by Iwata, Miyamoto held a Poltergust machine from the Luigi's Mansion series. Iwata gave Miyamoto another Luigi cap, dubbed the two of them the "Luigi Brothers", and Miyamoto continued the announcement. The game was released on March 24 to coincide with the celebration. Iwata stated in an Iwata Asks interview with developer Next Level Games that Dark Moon will hopefully kick the Year of Luigi "off to a magnificent starting dash"–all attendees were also wearing Luigi caps. Miyamoto expressed appreciation in Next Level Game's work and its timing with the Year of Luigi, considering how a sequel to Luigi's Mansion was highly anticipated by fans.
In Dark Moon, Luigi is tasked by Professor E. Gadd to capture the ghosts invading the Evershade Valley complex, who have become hostile due to the effects of the Dark Moon crystal, which was shattered by King Boo. Luigi is equipped with the Poltergust 5000, a vacuum repurposed to capture ghosts, and Luigi captures ghosts occupying the mansions via mission-based levels. In a cooperative multiplayer game-mode, and players complete objectives on floors of the "ScareScraper" in a level-like fashion. Critical feedback for the game was positive, being praised for its worldbuilding and puzzle variety, Poltergust mechanics, and centralization on Luigi, and criticized for gameplay padding.
#### New Super Luigi U
Also featured in the Nintendo Direct was New Super Luigi U, downloadable content (DLC) for the 2012 Wii U game New Super Mario Bros. U. It originally served as an expansion pack that would be downloadable from the eShop at an unspecified date, and would include an additional 80 levels on top of the base game. The levels were designed to be much more difficult, so the time to complete them was made shorter so less experienced players would be encouraged to continue, according to producer Takashi Tezuka. At E3 2013, Nintendo announced that Mario would be completely omitted from New Super Luigi U and would be replaced by Nabbit, a now playable non-player character who originally appeared in New Super Mario Bros. U. In addition, Nintendo also announced that the expansion pass would be released as a separate physical purchase for a larger price and would be released the same time as its downloadable counterpart. The physical copy used a green box instead of the Wii U's traditional blue ones. Both retail variants were released July 13 and 26 in Japan and Europe respectively and August 25 in North America.
Gameplay of New Super Luigi U retains most aspects of New Super Mario Bros U. Instead of Mario, the player controls Luigi, who has a higher jump and less friction in the movement, but after completion the player can switch back to regular controlling. The new levels have a harder difficulty and a shorter time to complete them, and some are designed with Luigi-themed decoration. The game received generally positive reception, being praised for its level design and content size; critics also had mixed opinions on Luigi's handling, as well as its difficulty and the time allotted to complete levels.
#### Mario & Luigi: Dream Team
In the same Nintendo Direct, Nintendo announced the fourth installment in the Mario & Luigi series, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, scheduled for a summer release. During the Direct, Iwata specified that the majority of the game would take place within Luigi's dream, where he "might not be as traditionally cowardly" to better centralize Luigi's role. The game released July 12 in Europe, the day after in Japan, and August 11 in North America. Alongside the release, a demo was made available on the Nintendo eShop. Due to the last entry in the series, Bowser's Inside Story, focusing primarily on Bowser instead of Mario and Luigi, series developer AlphaDream conceived ideas for another game focusing solely on Luigi. After conceptualizing the idea of "having a lot of Luigis on the screen that you could control and who would run around", they set Dream Team's setting within a dream to justify its inclusion. According to game director Akira Otani, AlphaDream used Luigi as the butt of gag jokes too often and wanted to equalize Luigi with Mario. In another Iwata Asks interview about Dream Team's development, Otani was surprised to see the Year of Luigi's announcement and was shocked Luigi was as old as he was, meaning AlphaDream's emphasis on Luigi was pure coincidence.
In Dream Team, Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach are invited to vacation at Pi'illo island; when the trip goes awry and the three are put under threat, they investigate the island's central castle to investigate. When Luigi gets distracted and sleeps on a bed in the castle's artifact room, a "Dream Portal" opens up, and its hostile inhabitants kidnap Peach and wreak havoc on Pi'illo island. Mario sets out to retrieve the "Dream Stone" artifact to contain the inhabitants, which involves frequent use of Luigi's dreams to his advantage. Gameplay centralizes around Pi'illo island in an overworld fashion, with Luigi's dreams, the "Dream World", involving platforming elements. When Mario is in the Dream World, a sleeping Luigi can be physically interacted with to alter what happens in the Dream World; for example, making Luigi sneeze will create a gust of wind in the Dream World. Reception for Dream Team was positive, being praised for its writing, characters, and turn-based combat, and criticized for its plot length and use of backtracking. The game was also revered for its Dream World elements, especially the dynamic between the real-world Luigi and his more superior Dream World counterpart.
#### Dr. Luigi
The last full game is Dr. Luigi, which was announced via Nintendo Direct December 18 and released December 31 in North America and January 15 internationally the following year. The sixth entry in the Dr. Mario series, Dr. Luigi has four different modes: "Operation L", which uses L-shaped pills instead of traditional Dr. Mario pills; "Virus Buster", which uses the Wii U GamePad and stylus instead of standard button controls; multiplayer, which includes both local and online gameplay; and "Retro Remedy", which doesn't use any gimmicks and is rather unaltered Dr. Mario gameplay. Luigi replaces Mario, and stands on a pedestal that has a Year of Luigi theming. Critical reception was positive, being praised for the inventiveness of the Operation L gamemode and multiplayer features, and criticized for its lack of new content in comparison to the Dr. Mario predecessors, and some critics reevaluated the series as a whole to be non-inventive and too simple to hold interest.
### Other
#### Super Mario 3D World
If a player who purchased Super Mario 3D World also had data for New Super Luigi U saved on their Wii U, they were given access to Luigi Bros.; Luigi Bros. was accessible via 3D World and featured gameplay identical to that of Mario Bros. but used Luigi as the main character instead of Mario. Nintendo also placed multiple 8-bit depictions of Luigi in hidden locations throughout 3D World.
## Merchandise and promotions
Coinciding with the release of Dark Moon, Nintendo began "Luigi’s 72 Hour Sale", during which their website was temporarily turned green and many games were put on sale. To encourage people to purchase the physical copy of New Super Luigi U, Nintendo posted a survey on the Nintendo Club America website; anyone who completed the survey received virtual currency and was also entered in a draw to win a pin depicting Luigi. 980 of these pins were given. In October, Nintendo released a collectible coin on the Club Nintendo Europe site. The coin was designed with the Year of Luigi logo and came packaged in a green felt bag. In July, Nintendo released an exclusive Nintendo 3DS XL depicting various Luigi's as he appears in Dream Team and a green color scheme; the handheld had a copy of Dream Team pre-installed. It released July 12 and 18 in Europe and Japan respectively, and August 11 in North America. Also in August, Nintendo Club received the purchasable "Year of Luigi Sound Selection", which contained song tracks from games Luigi had starred or been a part of, such as the original Luigi's Mansion. Similar to the 3DS XL bundle, a bundle of a Nintendo 3DS released in November with a cobalt blue color and had Dark Moon preinstalled on the console. In December, also on the Club Nintendo America and Europe cites, a diorama depicting Luigi, the Polterpup, and a ghost in a Dark Moon mansion setting was released. When the Year of Luigi ended Nintendo donated four collectible coins to Nintendo Life UK to give away to readers in a treasure hunt fashion.
## Legacy
2013 was an apparent financial failure for Nintendo, losing \$457 million in total, primarily due to the poor reception of the Wii U and its games; however, an Internet meme spread in the end of the year that declared Luigi the cause of Nintendo's financial loss. Nintendo Life's Thomas Whitehead called the Year of Luigi a success in comparison: "he led the rescue mission, ensuring damage control and smiling gaming faces with his humorous terror, clumsy mannerisms and awesome platforming athleticism. He bailed Mario out in this Year of Luigi, and we'd better not forget it."
### Month of Luigi
In 2019, Nintendo declared October the "Month of Luigi", mainly to promote the new Luigi's Mansion 3. Coinciding with the promotion, Nintendo UK's Twitter account was temporarily renamed from "Super Mario UK" to "Super Luigi UK" and posted daily Luigi trivia. Luigi's Mansion 3 was released on October 31 at the technical end of the Month of Luigi, but daily Luigi trivia continued into mid-November.
## See also
- Super Mario Bros. 35th Anniversary
- Pokémon 25th Anniversary |
16,308,802 | Barbra Streisand's Greatest Hits Volume 2 | 1,157,972,199 | null | [
"1978 greatest hits albums",
"Barbra Streisand compilation albums",
"Columbia Records compilation albums"
] | Barbra Streisand's Greatest Hits Volume 2 is the second greatest hits album recorded by American vocalist Barbra Streisand. It was released on November 15, 1978 by Columbia Records. The album is a compilation consisting of ten commercially successful singles from the singer's releases in the 1970s, with a majority of them being cover songs. It also features a new version of "You Don't Bring Me Flowers", which was released as the collection's only single on October 7, 1978. Originating on Streisand's previous album, Songbird, the new rendition is a duet with Neil Diamond who had also recorded the song for his 1978 album of the same name. The idea for the duet originated from DJ Gary Guthrie who sold the idea to the record label for \$5 million.
Critically appreciated, Barbra Streisand's Greatest Hits Volume 2 received a perfect five-star rating from both AllMusic and Rolling Stone. It was also a commercial success, topping the charts in Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, and peaking at number two in Australia. The album later received certifications in a total of six countries, including in Australia, Canada and the United States. In the latter country, it was certified 5× Platinum and sold over 5 million copies according to the Recording Industry Association of America.
## Promotion and development
In May 1978, Streisand released her twentieth studio album Songbird that featured the song "You Don't Bring Me Flowers". Despite not being released as a physical or commercial single from Songbird, it was distributed in a 7" record format on October 7, 1978. However, the version that appears on Barbra Streisand's Greatest Hits Volume 2 is a duet with American singer Neil Diamond, who also contributed to the song's lyrics. As Streisand released Songbird, Diamond had already recorded a version of "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" on his "I'm Glad You're Here with Me Tonight" album. Because both versions of the song were recorded in the same key, American DJ Gary Guthrie combined the two songs together while playing records at a local radio station in Louisville, Kentucky. Guthrie pitched the idea to CBS Records International (the international arm of Columbia) for a \$5 million contract, to which they eventually accepted, despite CBS breaching the contract initially. Their collaboration was a global, commercial success, topping the charts in both the United States and Canada. The version with Diamond has since sold more than 2 million copies in the United States.
A sequel to her first greatest hits album, Barbra Streisand's Greatest Hits (1970), the second volume contains ten singles released during Streisand's second decade in the recording industry, ranging from "Stoney End" (1970) to "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" (1978). The songs featured on the record were recorded between July 1970 and October 1978. Overall, it features a total of three number-one hits ("The Way We Were", "Evergreen", and "You Don't Bring Me Flowers"), two top-ten singles ("Stoney End" and "My Heart Belongs to Me"), and three Top 40 songs ("Sweet Inspiration / Where You Lead", "Songbird", and "Prisoner"). "All in Love Is Fair" and "Superman" are the two other songs on the track listing. Columbia Records released the compilation on November 15, 1978. The label also issued an 8-track cartridge version of the album in 1978, with a differing track listing; single "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" was split into two separate parts increasing the number of tracks on the record from ten to eleven. In 1987, the album was released in a compact disc format.
## Critical reception
Barbra Streisand's Greatest Hits Volume 2 was critically acclaimed by music critics. It was given a perfect five out of five stars rating by AllMusic's William Ruhlmann, who called it a "genre-defining album [...] that drew upon the rock revolution to redefine classic pop for a new generation". He also gave praise towards the album for successfully capturing the best of her "contemporary soft-rock [and] highly successful" singles from her "largely inconsistent" albums. Additionally, Ruhlmann claimed that the success of the record stemmed from the fact that her singles in the 1970s were more "precious" and not always "show music material", contrasting to her songs in the 1960s. As part of Rolling Stone's The New Rolling Stone Record Guide, released in 1983, they rated the collection a perfect five stars. Streisand's first volume from 1970 and Guilty from 1980 also achieved the same status.
## Commercial performance
The compilation album was a success, topping the charts in four countries. In the United States, Barbra Streisand's Greatest Hits Volume 2 debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200 chart for the week ending December 2, 1978 (also serving as the week's highest new entry). The following week it rose to number three and on January 6, 1979, it topped the chart. The record spent a total of 46 weeks on the Billboard 200, and by December 1984, the album and Streisand's Guilty (1980) had both sold over 4 million physical copies in the United States, becoming quadruple certified by the RIAA. It would later be re-certified to 5× Platinum on October 28, 1994. It was the one of the United States' best-selling albums in 1979, coming in at number 28 on Billboard's annual year-end chart. Billboard's Fred Bronson wrote in The Billboard Book of Number One Hits that the commercial and critical achievements of "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" is what made Barbra Streisand's Greatest Hits Volume 2 a certified Platinum album in the US.
On Canada's chart, compiled by RPM, it debuted at number 60 on the week ending December 9, 1978. Four weeks later, it would top the chart on January 13, 1979. Overall, it spent a total of 20 weeks charting in Canada and later received a triple platinum certification from Music Canada on March 1, 1979. It was also Streisand's first chart-topping album in the United Kingdom, where it spent four consecutive weeks at the highest ranking position and later was certified Platinum for sales upwards of 300,000 copies.
In New Zealand, the album debuted at number five on January 28, 1979, becoming the chart's highest new entry. The following week, it topped the chart and remained at that position for four consecutive weeks; overall, it spent a total of 19 weeks charting in that country. It also charted in Australia, where it peaked at number two according to the Kent Music Report. The Australian Recording Industry Association certified Barbra Streisand's Greatest Hits Volume 2 double Platinum in 2000, signifying sales upwards of 140,000. Although the compilation did not chart in Hong Kong, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry certified the album Platinum for sales of 20,000 copies in 1982.
## Track listing
## Personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of the CD edition of Barbra Streisand's Greatest Hits Volume 2.
- Barbra Streisand – vocals, production (track 1), songwriter (track 1)
- Alan Bergman – songwriter (tracks 5, 6)
- Marilyn Bergman – songwriter (tracks 5, 6)
- Charlie Calello – production, arrangements (track 3)
- Larry Carlton – rhythm arrangements (tracks 4, 9)
- Nick de Caro – arrangements (track 8), orchestra arrangements (track 4), string and horn arrangements (track 9)
- John Desautels – songwriter (track 2)
- Neil Diamond – composition (track 5), songwriter (track 5), duet vocal (track 5)
- Bob Gaudio – production (track 5)
- Alan Gordon – songwriter (track 3)
- Marvin Hamlisch – composition (track 6), songwriter (track 6)
- Don Hannah – arrangements (track 7)
- Carole King – composition (track 7), songwriter (track 7)
- Gary Klein – production (tracks 2, 3, 4, 9)
- Charles Koppelman – executive production (tracks 2, 4)
- Karen Lawrence – songwriter (track 2)
- Alan Lindgren – arrangements (track 5)
- Tommy LiPuma – production (track 8)
- Stephen Nelson – songwriter (track 4)
- Laura Nyro – songwriter (track 10)
- Spooner Oldham – songwriter (track 7)
- Gene Page – arrangements (track 10)
- Marty Paich – production, arranging (track 6)
- Dan Penn – songwriter (track 7)
- Richard Perry – production (tracks 7, 10)
- Phil Ramone – production (track 1)
- Richie Snyder – songwriter (track 9)
- Toni Stern – songwriter (track 7)
- Paul Williams – songwriter (track 1)
- Dave Wolfert – songwriter (track 4)
- Stevie Wonder – songwriter (track 8)
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts
## Certifications
## See also
- List of Billboard 200 number-one albums of 1979
- List of UK Albums Chart number ones of the 1970s |
44,306,796 | Gnome Motion Picture Company | 1,054,608,533 | American film production company | [
"1910 establishments in New York City",
"1911 disestablishments in New York (state)",
"American companies disestablished in 1911",
"American companies established in 1910",
"Companies based in the Bronx",
"Defunct American film studios",
"History of the Bronx",
"Mass media companies disestablished in 1911",
"Mass media companies established in 1910",
"Tremont, Bronx"
] | The Gnome Motion Picture Company was a film production company that is credited with three productions between 1910 and 1911. The purpose of the company to was to produce stories about gnomes. Alice in Funnyland, The Birth of the Gnomes and Alice's New Year's Party were all productions that were most likely never released. Announcements in trade publications ceased in January 1911 and the company treasurer, Frederick Kalmbach, was later sued by the City of New York for taxes. Of the three planned productions, two official synopses were released in The Nickelodeon. Despite no evidence of an actual release, the American Film Institute still recognizes all three films as being released in January 1911.
## History
According to The Nickelodeon the "Gnome Motion Picture Company was formed to manufacture pictures under the Meredith-Jones camera patents, now owned and controlled, together with several other patents, by the Animated Picture Patents Company." The company's incorporation announcement stated it had \$30,000 in capital and its directors were Frederick Kalmbach, James C. Hutchinson and H. Meredith Jones. The studio and offices were located at the southwest corner of Park and Tremont Ave in Bronx, New York City, New York. According to a report, Gnome purchased a Motiograph Moving Picture Machine and Hallberg's Standard Automatic Electric Economizers for their productions.
The company's lead actress was Mildred Hutchinson and employed its staff to produce stories about fictional gnomes, specifically for child audiences. Hutchinson was a seasoned child actress at the time of the productions who had credits working with Edison, Vitagraph and Melies the age of six. Records surrounding the release suggest that Alice in Funnyland, The Birth of the Gnomes and Alice's New Year's Party were never released. The venture ultimately failed and the City of New York sued Frederick Kalmbach, the company treasurer, for unpaid taxes on an assessment of \$3,000. Kalmbach said that the Gnome Motion Picture Company was no longer conducting business when the assessment was made and the case was dismissed by the judge in 1918. The last record of the Gnome Motion Picture Company in trade publications, in both announcements and advertisements, comes from a January 14 issue of Moving Picture World which announces all three of the films would be delayed for a "few days". The American Film Institute still identifies all three films as having been released in January 1911 by Gnome.
The Moving Picture World's Thomas Bedding provided the best recognition of the company. Bedding wrote, "The Gnome Company seem to be working on, what to our minds, is the most interesting phase of the Christmas sentiment. They are making fairy pictures for young people. We fully expect to see other makers follow suit, when they realize what the real Christmas sentiment is, namely one of lightness, brightness, joyousness." Advertisements for the productions show the great desire of the company to produce the three films in the December 1910 season, but interest in the Christmas and New Year's productions would have waned by mid-January 1911 with the productions still not released. Ultimately, the Gnome Motion Picture Company represents an early attempt to cater film productions to children and during the Christmas season.
## Films
### The Birth of the Gnomes
A published synopsis in The Nickelodeon reads as follows, "An old fairy realizing that her span of life is rapidly drawing to a close, brings to life a new race of people, called the Gnomes, who are governed by a new fairy. When the Gnomes appear, the old fairy informs them that their duties will be to perform acts of kindness to all people of the world. After thus admonishing them, the old fairy disappears, and the Gnomes start upon their career of well doing. Many beautiful acts of kindness are performed in the course of their travels, which is through wonderful scenery and in strange places. In one scene the Gnomes discover an old man bemoaning his fate, and him they magically transform to a youth of great beauty. Many other acts of kindness are performed, all of great interest. Finally, the band of Gnomes discover a balloon, and the fairy queen being helped into the basket by the Gnomes, is last seen flying away watched by her adoring subjects." The film was billed at being 1000 feet in length and having a set release for December 12, 1910. Though an announcement stated that the release would be delayed to "Christmas week". No release was ever confirmed in any trade publication after it was delayed into January 1911.
### Alice in Funnyland
A published synopsis in The Nickelodeon reads as follows, "The night before Christmas, Alice, a child of wealth, after going through the usual form of hanging up her stocking, is put to bed by her maid. Alice falls asleep and dreams. Enter Santa Claus and Gnomes who tell Alice to follow her and they will show her part of their Funnyland. Alice follows the little people under the special protection of a policeman two foot high. The little party are seen trotting through beautiful glens and dales until they reach Funnyland. Santa Claus tells her that if she is a good girl all the animals and toys here are hers; as Alice touches each one they come to life. The teddy bear steps out to dance with Alice. As Alice removes the cover from Doll's box the doll dances out, a little king gives a magical entertainment, a clown is very active and all the animals and dolls do some interesting act much to the surprise and delight of little Alice. At last, tired out, Alice falls asleep reclining upon the shoulders of Teddy bear. Then we see her again back in her own little bed. It is now Christmas morning. Her maid awakens and dresses her for the great event, takes her to the drawing room where she is welcomed by her parents to find that her dream has come true." Originally the film was billed as being released for December 19, 1910 and then it was later claimed to be December 26, 1910. This release was attributed in an issue of The Nickelodeon. However, the film was not released on December 19 because an advertisement in Moving Picture World in January 1911 said that the release would be delayed for a "few days". It is unknown, and unlikely, if the film actually was released because no other publications, ads or materials surrounding the Gnome Motion Picture Company followed.
### Alice's New Year's Party
Unlike the first two productions which were the subject of published synopses, Alice's New Year's Party was the subject of no detail in trade publications. This production was never given an exact release date, but was later affirmed to be set for a "Christmas week" release. The American Film Institute cites four bibliographic sources ending with an advertisement in Moving Picture World in January 1911 says that the releases would be delayed for a "few days". The film does not appear to have ever been released. |
303,381 | Trondheim Airport | 1,173,849,262 | International airport serving Trondheim, Norway | [
"1914 establishments in Norway",
"Airports established in 1914",
"Airports in Trøndelag",
"Avinor airports",
"International airports in Norway",
"Stjørdal",
"Transport in Trondheim"
] | Trondheim Airport (Norwegian: Trondheim lufthavn; ), more commonly known as Værnes, is an international airport serving Trondheim, a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The airport is located in Værnes, a village in the municipality of Stjørdal in Trøndelag county, 10 nautical miles (19 km; 12 mi) east of Trondheim. Operated by the state-owned Avinor, it shares facilities with Værnes Air Station of the Royal Norwegian Air Force. In 2018, the airport had 4,441,870 passengers and 58,273 air movements, making it the fourth-busiest in the country. The airport has two terminals; A dates from 1994 and is used for domestic traffic, while B is the renovated former main terminal from 1982, and is used for international traffic. The airport features a main east–west 2,999-metre (9,839 ft) runway, a disused northwest–southeast 1,472-metre (4,829 ft) runway, an integrated railway station and an airport hotel.
The main airlines at the airport are Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), Norwegian Air Shuttle and Widerøe, for all of which Værnes is a focus city. The main route is the service to Oslo, operated by Norwegian, SAS, Widerøe and Wizz Air, which is the fourth-busiest route in Europe and there are also some additional domestic services operated by Airbus A320, Boeing 737, Dash 8 and Embraer E2. In addition to Norwegian, SAS and Wizz Air, the airlines airBaltic, Finnair and KLM operates international routes out of Trondheim. Widerøe operates also with Dash 8 aircraft to six airports in Helgeland and Nord-Trøndelag on PSO-routes on behalf of the Norwegian state. In October 2020, Wizz Air had reported Trondheim and Oslo airport as their new bases in Norway, with daily flights from Trondheim to Oslo, Stavanger, Bodø and Tromsø, however the base in Trondheim was shut down in February 2021, resulting in frequency decrease. Some international services to Copenhagen and Stockholm is provided by SAS and to Amsterdam is provided by KLM. The airport also serves charter services, mainly to the Mediterranean. In total, it connects to 15 domestic and 15 international destinations, as well as 18 charter destinations.
Værnes was taken into use by the Royal Norwegian Army in 1887. The first flight was made in 1914, and aerodrome facilities were gradually installed. The first main installations, including three concrete runways, were built during World War II by Luftwaffe. After the war, the Air Force Pilot School moved to Værnes, although in 1954 most of the other air force activities for Central Norway were moved to Ørland Main Air Station. Civilian aviation started in 1951, when half a barracks was taken into use as a terminal, with the whole building being utilized from 1958. Jet aircraft started serving Værnes from 1963, and the second terminal opened in 1965. The third (the current international Terminal B) was opened in 1982, and the fourth, Terminal A, was opened in 1994, along with the train station. From 1956 to 2004, Braathens was one of the largest airlines at the airport.
## Facilities
Trondheim Airport is a joint military and civilian airport located in the municipality of Stjørdal in Trøndelag, with the northern part of the airport bordering the town of Stjørdalshalsen. To the west, the airport borders the Trondheimsfjord, and to the south the Stjørdal River. Combining the functions as an international, domestic and regional airport, it is located 10 nautical miles (19 km; 12 mi) east of Trondheim. Most of the airport area is owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Defence, although the civilian facilities and the air traffic control are owned and operated by Avinor, a subsidiary of the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications.
### Terminals
The civilian sector consists of two terminals—A and B—which combined are 20,000 square metres (220,000 sq ft), of which 13,500 square metres (145,000 sq ft) is passenger facilities. Terminal A is used for domestic traffic, while Terminal B is used for international services. The check-in facilities for domestic, international and charter are all fitted together at second floor at terminal A. The terminal contains an array of stores and dining places; these include a book store, convenience stores; clothing, crafts and cosmetics; diners, restaurants and pubs; and a 560 square metres (6,000 sq ft) duty-free store. The airport also has three automatic teller machines and a Radisson Blu hotel with 180 rooms and 11 conference rooms. Scandic Hell operates another hotel, the 400-room Rica Hell Hotel, within walking distance of the airport. The airport administration is located in Terminal B, while the administration for airlines and handling agents is located in annexes of Terminal A.
The terminal has stands for 24 aircraft, of which eight of sixteen at Terminal A have jetbridges. Four stands (two at each terminal is size code D, large enough for an Airbus A330 or a Boeing 757), while 20 are for size category C (large enough for an Airbus A320 or Boeing 737). Domestic jets normally use the seven jetbridge stands (gates 30–37), while the five non-bridged gates at Terminal A (gates 25–29) are used for domestic regional aircraft. International flights all use the eight non-bridged gates at Terminal B (gates 42–49). The Air Force has six stands for military freight planes up to the size of a Lockheed C-5 Galaxy (code F), although one is permanently used for deicing.
### Cargo, general aviation and VIP
Southeast of Terminal B is a collection of hangars and facilities belonging to various airlines. The largest is a 2,750 square metres (29,600 sq ft) hangar belonging to Scandinavian Airlines, dating from 1979, and a 1,440 square metres (15,500 sq ft) hangar from 1992 which is used by SAS Cargo. The airline also has two smaller buildings, at 200 and 300 square metres (2,200 and 3,200 sq ft). This area contains the main gate, which is also used for VIP passengers. There are six additional hangars, used by Helitrans (780 and 1,650 square metres or 8,400 and 17,800 square feet), built in 1984 and 1991, a 500-square-metre (5,400 sq ft) hangar belonging to Auticon, a 300-square-metre (3,200 sq ft) hangar belonging to Hilmar Tollefsen and two smaller hangars, one of which belongs to Værnes flyklubb. Værnes handles the largest amount of general aviation in Central Norway, including executive jets.
### Runway and air control
The main runway is 2,999 metres (9,839 ft) long, and runs east–west at 09/27. It is 45 metres (148 ft) wide, plus shoulders of 7.5 metres (25 ft) on each side. The runway is equipped with instrument landing system category 1. The main radar, a combined primary and secondary, is placed at Vennafjell, 9 nautical miles (17 km; 10 mi) south of the airport. Other radars are located at Kopparen, Tronfjell and Gråkallen. The taxiway runs parallel to the full length of the main runway. It is 23 metres (75 ft) wide, with 7.5 metres (25 ft) wide shoulders on each side. The center-distance between the runway and taxiway is 184 metres (604 ft), allowing simultaneous use by code E aircraft (such as Boeing 747). Værnes has a theoretical capacity of 40 air movements per hour, but this is reduced during bad weather, so the airport has a registered capacity of 25.
The airport also has a diagonal runway, which runs 14/32, roughly northwest–southeast. It is 1,035 metres (3,396 ft) long, plus end section of 293 metres (961 ft) on Runway 14 and 126 metres (413 ft) on Runway 32. The runway is closed for traffic, in part because of bad asphalt quality. The current control tower is 55 metres (180 ft) tall and dates from 2005.
### Military
Værnes Air Station is one of two air stations in Central Norway, the other being Ørland Main Air Station. There are no aircraft permanently stationed at Værnes, but the station serves the Home Guard, including its training center and the headquarters of the Trøndelag District (HV-12). Most of the military installations are located on the north side of the runway, although some are also located on the south side, to the east of the civilian terminal. Værnes also serves as a storage base for the United States Armed Forces as part of the Marine Corps Prepositioning Program-Norway. The military owns the runways and taxiways, but these are operated by Avinor. Three to four hundred military aircraft are handled at the air station each year. The military installations contain places for up to six aircraft of the size of a C-5 Galaxy and barracks to house 1,200 soldiers. The Ring Road connects the northern to the southern installations and passes the main runway on the east side.
## History
### Military establishment
Værnes is first recorded in the tenth century as the seat for one of eight chieftains in Trøndelag. The first military activity in the area was as a base for leidang. After the Viking Age, the farm at Værnes was taken over by the king and became the seat of the vogt. From 1671, the farm was owned by a series of military officers and public servants. In 1887, the farm was bought by the Royal Norwegian Army and converted to a camp. The first aircraft to use Værnes was a military Farman MF.7 Longhorn, which took off on 26 March 1914. It was part of the plan to establish the Norwegian Army Air Service, for which Værnes was chosen as the initial station for Central Norway. Radio equipment was installed in 1919 and the first hangar was built in 1920. By 1922, the grass field serving as runway has become insufficient for newer planes, both in terms of length and level, but an extension was not performed until 1925. In 1927, parliament passed legislation to move the division to Rinnleiret from 1930, but this was later annulled. With the delivery of Fokker aircraft in 1930, the runway was again upgraded and extended.
Værnes was surrendered to Luftwaffe on 9 April 1940, during the German occupation of Norway. On 24 April 350 civilians started construction at Værnes, and within a few days 2,000 people were hired. On 28 April, a new 800 metres (2,600 ft) wooden runway was completed. The expansion was part of the plans for Festung Norwegen and was used as a bomber base for attacks on Northern Norway. By May, there were 200 aircraft stationed at Værnes. During the war, particularly in April 1940, the airport was subject to several bombings from the Royal Air Force (RAF). In June, work was started to clear the forests near the airport, and graves from the Viking Age were found. Construction was halted for several weeks while German and Norwegian archaeologists conducted research. In July, work started on building concrete runways, and by 1942 all three runways were finished. The east–west was made 1,620 metres (5,310 ft) long, the north–south was made 1,300 metres (4,300 ft) while the northwest–southeast was made 1,275 metres (4,183 ft) long. A number of taxiways were also constructed and a branch line of the railway was built to the hangars. By 1945, Luftwaffe had built about 100 buildings at Værnes. The land expropriated was estimated at between 1.6 and 3.0 square kilometres (0.62 and 1.16 sq mi). Luftwaffe had also finished the control tower that had been under construction since 1939.
After the war ended, the airport was initial taken over by the Royal Air Force, but they soon withdrew leaving the Norwegian military in charge. Numerous squadrons, including 332, 331 and 337 were stationed at Værnes in the post-war years. In 1952, the pilot school was moved to Værnes, but in 1954 Ørland Main Air Station became the main air force base in Central Norway, and the majority of the armed air forces (with the exception of the school) moved to Ørland.
### Previous airports
Civilian aviation in Trøndelag started in 1937, when Norwegian Air Lines (DNL) started seaplane services from Ilsvika and Jonsvannet in Trondheim. These were terminated during World War II, but taken up again by the Royal Air Force and the Royal Norwegian Air Force during the summer of 1945. They were terminated in November due to the weather and RAF's withdrawal. The following year, DNL started services again, this time from Hommelvik. During winter, the route was not operated. The service was operated with a Short Sandringham flying boat to Oslo and Northern Norway, and a Junkers Ju 52 to Western Norway. The southbound and northbound Sandringhams and the Junkers all met at Hummelvik to exchange passengers. There was only room for two planes at the quay, so the third aircraft had to be anchored in the fjord. In 1947, the airport had 3,500 passengers. On 2 October 1948, the Bukkene Bruse Accident occurred, where a Sandringham aircraft crashed during landing, killing 19 people. In 1949, a reserve airport was built at Skogn, and people were transported from Hommelvik to Skogn along the Nordland Line in case the reserve airport was used. DNL became part of Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) in 1951—the last year it used Hommelvik. Vestlandske Luftfartsselskap continued to use Hommelvik for an additional year. Braathens SAFE started their route from Oslo Airport, Fornebu via Hamar Airport, Stafsberg and Røros Airport on 18 August 1953. However, they chose to operate their de Havilland Herons from Trondheim Airport, Lade, just a few kilometers outside of the city center, in days with clear weather. Braathens SAFE moved all services to Værnes in 1956.
### Civilian establishment
After World War II, there was only general aviation at Værnes, organized by two clubs, Værnes flyklubb and NTH flyklubb. From 1 August 1946 to 31 July 1947, there were 1,221 take-offs from Værnes, mostly during the summer. During parts of 1946 and 1947, the airport was used as a pasture for sheep. The first scheduled service was introduced with a Douglas DC-3 operated to Oslo by DNL during the winter of 1947–48. While there were initially many customers, the lack of sufficient deicing caused low regularity and fewer customers through the season. The route was not reopened the following year.
The air traffic control at Værnes was established in 1946, after the air force had sent personnel to the United Kingdom for training. The Telecommunications Administration took over the responsibility for the radio installations, and the responsibility for the meteorological services became the responsibility of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute. Trondheim Air Traffic Control Center was also established to monitor all air space over Central Norway. In 1955, a glass dome was built on top of the control tower, giving a much better view of the air field.
Prior to World War II, Heimdal had been proposed as a location for the primary airport for Trondheim. Construction had started with drainage and ground works, but this work was interrupted by the war. Because of the large investments made to Værnes by Luftwaffe, a commission was established in 1947 to look into if Værnes or Lade instead should be selected. The commission was unanimous in recommending Værnes, highlighting that the airport was of a sufficient size to handle all civilian and military needs in the foreseeable future, and emphasized the proximity to the railway and highway. However, the commission recommended that Heimdal and Lade be kept as possibilities for future expansion. When the issue was discussed in Parliament, several members of the Standing Committee on Transport and Communications focused on the long distance to Trondheim, but the low investment needs (stipulated to NOK 1.3 million for necessary navigation and air control investments) convinced parliament, who passed legislation in favor of Værnes on 10 June 1952.
In 1956, NATO approved the plans for Værnes to be financed through its infrastructure investment plan, after rejecting proposals for Heimdal. The costs were estimated at NOK 27.4 million and would allow the runway to be extended to support jet aircraft. Such an extension had already been done at Ørland Main Air Station, but NATO wanted to have two military air station of such dimensions in Central Norway. The east–west runway was to be extended to 2,400 metres (7,900 ft); initial proposals had called for the extension to occur on the east side, but the Ministry of Defence instead wanted the expansion of the fjord-side to reduce expropriation costs. This called for a complex civil engineering program, as the railway and highway would have to pass under the runway in tunnels and an artificial island would have to be built in the fjord and the mouth of the Stjørdal River be diverted.
SAS moved its seaplane services to Værnes in 1952, and two-year later started flying the route from Oslo Airport, Fornebu via Trondheim to Bodø Airport using Saab 90 Scandia aircraft. The first terminal was half a 100-square-metre (1,100 sq ft) barracks located beside a military hangar. In 1956, Braathens SAFE moved its services from Lade to Værnes, making the terminal too small for the needs. The whole barracks was taken into use in 1958, doubling the area. Braathens SAFE initially served flights to Trondheim from Oslo Airport, Fornebu with stop-overs at Hamar Airport, Stafsberg, and from 1957 at Røros Airport, using de Havilland Heron aircraft. Concession for the route from Bergen via the new Ålesund Airport, Vigra to Trondheim was granted to Braathens SAFE from 1958. Braathens SAFE then also started using Fokker F-27 turboprops, at first on the Oslo-route, but later also on the West Coast route. When they were taken fully into use, the service to Hamar was terminated.
In 1957, parliament started a new process to consider Heimdal as the primary airport, in part because the airlines and the Civil Aviation Administration stated that they felt Værnes was insufficient. However, higher costs—due to bad ground conditions and existing infrastructure at Værnes, valuated at NOK 150 million—caused parliament to support Værnes. Construction of the new runway therefore commenced in January 1959, with the work subcontracted to Selmer. First the artificial peninsula was built, then the delta of the Stjørdal River was moved, before a tunnel was built around the highway and railway. Finally, the runway could be built on top, and construction completed on 21 October 1961. In 1963, the airport had 115,000 passengers, increasing to 195,000 the following year. That year, SAS started using the Sud Aviation Caravelle jet aircraft on their route.
Parliament passed legislation for the construction of a new 2,000-square-metre (22,000 sq ft) terminal in 1964, which opened on 5 December 1965. the following year, Widerøe started a seaplane route from Værnes to Namsos, Rørvik, Brønnøysund, Sandnessjøen, Mo i Rana and Bodø. To serve the seaplanes, a quay was established at Hell. On 1 July 1968, four airports in Helgeland opened: Namsos Airport, Høknesøra, Brønnøysund Airport, Brønnøy, Sandnessjøen Airport, Stokka and Mo i Rana Airport, Røssvoll. These were served by Widerøe with the land planes de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter. From 1 April 1967, Braathens SAFE was permitted to extend their West Coast service north to Bodø and Tromsø. Starting in 1969, Braathens introduced Boeing 737-200 jet aircraft on the Oslo services and Fokker F-28 jet aircraft on the West Coast services. In 1975, a third control tower was built, located right in front of (the yet to be built) Terminal A.
In 1976, charter planes started operating to Trondheim, after a barracks was rebuilt to facilitate a border control. Several plans for a larger terminal were made, but these were delayed. In the late 1970s, the tarmac was expanded and a new taxiway built. Braathens SAFE opened a new 2,750 square metres (29,600 sq ft) hangar in 1979. The third terminal opened as an extension of the old one in May 1982. It was 5,500 square metres (59,000 sq ft) and the old terminal was converted to a cafeteria. Due to a heavy increase in traffic, the new terminal quickly became too small. During 1985 and 1986, a major overhaul of the main runway was made; it was dismantled and a new foundation and surface was laid. A number of new military buildings were constructed, along with six stands for large cargo aircraft and a new fuel system. In 1988, smaller adjustments, including new washrooms and longer baggage belts, were installed at the terminal. From 1986, Braathens SAFE retired its Fokker F-28, and the West Coast route to Molde was subcontracted to Busy Bee, who started to serve Værnes with their Fokker F-27, and later Fokker 50, aircraft. In 1992, SAS Cargo built a 1,440-square-metre (15,500 sq ft) facility. After Busy Bee's bankruptcy, the regional services were taken over by Norwegian Air Shuttle from 22 January 1993.
### Fourth terminal and deregulation
The fourth and current domestic terminal was opened on 15 November 1994. With 15,000 square metres (160,000 sq ft) of floor space it had seven gates, of which five had jetbridges. The two remaining gates were fitted with jetbridges in July 2012. Værnes became the first airport in the Nordic countries with a train station in the terminal, when Trondheim Airport Station opened. In March 1996, the old terminal was named Terminal B and all international flights were moved there. A new taxiway, which extended the full length of the runway, was opened in 1999, after more artificial land has been created and a second tunnel built for the highway and railway.
Oslo Airport, Gardermoen opened on 8 October 1998, replacing the congested Fornebu. For the first time, an airline could receive sufficient landing slots to challenge SAS and Braathens on domestic routes. The low-cost carrier Color Air was established, and started flights from Oslo to Trondheim using Boeing 737-300 aircraft. SAS and Braathens also saw the opportunity to increase the frequency on the route, and the three airlines between them introduced 39 daily flights. This made the route the fourth-busiest in Europe in terms of the number of aircraft. During this period, there were 84 daily departures to all destinations from Værnes. Color Air filed for bankruptcy on 27 September 1999, ending a price war which had cost the airlines NOK 3 billion.
By April 2000, the number of services by the main airlines was reduced to less than the level before the opening of Gardermoen, with 75 daily departures. Braathens had 33 daily departures, SAS had 22 and Widerøe had 20. Of Braathens' services, 14 were to Oslo, 15 to cities on the West Coast (of which four were operated by Norwegian Air Shuttle) and four were to Bodø, Harstad/Narvik and Tromsø. SAS operated 15 daily flights to Oslo, while eight were operated to Bodø, Harstad/Narvik and Tromsø. One flight was to their main hub in Copenhagen. This was the last year that SAS used DC-9s to Trondheim, phasing in Boeing 737 Next Generation aircraft, supplemented by occasional MD-80s. Widerøe had 15 daily flights to STOLports in Helgeland, and five flights to Sandefjord.
In 2002, SAS acquired Braathens, and the two companies coordinated their routes. All flights from Trondheim to Oslo-Gardermoen were taken over by SAS, who increased to 23 departures per day in each direction. This included a 30-minute headway from 06:30 to 09:30 and from 15:30 to 19:00. This made the route Trondheim–Oslo the busiest in the country. The routes northwards were taken over by Braathens, who increased to six daily trips to Bodø with connections northwards. The daily trip with Braathens to Harstad/Narvik was replaced by a two-round trips with SAS Commuter. Braathens retained the routes to the West Coast, with two flights to Ålesund and seven to Bergen. In addition, Norwegian Air Shuttle continued with two flights to Molde. In 2004, SAS and Braathens merged to form SAS Braathens. The airline changed its name back to Scandinavian Airlines in 2007.
From 1 September 2002, Norwegian Air Shuttle converted from a regional airline to a low-cost carrier and started competing on the route to Oslo. From 5 May 2003, Norwegian started a daily domestic service to Tromsø, from 17 April 2004, they introduced two weekly services to Prague, Czech Republic, and from 26 June to Dubrovnik, Croatia. From 30 October, Norwegian introduced one weekly flight to Murcia, Spain, from 4 November, they introduced five weekly services to London Stansted Airport, United Kingdom. In 2005, Terminal B received a major upgrade, increasing the passenger area with 1,000 square metres (11,000 sq ft). The airport was also rebuilt to 100% security control. The terminal received a new border control for flights to countries outside the Schengen Area and a duty-free store for both departing and arriving passengers. A new 55-metre (180 ft) tall control tower was also built.
From 7 January 2006, Norwegian started a seasonal winter service to Salzburg, Austria; from 7 May 2006, they introduced one weekly service to Nice, France; On 1 April 2008, they started two weekly round trips to Warsaw, Poland; and from 1 June 2008, Norwegian introduced one daily evening flight to Bodø and Tromsø. In 2009, a new indoor parking lot opened, with a capacity of 1,200 cars. It replaced a site with 225 parking places and cost NOK 125 million. The same year saw the opening of the Radisson Blu hotel, costing NOK 220 million, and a new fire station for NOK 80 million. From 31 October 2009, Norwegian started a weekly service to Las Palmas, Spain. On 31 January 2010, SAS operated its last service to Molde. To compensate, the Molde-based Krohn Air was established to start flights between Værnes and Molde Airport, Årø on 3 February, using Dornier 328 aircraft operated by Sun Air of Scandinavia. On 22 February 2010, Nextjet commenced two daily round trips to Åre Östersund Airport and Stockholm-Bromma Airport in Sweden. This connection ended during that year. Scandinavian already had flights to Stockholm. From 28 March 2010, Norwegian moved its three weekly services to London from Stansted to London Gatwick Airport. From 10 June to 30 August 2010, Icelandair operated two weekly services to their hub Keflavík International Airport using Boeing 757 aircraft.
Among international destinations operating in 2018 but not 2010 are Tallinn, Kraków and Gdańsk.
## Future
In a master plan from 2006, Avinor has identified several key development issues to increase the capacity of the airport. For Terminal A, the plans call to keep the existing structure, and gradually expand it westwards, eventually passing over the railway on a culvert. Along the area between the railway and the highway, a south pier is planned to be constructed, with the inside facing immediately towards the railway and the outside having aircraft stands. In the short term, this is planned with six stands for regional aircraft, with a single-story building. The remaining stands currently used for regional aircraft will then be converted to international gates. While Avinor states that there is need for an expansion of Terminal B, no concrete solution has been found, in part because of the lack of space in the area, although this can partially be fixed by removing the general aviation from the area.
At both ends of the runway, the taxiway ends 150 metres (490 ft) from the start of the runway, forcing aircraft which need the full length to backtrack. An extension of the taxiways would help with this problem. Both at Terminal A and B, there will be a need for double taxiways. This will result in insufficient space for general aviation at its current location, and this has been proposed moved eastwards past the military installations. Several airlines, in particular Helitrans, has indicated need for more space. Proposals have been made to establish a heliport to allow flight to oil platforms on the Norwegian continental shelf. The military has suggested to fill in a large section of the river delta at the west end of the runway, and move some of the cargo and helicopter operations there, but environmental concerns have been raised by among others Avinor. The cost of establishing access to the artificial land is also high. By 2050, there may be need for a second, parallel runway to meet demand, and initial plans call for a 1,199 metres (3,934 ft) runway which would be used by general aviation, regional airlines and helicopters.
Between 2009 and 2011, Avinor is extending the runway with 150 metres (490 ft) into the fjord. The masses used for this are coming from the construction of the nearby Gevingåsen Tunnel on the Nordland Line, which will help shorten the travel time of the airport rail link to Trondheim and increase frequency. Once finished, the line may be electrified. Work has commenced on building the E6 northwards to a four-lane highway 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) from Værnes past Stjørdal. This is scheduled for completion in 2013.
In 2016 some politicians suggested a name change to Hell International Airport, given that Æ could be less suitable in the name of an international airport with the same problem if using the name of municipality and nearby village of Stjørdal, so using the name of the nearest village Hell, which is easily writable on foreign keyboards, could be a good idea. A web vote on a newspaper site gave support for that. The name has not been changed (as of 2021), but in English the airport mostly call itself "Trondheim Airport".
## Airlines and destinations
### Overview
Widerøe is a regional airline and uses Dash 8 and Embraer E190 E2 aircraft to operate routes from south to north in Norway. Northwards, Widerøe uses Trondheim Airport as a hub to serve six airports in Nord-Trøndelag and Helgeland on public service obligation contracts with the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications. Scandinavian Airlines is the airline with the most domestic services to Trondheim. The main route is to its hub at Oslo; additional services are operated to Bergen, Bodø, Haugesund, Stavanger and Tromsø, all with C, Embraer E195 and CRJ900 aircraft. Internationally, it provides seasonally weekly flight to Alicante and Split, daily to its hub in Stockholm and 2-3 times daily flights to its hub in Copenhagen. Norwegian Air Shuttle is a low-cost airline which operates the main domestic services to Oslo, Bergen, using Boeing 737-800 and Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. It provides a range of international flights. Most operate only a few times a week. Norwegian flies to eleven European destinations in eight countries.
KLM operates three daily flights to its hub at Amsterdam by its regional subsidiary KLM Cityhopper using Embraer E175/E190 and E195 E2 aircraft. airBaltic operates 2 weekly flights to its hub at Riga using Airbus A220 aircraft. Wizz Air operates 2-4 weekly international flights to Gdańsk using Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft. The airport is also served by numerous charter airlines.
Ground handling is provided by Aviator Airport Alliance, Widerøe Ground Handling.
### Passenger
### Cargo
## Statistics
Trondheim Airport is the only primary airport in Trøndelag, and has a catchment area of 310,000 people, including most of Nord-Trøndelag and Sør-Trøndelag. For international flights, the catchment area is slightly larger, and includes part of Nordmøre, Helgeland, and Jämtland in Sweden. In 2009, Trondheim Airport served 3,926,461 passengers, 4,898 tonnes (4,821 long tons; 5,399 short tons) of cargo and 57,912 aircraft movements, down from 2008. The airport ranks fourth in Norway, after Oslo Airport, Gardermoen, Bergen Airport, Flesland and Stavanger Airport, Sola. The busiest route is to Oslo, which was the busiest domestic route and the tenth-busiest route within the European Economic Area in 2008.
## Ground transport
### Rail
Rail transport is offered from Trondheim Airport Station. The platform is about 190 metres (620 ft) from the check-in at the terminal, and the station is 33.0 kilometres (20.5 mi) from Trondheim Central Station. There is a vending machine for tickets in the airport terminal. Staffed ticket sale is available on board for an extra fee, not at the station.
SJ Norge operates both commuter and express trains to and from Trondheim Airport. In each direction, there are three daily express trains, one to Mo i Rana and two to Bodø. One of the Bodø-trains is a night train. Travel time to Mo i Rana is 6 hours and travel time to Bodø is 9 hours and 5 minutes. The Mo i Rana-service is operated with Class 93 trains, while the Bodø-services are operated with Di 4-hauled trains.
The Trøndelag Commuter Rail offers hourly services in each direction: northbound to Steinkjer and southbound to Trondheim and Lerkendal. During peak hours, the frequency is doubled. Travel time to Trondheim is 38 minutes and to Lerkendal 51 minutes. Northwards, travel time to Levanger is 48 minutes, to Verdal 1-hour and 2 minutes, and to Steinkjer 1-hour and 26 minutes. The commuter rail is operated with Class 92 trains.
Trains from Östersund, Sweden (Meråker Line/Central Line) stop at Hell station, where passengers can change trains or walk 1.5 km (1 mile) to the airport terminal.
### Road
The airport is located along European Route E6 and E14. The airports connects to Norwegian National Road 705 via a roundabout, which again connects with the E6 in a grade-separated intersection 300 metres (980 ft) away. The E6 run concurrently northwards in an aircraft bridge under the runway; southwards the E6 run as a two-lane motorway as a toll road past Trondheim. The E14 diverts from the E6 at Stjørdal, 2 km north of the airport. The airport has 3,000 paid parking places, operated by Europark, both indoor and outdoor. Car rental is available, as are taxis.
Nettbuss operates the Flybussen Airport Express Coaches four to six times hourly (every 10 minutes during rush hours).to Downtown Trondheim, stopping at major hotels, Trondheim Central Station and the Munkegata Terminal. Unibuss operates the competing Værnesekspressen. Nettbuss operates city and regional buses to Selbu and Oppdal from the bus stop at Hell Center—five minutes walk from the airport. TrønderBilene operates NOR-WAY Bussekspress coaches to Namsos. Rica Hell Hotel operates a shuttle bus from the terminal to the hotel, although the hotel is within walking distance (800 m/2500 ft).
## Accidents and incidents
- Braathens SAFE Flight 139 occurred on 21 June 1985, when a Boeing 737-200 from Braathens SAFE en route from Værnes to Oslo Airport, Fornebu was hijacked by a drunk student who demanded to talk to the prime minister and minister of justice. The plane landed at Fornebu, and the hijacker eventually surrendered his gun in exchange for more beer. No-one was injured in the incident.
- On 23 February 1987, a Douglas DC-9 from Scandinavian Airlines landing at Værnes en route from Bodø Airport was written off after a hard landing on the runway. This was caused by a high sink rate caused by the pilot interrupting the landing checklist and forgetting to arm the spoilers. No-one was killed in the accident.
- On 14 October 2012 Corendon Airlines Flight 733, a Boeing 737-800 operating between Antalya Airport and Trondheim on a scheduled passenger flight, suffered a hull loss after the plane caught fire during pushback from the gate in Antalya. 27 passengers were injured during the evacuation. The cause was determined to be a short circuit in the captain's cockpit panel near an oxygen tank. |
8,090,265 | Geography of Newfoundland and Labrador | 1,172,366,076 | Lands of Canada's eastern-most province | [
"Geography of Newfoundland and Labrador"
] | Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province in Canada. The Strait of Belle Isle separates the province into two geographical regions, Labrador and the island of Newfoundland. The province also includes over seven thousand small islands.
Labrador is the easternmost part of the Canadian Shield, a vast area of ancient metamorphic rock comprising much of northeastern North America. Colliding tectonic plates have shaped much of the geology of Newfoundland. Gros Morne National Park has a reputation of being an outstanding example of tectonics at work, and as such has been designated a World Heritage Site. The Long Range Mountains on Newfoundland's west coast are the northeasternmost extension of the Appalachian Mountains.
The fauna of Labrador is typical of that of similar areas of North America while the island of Newfoundland has considerably fewer mammals and no native amphibians.
The north–south extent of the province (46°36'N to 60°22'N), prevalent westerly winds, cold ocean currents and local factors such as mountains and coastline combine to create the various climates of the province. Northern Labrador is classified as a polar tundra climate, southern Labrador is considered to be a subarctic climate while most of Newfoundland would be considered to be a cool summer subtype of a humid continental climate.
The provincial capital is St. John's, located at the extreme eastern edge of the island, Newfoundland, on the Avalon Peninsula. About half of the province's economy is based on its abundant natural resources, notably petroleum, minerals, forestry and the fishery.
## Physical geography
Newfoundland is roughly triangular, with each side being approximately 500 kilometres (310 mi), and having an area of 108,860 square kilometres (42,030 sq mi). Newfoundland and its associated small islands have a total area of 111,390 square kilometres (43,010 sq mi). Newfoundland extends between latitudes 46°36'N and 51°38'N. It lies at similar latitudes to Great Britain, and the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia.
Labrador is an irregular shape: the western part of its border with Quebec is the drainage divide for the Labrador Peninsula. Lands drained by rivers that flow into the Atlantic Ocean are part of Labrador, the rest belongs to Quebec. Labrador’s extreme northern tip, at 60°22'N, shares a short border with Nunavut on Killiniq Island. Labrador’s area (including associated small islands) is 294,330 square kilometres (113,640 sq mi). Together, Newfoundland and Labrador make up 4.06% of Canada’s area.
The island of Newfoundland is separated from Labrador by the Strait of Belle Isle, which is 125 kilometres (78 mi) long and from 60 to 15 kilometres (37.3 to 9.3 mi) wide. In addition to the island of Newfoundland, the province is made up of 12 larger islands with a total area of 2,505 square kilometres (967 sq mi) and 7,170 smaller islands with a total area of 3,598 square kilometres (1,389 sq mi).
## Geology
A large part of the island of Newfoundland is an extension of the Appalachian system. Major bays, peninsulas, river systems and mountain ranges are typically oriented southwest to northeast, parallel to the Appalachians.
The eastern part of the island (the Avalon Peninsula and Burin Peninsula) is mostly folded sedimentary rocks with some intrusions of igneous rock and was part of southwestern Europe or Northern Africa about 250 million years ago. The oldest rocks are Precambrian. Small remnants of Cambrian and Ordovician rocks occur along the coast. Bell Island in Conception Bay is a good example of gently sloping Ordovician sedimentary rock. The plateau in the Avalon Peninsula averages 250 metres (820 ft) above sea level.
The rest of the island is composed of a great variety of Paleozoic rocks of sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic origin. Along the west coast lie the Long Range Mountains, which are formed by an elongated block of the Earth's crust (a horst) which rises to about 600 metres (2,000 ft) above sea level. This part of the island was once part of the eastern margin of continental North America. The island's highest points, the Lewis Hills and Gros Morne, are located within this mountain range. To the east is a depression or graben about 30 kilometres (19 mi) wide, which is occupied by Deer Lake and Grand Lake. The main plateau of the central part of the island, which was once the sea bottom of the ancient Iapetus Ocean, has been heavily eroded by water and ice. Steep, solitary rock knobs, called "tolts" in Newfoundland (elsewhere known as inselbergs or monadnocks), which jut 100 metres (330 ft) or more above the generally flat terrain are the remnants of a former higher landscape level. Glaciers which helped shape these tolts left other evidence around Newfoundland. Large blocks of stone called glacial erratics have been left scattered across much of the landscape. The long narrow lakes of the west coast, notably those in Gros Morne National Park resulted from glacial erosion. The lack of good soil on most parts of the island is a result of the scouring effect of glaciers during the most recent ice age. Newfoundland's nickname, "The Rock", is partially a result of the ice ages.
One of the most noteworthy aspects of Newfoundland geology is a result of the constant movement of tectonic plates. Approximately 500 million years ago, the action of these plates forced sections of the oceanic crust that had been underlying the Iapetus Ocean up and over the eastern margin of the North American plate. Sections of oceanic crust which overlie continental crust are known as ophiolites. Gros Morne National Park was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it is one of the best places in the world to see the effects of plate tectonics and one of the few places where rocks formed at the Mohorovicic Discontinuity between the crust and the upper mantle of the Earth can be seen.
Another notable geology site is at Mistaken Point, where rocks containing probably the oldest metazoan fossils in North America and the most ancient deep-water marine fossils in the world are found preserved in layers of volcanic ash.
Labrador is the easternmost part of the Canadian Shield and is composed of ancient Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks. The interior averages about 450 metres (1,480 ft) above sea level and is cut by large, east-flowing rivers, such as the Churchill River and its tributaries. The northern coast is largely mountainous. The Torngat Mountains, Kaumajet Mountains and Kiglapait Mountains dominate this area with the highest peak being Mount Caubvick at 1,652 metres (5,420 ft). Torngat Mountains National Park Reserve was created in 2005 to preserve part of this area.
## Biosphere
The biosphere is subdivided into distinct geographical regions called biomes. Newfoundland and Labrador are divided into two biomes: tundra and taiga. Northern Labrador is part of the tundra, while southern Labrador is part of the taiga. Newfoundland is not typical of either biome, as it lacks much of the plant and animal life that are characteristic to these biomes. During the last ice age the island of Newfoundland was completely covered by glaciers and swept clean of life. Only those species which were able to recolonize the island after the glaciers retreated about 18,000 years ago are considered "native". Similarly, only freshwater-fish capable of surviving seawater swam to the island. Labrador has 42 native mammals, Newfoundland is home only to 14, with no snakes, raccoons, skunks or porcupines. Large herds of Woodland caribou can be found in the barren interior regions of the island. Two animals formerly resident in Newfoundland have been declared extinct: the Great auk, a flightless seabird, and the Newfoundland wolf, a subspecies of the Gray wolf. The Labrador duck, believed to have nested in Labrador, was one of the first North American bird species to be recorded as becoming extinct.
Many rare herbaceous plants and insects occur on the island. The west coast of the island supports over 200 plant species. Rare species such as Long’s braya (Braya longii) and Fernald’s braya (B. fernaldii), are endemic to Newfoundland. Brayas are small perennial herbs of the family Brassicaceae. They are only found on a narrow strip of land extending approximately 150 kilometres (93 mi) on the extreme western portion of the Great Northern Peninsula, a limestones barrens habitat. The braya population is low due to habitat loss from gravel quarrying. Researchers have only found three populations of Long's braya, and 14 or 15 populations of Fernald's brayas. Researchers have focused on how various types of disturbances affect the long-term viability of these populations. The Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, with many partners, is studying the rare plant flora of the island of Newfoundland and in 2002 announced a recovery plan for the braya species.
Many plants and animals have been introduced to Newfoundland, either by chance or deliberately. Moose, snowshoe hare, American red squirrel, eastern chipmunk, and masked shrew, and others, were brought to the island through specific wildlife mandates. Moose were introduced in 1904 and are now the dominant ungulate on the island. An unusual experiment conducted in 1964 involved relocating a small herd of bison onto Brunette Island in Fortune Bay. The last of these animals is thought to have died by 1994. Rats and mice were unintentionally introduced while mink escaped from fur farms. Coyotes are a very recent addition to the fauna of Newfoundland. How coyotes got onto the island is still debated by wildlife officials, but it is probable that they crossed the ice from Cape Breton Island in the 1980s. Newfoundland has no native amphibians, but frogs were introduced onto the island in the 1860s and toads almost a century later.
The marine waters around the province are considered boreal, or sub-Arctic, in nature. A great deal of the coastline is rock-strewn, allowing an extensive variety of plant and animal life to thrive. The leading plants of the shoreline are the large brown seaweeds, such as bladder, forked and knotted Wracks, and winged and sugar kelps, though there are also a number of red and green seaweeds present. Common animals of the seashore region include barnacles, tortoiseshell limpet, common periwinkle, blue mussels, sea anemones, sea slugs, sea urchins, starfish, and rock crabs. The deeper waters are home to a variety of fish, such as Atlantic cod, sculpins and cunners, halibut, haddock, sharks, and marine mammals, such as dolphins, porpoises, and whales. Whales seen off Newfoundland include Pilot whales, minkes, sei whales, fin whales and humpbacks. Harp and hooded seals are usually found in the spring, giving birth to their young on coastal ice floes.
The tundra is a sub-Arctic zone with long, cold winters and short, warm summers. Precipitation is low. Soil a meter below ground and deeper is permanently frozen (permafrost), which does not allow water to drain easily through the soil, so it collects in shallow pools. Trees and shrubs are stunted since their roots cannot grow into the permafrost. Low shrubs, lichens, mosses, and small herbaceous plants are found instead. The most common mammals on the tundra are the barren-ground caribou, Arctic wolf, Arctic fox, Arctic hare, lemmings, and voles. Occasional sightings of muskoxen have been made near Cape Chidley, Labrador's most northerly point. The polar bear is the dominant carnivore of the tundra, but is an occasional visitor to coastal Newfoundland, especially in the spring. Many birds migrate to Labrador in spring to lay their eggs and raise their young before returning south for the winter, including the common eider, harlequin duck, Common redpoll and American pipit. The Labrador tundra is also permanent home to ptarmigan.
Southern Labrador is mostly taiga. It is characterized by low winter temperatures, a longer growing season, and more precipitation than the tundra. Soils are typically lacking important nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. The taiga is dominated by coniferous trees, notably balsam fir and black spruce, though the deciduous white birch, trembling aspen and mountain ash are also present. The most common animals are the moose, American black bear, Canada lynx, red fox, pine marten, short-tailed weasel, and American mink. Beavers, muskrats, and river otters thrive in the many rivers, streams, and wetlands. Willow ptarmigan, common raven, and blackpoll warbler inhabit the forests of southern Labrador while golden eagles, rough-legged hawks and peregrine falcons nest on steep cliffs.
## Climate
The province has been divided into seven climate types, but in broader terms Newfoundland is considered to be a cool summer subtype of a humid continental climate, which is greatly influenced by the sea since no part of the island is more than 100 kilometres (62 mi) from the ocean. Northern Labrador is classified as a polar tundra climate, southern Labrador is considered to have a subarctic climate.
Monthly average temperatures, rainfall and snowfall for four communities are shown in the attached graphs. St. John's represents the east coast, Gander the interior of the island, Corner Brook the west coast of the island and Wabush the interior of Labrador. The detailed information and information for 73 communities in the province is available from a government website. The data used in making the graphs is the average taken over thirty years. Error bars on the temperature graph indicate the range of daytime highs and night time lows. Snowfall is the total amount which fell during the month, not the amount accumulated on the ground. This distinction is particularly important for St. John's where a heavy snowfall can be followed by rain so that no snow remains on the ground.
Surface water temperatures on the Atlantic side reaches a summer average of 12 °C (54 °F) inshore and 9 °C (48 °F) offshore to winter lows of −1 °C (30 °F) inshore and 2 °C (36 °F) offshore. Sea temperatures on the west coast are warmer than Atlantic side by 1 to 3 °C (approximately 2 to 5 °F). The sea keeps winter temperatures slightly higher and summer temperatures a little lower on the coast than at places inland. The maritime climate produces more variable weather, ample precipitation in a variety of forms, greater humidity, lower visibility, more clouds, less sunshine, and higher winds than a continental climate. Some of these effects can be seen in the graphs. Labrador's climate differs from that of the island not only because it is further north, but also because the interior does not see the moderating effects of the ocean.
Weather systems affecting Newfoundland usually originate from the west, over mainland Canada, or from the southwest, from the east coast of the United States. Cyclonic storms consist of an area of low atmospheric pressure characterized by inward spiraling winds that rotate counter clockwise in the northern hemisphere. Such storms passing to the south of the island bring strong northeasterly winds sweeping in off the open North Atlantic Ocean. These storms are sometimes referred to as Nor'easters and are responsible for the worst of Newfoundland's weather. High winds sweeping over a large surface of ocean can build up very large waves. The frequency and severity of storms is greatest between November and March, although they may occur at any time of the year.
One of these storms was the "Independence Hurricane", which struck eastern Newfoundland on September 9, 1775. About 4000 sailors, mostly from the British Isles, were reported to have been drowned.
During a violent storm on February 15, 1982, the drilling rig Ocean Ranger capsized and sank on the Grand Banks, 300 kilometres (190 mi) east of St. John's. The entire 84-man crew perished, making it the worst Canadian marine disaster in decades.
Newfoundland and Labrador has the strongest winds of any of the provinces, with most places having average annual wind speeds over 20 kilometres per hour (12 mph).
Freezing rain is common in Newfoundland where it is known as "silver thaw". Freezing drizzle or freezing rain occurs on average of 150 hours each winter, most commonly in March. One such storm struck St. John's on April 11, 1984, and lasted three days. Ice almost 15 centimetres (5.9 in) thick disrupted electrical power to 200,000 people on the Avalon Peninsula for days.
Newfoundland receives less than 1600 hours of sunshine per year, much lower than the Canadian average of 1925 hours. Summer months average 187 hours of sun while the December average is 60 hours.
Newfoundland is also known for its fog which occurs most often in the spring and early summer because of the contrast between sea and air temperatures. Argentia has 206 days of fog per year. Fog in Newfoundland is frequently accompanied by strong onshore winds; while usually winds disperse fog, here the fog is too widespread for this to occur.
### St. John's weather extremes
Of all the major Canadian cities, St. John's is the foggiest (124 days, next to Halifax's 122), snowiest (359 centimetres (141 in), next to Quebec City's 343 centimetres (135 in)), wettest (1514 millimetres (59.6 in), next to Halifax's 1491 millimetres (58.7 in)), windiest (24.3 km/h (15.1 mph) average speed, next to Regina's 20.7 km/h (12.9 mph)), and cloudiest (1,497 hours of sunshine, next to Charlottetown's 1,818 hours). St. John's has one of the mildest winters in Canada (third mildest city next to Victoria and Vancouver), yet has the most freezing rain days of any major Canadian city.
## Hydrography
### Fresh water
Shallow soil and bedrock deeply scored by glaciers are responsible for the numerous lakes and ponds, and short, swift flowing rivers scattered across Newfoundland and Labrador. The area of freshwater in Newfoundland and Labrador is 31,340 square kilometres (12,100 sq mi), covering 7.7% of the total surface of area of the province and accounting for 3.5% of the freshwater area of Canada.
### Ocean
The west coast of Newfoundland borders on the Gulf of St. Lawrence while all other coasts face the Atlantic Ocean. Labrador's coast borders the Labrador Sea, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. The Strait of Belle Isle connects the Gulf of St. Lawrence with the Labrador Sea and is the narrowest channel separating Newfoundland from mainland Canada. The Cabot Strait separates Newfoundland from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.
The continental shelf off Newfoundland is known as the Grand Banks. The cold Labrador Current and the warm Gulf Stream meet on the Grand Banks, making the area not only one of the richest fishing grounds in the world, but also one of the foggiest areas. The Grand Banks are an area of significant petroleum production with Hibernia, White Rose and Terra Nova oil fields all located there.
### Icebergs and pack ice
Approximately 90% of icebergs in the North Atlantic come from about 100 iceberg-producing glaciers on the Greenland coast. Once detached from the glaciers, icebergs are transported southward through the Davis Strait by the Labrador Current.
Approximately 40,000 medium to large icebergs annually calve from Greenland glaciers, and depending on wind, and air and water temperature, between 400 and 800 of these go as far south as 48° north latitude (St. John's). Icebergs are most commonly seen in the waters off Newfoundland in the spring and early summer. Despite their size, the icebergs of Newfoundland move an average of 17 kilometres (11 mi) a day. The average mass of icebergs in the Grand Banks area is between one and two hundred thousand tonnes. These icebergs represent a significant threat to shipping and off-shore oil platforms and the hazard is aggravated by dense fog in this area.
During the first half of each year the waters off Newfoundland may become covered with floes of sea ice or "pack ice". While icebergs are composed of fresh water, pack ice is frozen sea water. The severity of ice varies considerably, depending on the strength and direction of the wind and air temperature. Most of the pack ice off Newfoundland's northern and eastern shores originates off Labrador. While some of the pack ice off the west coast also comes from the sea off Labrador via the Strait of Belle Isle, most of it originates in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Beginning in January the pack ice begins to advance south, borne by the Labrador Current until (usually) in April the rate of melting overtakes the rate of advance and the ice retreats northward. The leading edge of the pack ice is known as "The Front" and is important to the annual seal hunt off Newfoundland's north coast.
## Time zones
Newfoundland is located in a unique time zone in North America. It is a half an hour ahead of Atlantic Time, one and a half hours ahead of Eastern Canada and 4 1⁄2 hours ahead of the west coast of the country. Labrador operates on Atlantic Time, except for the coast between L'Anse au Clair and Norman's Bay, which is on Newfoundland time.
## Natural resources
All currency is in Canadian dollars.
Exploitation of natural resources is a major part of the economic geography of Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2005 the gross domestic product (GDP) of Newfoundland and Labrador was approximately fourteen billion dollars. Service industries accounted for over \$8 billion and resource-based activities such as mining, oil production, fishery and forest-based industries (sawmills and paper mills) accounted for the remainder.
### Minerals and petroleum
Mines in Labrador, the iron ore mine at Wabush/Labrador City, and the new nickel mine in Voisey's Bay produced a total of \$2.5 billion worth of ore in 2006. A new mine at Duck Pond (30 kilometres (18 mi) south of the now-closed mine at Buchans), started producing copper, zinc, silver and gold in 2007 and prospecting for new ore bodies continues. Mining accounted for 3.5% of the provincial GDP in 2006. The province produces 55% of Canada’s total iron ore. Quarries producing dimension stone such as slate and granite, account for less than \$10 million worth of material per year.
Oil production from offshore oil platforms on Hibernia, White Rose and Terra Nova oil fields on the Grand Banks was 110 million barrels (17,000,000 m<sup>3</sup>) which contributed 15% of the provinces GDP in 2006. Total production from the Hibernia field from 1997 to 2006 was 733 million barrels (116,500,000 m<sup>3</sup>) with an estimated value of \$36 billion. Remaining reserves are estimated at almost 2 billion barrels (320,000,000 m<sup>3</sup>) as of December 31, 2006. Exploration for new reserves is ongoing.
### Fishing and aquaculture
The fishing industry remains an important part of the provincial economy, employing 26,000 and contributing over \$440 million to the GDP. The combined harvest of fish such as cod, haddock, halibut, herring and mackerel was 150,000 tonnes (165,000 tons) valued at about \$130 million in 2006. Shellfish, such as crab, shrimp and clams, accounted for 195,000 tonnes (215,000 tons) with a value of \$316 million in the same year. The value of products from the seal hunt was \$55 million.
Aquaculture is a new industry for the province, which in 2006 produced over 10,000 tonnes of Atlantic Salmon, mussels and Steelhead Trout worth over \$50 million.
### Forestry
Newsprint is produced by the paper mill in Corner Brook, (capacity of 420,000 tonnes (462,000 tons) per year). Until March 31, 2009, there was a second papermill located in Grand Falls, but due to the 2008/2009 economic crisis the mill shut down. The value of newsprint exports varies greatly from year to year, depending on the global market price. Lumber is produced by numerous mills in Newfoundland.
### Agriculture
Agriculture in Newfoundland in limited to areas south of St. John's, near Deer Lake and in the Codroy Valley. Elsewhere the soil is mostly unsuitable for farming. Potatoes, rutabagas, known locally as "turnips", carrots and cabbage are grown for local consumption. Wild blueberries, partridge berries and bakeapples are harvested commercially and used in jams and wine making.
## Human geography
Newfoundland and Labrador had a population of 505,469 (2005 estimate) and a population density of 1.27 per km<sup>2</sup> (3.1 per sq mi). The provincial capital is St. John's, which had a population of 181,113 in 2005). St John's is located at the extreme eastern edge of the island on the Avalon Peninsula. The other cities are Mount Pearl and Corner Brook.
Human inhabitation in Newfoundland and Labrador can be traced back over 9,000 years to the people of the Maritime Archaic Tradition. They were gradually displaced by people of the Dorset Culture and finally by the Innu and Inuit in Labrador and the Beothuks on the island. The oldest known European contact was made over a thousand years ago when the Vikings briefly settled in L'Anse aux Meadows. Five hundred years later, European explorers (John Cabot, Gaspar Corte-Real, Jacques Cartier and others), fishermen from England, Portugal, France and Spain and Basque whalers (the remains of several whaling stations have been found at Red Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador) began exploration and exploitation of the area.
Early European (primarily from England, Ireland and France) settlement in Newfoundland was confined to the coast. The rich cod fishery on the Grand Banks and along the shore of the island was the primary reason for these settlements. The rugged shoreline provided many small, but isolated, harbors (outports) from which to conduct the fishery. The Avalon Peninsula was, and is, the most populous part of the island, and as such had the best developed system of early roads and trails. Transportation between communities on other parts of the coast, especially the south coast between Fortune Bay and Port aux Basques, was exclusively by boat. Almost all communities are now accessible by roads which are part of the provincial road system. The now-defunct Newfoundland Railway, built in the latter part of the 19th century, and the development of the lead, zinc and copper mine at Buchans and the paper mill in Grand Falls in the early 20th century marked the beginning of the settlement of the interior of the island. Despite these developments the majority of the population is still found along the coast.
Settlement of Labrador followed a similar pattern, with the interior being settled only in the latter part of the 20th century with the development of the iron ore mines at Wabush, hydroelectric generation at Churchill Falls and the military base at Goose Bay.
Aboriginal peoples include the Innu, Inuit and Métis of Labrador and the Mi'kmaq in Newfoundland. One aboriginal group, the Beothuks, became extinct in the early 19th century.
## See also
- Newfoundland
- Labrador
- Geography of Canada
- List of airports in Newfoundland and Labrador
- List of municipalities in Newfoundland and Labrador#Cities
- Islands of Newfoundland and Labrador
- Border between Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador
- Canada–France Maritime Boundary Case |
9,673,217 | Sakurai's Object | 1,134,332,266 | Star in the constellation Sagittarius | [
"2MASS objects",
"Astronomical objects discovered in 1996",
"F-type supergiants",
"Novae",
"Objects with variable star designations",
"Sagittarius (constellation)",
"Stellar evolution"
] | Sakurai's Object (V4334 Sagittarii) is a star in the constellation of Sagittarius. It is thought to have previously been a white dwarf that, as a result of a very late thermal pulse, swelled and became a red giant. It is located at the center of a planetary nebula and is believed to currently be in thermal instability and within its final shell helium flash phase.
At the time of its discovery, astronomers believed Sakurai's Object to be a slow nova. Later spectroscopic analysis suggested that the star was not a nova, but had instead undergone a very late thermal pulse similar to that of V605 Aquilae, causing it to vastly expand. V605 Aquilae, which was discovered in 1919, is the only other star known to have been observed during the high luminosity phase of a very late thermal pulse, and models predict that Sakurai's Object, over the next few decades, will follow a similar life cycle.
Sakurai's Object and other similar stars are expected to end up as helium-rich white dwarfs after retracing their evolution track from the "born-again" giant phase back to the white dwarf cooling track. There are few other suspected "born-again" objects, one example being FG Sagittae. Having erupted in 1995, it is expected that Sakurai's Object's final helium flash will be the first well-observed one.
## Observation history
An International Astronomical Union Circular sent on 23 February 1996 announced the discovery of a "possible 'slow' nova" of magnitude 11.4 by Yukio Sakurai, an amateur astronomer. Japanese astronomer Syuichi Nakano reported the discovery, drawing attention to the fact that the object had not been visible in images from 1993 nor in Center for Astrophysics \| Harvard & Smithsonian records for the years 1930–1951, despite it appearing to slowly brighten over the previous years. Nakano wrote that "While the outburst [suggests] a slow or symbiotic nova, the lack of obvious emission lines one year after brightening is very unusual."
Following the initial announcement, Hilmar Duerbeck published a study investigating the "possible final helium flash" seen by Sakurai. In it, they noted that the location of Sakurai's Object corresponded to a faint object detected in 1976 of magnitude 21, and discussed other observations in the years 1994–1996, by which time the magnitude had increased to around 11–15. By investigating the measured fluxes, angular diameter, and mass of the nebula, a distance of 5.5 kpc and luminosity of was determined. The researchers noted that this was in agreement with their appearance and model predictions and that the outburst luminosity was in the area of 3100 solar luminosities; lower than predicted by a factor of 3.
The first infrared observations were published in 1998, in which both near and far infrared spectroscopy data was presented. The collected data showed Sakurai's Object's steep brightening in 1996, followed by a sharp decline in 1999 as expected. It was later found that the star's steep decline in light was due to the circumstellar dust located around the star, which was present at a temperature of \~680 K. Further infrared data recorded by the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope was published in 2000, in which findings of the changing absorption lines were discussed.
Observations from the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) in 1999 revealed that the star is in a RCB-like phase with the release of dust and huge loss of mass.
Since 2005, it has been observed in the ejected particles of Sakurai's Object that photoionization of carbon is taking place.
## Properties
Sakurai's Object is a highly evolved post-asymptotic giant branch star which has, following a brief period on the white dwarf cooling track, undergone a helium shell flash (also known as a very late thermal pulse). The star is thought to have a mass of around . Observations of Sakurai's Object show increasing reddening and pulsing activity, suggesting that the star is exhibiting thermal instability during its final helium-shell flash.
Prior to its reignition V4334 Sgr is thought to have been cooling towards a white dwarf with a temperature around 100,000 K and a luminosity around . The luminosity rapidly increased about a hundred-fold and then the temperature decreased to around 10,000 K. The star developed the appearance of an F class supergiant (F2 Ia). The apparent temperature continued to cool to below 6,000 K and the star was gradually obscured at optical wavelengths by the formation of carbon dust, similar to an R CrB star. Since then the temperature has increased to around 20,000 K.
The properties of Sakurai's Object are quite similar to that of V605 Aquilae. V605, discovered in 1919, is the only other known star observed during the high luminosity phase of a very late thermal pulse, and Sakurai's Object is modeled to increase in temperature in the next few decades to match the current state of V605.
### Dust cloud
During the second half of 1998 an optically thick dust shell obscured Sakurai's Object, causing a rapid decrease in visibility of the star, until in 1999 it disappeared from optical wavelength observations altogether. Infrared observations showed that the dust cloud around the star is primarily carbon in an amorphous form. In 2009 it was discovered that the dust shell is strongly asymmetrical, as a disc with a major axis oriented at an angle of 134°, and inclination of around 75°. The disc is thought to be growing more opaque due to the fast spectral evolution of the source towards lower temperatures.
### Planetary nebula
Sakurai's Object is surrounded by a planetary nebula created following the star's red giant phase around 8300 years ago. It has been determined that the nebula has a diameter of 44 arcseconds and expansion velocity of roughly 32 km/s.
### Similarities to other stars
Research in 1996 revealed that Sakurai's Object possessed the characteristics of a R Coronae Borealis variable star with the anomaly of Carbon-13 (<sup>13</sup>C) deficit. Also, the metallicity of Sakurai's object in 1996 was similar to that of V605 Aquilae in 1921. However, it is expected that Sakurai's object will grow in its metallicity to match that of V605 Aquilae.
## Significance in astronomical research
A significant amount of new star formation and star destruction data is expected to be recorded from continued observation of Sakurai's Object, as well as be used as reference data in the future research of similar stars. For example, Sakurai's Object is a prime target to study the recombination that occurs after planetary nebulae are ionized, because the conditions would be very difficult to replicate in a laboratory. The reason that stars such as Sakurai's Object and V605 Aquilae exist, as well as experience a shorter lifespan compared to most stars, is largely unknown. Sakurai's Object and V605 Aquilae have been observed experiencing born-again behavior for only 10 years, while FG Sagittae has undergone such behavior for 120 years. It is hypothesized that this is due to Sakurai's Object and V605 Aquilae evolving to the asymptotic giant branch of stars for the first time, while FG Sagittae is undergoing the process a second time. |
55,798,404 | Hitler's Generals on Trial | 1,064,593,274 | 2010 book by Valerie Hébert | [
"2010 non-fiction books",
"21st-century history books",
"Historiography of World War II",
"History books about Nazi Germany",
"History books about World War II",
"University Press of Kansas books"
] | Hitler's Generals on Trial: The Last War Crimes Tribunal at Nuremberg is a 2010 book by Canadian historian Valerie Hébert dealing with the High Command Trial of 1947–1948. The book covers the criminal case against the defendants, all high-ranking officers of the armed forces of Nazi Germany, as well as the wider societal and historical implications of the trial. The book received generally positive reviews for its mastery of the subject and thorough assessment of the legacy of the trial.
## Contents
### Premise
Hitler's Generals on Trial details the High Command Trial, officially known as "War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals", which was part of the Subsequent Nuremberg trials. Hitler's Generals on Trial focuses on two goals set out for the trials. The first, a didactic goal, which attempted to use the trials as a learning experience for the German nation regarding the depth of the complicity of their armed forces, the Wehrmacht, in the criminality of the Nazi regime. The second goal involved obtaining justice for the victims by punishing those involved.
Handling the subject from an interdisciplinary perspective, Hebert addresses the issues of international military justice, post-war developments in West Germany, and how political considerations superseded the quest for justice. In this atmosphere the myth of the "clean Wehrmacht" thrived, and in the words of the author, the trial had "virtually no impact on German public consciousness".
### Prosecution and defence cases
Using primary and secondary materials, Hébert discusses the proceedings themselves, the evolution of the American judicial policy towards war crimes, the preceding trials, and the post-conviction developments. Hébert focuses in particular on the cases against senior field commanders Hermann Hoth, Georg von Küchler, and Georg-Hans Reinhardt, who led armies and army groups on the Eastern Front and were responsible for mass war crimes and crimes against humanity. She also details the cases against two key members of the OKW, German military's supreme command: Walter Warlimont, who composed the Barbarossa Jurisdiction Order, and Hermann Reinecke, in charge of the prisoner of war regulations, which led to the deaths of millions of Soviet POWs.
In covering one tactic shared by defence counsels from different trials, Hébert reviewed a memorandum put forth at the Nuremberg Trial in 1945–1946. Co-authored by former chief of staff of the OKH (German Army High Command) Franz Halder and former field marshals Walter von Brauchitsch and Erich von Manstein, along with other senior military figures, the document aimed to portray the German armed forces as apolitical and largely innocent of the crimes committed by the Nazi regime. Hébert shows how that strategy was also adopted by the lead counsel for the defence in the High Command trial, Hans Laternser.
### Conclusion
Hébert implicates the court's greater pedagogical failure as the cause of its failure to enact justice. While evidence of the specific war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the accused was damning, the book found that it was the defence that won the case in the court of Germany's public opinion. The German public proved to be too recalcitrant towards the idea of imposing consequences upon their military leaders. In a country where society has long-revered the military, the German public found the concept of punishment for its military leaders as anathema to their own personal sense of a moral, legal culture.
Those motivations brought about various campaigns conducted by the German clergy and the government of the new Federal Republic on behalf of the convicted, which ultimately impacted the trial's conclusion. Faced with their concerted lobbying efforts, the American sentence review and clemency program reduced or commuted many of the sentences, which according to Hébert, brought failure to both of the trial's goals. Former military officers were the first to be released, including those convicted in the High Command Case. With various areas of German society doing what it could to influence the sentences of those on trial, none of the defendants remained in prison after 1957. Nevertheless, none of those found guilty were ever publicly exonerated of their crimes.
## Reception
A review by historian Daniel Segesser in the Journal of Genocide Research finds the book a "welcome addition to this literature, [as it] focuses on a trial that has so far been neglected". According to Segasser, if Hébert had provided more information on the German military organization and function, she could have presented a clearer picture the Wehrmacht's inexorable ties to the Nazi regime's goals of conquest and annihilation. The review agrees with Hébert in that Americans did not fully achieve the objectives they had set out before the start of the case:
> ...but it must be remembered that the trials of German military figures between 1945 and 1949 brought to light many documents of inestimable value to historians (as in the Wehrmacht exhibition of the 1990s). Thus, although most of the crimes of the Wehrmacht were forgotten in the immediate wake of the proceedings, the didactic value of the High Command Trial was not completely lost.
Reviewing Hitler's Generals on Trial in Military Review, Mark Montesclaros of the Army Command and General Staff College describes the book's treatment of the political context of the trial and subsequent developments as one of its "greatest insights". He points out that American authorities in Germany were not only seeking justice but, at the same time, trying to rebuild the German society, conduct a de-Nazification program, and recruit West Germany into a military coalition in the face of the looming Cold war with the Soviet Union. Faced with these conflicting priorities, the Americans opted for the reconciliation with the former enemy, which included clemency programs for those convicted in war crimes trials. Mark Montesclaros "highly recommends" the book to those interested in international military justice and post-war developments in Germany.
Historian Alaric Searle notes the book's "success, with only 208 pages of text, [in] providing a readable, accessible, and tightly structured overview of an extremely complex case". He contrasts it with other literature on war crimes trials which he describes as "longwinded affairs, written by lawyers" and recommends Hitler's Generals on Trial for teaching purposes.
American scholar Jonathan Lurie, reviewing the book in H-Net, finds that it "breaks new ground" and is "strongly recommended". Comparing it to the 2008 collection of essays, Atrocities on Trial: Historical Perspectives on the Politics of Prosecuting War Crimes, edited by Patricia Heberer and Jürgen Matthäus, which covered a number of war crimes trials, Lurie notes the strength of Hébert's book in thoroughly analysing a single case and its outcomes and lessons. He goes on to describe the work as an "outstanding contribution" that asks "difficult questions" about justice, retribution, and atonement.
## Author
Valerie Hébert is an associate professor of history and interdisciplinary studies at Lakehead University, Canada. Her research and teaching include modern European history, Nazi Germany, the Holocaust, and genocide. Published by the University Press of Kansas in 2010, Hitler's Generals on Trial was Hébert's first major publication.
## See also
- Clean Wehrmacht
- Wehrmacht Exhibition
- The Wehrmacht: History, Myth, Reality |
1,475,846 | Webster's Brewery | 1,170,119,501 | Brewery in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England | [
"1838 establishments in England",
"Breweries in Yorkshire",
"British companies established in 1838",
"Companies based in Halifax, West Yorkshire",
"Defunct breweries of the United Kingdom",
"Defunct companies based in Yorkshire",
"Food and drink companies established in 1838"
] | Webster's Brewery (Samuel Webster & Sons Ltd) was a brewery that was founded in 1838 by Samuel Webster and operated at the Fountain Head Brewery in Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Webster's Green Label, a light mild, and Yorkshire Bitter gained national distribution after the company was taken over by Watney Mann in 1972. Throughout the 1970s it was known for the advertising slogan: "Drives out the northern thirst".
The brewery was closed with the loss of 400 jobs in 1996. Following its acquisition by Courage Brewery in 1990, Courage moved operations to Berkshire brewery as they bought the brewery to obtain the Budweiser and Holsten pils packaging contracts. After the brewery's closure, Webster's beers were initially brewed at the John Smith's Brewery in Tadcaster before moving to the Thomas Hardy Brewery at Burtonwood in 2004. Silvan Brands have owned the company since 2003 when they acquired it from Scottish & Newcastle.
## History
### Origins: 1838–1900
Samuel Webster (1813–1872) was born in Ovenden, a small village about 2 miles from Halifax town centre. He was the eldest of seven brothers born into a Congregationalist family of the 10 acre-owning farmer James Webster. Webster acquired the small Fountain Head Brewery in Ovenden Wood in 1838 when he was 25 and opened an office in Union Cross Yard, Halifax. The company bought its first public house in 1845. In 1860 he was joined in partnership by his three sons Isaac, George Henry and Samuel Green, and the firm began trading as Samuel Webster & Sons. Samuel Webster died in 1872, leaving his sons to continue the business. The firm also imported and sold wines and cigars, in addition to its brewing concerns.
By 1880 the company had 100 tied houses. In March 1890 Samuel Webster & Sons became a registered company with £175,000 (£17.5 million in 2010) of capital and Isaac Webster, Samuel's eldest son, its first chairman. In 1892 net profit was £20,000 (£2 million in 2010). In 1896 the company took over H & T T Ormerod of Brighouse, West Yorkshire which could trace its origins back to 1760. Isaac Webster died in 1899, leaving an estate of £87,454 (£9 million). By 1900 the company's office had moved to 57 Northgate, Halifax.
### 20th-century consolidation
The temperance movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and emergency laws aimed at restricting drinking during the First World War created difficult trading conditions for brewers. In 1919 net profit was reported at £22,325 (£900,000 at 2010 prices). Samuel Wentworth Webster, a director of the company and grandson of the founder, died in 1928 with a personalty of £45,000 (£2.2 million in 2010). In 1928, one of the brewery's most successful beers was launched; Webster's Green Label, a light mild ale. In 1929 the company's entire stock of properties, land and brewery buildings was valued at £468,833 (£23.2 million in 2010). The company took over Joseph Stocks of Halifax in December 1932, which could trace its origins back to 1790. In 1957, Webster's took over the brewer, John Ainley & Sons Ltd. of Huddersfield and Woodhead Brothers of Elland, near Halifax, a mineral water manufacturer. The company dray horses, used for local beer deliveries, were retired by the end of the 1950s. In 1961 Webster's bought Daniel Fielding & Sons of Halifax, which added 19 public houses to their tied estate. The same year the company sought out partnership with the national brewer Watney Mann in order to benefit from the technical knowledge of the much larger company. In return Webster's brewed and sold the brewery conditioned Watney's Red Barrel ale throughout their tied estate. In 1962, a reciprocal trading agreement was reached with Ind Coope's North East division which saw Webster's houses stock lager for the first time. That same year the group won the contract to bottle Tuborg for West Yorkshire.
In September 1966, a friendly takeover of the Bradford brewers J. Hey & Company Ltd added 73 public houses to their estate. Webster's had a market value of £3.3 million, and J. Hey had a value of £1 million. The combined group had assets of over £4.5 million (£65 million in 2010 prices). Webster's continued to bottle Guinness under their Hey & Humphries subsidiary label into the late 1980s. Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, consolidation, a good product and successful marketing made the company successful, according to The Times, with the social club trade accounted for around half of turnover. By 1967 Watney Mann owned 18.4 per cent of the company, and Webster's had a market capitalisation of £6 million (£85 million in 2010 prices) and owned 320 public houses and 12 off licences. Watney Mann had gradually increased their share to 27.1 per cent by 1972 when it initiated a takeover of the rest of the company. Samuel Webster & Sons was offered £18 million for the 73 per cent of the company that Watney did not already own. The Watney Mann offer valued the entire company at almost £250 million in 2010 prices. The takeover was a friendly one, and dependent upon the agreement of the Webster family, who owned 20 per cent of the company. Watney Mann was motivated by an increase to their tied estate. Following the takeover, Webster's continued as a regional subsidiary of the Watney Mann brewing empire, responsible for Yorkshire, north Lincolnshire, north Derbyshire and north Nottinghamshire. The takeover saw heavy investment in the brewery and the Webster's brands enjoyed increased distribution nationally. That same year, Watney Mann itself was taken over by Grand Metropolitan.
In 1979, Webster's employed a total of 1,500 people across production, distribution and retailing. The early 1980s saw the "gradual transformation" of Webster's into a national brand. In 1985, Grand Met merged the Wilson Brewery of Manchester (which Watney Mann had bought in 1960) with Webster's to form Samuel Webster and Wilsons Ltd. In 1986, Wilsons Brewery was closed down and production of Wilsons Original Bitter and Wilsons Mild was moved to Halifax. By 1988 Webster's was supplying around 1000 pubs in the North of England, and as far afield as North Wales.
Moving out of the brewing industry, Grand Met sold Webster's to Courage in 1990. By that year Webster's had an annual revenue of around £100 million and claimed 7 per cent of the national bitter market. However Courage owned the higher selling John Smith's ale brand, and Webster's was deprioritised. The brands suffered further after the Scottish & Newcastle takeover of Courage, as S&N, with their own Theakstons brand, now owned three major bitter brands from Yorkshire alone. By 1996 Scotland on Sunday described the brand as "staid" and argued that it "never caught on outside its Yorkshire heartland." By this time John Smith's was outselling Webster's three to one.
Following the closure of the Fountain Head Brewery in 1996, Webster's beers were initially brewed at Scottish Courage's John Smith's Brewery in Tadcaster, but were subsequently moved to the Thomas Hardy Brewery at Burtonwood in 2004. Scottish & Newcastle sold the Webster's brands to Silvan Brands in 2003. The chairman Brian Stewart defended the sale, claiming: "Webster's was a brand that did not have a strong brand franchise. What has happened is that brands [which] consumers demand are still here". In 2011, H B Clark took over the distribution rights for the Webster's brands in the north of England. The bitter is now simply known as Webster's Bitter. In 2015, Silvan Brands Ltd dissolved and the brand is believed no longer to be sold.
## Fountain Head Brewery
The brewery site was chosen for its Pennine spring which provided the ready water supply necessary for brewing. The water was rich in magnesium sulphate which added bitterness to the beer and provided it with a dry finish. In 1873 the brewery was extended and redeveloped. In 1890 the brewery was linked to the Halifax High Level Railway network, which facilitated the brewery's distribution. In 1900 the Château-influenced maltings building was built as part of a £10,000 (£1 million in 2010) development project. By 1958 the company's existing offices in Northgate, Halifax, were proving too small for the expanding company, and new offices were custom built on the Ovenden Wood site. The landmark maltings building was closed in 1960 as its 12,000 stone (76,000 kg) per annum capacity proved insufficient for the brewery's increasing needs, and the building was used for storage.
In 1973, Watney Mann commissioned a new brewhouse. In 1979 a new £6 million lager plant was started, initially brewing Holsten. By the early 1980s the brewery had beer production volumes of around 400,000 barrels per annum and employed around 600 people. At this time, the brewery was described as "wonderfully traditional" by Roger Protz and had open fermentation vessels, mash tuns and copper brewing vessels. Production of Budweiser began in 1984. Having previously been used for storage, in 1986 the historic Long Can Hall was converted to function as the brewery's visitor's centre.
A£10 million expansion project was embarked upon at the brewery in 1988. Construction of a new plant increased brewing capacity from 1 million to 1.3 million barrels a year. In 1989, the derelict former maltings building was converted into brewery offices in a £4 million project. Also, a new distribution depot was constructed in Elland.
In 1990, the Old Maltings was categorised as a Grade II listed building. By 1990, most of the Fountain Head Brewery was dedicated to brewing Webster's and Wilsons ales. The brewery's bottling line was closed in 1991, resulting in the loss of 54 jobs.
At the time of the brewery's closure in November 1996, it employed 184 people on a ten hectare site. As well as Webster's and Wilson's beers, the brewery had been producing the lager brands Foster's and Molson. The brewery had been running at "well below" 50 per cent of its 1.3 million barrel capacity which was deemed "unsustainable" according to Scottish & Newcastle management. Although productivity per employee had been the highest of any of Scottish & Newcastle's brewing plants it was claimed that it would have required substantial investment if it was to remain competitive.
In 2004, Fountainhead Village was built on the former brewery site. After a period of dormancy, the Old Maltings reopened as a children's day nursery in 2007, and a school and community centre was opened alongside the nursery in 2011. The Maltings College, which opened at the site in 2013, closed in 2018.
## Webster's Yorkshire Bitter
Webster's Yorkshire Bitter was launched in the summer of 1982. Largely a cask product, by 1984 Grand Metropolitan had transformed Yorkshire Bitter into a "massive" national brand, available in the company's 5,000 tied houses and 15,000 free houses. It was marketed as their response to the growing popularity of Yorkshire bitter in the south of England, particularly John Smith's. Yorkshire Bitter was the highest selling off trade bitter by 1985 with 18 per cent of the market. It had become the fifth best selling bitter nationally by 1989, helped by a competitive pricing policy, and was the highest selling bitter in London. The beer was not without its critics, with the 1990 Good Beer Guide describing it as "weak flavour[ed], reminiscent of a poor quality home brew – worty, bland, cloying, with a dirty finish on the tongue". In 1993, Yorkshire Bitter was reduced from 3.8 per cent to 3.5 per cent ABV in order to save money on duty.
When Scottish & Newcastle acquired the John Smith's and Webster's bitter brands as part of their takeover of Courage in 1995, the lower selling Webster's brands were deprioritised, and virtually all marketing support ceased. Roger Protz has described the brand as "almost redundant" and production of cask conditioned Webster's beer was ended in 2010.
## Advertising
Webster's Pennine Bitter was known for its slogan: "Drives out the northern thirst", first used in 1970 and supported throughout the 1970s by a local television campaign featuring Yorkshire cricketer Fred Trueman. In the advertisements, Trueman would breathe fire after drinking his pint of Pennine Bitter and say "We like things right in Yorkshire – like our beer. Webster's Pennine Bitter. Drives out the northern thirst".
The comedian Charlie Williams appeared in television advertisements for Yorkshire Bitter in 1984–85. One of the Williams advertisements featured a cameo from Yorkshire cricketers Fred Trueman and Ray Illingworth. The Webster's Yorkshire Bitter "Talking horses" campaign ran from 1986 until 1992 with the slogan "It's right tasty is Webster's". Dray horses were used in the 1980s, but replaced by animatronic puppets in the 1990s.
### Sponsorship
The company sponsored The Hallé orchestra to appear in Halifax to sell out audiences in 1966 and 1967. In the summer of 1984, Webster's Yorkshire Bitter invested £100,000 into English cricket, with the aim of finding six fast bowlers by winter. From 1986 to 1992, Webster's sponsored Bradford Northern RLFC rugby league team, and Halifax RLFC from 1987 to 1993, Dinnington Colliery Band from 1987 to 1990, the UK Open darts championship in 1989 and 1990, and the World Matchplay darts tournament in 1995 and 1996. |
667,826 | Gold Beach | 1,152,640,096 | Code name for one of the zones for amphibious landings in Northern France on D-Day, 6 June 1944 | [
"Battles of World War II involving Germany",
"Battles of World War II involving the United Kingdom",
"Beaches of Metropolitan France",
"Landforms of Normandy",
"Operation Neptune",
"Operation Overlord"
] | Gold, commonly known as Gold Beach, was the code name for one of the five areas of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, during the Second World War. Gold, the central of the five areas, was located between Port-en-Bessin on the west and the Lieu-dit La Rivière in Ver-sur-Mer on the east. High cliffs at the western end of the zone meant that the landings took place on the flat section between Le Hamel and La Rivière, in the sectors code-named Jig and King. Taking Gold was to be the responsibility of the British Army, with sea transport, mine sweeping, and a naval bombardment force provided by the Royal Navy as well as elements from the Dutch, Polish and other Allied navies.
The objectives at Gold were to secure a beachhead, move west to capture Arromanches and establish contact with the American forces at Omaha, capture Bayeux and the small port at Port-en-Bessin, and to link up with the Canadian forces at Juno to the east. Forces attacking Gold faced elements of the German 352nd Infantry Division and German 716th Infantry Division. About 2,000 men were stationed in the immediate area. Improvements to fortifications along the Normandy coast had been undertaken under the leadership of Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel beginning in October 1943.
On D-Day at Gold, naval bombardment got underway at 05:30, and amphibious landings commenced at 07:25. High winds made conditions difficult for the landing craft, and the amphibious DD tanks were released close to shore or directly on the beach instead of further out as planned. Three of the four guns in a large emplacement at the Longues-sur-Mer battery were disabled by direct hits from the cruisers Ajax and Argonaut at 06:20. The fourth gun resumed firing intermittently in the afternoon, and its garrison surrendered on 7 June. Aerial attacks had failed to hit the Le Hamel strongpoint, which had its embrasure facing east to provide enfilade fire along the beach and had a thick concrete wall on the seaward side. Its 75 mm gun continued to do damage until 16:00, when an Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVRE) tank fired a large petard bomb into its rear entrance. A second casemated emplacement at La Rivière containing an 88 mm gun was neutralised by a tank at 07:30.
Meanwhile, infantry began clearing the heavily fortified houses along the shore and advanced on targets further inland. The British Commandos of No. 47 (Royal Marine) Commando advanced on Port-en-Bessin and captured it on 7 June in the Battle of Port-en-Bessin. On the western flank, the 1st Battalion, Hampshire Regiment captured Arromanches (future site of one of the artificial Mulberry harbours), and 69th Infantry Brigade on the eastern flank made contact with the Canadian forces at Juno. Company Sergeant Major Stanley Hollis received the only Victoria Cross awarded on D-Day for his actions while attacking two pillboxes at the Mont Fleury battery. Due to stiff resistance from the German 352nd Infantry Division, Bayeux was not captured until the next day. British casualties at Gold are estimated at 1,000–1,100. German casualties are unknown.
## Background
### Operation Overlord
After the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin began pressing for the creation of a second front in Western Europe. The decision to undertake a cross-channel invasion of continental Europe within the next year was taken at the Trident Conference, held in Washington in May 1943. The Allies initially planned to launch the invasion on 1 May 1944, and a draft of the plan was accepted at the Quebec Conference in August 1943. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed commander of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF). General Bernard Montgomery was named as commander of the 21st Army Group, which comprised all of the land forces involved in the invasion.
On 31 December 1943, Eisenhower and Montgomery first saw the plan, which proposed amphibious landings by three divisions and two-thirds of an airborne division. The two generals immediately insisted that the scale of the initial invasion be expanded to five divisions, with airborne descents by three divisions, to allow operations on a wider front. The change doubled the frontage of the invasion from 25 miles (40 km) to 50 miles (80 km). This would allow for quicker offloading of men and materiel, make it more difficult for the Germans to respond, and speed up the capture of the port at Cherbourg. The need to acquire or produce extra landing craft and troop carrier aircraft for the expanded operation meant that the invasion had to be delayed to June.
The Americans, assigned to land at Utah and Omaha, were to cut off the Cotentin Peninsula and capture the port facilities at Cherbourg. The British at Sword and Gold, and the Canadians at Juno, were to capture Caen and form a front line from Caumont-l'Éventé to the south-east of Caen to protect the American flank, while establishing airfields near Caen. Possession of Caen and its surroundings would provide a suitable staging area for a push south to capture the town of Falaise. A secure lodgement would be established and an attempt made to hold all territory north of the Avranches-Falaise line during the first three weeks. The Allied armies would then swing left to advance towards the River Seine. Montgomery envisaged a ninety-day battle, ending when all the forces reached the Seine.
### Allied planning
Originally, seventeen sectors along the Normandy coastline had been selected as possible invasion sites and each were provided with a code name taken from one of the spelling alphabets of the time. The coast was divided between Able, west of Omaha, to Rodger on the eastern flank of the invasion area. Eight further sectors were added when the planned invasion was extended to include Utah. Each sector was further subdivided into beaches identified by the colours Green, Red, and White. Gold did not refer to a particular beach but to a landing area. It was delineated by Port-en-Bessin on the west and La Rivière on the east, and included Arromanches, location of one of the artificial Mulberry harbours that were to be constructed shortly after the invasion. High cliffs at the western end of the zone meant that the landings would be undertaken on the flat beach between Le Hamel and La Rivière, in the sectors code-named Jig and King. The area immediately behind the beach was marshy, with open ground and bocage (small fields surrounded by hedges and embankments) further inland. Roads led to the south via Asnelles and Ver-sur-Mer. The terrain to the south-east rose to a ridge at Meuvaines, where on D-Day were located machine gun nests of the German 726th Regiment.
The Allied Expeditionary Air Force (AEAF) undertook over 3,200 photo reconnaissance sorties from April 1944 until the start of the invasion. Photos of the coastline were taken at extremely low altitude to show the invaders the terrain, obstacles on the beach, and defensive structures such as bunkers and gun emplacements. Inland terrain, bridges, troop emplacements, and buildings were also photographed, in many cases from several angles, to give the Allies as much information as possible. Members of Combined Operations Pilotage Parties clandestinely prepared detailed harbour maps, including depth soundings. At Gold, frogmen discovered the shore between Asnelles and La Rivière was soft and could not support the weight of tanks. Twelve Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVREs) were fitted with bobbins to overcome this problem by deploying a roll of matting over the soft surface. The material would then be left in place to create a route for more conventional tanks.
Gold was assigned to Lieutenant General Gerard Bucknall's British XXX Corps, with the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division–commanded by Major General Douglas Graham–allotted as the assault division. The 50th was a highly experienced division that had already seen combat in France, North Africa, and Sicily. The men underwent extensive training in amphibious landings, including Exercise Fabius, a major training exercise at Hayling Island in May 1944. Demolition teams responsible for disabling underwater beach obstacles trained in swimming pools in the United Kingdom. Briefings were undertaken using detailed maps that used fictitious place names, and most of the men did not find out their destination until they were already on their way to Normandy. The amphibious landing was to be preceded by extensive air bombardment as well as naval bombardment by Bombarding Force K, a task force of eighteen ships, primarily cruisers and destroyers. Amphibious tanks of the 8th Armoured Brigade were to arrive at 07:20, followed by infantry at 07:25. The 231st Infantry Brigade was assigned to land at Jig, and the 69th Infantry Brigade at King. The 231st was to head west to capture Arromanches and establish contact with the American forces at Omaha, while the 69th was to move east and link up with the Canadian forces at Juno. The 47th Royal Marine Commando was assigned to land at Gold, infiltrate inland, and capture the small port at Port-en-Bessin from the landward side.
Arriving in the second wave on Jig, the 56th Infantry Brigade was to capture Bayeux and a nearby ridge, thus cutting the N13 highway between Caen and Bayeux to make it difficult for the Germans to move in reinforcements. The second wave on King, the 151st Infantry Brigade, was tasked with capturing the Caen road and railway, along with setting up positions on high ground between the Aure and Seulles rivers. Other forces involved in the landing included artillery regiments, signals corps, and engineering units.
### German defenses
In late 1943, Hitler placed Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in charge of improving the coastal defences along the Atlantic Wall in anticipation of an Allied invasion, expected to take place sometime in 1944. Rommel believed that the Normandy coast could be a possible landing point for the invasion, so he ordered the construction of extensive defensive works along that shore. In the immediate area of Gold, between Le Hamel and La Rivière, seven defensive strongpoints designed to hold 50 men apiece were constructed. Two major concrete-reinforced coastal artillery emplacements (a battery of four 122 mm guns at Mont Fleury and the Longues-sur-Mer battery, with four 150 mm guns) were only partially completed by D-Day. Rommel ordered wooden stakes, metal tripods, mines, and large anti-tank obstacles to be placed on the beach to delay the approach of landing craft and impede the movement of tanks. Expecting the Allies to land at high tide so that the infantry would spend less time exposed on the beach, he ordered many of these obstacles to be placed at the high tide mark. Tangles of barbed wire, booby traps, and the removal of ground cover made the approach hazardous for infantry.
Hitler gave Rommel command of the newly re-formed Army Group B, which included the 7th Army, the 15th Army, and the forces guarding the Netherlands. Reserves for this group included the 2nd, 21st, and 116th Panzer divisions. Recognizing that Allied air superiority would make it difficult if not impossible to move reserves into position once the invasion was underway, Rommel decided to concentrate the defences along the coast. The 716th Infantry Division, which had been stationed in the area since March 1942, was significantly understrength, with only 6,000 men. This unit received reinforcements, and some of the older men were replaced by younger soldiers. It was also supplemented by several battalions of Osttruppen (eastern soldiers), conscripted Soviet prisoners of war. The 352nd Infantry Division, a full-strength unit of around 12,000, was brought into the area by Rommel on 15 March and reinforced by two additional regiments. About 2,000 men, a mixture from the two infantry divisions, were stationed in the coastal area between Arromanches and Asnelles.
## Order of battle
### British forces
50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division, commanded by Major-General Douglas Graham
- 69th Infantry Brigade, commanded by Brigadier F.Y.C. Knox
- 5th Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment
- 6th Battalion, Green Howards
- 7th Battalion, Green Howards
- 151st Infantry Brigade, commanded by Brigadier R.H. Senior
- 6th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry
- 8th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry
- 9th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry
- 231st Infantry Brigade, commanded by Brigadier A.G.B. Stanier
- 1st Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment
- 1st Battalion, Hampshire Regiment
- 2nd Battalion, Devonshire Regiment
- Divisional troops
- 61st Reconnaissance Regiment, Royal Armoured Corps (RAC) (2 Squadrons)
- 2nd Battalion, Cheshire Regiment (machine guns and heavy mortars)
- 357th, 358th & 465th Batteries, 90th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery (RA) (Self-propelled)
- 99th & 288th Batteries, 102nd (Northumberland Hussars) Anti-Tank Regiment, RA
- 82nd Battery, 25th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RA
- 233rd (Northumbrian) Field Company, Royal Engineers (RE)
- 295th Field Company, RE
- 505th Field Company, RE
- 235th (Northumbrian) Field Park Company, RE (bulldozers)
- 50th Divisional Signals, Royal Corps of Signals
- 149th, 186th & 200th Field Ambulances, Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC)
- 22nd Field Hygiene Section, RAMC
- 50th Divisional Provost Company, Royal Military Police (RMP)
Formations attached for assault phase
- Elements of 79th Armoured Division
- Westminster Dragoons (Flail tanks)
- 141st Royal Tank Regiment (The Buffs) (Churchill Crocodiles) (2 Troops)
- 81st & 82nd Assault Squadrons, 6th Assault Regiment, RE (AVREs)
- 56th Infantry Brigade, commanded by Brigadier E.C. Pepper
- 2nd Battalion, Essex Regiment
- 2nd Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
- 2nd Battalion, South Wales Borderers
- 8th Armoured Brigade, commanded by Brigadier H.J.B. Carcroft
- 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards (DD Tanks)
- Nottinghamshire Yeomanry (DD Tanks)
- 76th Anti-Aircraft Brigade, commanded by Brigadier E.R. Benson
- 113th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RA (HQ only)
- 320th Battery, 93rd Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RA
- 394th & 395th Batteries, 120th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RA
- 152nd Anti-Aircraft Operations Room, RA
- A Troop, 356th (Independent) Searchlight Battery, RA
Additional units attached for assault phase
- - GHQ Liaison Regiment, RAC ('Phantom')
- 341st, 342nd, & 462nd Batteries, 86th (East Anglian) (Hertfordshire Yeomanry) Field Regiment, RA (Self-propelled)
- 413th, 431st & 511th Batteries, 147th (Essex Yeomanry) Field Regiment, RA (Self-propelled)
- 198th & 234th Batteries, 73rd Anti-Tank Regiment, RA
- 662nd Air Observation Post Squadron, RA (Ground crew of one flight only)
- 73rd Field Company, RE
- 280th Field Company, RE
- 203rd Field Ambulance, RAMC
- 168th Light Field Ambulance, RAMC
- 1st Royal Marine Armoured Support Regiment
- No. 47 (Royal Marine) Commando
104 Beach Sub-Area HQ
- 8 GHQ Troops RE (sub units distributed between the Beach Groups)
- 1043 Port Operating Group RE (other sub units distributed between the Beach Groups)
- 953rd Inland Water Transport Company
- 4 RAF Beach Squadron (sub units distributed between the Beach Groups)
- 980 RAF Beach Balloon Squadron (sub units distributed between the Beach Groups)
- No. 9 Beach Group (King beach)
- Beach signal section B10
- Beach Commandos 'J', 'G', and 'T'
- 2nd Battalion, Hertfordshire Regiment
- 69th, 89th & 183rd Field Companies, RE
- 74th Mechanical Equipment Section, RE
- 1043rd Port Operating Company, RE
- 961st Inland Water Transport Company, RE
- 21st Stores Sections, RE
- 305th General Transport Company, Royal Army Service Corps (RASC)
- 2nd Detail Issue Depot, RASC
- 247th Petrol Company, RASC
- 3rd & 10th Casualty Clearing Stations, RAMC
- 3rd, 32nd & 35th Field Dressing Stations, RAMC
- Nos 24 & 30 Field Transfusion Unit, RAMC
- 7th & 36th Ordnance Beach Detachments, Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC)
- 24th Beach Recovery Section, Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers (REME)
- 243rd Provost Company, RMP
- 75th, 208th & 209th (Pioneer) Companies, Pioneer Corps
- 107th Beach Flight RAF
- 54th Beach Balloon Flight RAF
- No. 10 Beach Group (Jig beach)
- Beach signal section B7
- Beach Commando 'Q'
- 6th Battalion, Border Regiment
- 90th Field Company, RE
- 23rd Stores Section, RE
- 51st Mechanical Equipment Section, RE
- 23rd Port Operating Company, RE
- 536th & 705th General Transport Companies, RASC
- 5th Detail Issue Depot, RASC
- 244th Petrol Company, RASC
- 25th & 31st Field Dressing Stations, RAMC
- Nos 24 & 30 Field Transfusion Unit, RAMC
- 23rd & 1035th Port Operating Companies, RAMC
- 12th Ordnance Beach Detachment, RAOC
- 25th Beach Recovery Section, REME
- 243rd Provost Company, RMP
- 75th, 112th, 120th, 173rd & 243rd (Pioneer) Companies, Pioneer Corps
- 108th beach Flight RAF
- 55th Beach Balloon Flight RAF
- 36 Beach Brick (in reserve)
- 18th Battalion Durham Light Infantry
- 503rd Field Company RE
- HQ 100th HAA Regiment RA
- 305th HAA Battery RA
- 328th LAA Battery RA
- Detachments from RE, REME, RAMC, RMP, RAMC and RAF
- Nos 41, 42, 47 & 48 Field Surgical Units, RAMC
- 22nd & 23rd Port Details, RAMC
- XXX Corps Workshop, REME (2 Composite Workshops & 1 Light Recovery Section)
### German forces
From June 1942, 716th Infantry Division covered the Grandcamps Sector, which stretched from the base of the Cotentin Peninsula to the Orne River near Caen, a distance of 77 kilometres (48 mi). When 352nd Infantry Division arrived on 15 March, the Grandcamps Sector was split into the Bayeux Sector (from Carentan to Asnelles) and the Caen Sector (from Asnelles to the Orne). Most of the 716th Infantry Division remained where they were, and thus the defenses in Caen Sector (site of the Gold landings) were not substantially strengthened.
- 352nd Infantry Division under Generalleutnant Dietrich Kraiss
- 915th Grenadier Regiment: south-east of Bayeux, as reserves
- 916th Grenadier Regiment: covered Omaha and the westernmost part of Gold
- 352nd Artillery Regiment: covered Omaha and the westernmost part of Gold
- 716th Static Infantry Division under Generalleutnant Wilhelm Richter
- 726th Infantry Regiment: two battalions in and around Le Hamel. Members of the 441st Ost Battalion garrisoned the coastal defenses. One battalion was stationed near Crépon as reserves.
- 736th Infantry Regiment: covered Juno, Sword, and the easternmost part of Gold
- 1716th Artillery Regiment: mobile and casemated batteries east and west of Crépon
## Landings
Bombing of Normandy began around midnight with over 2,200 British and American bombers attacking targets along the coast and further inland. At Gold, naval bombardment by Bombarding Force K got underway at 05:30, at which time the first waves of infantry were loading into their Landing Craft Assault (LCAs) for the run in to the beach. German defensive positions were attacked by medium and heavy bombers and by self-propelled guns on board the landing craft. Results were good at Mont Fleury Battery and at Longues, where at 07:00 Ajax and Argonaut took out of commission three of the four guns. The fourth gun resumed firing sporadically in the afternoon, and the garrison surrendered the following day. Two heavily casemated gun emplacements (an 88 mm gun at La Rivière overlooking King and a 75 mm gun at Le Hamel overlooking Jig) were only lightly damaged, as they were heavily reinforced with concrete, especially on the seaward side. These positions had embrasures that permitted a wide range of enfilade fire on the beach. Four other German strong points in the immediate area were also only lightly damaged, and had to be individually assaulted as the day progressed.
### King Sector
H-Hour for the landing at Gold was set at 07:25 on King sector (50 minutes later than in the American landings, because of differences in the tide). The first wave on King was the 5th East Yorkshires and 6th Green Howards of 69th Brigade, assisted by amphibious DD tanks of the 4th/7th Dragoon Guards. The 7th Green Howards landed at 08:20. The original plan called for the 38 DD tanks to be launched from their landing craft tank (LCTs) about 5,000 yards (4,600 m) out. Due to extremely choppy seas, they decided to run the tanks directly onto the beach. Infantry, engineers, and DD tanks arrived almost simultaneously. Units disembarking onto the beach immediately came under fire from the casemated 88 mm gun at La Rivière, and the infantry were forced to take cover behind the sea wall. The gun was taken out when a flail tank of the Westminster Dragoons fired a charge directly into its aperture. The 5th East Yorkshires, supported by several tanks, spent the rest of the morning clearing out the heavily fortified houses of La Rivière, at the loss of 90 men, including six officers.
Specialised armour arriving in the first wave included AVREs, mine flails, and armoured bulldozers. Clearing paths off the beach proved difficult, as the tanks got stuck in the mud or were taken out by mines. A lone mine flail tank finally cleared a path from the beach up toward the Mont Fleury Battery and Ver-Sur-Mer. This route was used by the Green Howards and tanks of the 4th/7th Dragoon Guards, who cleared the remaining resistance at the Mont Fleury Battery. B Company moved on to attack trench positions and machine gun emplacements at Meuvaines Ridge, while C Company moved to the west of Ver-Sur-Mer to help cover the assault on Crépon, where roads led to the important targets of Bayeux and Caen. The 7th Green Howards attacked the gun battery at Ver-Sur-Mer, where they took 50 prisoners. Colour Sergeant-Major Stanley Hollis earned the only Victoria Cross to be bestowed for actions on D-Day. On the way to the Mont Fleury Battery, Hollis came under machine gun fire while investigating a pillbox, so he shot into the entrance with his Sten gun and dropped a grenade through the roof, killing most of the occupants. He cleared a nearby trench of enemy soldiers, whereupon the occupants of a second pillbox surrendered. Later in the day, he saved the lives of three men during an attempt to take out a field artillery installation at a farm near Crépon.
Scheduled to land at 11:00 on Jig, the 56th Infantry Brigade was re-routed to King, because the gun battery at Le Hamel was still operational. They proceeded towards their objective of Bayeux. 151st Brigade arrived at the same time and after meeting fierce resistance, they achieved their objective of controlling the road and railway between Bayeux and Caen. 56th Brigade made slow progress and had to dig in for the night some distance from Bayeux. 69th Brigade secured the eastern flank and by nightfall made contact with the Canadian forces on Juno.
### Jig Sector
At Jig, the first wave of infantry (the 1st Dorsetshires and 1st Hampshires of the 231st Infantry Brigade) arrived at 07:25, and immediately came under fire from the casemated 75 mm gun at Le Hamel. Due to navigation errors and the strong current, both groups came ashore well to the east of their intended landing points. The DD tank and Royal Marine Centaur tanks that were supposed to arrive in advance of the landing were delayed by rough seas and did not arrive until 08:00. Many of the tanks got bogged down on the beach or were taken out by enemy fire. The tide came in quicker than expected, before many of the beach obstacles and mines were cleared, and some of the landing craft were damaged as a result. Two companies of the 1st Hampshires landed very close to the strong point at Le Hamel, and had to fight inland through enemy garrisons to get off the beach. Attempts to flank Le Hamel were made difficult by the surrounding machine gun placements, mines, and barbed wire. Elements of the 1st Hampshires captured the German strongpoint WN-36 at the eastern edge of the village of Asnelles. When they turned west to move along the beach towards their primary objective at Le Hamel, they came under heavy fire and had to break off the attack. Major Warren, in charge after the commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Nelson Smith was wounded, decided that the troops would have to circle around and attack the emplacement from the rear, a process that took several hours. The troops began to have some success around 15:00 with the arrival of an AVRE tank of 82nd Assault Squadron. The tank fired two petards into the sanatorium, where most of the defenders were located. The German soldiers fled into fortified houses in Le Hamel and Asnelles, and were taken out in house-to-house combat. Few surrendered. The 75 mm gun was finally silenced at 16:00, when the AVRE tank fired a large petard charge into the rear entrance of the casemate. C/A Company, 1st Hampshires and the AVRE tank proceeded west along the beach and took out strongpoint WN-38 at La Fontaine St Côme, taking 20 prisoners. Still further west, D Company captured strong point WN-39 at the Arromanches radar station, capturing 30 more defenders.
The 2nd Devons arrived at 08:15, while the beach was still under heavy fire. One company stayed to help with the assault on Le Hamel, while the rest moved to capture the village of Ryes astride the road to Bayeux. Ryes was captured at around 16:30. The 1st Dorsets attacked a German position on the beach at La Cabane des Douanes and headed inland to arc westward toward the high ground south of Arromanches. They cleared enemy positions at Le Bulot and Puits d'Hérode, and arrived at their destination late in the morning. Joined by elements of the 1st Hampshires and covered by indirect fire from the naval forces offshore, they took Arromanches late in the afternoon.
### 47th Commando
The 47th Royal Marine Commando was assigned to capture the small harbour at Port-en-Bessin, on the boundary with Omaha, about 7 miles (11 km) west of Arromanches and 8 miles (13 km) from their landing point at Jig. The commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel C. F. Phillips, opted to attack from the south, as the site was well protected on the seaward side. The force of 420 men consisted of five troops of 63 men, a mortar and machine gun troop, a transport group with four tracked vehicles, and a headquarters group. The plan was to land at Gold at 09:25, assemble at La Rosière, and move cross-country to a ridge (designated as Point 72) south of Port-en-Bessin, arriving at around 13:00. Here they would call for indirect fire from the supporting vessels at sea and then move in to capture the town.
In rough seas and under enemy fire, the commandos began disembarking at Jig, some distance east of their intended position, at 09:50. Five of their LCAs were sunk by beach obstacles or enemy fire, at the cost of 76 casualties. Major P. M. Donnell temporarily took charge until Phillips and some others who had got separated from the unit rejoined the group at 14:00 along the Meuvaines–Le Carrefour road. The commando took additional casualties in several skirmishes, including at La Rosière, on the way to Point 72. They did not arrive there until 22:30, too late to launch an attack, so they dug in for the night. The town and port were captured in the battle of Port-en-Bessin on 7–8 June 1944.
### German response
As the Luftwaffe meteorological centre in Paris had predicted two weeks of stormy weather, some Wehrmacht commanders were away from the front attending war games in Rennes, and many soldiers had been given leave. On D-Day, Rommel was in Germany for his wife's birthday and a meeting with Hitler to try to get more Panzers. The 352nd and 716th Divisions were placed on high alert after the Allied airborne landings, which had taken place just after midnight behind Utah and Sword. The 2,700-strong Kampfgruppe Meyer, near Bayeux as the divisional reserve, was sent to investigate the parachute drops behind Utah. Marcks recalled them when dawn broke and the scope of the invasion became apparent. One battalion was ordered to reinforce the German efforts at Omaha. The remainder were ordered to rendezvous with reinforcements at Villiers le Sec, 7.5 miles (12.1 km) east of Bayeux, to launch a counter-attack. Fired upon by Allied air forces, the column finally arrived in the late afternoon, at which time they were met by elements of the 69th Brigade. The British lost four tanks in the ensuing engagement but the Kampfgruppe was almost completely wiped out. Meyer was killed, and his detailed maps of German coastal emplacements fell into British hands.
Because Allied air superiority meant it would be difficult for the Germans to move up their reserves, Rommel believed that their best chance was to stop the invasion at the shore. The scope of the invasion meant that once these coastal defences were defeated and the troops scattered, it was difficult to defend territory inland or launch counter-attacks. At 22:33, Kraiss ordered the 352nd Division to create a defensive line north of Bayeux but this proved impossible, as most of the territory involved was already in British hands and all the defending units had taken serious losses. The Luftwaffe played only a minor role on D-Day. At Gold, several small groups of bombers that arrived at sunset caused Allied casualties at Le Hamel and damaged a road near Ver-sur-Mer. At 06:00 on 7 June, the operations room of HMS Bulolo, offshore near Gold, was damaged by a bomber attack, but the ship was able to remain on station. The unit responsible was likely II./Kampfgeschwader 40 (KG 40—Bomber Wing 40). Under the command of Fliegerführer Atlantik (Flyer Command Atlantic), it was based at Bordeaux–Merignac. On the evening of the 6/7 June 1944, 26 Heinkel He 177 heavy bombers equipped with Henschel Hs 293 anti-ship guided missiles attacked shipping over Normandy, included the Gold area. II./KG 40 lost 13 aircraft to all causes during the attack.
The 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler were released before midnight from the OKW reserve and ordered to counter-attack between Bayeux and the Orne, supplemented by 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend and Panzer Lehr Division; the armoured divisions began arriving on 8 June.
## Aftermath
### Analysis
Pockets of German resistance remained throughout the beachhead area and the British were stopped about 3.7 miles (6.0 km) short of their D-Day objectives. Bayeux, a primary D-Day objective for 50th Division, was captured on 7 June. By the end of D-Day, the 50th Division had lost around 700 men. Total casualties, from all units involved in operations at Gold, were in the region of 1,000–1,100 casualties, of which 350 were killed. German losses are unknown; at least 1,000 were captured.
### Gold after 6 June
By the end of D-Day, 24,970 men had been landed at Gold, along with 2,100 vehicles and 1,000 long tons (1,000 t) of supplies. The follow-up landings were slowed by the loss of 34 LCTs and the bad weather. The 24th Lancers and 61st Reconnaissance Regiment, due to land on D-Day to help spearhead the drive towards Villers-Bocage, were unable to put ashore until 7 June. In 2004 Trew wrote that the delay
> effectively ruled out any chance of a thrust south ... [and] ... represented a major blow to Second Army's intentions and Montgomery's plan.
The 7th Armoured Division and the 49th (West Riding) Infantry Division were the follow-up divisions of XXX Corps. The 22nd Armoured Brigade (the armoured component of the 7th Armoured Division) was scheduled to land during the evening of 6 June, but it was unable to land until the next day. The bulk of the division landed from 9–10 June, with some elements landing later. The 49th Division came ashore on 12 June.
The first components of the Mulberry harbours were brought across the Channel on D+1 and the structures were in use for unloading by mid-June. One was constructed at Arromanches by British forces, the other at Omaha by American forces. A severe storm on 19 June destroyed the Omaha harbour. The Arromanches harbour was repaired and remained in use for the next ten months, with a maximum capacity of 7,000 long tons (7,100 t) of stores per day. Of the British supplies landed in Normandy by the end of August, 35% arrived via the Mulberry harbour and 15% came in via the small harbours at Port-en-Bessin and Courseulles-sur-Mer. Most shipments were brought in over the beaches until the port of Cherbourg was cleared of mines and obstructions on 16 July. The most important use of the Mulberry harbour was the unloading of heavy machinery that could not be brought across the beaches. Artificial breakwaters (Gooseberries) sheltered hundreds of ships during the storm of 17–23 June, and provided shelter for craft unloading stores at Juno and Sword. A joint Anglo-American oil depot was constructed at Port-en-Bessin, fed via buoyed pipes known as "Tombola" from oil tankers moored offshore. Using this method, 175,000 long tons (178,000 t) of petrol (half for the Second Army) was delivered by the end of August, by which time the underwater pipelines constructed in Operation Pluto were ready.
### Subsequent operations
Fighting in the Caen area versus the 21st Panzer, the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, and other units soon reached a stalemate. Operation Perch (7–14 June) failed to take Caen, and the British were forced to withdraw to Tilly-sur-Seulles. After a delay because of storms during 17–23 June, Operation Epsom was launched on 26 June, an attempt by VIII Corps to swing around and attack Caen from the south-west and establish a bridgehead south of the Odon. Although the operation failed to take Caen, the Germans suffered heavy tank losses and had committed every available Panzer unit to the operation. Caen was severely bombed on the night of 7 July and then occupied north of the River Orne in Operation Charnwood on 8–9 July. Two offensives during 18–21 July, Operation Atlantic and Operation Goodwood, captured the rest of Caen and the high ground to the south, but by then the city was nearly destroyed.
## Tourism
The site of the Normandy landings is a popular tourist destination. The battery at Longues-sur-Mer is well preserved, and its observation bunker houses a visitor centre. The gun emplacements at Le Hamel and La Rivière still exist, but many other batteries and defensive positions have been allowed to decay. Bayeux is home to the Musée Mémorial de la Bataille de Normandie and the Bayeux Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery. La Cambe German war cemetery is also near Bayeux. At Arromanches, many elements of the Mulberry Harbour are extant and a museum examines its construction and use. The radar station is the site of a visitor centre and theatre. |
44,192,355 | Italian cruiser Agordat | 1,168,684,459 | Torpedo cruiser of the Italian Royal Navy | [
"1899 ships",
"Agordat-class cruisers",
"Cruisers of Italy",
"Ships built in Castellammare di Stabia"
] | Agordat was a torpedo cruiser of the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) built in the late 1890s. She was the lead ship of the Agordat class, which had one other member, Coatit. The ship, which was armed with twelve 76 mm (3 in) guns and two 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes, was too slow and short-ranged to be able to scout effectively for the fleet, so her career was limited. She saw action during the Italo-Turkish War in 1911–1912, where she provided gunfire support to Italian troops in North Africa. She assisted in the occupation of Constantinople in the aftermath of World War I, and in 1919 she was reclassified as a gunboat. In January 1923, Agordat was sold for scrapping.
## Design
Agordat was 91.6 meters (300 ft 6 in) long overall and had a beam of 9.32 m (30 ft 7 in) and a draft of 3.64 m (11 ft 11 in). She displaced up to 1,340 long tons (1,360 t) at full load. Her propulsion system consisted of a pair of horizontal triple-expansion steam engines each driving a single screw propeller, with steam supplied by eight Blechynden water-tube boilers. Her engines were rated at 8,129 indicated horsepower (6,062 kW) and produced a top speed of 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph). The ship had a cruising radius of about 300 nautical miles (560 km; 350 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). She had a crew of between 153 and 185 that varied over the course of her career.
Agordat was armed with a main battery of twelve 76 mm (3 in) L/40 guns mounted singly. She was also equipped with two 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes. The ship was only lightly armored, with a 20 mm (0.79 in) thick deck.
## Service history
Agordat was built at the Castellammare shipyard; her keel was laid down on 18 February 1897 and her completed hull was launched on 11 October 1899. After completing fitting-out work, the new cruiser was commissioned into the Italian fleet on 26 September 1900. Sea trials lasted from 11 February 1901 to 6 March, and during the final speed trial she exceeded her design speed by a knot. She nevertheless proved to be too slow and short-legged to be useful as a fleet scout, which limited her active duty career. She served in the main fleet in 1902–1904, during which time the fleet was kept in a state of readiness for seven months. For the remaining five months, the ships had reduced crews. In 1903, the unit also included eight battleships, six other cruisers, and six destroyers. By the 1904–1905 training year, the main squadron was reduced in size, with the two oldest battleships having been withdrawn, though three destroyers were added. During the 1908 fleet maneuvers, Agordat was assigned to the hostile force that was tasked with simulating an attempt to land troops on Sicily.
### Italo-Turkish War
At the outbreak of the Italo-Turkish War against the Ottoman Empire in September 1911, Agordat was assigned in the 2nd Division of the 1st Squadron, under the command of Rear Admiral Ernesto Presbitero, the divisional commander. On 15 October, Agordat and her sister joined the battleship Napoli, the armored cruisers Pisa, Amalfi, and San Marco, three destroyers, and several troop transports for an attack on the port of Derna. Negotiators were sent ashore to attempt to secure the surrender of the garrison, which was refused. Napoli and the armored cruisers bombarded the Ottoman positions throughout the day, and on 18 October the Ottomans withdrew, allowing the Italian troops to come ashore and take possession of the port. The fleet remained offshore and helped to repel Ottoman counterattacks over the following two weeks. Agordat and San Marco supported a raid against Ottoman positions at the oases at Al-Kuwayfiya on 28 November, which resulted in an inconclusive action and a withdrawal to Benghazi. In December, Agordat and San Marco were joined by the battleships Roma and Regina Margherita at Benghazi. There, they provided gunfire support to the Italian garrison against repeated Turkish assaults.
Agordat intercepted the French mail steamer SS Carthage on 16 January 1912, which was carrying an aircraft and a pilot named Emile Duval; the Italians correctly suspected Duval had been hired by the Ottoman government and was headed to Tripoli to support Ottoman forces. Agordat accordingly ordered Carthage to follow her to Cagliari, Sardinia, where Duval and his aircraft were to be disembarked. Two days later, Agordat stopped the French steamer SS Manouba, which had Ottoman citizens aboard and was likewise escorted to Cagliari. The seizures caused a minor diplomatic incident between Italy and France, but the dispute was resolved after the Ottomans were disembarked from Manouba and Duval was permitted to remain aboard Carthage with his aircraft, which was delivered to Tunis, French Tunisia. In early April, Agordat, the torpedo cruiser Iride, and several other vessels rendezvoused with a troop convoy carrying 10,000 men to Zuwarah near the border with Tunisia.
### World War I and fate
By 1914, Agordat was assigned to the 2nd Division of the 2nd Squadron; the squadron consisted of two divisions of armored cruisers, each supported by a scout cruiser. Italy, a member of the Central Powers, declared neutrality at the start of World War I in August 1914, but by May 1915, the Triple Entente had convinced the Italians to enter the war against their former allies. Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel, the Italian naval chief of staff, believed that Austro-Hungarian submarines could operate too effectively in the narrow waters of the Adriatic, which could also be easily seeded with minefields. The threat from these underwater weapons was too serious for him to use the fleet in an active way. Instead, Revel decided to implement blockade at the relatively safer southern end of the Adriatic with the main fleet, while smaller vessels, such as the MAS boats, conducted raids on Austro-Hungarian ships and installations.
In November 1918, Agordat participated in the occupation of Constantinople following the surrender of the Ottoman Empire. She and the battleship Roma joined a fleet of British, French, and Greek warships that entered the Dardanelles and landed troops to occupy the city. In 1921, Agordat was reclassified as a gunboat and her armament was modified; four of the 76 mm guns were replaced by a pair of 120 mm (4.7 in) L/40 guns and the torpedo tubes were removed. This service lasted less than two years, and on 4 January 1923 the ship was sold for scrapping. |
12,926,791 | K-360 (Kansas highway) | 1,054,633,408 | State highway in Kansas | [
"State highways in Kansas",
"Transportation in Cowley County, Kansas"
] | K-360 is a state highway in Cowley County, Kansas, United States. It follows a route around the south and east sides of Winfield. The highway was established in 1997. It starts at US-77 in southern Winfield and proceeds east and north for 3.469 miles (5.583 km), ending at US-160 in eastern Winfield. (Although the route begins and ends in Winfield, it passes several times in and out of the city limits.)
## Route description
K-360 starts at an intersection with U.S. Route 77 in southern Winfield. From there, the highway heads east, curves slightly south, then heads northeast along the south side of Winfield for a total of 1.571 miles (2.528 km) to an intersection with Wheat Road. After the intersection with Wheat Road the highway curves gently due east and then due north around the southeast side of Winfield, then continues north along the east side of Winfield a further 0.5 miles (0.80 km) to its terminus with U.S. Route 160.
K-360 is not a part of the United States National Highway System. The highway connects to the National Highway System at its intersection with U.S. Route 77. The western sections of the highway are more traveled than the eastern sections, with an annual average daily traffic of 2235 on the first one mile (1.6 km) of the route, 1703 on the next one mile (1.6 km), and 1179 on the final 1.469 miles (2.364 km) of the route. The entirety of K-360's route is paved with Portland cement concrete pavement.
## History
K-360 first appeared on the State of Kansas highway maps in 1997. The routing of K-360 has remained unchanged.
## Major intersections
## See also
- List of state highways in Kansas
- List of highways numbered 360 |
2,372,209 | Snuppy | 1,170,303,454 | First cloned dog | [
"2005 animal births",
"2015 animal deaths",
"Cloned dogs",
"Dog breeding",
"Individual animals in South Korea",
"Science and technology in South Korea"
] | Snuppy (Korean: 스너피 a portmanteau of "SNU" and "puppy"; April 24, 2005 – May 2015) was an Afghan hound, the first dog clone. The puppy was created using a cell from an ear from an adult Afghan hound and involved 123 surrogate mothers, of which only two produced pups (Snuppy being the sole survivor). The Department of Theriogenology and Biotechnology at Seoul National University, which cloned Snuppy, was led by Woo Suk Hwang. Snuppy has since been used in the first known successful breeding between cloned canines after his sperm was used to artificially inseminate two cloned females, which resulted in the birth of 10 puppies in 2008. In 2017, 4 clones of Snuppy were made by Sooam, and were the first clones made of a cloned dog, to investigate potential health effects of cloning.
## History
After Dolly the sheep was cloned in 1996, scientists had managed to clone numerous other animals, including cats, cows, gaur, horses, mice, mules, pigs, rabbits and rats but had been unsuccessful in cloning a dog due to the problematic task of maturing a canine ovum in an artificial environment. After several failed attempts by other scientists, Woo Suk Hwang, a lead researcher at Seoul National University, created a clone using tissue from the ear of a 3-year-old Afghan hound. 123 surrogate mothers were used to carry the embryos, of which 1,095 were implanted, the procedure resulted in only three pregnancies; one resulted in a miscarriage, the other pup was born successfully but died of pneumonia three weeks after birth, the successful clone was carried by a Labrador Retriever. From the original 1,095 embryos to the final two puppies, this placed the success rate of the project at less than two tenths of a percent. Snuppy was named as a portmanteau of the initials of the Seoul National University (SNU) and the word "puppy".
## Process
As the eggs in a female canine are only fertile during the estrus phase of the estrous cycle, the eggs could only be harvested during a three-week period each year. Due to complexities with removing eggs from canine ovaries the eggs had to be extracted from the oviduct, which required constant monitoring to achieve. The nucleus of each egg was replaced with the cell from the ear of the adult dog and then electrified and fused using a chemical reaction. The embryos were then transferred to the surrogate dogs. Three of the surrogate mothers became pregnant and two gave birth. Snuppy, the first to be born, survived while the other died two weeks after birth. This process of cloning Snuppy took nearly three years of intensive effort.
## Reaction
Snuppy was named as Time Magazine's "Most Amazing Invention" of the year in 2005. Particular recognition was given to the cloning technique used in the process, which Time stated was "embodied by a history-making puppy". Despite numerous labs performing mammalian cloning, they hailed the achievements of Hwang's team as "extraordinary". The experiment was criticized by Robert Klitzman, director of Columbia University's Masters in Bioethics program, who said that the process raised the question of whether humans are "just a mass of cells and biological processes?" Hwang himself criticized the process, stating that it did not bring science any closer to human cloning and the complexities, coupled with the low success rate (one in 123), did not make it ethical to clone family pets. Ian Wilmut, the scientist behind the successful cloning of Dolly the sheep, said that the successful cloning of Snuppy proved that any mammal could be cloned in the correct environments and that a global ban on human cloning needed to be quickly implemented because of this. The Kennel Club criticised the entire concept of dog cloning, on the grounds that their mission is to "To promote in every way the general improvement of dogs" and no improvement can occur if replicas are being created.
## Controversy
Between late 2005–2006 Hwang was accused of a series of incidents of misconduct. The first allegations related to his work prior to Snuppy—the claim that he had successfully cloned a human embryo. The charges alleged Hwang had paid for egg donations and that some of the eggs came from his employees, which would constitute serious breaches of the code of bioethics. It was later found that photographs he published did not depict what was suggested and that most of the stem-cell lines he claimed to have created were not clones at all. This brought serious doubts about the validity of Snuppy, which Hwang consistently claimed was a genuine clone. Hwang hired HumanPass Inc., a Korean DNA lab to investigate Snuppy, who found that Snuppy was authentic. The findings by HumanPass were dismissed on the grounds that they were employed by Hwang, and a panel at the Seoul National University ordered their own investigation. The investigation found that, despite his fabrications in previous projects, Hwang's research related to Snuppy was accurate and Snuppy was a clone of the adult Afghan hound. As a result of his forgeries, Hwang was indicted for fraud and dismissed from the university.
## Developments
Veterinary professor Byeong Chun Lee took over leadership of the team behind Snuppy. In 2008, Snuppy became involved in the first known successful breeding between cloned canines, after sperm taken from Snuppy was used to artificially inseminate two cloned females, which resulted in the birth of 10 puppies. Nine of the puppies survived. The SNU team, under Lee, have gone on to clone over 30 dogs and five wolves. SNU, which claimed to own the patent for the process used to clone Snuppy, formed a license agreement with RNL Bio, a commercial pet cloning company. Hwang entered into a partnership with RNL Bio's competitor, BioArts International, which caused an ongoing legal battle into who owns the patent rights although Bio Arts withdrew from dog cloning in 2009. RNL completed the first commercial cloning in August 2008 but ran into financial trouble in 2013.
The world's first cloned sniffer dogs (all of which are named Toppy) were put to work by South Korean customs in July 2009.
Supporters of Hwang founded a company called Sooam Biotech where Hwang developed proprietary techniques based on a licence from ViaGen's subsidiary Start Licensing (which owns the original Dolly patent) and created cloned dogs for owners whose dogs had died, charging \$100,000 a time Sooam Biotech was reported to have cloned 700 dogs by 2015 and to be producing 500 cloned embryos of various species a day in 2016.
## Death
Snuppy died in May 2015 at the age of 10.
## See also
- List of individual dogs |
24,209,747 | Leon Legge | 1,173,428,251 | English footballer | [
"1986 births",
"Black British sportsmen",
"Bootle F.C. players",
"Brentford F.C. players",
"Cambridge United F.C. players",
"Eastbourne United A.F.C. players",
"English Christians",
"English Football League players",
"English disabled sportspeople",
"English men's footballers",
"English people of Saint Lucian descent",
"Footballers from East Sussex",
"Gillingham F.C. players",
"Hailsham Town F.C. players",
"Harrogate Town A.F.C. players",
"Isthmian League players",
"Lewes F.C. players",
"Living people",
"Men's association football defenders",
"National League (English football) players",
"Northern Premier League players",
"People from Bexhill-on-Sea",
"People with epilepsy",
"Port Vale F.C. players",
"Tonbridge Angels F.C. players"
] | Leon Clinton Elliott Legge (born 1 July 1985) is an English former professional footballer who plays for club Bootle.
A defender, his strong strength, positioning and tackling skills have helped him compensate for a lack of natural pace. Diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 16, at the time he was playing youth football for Little Common. He went on to spend over seven years in non-League with Sidley United, Eastbourne United, Hailsham Town, Lewes and Tonbridge Angels, whilst also working as a care worker. He turned professional at Brentford in July 2009, entering the English Football League at the age of 24. He was voted Brentford Player of the Year in 2010, and played on the losing side in the 2011 League Trophy Final. He joined Gillingham on a loan move that was made permanent in January 2013, and helped the club to win promotion as League Two champions at the end of the 2012–13 season. He moved on to Cambridge United in May 2015, and was named as the club's Player of the Year at the end of the 2015–16 season. He served the club as captain before leaving in May 2018 to join Port Vale. He captained Port Vale from October 2019 to January 2021. He joined Harrogate Town on a free transfer in January 2022, but was released at the end of the 2021–22 season. He returned to non-League football with Bootle in July 2023.
## Career
### Early career
Legge began his career playing youth football for Little Common at the age of eight. He later played for Sidley United, before joining Sussex County League club Eastbourne United. At the age of 17, Legge joined Hailsham Town, where he was appointed captain, earning trials for Eastbourne Borough and Woking, before joining Conference South club Lewes in the summer of 2005. His three-year spell at Lewes was later described as being "unsuccessful". Following the departure of manager Steve King upon promotion to the Conference National at the end of the 2007–08 season, Legge joined Isthmian League Premier Division side Tonbridge Angels, where he scored 10 goals in 39 appearances. He had a trial at Millwall, but was not taken on. He was handed a professional contract by Brentford in July 2009, who paid Angels a nominal fee plus top-up payments. Before signing as a professional Legge had been working as a care worker for adults with learning difficulties and gave this up when signing for the "Bees". He also worked numerous other jobs during his time as a semi-professional and amateur footballer, including as a bouncer.
### Brentford
Legge made his professional debut in a 1–0 Football League Trophy defeat at Norwich City on 1 September 2009, having been named as an unused substitute in Brentford's two previous matches. Legge made his League One debut in a 2–0 defeat at Yeovil Town on 26 September, coming on as an 86th-minute substitute for Cleveland Taylor. He came close to joining Torquay United on loan, but stayed at Brentford after Mark Phillips picked up an injury. Legge scored his first goal at Griffin Park on 28 November, which was the only goal of the FA Cup second round game against Walsall and helped to earn him the FA's "Player of the Round" award. One month later he signed a contract extension, keeping him at Brentford until at least the end of the 2010–11 season, with manager Andy Scott saying that "Leon has improved since he's been with us and has the potential to improve". The following month, on 26 January, he scored his first league goal, providing the late equaliser in a 1–1 draw with Southampton. Two months later, on 23 March, he scored again in a 3–3 draw against Colchester United. He was named as Brentford Player of the Year at the end of the 2009–10 season and signed a new two-year contract.
Legge continued to retain his first-team status throughout the 2010–11 season and scored four goals against Exeter City, Tranmere Rovers and Charlton Athletic. During the season, the club reached the Football League Trophy final at Wembley Stadium, where they lost 1–0 to Carlisle United; Legge played the full 90 minutes and was booked after 24 minutes. After the match, Legge described playing at Wembley as "privilege", though was disappointed with the result, commenting that "everything went for them [Carlisle] that day". At the end of the season, Legge was linked with two unnamed Championship clubs.
In August 2011, he signed a new contract to keep him at the club until summer 2014. However, not long afterwards he tore his hamstring in a defeat against Tranmere Rovers and was ruled out of action until mid-November. In mid-December, Legge scored two goals in consecutive games against AFC Bournemouth and Milton Keynes Dons. He strained his hamstring in March, though was only sidelined for two weeks. Despite his injuries he still managed to feature 31 times across the 2011–12 season. However he found his first-team opportunities limited in the 2012–13 season, and was forced to settle for a place on the bench due to the arrivals of Tony Craig and Harlee Dean. Following an impressive performance against Oldham Athletic on 22 September, manager Uwe Rösler stated: "It was crucial we had a player like Leon Legge who came on and played to his strengths, he showed what an important player he is for us. He came on and worked well. Players at our level need to understand it's a squad game. They will all play a part."
### Gillingham
On 1 January 2013, Legge joined Gillingham on a month long loan with a view to a permanent move. Manager Martin Allen said that Legge's signing was "pushing the boat out" and credited chairman Paul Scally for the capture. Legge said that Myles Weston helped to convince him to sign at Priestfield. Legge made his debut for the "Gills" in a 1–0 win over Southend United on New Year's Day. His permanent transfer was confirmed on 31 January, when he signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with the club. On 2 March, he scored Gillingham's goal to help secure a 1–1 draw at Aldershot Town; after the match, Allen praised Legge and Adam Barrett for their performances. He made a total of 22 appearances, scoring two goals, to help Gillingham to win promotion as champions of League Two. He then made 40 appearances during the 2013–14 season, as Gillingham secured their League One status with a 17th-place finish. On 2 November 2013, he was sent off for the first time in his Football League career after picking up two yellow cards in a 1–0 home win over Carlisle United.
He found himself struggling for appearances under manager Peter Taylor early in the 2014–15 season, and was reported to have been made available to go out on loan. This was despite him scoring "two fine headers" in a 3–2 home win over Leyton Orient on 15 November and earning a place on the Football League team of the week. Speaking in April, Legge said that he was keen to extend his deal at the club. However he left Gillingham after new manager Justin Edinburgh opted not to offer him a new contract, who stated that "Allowing Leon Legge and Gavin Hoyte to go was probably the toughest decision I've made in my management career because they have played the majority of the games since I have taken over. I feel we need to go in a different direction". Despite this, Legge later credited Edinburgh with reigniting his passion for the game.
### Cambridge United
On 19 May 2015, Legge signed a two-year contract with Cambridge United, becoming the club's first signing of the close season. Manager Richard Money said that "it's clear to see he is a big, tall, strong boy who will lead us at the back together with Hughes and Coulson who we already have, which is the beginning of a really good defensive unit". He won a place on the Football League team of the week for his performance in a 1–0 home win over Dagenham & Redbridge on 6 February. His consistency across the 2015–16 season saw him named as the club's Player of the Year as the "U's" posted a ninth-place finish in League Two.
He was named in the EFL team of the week for his performance during a 0–0 draw at Mansfield Town on 3 September 2016. On 1 October, he scored the opening goal in a 2–1 win over Accrington Stanley at the Abbey Stadium, before he was sent off in injury-time for a foul on Terry Gornell. He was appointed as club captain and went on to trigger a one-year contract extension the following month. He was named on the EFL team of the week after scoring a goal and "defending stoutly" in a 5–0 victory over Hartlepool United. He went on to make 52 appearances across the 2016–17 season, contributing seven goals, as Shaun Derry's side again finished in mid-table. However he was limited to 32 appearances in the 2017–18 season as he missed much of the second half of the season with a shoulder injury and was subsequently unable to dislodge the centre-back partnership of George Taft and Greg Taylor. He was released by new manager Joe Dunne upon the expiry of his contract in May 2018.
### Port Vale
On 23 May 2018, Legge signed a one-year contract with Port Vale. Manager Neil Aspin said that he hoped the experience of Legge would aid the development of young centre-back Nathan Smith. He started the 2018–19 season on the bench after failing to impress during pre-season, before he put in an EFL team of the week performance in his first league start of the season – a 1–0 win over Crawley Town at Vale Park on 18 August. On 22 September, he scored the only goal of the game at local rivals Crewe Alexandra and gave what The Sentinel reporter Michael Baggaley described as "one of the best performances by a Vale centre half for years". He was named in that week's EFL team of week. However he was dropped following a poor performance in a 3–0 home defeat by Colchester United on 12 January, and was reduced to a place on the bench as Vale switched from a back four to a back three. His absence led to rumours that he was being left out to avoid triggering an appearance clause in his contract that would extend his stay with the "Valiants", before new manager John Askey restored Legge to a reinstated back four on 23 February. He went on to trigger the automatic one-year contract extension.
Legge was handed the club captaincy after Tom Pope lost his first-team place in October; speaking three months later, he said that the club was in an altogether better place following the departure of chairman Norman Smurthwaite, allowing Legge and Smith the chance to form an effective centre-back partnership under the stewardship of Askey. He was named on the EFL team of the week after scoring the opening goal in a 2–2 draw at Walsall on 22 February. He was nominated for that month's League Two Player of the Month award, with the EFL stating that: "The veteran defender's experience was pivotal to victory against fellow promotion contenders Colchester with a goal-saving double-block on the line, while his prowess in the air saw him power home a header at Walsall". He signed a new one-year contract in March. The 2019–20 season ended early that month due to the COVID-19 pandemic in England, with the team in eighth-place, which led Legge to state that the club's progress was merely on hold and the players would return more motivated to achieve promotion the following season.
On 21 November 2020, Legge was sent off after receiving two yellow cards for a tough tackle on Tristan Abrahams and a late challenge on Joss Labadie in a 1–0 defeat at Newport County; Askey said that "he should know better". He marked his 100th appearance for the club with a clean sheet in a 0–0 draw at Bradford City on 29 December. However he was sent off in his next appearance on 2 January, after picking up two yellow cards a 4–0 defeat at Mansfield Town; Askey said he had been "reckless, stupid really". Askey was sacked two days later and Legge took to Twitter to deny that there had ever been a rift between the players and manager, saying that "a good man lost his job because we as a group of players failed to deliver on the pitch". Interim manager Danny Pugh then moved the captaincy on to Tom Conlon and refused to name Legge in matchday squads following his return from suspension. New manager Darrell Clarke handed Legge his first start since the Mansfield game on 23 February, where he impressed in a 0–0 draw with Stevenage.
On 21 August 2021, Legge picked up a "freak injury" during a 1–1 draw at Stevenage and Clarke reported that following a scan he would be ruled out of action for up to three months. He returned to action on 9 November, coming on as a substitute in an EFL Trophy game, but admitted that he faced "big competition to try to get back in the squad" as the team were in excellent form.
### Harrogate Town
On 11 January 2022, Legge joined fellow League Two side Harrogate Town; manager Simon Weaver said that "we believe he will add aggression and leadership to our group... off the pitch, I know the lads will benefit from his professionalism, knowledge and dedication to the game". He joined Harrogate from Port Vale on the same day that defender Connor Hall moved in the opposite direction. He featured in seven of the first nine games he was available for, but only made one substitute appearance after 22 February and was initially transfer-listed at the end of the 2021–22 season and subsequently left the club in July 2022.
### Bootle
On 21 July 2023, Legge signed for Northern Premier League Division One West side Bootle. On 29 August, he played over 70 minutes in goal after goalkeeper Owen Mooney was sent off, and managed to keep a clean sheet in what finished as a 0–0 draw with Prescot Cables.
## Style of play
Legge has been described as a "commanding presence" at centre-back. Though lacking in pace, he has been praised for his strength, positioning and tackling skills. He can also achieve great distances on his long-throws.
## Personal life
Legge was born in England and is of Saint Lucian descent. Legge was 16 years old when he discovered he had epilepsy. He is an ambassador for Young Epilepsy and keeps a blog called 'Epilepsy Baller'. He converted to Christianity in 2014.
## Career statistics
## Honours
Brentford
- Football League Trophy runner-up: 2010–11
Gillingham
- Football League Two: 2012–13
Individual
- Brentford Player of the Year: 2009–10
- Cambridge United Supporters' Player of the Year: 2015–16 |
14,419,318 | Robot Building | 1,161,213,697 | Office building in Thailand | [
"Buildings and structures in Bangkok",
"Office buildings completed in 1986",
"Office buildings in Thailand",
"Postmodern architecture",
"Sathon district"
] | The Robot Building (Thai: ตึกหุ่นยนต์, , ), located in the Sathorn business district of Bangkok, Thailand, houses United Overseas Bank's Bangkok headquarters. It was designed for the Bank of Asia by Sumet Jumsai to reflect the computerization of banking; its architecture is a reaction against neoclassical and high-tech postmodern architecture. The building's features, such as progressively receding walls, antennas, and eyes, contribute to its robotic appearance and to its practical function. Completed in 1986, the building is one of the last examples of modern architecture in Bangkok.
## Design
Thai architect Sumet Jumsai designed the Robot Building for the Bank of Asia, which was acquired by United Overseas Bank in 2005. He had been asked by the Bank of Asia's directors to design a building that reflected the modernization and computerization of banking and found inspiration in his son's toy robot.
Sumet designed the building in conscious opposition to postmodern styles of the era, particularly classical revivalism and high-tech architecture as embodied in the Centre Pompidou. While Sumet praised the inception of postmodernism as a protest against puritanical, bland modern design, he called it "a protest movement which seeks to replace without offering a replacement". Sumet dismissed mid-1980s classical revivalism as "intellectual[ly] bankrupt[]" and criticized the "catalogue[s] of meaningless architectural motifs" that characterized classical revivalism in Bangkok. He further dismissed high-tech architecture, "which engrosses itself in the machine while at the same time secretly...lov[ing]...handmade artifacts and honest manual labor", as a movement without a future.
Sumet wrote that his building "need not be a robot" and that a "host of other metamorphoses" would suffice, so long as they could "free the spirit from the present intellectual impasse and propel it forward into the next century". He wrote that his design might be considered post-high-tech: rather than exhibiting the building's inner workings, he chose to adorn a finished product with the abstractions of mechanical parts. His building, he argued, struck against the 20th century vision of the machine as a "separate entity" often "elevated on a pedestal for worship" and, by becoming "a part of our daily lives, a friend, ourselves", cleared the way for the 21st century amalgam of machine and man.
The building was completed in 1986 at a cost of US\$10 million. By the mid-1980s, architectural modernism had faded in Bangkok; this building is one of the last examples of the style.
## Characteristics
The building is 20 stories tall and has a total floor area of 23,506 m2 (253,016 ft2). The floor areas decrease progressively at the 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 18th floors; the staggered shape both contributes to the robot's appearance and is an efficient solution to setback regulations requiring an 18 degree incline from each side of the property line. The building's ground floor is a double-height banking hall. The hall's interior architecture, designed in association with the firm 7 Associates, was designed to further the robotic appearance of the building; four sculptures by Thai artist Thaveechai Nitiprabha stand at the main door. Mezzanine floors located on each side of the banking hall contain offices and meeting rooms. The building's second floor features a large multipurpose hall, offices, and training rooms, and its upper floors contain general office space. An eight-story parking garage is located behind the main building.
The decorative exterior contributes its building's robotic appearance, though it often serves practical functions as well. Two antennas on the building's roof are used for communications and as lightning rods. On the building's upper facade, in front of the main meeting and dining rooms of the top executive suites, are two 6 m (20 ft) lidded eyeballs that serve as windows. The eyeballs are made of reflective glass; the lids are made of metallic louvers. Nuts made of glass-reinforced concrete adorn the building's sides; the building's largest nuts measure 3.8 m (12 ft) in diameter and were the largest in the world at the time of their construction. The building's east and west walls (the robot's sides) have few apertures to shield its interior from the sun and to increase energy efficiency, and its north and south sides (the robot's front and back) are tinted curtain walls whose bright blue color was chosen because it was the symbol of the Bank of Asia.
## Recognition
The Robot Building was selected by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles as one of the 50 seminal buildings of the century. The building also earned Sumet an award from Chicago's Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design, the first such award given to a Thai designer. According to Stephen Sennott's Encyclopedia of 20th Century Architecture, the building "enhanced the world's recognition of modern Thai architecture".
## See also
- Architecture of Thailand
- Modern architecture
- UOB Plaza in Singapore, which houses UOB's global headquarters |
43,422,422 | The Boat Race 1861 | 1,154,814,573 | null | [
"1861 in English sport",
"1861 in sports",
"March 1861 events",
"The Boat Race"
] | The 18th Boat Race took place on the River Thames on 16 March 1861. Held annually, The Boat Race is a side-by-side rowing race between crews from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The 1861 event, which featured the first ever non-British competitor, suffered numerous interruptions from river traffic. Oxford won by 16 lengths.
## Background
The Boat Race is a side-by-side rowing competition between the University of Oxford (sometimes referred to as the "Dark Blues") and the University of Cambridge (sometimes referred to as the "Light Blues"). The race was first held in 1829, and since 1845 has taken place on the 4.2-mile (6.8 km) Championship Course on the River Thames in southwest London. Cambridge went into the race as reigning champions, having defeated Oxford by one length in the previous year's race and led overall with ten wins to Oxford's seven.
The challenge to race was sent from Oxford in the October term which was accepted by Cambridge. Both boats were built specifically for the race, Cambridge's by Searle and Oxford's by Salter. Oxford were "occasionally looked after" by H. Baxter, who rowed in the 1860 race, and C. G. Lane who represented the Dark Blues in the 1858 and 1859 races. The race was umpired by Joseph William Chitty who had rowed for Oxford twice in 1849 (in the March and December races) and the 1852 race.
## Crews
The Cambridge crew weighed an average of 11 st 4.875 lb (71.9 kg), 0.875 pounds (0.4 kg) per rower more than their Dark Blue opposition. George Morrison returned to the Oxford crew, having rowed in the previous year's race. Cambridge saw Chaytor, Blake, Coventry and Hall return. The race featured the first non-British rower in the history of the event: William Robertson of Wadham College, Oxford was educated at Geelong Grammar School in Australia before representing the Dark Blues at number four.
## Race
As a result of strong winds and a large volume of land water running into the river, the race was rescheduled for 11 a.m. Cambridge won the toss and elected to start from the Middlesex station, handing the Surrey station to Oxford. The starter, Edward Searle, gave the command to start, with neither boat taking an early advantage. By the Star and Garter pub, Cambridge had edged ahead and spurted to take a half-length lead and by the Duke's Head pub, the Light Blues had moved further in front. A steering error from Gaskell, the Cambridge cox, saw their lead eroded such that Oxford led by Craven Cottage. At the football ground, rough water created by one of the nearby steamboats (who, according to MacMichael, had "shamefully put her paddle-wheels into motion") caused a swell to slow the Oxford boat.
The Dark Blue crew's rhythm combined with more poor steering from Cambridge allowed Oxford to pull away, three lengths ahead by the Crab Tree and six by Hammersmith Bridge. Further interruption to Cambridge's passage came from a sailing barge which they forced to steer around, and by Chiswick, they were ten lengths behind. Oxford suffered briefly at the hands of a barge blocking their route but by Barnes Bridge were at least twelve lengths ahead. They passed the flag boat (indicating the finish of the race) at the Ship Tavern in a time of 23 minutes 30 seconds, and a lead of 16 lengths. It was the largest winning margin since the 1841 race and would be the first in a series of nine consecutive victories for Oxford. |
9,524,673 | Get Your Gunn | 1,147,635,179 | null | [
"1994 debut singles",
"1994 songs",
"American hard rock songs",
"Anti-abortion violence in the United States",
"Gothic rock songs",
"Interscope Records singles",
"Marilyn Manson (band) songs",
"Nothing Records singles",
"Obscenity controversies in music",
"Political songs",
"R. Budd Dwyer",
"Song recordings produced by Trent Reznor",
"Songs about abortion",
"Songs about domestic violence",
"Songs about suicide",
"Songs based on American history",
"Songs written by Marilyn Manson"
] | "Get Your Gunn" is a song by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released as the lead single from their debut studio album, Portrait of an American Family (1994). The song was written by the band's eponymous vocalist along with original guitarist and bassist Daisy Berkowitz and Gidget Gein, respectively, and was produced by Manson with Trent Reznor. "Get Your Gunn" was inspired by the murder of abortionist David Gunn by an anti-abortion activist, an event which angered Manson. The song also took influence from Manson's lifelong fascination with abortion and an interaction he had with an anti-abortion protester.
A gothic rock and hard rock song, the track received a mostly positive response from music critics, who described it as both nightmarish and well-produced, while Manson garnered acclaim for his vocal performance. The song features saxophone played by Sugarsmack vocalist Hope Nicholls, and an audio sample of the televised suicide of R. Budd Dwyer. According to Berkowitz, the writing of the song marked a change of direction for Manson, after which he began to write more politically-charged songs. "Get Your Gunn" was blamed by the political right in the United States for the Columbine High School massacre, and multiple critics have deemed it one of the most controversial songs of all time. Its music video was directed by Rod Chong and released in 1994. The clip garnered acclaim from critics, and the song reached number 11 on the Canadian Hot 100, three years after its initial release.
## Background and release
OB-GYN David Gunn was shot and killed in 1993 at an anti-abortion protest by Michael Frederick Griffin, a Christian fundamentalist. At his trial, Griffin claimed to have been manipulated into killing Gunn by John Burt, a pro-life leader and former member of the Ku Klux Klan. Gunn's death was, in the words of Slate's Dahlia Lithwick, "the first targeted killing of an abortion doctor in America". The murder inspired "Get Your Gunn", hence the spelling of the song's title. In 1999, Manson wrote in Rolling Stone that Gunn's death "was the ultimate hypocrisy I witnessed growing up: that these people killed someone in the name of being 'prolife.'"
Manson has said that the murder "almost made me laugh, but it made me mad. When you think about it, it's so fucking backwards, despite the whole Christian belief of love thy enemy and all that." When writing the track, Manson also drew inspiration from his longtime fascination with abortion as well as an elderly man he saw at an anti-abortion protest. Manson remembered: "I had this thing that I bought at a magic shop in Florida that shot cotton-wad fire things out of the palm of your hand, and I drove up to him one day and said the devil's got a message for you and I shot the fireball at him and he ran." Commenting on both "Get Your Gunn" and "Lunchbox", Manson noted that "The somewhat positive messages of these songs are usually the ones that sensationalists misinterpret as promoting the very things I am decrying."
When deciding the direction of Portrait of an American Family, Manson and band-mate Daisy Berkowitz decided that it would comment on what they saw as the hypocrisy of the U.S. media. Discussing "Get Your Gunn" with Noisey in 2014, Berkowitz said: "When we started out [Manson's lyricism] was more psychedelic. It was weirdness. We played up weirdness rather than anything socially pointed. We got more social and political as things went on. Like with our song, 'Get Your Gunn' that definitely wasn't something that we started out doing."
Manson has said that "Get Your Gunn" is his favorite song from Portrait of an American Family. Manson told the Sun-Sentinel that "What's great is that ["Get Your Gunn"] is the most uncommercial track, the most politically incorrect." "Snake Eyes and Sissies" was originally planned to be the band's debut single, but "Get Your Gunn" was released instead on June 9, 1994. The single featured "Get Your Gunn" and "Misery Machine", another song from Portrait of an American Family, as well as two other tracks: "Mother Inferior Got Her Gunn" and "Revelation \#9". The titles of the two latter songs are puns based on songs from the White Album. The child pictured on the sleeve for the disc is Wes Brown, the half-brother of Twiggy Ramirez.
## Composition
"Get Your Gunn" is a gothic rock and hard rock song with a length of three minutes and eighteen seconds. The song's lyrics were written by the band's eponymous vocalist, while its music was written by Daisy Berkowitz and Gidget Gein; the track was produced by Manson and Trent Reznor. The aforementioned murder is reflected in its lyrics "God damn your righteous hand/ I eat innocent meat/ The housewife I will beat/ The prolife I will kill". Alec Chillingworth of Metal Hammer found the song's "wacky, stomping hook" reminiscent of the music of Jack Off Jill.
Joseph Schafer of Stereogum described Manson's vocals on the track as raspy and unpolished, as well as reminiscent of Maynard James Keenan's vocals on Tool's EP Opiate (1992). Schafer saw similarities between the riff in the song's verses and the music of Helmet, and thought that the snare drums and cymbals in the song's chorus evoke the work of artists signed to Wax Trax! Records, particularly Ministry. The chorus of "Get Your Gunn" is "Goddamn/oh Lord/ goddamn". The bridge of "Get Your Gunn" includes audio from the televised press conference where American politician R. Budd Dwyer shot himself, including the sound of the gunshot that killed him. When Manson sampled the audio of Dwyer's suicide, Richard Patrick of Filter heard the sample and was excited by it; Manson believes that this interaction inspired Patrick to write "Hey Man Nice Shot" (1995), a song about Dwyer's suicide.
Additional saxophone playing on "Get Your Gunn" is provided by Sugarsmack vocalist Hope Nicholls. The track features Manson singing "Pseudo-morals work real well, On the talk shows for the weak, But your selective judgements, And goodguy badges, Don't mean a fuck to me". The Sun-Sentinel's Sandra Schulman said that the song features "searing lyrics on the mixed message morals of authority."
## Critical reception and controversy
Schafer of Stereogum ranked the song eighth on his list of "The 10 Best Marilyn Manson Songs", saying that "While the remainder of Portrait Of An American Family comes across as undercooked, even for an early-'90s alt-metal album, 'Get Your Gunn' feels lean and vitriolic. Sadly, Manson seldom matched its aggression again." Schafer also praised Manson's "charming" vocal performance on the song. Jim Louvau of the Phoenix New Times named it one of his favorite Marilyn Manson songs alongside "Long Hard Road Out of Hell" (1997). Bloody Disgusting's Brad Miska opined that "In retrospect, its level of cheese is of legend, but in 1994 Portrait was some dark and weird shit (see 'Cake and Sodomy', 'My Monkey', 'Get Your Gun' [sic], etc.)." Gigwise said that the song has "brutal" lyrics which "set the precedent for the rest of the band's career".
Writing for Metal Hammer, Alec Chillingworth said that "'Lunchbox', 'Get Your Gunn', 'Wrapped In Plastic' and 'Dope Hat' are the catchiest [songs on the album]". In a piece they wrote for Clash, the Astroid Boys deemed "Get Your Gunn" one of their "personal favourites" from Marilyn Manson's catalogue and praised its lyrics for capturing the hypocrisy in Gunn's murder. Jon Wiederhorn of Loudwire praised the track for "driving the record" and helping the band to retain the loyal fan-base that it had cultivated prior to the release of Portrait of an American Family.
Sandra Schulman of the Sun-Sentinel said that the song is "Horrifyingly good, loopy music, with discordant riffs that crawl under your skin and stay there. The soundtrack to every nightmare you've ever had." Dazed's Daisy Jones described "Get Your Gunn", Nirvana's "Rape Me" (1993), The Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up" (1997) and Lady Gaga and R. Kelly's "Do What U Want" (2013) as "tracks that provoked, thrilled and shocked their listeners." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote that "Even though it wasn't one of the best tracks on Portrait of an American Family, 'Get Your Gunn' was a solid track that was a fairly good choice for a single." Conversely, The Chicago Maroon's Matt Zakosek called the track "weary Goth-rock junk" and criticized its inclusion on the greatest hits album Lest We Forget: The Best Of (2004).
In America, the far-right blamed the Columbine High School massacre on "Get Your Gunn"; Manson responded to this claim by saying that "In my work I examine the America we live in, and I've always tried to show people that the devil we blame our atrocities on is really just each one of us." Due to its association with the Columbine massacre, Daisy Jones of Dazed placed "Get Your Gunn" on her list of the most controversial songs of all time, though she deemed the association absurd. Jones wrote that the song created an amount of controversy comparable to that sparked by "Fuck tha Police" (1988) by N.W.A and "Blurred Lines" (2013) by Robin Thicke. Similarly, a PRS for Music survey conducted in 2010 revealed that the British public considered "Get Your Gunn" the eighth most controversial song of all time, while Schafer of Stereogum noted in 2015 that it was "still one of the most controversial songs in Manson’s repertoire". Gigwise ranked the track fifteenth on their list of "The 20 Most Controversial Songs of All Time".
## Music video
The music video, directed by Rod Chong, features Manson performing in an abandoned house. It is one of four Marilyn Manson music videos where the band's frontman has eyebrows. The video was accepted by MTV. Although it was rarely aired by the network, it was shown on Headbangers Ball. Manson told The New York Times that MTV wanted to censor the use of the word "goddamn" in the track's chorus, commenting "They wanted the word God bleeped, which is assbackward because damn is the cussword." The clip focuses on Manson's eyes, and features imagery of light coming in through windows.
Simon Young of Team Rock called the "Get Your Gunn" video one of the band's "classic videos". Sandra Shulman of the Sun-Sentinel called the video "a searing and tight piece of work". Dan Epstein of Revolver wrote that "Marilyn Manson might be best known as a musician, but he's also made his mark as a video artist, simultaneously captivating and disgusting viewers since 1994's 'Get Your Gunn' clip all the way up to this year's nympho-nuns-with-guns visual 'We Know Where You Fucking Live'." MTV's Rob Mancini viewed the video for "Get Your Gunn" as one of Marilyn Manson's "early nuggets".
## In popular culture
"Get Your Gunn" appeared on the soundtracks for the films S.F.W. (1994) and Strange Days (1995).
## Track listing
All songs written by Manson, Berkowitz and Gein, except 2 by Manson, Berkowitz, Gein and Madonna Wayne Gacy, and 4 by Manson and Gacy.
- CD single (Australia, Europe and United States: IND–95902 · Canada: CINTD–95902 · Japan: MVCT–12009)
1. "Get Your Gunn" (Album Version) – 3:18
2. "Misery Machine" (Album Version) – 4:44
3. "Mother Inferior Got Her Gunn" (Remix by Trent Reznor) – 5:39
4. "Revelation \#9" – 12:57
## Personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of the "Get Your Gunn" single.
Marilyn Manson
- Marilyn Manson – lyrics, production, sleeve concept and band logo
- Daisy Berkowitz – music
- Gidget Gein – music
- Madonna Wayne Gacy – brass, loops
- Sara Lee Lucas – drums
Additional musicians and technical personnel
- Sean Beavan – brass, programming, digital editing, production and mixing assistance
- Charlie Clouser – drum programming and digital editing
- Barry Goldberg – engineering assistance
- Jeremy Staska – engineering assistance
- Roli Mosimann – engineering and original production
- Alan Moulder – engineering, production and mixing assistance
- Hope Nicholls – saxophone
- Robin Perrine – photography
- Trent Reznor – executive producer, mixing
- Gary Talpas – package design
- Chris Vrenna – percussion, programming, engineering assistance
## Charts
## See also
- List of songs recorded by Marilyn Manson
- Marilyn Manson–Columbine High School massacre controversy |
47,048,061 | Her Story (video game) | 1,166,279,892 | 2015 video game | [
"2015 video games",
"Android (operating system) games",
"BAFTA winners (video games)",
"British Academy Games Award for Debut Game winners",
"British Academy Games Award for Technical Achievement winners",
"Detective video games",
"Full motion video based games",
"Games financed by Indie Fund",
"IOS games",
"IndieCade winners",
"Interactive movie video games",
"MacOS games",
"Seumas McNally Grand Prize winners",
"The Game Awards winners",
"Video games developed in the United Kingdom",
"Video games directed by Sam Barlow",
"Video games featuring female protagonists",
"Video games featuring non-playable protagonists",
"Video games set in 1994",
"Video games set in Glasgow",
"Video games set in Hampshire",
"Video games set in Portsmouth",
"Windows games"
] | Her Story is an interactive film video game written and directed by Sam Barlow. It was released on 24 June 2015 for iOS, OS X, and Windows, and the following year for Android. In the game, the player searches and sorts through a database of video clips from fictional police interviews, and uses the clips to solve the case of a missing man. The police interviews focus on the man's wife, Hannah Smith, portrayed by British musician Viva Seifert.
The game is Barlow's first project since his departure from Climax Studios, after which he became independent. He wanted to develop a game that was dependent on the narrative, and avoided working on the game until he was settled on an idea that was possible to execute. Barlow eventually decided to create a police procedural game, and incorporate live action footage. He conducted research for the game by watching existing police interviews. Upon doing so, he discovered recurring themes in the suspects' answers, and decided to incorporate ambiguity to the investigation in the game.
Her Story was acclaimed by many reviewers, with praise particularly directed at the narrative, unconventional gameplay mechanics, and Seifert's performance. The game has sold over 100,000 copies, and earned multiple year-end accolades, including nominations for Game of the Year awards from several gaming publications. In August 2019, a spiritual sequel titled Telling Lies was released.
## Gameplay
Her Story is an interactive movie game, focusing on a series of seven fictional police interviews from 1994. As the game begins, the player is presented with an old desktop, which contains several files and programs. Among the programs are instructional text files, which explain the game's mechanics. One of the programs automatically open on the desktop is the "L.O.G.I.C. Database", which allows the player to search and sort video clips within the database, of which there are 271. The video clips are police interviews with Hannah Smith, a British woman. The interviews are unable to be watched in their entirety, forcing the player to view short clips. In the interviews, Hannah answers unknown questions to an off-screen detective, prompting the player to decipher the context of the answers. Hannah's answers are transcribed, and the player find clips by searching in the database for words from the transcriptions, attempting to solve the case by piecing together information. As the player selects clips, they can enter user tags, which are then available as searchable terms. One of the files on the desktop is a database checker, which allows the player to review the number of clips that have been viewed; as a clip is viewed, the red box in the database checker changes to green. The desktop also features the minigame Mirror Game, based on the strategy board game Reversi.
## Plot
The interview tapes feature a woman who introduces herself as Hannah Smith (Viva Seifert), whose husband, Simon, has gone missing, and is later found murdered. Hannah admits that she and Simon had argued, but has an alibi placing her in Glasgow when Simon disappeared. As more pieces of the interviews are discovered, it is claimed that "Hannah" is actually two women: Hannah and Eve, identical twins separated at birth by the midwife, Florence. Florence, whose husband died during the war, desperately wanted to have kids, but did not believe in remarrying, so she faked the death of one of the twins to claim one for herself. Florence deliberately kept Eve indoors as much as possible and the twins were unaware of each other's existence until years later. When Florence died, Eve secretly moved in with Hannah at which point they decided to act as a single person, keeping a common diary and a set of rules defining their actions as "Hannah". Hannah's parents were oblivious, and assumed that Eve was Hannah's imaginary friend.
Hannah eventually began dating Simon, whom she had met at a glazier where they both worked. Despite their rules to share equally, Hannah slept with Simon and became pregnant. She gradually became possessive of Simon and forbade Eve from interacting with him. Because of the pregnancy, Hannah and Simon were married and moved in together while Eve moved out to her own apartment and began wearing a wig. Hannah miscarried in her eighth month and believed she was infertile afterward. Some time later, Simon encountered Eve in a bar she was singing at. Smitten by her resemblance, the two began an affair. Eve became pregnant but never told Simon and hid the identity of the father from Hannah. On their birthday, after Simon gave Hannah a handmade mirror as a gift, Hannah revealed to him the existence of Eve and her pregnancy. From his reaction, Hannah realised that Simon was the father of Eve's child. After kicking Simon out of the house, she argued with Eve over the affair, causing the latter to leave and drive to Glasgow. When Simon returned, Hannah pretended to be Eve by wearing her wig. Thinking she was Eve, Simon gifted her a similar handmade mirror and professed his desire to be with Eve rather than Hannah. Hannah became furious and revealed her identity. She later claims that, as they fought, she shattered the mirror and inadvertently cut Simon's throat with a shard of it while trying to fend him off. When Eve returned, she found Hannah sitting next to Simon's lifeless body. The two agreed that Eve's baby was the priority so they hid Simon's body and used Eve's trip to Glasgow as an alibi for the time of his disappearance. At the end of the final interview, Eve says that Hannah is "gone ... and she's never coming back" but mockingly asks "can you arrest someone who doesn't exist?". She then requests a lawyer, and says that her comments are just "stories". It is not entirely clear if Eve's story of being an identical twin is true, an intentional fabrication meant to confuse the police, or a case of dissociative identity disorder, with pieces of evidence in-game lending credence to each theory.
As the player uncovers enough of the story, a chat window appears asking if they are finished. Upon answering affirmatively, it is revealed that the player is Sarah, Eve's daughter. The chat asks Sarah if she understands her mother's actions, and asks to meet her outside.
## Development
Her Story was developed by Sam Barlow, who previously worked on games such as Silent Hill: Origins (2007) and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (2009) at Climax Studios. Barlow had conceived the idea of a police procedural game while working at Climax Studios, but decided to become independent to create the game, in order to develop a game that is "deep on story". He became frustrated by publishers rejecting game pitches for being "too kitchen sink [realism]" in favor of more standard video game tropes like a "cyborg assassin from the future", and found that becoming independent allowed him to create his own game of the sort. He also wished to become independent after playing games like Year Walk (2013) and 80 Days (2014). Barlow avoided development until he had an idea that was possible to execute. "I could probably quite easily have gone and made an exploration horror game ... but I kind of knew that there would be big compromises there because of budget," he said. Barlow spent his savings to work on the game, allowing him a year of development time. He followed through with the concept of Her Story, as it focused on an "intimate setting, dialogue and character interaction", which he found was often dismissed in larger titles. Barlow felt particularly inspired to develop Her Story after seeing the continuous support of his 1999 game Aisle. When referring to how Her Story challenges typical game conventions, Barlow compares it to the Dogme 95 filmmaking movement, and Alfred Hitchcock's 1948 film Rope.
Her Story was approved through Steam Greenlight, and was crowdfunded by Indie Fund. It was released on 24 June 2015 for iOS, OS X, and Windows. Barlow wanted to launch the game on all platforms simultaneously, as he was unsure where the audience would be. "If I'd just gone for just one I'd have lost a lot of the potential audience," he commented. Barlow found that playing Her Story on mobile devices is a "'sofa' experience". He also noted that it felt "natural" for it to be released on mobile devices, as they are regularly used to watch videos and search the internet; similar tasks are used as gameplay mechanics in Her Story. The iPhone's smaller pixel size of 640×480 as opposed to 800×600 led to Barlow's doubts of a release on the platform, but he was influenced to release it upon receiving positive feedback through testing. As development neared completion, the game underwent testing, which allowed Barlow to "balance some aspects" and "polish items together". An Android version was released on 29 June 2016. Her Story runs on the Unity game engine.
### Gameplay design
Barlow's immediate idea was to create a game involving police interviews, but he "didn't know exactly what that meant". He then conceived the idea to involve real video footage, and the ability to access the footage through a database interface; he described the interface as being "part Apple II, part Windows 3.1 and part Windows 98". The interface design was inspired by Barlow's appreciation of the police procedural genre, commenting that "the conceit of making the computer itself a prop in the game was so neat". He also compared the searching mechanic to the Google search engine, and wanted to "run with the idea" that the player is "essentially Googling". The game's concept was inspired by the TV series Homicide: Life on the Street (1993–1999), which Barlow found depicted police interviews being a "gladiatorial arena for detectives". Barlow intentionally made the game's opening screen to be "slightly too long", to immediately notify the player of the slow pacing that would follow.
Inspiration to work on Her Story stemmed from Barlow's disappointment of other detectives games: he felt that L.A. Noire (2011) never allowed him to feel like "the awesome detective who was having to read things and follow up threads of investigation", and he called the Ace Attorney series (2001–present) "rigid". When Barlow began development on Her Story, he added more typical game aspects, but the game mechanics became more minimalist as development progressed. The initial plan for the game was for the player to work towards a definitive resolution, ultimately solving the crime. However, when Barlow tested the concept on pre-existing interview transcripts of convicted murderer Christopher Porco, he began to discover themes surfacing within the interviews, particularly relating to the concept of money, which was ultimately a large factor in Porco's trial. He took this concept of recurring themes and threads, and decided to "move beyond the clearly scripted stuff" when developing Her Story. Barlow felt that the story's appeal was the ambiguity of the investigation, comparing Her Story to the podcast Serial (2014–present), which he listened to late in development. He found that the attraction of Serial was the lack of a definitive solution, noting that "people lean towards certain interpretations ... what makes it interesting is the extent to which it lives on in your imagination".
### Story and characters
Barlow decided to feature live action footage in the game after becoming frustrated with his previous projects, particularly with the technical challenge of translating an actor's performance into a game engine. Barlow set out to work with an actor on Her Story, having enjoyed the process while working at Climax Studios, albeit with a larger budget. He contacted Viva Seifert, whom he had intermittently worked with on Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun for a year, before its cancellation. He felt that Seifert is "very good at picking up a line and intuitively pulling a lot of the subtext into her performance", which led him to believe that she was "perfect" for the role in Her Story. When Barlow asked Seifert to audition, he sent her a 300-page script, which he managed to reduce to 80 pages, by altering font size, as well as some dialogue; she accepted the role.
Seifert began to feel pressure midway through filming, when she realised that "the whole game is hinging" on her performance. She described the shoot as "intense" and "rather exhausting", and felt as if she was "subtly being scrutinised" by Barlow, which helped her performance. Barlow also felt that the intensity helped Seifert's performance, taking cues from director Alfred Hitchcock, who would upset his actors in order to achieve the greatest performance. Seifert felt that there were small nuances in her performance that may have "added some twists and turns" for the player that Barlow had not anticipated. The game's seven police interviews were filmed roughly in chronological order over five days, in a process that Barlow called "natural". Like Seifert though, Barlow thought the shoot was intense, remarking "at the end of the shoot, it was just a huge relief it was all over and we hadn't forgotten to record or anything." Barlow travelled to Seifert's home county of Cornwall to film. He felt that finding the locations for the interrogation rooms was the simplest part of production, because "everywhere has crappy looking rooms", with footage being recorded in a council building in Truro. When filming was complete, Barlow wanted to give the impression that the videos had been recorded in 1994, but found digital filters were unable to capture this time frame appropriately. Instead, he recorded the footage through two VHS players to create imperfections in the video before digitising the video into the game.
Barlow played the part of the detectives during filming, asking scripted questions to Seifert's character, but is never featured in Her Story. When watching police interviews for research, Barlow found himself empathising with the interviewee, which inspired him to exclude the detective from the game. He stated that the interviews typically feature "double betrayal", in which the detectives are "pretending to be the best friend". Barlow felt that removing the detective from the game empowers Seifert's character, allowing the player to empathise. When conducting research for Her Story, Barlow looked at the case regarding the murder of Travis Alexander, which made him consider the manner that female murder suspects are treated in interrogations, stating that they "tend to be fetishised, more readily turned into archetypes". This was further proved to Barlow when studying the interviews of Casey Anthony and Amanda Knox; he found that media commentary often ignored the evidence of the investigation, instead focusing on the expressions of the suspects during the interviews. Barlow conducted further research by studying texts about psychology, and the use of language.
After conceiving the game's main mechanics, Barlow began developing the story, conducting research and "letting [the story] take on a life of its own". To develop the story, Barlow placed the script into a spreadsheet, which became so large it often crashed his laptop upon opening it. He mapped out every character involved in the investigation, including their backstories and agendas. He spent about half of development creating detailed documents charting the story's characters and events. He also determined the dates on which the police interviews would take place, and what the suspect was doing in the interim. Once he had determined the game's concept more precisely, Barlow ensured the script contained "layers of intrigue", in order to interest the player to finish the game. Barlow often replaced words of the script with synonyms, to ensure that some clips were not associated with irrelevant words. When writing the script, Barlow generally avoided supernatural themes, but realised that it would involve a "slight dreamlike surreal edge". Working on the script, he often found that he was "very much in the moment, writing from inside the characters' heads". He found it difficult to create a new idea for the story, as detective fiction has been explored many times before.
### Audio
When searching for music to use in Her Story, Barlow looked for songs that sounded "slightly out-of-time". He ultimately used eight tracks from musician Chris Zabriskie, and found that his music invoked nostalgia, and had a "modern edge". He felt that the music "highlights the gap between the 'fake computer world'" and the game. The "emotional intensity" of the clips also influences the music changes in Her Story. Barlow also intended to feature a song for Seifert to sing in some of the clips that fit within the game. He settled on the murder ballad "The Twa Sisters", which he felt would trigger the mythical elements of the game. Seifert and Barlow both altered the ballad, to fit the game. Barlow intended for the sound design to be "all about authenticity". He used an old keyboard to provide sound effects for the computer, using stereo panning for the keys to have the correct 3D position in playback.
### Sequel
Telling Lies was Barlow's spiritual sequel to Her Story; rather than focusing on one central character, it features live-action footage from the video conversations of four characters (played by Logan Marshall-Green, Alexandra Shipp, Kerry Bishé, and Angela Sarafyan), and requires the player to piece together events by searching the video clips to determine why these characters were under surveillance. The game was published by Annapurna Interactive on Windows and macOS systems on 23 August 2019.
## Reception
### Critical reception
Her Story was well received by critics. Review aggregator Metacritic calculated an average score of 91 out of 100 based on 10 reviews for the iOS version, indicating "universal acclaim", and 86 out of 100 based on 49 reviews for the Windows version, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Metacritic ranks the game within the top 20 iOS and Windows games released in 2015, and GameRankings ranks Her Story within its top 100 iOS games of all time. Praise was particularly directed at the game's narrative, Seifert's performance, and gameplay mechanics. IGN's Brian Albert called Her Story "the most unique game I've played in years", and Steven Burns of VideoGamer.com named it "one of the year's best and most interesting games". Adam Smith of Rock, Paper, Shotgun remarked that it "might be the best FMV game ever made"; Michael Thomsen of The Washington Post declared it "a beautiful amalgam of the cinema and video game formats".
Critics lauded the game's narrative. Edge considered it "a superlatively told work of crime fiction." Kimberley Wallace of Game Informer wrote that the "fragmented" delivery of the story "works to its benefit". She appreciated the subtlety of the narrative, and the ambiguity surrounding the ending. Polygon's Megan Farokhmanesh noted that Her Story "nails the dark, voyeuristic nature of true crime". Chris Schilling of The Daily Telegraph was impressed by the coherence of the narrative, "even when presented out of order". Eurogamer's Simon Parkin found the effects of the narrative to be similar to well-received HBO thrillers, particularly in terms of audience attention. Stephanie Bendixsen of Good Game was disappointed that large plot points were revealed early in the game, but attributed this to the uniqueness of each player's experience.
Seifert's performance in the game received high praise from reviewers. GameSpot's Justin Clark felt that the performance "anchored" the game. Chris Kohler of Wired similiary described Seifert's performance as "so captivating that I couldn't imagine this game working any other way". Katie Smith of Adventure Gamers wrote that Seifert is convincing in the role, particularly with small details such as body language, but was startled by the lack of emotion. Game Informer's Wallace echoed similar remarks, noting that Seifert "nailed the role". Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Smith wrote that "the whole thing might collapse" without Seifert's "convincing" performance. IGN's Albert named the acting "believable", stating that Seifert's performance is "appropriately both grounded and absurd". Joe Donnelly of Digital Spy wrote that Seifert's performance has the potential to inspire similar games, and Andy Kelly of PC Gamer called the performance "understated, realistic, and complex". Burns of VideoGamer.com felt generally impressed by Seifert's performance, but noted some "occasional bad acting". Rich Stanton of The Guardian wrote that "Seifert's delivery is usually matter-of-fact and emotionally convincing". Polygon named Hannah among the best video game characters of the 2010s, dubbing Seifert's performance as "superbly".
The unconventional gameplay mechanics also received positive remarks from critics. Destructoid's Laura Kate Dale felt that the game's pacing and structure assisted the narrative, and Wallace of Game Informer found that making a connection between key points in the narrative was entertaining. Burns of VideoGamer.com praised the game's ability to make the player realise their own biases, and challenge their "sense of self". Albert of IGN felt that the searching tool was "gratifying", and positively contributes to the pacing of the game, while The Washington Post's Thomsen wrote that the database mechanic created "contemplative gaps between scenes", allowing for "poignance and power" within the narrative. Edge thought that by having game mechanics which require the player to deduce the story through investigation and intuition, Her Story was one of few games "that truly deliver on the foundational fantasy of detective work." Bendixsen of Good Game described the desktop as "appropriately retro", noting that she was "drawn in immediately".
The game sold over 100,000 copies by 10 August 2015; about 60,000 copies were sold on Windows, with the remaining 40,000 sold on iOS. Barlow stated that the game's instant popularity surprised him, as he had instead expected the game to slowly spread by word of mouth "and maybe over six months it would pay for itself."
### Accolades
Her Story has received multiple nominations and awards from gaming publications. It won Game of the Year from Polygon, as well as Game of the Month from Rock, Paper, Shotgun and GameSpot. It received the Breakthrough Award at the 33rd Golden Joystick Awards, Debut Game and Game Innovation at the 12th British Academy Games Awards, the award for Most Original game from PC Gamer, and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the Independent Games Festival Awards. At The Game Awards 2015, Her Story won Best Narrative, and Seifert won Best Performance for her role in the game; she also won the Great White Way Award for Best Acting in a Game at the 5th Annual New York Game Awards. Her Story won Best Emotional Mobile & Handheld at the Emotional Games Awards 2016, Mobile Game of the Year at the SXSW Gaming Awards, Mobile & Handheld at the British Academy Games Awards, and awards for excellence in story and innovation at the International Mobile Gaming Awards, while The Guardian named it the best iOS game of 2015, In 2015, Edge ranked Her Story as 94th in their list of the greatest videogames of all time. |
384,673 | Zero Patience | 1,142,642,899 | 1993 musical Canadian film by John Greyson | [
"1990s Canadian films",
"1990s English-language films",
"1990s French-language films",
"1990s musical fantasy films",
"1993 LGBT-related films",
"1993 films",
"Canadian Film Centre films",
"Canadian LGBT-related films",
"Canadian musical fantasy films",
"English-language Canadian films",
"Films directed by John Greyson",
"HIV/AIDS in Canadian films",
"LGBT-related musical films"
] | Zero Patience is a 1993 Canadian musical film written and directed by John Greyson. The film examines and refutes the urban legend of the alleged introduction of HIV to North America by a single individual, Gaëtan Dugas. Dugas, better known as Patient Zero, was the target of blame in the popular imagination in the 1980's in large measure because of Randy Shilts's American television film docudrama, And the Band Played On (1987), a history of the early days of the AIDS epidemic. Zero Patience tells its story against the backdrop of a romance between a time-displaced Sir Richard Francis Burton and the ghost of "Zero" (the character is not identified by Dugas' name).
Produced in partnership with the Canadian Film Centre, the Canada Council, Telefilm Canada and the Ontario Film Development Corporation, Zero Patience opened to mixed reviews but went on to win a number of prestigious Canadian film awards. The film has been the subject of critical attention in the context of both film theory and queer theory and is considered part of the informal New Queer Cinema movement.
## Plot summary
Victorian adventurer and sexologist Sir Richard Francis Burton (John Robinson), following an "unfortunate encounter" with the Fountain of Youth in 1892, is 170 years old and living in Toronto, Canada. Burton, now living and working as the chief taxidermist at a museum of natural history, is searching for a centerpiece display for an exhibit in his Hall of Contagion. He comes up with the idea of featuring AIDS and the Patient Zero hypothesis. Accepting the popular belief that Zero introduced the virus to North America, Burton sets out to collect video footage from those who knew Zero to support the hypothesis. When Zero's doctor (Brenda Kamino), mother (Charlotte Boisjoli) and former airline colleague Mary (Dianne Heatherington), who is now with ACT UP, all refuse to demonize Zero, Burton manipulates the footage to make it appear as if they do and includes doctored photographs of Zero showing signs of Kaposi's sarcoma. He presents this preliminary version to the press.
The ghost of Zero (Normand Fauteux) materializes at a local gay bathhouse. No one can see or hear him, until Zero runs into Burton while Burton is spying on Zero's friend George. Zero realizes that Burton can see him, although Zero does not show up on Burton's video camera. The two strike a deal; Zero agrees to help Burton with his Patient Zero exhibit if Burton finds a way to make Zero appear.
The two return to the museum where Burton makes a ridiculous attempt to seduce Zero to ensure his participation. Rejecting his advances, Zero examines some of the other exhibits (including displays on Typhoid Mary and the Tuskegee syphilis study) before finding an African green monkey, another suspected early AIDS vector. The monkey (Marla Lukofsky) angrily denounces Zero for scapegoating her just as he has been scapegoated. Zero turns to Burton and they make love.
Under pressure from his director and the exhibit's drug manufacturer sponsor, Burton steals Zero's medical records in hopes of discovering new information. Zero and Burton examine an old blood sample of Zero's under a microscope and discover Miss HIV (Michael Callen), who points out that the original study that was used to label Patient Zero as the first person to bring HIV to North America did not prove any such thing, but instead helped prove that HIV was sexually transmitted, leading to the development of safer sex practices. Under this interpretation, Zero could be lauded as a hero for his candor in participating in that original study. As Burton ponders this, an unknown fluid squirts from the eye pieces of the microscope, drenching Zero and making him appear on video. He joyously declares his innocence on tape but the effect only lasts five minutes before he fades away again. Zero angrily accuses Burton of not caring for him at all and only wanting to use him for the exhibit, then storms out.
Burton fails to complete the revised Patient Zero exhibit before its scheduled opening date. The museum curator substitutes the original presentation instead over Burton's protests, leading to a renewed rush of press scapegoating Zero. The night after the exhibit opens, Mary and other ACT UP members break into the Hall of Contagion and trash the exhibit. Zero returns and Burton explains that he tried to stop the exhibit. Zero forgives Burton but says he wants to disappear again completely. Zero merges with his disfigured video image and, smoking a cigarette inside the video, sets off the fire alarm. The sprinklers destroy the video player and Zero vanishes.
A major subplot involves George (Richardo Keens-Douglas), a French teacher and former intimate of Zero's. George is losing his sight to cytomegalovirus and is taking a drug that is manufactured by a company that, as a member of ACT UP, George is protesting. George struggles through the film to resolve his conflicted feelings over this, his guilt over abandoning Zero during the final days of his illness and his fear that the same thing will happen to him.
## Cast
- John Robinson as Sir Richard Burton
- Normand Fauteux as Zero
- Dianne Heatherington as Mary
- Richardo Keens-Douglas as George
- Charlotte Boisjoli as Maman, Zero's mother
- Brenda Kamino as Dr. Cheng, Zero's doctor
- Michael Callen as Miss HIV
- Marla Lukofsky as African Green Monkey
- Von Flores as Ray (ACT UP member)
- Scott Hurst as Michael (ACT UP member)
- Duncan McIntosh as Ross (ACT UP member)
Real-life television journalist Ann Medina has a brief role as a television reporter. Co-producer Louise Garfield makes a cameo appearance playing a virus, co-producer Anna Stratton appears as a drug company executive and composer Glenn Schellenberg plays a bathhouse attendant.
## Production
John Greyson became interested in offering a counterpoint to the Patient Zero story as early as 1987, when the Patient Zero meme began entering the public consciousness following the publication of Randy Shilts's book And the Band Played On. The book described the cluster study which led to the popular identification of flight attendant Gaëtan Dugas as the vector through which HIV was first brought to North America. Shilts himself never claimed that Dugas was the first. In early 1991 Greyson was given a development grant for the script from the Canadian Film Centre, of which Greyson is an alumnus. Over the next year Greyson, in collaboration with Film Centre partners Louise Garfield and Anna Stratton, continued to develop the script, eventually presenting it with producer Alexandra Raffé in a workshop format. During the first half of 1992, the production team secured additional development funding from the Canada Council, Telefilm Canada and the Ontario Film Development Corporation. By June of that year the script and the songs were completed and that autumn, with funds from the Telefilm Canada and OFDC grants along with revenue from the sale of British broadcast rights to Channel 4, pre-production and casting got underway. Principal photography began in November 1992 and wrapped after five weeks. Sneak previews took place at the Seattle International Film Festival and a number of LGBT film festivals across the United States before its official debut in September 1993 at Toronto's Festival of Festivals.
In dedicating the film's soundtrack album to performer and AIDS activist Michael Callen and other friends they had lost to the disease, Greyson, composer Glenn Schellenberg and producers Garfield and Stratton explained their reasons for making the film. "We wanted to explode the opportunistic myth of Patient Zero....More importantly, we wanted to celebrate the courage and sass of an international AIDS activist movement that has tirelessly fought for the rights of people living with AIDS."
## Critical reception
Zero Patience garnered mixed critical reaction. The Austin Chronicle cited a "murky plot, frequently weak acting and often mediocre music" while still praising the film's "spunk, humor, enthusiasm and wit." The Washington Post compared Zero Patience unfavorably to Hollywood's big-budget, big-star AIDS-themed film, Philadelphia, claiming that the latter's protagonist Andrew Beckett "looked sick, dealt with his illness and allowed the audience to sympathize," unlike the "healthy hoofers" of the musical who, because they didn't look sick enough, "[seem] to deny some of the grim realities" of the disease. In a contrary favorable opinion, London's Time Out Film Guide praised the film for "slyly inverting popular wisdom" to "offer a sassy commentary on the epidemic of blame" and calling Zero Patience "a film which engages your mind as much as your heart, and leaves you laughing." Similarly, The New York Times lauded the film's "loopy buoyancy," praising the songs as a "bouncy stylistic hybrid of Gilbert and Sullivan, Ringo Starr, The Kinks and the Pet Shop Boys."
Zero Patience was honored as the Best Canadian Film and Best Ontario Feature at the 1993 Cinéfest and was awarded a Special Jury Citation as Best Canadian Feature Film at the 1993 Festival of Festivals. Greyson dedicated his award to the memory of Jay Scott, the influential film critic who had died of AIDS a few months earlier.
Director Greyson and composer Glenn Schellenberg were nominated for a 1993 Genie Award for Best Original Song for the film's theme song, "Zero Patience."
### Queer theory
In examining the film from a queer theory perspective, author Michele Aaron cites Zero Patience as definitional of one of the New Queer Cinema's central attitudes, the "def[iance] of cinematic convention in terms of form, content and genre." Aaron goes on to cite the film's musical format as "further subvert[ing] the ways we might expect to be 'entertained' by such serious matters as AIDS, media representation, and the legacy of moralism and sexuality." Feminist academic and AIDS video producer Alexandra Juhasz puts forth the film as "an effective critique of the silly sensationalism used in much reportage of AIDS science [that] fights melodrama and tabloid journalism—with melodrama and tabloid journalism." Not all such critical commentary has been positive, with openly gay film scholar Robin Wood (who saw the film when someone very close to him was in the final stages of AIDS) calling the film "misguided on the levels both of conception and execution."
## Year-end lists
- Top 10 (listed alphabetically, not ranked) – Jimmy Fowler, Dallas Observer
## Soundtrack
The Zero Patience soundtrack was released in 1994. Produced by John Switzer, it includes all of the songs and several pieces of incidental music, along with two remixes of the film's title song.
### Track listing
1. "Zero Patience [Moulton Lava Club Remix]"
2. "Arabian Nights" - Instrumental
3. "Just Like Scheherazade" - Zero
4. "Culture of Certainty" - Richard Burton
5. "Pop-A-Boner" - Bathhouse trio
6. "Control" - Mary and ACT UP
7. "George's Theme" - Instrumental
8. "Pop-A-Boner [Reprise \#1]" - Bathhouse trio
9. "Butthole Duet" - Richard Burton and Zero
10. "Positive" - George and schoolchildren
11. "Drowning Sailors' Theme" - Instrumental
12. "Love Theme" - Instrumental
13. "Contagious" - African Green Monkey
14. "Pop-A-Boner [Reprise \#2]" - Bathhouse trio
15. "Scheherazade (Miss HIV)" - Miss HIV
16. "Six or Seven Things" - Richard Burton and Zero
17. "Zero Patience" - Principal cast
18. "Scheherazade (Tell a Story)" - Principal cast
19. "Zero Patience [Extended Burn Remix]"
## See also
- HIV and AIDS misconceptions |
48,737,277 | Get Enough (Ivy song) | 1,102,430,199 | null | [
"1994 singles",
"1994 songs",
"American folk rock songs",
"Ivy (band) songs",
"Songs written by Adam Schlesinger",
"Songs written by Andy Chase",
"Songs written by Dominique Durand"
] | "Get Enough" is the debut single by American band Ivy, released in 1994 by Seed Records. It was included as the opening track for their first studio album, Realistic (1995). It was composed by band members Dominique Durand, Adam Schlesinger and Andy Chase, and produced by the latter two and Kurt Ralske. The song was conceived while the band was creating material for their first extended play, Lately (1994), a project that Durand was initially reluctant to work on. Its production, along with the rest of Realistic, was inspired by French musicians and exhibits a folk rock and pop sound.
The song was praised by music critics, who enjoyed the production and Durand's French accent and gentle vocals. "Get Enough" was performed live on several occasions, including at least three times in 1995 in California at record shops and music festivals.
## Background and development
Ivy was formed in 1994, spurred by Andy Chase's wish to form a band. After repeatedly encouraging member Dominique Durand to sing, she reluctantly lent her vocals to the demo of "Can't Even Fake It", which would eventually appear on their debut EP, Lately (1994). Along with instrumentalist and musician Adam Schlesinger, they recorded several more songs, including "Get Enough" and "Drag You Down", the later of which would serve as the vinyl release's B-side track. Durand later admitted to CMJ New Music Monthly's Chris Cuffaro that the music behind Realistic (1995) was inspired by French musicians such as Françoise Hardy and Serge Gainsbourg, singers she had grown up listening to while living in France.
The composition was written by Durand, Chase and Schlesinger, and produced by the latter two and Kurt Ralske. It was recorded and mixed by the trio at The Place, a recording studio in New York City, while it was mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound Studios in Chelsea. It was described as a folk rock and pop song by AllMusic. According to the back side of the record's packaging, "Get Enough" had a limited release consisting of only 2,000 printed copies; each individual vinyl sleeve included a handwritten number indicating which copy the consumer received. A remixed version of the recording was also released in 1994, created by Paul Q. Kolderie and Sean Slade as a CD single. In his book New York Rock, author Steven Blush compared "Get Enough" to the works of German musician Nico.
## Critical reception
"Get Enough" was highlighted by critics due to Durand's vocals and its simple production. Vickie Gilmer and Ira Robbins of Trouser Press were impressed by the singer's vocal delivery on the track. The pair claimed that her "airy, petal-soft lilt and the music's toned-down pop bounce make it forever Ivy". Billboard's Larry Flick reviewed the CD single as part of his "Single Reviews: Rock Tracks" column. He wrote that Durand's "seductive French accent seeps through a suspiciously sugar-sweet delivery", and noted that her delivery comes off "pure as dirt, but cool nonetheless". British newspaper Melody Maker named "Get Enough" a "Single of the Week" in 1994.
## Live appearances
In order to promote "Get Enough", Ivy performed at several music festivals and made several concert appearances. Serving as the opening act for English band Gene, the trio performed "Get Enough" (along with "Shallow" and "Don't Believe a Word") at Union Square in San Francisco on July 21, 1995. Aurore Bacmann from Twee Kitten noted that the rendition was "very good" and "never too loud, but pleasantly enough to distract you from your grim thoughts and worries". Additional performances with varying set lists occurred the same day at the Wherehouse Records headquarters, where Durand allowed the audience to request certain songs, and at the Rasputin Records music shop in Berkeley, California, the following afternoon.
## Track listing and formats
- 7" single
1. "Get Enough" – 2:42
2. "Drag You Down" – 2:22
- Promotional CD single
1. "Get Enough" (Paul Q. Kolderie & Sean Slade Remix) – 2:41
## Personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of Realistic.
- Andy Chase – engineering, executive producer, mixing
- Dominique Durand – lead and background vocals
- Greg Calbi – mastering
- Eric Calvi – mixing
- Glenn Orenstein – production coordinator
- Kurt Ralske – engineering, executive producer
- Adam Schlesinger – engineering, executive producer, mixing
- Andy Van Dette – technical assistance
## Release history |
488,482 | HMS Audacious (1912) | 1,156,940,952 | King George V-class battleship | [
"1912 ships",
"King George V-class battleships (1911)",
"Maritime incidents in Ireland",
"Maritime incidents in October 1914",
"Military deception",
"Naval magazine explosions",
"Ships built on the River Mersey",
"Ships sunk by mines",
"Shipwrecks of Ireland",
"World War I battleships of the United Kingdom",
"World War I shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean"
] | HMS Audacious was the fourth and last King George V-class dreadnought battleship built for the Royal Navy in the early 1910s. After completion in 1913, she spent her brief career assigned to the Home and Grand Fleets. The ship was sunk by a German naval mine off the northern coast of County Donegal, Ireland, early during the First World War. Audacious slowly flooded, allowing all of her crew to be rescued and finally sank after the British were unable to tow her to shore. However, a petty officer on a nearby cruiser was killed by shrapnel when Audacious subsequently exploded. Even though American tourists aboard one of the rescuing ships photographed and filmed the sinking battleship, the Admiralty embargoed news of her loss in Britain to prevent the Germans from taking advantage of the weakened Grand Fleet. She is the largest warship ever sunk by naval mines.
## Design and description
The King George V-class ships were designed as enlarged and improved versions of the preceding Orion-class battleships. They had an overall length of 597 feet 9 inches (182.2 m), a beam of 89 feet 1 inch (27.2 m) and a draught of 28 feet 8 inches (8.7 m). They displaced 25,420 long tons (25,830 t) at normal load and 27,120 long tons (27,560 t) at deep load. Audacious's crew numbered 860 officers and ratings in 1914.
Ships of the King George V class were powered by two sets of Parsons direct-drive steam turbines, each driving two shafts, using steam provided by 18 Yarrow boilers. The turbines were rated at 27,000 shaft horsepower (20,000 kW) and were intended to give the battleships a speed of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph). Audacious carried enough coal and fuel oil to give her a range of 5,910 nautical miles (10,950 km; 6,800 mi) at a cruising speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).
### Armament and armour
Like the Orion class, the King George Vs were equipped with 10 breech-loading (BL) 13.5-inch (343 mm) Mark V guns in five hydraulically powered twin-gun turrets. There were a pair of superfiring turrets fore and aft of the superstructure and another amidships, all on the centreline. Their secondary armament consisted of 16 BL 4-inch (102 mm) Mark VII guns. Eight of these were mounted in the forward superstructure, four in the aft superstructure, and four in casemates in the side of the hull abreast of the forward main-gun turrets, all in single mounts. The ships were equipped with three 21-inch (533 mm) submerged torpedo tubes, one on each broadside and another in the stern, for which 14 torpedoes were provided.
The King George V-class ships were protected by a waterline 12-inch (305 mm) armoured belt that extended between the end barbettes. Their decks ranged in thickness between 1 inch (25 mm) and 4 inches with the thickest portions protecting the steering gear in the stern. The main battery turret faces were 11 inches (280 mm) thick, and the turrets were supported by 10-inch-thick (254 mm) barbettes.
#### Modifications
Audacious was fitted with a fire-control director on the roof of the spotting top before her loss.
## Construction and career
Ordered under the 1910–1911 Naval Estimates, Audacious was the third ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy. The ship was laid down by Cammell Laird at their shipyard in Birkenhead on 23 March 1911 and launched on 14 September 1912. She was completed in August 1913 at a cost of £1,918,813, but was not commissioned until 15 October, joining her sister ships in the 2nd Battle Squadron. All four sisters represented the Royal Navy during the celebrations of the re-opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal in Germany in June 1914.
### World War I
Between 17 and 20 July, Audacious took part in a test mobilisation and fleet review as part of the British response to the July Crisis. Arriving at the Isle of Portland on 25 July, she was ordered to proceed with the rest of the Home Fleet to Scapa Flow off the coast of Scotland four days later to safeguard the fleet from a possible surprise attack by the Imperial German Navy. Following the start of World War I in August, the Home Fleet was reorganised as the Grand Fleet, and placed under the command of Admiral Sir John Jellicoe. The following month, the ship was refitted at HM Dockyard, Devonport, and rejoined the Grand Fleet at the beginning of October.
#### Sinking
Repeated reports of submarines in Scapa Flow led Jellicoe to conclude that the defences there were inadequate and he ordered that the Grand Fleet be dispersed to other bases until the defences were reinforced. On 16 October, the 2nd Battle Squadron was sent to Loch na Keal on the western coast of Scotland. The squadron departed for gunnery practice off Tory Island, Ireland, on the morning of 27 October and Audacious struck a mine at 08:45, laid a few days earlier by the German auxiliary minelayer SS Berlin. Captain Cecil Dampier, thinking that his ship had been torpedoed, hoisted the submarine warning; in accordance with instructions the other dreadnoughts departed the area, leaving the smaller ships behind to render assistance.
The explosion occurred 16 feet (4.9 m) under the bottom of the ship, approximately 10 feet (3 m) forward of the transverse bulkhead at the rear of the port engine room. The engine room and the outer compartments adjacent to it flooded immediately, with water spreading more slowly to the central engine room and adjoining spaces. The ship rapidly took on a list to port of up to 15 degrees, which was reduced by counter-flooding compartments on the starboard side, so that by 09:45, the list ranged up to only nine degrees as she rolled in the heavy swell. The light cruiser Liverpool stood by, while Jellicoe ordered every available destroyer and tug out to assist, but did not send out any battleships to tow Audacious because of the supposed submarine threat. Having intercepted the stricken dreadnought's distress calls, the White Star ocean liner , arrived on the scene.
The ship could make 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph) and Dampier believed that he had a chance of making the 25 miles (40 km) to land and beaching the ship, so he turned Audacious south and made for Lough Swilly. The ship had covered 15 miles (24 km) when the rising water forced the abandonment of the centre and starboard engine rooms and she drifted to a stop at 10:50. Dampier ordered all non-essential crew to be taken off, boats from Liverpool and Olympic assisting, and only 250 men were left aboard by 14:00. At 13:30, Captain Herbert Haddock, the captain of Olympic, suggested that his ship attempt to take Audacious in tow. Dampier agreed, and with the assistance of the destroyer Fury, a tow line was passed 30 minutes later. The ships began moving, but the line snapped as Audacious repeatedly tried to turn into the wind. Liverpool and the newly arrived collier SS Thornhill then attempted to take the battleship in tow, but the lines broke before any progress could be made.
Vice-Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly, commander of the 1st Battle Squadron, arrived on the scene in the ocean boarding vessel Cambria and took over the rescue operation. Upon learning that two ships had been mined in the area the day before, and that there was no threat from submarines, Jellicoe ordered the pre-dreadnought battleship Exmouth to sail at 17:00 for an attempt to tow Audacious. Dampier ordered all but 50 men to be removed at 17:00 and Bayly, Dampier and the remaining men on the ship were taken off at 18:15 with dark approaching.
Just as Exmouth was coming up on the group at 20:45, Audacious heeled sharply, paused, and then capsized. She floated upside down with the bow raised until 21:00, when an explosion occurred that threw wreckage 300 feet (91 m) into the air, followed by two more. The explosion appeared to come from the area of 'B' magazine and was probably caused by one or more high-explosive shells falling from their racks and exploding, then igniting the cordite in the magazine. A piece of armour plate flew 800 yards (730 m) and killed a petty officer on Liverpool. This was the only casualty in connection with the sinking.
## Aftermath
Jellicoe immediately proposed that the sinking be kept a secret, to which the Board of Admiralty and the British Cabinet agreed, an act open to ridicule later on. For the rest of the war, Audacious' name remained on all public lists of ship movements and activities. The many Americans on board Olympic were beyond British jurisdiction and discussed the sinking. Many photos, and even one moving film, had been taken. By 19 November, the loss of the ship was accepted in Germany. Jellicoe's opposite number in Germany, Reinhard Scheer, wrote after the war, "In the case of the Audacious we approve of the English attitude of not revealing a weakness to the enemy, because accurate information about the other side's strength has a decisive effect on the decisions taken."
On 14 November 1918, shortly after the war ended, a notice officially announcing the loss appeared in The Times:
> > H.M.S. Audacious. A Delayed Announcement.
> >
> > The Secretary of the Admiralty makes the following announcement:— H.M.S. Audacious sank after striking a mine off the North Irish coast on October 27, 1914. This was kept secret at the urgent request of the Commander-in-Chief, Grand Fleet, and the Press loyally refrained from giving it any publicity.
A Royal Navy review board judged that a contributory factor in the loss was that Audacious was not at action stations, with water-tight doors locked and damage-control teams ready. Attempts were made to use the engine-circulating pumps as additional bilge pumps, but the rapid rise of water prevented this. Although hatches were open at the time of the explosion, it was claimed that all were closed before rising water reached them. Apart from the damage to the bottom of the ship, water was found to have spread through bulkheads because of faulty seals around pipes and valves, broken pipes and hatches which did not close properly.
The wreck of Audacious was filmed for the television show Deep Wreck Mysteries on the History Channel in 2008. The programme featured an investigation of the wreck and the circumstances of its loss by nautical archaeologist Innes McCartney and naval historian Bill Jurens. The diveable wreck lies upside down at a depth of 58–68 metres (190–223 ft) in clear water at , some 17 miles (27 km) north-east of Tory Island. 'B' turret and part of its barbette were blown clear of the wreck by the explosion. |
35,031,123 | Kirk Urso | 1,168,890,567 | American soccer player (1990–2012) | [
"1990 births",
"2012 deaths",
"American men's soccer players",
"Chicago Fire U-23 players",
"Columbus Crew draft picks",
"Columbus Crew players",
"Deaths from cardiomyopathy",
"IMG Academy alumni",
"Major League Soccer players",
"Men's association football midfielders",
"North Carolina Fusion U23 players",
"North Carolina Tar Heels men's soccer players",
"Parade High School All-Americans (boys' soccer)",
"People from Downers Grove, Illinois",
"People with congenital heart defects",
"Soccer players from DuPage County, Illinois",
"USL League Two players",
"United States men's under-20 international soccer players",
"United States men's youth international soccer players"
] | Kirk Jon Urso (March 6, 1990 – August 5, 2012) was an American professional soccer player who played as a midfielder. A product of Glenbard East High School and the IMG Soccer Academy, Urso played four years of college soccer at North Carolina. He helped the Tar Heels win three Atlantic Coast Conference titles, reach four consecutive College Cups, and claim a national championship in 2011. Upon his graduation, Urso's 91 appearances for North Carolina were the most in program history.
Urso appeared during the collegiate offseason with Carolina Dynamo and Chicago Fire Premier. He was selected by Columbus Crew in the first round of the 2012 MLS Supplemental Draft and went on to appear in six matches for the Crew. At international level, Urso appeared for the United States at under-17 and under-20 level after coming up through various boys' national teams. He appeared for the U17s at the 2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup and was with the U20s at the 2008 Milk Cup.
Urso died at the Grant Medical Center in August 2012, from arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, an inherited heart disease caused by genetic defects of the parts of heart muscle. The student section at North Carolina's UNC Soccer and Lacrosse Stadium is named after Urso, and both the Tar Heels and Crew give out the annual Kirk Urso Heart Award in his honor. The Kirk Urso Memorial Fund was also created in his memory, to advance research and programming on congenital heart defects.
## Early life
Urso was born in Downers Grove, Illinois, the younger of two sons to his parents Michael and Sandra Urso. He attended Glenbard East High School and played in the Illinois Olympic Development Program (ODP) as a freshman before spending two years in the under-17 national team residency program at the IMG Soccer Academy. He was named to the 2006 NSCAA/adidas Youth All-America Team and the 2007 Parade High School All-America squad.
At club level, Urso spent eight years in the Chicago Sockers youth setup before joining the residency program; with the Sockers, he played alongside Michael Bradley, David Meves, Greg Jordan, and Andy Rose. Urso committed to play college soccer for head coach Elmar Bolowich at the University of North Carolina, part of a recruiting class that also included Jordan Gafa, Billy Schuler, and Sheanon Williams.
## College and amateur
After enrolling a semester early and training with North Carolina during the spring of 2008, Urso made his collegiate debut for the Tar Heels on August 29, 2008; he started and provided an assist in a 3–0 victory against Florida International as part of the Carolina Nike Classic. His first goal for North Carolina came slightly more than a week later, helping the Tar Heels earn a 1–1 draw against nationally ranked UCLA on September 7. Urso missed the ACC Men's Soccer Tournament and the second round of the NCAA tournament due to a stress fracture in his shin, but returned in the third round against UIC and scored North Carolina's first goal in a 3–2 victory; he also scored the only goal of a 1–0 win over Northwestern that sent Carolina to the College Cup. Although the Tar Heels lost to Maryland in the national championship game, Urso was named as a Soccer America Second Team Freshman All-American after tallying three goals and six assists in 19 appearances.
As a sophomore, Urso tallied four goals and led the Tar Heels with six assists in 22 matches. He scored twice in the season opener against UNC Asheville, helping North Carolina to a 5–0 victory. He helped the Tar Heels claim a share of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) regular season title, then scored a goal in the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season; his strike helped North Carolina defeat Drake and secure a spot in the College Cup. Following the season, Urso was honored with the Tar Heels' Nicholas Douglass Potter Coaches Award. His best statistical season came as a junior, when Urso notched five goals and five assists in 24 appearances on his way to being named All-ACC Second Team; he also earned a spot on the ACC All-Tournament Team. He twice tallied game-winning goals, coming through an overtime free kick against Wofford and directly off a corner kick against Virginia. For a third consecutive season, Urso scored in the NCAA Tournament; this time, he tallied in regulation and scored during the penalty shootout as North Carolina advanced to the College Cup by defeating SMU.
Urso was named as the team captain for his senior season; he was the only player remaining on the roster who had played in each of North Carolina's previous three trips to the College Cup. During the 2011 season, the Tar Heels claimed the ACC regular season and tournament titles with Urso chipping in two goals and six assists. He added a goal and an assist in the NCAA Tournament, scoring in the second round against Coastal Carolina as North Carolina returned to the College Cup for the fourth year running. In the College Cup semifinals against UCLA, he scored in the penalty shootout; he then played the entire national championship game as North Carolina claimed the national title with a 1–0 victory over Charlotte. Urso finished his collegiate career with 15 goals and 24 assists in 91 appearances; he played more games than any player in Tar Heel history. Following his senior season, Urso was invited to the 2012 MLS Combine.
### Carolina Dynamo
Urso spent the 2008 and 2009 Premier Development League (PDL) seasons with Carolina Dynamo, appearing for the Dynamo ahead of his freshman and sophomore years at North Carolina. In his first season with the Dynamo, he provided a goal and an assist in 15 appearances; he then added three goals and an assist during the 2009 regular season to help Carolina qualify for the PDL playoffs. Urso played the full 90 minutes in the first round of the divisional playoffs, but the Dynamo fell to Cary Clarets by a 3–1 scoreline. In total, he played 26 matches and scored four goals during his time with the Dynamo.
### Chicago Fire Premier
Ahead of his junior collegiate season, Urso moved within the PDL and joined Chicago Fire Premier, the affiliate club of Major League Soccer's Chicago Fire. He spent just one season with Fire Premier, scoring five goals and providing four assists in 16 appearances. Urso scored twice in a 5–0 victory over Kalamazoo Outrage in early June, then scored on a free kick in a 2–1 defeat against Michigan Bucks in mid-July. Although he had played for the Fire's PDL affiliate, Urso was not eligible to sign with the club as a homegrown player since he did not meet league requirements.
## Club career
Out of college, Urso was selected with the 10th overall pick of the 2012 MLS Supplemental Draft by Columbus Crew; he joined North Carolina teammate Ben Speas in Columbus after Speas had signed with the club as a homegrown player a week earlier. After taking part in preseason with the Crew, Urso signed with the club on March 1, 2012. With starting defensive midfielder Danny O'Rourke sidelined by injury to begin the season, Urso made his club and professional debut in the season opener against Colorado Rapids on March 10. He played the full 90 minutes in a 2–0 defeat for Columbus.
Urso tallied his first point for the Crew in just his fourth match, albeit in a 4–1 defeat against New York Red Bulls on April 7. His corner kick in the 89th minute was headed home by club captain Chad Marshall, briefly cutting the Columbus deficit to 3–1. Urso started each of Columbus' first five games, but dropped out of the lineup following O'Rourke's return; he would make his sixth and final appearance for the Crew as a substitute against Vancouver Whitecaps FC on April 28. Urso missed the month of May after suffering a groin injury, then underwent surgery in June for what was confirmed to be right adductor tendonitis.
The day before Urso's death, the Crew had suffered a 1–0 defeat on the road against D.C. United. Due to his injury, Urso had not traveled with the team to Washington, D.C. but had instead remained behind in Columbus.
## International career
After rising through the ranks with the United States under-15 and under-16 national teams, Urso was admitted to the under-17 national team residency program at the IMG Soccer Academy in 2005. From there, he was named as part of the American roster for the 2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup, held in South Korea. In the Americans' final group stage game, against Belgium, Urso scored the match-winning goal in the 63rd minute, helping the United States place second in their group and advance to the knockout stages. He would later be called up by the under-20s for the 2008 Milk Cup and for a training camp in December of that year.
## Personal life
Urso supported English club Arsenal and played basketball as a child before committing to soccer full-time; he was a fan of the Chicago Bulls. He majored in economics while at North Carolina. Prior to college, Urso had trained with Spanish club Real Madrid; while in school, he spent a semester in Europe training with Bolton Wanderers and Borussia Dortmund.
Urso's older brother, Kyle, played college soccer at New Hampshire and in the National Premier Soccer League with Seacoast United Phantoms.
## Death and legacy
Early in the morning on August 5, 2012, Urso collapsed and fell unconscious at a bar in Columbus. He was taken by police officers to nearby Grant Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 1:51 a.m. local time at the age of 22. Autopsy results revealed that Urso died from arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, a preexisting heart condition that he "likely did not know he had", according to the Franklin County coroner. In the immediate wake of Urso's death, tributes poured in on social media from his North Carolina and Crew teammates, fellow Major League Soccer rookies, and other members of the American soccer community.
The Crew announced that Urso's number 15 jersey would hang in the locker room at Columbus Crew Stadium and that memorial patches would be worn on the club's jerseys for the remainder of the 2012 season; a plaque and oak tree were dedicated to Urso outside the stadium in October. Crew supporters in the Nordecke honored Urso with banners and Major League Soccer held a moment of silence before league matches on August 5. Black armbands with Urso's name and number on them were worn by some clubs, including LA Galaxy. Some former teammates, including Stephen McCarthy and Rob Lovejoy, would later change their kit numbers to honor Urso.
On March 24, 2013, Columbus played their first game at D.C. United since learning of Urso's death while the club was in Washington, D.C. The Crew claimed a 2–1 victory in that game, with the winning goal being scored by Urso's college teammate Ben Speas; it marked Speas' first professional goal. He dedicated the goal to Urso, saying "This is the place we found out about Kirk, so it was pretty emotional. I thought about that yesterday and I knew my first goal was going to be to him and I wanted to get it today. It's just special.”
### Kirk Urso Memorial Fund
The Crew Soccer Foundation created the Kirk Urso Memorial Fund in October 2012, to honor Urso's memory and advance research and programming on congenital heart defects. The fund raised more than \$100,000 in its first year, partially through an initiative started by retired defender Eddie Pope that saw players' fines from the 2012 season donated to the fund. In October 2013, United States national team striker Jozy Altidore wore a customized pair of cleats for a World Cup qualifier against Jamaica; a quote from Urso and both players' initials and numbers were featured on the cleats. They were raffled off during the game, with proceeds going to the Urso Memorial Fund.
Former Crew athletic trainer Dave Lagow ran the 2018 Marine Corps Marathon in memory of Urso; he started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for the fund. Lagow opened the campaign a month before the race with a goal of \$1,500, reflecting Urso's number with the Crew, but later changed the goal to \$3,000 to reflect his number at North Carolina. During the 2019 season, Crew fans began offering free tickets to home matches in exchange for a donation to the Urso Memorial Fund.
### Later memorials
Both North Carolina and Columbus created a Kirk Urso Heart Award, although the inspiration behind the award was different for each team. The North Carolina award was given to "the most competitive player" on the team; senior midfielder Jordan Gafa was the first winner of that award following the 2012 season. For the Crew, the award was given to the "player who best exemplifies Urso's leadership characteristics." Urso was posthumously announced as the first winner of the award, with defender Eric Gehrig earning the honor in 2013. In subsequent years, the award would be given to "the player that best exemplified the qualities in a teammate and became 'the heart' in the club's locker room."
Beginning in 2013, North Carolina men's soccer started the Kirk Urso Memorial Match to contribute to the memorial fund. The inaugural edition featured the Tar Heels and Crew facing off, and in future years was held as a tournament between college soccer programs in North Carolina.
Upon completion of the UNC Soccer and Lacrosse Stadium, which replaced Fetzer Field ahead of the Tar Heels' 2019 season, sections three and four were unveiled as the Kirk Urso Student Section. Rob Lovejoy, who had played alongside Urso for two seasons at North Carolina, spearheaded an effort through the Rams Club to raise \$50,000: to help offset the cost of building the stadium and to name the student section in Urso's honor. The section was dedicated at halftime of an August 30 game against Creighton; Urso's number three jersey was also informally retired by the Tar Heels.
## Career statistics
## Honors
North Carolina Tar Heels
- Atlantic Coast Conference (regular season): 2009, 2011
- ACC Men's Soccer Tournament: 2011
- College Cup: 2011
Individual
- NSCAA/adidas Youth All-America: 2006
- Parade High School All-America: 2007
- Soccer America Second Team Freshman All-America: 2008
- ACC All-Tournament Team: 2010
- All-ACC Second Team: 2010, 2011
- Kirk Urso Heart Award: 2012 |
31,941,988 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 | 1,172,950,949 | 2011 film by David Yates | [
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] | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 is a 2011 fantasy film directed by David Yates from a screenplay by Steve Kloves. The film is the second of two cinematic parts based on the 2007 novel Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling. It is the sequel to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010) and the eighth and final instalment in the Harry Potter film series. The story concludes Harry Potter's quest to find and destroy Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes in order to stop him once and for all.
The film stars an ensemble cast consisting of Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, and Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry's best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, alongside Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Warwick Davis, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Gambon, John Hurt, Jason Isaacs, Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, David Thewlis, and Julie Walters. Principal photography began on 19 February 2009, and was completed on 12 June 2010, with reshoots taking place in December 2010.
Part 2 was released in the United Kingdom and the United States on 15 July 2011, by Warner Bros. Pictures, and is the only Harry Potter film to be released in 3D. The film was a commercial success and one of the best-reviewed films of 2011, earning praise for the acting, Yates's direction, musical score, visual effects, cinematography, action sequences, and satisfying conclusion of the saga. At the box office, Part 2 claimed the worldwide opening weekend record, earning \$483.2 million, as well as setting opening day and opening weekend records in various countries. Part 2 grossed over \$1.3 billion worldwide and became the third-highest-grossing film at the time of its release, the highest-grossing film of 2011, and the highest-grossing film released by Warner Bros. until it was overtaken by Barbie in 2023. It is currently the highest-grossing film in the Harry Potter series and well as in the Wizarding World franchise. The National Board of Review named The Deathly Hallows – Part 2 as one of the top ten films of 2011. It was nominated for three awards at the 84th Academy Awards, and received numerous other accolades.
The DVD and Blu-ray were released on 11 November 2011 in the United States and on 2 December 2011 in the United Kingdom. Part 1 and Part 2 were released as a combo pack on DVD and Blu-ray on 11 November 2011 in Canada. The film was also released in the Harry Potter: Complete 8-Film Collection box set on DVD and Blu-ray, which included all eight films and new special features.
## Plot
After burying Dobby, Harry Potter asks the goblin Griphook to help him, along with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, break into Bellatrix Lestrange's vault at Gringotts bank, suspecting a Horcrux is there. Griphook agrees, in exchange for the Sword of Gryffindor. Wandmaker Ollivander tells Harry that two wands taken from Malfoy Manor belonged to Bellatrix and Draco Malfoy; he senses Draco's wand has changed its allegiance to Harry, who captured it from Draco. A horcrux, Helga Hufflepuff's cup, is found in Bellatrix's vault, but Griphook snatches the sword and abandons them. Trapped by security, they release the dragon guardian and flee Gringotts on its back. Harry has a vision of Lord Voldemort at Gringotts, furious at the theft. Harry also realises a Horcrux connected to Rowena Ravenclaw is hidden at Hogwarts. The trio apparate into Hogsmeade and are helped by Aberforth Dumbledore, who reveals a secret passageway into Hogwarts, which Neville Longbottom guides them through.
Severus Snape knows Harry has returned and threatens to punish any staff or students who aid Harry. Harry confronts Snape, who flees during a duel with Professor McGonagall. McGonagall rouses the Hogwarts community for battle. Luna Lovegood urges Harry to speak to Helena Ravenclaw's ghost. Helena reveals Voldemort performed "dark magic" on her mother's diadem, and tells Harry that the diadem is somewhere in the Room of Requirement. In the Chamber of Secrets, Ron and Hermione destroy the Horcrux cup with a Basilisk fang. Draco, Blaise Zabini and Gregory Goyle attack Harry in the Room of Requirement, but Ron and Hermione intervene. Goyle casts an uncontrollable Fiendfyre curse that kills him while Harry, Ron, and Hermione save Malfoy and Zabini and escape on brooms. Once outside, Harry stabs the diadem with the Basilisk fang and Ron kicks it to the inferno. As Voldemort's army attacks, Harry, seeing into Voldemort's mind, realises that Voldemort's snake Nagini is the final Horcrux. In the boathouse, the trio overhear Voldemort telling Snape that the Elder Wand cannot serve Voldemort until Snape dies; Nagini then viciously attacks Snape. As Snape dies, he gives Harry one of his memories. Meanwhile, Fred Weasley, Remus Lupin, and Nymphadora Tonks are killed in the chaos at Hogwarts.
Harry views Snape's memory in the Pensieve: Snape despised Harry's late father James, who bullied him, but he loved his mother Lily. Following her death, Snape worked with Albus Dumbledore as a double agent amongst the Death Eaters, to protect Harry from Voldemort. Harry also learns that Dumbledore was dying and planned for Snape to kill him. It was Snape who conjured the Patronus doe that led Harry to Gryffindor's sword. Harry also learns that he became an accidental Horcrux when Voldemort's curse originally failed to kill him; Voldemort must now kill Harry to destroy the soul shard within him. Using the Resurrection Stone that had been stored in the Golden Snitch bequeathed to him, Harry summons the spirits of his parents, Sirius Black, and Remus. They comfort him before he surrenders to Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest. Voldemort casts the Killing Curse upon Harry, who awakens in limbo. Dumbledore's spirit meets him and explains that Harry is now free of Voldemort, and can choose to return to his body or move on. Harry chooses the former.
Voldemort displays Harry's apparent corpse and demands that Hogwarts surrender. As Neville draws the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat in defiance, Harry reveals he is alive and the Malfoys and many other Death Eaters abandon Voldemort, demoralised after seeing that Harry still lived. While Harry confronts Voldemort in a duel throughout the castle, Ron's mother, Molly, kills Bellatrix in the Great Hall and Neville decapitates Nagini, destroying the last of the horcruxes. Harry finally destroys Voldemort after the Expelliarmus charm deflects the Killing Curse, rebounding it onto the Dark Lord. After the battle, Harry explains to Ron and Hermione that Voldemort never commanded the Elder Wand. It recognised him as its true master after he had disarmed Draco, who had earlier disarmed its previous owner, Dumbledore, atop the Astronomy Tower. Instead of claiming the Elder Wand, Harry destroys it.
Nineteen years later, Harry and his friends proudly watch their children leave for Hogwarts at King's Cross station.
## Cast
- Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter: A 17-year-old British wizard.
- Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley: One of Harry's best friends.
- Emma Watson as Hermione Granger: Harry's other best friend.
- Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange: A Death Eater and Sirius Black's cousin and murderer.
- Robbie Coltrane as Rubeus Hagrid: Harry's half-giant friend and a former member of staff at Hogwarts.
- Warwick Davis as Filius Flitwick: The Charms master and Head of the Ravenclaw house at Hogwarts; and also as Griphook, a goblin and former employee at Gringotts Bank.
- Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort: A twisted, evil, power-hungry, powerful wizard, and the founder and supreme leader of the Death Eaters.
- Michael Gambon as Professor Albus Dumbledore: The late headmaster of Hogwarts.
- John Hurt as Garrick Ollivander: A wandmaker abducted by the Death Eaters.
- Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy: Draco Malfoy's father and a disgraced Death Eater.
- Helen McCrory as Narcissa Malfoy: Draco's mother and Bellatrix's sister.
- Gary Oldman as Sirius Black: Harry's late godfather.
- Alan Rickman as Professor Severus Snape: Former Head of the Slytherin House and Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher and the new headmaster of Hogwarts.
- Maggie Smith as Professor Minerva McGonagall: The Transfiguration teacher and the Head of the Gryffindor house at Hogwarts.
- David Thewlis as Remus Lupin: A werewolf member of the Order of the Phoenix and a former Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts.
- Julie Walters as Molly Weasley: The Weasley matriarch.
- Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy: A Death Eater and son of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy.
- Bonnie Wright as Ginny Weasley: Ron's younger sister and Harry's love interest.
- Matthew Lewis as Neville Longbottom: A schoolfriend and strong supporter of Harry Potter.
- Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood: A seemingly dotty schoolfriend of Harry, who provides wise counsel at key moments.
In the book, a significant number of characters who have not appeared since some of the earlier novels reappear to defend Hogwarts in the large, final battle. Director David Yates stated, "I want to get them all back", referring to his desire to bring back as many actors who have appeared in the franchise as possible for that climactic battle sequence in the film. Resultantly, several actors reprise their roles from previous Harry Potter films including Sean Biggerstaff as Oliver Wood, Jim Broadbent as Horace Slughorn, Gemma Jones as Poppy Pomfrey, Miriam Margolyes as Pomona Sprout, and Emma Thompson as Sybill Trelawney.
The roles of several minor characters were recast or replaced for this film. For example, Ciarán Hinds assumed the role of Aberforth Dumbledore, Albus Dumbledore's brother and bartender of the Hog's Head inn. For the final scene in the film which is set nineteen years after the film's main story, the actors playing the main characters were made to look older through the use of makeup and special effects. After the initial look of the actors' aged appearances leaked onto the Internet, some fans reacted by opining that Radcliffe and Grint looked too old, while Watson did not appear significantly different at all. After primary filming concluded in June 2010, Yates examined the footage, and concluded that the problem could not be resolved through editing or CGI, and had the sequence re-shot that December, with redesigned makeup.
## Production
### Filming
Part 2 was filmed back-to-back with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 from 19 February 2009 to 12 June 2010, with reshoots for the epilogue scene taking place at Leavesden Film Studios on 21 December 2010. Yates, who shot the film with director of photography Eduardo Serra, described Part 2 as "operatic, colourful and fantasy-oriented", a "big opera with huge battles".
Originally set for a single theatrical release, the idea to split the book into two parts was suggested by executive producer Lionel Wigram due to, what David Heyman called, "creative imperative". Heyman initially responded negatively to the idea, but Wigram asked, "No, David. How are we going to do it?". After rereading the book and discussing it with screenwriter Steve Kloves, he agreed with the division.
### Sets
In an interview with Architectural Digest, production designer Stuart Craig remarked on creating sets for Part 2. Of the Gringotts Wizarding Bank, he said, "our banking hall, like any other, is made of marble and big marble columns. And it has great strength. The fact that the goblins are the bankers and tellers at the counter helps that feeling of grandeur and solidity and the big proportions. That was part of the fun of the set: we exaggerated the size of it, we exaggerated the weight of it, and we even exaggerated the shine of the marble." About the multiplication of treasure in one of the bank's vaults, he noted, "We made literally thousands of pieces for it and vacuum metallised them to be shiny gold and silver. John Richardson, the special effects supervisor, made a floor that was capable of rising on different levels, so there was kind of a physical swelling of the treasure on it."
Craig spoke about the Battle of Hogwarts to Art Insights Magazine, saying that "the great challenge is the destruction of Hogwarts. The sun rising behind the smoke ... the massive remains of destroyed walls, the entrance hall, the entrance of the Great Hall, part of the roof of the Great Hall completely gone, so yeah. A big challenge there and an enjoyable one really – maybe it helped me and the guys in the art department sort of prepare for the end ... we demolished it before we had to strike it completely." When asked about the King's Cross scene near the end of the film, Craig said, "We experimented a lot, quite honestly. I mean it was quite a protracted process really but we did experiment the sense of it being very burnt out very very kind of white – so we experimented with underlit floors, we experimented with different kind of white covering everything: white paint, white fabric, and the cameraman was involved in how much to expose it, and a series of camera tests were done, so we got there but with a great deal of preparation and research."
### Visual effects
Visual effects supervisor Tim Burke said that "It was such a major job to stage the Battle of Hogwarts, and we had to do it in different stages of production. We had shots with complex linking camera moves from wide overviews, to flying into windows and interior spaces. So, we took the plunge at the end of 2008, and started rebuilding the school digitally with Double Negative." He went on to say: "It's taken two years – getting renders out, texturing every facet of the building, constructing interiors to see through windows, building a destruction version of the school. We can design shots with the knowledge that we have this brilliant digital miniature that we can do anything with. With a practical Hogwarts, we would have shot it last summer and been so tied down. Instead, as David Yates finds the flow and structure, we are able to handle new concepts and ideas."
On the quality of 3D in film, Burke told Los Angeles Times, "I think it's good, actually. I think people are going to be really pleased. I know everyone's a little nervous and sceptical of 3D these days, but the work has been done very, very well. We've done over 200 shots in 3D and in the visual effects as well, because so much of it is CGI, so the results are very, very good. I think everyone's going to be really impressed with it, actually." Producer David Heyman spoke to SFX magazine about the 3D conversion, saying that "The way David Yates is approaching 3D is he's trying to approach it from a character and story point of view. Trying to use the sense of isolation, of separation that sometimes 3D gives you, to heighten that at appropriate moments. So we're approaching it in a storytelling way."
In 2012, the visual effects in the film were nominated for an Oscar. The film also won the BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects at the 65th BAFTA Awards in 2012.
### Music
It was originally planned that John Williams, who composed the scores for the first three instalments, would return to compose the final film's score, but he was unavailable due to scheduling conflicts. It was confirmed that the composer for Part 1, Alexandre Desplat, was set to return for Part 2. In an interview with Film Music Magazine, Desplat stated that scoring Part 2 is "a great challenge" and that he has "a lot of expectations to fulfill and a great deal of work" ahead of him. In a separate interview, Desplat also made note that Williams's themes will be present in the film "much more than in Part 1". The soundtrack for the film was nominated for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards.
## Marketing
In March 2011, the first preview for Deathly Hallows – Part 2 was released, revealing new footage and new interviews from the starring cast. The first United States poster was released on 28 March 2011, with the caption "It All Ends 7.15" (referring to its international release date). On 27 April 2011 the first theatrical trailer for Part 2 was released. The trailer revealed a range of new and old footage. The IMAX trailer for the film was released with IMAX screenings of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides on 20 May 2011. During the MTV Movie Awards on 5 June 2011, Emma Watson presented a sneak peek of the film.
## Release
### Theatrical
On 2 April 2011, a test screening of the film was held in Chicago, with Yates, Heyman, Barron and editor Mark Day in attendance. The film had its world premiere on 7 July 2011 (2011-07-07) at Trafalgar Square in London. The United States premiere was held in New York City at Lincoln Center on 11 July 2011 (2011-07-11). Although filmed in 2D, the film was converted into 3D in post-production and was released in both RealD 3D, IMAX 3-D and 4DX.
The film was originally scheduled to open in Indonesia on 13 July 2011. The Indonesian government levied a new value added tax on royalties from foreign films in February 2011, causing three film studios, including Warner Brothers, to halt the importation of their films, including Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 into the country. The film was not released to cinemas in the Kingdom of Jordan due to recently enforced taxes on films.
On 10 June, one month before release, tickets went on sale. On 16 June 2011, Part 2 received a 12A certificate from the British Board of Film Classification, who note that the film "contains moderate threat, injury detail and language", becoming the only Harry Potter film to receive a warning for "injury detail". At midnight 15 July, Part 2 screened in 3,800 theaters. In the United States, it played in 4,375 theaters, 3,100 3D theaters and 274 IMAX theaters, the widest release for an IMAX, 3D, 4DX and Harry Potter film.
### Home media
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 was released on 11 November 2011 in the United States in four formats: a one-disc standard DVD, a two-disc standard DVD special edition, a one-disc standard Blu-ray, and three-Disc Blu-ray 2D Combo Pack (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy). In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the film was released on 2 December 2011 in three formats: a two-disc standard DVD, a three-disc Blu-ray 2D Combo Pack (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy), and a four-disc Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack (Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray 2D + DVD + Digital Copy). The film set the record for fastest-selling pre-order DVD and Blu-ray on Amazon.com, just two days into the pre-order period.
Deathly Hallows – Part 2 sold 2.71 million Blu-ray units (\$60.75 million) in three days (Friday to Sunday). It also sold 2.83 million DVD units (\$42.22 million) during its debut. By 18 July 2012 it had sold 4.71 million Blu-ray units (\$99.33 million) and 6.47 million DVD units (\$88.96 million).
On 28 March 2017, Deathly Hallows – Part 2 made its Ultra HD Blu-ray debut, along with Deathly Hallows - Part 1, The Half-Blood Prince, and Order of the Phoenix.
## Reception
### Box office
Prior to its release, the film was predicted by box office analysts to break records, citing the anticipation built up over the course of 10 years. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 grossed \$381.4 million in the United States and Canada, along with \$960.8 million in other markets, for a worldwide total of \$1.342 billion. In worldwide earnings, it was the third-highest-grossing film, the highest-grossing film of 2011, the highest-grossing film in the Harry Potter franchise, and the highest-grossing book adaptation. It also became the highest-grossing film for Warner Bros. until 2023's Barbie, as well as the highest-grossing release from parent company WarnerMedia, surpassing The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Part 2 set a worldwide opening-weekend record with \$483.2 million. This record would be held for four years before Jurassic World took it in 2015. The film set a worldwide IMAX opening-weekend record with \$23.2 million. It set the worldwide record as the fastest film to gross \$500 million (6 days), \$600 million (8 days), \$700 million (10 days), \$800 million (12 days), and \$900 million (15 days). On 30 July 2011, the film crossed the \$1 billion mark, tying the 19-day record that had been set by Avatar. It was also the fastest Warner Bros. film to cross that mark until Barbie surpassed it in 2023, passing it in 17 days.
#### United States and Canada
In the US and Canada, it is the 27th-highest-grossing film, the highest-grossing film of 2011, the highest-grossing Harry Potter film, the highest-grossing children's book adaptation, the highest-grossing fantasy/live action film and the 13th-highest-grossing 3-D film. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold more than 40 million tickets. It set new records in advance ticket sales with \$32 million, in its midnight opening with \$43.5 million and in its IMAX midnight opening with \$2 million. It grossed \$91.1 million on its opening Friday, setting a Friday-gross record as well as single- and opening-day records. It also set an opening-weekend record with \$169.2 million, an IMAX opening-weekend record of \$15.2 million and opening-weekend record for a 3-D film. Although 3-D enhanced the film's earning potential, only 43% of the opening gross came from 3-D venues. This means only \$72.8 million of the opening-weekend grosses originated from 3-D showings, the second-largest number at the time.
It also scored the largest three-day and four-day gross, the sixth-highest-grossing opening week (Friday to Thursday) with \$226.2 million, and even the seventh-largest seven-day gross. It fell precipitously by 84% on its second Friday and by 72% during its second weekend overall, grossing \$47.4 million, which is the largest second-weekend drop for any film that opened to more than \$90 million. Still, it managed to become the fastest-grossing film in the franchise and also achieved the second-largest ten-day gross ever at the time (now eighth). In its third weekend, the movie surpassed Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone to become the highest-grossing film of the franchise in the US & Canada.
#### Other territories
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 became the third-highest-grossing film, the highest-grossing 2011 film, the highest-grossing Warner Bros. film and the highest-grossing Harry Potter film. On its opening day, Deathly Hallows – Part 2 grossed \$43.6 million from 26 countries, placing it 86% ahead of Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and 49% higher than Half-Blood Prince. From Wednesday until Sunday, on its 5-day opening weekend, it set an opening-weekend record outside the US and Canada by earning \$314 million. The average 3D share of Deathly Hallows – Part 2 was 60%, which was lower than the 3D share for Transformers: Dark of the Moon (70%) and On Stranger Tides (66%). On its second weekend, it held to the top spot, but fell precipitously by 62% to \$120.2 million despite minor competition. This amount is about the same as what On Stranger Tides made from its second weekend (\$124.3 million). Deathly Hallows – Part 2 was in first place at the box office outside North America for four consecutive weekends.
In the United Kingdom, Ireland and Malta it brought in a record \$14.8 million on its first day. On its opening weekend it earned £23,753,171 in the United Kingdom, marking the second largest opening weekend in 2011. Its performance did not surpass that of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in 2004, which earned £23,882,688 on its opening weekend. In United States dollars, its opening weekend was an all-time record \$38.3 million, ahead of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (\$33.5 million). The film also achieved the largest single-day gross on its first Saturday and the largest opening week with \$57.6 million. The film made a total of £73.1 million (\$117.2 million) at the United Kingdom box office, making it the tenth-highest-grossing film. It also is the highest-grossing film of 2011 and the highest-grossing Wizarding World film.
Deathly Hallows – Part 2 also set opening-day records in Mexico (\$6.1 million), Australia (\$7.5 million), France and the Maghreb region (\$7.1 million), Italy (\$4.6 million), Sweden (\$2.1 million), Norway (\$1.8 million), Denmark (\$1.6 million), the Netherlands (\$1.7 million), Belgium (\$1.4 million), the Czech Republic (\$2.0 million), Argentina (\$961,000), Finland (\$749,000) and Hong Kong (\$808,000). It also established new Harry Potter opening-day records in Japan (\$5.7 million), Brazil (\$4.4 million), Russia and the CIS (\$4.2 million), Spain (\$3.3 million) and Poland (\$1.25 million).
Deathly Hallows – Part 2 set opening day records in India with ₹15 crore (\$3.41 million), Australia with \$19.6 million, New Zealand with \$2.46 million, Brazil with \$11. million, Scandinavia with \$18.5 million, Mexico with \$15.9 million and many other Latin American and European countries.
### Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average score of . The site's critical consensus reads, "Thrilling, powerfully acted, and visually dazzling, Deathly Hallows Part II brings the Harry Potter franchise to a satisfying – and suitably magical – conclusion." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating to reviews, the film has a score of 85 out of 100 based on 41 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". The film received a score of 93 from professional critics at the Broadcast Film Critics Association; it is the organisation's highest-rated Harry Potter film. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.
Philip Womack in The Daily Telegraph commented, "This is monumental cinema, awash with gorgeous tones, and carrying an ultimate message that will resonate with every viewer, young or old: there is darkness in all of us, but we can overcome it." He further expressed that David Yates "transmutes [the book] into a genuinely terrifying spectacle." Another review was released on the same day from Evening Standard, who rated the film four out of five and stated "Millions of children, parents, and those who should know better won't need reminding what a Horcrux is – and director David Yates does not let them down. In fact, in some ways, he helps make up for the shortcomings of the final book." The Daily Express remarked that the film showcases "a terrifying showdown that easily equals Lord of the Rings or Star Wars in terms of a dramatic and memorable battle between good and evil".
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three and a half stars out of four and said, "The finale conjures up enough awe and solemnity to serve as an appropriate finale and a dramatic contrast to the lighthearted (relative) innocence of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone all those magical years ago." Mark Kermode from the BBC said that the film is a "pretty solid and ambitious adaptation of a very complex book", but he criticised the post-converted 3D. Christy Lemire of the Associated Press gave the film three and a half out of four and said "While Deathly Hallows: Part 2 offers long-promised answers, it also dares to pose some eternal questions, and it'll stay with you after the final chapter has closed." Richard Roeper, also from the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film an A+ rating and said: "This is a masterful and worthy final chapter in one of the best franchises ever put to film."
In one of the few negative reviews, Brian Gibson of Vue Weekly described the film as "deadly dull" and a "visual overstatement". Other reviews criticised the decision to split the novel into two cinematic parts, with Ben Mortimer of The Daily Telegraph writing "Deathly Hallows – Part 2 isn't a film. It's HALF a film ... it's going to feel somewhat emotionless." Other critics wrote of the film's runtime; Alonso Duralde from The Wrap said, "If there's one substantial flaw to the film, it's that this cavalcade of people and places and objects can barely fit in the 130-minute running time." Rebecca Gillie from The Oxford Student gave the film two out of five and wrote: "At the end of [the film] there is nothing that stays with you once you've left the cinema."
### Accolades
At the 84th Academy Awards, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 received nominations for Best Art Direction, Best Makeup, and Best Visual Effects. The film's other nominations include four British Academy Film Awards (winning one) and four Critics' Choice Movie Awards (winning two). It was named one of the ten best films of 2011 by the National Board of Review.
## Future
In July 2016, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. applied to purchase the rights to the stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a follow-up to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, leading to speculation that the stage play was being planned to be adapted into a film.
In November 2021, Chris Columbus, who directed the first two instalments of the film series, expressed interest in directing an adaptation of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, with the intent of having the main cast members reprise their roles. In March 2022, when The New York Times asked Radcliffe whether he would return to his role as Harry Potter, he replied that he was not interested at the moment, but did not deny the possibility of returning to the role in the future. |
305,233 | River Arun | 1,170,230,204 | River in West Sussex, England | [
"Ramsar sites in England",
"River navigations in the United Kingdom",
"Rivers of West Sussex"
] | The River Arun (/ˈærən/) is a river in the English county of West Sussex. At 37 miles (60 km) long, it is the longest river entirely in Sussex and one of the longest starting in Sussex after the River Medway, River Wey and River Mole. From the series of small streams that form its source in the area of St Leonard's Forest in the Weald, the Arun flows westwards through Horsham to Nowhurst where it is joined by the North River. Turning to the south, it is joined by its main tributary, the western River Rother, and continues through a gap in the South Downs to Arundel to join the English Channel at Littlehampton. It is one of the faster flowing rivers in England, and is tidal as far inland as Pallingham Quay, 25.5 miles (41.0 km) upstream from the sea at Littlehampton. The Arun gives its name to the Arun local government district of West Sussex.
The first major improvements to the river were made between the 1540s and the 1570s, when Arundel became a port, and navigation up to Pallingham was improved, but barges had difficulty negotiating the flash locks that were installed. The work was carried out by Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel, who made the upper section toll-free. Harbour commissioners managed the lower river from Arundel to the sea from 1732, and major improvements to keep the estuary free from silt were sanctioned by an Act of Parliament obtained in 1793. With the coming of the railways and changes in coastal shipping, Littlehampton superseded Arundel as the port of the Arun, and the Littlehampton harbour commissioners are still responsible for the river up to Arundel, collecting tolls for its use.
The river above Arundel was improved after 1785. As the main channel was toll-free, the proprietors of the scheme built two major cuts. One, which included three locks and passed through Hardham Tunnel, was built to avoid a large bend near Pulborough. The other was near the upper terminus, where a cut with three locks and a flood Lock crossed the original channel by an aqueduct to reach wharves at Newbridge. Further improvements were made when the Wey and Arun Canal opened in 1816, joining the Arun Navigation at Newbridge, and after the completion of the Portsmouth and Arundel Canal, which opened soon afterwards. These two canals were an attempt to provide an inland route between London and Portsmouth, but were not as successful as the proprietors hoped. Traffic declined rapidly when the railways offered competition, and the navigation ceased to be maintained from 1888, though some traffic continued on the lower sections. The Wey and Arun Canal is currently being restored, and restoration will eventually include the cut and locks below Newbridge.
## History
When Ptolemy wrote his Geography around 150 AD, the Arun was called the Trisantonis, with later accounts using the same name. Trisantonis is thought to be a Brythonic word for 'the trespasser', indicating the river's tendency to flood land near to the river. Trisanto translates directly as 'one who goes across'. There is also a theory that the Arun may have been known as the Trisantonis in its lower reaches close to the sea, but known as the Arnus (from the Brythonic 'Arno' meaning run, go, or flow) in its upper reaches. It is possible that the town of Arundel may mean Arno-dell, or dell of the flowing river. By the Middle Ages the river was known as the river of Arundel, the Arundel river, or the high stream of Arundel. An alternative name, the Tarrant (derived from Trisantona), is, however, attested in 725 and 1270, and is reflected in the road name Tarrant Street, one of the main roads running through the town roughly parallel to the river. The first use of the modern name was recorded in 1577, but the alternative names of Arundel river or great river continued to be used for many years.
A further possible etymology derived from the Domesday spelling Harundel for Arundel comes from the Anglo Saxon hærn dell meaning "tidal valley", which this would mean that the name of the river probably also derives from "tidal". Other local rivers such as the Rother deriving from the Anglo Saxon róðer, which means "rower" (as in a long river), are also descriptive of the river and its surrounds.
The mouth of the river has not always been at Littlehampton. Until the later fifteenth century it joined the River Adur at Lancing some ten miles to the east before entering the sea. This estuary became blocked with shingle by the eastward drift of the tides, pushing the Adur towards Shoreham-by-Sea, while the Arun broke out at Worthing, Goring and Ferring at various times, until it formed its present estuary at Littlehampton between 1500 and 1530.
### Improvements
The lower portion of the river, from the sea to Ford, was navigable in the eleventh century at the time of the Norman conquest. In the sixteenth century, Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel built wharves at Ford, and improved the river channel below there, so that the town became a port. Over the 30 years from 1544, he also improved the river as far upstream as Pallingham Quay. Although the work involved a number of flash locks, which were not very successful, no tolls were charged for its use, and vessels of around 15 tons were used to carry timber. Attempts to make the river navigable up to Newbridge in the early sixteenth century were not successful.
An Act of Parliament was obtained in 1732, the main emphasis of which was the improvement of "the harbour of Littlehampton, called Arundel Port", but improvements to the first 5.75 miles (9.25 km) of the river, from the sea to Arundel, were also authorised. Commissioners were appointed, with powers to erect piers and to cut a new channel to the sea through a sand bar. The Act allowed them to charge tolls for use of the facilities, and once the initial costs had been repaid, one half of the tolls were to be used to maintain the harbour and the river channel up to Arundel. Although most ships were of 30 or 40 tons, ships of up to 100 tons could reach Arundel as a result of the work, and trade improved.
The next Act to affect the river was obtained by a group of local men in 1785. Under the Act, the proprietors were empowered to make the river navigable for 30-ton barges up to Newbridge. They had no jurisdiction over the river from Arundel to Houghton bridge, and could not charge tolls for use of the river up to Pallingham. There were 31 members of the proprietors, who could raise £10,000 by issuing 100 shares worth £100 each. Day-to-day oversight of the affairs of the navigation were managed by three proprietors, with a half-yearly meeting of the larger group. The purpose of the navigation was to carry coal, chalk and lime upstream, and agricultural produce in the other direction. Rather than improve the river channel, the navigation upstream of Pallingham consisted of a separate channel, containing three locks, and an aqueduct which carried the navigation over the river at Orfold. The journey below Pallingham was made 3 miles (4.8 km) shorter by cutting a new channel between Coldwaltham and Hardham. This involved the construction of three more locks and a 375-yard (343 m) tunnel. The Pallingham to Newbridge section opened on 1 August 1787, while the Hardham cut was completed in mid-1790. The cost of the work was around £16,000.
There were two proposals to extend the navigation at this time. The first was for a canal to North Chapel, to the north of Petworth, in 1791, and the second was for a canal to Horsham in the following year. The route was surveyed by John Rennie, who estimated that it would cost £18,133 to build, but negotiations with the existing proprietors failed, and the scheme was dropped in 1794. Meanwhile, a second Act of Parliament was obtained by the harbour commissioners in 1793, as there was serious silting of the estuary. Groynes were constructed and the existing piers were made longer. In addition, a towpath was built from the mouth of the river up to Arundel. The Act stated that the capital borrowed to finance the harbour under the previous act had been repaid, and that tolls would all be used for maintenance of the harbour and river up to Arundel, once further borrowings had been repaid. Because the inhabitants of Arundel had spent £28,300 on the harbour, boats which belonged to the port of Arundel did not have to pay any tolls. As a result of the works, the port of Arundel enjoyed its most prosperous period for the next thirty years, with ships of 200 and 300 tons able to reach the town on spring tides. Facilities improved, and there were four docks by 1840.
### Operation
Payment of dividends to shareholders began in 1792, and over the next five years, tolls raised an average of £893 per year and the dividend was 3.1 per cent. At this time, George Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont was buying shares and having obtained one third of them, he became chairman of the company. He then stopped the payment of dividends so that the borrowed capital could be paid off more quickly. Apart from an interim payment in 1821, dividends were not reinstated until 1830. In the 1790s Wyndham was responsible for the canalisation of the River Rother which joins the Arun at Stopham, and he also promoted the Wey and Arun Canal, which was seen as part of a larger scheme to link London to Portsmouth, an idea which had been contemplated several times since 1641. He chaired a meeting held at Guildford on 1 June 1811, at which it was decided to press ahead with the canal, and put up £20,000 of the initial £90,500 estimated cost. The canal opened in September 1816, but the estimated 100,000 tons of traffic passing between London and the dockyards at Portsmouth, and the 30,000 tons of local traffic, were far too optimistic, with actual traffic averaging around 15,000 tons per year throughout its life.
The London to Portsmouth route was to be completed by the Portsmouth and Arundel Canal, in which Wyndham and the Cutfields, who also held many shares in the Arun Navigation, were both significant subscribers. This was authorised by Act of Parliament in 1817, and an agreement was reached that the Arun would be improved to aid through traffic. Nevertheless, no work commenced on the Arun until the proprietors were sure that the Ford section of the new canal would actually be built. Once they were convinced, they obtained an Act of Parliament in May 1821, and the engineer James Hollingworth oversaw the improvements, which were completed in mid-1823. The work involved improving the depth and width of the channel, and some alterations to bridges and locks to make their size more uniform. The company borrowed £3000 to finance the work, which cost around £5000 in total. The loans had been repaid by 1831, and the work allowed barge sizes to be increased from 30 tons to 40 tons, with the result that business improved.
Traffic increased, as shown by the number of boats belonging to residents of Arundel. There were 13 in 1801, which had increased to 15 by 1803, with a total tonnage of 266. A timber merchant called John Boxold owned barges in 1815 and 1832, while in 1820, a company began running regular freight services to London, using three barges based near the town quay. By 1823 they had ten barges, which had reduced to seven by 1830, and barges ran twice-weekly to Chichester, London, Midhurst, and Petworth. The company was variously called Seward and Co., The Arundel Barge Co., and several other names.
### Decline
From the 1840s, use of the river declined, as a result of competition from the railways, and changes in coastal shipping. Littlehampton grew in importance as a port and after years of resistance by the people of Arundel, the customs house was moved there in 1864. The Mid-Sussex Railway opened their line from Horsham to Pulborough and Petworth in 1859, which was extended to Ford and Littlehampton in 1863. Receipts from tolls had peaked at £2044 for the five years from 1835 to 1840, when a dividend of 11.8 percent was paid, but dropped quickly, raising just £389 for years between 1870 and 1875, when the dividend was 1 percent.
By 1852, the barge service to London only ran once a week, and it had ceased altogether three years later. Most vessels reaching Arundel were coasters rather than barges by 1886, and just 20 ships used the facilities that year. The Wey and Arun Canal closed in 1871. The proprietors of the upper river ceased to maintain the navigation from 1 January 1888, and the last barge passed through Hardham Tunnel on 29 January 1889. The river was abandoned as a navigation by a warrant issued as part of the Railway and Canal Traffic Act of 1888. The River Lark in Suffolk was the only other river navigation abandoned at that time. The Board of Trade issued a closing order in 1896, and after that, there was no navigation authority responsible for the upper river. However, traffic did not cease entirely.
Fifteen or twenty barges were still using the river in the 1880s, although the upper reaches were no longer accessible. Arundel docks silted up between 1875 and 1896. In 1898, the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, who by this time were the owners of the railway from Horsham to Littlehampton, drilled down into the tunnel where the main line and the branch to Midhurst crossed its course, and poured tons of chalk into the tunnel to stabilise it. A trade in chalk and lime extracted from Amberley chalk pits continued into the early twentieth century. Some ships were towed to Arundel by paddle tugs, and imports of salt, timber and coal for the gasworks continued. Arundel was visited by its last steamer in 1914, and the last sailing vessel to reach the port did so three years later. Passage of larger craft upstream was hindered by the construction of a swing bridge at Littlehampton in 1908, and prevented by a fixed railway bridge at Ford built in 1938. As freight traffic disappeared from the river, Edward Slaughter, who later became part of the company of Buller and Slaughter, was hiring pleasure craft by 1903, and the company was still doing so in the 1990s.
### Present
Authority for the river remains much as it was after 1896, with the Littlehampton Harbour Board responsible for the section from the mouth up to Arundel Bridge, and no navigation authority for the river above that, although the Environment Agency have responsibility for its drainage functions. There are nine bridges with a minimum navigable headroom of between 8 feet (2.4 m) and 5 feet (1.5 m) at high water. The river is tidal to Pallingham Quay, 25.5 miles (41.0 km) upstream from the sea at Littlehampton, and flows at 4 to 6 knots (7.4 to 11.1 km/h), making it one of the fastest flowing rivers in the country. The tidal range at Littlehampton is 17 feet (5.2 m) at spring tides and 8.8 feet (2.7 m) at neap tides. High tide occurs 15 minutes later than high water at Dover, and high water at Pulborough is four hours later than at Littlehampton.
### Charitable organisations
The Arun & Rother Rivers Trust (ARRT) is a charity set up in 2011 with objectives around education, fisheries, biodiversity, access and pollution amongst other issues.
The Wey and Arun Canal is being restored by the Wey and Arun Canal Trust, which was set up in the 1970s. The Wey and Arun Canal technically ended at Newbridge, but the restoration will include the Arun Navigation section down to Pallingham to reach the River Arun. For many years, the Solent and Arun Branch of the Inland Waterways Association organised an annual cruise on the river to ensure that the navigation rights were maintained. Responsibility for its organisation has now been passed to the Wey and Arun Canal Trust.
## Route
At 37 miles (60 km) from its source to the sea, the Arun is the longest of the rivers flowing entirely within Sussex. It rises as a series of streams, known locally as ghylls or gills, to the east of Horsham, in St Leonard's Forest. It flows westwards, along the southern boundary of Horsham and turns briefly to the north to skirt Broadbridge Heath. Continuing westwards, it is joined at Nowhurst by the North River, with its headstreams in the heights of Leith Hill and Holmbury Hill in Surrey. and whose feeder streams include the River Oke, Holden Brook and Standon Brook. After the junction, the Arun passes under the A29 road, which follows the route of the Roman Stane Street at this point, and timber piles of a Roman bridge have been found in the riverbed. The earthworks from a Roman station are close by. To the south of Rudgwick it is crossed by a disused railway line, and at this point it crosses the 66-foot (20 m) contour. Its course is marked by winding meanders as it turns towards the south, and the county boundary briefly follows its course, the River Lox / Loxwood Stream joins the Arun at Drungewick just before it is joined by the partially restored Wey and Arun Canal. Its former course to the west of the canal can be clearly seen, and is followed by the boundary, but the main flow of the river follows a new straight cut just to the east of the canal. Once the boundary crosses back over the canal, the river resumes its meandering course on the eastern side of the canal.
A little further to the south is another straight cut, with the old course still visible on the other side of the canal. Soon it reaches Newbridge on the A272 road near Wisborough Green. The location of the wharf which was the northern terminus of the Arun Navigation was just to the south of the bridge. Wharf Farm was nearby, and the modern 1:2500 Ordnance Survey map shows buildings named "The Old Wharf". Brockhurst Brook joins from the east before the river turns briefly westwards. Soon it is crossed by Orfold Aqueduct, which carried the Arun Navigation over the river channel. The River Kird joins it, flowing from the north, and it turns southwards again. At Pallingham the remains of Pallingham Manor are on the north bank, next to Pallingham Manor Farm, a 17th-century timber-framed farmhouse, which is Grade II listed. Pallingham Quay Farmhouse, another Grade II listed building dating from the 18th century, is on the west bank of the river just before its junction with the Arun Navigation cut. Below the junction, the river is tidal.
Continuing southwards, the river passes the gallops which are part of Coombelands Racing Stables, situated on the eastern bank, and Park Mount, a motte and bailey dating from the time of the Norman conquest. It is one of the best-preserved monuments of this type in south east England. The river is crossed by Stopham Bridge, a fine medieval stone bridge built in 1422–23. The centre arch was raised as part of the improvements made to the navigation in 1822. It is a Grade I listed structure, and also a Scheduled Ancient Monument. It was damaged by army lorries in the Second World War, but has been repaired, and the heavy traffic on the A283 road was diverted onto a new bridge just upstream of it in the 1980s.
Below the bridge is a small island, after which an artificial cut built to avoid the circuitous route of the River Rother Navigation heads westwards. The river now discharges over a weir at the site of the former Hardham corn mill to join the Arun a little further downstream, and the junction is followed by another small island. Hardham lock was necessary because of the drop in levels caused by the mill, and the branch through Hardham tunnel headed due south a little further up the Rother. Exploration of the tunnel was described by an article in Sussex County Magazine in 1953, when both ends were accessible, and again in 2012, when only the southern end was explored. A waterworks has been built over the bed of the canal at the northern end, and the tunnel mouth is within the site. The river continues in a large loop to the east. The Arun Valley railway line crosses it to reach Pulborough railway station. There is another island, with the A29 road crossing both channels. Pulborough Brooks nature reserve is to the east of the loop, and the course then meanders westwards to Greatham Bridge. The bridge consists of eight low elliptical arches, two taller arches, a cast iron span over the navigable channel, and a solid ramp to the east. Although its construction suggests that it is medieval, most of the arches were erected in 1827.
On the west bank of the river below the bridge is Waltham Brooks nature reserve. Coldwaltham lock, on the branch through the Hardham Tunnel, is still marked on modern maps, and the section from the lock to the river still holds water. Just to the north of Amberley, the river is crossed by the Arun Valley line again at Timberley Bridge. At the village of Bury, the West Sussex Literary Trail joins the western bank and another footpath joins the eastern bank. The next bridge is Houghton Bridge, close to Amberley railway station. The river splits into two channels here, and the bridge spans both. Similar to Greatham Bridge, it looks medieval, but was built in 1875. There is a solid section on the island between the channels, with a single arch over the eastern channel and four arches over the main river. The chalk pits which provided trade to the navigation are now the location of Amberley Museum & Heritage Centre, a 36-acre (15 ha) site with many items of industrial heritage on display.
The river follows an "S"-shaped course, the northern loop encircling the village of North Stoke and the south one encircling South Stoke. Immediately to the south, the old course passes under the railway line, but a new channel was cut to the west of the railway. On the west bank is the hamlet of Offham and Arundel Wetland Centre, a 65-acre (26 ha) haven for birds which is run by the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust. The market town of Arundel is to the west of the river. It has a castle build on a motte, the construction of which was started in 1068. It is owned by the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk. The present building consists of many different components, dating from the late eleventh century through to the nineteenth, and is Grade I listed. Two bridges span the river here, the first on the original road through the town, while the second carries the A284 Arundel Bypass. The final section is crossed by a railway bridge, built in 1908, and the A259 road bridge, which carries the road into Littlehampton on the east bank. It discharges into the English Channel between the East and West Piers.
Littlehampton and its harbour were guarded from naval attack by Littlehampton Redoubt on the western bank at the mouth of the river, completed in 1854, which is now screened from the open sea by Climping sand dunes. This fort replaced a seven-gun battery on the east bank, which was built in 1764.
## Water quality
The Environment Agency measure the water quality of the river systems in England. Each is given an overall ecological status, which may be one of five levels: high, good, moderate, poor and bad. There are several components that are used to determine this, including biological status, which looks at the quantity and varieties of invertebrates, angiosperms and fish. Chemical status, which compares the concentrations of various chemicals against known safe concentrations, is rated good or fail.
The water quality of the River Arun system was as follows in 2019.
The reasons for the quality being less than good include sewage discharge affecting most of the river, physical modification of the channel, and run-off of nutrients from agriculture and land management. Like many rivers in the UK, the chemical status changed from good to fail in 2019, due to the presence of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE), perfluorooctane sulphonate (PFOS) and mercury compounds, none of which had previously been included in the assessment.
## Points of interest
## See also
- Rivers of the United Kingdom
- Geography of Sussex |
25,841,939 | Bill Spivey | 1,146,762,020 | American basketball player (1929–1995) | [
"1929 births",
"1995 deaths",
"All-American college men's basketball players",
"American men's basketball players",
"Banned National Basketball Association players",
"Basketball players from Florida",
"Centers (basketball)",
"Hawaii Chiefs (basketball) players",
"Kentucky Democrats",
"Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball players",
"Long Beach Chiefs players",
"Sportspeople from Lakeland, Florida",
"Washington Generals players"
] | William Edwin Spivey (March 19, 1929 – May 8, 1995) was an American basketball player. A center, he played college basketball for the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Kentucky Wildcats from 1949 to 1951. After his high school career, Spivey was recruited by the University of Kentucky. During his time with the Wildcats, he led the team to the 1951 NCAA tournament championship, and was voted Most Outstanding Player of the event. When a point shaving scandal was revealed that year, Spivey was accused of being involved, which he denied. He left the Wildcats in December 1951, and the university banned him from the squad in March 1952.
After he testified before a grand jury in New York, he was indicted on perjury charges. Although Spivey was not convicted when the case went to trial in 1953, he was prevented from competing in the National Basketball Association (NBA) afterward. Spivey instead played professionally for various minor league teams. In 10 Eastern Basketball League (EBL) seasons, his teams won three championships. Spivey retired in 1968 and became a businessman, working in sales and operating restaurants. Upset by the accusations against him in the early 1950s, he was reclusive in his final years.
## Early life
William Edwin Spivey was born in Lakeland, Florida, and had moved to Columbus, Georgia, by 1944, at which time he was . After taking up basketball, he played for his high school's team and had 18 points in his first half of game action. The following year, he moved to Warner Robins, Georgia, which did not have a basketball team before he arrived. The principal of Warner Robins' high school created a team, however, once Spivey came. During one of his high school seasons, he was forced to play without shoes—since none of the school's shoes fit him—and wear three pairs of socks. Spivey had over 1,800 points in his three-year high school career.
## College career
### Recruitment
Several universities wanted to give Spivey a basketball scholarship in 1948. The University of Kentucky first became aware of Spivey when a Georgia newspaper executive told Fred Wachs, whom writer Earl Cox said "pretty much ran Lexington", about him. After hearing of Spivey from the executive, Wachs notified Kentucky's men's basketball coach, Adolph Rupp, who elected to have a former Wildcats player watch Spivey. Following positive feedback from the player, Rupp invited Spivey to try out for a spot on the team against other leading high school players. After the tryout, Spivey received a scholarship.
### 1948–49 to 1949–50
Even though he offered a scholarship to the seven-foot Spivey, Rupp was concerned about his weight, which was between 160 and 165 pounds. Rupp told him that he would play only if he added 40 pounds (18 kg), and Spivey bulked up to 200 pounds (91 kg) during the summer of 1948. Spivey spent his first year at Kentucky on a freshman team, while the varsity team won its second consecutive NCAA Basketball Championship in 1949. The U.S. Olympic team, which had six Wildcats players on it, practiced in Lexington, and Spivey gained knowledge and skills from team members Alex Groza, Vince Boryla and Bob Kurland. Spivey also competed in games against other freshman teams, including one against Xavier in which he posted 31 points. In 15 games, he averaged about 20 points per game.
In the 1949–50 season, the Wildcats lost several of the leading players from their championship-winning teams to graduation, including Ralph Beard and Groza. In response, Rupp made Spivey the focal point of the team, and the team exceeded expectations. In a February 18, 1950 game against Georgia Tech, which the Wildcats won 97–62, Spivey broke the team record for points in a game with 40, two more than Groza scored in a game the previous season. That record has since been broken, but his 42 field goal attempts remain a school record as of 2017. Spivey tied another of Groza's point-scoring records on March 5 with a 37-point performance in a Southeastern Conference (SEC) men's basketball tournament game. Kentucky won over Tennessee 95–58 to win the SEC Tournament for the seventh consecutive season. Kentucky ended the regular season with a 25–4 record, and Spivey averaged 19.4 points a game. Despite the Wildcats' record and SEC title, the NCAA Tournament selection committee did not give the team a berth in the 1950 tournament. Kentucky did gain a berth to the National Invitation Tournament, but was eliminated in the quarterfinals by City College of New York (CCNY), 89–50. In that game, Spivey was forced to the bench for the final nine minutes of the first half after accumulating four personal fouls. At the end of the season, Spivey was named to the All-SEC team, and the Associated Press selected him for its 1950 All-American third team.
### 1950–51
Kentucky played a much-anticipated game versus Kansas on December 16, 1950, with Spivey matched up against Jayhawks center Clyde Lovellette. The Wildcats won by 29 points as Spivey outplayed Lovellette, in what he later called the best performance of his college career. After one steal, he drove to the Kansas basket and did a slam dunk; this was rare for Kentucky basketball at the time, as Rupp instructed players not to dunk during games. Spivey set another school record in a February 13, 1951, game, gathering 34 rebounds. As of 2017, he remains tied for the team record with Bob Burrow, who had the same number of rebounds in a 1955 game. For the season, Spivey again averaged more than 19 points per game, and he added 17.2 rebounds per game. His point total led the SEC, and his 479 regular season points were the third-most in league history at the time.
The Wildcats had a 28–2 record during the regular season, and entered the postseason as the top-ranked team in the country. One of those losses came in the SEC Tournament against Vanderbilt, but it did not affect the team's prospects for an NCAA Tournament berth because the SEC had decided to send its regular season champion to the newly expanded 16-team tournament. Kentucky advanced to the Tournament's Final Four, where Spivey had 28 points and 16 rebounds in a 76–74 win over Illinois. The Wildcats then faced Kansas State in the NCAA championship game. Despite falling behind early in the contest, they took the lead in the second half and pulled away to win 68–58. Spivey played an important role in the victory, scoring 22 points and pulling down 21 rebounds. Rupp said after the game that "Spivey made the difference after he went to work." For his performance in the Final Four, Spivey was named the event's Most Outstanding Player. He was later selected to the 1951 All-American team, as well as the All-SEC team for the second straight season.
## Implication in gambling scandal
The CCNY point shaving scandal was revealed in 1951. A series of college basketball players had conspired with gamblers to shave points to ensure that their teams lost against the point spread. According to Manhattan District Attorney Frank Hogan, 32 players were involved in point shaving or match fixing, and 86 games were affected. That figure included three ex-Kentucky players: Dale Barnstable, Beard, and Groza, who engaged in point shaving during a 1949 National Invitation Tournament game. Having been sidelined in the early part of the 1951–52 season after knee surgery, Spivey gave up his eligibility to play for the Wildcats on December 24, 1951. He denied rumors that he was involved in the scandal, calling them "false and malicious".
Spivey intended to return to the Wildcats once the situation was resolved, which Kentucky's athletic association expected before reinstatement. On February 16, 1952, he and the association's directors agreed to have him testify before a grand jury in New York. After Spivey's grand jury appearance later in February, however, the university banned him permanently on March 2. In its statement, Kentucky's athletic board said evidence pointed to him fixing games during the 1950 Sugar Bowl tournament. Gambler Jack West was charged with bribing two Wildcats players, Spivey and Walter Hirsch, to engage in point shaving during one of the tournament's games, and eventually pleaded guilty. In his grand jury testimony, Spivey denied receiving \$1,000 to shave points in games from December 1950 to January 1951, or talking about doing so with gamblers. He was the only implicated player to deny allegations of point shaving. In April, the grand jury indicted him on charges of perjury for lying under oath during his testimony, claiming he had done so on seven occasions.
### Trial
On June 9, Spivey was arrested in New York, and was released pending a trial, which started in January 1953. Hirsch testified that Spivey asked to be included as a point shaver, and was upset that the payment for his role in shaving during the 1950 Sugar Bowl game was less than he anticipated. This, however, contradicted his original grand jury testimony, which had no mention of Spivey's involvement. Hirsch also told the grand jury that Spivey and West, the ringleader, had not met. West declined to testify, leading to criminal contempt charges against him. Spivey again denied taking part in the scandal, stating that he had turned down a different gambler on two occasions. According to him, ex-teammate Jim Line mentioned his name to the grand jury; Spivey said he learned this from Line. John Y. Brown Sr., the attorney representing Spivey, argued that Hirsch and Line had lied to gamblers in claiming that they had given Spivey a share of the point shaving proceeds. The trial lasted for 13 days before the case went to a jury. By a 9–3 margin, the majority of jurors supported acquittal for Spivey, and the hung jury caused a mistrial. The grand jury eventually dropped the charges against Spivey.
## Professional career
Although Spivey was not found guilty in the scandal, he found himself blackballed from the NBA after league president Maurice Podoloff banned all 32 players involved in the CCNY scandal for life. The Cincinnati Royals later tried to sign Spivey, but Podoloff refused to approve the contract. Spivey filed a lawsuit against the NBA and Podoloff in 1960, seeking more than \$800,000 in damages. Afterward, he claimed that his rights under the Sherman Antitrust Act had been violated and sued the league in federal court, dropping his initial case. In response, Podoloff offered to settle with Spivey for \$10,000, which he accepted. According to sportswriter Jim Murray, Spivey felt that he had no choice but to accept because the court schedule was so full that even if he had won his case, he would have been too old to be a viable NBA prospect in any case. Future Kentucky coach Joe B. Hall said that "most people feel [Spivey] would have been one of the top five centers of all-time had he had the chance to mature in the NBA." Instead, Spivey spent his professional career playing for numerous minor league and barnstorming teams.
### 1952–53 to 1956–57
In October 1952, Spivey played in two games for the American Basketball League's Elmira Colonels, scoring 21 and 32 points in the contests. That season, he also was a member of the Detroit Vagabonds barnstorming team. For the next three seasons, he spent time with three teams connected to the Harlem Globetrotters exhibition team: the Boston Whirlwinds, the House of David, and the Washington Generals. In one game with the Whirlwinds, Spivey got into a fight with Globetrotters player Bobby "Showboat" Hall. For the 1955–56 and 1956–57 seasons, Spivey played for another barnstorming team, the New York Olympians, later renamed the Kentucky Colonels.
### 1957–58 to 1962–63
Beginning with the 1957–58 season, Spivey spent 10 of his remaining 12 professional seasons in the EBL. The first two of those EBL seasons were spent with the Wilkes-Barre Barons, and Spivey led the team to consecutive league championships. On April 20, 1958, he scored 62 points in the title-clinching game against the Easton Madisons, setting an EBL playoff record. In 1958–59, he became the first player in league history with a 1,000-point season, and had 64 points in a March 1959 game. That season, he was named the league's most valuable player. Along with his play in the EBL, Spivey reached an agreement to join the Ansonia Norwoods of the semi-professional Connecticut Basketball Association (CBA) in 1958. Over two years with the Norwoods, his points-per-game average exceeded 30.0.
Spivey moved to the Baltimore Bullets for the 1959–60 season, and played two seasons for the club. In Spivey's first season with the Bullets, he had 36.3 points per game, the highest average of his EBL career. Outside EBL competition, he received an opportunity to play opposite leading NBA center Wilt Chamberlain in a 1960 exhibition game, held in Milford, Connecticut, against the CBA's Milford Chiefs. Spivey had a 30-point, 23-rebound performance; his statistics were comparable to those of Chamberlain, who recorded a 31-point, 27-rebound game.
The Bullets won the league championship in 1960–61, after which Spivey played two seasons in a different American Basketball League, with the Los Angeles Jets and Long Beach–Hawaii Chiefs. Spivey was named to the 1961–62 All-ABL Second Team after averaging 22.7 points per game and 11.2 rebounds per game with the Chiefs; his total of 1,773 points was second behind Connie Hawkins. In the 1962–63 season, which was shortened when the league suspended operations, he had an average of 22.5 points per game in 24 games with Long Beach. In ABL history, Spivey was third in points scored and fourth in rebounds.
### 1963–64 to 1967–68
Spivey returned to the EBL in 1963 to join the Scranton Miners, for whom he played five seasons. His highest scoring average for the Miners came in the 1964–65 season, when he had 27.0 points per game. In 1967–68, his final professional season, Spivey went back to the Barons. Playing for about \$200 in salary per contest, he had 10.4 points per game. On February 11, 1968, Spivey participated in his final professional game. Taking advantage of a loophole in the NBA's rules, he took part in an all-star game in Baltimore featuring former Baltimore Bullets players before a Bullets – San Diego Rockets game. Spivey led both teams by scoring 12 points, but his team lost by one point. One day later he retired, saying "It really meant something for me to finish off my career with a game like that." By the end of his career, Spivey's physical condition had declined; Lou Tsioropoulos, who had played with him at Kentucky, said, "He was just completely disabled. He could barely walk."
## Later life
After retiring from basketball, Spivey became a businessman, and moved back to Kentucky. The majority of his jobs involved sales; these included the selling of building materials and insurance. He also helped to develop real estate and owned restaurants, including a Lexington-based eatery, Bill Spivey's Restaurant and Lounge. For a time he was the state's deputy insurance commissioner. Spivey ran in the primary election for Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky in 1983 as a Democrat, but came in last in the seven-person race.
Spivey made his final public appearance in 1991, at a reunion of the 1951 Kentucky Wildcats team in Lexington. Writer Greg Doyel says that "he was a recluse" at the time. According to his wife, Audrey Spivey, "He never got over [his accusation in the 1951 college basketball scandal]. Bill could not let that go. He was just devastated." Then living in Daytona Beach, Florida, he was later hurt in an automobile accident, which aggravated a lower-back injury. Spivey's son, Cashton, said that "He never made a full recovery from that. It affected his posture, and he had chronic pain from that." In a post-accident bone grafting operation, a piece of equipment became lodged in Spivey's lower back; according to Cashton, he won a small amount from the hospital in a lawsuit.
Spivey moved to Quepos, Costa Rica, around 1993, after vacationing there with a friend six months before. Audrey did not come with him, although the couple did not separate legally. On May 8, 1995, he was found dead of natural causes at the age of 66. Spivey received two notable honors posthumously: his jersey number, 77, was retired by the University of Kentucky in January 2000, and the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame inducted him in September 2004. |
3,195,463 | German cruiser Köln | 1,167,768,502 | Königsberg-class cruiser | [
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] | Köln was a light cruiser, the third member of the Königsberg class that was operated between 1929 and March 1945, including service in World War II. She was operated by two German navies, the Reichsmarine and the Kriegsmarine. She had two sister ships, Königsberg and Karlsruhe. Köln was built by the Reichsmarinewerft in Wilhelmshaven; she was laid down in August 1926, launched in May 1928, and commissioned into the Reichsmarine on 15 January 1930. She was armed with a main battery of nine 15 cm SK C/25 (5.9-inch) guns in three triple turrets and had a top speed of 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph).
Like her sister ships, Köln served as a training ship for naval cadets in the 1930s, and joined the non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War during the latter part of the decade. After the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, she conducted several operations in the North Sea, but did not encounter any British warships. She participated in the attack on Bergen during Operation Weserübung in April 1940, and she was the only member of her class to survive the operation. In 1942, she was modified to carry a Flettner Fl 282 helicopter experimentally. Later in 1942, she returned to Norway, but did not see significant action. She remained there until early 1945, when she returned to Germany; in March, she was sunk by American bombers in Wilhelmshaven. She remained on an even keel, with her gun turrets above water; this allowed her to provide gunfire support to defenders of the city until the end of the war in May 1945.
## Design
Köln was 174 meters (571 ft) long overall and had a beam of 15.2 m (50 ft) and a maximum draft of 6.28 m (20.6 ft). She displaced 7,700 long tons (7,800 t) at full load. The ship had a forecastle deck that extended for most of the length of the ship, ending just aft of the superfiring rear turret. Her superstructure consisted of a conning tower forward with a heavy, tubular mast and a secondary conning tower further aft. Köln had a crew of 21 officers and 493 enlisted men.
Her propulsion system consisted of four steam turbines and a pair of 10-cylinder four-stroke diesel engines. Steam for the turbines was provided by six Marine-type, double-ended, oil-fired water-tube boilers, which were vented through a pair of funnels. The ship's propulsion system provided a top speed of 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph) and a range of approximately 5,700 nautical miles (10,600 km; 6,600 mi) at 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph).
The ship was armed with a main battery of nine 15 cm (5.9 in) SK C/25 guns mounted in three triple gun turrets. One was located forward, and two were placed in a superfiring pair aft. The rear gun turrets were offset to increase their arc of fire. They were supplied with 1,080 rounds of ammunition, for 120 shells per gun. The ship was also equipped with two 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/45 anti-aircraft guns in single mounts; they had 400 rounds of ammunition each. Köln also carried four triple torpedo tube mounts located amidships; they were supplied with twenty-four 50 cm (20 in) torpedoes. She was also capable of carrying 120 naval mines. The ship was protected by an armor deck that was 40 mm (1.6 in) thick amidships and an armor belt that was 50 mm (2 in) thick. The conning tower had 100 mm (3.9 in) thick sides.
## Service history
Köln was ordered as "Cruiser D" under the contract name Ersatz Arcona, as a replacement for the old cruiser Arcona. The keel for Köln was laid on 7 August 1926 at the Reichsmarinewerft shipyard in Wilhelmshaven. She was launched on 23 May 1928, and commissioned into the Reichsmarine on 15 January 1930, the last member of her class to be completed. She spent the year conducting sea trials and training in the Baltic Sea. In 1931, she was modified with dual 8.8 cm anti-aircraft guns to replace the original single mounts, the rear superstructure was enlarged, and a fire control system was installed aft. Köln departed on a cruise into the Atlantic in early 1932 for more extensive sea trials. After returning to Germany, she took on her first crew of naval cadets for a world cruise, departing Germany in late 1932. The tour lasted a full year; she stopped in ports across the globe, including in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, and the Mediterranean Sea. In Australia the tour stops included Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Hobart, with the crew taking place in several publicised football games against local teams that included a Royal Australian Navy team in Sydney.
In 1935, the ship had an aircraft catapult installed, along with cranes to handle float planes. A pole mast was also installed on the rear side of the aft funnel. Köln continued to serve as a training ship until early 1936, when she was transferred to fishery protection duty. Later that year, she joined the non-intervention patrols off Spain during the Spanish Civil War. After the German heavy cruiser Deutschland was attacked by Republican bombers in the so-called "Deutschland incident", Köln transported wounded crew members from Deutschland back to Germany. Köln conducted a further four patrols off Spain before returning to fishery protection in the North Sea in 1938. Late in the year, she went into drydock for a refit in Kiel.
In March 1939, Köln sailed to Memel (now Klaipėda, Lithuania), in connection with the annexation of the Memelland district, which Germany had demanded be returned by Lithuania. Later in the year, she joined the battleship Gneisenau and the heavy cruisers Deutschland, Admiral Scheer, and Admiral Graf Spee for a major series of maneuvers in the Atlantic.
### World War II
In the final days of August 1939, Köln was stationed in the western Baltic to prevent Polish vessels from fleeing after the planned German invasion of Poland on 1 September; she was unsuccessful in this task. She thereafter joined her sister ships in laying a series of defensive minefields. Köln joined Gneisenau and nine destroyers for a sortie into the North Sea on 7–9 October. The goal was to draw units of the Royal Navy over a U-boat line and into range of the Luftwaffe, though it failed on both counts. The British launched an air attack consisting of 12 Wellington bombers, though it too failed to hit any of the German warships. On 20–22 November, Köln and the cruiser Leipzig escorted the battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst on the first leg of their sortie into the North Atlantic. On the 22nd, Köln and Leipzig were detached to join an unsuccessful patrol for Allied merchant ships in the Skagerrak along with Deutschland and three torpedo boats. The patrol lasted until 25 November, and failed to locate any Allied freighters. On 13 December, Köln, Leipzig, and Nürnberg covered the return of several destroyers that had laid an offensive minefield off Newcastle.
Köln took part in Operation Weserübung, the invasion of Norway, in April 1940. She was assigned Group 3, tasked with the assault on Bergen, along with her sister Königsberg. She reached the harbor unscathed, but Königsberg was not so lucky; she was badly damaged by Norwegian coastal guns. Köln nevertheless supported the German infantry ashore with her main guns. After the port was secured, she returned to Germany, along with a pair of destroyers. In late 1940, she went into drydock for further modifications. A degaussing coil was installed, along with a helicopter landing platform on top of turret "Bruno". She thereafter served as a testbed for the Flettner Fl 282 helicopter, a task she performed until 1942.
While still conducting experiments with the FI 282 in September 1941, Köln provided gunfire support to ground troops attacking Soviet positions on Dagö in the Gulf of Riga. She also bombarded Soviet positions on Ristna. She joined the battleship Tirpitz, Admiral Scheer, Nürnberg, and several destroyers and torpedo boats formed the Baltic Fleet, which was intended to block any Soviet warships from fleeing the eastern Baltic. No Soviet vessels attempted to do so, however. On 13 July, the Soviet submarine Shch-322 tried to attack Köln, but the cruiser's escorts forced the Soviet submarine to break off the attack.
Toward the end of 1941, she was transferred to the North Sea, and went into drydock for her last major modification. This consisted of the installation of a FuMO 21 radar set on the forward command center roof. In July 1942, Köln departed Germany to join the growing naval presence in Norway, though she saw no major action there. On 13 September, she and the heavy cruisers Admiral Scheer and Admiral Hipper and two destroyers attempted to attack Convoy PQ 18. While en route from Narvik to Altenfjord, the flotilla was attacked by the British submarine HMS Tigris, but the torpedoes passed behind the German ships. The convoy was instead attacked by U-boats and long-range bombers, which sank thirteen freighters. She returned to Germany in January 1943, where she was decommissioned in Kiel on 17 February. She was sent to drydock in early 1944 for an overhaul to prepare her to return to combat duty; this was completed by 1 July. The cruiser served briefly as a training ship before escorting German merchant vessels in Norway. While en route from Kristiansand on 7 July, the ship laid a defensive minefield in the Skagerrak. She and three destroyers laid another minefield on 14–15 July, before steaming to Trondheim.
On the night of 13–14 December, Köln was attacked by British bombers in Oslofjord; several near misses caused damage to her propulsion system that required repair in Germany. She departed Norway on 23 January 1945 in company with Admiral Hipper and a destroyer, and arrived in Kiel on 8 February. She then proceeded to Wilhelmshaven, where she was again attacked by Allied bombers repeatedly. On 30 March, B-24 Liberators from the Eighth Air Force attacked the harbor; Köln was hit and sank on an even keel. Since her guns remained above water, the ship was used as an artillery battery to defend the city from advancing Allied forces. She served in this capacity until the end of the war in May. She was partially dismantled in situ after the end of the war, and finally raised in 1956 for scrapping. |
17,268 | Karlheinz Stockhausen | 1,173,085,303 | German composer (1928–2007) | [
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] | Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groundbreaking work in electronic music, for introducing controlled chance (aleatory techniques) into serial composition, and for musical spatialization.
He was educated at the Hochschule für Musik Köln and the University of Cologne, later studying with Olivier Messiaen in Paris and with Werner Meyer-Eppler at the University of Bonn. One of the leading figures of the Darmstadt School, his compositions and theories were and remain widely influential, not only on composers of art music, but also on jazz and popular music. His works, composed over a period of nearly sixty years, eschew traditional forms. In addition to electronic music—both with and without live performers—they range from miniatures for musical boxes through works for solo instruments, songs, chamber music, choral and orchestral music, to a cycle of seven full-length operas. His theoretical and other writings comprise ten large volumes. He received numerous prizes and distinctions for his compositions, recordings, and for the scores produced by his publishing company.
His notable compositions include the series of nineteen Klavierstücke (Piano Pieces), Kontra-Punkte for ten instruments, the electronic/musique-concrète Gesang der Jünglinge, Gruppen for three orchestras, the percussion solo Zyklus, Kontakte, the cantata Momente, the live-electronic Mikrophonie I, Hymnen, Stimmung for six vocalists, Aus den sieben Tagen, Mantra for two pianos and electronics, Tierkreis, Inori for soloists and orchestra, and the gigantic opera cycle Licht.
He died of sudden heart failure at the age of 79, on 5 December 2007 at his home in Kürten, Germany.
## Biography
### Childhood
Stockhausen was born in Burg Mödrath, the "castle" of the village of Mödrath. The village, located near Kerpen in the Cologne region, was displaced in 1956 to make way for lignite strip mining, but the castle itself still stands. Despite its name, the building is more a manor house than a castle. Built in 1830 by a local businessman named Arend, it was called by locals Burg Mödrath. From 1925 to 1932 it was the maternity home of the Bergheim district, and after the war it served for a time as a shelter for war refugees. In 1950, the owners, the Düsseldorf chapter of the Knights of Malta, turned it into an orphanage, but it was subsequently returned to private ownership and became a private residence again. In 2017, an anonymous patron purchased the house and opened it in April 2017 as an exhibition space for modern art, with the first floor to be used as the permanent home of the museum of the WDR Electronic Music Studio, where Stockhausen had worked from 1953 until shortly before WDR closed the studio in 2000.
His father, Simon Stockhausen, was a schoolteacher, and his mother Gertrud (née Stupp) was the daughter of a prosperous family of farmers in Neurath in the Cologne Bight. A daughter, Katherina, was born the year after Karlheinz, and a second son, Hermann-Josef ("Hermännchen") followed in 1932. Gertrud played the piano and accompanied her own singing but, after three pregnancies in as many years, experienced a mental breakdown and was institutionalized in December 1932, followed a few months later by the death of her younger son, Hermann.
From the age of seven, Stockhausen lived in Altenberg, where he received his first piano lessons from the Protestant organist of the Altenberger Dom, Franz-Josef Kloth. In 1938 his father remarried. His new wife, Luzia, had been the family's housekeeper. The couple had two daughters. Because his relationship with his new stepmother was less than happy, in January 1942 Karlheinz became a boarder at the teachers' training college in Xanten, where he continued his piano training and also studied oboe and violin. In 1941 he learned that his mother had died, ostensibly from leukemia, although everyone at the same hospital had supposedly died of the same disease. It was generally understood that she had been a victim of the Nazi policy of killing "useless eaters". The official letter to the family falsely claimed she had died 16 June 1941, but recent research by Lisa Quernes, a student at the Landesmusikgymnasium in Montabaur, has determined that she was murdered in the gas chamber, along with 89 other people, at the Hadamar Killing Facility in Hesse-Nassau on 27 May 1941. Stockhausen dramatized his mother's death in hospital by lethal injection, in Act 1 scene 2 ("Mondeva") of the opera Donnerstag aus Licht.
In late 1944, Stockhausen was conscripted to serve as a stretcher bearer in Bedburg. In February 1945, he met his father for the last time in Altenberg. Simon, who was on leave from the front, told his son, "I'm not coming back. Look after things." By the end of the war, his father was regarded as missing in action, and may have been killed in Hungary. A comrade later reported to Karlheinz that he saw his father wounded in action. Fifty-five years after the fact, a journalist writing for The Guardian stated that Simon Stockhausen was killed in Hungary in 1945.
### Education
From 1947 to 1951, Stockhausen studied music pedagogy and piano at the Hochschule für Musik Köln (Cologne Conservatory of Music) and musicology, philosophy, and German studies at the University of Cologne. He had training in harmony and counterpoint, the latter with Hermann Schroeder, but he did not develop a real interest in composition until 1950. He was admitted at the end of that year to the class of Swiss composer Frank Martin, who had just begun a seven-year tenure in Cologne. At the Darmstädter Ferienkurse in 1951, Stockhausen met Belgian composer Karel Goeyvaerts, who had just completed studies with Olivier Messiaen (analysis) and Darius Milhaud (composition) in Paris, and Stockhausen resolved to do likewise. He arrived in Paris on 8 January 1952 and began attending Messiaen's courses in aesthetics and analysis, as well as Milhaud's composition classes. He continued with Messiaen for a year, but he was disappointed with Milhaud and abandoned his lessons after a few weeks. In March 1953, he left Paris to take up a position as assistant to Herbert Eimert at the newly established Electronic Music Studio of Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR) (from 1 January 1955, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, or WDR) in Cologne. In 1963, he succeeded Eimert as director of the studio. From 1954 to 1956, he studied phonetics, acoustics, and information theory with Werner Meyer-Eppler at the University of Bonn. Together with Eimert, Stockhausen edited the journal Die Reihe from 1955 to 1962.
### Career and adult life
#### Family and home
On 29 December 1951, in Hamburg, Stockhausen married Doris Andreae. Together they had four children: Suja (b. 1953), Christel (b. 1956), Markus (b. 1957), and Majella (b. 1961). They were divorced in 1965. On 3 April 1967, in San Francisco, he married Mary Bauermeister, with whom he had two children: Julika (b. 22 January 1966) and Simon (b. 1967). They were divorced in 1972.
Four of Stockhausen's children became professional musicians, and he composed some of his works specifically for them. A large number of pieces for the trumpet—from Sirius (1975–77) to the trumpet version of In Freundschaft (1997)—were composed for and premièred by his son Markus. Markus, at the age of 4 years, had performed the part of The Child in the Cologne première of Originale, alternating performances with his sister Christel. Klavierstück XII and Klavierstück XIII (and their versions as scenes from the operas Donnerstag aus Licht and Samstag aus Licht) were written for his daughter Majella, and were first performed by her at the ages of 16 and 20, respectively. The saxophone duet in the second act of Donnerstag aus Licht, and a number of synthesizer parts in the Licht operas, including Klavierstück XV ("Synthi-Fou") from Dienstag, were composed for his son Simon, who also assisted his father in the production of the electronic music from Freitag aus Licht. His daughter Christel is a flautist who performed and gave a course on interpretation of Tierkreis in 1977, later published as an article.
In 1961, Stockhausen acquired a parcel of land in the vicinity of Kürten, a village east of Cologne, near Bergisch Gladbach in the Bergisches Land. He had a house built there, which was designed to his specifications by the architect Erich Schneider-Wessling, and he resided there from its completion in the autumn of 1965.
#### Teaching
After lecturing at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik at Darmstadt (first in 1953), Stockhausen gave lectures and concerts in Europe, North America, and Asia. He was guest professor of composition at the University of Pennsylvania in 1965 and at the University of California, Davis in 1966–67. He founded and directed the Cologne Courses for New Music from 1963 to 1968, and was appointed Professor of Composition at the Hochschule für Musik Köln in 1971, where he taught until 1977. In 1998, he founded the Stockhausen Courses, which are held annually in Kürten.
#### Publishing activities
From the mid-1950s onward, Stockhausen designed (and in some cases arranged to have printed) his own musical scores for his publisher, Universal Edition, which often involved unconventional devices. The score for his piece Refrain, for instance, includes a rotatable (refrain) on a transparent plastic strip. Early in the 1970s, he ended his agreement with Universal Edition and began publishing his own scores under the Stockhausen-Verlag imprint. This arrangement allowed him to extend his notational innovations (for example, dynamics in Weltparlament [the first scene of Mittwoch aus Licht] are coded in colour) and resulted in eight German Music Publishers Society Awards between 1992 (Luzifers Tanz) and 2005 (Hoch-Zeiten, from Sonntag aus Licht). The Momente score, published just before Stockhausen's death in 2007, won this prize for the ninth time.
In the early 1990s, Stockhausen reacquired the licenses to most of the recordings of his music he had made to that point, and started his own record company to make this music permanently available on Compact Disc.
### Death
Stockhausen died of sudden heart failure on the morning of 5 December 2007 in Kürten, North Rhine-Westphalia. The night before, he had finished a recently commissioned work for performance by the Mozart Orchestra of Bologna. He was 79 years old.
## Compositions
Stockhausen wrote 370 individual works. He often departs radically from musical tradition and his work is influenced by Olivier Messiaen, Edgard Varèse, and Anton Webern, as well as by film and by painters such as Piet Mondrian and Paul Klee.
### 1950s
Stockhausen began to compose in earnest only during his third year at the conservatory. His early student compositions remained out of the public eye until, in 1971, he published Chöre für Doris, Drei Lieder for alto voice and chamber orchestra, Choral for a cappella choir (all three from 1950), and a Sonatine for violin and piano (1951).
In August 1951, just after his first Darmstadt visit, Stockhausen began working with a form of athematic serial composition that rejected the twelve-tone technique of Schoenberg. He characterized many of these earliest compositions (together with the music of other, like-minded composers of the period) as punktuelle Musik, "punctual" or "pointist" music, commonly mistranslated as "pointillist", though one critic concluded after analysing several of these early works that Stockhausen "never really composed punctually". Compositions from this phase include Kreuzspiel (1951), the Klavierstücke I–IV (1952—the fourth of this first set of four Klavierstücke, titled Klavierstück IV, is specifically cited by Stockhausen as an example of "punctual music", and the first (unpublished) versions of Punkte and Kontra-Punkte (1952). However, several works from these same years show Stockhausen formulating his "first really ground-breaking contribution to the theory and, above all, practice of composition", that of "group composition", found in Stockhausen's works as early as 1952 and continuing throughout his compositional career. This principle was first publicly described by Stockhausen in a radio talk from December 1955, titled "Gruppenkomposition: Klavierstück I".
In December 1952, he composed a Konkrete Etüde, realized in Pierre Schaeffer's Paris musique concrète studio. In March 1953, he moved to the NWDR studio in Cologne and turned to electronic music with two Electronic Studies (1953 and 1954), and then introducing spatial placements of sound sources with his mixed concrète and electronic work Gesang der Jünglinge (1955–56). Experiences gained from the Studies made plain that it was an unacceptable oversimplification to regard timbres as stable entities. Reinforced by his studies with Meyer-Eppler, beginning in 1955, Stockhausen formulated new "statistical" criteria for composition, focussing attention on the aleatoric, directional tendencies of sound movement, "the change from one state to another, with or without returning motion, as opposed to a fixed state". Stockhausen later wrote, describing this period in his compositional work, "The first revolution occurred from 1952/53 as musique concrète, electronic tape music, and space music, entailing composition with transformers, generators, modulators, magnetophones, etc; the integration of all concrete and abstract (synthetic) sound possibilities (also all noises), and the controlled projection of sound in space". His position as "the leading German composer of his generation" was established with Gesang der Jünglinge and three concurrently composed pieces in different media: Zeitmaße for five woodwinds, Gruppen for three orchestras, and Klavierstück XI. The principles underlying the latter three compositions are presented in Stockhausen's best-known theoretical article, "... wie die Zeit vergeht ..." ("... How Time Passes ..."), first published in 1957 in vol. 3 of Die Reihe.
His work with electronic music and its utter fixity led him to explore modes of instrumental and vocal music in which performers' individual capabilities and the circumstances of a particular performance (e.g., hall acoustics) may determine certain aspects of a composition. He called this "variable form". In other cases, a work may be presented from a number of different perspectives. In Zyklus (1959), for example, he began using graphic notation for instrumental music. The score is written so that the performance can start on any page, and it may be read upside down, or from right to left, as the performer chooses. Still other works permit different routes through the constituent parts. Stockhausen called both of these possibilities "polyvalent form", which may be either open form (essentially incomplete, pointing beyond its frame), as with Klavierstück XI (1956), or "closed form" (complete and self-contained) as with Momente (1962–64/69).
In many of his works, elements are played off against one another, simultaneously and successively: in Kontra-Punkte ("Against Points", 1952–53), which, in its revised form became his official "opus 1", a process leading from an initial "point" texture of isolated notes toward a florid, ornamental ending is opposed by a tendency from diversity (six timbres, dynamics, and durations) toward uniformity (timbre of solo piano, a nearly constant soft dynamic, and fairly even durations). In Gruppen (1955–57), fanfares and passages of varying speed (superimposed durations based on the harmonic series) are occasionally flung between three full orchestras, giving the impression of movement in space.
In his Kontakte for electronic sounds (optionally with piano and percussion) (1958–60), he achieved for the first time an isomorphism of the four parameters of pitch, duration, dynamics, and timbre.
### 1960s
In 1960, Stockhausen returned to the composition of vocal music (for the first time since Gesang der Jünglinge) with Carré for four orchestras and four choirs. Two years later, he began an expansive cantata titled Momente (1962–64/69), for solo soprano, four choir groups and thirteen instrumentalists. In 1963, Stockhausen created Plus-Minus, "2 × 7 pages for realisation" containing basic note materials and a complex system of transformations to which those materials are to be subjected in order to produce an unlimited number of different compositions. Through the rest of the 1960s, he continued to explore such possibilities of "process composition" in works for live performance, such as Prozession (1967), Kurzwellen, and Spiral (both 1968), culminating in the verbally described "intuitive music" compositions of Aus den sieben Tagen (1968) and Für kommende Zeiten (1968–70). Some of his later works, such as Ylem (1972) and the first three parts of Herbstmusik (1974), also fall under this rubric. Several of these process compositions were featured in the all-day programmes presented at Expo 70, for which Stockhausen composed two more similar pieces, Pole for two players, and Expo for three. In other compositions, such as Stop for orchestra (1965), Adieu for wind quintet (1966), and the Dr. K Sextett, which was written in 1968–69 in honour of Alfred Kalmus of Universal Edition, he presented his performers with more restricted improvisational possibilities.
He pioneered live electronics in Mixtur (1964/67/2003) for orchestra and electronics, Mikrophonie I (1964) for tam-tam, two microphones, two filters with potentiometers (6 players), Mikrophonie II (1965) for choir, Hammond organ, and four ring modulators, and Solo for a melody instrument with feedback (1966). Improvisation also plays a part in all of these works, but especially in Solo. He also composed two electronic works for tape, Telemusik (1966) and Hymnen (1966–67). The latter also exists in a version with partially improvising soloists, and the third of its four "regions" in a version with orchestra. At this time, Stockhausen also began to incorporate pre-existent music from world traditions into his compositions. Telemusik was the first overt example of this trend.
In 1968, Stockhausen composed the vocal sextet Stimmung, for the Collegium Vocale Köln, an hour-long work based entirely on the overtones of a low B-flat. In the following year, he created Fresco for four orchestral groups, a Wandelmusik ("foyer music") composition. This was intended to be played for about five hours in the foyers and grounds of the Beethovenhalle auditorium complex in Bonn, before, after, and during a group of (in part simultaneous) concerts of his music in the auditoriums of the facility. The overall project was given the title Musik für die Beethovenhalle. This had precedents in two collective-composition seminar projects that Stockhausen gave at Darmstadt in 1967 and 1968: Ensemble and Musik für ein Haus, and would have successors in the "park music" composition for five spatially separated groups, Sternklang ("Star Sounds") of 1971, the orchestral work Trans, composed in the same year and the thirteen simultaneous "musical scenes for soloists and duets" titled Alphabet für Liège (1972).
### Space music and Expo '70
Since the mid-1950s, Stockhausen had been developing concepts of spatialization in his works, not only in electronic music, such as the 5-channel Gesang der Jünglinge (1955–56) and Telemusik (1966), and 4-channel Kontakte (1958–60) and Hymnen (1966–67). Instrumental/vocal works like Gruppen for three orchestras (1955–57) and Carré for four orchestras and four choirs (1959–60) also exhibit this trait. In lectures such as "Music in Space" from 1958, he called for new kinds of concert halls to be built, "suited to the requirements of spatial music". His idea was
> a spherical space which is fitted all around with loudspeakers. In the middle of this spherical space a sound-permeable, transparent platform would be suspended for the listeners. They could hear music composed for such standardized spaces coming from above, from below and from all points of the compass.
In 1968, the West German government invited Stockhausen to collaborate on the German Pavilion at the 1970 World Fair in Osaka and to create a joint multimedia project for it with artist Otto Piene. Other collaborators on the project included the pavilion's architect, Fritz Bornemann, Fritz Winckel, director of the Electronic Music Studio at the Technical University of Berlin, and engineer Max Mengeringhausen. The pavilion theme was "gardens of music", in keeping with which Bornemann intended "planting" the exhibition halls beneath a broad lawn, with a connected auditorium "sprouting" above ground. Initially, Bornemann conceived this auditorium in the form of an amphitheatre, with a central orchestra podium and surrounding audience space. In the summer of 1968, Stockhausen met with Bornemann and persuaded him to change this conception to a spherical space with the audience in the centre, surrounded by loudspeaker groups in seven rings at different "latitudes" around the interior walls of the sphere.
Although Stockhausen and Piene's planned multimedia project, titled Hinab-Hinauf, was developed in detail, the World Fair committee rejected their concept as too extravagant and instead asked Stockhausen to present daily five-hour programs of his music. Stockhausen's works were performed for 51⁄2 hours every day over a period of 183 days to a total audience of about a million listeners. According to Stockhausen's biographer, Michael Kurtz, "Many visitors felt the spherical auditorium to be an oasis of calm amidst the general hubbub, and after a while it became one of the main attractions of Expo 1970".
### 1970s
Beginning with Mantra for two pianos and electronics (1970), Stockhausen turned to formula composition, a technique which involves the projection and multiplication of a single, double, or triple melodic-line formula. Sometimes, as in Mantra and the large orchestral composition with mime soloists, Inori, the simple formula is stated at the outset as an introduction. He continued to use this technique (e.g., in the two related solo-clarinet pieces, Harlekin [Harlequin] and Der kleine Harlekin [The Little Harlequin] of 1975, and the orchestral Jubiläum [Jubilee] of 1977) through the completion of the opera-cycle Licht in 2003. Some works from the 1970s did not employ formula technique—e.g., the vocal duet "Am Himmel wandre ich" (In the Sky I am Walking, one of the 13 components of the multimedia Alphabet für Liège, 1972, which Stockhausen developed in conversation with the British biophysicist and lecturer on mystical aspects of sound vibration Jill Purce), "Laub und Regen" (Leaves and Rain, from the theatre piece Herbstmusik (1974), the unaccompanied-clarinet composition Amour, and the choral opera Atmen gibt das Leben (Breathing Gives Life, 1974/77)—but nevertheless share its simpler, melodically oriented style. Two such pieces, Tierkreis ("Zodiac", 1974–75) and In Freundschaft (In Friendship, 1977, a solo piece with versions for virtually every orchestral instrument), have become Stockhausen's most widely performed and recorded compositions.
This dramatic simplification of style provided a model for a new generation of German composers, loosely associated under the label neue Einfachheit or New Simplicity. The best-known of these composers is Wolfgang Rihm, who studied with Stockhausen in 1972–73. His orchestral composition Sub-Kontur (1974–75) quotes the formula of Stockhausen's Inori (1973–74), and he has also acknowledged the influence of Momente on this work.
Other large works by Stockhausen from this decade include the orchestral Trans (1971) and two music-theatre compositions utilizing the Tierkreis melodies: Musik im Bauch ("Music in the Belly") for six percussionists (1975), and the science-fiction "opera" Sirius (1975–77) for eight-channel electronic music with soprano, bass, trumpet, and bass clarinet, which has four different versions for the four seasons, each lasting over an hour and a half.
### 1977–2003
Between 1977 and 2003, Stockhausen composed seven operas in a cycle titled Licht: Die sieben Tage der Woche ("Light: The Seven Days of the Week"). The Licht cycle deals with the traits associated in various historical traditions with each weekday (Monday = birth and fertility, Tuesday = conflict and war, Wednesday = reconciliation and cooperation, Thursday = traveling and learning, etc.) and with the relationships between three archetypal characters: Michael, Lucifer, and Eve. Each of these characters dominates one of the operas (Donnerstag [Thursday], Samstag [Saturday], and Montag [Monday], respectively), the three possible pairings are foregrounded in three others, and the equal combination of all three is featured in Mittwoch (Wednesday).
Stockhausen's conception of opera was based significantly on ceremony and ritual, with influence from the Japanese Noh theatre, as well as Judeo-Christian and Vedic traditions. In 1968, at the time of the composition of Aus den sieben Tagen, Stockhausen had read a biography by Satprem about the Bengali guru Sri Aurobindo, and subsequently he also read many of the published writings by Aurobindo himself. The title of Licht owes something to Aurobindo's theory of "Agni" (the Hindu and Vedic fire deity), developed from two basic premises of nuclear physics; Stockhausen's definition of a formula and, especially, his conception of the Licht superformula, also owes a great deal to Sri Aurobindo's category of the "supramental". Similarly, his approach to voice and text sometimes departed from traditional usage: Characters were as likely to be portrayed by instrumentalists or dancers as by singers, and a few parts of Licht (e.g., Luzifers Traum from Samstag, Welt-Parlament from Mittwoch, Lichter-Wasser and Hoch-Zeiten from Sonntag) use written or improvised texts in simulated or invented languages.
The seven operas were not composed in "weekday order" but rather starting (apart from Jahreslauf in 1977, which became the first act of Dienstag) with the "solo" operas and working toward the more complex ones: Donnerstag (1978–80), Samstag (1981–83), Montag (1984–88), Dienstag (1977/1987–91), Freitag (1991–94), Mittwoch (1995–97), and finally Sonntag (1998–2003).
Stockhausen had dreams of flying throughout his life, and these dreams are reflected in the Helikopter-Streichquartett (the third scene of Mittwoch aus Licht), completed in 1993. In it, the four members of a string quartet perform in four helicopters flying independent flight paths over the countryside near the concert hall. The sounds they play are mixed together with the sounds of the helicopters and played through speakers to the audience in the hall. Videos of the performers are also transmitted back to the concert hall. The performers are synchronized with the aid of a click track, transmitted to them and heard over headphones.
The first performance of the piece took place in Amsterdam on 26 June 1995, as part of the Holland Festival. Despite its extremely unusual nature, the piece has been given several performances, including one on 22 August 2003 as part of the Salzburg Festival to open the Hangar-7 venue, and the German première on 17 June 2007 in Braunschweig as part of the Stadt der Wissenschaft 2007 Festival. The work has also been recorded by the Arditti Quartet.
In 1999 he was invited by Walter Fink to be the ninth composer featured in the annual Komponistenporträt of the Rheingau Musik Festival.
In 1999, BBC producer Rodney Wilson asked Stockhausen to collaborate with Stephen and Timothy Quay on a film for the fourth series of Sound on Film International. Although Stockhausen's music had been used for films previously (most notably, parts of Hymnen in Nicolas Roeg's Walkabout in 1971), this was the first time he had been asked to provide music specially for the purpose. He adapted 21 minutes of material taken from his electronic music for Freitag aus Licht, calling the result Zwei Paare (Two Couples), and the Brothers Quay created their animated film, which they titled In Absentia, based only on their reactions to the music and the simple suggestion that a window might be an idea to use. When, at a preview screening, Stockhausen saw the film, which shows a madwoman writing letters from a bleak asylum cell, he was moved to tears. The Brothers Quay were astonished to learn that his mother had been "imprisoned by the Nazis in an asylum, where she later died. ... This was a very moving moment for us as well, especially because we had made the film without knowing any of this".
### 2003–2007
After completing Licht, Stockhausen embarked on a new cycle of compositions based on the hours of the day, Klang ("Sound"). Twenty-one of these pieces were completed before Stockhausen's death. The first four works from this cycle are First Hour: Himmelfahrt (Ascension), for organ or synthesizer, soprano and tenor (2004–2005); Second Hour: Freude (Joy) for two harps (2005); Third Hour: Natürliche Dauern (Natural Durations) for piano (2005–2006); and Fourth Hour: Himmels-Tür (Heaven's Door) for a percussionist and a little girl (2005). The Fifth Hour, Harmonien (Harmonies), is a solo in three versions for flute, bass clarinet, and trumpet (2006). The Sixth through Twelfth hours are chamber-music works based on the material from the Fifth Hour. The Thirteenth Hour, Cosmic Pulses, is an electronic work made by superimposing 24 layers of sound, each having its own spatial motion, among eight loudspeakers placed around the concert hall. Hours 14 through 21 are solo pieces for bass voice, baritone voice, basset-horn, horn, tenor voice, soprano voice, soprano saxophone, and flute, respectively, each with electronic accompaniment of a different set of three layers from Cosmic Pulses. The twenty-one completed pieces were first performed together as a cycle at the Festival MusikTriennale Köln on 8–9 May 2010, in 176 individual concerts.
## Theories
In the 1950s and early 1960s, Stockhausen published a series of articles that established his importance in the area of music theory. Although these include analyses of music by Mozart, Debussy, Bartók, Stravinsky, Goeyvaerts, Boulez, Nono, Johannes Fritsch, Michael von Biel, and, especially, Webern, the items on compositional theory directly related to his own work are regarded as the most important generally. "Indeed, the Texte come closer than anything else currently available to providing a general compositional theory for the postwar period". His most celebrated article is "... wie die Zeit vergeht ..." ("... How Time Passes ..."), first published in the third volume of Die Reihe (1957). In it, he expounds a number of temporal conceptions underlying his instrumental compositions Zeitmaße, Gruppen, and Klavierstück XI. In particular, this article develops (1) a scale of twelve tempos analogous to the chromatic pitch scale, (2) a technique of building progressively smaller, integral subdivisions over a basic (fundamental) duration, analogous to the overtone series, (3) musical application of the concept of the partial field (time fields and field sizes) in both successive and simultaneous proportions, (4) methods of projecting large-scale form from a series of proportions, (5) the concept of "statistical" composition, (6) the concept of "action duration" and the associated "variable form", and (7) the notion of the "directionless temporal field" and with it, "polyvalent form".
Other important articles from this period include "Elektronische und Instrumentale Musik" ("Electronic and Instrumental Music", 1958), "Musik im Raum" ("Music in Space", 1958), "Musik und Graphik" ("Music and Graphics", 1959), "Momentform" (1960), "Die Einheit der musikalischen Zeit" ("The Unity of Musical Time", 1961), and "Erfindung und Entdeckung" ("Invention and Discovery", 1961), the last summing up the ideas developed up to 1961. Taken together, these temporal theories
> suggested that the entire compositional structure could be conceived as "timbre": since "the different experienced components such as colour, harmony and melody, meter and rhythm, dynamics, and form correspond to the different segmental ranges of this unified time", the total musical result at any given compositional level is simply the "spectrum" of a more basic duration—i.e., its "timbre", perceived as the overall effect of the overtone structure of that duration, now taken to include not only the "rhythmic" subdivisions of the duration but also their relative "dynamic" strength, "envelope", etc.
>
> Compositionally considered, this produced a change of focus from the individual tone to a whole complex of tones related to one another by virtue of their relation to a "fundamental"—a change that was probably the most important compositional development of the latter part of the 1950s, not only for Stockhausen's music but for "advanced" music in general.
Some of these ideas, considered from a purely theoretical point of view (divorced from their context as explanations of particular compositions) drew significant critical fire. For this reason, Stockhausen ceased publishing such articles for a number of years, as he felt that "many useless polemics" about these texts had arisen, and he preferred to concentrate his attention on composing.
Through the 1960s, although he taught and lectured publicly, Stockhausen published little of an analytical or theoretical nature. Only in 1970 did he again begin publishing theoretical articles, with "Kriterien", the abstract for his six seminar lectures for the Darmstädter Ferienkurse. The seminars themselves, covering seven topics ("Micro- and Macro-Continuum", "Collage and Metacollage", "Expansion of the Scale of Tempos", "Feedback", "Spectral Harmony—Formant Modulation", "Expansion of Dynamics—A Principle of Mikrophonie I", and "Space Music—Spatial Forming and Notation") were published only posthumously.
His collected writings were published in Texte zur Musik, including his compositional theories and analyses on music as a general phenomenon.
## Reception
### Musical influence
Stockhausen has been described as "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music". His two early Electronic Studies (especially the second) had a powerful influence on the subsequent development of electronic music in the 1950s and 1960s, particularly in the work of the Italian Franco Evangelisti and the Poles Andrzej Dobrowolski and Włodzimierz Kotoński. The influence of his Kontra-Punkte, Zeitmasse and Gruppen may be seen in the work of many composers, including Igor Stravinsky's Threni (1957–58) and Movements for piano and orchestra (1958–59) and other works up to the Variations: Aldous Huxley in Memoriam (1963–64), whose rhythms "are likely to have been inspired, at least in part, by certain passages from Stockhausen's Gruppen". Though music of Stockhausen's generation may seem an unlikely influence, Stravinsky said in a 1957 conversation:
> I have all around me the spectacle of composers who, after their generation has had its decade of influence and fashion, seal themselves off from further development and from the next generation (as I say this, exceptions come to mind, Krenek, for instance). Of course, it requires greater effort to learn from one's juniors, and their manners are not invariably good. But when you are seventy-five and your generation has overlapped with four younger ones, it behooves you not to decide in advance "how far composers can go", but to try to discover whatever new thing it is makes the new generation new.
Amongst British composers, Sir Harrison Birtwistle readily acknowledges the influence of Stockhausen's Zeitmaße (especially on his two wind quintets, Refrains and Choruses and Five Distances) and Gruppen on his work more generally. Brian Ferneyhough says that, although the "technical and speculative innovations" of Klavierstücke I–IV, Kreuzspiel and Kontra-Punkte escaped him on first encounter, they nevertheless produced a "sharp emotion, the result of a beneficial shock engendered by their boldness" and provided "an important source of motivation (rather than of imitation) for my own investigations". While still in school, he became fascinated upon hearing the British première of Gruppen, and
> listened many times to the recording of this performance, while trying to penetrate its secrets—how it always seemed to be about to explode, but managed nevertheless to escape unscathed in its core—but scarcely managed to grasp it. Retrospectively, it is clear that from this confusion was born my interest for the formal questions which remain until today.
Although it eventually evolved in a direction of its own, Ferneyhough's 1967 wind sextet, Prometheus, began as a wind quintet with cor anglais, stemming directly from an encounter with Stockhausen's Zeitmaße. With respect to Stockhausen's later work, he said,
> I have never subscribed (whatever the inevitable personal distance) to the thesis according to which the many transformations of vocabulary characterizing Stockhausen's development are the obvious sign of his inability to carry out the early vision of strict order that he had in his youth. On the contrary, it seems to me that the constant reconsideration of his premises has led to the maintenance of a remarkably tough thread of historical consciousness which will become clearer with time. ... I doubt that there has been a single composer of the intervening generation who, even if for a short time, did not see the world of music differently thanks to the work of Stockhausen.
In a short essay describing Stockhausen's influence on his own work, Richard Barrett concludes that "Stockhausen remains the composer whose next work I look forward most to hearing, apart from myself of course" and names as works that have had particular impact on his musical thinking Mantra, Gruppen, Carré, Klavierstück X, Inori, and Jubiläum.
French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez once declared, "Stockhausen is the greatest living composer, and the only one whom I recognize as my peer". Boulez also acknowledged the influence of performing Stockhausen's Zeitmaße on his subsequent development as a conductor. Another French composer, Jean-Claude Éloy, regards Stockhausen as the most important composer of the second half of the 20th century, and cites virtually "all his catalog of works" as "a powerful discoveration [sic], and a true revelation".
Dutch composer Louis Andriessen acknowledged the influence of Stockhausen's Momente in his pivotal work Contra tempus of 1968. German composer Wolfgang Rihm, who studied with Stockhausen, was influenced by Momente, Hymnen, and Inori.
At the Cologne ISCM Festival in 1960, the Danish composer Per Nørgård heard Stockhausen's Kontakte as well as pieces by Kagel, Boulez, and Berio. He was profoundly affected by what he heard and his music suddenly changed into "a far more discontinuous and disjunct style, involving elements of strict organization in all parameters, some degree of aleatoricism and controlled improvisation, together with an interest in collage from other musics".
Jazz musicians such as Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Herbie Hancock, Yusef Lateef, and Anthony Braxton cite Stockhausen as an influence.
Stockhausen was influential within pop and rock music as well. Frank Zappa acknowledges Stockhausen in the liner notes of Freak Out!, his 1966 debut with The Mothers of Invention. On the back of The Who's second LP released in the US, "Happy Jack", their primary composer and guitarist Pete Townshend, is said to have "an interest in Stockhausen". Rick Wright and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd also acknowledge Stockhausen as an influence. San Francisco psychedelic groups Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead are said to have done the same; Stockhausen said that the Grateful Dead were "well orientated toward new music". Founding members of Cologne-based experimental band Can, Irmin Schmidt and Holger Czukay, both studied with Stockhausen at the Cologne Courses for New Music. German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk also say they studied with Stockhausen, and Icelandic vocalist Björk has acknowledged Stockhausen's influence.
### Wider cultural renown
Stockhausen, along with John Cage, is one of the few avant-garde composers to have succeeded in penetrating the popular consciousness. The Beatles included his face on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. This reflects his influence on the band's own avant-garde experiments as well as the general fame and notoriety he had achieved by that time (1967). In particular, "A Day in the Life" (1967) and "Revolution 9" (1968) were influenced by Stockhausen's electronic music. Stockhausen's name, and the perceived strangeness and supposed unlistenability of his music, was even a punchline in cartoons, as documented on a page on the official Stockhausen website (Stockhausen Cartoons). Perhaps the most caustic remark about Stockhausen was attributed to Sir Thomas Beecham. Asked "Have you heard any Stockhausen?", he is alleged to have replied, "No, but I believe I have trodden in some".
Stockhausen's fame is also reflected in works of literature. For example, he is mentioned in Philip K. Dick's 1974 novel Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, and in Thomas Pynchon's 1966 novel The Crying of Lot 49. The Pynchon novel features "The Scope", a bar with "a strict electronic music policy". Protagonist Oedipa Maas asks "a hip graybeard" about a "sudden chorus of whoops and yibbles" coming out of "a kind of jukebox." He replies, "That's by Stockhausen ... the early crowd tends to dig your Radio Cologne sound. Later on we really swing".
The French writer Michel Butor acknowledges that Stockhausen's music "taught me a lot", mentioning in particular the electronic works Gesang der Jünglinge and Hymnen.
Later in his life, Stockhausen was portrayed by at least one journalist, John O'Mahony of the Guardian newspaper, as an eccentric, for example being alleged to live an effectively polygamous lifestyle with two women, to whom O'Mahony referred as his "wives", while at the same time stating he was not married to either of them. In the same article, O'Mahony says Stockhausen said he was born on a planet orbiting the star Sirius. In the German newspaper Die Zeit, Stockhausen stated that he was educated at Sirius (see Sirius star system below).
In 1995, BBC Radio 3 sent Stockhausen a package of recordings from contemporary techno and ambient music artists Aphex Twin, Richie Hawtin (Plastikman), Scanner and Daniel Pemberton, and asked him for his opinion on the music. In August of that year, Radio 3 reporter Dick Witts interviewed Stockhausen about these pieces for a broadcast in October, called "The Technocrats" and asked what advice he would give these young musicians. Stockhausen made suggestions to each and they were then invited to respond. All but Plastikman obliged.
### Criticism
Robin Maconie finds that, "Compared to the work of his contemporaries, Stockhausen's music has a depth and rational integrity that is quite outstanding... His researches, initially guided by Meyer-Eppler, have a coherence unlike any other composer then or since". Maconie also compares Stockhausen to Beethoven: "If a genius is someone whose ideas survive all attempts at explanation, then by that definition Stockhausen is the nearest thing to Beethoven this century has produced. Reason? His music lasts", and "As Stravinsky said, one never thinks of Beethoven as a superb orchestrator because the quality of invention transcends mere craftsmanship. It is the same with Stockhausen: the intensity of imagination gives rise to musical impressions of an elemental and seemingly unfathomable beauty, arising from necessity rather than conscious design".
Christopher Ballantine, comparing the categories of experimental and avant-garde music, concludes that
> Perhaps more than any other contemporary composer, Stockhausen exists at the point where the dialectic between experimental and avant-garde music becomes manifest; it is in him, more obviously than anywhere else, that these diverse approaches converge. This alone would seem to suggest his remarkable significance.
Igor Stravinsky expressed great, but not uncritical, enthusiasm for Stockhausen's music in the conversation books with Robert Craft, and for years organised private listening sessions with friends in his home where he played tapes of Stockhausen's latest works. In an interview published in March 1968, however, he says of an unidentified person,
> I have been listening all week to the piano music of a composer now greatly esteemed for his ability to stay an hour or so ahead of his time, but I find the alternation of note-clumps and silences of which it consists more monotonous than the foursquares of the dullest eighteenth-century music.
The following October, a report in Sovetskaia Muzyka translated this sentence (and a few others from the same article) into Russian, substituting for the conjunction "but" the phrase "Ia imeiu v vidu Karlkheintsa Shtokkhauzena" ("I am referring to Karlheinz Stockhausen"). When this translation was quoted in Druskin's Stravinsky biography, the field was widened to all of Stockhausen's compositions and Druskin adds for good measure, "indeed, works he calls unnecessary, useless and uninteresting", again quoting from the same Sovetskaia Muzyka article, even though it had made plain that the characterization was of American "university composers".
### Controversy
Throughout his career, Stockhausen excited controversy. One reason for this is that his music displays high expectations about "shaping and transforming the world, about the truth of life and of reality, about the creative departure into a future determined by spirit", so that Stockhausen's work "like no other in the history of new music, has a polarizing effect, arouses passion, and provokes drastic opposition, even hatred". Another reason was acknowledged by Stockhausen himself in a reply to a question during an interview on the Bavarian Radio on 4 September 1960, reprinted as a foreword to his first collection of writings:
> I have often been reproached—especially recently—for being too candid, and through this making not a few enemies for myself—being undiplomatic. ... It must be admitted: I am not gifted as an esotericist, not as a mystic or a hermit, and not as a diplomat; it corresponds that my love of my fellow humans expresses itself in candour ... I hope my enemies will not on this account destroy me; I also hope my enemies find forms of retort that I can find richly fanciful, witty, pertinent, instructive—that grant me respect through a noble and truly humane form of enmity.
After the student revolts in 1968, musical life in Germany became highly politicized, and Stockhausen found himself a target for criticism, especially from the leftist camp who wanted music "in the service of the class struggle". Cornelius Cardew and Konrad Boehmer denounced their former teacher as a "servant of capitalism". In a climate where music mattered less than political ideology, some critics held that Stockhausen was too élitist, while others complained he was too mystical.
#### Scandal at the Fresco premiere
As reported in the German magazine Der Spiegel, the première (and only performance to date) on 15 November 1969 of Stockhausen's work Fresco for four orchestral groups (playing in four different locations) was the scene of a scandal. The rehearsals were already marked by objections from the orchestral musicians questioning such directions as "glissandos no faster than one octave per minute" and others phoning the artists' union to clarify whether they really had to perform the Stockhausen work as part of the orchestra. In the backstage warm-up room at the premiere a hand-lettered sign could be seen saying: "We're playing, otherwise we would be fired". During the première the parts on some music stands suddenly were replaced by placards reading things like "Stockhausen-Zoo. Please don't feed", that someone had planted. Some musicians, fed up with the monkeyshines, left after an hour, though the performance was planned for four to five hours. Stockhausen fans protested, while Stockhausen foes were needling the musicians asking: "How can you possibly participate in such crap?" ("Wie könnt ihr bloß so eine Scheiße machen!"). At one point someone managed to switch off the stand lights, leaving the musicians in the dark. After 260 minutes the performance ended with no-one participating any longer.
#### Sirius star system
In an obituary in the German newspaper Die Zeit, Karlheinz Stockhausen was quoted as having said: "I was educated at Sirius and want to return to there, although I am still living in Kürten near Cologne." On hearing about this, conductor Michael Gielen stated: "When he said he knew what was happening at Sirius, I turned away from him in horror. I haven't listened to a note since." He called Stockhausen's statements "hubris" and "nonsense", while at the same time defending his own belief in astrology: "Why should these large celestial bodies exist if they do not stand for something? I cannot imagine that there is anything senseless in the universe. There is much we do not understand".
#### 11 September attacks
In a press conference in Hamburg on 16 September 2001, Stockhausen was asked by a journalist whether the characters in Licht were for him "merely some figures out of a common cultural history" or rather "material appearances". Stockhausen replied, "I pray daily to Michael, but not to Lucifer. I have renounced him. But he is very much present, like in New York recently." The same journalist then asked how the events of 11 September had affected him, and how he viewed reports of the attack in connection with the harmony of humanity represented in Hymnen. He answered:
> Well, what happened there is, of course—now all of you must adjust your brains—the biggest work of art there has ever been. The fact that spirits achieve with one act something which we in music could never dream of, that people practise ten years madly, fanatically for a concert. And then die. [Hesitantly.] And that is the greatest work of art that exists for the whole Cosmos. Just imagine what happened there. There are people who are so concentrated on this single performance, and then five thousand people are driven to Resurrection. In one moment. I couldn't do that. Compared to that, we are nothing, as composers. [...] It is a crime, you know of course, because the people did not agree to it. They did not come to the "concert". That is obvious. And nobody had told them: "You could be killed in the process."
As a result of the reaction to the press report of Stockhausen's comments, a four-day festival of his work in Hamburg was cancelled. In addition, his pianist daughter announced to the press that she would no longer appear under the name "Stockhausen". In a subsequent message, he stated that the press had published "false, defamatory reports" about his comments, and said:
> At the press conference in Hamburg, I was asked if Michael, Eve and Lucifer were historical figures of the past and I answered that they exist now, for example Lucifer in New York. In my work, I have defined Lucifer as the cosmic spirit of rebellion, of anarchy. He uses his high degree of intelligence to destroy creation. He does not know love. After further questions about the events in America, I said that such a plan appeared to be Lucifer's greatest work of art. Of course I used the designation "work of art" to mean the work of destruction personified in Lucifer. In the context of my other comments this was unequivocal.
## Honours
Amongst the numerous honours and distinctions that were bestowed upon Stockhausen are:
- 1964 German gramophone critics award;
- 1966 and 1972 SIMC award for orchestral works (Italy);
- 1968 Grand Art Prize for Music of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia; Grand Prix du Disque (France); Member of the Free Academy of the Arts, Hamburg;
- 1968, 1969, and 1971 Edison Prize (Netherlands);
- 1970 Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music;
- 1973 Member of the Academy of Arts, Berlin;
- 1974 Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class (Germany);
- 1977 Member of the Philharmonic Academy of Rome;
- 1979 Honorary Member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters;
- 1980 Member of the European Academy of Science, Arts and Letters [fr];
- 1981 Prize of the Italian music critics for Donnerstag aus Licht;
- 1982 German gramophone prize (German Phonograph Academy);
- 1983 Diapason d'or (France) for Donnerstag aus Licht;
- 1985 Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France);
- 1986 Ernst von Siemens Music Prize;
- 1987 Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music, London;
- 1988 Honorary Citizen of the Kuerten community;
- 1989 Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences;
- 1990 Prix Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria;
- 1991 Honorary Fellow of the Royal Irish Academy of Music; Accademico Onorario of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Caecilia, Rome; Honorary Patron of Sound Projects Weimar;
- 1992 IMC-UNESCO Picasso Medal; Distinguished Service Medal of the German state North Rhine-Westphalia; German Music Publishers Society Award for the score of Luzifers Tanz (3rd scene of Saturday from Light);
- 1993 Patron of the European Flute Festival; Diapason d'or for Klavierstücke I–XI and Mikrophonie I and II;
- 1994 German Music Publishers Society Award for the score Jahreslauf (Act 1 of Tuesday from Light);
- 1995 Honorary Member of the German Society for Electro-Acoustic Music; Bach Award of the city of Hamburg;
- 1996 Honorary doctorate (Dr. phil. h. c.) of the Free University of Berlin; Composer of the European Cultural Capital Copenhagen; Edison Prize (Netherlands) for Mantra; Member of the Free Academy of the Arts Leipzig; Honorary Member of the Leipzig Opera; Cologne Culture Prize;
- 1997 German Music Publishers Society Award for the score of Weltparlament (first scene of Wednesday from Light); Honorary member of the music ensemble LIM (Laboratorio de Interpretación Musical), Madrid;
- 1999 Entry in the Golden Book of the city of Cologne;
- 2000 German Music Publishers Society Award for the score of Evas Erstgeburt (act 1 of Monday from Light);
- 2000–2001 The film In Absentia made by the Quay Brothers (England) to concrete and electronic music by Karlheinz Stockhausen won the Golden Dove (first prize) at the International Festival for Animated Film in Leipzig. More awards: Special Jury Mention, Montreal, FCMM 2000; Special Jury Award, Tampere 2000; Special Mention, Golden Prague Awards 2001; Honorary Diploma Award, Cracow 2001; Best Animated Short Film, 50th Melbourne International Film Festival 2001; Grand Prix, Turku Finland 2001;
- 2001 German Music Publishers Society Award for the score Helicopter String Quartet (third scene of Wednesday from Light); Polar Music Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of the Arts;
- 2002 Honorary Patron of the Sonic Arts Network, England;
- 2003 German Music Publishers Society Award for the score of Michaelion (4th scene of Wednesday from Light);
- 2004 Associated member of the Academie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres & des Beaux-arts (Belgium); Honorary doctorate (Dr. phil. h. c.) of the Queen's University in Belfast; German Music Publishers Society Award for the score of Stop and Start for 6 instrumental groups;
- 2005 German Music Publishers Society Award for the score of Hoch-Zeiten for choir (fifth scene of Sunday from Light);
- 2006 Honorary member of the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna;
- 2008 On 22 August, Stockhausen's birthday, the Rathausplatz in his home town of Kürten was renamed Karlheinz-Stockhausen-Platz in his honour;
- 2008 On 10 October, the Studio for Electronic Music of the Royal Conservatory of The Hague in the Netherlands changed its name to Karlheinz Stockhausen Studio;
- 2009 German Music Publishers Society Award for the score of Momente for solo soprano, four choral groups, and 13 instrumentalists;
- 2010 The municipality of Kürten adopts the designation "Stockhausengemeinde" (Stockhausen municipality) in honour of the late composer.
## Notable students
## Documentary films
- Karlheinz Stockhausen: Helicopter String Quartet, documentary, The Netherlands, 1995, 78 min., producer: Ton van der Lee [nl], director: Frank Scheffer, production: Allegri Film, streaming and DVD: Medici.tv. trailer
- Stockhausen – Musik für eine bessere Welt [de], documentary, Germany, 2009, 56 min., producer and director: Norbert Busè and co-director Thomas von Steinaecker [de], production: Studio.TV.Film [de], broadcast: Arte, ZDF. |
39,040 | Ernest Lawrence | 1,172,876,426 | American nuclear physicist (1901–1958) | [
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"University of Chicago alumni",
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] | Ernest Orlando Lawrence (August 8, 1901 – August 27, 1958) was an American nuclear physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1939 for his invention of the cyclotron. He is known for his work on uranium-isotope separation for the Manhattan Project, as well as for founding the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
A graduate of the University of South Dakota and University of Minnesota, Lawrence obtained a PhD in physics at Yale in 1925. In 1928, he was hired as an associate professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, becoming the youngest full professor there two years later. In its library one evening, Lawrence was intrigued by a diagram of an accelerator that produced high-energy particles. He contemplated how it could be made compact, and came up with an idea for a circular accelerating chamber between the poles of an electromagnet. The result was the first cyclotron.
Lawrence went on to build a series of ever larger and more expensive cyclotrons. His Radiation Laboratory became an official department of the University of California in 1936, with Lawrence as its director. In addition to the use of the cyclotron for physics, Lawrence also supported its use in research into medical uses of radioisotopes. During World War II, Lawrence developed electromagnetic isotope separation at the Radiation Laboratory. It used devices known as calutrons, a hybrid of the standard laboratory mass spectrometer and cyclotron. A huge electromagnetic separation plant was built at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which came to be called Y-12. The process was inefficient, but it worked.
After the war, Lawrence campaigned extensively for government sponsorship of large scientific programs, and was a forceful advocate of "Big Science", with its requirements for big machines and big money. Lawrence strongly backed Edward Teller's campaign for a second nuclear weapons laboratory, which Lawrence located in Livermore, California. After his death, the Regents of the University of California renamed the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory after him. Chemical element number 103 was named lawrencium in his honor after its discovery at Berkeley in 1961.
## Early life
Ernest Orlando Lawrence was born in Canton, South Dakota, on August 8, 1901. His parents, Carl Gustavus and Gunda (née Jacobson) Lawrence, were both the offspring of Norwegian immigrants who had met while teaching at the high school in Canton, where his father was also the superintendent of schools. He had a younger brother, John H. Lawrence, who would become a physician, and was a pioneer in the field of nuclear medicine. Growing up, his best friend was Merle Tuve, who would also go on to become a highly accomplished physicist.
Lawrence attended the public schools of Canton and Pierre, then enrolled at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, but transferred after a year to the University of South Dakota in Vermillion. He completed his bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1922, and his Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in physics from the University of Minnesota in 1923 under the supervision of William Francis Gray Swann. For his master's thesis, Lawrence built an experimental apparatus that rotated an ellipsoid through a magnetic field.
Lawrence followed Swann to the University of Chicago, and then to Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where Lawrence completed his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in physics in 1925 as a National Research Fellow, writing his doctoral thesis on the photoelectric effect in potassium vapor. He was elected a member of Sigma Xi, and, on Swann's recommendation, received a National Research Council fellowship. Instead of using it to travel to Europe, as was customary at the time, he remained at Yale University with Swann as a researcher.
With Jesse Beams from the University of Virginia, Lawrence continued to research the photoelectric effect. They showed that photoelectrons appeared within 2 x 10<sup>−9</sup> seconds of the photons striking the photoelectric surface—close to the limit of measurement at the time. Reducing the emission time by switching the light source on and off rapidly made the spectrum of energy emitted broader, in conformance with Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.
## Early career
In 1926 and 1927, Lawrence received offers of assistant professorships from the University of Washington in Seattle and the University of California at a salary of \$3,500 per annum (). Yale promptly matched the offer of the assistant professorship, but at a salary of \$3,000. Lawrence chose to stay at the more prestigious Yale, but because he had never been an instructor, the appointment was resented by some of his fellow faculty, and in the eyes of many it still did not compensate for his South Dakota immigrant background.
Lawrence was hired as an associate professor of physics at the University of California in 1928. He became a full professor two years later, becoming the university's youngest professor. Based on Frédéric and Irène Joliot-Curie's 1934 published work on artificial radioactivity, Lawrence discovered the nitrogen-13 isotope by firing high-energy protons into a carbon-13 element in his laboratory. He and his team including Martin Kamen and Samuel Ruben accidentally discovered the carbon-14 isotope by bombarding graphite with high-energy protons. Robert Gordon Sproul, who became university president the day after Lawrence became a professor, was a member of the Bohemian Club, and he sponsored Lawrence's membership in 1932. Through this club, Lawrence met William Henry Crocker, Edwin Pauley, and John Francis Neylan. They were influential men who helped him obtain money for his energetic nuclear particle investigations. There was great hope for medical uses to come from the development of particle physics, and this led to much of the early funding that Lawrence was able to obtain for research.
While at Yale, Lawrence met Mary Kimberly (Molly) Blumer, the eldest of four daughters of George Blumer, the dean of the Yale School of Medicine. They first met in 1926 and became engaged in 1931, and were married on May 14, 1932, at Trinity Church on the Green in New Haven, Connecticut. They had six children: Eric, Margaret, Mary, Robert, Barbara, and Susan. Lawrence named his son Robert after theoretical physicist Robert Oppenheimer, his closest friend in Berkeley. In 1941, Molly's sister Elsie married Edwin McMillan, who would go on to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1951.
## Development of the cyclotron
### Invention
The invention that brought Lawrence to international fame started out as a sketch on a scrap of a paper napkin. While sitting in the library one evening in 1929, Lawrence glanced over a journal article by Rolf Widerøe, and was intrigued by one of the diagrams. This depicted a device that produced high-energy particles by means of a succession of small "pushes". The device depicted was laid out in a straight line using increasingly longer electrodes. At the time, physicists were beginning to explore the atomic nucleus. In 1919, the New Zealand physicist Ernest Rutherford had fired alpha particles into nitrogen and had succeeded in knocking protons out of some of the nuclei. But nuclei have a positive charge that repels other positively charged nuclei, and they are bound together tightly by a force that physicists were only just beginning to understand. To break them up, to disintegrate them, would require much higher energies, of the order of millions of volts.
Lawrence saw that such a particle accelerator would soon become too long and unwieldy for his university laboratory. In pondering a way to make the accelerator more compact, Lawrence decided to set a circular accelerating chamber between the poles of an electromagnet. The magnetic field would hold the charged protons in a spiral path as they were accelerated between just two semicircular electrodes connected to an alternating potential. After a hundred turns or so, the protons would impact the target as a beam of high-energy particles. Lawrence excitedly told his colleagues that he had discovered a method for obtaining particles of very high energy without the use of any high voltage. He initially worked with Niels Edlefsen. Their first cyclotron was made out of brass, wire, and sealing wax and was only four inches (10 cm) in diameter—it could be held in one hand, and probably cost a total of \$25 ().
What Lawrence needed to develop the idea was capable graduate students to do the work. Edlefsen left to take up an assistant professorship in September 1930, and Lawrence replaced him with David H. Sloan and M. Stanley Livingston, whom he set to work on developing Widerøe's accelerator and Edlefsen's cyclotron, respectively. Both had their own financial support. Both designs proved practical, and by May 1931, Sloan's linear accelerator was able to accelerate ions to 1 MeV. Livingston had a greater technical challenge, but when he applied 1,800 V to his 11-inch cyclotron on January 2, 1931, he got 80,000-electron volt protons spinning around. A week later, he had 1.22 MeV with 3,000 V, more than enough for his PhD thesis on its construction.
### Development
In what would become a recurring pattern, as soon as there was the first sign of success, Lawrence started planning a new, bigger machine. Lawrence and Livingston drew up a design for a 27-inch (69 cm) cyclotron in early 1932. The magnet for the \$800 11-inch cyclotron weighed 2 tons, but Lawrence found a massive 80-ton magnet rusting in a junkyard in Palo Alto for the 27-inch that had originally been built during World War I to power a transatlantic radio link. In the cyclotron, he had a powerful scientific instrument, but this did not translate into scientific discovery. In April 1932, John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton at the Cavendish Laboratory in England announced that they had bombarded lithium with protons and succeeded in transmuting it into helium. The energy required turned out to be quite low—well within the capability of the 11-inch cyclotron. On learning about it, Lawrence sent a wire to Berkeley and asked for Cockcroft and Walton's results to be verified. It took the team until September to do so, mainly due to lack of adequate detection apparatus.
Although important discoveries continued to elude Lawrence's Radiation Laboratory, mainly due to its focus on the development of the cyclotron rather than its scientific use, through his increasingly larger machines, Lawrence was able to provide crucial equipment needed for experiments in high energy physics. Around this device, he built what became the world's foremost laboratory for the new field of nuclear physics research in the 1930s. He received a patent for the cyclotron in 1934, which he assigned to the Research Corporation, a private foundation that funded much of Lawrence's early work.
In February 1936, Harvard University's president, James B. Conant, made attractive offers to Lawrence and Oppenheimer. The University of California's president, Robert Gordon Sproul, responded by improving conditions. The Radiation Laboratory became an official department of the University of California on July 1, 1936, with Lawrence formally appointed its director, with a full-time assistant director, and the university agreed to make \$20,000 a year available for its research activities (). Lawrence employed a simple business model: "He staffed his laboratory with graduate students and junior faculty of the physics department, with fresh Ph.D.s willing to work for anything, and with fellowship holders and wealthy guests able to serve for nothing."
### Reception
Using the new 27-inch cyclotron, the team at Berkeley discovered that every element that they bombarded with recently discovered deuterium emitted energy, and in the same range. They, therefore, postulated the existence of a new and hitherto unknown particle that was a possible source of limitless energy. William Laurence of The New York Times described Lawrence as "a new miracle worker of science". At Cockcroft's invitation, Lawrence attended the 1933 Solvay Conference in Belgium. This was a regular gathering of the world's top physicists. Nearly all were from Europe, but occasionally an outstanding American scientist like Robert A. Millikan or Arthur Compton would be invited to attend. Lawrence was asked to give a presentation on the cyclotron. Lawrence's claims of limitless energy met a very different reception in Solvay. He ran into withering skepticism from the Cavendish Laboratory's James Chadwick, the physicist who had discovered the neutron in 1932, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1935. In a British accent that sounded condescending to Lawrence's ears, Chadwick suggested that what Lawrence's team was observing was contamination of their apparatus.
When he returned to Berkeley, Lawrence mobilized his team to go painstakingly over the results to gather enough evidence to convince Chadwick. Meanwhile, at the Cavendish laboratory, Rutherford and Mark Oliphant found that deuterium fuses to form helium-3, which causes the effect that the cyclotroneers had observed. Not only was Chadwick correct in that they had been observing contamination, but they had overlooked yet another important discovery, that of nuclear fusion. Lawrence's response was to press on with the creation of still larger cyclotrons. The 27-inch cyclotron was superseded by a 37-inch cyclotron in June 1937, which in turn was superseded by a 60-inch cyclotron in May 1939. It was used to bombard iron and produced its first radioactive isotopes in June.
As it was easier to raise money for medical purposes, particularly cancer treatment, than for nuclear physics, Lawrence encouraged the use of the cyclotron for medical research. Working with his brother John and Israel Lyon Chaikoff from the University of California's physiology department, Lawrence supported research into the use of radioactive isotopes for therapeutic purposes. Phosphorus-32 was easily produced in the cyclotron, and John used it to cure a woman afflicted with polycythemia vera, a blood disease. John used phosphorus-32 created in the 37-inch cyclotron in 1938 in tests on mice with leukemia. He found that the radioactive phosphorus concentrated in the fast-growing cancer cells. This then led to clinical trials on human patients. A 1948 evaluation of the therapy showed that remissions occurred under certain circumstances. Lawrence also had hoped for the medical use of neutrons. The first cancer patient received neutron therapy from the 60-inch cyclotron on November 20. Chaikoff conducted trials on the use of radioactive isotopes as radioactive tracers to explore the mechanism of biochemical reactions.
Lawrence was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in November 1939 "for the invention and development of the cyclotron and for results obtained with it, especially with regard to artificial radioactive elements". He was the first at Berkeley as well as the first South Dakotan to become a Nobel Laureate, and the first to be so honored while at a state-supported university. The Nobel award ceremony was held on February 29, 1940, in Berkeley, California, due to World War II, in the auditorium of Wheeler Hall on the campus of the university. Lawrence received his medal from Carl E. Wallerstedt, Sweden's Consul General in San Francisco. Robert W. Wood wrote to Lawrence and presciently noted "As you are laying the foundations for the cataclysmic explosion of uranium ... I'm sure old Nobel would approve."
In March 1940, Arthur Compton, Vannevar Bush, James B. Conant, Karl T. Compton, and Alfred Lee Loomis traveled to Berkeley to discuss Lawrence's proposal for a 184-inch cyclotron with a 4,500-ton magnet that was estimated to cost \$2.65 million (). The Rockefeller Foundation provided \$1.15 million to get the project started.
## World War II and the Manhattan Project
### Radiation Laboratory
After the outbreak of World War II in Europe, Lawrence became drawn into military projects. He helped recruit staff for the MIT Radiation Laboratory, where American physicists developed the cavity magnetron invented by Oliphant's team in Britain. The name of the new laboratory was deliberately copied from Lawrence's laboratory in Berkeley for security reasons. He also became involved in recruiting staff for underwater sound laboratories to develop techniques for detecting German submarines. Meanwhile, work continued at Berkeley with cyclotrons. In December 1940, Glenn T. Seaborg and Emilio Segrè used the 60-inch (150 cm) cyclotron to bombard uranium-238 with deuterons producing a new element, neptunium-238, which decayed by beta emission to form plutonium-238. One of its isotopes, plutonium-239, could undergo nuclear fission which provided another way to make an atomic bomb.
Lawrence offered Segrè a job as a research assistant—a relatively lowly position for someone who had discovered an element—for US\$300 a month for six months. However, when Lawrence learned that Segrè was legally trapped in California, he reduced Segrè's salary further to US\$116 a month. When the regents of the University of California wanted to terminate Segrè's employment owing to his foreign nationality, Lawrence managed to retain Segrè by hiring him as a part-time lecturer paid by the Rockefeller Foundation. Similar arrangements were made to retain his doctoral students Chien-Shiung Wu (a Chinese national) and Kenneth Ross MacKenzie (a Canadian national) when they graduated.
In September 1941, Oliphant met with Lawrence and Oppenheimer at Berkeley, where they showed him the site for the new 184-inch (4.7 m) cyclotron. Oliphant, in turn, took the Americans to task for not following up the recommendations of the British MAUD Committee, which advocated a program to develop an atomic bomb. Lawrence had already thought about the problem of separating the fissile isotope uranium-235 from uranium-238, a process known today as uranium enrichment. Separating uranium isotopes was difficult because the two isotopes have very nearly identical chemical properties, and could only be separated gradually using their small mass differences. Separating isotopes with a mass spectrometer was a technique Oliphant had pioneered with lithium in 1934.
Lawrence began converting his old 37-inch cyclotron into a giant mass spectrometer. On his recommendation, the director of the Manhattan Project, Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves, Jr., appointed Oppenheimer as head of its Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico. While the Radiation laboratory developed the electromagnetic uranium enrichment process, the Los Alamos Laboratory designed and constructed the atomic bombs. Like the Radiation Laboratory, it was run by the University of California.
Electromagnetic isotope separation used devices known as calutrons, a hybrid of two laboratory instruments, the mass spectrometer and cyclotron. The name was derived from "California university cyclotrons". In November 1943, Lawrence's team at Berkeley was bolstered by 29 British scientists, including Oliphant.
In the electromagnetic process, a magnetic field deflected charged particles according to mass. The process was neither scientifically elegant nor industrially efficient. Compared with a gaseous diffusion plant or a nuclear reactor, an electromagnetic separation plant would consume more scarce materials, require more manpower to operate, and cost more to build. Nonetheless, the process was approved because it was based on proven technology and therefore represented less risk. Moreover, it could be built in stages, and would rapidly reach industrial capacity.
### Oak Ridge
Responsibility for the design and construction of the electromagnetic separation plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which came to be called Y-12, was assigned to Stone & Webster. The calutrons, using 14,700 tons of silver, were manufactured by Allis-Chalmers in Milwaukee and shipped to Oak Ridge. The design called for five first-stage processing units, known as Alpha racetracks, and two units for final processing, known as Beta racetracks. In September 1943 Groves authorized construction of four more racetracks, known as Alpha II. When the plant was started up for testing on schedule in October 1943, the 14-ton vacuum tanks crept out of alignment because of the power of the magnets and had to be fastened more securely. A more serious problem arose when the magnetic coils started shorting out. In December Groves ordered a magnet to be broken open, and handfuls of rust were found inside. Groves then ordered the racetracks to be torn down and the magnets sent back to the factory to be cleaned. A pickling plant was established on-site to clean the pipes and fittings.
Tennessee Eastman was hired to manage Y-12. Y-12 initially enriched the uranium-235 content to between 13% and 15%, and shipped the first few hundred grams of it to Los Alamos laboratory in March 1944. Only 1 part in 5,825 of the uranium feed emerged as final product. The rest was splattered over equipment in the process. Strenuous recovery efforts helped raise production to 10% of the uranium-235 feed by January 1945. In February the Alpha racetracks began receiving slightly enriched (1.4%) feed from the new S-50 thermal diffusion plant. The next month it received enhanced (5%) feed from the K-25 gaseous diffusion plant. By April 1945 K-25 was producing uranium sufficiently enriched to feed directly into the Beta tracks.
On July 16, 1945, Lawrence observed the Trinity nuclear test of the first atomic bomb with Chadwick and Charles A. Thomas. Few were more excited at its success than Lawrence. The question of how to use the now functional weapon on Japan became an issue for the scientists. While Oppenheimer favored no demonstration of the power of the new weapon to Japanese leaders, Lawrence felt strongly that a demonstration would be wise. When a uranium bomb was used without warning in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Lawrence felt great pride in his accomplishment.
Lawrence hoped that the Manhattan Project would develop improved calutrons and construct Alpha III racetracks, but they were judged to be uneconomical. The Alpha tracks were closed down in September 1945. Although performing better than ever, they could not compete with K-25 and the new K-27, which commenced operation in January 1946. In December, the Y-12 plant was closed, thereby cutting the Tennessee Eastman payroll from 8,600 to 1,500 and saving \$2 million a month. Staff numbers at the Radiation laboratory fell from 1,086 in May 1945 to 424 by the end of the year.
## Post-war career
### Big Science
After the war, Lawrence campaigned extensively for government sponsorship of large scientific programs. He was a forceful advocate of Big Science with its requirements for big machines and big money, and in 1946 he asked the Manhattan Project for over \$2 million for research at the Radiation Laboratory (). Groves approved the money, but cut a number of programs, including Seaborg's proposal for a "hot" radiation laboratory in densely populated Berkeley, and John Lawrence's for production of medical isotopes, because this need could now be better met from nuclear reactors. One obstacle was the University of California, which was eager to divest its wartime military obligations. Lawrence and Groves managed to persuade Sproul to accept a contract extension. In 1946, the Manhattan Project spent \$7 on physics at the University of California for every dollar spent by the university.
The 184-inch cyclotron was completed with wartime dollars from the Manhattan Project. It incorporated new ideas by Ed McMillan, and was completed as a synchrocyclotron. It commenced operation on November 13, 1946. For the first time since 1935, Lawrence actively participated in the experiments, working with Eugene Gardner in an unsuccessful attempt to create recently discovered pi mesons with the synchrotron. César Lattes then used the apparatus they had created to find negative pi mesons in 1948.
Responsibility for the national laboratories passed to the newly created Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) on January 1, 1947. That year, Lawrence asked for \$15 million for his projects (), which included a new linear accelerator and a new gigaelectronvolt synchrotron which became known as the bevatron. The University of California's contract to run the Los Alamos laboratory was due to expire on July 1, 1948, and some board members wished to divest the university of the responsibility for running a site outside California. After some negotiation, the university agreed to extend the contract for what was now the Los Alamos National Laboratory for four more years and to appoint Norris Bradbury, who had replaced Oppenheimer as its director in October 1945, as a professor. Soon after, Lawrence received all the funds he had requested.
Notwithstanding the fact that he voted for Franklin Roosevelt, Lawrence was a Republican, who had strongly disapproved of Oppenheimer's efforts before the war to unionize the Radiation Laboratory workers, which Lawrence considered "leftwandering activities". Lawrence considered political activity to be a waste of time better spent in scientific research, and preferred that it be kept out of the Radiation Laboratory. In the chilly Cold War climate of the post-war University of California, Lawrence accepted the House Un-American Activities Committee's actions as legitimate, and did not see them as indicative of a systemic problem involving academic freedom or human rights. He was protective of individuals in his laboratory, but even more protective of the reputation of the laboratory. He was forced to defend Radiation Laboratory staff members like Robert Serber who were investigated by the university's Personnel Security Board. In several cases, he issued character references in support of staff. However, Lawrence barred Robert Oppenheimer's brother Frank from the Radiation Laboratory, damaging his relationship with Robert. An acrimonious loyalty oath campaign at the University of California also drove away faculty members. When hearings were held to revoke Robert Oppenheimer's security clearance, Lawrence declined to attend on account of illness, but a transcript in which he was critical of Oppenheimer was presented in his absence. Lawrence's success in building a creative, collaborative laboratory was undermined by the ill-feeling and distrust resulting from political tensions.
### Thermonuclear weapons
Lawrence was alarmed by the Soviet Union's first nuclear test in August 1949. The proper response, he concluded, was an all-out effort to build a bigger nuclear weapon: the hydrogen bomb. He proposed to use accelerators instead of nuclear reactors to produce the neutrons needed to create the tritium the bomb required, as well as plutonium, which was more difficult, as much higher energies would be required. He first proposed the construction of Mark I, a prototype \$7 million, 25 MeV linear accelerator, codenamed Materials Test Accelerator (MTA). He was soon talking about a new, even larger MTA known as the Mark II, which could produce tritium or plutonium from depleted uranium-238. Serber and Segrè attempted in vain to explain the technical problems that made it impractical, but Lawrence felt that they were being unpatriotic.
Lawrence strongly backed Edward Teller's campaign for a second nuclear weapons laboratory, which Lawrence proposed to locate with the MTA Mark I at Livermore, California. Lawrence and Teller had to argue their case not only with the Atomic Energy Commission, which did not want it, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which was implacably opposed but with proponents who felt that Chicago was the more obvious site for it. The new laboratory at Livermore was finally approved on July 17, 1952, but the Mark II MTA was canceled. By this time, the Atomic Energy Commission had spent \$45 million on the Mark I, which had commenced operation, but was mainly used to produce polonium for the nuclear weapons program. Meanwhile, the Brookhaven National Laboratory's Cosmotron had generated a 1 GeV beam.
### Death and legacy
In addition to the Nobel Prize, Lawrence received the Elliott Cresson Medal and the Hughes Medal in 1937, the Comstock Prize in Physics in 1938, the Duddell Medal and Prize in 1940, the Holley Medal in 1942, the Medal for Merit in 1946, the William Procter Prize in 1951, Faraday Medal in 1952, and the Enrico Fermi Award from the Atomic Energy Commission in 1957. He was elected a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1934, and both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society in 1937. He was made an Officer of the Legion d'Honneur in 1948, and was the first recipient of the Sylvanus Thayer Award by the US Military Academy in 1958.
In July 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower asked Lawrence to travel to Geneva, Switzerland, to help negotiate a proposed Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with the Soviet Union. AEC Chairman Lewis Strauss had pressed for Lawrence's inclusion. The two men had argued the case for the development of the hydrogen bomb, and Strauss had helped raise funds for Lawrence's cyclotron in 1939. Strauss was keen to have Lawrence as part of the Geneva delegation because Lawrence was known to favor continued nuclear testing. Despite suffering from a serious flare-up of his chronic ulcerative colitis, Lawrence decided to go, but he became ill while in Geneva, and was rushed back to the hospital at Stanford University. Surgeons removed much of his large intestine, but found other problems, including severe atherosclerosis in one of his arteries. He died in Palo Alto Hospital on August 27, 1958, nineteen days after his 57th birthday. Molly did not want a public funeral but agreed to a memorial service at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley. University of California President Clark Kerr delivered the eulogy.
Almost immediately after Lawrence's death, the Regents of the University of California voted to rename two of the university's nuclear research labs after Lawrence: the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award was established in his memory in 1959. Chemical element number 103, discovered at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 1961, was named lawrencium after him. In 1968 the Lawrence Hall of Science public science education center was established in his honor. His papers are in the Bancroft Library at the University of California in Berkeley.
In the 1980s, Lawrence's widow petitioned the University of California Board of Regents on several occasions to remove her husband's name from the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, due to its focus on nuclear weapons Lawrence helped build, but was denied each time. She outlived her husband by more than 44 years and died in Walnut Creek, California, at the age of 92 on January 6, 2003.
George B. Kauffman wrote that:
> Before him, "little science" was carried out largely by lone individuals working with modest means on a small scale. After him, massive industrial, and especially governmental, expenditures of manpower and monetary funding made "big science," carried out by large-scale research teams, a major segment of the national economy. |
46,600,275 | Luka Dončić | 1,173,809,078 | Slovenian basketball player (born 1999) | [
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"National Basketball Association players from Slovenia",
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"Real Madrid Baloncesto players",
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] | Luka Dončić (/ˈdɒntʃɪtʃ/ DON-chich; ; born February 28, 1999) is a Slovenian professional basketball player for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He also represents the Slovenian national team and is regarded as one of the greatest European players of all time.
Born in Ljubljana, Dončić shone as a youth player for Union Olimpija before joining the youth academy of Real Madrid. In 2015 he made his debut for the academy's senior team at age 16, becoming the youngest in club history. He led Madrid to the 2018 EuroLeague title, winning the EuroLeague MVP and the Final Four MVP. Dončić was named the ACB Most Valuable Player and won back-to-back EuroLeague Rising Star and ACB Best Young Player awards. In addition, he was selected to the EuroLeague 2010–20 All-Decade Team.
In 2018, Dončić declared for the NBA draft, where he was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks and then traded to the Dallas Mavericks. He was selected unanimously to the NBA All-Rookie First Team and won Rookie of the Year for the 2018–19 season. In his next four seasons, he was selected to the NBA All-Star game and named to the All-NBA First Team. He is the Mavericks' franchise leader in career triple-doubles.
Dončić made his senior debut for Slovenia in 2016 at only 17 years of age. He would later help his country win its first EuroBasket title in 2017 while also being named to the All-Tournament Team.
## Early life
Dončić was born in Ljubljana to Mirjam Poterbin, an owner of beauty salons, and Saša Dončić, a basketball coach and former player. His mother is Slovenian, and his father is a Slovenian of Serbian descent from Kosovo. His parents filed for divorce in 2008, with custody and legal guardianship granted to his mother.
According to his family, Dončić first touched a basketball when he was seven months old and frequently played with a miniature hoop in his room by age one. He played various sports in his childhood, including football, which he later quit after growing too tall. At age seven, he began playing organized basketball at a primary school in Ljubljana. His opponents at the time were up to ten years old, as Dončić reflected: "I was always training and playing with older kids who had much more experience than me. Many of them were bigger and faster than me too, so I had to beat them with my brain." He admired Greek basketball player Vassilis Spanoulis from his early teenage years, stating that he was "enchanted" by him. He wore the number 7 at Real Madrid in honor of Spanoulis. Dončić also grew up admiring American basketball player LeBron James.
## Youth career
### Union Olimpija
When Dončić was eight, his father started playing for his hometown club Union Olimpija. Olimpija Basketball School coach Grega Brezovec invited Luka to practice with players his age. Dončić was initially expected to practice with players his age. Still, only 16 minutes into his first training session, the coaching staff moved him to the 11-year-old group. Starting in the next session, he primarily practiced with Olimpija's under-14 team. Still, due to league rules, he only played for the club's under-12 selection team, coming off the bench against opponents three or four years older than him. Despite his exclusion from under-14 games at the time, Dončić often asked to attend practice, even when his coach asked him to stay home.
Representing Olimpija at the under-14 Vasas Intesa Sanpaolo Cup in Budapest in September 2011, Dončić was named the most valuable player (MVP) despite finishing as runners-up to FC Barcelona. In February 2012, he was loaned to Spanish club Real Madrid for the Minicopa Endesa, an under-14 Spanish club competition. Dončić averaged 13.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 3.3 steals per game to win tournament MVP honors, leading Real Madrid to a second-place finish. In April 2012, he participated in the under-13 Lido di Roma Tournament for Olimpija, finishing as MVP and leading scorer with 34.5 points per game. In the semi-final round of the event against Victoria Fermo, he posted 29 points and 15 rebounds. In a title-clinching win over Lazio, he erupted for 54 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists.
### Real Madrid
In September 2012, at 13 years of age, Dončić signed a five-year contract with Real Madrid, immediately standing out on the under-16 team with coach Paco Redondo. He moved to Madrid, living with football and basketball prospects. In February 2013, Dončić led Real Madrid to a Minicopa Endesa win, averaging 24.5 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists, and 6 steals per game. In the tournament's final game, he contributed 25 points, 16 rebounds, and 5 steals to defeat FC Barcelona and win MVP honors. In March, Dončić earned MVP accolades of the under-16 Spain Championship, scoring 25 points in a championship game win over the Gran Canaria youth team.
In the 2014–15 season, Dončić mainly played with Real Madrid's under-18 and reserve teams. He averaged 13.5 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 3.1 assists with the reserve team, helping them win Group B of the Liga EBA, the amateur fourth-division of Spanish basketball. By the end of the season, he earned all-league honorable mention accolades from the basketball website Eurobasket.com. In January 2015, Dončić won the under-18 Ciutat de L'Hospitalet Tournament and was selected to the All-Tournament Team, despite being two years younger than the rest of the team. On January 6, against the youth team of his former club Union Olimpija, he posted a double-double of 13 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 steals. In May 2015, he also won the under-18 Next Generation Tournament, for which he was selected MVP after helping defeat defending champions Crvena zvezda Belgrade in the final.
## Professional career
### Real Madrid (2015–2018)
#### Early years (2015–2016)
On April 30, 2015, Dončić made his professional debut for Real Madrid in the Liga ACB against Unicaja, making his only three-point attempt in under 2 minutes of playing time. At 16 years, two months, and two days of age, he became the youngest player to ever play for Real Madrid in the ACB and the third-youngest debutant in league history, behind only Ricky Rubio and Ángel Rebolo. He played five games in the 2014–15 ACB season, averaging 1.6 points and 1.2 rebounds in 4.8 minutes per game.
In the 2015–16 season, Dončić became a regular member of Real Madrid's senior team. He played against the Boston Celtics in an NBA preseason game on October 8, 2015, collecting 4 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 block. On October 16, at age 16, he debuted in the EuroLeague, scoring 2 points in a loss to Khimki. Dončić became the 21st player ever to debut in the EuroLeague before turning 17. On October 18, he recorded 10 points and 4 rebounds in a 94–61 win over Gipuzkoa. On November 29, Dončić posted a season-high 15 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists against Bilbao. With the performance, he set a new ACB record for most points and the highest Performance Index Rating (PIR) in a game for players under age 17. He scored 12 points and grabbed 5 rebounds on January 7, 2016, against CSKA Moscow in the EuroLeague. After a Real Madrid time-out in the second quarter of the game, Dončić made three consecutive three-pointers, recording 9 points in 2 minutes. Through 39 games in the 2015–16 ACB season, he averaged 4.5 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 1.7 assists. In 12 EuroLeague games, he recorded 3.5 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 2 assists per game.
#### Rise to prominence (2016–2017)
Dončić made his 2016–17 season debut on September 30, 2016, against Unicaja, recording 6 points and 4 assists in 19 minutes. He collected 3 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists in an NBA preseason win on October 3, 2016, over the Oklahoma City Thunder. On December 4, he posted a double-double of 23 points and 11 assists, both season-highs, in a 92–76 win over Montakit Fuenlabrada. The game earned him his first ACB player of the week honor. Dončić scored a team-high 17 points in a EuroLeague victory over Žalgiris Kaunas on December 8, 2016. After recording 16 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals in a 95–72 win over Brose Bamberg on December 22, he was named MVP of the Round in the EuroLeague, becoming the youngest player ever to do so. He earned the same honor on January 14, 2017, after posting 10 points, 11 rebounds, and 8 assists to help beat Maccabi Tel Aviv. On February 9, Dončić recorded 5 points, 7 rebounds, and 11 assists to defeat UNICS Kazan. He scored a season-high 23 points on February 18, in the Spanish King's Cup versus Baskonia. After scoring 13 points and grabbing 8 rebounds in the 2017 EuroLeague Playoffs against Darüşşafaka on April 26, he shared MVP of the Round accolades with two other players. Two days later, he won the award outright, posting 11 points, 5 rebounds, and 7 assists to lead Real Madrid to a EuroLeague Final Four berth. Through 42 ACB games in the season, Dončić averaged 7.5 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 3 assists. Through 35 EuroLeague contests, he averaged 7.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 4.2 assists per game. He was named EuroLeague Rising Star by a unanimous vote and claimed the ACB Best Young Player Award.
#### MVP season (2017–2018)
Dončić assumed a more significant role for Real Madrid entering the 2017–18 season after the team's star player Sergio Llull suffered a torn ACL during EuroBasket 2017. In his season debut on October 1, 2017, he recorded 8 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists in a 94–88 victory over MoraBanc Andorra. On October 12, Dončić scored a career-high 27 points in his first EuroLeague game of the season to help defeat Anadolu Efes. He nearly recorded a triple-double against Valencia in his next game, with 16 points, 10 assists, and 7 rebounds. On October 24, Dončić was named EuroLeague MVP of the Round after erupting for 27 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals. He was named MVP of the Round again two days later, eclipsing his career-best with 28 points in an 87–66 win over Žalgiris Kaunas. Dončić also grabbed 9 rebounds and had 4 assists in the game. At the end of October, he earned EuroLeague MVP of the Month honors, becoming the youngest player to win the award. On December 8, he set a career-high in scoring with 33 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists against Olympiacos Piraeus. Dončić led Real Madrid to a 79–77 victory over defending EuroLeague champion Fenerbahçe Doğuş on December 28, contributing 20 points, 10 assists, and 8 rebounds. Following a 24-point outburst versus Movistar Estudiantes on December 31, he was selected as Player of the Round in the ACB. He was later named ACB Player of the Month for December, becoming the award's youngest recipient.
On February 9, 2018, Dončić led his team with 27 points in a losing effort to Olympiacos, 80–79. He had another strong performance on February 17, versus Iberostar Tenerife in the 2018 Spanish King's Cup, posting 17 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 steals. On March 30, 2018, Dončić scored 24 points, grabbed 9 rebounds, and made a game-winning three-pointer under a second left in regulation to beat Crvena zvezda Belgrade, 82–79. On May 9, he recorded 17 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists in 22 minutes against Real Betis Energía Plus, for the first triple-double in the ACB since the 2006–07 season, seventh in league history. Dončić finished with 16 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 assists on May 18, in a 92–83 win over CSKA Moscow in the EuroLeague semi-finals. On May 20, he guided Real Madrid to a EuroLeague finals victory over Fenerbahçe Doğuş. He was subsequently named EuroLeague Final Four MVP after scoring 15 points. Dončić won the EuroLeague MVP award, being its youngest winner, after averaging 16 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per game over 33 EuroLeague games and leading the league in PIR. He also repeated as the EuroLeague Rising Star, becoming the third back-to-back winner. Also, Dončić earned the ACB Best Young Player and MVP accolades after helping his team defeat Kirolbet Baskonia in the league finals. On June 29, 2018, he parted ways with Real Madrid.
#### Accolades
In November 2019, Dončić was nominated to the EuroLeague 2010–20 All-Decade Team. In March 2020, he was selected for the 2010–20 All-Decade Team.
On March 23, 2021, the Real Madrid Football Club named Dončić and Spanish rally driver Carlos Sainz Sr. as honorary members, which is the highest distinction award of the club. The decision was made by the Real Madrid board of directors chaired by Florentino Pérez.
### Dallas Mavericks (2018–present)
#### Rookie of the Year (2018–2019)
On June 21, 2018, Dončić was selected with the third overall pick by the Atlanta Hawks in the 2018 NBA draft. He was then traded to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for the draft rights to Trae Young and a protected future first-round pick in 2019. After the draft, Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle said, "At one point, we thought there might be a slight chance Dončić could fall to us, but a couple of days ago it was pretty clear that there was no way that was going to happen. He's just too good. We get a guy we think is franchise foundation piece." He signed his rookie contract with the Mavericks on July 9, 2018. Dončić did not play at the 2018 NBA Summer League due to his late buyout from Real Madrid. Before the 2018–19 season, ESPN considered him the favorite to win the NBA Rookie of the Year Award.
Dončić made his regular-season debut on October 17, 2018, recording 10 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists in a 121–100 loss to the Phoenix Suns. On October 20, Dončić recorded 26 points and 6 rebounds in a 140–136 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. He became the youngest 20-point scorer in Mavericks history. On October 29, Dončić posted 31 points and 8 rebounds in a 113–108 loss to the San Antonio Spurs for his first 30-point game in the NBA. He recorded his first NBA double-double on November 19, with 15 points and 10 rebounds in a 98–88 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. Dončić was named NBA Rookie of the Month in the Western Conference for November 2018. On December 8, Dončić scored 21 points in a 107–104 win over the Houston Rockets. After initial struggles, he produced a personal 11–0 run in the game's final minutes. On December 28, Dončić scored 34 points and became the youngest NBA player to make seven three-pointers in a game. He was named Western Conference Rookie of the Month for December 2018. On January 21, Dončić recorded his first NBA triple-double with 18 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists in a 116–106 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. The performance made him the third-youngest player in NBA history to accomplish the feat at 19 years and 327 days old, behind LaMelo Ball and Markelle Fultz. On January 27, Dončić scored a season-high 35 points and recorded his second NBA triple-double adding 12 rebounds and 10 assists in a 123–120 loss to the Toronto Raptors. He became the first teenager in NBA history with a 30-point triple-double and multiple triple-doubles. Two days later, Dončić was named a confirmed participant for the World Team representing Slovenia in the 2019 Rising Stars Challenge. Despite being second in fan voting, behind only LeBron James, and ranked 8th in the total voting score, Dončić wasn't selected for the Western Conference All-Stars in the 2019 NBA All-Star Game.
On February 6, Dončić recorded his third triple-double with 19 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists in a 99–93 win over the Charlotte Hornets, which made him the youngest player in NBA history to record three triple-doubles. He edges Hall of Famer Magic Johnson by 117 days. On February 25, Dončić recorded his fourth triple-double with 28 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists in a 121–112 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. Dončić was named Western Conference Rookie of the Month for January 2019. His eight triple-doubles ranked fourth on the season behind Russell Westbrook (34), Nikola Jokić (12), and Ben Simmons (10), as well as tied with LeBron James. Dončić became just the fifth player in NBA history to average at least 20 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in his rookie year, joining Oscar Robertson (1960–61), Michael Jordan (1984–85), LeBron James (2003–04), and Tyreke Evans (2009–10). In May, Dončić was selected unanimously to the All-Rookie First Team. In June, he received the NBA Rookie of the Year Award. Dončić became the second European player, after Pau Gasol, to win the award and the sixth overall winner not born in the United States.
#### First All-Star and playoff appearance (2019–2020)
Dončić made his first triple-double of the season on October 25, 2019, posting 25 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists to help the Mavericks defeat the New Orleans Pelicans 123–116. In two consecutive games, on November 1–3, he recorded two triple-doubles and matched a career-high 15 assists in both games. On November 8, Dončić scored a career-high 38 points and recorded his twelfth NBA triple-double by adding 14 rebounds and 10 assists in a 106–102 loss to the New York Knicks. Ten days later, in a 117–110 win over the San Antonio Spurs, Dončić recorded a then-career-high 42 points and his sixth triple-double of the season by adding 11 rebounds and 12 assists. He made NBA history in a 142–94 win over the Golden State Warriors on November 20, when he posted 35 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists. He became the youngest player to have 35-point triple-doubles in succession, breaking Oscar Robertson's record. He was the fourth player to do so since the 1983–84 season, joining Michael Jordan, James Harden, and Russell Westbrook. In November, Dončić was named the NBA Western Conference Player of the Week for Week 5 (November 18–24), his first NBA Player of the Week award. On December 3, he won his first NBA Player of the Month award when he was named the NBA Western Conference Player of the Month for October and November. He became the youngest Western Conference Player of the Month winner since the league began issuing the award by conferences in the 2001–02 season. In December, he was named Sports Illustrated 2019 Breakout of the Year. On December 8, 2019, Dončić surpassed the record for the most consecutive games with at least 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists since the ABA-NBA merger in 1976. Michael Jordan previously held the record with 18 straight games in 1989. Dončić recorded his tenth triple-double of the season on January 4, 2020, posting 39 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists in a 123–120 loss to the Charlotte Hornets.
During the 2019–20 season, Dončić was selected to his first NBA All-Star Game as a Western Conference starter. He became the youngest European player to start in an All-Star game. On March 4, Dončić recorded his 22nd career triple-double, passing Jason Kidd for the most in Mavericks history. He registered 30 points, 17 rebounds, and 10 assists in a 127–123 overtime victory over the New Orleans Pelicans. Dončić recorded his 15th triple-double of the season on July 31, posting 28 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists in a 153–149 overtime loss to the Houston Rockets. On August 4, Dončić recorded another triple-double with 34 points, 12 assists, and a career-high 20 rebounds in a 114–110 overtime win over the Sacramento Kings. With that, he became the youngest player to record 30+ points, 20+ rebounds, and 10 or more assists. On August 8, Dončić had a then-career-high 19 assists, which tied LeBron James for an NBA season-high, 36 points, 14 rebounds, and 2 turnovers in a 136–132 win against the Milwaukee Bucks. The game marked his 17th triple-double of the season and clinched his spot as the youngest player to lead the NBA in triple-doubles. On August 15, he was selected to the NBA's All-Seeding Games First Team for his play in the eight seeding games, where he averaged 30.0 points, 10.1 rebounds, and 9.7 assists per game. Dončić finished as one of the three finalists for the NBA Most Improved Player Award. He finished third behind eventual winner Brandon Ingram and second place Bam Adebayo. On August 17, Dončić made his NBA Playoffs debut, scoring 42 points (most ever in an NBA playoffs debut) in a 110–118 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. On August 23, he became the youngest player in NBA postseason history with a 40-point triple-double, scoring 43 points in a 135–133 overtime victory over the LA Clippers. With that performance, he became just the second player in NBA history to record at least 43 points, 17 rebounds, and 13 assists in any game, joining Wilt Chamberlain as the other. On September 16, he was named to the All-NBA First Team. He became the first player since Tim Duncan in the 1998–99 season to be selected to an All-NBA First Team in a first or second season. He finished fourth overall in the season's final MVP results. He also became the second-youngest player ever to finish in the top five of MVP voting.
#### First division title and second All-NBA First Team (2020–2021)
On February 6, 2021, Dončić matched his then-career-high 42 points while putting up 11 assists and seven rebounds in a 134–132 win over the Golden State Warriors. On February 12, Dončić logged a career-high 46 points with 12 assists, 8 rebounds, one block, and one steal in a 143–130 win over the New Orleans Pelicans. On May 1, Dončić recorded 31 points, 12 rebounds, and a career-high 20 assists in a 125–124 victory over the Washington Wizards. With that performance, he became just the fourth player in NBA history to record a 30-point triple-double with at least 20 assists, joining Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson, and Russell Westbrook. On May 7, he reached 5,000 points for his career. At the age of 22 years 68 days old, Dončić became the fourth-youngest player to achieve the feat, trailing only LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Carmelo Anthony. On May 22, he recorded 31 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists in a 113–103 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 1 of the 2021 NBA Playoffs. He became the first player in NBA history to have three triple-doubles in their first seven career postseason games. He also passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the youngest player in NBA history to record a playoff triple-double on the road. On May 28, he scored a then playoff career-high 44 points in a 118–108 loss in Game 3 of the Western Conference First Round against the Los Angeles Clippers. On June 6, in Dončić’s first Game 7, he surpassed his playoff career-high with 46 points and 14 assists. The Mavericks fell short 126–111 and were eliminated in the First Round for the second consecutive season, despite leading the series 2–0. On June 15, he was selected to his second consecutive All-NBA First Team. Like the previous year, he became the first player since Tim Duncan to be selected twice to the All-NBA First Team in their first three seasons and just the sixth to do so since the ABA–NBA merger, joining David Thompson, Larry Bird, David Robinson, and Anfernee Hardaway.
#### First Western Conference Finals appearance (2021–2022)
On August 10, 2021, he signed a five-year \$207 million rookie extension, the largest in NBA history. On February 3, Dončić was named as a reserve for the 2022 NBA All-Star Game. On February 5, Dončić logged his 44th career triple-double with 33 points, 13 rebounds, 15 assists, and two steals in a 107–98 win against the Philadelphia 76ers, overtaking Fat Lever for 10th on the all-time career triple-double list. On February 10, Dončić scored 28 of his career-high 51 points in the first quarter, grabbed nine rebounds, and dished out six assists on 17-of-26 shooting from the field, including seven three-pointers, in a 112–105 win against the Los Angeles Clippers. On February 13, in a back-to-back against the Clippers, Dončić scored 23 of his 45 points in the fourth quarter, grabbed 15 rebounds, and dished out 8 assists in a 99–97 loss. With 96 points in the two games, Dončić had the most in a two-game span against the same opponent since Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 for Philadelphia against Seattle in December 1967. For his performances against the Clippers, he was named Western Conference Player of the Week. On February 18, Dončić scored 49 points, including seven three-pointers, to go along with 15 rebounds and 8 assists in a 125–118 win over the New Orleans Pelicans. He became the fourth player in NBA history to record multiple 45-point, 15-rebound, and five-assist games in a calendar month, as well as the first player to record at least 40 points, fifteen rebounds, five assists, five three-pointers, and a plus/minus of +20 in the same game.
On February 27, Dončić recorded 34 points, and 11 rebounds, leading the Mavericks back from 21 down in the third quarter against the Golden State Warriors in a 107–101 win. Dončić became the first player in NBA history to average 30 points, 10 rebounds, and 8 assists per game while shooting at least 40 percent from three-point range in a calendar month in the three-point era since 1980. On March 3, Dončić won his second career NBA Player of the Month award when he was named the NBA Western Conference Player of the Month for February; he is the second Maverick to win this award multiple times, joined by Dirk Nowitzki, who won it six times in his career. On March 29, Dončić logged his 46th career triple-double with 34 points (25 points in the first half), 12 rebounds, and 12 assists in a 128–110 win over the Los Angeles Lakers.
Dončić missed the first three games of the playoffs because of an injury in the final regular season game. On April 28, Dončić led the Dallas Mavericks to a 98–96 Game 6 win over the Utah Jazz to close the first-round series. It was the first time Dallas had advanced to the postseason's second round in Dončić's four-year NBA career. It was also the first time Mavericks won in the first round since winning the 2011 NBA Finals. On May 2, in Game 1 of the Western Conference Semi-finals, Dončić posted 45 points, 12 rebounds, and 8 assists in a 121–114 loss against the Phoenix Suns. On May 15, Dončić recorded 35 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals in three-quarters in a 123–90 Game 7 win against the overall one-seed Suns, securing the Mavericks a place in the Western Conference Finals. On May 20, during Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals, Dončić posted 42 points, 5 rebounds, 8 assists, and 3 steals in a 126–117 loss against the Golden State Warriors. He joined Michael Jordan (917) & Wilt Chamberlain (867) as the only players in NBA History with 800 points through their first 25 career playoff games. Dončić also tied Dirk Nowitzki for the most 40+ point games in Mavericks playoff history with seven. Two days later, Dončić surpassed Dirk Nowitzki in 40-point playoff games with a double-double of 40 points (21 in the fourth quarter) and 11 rebounds in a 109–100 Game 3 loss. According to Elias Sports Bureau, he led Dallas in points, rebounds, and assists ten times during the playoffs – the most ever in a single postseason. On May 24, Dončić was selected to his third All-NBA First Team, becoming the third player since the merger to do so in their first four years, joining Tim Duncan and Larry Bird.
#### Career high in scoring and missing playoffs (2022–2023)
On October 22, 2022, Dončić recorded 32 points, seven rebounds, and 10 assists in a 137–96 victory against the Memphis Grizzlies. In the game, he became the fourth player since the merger to record 7,000 career points in less than 270 games, joining Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal, and LeBron James. On October 27, Dončić recorded a triple-double with 41 points, 11 rebounds, and 14 assists in a 129–125 overtime win over the Brooklyn Nets. The game marked his 22nd career 30-point triple-double, passing Wilt Chamberlain for fifth-most in NBA history. On October 30, he scored a game-high 44 points in a 114–105 win over the Orlando Magic, becoming the first player in NBA history to record 200+ points, 50+ rebounds, and 50+ assists through the first six games of a season. Dončić also became the sixth player in NBA history to score at least 30 points in each of the first six games of a season and the first to do so since Michael Jordan in the 1986–87 season. On November 2, in a 103–100 victory against the Utah Jazz, Dončić scored 33 points and became the first player since Wilt Chamberlain in 1962–63 to score at least 30 points in each of the first seven games of a season. In the next game, Dončić recorded 35 points, eight rebounds, six assists, and three steals in a 111–110 win over the Toronto Raptors. He became the only other NBA player to score 30 or more points in the first eight games of a season beside Wilt Chamberlain, who did it in the first eight of the 1959–60 season and the first 23 of the 1962–63 season.
On November 18, Dončić recorded his 50th career triple-double with 33 points, 12 rebounds, and 11 assists in a 127–99 victory over the Denver Nuggets. In doing so, Dončić became the second-fastest player to record 50 triple-doubles, needing 278 career games, only trailing Oscar Robertson (111) and one fewer game than Magic Johnson (279). On November 23, Dončić scored a game-high 42 points along with 8 rebounds and 9 assists in a 125–112 loss against the Boston Celtics. He became the second-fastest player in NBA history (in terms of games played) to reach 7,500-plus points, 2,000-plus rebounds, and 2,000-plus assists, trailing only Oscar Robertson, who accomplished the feat in 254 games compared to the Dončić’s 280 outings. On November 29, Dončić recorded his 51st career triple-double with 41 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists in a 116–113 win over the reigning champions Golden State Warriors. It was the fifth 40-point triple-double of his career, ranking behind only Oscar Robertson (22), James Harden (16), Russell Westbrook (13), Wilt Chamberlain (7), and Lebron James (6) in NBA history. Dončić also tied Dirk Nowitzki for the second-most 40-point outings in Mavericks history (20), trailing only Mark Aguirre (22).
On December 23, Dončić put up 50 points, eight rebounds, and 10 assists in a 112–106 win over the Houston Rockets. He joined Dirk Nowitzki as the only player to record multiple 50-point games in Mavericks history. On December 27, Dončić set a career-high in points (60) and rebounds (21) and became the first player in NBA history to record a 60-point, 20-rebound triple-double in a 126–121 victory over the New York Knicks and the first player since James Harden to record a 60-point triple-double, the second in NBA history. Dončić also became just the third player in NBA history to record a 50-point, 20-rebound triple-double, joining Elgin Baylor and Chamberlain. His 60 points were also the most scored in Mavericks history, previously held by Nowitzki (53), and surpassed Nowitzki for the most 50-point games in Mavericks history. On December 31, Dončić recorded 51 points, six rebounds, nine assists and four steals in a 126–125 win over the San Antonio Spurs. He became the first player in NBA history to record 250+ points, 50+ rebounds, and 50+ assists over a five-game span. Dončić also surpassed Mark Aguirre for the most 40-point games in Mavericks history with 23.
On January 3, 2023, Dončić was awarded the Western Conference Player of the Month award for his play during the month of December, the third of his career. On January 12, Dončić recorded his 10th triple-double of the season with 35 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists playing a career-high 53 minutes in a 119–115 double overtime win over the Los Angeles Lakers. He hit tying 3-pointers in the final seconds of regulation and the first overtime. On January 26, Dončić was named a Western Conference starter for the 2023 NBA All-Star Game, marking his fourth consecutive selection. On January 30, Dončić scored 53 points on 17-of-24 shooting from the field in a 111–105 win over the Detroit Pistons, marking his fifth career 50-point game. He tied LeBron James for the second-most 50-point games in a player's first five seasons in the NBA with five, trailing Michael Jordan's record of 17 since the ABA–NBA merger. On March 2, Dončić had 42 points and 12 assists in a 133–126 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. In the same game his teammate Kyrie Irving scored 40 points and it was the first time in Dallas franchise history that two players scored 40 points in the same game. On March 22, Dončić put up 30 points, seven rebounds and a season-high 17 assists in a 127–125 loss to the reigning champions Golden State Warriors. It was his 41st 30-point game of the season, surpassing Mark Aguirre’s previous record for the most 30-point games in a season in Mavericks history. On May 10, he was selected to his fourth consecutive All-NBA First Team.
## National team career
### Junior national team
Dončić was set to play at the Division B tournament of the 2014 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship but was forced to withdraw from the tournament with a knee injury. In December 2014, he participated in a friendly tournament in Székesfehérvár, Hungary, averaging 35.3 points and 7.6 rebounds per game while shooting 81 percent on two-pointers and 57 percent on three-pointers.
### Senior national team
#### EuroBasket 2017
On September 22, 2016, Dončić announced that he would represent the senior men's Slovenian national team for the rest of his career. He was previously linked with several other national teams, including Serbia and Spain. His national team roommate became Goran Dragić, whom he met at age seven and has been cited as his mentor and friend.
Dončić was a Slovenian squad member for EuroBasket 2017, where his country won its first gold medal after going undefeated (9–0) in the tournament. In Slovenia's 103–97 win over Latvia in the quarter-finals, he scored 27 points and grabbed 9 rebounds. He recorded 11 points, 12 rebounds, and 8 assists, in the 92–72 semi-final win over Spain. In the final, Slovenia won by a score of 93–85 over Serbia. He had 8 points and 7 rebounds, before falling out of the game, due to an injury, in the game's third quarter. Dončić was also named to the competition's All-Tournament Team, joining teammate Goran Dragić, who was voted the EuroBasket MVP.
#### 2020 Summer Olympics
During the 2020 FIBA Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Kaunas, Lithuania, Dončic led Slovenia to its first-ever Olympic berth. Dončić won MVP of the tournament by leading Slovenia to a 96–85 victory over Lithuania while recording 31 points, 11 rebounds, and 13 assists in the final round.
In his Olympic debut on July 26, 2021, Dončić scored 48 points in a 118–100 victory over Argentina. His 48-point performance tied for the second-highest men's point total in a single game in Summer Olympics history and marked the most in a men's basketball debut. In the semi-final match-up versus France, Dončić posted the third triple-double in Olympic men's basketball history with 16 points, 10 rebounds, and 18 assists in a 90–89 loss. Also, it ended his 17-match winning streak from the senior national team debut back in 2017. Slovenia ended up losing the bronze medal match versus Australia 107–93. For his play during the tournament, Dončić was selected to the FIBA All-Star Five team, joining Patty Mills, Ricky Rubio, Kevin Durant, and Rudy Gobert as the five best players at the Games.
#### EuroBasket 2022
During the tournament's group stage, Dončić scored 47 points as he led Slovenia to the Round of 16 with a 88–82 victory over France, claiming the top spot in Group B. His 47-point performance was the second-highest scoring total in EuroBasket history. It was the most points scored by any player in EuroBasket history in the last 65 years. On September 10, he scored 35 points while beating Belgium 88–72 to advance to the quarter-finals. The game marked his third consecutive game scoring 30+ points, becoming the first player in tournament history in 30 years to do so. Slovenia was eventually upset by Poland 90–87 in the quarter-finals.
## Player profile
Dončić has frequently been described as a "position-less guard" with attributes of a point guard, shooting guard, and small forward. Standing 6 feet 7 inches (2.01 m) and weighing 230 pounds (104.3 kg), he has been praised for his exceptional size and strength for the guard position. Dallas Mavericks executive Donnie Nelson lauded his "point forward ability" and sports website The Ringer labeled him a "legitimate point guard with the size of a small-ball power forward."
Since his early years with Real Madrid, Dončić was tabbed as one of Europe's premier talents, with Spanish newspaper Marca giving him the nickname "El Niño Maravilla" (The Wonder Boy). Entering the 2018 NBA draft, he was widely seen as one of the best and most accomplished European prospects of his generation. Slam magazine considered Dončić the "best international prospect ever," and sports website SB Nation called him "most accomplished NBA prospect in decades." An anonymous NBA veteran scouting executive said that his game was "leap years above anyone" in his draft class.
Dončić is versatile on the offensive end, displaying proficiency in shooting three-pointers, mid-range jump shots, floaters, and shots in the post. His basketball IQ, intangibles, and skills have been considered his primary assets, and he is seen as an elite facilitator, especially on the pick and roll. NBA and EuroLeague coach Ettore Messina called him "phenomenal, especially mentally" for his age. His lack of lateral quickness to stay in front of most NBA point guards and wings has been labeled one of his main flaws. Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle refuted some of the worries regarding Dončić's athleticism, stating that "for a 19-year-old, he's got a really unusual combination of size, speed, and deceptive quickness." By his second year, Dončić's ability to accelerate off a pick and blow by defenders to get to the basket is seen as one of his strengths. Given the false characterisation of his abilities and his subsequent success in the NBA, some speculate that prejudiced stereotyping might have had a role in his negative pre-draft evaluation.
Before his draft, basketball journalist and scout Austin Green compared Dončić to NBA players Paul Pierce and Joe Johnson. Dončić compared himself to Ben Simmons due to his versatility. In his second season, LA Clippers coach Doc Rivers, when asked about Dončić, stated that "there's a lot of people in him." He likened Dončić’s stepback 3-pointers to James Harden, his passing ability to Larry Bird, and his court vision to LeBron James. NBA analyst, Kendrick Perkins, called him "baby LeBron" due to his overall skill and dominance on the court.
In December 2019, San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich called Dončić's playing style "Magic Johnson-like" because "he sees the floor in that same way." In August 2020, head coach Rick Carlisle compared Dončić’s playmaking and court vision to Larry Bird and Jason Kidd. Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo called Dončić "one of the most talented guys I've ever played against." During his first career playoff game versus the LA Clippers, TV analyst and former point guard Mark Jackson, reiterated his view of Dončić, calling him "an absolute combination of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird."
## Career statistics
### NBA
#### Regular season
\|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2018–19 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 72 \|\| 72 \|\| 32.2 \|\| .427 \|\| .327 \|\| .713 \|\| 7.8 \|\| 6.0 \|\| 1.1 \|\| .3 \|\| 21.2 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2019–20 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 61 \|\| 61 \|\| 33.6 \|\| .463 \|\| .316 \|\| .758 \|\| 9.4 \|\| 8.8 \|\| 1.0 \|\| .2 \|\| 28.8 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2020–21 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 66 \|\| 66 \|\| 34.3 \|\| .479 \|\| .350 \|\| .730 \|\| 8.0 \|\| 8.6 \|\| 1.0 \|\| .5 \|\| 27.7 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2021–22 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 65 \|\| 65 \|\| 35.4 \|\| .457 \|\| .353 \|\| .744 \|\| 9.1 \|\| 8.7 \|\| 1.2 \|\| .6 \|\| 28.4 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2022–23 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 66 \|\| 66 \|\| 36.2 \|\| .496 \|\| .342 \|\| .742 \|\| 8.6 \|\| 8.0 \|\| 1.4 \|\| .5 \|\| 32.4 \|- class="sortbottom" \| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"\| Career \| 330 \|\| 330 \|\| 34.3 \|\| .466 \|\| .338 \|\| .739 \|\| 8.6 \|\| 8.0 \|\| 1.1 \|\| .4 \|\| 27.6 \|- class="sortbottom" \| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"\| All-Star \| 4 \|\| 3 \|\| 23.2 \|\| .458 \|\| .333 \|\| – \|\| 1.5 \|\| 5.0 \|\| .3 \|\| .0 \|\| 7.0
#### Playoffs
\|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 6 \|\| 6 \|\| 35.8 \|\| .500 \|\| .364 \|\| .656 \|\| 9.8 \|\| 8.7 \|\| 1.2 \|\| .5 \|\| 31.0 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| \| style="text-align:left;"\|Dallas \| 7 \|\| 7 \|\| 40.1 \|\| .490 \|\| .408 \|\| .529 \|\| 7.9 \|\| 10.3 \|\| 1.3 \|\| .4 \|\| 35.7 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 15 \|\| 15 \|\| 36.8 \|\| .455 \|\| .345 \|\| .770 \|\| 9.8 \|\| 6.4 \|\| 1.8 \|\| .6 \|\| 31.7 \|- class="sortbottom" \| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"\|Career \| 28 \|\| 28 \|\| 37.4 \|\| .473 \|\| .366 \|\| .692 \|\| 9.3 \|\| 7.9 \|\| 1.5 \|\| .5 \|\| 32.5
### EuroLeague
\|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2015–16 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Real Madrid \| 12 \|\| 0 \|\| 11.1 \|\| .407 \|\| .313 \|\| .882 \|\| 2.3 \|\| 2.0 \|\| .2 \|\| .3 \|\| 3.5 \|\| 6.2 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2016–17 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Real Madrid \| 35 \|\| 15 \|\| 19.9 \|\| .433 \|\| .371 \|\| .844 \|\| 4.5 \|\| 4.2 \|\| .9 \|\| .2 \|\| 7.8 \|\| 13.3 \|- \| style="text-align:left;background:#AFE6BA;"\| 2017–18 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Real Madrid \| 33 \|\| 17 \|\| 25.9 \|\| .451 \|\| .329 \|\| .816 \|\| 4.8 \|\| 4.3 \|\| 1.1 \|\| .3 \|\| 16.0 \|\| style="background:#cfecec;"\|21.5 \|- class="sortbottom" \| colspan=2 style="text-align:center;"\| Career \| 80 \|\| 32 \|\| 21.0 \|\| .443 \|\| .344 \|\| .828 \|\| 4.3 \|\| 3.9 \|\| .9 \|\| .3 \|\| 10.6 \|\| 15.6
### Liga ACB
Cited from ACB.com
\|- \| style="text-align:left;background:#AFE6BA;"\| 2014–15 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Real Madrid \| 5 \|\| 0 \|\| 4.8 \|\| .427 \|\| .333 \|\| .750 \|\| 1.2 \|\| .0 \|\| .0 \|\| .0 \|\| 1.6 \|\| 1.8 \|- \| style="text-align:left;background:#AFE6BA;"\| 2015–16 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Real Madrid \| 39 \|\| 0 \|\| 12.9 \|\| .526 \|\| .392 \|\| .708 \|\| 2.6 \|\| 1.7 \|\| .4 \|\| .3 \|\| 4.5 \|\| 5.9 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2016–17 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Real Madrid \| 42 \|\| 11 \|\| 19.8 \|\| .441 \|\| .295 \|\| .785 \|\| 4.4 \|\| 3.0 \|\| .6 \|\| .3 \|\| 7.5 \|\| 11.9 \|- \| style="text-align:left;background:#AFE6BA;"\| 2017–18 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Real Madrid \| 37 \|\| 21 \|\| 24.3 \|\| .462 \|\| .293 \|\| .752 \|\| 5.7 \|\| 4.7 \|\| 1.1 \|\| .4 \|\| 12.5 \|\| 18.4 \|- class="sortbottom" \| colspan=2 style="text-align:center;"\| Career \| 123 \|\| 32 \|\| 18.3 \|\| .463 \|\| .310 \|\| .754 \|\| 4.1 \|\| 3.0 \|\| .7 \|\| .3 \|\| 7.8 \|\| 11.6
### Slovenia
\|- ! colspan=14 \| EuroBasket \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2022 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Slovenia \| 7 \|\| 7 \|\| 33.2 \|\| .496 \|\| .322 \|\| .702 \|\| 7.7 \|\| 6.6 \|\| 2.0 \|\| .6 \|\| 26.0 \|\| 27.1 \|- ! colspan=14 \| Olympics \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2020 \|\| style="text-align:left;"\| Slovenia \|\| 6 \|\| 6 \|\| 32.7 \|\| .449 \|\| .304 \|\| .714 \|\| 9.7 \|\| 9.5 \|\| 1.2 \|\| 1.0 \|\| 23.8 \|\| 29.2 \|- ! colspan=14 \| EuroBasket \|- \| style="text-align:left;background:gold;"\| 2017 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Slovenia \| 9 \|\| 9 \|\| 29.1 \|\| .406 \|\| .311 \|\| .848 \|\| 8.1 \|\| 3.6 \|\| .9 \|\| .3 \|\| 14.3 \|\| 18.7 \|-
## NBA achievements
### Regular season
- First teenager to record four career triple-doubles in NBA history.
- Broke Jason Kidd's Mavericks franchise record (21) of most triple-doubles with 22 in just 122 NBA games.
- Most triple-doubles in a season (17) before turning 22 years old (2019–20 season). Previously held by Ben Simmons (12 in 2017–18).
- Youngest player in NBA history to lead the league outright in triple-doubles (21 years, 168 days old). Previously held by Magic Johnson.
- Twenty straight games with at least 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists, the most since the 1976–77 ABA–NBA merger. Previously held by Michael Jordan with 18 consecutive games.
- First player since Tim Duncan to be selected to All-NBA First Team in a player's first or second season.
- Second-fewest games played to record 35 career triple-doubles (190). Previously held by Magic Johnson (204).
- Third-fewest games played to reach 4,000 career points since the ABA–NBA merger (Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal).
- First player in NBA history to record:
- a 60-point, 20 rebound triple-double (60 points, 21 rebounds, 10 assists).
- 250 points, 50 rebounds, and 50 assists in a five game span.
- a 30-point triple-double (35 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists) as a teenager.
- two triple-doubles before the age of 20.
- a 35-point triple-double in a game with 26 minutes or fewer played (35 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists in 25:30).
- 30+ points, 10+ rebounds, and 15+ assists in a game with 30 minutes or fewer played (31 points, 12 rebounds, and 15 assists in 30:05).
- 36+ points, 14+ rebounds, and 19+ assists in a game (regular season or playoffs).
- multiple 30-point triple-doubles in games with 30 minutes or fewer played.
- multiple 40-point triple-doubles before turning 21 years old.
- over 20 career triple-doubles at age 21 or younger.
- ten career 35-point triple-doubles before turning 22 years old.
- 200+ points, 50+ rebounds, and 50+ assists through the first six games of a season.
- Second player in NBA history to:
- average 21+ points, 7+ rebounds, and 6+ assists per game in a rookie season (Oscar Robertson).
- average 28 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists per game multiple seasons (Oscar Robertson).
- record 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists in 50 of their first 100 career games (Oscar Robertson).
- record 2,000+ points, 750+ rebounds, and 500+ assists in their first 100 career games (Oscar Robertson).
- record 3,000+ points, 1,100+ rebounds, and 950+ assists in the first two seasons of their career (Oscar Robertson).
- record 4,000+ points and 1,000+ assists before turning 22 years old (LeBron James).
- record at least 35 points and 19 assists in a triple-double (Oscar Robertson).
- record 10+ 30-point triple-doubles in the first two seasons of their career (Oscar Robertson).
- record a 30+ point, 20+ rebound triple-double, and a 30+ point, 20+ assist triple-double (Oscar Robertson).
- record 25 career triple-doubles in the first two seasons of their career (Oscar Robertson).
- score 30 or more points in the first eight games of a season (Wilt Chamberlain).
- Third player in NBA history to:
- average at least 28 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists in a season (Oscar Robertson, Russell Westbrook).
- record at least 12 30-point triple-doubles in a season (Oscar Robertson, Russell Westbrook).
- record 30+ points, 10+ rebounds, and 19+ assists in multiple games (Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson).
- record 40 triple-doubles in their first four seasons (Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson).
- Fourth player in NBA history to record:
- at least 35 points and 19 assists in a game (Oscar Robertson, Tiny Archibald, Kevin Johnson).
- 34+ points, 20+ rebounds, and 12+ assists in a game (Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).
- 30+ points, 10+ rebounds, and 20+ assists in a game (Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson, Russell Westbrook).
- 35+ points, 15+ rebounds, and 15+ assists in a game (Oscar Robertson, Wilt Chamberlain, James Harden).
- 25+ points, 15+ rebounds, and 15+ assists in multiple games (Oscar Robertson, Wilt Chamberlain, Larry Bird).
- at least 27 points, 7 rebounds, and 8 assists per game in multiple seasons (Oscar Robertson, LeBron James, Russell Westbrook).
- Fifth player in NBA history to average:
- at least 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists in a rookie season (Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Tyreke Evans).
- a 30-point triple-double in a ten-game span (Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan, Russell Westbrook, LeBron James).
- Youngest player in NBA history to record:
- three triple-doubles.
- 20 points, 15 rebounds, and 15 assists in a game.
- 30 points, 10 rebounds, and 20 assists in a game (22 years, 62 days old).
- 30 points, 20 rebounds, and 10 assists in a game (21 years, 158 days old).
- 35 points, 10 rebounds, and 15 assists in a game (21 years, 162 days old). Previously held by Michael Jordan.
- 35-point triple-doubles in succession, breaking Oscar Robertson's record.
### Playoffs
- NBA record 42 points in an NBA playoff debut.
- First player in NBA history to record:
- 43+ points, 17+ rebounds, and 13+ assists in a playoff game.
- three triple-doubles in their first seven career playoff games.
- multiple 30-point triple-doubles at the age of 22 or younger.
- 250+ points, 70+ rebounds, and 70+ assists through their first eight career playoff games.
- Second player in NBA history to record:
- 70 total points in their first two career playoff games (George Mikan, 75 points in 1949).
- two triple-doubles in their first four career playoff games (Magic Johnson).
- 40+ points, and 14+ assists in a playoff game (LeBron James).
-
- Third player in NBA history to record:
- 40+ points, 15+ rebounds, and 10+ assists in a playoff game (Oscar Robertson, Charles Barkley).
- 300+ points through their first nine career playoff games (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan).
- 900+ points through their first 28 career playoff games (Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain).
- Fifth player in NBA history to:
- have 40+ points and hit a buzzer-beater in a playoff game (Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, Damian Lillard).
- average at least 30 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists in a playoff series (Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan, Russell Westbrook, LeBron James).
- record 44+ points, 9+ rebounds, and 9+ assists in a playoff game (Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Russell Westbrook, LeBron James).
- Youngest player in NBA history to:
- hit a playoff buzzer-beater at 21 years and 177 days old.
- record a 40-point triple-double in a playoff game.
## Personal life
Dončić can speak four languages: Slovenian, Serbian, English, and Spanish. He learned Spanish after joining Real Madrid.
In 2017, while playing at Real Madrid, Dončić signed a two-year deal with Nike. In December 2019, it was announced that Dončić had signed a multi-year endorsement deal with Air Jordan. On July 14, 2021, it was announced that Dončić would be the cover athlete for NBA 2K22, the 23rd installment in the NBA 2K video game series.
His 2018–19 Panini National Treasures basketball card sold for \$4.6 million dollars in 2021.
In July 2023, he got engaged with his longtime girlfriend Anamaria Goltes.
## See also
- List of National Basketball Association career triple-double leaders
- List of National Basketball Association career playoff triple-double leaders
- List of National Basketball Association single-game scoring leaders
- List of National Basketball Association single-season scoring leaders
- List of youngest EuroLeague players
- List of European basketball players in the United States |
28,204,253 | Sogen Kato | 1,168,273,747 | 2010 Japanese fraud case | [
"1899 births",
"1978 deaths",
"2010 hoaxes",
"Hoaxes in Japan",
"People from Tokyo"
] | Sogen Kato (加藤 宗現, Katō Sōgen, 22 July 1899 – c. November 1978) was a Japanese man thought to have been Tokyo's oldest man until July 2010, when his mummified corpse was found in his bedroom. It was concluded he had likely died in November 1978, aged 79, and his family had never announced his death. Relatives had rebuffed attempts by ward officials to see Kato in preparations for Respect for the Aged Day later that year, citing many reasons from him being a "human vegetable" to becoming a sokushinbutsu (Buddhist mummy). An autopsy could not determine the cause of Kato's death.
The discovery of Kato's remains sparked a search for other missing centenarians lost due to poor recordkeeping by officials. A study following the discovery of Kato's remains found that police did not know if 234,354 people over the age of 100 were still alive. Poor recordkeeping was to blame for many of the cases, officials admitted. One of Kato's relatives was found guilty of fraud; his relatives claimed ¥9,500,000 (US\$117,939; £72,030) of the pension meant for Kato.
## History
### Discovery of the body
After tracking down the residence in Adachi, Tokyo, where Kato was reportedly living, attempts by officials to meet him were rebuffed numerous times by the family. Many reasons were given by his relatives, including that he was a "human vegetable" and that he was becoming a sokushinbutsu.
Eventually, Kato's body was found by police and ward officials on Wednesday, 27 July 2010, when ward officials intending to honour his achievement of longevity on Respect for the Aged Day later that year were again rebuffed and police broke into the house. Found in a first floor room, Kato's mummified remains were lying on a bed wearing underwear and pajamas and were covered with a blanket. Newspapers that were found in the room dated back three decades to the Shōwa period, suggesting that Kato's death may have occurred around November 1978. An official named Yutaka Muroi said, "His family must have known he has been dead all these years and acted as if nothing happened. It's so eerie."
The day after the visit, Kato's granddaughter told an acquaintance that "my grandfather shut himself in a room on the first floor of our home 32 years ago, and we couldn't open the door from the outside. My mother said, 'Leave him in there,' and he was left as he was. I think he's dead." One official had reported concerns about Kato's safety earlier in the year to his ward office. An autopsy failed to determine the cause of Kato's death.
### Fraud trial
Following the discovery of Kato's body, two of his relatives were arrested in August 2010, and subsequently charged with fraud. Prosecutors alleged that Michiko Kato, 81, Kato's daughter, and Tokimi Kato, 53, his granddaughter, fraudulently received about ¥9,500,000 (\$117,939; £72,030) of pension money. In addition, after Kato's wife died in 2004 at the age of 101, ¥9,450,000 (\$117,318; £71,651) from a survivor's mutual pension was deposited into Kato's bank account between October 2004 and June 2010. Approximately ¥6,050,000 (\$75,108; £45,872) was withdrawn before his body was discovered. Kato was likely paid a senior welfare benefit from the time he turned 70, which the family may also have used to their advantage. Investigators said that the pair defrauded the Japan Mutual Aid Association of Public School Teachers, who transferred the money into Kato's account.
In November 2010, the Tokyo District Court sentenced Tokimi Kato to a 21⁄2 year sentence for fraud, suspended for four years. Judge Hajime Shimada said, "The defendant committed a malicious crime with the selfish motive of securing revenue for her family. However, she has paid back the pension benefits and expressed remorse for the crime."
## Aftermath
After the discovery of Kato's mummified corpse, other checks into elderly centenarians across Japan produced reports of missing centenarians and faulty recordkeeping. Tokyo officials attempted to find the oldest woman in the city, 113-year-old Fusa Furuya, who was registered as living with her daughter. Furuya's daughter said she had not seen her mother for over 25 years. The revelations about the disappearance of Furuya and the death of Kato prompted a nationwide investigation, which concluded that police did not know if 234,354 people older than 100 were still alive. More than 77,000 of these people, officials said, would have been older than 120 years old if they were still alive. Poor record keeping was blamed for many of the cases, and officials said that many may have died during World War II. One register claimed a man was still alive at age 186.
Following the revelations about Kato and Furuya, analysts investigated why recordkeeping by Japanese authorities was poor. Many seniors have, it has been reported, moved away from their family homes. Statistics show that divorce is becoming increasingly common among the elderly. Dementia, which afflicts more than two million Japanese, is also a contributing factor. "Many of those gone missing are men who left their hometowns to look for work in Japan's big cities during the country's pre-1990s boom years. Many of them worked obsessively long hours and never built a social network in their new homes. Others found less economic success than they'd hoped. Ashamed of that failure, they didn't feel they could return home," a Canadian newspaper reported several months after the discovery of Kato's body.
Japan has the highest percentage of elderly people in the World; as of October 2010, 23.1 percent of the population were found to be aged 65 and over, and 11.1 percent were 75 and over. This has largely been caused by a very low birthrate; as of 2005, the rate was 1.25 babies for every woman—to keep the population steady the number needed to be 2.1. However, the issue of aging in the country has been increased by the government's unwillingness to let immigrants into the country—foreign nationals accounted for only 1.2 percent of the total population as of 2005. A 2006 report by the government indicates that by 2050, 1⁄3 of the population may be elderly.
The inquiry also noted that many elderly Japanese citizens were dying in solitude. "Die alone and in two months all that is left is the stench, a rotting corpse and maggots," The Japan Times said in an editorial, one of many comments from the country's press on the news. An editorial in Asahi Shimbun said that the findings suggested "deeper problems" in the Japanese register system. "The families who are supposed to be closest to these elderly people don't know where they are and, in many cases, have not even taken the trouble to ask the police to search for them," read the editorial. "The situation shows the existence of lonely people who have no family to turn to and whose ties with those around them have been severed."
One Japanese doctor, however, said he was not surprised at the news. Dr. Aiba Miyoji of the Tokyo Koto Geriatric Medical Centre said many Japanese seniors were dying alone, ignored by their families. "Some patients come in with their families, but many are alone or come in just with their social workers," he said. "It happens especially in Tokyo. There are more and more single-person families." Dr. Aiba added that a key reason for the statistics was because people in Japan are living longer than ever before. "That achievement is placing new burdens on a society where a declining number of working-age Japanese have to fund rising health-care and pension costs," The Globe and Mail reported. Dr. Aiba said that because Tokyo was so crowded, families cannot remain in the same household. "There's not enough space for families to live together any more," he said.
A national census in 2005 found that 3.86 million elderly Japanese citizens were living alone, compared with 2.2 million a decade before. 24.4 percent of men and 9.3 percent of women over the age of 60 in Japan have no neighbours, friends or relatives on whom they could rely, a more recent study discovered. In 2008, the Associated Press reported that the number of elderly people committing suicide had reached a record high because of health and economic worries. "In what appears to be a collective cry for help, more than 30,000 Japanese seniors are arrested every year for shoplifting. Many of those arrested told police they stole out of feelings of boredom and isolation, rather than any economic necessity," The Globe and Mail reported after the discovery of Kato's corpse. Jeff Kingston, the director of Asian studies at the Japan Campus of Temple University, said, "It is a humanising phenomenon—the Japanese are traditionally seen as sober, law-abiding people—when they are in fact scamsters like the rest of us. [The story of the missing centenarians] holds up a mirror to society and reflects realities that many in Japan do not want to accept."
## See also
- Aging of Japan
- Elderly people in Japan
- List of Japanese supercentenarians
- Lists of centenarians |
39,846,922 | Elizabeth Sumner | 1,167,022,693 | Hawaiian high chiefess (1851–1911) | [
"1850 births",
"1911 deaths",
"Burials at Honolulu Catholic Cemetery",
"Hawaiian Kingdom people",
"Hawaiian Kingdom people of English descent",
"Hawaiian Kingdom people of French Polynesian descent",
"Hawaiian ladies-in-waiting",
"Hawaiian nobility",
"Hawaiian songwriters"
] | Elizabeth Sumner Chapman Achuck Lapana Keawepoʻoole (December 24, 1851 – February 22, 1911) was a Hawaiian high chiefess during the Hawaiian Kingdom and lady-in-waiting of Princess Likelike. An accomplished Hawaiian composer, she composed the popular Hawaiian love song Sanoe with Queen Liliʻuokalani, which was about a love affair in the Hawaiian royal court in the 1870s.
## Early life and family
Born on December 24, 1851, in the city of Honolulu, on the island of Oahu, she was the daughter of William Keolaloa Kahānui Sumner, an ali‘i of partial Hawaiian descent, and his punalua (two or more spouses) partner Haa Maore aka Mauli Tehuiari‘i, a Tahitian princess and the sister of Sumner's lawful wife Manaiula Tehuiari‘i. She was of Hawaiian, Tahitian and English descent.
Her father High Chief William K. K. Sumner (1816–1885) was the eldest son of High Chiefess Keakua‘aihue Kanealai Hua and the British Captain William Sumner (1786–1847), of Northampton. Captain Sumner arrived in Hawaii in 1807 as a cabin boy; initially befriending Kauai's king Kaumualiʻi, he later became a naval captain under King Kamehameha I, who united the Hawaiian Islands in 1810. Sumner captained the government schooner Waverly and deported the party of Catholic missionaries led by Alexis Bachelot and Patrick Short in 1831. Hua, her paternal grandmother, was the cousin and hānai (adoptive) sister of High Chiefess Ahia Beckley, wife of Captain George Charles Beckley, who was one of the reputed designers of the Flag of Hawaii. Related to the Kamehamehas through Uminuikuka‘ailani, her grandmother descended from the famous twins Kahānui and Kaha‘opulani, the Kohala chiefs who reared Kamehameha during his infancy. Elizabeth attended Oahu College from 1864 to 1865.
Elizabethʻs elder paternal half-sister was Nancy Wahinekapu Sumner (1839–1895); their mothers were sisters. Their family's ancestry and connection to the ruling families of Hawaii and Tahiti allowed the two sisters to associate with many members of the royal family of Hawaii. Nancy was a prominent lady of the court during the reigns of King Kamehameha IV and King Kamehameha V, serving as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Emma and close friend to Princess Victoria Kamāmalu. Elizabeth's elder maternal half-sister Sarah Chapman Weed, the daughter of Princess Mauli and William Chapman, was an associate of Queen Emma. Sarah had an antagonistic relation with Nancy and a verbal conflict between them started a rift in the two sides of the family. This family dispute resulted in Mauli's and Sarah's' eviction from their home on Sumner Island (a former islet in Pearl Harbor) by Nancy's mother Manaiula. Subsequently, Elizabeth decided to renounce her Sumner surname in favor of Chapman.
## Compositions
Elizabeth became the lady-in-waiting of Princess Likelike, befriending her and her elder sister Princess Liliʻuokalani. Both princesses were the royal sisters of the reigning King Kalākaua who had won the royal election of 1874 against Queen Emma. Liliʻuokalani, who would later reign as the last queen of Hawaii, called Elizabeth by the name of Lizzie. Also known as Kapeka, she collaborated with Liliʻuokalani and wrote several songs under this name. Their best known composition was Sanoe, which along with Aloha ʻOe were amongst Liliʻuokalani most classic works. This romantic mele (song) described a secret love affair in the court of King Kalākaua in the 1870s involving an unknown man and a married lady at the royal court given the pseudonym "Sanoe," meaning "the fog or mist of the mountaintop,". The identity of the lady has been popularly ascribed to Kapeka herself or Likelike, although the lyrics do not disclose the woman's identity. Other songs credited to Elizabeth include Penei No, Pua Ani Ani, and Ka Lei Na Ke Aloha with most of her work still in private hands. Beside being an accomplished composer, she was expert in the traditional chants of Ancient Hawaii. She composed a kanikau (death chant) for her half-sister after Nancy's death from asthma on January 10, 1895.
## Marriages and later life
### Marriage to Achuck
Elizabeth married a wealthy Chinese businessman Mr. Achuck (1832–1877). Achuck was the adopted, Hawaiianized name of Qʻing Ming Qwai, who had immigrated in 1849 from Zhongshan in the Guangdong province of China. He was the friend and business partner of Chun Afong, Hawaii's first Chinese millionaire, with whom he co-owned Afong & Achuck, a chain of stores formed in 1865, which sold Oriental novelties to Chinese residents and the upper echelon of Honolulu society. Although not the first, the interracial marriage of a Hawaiian high chiefess to a Chinese businessman was considered unconventional at best. Her father disproved of the union but "found solace in the fact that the 'Chinaman' was a wealthy one." Considered a beauty of the royal court, Elizabeth had numerous prominent suitors and marriage proposals. Queen Emma, a political rival to the Kalākaua family and a friend of her sister Nancy, referred to Elizabethʻs husband as the "pigtail suitor Achuck." Commenting on Achuck's previous two marriages, one which was still legal, she stated in a letter, "Fancy spending a lifetime with a heathen Chinese who has the diversion of two wives at home to whom he must now and again go to spend a time with." Achuck's first wife was still alive in China while he had also previously contracted a marriage with a Hawaiian girl named Kamaua. Kamaua was twelve years old at the time of her marriage to Achuck and was a student of Protestant missionary Reverend Lowell Smith of the Kaumakapili Church, who orchestrated the match. Achuck later dissolved the union with Kamaua on the charges of adultery.
In a ceremony presided by the Reverend Father Herman Koeckemann, Achuck and Elizabeth were married on the evening of July 3, 1872, at the residence of Princess Likelike and her husband Archibald Scott Cleghorn in Honolulu. Princess Liliʻuokalani and her husband John Dominis were their witnesses. Because of the family dispute, Elizabeth married under the surname of Chapman, using the name of her mother's second husband instead of her Sumner surname. With Achuck, she had two known daughters. The eldest named Anastasia Nalanialua Achuck (1874–1947), married James Kenneth Olds, Jr. in 1895, and the younger daughter was named Mary Achuck, who married H. G. Morse and later William Kaea Sproule.
### Marriage to Lapana
After Achuck's death, Elizabeth remarried to a Hawaiian man named Lapana Keawepoʻoole, a painter who later became a police officer and turnkey at Oʻahu prison. Keawepoʻoʻole literally means "headless Keawe." The name has also been often spelled Keawepoʻole or Keawepoʻoolenamoku.
Lapana and Elizabeth had one daughter Mauli Keawepoʻoole, who had been a student at the Kamehameha Girls' School before dying on May 28, 1899 from cephalitis.
After suffering from diabetic complications for four months, Elizabeth died in Honolulu at her daughter's residence on Liliha street on February 22, 1911. She was sixty years old at the time of her death. Her funeral service was held at the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace and was attended by ladies of the Kaʻahumanu Society. She was buried in an unmarked grave at Honolulu Catholic Cemetery, also known as the King Street Catholic Cemetery where other members of the Sumner family including her father are also buried. |
42,033,017 | SMS Sperber | 1,160,593,778 | Unprotected cruiser of the German Imperial Navy | [
"1888 ships",
"Schwalbe-class cruisers",
"Ships built in Danzig"
] | SMS Sperber ("His Majesty's Ship Sperber—Sparrowhawk") was an unprotected cruiser built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy), the second member of the Schwalbe class. She had one sister ship, Schwalbe. Sperber was built at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Dockyard) in Danzig; her keel was laid down in September 1887 and her completed hull was launched in August 1888. She was commissioned for service in April 1889. Designed for colonial service, Sperber was armed with a main battery of eight 10.5-centimeter (4.1 in) guns and had a cruising radius of over 3,000 nautical miles (5,600 km; 3,500 mi); she also had an auxiliary sailing rig to supplement her steam engines.
Sperber spent the majority of her career overseas. She briefly served in German East Africa in late 1889 and early 1890, before being transferred to the South Seas Station in German New Guinea. She remained there for three years before being transferred to German Southwest Africa from early 1894 to late 1896. She was decommissioned in Germany in December 1896 and overhauled before recommissioning for another tour abroad in December 1902. She briefly spent time in the East-American Station off Venezuela in early 1903 and East Africa from July to October of that year, before being assigned to the East Asia Squadron by the end of the year. After spending 1904 in Chinese waters, Sperber was reassigned to Southwest Africa, where she remained until 1911. She returned to Germany at the end of the year and was decommissioned a second time, but was thereafter used as a target ship until 1918. She was later sold for scrap in 1920 and broken up in Hamburg.
## Design
Through the 1870s and early 1880s, Germany built two types of cruising vessels: small, fast avisos suitable for service as fleet scouts and larger, long-ranged screw corvettes capable of patrolling the German colonial empire. A pair of new cruisers was authorized under the 1886–1887 fiscal year, intended for the latter purpose. General Leo von Caprivi, the Chief of the Imperial Admiralty, sought to modernize Germany's cruiser force. The Schwalbes were the first modern unprotected cruiser to be built for the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy), marking the first step in Caprivi's plans.
Sperber was 66.9 meters (219 ft) long overall and had a beam of 9.36 m (30.7 ft) and a draft of 4.4 m (14 ft) forward. She displaced 1,111 t (1,093 long tons) normally and up to 1,359 t (1,338 long tons) at full load. Her propulsion system consisted of two horizontal 2-cylinder double-expansion steam engines powered by four coal-fired cylindrical fire-tube boilers. These provided a top speed of 13.5 knots (25.0 km/h; 15.5 mph) and a range of approximately 3,290 nautical miles (6,090 km; 3,790 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). To supplement the steam engines, she was fitted with a barquentine rig. Sperber had a crew of 9 officers and 108 enlisted men.
The ship was armed with a main battery of eight 10.5 cm (4.1 in) K L/35 guns in single pedestal mounts, four in sponsons fore and aft to give a measure of end-on fire, and the remaining four amidships on the main deck. Four guns could fire on either broadside. The guns were supplied with 765 rounds of ammunition in total. They had a range of 8,200 m (9,000 yd). The gun armament was rounded out by five 37 mm (1.5 in) Hotchkiss revolver cannon for defense against torpedo boats.
## Service history
Sperber was laid down at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) in Danzig in September 1887. She was launched on 23 August 1888, and then-Kapitän zur See (Captain at Sea) Franz Mensing gave the launching speech. She began her sea trials on 2 April 1889, which lasted until 7 June; after completion of the trials, she was temporarily decommissioned. She was thereafter assigned to the South Seas Station in German New Guinea to replace the gunboats Adler and Eber, which had been destroyed by the 1889 Apia cyclone. On 20 August, Sperber was recommissioned for her new assignment, and she departed Kiel on 4 September, bound for the Pacific. While coaling in Aden on 13 October, the cruiser received orders to head to German East Africa, which was gripped by the Abushiri Revolt. There, she was to replace the old sail corvette Leipzig and the aviso Pfeil.
### First deployment abroad
Sperber arrived in Zanzibar on 26 October; four days earlier, the protectorate of Wituland had been granted to Germany. Sperber's first assignment upon reaching East Africa was to conduct a formal survey of the border between Wituland and British Kenya. Sperber was also to conduct the formal flag raising in the new protectorate. Starting on 1 November, Sperber joined the fight against the rebels. In early December, Sperber and her sister ship Schwalbe were present at ceremonial reception of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition at Bagamoyo. Both ships were also involved with settling the border of Wituland on 27–29 December. In mid-January 1890, Pfeil, Leipzig, and Sophie left East Africa, leaving Schwalbe, Sperber, and Carola on the station.
On 22 April, Sperber was finally released to resume her original assignment to the South Seas Station. She met Alexandrine in Australia and visited the ports of Melbourne and Sydney, where she underwent an overhaul. Sperber finally arrived in Apia in German Samoa on 30 July. She thereafter took Friedrich Biermann, the Imperial Commissioner for the Marshall Islands, on a tour of the islands. The cruiser returned to Apia on 5 October. In January 1891, Sperber's commander presided over the unveiling of a monument to the German sailors who had been killed at the Battle of Vailele in December 1888. The cruiser then departed for Sydney for another overhaul, which lasted from 24 January to 21 March. After the repair work was completed, Sperber went on a tour of Germany's colonies in the Pacific, including the Bismarck Archipelago, the Marshalls, and Butaritari. She was back in Apia by 6 June, where she remained stationed until 15 December. The new unprotected cruiser Bussard joined her there on 13 December.
In February 1892, Sperber left for another overhaul in Sydney. While en route, she had to stop at Tabiteuea in the Gilbert Islands and send a landing party ashore to punish locals who had attacked German businessmen there. The overhaul lasted from 3 March to 3 May, after which Sperber went on another tour of the islands, including the Marshalls, Butaritari, and Matupit Island. At Matupit the Deputy Chancellor, Georg Schmiele, came aboard the ship. Sperber was back in Apia by 17 May, and she remained there until 1 November, when she left for another tour, which included stops at Nukufetau, Herbertshöhe—the capital of German New Guinea—and Friedrich Wilhelmshafen. Another period of dockyard work at Sydney followed from 6 February 1893 to 18 April. In the meanwhile, unrest in Samoa broke out, under the leadership of King Mata'afa Iosefo. He was arrested, however, which caused the movement to disperse; after she returned from Sydney, Sperber was tasked with taking Mata'afa into exile on Jaluit Atoll.
The unprotected cruiser Falke, which had been assigned to German Southwest Africa, was ordered to replace Sperber in November 1893. Sperber was in turn ordered to return to Germany, and she departed the South Seas Station on 6 November. While en route, however, her orders were changed and she was instead sent to Southwest Africa. She stopped in Cape Town, South Africa for an overhaul, and finally arrived in Kamerun on 28 May 1894. Her shallower draft, compared to her predecessor Falke, permitted her to routinely cross the sandbar in the mouth of the Kamerun River. At this time, the only other German warship on the station was the gunboat Hyäne, though the government steamer Nachtigal and the hulked gunboat Cyclop were also available in the colony. Sperber was thereafter responsible for conducting patrols of the colony.
She visited Cape Town on 10 November 1895, and while on her way there, she carried a granite copy of the padrão that had been placed there by the Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão in the late 15th century. The original stone monument had been transported back to Berlin for preservation in 1893 by Falke. A short period of dockyard maintenance lasted from 17 to 29 February 1896. On 6 March, she was sent to Swakopmund in response to an uprising by the local population. She send a landing party ashore to help the Schutztruppen (Protection force) secure the city. From 23 March to 9 April, Sperber went to Mossamedes for a period of rest for her crew. On 22 September, she departed Southwest Africa and headed for Germany; she arrived in Kiel on 18 November and was decommissioned on 7 December. Starting in early 1898, Sperber was taken into drydock for a major overhaul. The work lasted until August, and she was placed back in reserve once it was completed.
### Second deployment abroad
On 16 December 1902, the ship was again commissioned for service abroad, this time to reinforce the East-American Station in Central and South America. She left Kiel on 5 January 1903 and arrived in Willemstad in Curaçao. The Venezuela Crisis of 1902–03 was by that time winding down, and so apart from visits to a few Venezuelan ports, her presence was unnecessary. Instead, she was ordered to German East Africa in late February. Sperber left the East-American Station on 22 March and steamed through the Mediterranean Sea, arriving in Dar es Salaam on 1 July. She was there only briefly, before she was again transferred, this time to the East Asia Squadron on 9 October. She arrived in Singapore on 23 November and continued on to the mouth of the Yangtze in China, where she was stationed at the time. From there, she went to Shanghai on 15 May 1904, and visited several Chinese ports, followed by an overhaul from August to December in Germany's concession at Qingdao. In early 1905, Sperber visited ports in southern China, where she received orders to return to Southwest Africa. She went Qingdao on 24 April before departing for Africa, arriving in Douala on 26 July. There, she met the gunboat Habicht.
On 27 January 1907, Sperber was present in Lomé for the opening of the first railroad line in German Togoland. Between 1908 and 1909, she conducted an extensive survey of the west-African coast. In February 1909, she visited the ruins of Groß Friedrichsburg, the old capital of the Brandenburger Gold Coast, a colony founded by Frederick William I of Prussia in the 17th century. She thereafter returned to survey work in Kamerun and Southwest Africa. On 6 March 1910, she was transferred to German East Africa to replace Bussard. While en route, her crew helped to put out a major fire in Lüderitz Bay on 15 April. After arriving in East Africa, Sperber conducted the normal routine of visiting ports in the colony. She went to Cape Town for an overhaul from 26 October to 3 December. On 6 March 1911, she received orders to return to Germany for a second time. She arrived in Wilhelmshaven on 29 June, and was decommissioned again on 6 July. She was stricken from the naval register on 16 March 1912 and was thereafter used as a target ship until 1918. She was sold on 7 August 1920 and broken up for scrap in Hamburg in 1922. |
2,129,127 | Klein Independent School District | 1,136,765,314 | School district in Harris County, Texas, US | [
"1938 establishments in Texas",
"Klein Independent School District",
"School districts established in 1938",
"School districts in Harris County, Texas",
"School districts in Houston"
] | Klein Independent School District (Klein ISD) is a school district that covers 87.5 square miles (227 km<sup>2</sup>) in Harris County, Texas, United States. It became an independent school district in 1938. Almost all of the territory is unincorporated; a small portion of Houston is within the district. In the 2020–2021 school year, Klein ISD had 52,824 students. Klein ISD is part of the taxation base for the Lone Star College System. , Jenny McGown is Superintendent of Schools.
The district has 33 elementary schools (including a Pre-K designated school), ten intermediate schools, and five high schools. For the 2018–2019 school year, the district received a score of 89 out of 100 from the Texas Education Agency.
## History
Rural High School District No. 1 was formed in July 1928 as a result of the consolidation of five common school districts, including French School, the schools of Hildebrandt, Oak Grove, Willow Creek, Kothman, Harrel, Fuchs, and the Kohrville School for black children. The district became Klein Independent School District in 1938, named after Adam Klein, who led many German immigrants into the area in 1854. It is board policy that all high schools include the name 'Klein' in honor of the district's namesake. After Klein High School's current building was constructed in 1963, the original Klein High was used as the administration building. The current Klein ISD Central Office building opened in 1981.
In 1971, Donald Collins became the district's superintendent and served until his retirement in 2000. Under his tenure, the number of schools in the district rose from 6 to 28. In 2001, Klein Collins High School was named in his honor.
Jim Cain served as superintendent from 2004 to 2016. Formerly a director of school administration in Klein ISD before moving to Fort Bend ISD, Dr. Cain returned to Klein and worked as the assistant/associate superintendent for administration. In 2017, Klein Cain High School was named after him.
## Communities
Klein ISD serves unincorporated portions of northern Harris County, Texas, and includes the communities and neighborhoods of Klein, Kohrville, Louetta, and parts of North Houston. Some areas within the Spring and Tomball postal designations, and a portion of "Acres Homes" within the city limits of Houston are also served by Klein ISD.
The Klein ISD Board of Trustees passed a resolution at their January 2016 meeting regarding renaming the 88 square miles encompassing Klein ISD as Klein, Tx. The resolution includes the following:
1. Recommends that residents living within the district boundaries refer to their community as Klein, Texas;
2. Recommends that citizens within zip codes 77379, 77389 and 77391 use Klein, Texas as their address; and
3. Directs that all Klein ISD buildings and facilities be identified as being in Klein, Texas.
By Texas legislative action in 1977, the area inside the boundaries of the Klein ISD was designated as Klein, Texas.
## Students
### Academics
For each school year, the Texas Education Agency rates school district performance based on statistical data. Beginning in 2017–2018, the agency calculates a score for each district from 0 to 100 which is used to assign a grade from A to F. School districts did not receive a score or rating for 2019–2020 or for 2020–2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For the 2018–2019 school year, Klein ISD received an overall score of 89, resulting in a B grade. The district received a score of 85 and a B grade in 2017–2018.
From 2013 to 2017, the agency rated school districts as either Met Standard, Met Alternative Standard, or Improvement Required. Klein ISD received a Met Standard rating for each year under this system. School districts did not receive a rating for the 2011–2012 school year as the agency transitioned from using the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) to the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) as the basis for their accountability ratings.
From 1996 to 2011, the agency rated school districts as either Exemplary, Recognized, Academically Acceptable, or Academically Unacceptable. From 2004 to 2008, the district was rated Academically Acceptable, and from 2009 to 2011, the district received a Recognized rating. School districts did not receive a rating for the 2002–2003 school year as the agency transitioned from using the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) to the TAKS standardized test. The district was rated Academically Acceptable from 1996 to 2001 and Recognized in 2002.
On January 18, 2019, Klein ISD was a finalist for the H-E-B Excellence in Education Award.
### Demographics
In the 2020–2021 school year, the district had a total of 52,824 students, starting from early childhood/pre-kindergarten education through grade 12. The district had 3,617.09 teachers and 3,274.48 additional staff for a total of 6,891.57 employees on a full-time equivalent basis. The district's student to teacher ratio was 14.60. The ethnic distribution of students was:
- 15.6% African American
- 8.2% Asian
- 43.3% Hispanic
- 0.4% American Indian
- 0.1% Pacific Islander
- 3.7% Two or More Races
- 28.7% White
49.5% of students were listed as economically disadvantaged, 17.6% were English-language learners, and 11.1% received special education services.
Klein ISD's student enrollment has increased significantly across multiple decades. In the 2017–2018 school year, there were 52,896 students enrolled. There were 44,695 students in 2009–2010, and 35,474 students in 2003–2004.
## Bonds
Klein ISD, with voter approval, has sold bonds in 2004, 2008, and 2015 to provide funding for large infrastructure projects. The 2004 bond referendum approved the sale of \$224 million and included renovations of existing buildings and the construction of Vistas High School and Benignus Elementary School. All projects associated with the 2004 bond started in 2005 and have been completed. On May 10, 2008, a bond referendum for \$646.9 million was passed with approximately 52% (4,732 of 9,152) of the ballots for it. The bond was to create new schools, including Blackshear Elementary, Bernshausen Elementary, and Klein Cain High School. In May 2015, Klein ISD held another bond referendum for \$498.1 million, which passed with around 77% (4,571 of 6,033) of the ballots for it. The bond apportioned \$283.6 million for construction projects, including \$121.9 million to supplement 2008 bond funding for Klein Cain High School, \$47.1 million for Hofius Intermediate, and \$26.2 million for Fox Elementary. Other bond projects were classroom additions, security upgrades, technology infrastructure, and facility renovations. Bonds from the 2015 referendum were sold in bundles from 2015 to 2020. The district completed construction of Klein Cain High School in 2017 and Hofius Intermediate in 2018. Some classroom additions and renovations were removed from the 2015 bond project and the funds were used to repair facilities damaged by flooding. In May 2022 for the 2022 bond, "Klein ISD voters made district history as they approved \$895,350,000 million in bond funding."
## Curriculum
Klein ISD generally offers uniform curriculum across all its elementary schools, intermediate schools, and high schools.
### College classes
The Klein district offers Dual Credit (DC) courses in which high school teachers who teach these courses are also college professors. These students earn both high school credit and college credit, while staying at their high school. Klein ISD also has a partnership with Lone Star College in which students can also take classes at Lone Star College–University Park, earning from three to 57 college credit hours. Dual credit courses offered in the district include English 3, English 4, U.S. History, U.S. Government, Art History, Independent Study/Math, Pre-Calculus, Biology, Anatomy & Physiology, Correctional Services, and Court Systems & Practices.
Klein ISD also offers many Advanced Placement (AP) classes at all five of their high schools in math, science, English, social studies, fine arts, and foreign language courses. Students who enroll in the course (approved by College Board) may receive college credit by receiving a passing score on an exam taken at the end of the year. At the middle school and high school level, Pre-AP classes are offered in all schools to prepare students for future AP courses.
The district offers the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IB) for 11th and 12th grade students at Klein Oak High School. The program accepts applications from any student in Klein ISD. Students must complete courses within each of the six IB subjects, write an essay based on independent research, complete the Theory of Knowledge course, and complete either a service, activity, or creative project.
### Fine arts
Klein ISD offers fine arts courses in band, choir, dance, elementary music, orchestra, theatre art, and visual art. The district was listed as one of the 2020 Best Communities for Music Education awarded by the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation. The district was designated a 2019 District of Distinction by the Texas Art Education Association.
### STEAM education
Klein ISD operates the STEAM (the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts with Math) Express, a bus that travels around the district with a drop down stage, teaching students about STEAM careers through a variety of activities. In 2019–2020, the bus visited 8094 students, 560 educators, and 270 members of the community.
## Schools
### Current campuses
In Klein ISD, grades pre-kindergarten through grade 5 are considered a part of elementary school, grades 6 through 8 are in intermediate school, and grades 9 through 12 a part of high school. The district also offers a Pre-Kindergarten campus for certain areas of the district for students who have not yet entered elementary school. Additionally, Klein ISD offers the Vistas High School Program for high school students who are at risk for not graduating. The program is offered to all Klein ISD high school students who are admitted based on an application and interview process. For the 2020–2021 school year, Klein ISD operated 33 elementary schools, ten intermediate schools, and five high schools.
Klein ISD creates attendance zones for neighborhoods within the boundaries of the district. All neighborhoods are zoned to a specific elementary school, intermediate school, and high school. When a new school opens, or a school becomes overcrowded, the district begins realigning and rezoning certain neighborhoods to ensure that there is balance among all schools. Students must attend the assigned schools for their neighborhood, with the exception of students who attend the International Baccalaureate program at Klein Oak High School.
#### High schools
- Klein High School was the first high school constructed in the Klein district, built in its current location in 1963 with renovations completed in 2014. For the 2018–2019 school year, there were 3,433 students enrolled. The school received a B grade from the Texas Education Agency. The principal is Brandon Baker, and the mascot is the Bearkat.
- Klein Forest High School was the second high school built in Klein ISD in 1979 and enrolled 3,566 students in 2018–2019. The school received a C grade from the Texas Education Agency. The current principal is Lance Alexander and the mascot is the Golden Eagle.
- Klein Oak High School was the third high school built in 1982 and enrolled 3,698 students in 2018–2019. The school received a B grade from the Texas Education Agency. It is the only school in the Klein district that offers the International Baccalaureate program. The current principal is Thomas Hensley and the mascot is the Panther.
- Klein Collins High School was the fourth high school built in 2001 and enrolled 3,470 students in 2018–2019. The school received a B grade from the Texas Education Agency. The high school was named after Don Collins, a former superintendent of Klein ISD. The current principal of the high school is Randy Kirk and the mascot is the Tiger.
- Klein Cain High School is the fifth and newest high school, built in 2017. The high school was named after Dr. Jim Cain, a former superintendent who retired in 2015. In its first year, Klein Cain enrolled only ninth and tenth grade students. The school added 11th grade students in 2018–19, and will operate as a full 9–12 high school beginning in 2019–2020. The school enrolled 2,323 students in 2018–2019 and received a B grade from the Texas Education Agency. The current principal is Nicole Patin and the mascot is the Ibis.
#### Intermediate schools
- Doerre Intermediate School
- Hildebrandt Intermediate School
- Hofius Intermediate School
- Kleb Intermediate School
- Klein Intermediate School
- Krimmel Intermediate School
- Schindewolf Intermediate School
- Strack Intermediate School
- Ulrich Intermediate School
- Wunderlich Intermediate School
#### Elementary schools
- Benfer Elementary School
- Benignus Elementary School
- Bernshausen Elementary School
- Blackshear Elementary School
- Brill Elementary School
- Ehrhardt Elementary School
- Eiland Elementary School
- Epps Island Elementary School
- Grace England Elementary School
- Fox Elementary School
- Frank Elementary School
- French Elementary School
- Greenwood Forest Elementary School
- Hassler Elementary School
- Haude Elementary School
- Kaiser Elementary School
- Klenk Elementary School
- Kohrville Elementary School
- Krahn Elementary School
- Kreinhop Elementary School
- Kuehnle Elementary School
- Lemm Elementary School
- Mahaffey Elementary School
- McDougle Elementary School
- Metzler Elementary School
- Mittelstädt Elementary School
- Mueller Elementary School
- Nitsch Elementary School
- Northampton Elementary School
- Roth Elementary School
- Schultz Elementary School
- Theiss Elementary School
- Zwink Elementary School
#### Other campuses
- Klein Alternative Education Center
- Klein ISD Therapeutic & Readiness Center
### Former campuses
- Klein Intermediate School: Situated next to what is currently Klein High School, the original Klein Intermediate, not to be confused with the existing one, opened in 1967. It became the Klein HS ninth grade building in 1975, and later became Kleb Intermediate School, again not to be confused with the existing one, in 1981. Beginning in 1993 it served as the Klein Annex, an alternative education facility for students with persistent and serious behavior issues. It was torn down and its functions moved to a new building on an adjacent site, while the site of the original building became playing fields.
- Klein Elementary School: Located next to the original Klein High School on Spring Cypress Road, Klein Elementary School opened in 1940 and was renamed Klein Middle School in 1971. The building was demolished in 2007 due to safety concerns. A new building was constructed on the site which became the Network Operations Center.
- Garden City Elementary School: Located on W. Montgomery Road just south of the present day Nitsch Elementary School, this school opened in 1956 and closed in the 1970s.
- Recreation Acres Elementary School: This school served southern part of district and opened in 1949.
- Kohrville School: Located at the present-day corner of Spring-Cypress and Huffsmith-Kohrville Road, the school opened in 1895 and served as the district's black school during the period of de jure segregation. In 1928, the school was combined with Rural High School \#1. The school re-opened in a new facility in 1949 and operated until the district integrated its schools in 1967. The former school served as a community center for several years before being converted into a museum.
## See also
- List of school districts in Texas |
24,649,082 | Fringe (season 2) | 1,171,199,671 | null | [
"2009 American television seasons",
"2010 American television seasons",
"Fringe (TV series) seasons"
] | The second season of the American science fiction television series Fringe commenced airing on the Fox network on September 17, 2009, and concluded on May 20, 2010. The season was produced by Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television, and its showrunners were Jeff Pinkner and J. H. Wyman. Actors Anna Torv, John Noble, and Joshua Jackson reprised their roles as FBI agent Olivia Dunham and father-son duo Walter and Peter Bishop, respectively. Previous series regulars Lance Reddick, Jasika Nicole, Blair Brown, and Kirk Acevedo also returned, though with Acevedo in a limited capacity.
The season followed the continuation of a war between two universes, the prime and the parallel. It was set in the former, until the last several episodes when Peter Bishop (Jackson) journeyed back to the parallel universe after being lured there by his real father, "Walternate" (Noble). While co-creator J. J. Abrams described the first season as "identifying that there is an enemy", he referred to season two as "getting to know the enemy" as it "build[s] to a very specific type of confrontation" between the two universes. The writers focused on their characters' development, in particular making them more comfortable with each other while solving cases for Fringe Division. By inventing the "mythalone" style of episode, the producers sought to create the perfect episode that mixed standalone episode qualities for casual viewers with the further development of the series' mythology for regular viewers.
In a departure from the previous season, the second season aired in a new competitive timeslot at 9:00 pm on Thursdays. It contained 22 episodes, plus an unaired episode that was produced during the first season; "Unearthed" aired as a special as episode 11 of season two, days prior to "Johari Window", the first new episode of 2010. Also part of the season was the series' only musical episode, "Brown Betty", which was produced at the request of the network. The season finale, "Over There", fully introduced the parallel universe and laid the groundwork for the third season.
Fringe ended its second season with a per episode average of 6.252 million total viewers and a 2.3 ratings share in the 18–49 demographic. The season was generally well-received by critics, though most agreed that the second half was a considerable improvement over the first. The series was chosen for a number of 2010 "best of television" lists, including The New York Times, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and Entertainment Weekly. Despite its critical acclaim, Fringe failed to earn any major category nominations at the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards, but did receive nominations at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, Golden Reel Awards, and Satellite Awards; at the Saturn Awards, Torv and guest actor Leonard Nimoy won in their respective categories. The second season was released on DVD and Blu-ray in region 1 on September 14, 2010, in region 2 on September 27, and in region 4 on November 10.
## Season summary
Olivia, having been taken to William Bell's office in the parallel universe, is returned to the prime universe but with short term amnesia, unable to recall her experience there. Massive Dynamic's Nina Sharp directs her to Sam Weiss, a bowling alley manager, who gives her cryptic but helpful advice to overcome her amnesia. Meanwhile, the Fringe division has discovered several shapeshifters - a human/machine hybrid that bleed mercury - have crossed over, but unbeknownst to them, one takes the form of Olivia's partner, Charlie. When Sam's advice allows Olivia to recall what Bell told her, she unwittingly gives this information to the shapeshifter, who calls its agents to use the information to recover the body of Thomas Jerome Newton, an agent for some entity operating from the parallel universe. Nina provides Olivia with cautionary advice, alerting her to a "great war" that Bell postulated would occur between the two universes. During this time, Peter has come to forgive Walter for his past, and Walter has grown accustomed to normal life outside of the institution, but is still troubled by a secret.
Newton, using old technology from Walter and Bell's research, is able to pull an entire building from the parallel universe to the prime, and the team races against time to prevent harm when, due to the laws of mass conservation, a building from the prime is pulled to the parallel one. This event forces Walter to try to coax Olivia to recall her Cortexiphan abilities so as to identify things affected by the parallel universe. Initially unable to do so, her fear of failure enables her ability, allowing them to save the people within the target building, but also revealing to her that Peter is from the parallel universe. Walter explains to Olivia that in 1985, he and Bell had devised a way to observe the parallel universe, where he found his doppelgänger, "Walternate", was also close to losing his son. Though Walter's Peter had died, Walternate continued to search for a cure, but missed the telltale sign when the Observer September arrived at his lab. Walter resynthesized the cure and aimed to cross over using untested equipment at Reiden Lake, though stalled by Nina and his lab assistant Clara. Nina tackled him on his way over, losing her arm in the process, while Walter, on the other side, found the cure vial broken. Intent on curing the alternate Peter, he posed as his father and crossed back with Peter, intending to administer the cure at the lab and then return Peter. However, on the return, the ice on Reiden Lake broke, threatening to drown both, but they were saved by September, who cautioned Walter "the boy must live". While Walter successfully administered the cure, his wife Elizabeth saw Peter, and Walter realized he could never return Peter to the parallel universe. After Walter reveals this truth, he considers letting Peter know but struggles with how to do so, hoping to seek repentance from God for his actions.
Meanwhile, Newton has continued to use Walter's technology to bring into temporary existence elements from the parallel universe. This enables Newton and his agents to bring over a figure known as "Mr. Secretary", despite Fringe's attempts to stop them. Peter, from this action, deduces that he is from the parallel universe, and furious at Walter for hiding this information, leaves on his own. While hiding in the Pacific Northwest, Peter meets Mr. Secretary - Walternate, his true father, who offers to take him back to the parallel universe, which Peter accepts. Olivia and Walter are alerted by September that Walternate plans to use Peter to initiate the operation of a strange device that threatens to destroy the prime universe, and the two launch a rescue attempt. In the parallel universe, they find that it suffers from singularities caused by Walter's crossing in 1985, forcing Walternate's Fringe team to use an amber-like substance to surround and quarantine such areas, regardless of innocent lives trapped within. They meet with William Bell, and Walter and Bell resolve their past differences. Olivia faces off against her doppelgänger, "Fauxlivia", who works for Walternate in the Fringe Division under the U.S. Secretary of Defense; she is able to recover Peter, who has seen the device and recognized that it reacted only to his biology, and wants nothing of it, willing to return with the others. As Olivia, Walter, and Peter attempt to return, they are engaged by Fauxlivia and others in the Fringe Division. Bell sacrifices himself to provide energy into a device to allow the three to cross over, but none of them are aware that Fauxlivia has secretly switched places with Olivia under Walternate's orders, while Olivia is captured and held in a secured facility by Walternate.
## Episodes
## Development
### Crew
The season was produced by Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. Though still set in Boston, the show's production for the second season moved from New York City to Vancouver out of financial necessity, as it lost access to New York's TV production tax incentive program. Fringe consequently got a mostly new writing staff and production team, though co-creators J. J. Abrams, Roberto Orci, and Alex Kurtzman, and producer Bryan Burk remained involved with the series. Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman returned as executive producers and showrunners. Jeff Vlaming and previous episode director Akiva Goldsman joined the crew as consulting producers. While Abrams had six episode writing credits for the first season he remained much more hands-off for the second, instead focusing on other commitments like the film Star Trek. He explained, "Sometimes we'll talk every day. Then there will be a period of a couple weeks where we don't speak. But we're emailing a lot. There's a lot of stuff that happens that way." Eden FX and Zoic Studios stayed as vendors for the series' visual effects, effectively giving Fringe a sense of continuity. Jay Worth, the overall visual effects supervisor, commented that having these two companies "helped the show not feel as a big of a bump from one season to the next, particularly with different crews and a different vibe a little bit." Despite his decreased involvement, Abrams was sent all of the visual effects for the series during production, and responded back with notes and tweaks.
### Writing and filming
Responding to criticism that some first season episodes were too neatly wrapped and solved, Jeff Pinkner commented towards the end of that season, "We found that, absolutely, early on, we were falling into the trap of—the tease would be fantastic. And then we would too quickly answer it and [reduce] the tension. And we've tried to course-correct and have the tease promise" questions that don't get answered right away. He further elaborated that the goal now is to "have the energy of the show get bigger as [an episode] goes along... We're learning how to tell this version of a detective story. It's not really a police procedural. There are elements of that. But it's an incredible mish-mash of genres. I think we're getting better at finding our way through these stories."
Pinkner, Abrams, Orci, Burk, Kurtzman, Wyman, and Goldsman developed the second season's storyline together. Goldsman explained that they "mapped" out the season "in a way that we remained fundamentally faithful to". Though they changed certain aspects, they knew where Olivia and Peter were going to start and end up but "got there at different paces than what [they] originally planned". While the first season both focused on Olivia and dealt with discovering the existence of an enemy, the second was designed to "[build] to a very specific type of confrontation" between the two universes. Explained Pinkner, "Season 2 is about the people from 'over there' putting the final pieces of the invasion into play, and explaining why". At the same time, the producers approached the second season as a "journey of self-actualization" and "maturation for our characters." They wanted to make the three main cast members become more comfortable as a team in Fringe Division; Peter thus was written to be more heroic and to go from reluctance to a desire to help his father, while Walter became gradually more independent and "grounded as a human being". They made the secret of Peter's origins one of the main story focuses of the season. While the audience had been made aware of Walter's secret in the season one finale, the producers wanted to "acknowledge it to our characters". All the while Walter was "suffering... and desperately trying to keep it all quiet", Olivia and Peter grew closer to the truth. By "giv[ing] these things time" to develop, Pinkner strove to avoid focusing just on "event, event, event", instead concentrating on the real consequences of Peter and Olivia's eventual discovery.
The second season's mythology was intended to be revealed in small parcels. Throughout the season, Pinkner and Wyman tried to create an episode that best bridged "standalone" traits—needed for casual viewers—with the further advancement of the show's mythology for those who watched regularly. At the start of the season Pinkner believed they had found a "good rhythm" between the two, as the mythology "really [started to] affect the characters, to the point where even the standalone [episodes] advance mythology". After the season ended, Wyman commented at San Diego Comic-Con International, "We learned that the fan fans love mythology but there are needs from the networks. We started experimenting with a thing we called 'mythalones', not standalone or myth." Wyman cited the season's 18th episode, "White Tulip" as a prime example, noting "You can see that you're following Walter's journey, it's the right mix." The Fringe producers strove to avoid becoming bogged down in mythology, an issue that they perceived happened in Alias, another J. J. Abrams television series. In a joint statement released midway through the season, Abrams, Pinkner, and Wyman noted that their "only internal rule is that we make every effort to not raise mythological questions merely to string viewers along, but rather to provide answers that generate consequences."
At Fox's request, the writers developed a musical episode, "Brown Betty" to fit into the network's "Fox rocks" campaign in the same vein as its series Glee. While the episode already had most of the necessary elements in place before Fox's request, the producers were able to add the musical theme as a "narrative device" to "explore Walter's feelings" in the aftermath of Peter's discovery and flight. To prepare for the season finale, the producers began developing characteristics of the parallel universe relatively early on. Relating to the two universes' idiosyncrasies, Pinkner and Wyman were both interested in world building and "the concept of choices", such as the differing events that led to the Other Side possessing a still-standing World Trade Center but destroyed White House. Other historical idiosyncrasies included the oxidation of the Statue of Liberty and the use of zeppelins as transportation. They believed that all of their additions were "the texture that actually makes it a world. The richness of detail is what makes it feel real".
As the series began filming in Vancouver, the University of British Columbia campus served as a substitute for Harvard University. Because of its heritage buildings and antique storefronts, many of the scenes set in the alternate universe were shot in New Westminster, an area outside Vancouver. Consulting producer and previous Fringe director Akiva Goldsman returned to direct several episodes, as did producer Brad Anderson, executive producer Joe Chappelle, and producer Paul Edwards. One time guest directors for the season included Bryan Spicer, Jon Cassar, Dennis Smith, Paul Holahan, Jeannot Szwarc, Frederick E. O. Toye, Deran Sarafian, Adam Davidson, Charles Beeson, David Straiton, Thomas Yatsko, Jeffrey Hunt, and Seith Mann.
### Cast
#### Main cast
As with the previous season, the second season featured three main characters all working together to solve various Fringe cases. Anna Torv played determined FBI agent Olivia Dunham, who is able to travel between universes as a result of childhood experiments performed on her with the nootropic drug, Cortexiphan. The man responsible for these experiments, Dr. Walter Bishop, was played by John Noble. Walter's son Peter Bishop, whom he stole from the parallel universe, was portrayed by Joshua Jackson. Other members of the main cast included Jasika Nicole as Junior FBI Agent and Walter's lab assistant Astrid Farnsworth, Lance Reddick as Agent Phillip Broyles, Blair Brown as Massive Dynamic executive Nina Sharp, and Kirk Acevedo as Agent Charlie Francis. Acevedo's character was killed off in the season's fourth episode, though at the time Pinkner and Wyman hinted of the actor's possible return later in the season. Acevedo returned to guest star in the season finale as the parallel universe version of Charlie Francis. Acevedo was also featured in "Unearthed", a special episode that was filmed during the first season, but aired as the eleventh episode of the second season.
#### Recurring cast
The second season marked a large number of recurring guest appearances. Michael Cerveris played September/The Observer, a mysterious man that observes important events and appeared in every episode of the season, often merely in brief glimpses. Further Observers were revealed, including August (Peter Woodward) and December (Eugene Lipinski). Ryan McDonald portrayed Massive Dynamic scientist Brandon Fayette, while its founder, Dr. William Bell was played by Leonard Nimoy, despite the actor's recent retirement. Thomas Jerome Newton, one of the season's main villains, was played by Sebastian Roché. Kevin Corrigan portrayed Samuel Weiss, a mysterious man who helps Olivia recover from her injuries. Ari Graynor appeared as Olivia's sister Rachel Dunham, while Lily Pilblad played Rachel's daughter and Olivia's niece Ella Blake. Orla Brady played Walter's wife Elizabeth Bishop. A new FBI agent, Amy Jessup, was portrayed by Meghan Markle. Roger Cross appeared as a shapeshifter. Former Cortexiphan subjects James Heath and Nick Lane were played by Omar Metwally and David Call, respectively. Karen Holness appeared as Broyles' ex-wife Diane, and Clark Middleton played rare book seller Edward Markham. Philip Winchester appeared as Fauxlivia's boyfriend Frank Stanton, while Seth Gabel played Agent Lincoln Lee from the parallel universe, both in the finale. J. R. Bourne played Agent Edwards, and Gerard Plunkett appeared as Senator James Van Horn.
Further notable guest stars included Andrew Airlie, Stefan Arngrim, Demore Barnes, Jenni Blong, Pascale Hutton, Ravil Isyanov, Ravi Kapoor, Alice Kremelberg, Diane Kruger, Quinn Lord, Tzi Ma, Stephen McHattie, Jennifer Missoni, Cameron Monaghan, Michael O'Neill, Geoff Pierson, Martha Plimpton, Paul Rae, John Savage, Peter Weller, and Craig Robert Young.
## Reception
### Ratings and broadcast
Fringe's first season ended with an average of 9.96 million viewers, and among the season's new series, it was the first rated show for adults 18–49. On May 4, 2009, a week before the season one finale, Fox renewed Fringe for a second season, giving it a full season pick-up of 22 episodes. The network's president of entertainment, Kevin Reilly, explained "Fringe proved to be a notable addition to our schedule all season and it really has fans buzzing as it builds to a fantastic season finale."
Later in May, Fox announced Fringe would be moving from Tuesdays to Thursdays for the second season, to be aired in the competitive 9:00 pm timeslot. Kevin Reilly explained the move, "The door is more open on this night than it has been in a long time. Fringe is a real alternative to both [Grey's and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation]." However, after a perceived "healthy" first season, the second season premiere was watched by an estimated 7.817 million viewers. Ratings for the season continued to decline, culminating in 5.68 million viewers watching the finale. Fringe's second season ended with an average of 6.252 million viewers per episode and a 2.3 ratings share for adults 18–49, causing the series to finish in 79th place out of all the season's network television shows. However, Fringe and its lead-in, Bones, did help the network increase 52% among adults aged 18–49 and 65 percent among total viewers from the same night the previous year. Despite its middling ratings, Fringe received a full-season renewal on March 6, 2010.
### Reviews
The second season of Fringe received generally very favorable reviews. At the beginning of the season, the series was featured on the September 18 cover of Entertainment Weekly, which promised to give readers a "deep dive into the gory, witty world of Fox's Fringe. On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has an approval rating of 81% with an average score of 8.2 out of 10 based on 16 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Fringe surpasses expectations in season two with stronger character development while maintaining its creepy sci-fi angle." Metacritic, a review aggregate website, gave the second season 75/100 based upon ten reviews, indicating a "generally favorable" reception. After viewing the first eight episodes, Entertainment Weekly columnist Ken Tucker gave the series an A−, calling it "one of the fastest, smartest, wittiest shows on television now... Fringe successfully mixes the crime genre with sci-fi, and cold conspiracies with heartfelt emotion." Peter Swanson from Slant Magazine gave Fringe two and a half stars after watching the first six episodes. He believed the second season had "floundered a little, stuck in that creative hinterland between the desire to grab new viewers and the need to build on the mythology of the show's universe." While Swanson understood the need to attract a larger audience, he thought the standalone episodes to be "less than stellar", as "they've yet to get scary, or even vaguely unsettling". Swanson did however find the war between two universes to be "particularly compelling", and expressed hope that "Fringe [would] find its footing."
In a review of the entire second season, IGN believed that despite the premiere's "great start", the first half contained "some rather lackluster episodes" that "made a lot of fans worried and got the rumors of cancellation circulating"; the second half however "showed that Fringe is still one of the best sci-fi series on TV". The A.V. Club agreed, and called the first half "entertaining" but "never essential" while noting a great improvement mid-way through the season, as "the show finally grounded its freak-of-the-week weirdness in deep sadness". The A.V. Club continued, "...The season-two episode "Peter" finally dramatized the moment that changed [Peter's] life, giving the series' overarching storyline a devastating emotional core, based in a father's love instead of in theoretical concepts. It only got better from there, as the series expanded its world by further making those concepts concrete. Fringe is that rare blend of inventive ideas, wild ambition, and unexpected soulfulness." The Seattle Post-Intelligencer believed that by the end of the season "Fringe had truly found its footing, doing daring, experimental episodes like the musical "Brown Betty"... and heartbreaking stand alone episodes, like "White Tulip", (which might be my favorite hour of television this year that wasn't Lost-related)."
In particular, critics highlighted the season premiere "A New Day in the Old Town" as well as regular episodes "Peter" and "White Tulip", and the season finale "Over There". The main three cast members' performances were praised, and various critics noted the series continued the sense of humor seen in the first season. Fringe's second season was chosen for a number of 2010 "best of television" lists, including The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Digital Spy, the New York Post, The Daily Beast, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, AOL's TV Squad, as well as IGN, which named Fringe the best sci-fi series of 2010, beating fellow nominees Lost, Caprica, and Stargate Universe.
### Awards and nominations
At the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards, actor Joshua Jackson and actress Anna Torv submitted their work in the second season for consideration in the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series categories, respectively. Actors John Noble, Lance Reddick, Kirk Acevedo, and actress Blair Brown submitted their work for consideration in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series categories, respectively. The second season of Fringe was submitted for consideration in the Outstanding Drama Series category but failed to garner a nomination. The failure of the series to garner any major category nominations at the Emmys was perceived as a notable snub by many media outlets.
The second season received nominations for Sound Editing at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards and at the Golden Reel Awards. The season's sole musical episode, "Brown Betty", received a nomination for Short Form Musical In Television at the Golden Reel Awards. Noble, Torv, and guest actor Leonard Nimoy were nominated at the 2010 Saturn Awards, with Torv and Nimoy winning in their respective categories. Noble also received a nomination at the 2010 Satellite Awards, but lost to Dexter's John Lithgow.
## Home video releases
The second season of Fringe was released on DVD and Blu-ray in region 1 on September 14, 2010, in region 2 on September 27, 2010 and in region 4 on November 10, 2010. The sets includes all 22 episodes (plus an unaired episode) of season two on a 6-disc DVD set and a 4-disc Blu-ray set presented in anamorphic widescreen. Special features on the sets include four commentary tracks—"Momentum Deferred" with Jill Risk, Matthew Pitts, Danielle Dispaltro, Justin Doble and Charles Scott IV; "Peter" with John Noble, Blair Brown and Damian Holbrook; "Brown Betty" with Tanya Swerling, Billy Gottlieb, Chris Tilton and Jay Worth; and "Over There, Part 2" with Jeff Pinkner, J. H. Wyman and Akiva Goldsman. Episodic behind-the-scene featurettes include "Analyzing the Scene" on six episodes, "Dissected Files: Unaired Scenes" on select episodes and "Unusual Side Effects: Gag Reel". Other featurettes include "In the Lab with John Noble and Prop Master Rob Smith" and "Beyond the Pattern: The Mythology of Fringe". The unaired episode from season one, "Unearthed", is presented as a special feature, separate from the other episodes. |
36,000,277 | Reckoning (Smallville) | 1,171,683,229 | null | [
"2006 American television episodes",
"Smallville episodes",
"Television episodes about funerals",
"Television episodes about multiple time paths",
"Television episodes about time travel",
"Television episodes set in the Arctic"
] | "Reckoning" is the twelfth episode of the fifth season of the superhero television series Smallville and the hundredth episode of the overall series. It originally aired on The WB in the United States on January 26, 2006, and on E4 in the United Kingdom on March 27 the same year. The episode was written by Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson, and directed by Greg Beeman. The series follows the adventures of the young Clark Kent (Tom Welling) in the town of Smallville, Kansas, before he becomes Superman. In this episode, Clark reveals his secret to Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk), but there are consequences. Jonathan Kent (John Schneider) and Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) learn the results of the senatorial election and the life of someone Clark loves is taken from him.
There were originally two potential plotlines for the episode before it was decided that one of the main characters would be killed. This concept was positively received by studio executives. Schneider also approved of the idea, and compared his departure to that of John Wayne in The Cowboys. Jonathan Kent's death was used to emphasize the theme that Clark has to accept the consequences of his decisions. So as to keep Jonathan Kent's death a secret, the script was given to fewer people, and the network issued promotional trailers that featured the possible deaths of both Lana and Jonathan.
Upon its premiere, "Reckoning" earned a Nielsen household rating of 2.2, and was watched by approximately 6.28 million viewers in the United States, along with an estimated 375,000 viewers in the United Kingdom. The episode received generally positive reviews from commentators, who felt that Jonathan's death was both emotional and pivotal. One faction of fans was unhappy with the choice of Jonathan, however, as they would have preferred Lana dying instead.
## Plot
Clark Kent (Tom Welling) sits in his loft holding a piece of coal, waiting for Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk) to arrive. Clark expresses fear that Lana is drifting away because of his secret, so he decides to reveal his powers to her. Clark takes her to the Kawatche Caves, where they are then transported to the Fortress of Solitude. Lana is in shock as she looks around at the Fortress. Clark then uses the coal to make a diamond ring and proposes marriage. Afterward, Clark reveals what he did to his parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent (John Schneider and Annette O'Toole), who tell him that he is old enough to make decisions on his own without the advice of his father. After some initial doubt, Lana returns to the Kent farm to accept Clark's proposal.
Lois Lane (Erica Durance) holds an election party for Jonathan at the Talon, where his supporters learn that he has defeated Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) in the Kansas State Senate race. Lana gets a call from Lex and meets him at his mansion. After seeing Lana's engagement ring, Lex realizes that Lana knows Clark's secret and reacts aggressively. Lana leaves, but Lex follows her in an attempt to apologize. Distracted, she does not see an approaching school bus; she strikes the bus with her car and is killed in the accident. Clark realizes that Lana's life is the price that Jor-El (Terence Stamp) promised to collect when he resurrected Clark in "Hidden". However, Jor-El provides a crystal that will allow Clark to reset the day, but warns him that the universe will find someone else's life to exchange for Lana's. When Clark takes the crystal, he is sent back to the moment that Lana appeared in his barn. This time, Clark decides not to reveal his secret. Clark's hesitation leads to the two having a fight. Lana, distraught, tells Clark that she needs "a break" from their relationship. Upset, Clark goes to Metropolis and tells Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack) everything, including how he had already lived the day, and his proposal to Lana. Chloe promises to keep an eye on Lana to prevent her from dying once more.
At the election party, Lana arrives with Chloe, but she once again leaves again when Lex calls. This time Lex kisses her when he learns of her fight with Clark, which causes Lana to leave. Like before, Lex pursues Lana, but this time Clark arrives in time to stop the bus. Jonathan goes to the farm after receiving a mysterious call during the party, and is greeted by Lionel Luthor (John Glover). Lionel insinuates he knows Clark's secret and shows a picture to Jonathan, which causes Jonathan to begin punching Lionel in anger. Jonathan dismisses Lionel and laboriously walks away, breathing heavily. Martha and Clark drive up and catch him as he has a heart attack. After taking a final look at his family, Jonathan dies in the arms of Martha and Clark. At Jonathan's funeral, all of Clark's close friends attend, as well as the Luthors. When the funeral is over, Clark picks up a handful of dirt and sprinkles it into his father's grave.
## Production
### Writing
Originally, the writers developed two potential plotlines for the episode: one in which Clark and Lana would get married, and another in which one of Clark's parents would die. The producers eventually chose only to kill one of the parents. The producers also debated the idea of other characters dying, but realized that none would have as much resonance as one of Clark's parents. Once the basic plot was decided, a group of Smallville writers used whiteboards to flesh out the story, and the details were arranged. After the main story line was developed, the supervising producers presented it to several of the executive vice presidents at The WB Television Network. The executives enjoyed the story: Michael Roberts, a senior executive, called the episode's plot "great" and noted that "the conceit is really cool".
According to writers Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson, "Reckoning" had been chosen as the episode's title before the script had been finalized. Peterson explained that the theme revolved around the idea that "you reap what you sow". This idea was an expansion of the theme from "Hidden", in which Clark was resurrected by his biological father Jor-El, only to be informed that the life of someone he loves would be exchanged in the future as payment for bringing Clark back. Peterson expounded further that the plot of the episode would show that "Clark is not God".
According to Souders, Jonathan Kent's death had been requested by executive producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar at the "beginning of the season", and that the idea was specifically planned to be featured in the show's 100th episode. Gough explained that the reason Jonathan Kent was chosen to die was because "going into season five, this is the year the boy becomes the man, so at some point the mentor/father figure has to die, in order for Clark to ultimately step up and really embrace his destiny". Schneider was happy with how the show wrote Jonathan Kent's death, arguing that his character exited the show "like a hero". Furthermore, he drew comparisons to the death of John Wayne's character Wil Anderson in The Cowboys (1972), arguing that both were examples of "empowering death[s]". Originally, a scene had been shot featuring Clark bringing his father's dead body to the Fortress of Solitude, but the scene was ultimately cut because, according to Gough: "It was something that sounded great on paper, but it felt like a bit of a stutter step in the episode". Gough later called the scene "morbid".
Once the rough script was formulated it was sent to Gough and Millar for additional notes. Next, drafts were sent to the production studio and the network, who also made notes. Finally, Souders and Peterson re-wrote the episode; the script went through 10 drafts. The final version was finished "two-and-a-half [to] three weeks" before production began. Normally a script for a Smallville episode would go to about 40 different people, including "sets, props, and wardrobe", but because the episode featured the death of a major character, the production staff and writers kept it "top secret". In fact, the script for the episode was printed on red paper in an attempt to keep it "under wraps".
### Filming
Director Greg Beeman found shooting the episode difficult because he had recently lost his father; he noted that he left from his funeral to go to Vancouver to direct the episode and thus "the emotions were very poignant" for him. Souders said that the production staff wanted the climactic scene of Lana's death to be a "big event". Originally, the show's producers wanted the car accident to be caused by a train. However, the show was not able to afford the special effects to pull the scene off, and so, the sequence was re-written to feature a bus crash. Souders noted that if the show had been unable to afford the bus wreck, it would have been re-written into a "little car wreck". The Lana's entire sequence death was choreographed by Christopher Sayour—series stunt coordinator and Welling's stunt double. Sayour described the scene as "important to me and important to a lot of people". The car crash sequence itself was actually a collage of several different shots. First, Kreuk was filmed driving a car on a process trailer with a mounted camera. A separate shot was filmed with a stunt double driving a lead car that was attached to a dummy car driving down a road at high speed. A bus was then driven in a perpendicular direction. The dummy car was attached with a detonator so that when the bus hit it, it would detach and not pull the lead car with it, and the timing for the crash was practiced several times during rehearsals. Finally, after the car was smashed by the bus, Kreuk was positioned on the ground to give the effect that she was actually in the car wreck.
During filming, artificial snow had to be continuously shoveled on the sets because the cast and crew kept trampling through it. Steve Oben, the costume set supervisor for the series, jokingly called the Fortress of Solitude the "Fortress of Styrofoam" and explained that a huge hurdle for the scenes in the fortress was to make sure that the synthetic snow would not stick to the actors during filming.
## Broadcast and reception
"Reckoning" originally aired in the United States on January 26, 2006 on The WB. The network promoted the episode with videos of "snowy coffins" suggesting that either Lana or Jonathan would die. The episode earned a Nielsen rating of 2.2, meaning that roughly 2.2 percent of all television-equipped households were tuned in to the episode. It was viewed by 6.28 million viewers and ranked as the seventy-first most–watched episode of the week. The episode was the second-most watched fifth season episode, after the earlier entry, "Aqua", which was seen by 6.40 million viewers. It aired in the United Kingdom on E4 on March 27 the same year and reached 375,000 viewers, making it the fourth most–watched program that week.
"Reckoning" received mostly positive reviews from commentators. Various critics felt that the death of Jonathan Kent was a poignantly emotional choice, although others expressed their desire that Lang would have died. Michael Ausiello from TV Guide wrote positively of the episode, despite his admission that he was not a fan of Smallville. Vic Holtreman from Screenrant gave the episode a largely positive review and called it "a great episode overall". He called the scenes leading up to the funeral "quite moving" and noted that the loss of Jonathan Kent was a blow, not only for the series' main characters, but also for the audience itself. Omar Gallaga from Television Without Pity gave the episode a B– and wrote that the death of Jonathan Kent "still stings". Chris Carabott from TV Fanatic named the episode the second best Smallville episode (coming after ninth season entry "Absolute Justice"), and he wrote that "the death of Jonathan Kent is one of the most pivotal moments" of Smallville. Carabott also opined that the ramifications of the episode helped to "shape [Clark into] the man he has become". Michael Duffy, in the chapter "Sacrifice or Salvation? Smallville's Heroic Survival amid Changing Television Trends" of the book called The Smallville Chronicles: Critical Essays on the Television Series, called the episode "momentous". Furthermore, he argued that the presence of clips at Jonathan's funeral from "Reckoning" in the eighth season premiere "Odyssey" helped to "subtly resituate and creatively reboot the Smallville universe" during the show's later life.
The production staff for Smallville were very happy with the finished result. Gough and Millar wrote that the episode was a "tour de force of writing, directing, and acting". Allison Mack called the entry "thrilling and exciting". Producer Rob Maier was particularly proud of the final cut, noting that "the highlight of season five was the hundredth episode "Reckoning". It was a remarkable show". Welling, however, found that Schneider's departure from the series was "bittersweet". |
11,379,772 | Mérens horse | 1,144,129,542 | Breed of horse | [
"Horse breeds",
"Horse breeds originating in France",
"Horse breeds originating in Spain"
] | The Mérens, Cheval de Mérens or Caballo de Merens (), still occasionally referred to by the older name of Ariégeois pony, is a small, rustic horse native to the Pyrenees and Ariégeois mountains of southern France, where the river Ariège flows, and northern Spain, near Andorra. Two general types, a small, light traditional mountain horse and a taller, sportier modern type, are found. Always black in color, Mérens must meet strict physical standards in order to be registered in the stud book. The breed is known for its sure-footedness on mountain terrain, as well as for its endurance, hardiness and docility. The French breed registry organizes regional offices, and partners with other national organizations in Europe to preserve and promote the breed. The organization enforces rigorous selection of breeding stock, with a goal of increasing quality in the breed. In the past, the Mérens was used for farm work, draft work and as pack horses. Today it is mainly used as a saddle horse, although some members of the breed have been successful in carriage driving. Many Mérens are taken on an annual transhumance (seasonal migration), in which they are moved higher in the mountains during the summer and into the valleys for the winter. An old practice, it fell into disfavor, but has recently re-emerged.
Thought to have originated in prehistoric times, the exact early history of the Mérens remains a mystery. Theories on its origins include descent from Iberian horses, similar to many regional mountain horses, or possibly Oriental horses brought to the area by settlers from the east. Small black horses from the area of Ariège have been recorded as early as the time of Julius Caesar, as well as being associated with Charlemagne. They pulled artillery for Napoleon's Grand Army, as well as being used by farmers, dock workers, miners and smugglers moving goods through the Pyrenees mountains. They were frequently seen at local horse fairs, and were used to breed mules in a cross with Catalan donkeys. By the end of the 19th century, they had gained a reputation as light cavalry horses. At the same time, however, uncontrolled crossbreeding led to a decline in the purebred population, and in 1908 the local agricultural society was put in charge of the breed. The breed registry was created in 1933, and in 1948 the first stud book was created under the control of the French National Stud.
In the second half of the 20th century, the population sharply declined, as mechanization transferred work in cavalry and agriculture to machines. By the 1970s, the Mérens was on the verge of extinction, with only 40 horses registered in the stud book. The breed was saved by members of the hippie movement, who re-settled in the Ariège mountains, boosting the local economy and restarting breeding programs. The Mérens also benefited from a new surge in popularity in riding horses, and between 1975 and 1985 its population rebounded, leading the breeding program to be considered an example for the conservation of rare breeds. The herd size remains relatively small, however, and one genetic study considers the traditional type of the breed to be endangered and recommends that efforts should be focused on its preservation.
## Naming
The Mérens was traditionally bred in the village of Mérens-les-Vals in the department of Ariège. The French National Stud calls the breed the "Mérens", a name which was officially mentioned for the first time in 1866. Laetitia Bataille, a French horse breeding specialist, considers the use of "Mérens" incorrect, and prefers the names "Ariégeois", "Cheval de Mérens" or "Mérengais". Jean-Louis Savignol, a traditionalist breeder, prefers the name "Méringais", saying that "Mérens" refers to the village and the valley in which it is located, not the horse breed.
## Characteristics
The traditional Mérens is a small, light horse, well adapted to the mountains, while modern Mérens are increasingly more sporting in style. The breed is known for its elegance, and in 2005 was ranked as one of the 23 most beautiful horse breeds by the French magazine Cheval Pratique. Since 1948, Mérens horses must meet certain physical standards in order to be admitted to the stud book. In this time, the admission criteria have changed several times. Currently, the general appearance of a Mérens is strong and compact, with energetic movement. The Mérens, like many mountain horses, is calm, docile and hardworking. The report of a comprehensive study on the heritability of the breed's temperament was published in Equ'idée in 2010. It is a versatile breed, and very hardy, able to live all year outside without suffering from the weather. Mérens are known for their endurance, agility and sure-footedness. They require very little care, and can survive on poor food, even when working. They are resistant to cold, but react poorly to heat. Mérens foals are often born in the snow, without human intervention, but are usually handled and accustomed to humans from an early age. They show increased resistance to the anticoagulant properties of some varieties of fern, the consumption of which can cause bloody sweats and blood in the urine in other horses.
The breed standard for the Mérens gives an ideal height of and a weight of 400 to 500 kilograms (880 to 1,100 lb). The desired size for stallions is and 14.1 hands for mares. Horses smaller than can be considered ponies for some equestrian competitions. Horses bred in the valleys and plains are larger than those bred in the mountains; the latter average around . The coat is always black, but may have a reddish cast during the winter. Foals may be born black, silver-grey or coffee-colored, but become black as they grow. Dappling on the body is desirable.
The head has a straight or slightly concave facial profile, a flat forehead, and wide, short ears. A distinguishing characteristic of the breed is a "beard" of hair growing below the cheeks. Small white markings are allowed on the face, but never on the legs. The neck is of medium length in the modern Mérens, and often shorter and broader in the traditional version. The shoulders are sloping and moderately long, and the chest wide and deep. Pronounced withers are favored in those Mérens used for pack horses, but as with most mountain horses, many traditional Mérens have wide, flat withers. The girth is deep. The back is generally shorter in modern Mérens than in the traditional version, where horses with long, strong backs were preferred for use as pack horses. The croup is well-muscled and the tail low-set. The legs are strong and solid, with well-defined joints. They tend to be quite short, and some have hocks set too close together, a recurrent fault in mountain horses. The feet are large and well-formed, allowing the horses to go without shoes. There is little feathering on the lower legs.
## Registration
In France, the breed is organized by SHERPA (Syndicat hippique des éleveurs de la race pyrénéenne ariégeoise/Union of Horse Breeders of the Ariège Pyrenees) in La Bastide-de-Sérou, which has about 400 members and 600 horses in the stud book. SHERPA unites eleven regional offices whose purpose is to organize Mérens breeders and enthusiasts. The role of SHERPA is to decide the overall direction of the breed in partnership with the French National Stud. It promotes the Mérens at fairs, national shows and international exhibitions, as well as publishing newsletters and breeder lists. SHERPA also organizes the annual breed show in Bouan.
Only purebred Mérens may be registered in the breed stud book. The selection of stallions is rigorous, based on tests at the age of three. The breeding goal is to produce horses with the ideal conformation and good character. The gaits are subject to particular observation in all stallions, and during the three-year-old inspections, they must perform a dressage test, a cross-country jumping test, a test on the longe line and a physical inspection. The Mérens has one of the most stringent inspection procedures, and breeders aim to achieve a steady increase in the quality of the breed. Mares are evaluated during a breed competition organized by the French National Stud.
French breeding of the Mérens is divided between two schools of thought. The first is traditional breeders seeking to preserve the original type, that of a light draft horse living high in the mountains year-round and retaining the hardiness for which the breed is known. The second comes from the conversion of the Mérens to a leisure horse in the 1980s, and aims to transform the physical type of the breed into a more sports-oriented horse to ensure the survival of the breed. This dichotomy has become a source of tension between farmers and users of the breed.
Several countries besides France have populations of Mérens, and a few have breed registries and stud books that are recognized by the French. In Italy, the Mérens is the only foreign breed among the "breeds of limited distribution" recognised by the AIA, the national breeders' association. Mérens are found mostly in northwestern Italy, in the provinces of Cuneo and Turin, but has spread to other mountain regions such as the valleys of Bergamo and Trento. The Italian breed registry for the Mérens is based in Cuneo. A Belgian non-profit organization has been organizing the breed in that country since June 2005, and was recognized as an official stud book by the Belgian Ministry of Agriculture in August 2006. An agreement has been signed with the French breed registry to recognize the Belgian stud book as a daughter organization. Mérens are also present in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany, where there are recognized stud books and active breeding populations. There are some Mérens in the Czech Republic and members of the breed have also been exported to India and Tunisia.
## Transhumance
The department of Ariège is known for the annual transhumance (seasonal migration) of cattle, sheep and horses, including many members of the Mérens breed. Each year, in June, hundreds of horses are moved to summer pastures at around 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) in altitude, where they live in a semi-feral state, traveling on steep mountain paths and weathering storms and other climatic variations. In October, they return to the valleys for the winter. An old tradition, the transhumance fell out of favor, but has been reintroduced to Ariège by the association Autrefois en Couserans. Since 2000, the association has worked with local horse breeders to promote the return to the annual practice. Around 500 Mérens make the transhumance each year. Herds are usually led by an experienced mare marked with a bell, as is done with cattle. A stallion can accompany the mares with foals to maintain cohesion of the herd and prevent it from mixing with other herds on the mountain slopes. The behavior of transhumant herds is midway between that of feral horses and domesticated horses who are around humans year-round. Some horses, raised high in the mountains, stay there year-round and do not perform the transhumance.
## History
The history of the Mérens is closely linked to its homeland in the Pyrenees, as evidenced by the many myths and legends in which it plays a role. The origins of the Mérens are very old, and are commonly said to be lost in the mists of time. It is native to the upper valley of Ariège, near Andorra. The direct ancestor of the Mérens was probably in this valley during the Quaternary Period, approximately 15,000 years ago. These wild horses probably moved to the mountains to escape global warming that accompanied the end of the last glacial period.
The physical characteristics of the Mérens are the result of the harsh mountain environment where they live, and they are reminiscent of the horses in the cave drawings at Niaux, made some 13,000 years ago. These images depict animals with dense coats and a skull shaped like the modern Mérens, with a beard-like protrusion of hair under the jawbone.
The Mérens may be of Iberian origin, as are most breeds from the area of the Pyrenees. It resembles the Norwegian Dole Gudbrandsdal and the British Fell and Dales ponies. Unlike the latter, the Mérens has never been crossed with the Friesian horse. Another theory of origin for the Mérens is based on the straight or concave facial profile (which distinguishes them from the convex-profiled Iberian horses), and asserts that they are descended from Oriental horses brought to Ariège by settlers from the east. With the isolation of their mountain homeland, the Mérens has undergone very little intermingling with foreign breeds.
### Antiquity and Middle Ages
Julius Caesar mentions small black horses that resemble the Mérens in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico (Commentaries on the Gallic War), when discussing the defeat of Crassus by the Sotiates and their cavalry. Historian Paul Prunet was the first to link the animals discussed by Caesar to the Mérens, although the relationship has not been definitely established. The location of the Sotiates is the subject of controversy, with some authors placing them in the district of Nerac and others near Foix. The Mérens may have been used as a pack animal by the Romans, who may have taken some of the animals with them when they left. The small black horse from the Pyrenees is described throughout antiquity.
There are also several mentions of what may be Mérens during the Middle Ages. They have been associated with Charlemagne, and a Carolingian statue showing Charlemagne on a small horse has been examined, and shown that the animal resembles a Mérens, standing no more than at the shoulder. The legend of the founding of L'Hospitalet-près-l'Andorre depicts a traveler who, exhausted by the cold, kills his horse and buries himself in the steaming bowels, swearing that he will build a small hospital in the place if he survives.
The local Cathars held a special place in their religion for horses, especially through their belief in the transmigration of souls. There was also a belief in Pamiers that knights took their horses with them when they died. In the 12th century, the Cathar princess Esclarmonde of Foix climbed to the fortress of Château de Montségur on the back of a small, sure-footed black horse. In the 14th century, the same small black horses are mentioned as accompanying the armies of Gaston III, Count of Foix.
### 18th and 19th centuries
Horses from Ariège were requisitioned for Napoleon's Grand Army during his Russian campaign. They were used mainly to pull artillery, as were most horses of this type from French territory at the beginning of the 19th century. A popular legend has them becoming famous during the crossing of the Berezina River during the Battle of Berezina.
The Mérens has long been used as a delivery and courier horse, as well as being used by local farmers. It has also been used by the winemakers of Languedoc, gardeners and dock workers, as well as continuing to be used by French armies, who appreciated its endurance. The breed was used in the mines, both under saddle and in harness. It was used by smugglers moving goods through the mountains between France and Spain, mainly carrying wood and minerals, and was known for its endurance and sense of direction.
Mérens horses were sold at the Tarascon-sur-Ariège horse fair, and were popular with merchants from the large cities. The breed was sometimes called "Tarasconnais", after the town, and was famous for the high quality of its legs and the ability to survive on poor food. It was used to breed mules, and the Pyrenees mule was derived from a cross between Catalan donkeys and horses of the Breton, Mérens and other breeds. Before World War I, almost 1,000 Pyrenees mules were born annually in the Ariège department. The first breed show was organized in 1872. By the end of the 19th century, horses from the Pyrenees were known for their use as light cavalry. They were praised for their agility, sure-footedness, robust constitutions, and endurance, a result of their semi-feral existence in the Pyrenees mountains.
### 20th century
Starting the late 19th century, uncontrolled crossbreeding created a decline in the population of purebred Mérens. By the early 20th century, some breeders in L'Hospitalet and Mérens-les-Vals began to work against these crossings with outside breeds and bred only horses with conformation similar to the original Mérens. These breeders wanted to keep alive the traditional Mérens, which they valued for its hardiness and versatility. In 1908, control of breeding was given to the President of the Société d’Agriculture de l’Ariège (Agricultural Society of Ariège ), Gabriel Lamarque, who was dedicated to the preservation of the breed. In 1933, the Syndicat d'élevage du Mérens (Breeding Society of Mérens) was created, and in 1948 the first stud book was created under the control of the French National Stud.
In 1946, the French army ceased to use the Mérens for drawing artillery in the mountains, and this corresponded to the beginning of the decline of the breed. The population fell dramatically during the second half of the 20th century, due to the modernization and mechanization of transport and agriculture. In 1950 in Senegal, the Mérens was used in attempts to create a horse tougher than the native M'Bayar, but the breeding program was not enough to significantly increase the Mérens population. The use of the Mérens in agriculture continued into the 1970s, and like many French draft breeds, it was also bred for slaughter to produce horse meat. The mountains of Ariège acted as a sanctuary, preventing the Mérens, as well as other breeds such as Gascon cattle and Tarasconnaise sheep, from disappearing completely. By the early 1970s, however, the Mérens was on the verge of extinction.
By the early 1970s, there remained only 40 Mérens horses registered in the breed studbook. The breed was saved from extinction by utopian communities believing in an ecological apocalypse. As part of the hippie movement, people wanting to live on the fringe of society settled in the small villages of Ariège. They boosted the local economy, including encouraging the resumption of the breeding of Mérens. At the same time, the story of the semi-feral horse Bonbon became a local phenomenon. This Mérens, orphaned following an accident, was raised on bottle-fed goat milk. He was then sold to a horse-dealer before later returning to his homeland and winning prizes as a stallion. He died at twenty, having returned to his herd high in the mountains.
Meanwhile, the Mérens breed was revived as a fashionable animal of leisure by Lucien Lafont de Sentenac, a national expert in horse breeding. He moved the efforts of farmers towards breeding sport pony-style animals, and the breed, originally called the "Mérens horse", was renamed the "Mérens pony" for commercial and administrative reasons. With good breeding management and promotion, the population numbers of the breed gradually recovered. Between 1975 and 1985, the number of Mérens doubled from 2,000 to 4,000 animals, and its rescue is considered a good example of saving an endangered breed.
In 1977, the Mérens was introduced to the island of Réunion, where its breeding is now part of the local economy. It is used as a saddle horse and for hauling. The breed is also used for equestrian tourism on the mountains of the island, where it is particularly well suited for the steep terrain and climate, taking tourists into volcanic regions covered in ash.
A national center for the breeding of Mérens was open in 1990 by SHERPA to offer support for the preservation of the breed. The equestrian center includes a living museum for the presentation of the breed. In 1997, SHERPA offered a Mérens to then-Prime Minister of Britain Tony Blair. On January 1, 1998, the Mérens was removed from the classification of "pony" and returned to the category of "horse" by the French National Stud. In 2000, the Mérens breed was chosen by Jean-Louis Savignol to launch the first breeding farm for certified organic horses intended for leisure use rather than human consumption. The horses are fed a natural diet, dewormed with a mixture of garlic and clay, treated using a combination of homeopathy and osteopathy, and moved high into the mountains during the transhumance each year.
### Present
Today, Mérens closest to the original type and lifestyle are found in the valleys of the high mountains of the Pyrenees, near Andorra. The majority of Mérens breeding still takes place in Ariège, the traditional homeland of the breed. However, they can also be found in almost all regions of France, including the Alps, the Cévennes, the Centre, the Massif Central and the Île-de-France. Besides the annual breed show in Bouan, Mérens are also commonly seen at the Paris International Agricultural Show and other major horse shows.
The total herd size is relatively small. The population numbers stabilized somewhat at the beginning of the 21st century, with around 1500 broodmares, 150 active stallions and 500 births per year. In 2006, 455 new foals were registered, 1,051 mares and 89 stallions were listed as active breeding stock and there were 306 breeders, a term applied to anyone who has at least one active broodmare. In the same year, the Mérens made up 2 percent of total horses in France. A genetic study in 2008 considers the original type of the breed to be endangered. The author suggested that the Mérens should be a conservation priority in order to maintain the maximum genetic diversity among French horse breeds.
## Uses
In the past Mérens horses were used for farm work, particularly on steep or difficult terrain, as packhorses and for draft work in mining or hauling timber or sledges. Today, following breeding selection towards a slightly taller and livelier type, they are used principally as saddle horses, especially for trekking in mountainous areas; but have also proved successful in carriage driving. Some have been used for vaulting, dressage, show jumping and three-day eventing.
The Mérens is now considered a multi-purpose recreational horse that is also attached to the cultural identity of the Ariège region. They are used for leisure and competitive trail riding. They are consistently ranked in the French national competitive trail riding championships, and in 1998, a Mérens finished second in the European Championships. In 1998, Stéphane Bigot made a crossing of the Pyrenees on a Mérens. Many tourist facilities now offer guided trail rides through the mountains of Ariège on Mérens horses, with some centers having a stable consisting entirely of members of the breed.
Several equine therapy centers use the Mérens in their program. Other uses for the breed include various agricultural work, including logging, where sure-footed mountain horses can be used to access areas where equipment cannot go. Mounted police sometimes use the Mérens. A few are bred for their milk, which can be used in the manufacture of various products. |
1,220,730 | Mariah Carey (album) | 1,173,845,343 | null | [
"1990 debut albums",
"Albums produced by Ric Wake",
"Albums produced by Walter Afanasieff",
"Columbia Records albums",
"Mariah Carey albums"
] | Mariah Carey is the debut studio album by American singer Mariah Carey, released on June 12, 1990, by Columbia Records. Its music incorporates a range of contemporary genres with a mix of slow ballads and up-tempo tracks. Originally, Carey wrote four songs with Ben Margulies, which solely constituted her demo tape. After Carey was signed to Columbia, all four songs, after being altered and partially re-recorded, made the final cut for the album. Aside from Margulies, Carey worked with a range of professional writers and producers, all of whom were hired by Columbia CEO, Tommy Mottola. Mariah Carey featured production and writing from Rhett Lawrence, Ric Wake and Narada Michael Walden, all of whom were top record producers at the time. Together with Carey, they conceived the album and reconstructed her original demo tape.
Mariah Carey generally received positive reviews, with critics praising Carey's vocal performance and technique, but were ambivalent towards the songwriting. It became a commercial success, topping the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart for 11 consecutive weeks. Mariah Carey was certified nine-times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting shipments of nine million copies in the United States. The album experienced similar success in Canada, where it topped the charts and was certified seven times Platinum. Mariah Carey fared well in other worldwide territories, reaching the top ten in Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Worldwide, the album has sold more than 15 million copies.
Five singles were released from the album, four of which became number-one hits on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Her debut single, "Vision of Love" was chosen as the album's lead single, topping the charts in Canada, New Zealand and the United States. The song was critically lauded, and is regarded as one of the strongest debut singles by a female artist. With the following three singles, "Love Takes Time", "Someday" and "I Don't Wanna Cry" reaching number one in the U.S., Carey became the first artist since The Jackson 5 to have their first four singles top the charts in the United States.
## Background
In 1988, a 19-year-old Carey moved out of her mother's house in Long Island, and into a small apartment in Manhattan. She had a demo tape consisting of four songs, which she had written during her high school years with Ben Margulies. As 1988 unfolded, Carey, still without a record deal, struggled to draw the attention of record executives in New York. While working several jobs, she continued writing and producing music with Margulies, making changes and additions to the demo. After months of difficulty, Carey met with singer Brenda K. Starr, and soon began singing back-up for her. Eventually, Starr began hearing what she described as "glimpses" of Carey's voice throughout sessions, and noticed her "gifted voice". She realized Carey was capable of achieving success, but only needed help to break through into mainstream music.
One night, Starr took Carey to a record industry gala, attempting to convince a record label executive to listen her demo. Jerry L. Greenberg, president of Atlantic Records took notice of her. As Carey handed him the record, Tommy Mottola quickly grabbed the tape, insisting that he would deal with "the project". As Mottola got into his limousine later that evening, he played Carey's demo and quickly realized the talent that he had just discovered. He quickly returned to the event, but a discouraged Carey had already left.
After a week of tracking her down through Starr's management, Mottola got in touch with Carey and brought her over to Columbia Records. After meeting with Carey and her mother Patricia for the first time, Mottola said, "When I heard and saw Mariah, there was absolutely no doubt that she was in every way destined for super-stardom." After a few brief meetings, Carey was signed to Columbia in December 1988.
Mottola had assumed the top position at Sony, the parent label of Columbia, and began taking the company through various stages of change. One he felt was very important for the label's success was to discover a young and very talented female vocalist, to rival Whitney Houston from Arista Records, or a pop star to match Madonna, who was signed to Sire Records at the time. He felt that Carey represented both. Mottola's confidence in Carey led him to hire a range of talented and well-known musicians and songwriters to assist with Carey's demo, as well as to create new material. Among them were Ric Wake, Narada Michael Walden and Rhett Lawrence.
## Recording and composition
`Carey and Ben Margulies began writing prior to Carey's signing, and had composed over fourteen songs; seven of which earned a place on the album. Originally, Carey and Margulies planned to produce the entire album as well, an idea her label did not permit. On the album, Carey worked with a range of producers and writers, including from Ben Margulies, Rhett Lawrence, Narada Michael Walden, Ric Wake and Walter Afanasieff; the latter would continue working extensively with Carey on future projects. As production for the album began, Carey worked with Walden in New York, where they produced "I Don't Wanna Cry". While he described Carey as "very shy," he noted how professional she was for someone her age. Additionally, Carey wrote "There's Got to Be a Way" during her first recording session with Wake. During the session, they wrote four songs, but they only produced the latter song for the album. After flying to New York and working with Carey, Walden was astonished by her voice. Together, they collaborated on transforming many of the demo's songs into more commercial recordings, which took place in Tarpan Studios in San Rafael, California. For her work with Lawrence, Carey traveled to New York once again. In the studio, she presented him with the demo of "Vision of Love" which she had written with Margulies years prior. Lawrence saw "potential" in the song, but he did not think much of it in its early stages. He described the song's sound as having a "fifties sort of shuffle". According to Lawrence, Carey needed a more contemporary sound, so they met in the studio alongside Margulies and producer Chris Toland. They added a new arrangement to the original chord progression, while Carey changed the song's melody and key. Afterwards, Margulies added few drum notes to the arrangement, including additional guitar and bass notes.`
When Carey worked with Walden on "I Don't Wanna Cry", they worked on several other songs. Together, they decided to "slow down the tempo" and create a "crying type of ballad," one which according to him, featured a direct inspiration from gospel genres. After they completed the song, Lawrence noted how much of a perfectionist Carey was. He said that after finishing the song, she returned to the studio the following week, all in order to correct "one line" that troubled her. As one of the four original songs she gave to Mottola, "Someday" became Wake's favorite from the start, "I loved that song right from the beginning...Then Mariah called me one day and said 'I'd love to do it if you want to do it.' It was great, I'm glad she called me." During its recording, Carey revealed how the song came into existence. She had been working on the demo with Margulies in his studio. As he began playing different notes on the electric keyboard, Carey directed him on the chord changes, while providing the chorus, lyrics and melody. In "All in Your Mind", Carey does a great vocal performance, doing staccatos up to F7. According to the artist, her voice "split" while doing those ornaments. While she thought to remove it from the song's recording, Wake and Walden were very impressed by the vocal flips, claiming that it would fit in perfectly.
The debut album was completed and being mastered when Carey wrote "Love Takes Time" with Ben Margulies. Margulies said, "It was sort of a gospelish thing I was improvising, then we began working on it. It was on a work tape that we had...and we recorded a very quick demo. It was just a piano vocal demo – I played live piano, and she sang it." Carey was on a mini-tour of ten states, playing acoustically with a piano player and three back-up singers. While on a company plane, she played the demo of "Love Takes Time" for Columbia Records president Don Ienner. "All the important guys were on the plane," Margulies said. "Tommy Mottola, Ienner, and Bobby Colomby." Carey was told the song was a "career-maker," and that it had to go on the first album. She protested – her album was already being mastered, and she intended this ballad for her next release.
The demo was sent to producer Afanasieff. When Carey flew west to work with Narada Michael Walden on some tracks for her first album, Tommy Mottola and Don Ienner were impressed with Afanasieff's work and gave him an executive staff producer job with the label. "I guess to see if he made the right choice, (Tommy) called me up one day," remembers Afanasieff. "He said, 'We've got this Mariah Carey album done, but there's a song that she and Ben Margulies wrote that is phenomenal, and I want to try everything we can to put it on the album.' I said, 'What do you want me to do?' and he said, 'You only have a couple of days, but are you ready to cut it?' I couldn't believe the opportunity that it was. I'd never produced anything by myself up until that time."
The demo was very close to what Mottola wanted the finished product to be, according to Afanasieff. "We cut the song and the music and the basics in about a day – and the only reason is this deadline. It was do it or we were gonna miss out on the whole thing. We got the tape and recorded everything and we got on the plane and went to New York (and) did her vocals. She did all the backgrounds, practically sang all night...We came back to the studio that afternoon, and we had to fix one line very quickly, and then (engineer) Dana (Jon Chapelle) and I got back on the plane with the tape, went back to the studio in Sausalito, and mixed it. So it was a three-day process: a day and a half for music, kind of like a day for vocals, and a day for mixing."
Afanasieff heard from Columbia executives as soon as they received the mix. They wanted Carey's vocal a little louder, so a remix was quickly completed. The producer asked if the song would still make the debut album, and was told, "We're going to do our best."
On the first copies of the album that were printed, "Love Takes Time" was not listed on the cassette or compact disc liner notes, even though the song was on the cassette or CD itself. "(On) some of the original first copies of the record, they didn't have time to print the name of the song," Margulies laughs. "And so the song's on there, but it doesn't say that it's on there. It was a song that actually was strong enough to stop the pressing...I don't know if they had to throw away a few hundred copies."
## Promotion
Aside from the heavy marketing and promotional campaign held by Sony Music, Carey performed on several television programs and award ceremonies, stateside and throughout Europe. Carey's first televised appearance was at The Arsenio Hall Show, where she sang "Vision of Love" for the first time, on June 1, 1990. Four days after the performance, she appeared at the 1990 NBA Playoffs where she sang "America the Beautiful". Soon after, she performed "Vision of Love" back-to-back on both The Tonight Show and her second appearance at The Arsenio Hall Show. In September 1990, Carey appeared on Good Morning America where she performed an a cappella version of "Vision of Love," alongside the Billy T. Scott Ensemble. "Vision of Love" was performed on various other American television shows such as Saturday Night Live, Showtime at the Apollo, The Oprah Winfrey Show and the 1991 Grammy Awards, as well as European programs such as The Veronica Countdown (the Netherlands), Le monde est la vous (France), Kulan (Sweden) and Wogan (United Kingdom). Carey has performed "Vision of Love" on most of her tours, except her Angels Advocate Tour in 2010, where it was absent from the setlist.
Promotion for the album continued with Carey's follow-up singles. "Love Takes Time" was performed on The Arsenio Hall Show, Showtime at the Apollo and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, as well as Carey's debut showcase at The Tattoo Club. In Europe, "Love Takes Time" was also performed in Pop Formule (the Netherlands), Kulan (Sweden) and Des O'Connor Tonight (United Kingdom). The third single from Mariah Carey, "Someday", was performed at the 1991 American Music Awards which helped it reach number one in the United States. Carey's fourth single "I Don't Wanna Cry", reached the top of the Hot 100 without any immediate promotion, as Carey had not performed the song until her Music Box Tour in 1993. As promotion for Mariah Carey ended, Sony released a fifth single "There's Got to Be a Way", in the UK. Most of the album's singles were performed live throughout Carey's short Music Box Tour. Both "Vision of Love" and "I Don't Wanna Cry" were performed on Carey's Asian and European Daydream World Tour (1996).
### Singles
"Vision of Love" was the first single released from the album and became one of the most popular and critically praised songs of Carey's career. Additionally, "Vision of Love" is credited with bringing the use of melisma to the 1990s and inspiring various future talents. "Vision of Love" was nominated for three 1991 Grammy Awards: Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (which it won), Record of the Year and Song of the Year. The song received the Soul Train Music Award for Best R&B/Soul Single, Female and a Songwriter Award at the BMI Pop Awards. In the United States, it peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, during the week of August 2, 1990, staying atop the chart for four consecutive weeks. "Vision of Love" reached number one in Canada and New Zealand as well, and appeared within the top ten in Australia, Ireland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Aside from its chart success, the song was lauded by music critics. In a retrospective review on the album in 2005, Entertainment Weekly called the song "inspired" and complimented Carey's use of the whistle register in the song. Additionally, Rolling Stone said that "the fluttering strings of notes that decorate songs like 'Vision of Love', inspired the entire American Idol vocal school, for better or worse, and virtually every other female R&B singer since the nineties." Bill Lamb from About.com said that "'Vision of Love' is one of the best songs of Mariah's recording career [...] It is simply one of the most stunning debut releases ever by a pop recording artist."
"Love Takes Time" served as the album's second single, released on August 22, 1990. The song became Carey's second single to top the Billboard Hot 100. While the song achieved strong success stateside, "Love Takes Time" peaked at number two in Canada, it barely charted inside the top ten in New Zealand and outside the top 20 in Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. "Someday" (the album's third single) followed a similar pattern as "Love Takes Time," reaching number one in the US and Canada. In Australia, it peaked outside the top 40, and hit number 38 in France and the UK. "I Don't Wanna Cry", the album's fourth single, also topped the charts in the United States. The song became Carey's fourth chart topper in the US, finishing number 25 on Billboard's year-end chart. Aside from peaking at number two in Canada, it charted at number 49 in Australia. A fifth single, "There's Got to Be a Way", was released in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at number fifty-four.
## Critical reception
In a contemporary review, Entertainment Weekly wrote that Carey possessed an "astonishing vocal range and high ideals", but criticized the album's lyrical content. Robert Christgau was more critical in The Village Voice, unenthusiastically touching on the opera roots of Carey's mother while finding much of the material clueless about its love themes. Jan DeKnock from the Chicago Tribune was more impressed by the album, finding it abundant with "sparkling tracks" that showcase Carey's songwriting and production talents, particularly "Vanishing". Mariah Carey was nominated for the 1991 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, while "Vision of Love" received nominations in the categories of Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Carey won for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and also received the award for Best New Artist.
In The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), Arion Berger later wrote that "Carey debuted with an album of uplifting dance pop and R&B ballads, each song's composition co-credited to Carey and each providing an opportunity to unleash her wide vocal range." Ashley S. Battel from AllMusic found the record "extremely impressive" and described the songs as "smooth-sounding ballads and uplifting dance/R&B cuts" on an album that served "as a springboard for future successes". "Carey establishes a strong standard of comparison for other breakthrough artists of this genre", Battel concluded.
### Accolades
## Commercial performance
Mariah Carey entered the US Billboard 200 at number 80, and reached the top 20 in its fourth week. The album topped the chart in its 36th week, due to the success of "Someday" and then later Carey's exposure at the 33rd Annual Grammy Awards, and stayed there for 11 consecutive weeks; to date, it is the longest stay at number one in Carey's career. It remained in the top 20 for 65 weeks and on the Billboard 200 for 113 weeks. Mariah Carey was certified nine-times Platinum by the RIAA on December 15, 1999. The album has sold 4,885,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, which began counting sales after January 1, 1991. It became the best-selling album of 1991 in the United States. In Canada, the album peaked at number one on the Canadian RPM Albums Chart during the week of April 20, 1991. To date, Mariah Carey is certified seven-times Platinum by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA), denoting shipments of 700,000 copies.
During the week of September 15, 1990, Mariah Carey entered the UK Albums Chart at its peak of number six. After spending 40 weeks fluctuating in the chart, the album was certified Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), denoting shipments of 300,000 copies. In Sweden, the album debuted at number 29 during the week of August 1, 1990, before peaking at number eight on its fourth week, spending 16 weeks on the charts, and eventually being certified Platinum in the country. In the Netherlands, the album debuted at number 91 during the week of July 21, 1990, eventually peaking at number 6 on its tenth week, spending a total of 46 weeks on the charts and being certified Platinum. In Norway, the album debuted at number 19, and reached its peak at number four on its seventh week. Elsewhere in Europe, Mariah Carey reached the top-twenty in Switzerland; the top-thirty in Germany and Finland; and the top-forty in Hungary.
The album peaked at number six in Australia, where it went 2× Platinum and finished sixth on the ARIA Charts year-end top 50 albums chart of 1991. In New Zealand, the album debuted at number 12 during the week of September 2, 1990, before peaking at number four two weeks later, spending a total of 57 weeks on the charts and being certified 4× Platinum in the country, where it finished 12th on the Recorded Music NZ year-end chart of 1991.
Worldwide sales of the album stand at 15 million copies.
## Legacy and influence
Since its release, Mariah Carey has been hailed as being a pop and R&B classic, with Trevor Anderson of Billboard describing it as jumpstarting "one of the most successful stories in pop music history". Commenting on the success of the album in the "particularly saturated female pop landscape in 1990", Anderson further states that the record helped Carey carve a place as the foremost musician of her generation.
The widespread influence of Carey's vocal delivery on the album, particularly "Vision of Love", has also been noted by critics. Writing for Complex, Elena Bergeron described the record as "the album that launched a million runs", stating that it "gave an entire generation of would-be divas something to sing into their hairbrushes". R&B singer Beyoncé said that she began doing vocal "runs" after listening to "Vision of Love" for the first time, stating that it inspired her to follow a path into the music industry. Pop singer Christina Aguilera has also stated how Carey's album had the biggest influence on her vocal stylings and delivery. According to the Pier Dominguez, author of Christina Aguilera: A Star is Made, Carey's carefully choreographed image of a grown woman struck a chord with Aguilera, whose influence also stemmed from the fact that both were of mixed heritage.
Carey's two wins at the 33rd Annual Grammy Awards was also commented upon by critics, particularly in regards to the lip-syncing controversy surrounding Milli Vanilli the prior year. Speaking to the press after winning Best New Artist, Carey stated: "With all the controversy surrounding this award, I hope to bring it back to a real singer-songwriter category, where everyone else following me can be as proud as I am to receive this honor". The singer's performance of "Vision of Love" at the ceremony has consistently been ranked as one of the greatest award show performances of all time. Andrew Unterberger of Billboard described it as showcasing Carey "in full beast mode, tracing her unprecedented vocal runs with her hands and occasionally running out of room in the process; not excessively showy but unafraid of demonstrating". Unterberger further commented on Carey's exposure to the wider pop landscape following her debut at the award show, commenting on how "Mariah's self-titled debut LP shot to the top of the Billboard 200 and stayed there for 11 weeks" in the wake of her appearance.
The singer's outspokenness about her own multi-racial heritage at the time of her debut's release has also been commented upon by both music critics and sociologists alike. As noted by Professor Michael Eric Dyson in his book, Between God and Gangsta Rap: Bearing Witness to Black Culture, Carey's "refusal to bow to public pressure" surrounding the nature of her ethnicity exposed "the messy, sometimes arbitrary, politics of definition and categorisation" and "the racial contradictions at the centre of contemporary pop music" at the time. Sika Dagbovie-Mullins of Florida Atlantic University further credited Carey for breaking down existent racial barriers between pop and R&B, hailing her being a "multiracial heroine" for generations of mixed-race singers and songwriters.
## Track listing
Credits adapted from the album's liner notes
Notes
- signifies an additional producer
## Personnel
- Mariah Carey – vocals, background vocals, arranger, vocal arrangements
- Ben Margulies – drums, keyboards, programming, arranger
- Narada Michael Walden – drums, arranger, additional production, rhythm arrangement
- Ren Klyce – Linn drums, Fairlight programming
- Joe Franco – drums, percussion, drum programming
- Ric Wake – drum programming, additional arrangement
- Omar Hakim – drums
- Jimmy Rip – guitars
- Chris Camozzi – acoustic guitar, electric guitar
- David Williams – guitars
- Michael Landau – guitars
- Vernon Reid – guitars
- Nile Rodgers – guitars
- Rhett Lawrence – keyboards, recording, mixing, arranger
- Louis Biancaniello – keyboards, bass, programming, rhythm programming
- Richard Tee – piano
- Marcus Miller – Fretless bass
- Walter Afanasieff – synth horns, keyboards, synthesizers, synth bass, arranger
- Billy T. Scott – background vocals
- The Billy T. Scott Emsemble – background vocals
- Fonzie Thornton – background vocals
- Chris Toland – arranger, additional engineering
- Rich Tancredi – additional arrangement
- Patrick Dillett – engineer, recording, mixing
- Bob Cadway – engineer, recording, mixing
- Dana Jon Chappelle – engineer, mixing, additional engineering
- Manny LaCarrubba – additional engineering
- Larry Alexander – mixing
- Bob Ludwig – mastering, (at Masterdisk)
- Howie Weinburg – mastering (at Masterdisk)
- Tommy Mottola – executive producer
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts
### Decade-end charts
### All-time charts
## Certifications
## See also
- List of number one albums of 1991 (U.S.)
- List of bestselling albums by women
- List of Billboard Year-End number-one albums and singles |
15,547,707 | Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis, BWV 21 | 1,149,547,150 | Church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach | [
"1713 compositions",
"Church cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach",
"Psalm-related compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach"
] | Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis (I had much grief), BWV 21 in Weimar, possibly in 1713, partly even earlier. He used it in 1714 and later for the third Sunday after Trinity of the liturgical year. The work marks a transition between motet style on biblical and hymn text to operatic recitatives and arias on contemporary poetry. Bach catalogued the work as e per ogni tempo (and for all times), indicating that due to its general theme, the cantata is suited for any occasion.
The text is probably written by the court poet Salomon Franck, who includes four biblical quotations from three psalms and from the Book of Revelation, and juxtaposes in one movement biblical text with two stanzas from Georg Neumark's hymn "Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten". The cantata possibly began as a work of dialogue and four motets on biblical verses. When Bach performed the cantata again in Leipzig in 1723, it was structured in eleven movements, including an opening sinfonia and additional recitatives and arias. It is divided in two parts to be performed before and after the sermon, and scored for three vocal soloists (soprano, tenor, and bass), a four-part choir, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of three trumpets, timpani, oboe, strings and continuo.
Bach led a performance in the court chapel of Schloss Weimar on 17 June 1714, known as the Weimar version. He revised the work for performances, possibly in Hamburg and several revivals in Leipzig, adding for the first Leipzig version four trombones playing colla parte.
## History and words
Bach composed the cantata in Weimar, but the composition history is complicated and not at all stages certain. Findings by Martin Petzoldt suggest that the cantata began with the later movements 2–6 and 9–10, most of them on biblical text, performed at a memorial service of Aemilia Maria Haress, the wife of a former prime-minister of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, at the church St. Peter und Paul in Weimar on 8 October 1713. Bach may then have expanded it and presented it for his application in December 1713 at the Liebfrauenkirche in Halle. The performance material of this event, the only surviving source, shows on the title page the designation e per ogni tempo, indicating that the cantata with its general readings and texts is suitable for any occasion.
Bach designated the cantata to the Third Sunday after Trinity of 1714. The prescribed readings for the Sunday were from the First Epistle of Peter, "Cast thy burden upon the Lord" (), and from the Gospel of Luke, the parable of the Lost Sheep and the parable of the Lost Coin (). The librettist was probably the court poet Salomon Franck, as in most cantatas of the period, such as Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten! BWV 172. The text shows little connection to the prescribed gospel, but is related to the epistle reading. The poet included biblical texts for four movements: for movement 2 , for movement 6 , translated in the King James Version (KJV) to "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.", for movement 9 (KJV: "Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee."), and for movement 11 , "Worthy is the Lamb", the text also chosen to conclude Handel's Messiah. Similar to other cantatas of that time, ideas are expressed in dialogue: in movements 7 and 8 the soprano portrays the Seele (Soul), while the part of Jesus is sung by the bass as the vox Christi (voice of Christ). Only movement 9 uses text from a hymn, juxtaposing the biblical text with stanzas 2 and 5 of "Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten" by Georg Neumark, who published it with his own melody in Jena in 1657 in the collection Fortgepflantzter Musikalisch-Poetischer Lustwald. Possibly the first version of the cantata ended with that movement.
Bach performed the cantata in the court chapel of Schloss Weimar on 17 June 1714, as his fourth work in a series of monthly cantatas for the Weimar court which came with his promotion to Konzertmeister (concert master) in 1714. The so-called Weimar version, his first composition for an ordinary Sunday in the second half of the liturgical year, marked also a farewell to Duke Johann Ernst who began a journey then. A revision occurred during the Köthen years, specifically in 1720. A performance, documented by original parts, could have been in Hamburg to apply for the position as organist at St. Jacobi in November 1720, this time in nine movements and in D minor instead of C minor. As Thomaskantor in Leipzig, Bach performed the cantata again on his third Sunday in office on 13 June 1723, as the title page shows. For this performance, now of eleven movements beginning again in C minor, he also changed the instrumentation, adding for example four trombones to double the voices in the fifth stanza of the hymn. This version was used in several revivals during Bach's lifetime and is mostly played today.
## Music
### Scoring and structure
Bach structured the cantata in eleven movements in two parts, Part I (movements 1–6) to be performed before the sermon, Part II (7–11) after the sermon. He scored it for three vocal soloists (soprano (S), tenor (T) and bass (B)), a four-part choir SATB, three trumpets (Tr) and timpani only in the final movement, four trombones (Tb) (only in Movement 9 and only in the 5th version to double voices in the fifth stanza of the chorale), oboe (Ob), two violins (Vl), viola (Va), and basso continuo (Bc), with bassoon (Fg) and organ (Org) explicitly indicated. The duration is given as 44 minutes.
In the following table of the movements, the scoring and keys are given for the version performed in Leipzig in 1723. The keys and time signatures are taken from Alfred Dürr, using the symbol for common time (4/4). The instruments are shown separately for winds and strings, while the continuo, playing throughout, is not shown.
### Movements
The music for this early cantata uses motet style in the choral movements. Biblical words are used in a prominent way. They are treated in choral movements, different from other cantatas of the Weimar period where they were typically composed as recitatives. John Eliot Gardiner, who conducted all of Bach's church cantatas in 2000 as the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, termed the cantata "one of the most extraordinary and inspired of Bach's vocal works". He notes aspects of the music which are similar to movements in Bach's early cantatas, suggesting that they may have been composed already when Bach moved to Weimar in 1708: the psalm verses resemble movements of cantatas such as Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, BWV 150, and Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir, BWV 131, the dialogue of the Soul and Jesus (movement 8) is reminiscent of the Actus tragicus, and the hymn in motet style (movement 9) recalls movements 2 and 5 of the chorale cantata Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4.
#### Part I
Themes of deep suffering, pain and mourning dominate the music in the first part of the cantata. Gardiner notes that five of the six movements are "set almost obsessively in C minor".
##### 1
The work is opened by a Sinfonia similar to the one of the cantata Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12, possibly the slow movement of a concerto for oboe and violin. A sighing motif, the picture of a storm of tears, and the flood image conjured by the upwelling music characterizes the dark and oppressive feeling.
##### 2
The first vocal movement is a choral motet on the psalm verse "Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis in meinem Herzen" (I had much trouble in my heart). The music has two contrasting sections, following the contrast of the psalm verse which continues "aber deine Tröstungen erquicken meine Seele" (but your consolations revive my soul). The word "Ich" (I) is repeated several times, followed by a fugal section. A homophonic setting of aber (but) leads to the second section, in free polyphony, marked Vivace. It broadens to Andante for a solemn conclusion.
##### 3
The soprano aria "Seufzer, Tränen, Kummer, Not" (Sighs, tears, anguish, trouble) is one of the first arias in Italian style in a Bach cantata, accompanied by an obbligato oboe.
#### 4
The tenor sings in accompanied recitative with the strings "Wie hast du dich, mein Gott" (What? have You therefore, my God,).
##### 5
The tenor, accompanied by the strings, intensifies the mood: "Bäche von gesalznen Zähren" (Streams of salty tears).
##### 6
A consoling verse from a psalm is treated as a closing motet of Part I: "Was betrübst du dich, meine Seele" (Why do you trouble yourself, my soul). Alfred Dürr analyzes in detail how different means of expression follow the text closely, with shifts in tempo and texture, culminating in a "permutation fugue of remarkably logical structure" on the final "daß er meines Angesichtes Hilfe und mein Gott sei" (for being the help of my countenance and my God).
#### Part II
The second part begins in a different mood, through the trust of sinners in the grace of God. In a recitative and an aria, the Soul (soprano) and Jesus (bass as the voice of Christ) enter a dialogue, leading to a final choral movement as a strong hymn of praise.
##### 7
Soprano and bass enter a dialogue in accompanied recitative with the strings. The Soul asks: "Ach Jesu, meine Ruh, mein Licht, wo bleibest du?" (Ah, Jesus, my peace, my light, where are You?). Dialogue was common in Protestant church music from the 17th century but is especially dramatic here.
##### 8
Soprano and bass unite in an aria: "Komm, mein Jesu, und erquicke / Ja, ich komme und erquicke" (Come, my Jesus, and revive / Yes, I come and revive), accompanied only by the continuo. It resembles passionate love duets from contemporary opera.
##### 9
In a movement unusual in Bach works, which originally concluded the cantata, biblical text from a psalm, "Sei nun wieder zufrieden, meine Seele" (Be at peace again, my soul), is juxtaposed with two stanzas from Georg Neumark's hymn, stanza 2, "Was helfen uns die schweren Sorgen" (What good are heavy worries?), and stanza 5, "Denk nicht in deiner Drangsalshitze" (Think not, in your heat of despair,) The first hymn stanza is sung by the tenor to solo voices rendering the biblical text. In the second stanza the soprano has the melody, the voices are doubled by a choir of trombones introduced in the Leipzig version of 1723.
##### 10
The tenor aria "Erfreue dich, Seele, erfreue dich, Herze" (Rejoice, soul, rejoice, heart), accompanied only by the continuo, was added late to the cantata. Dürr describes the mood as "spirited exited abandon".
##### 11
The concluding movement is a motet on a quotation from Revelation, "Das Lamm, das erwürget ist" (The Lamb, that was slain). Three trumpets and timpani appear only in this triumphant movements of praise. It begins in homophony and expresses the text "Lob und Ehre und Preis und Gewalt" (Glory and honour and praise and power) in another permutation fugue with a climax in the subject played by the first trumpet.
## Recordings
A list of recordings is provided on the Bach Cantatas Website. Ensembles playing period instruments in historically informed performance are marked by a green background. |
24,524,170 | John Waddy (British Army officer) | 1,170,221,784 | British military officer (1920–2020) | [
"1920 births",
"2020 deaths",
"British Army personnel of World War II",
"British Army personnel of the Malayan Emergency",
"British Parachute Regiment officers",
"British World War II prisoners of war",
"British centenarians",
"British military personnel of the Palestine Emergency",
"Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst",
"Graduates of the Staff College, Camberley",
"Men centenarians",
"Military personnel from Somerset",
"Officers of the Order of the British Empire",
"People educated at Wellington College, Berkshire",
"People from Taunton",
"Somerset Light Infantry officers",
"Special Air Service officers",
"World War II prisoners of war held by Germany"
] | Colonel John Llewellyn Waddy OBE (17 June 1920 – 27 September 2020) was a British Army officer who served during the Second World War, Palestine and the Malayan Emergency before becoming Colonel of the SAS.
Joining the British Army shortly before the Second World War, he initially served with the Somerset Light Infantry in India. He subsequently volunteered for the Parachute Regiment and saw action in the Italian Campaign in late 1943. After returning to the United Kingdom with the 4th Parachute Brigade, part of the 1st Airborne Division, he took part in the Battle of Arnhem, where he was wounded and taken prisoner by German troops.
After the war, Waddy remained in the army and saw action in the Mandatory Palestine and during the Malayan Emergency, for which he was mentioned in dispatches. He went on to hold a series of command posts with the Parachute Regiment, both at home and overseas, and was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1963. He was an early incumbent in the post of Colonel SAS and did much to expand the Special Air Service's role. He subsequently held a number of military advisor positions, most notably in Washington DC, Vietnam, and after resigning from the military, with Westland Helicopters and during the filming of the movie A Bridge Too Far.
## Early life
John Waddy was born on 17 June 1920 in Taunton, Somerset, the son of Lieutenant Colonel Richard Henry Waddy, DSO, and his wife Llewellyn. He was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire, and then as a cadet at Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
## Second World War
### North Africa and Italy
On 3 July 1939, Waddy was commissioned into the Somerset Light Infantry as a second lieutenant and sent to India two months later with the 1st Battalion, then commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Harding. After travelling from Taunton to Scotland he sailed from Britain on the same day that Britain declared war on Germany. He was promoted to acting, then temporary, captain from September 1940, and substantive lieutenant on 3 January 1941. His time in India, however, was mostly spent on exercises with little chance of action. Desperate to leave, Waddy successfully volunteered for a new British Parachute Battalion when the chance came in August 1941, and in October joined the 151st Parachute Battalion as their intelligence officer. Parachuting was rudimentary in India and training jumps were made from Vickers Valentia biplanes. He qualified for his jump wings on the same day that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, although only two months later he was nearly killed in a training jump and spent three days in a coma.
In October 1942 the battalion was sent to North Africa and re-designated 156th Parachute Battalion, where it became the central unit of the new 4th Parachute Brigade, formed in December. Waddy was briefly made adjutant of the battalion, but quickly moved up to the post of the 4th Brigade's intelligence officer. The brigade moved from Egypt to Palestine in February 1943, and to Tunisia in June where it joined the 1st Airborne Division, then commanded by Major General George Hopkinson. Waddy recalled that the introduction of the now-famous maroon beret was particularly unpopular with the 156th Battalion, who had previously worn bush hats. The 4th Brigade did not take part in the Allied invasion of Sicily but on 5 September the whole Division sailed to Taranto in Italy (Operation Slapstick), successfully capturing the port with 156th Battalion and brigade HQ in the vanguard.
The division advanced northwards over the coming weeks, slowly pursuing the 1st German Parachute Division. In one action Waddy found an Italian 179mm Howitzer which he used to disperse Germans gathering to counterattack the 156th Battalion's positions, firing through open sights at a building in the centre of their front. Waddy was promoted to acting major in October and took charge of the 156th Battalion's B Company, a month before the 1st Airborne Division was withdrawn and sailed back to the United Kingdom, arriving there in December. On 24 January 1944, he was made a war substantive captain and temporary major.
### Arnhem
1st Airborne Division's next deployment was in September 1944 during Operation Market Garden. The Allies planned to use airborne forces to secure key bridges over a number of rivers and canals in the Netherlands, opening a route around the Siegfried Line and into the heart of Germany. 1st Airborne Division was tasked with securing bridges across the Lower Rhine at Arnhem and 4th Parachute Brigade was detailed to occupy the northern approaches of the city in the event of a counterattack by German forces. The brigade was scheduled to arrive on the second day of the operation, 18 September, using drop zones protected by elements of 1st Airlanding Brigade. In the event, ground mist in England meant that the second lift was delayed by four hours, which spared the Dakota transport aircraft from meeting Luftwaffe fighters over the drop zone. Nevertheless, the aircraft encountered considerable anti-aircraft fire as they approached the drop zone. Waddy later recalled that his aircraft was so near to the ground that he could see the upturned faces of the German gun crews. He observed numerous flak bursts and watched the escorting Hawker Typhoon fighters attacking flak batteries as they approached the DZ. His own aircraft was hit in the tail but the pilot continued to the drop zone where, despite bad yawing, Waddy and his men were able to jump. The paratroopers came under small-arms fire directed at the aircraft's doors as they left the aircraft and parachuted under heavy fire onto Ginkel Heath. Waddy's signaller lost his radio as he jumped behind him; the bulky equipment was hit by a round the moment he jumped out of the Dakota.
On the ground, an irate captain, who had expected the men four hours earlier, explained to a shocked Waddy the rapidly deteriorating situation on the ground. With 11th Parachute Battalion despatched to Arnhem and 10th Parachute Battalion defending the wounded on the drop zone, only 156th Battalion was free to move. At about 5 pm they moved off along the Utrecht–Arnhem railway and met their glider-borne elements at Wolfheze just before being strafed by a German fighter. Approaching Oosterbeek they encountered German Panzer troops and stopped for the night.
In the morning, fresh orders were issued to lead the 4th Brigade to the left flank of 1st Parachute Brigade. B Company were ordered to provide supporting fire from the flanks of A Company's advance, which they successfully did before returning to battalion HQ and following up the advance. Lieutenant Colonel Sir Richard des Voeux ordered Waddy to take B Company through A Company's positions and continue the advance to the high ground, believing that there was not much opposition. In fact A Company had been nearly destroyed, and Waddy passed numerous bodies on his way forward. As the company advanced, they were held up by what Waddy believed was a twin barrelled 20mm flak gun. He led a small group to attack it, but was spotted by a German sniper as they moved forward. A companion was killed instantly and Waddy, without his machine gun, could only fire ineffectively with his pistol. The sniper shot him in the groin and tried to hit him again as he started to crawl away, forcing Waddy to lie doggo for a moment before one of his men, a 6 foot 4 inches (1.93 m) tall Rhodesian soldier, carried him back to Company HQ. Faced with a heavy concentration of enemy armour, the attack stalled and was then called off; the battalion had taken such heavy casualties that it was reduced essentially to the size of a single company.
At the Regimental Aid Post, Waddy found that the doctors did not rate his chances particularly highly; the 156 Battalion's war diary even recorded that "B Company commander was fatally wounded". He was taken next to a Field Ambulance post and from there to the Tafelburg hotel in Oosterbeek, now being used as a main dressing station. Here he was operated on in the hotel's billiard room where Major Guy Rigby Jones used the billiard table to perform surgery. A day later he was moved to a house opposite as the number of casualties increased. Because the aid stations were in the front lines of the Oosterbeek perimeter, they came under constant fire and he was wounded twice more. A mortar round shell fragment lodged in his left foot, and a later hit caused splinter injuries to his face and shoulder. On another occasion, as the battle seesawed around the aid post, Germans occupied his building. A British sniper shot a German rifleman, prompting a German sergeant to lecture the British about shooting at a Red Cross house. When the house caught fire he was taken outside and driven to a collection point from where German medics took him to Apeldoorn.
Waddy spent the next six weeks in a German hospital in Apeldoorn. Once again the British patients were lectured about firing at the Red Cross after a Spitfire strafed the operating theatre, but overall Waddy was impressed by the kindness of the German staff and guards. He narrowly avoided having his foot amputated when a nurse removed the splinter embedded in it with a pair of forceps, and once he had sufficiently recovered from his wounds he was taken to Stalag VII-A where he remained until the camp was liberated at the end of April 1945.
## Post-war service
Waddy remained in the army after the war ended and joined the HQ of 3rd Parachute Brigade before being sent to Palestine in September 1945. A month later he joined the 9th Battalion dealing with the Jewish terrorist threat and in July 1947 he was wounded once again, this time by members of the IZL. Because the Parachute Regiment was not allowed to recruit officers for longer than three years, Waddy was posted in March 1948, after almost seven years with the regiment. He spent the next four years in staff posts, initially in Greece, then Taunton where he became GSO 3 for 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division. Later he was sent to 1st Infantry Division in Egypt and then Libya. In July 1952, he was promoted to substantive major, and two months later was posted to Malaya as a company commander with the 1st Battalion, The Somerset Light Infantry. He spent a year in the country during the Malayan Emergency and was Mentioned in Despatches.
Returning from Malaya, Waddy spent time at RAF Staff College and as a training major for the Somerset Light Infantry Territorial Army Battalion. He then volunteered to rejoin the Parachute Regiment and was sent to the Canadian Joint Air Training Centre in Manitoba, Canada, on exchange. In 1958 the Parachute Regiment was allowed to keep its own officers and Waddy swiftly applied. He was posted to Jordan and then Cyprus as 2IC of 2nd Battalion, an experience he likened to being back with family. In 1960 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and posted to Aldershot to command the Depot The Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces during which time he established the Parachute Regiment Battle Camp at Brecon, which later evolved into the Infantry Battle School. In 1962 he became chief instructor at a small arms school in Hythe. In the 1963 New Year Honours he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his command of the depot.
In late 1964, Waddy took up a new post as Colonel SAS, which later evolved into Director SAS (now Director Special Forces), resulting in his promotion to full colonel. Waddy was an early incumbent of this post and is credited with doing much to develop new roles for the SAS in the post-colonial war period. He also wrote a paper envisaging counter-terrorism and intelligence gathering roles for the service, predictions that have since been realised.
After brief stints in Washington D.C. and Fort Benning as a liaison officer, Waddy was posted to the British Embassy in Saigon as a defence advisor in 1970. Here he was able to witness the Vietnam War first hand before returning to Britain in 1972 and joining the Joint Warfare Establishment at Old Sarum near Salisbury in Wiltshire.
## Civilian service
Waddy resigned his commission in 1974 and became military advisor to Westland Helicopters, a post he held until his retirement in 1989. Although he found the work stimulating, Waddy was frustrated by the Army's lack of interest in the helicopter.
When production of the movie A Bridge Too Far began in 1975, Waddy was given six months leave by Westland to act as chief Military Advisor, an appointment that John Frost thought was ideal. Waddy was responsible for training "Attenborough's Private Army", a group of fifty men who went through boot camp in order to portray Frost's men at Arnhem Bridge and provide the backbone of the extra cast. Waddy confessed to being deeply concerned by the actors' quality at first, but was able to turn them into men who looked and acted the part. Although there was little that Waddy or his fellow military consultants (who included Frost, Roy Urquhart, James M. Gavin, Brian Horrocks and J. O. E. Vandeleur) could do to greatly influence the film's script, he was able to ensure that some parts were kept historically accurate. By way of thanking him after receiving some advice, Edward Fox referred to his driver as Waddy in his first scene in the movie, and he had a brief cameo appearance in one of the film's final scenes.
Along with many veterans, Waddy returned to Arnhem frequently. When visiting in 1954 he was presented with a damaged silver cigarette case bearing his surname. When he had it cleaned at home he discovered it was a present from his father to Colonel Hilaro Barlow, another 1st Airborne officer who was killed during the battle.
From 1982 to 1996 Waddy led talks for students of the Army Staff College on their battlefield tours at Arnhem, a role he reprised when the Defence Academy restarted the tours in 2008. He wrote a book on the subject in 1999 (A Tour of the Arnhem Battlefields) and was widely recognised as an authority on the battle.
By the time of his 100th birthday in June 2020, Waddy was the last surviving officer from the Battle of Arnhem. He celebrated his birthday at his home in Taunton, with visits from the Parachute Regiment and the Deputy Defence Attaché from the embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, who presented Waddy with the Dutch Thank You Liberators Medaille. Waddy died in his sleep on 27 September 2020. |
335,215 | ChuChu Rocket! | 1,154,939,003 | 1999 video game | [
"1999 video games",
"Android (operating system) games",
"Cancelled arcade video games",
"Dreamcast games",
"Game Boy Advance games",
"IOS games",
"Multiplayer online games",
"Puzzle video games",
"Sonic Team games",
"Video games about cats",
"Video games about mice and rats",
"Video games developed in Japan",
"Video games produced by Yuji Naka",
"Video games scored by Tomoya Ohtani",
"Virtual Console games",
"Virtual Console games for Wii U"
] | is an action puzzle game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega. Released for the Dreamcast in 1999, it was the first game for the system to support online console gaming. Players must place arrows on a board to lead mice into escape rockets while avoiding cats. The game features single-player modes in which a player must save all the mice on a board, and a multiplayer mode in which players battle to collect the most mice.
Directed and produced by Yuji Naka, ChuChu Rocket! was developed in part to test the online functionality of the Dreamcast and Sega's servers, and test the Dreamcast's processing power by displaying many characters at once. The knowledge gained from the network portion of the project helped Sonic Team in their development of Phantasy Star Online (2000). ChuChu Rocket! topped the Japanese sales charts its first week on sale in November 1999. When it arrived in the United States, Sega held an online tournament where players could battle against Sega and Sonic Team employees. In PAL regions, it was given free to subscribers of Sega's online gaming service Dreamarena.
ChuChu Rocket! was a commercial and critical success. Critics praised the chaotic and addictive multiplayer and the simple and cute Japanese aesthetic. Sega's network gaming service received some criticism for lag. ChuChu Rocket! was ported to the Game Boy Advance as a launch game, and gathered interest as the first game published by Sega for Nintendo hardware. It was ported to iOS in 2010 and Android in 2011, but these versions were removed from sale in 2015. The Dreamcast version can still be played online via private servers.
## Gameplay
ChuChu Rocket! is an action puzzle game. The basic rules of the game require the player to guide mice, dubbed "ChuChus", into a rocket while evading them from dangerous cats, dubbed "KapuKapus". A brief premise is provided in the instruction manual, explaining that ChuChus are living on a space port that is invaded by KapuKapus one day. In their frantic state, the ChuChus begin running around in chaos, and so the player must guide them to their rockets to save them. Both ChuChus and KapuKapus run in a straight line, and turn right when they hit walls. A player can place up, down, left, and right arrows on the field of play, redirecting characters that step on them. Up to three arrows can be placed by a player at any time; placing a fourth arrow will make the player's oldest arrow vanish, and all arrows fade away over time. If a KapuKapu hits an arrow twice, the arrow disappears.
There are several modes of play within ChuChu Rocket! including a single-player puzzle mode, a puzzle editing mode, a cooperative challenge mode, and competitive multiplayer modes. In the puzzle mode, the player is provided a limited set of arrows to place on the field to save all the ChuChus in play. The puzzle editing mode allows players to create their own puzzles like this. In the challenge mode, players are given 30 seconds to save the ChuChus in play without any arrow limitations as in puzzle mode. In the competition modes, each player has a rocket and must guide as many ChuChus as possible into their rocket in the time limit. This mode supports up to four players, either in free-for-all or team-based fashion.
ChuChu Rocket! is notable for being the first Dreamcast online multiplayer game. During the time Sega was operating its servers, players were able to play the competitive modes online, while also being able to upload their custom puzzles and download those made by other users. Players could use an onscreen or physical keyboard to chat with other players. Servers for the game's online functionality were brought back online by fans in 2016.
## Development
ChuChu Rocket! was developed by Sonic Team. Director and producer Yuji Naka conceived the game as a way to use the power of the Dreamcast to create 100 sprites moving at once. He believed there are two trends to use evolving hardware: one is to make increasingly beautiful graphics, while the other is to squeeze as much processing power to use it to its fullest; he chose the latter in this case. Naka and his team found difficulty working on the networking component, but believed it was a good learning experience. Part of ChuChu Rocket!'s purpose was to test the capabilities of online multiplayer gaming on the Dreamcast; the team used what they learned to help drive the development of Phantasy Star Online (2000). A NAOMI arcade version of the game was also planned, but later scrapped.
## Promotion and release
Sega announced ChuChu Rocket! on September 2, 1999 as Sonic Team's second game for the Dreamcast after Sonic Adventure (1998). Prior to the game's release in Japan in November 1999, Sega promoted the game with a website dedicated to ChuChu Rocket!, and a 15-second commercial advertising the game was solicited to television stations across the country, with the commercial also made available to download through the website. ChuChu Rocket! released in Japan on November 11, 1999 and climbed to the top of the Japanese sales charts in its first week on sale, selling 35,000 copies and knocking the PlayStation release of Chrono Trigger off the top spot. That December, video game magazine Famitsu held a contest using a ChuChu-themed minigame for the Dreamcast Visual Memory Unit (VMU) that could be downloaded from the internet. Players who completed the minigame were given a password to send to Famitsu. Various prizes were given out to winners of the contest, including Dreamcast controllers, VMU stickers, and pens.
In January 2000, Sega of America announced it would bring ChuChu Rocket! to North America on March 2, 2000, three months earlier than the original anticipated release in June. Prior to the North American release of the game, a Shockwave demo featuring 30 levels from the game's puzzle mode was made available to play on personal computers through Sega's website. ChuChu Rocket! was released in North America on March 7, 2000, a week later than had been announced earlier. It retailed for \$29.99 in America — below the average for new Dreamcast games. Sega held an online tournament on March 25, 2000 where players could battle with members of Sonic Team, the Dreamcast network team, and other Sega employees in online matches.
The European and PAL versions were not released until months after the North American release, on June 9, 2000. In Europe, ChuChu Rocket! was mailed free to subscribers of Dreamarena, the European Dreamcast online gaming service. At the time of the game's release in Europe, Dreamarena had over 25,000 subscribers, despite the absence of online play beforehand.
### Ports
A port of ChuChu Rocket! was released as a launch game for the Game Boy Advance in Japan on March 21, 2001. The release garnered interest as the first game Sega published for a Nintendo system. This version retains all the gameplay modes of the Dreamcast version except online play. Players can use Game Link Cables to connect up to four systems together to play using only one cartridge. Sonic Team also selected 2,500 of the 17,000 custom puzzles uploaded to the Dreamcast servers to include in the game. The polygonal graphics from the Dreamcast version are replaced with animated sprites. Players can also edit their own character sprites. This version of ChuChu Rocket! was re-released on the Wii U in Japan on October 21, 2015.
Sega released iOS and Android ports of ChuChu Rocket! in 2010 and 2011. The iOS version featured local multiplayer over Wi-Fi. Both were removed from purchase in 2015.
## Reception
The Dreamcast version of ChuChu Rocket! received positive reviews. Critics highlighted the multiplayer modes as being great fun and addictive. Stuart Taylor of Dreamcast Magazine (UK) called the multiplayer the "bread and butter" of ChuChu Rocket!, and praised it for being easy to pick up and put down. He concluded the game was "shamelessly retro and monstrously addictive." Other critics also picked up on the game's Japanese and retro aesthetics, citing the simple, cute, and kawaii graphics. Some reviewers drew attention to the game's "chaos" and "insanity", such as Nick Jones writing for Arcade, who said the game was "complete madness and rates as an example of Japanese gaming eccentricity at its very finest". In addition critics also praised the game for its low retail price, giving a great fresh experience to gamers on a budget. The most common complaints were in regards to the game's network component. Some critics noted problems with lag in their games, as well as difficulty getting logged in. Concluding their thoughts, IGN staff called it "quite simply the best multiplayer effort [they]'ve played in years, on any console." Chris Simpson of AllGame said: "ChuChu Rocket! is the most rapidly paced game I have ever had the pleasure of playing...The multiplayer will become a benchmark of quality." Jeff Lundrigan for Next Generation stated that it is a "terrific little puzzler every Dreamcast owner should have."
The Game Boy Advance port of ChuChu Rocket! also received generally favorable reviews. The game is almost identical to the Dreamcast version, and thus reviewers generally shared the same thoughts as those on the Dreamcast version. Some complaints were made about the D-pad controls being inferior to the Dreamcast's analog stick. However, praise was given for the ability to hook up four Game Boy Advances and play multiplayer using only one cartridge, and also for the inclusion of 2,500 user-created stages uploaded to the Dreamcast servers. Next Generation called the hundreds of maps in puzzle mode the "main draw" of the game.
## Legacy
Minigames based on ChuChu Rocket! were included in the original GameCube release of Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg (2003), Sega Superstars (2004) and Sega Superstars Tennis (2008). In Billy Hatcher, such minigame is unlocked via a collectible and played via the GameCube – Game Boy Advance link cable. ChuBei, Chuih, ChuPea, and ChuBach are also playable characters in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing and SEGA Heroes. A sequel, ChuChu Rocket! Universe, was announced in September 2019 as part of the initial wave of games for Apple Arcade. |
1,159,193 | Gants Hill tube station | 1,165,849,764 | London Underground station | [
"Art Deco architecture in London",
"Central line (London Underground) stations",
"Charles Holden railway stations",
"London Underground Night Tube stations",
"Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1947",
"Tube stations in the London Borough of Redbridge"
] | Gants Hill is a London Underground station in the largely residential Gants Hill district of Ilford in East London. It is served by the Central line and is between Redbridge and Newbury Park stations on the Hainault loop. It is in Travelcard Zone 4. It is the easternmost station to be below ground on the London Underground network and the busiest on the Hainault loop.
The station ticket hall is located beneath Gants Hill roundabout and reached via pedestrian subways. It opened on 14 December 1947 as an extension of the Central line to form the new part of the Hainault loop. The station is known for its distinctive architecture featuring barrel-vaulted halls at platform level designed by Charles Holden.
## Location
The station has taken its name from the Gants Hill roundabout, where the name Gants Hill could have originated from the le Gant family who were notable as stewards. The ticket hall is directly underneath the roundabout, located in the heart of Gants Hill district. The roundabout connects to Woodford Avenue, Eastern Avenue and Cranbrook Road. The station serves a mainly residential area, and is near Valentines Park, Valentines High School, and "Faces" Nightclub.
## History
As part of the 1935–40 New Works Programme, the Central line was to be extended from Liverpool Street to south of Leyton where it would connect to and take over passenger operations on the London & North Eastern Railway's (LNER's) suburban branch to Epping and Ongar in Essex. The section of the LNER's Fairlop Loop (now known as Hainault Loop) between Woodford and Newbury Park was also to be transferred, though not the section south from Newbury Park to Ilford and Seven Kings on the Great Eastern Main Line. To replace the truncated route south from Newbury Park, a new underground section between Leytonstone and Newbury Park was constructed, running mostly under Eastern Avenue. Three new stations, which include Gants Hill were built to serve the new suburbs of north Ilford and the Fairlop Loop. During planning, the names "North Ilford" and "Cranbrook" were considered for this station.
Construction began before 1937 and most of the tunnelled section was completed by 1940 but delayed due to the outbreak of the Second World War and eventually came to a halt in June 1940. During the war, the station was used as an air raid shelter and the unused tunnels between the station and Redbridge were used as a munitions factory for Plessey electronics. Construction restarted after the war ended, with the line extended to Stratford on 4 December 1946, and then to Leytonstone on 5 May 1947. Gants Hill station opened on 14 December 1947 as part of an extension to Newbury Park.
## Design
The station, like the other two new stations on the branch, was designed by architect Charles Holden in the 1930s. During the 1930s the London Passenger Transport Board had provided advice on the construction of the Moscow Metro and an internal report in 1935 by the Underground's engineers on the Russian capital's system led to the decision to construct a station in London to a similar design.
The station ticket hall is located beneath the roundabout at the centre of the road junction. It is accessed via a series of pedestrian subways and has no street level buildings, although low structures on the roundabout sit above the ticket hall and provide daylight and ventilation. From the ticket hall, three escalators lead to the barrel-vaulted lower concourse between the two platforms tunnels. The station also features miniature roundels on the tiles at platform level as well as the "roundel clocks".
Gants Hill is the only Underground station with a concourse designed by Holden that has no surface buildings. Unlike Redbridge, the station is not Grade II listed although its distinctive architectural qualities have gained public support for listing the station.
## Services and connections
### Services
Gants Hill is served by the Central line between Redbridge and Newbury Park stations. Train frequencies vary throughout the day, but generally operate every 3–4 minutes between 05:23 and 23:57 westbound and 06:25 and 01:03 eastbound.
Trains generally run between Hainault and Ealing Broadway via Newbury Park. The typical off-peak service, in trains per hour as of 2018 is:
- 9tph eastbound to Hainault via Newbury Park
- 3tph eastbound to Newbury Park
- 9tph westbound to Ealing Broadway
- 3tph westbound to White City
The typical Night Tube service, in trains per hour as of 2018 is:
- 3tph eastbound to Hainault via Newbury Park
- 3tph westbound to White City
### Connections
A number of London Buses routes 66, 123, 128, 150, 167, 179, 296, 396, 462 and school routes 667, 677, 679 and night routes N8 serve the station. |
29,093,548 | Hydnellum ferrugineum | 1,143,717,541 | Species of fungus | [
"Fungi described in 1815",
"Fungi of Africa",
"Fungi of Asia",
"Fungi of Europe",
"Fungi of North America",
"Hydnellum",
"Inedible fungi",
"Taxa named by Elias Magnus Fries"
] | Hydnellum ferrugineum, commonly known as the mealy tooth or the reddish-brown corky spine fungus, is a species of tooth fungus in the family Bankeraceae. A widely distributed species, it is found in north Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. The fungus fruits on the ground singly or in clusters in conifer forest, usually in poor (low nutrient) or sandy soil. Fruit bodies are somewhat top-shaped, measuring 3–10 cm (1–4 in) in diameter. Their velvety surfaces, initially white to pink, sometimes exude drops of red liquid. The lower surface of the fruit body features white to reddish-brown spines up to 6 mm long. Mature fruit bodies become dark reddish brown in color, and are then difficult to distinguish from other similar Hydnellum species. H. ferrugineum forms a mat of mycelia in the humus and upper soil where it grows. The presence of the fungus changes the characteristics of the soil, making it more podzolized.
## Taxonomy
The species was originally described scientifically by Elias Magnus Fries, who named it Hydnum ferrugineum in 1815. Its taxonomic history includes transfers to the genera Calodon by Petter Karsten in 1881, and Phaeodon by Joseph Schröter in 1888. It was assigned its current binomial name by Karsten when he transferred it to its current genus, Hydnellum, in 1879.
In 1964, Canadian mycologist Kenneth A. Harrison described a hydnoid fungus found with Pinus resinosa in Michigan and Pinus banksiana in Nova Scotia. The fungus, which Harrison named Hydnellum pineticola, is considered to be synonymous with Hydnellum ferrugineum by the nomenclatural database Index Fungorum. Harrison noted "The attempts to recognize European species in North American collections has only increased the confusion in this country, and until someone has worked critically in the field on both continents, it is better to make a recognizable grouping of our own population as that to guess that they may be the same as those that grow in Europe." Other taxa considered synonymous with H. ferrugineum are Pierre Bulliard's 1791 Hydnum hybridum (including later synonyms Calodon hybridus (Bull.) Lindau, and Hydnellum hybridum (Bull.) Banker); Louis Secretan's Hydnum carbunculus (1833); and Howard James Banker's 1906 Hydnellum sanguinarium. Banker explained the difficulty in identifying old Hydnellum specimens: "A considerable number of collections have had to be set aside, as in the dried state, with no notes on the fresh characters, it was impossible to decide with any degree of satisfaction whether the plants represented H. sanguinarium, H. concrescens, H. scrobiculatum, or some undescribed form."
Common names given to the species include the "reddish-brown corky spine fungus", and the British Mycological Society-sanctioned name "mealy fungus". The specific epithet ferrugineum is Latin for "rust-colored".
## Description
The fruit bodies of Hydnellum ferrugineum are more or less top-shaped with caps that are 3–10 cm (1.2–3.9 in) in diameter. They are at first convex, then pulvinate (cushion-shaped), later flattening or becoming slightly depressed in the center. The cap surface of young fruit bodies is uneven, with a velvety to felted texture, and a whitish to pink color. It sometimes exudes blood-red drops of fluid in the depressions. The surface later becomes flesh-colored to dark reddish brown, but with wavy margin remaining whitish. The lower surface of the fruit body bears the hymenium, the fertile spore-bearing tissue. It comprises a dense arrangement of white to reddish brown spines up to 6 mm long, hanging vertically downwards. The stout stipe measures 1–6 cm (0.4–2.4 in) long by 1–3 cm (0.4–1.2 in) thick, and is the same color as the cap. Fruit bodies have a "distinctly mealy" odor (similar to the smell of freshly ground flour), but are inedible.
The flesh is reddish or purplish-brown with white flecks. Initially spongy and soft, it becomes tough and corky as the fruit body matures. In the stipe, the flesh can become blackish in age. Like other Hydnellum species, fruit body tissue is made of generative hyphae that do not expand. This slows the growth of the fruit body, often enabling it to persist for several months. The fungus employs an indeterminate growth pattern, in which the fruit body formation begins from a vertical column of hyphae that eventually expand at the top to form the cap. Any solid objects encountered during growth, such as grass or twigs, can be enveloped by the expanding fruit body. Similarly, closely neighboring caps can fuse together during growth.
The broadly ellipsoid to roughly spherical spores are 5.5–7.5 by 4.5–5.5 μm. Their surfaces are covered with small rounded bumps. The basidia (spore-bearing cells) are narrowly club-shaped, four-spored, and measure 25–30 by 6–7.5 μm. The hyphae of the flesh are brownish with thin walls, and measure 4–6 μm; hyphae in the spines are thin-walled, septate, and sometimes branched, measuring 3.5–4.5 μm. The hyphae do not have clamp connections.
### Similar species
Hydnellum peckii is similar in appearance, but has an acrid taste, and clamp connections in its hyphae. Hydnellum spongiosipes is readily confused with H. ferrugineum, and several authors have historically considered the two species to be the same; molecular studies, however, indicate that the two fungi are closely related, but distinct. In contrast with H. ferrugineum, H. spongiosipes has a darker cap when young, darker flesh, and occurs in deciduous woods. Old fruit bodies of H. ferrugineum can be confused with those of Hydnellum concrescens.
## Habitat and distribution
Hydnellum ferrugineum is found mainly in coniferous woodland, often near pines, but occasionally with spruce. Fruit bodies have a preference for sandy soil with low levels of organic matter and nutrients, and grow singly or in clusters. They are more likely to be found in older-growth forests. The fungus occurs in North America, including Mexico. It is widespread but generally uncommon throughout Europe, although there may be local areas where it is common. In Britain, H. ferrugineum is provisionally classified as endangered, and is protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981; it was included as one of 14 species considered in the United Kingdom Biodiversity Action Plan for stipitate hydnoid fungi (i.e., hydnoid fungi with a cap and stipe) in 2004. The fungus is protected in Montenegro. It has been collected in India and North Africa.
The fungus forms a tough mat of mycelia in the humus and upper soil of pine forests. This mycelial mat grows larger with old trees, and can cover an area of several square meters. These areas generally lack dwarf shrubs and promote the vigorous growth of mosses; reindeer lichens often occur in the center of large mats. The presence of the fungus changes the nature of the soil, resulting in a thinner humus layer, decreased groundwater penetration, decreased soil pH, and increases in the level of root respiration as well as the quantity of roots. The fungus also decreases the organic carbon and nitrogen concentrations. Soil with the mycelium becomes more podzolized than the surrounding soil. Similar to some other Hydnellum species, H. ferrugineum is sensitive to the increased nitrogen deposition resulting from clear-cutting, a forestry practice used in some areas of Europe. The fungus forms an unusual type of mycorrhiza with Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) in which the ectomycorrhiza appears normal at the leading edge of the mycelial mat, but leaves behind dead and atrophied roots at the trailing edge, showing saprophytic tendencies.
## Bioactive compounds
Hydnellum ferrugineum fruit bodies contain the pigments hydnuferrigin (dark violet) and hydnuferruginin (yellow), as well as small amounts of the polyphenol compound atromentin. Hydnuferrigin has a chemical structure that closely resembles that of thelephoric acid, a pigment found in other species of Hydnellum and Hydnum, and they may originate from a common precursor compound. |
1,726,063 | Jeannie (TV series) | 1,171,421,580 | 1973 American animated television series | [
"1970s American animated television series",
"1973 American television series debuts",
"1973 American television series endings",
"Adaptations of works by Sidney Sheldon",
"American animated television spin-offs",
"American children's animated adventure television series",
"American children's animated comedy television series",
"American children's animated fantasy television series",
"CBS original programming",
"English-language television shows",
"I Dream of Jeannie",
"Teen animated television series",
"Television series by Hanna-Barbera",
"Television series by Screen Gems",
"Television series by Sony Pictures Television"
] | Jeannie is an American animated television series that originally aired for a 16-episode season on CBS from September 8 to December 22, 1973. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera in association with Screen Gems, and its founders William Hanna and Joseph Barbera are the executive producers. Despite being a spin-off of sorts of the television sitcom I Dream of Jeannie, Jeannie has little in common with its parent show. In this version, the title character is rescued on the beaches of southern California by a high school student, Corey Anders. Jeannie is accompanied by genie-in-training Babu, and they become companions to Corey and his best friend, Henry Glopp, both of whom also help Jeannie and Babu adjust to their new home as well as life in Los Angeles. The series was marketed towards a younger demographic than I Dream of Jeannie.
Julie McWhirter replaces Barbara Eden in the lead role. In his first voice-acting job, Mark Hamill plays Corey Anders, and also sings the theme music. Babu is voiced by Joe Besser, who had a successful voice-acting career at the time. Jeannie was shown as part of CBS's Saturday-morning cartoon programming block, and episodes aired between 1973 and 1975. The show was also included on the wheel series Fred Flintstone and Friends, and had crossovers with the Scooby-Doo franchise. Though a few retrospective reviews of Jeannie have been negative, it has gained popularity after Warner Bros. bought Hanna-Barbera and its properties in 1996, and it remains popular with the public and industry professionals, and has been recently distributed via two streaming services: Crackle and CTV Throwback. An episode can also be viewed at the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
## Premise and characters
In Jeannie, high school student Corey Anders discovers Jeannie's bottle while surfing and draws the title character out of it. Corey becomes the master to Jeannie and her apprentice Babu. Portrayed as a 16-year-old, Jeannie is shown as training the "junior genie" Babu, who frequently causes trouble due to his inexperience with magic. Playing the role of the comic relief, Babu is characterized as having a habit of "popping in at the most inopportune times". The pair become close "friends and protectors" to Corey, who is Jeannie's love interest.
Episodes typically focus on Corey's attempts to hide Jeannie and Babu's true identities as he attends Center City High School and Jeannie's difficulties with adjusting to life in 1970s California. Corey's storylines also include his friend Henry Glopp; other than Corey, Henry is the only other person aware of Jeannie's identity as a genie. Other supporting characters include Corey's mom (Mrs. Anders), a friend and an antagonist (S. Melvin Farthinggale), the Master of all Genies (Great Hadji), and Debbie. S. Melvin is portrayed as a "snobbish snoop", who frequently sneaks around the Anders' home due to his suspicions about Jeannie and Babu.
Jeannie is an animated spin-off of the live-action television sitcom I Dream of Jeannie, although it has a substantially different plot than its parent show. In this version, Corey replaces astronaut Major Tony Nelson. While I Dream of Jeannie was a family show, it focused on '60s-style relationships (especially in its first season), the NASA moon project and broad slapstick. The humor used for the animated Jeannie, more focused toward teenagers and children, is of the "Archie" comics nature, with themes of dating, school events and friendship. Like the original series, Jeannie is emotionally attached to her assumed boyfriend and becomes jealous in the face of competition, a staple of teen-age comics and sitcoms. Unlike the original series, Jeannie is depicted as younger and with red hair instead of blonde; she activates her magic by shaking her ponytail rather than blinking her eyes.
## Production
Jeannie was a Hanna-Barbera production, with the company's founders William Hanna and Joseph Barbera serving as the show's executive producers. Charles August Nichols was the director, and Iwao Takamoto was the producer. I Dream of Jeannie creator Sidney Sheldon is not included in the credits for Jeannie, which The A.V. Club's Will Harris attributes to the extreme differences between the two shows. Hanna-Barbera had created Jeannie as a way to appeal to a younger demographic. The musical director was Hoyt Curtin and music supervisor was Paul DeKorte. Jeannie was a co-production between Hanna-Barbera and Columbia Pictures, as Columbia's Screen Gems television division was the owner of I Dream of Jeannie. Hanna-Barbera had a long association with Columbia and Screen Gems as they distributed their earlier shows, including The Flintstones and The Jetsons. However, the rights to all Hanna-Barbera properties were transferred to Warner Bros. after the studio purchased the company in 1996. Hanna-Barbera did not, however, animate the titles for the original I Dream of Jeannie—that was DePatie-Freleng—but they did animate a variety of opening titles (including both Darrins) for Screen Gems' Bewitched.
Barbara Eden was replaced by Julie McWhirter as the voice of Jeannie. Mark Hamill provides the voice for Corey Anders, in his first voice-acting job. Along with voicing the character, he sings the theme music. Hamill would not become well known as a voice actor until his role as the Joker in the television show Batman: The Animated Series.
Bob Hastings and Joe Besser portray Henry Glopp and Babu, respectively. Besser was a successful voice actor during the 1970s and 1980s; along with Jeannie, he also voiced regular characters in the television programs The Houndcats and Yogi's Space Race. He had previously appeared in an I Dream of Jeannie episode, alongside the members of The Three Stooges. Debbie, Mark, and Mrs. Anders are played by Arlene Golonka, Michael Bell, and Janet Waldo, respectively. Mrs. Anders is voiced by Ginny Tyler in episode 11 ("The Blind Date") and Janet Waldo in episode 16 ("The Wish". John Stephenson and Tommy Cook voice Great Hadji and S. Melvin Farthinghill (a.k.a "Smellvin). Sherry Alberoni, Julie Bennett, Don Messick, and Ginny Tyler provide additional voice-acting for the series.
## Episodes
## Broadcast history and release
Jeannie aired on CBS with its 16 30-minute episodes initially broadcast in 1973. CBS continued to run episodes until August 1975 as part of its Saturday-morning cartoon programming block. The episode "The Decathlon" is available for viewing at the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Jeannie was made available digitally by CTV Television Network through their streaming service CTV Throwback, as well as on Sony and Columbia's streaming service Crackle.
Jeannie was shown as part of the wheel series Fred Flintstone and Friends, which had Fred Flintstone host excerpts taken from Hanna-Barbera programs. It also had several crossovers with the Scooby-Doo franchise. Babu appears in the television show Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics, in which he participates on the "Scooby Doobies" team. Babu, Jeannie, Corey, and Henry return for The New Scooby-Doo Movies episode "Mystery in Persia", also known "Scooby-Doo Meets Jeannie". Jeannie helps to trap the genie Jadal the Evil inside a bottle and uncover that Adbullah is his master. |
29,799,820 | No. 76 Wing RAAF | 1,000,117,067 | Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) wing during World War II | [
"Military units and formations disestablished in 1945",
"Military units and formations established in 1944",
"RAAF wings"
] | No. 76 Wing was a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) wing that operated during World War II. Initially based in Far North Queensland, its headquarters transferred to Darwin, Northern Territory, in September 1944 to take control of three PBY Catalina units: Nos. 20, 42, and 43 Squadrons. The prime task of these squadrons was minelaying in the South West Pacific theatre, and they conducted these operations as far afield as Java, Borneo, the Philippines, and China. As well as minelaying, No. 76 Wing's Catalinas flew bombing, patrol, and transport missions, and dropped millions of propaganda leaflets in the closing months of the war. The wing headquarters disbanded in November 1945.
## History
No. 76 Wing headquarters was established at Townsville, Queensland, on 3 January 1944, and moved to Cairns mid-month. Led by Wing Commander Reginald Burrage, it transferred to Darwin, Northern Territory, in September to coordinate and control minelaying operations in the North-Western Area by Nos. 20, 42, and 43 Squadrons. Each of the squadrons was equipped with PBY Catalina flying boats, nicknamed "Black Cats"; No. 20 had been based in Cairns with No. 76 Wing headquarters, No. 42 had just been formed at Darwin in August, while No. 43 had been operating out of Darwin since March. Minelaying missions carried out by the RAAF over the past year had been credited with successfully disrupting enemy shipping for a much smaller outlay of operating hours than conventional bombing, and were thus considered profitable enough to dedicate a wing with three squadrons to furthering the work. Although the Catalinas were relatively slow and susceptible to enemy fighter attack, their loss rate was no more than one per 95 sorties. In addition to its flying squadrons, the wing controlled No. 2 Flying Boat Maintenance Unit, No. 11 Air Sea Rescue Flight, and No. 3 Mobile Torpedo Unit. All units were located in Darwin except No. 42 Squadron, which was based at Melville Bay.
The Catalina squadrons were expected to carry out a total of 100 missions per month from Darwin. In their first three weeks of operation from 13 September 1944 they accomplished 98, mining targets in Celebes, Java, and Surabaya. In October, they were able to use the recently liberated island of Morotai as a forward base for operations against Balikpapan and Tarakan. On 14 December, No. 43 Squadron, augmented by Catalinas from No. 11 Squadron based at Rathmines, New South Wales, mined Manila Bay to keep Japanese shipping "bottled up", thus supporting the Allied landing at Mindoro taking place the next day. Flying from Leyte, the 24 Catalinas successfully dropped 60 mines in the heavily defended target area for the loss of one of their number, and returned to base at the limit of their fuel reserves.
In the early part of 1945, monsoonal weather in Darwin reduced the number of missions flown by No. 76 Wing. On the night of 5/6 April, three Catalinas kept watch on the Japanese cruiser , which was subsequently struck by Allied bombers and sunk by submarines. During the month, the Catalinas mined Hong Kong harbour, as well as targets on the coast of mainland China, flying up to sixteen hours per mission. On 26 May, they undertook the RAAF's most northerly operation during the Pacific War, against Wenchow. The same month, Group Captain Stuart Campbell, former leader of No. 42 Squadron, took over command of the wing. In May–June, reinforced by a detachment from No. 11 Squadron, No. 76 Wing flew mining and bombing missions in support of the forthcoming Operation Oboe Six, the Battle of North Borneo, and Oboe Two, the Battle of Balikpapan. Before Oboe Six, while some of the Catalinas concentrated on mining the approaches to Surabaya harbour, others bombed airfields in Java and Celebes in concert with RAAF B-24 Liberators. The Catalinas and Liberators combined again in the lead-up to Oboe Two to raid any Japanese airfields that could threaten Balikpapan, in some cases bombing the same target around the clock, the Catalinas by night and Liberators by day.
With the Allies' decision to confine RAAF minelaying operations to areas south of China from June onwards, the number of worthwhile targets for the Catalinas was reduced. Sorties for the month were down to 58, a number of which were carried out from Labuan against Banka Strait. The wing's last minelaying missions of the war took place in July, again in the Banka Strait. In the final months before the Japanese surrender, the Catalinas also delivered propaganda leaflets around the Dutch East Indies and South China Sea, dropping over a million in June alone. No. 76 Wing and its squadrons remained at Darwin in the immediate aftermath of the war, conducting routine patrols, transporting supplies and medicine to prisoners-of-war in the South West Pacific, and assisting in the repatriation of Australian personnel. In November 1945, under a reorganisation of RAAF units at Darwin, the wing headquarters was given orders to disband. It became non-operational on 16 November and was officially dissolved five days later. No. 42 Squadron disbanded the same month, while Nos. 20 and 43 Squadrons transferred to Rathmines, where they disbanded in 1946. |
19,266,144 | Improbable (The X-Files) | 1,159,348,882 | null | [
"2002 American television episodes",
"Fiction about God",
"Musical television episodes",
"Television episodes directed by Chris Carter (screenwriter)",
"Television episodes written by Chris Carter (screenwriter)",
"The X-Files (season 9) episodes"
] | "Improbable" is the thirteenth episode of the ninth season and the 195th episode overall of the science fiction television series The X-Files. The episode first aired in the United States and Canada on April 7, 2002, on Fox, and subsequently aired in the United Kingdom. It was written and directed by series creator and executive producer Chris Carter. The episode is a "monster-of-the-week" episode, a stand-alone plot which is unconnected to the mythology, or overarching fictional history, of The X-Files. The episode earned a Nielsen rating of 5.1 and was viewed by 9.1 million viewers. The episode received mostly positive reviews from critics.
The show centers on FBI special agents who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files; this season focuses on the investigations of John Doggett (Robert Patrick), Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish), and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson). In this episode, Reyes and her fellow agents investigate a serial killer who uses numerology to choose his victims. Soon, Reyes and Scully meet an unusual man who may prove more of a hindrance than a help.
"Improbable" features Burt Reynolds playing God. Reynolds was chosen after he expressed his desire to appear in an episode of The X-Files to Robert Patrick. Carter approved the idea, and Patrick later said that Reynolds enjoyed filming the episode. "Improbable" contains several elaborate effects, such as a cityscape rendered to look like Reynolds' head. Furthermore, the episode contains themes pertaining to fate, free will, and numerology. The tagline for this episode is "Dio Ti Ama", meaning "God loves you" in Italian, replacing the usual phrase "The Truth is Out There."
## Plot
At a casino bar, an unpleasant man known as "Wayno" (Ray McKinnon) meets a mysterious man (Burt Reynolds) who seems to know a lot about him. The mysterious man speaks in an enigmatic way, but his words do not seem to make any difference to Wayno, who murders a woman in a casino restroom shortly after the mysterious man tells him to "surprise him" by leaving the casino rather than following the woman into the restroom.
Agent Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish) is investigating the woman's murder as the latest in a series of cases that she believes are linked by numerology. She realizes that when she adds the numbers of letters in the victims' names with the numbers in their birthdates, a pattern arises. While explaining the case to Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), who rejects the idea that numerology is relevant or that the world can be broken down into one simple equation, Scully discovers another possible clue—marks on each of the victim's cheeks that looks like three small circles, likely imprinted by the killer's ring while he beat the victims. On consulting a numerologist, who happens to have an office in the same building as the killer's apartment, Reyes ties the murders together. However, the killer also finds the numerologist, murdering her as she is on the phone with Reyes.
Reyes' numerology theories do not go down well at the FBI, but the pattern of the killings, when viewed on a map, seem to line up as the number six (6). After looking at the pictures of the victims, Scully realizes that the pattern on the victims was not three circles, but instead, three sixes, the mark of the devil. Meanwhile, Wayno has several additional run-ins with the mysterious man, who continues to give cryptic advice.
Scully and Reyes revisit the murdered numerologist's office and meet the killer in the elevator. Scully recognizes the ring on the killer's hand as the agents exit the elevator, and draws her gun on him. The killer slips back into the elevator and gets to the parking lot first. Reyes and Scully arrive only to see a car fleeing the garage and the gate closing behind it. Scully and Reyes are locked in the garage without a way out and their phones are without service.
They see another person hiding in a car and demand that he come out. It is the strange man. He says he is meeting a friend to play checkers, but does not know when his friend is coming. He does not have any identification and does not have a phone. The pair demand that he open his trunk. Inside are many CDs—the man proclaims his love of music—and a checker board. To pass the time, the mysterious man engages Reyes and Scully in a game of checkers. They play several rounds. Reyes eventually realizes that the checkers' colors (red & black) are surrogates for Scully (a redhead) and herself (a brunette); The pair realize that the last victim, the numerologist (victim number 7) was a blonde, and that the murderer has been following a pattern of killing a blonde, then a redhead, then a brunette. Thus, a redhead and a brunette are the anticipated hair-colors of the next two victims. Scully and Reyes also realize that, although they assumed that the car that exited the garage was the killer, it was possible that the killer might still be inside the garage with them. Scully and Reyes begin searching, but are surprised by the killer, who shuts off the lights, grabs Reyes and eventually gets hold of her gun. However, John Doggett (Robert Patrick), also realizing that the number "6" pattern is actually a "9" and that the killer must intend to have two more victims, arrives in the nick of time to shoot him. Reyes attempts to ask the killer why he did what he did. The killer begins to mouth a word, but dies before being able to speak to Reyes. Scully and Reyes then realize that the mysterious man is no longer in the garage.
At the end of the episode, Scully and Reyes are getting ready for bed. Scully suddenly calls Reyes and asks her what her assigned numerology "number" is. Reyes informs Scully she is a "9" which means she has risen above the other numbers and understands that there is more to life than this world. The clock shows us that it is 9:09 pm. In a nearby Italian neighborhood, an Italian festival is in progress. Two men sing a comical and upbeat song (Io Mammeta E Tu) in Corsican and lead a crowd through the streets. The camera zooms out to reveal that the entire neighborhood, when viewed from above, suggests the appearance of Burt's face, hinting at the fact that he might be God.
## Production
### Development
Carter later explained that humorous episodes were important to the show, especially during the "pitch-black" ninth season. He reasoned "there are the downbeats, and then you need the relief in the tension." The use of numbers in this episode helped emphasize the idea "that numerology is an important part of our life and plays a part, but it really ... illustrate[s] the idea of patterns, patterns of behavior, of the ways in which numbers rule both the universe and our lives and our ability to solve things, [and] to solve our mysteries of life". The tagline for this episode is "Dio Ti Ama", meaning "God loves you" in Italian, replacing the usual phrase "The Truth is Out There." The normal line "Executive Producer: Chris Carter" is also rendered in Italian, reading, "Produttore Esecutivo: Chris Carter".
The name Vicki Burdick came from a high school student Chris Carter knew. Carter felt that he needed to kill the character "all out of fondness." Before casting Ellen Greene, Carter had first spotted her in the musical, Little Shop of Horrors both in "New York and Los Angeles." The first scene shot for Greene's character took a "long day". Carter called her a "trouper" and said she was open to the direction he gave her. The set for that scene was created by Tim Stepeck, the show's set decorator during its ninth season. Annabeth Gish later revealed that her lines were difficult to remember. She explained, "I remember learning my lines and thinking, 'Oh my God. I've got to memorize this. It's scary. Like physics united theory, all of that."
### Casting
Burt Reynolds was chosen for "Improbable" after he expressed his desire to appear in an episode of The X-Files to Robert Patrick. Carter approved the idea and told Patrick that he would "write something good". He later noted that "as a young man, [Reynolds] meant something to me" and that the chance to act alongside him was "surreal". After Carter had written the script, he presented it to Reynolds for his approval; Reynolds approved of the script and agreed to be in the episode. Robert Patrick later noted that Reynolds "had a great time, and he loved working with everybody."
### Effects and music
The final scene, featuring Burt's face superimposed onto the cityscape, was created by special effects supervisor Mat Beck. The only actual footage in the scene is a pull-back shot of the carnival that was filmed with the use of a crane. A CGI cityscape was then created that resembled Burt Reynolds' head. The two shots were composited together, and a blur effect was added to "[make] it sell". An alternate version of the scene was created that featured Chris Carter's head instead of Reynolds'. This version was included as a bonus feature on the season nine DVD set. The score for the episode, like the rest of the series, was composed by Mark Snow. Snow based much of the music in the episode on records made by Karl Zéro, on the request of Carter. Carter later noted that "I had heard his music and it was so far out and it fit with exactly what I wanted to do because I wanted to recreate [the yearly celebration in] Little Italy. [...] I wanted to create that festival."
## Themes
According to Chris Carter, the whole idea behind the episode was about numbers and that the "significance of numbers in our lives starts here on the card table where the players are being dealt a hand each." He continued with "the idea is that we're all dealt hands, genetic hands, and maybe even numerological hands that give us basically the tools with which we deal and/or use for our lives." He further stated that the idea was that it was "free will" and "fate", continued with that fate was determined by our own genetics.
The villain in the story, Mad Wayne, had been dealt a bad hand in life. Because of his situation, he "acts on his bad impulses"; Carter elaborated, "Is it fate that Wayne is about, the character, this is what I was interested in exploring here. As we'll see with the introduction in a moment of a character who throws all of this into question – God – we're going to see what his place is in all of this, or at least explore what Burt Reynolds, playing God here, has to do with the character Wayne." The main idea behind the episode, was that "God knows all the numbers [because] they're his numbers" and he is laying them down and is in "charge of the big game". God in this episode is thus "trying to show [the characters] the game" of life that is to be "won or lost". By making the wrong decisions, Wayne, by the end of the episode, has lost this game.
## Reception
### Ratings
"Improbable" first aired in the United States on April 7, 2002. The episode earned a Nielsen household rating of 5.1, meaning that it was seen by an estimated 5.1% of the nation's households. The episode was viewed by 5.38 million households and 9.1 million viewers "Improbable" was the 57th most watched episode of television that aired during the week ending April 14.
### Reviews
"Improbable" received mostly positive reviews from critics. Jessica Morgan of Television Without Pity awarded the episode a "B+". Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode four stars out of five, and called the script "very witty". The two wrote that "the brilliance of Chris Carter's direction" allowed the viewer of the episode to see it "from God's point of view". Shearman and Pearson concluded that the episode "is not as smart as it thinks it is. But it's still pretty smart." M.A. Crang, in his book Denying the Truth: Revisiting The X-Files after 9/11, called the episode "bizarre yet amusing" and said that the central numerology story "doesn't feel like it's enough to sustain an entire episode".
The Guardian listed "Improbable" as one of the "13 best X-Files episodes ever". UGO named God/Mr. Burt as one of the "Top 11 X-Files Monsters", noting that "as [series creator Chris Carter] imagines him, [God] is a benevolent deity, constantly prodding his creatures to look at the patterns before them, to see the overall plan that he's laid out. He's doomed to failure, and he knows it, though it doesn't stop him from trying". |
211,782 | North American XB-70 Valkyrie | 1,167,026,429 | Prototype supersonic strategic bomber | [
"1960s United States bomber aircraft",
"Aircraft first flown in 1964",
"Canard aircraft",
"Cancelled military aircraft projects of the United States",
"Delta-wing aircraft",
"NASA aircraft",
"North American Aviation aircraft",
"Six-engined jet aircraft",
"Variable-geometry-wing aircraft"
] | The North American Aviation XB-70 Valkyrie was the prototype version of the planned B-70 nuclear-armed, deep-penetration supersonic strategic bomber for the United States Air Force Strategic Air Command. Designed in the late 1950s by North American Aviation (NAA), the six-engined Valkyrie was capable of cruising for thousands of miles at Mach 3+ while flying at 70,000 feet (21,000 m).
At these speeds, it was expected that the B-70 would be practically immune to interceptor aircraft, the only effective weapon against bomber aircraft at the time. The bomber would spend only a brief time over a particular radar station, flying out of its range before the controllers could position their fighters in a suitable location for an interception. Its high speed made the aircraft difficult to see on radar displays and its high-altitude and high-speed capabilities could not be matched by any contemporaneous Soviet interceptor or fighter aircraft.
The introduction of the first Soviet surface-to-air missiles in the late 1950s put the near-invulnerability of the B-70 in doubt. In response, the United States Air Force (USAF) began flying its missions at low level, where the missile radar's line of sight was limited by terrain. In this low-level penetration role, the B-70 offered little additional performance over the B-52 it was meant to replace, while being far more expensive with shorter range. Other alternate missions were proposed, but these were of limited scope. With the advent of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) during the late 1950s, crewed nuclear bombers were increasingly seen as obsolete.
The USAF eventually gave up fighting for its production and the B-70 program was canceled in 1961. Development was then turned over to a research program to study the effects of long-duration high-speed flight. As a result, two prototype aircraft, designated XB-70A, were built; these aircraft were used for supersonic test-flights during 1964–69. In 1966, one prototype crashed after colliding with a smaller aircraft while flying in close formation; the remaining Valkyrie bomber is in the National Museum of the United States Air Force near Dayton, Ohio.
## Development
### Background
In an offshoot of Boeing's MX-2145 crewed boost-glide bomber project, Boeing partnered with RAND Corporation in January 1954 to explore what sort of bomber aircraft would be needed to deliver the various contemporary nuclear weapons under development. At the time, nuclear weapons weighed several tons, and the need to carry enough fuel to fly that payload from the continental United States to the Soviet Union demanded large bombers. They also concluded that after the release of the bombs, the aircraft would need supersonic speed to escape the critical blast-radius.
The aviation industry had been studying this problem for some time. From the mid-1940s, there was interest in using nuclear-powered aircraft in the bomber role. In a conventional jet engine, thrust is provided by heating air using jet fuel and accelerating it out a nozzle. In a nuclear engine, heat is supplied by a reactor, whose consumables last for months instead of hours. Most designs also carried a small amount of jet fuel for use during high-power portions of flight, such as takeoffs and high-speed dashes.
Another possibility being explored at the time was the use of boron-enriched "zip fuels", which improve the energy density of jet fuel by about 40 percent, and could be used in modified versions of existing jet engine designs. Zip fuels appeared to offer sufficient performance improvement to produce a strategic bomber with supersonic speed.
### WS-110A
The U.S. Air Force (USAF) followed these developments closely, and in 1955 issued General Operational Requirement No. 38 for a new bomber, combining the payload and intercontinental range of the B-52 with the Mach 2 top speed of the Convair B-58 Hustler. The new bomber was expected to enter service in 1963. Both nuclear and conventional designs were considered. The nuclear-powered bomber was organized as "Weapon System 125A" and pursued simultaneously with the jet-powered version, "Weapon System 110A".
The USAF Air Research and Development Command's (ARDC) requirement for WS-110A asked for a chemical-fuel bomber with Mach 0.9 cruising speed and "maximum possible" speed during a 1,000-nautical-mile (1,200 mi; 1,900 km) entrance and exit from the target. The requirement also called for a 50,000-pound (23,000 kg) payload and a combat radius of 4,000 nautical miles (4,600 mi; 7,400 km). The Air Force formed similar requirements for a WS-110L intercontinental reconnaissance system in 1955, but this was later canceled in 1958 due to better options. In July 1955, six contractors were selected to bid on WS-110A studies. Boeing and North American Aviation submitted proposals, and on 8 November 1955 were awarded contracts for Phase 1 development.
In mid-1956, initial designs were presented by the two companies. Zip fuel was to be used in the afterburners to improve range by 10 to 15 percent over conventional fuel. Both designs featured huge wing-tip fuel tanks that could be jettisoned when their fuel was depleted before a supersonic dash to the target. The tanks also included the outer portions of the wing, which would also be jettisoned to produce a smaller wing suitable for supersonic speeds. Both became trapezoidal wings after ejection, at that time the highest performance planform known. They also featured flush cockpits to maintain the highest fineness ratio possible in spite of its effects on visibility.
The two designs had takeoff weights of approximately 750,000 pounds (340,000 kg) with large fuel loads. The Air Force evaluated the designs, and in September 1956 deemed them too large and complicated for operations. General Curtis LeMay was dismissive, declaiming, "This is not an airplane, it's a three-ship formation." The USAF ended Phase 1 development in October 1956 and instructed the two contractors to continue design studies.
### New designs
While the original proposals were being studied, advances in supersonic flight were proceeding rapidly. The narrow delta was establishing itself as a preferred planform for supersonic flight, replacing earlier designs like the swept-wing and trapezoidal layouts seen on designs like the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and the earlier WS-110 concepts. Engines able to cope with higher temperatures were also under development, allowing for sustained supersonic speeds.
This work led to an interesting discovery: when an engine was optimized specifically for high speed, it burned perhaps twice as much fuel at that speed than when it was running at subsonic speeds. However, the aircraft would be flying as much as four times as fast. Thus its most economical cruise speed, in terms of fuel per mile, was its maximum speed. This was entirely unexpected and implied that there was no point in the dash concept; if the aircraft was able to reach Mach 3, it may as well fly its entire mission at that speed. The question remained whether such a concept was technically feasible, but by March 1957, engine development and wind tunnel testing had progressed enough to suggest that it was.
WS-110 was redesigned to fly at Mach 3 for the entire mission. Zip fuel was retained for the engine's afterburner to increase range. Both North American and Boeing returned new designs with very long fuselages and large delta wings. They differed primarily in engine layout; the NAA design arranged its six engines in a semi-circular duct under the rear fuselage, while the Boeing design used separate podded engines located individually on pylons below the wing, like the Hustler.
North American scoured available literature to find any additional advantage. This led them to an obscure report by two NACA wind tunnel experts, who wrote a report in 1956 titled "Aircraft Configurations Developing High Lift-Drag Ratios at High Supersonic Speeds". Known today as compression lift, the idea was to use the shock wave generated off the nose or other sharp points on the aircraft as a source of high-pressure air. By carefully positioning the wing in relation to the shock, the shock's high pressure could be captured on the bottom of the wing and generate additional lift. To take maximum advantage of this effect, they redesigned the underside of the aircraft to feature a large triangular intake area far forward of the engines, better positioning the shock in relation to the wing. The six individually-podded engines were repositioned, three in each of two separate ducts, under the fuselage.
North American improved on the basic concept by adding a set of drooping wing-tip panels that were lowered at high speed. This helped trap the shock wave under the wing between the downturned wing tips. It also added more vertical surface to the aircraft to maintain directional stability at high speeds. NAA's solution had an additional advantage, as it decreased the surface area of the rear of the wing when the panels were moved into their high-speed position. This helped offset the natural rearward shift of the center of pressure, or "average lift point", with increasing speeds. Under normal conditions this caused an increasing nose-down trim, which had to be offset by moving the control surfaces, increasing drag. When the wing tips were drooped, the lifting area of the wings was lessened, moving the lift forward and reducing trim drag.
The buildup of heat due to skin friction during sustained supersonic flight had to be addressed. During a Mach 3 cruise, the aircraft would reach an average of 450 °F (230 °C), with leading edges reaching 630 °F (330 °C), and up to 1,000 °F (540 °C) in engine compartments. NAA proposed building their design out of sandwich panels, with each panel consisting of two thin sheets of stainless steel brazed to opposite faces of a honeycomb-shaped foil core. Expensive titanium would be used only in high-temperature areas like the leading edge of the horizontal stabilizer, and the nose. To cool the interior, the XB-70 pumped fuel en route to the engines through heat exchangers.
On 30 August 1957, the Air Force decided that enough data were available on the NAA and Boeing designs that a competition could begin. On 18 September, the Air Force issued operational requirements that called for a cruising speed of Mach 3.0 to 3.2, an over-target altitude of 70,000–75,000 ft (21,000–23,000 m), a range of up to 10,500 miles (16,900 km), and a gross weight not to exceed 490,000 pounds (220,000 kg). The aircraft would have to use the hangars, runways and handling procedures used by the B-52. On 23 December 1957, the North American proposal was declared the winner of the competition, and on 24 January 1958, a contract was issued for Phase 1 development.
In February 1958, the proposed bomber was designated B-70, with the prototypes receiving the "X" experimental prototype designation. The name "Valkyrie" was the winning submission in early 1958, selected from 20,000 entries in a USAF "Name the B-70" contest. The Air Force approved an 18-month program acceleration in March 1958 that rescheduled the first flight to December 1961. But in late 1958 the service announced that this acceleration would not be possible due to lack of funding. In December 1958, a Phase II contract was issued. The mockup of the B-70 was reviewed by the Air Force in March 1959. Provisions for air-to-surface missiles and external fuel tanks were requested afterward. At the same time, North American was developing the F-108 supersonic interceptor. To reduce program costs, the F-108 would share two of the engines, the escape capsule, and some smaller systems with the B-70. In early 1960, North American and the USAF released the first drawing of the XB-70 to the public.
### The "missile problem"
The B-70 was planned to use a high-speed, high-altitude bombing approach that followed a trend of bombers flying progressively faster and higher since the start of crewed bomber use. Through that same period, only two weapons proved effective against bombers: fighter aircraft and anti-aircraft artillery (AAA). Flying higher and faster made it more difficult for both; higher speeds allowed the bomber to fly out of range of the weapons more quickly, while higher altitudes increased the time needed for fighters to climb to the bombers, and greatly increased the size of the AAA weapons needed to reach those altitudes.
As early as 1942, German flak commanders had already concluded that AAA would be essentially useless against jet aircraft, and began development of guided missiles to fill this role. Most forces reached the same conclusion soon after, with both the US and UK starting missile development programs before the war ended. The UK's Green Mace was one of the last attempts to develop a useful high-altitude AAA weapon, but its development ended in 1957.
Interceptor aircraft with ever-improving performance remained the only effective anti-bomber weapons by the early 1950s, and even these were having problems keeping up with the latest designs; Soviet interceptors during the late 1950s could not intercept the high-altitude U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, despite its relatively low speeds. It was later discovered that flying faster also made radar detection much more difficult due to an effect known as the blip-to-scan ratio, and any reduction in tracking efficiency would further interfere with the operation and guidance of fighters.
The introduction of the first effective anti-aircraft missiles by the late 1950s changed this picture dramatically. Missiles could stand ready for immediate launch, eliminating operational delays like the time needed to get the pilot into the cockpit of a fighter. Guidance did not require wide-area tracking or calculation of an intercept course: a simple comparison of the time needed to fly to the altitude of the target returned the required deflection. Missiles also had greater altitude capability than any aircraft and improving this to adapt to new aircraft was a low-cost development path. The US was aware of Soviet work in the field, and had reduced the expected operational lifetime of the U-2, knowing that it would become vulnerable to these missiles as they were improved. In 1960, a U-2 flown by Gary Powers was shot down by one of the earliest Soviet guided air-defence missiles, the S-75 Dvina, known in the west as the SA-2 Guideline.
Faced with this problem, military doctrine had already started shifting away from high-altitude supersonic bombing toward low-altitude penetration. Radar is line-of-sight, so aircraft could dramatically shorten detection distances by flying close to the Earth and hiding behind terrain. Missile sites spaced to overlap in range when attacking bombers at high altitudes would leave large gaps between their coverage for bombers flying at lower levels. With an appropriate map of the missile sites, the bombers could fly between and around the defenses. Additionally, early missiles generally flew unguided for a period of time before the radar systems were able to track the missile and start sending it guidance signals. With the SA-2 missile, this minimum altitude was roughly 2,000 feet (610 m).
Flying at low level provided protection against fighters as well. Radars of the era did not have the ability to look down (see look-down/shoot-down); if a higher altitude aircraft's radar was aimed down to detect targets at a lower altitude, the reflection of the ground would overwhelm the signal returned from a target. An interceptor flying at normal altitudes would be effectively blind to bombers far below it. The interceptor could descend to lower altitudes to increase the amount of visible sky, but doing so would limit its radar range in the same way as the missile sites, as well as greatly increasing fuel use and thus reducing mission time. The Soviet Union would not introduce an interceptor with look-down capability until 1972 with the High Lark radar in the MiG-23M, and even this model had very limited capability.
Strategic Air Command found itself in an uncomfortable position; bombers had been tuned for efficiency at high speeds and altitudes, performance that had been purchased at great cost in both engineering and financial terms. Before the B-70 was to replace the B-52 in the long-range role, SAC had introduced the B-58 Hustler to replace the Boeing B-47 Stratojet in the medium-range role. The Hustler was expensive to develop and purchase, and required enormous amounts of fuel and maintenance in comparison to the B-47. It was estimated that it cost three times as much to operate as the much larger and longer-ranged B-52.
The B-70, designed for even higher speeds, altitudes and range than the B-58, suffered even more in relative terms. At high altitudes, the B-70 was as much as four times as fast as the B-52, but at low altitudes it was limited to only Mach 0.95, only modestly faster than the B-52 at the same altitudes. It also had a smaller bombload and shorter range. Its only major advantage would be its ability to use high speed in areas without missile cover, especially on the long journey from the US to USSR. The value was limited; the USAF's doctrine stressed that the primary reason for maintaining the bomber force in an era of ICBMs was that the bombers could remain in the air at long ranges from their bases and were thus immune to sneak attack. In this case, the higher speed would be used for only a short period of time between the staging areas and the Soviet coastline.
Adding to the problems, the zip fuel program was canceled in 1959. After burning, the fuel turned into caustic and abrasive liquids and solids that increased wear on moving turbine engine components and were toxic, making servicing difficult. Although the B-70 was intended to use zip only in the afterburners, and thus avoid this problem, the enormous cost of the zip program for such limited gains led to its cancellation. This by itself was not a fatal problem, however, as newly developed high-energy fuels like JP-6 were available to make up some of the difference. Most of the range lost in the change from zip fuel was restored by filling one of the two bomb bays with a fuel tank. However, another problem arose when the XF-108 program was canceled in September 1959, which ended the shared development that benefited the B-70 program.
### Downsizing, upswing, cancellation
At two secret meetings on 16 and 18 November 1959, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General Nathan Twining, recommended the Air Force's plan for the B-70 to reconnoiter and strike rail-mobile Soviet ICBMs, but the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General Thomas White, admitted the Soviets would "be able to hit the B-70 with rockets" and requested the B-70 be downgraded to "a bare minimum research and development program" at \$200 million for fiscal year 1960 (equivalent to \$ billion today). President Eisenhower responded that the reconnaissance and strike mission was "crazy" since the nuclear mission was to attack known production and military complexes, and emphasized that he saw no need for the B-70 since the ICBM is "a cheaper, more effective way of doing the same thing". Eisenhower also identified that the B-70 would not be in manufacturing until "eight to ten years from now" and "said he thought we were talking about bows and arrows at a time of gunpowder when we spoke of bombers in the missile age". In December 1959 the Air Force announced the B-70 project would be cut to a single prototype, and most of the planned B-70 subsystems would no longer be developed.
Then interest increased due to the politics of presidential campaign of 1960. A central plank of John F. Kennedy's campaign was that Eisenhower and the Republicans were weak on defense, and pointed to the B-70 as an example. He told a San Diego audience near NAA facilities, "I endorse wholeheartedly the B-70 manned aircraft." Kennedy also made similar campaign claims regarding other aircraft: near the Seattle Boeing plant he affirmed the need for B-52s and in Fort Worth he praised the B-58.
The Air Force changed the program to full weapon development and awarded a contract for an XB-70 prototype and 11 YB-70s in August 1960. In November 1960, the B-70 program received a \$265 million (equivalent to \$ billion today) appropriation from Congress for FY 1961. Nixon, trailing in his home state of California, also publicly endorsed the B-70, and on 30 October Eisenhower helped the Republican campaign with a pledge of an additional \$155 million (\$ billion today) for the B-70 development program.
On taking office in January 1961, Kennedy was informed that the missile gap was an illusion. On 28 March 1961, after \$800 million (equivalent to \$ billion today) had been spent on the B-70 program, Kennedy canceled the project as "unnecessary and economically unjustifiable" because it "stood little chance of penetrating enemy defenses successfully." Instead, Kennedy recommended "the B-70 program be carried forward essentially to explore the problem of flying at three times the speed of sound with an airframe potentially useful as a bomber." After Congress approved \$290 million (\$ billion today) of B-70 "add-on" funds to the President's 12 May 1960 modified FY 1961 budget, the Administration decided on a "Planned Usage" of only \$100 million (\$ million today) of these funds. The Department of Defense subsequently presented data to Congress that the B-70 would add little performance for the high cost.
However, after becoming the new Air Force Chief of Staff in July 1961, Curtis LeMay increased his B-70 advocacy, including interviews for August Reader's Digest and November Aviation Week articles, and allowing a 25 February General Electric tour at which the press was provided artist conceptions of, and other info about, the B-70. Congress had also continued B-70 appropriations in an effort to resurrect bomber development. After Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara explained again to the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) on 24 January 1962 that the B-70 was unjustifiable, LeMay subsequently argued for the B-70 to both the House and Senate committees—and was chastised by McNamara on 1 March. By 7 March 1962, the HASC, 21 of whose members had B-70 work in their districts, had written an appropriations bill to "direct"—by law—the Executive Branch to use all of the nearly \$500 million (equivalent to \$ billion today) appropriated for the RS-70 (see Variants). McNamara was unsuccessful with an address to the HASC on 14 March, but a 19 March 1962 11th hour White House Rose Garden agreement between Kennedy and HASC chairman Carl Vinson retracted the bill's language and the bomber remained canceled.
### Experimental aircraft
The XB-70s were intended to be used for the advanced study of aerodynamics, propulsion, and other subjects related to large supersonic transports. The crew was reduced to only the two pilots, as a navigator and a bombardier were not needed for this research role. The production order was reduced to three prototypes in March 1961 with the third aircraft to incorporate improvements from the previous prototype. The order was later reduced to two experimental XB-70As, named Air Vehicle 1 and 2 (AV-1 and AV-2). XB-70 No. 1 was completed on 7 May 1964, and rolled out on 11 May 1964 at Palmdale, California. One report stated "nothing like it existed anywhere". AV-2 was completed on 15 October 1964. The manufacture of the third prototype (AV-3) was canceled in July 1964 before completion. The first XB-70 carried out its maiden flight in September 1964 and many more test flights followed.
The data from the XB-70 test flights and aerospace materials development were used in the later B-1 bomber program, the American supersonic transport (SST) program, and via espionage, the Soviet Union's Tupolev Tu-144 SST program. The development of the Lockheed U-2 and the SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft, as well as the XB-70, prompted Soviet aerospace engineers to design and develop their high-altitude and high-speed MiG-25 interceptor.
## Design
The Valkyrie was designed to be a high-altitude Mach 3 bomber with six engines. Harrison Storms shaped the aircraft with a canard surface and a delta wing, which was built largely of stainless steel, sandwiched honeycomb panels, and titanium. The XB-70 was designed to use supersonic technologies developed for the Mach 3 SM-64 Navaho, as well as a modified form of the Navaho's inertial guidance system.
The XB-70 used compression lift, which resulted from a shock wave generated by the leading edge of the engine intake splitter below the apex of the wing. At Mach 3 cruising speed, the shock wave is bent back about 65 degrees and the wing is superimposed on the shock system which has a pressure 40 pounds per square foot (1.9 kPa) higher under the aircraft than in front of the shock. The compression lift provided five percent of the total lift. Camber was added to the wing leading edge inboard of the folding tips to improve subsonic handling and reduce supersonic drag. The outer portions of the wings were hinged to pivot downward by 65 degrees, acting as a type of variable-geometry wingtip device. This increased the aircraft's directional stability at supersonic speeds, shifted the center of pressure to a more favorable position at high speeds, and caused the shock originating at the intake splitter to reflect from the vertical tip surface giving additional compression lift.
Like a number of other delta-wing aircraft designed for supersonic speeds (Concorde, Tu-144, FD2), the Valkyrie needed a feature to improve the pilot's view during nose-high low-speed flight and on the ground. An outer windshield and ramp, which could be lowered, was provided enabling viewing through the fixed cockpit windshield. With the ramp raised into its high-speed position, the forebody was more streamlined. Rain removal and windshield anti-ice was accomplished by utilizing 600 °F (316 °C) bleed air from the engines. The lower forward section included a radar bay, and production machines were to be equipped with a refueling receptacle on the upper surface of the forward fuselage.
The XB-70 was equipped with six General Electric YJ93-GE-3 turbojet engines, which used JP-6 jet fuel, specially formulated for the mission requirements. The engine was stated to be in the "30,000-pound class", but actually produced 28,000 lbf (120 kN) with afterburner and 19,900 lbf (89 kN) without afterburner. The Valkyrie used fuel for cooling; it was pumped through heat exchangers before reaching the engines. To reduce the likelihood of autoignition, nitrogen was injected into the JP-6 during refueling, and the "fuel pressurization and inerting system" vaporized a 700 pounds (320 kg) supply of liquid nitrogen to fill the fuel tank vent space and maintain tank pressure.
## Operational history
The XB-70's maiden flight was on 21 September 1964. In the first flight test, between Palmdale and Edwards AFB, one engine had to be shut down shortly after take-off, and an undercarriage malfunction warning meant that the flight was flown with the undercarriage down as a precaution, limiting speed to 390 mph (630 km/h) – about half that planned. During landing, the rear wheels of the port side main gear locked, the tires ruptured, and a fire started.
The Valkyrie first became supersonic (Mach 1.1) on the third test flight on 12 October 1964, and flew above Mach 1 for 40 minutes during the following flight on 24 October. The wing tips were also lowered partially in this flight. XB-70 No. 1 surpassed Mach 3 on 14 October 1965 by reaching Mach 3.02 at 70,000 ft (21,000 m). The first aircraft was found to suffer from weaknesses in the honeycomb panels, primarily due to inexperience with fabrication and quality control of this new material. On two occasions, honeycomb panels failed and were torn off during supersonic flight, necessitating a Mach 2.5 limit being placed on the aircraft.
The deficiencies discovered on AV-1 were almost completely solved on the second XB-70, which first flew on 17 July 1965. On 3 January 1966, XB-70 No. 2 attained a speed of Mach 3.05 while flying at 72,000 ft (22,000 m). AV-2 reached a top speed of Mach 3.08 and maintained it for 20 minutes on 12 April 1966. On 19 May 1966, AV-2 reached Mach 3.06 and flew at Mach 3 for 32 minutes, covering 2,400 mi (3,900 km) in 91 minutes of total flight.
A joint NASA/USAF research program was conducted from 3 November 1966 to 31 January 1967 for measuring the intensity and signature of sonic booms for the National Sonic Boom Program. Testing was planned to cover a range of sonic boom overpressures on the ground similar to but higher than those anticipated from the proposed American SST. In 1966, AV-2 was selected for the program and was outfitted with test sensors. It flew the first sonic boom test on 6 June 1966, attaining a speed of Mach 3.05 at 72,000 ft (22,000 m). Two days later, AV-2 crashed following a mid-air collision with an F-104 while flying in a multi-aircraft formation. Sonic boom and later testing continued with XB-70A \#1.
The second flight research program (NASA NAS4-1174) investigated "control of structural dynamics" from 25 April 1967 through the XB-70's last flight in 1969. At high altitude and high speed, the XB-70A experienced unwanted changes in altitude. NASA testing from June 1968 included two small vanes on the nose of AV-1 for measuring the response of the aircraft's stability augmentation system. AV-1 flew a total of 83 flights.
The XB-70's last supersonic flight took place on 17 December 1968. On 4 February 1969, AV-1 took its final flight to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base for museum display (now the National Museum of the United States Air Force). Flight data was collected on this subsonic trip. North American Rockwell completed a four-volume report on the B-70 that was published by NASA in April 1972.
## Variants
XB-70A
Prototype of B-70. Two were built.
\*AV-1, NAA Model Number NA-278, USAF S/N 62-0001, completed 83 flights spanning 160 hours and 16 minutes.
\*AV-2, NAA Model Number NA-278, USAF S/N 62-0207, flew 46 times over 92 hours and 22 minutes, before it crashed in June 1966.
XB-70B
AV-3, NAA Model Number NA-274, USAF S/N 62-0208, was originally to be the first YB-70A in March 1961. This advanced prototype was canceled during early manufacture.
YB-70
Planned preproduction version with improvements based on XB-70s.
B-70A
Planned bomber production version of Valkyrie. A fleet of up to 65 operational bombers was planned.
RS-70
Proposed reconnaissance-strike version with a crew of four and in-flight refueling capability.
## Incidents and accidents
### Incidents
On 7 May 1965, a 3-foot (91 cm) piece of the apex of the wing broke off in flight and caused extensive damage to five of the six engines. They were sent to GE and repaired. The sixth engine was inspected and re-installed in the aircraft.
On 14 October 1965, AV-1 surpassed Mach 3, but heat and stress damaged the honeycomb panels, leaving 2 ft (61 cm) of the leading edge of the left wing missing. The first aircraft was limited to Mach 2.5 afterwards.
### Mid-air collision
On 8 June 1966, XB-70A No. 2 was in close formation with four other aircraft (an F-4 Phantom, an F-5, a T-38 Talon, and an F-104 Starfighter) for a photoshoot at the behest of General Electric, manufacturer of the engines of all five aircraft. After the photoshoot, the F-104 drifted into the XB-70's right wingtip, flipped and rolled inverted over the top of the Valkyrie, before striking the bomber's vertical stabilizers and left wing. The F-104 then exploded, destroying the Valkyrie's vertical stabilizers and damaging its left wing. Despite the loss of both vertical stabilizers and damage to the wings, the Valkyrie flew straight for 16 seconds before it entered an uncontrollable spin and crashed north of Barstow, California. NASA Chief Test Pilot Joe Walker (F-104 pilot) and Carl Cross (XB-70 co-pilot) were killed. Al White (XB-70 pilot) ejected, sustaining serious injuries, including the crushing of his arm by the closing clamshell-like escape crew capsule moments prior to ejection.
The USAF summary report of the accident investigation stated that, given the position of the F-104 relative to the XB-70, Walker, the F-104 pilot, would not have been able to see the XB-70's wing, except by uncomfortably looking back over his left shoulder. The report said that it was likely that Walker maintained his position by looking at the fuselage of the XB-70, forward of his position. The F-104 was estimated to be 70 ft (21 m) to the side of the fuselage of the XB-70 and 10 ft (3.0 m) below. The report concluded that from that position, without appropriate sight cues, Walker was unable to properly perceive his motion relative to the Valkyrie, leading to his aircraft drifting into the XB-70's wing. The accident investigation also pointed to the wake vortex from the XB-70's right wingtip as the reason for the F-104's sudden roll over and into the bomber.
## Aircraft on display
Valkyrie AV-1 (AF Ser. No. 62-0001) is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB near Dayton, Ohio. The aircraft was flown to the museum on 4 February 1969, following the conclusion of the XB-70 testing program. The Valkyrie became the museum's signature aircraft, appearing on Museum letterhead, and even appearing as the chief design feature for the Museum's restaurant, the Valkyrie Cafe. In 2011, the XB-70 was on display in the museum's Research & Development Hangar alongside other experimental aircraft. After completion of the fourth hangar at the museum's main campus, the XB-70 was moved there in late October 2015.
## Specifications (XB-70A)
## See also |
39,120,729 | 2013 Boston Marathon | 1,167,743,647 | 117th edition of the Boston Marathon | [
"2013 in American sports",
"2013 in Boston",
"2013 in sports in Massachusetts",
"2013 marathons",
"April 2013 sports events in the United States",
"Boston Marathon",
"Boston Marathon bombing"
] | The 2013 Boston Marathon was the 117th running of the annual marathon race in Boston, United States, which took place on April 15, 2013. Organized by the Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.), it hosted the second of the World Marathon Majors to be held in 2013 with over 23,000 runners participating. Lelisa Desisa won the men's race with a time of 2:10:22, and Rita Jeptoo won the women's with a time of 2:26:25. Hiroyuki Yamamoto won the men's wheelchair race in 1:25:32 and Tatyana McFadden won the women's in 1:45:25.
The event was disrupted by a terrorist attack in which two consecutive explosions on the sidewalk, near the finish line, killed three spectators and injured 264 other people. The competition was suspended and many runners were unable to participate in the remainder of the competition. The attack received widespread international media attention.
## Course
The marathon distance is officially 42.195 kilometres (26.219 mi) long as sanctioned by World Athletics (IAAF). The Boston Marathon course has been the same since the inaugural race in 1897. The start is in the town of Hopkinton and the first 6 miles (9.7 km) are downhill through Ashland and into the city of Framingham. Leaving Framingham, the runners enter the town of Natick, before passing through the 'Scream Tunnel' at mile 12. This area is filled with a 'tunnel' of young women from the nearby Wellesley College who request kisses from runners, a tradition that has been in place for more than 100 years. At mile 15, there is a large downhill section, followed by a 0.75-mile (1.21 km) climb at mile 16 crossing the Yankee Division Highway. The runners take a right turn onto Commonwealth Avenue in Newton before starting the first of the four 'Newton Hills'.
The first hill is a steep 1,200-yard (1,100 m) climb, the second about 0.25 miles (0.40 km), the third a steep 800 yards (730 m) before the runners start the infamous 'Heartbreak Hill' at just after mile 20. At half a mile long and with a 3.3% percent incline, it is not especially difficult, but due to the hill being 20 miles (32 km) into the race, it is still feared as the runners' legs are usually tired at this point. The course is mostly downhill to the end, and passes through Boston College before entering Cleveland Circle then Kenmore Square where there are many spectators. The final mile has a slight incline, before it flattens off to finish on Boylston Street.
## Field
The fastest competitor in the women's race was Meseret Hailu who had run 2:21:09 to win the 2012 Amsterdam Marathon and 1:08:55 to win the 2012 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships. 2011 Frankfurt Marathon winner Mamitu Daska, runner-up at the 2012 Berlin Marathon Tirfi Tsegaye, and winner of the 2012 Chicago Marathon Rita Jeptoo were also racing. 2012 champion Sharon Cherop returned to defend her title. Reigning wheelchair champions Joshua Cassidy and Shirley Reilly returned to defend their titles in their respective categories.
Wesley Korir returned to defend his 2012 title in the men's race. He had most recently finished fifth in the 2012 Chicago Marathon. Also competing were 2013 Dubai Marathon winner Lelisa Desisa, 2012 Boston Marathon runner-up Levy Matebo Omari, 2011 Los Angeles Marathon winner Markos Geneti, 2011 New York City Marathon winner Gebre Gebremariam, and 2010 Boston Marathon winner Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot. In total, there were nine sub-2:07 runners in the field.
The wheelchair race began at 9:17 EDT (UTC-4), the women's at 9:32 EDT and the men's at 10:00 EDT. In the men's and women's races, the winner received \$150,000, with second and third receiving \$75,000 and \$40,000, respectively.
## Race summary
After 26 seconds of silence to honor the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the marathon got underway with 53 wheelchair competitors leaving Hopkinton. The temperature at start time was in the upper 40 °F (8–10 °C) range and rose to 54 °F (12 °C) at the finish. Hiroyuki Yamamoto of Japan aimed to make a move at the 5-kilometre (3.1 mi) mark, and at 8 miles (13 km) into the race had built up a lead of 200 yards (180 m), which he held until the end to win in a time of 1:25:32. This was the first time that Yamamoto, aged 46, had competed in the Boston Marathon. He beat South African Ernst Van Dyk by 39 seconds. In the women's wheelchair race, Tatyana McFadden, who was also competing in the race for the first time, won in a time of 1:45:25.
In the women's race, a small pack broke away from the main pack early on. All the runners but Yolanda Caballero dropped back to the main pack while Caballero continued on past half-way. She was eventually caught when Ana Dulce Félix increased the pace and broke away from the main pack to gain a lead of 76 seconds. She was caught in 3 miles (4.8 km) by a group comprising Jeptoo, Cherop, Hailu and Shalane Flanagan. Jeptoo managed to break away from the others after 40 kilometres (25 mi) when climbing an overpass to cross the Massachusetts Turnpike, and finished in a time of 2:26:25. She finished 33 seconds ahead of Hailu, who took second place. Cherop took third, 3 seconds behind Hailu and Flanagan finished fourth.
In the men's race, Jason Hartmann and Fernando Cabada led during the early miles before a group of nine caught up before half-way. The pack of eleven passed half-way in a slow time of 1:04:44, before Robin Watson, Geneti, Micah Kogo, and Dickson Chumba made surges. However, it was Chumba's surge that broke up the pack; only Desisa, Matebo Omari, Geneti, and 2009 winner Deriba Merga remained, with Gebremariam, Kogo, Raji Assefa, and Korir falling a few seconds behind. Desisa made a surge in the 24th mile to further reduce the pack to just himself, Kogo and Gebremariam (who had both caught back on). In the final mile, Desisa was able to pull away in a sprint to win in 2:10:22. Kogo finished five seconds back in 2:10:27 and Gebremariam finished a second behind Kogo in 2:10:28, with Hartmann taking fourth, as he did in 2012.
In total, 23,336 competitors, from all 50 states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, and from 92 countries, started the marathon.
## Bombing
At 2:49 EDT, race clock time 4:09.43, almost two hours after the winners had completed, two explosions occurred near the finish line. Three spectators were killed and 264 others injured. Among the injured, 17 were reported in critical condition, with at least 14 people requiring amputations. The race was halted 8 minutes after the explosions; runners east of Massachusetts Avenue were diverted into Boston Common, while those west of it were diverted to Kenmore Square. Over 5,000 participants who were unable to finish due to the race being halted were given medals.
On May 16, the Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) gave participants who ran at least half the distance but were not able to complete the 2013 Marathon early entry into the 2014 race. The B.A.A. agreed to allow these 5,633 runners entry in August, compared to September for regular entrants. Qualifying standards were also waived for them. A memorial was erected in August 2019 on Boylston Street. It was built by sculptor Pablo Eduardo and consists of bronze spires surrounding two granite pillars.
## Results
Source:
### Wheelchair |
1,969,052 | Resolute desk | 1,170,246,594 | Desk in the Oval Office | [
"1880 works",
"Diplomatic gifts",
"Furnishings of the White House",
"Individual desks",
"Presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes",
"Queen Victoria",
"United Kingdom–United States relations"
] | The Resolute desk, also known as the Hayes desk, is a nineteenth-century partners desk used by several presidents of the United States in the White House as the Oval Office desk, including the five most recent presidents. The desk was a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880 and was built from the oak timbers of the British Arctic exploration ship HMS Resolute. The 1,300-pound (590-kilogram) desk was created by William Evenden, a skilled joiner at Chatham Dockyard in Kent, probably from a design by Morant, Boyd, & Blanford.
HMS Resolute was abandoned in the Arctic waterway Tariyunnuaq in 1854 while searching for Sir John Franklin and his lost expedition. It was found in 1855 floating in Davis Strait by George Henry, an American whaling ship. Resolute was repaired and returned to the United Kingdom as a gesture of goodwill from the United States. The ship was decommissioned in 1879, broken up, and a competition was held to design and build a piece of furniture from its timbers that Queen Victoria could give to the American president. Morant, Boyd, & Blanford won this contest, and this desk was constructed shortly after. Two other furniture pieces were created from the timbers of the Resolute: the Grinnell desk, made for the widow of Henry Grinnell, who spent significant sums of money trying to find Sir John Franklin and his ships; and a table made for Queen Victoria's steam-powered yacht HMY Victoria and Albert.
The Resolute desk was received at the White House on November 23, 1880, and shortly thereafter was moved to the second floor. It stayed in the President's Office and President's Study until the White House Reconstruction from 1948 to 1952. After the reconstruction, it was placed in the Broadcast Room where Dwight D. Eisenhower used it during radio and television broadcasts. Jackie Kennedy rediscovered the desk and had it brought to the Oval Office in 1961. The desk was removed from the White House after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and went on a traveling exhibition with artifacts of the Kennedy Presidential Library. It was then put on display in the Smithsonian Institution. President Jimmy Carter brought the desk back to the Oval Office in 1977, where it has remained since, save that George H. W. Bush used the C&O desk in the Oval Office but kept the Resolute desk in the White House.
The desk has been modified twice. Franklin Roosevelt requested the addition of a door with the presidential seal to conceal his leg braces and a safe, but it was not installed until 1945, after his death. A 2-inch-tall (5.1 cm) plinth was added to the desk in 1961 and replaced in 1986.
Many replicas have been made of the Resolute desk. The first was commissioned in 1978 for a permanent display at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, Massachusetts, and since then five other presidential libraries and many museums, libraries, tourist attractions, and private homes and offices have acquired copies of the desk.
## Design and markings
The Resolute desk is built from oak timbers that were once part of the ship HMS Resolute. The double pedestal, partners desk is 32.5 in (83 cm) high with a workspace measuring 72 in (180 cm) wide and 48 in (120 cm) deep. It weighs 1,300 pounds (590 kg). The desk was created in 1880 by William Evenden, a skilled joiner at Chatham Dockyard in Kent, probably from a design by Morant, Boyd, & Blanford. The desk is decorated with carved moldings and carved floral swag designs. There are sets of drawers behind the cabinet doors on each side of the desk pedestals, and the desktop is covered with red leather. Built at the same time as the Grinnell desk, the two desks together cost 380 pounds ().
A plaque, mounted on the front center drawer, explains the history of the Resolute and the meaning behind the desk. This plaque was originally on the back of the desk but from Ronald Reagan's presidency onwards it has been photographed as being on the front. The underside of all the exterior drawer fronts are stamped "MORANT BOYD & BLANFORD / 91 NEW BOND STREET" and the lock plates are stamped "BY ROYAL / LETTERS PATENT / FOUR LEVERS / SAFETY LOCK / COMYN CHINC & Co."
### Modifications
President Franklin D. Roosevelt requested that a panel be installed in the rear kneehole during his presidency. Roosevelt wore leg braces and was in a wheelchair most of the time due to polio, so wanted the panel added to hide his legs from his visitors, and to conceal a safe placed in the kneehole. The panel was designed by White House architect Lorenzo Winslow and constructed out of hard oak by Rudolph Bauss in 1945. The kneehole panel is hinged, opens up, and features a carving of the presidential seal. The carved seal depicts the eagle's head facing left, turned towards the arrows in the eagle's talon. In 1945 the design of the presidential seal was changed by Harry S. Truman to have the eagle turned towards the olive branch in the right talon instead. This was to have the bird turn away from the symbol of war and towards the symbol of peace. However, the carving on the desk was not changed, making the carving on the desk no longer match the official design.
In 1961, during the John F. Kennedy administration, a two-inch-tall plinth was installed under the desk to elevate the kneehole and allow the president to sit more comfortably. This plinth was replaced in 1986 during Ronald Reagan's administration. The plinth fits the shape of the desk, sitting flush with the molding above it.
### Moving the desk
The Resolute desk is constructed as multiple parts and can be broken down for ease of movement. This is evident in a photo taken on January 20, 1993, by David Hume Kennerly for Getty Images where the tabletop and the two pedestals are visible as separate pieces during the redesign of the Oval Office for Bill Clinton's presidency.
While the Resolute desk has resided in the Oval Office since it was returned in 1993 by President Clinton, it has been occasionally disassembled and moved out of the room. Moving the desk out mostly happens during renovations and updates to the space. It was removed in 2005, during the George W. Bush presidency, for a renovation where the flooring of the Oval Office was replaced. It was again removed in 2017 for improvements to the HVAC system and a general redesign for Donald Trump's presidency.
## History
### HMS Resolute
In May 1845 Sir John Franklin, a British explorer, launched an expedition to find the Northwest Passage. Using two of the Royal Navy's best ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, stocked with enough provisions to last three years, he charted a course through Baffin Bay, located between Baffin Island and the west coast of Greenland. The expedition and all 129 crew members vanished.
The fate of the ship was frequently brought up in British press and grew into a cause célèbre. At least one folk ballad was written about the expedition and Charles Dickens published an article in Household Words downplaying scandalous, unfounded reports that were circulating claiming the crew had resorted to cannibalism. Due to the public desire to know what happened a five-ship squadron under Edward Belcher set out from Britain in 1852 to search for the missing ships and explorer. HMS Resolute, captained by Henry Kellett, was joined by HMS Intrepid, HMS Pioneer, HMS Assistance, and HMS North Star, all under Belcher's command, on the expedition. The North Star stayed at a supply base on Beechey Island, while the other four ships split up to search for Franklin. The Resolute was constructed expressly as an arctic vessel with a bow covered in iron to cut through ice. It nevertheless became trapped in ice in April 1854, and the other three ships became stuck soon after. Belcher decided to abandon the four ships, and on May 15, 1854, Resolute was abandoned in Tariyunnuaq (what was then called Melville Sound). The ships' crews marched across the ice to the North Star back at Beechey Island and later sailed back to England on it and two auxiliary vessels. Belcher was court-martialed for the loss of his ships and the danger he put his crew through during the expedition. He never again received a naval command.
When the ice thawed in the spring, the unmanned Resolute began drifting south, traveling more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometres) and roughly 7 degrees latitude, where it was spotted in September 1855 in Davis Strait, off the shores of Baffin Island, by the crew of George Henry, an American whaling ship captained by James Buddington. The whalers tried to signal the ship, and after it failed to respond four sailors boarded it. They found the ship uninhabited but still stocked. The ship was listing badly to its port side and missing its topmast. It took several weeks to pump out the water from the ship and get it back to an even keel, but Buddington knew the ship's story and knew he could likely sell it for a large sum when he returned it to dock. Buddington claimed the right to salvage for HMS Resolute, and sailed it to New London, Connecticut, arriving on Christmas Eve 1855.
This all happened during an especially tense time in United Kingdom–United States relations. Then-President Franklin Pierce was prepared to go to war with Britain for what would be a third time. In his third annual message, in 1855, Pierce discussed disputes over fishing rights and the border between British Columbia and Washington Territory as well as Britain's territorial claims in South America, which the United States claimed violated the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty. Regarding the disagreement about Britain's foothold in South America, Britain's then First Lord of the Admiralty stated that "We are fast drifting into war with the United States."
Wealthy American philanthropist Henry Grinnell, who had financed an earlier expedition to find Franklin's lost ships to no avail, suggested to the US government that the Resolute should be refit and sent back to England as a token of goodwill. As a way to help calm tensions between the two countries, a bill was introduced to Congress on June 24, 1856, to authorize the purchase and restoration of the Resolute. The United States Government bought the ship from Buddington for \$40,000 () with plans to return it to the United Kingdom as a gift to Queen Victoria.
On September 12, 1856, the Resolute was towed to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where it underwent a complete refit, repaint, and restock. The ship set sail on November 13, 1856, out of New York Harbor and arrived in Portsmouth on December 12 of the same year, captained by Henry Hartstene. Hartstene, a member of the United States Navy during the American Civil War, had previously taken part in the Wilkes Expedition to study the Pacific Northwest, and captained a voyage to the arctic to successfully save Dr. Elisha Kent Kane who had gone missing on his own search for Franklin. After arriving in England the Resolute was later brought to Cowes Harbour on the Isle of Wight where Queen Victoria and Prince Albert boarded the ship and accepted it on behalf of all of Great Britain. Hartstene, as part of comments about the ship in a speech, expressed his hope "that long after every timber in her sturdy frame shall have perished, the remembrance of the old Resolute will be cherished."
The Resolute continued serving in the Royal Navy for twenty-three years as a supply vessel, but never again left British waters. The ship was decommissioned in 1879 and subsequently broken up in Chatham Dockyard in Chatham, England in 1880.
### Design and construction
On June 11, 1879, the British Admiralty launched a competition to design a piece of furniture made from the timbers of the Resolute which Queen Victoria could gift to the American president. A January 3, 1880 article in The Builder described the desired furniture piece as "a magnificent article of furniture, combining writing table, bookshelves &c., ... made out of the ship's timber and sent as a present to the President of the United States." Six firms, including Morant, Boyd, & Blanford and Jackson & Graham, submitted competing designs. Morant, Boyd, & Blanford was chosen to complete the furniture piece. According to Kelly's London Post Office Directory of 1871, Morant, Boyd, & Blanford were "interior decorators, painters, upholsterers, estate and housing managers, carvers, gilders and cabinet makers" with two locations, one at 91 New Bond Street and the other at 4–7 Woodstock Street. The company was founded by George Morant and had supplied work for Thomas Lawrence, Robert Peel, and the Dukes of Sussex, Cambridge, and Sutherland. The company also exhibited at the Great Exhibition, the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations, and the 1862 International Exhibition. Queen Victoria granted the company a Royal Warrant of Appointment in 1840. For the rest of the century, they were seen as one of the preeminent cabinet makers in England.
Morant, Boyd, & Blanford had sent in multiple design drawings for the competition late in 1879 for various furniture pieces that could be constructed, including a large combination bookcase and chimneypiece. This design was created to symbolize the circumstances surrounding the gift of the Resolute back to England. A bust of Minerva, the first shipwright in Roman lore, sat in the central broken pediment, and reclining figures representing navigation and astronomy flanked the bust. Niches on either side of the central columns held busts of Edward Belcher and Henry Grinnell, and directly about the fireplace a carving of a personified "America" hands "Britannia" the ship Resolute. The National Maritime Museum holds the plans for two other proposed designs; a secretaire and a library table. This library table design was not built, but a December 11, 1880 issue of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper incorrectly presented an engraving of this design as the actual desk presented to the president. The engraving was made from drawings by H. Biscoe for an earlier Scientific American article about the proposed design. This early, ornate design for the desk was created on September 9, 1879. It included portraits of both Queen Victoria and then-President Rutherford B. Hayes. These portraits were paired with side panels displaying scenes of the arctic and British and American flags along with other highly ornate details and a Moroccan leather top.
Queen Victoria ordered that three desks be made from the timbers of Resolute. The one that is now known as the Resolute desk was announced as "recently manufactured" on November 18, 1880. Built under orders of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, William Evenden was tasked with creating the desk at Chatham Dockyard. Evenden was a skilled joiner working in the dockyard's Joiner's Shop, but very little is known about him. June Drake, Evenden's great-great-granddaughter, wrote in a 2012 letter to the Friends of Medway Archives that he was born in 1828 in Rochester, Kent and worked as a Freeman of Rochester at Chatham Dockyard. Drake said she believed Evenden to be well educated, as his mother was a schoolmistress and his two brothers had gainful employment; his younger brother was a master shipwright and naval architect in Devonport, Plymouth, while the other became a mining pioneer and Magistrate in Thornborough, Queensland, Australia. Drake said she was unsure why Evenden was chosen to build the Resolute desk, but suggested that his brother in Devonport may have suggested Evenden for the job. There is one known photograph of William Evenden which was taken by Royal Appointment in 1882 by J Hawke in Plymouth. Drake postulates that this image may have been taken while he was visiting his brother. According to Drake, Evenden committed suicide in 1896 after "being distraught at the thought of being unemployed and maybe entering the workhouse." She surmised that is likely the reason there is not much information about him. He was buried at Chatham Cemetery, but his grave can no longer be found.
### Arrival in America
On August 26, 1880, Victor Drummond, the British ambassador to Washington, wrote a letter to William M. Evarts, Secretary of State for the US, informing him of Queen Victoria's upcoming gift of the new writing table as well as its history. The crate containing the desk arrived in New York on November 15, 1880, by steamship and arrived at the White House on November 23. The first note written on the desk was by Hayes on the day the desk arrived at the White House to George Bancroft where he noted, "It gives me great pleasure to say that I do it in the first note written on the desk made from the timbers of the Resolute sent by Queen Victoria for the President." The desk has since been referred to by the name of the ship it was crafted from, the Resolute desk, or by the name of the president that accepted the gift, the Hayes desk. The December 11, 1880, issue of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper praised the desk's beauty (albeit with the previous design pictured) and declared how it represented a major step forward in British–American relations.
### Use as a presidential desk
After receiving the desk, President Hayes placed it in the Green Room, one of the three state parlors on the first floor of the White House. It was on view here as an exhibition for tourists and visitors until Hayes ordered the desk be taken upstairs to his office on the second floor. At this time, the second floor of the White House acted both as the first family's living quarters and as the President's Office. What are now the Lincoln Bedroom, Lincoln Sitting Room, and Treaty Room were the president's main working spaces with the Yellow Oval Room used as the president's library or a family parlor. After the desk was moved to these offices by Hayes in 1880, it traveled from room to room, based on presidents' needs, for the next twenty-two years. Grover Cleveland used it in his office and library in what is now the Yellow Oval Room for both of his non-consecutive terms, William McKinley used the desk often in the Presidential Office and had a bouquet of flowers placed upon it every day, and Theodore Roosevelt used it in the President's Room, today's Lincoln Bedroom.
The desk stayed in the President's Office until the office was moved to the newly built West Wing in 1902, during Theodore Roosevelt's presidency. After the McKim, Mead, & White renovations to the White House, Edith Roosevelt moved the Resolute desk to the former cabinet room, now the Treaty Room, to create a Den, or President's Study, for her husband. Woodrow Wilson also used the Resolute desk in this room. Wilson and his wife called the center drawer on one side of the desk "The Drawer" as it was where important communications and papers were placed if something happened between the closing time the day before and that morning.
Franklin D. Roosevelt turned the Yellow Oval Room into his Oval Study, where both he and Harry S. Truman used the Resolute desk. Roosevelt kept the desk covered in personal mementos and, when entertaining visitors, would show off his bartending skills, which he was proud of, by personally mixing drinks atop the desk. His specialty was a dry martini. While the desk was in use in the Oval Study, President Roosevelt requested that a panel be installed in the rear kneehole, but it was not installed until 1945 after Roosevelt had died.
The White House saw a major reconstruction under Harry S. Truman between 1948 and 1952 where the entire interior of the building was rebuilt. The president moved his family to Blair House during this reconstruction. The move out began on November 9, when the president left for a trip to Key West, with staff being given only two weeks to completely empty the building of furnishings. Blair House was already furnished but some White House elements were installed in the next door Lee House which was connected to Blair house during this move. The rest of the items had to be stored. The Library of Congress stored some books, the National Gallery of Art housed some of the art, and the Smithsonian Institution stored a few additional pieces. Most objects though were shipped up to New York to be stored in the climate controlled vaults owned by B. Altman and Company. Charles T. Haight, who ran the interior design department at Altman, charged the government only the at-cost rate for storage, \$85 a month ().
Charles T. Haight was awarded for storing the furnishings at such a low cost by being invited to do the interior design for the newly constructed White House rooms. On June 19, 1951, Haight presented a color drawing of his design for the old kitchen, later known as the Broadcast Room and now the Office of the Curator, to Congress' Commission on Renovation of the Executive Mansion. These plans included heavy traverse draperies in dull gold, a chenille rug, a pine table and cabinet removed from the White House after the 1814 Burning of Washington, black leather sofas and chairs, small tables, two new end tables, two new coffee tables and "The large desk which was originally in the President's Study" per minutes from a meeting of the Commission. Here, in the Broadcast Room, the Resolute desk was used during both radio and television broadcasts by Dwight D. Eisenhower.
### Kennedy and Johnson years
In 1961 John F. Kennedy was the first president to use the desk in the Oval Office. The Theodore Roosevelt desk was used briefly by Kennedy in the presidential office, but Jacqueline Kennedy had it replaced by the Resolute. She was disappointed by the interior design of the White House when she moved in, stating that it "looked like it's been furnished by discount stores", and called it "that dreary Maison Blanche." Her desire to update the interior, however, was not immediately embraced by politicians. This changed with the forming of the Fine Arts Committee for the White House, later replaced by the Committee for the Preservation of the White House, in February 1961 with a stated goal of finding "authentic furniture of the date of the building of the White House and the raising of funds to purchase this furniture as gifts for the White House." Jacqueline Kennedy worked with the committee, including its chair Henry Francis du Pont, first White House Curator Lorraine Waxman Pearce, and interior designer Sister Parish, to find objects that were suitable for the historic building, and physically searched the White House for valuable items hidden away. She discovered that four Cézanne paintings originally intended for the White House were instead on display in the National Gallery of Art; she found 100-year-old busts in a downstairs men's bathroom; and after moving aside electrical equipment in the Broadcast Room, she uncovered the Resolute desk.
When Jacqueline Kennedy discovered the desk, it was covered and obscured by green baize attached to it with Scotch Tape. The desk was being used to prop up camera equipment when films were shown in the Broadcast Room, and the baize was apparently there to protect it from the equipment. The discovery of the desk was announced in a White House press release titled "Discovery of the Table Desk from H.M.S. Resolute" on February 6, 1961, and led to a front-page article about the desk in the New York Times the next day. The article explained the choice to move the desk to the Oval Office as, "Feeling that the desk, with its connection with the sea, would perfectly complement the naval battle scenes and the model of the Constitution which she already had secured at her husband's suggestion, Mrs. Kennedy has given the desk to the president and it was placed in his office on Saturday, Feb. 4." Kennedy also wanted the ornate desk to be the most visible of the desks used by her husband. President Kennedy was said to be "delighted" by the return of the desk to "a place of honor in the White House." It was moved into the Oval Office and, according to the Smithsonian Institution, the desk "gained national prominence when President Kennedy's son, John, was photographed crawling through its trap door."
President Kennedy had a taping system installed in the Oval Office which was designed and installed by Robert Bouck, a Secret Service agent, in July 1962. A microphone was located in the kneehole of the Resolute desk, and a button was installed under the desk for Kennedy to turn it on and off at will. A second microphone was disguised on the coffee table in the same room. Kennedy was the first president to make extensive use of recording as a means to document meetings, selectively recording over 238 hours of conversation between recording systems in both the Oval Office and Cabinet Room. This system was unknown to most of Kennedy's top aides until it was revealed during the Watergate hearings in 1973.
After Kennedy's assassination, Lyndon B. Johnson did not move into the Oval Office for several days, possibly at the request of Robert Kennedy. He finally did begin using the room on November 26, 1963, and had the Resolute desk replaced with the Johnson desk, the desk that he had used throughout his time in the Senate and as vice president.
In an 1978 oral history interview with James R. Ketchum, the White House Curator from 1963 to 1970, he claimed that as Johnson was moving into the White House he approached Mrs. Kennedy saying, "little Lady, anything you see in your husband's office, you take. You are welcome to anything." Mrs. Kennedy expressed interest in having the Resolute desk. Under a law passed in 1961, the White House is considered a museum and any donated items are property of the White House but cared for by the Smithsonian Institution when not in use. Ketchum claimed that even though both Johnson and Mrs. Kennedy knew about this law they allowed the desk to be packed up to go on tour to help raise funds for the forthcoming John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Ketchum states he required the Kennedy Library to sign a loan agreement so the desk "was still not considered an outright gift or whatever that had passed between Mrs. Kennedy and President Johnson." On February 12, 1964, the Resolute desk was transferred, on loan, to the Smithsonian Institution and went on tour around the country between 1964 and 1965. This 32,000 sq ft (3,000 m<sup>2</sup>) traveling exhibit visited 27 American cities and 15 European ones including Warsaw and Belgrade, both Communist capital cities. On the American leg of the exhibit, it visited Atlantic City during the 1964 Democratic National Convention. When it traveled to Boston, 45,000 visitors were estimated to have viewed the desk in a single day.
Ketchum describes that when the desk returned from this world tour it was considerably damaged "mainly because of the way the exhibit was handled and the shipping problems which they obviously encountered." After going back and forth about ownership of the desk Ketchum was able to get it back into the custody of the White House for repairs. According to Ketchum, the cabinetmaker that carved the panel requested by FDR, this would be Rudolph Bauss but he is not named in the interview, had just retired and was dying of cancer. Ketchum got him out of retirement to complete the repairs to the desk. Shortly after the repairs were complete he died from his illness. Ketchum believes that the length of time needed to complete the repairs reduced the controversy over who owned the desk, with the Smithsonian receiving the repaired desk and putting it on view beginning in 1966. The desk was originally displayed as an exhibit in its own right at the National Museum of History and Technology, now the National Museum of American History, with the independent exhibit opening on November 16, 1967, but it was later displayed as part of one of the five major United States Bicentennial exhibits the museum curated. The "We the People" exhibition, which the desk was displayed in, opened on June 4, 1975, and focused on the American people and American government.
### Oval Office desk
Jimmy Carter returned the Resolute desk to the Oval Office in 1977. On the afternoon of his January 20 inauguration, Carter made his first visit as president to the Oval Office. He later said he "...sat down at the President's desk and looked it over. It was a surprise to see that it was not the same one which had been photographed when John Kennedy was there, with his little son peeping out from the door underneath. My first decision: to replace this desk with the one I remembered." The next morning over breakfast he chose the Resolute desk from a set of images of desk options.
Besides moving the Resolute desk back into the Oval Office, the Carters also established a trust fund to purchase American Art for a permanent collection in the White House. White House Curator Clement Conger noted that "The Carters really were surprisingly interested in American art and antiques... They were better informed than any president and first lady that I've known in this half century." The Resolute desk has been used by every president since in this room except for George H. W. Bush who used it for five months in the Oval Office before moving it to his Residence Office in the Treaty Room of the White House. Bush used the C&O desk in the Oval Office instead. Bill Clinton returned the Resolute desk to the Oval Office on his first day as president on January 20, 1993.
In 2009, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited President Barack Obama and gave him the original framed commissioning papers for HMS Resolute and an ornamental pen holder made from the timbers of the anti-slavery ship HMS Gannet. Gannet began its service the same year that Resolute was broken up and the pen holder was made in the same Joiners Shop as the Resolute desk.
Obama also found himself in a minor controversy in conservative media when in 2013 photographs were released showing him with his foot resting on the Resolute desk. Multiple other presidents have also been photographed with their feet up on the desk.
A failed attempt to switch out the Resolute desk with the Hoover desk was made during the transition to Joe Biden's presidency. Valerie Biden Owens, the sister of President Joe Biden and a member of the team tasked with redecorating the Oval Office for Biden's tenure, wrote in her memoir, "We tried to get FDR's Oval Office desk — I wanted everything Trump had touched out of there — but to this day, the desk resides at FDR's family home in Hyde Park. ... Thus, the desk Trump had sat behind remained."
A button to call aides was noted as being on the Resolute desk since at least the George W. Bush presidency. This button sits in an approximately 9 in (23 cm) long by 3 in (7.6 cm) wide wooden box marked with a golden presidential seal. Donald Trump stated to one reporter that "everyone thinks it is [the nuclear button]".
## Timeline
Below is a table with the location of the desk from 1880, when it arrived in America, to the present day. Each tenant of the desk is noted as well.
## Other items made from HMS Resolute
Queen Victoria had a total of three tables built from the timbers of HMS Resolute, of which the desk given to President Hayes was one. According to letters listed in Volume 40 of the Parliamentary Papers, two "memorial tables" made out of timbers from the Resolute were announced as "recently manufactured" by Robert Hall to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury on November 18, 1880. Hall said that both tables were to be presented by the Queen, with one going to the president of the United States and the other given to the widow of Henry Grinnell. Four days later, on November 22, a second letter described how the Queen has "expressed a desire to have a table manufactured out of the same timbers" and that it was subsequently made by Morant, Boyd, & Blanford for a cost of 62 pounds ().
The desk given to Henry Grinnell's widow, in recognition of the large sums of money her husband spent trying to find Sir John Franklin and his ships, is now known as the Grinnell desk'''. This desk is 42.25 in (107.3 cm) high, 48 in (120 cm) wide, and 26.75 in (67.9 cm) deep. Also designed and made by William Evenden in 1880, the desk has a leather-covered surface, fluted legs, and a leather footrest. The desk has an upper cabinet and two cupboards covered by paneled doors. The left door is carved with an anchor, and the right with a lion. A balustrade sits above these cupboards, and between them sits a shelf with a silver plaque. The plaque states, "This table... is presented by the Queen of Great Brittan and Ireland to Mrs. Grinnell as a memorial to the disinterested kindness and great exertions of her late husband Mr. Henry Grinnell in assisting in the search to ascertain the fate of Captain Sir John Franklin, who perished in the Arctic regions." This desk was donated to the New Bedford Whaling Museum in 1983 by Peter S. Grinnell.
Queen Victoria's table was made for use on her steam-powered yacht, HMY Victoria and Albert. This table is now part of the British Royal Collection and stored in Kensington Palace. It is 70 cm (28 in) high, 120 cm (47 in) wide, and 60 cm (24 in) deep. The rectangular side table has a plain top with a chamfered edge. The frieze contains two drawers. Both the frieze and legs have blind fretwork decorations. This table also has a brass plaque stating the Resolute "...was purchased, fitted out and sent as a gift to Her Majesty Queen Victoria by the President and people of the United States as a token of goodwill and friendship. The table was made from her timbers when she was broken up in 1880."
While Parliamentary papers list expenditures for only three tables, Captain Michael Taylor, a docent at the New Bedford Whaling Museum who focuses his studies on the Grinnell desk, stated in a lecture that "it is believed a fourth may also have been made". Martin W. Sandler notes in his book, Resolute: The Epic Search for the Northwest Passage and John Franklin, and the Discovery of the Queen's Ghost Ship that Lady Jane Franklin, the widow of Sir John Franklin, may have also received a desk.
The National Maritime Museum, one of the four-member intuitions of Royal Museums Greenwich, holds a few other objects created from the timbers of the Resolute. These include three picture frames, a paper knife, and a box bearing a brass plaque. The museum also has a block of wood from the Resolute and the ship's figurehead, which is in the shape of a polar bear. Other parts of the ship are held by various museums, including the ship's clock at the Vancouver Maritime Museum and the ship's spyglass and sextant at the New London County Historical Society. The Resolutes bell was given to President Lyndon Johnson by UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson in 1965.
## Replicas
The first mention of creating a replica of the Resolute desk comes from a memo sent from Jacqueline Kennedy on April 2, 1963, only two years into John F. Kennedy's presidency. J. B. West, the White House Chief Usher at the time, included the text from this memo in his memoir Upstairs at the White House; my life with the First Ladies. Jacqueline Kennedy wrote the following to him:
> Would Mr. Arata [the White House upholsterer] know of any wonderful wood carver? The absured [sic] reason I ask this is that I am thinking very far ahead: In his Library, the President (like President Truman) wishes to have a replica of his office—heaven knows, he picked the worst possible desk to duplicate.
>
> I thought if there was a wood carver around, perhaps he could do such a thing by stucco, or wax impressions—would you find this out, perhaps from Smithsonian? You could tell them that some museum wants a duplicate of the desk, the best way this could be done, and let me know when you do.
This first attempt at creating a replica fell to the National Park Service but the techniques they chose to use turned out to be too expensive. This attempt to create a replica was abandoned.
The first successful replica of the Resolute desk was commissioned in 1978 for a permanent display at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, Massachusetts. To build the replica, Robert C. Whitley, an American woodworker, spent three days measuring and photographing the original desk. This was done in the Oval Office while President Jimmy Carter was away in Germany. The replica desk took almost a full year to complete and is still found at the Kennedy Library.
Six presidential libraries display replicas of the Resolute desk. Besides the Kennedy Library, the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas, the George W. Bush Presidential Center in University Park, Texas, the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California, and the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, in Fremont, Ohio all display a reproduction of the Resolute desk.
Other museums and libraries also display replica Resolute desks. These include the New-York Historical Society's recreation of Reagan's Oval Office in New York City, The Presidents Hall of Fame in Clermont, Florida, the Treehouse Children's Museum in Ogden, Utah, the Star Spangled Center at The Magic House in Kirkwood, Missouri, the American Village Citizenship Trust in Montevallo, Alabama, and the George and Barbara Bush Center at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine. A replica of the plaque affixed to the Resolute desk is displayed by the Kane Historic Preservation Society in Kane, Pennsylvania.
Other tourist attractions across the United States exhibit replica Resolute desks. These include Madame Tussauds museums in Washington, D.C., Hollywood, Las Vegas, and New York. The Rogue Valley International–Medford Airport has an Oval Office meeting facility featuring a smaller replica of the Resolute desk, and Conservative Grounds, a Donald Trump-themed coffee shop in Largo, Florida, has a replica Oval Office and Resolute desk in the back of the store.
Several private houses and replica Oval Offices display copies of the Resolute desk, including the Ron Wade House in Longview, Texas a 10,000-square-foot home in Kirtland Hills, Ohio, and Norton Manor, the Potomac, Maryland home of Frank Islam.
There are multiple permanent Oval Office sets in Hollywood, all with a replica Resolute desk. The Castle Rock set was built in 1995 for The American President and the films Nixon (1995) and Independence Day (1996) used it. The set built for the 1993 film Dave subsequently hosted over 25 films, including The Pelican Brief (1993), Clear and Present Danger (1994), and Absolute Power (1997). The replica Resolute desk from The West Wing is in the Warner Bros. Prop House where it can be seen on studio tours. A replica of the desk was used in the 2007 film National Treasure: Book of Secrets, in which a secret compartment in the desk contained pieces of a clue to the location of treasure.
Jim Warlick, the owner of American Presidential Experience, owns five Oval Office replicas, each with its own Resolute desk. The most recent of his replica rooms cost \$60,000 to build. These replicas are rented out for approximately \$30,000 a week and have been used for book cover images, the television show Little People, Big World, the San Diego County Fair, television ads, and other media. The replicas are stored across the country including in Los Angeles, Virginia, and near Atlanta.
A replica of the desk was on display during the 58th Venice Biennale as a part of Kenneth Goldsmith's exhibition HILLARY: The Hillary Clinton Emails. Hillary Clinton sat at the replica for nearly an hour, leafing through over 60,000 of her emails that were printed out.
The commercial sale of presidential furniture reproductions is a small but growing business. Companies such as New York First Co. and Victorian Replicas build or distribute replicas of the Resolute desk for commercial buyers. In a 2009 article in Woodshop News, David Newton from Victorian Replicas said that he had sold more than fifty replica Resolute'' desks. According to him, "Some people use them in their homes, and a large number of people who are lawyers like to have them." Replicas were also on sale in 2015 through SkyMall for \$5,499, through the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library's online store for \$6,999.99, and in 2020, a full-scale replica of the Oval Office was put up for auction as part of Bonhams American Presidential Experience Auction for \$40,000–\$60,000.
## See also
- Bureau du Roi
- Henry VIII's writing desk
- United Kingdom–United States relations |
1,863,351 | Rockin' Robin (wrestler) | 1,152,538,879 | American professional wrestler | [
"1964 births",
"20th-century female professional wrestlers",
"21st-century American women",
"American female professional wrestlers",
"Living people",
"Professional wrestlers from North Carolina",
"WWF/WWE Women's Champions"
] | Robin Denise Smith (born October 9, 1964), better known by her ring name Rockin' Robin, is an American retired professional wrestler. The daughter of Grizzly Smith, she is a second-generation wrestler; her brother Sam Houston and half-brother Jake "The Snake" Roberts also wrestled. Smith is best known for her appearances with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) from 1987 to 1990, where she held the WWF Women's Championship. She is one of the longest reigning women's champions, with a reign that lasted for 502 days.
## Professional wrestling career
### Early career (1986–1987)
Smith grew up in a wrestling family and enjoyed going to wrestling shows, where she claims she and her siblings were treated like celebrities. Smith later decided to become a professional wrestler and trained, along with her sister-in-law Nickla Roberts (known by her ring name Baby Doll), under Nelson Royal. During 1987, Smith competed as Rockin' Robin in Wild West Wrestling, where she feuded with Debbie Combs and Sue Green.
### World Wrestling Federation (1987–1990)
When the World Wrestling Federation decided to restart their women's division in the late 1980s, both Smith and Nickla Roberts tried out for the company, but the role ultimately went to Smith. Smith, as Rockin' Robin, debuted in the WWF in late 1987. She competed at the first Survivor Series as a member of The Fabulous Moolah's team, which they were victorious. Throughout 1988, she feuded with Sensational Sherri for the WWF Women's Championship.
On October 7, 1988, she defeated Sensational Sherri, who had held the title for fifteen months prior, for the Women's Championship in Paris. At the Royal Rumble in 1989, she defended the title against Judy Martin. Smith defended the belt against Martin for the first six months of 1989. In the meantime, at WrestleMania V, she sang "America the Beautiful" to open the show. Smith continued to defend the Women's title against Martin throughout the summer of 1989. She held the championship until 1990, when she left the company. At that time, the title was retired by the WWF due to inactivity. Smith is still in possession of the title belt. The title remained inactive until 1993.
### Late career (1990–1992)
Unlike some former WWF wrestlers, Smith was able to continue using her ring name after leaving the company because she owned the rights to it. In 1990, wrestler Hiro Matsuda, who had feuded with her father in the 1960s, picked Smith to tour for All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling. In Japan, Smith teamed with Luna Vachon. The Japanese bookers gave the girls a positive review for their work with the company.
In the United States, Smith defeated Peggy Lee Leather for the Ladies Major League Wrestling's International Championship. She still occasionally defended the WWF Women's Championship, even though the title was officially declared vacant by the World Wrestling Federation. In May 1991 she defended the WWF Women's Championship against "Japanese Women's Champion" Madusa Miceli on a Great Lakes Wrestling Association event. On June 9, 1991, she defeated Candi Devine in Herb Abrams's Universal Wrestling Federation to become the first UWF Women's Champion at UWF Beach Brawl. She also competed in the Ladies Professional Wrestling Association (LPWA), forming a tag team with Wendi Richter. She competed at LPWA's only pay-per-view, LPWA Super Ladies Showdown.
## Personal life
Smith and her brother Sam Houston are the children of Aurelian "Grizzly" Smith and were born after his first marriage dissolved. Her half-brother is Jake "The Snake" Roberts, who was born during their father's first marriage. Robin and her brothers all wrestled in the WWF at the same time in the 1980s, but their relationship was never mentioned on-screen at the request of Robin. Author and former National Wrestling Alliance president Howard Brody alleges in his book Swimming with Piranhas that Robin was a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of her father. According to Brody, Robin was removed from her father's care when her mother discovered what had been happening.
After leaving the WWF in 1990, Smith was married to a man named Harvey Zitron. Zitron was sentenced to 81 months in federal prison for 10 counts of filing false tax returns, identity theft and access device fraud. After divorcing, she moved to Louisiana and opened a telemarketing company that sold industrial chemicals and precious metals. During this time, Smith had a drinking problem but eventually was able to quit altogether.
In 2005, Smith's home and all of her belongings were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. During the aftermath of the hurricane, she stayed with family in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She now runs a real estate appraisal business in Hammond, Louisiana.
## Filmography
## Championships and accomplishments
- Cauliflower Alley Club
- Women's Wrestling (Retired) Award (2011)
- Great Lakes Wrestling Association
- GLWA Women's Championship (1 time)
- Ladies Major League Wrestling
- LMLW International Championship (1 time)
- Universal Wrestling Federation (Herb Abrams)
- UWF Women's World Championship (1 time)
- World Wrestling Federation
- WWF Women's Championship (1 time) |
2,279,471 | Amanda Award | 1,117,841,170 | Annual Norwegian film award | [
"1985 establishments in Norway",
"Awards established in 1985",
"Haugesund",
"Norwegian International Film Festival",
"Norwegian film awards"
] | The Amanda Award (Norwegian: Amandaprisen) is an award given annually at the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund, Norway, to promote and improve Norwegian film. The award originated in 1985, and has since 2005 been exclusively a film award (not television). Winners are awarded a trophy by the Norwegian sculptor Kristian Kvakland, and the name—and theme—of the sculpture comes from a legendary local woman from the 1920s. The award ceremony is marked every year by a major, nationally televised event.
## History
The Amanda Award was instituted in 1985 as part of the Norwegian International Film Festival "to increase the quality of and further the interest for Norwegian films". The year 1993 marked an exception to the norm, when the so-called "Nordic Amanda" included contribution from all the Nordic countries. From 2005 onwards, TV-drama was no longer included among the categories honoured, as the TV-specific award "Gullruten" had taken over this function. Instead the award became exclusively for films. Around the same time another change occurred also. Since the beginning, the award ceremony had been produced in cooperation with the Norwegian state broadcasting corporation Norsk rikskringkasting (NRK). In 2006, however, NRK ended the partnership, and the show has since that time been the responsibility of the private broadcasting company TV 2.
In the year 2007, a "People's Amanda" ("Folkets Amanda") was awarded for the first time, where the winner was arrived at by popular vote. The first winner of the award was the horror movie Fritt Vilt, directed by Roar Uthaug.
## Sculpture
The name "Amanda" is derived from a song, or sea shanty, titled "Amanda fra [from] Haugesund". Supposedly the song in turn refers to a real woman from the 1920s – a single mother who made a living from selling liquor to sailors during the prohibition period.
The figurine that is awarded to prize winners originated from a competition held by the local newspaper Haugesunds Avis in 1985, to create a sculpture of the legendary Amanda. The competition was won by Kristian Kvakland from Nesodden in Akershus. The full-size sculpture now stands outside the newspaper's office, but a miniature version was adopted as a trophy for the Amanda Award. The figurine is 30 cm (11.81 in) tall, with a skirt measuring 14 cm (5.51 in) in diameter. While the current sculpture is hollow and weighs 2.5 kg (5.51 lbs), for the first few years it was made of solid metal. Weighing in at 4.5 kg (9.92 lbs) it was difficult to hoist for many winners.
It was one of these prizes that, in the year 1986, was won by director Anja Breien, who decided to sell it through a newspaper advert, as a protest against that year's budget cuts for Norwegian film. The Swedish Film Institute, which had experienced similar cuts and sympathized, bought the sculpture. In 2005, as Breien was presented with an honorary award, she was also given back the original sculpture by former Minister of Culture and director of the Swedish Film Institute, Åse Kleveland.
## Show
The award show has long been a central point of the film festival, as well as a major television event for the whole of Norway. Particularly in earlier years, international stars were sometimes brought in to enhance the prestige of the event. Examples of this are Roger Moore, who was a special guest at the very first ceremony in 1985, and Diana Ross in 1987, then married to Norwegian entrepreneur Arne Næss, Jr. Other international names appearing in the show as presenters have included Ned Beatty, Lauren Bacall, Jon Voight, Brian Cox, Jeremy Irons, Ben Kingsley and Pierce Brosnan.
The show has in recent years been hosted by prominent Norwegian comedians. Jon Almaas, known from the TV-show "Nytt på nytt", played host for several years in the early 2000s. Thomas Giertsen, known as a stand-up comedian and from several TV-shows, has hosted the show in recent years. An episode that received some media attention in 2005 was when host Marit Åslein and Minister of Culture and Church Affairs from the Christian conservative party KrF, Valgerd Svarstad Haugland, kissed on stage as part of a humorous routine.
## Awards and winners
The only actor ever to have won four Amanda Awards is Bjørn Sundquist. These were awarded for the movies Over grensen (1987), Søndagsengler (1996) and Sejer - se deg ikke tilbake (2000), as well as an Honorary Award in 2000. Ane Dahl Torp has won three awards for specific acting roles: she won Best Actress for her roles in Svarte penger - hvite løgner (2004) and Gymnaslærer Pedersen (2006), and was the first ever to receive the newly created award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her effort in Lønsj in 2008. Sverre Anker Ousdal has also been named Best Actor twice, for Kreditorene in 1990 and Blodsbånd in 1998, and won the Honorary Award in 2009. Nils Ole Oftebro, Espen Skjønberg and Anneke von der Lippe have all been honoured twice each – Oftebro and Skjønberg once as lead actors and once as supporting actors. Among the directors, Ola Solum, Nils Gaup, Berit Nesheim and Bent Hamer have each received two awards. Erik Gustavson has the rare distinction of having won in three different categories: for best film and best documentary, in addition to winning the special "Nordic Amanda" in 1993. This is an accomplishment Kjersti Holmen can also claim, for winning the Best Actress award in 2000, Best Supporting Role in 1993, and the Honorary Award in 2009. The only film to have won the three main awards – best film, best actor and best actress – is Budbringeren in 1997.
As of 2010, the categories awarded are:
- Best Norwegian Film in Theatrical Release
- Best Director (for films in theatrical release)
- The People’s Amanda (audience vote)
- Best Actor
- Best Actress
- Best Actor in a Supporting Role
- Best Actress in a Supporting Role
- Best Children’s and Youth Film
- Best Original Screenplay
- Best Cinematography
- Best Sound Design
- Best Music
- Best Editing
- Best Production Design / Scenography
- Best Visual Effects
- Best Short Film
- Best Documentary
- The foreign film of the year in Theatrical Release
- The Amanda Committee's Golden Clapper (technical award)
- The Amanda Committee's Honorary Award |
2,703,111 | Washington State Route 168 | 1,146,987,041 | State highway in Washington | [
"Proposed state highways in the United States",
"State highways in Washington (state)",
"Transportation in Pierce County, Washington",
"Transportation in Yakima County, Washington"
] | State Route 168 (SR 168) is a legislated, but not constructed, state highway located in Washington, United States. The highway is meant to serve as an alternate crossing through the Cascade Range at Naches Pass, supplementing the seasonal Chinook Pass on SR 410. Proposals were first drawn in the 1930s, and the highway has been codified in law under its current designation since 1970, but no construction has occurred.
## Route description
The highway is legislated to begin at a junction with SR 410 in Greenwater, in eastern Pierce County. The road would travel east along the historic Naches Trail, passing through Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest and across Naches Pass to Wenatchee National Forest. It would terminate at another junction with SR 410 north of Cliffdell in Yakima County. The highway would pass near Pyramid Peak, which has a maximum altitude of 5,718 ft (1,743 m). A crossing similar to the legislated highway is covered by a series of Forest Routes, including Road 19 and Road 70.
SR 168 would be an all-season route through Naches Pass, at an elevation of 4,923 feet (1,501 m), providing an alternative to SR 410, which closes annually due to avalanche dangers near Chinook Pass, at an elevation of 5,430 feet (1,655 m). SR 168 would allow commercial vehicles to bypass Mount Rainier National Park, where trucks and other large vehicles are prohibited on SR 410. The current restriction detours commercial traffic south to U.S. Route 12 over White Pass or north to Interstate 90 over Snoqualmie Pass.
## History
Plans for a or highway date back to the early 1930s, designated as the Naches Pass Link of Primary State Highway 5. The state legislature appropriated \$50,000 (equivalent to \$ in ) for a study on the feasibility of a new highway. The 1946 study by engineer Ole Singstad determined that a Naches Pass tunnel would require a 24-mile (39 km) bore at 2,500 feet (760 m), which would be more difficult to build than a similar tunnel at either Snoqualmie or Stampede passes.
The corridor was included as part of an extension to Interstate 82 in a 1959 proposal by the Washington State Highway Commission that was later dropped. In the early 1960s, Governor Albert Rosellini established a committee to study the feasibility of a toll road. The route was considered feasible by the committee, and they estimated tolls of \$1.50 per vehicle (equivalent to \$ in ) would need to be levied to pay for the highway. Proponents of the new highway were pushing to have U.S. Route 10 routed over the pass, away from the routing over Snoqualmie Pass, but this never occurred. Ultimately, the highway was not built as the state considered the highway unfeasible. The highway has been codified in Washington law since 1970, while the tunnel through Naches Pass has been codified in state law since 1959. |
2,050,142 | Spanish Texas | 1,170,182,609 | Province of New Spain | [
"1690 establishments in New Spain",
"1690 establishments in Texas",
"1690s in Texas",
"1800s in Texas",
"1810s in Texas",
"1821 disestablishments in New Spain",
"18th century in Texas",
"19th-century disestablishments in Texas",
"Colonial Mexico",
"Colonial United States (Spanish)",
"New Spain",
"Pre-statehood history of Texas",
"Spanish Texas",
"States and territories disestablished in 1821",
"States and territories established in 1690"
] | Spanish Texas was one of the interior provinces of the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1519 until 1821. Spain claimed ownership of the region in 1519. Slave raids by Spaniards into what became Texas began in the 16th century and created an atmosphere of antagonism with Native Americans (Indians) which would cause endless difficulties for the Spanish in the future. Spain did not attempt to establish a permanent presence until after France established the colony of Fort Saint Louis in 1685. In 1688, the French colony failed due to internal dissention and attacks by the Karankawa Indians. In 1690, responding to fear of French encroachment, Spanish explorer Alonso de León escorted several Catholic missionaries to east Texas, where they established the first mission in Texas. That attempt to establish a Spanish colony failed due to the hostility of the Caddo Indians.
The Spanish returned to southeastern Texas in 1716, establishing several missions and a presidio to maintain a buffer between Spanish territory and the Louisiana district of New France. San Antonio was founded in 1719 and became the capital and largest settlement of Spanish Tejas. The Lipan Apache menaced the newly founded colony until 1749 when the Spanish and Lipan concluded a peace treaty. Both the Spanish and Lipan were then threatened by Comanche raids until 1785 when the Spanish and Comanche negotiated a peace agreement. In 1803, the United States gained ownership of an indefinite part of Texas with the Louisiana Purchase and subsequently the influence of Anglo Americans increased.
During the Mexican War of Independence from 1810 to 1821 Texas experienced turmoil. Reaching a maximum population of perhaps 5,000 Spanish, mixed blood, and subject Indians in 1810, only 2,500 people remained in Hispanic Texas by the end of the war. Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821 and Spanish Texas became part of an independent Mexico. Texas became independent of Mexico in 1836 and joined the United States in 1845.
The Spanish never achieved control of most of Texas which was on the far frontier of Spanish colonial ambitions. Despite the meager nature of Spanish colonization, Hispanic influence in Texas is extensive. Spanish architectural concepts still flourish. Many cities and rivers in Texas were named by the Spanish and many counties in southern and western Texas have majority Hispanic populations. The inadvertent introduction of European diseases by the Spanish caused Native American populations to plummet, leaving a population vacuum later filled by Anglo American settlers. Grazing of European livestock caused mesquite to spread inland replacing native grassland while Spanish farmers tilled and irrigated the land and changed the landscape. Although Texas eventually adopted much of the Anglo-American legal system, many Spanish legal practices survived, including the concepts of a homestead exemption and of community property.
## Location
Spanish Texas (Tejas) was a colonial province within the northeastern mainland region of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. On its southern edge, Tejas was bordered by the provinces of Coahuila and Nuevo Santander. The boundary between the provinces was set at the line formed by the Medina River and the Nueces River, 100 miles (161 km) northeast of the Rio Grande. On the east, Texas bordered La Louisiane (French Louisiana). Although Spain claimed that the Red River formed the boundary between the two, France insisted that the border was the Sabine River, 45 miles (72 km) to the west.
## Initial colonization attempts
Although Alonso Álvarez de Pineda claimed Texas for Spain in 1519, the area was largely ignored by Spain until the late seventeenth century. However Spanish slave raids into what became Texas began in the late 16th century. Among others, Spanish governor Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva captured hundreds of Indians and sold them to owners of silver mines in Mexico. Frequent epidemics of European diseases reduced the Indian population. The first epidemic, possibly of cholera, among the Indians in Texas was recorded in 1528 by Cabeza de Vaca and they continued to impact the Indian population until the end of the 19th century.
In 1685, the Spanish learned that France had established a colony in the area between New Spain and Florida. Believing the French colony was a threat to Spanish mines and shipping routes, Spanish King Carlos II's Council of War recommended that "Spain needed swift action 'to remove this thorn which has been thrust into the heart of America. The greater the delay the greater the difficulty of attainment.'" Having no idea where to find the French colony, the Spanish launched ten expeditions—both land and sea—over the next three years. While unable to fulfill their original goal of locating the French settlement, the expeditions did provide Spain a deeper understanding of the geography of the Gulf Coast region. The last expedition, in 1689, discovered a French deserter living in southern Texas with the Coahuiltecans. In April 1689, the Frenchman helped guide the Spanish, under Alonso de León, to Fort Saint Louis, which had been destroyed by Karankawa Indians. De León's expedition also met representatives of the Caddo people, who lived between the Trinity and the Red Rivers. The Caddo expressed interest in learning about Christianity.
De León sent a report of his findings to Mexico City, where it "created instant optimism and quickened religious fervor". The Spanish government was convinced that the destruction of the French fort was "proof of God's 'divine aid and favor'". In his report de León recommended that presidios be established along the Rio Grande, the Frio River, and the Guadalupe River and that missions be established among the Hasinai Indians, whom the Spanish called the Tejas, in East Texas. In Castilian Spanish, this was often written as the phonetic equivalent Texas, which became the name of the future province.
### Missions
The viceroy approved the establishment of a mission but rejected the idea of presidios, primarily because New Spain was chronically short of funds. On March 26, 1690, Alonso de León set out with 110 soldiers and several missionaries. The group stopped first to burn Fort Saint Louis to the ground, and then they proceeded to East Texas. Mission San Francisco de los Tejas was completed near the Hasinai village of Nabedaches in late May, and its first mass was conducted on June 1. The missionaries refused to allow the unruly soldiers to remain near the missions, and when de León returned to Mexico later that year, only 3 of his initial 110 soldiers remained to assist the monks. Father Damián Massanet, the priest in charge of the mission, left on June 2 to meet the tribes north of the mission before returning to Mexico to request an additional 14 priests and 7 lay brothers.
On January 23, 1691, Spain appointed the first governor of Texas, General Domingo Terán de los Ríos. Terán was ordered to help establish seven new missions, including two more among the Tejas Indians, four amongst the Kadohadachos, and one for the tribes near the Guadalupe River. He was only able to recruit 10 friars and 3 lay brothers. His expedition reached the existing mission in August, 1691 and discovered that the priests there had established a second mission, Santísimo Nombre de María, five miles (8.0 km) east of San Francisco de los Tejas. One of the priests had died, leaving two to operate the missions. The Indians regularly stole their cattle and horses and were becoming insolent. With provisions running low, Terán chose not to establish any more missions. When he left Texas later that year, most of the missionaries chose to return with him, leaving only 3 religious people and 9 soldiers at the missions.
The group also left a smallpox epidemic. The Indians had no natural immunity to the disease and at first blamed the outbreak on the baptismal waters. After thousands of natives had succumbed, the survivors rose up against the missions. In 1693, the Caddo warned the Franciscan missionaries to leave the area or be killed. The missionaries buried the church bells and burned the mission, then returned to Mexico. Although this first Spanish attempt to settle Texas failed, it provided Spain an increased awareness of the terrain, rivers, and coastline of Texas and convinced the government that "even the most tractable of Indians" could only be converted "by a combination of coercion and persuasion". For the next 20 years, Spain again ignored Texas.
## Conflict with France
During the early eighteenth century France again provided the impetus for Spain's interest in Texas. In 1699, French forts were established at Biloxi Bay and on the Mississippi River, ending Spain's exclusive control of the Gulf Coast. Although Spain "refused to concede France's right to be in Louisiana" and warned King Louis XIV of France that he could be excommunicated for ignoring the 200-year-old papal edict giving the Americas to Spain, they took no further actions to stop France's encroachment or expand the Spanish presence. The two countries became allies during the War of the Spanish Succession and cooperated in the Americas. Despite their friendship, Spain remained unwilling to allow the French to trade within their territory. On hearing rumors of French incursions into Texas in 1707, the viceroy of New Spain ordered all provincial governors to prevent the entry of foreigners and their goods. To dissuade the Tejas Indians from accepting goods from the French, a contingent of soldiers under Pedro de Aguirre traveled into Texas. His expedition reached only as far as the Colorado River and turned around after learning that the Tejas chief was still unhappy with the Spanish. The group did visit the area around the San Antonio River, and was much impressed with the land and availability of water. They believed the river to be unnamed and called it San Antonio de Padua, not realizing that Terán and Massanet had camped nearby years before on the feast day of Saint Anthony of Padua and had given the river the same name.
In 1711, Franciscan missionary Francisco Hidalgo, who had served in the earlier Texas missions, wanted to reestablish missions with the Caddos. The Spanish government was unwilling to provide the funding and troops for the project, so Hidalgo approached the French governor of Louisiana, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac for help. Cadillac was under orders to turn Louisiana into a profitable colony and believed that Spanish settlers closer to Louisiana could provide new trading opportunities. He sent Louis Juchereau de St. Denis, along with brothers Pierre and Robert Talon, who, as children, had been spared at the massacre of Fort Saint Louis, to find Hidalgo and offer assistance. In July 1714, the French delegation reached the Spanish frontier, at that time around the Rio Grande, where Hidalgo was located. Although St. Denis was arrested and questioned, he was ultimately released. The Spanish recognized that the French could become a threat to other Spanish areas, and ordered the reoccupation of Texas as a buffer between French settlements in Louisiana and New Spain.
On April 12, 1716, an expedition led by Domingo Ramón left San Juan Bautista for Texas, intending to establish four missions and a presidio which would be guarded by twenty-five soldiers. The party of 75 people included 3 children, 7 women, 18 soldiers, and 10 missionaries. These were the first recorded female settlers in Spanish Texas. After marrying a Spanish woman, St. Denis also joined the Spanish expedition.
The party reached the land of the Hasinai people in late June 1716 and was greeted warmly. On July 3, mission San Francisco was reestablished as Mission Nuestro Padre San Francisco de los Tejas for the Neche Indians. Several days later, Mission Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción was established at the main village of the Hainai, the head tribe of the Hasinai Confederacy, along the Angelina River. A third mission, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, was established 15 miles (24 km) east of Purísima Concepción, at the main village of the Nacogdoche tribe, at what is now Nacogdoches. A final mission, San José de los Nazonis, was built among the Nazoni Indians just north of present-day Cushing. A presidio, Nuestra Señora de los Dolores, was built opposite San Francisco de los Tejas.
During this period, the area was named the New Philippines by the missionaries in the twin hopes of gaining royal patronage, and that the Spanish efforts would be as successful as in the Philippines a century and a half earlier. The alternate name became official and remained in use for several decades, but had virtually disappeared from use (in favor of 'Texas') by the end of the century. The name however persisted in documents, especially in land grants
At the same time, the French were building a fort in Natchitoches to establish a more westward presence. The Spanish countered by founding two more missions just west of Natchitoches, San Miguel de los Adaes and Dolores de los Ais. The missions were located in a disputed area; France claimed the Sabine River to be the western boundary of Louisiana, while Spain claimed the Red River was the eastern boundary of Texas, leaving an overlap of 45 miles (72 km).
The new missions were over 400 miles (640 km) from the nearest Spanish settlement, San Juan Bautista. It was difficult to reprovision the missions, and by 1718 the missionaries were in dire straits. Martín de Alarcón, who had been appointed governor of Texas in late 1716, wished to establish a way station between the settlements along the Rio Grande and the new missions in East Texas. The Coahuiltecans had built a thriving community near the headwaters of the San Antonio River, in the area the Spanish had admired in 1707. Alarcón led a group of 72 people, including 10 families, into Texas on April 9, 1718. They brought with them 548 horses, 6 droves of mules, and other livestock. On May 1, the group created a temporary mud, brush and straw structure to serve as a mission, San Antonio de Valero, whose chapel was later known as the Alamo. The mission was initially populated with three to five Indians that one of the missionaries had raised since childhood. Alarcon built a presidio, San Antonio de Béxar one mile (1.6 km) north of the mission,. Alarcón also chartered the municipality of Béjar, now San Antonio. Given a status higher than a village (pueblo) but lower than a city (ciudad), San Antonio became the only villa in Texas, and the colonists who settled there relied on farming and ranching to survive. With the new settlement established, Alarcón continued on to the East Texas missions, where he found evidence of much illicit trade with France.
The following year, the War of the Quadruple Alliance broke out, aligning Spain against France, Great Britain, the Dutch Republic, and Austria. The war was fought primarily over Italy, but Great Britain and France launched several attempts to capture Spanish colonies in North America. In June 1719, 7 Frenchmen from Natchitoches took control of Mission San Miguel de los Adaes from its sole defender, who did not know that the countries were at war. The French soldiers explained that 100 additional soldiers were coming, and the Spanish colonists, missionaries, and remaining soldiers abandoned the area and fled to San Antonio.
The Marquis of San Miguel de Aguayo volunteered to reconquer Texas and raised an army of 500 soldiers. Aguayo was named the governor of Coahuila and Texas and the responsibilities of his office delayed his trip to Texas by a year, until late 1720. Just before he departed, the fighting in Europe halted, and King Felipe V of Spain ordered them not to invade Louisiana, but instead find a way to retake Eastern Texas without using force. The expedition brought with them over 2,800 horses, 6,400 sheep and many goats; this constituted the first large "cattle drive" in Texas. This greatly increased the number of domesticated animals in Texas and marked the beginning of Spanish ranching in Texas.
In July 1721, while approaching the Neches River, Aguayo's expedition met St. Denis, who had returned to the French and was leading a raid on San Antonio. Realizing that he was badly outnumbered, St. Denis agreed to abandon East Texas and return to Louisiana. Aguayo then ordered the building of a new Spanish fort Nuestra Señora del Pilar de los Adaes, located near present-day Robeline, Louisiana, only 12 miles (19 km) from Natchitoches. The new fort became the first capital of Texas, and was guarded by 6 cannon and 100 soldiers. The six East Texas missions were reopened, and Presidio Dolores, now known as Presidio de los Tejas, was moved from the Neches River to a site near mission Purísima Concepción near the Angelina River. The Spaniards then built another fort, Presidio La Bahía del Espíritu Santo, known as La Bahía, on the site of the former French Fort St. Louis. Nearby they established a mission, Espíritu Santo de Zúñiga (also known as La Bahía), for the Coco, Karankawa, and Cujane Indians. Ninety men were left at the garrison. Aguayo returned to Mexico City in 1722 and resigned his governorship. At the beginning of his expedition, Texas had consisted only of San Antonio and about 60 soldiers; at his resignation, the province had grown to consist of 4 presidios, over 250 soldiers, 10 missions, and the small civilian town of San Antonio.
## Settlement difficulties
Shortly after Aguayo returned to Mexico, the new viceroy of New Spain, Juan de Acuña, marqués de Casafuerte, was ordered to cut costs accrued for the defense of the northern part of the territory. Acuña appointed Colonel Pedro de Rivera y Villalón to inspect the entire northern frontier. Beginning in what is now California in November 1724, Rivera spent the next three years inspecting the northern frontier, reaching San Antonio in August 1727. His reports of Los Adaes, Presidio Nuestra Señora de Loreto, and the presidio at San Antonio were favorable, but he was unimpressed with Presidio de los Tejas, whose 25 soldiers were guarding empty missions. The native population had refused to congregate into communities around the missions and refused baptism unless they were on the brink of death. Because the Indians were well-armed, the Franciscans were unable to compel them to join the missions. The frustrated missionaries finally petitioned the Spanish government for 50 soldiers to burn the Indians' houses of worship and force them to build homes near the missions. No troops were forthcoming.
Rivera recommended closing Presidio de los Tejas and reducing the number of soldiers at the other presidios. His suggestions were approved in 1729, and 125 troops were removed from Texas, leaving only 144 soldiers divided between Los Adaes, La Bahía, and San Antonio. The three East Texas missions which had depended on Presidio de los Tejas were relocated along the San Antonio River in May 1731, increasing the number of missions in the San Antonio area to five. The San Antonio missions usually contained fewer than 300 Indians. Many of those who lived at the mission had nowhere else to go, and belonged to small tribes that have since become extinct.
The Spanish government believed that settlers would defend their property, alleviating the need for some of the presidios. Texas was an unappealing prospect for most settlers, however, due to the armed nomadic tribes, high costs, and lack of precious metals. In 1731, the Spanish government resettled 55 people, mostly women and children, from the Canary Islands to San Antonio. At that time, only 300 Hispanic settlers lived in San Antonio, with 200 others dispersed throughout the rest of the colony. The new immigrants began farming and renamed the town San Fernando de Béxar, establishing the first municipal, and only civilian, government in Texas. Juan Leal Goraz, the oldest of the settlers, was appointed the first councilman.
As the first settlers of the municipality, the Islanders and their descendants were designated hidalgos. The established settlers resented the Islanders for their new titles and exclusive privileges within the city government. The newcomers did not know how to handle horses, rendering them useless in mounted warfare against the Apaches. Unlike the established settlers, who relied on ranching, the Islanders were primarily farmers, and their refusal to build fences led to many disagreements when livestock trampled the fields. By the early 1740s, however, intermarriage and the need for closer economic ties had helped to alleviate some of the infighting, and the original settlers were given permission to serve as magistrates and council members.
Spain discouraged manufacturing in its colonies and limited trade to Spanish goods handled by Spanish merchants and carried on Spanish vessels. Most of the ports, including all of those in Texas, were closed to commercial vessels in the hopes of dissuading smugglers. By law, all goods bound for Texas had to be shipped to Veracruz and then transported over the mountains to Mexico City before being sent to Texas. This caused the goods to be very expensive in the Texas settlements. Settlers were often forced to turn to the French for supplies, as the fort at Natchitoches was well-stocked and goods did not have to travel as far. Without many goods to trade, however, the remaining Spanish missionaries and colonists had little to offer the Indians, who remained loyal to the French traders.
## Peace with France
Indians confirmed in 1746 that French traders periodically arrived by sea to trade with tribes in the lower Trinity River region. Eight years later, the Spanish learned of rumors that the French had opened a trading post at the mouth of the Trinity River. In September 1754, the governor, Jacinto de Barrios y Jáuregui sent soldiers to investigate, and they captured five Frenchmen who had been living at an Indian village. To dissuade the French from returning, Spain built the presidio of San Agustín de Ahumada and the mission of Nuestra Señora de la Luz de Orcoquisac near the mouth of the Trinity at Galveston Bay. Conditions were awful at the new location, and both the presidio and the mission were closed in 1770.
The Presidio La Bahía was moved from the Guadalupe River to Goliad on the San Antonio River in 1749. Within five years, a new mission for the Karankawa tribes, Nuestra Señora del Rosario de los Cuhanes, was built upstream of the presidio. This mission survived for many years. Despite the new missions and presidios, Texas was one of the least populated provinces on the northern frontier of New Spain. By 1760, almost 1,200 Hispanic people lived in Texas, with half in San Antonio, 350 at Los Adaes, and 260 at La Bahía. Other Spaniards lived in what is now the El Paso area, but that was considered part of New Mexico and not part of Texas.
On November 3, 1762, as part of the Treaty of Fontainebleau, France ceded the portion of Louisiana west of the Mississippi River to Spain. Spain had assisted France against Britain in the Seven Years' War, and lost both Manila and Havana to the British. Although the Louisiana colony was a financial liability, King Carlos III of Spain reluctantly accepted it, as that meant France was finally ceding its claim to Texas. At the Treaty of Paris on February 10, 1763, Great Britain recognized Spain's right to the lands west of the Mississippi. Great Britain received the remainder of France's North American territories, and Spain exchanged some of their holdings in Florida for Havana.
With France no longer a threat to Spain's North American interests, the Spanish monarchy commissioned the Marquis of Rubí to inspect all of the presidios on the northern frontier of New Spain and make recommendations for the future. Rubí's two-year journey, beginning in early 1766, covered seven thousand miles (11,000 km) from the Gulf of California to East Texas. This was the first comprehensive look at the New Spain frontier since the 1720s, when Pedro de Rivera conducted his expedition. Rubí was unimpressed with the presidio at San Saba, which he declared to be the worst in the kingdom of New Spain. He recommended that only the presidios at San Antonio and La Bahía be maintained, and that East Texas be totally abandoned, with all population moving to San Antonio. With Louisiana in Spanish control, there was no need for Los Adaes to reside so closely to Natchitoches, especially after the missions had relocated to San Antonio. In August 1768, the acting governor, Juan María Vicencio, Baron of Ripperdà, moved his headquarters and the garrison to San Antonio, and in 1772 San Antonio became the new Texas capital. Los Adaes was abandoned completely. The new governor also augmented the garrison at San Antonio to protect the town from recurring Indian attacks. A new presidio, Fuerte de Santa Cruz de Cibolo, was also established 40 miles (64 km) southeast of San Antonio to protect farmers and ranchers from attacks.
As a result of Rubí's recommendations, Presidio de San Agustín de Ahumada was closed in 1771, leaving the Texas coast unoccupied except for La Bahía. In July 1772, however, the governor of Texas heard rumors that English traders were building a settlement in the area of the Texas coast that had been abandoned. The commander of La Bahía was sent to find the settlement, but saw no sign of other Europeans. His expedition did, however, traced the San Jacinto River to its mouth where it emptied into Galveston Bay.
### Founding of Nacogdoches
The 500 Hispanic settlers who had lived near Los Adaes had to resettle in San Antonio in 1773. In the six years between the inspection and the removal of the settlers, the immigrant population of East Texas had increased from 200 Europeans to 500, a mixture of Spanish, French, Indians, and a few blacks. The settlers were given only five days to prepare to relocate to San Antonio. Many of them perished during the three-month trek and others died soon after arriving.
After protesting, they were permitted in the following year to return to East Texas, but only as far as the Trinity River, 175 miles (282 km) from Natchitoches. Led by Antonio Gil Y'Barbo, the settlers founded the town of Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Bucareli "where the trail from San Antonio to Los Adaes crossed the Trinity." The settlers helped smuggle contraband goods from Louisiana to San Antonio, and also helped the soldiers with coastal reconnaissance.
In May 1776, King Carlos III created a new position, the Commandancy General of the Internal Provinces of the North (Provincias Internas), to control frontier areas across northern New Spain, including Spanish Texas. The first appointee, Teodoro de Croix, served as governor and commander-in-chief of the area from 1776 until 1783. As de Croix prepared to take office, his predecessor, Baron of Ripperdà, wrote a detailed report, dated April 27, 1777, of the settlements in Texas. One-third of the report detailed the village of Bucareli, which he labeled as "'of the greatest importance as a means of acquiring reports of a coast as extensive as it is uninhabited.'" The Bucareli settlers regularly performed coastal explorations and developed a friendship with the Bidai tribe, who reported any signs of foreigners along the coast. In the summer of 1777, Gil Ybarbo discovered that a group of Englishmen had come from the sea and stayed long enough to plant a crop near the Neches River. He led an expedition to find the Englishmen, but, although they discovered the fields, the expedition did not find any of the settlers.
In 1779, the Comanches began raiding the Bucareli area, and the settlers chose to move further east to the old mission of Nacogdoches, where they founded the town of the same name. The new town quickly became a waystation for contraband. The settlers did not have authorization to move, and no troops were assigned to protect the new location until 1795.
## Conflict with the Native Americans
### Apache raids
The tribes traded freely, and soon many had acquired French guns, while others had traded for Spanish horses. Tribes without access to either resource were left at a disadvantage. The Lipan Apache, who had been seasonal farmers, were soon pressed by the Comanche, who had horses, and the Wichita, who had guns. The Apaches were bitter enemies of the Tejas of East Texas and had transferred their enmity to the Spanish as friends of the Tejas. After discovering San Antonio in 1720, the Apache mounted small-scale raids on the area to steal livestock, especially horses. The Hispanic population of San Antonio was only about 300 and all of Texas about 500 and the Apache killed an average of 3 Spaniards each year and stole approximately 100 animals from the beleaguered colony. In retaliation, the Spanish launched multiple attacks on the Apaches, capturing horses and mules, hides and other plunder, and taking Apache captives, whom the Spanish used as household slaves. By 1731, however, the San Antonio garrison was begging the government for help in negotiating a peace with the tribes.
The threat of Apache raids led to a constant state of unease in San Antonio, and some families left the area, while others refused to leave the safety of the town to tend their livestock. The problems culminated with a late-night raid on San Antonio by 350 Apache on June 30, 1745, retaliation for a Spanish military campaign several months before. The attackers were repelled with the assistance of 100 Indians from nearby Mission Valero. The Apache also preyed on other tribes, including the Deadose and Tonkawa. In the 1740s, these weaker tribes requested missions along the San Gabriel River in the hopes that the Spanish could protect them from attack. Mission San Francisco Xavier was established at the confluence of the San Gabriel River and Bushy Creek in January 1746 to serve the Deadose, Mayeye, and Coco Indians. In 1748 alone, the Apaches raided the mission four times, killing three soldiers and four of the Indian residents. Many of the resident Indians fled the mission due to the threat of attacks. This did not deter the missionaries, who founded two more missions, San Ildefonso and Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria, in the area the following year. Within six months, all of the potential converts at San Ildefonso had left. By 1755, the missions were transferred to a new location on the San Marcos River.
The Apache were coming under increased pressure from the Comanche advancing from the north and sought peace with the Spanish. A peace was declared in August 1749, when a group of Apache chiefs and Spanish officials "symbolically [buried] the trouble between the two parties" by burying weapons in the plaza at San Antonio. The Spanish also promised to provide military assistance to the Apache. The Lipan Apache had asked for missions several times, and in 1757 all property of the former San Gabriel missions, as well as the military garrison which briefly protected them, was transferred to new Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá along the San Saba River northwest of San Antonio. A log stockade was constructed three miles (4.8 km) from the mission, on the other side of the river, so that the soldiers would not corrupt the Indians. The stockade could hold up to 400 including the 237 women and children who accompanied the soldiers.
Apaches shunned the mission, and on March 16, 1758, a band of Comanche, Tonkawa, and Hasinai warriors, angry that the Spaniards were assisting their Apache enemies, pillaged and burned the mission, killing eight people. The San Sabá mission was the only Spanish mission in Texas to be completely destroyed by Indians, and it was never rebuilt. Although the Indian force had 2000 members, they chose not to attack the fort.
The Spanish government refused to abandon the area completely out of fear that such an action would make them appear weak. While they planned a response, Indians raided the San Saba horse herd, stealing all of the horses and pack mules and killing 20 soldiers. In October 1759, Spain sent the San Sabá commander, Colonel Diego Ortiz Parrilla, on an expedition north to the Red River to avenge the attack. The tribes were forewarned and led Parrilla's army to a fortified Wichita village, surrounded by a stockade and a moat, where natives brandished French guns and waved a French flag. After a skirmish in which 52 Spaniards were killed, wounded, or deserted, the Spanish retreated. The San Sabá presidio was replaced with a limestone fortress and a moat, but the Comanches and their allies remained close and killed any soldiers who ventured out. By 1769, Spain abandoned the fort.
In 1762, missionaries established two unauthorized missions south of San Sabá, in the Nueces River valley. For several years the Apache lived in the missions most of the year, but left in winter to hunt buffalo. One of the missions closed in 1763, when the Apache never returned from their hunt. The surviving mission closed in January 1766, after a force of 400 natives from the northern tribes attacked, killing 6 Apaches and taking 25 captives as well as all the livestock in the valley. Forty-one Spanish troops and their small cannon ambushed the northern tribes as they returned to East Texas. Before the Spanish were forced to retreat, over 200 Indians and 12 Spanish soldiers died. After the battle, the Apache refused to return to the mission and returned to raiding near San Antonio. Raids by the northern tribes decreased, however.
### Comanche
The first recorded contact between the Comanche and the Spanish in Texas was in 1743 when a small band of Comanche visited San Antonio. The Comanche were expanding southward from Colorado and pushing the Apache off the Great Plains. About 1750 they became the dominant power in the northwestern one-half of Texas, called the Comanchería (Spanish for "Comanche lands"), and maintained their dominance for 100 years. Through a combination of diplomacy and war, the Comanche established an extensive long-distance trade network and spread their language and culture among allied Indian tribes. Initially, the Spanish in Texas called them the norteños (northerners) a collective term for the Wichita and other Indian tribes in northern Texas.
The Comanche were divided into the western bands which primarily raided and traded in New Mexico and the eastern banks which primarily raided and traded in Texas. For much of the 1770s, the Comanche raided in New Mexico. The Comanche were defeated in a battle in Colorado in 1779 by a Spanish army led by New Mexico governor Juan Bautista de Anza and redirected their activities to the weakly defended Texas. During the same time period the Apaches, who had been stockpiling guns received from the Karankawas, returned to raiding settlements in Texas, violating their peace treaty. The Comanche promptly declared war on the Apache.
Gálvez became the viceroy of New Spain in 1785. Gálvez ordered that the Native Americans be encouraged to use alcohol, which they could only get through trading, and that the firearms they were traded be poorly made so that they would be awkward to use and easy to break. His policies were never implemented, as Spain did not have the money to provide gifts such as those to the tribes. Instead, the Spanish negotiated a treaty with the Comanche in late 1785. The treaty promised annual gifts to the Comanches, and the peace it brought lasted for the next 30 years. By late 1786, northern and western Texas were secure enough that Pedro Vial and a single companion safely "pioneered a trail from San Antonio to Santa Fe," a distance of 700 miles (1,100 km).
The Comanches were willing to fight the enemies of their new friends, and soon attacked the Karankawa. Over the next several years, the Comanches killed many of the Karankawa in the area and drove the others into Mexico. By 1804, very few natives lived on the barrier islands, where the Karankawa had made their home. In January 1790, the Comanche also helped the Spanish fight a large battle against the Mescalero and Lipan Apaches at Soledad Creek west of San Antonio. Over 1,000 Comanche warriors participated in raids against the Apache in 1791 and 1792, and the Apache were forced to scatter into the mountains in Mexico. In 1796, Spanish officials began an attempt to have the Apache and Comanche coexist in peace, and over the next ten years the intertribal fighting declined.
### Karankawa difficulties
In 1776, Native Americans at the Bahia missions told the soldiers that the Karankawas had massacred a group of Europeans who had been shipwrecked near the mouth of the Guadalupe River. After finding the remains of an English commercial frigate, the soldiers warned the Karankawa to refrain from attacking seamen. The soldiers continued to explore the coast, and reported that foreign powers could easily build a small settlement on the barrier islands, which were difficult to access from the mainland, and then ascend the Trinity or San Jacinto Rivers into the heart of Texas. Captain Luis Cazorla, the commander of the La Bahía presidio, recommended that Spain build a small fort on the barrier islands and provide a shallow-draft vessel to continually reconnoiter the coast. The fort would be both a deterrent to the more bloodthirsty tribes and to the English. The Spanish government, fearful of smuggling, declined to give permission for a port or a boat on the Texas coast.
De Croix was unimpressed with his new province, complaining that,
> "'A villa without order, two presidios, seven missions, and an errant population of scarcely 4,000 persons of both sexes and all ages that occupies an immense desert country, stretching from the abandoned presidio of Los Adaes to San Antonio, ... does not deserve the name of the Province of Texas ... nor the concern entailed in its preservation.'"
Despite his distaste for the area, he increased the number of troops in the interior provinces by 50% and created units of "light troops" which did not carry all of the heavy gear and could fight on foot. His administration also attempted to build alliances with native troops, and planned to work with the Comanche and the Wichita to wipe out the Apache raiders. The plan was shelved when Spain entered the American Revolution as an ally of the French and the American revolutionaries and money and troops were diverted to attacking Florida instead of exterminating the Apaches. After soldiers in Coahuila aligned with the Mescaleros against the Lipan Apaches, however, Spain was able to sign a peace treaty with the Lipans. The Comanches were also becoming more brazen, attacking Presidio La Bahía in 1781, where they were repulsed.
After hearing that Englishman George Gauld had surveyed the Gulf Coast all the way to Galveston Bay in 1777, Bernardo de Gálvez appointed a French engineer, Luis Antonio Andry, to conduct a similar survey for Spain. Andry finished his survey in March 1778, and anchored off Matagorda Bay after running dangerously low on provisions. Over a period of days, the Karankawa lured a few men at a time from the ship with offers of assistance and killed all but one, a Mayan sailor named Tomás de la Cruz. The Karankawa also burned the ship and the newly created map, possibly the first detailed Spanish map of the Texas-Louisiana coast. Several months later, the Native Americans living at Mission Rosario, near La Bahía, escaped to join the Karankawa, and together they began raiding livestock and harassing settlers. The governor pardoned many of the fugitives, and most of them returned to the mission. The Karankawa continued to cause difficulties for the Spanish, and in 1785 the interim commandant-general, Joseph Antonio Rengel, noted that they were unable to explore in the Matagorda Bay region as long as the Karankawa held it.
The Spanish again arranged for their coastline to be mapped, and in September 1783, José de Evia left Havana to chart the coastline between Key West and Matagorda Bay. During his journey, Evia gave Galveston Bay its name, in honor of his sponsor, De Gálvez. Evia later mapped the Nuevo Santander coast between Matagorda Bay and Tampico, part of which later belonged to Texas.
In 1791 and 1792, Fray José Francisco Garza befriended some of the Karankawa and other native peoples. Their friendship allowed Garza to explore much of the coastal areas that had been too dangerous to visit. The Native Americans requested that Garza build a mission at the junction of the San Antonio and Guadalupe Rivers, and in February 1793 Mission Nuestra Señora del Refugio opened near Mission Lake at the head of San Antonio Bay. Over 230 Native Americans lived at the mission initially, but within two years they were forced to move to a less flood-prone site, which became known as Refugio. By the end of the eighteenth century, only a small number of the hunting and gathering tribes within Texas had not been Christianized.
## Conflict with the United States
The Second Treaty of Paris in 1783 ended the American Revolution and established the United States of America. The treaty extended the new country's western boundary to the Mississippi River and within the first year after it was signed 50,000 American settlers crossed the Appalachian Mountains. As it was difficult to return east across the mountains, the settlers began looking toward the Spanish colonies of Louisiana and Texas to find places to sell their crops. Spain closed the mouth of the Mississippi to foreigners from 1784 until 1795 despite Thomas Jefferson's 1790 threat to begin an Anglo-Spanish war over the matter. Americans risked arrest to come to Texas, many of them desiring to capture wild mustangs in West Texas and trade with the Indians. In 1791, Philip Nolan became the first Anglo-American known to pursue horse-trading in Texas, and he was arrested several times for being within Spain's borders. The Spanish feared that Nolan was a spy, and in 1801 they sent 150 troops to capture Nolan and his party of 6 men; Nolan was killed during the ensuing battle. By 1810, many Americans were trading guns and ammunition to the Texas Indians, especially the Comanche, in return for livestock. Although some chiefs refused to trade with them and reported their movements to Spanish authorities, other bands welcomed the newcomers. A drought made rangeland scarce and stopped the Comanche's herds from increasing. To meet the American demand for livestock, the Comanche turned to raiding the area around San Antonio.
The Spanish government believed that security would come with a larger population, but was unable to attract colonists from Spain or from other New World colonies. By the late 18th century, Texas was one of the least populated regions of New Spain, with fewer than two inhabitants per square league. The population was relatively stagnant, having grown only to 3,169 individuals in 1790 from 3,103 in 1777. Over half of the population was classified as Spaniards, with settled Indians making up the next largest category. Blacks, mostly slaves, made up less than 1% of the population in 1777, and only 2.2% of the 1793 census. Over two-thirds of the adults in Texas were married, and single men outnumbered single women, although there was a high percentage of widows. Intermarriage was fairly common, mostly between white men and women of mixed origin. Children from these unions often passed as whites. Illegitimate births increased steadily throughout the century, reaching 20% of all births in 1799. Despite the small population, however, Spain actively discouraged immigration to Texas, and a permanent garrison was placed in Nacogdoches in 1790 to keep foreigners from settling in the area. Immigrants from the United States were allowed to settle in Louisiana and Florida after taking an oath of allegiance, but were not required to convert to Roman Catholicism.
In 1799, Spain gave Louisiana back to France in exchange for the promise of a throne in central Italy. Although the agreement was signed on October 1, 1800, it did not go into effect until 1802. The following year, Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States. Many of the Spaniards who had moved to the colony left for Texas, Florida, or other Spanish-held lands. The original agreement between Spain and France had not explicitly specified the borders of Louisiana, and the descriptions in the documents were ambiguous and contradictory. Even when both territories had been under Spanish control, there was disagreement on where the border should be. In 1793, the King of Spain decided that there was no need to move the boundary from Natchitoches to the Sabine River, as had been recommended by some Frenchmen.
The United States insisted that its purchase also included most of West Florida and all of Texas. Thomas Jefferson claimed that Louisiana stretched west to the Rocky Mountains and included the entire watershed of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and their tributaries, and that the southern border was the Rio Grande. Spain maintained that Louisiana extended only as far as Natchitoches, and that it did not include West Florida or the Illinois Territory.
Texas was again considered a buffer province, this time between New Spain and the United States. In 1804, Spain planned to send thousands of colonists to increase the number of residents in Texas (then at 4,000 Hispanic inhabitants). The plan was cancelled as the government did not have the money to relocate the settlers. The responsibility for defending Texas now rested with Nemesio Salcedo, who held the newly reopened position of Commandant General of the Internal Provinces. Salcedo promoted immigration to Texas, and a new town, Trinidad de Salcedo, was founded where the Trinity River intersected the road from San Antonio to Nacogdoches. For a brief time, Salcedo also allowed former Spanish subjects from Louisiana to come to Texas. A few Americans who had become naturalized Spaniards settled in Texas during that time. Salcedo warned, however, that "'the foreigners are not and will not be anything but crows to pick out our eyes.'"
King Charles IV of Spain ordered data compiled to determine the true boundary. Before the border was settled, both sides led armed excursions into the disputed areas, and Spain began increasing the number of troops stationed in Texas. By 1806, the number had doubled, with over 883 stationed in and around Nacogdoches. At the end of 1806, local commanders negotiated a temporary agreement in which neither the Spanish nor the Americans would venture into the area between the Sabine River and Arroyo Hondo. This neutral ground quickly became a haven for lawlessness and it did not stop individuals from crossing the boundary. While on a mission for the United States Army to explore some of the disputed areas of the Louisiana Purchase Zebulon Pike was arrested by the Spanish while camping on the Rio Grande and escorted back to Natchitoches. Although his maps and notes were confiscated, Pike was able to recreate most of it from memory. His glowing comments about Texas lands and animals made many Americans yearn to control the territory.
## End of Spanish period
In May 1808, Napoleon forced King Ferdinand VII to abdicate the Spanish throne. His replacement, Napoleon's elder brother Joseph Bonaparte (Joseph I), was appointed King of Spain, to violent protests from the Spanish citizens. The uprisings continued for the next six years, until his abdication in 1814 and the return of Ferdinand VII. During the time, there was little oversight of the New World colonies. A shadow government operated out Cádiz during Joseph's reign, operating under the Spanish Constitution of 1812. The constitutional government included representatives from the colonies, including Texas and New Mexico in New Spain. When King Ferdinand VII resumed his throne, he refused to recognize the new constitution or the representative government. He was forced to change his mind in 1820 as the only way to avert a military coup.
During this time of turmoil, it was unclear who actually governed the colonies: Joseph I, the shadow government representing Ferdinand VII, the colonial officials, or revolutionaries in each province. The Mexican War of Independence began in 1810 at the instigation of Miguel Hidalgo. Fearing that the revolution would reach colonial Texas, governor Manuel María de Salcedo ordered the Texas borders closed to all foreigners. He was soon reversed by his uncle, the Commandant General. Revolutionaries soon overthrew and imprisoned Salcedo, and a new government was established in Texas. Salcedo persuaded Ignacio Elizondo (his jailer) to return to the royalist cause and the two organized a counter-coup. Hidalgo was captured and executed in 1811.
Although officially neutral during the Mexican War of Independence, the United States allowed rebels to trade at American ports and much of the weaponry and ammunition used by the rebels came from the United States. Americans also provided manpower for the conflict, with Natchitoches serving as a launching point for several expeditions into Texas. In 1812, Mexican insurgent Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara led a small force of Americans into Texas. Indians from the eastern part of Texas quickly joined the insurgency. Calling themselves the Republican Army of the North, the group captured San Antonio in 1813, assassinated the governor, Manuel María de Salcedo, and proclaimed Texas independent from Spain. The death of the governor caused many of the Anglo-Americans to desert the cause, but on April 17, 1813, the Gutiérrez–Magee Expedition members composed Texas's first constitution, which provided for a centralized form of government. Spanish forces recaptured the province later that year at the Battle of Medina, and killed 1300 and executed any Tejanos accused of having Republican tendencies. Within 2 weeks almost 400 rebels were executed and their wives and daughters were imprisoned for 2 months. Royalist soldiers even chased many of the women and children who had fled San Antonio, killing 200–300. Captured Americans were given an opportunity to take an oath of loyalty to Spain, and those who refused were escorted back to the United States. Fearing that the Comanche would still constitute a threat, Spanish general Arredondo ordered all ranchers to move temporarily to San Antonio to help defend the city. When they returned to their ranches several months later, they found that the Comanche had slaughtered all of the livestock, leaving most of the carcasses where they fell. The Spanish army looted the rest of Texas too, and by 1820 fewer than 2000 Hispanic citizens remained in Texas. "Spanish Texas, or what remained of it, had become a desolate, unprotected land that could not feed itself."
Another revolutionary, José Manuel Herrera, created a government on Galveston Island in September 1816 which he proclaimed part of a Mexican Republic. A group of French exiles in the United States attempted to create their own colony on the Trinity River, known as Le Champ d'Asile. The exiles planned to use the colony as a base to liberate New Spain and then free Napoleon from St. Helena. They abandoned the colony shortly and returned to Galveston.
On February 22, 1819, Spain and the United States reached agreement on the Transcontinental Treaty, which ceded Florida to the United States in return for the United States relinquishing its claim on Texas. The official boundary of Texas was set at the Sabine River (the current boundary between Texas and Louisiana), then following the Red and Arkansas Rivers to the 42nd parallel (California's current northern border). For the next two years, until early February 1821, Spain delayed ratification of the treaty, using it as leverage to prevent the United States from formally recognizing one of the rebellious Spanish colonies as an independent nation. During this period many Americans spoke out against the treaty and the renunciation of the claim to Texas. An essay in the City of Washington Gazette denounced the treaty, claiming that "'a league'" of the land in Texas was worth more to the United States "'than the whole territory west of the Rocky Mountains'".
In 1819, James Long led the Long Expedition to invade Texas. He declared Texas an independent republic, but by the end of the year his rebellion had been quelled by Colonel Juan Ignacio Pérez and his Spanish troops. The following year Long established a new base near Galveston Bay "to free Texas from 'the yoke of Spanish authority... the most atrocious despotism that ever disgraced the annals of Europe.'" His basis for a rebellion was soon gone, however.
On February 24, 1821, Agustín de Iturbide launched a drive for Mexican Independence. Texas became a part of the newly independent nation without a shot being fired.
## Spanish Texas population
## Legacy
Spanish control of Texas was followed by Mexican control of Texas, and it can be difficult to separate the Spanish and Mexican influences on the future state. The most obvious legacy is that of the language; the state's name comes from the Spanish rendering of an Indian word. Every major river in modern Texas, except the Red River, has a Spanish or Anglicized name, as do 42 of the state's 254 counties and numerous towns also bear Spanish names. Even many of the words that have been incorporated into American English, such as barbecue, canyon, ranch, and plaza, come from Spanish words. An additional obvious legacy is that of Roman Catholicism. At the end of Spain's reign over Texas, virtually all inhabitants practiced the Catholic religion, and it is still practiced in Texas by a large number of people. The Spanish missions built in San Antonio to convert Indians to Catholicism have been restored and are a National Historic Landmark.
The landscape of Texas was changed as a result of some Spanish policies. As early as the 1690s, Spaniards brought European livestock, including cattle, horses, and mules, with them on their expeditions throughout the province. Some of the livestock strayed or stayed behind when the Spanish retreated from the territory in 1693, allowing the Indian tribes to begin loosely managing herds of the animals. These herds grazed heavily on the native grasses, allowing mesquite, which was native to the lower Texas coast, to spread inland. Although the introduced livestock were able to adapt to the changing conditions, the buffalo had a more difficult time grazing among the new vegetation, beginning the decline in their numbers. Spanish farmers also introduced tilling and irrigation to the land, further changing the landscape. Spanish architectural concepts were also adopted by those in Texas, including the addition of patios, tile floors and roofs, arched windows and doorways, carved wooden doors, and wrought iron grillwork.
Although Texas eventually adopted much of the Anglo-American legal system, many Spanish legal practices were retained. Among these was the Spanish model of keeping certain personal property safe from creditors. Texas implemented the first homestead exemption in the United States in 1839, and its property exemption laws are now the most liberal state in the United States. Furthermore, Spanish law maintained that both husband and wife should share equally in the profits of marriage, and, like many other former Spanish provinces, Texas retained the idea of community property rather than use the Anglo laws in which all property belonged to the husband. Furthermore, Spanish law allowed an independent executor to be named in probate cases who is not required to gain court permission for each act not explicitly listed in the testament. Texas retained this idea, and it has eventually spread to other states, included Arizona, Washington, and Idaho. In other legal matters, Texas kept the Spanish principle of adoption, becoming the first U.S. state to allow adoption.
## See also
- List of colonial and Mexican governors of Texas |
1,660,132 | Amenemhat IV | 1,173,828,638 | Pharaoh of Egypt | [
"18th-century BC Pharaohs",
"19th-century BC Pharaohs",
"Children of Amenemhat III",
"Pharaohs of the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt"
] | See Amenemhat, for other individuals with this name.
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Sekhembiknebunetjeru
Sḫm-bik-nbw-nṯrw
The golden Horus, powerful one of the gods
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Amenemhat IV (also known as Amenemhet IV) was the seventh and penultimate king of the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt (c. 1990–1800 BC) during the late Middle Kingdom period (c. 2050–1710 BC), ruling for more than nine years in the late nineteenth century BC or the early eighteenth century BC.
Amenemhat IV may have been the son, grandson, son-in-law, or stepson of his predecessor, the powerful Amenemhat III. His reign started with a seemingly peaceful two-year coregency with Amenemhat III. He undertook expeditions in the Sinai for turquoise, in Upper Egypt for amethyst, and to the Land of Punt. He also maintained trade relations with Byblos as well as continuing the Egyptian presence in Nubia.
Amenemhat IV built some parts of the temple of Hathor at Serabit el-Khadim in the Sinai, and constructed the well-preserved temple of Renenutet in Medinet Madi. The tomb of Amenemhat IV has not been identified, although the Southern Mazghuna pyramid is a possibility.
Amenemhat IV was succeeded by Sobekneferu, who may have been his sister or stepsister; she was a daughter of Amenemhat III. Her reign marked the end of the Twelfth Dynasty and the beginning of the Middle Kingdom's decline into the Second Intermediate Period.
## Family
Amenemhat IV's mother was a woman named Hetepi. Hetepi's only known attestation is an inscription on the wall of the temple of Renenutet at Medinet Madi, where she is given the title of "King's Mother", but not the titles of "King's Wife", "King's Daughter", or "King's Sister". However, this does not mean she was not a wife of Amenemhat III, as she her titles in relation to Amenemhat III might have been omitted in an inscription from her son's reign.
The relationship of Amenemhat IV to Amenemhat III is debated. Amenemhat IV was the son of Amenemhat III according to Manetho, but as he isn't called a "King's Son" in any known reference to him, some historians believe that he was a grandson. However, there is no record of another son of Amenemhat III and as stated above, Hetepti is not known to have been called a "King's Daughter".
Manetho states that Amenemhat IV married his sister Sobekneferu, who is identified as a royal daughter of Amenemhat III, and who eventually ruled in her own right upon the death of Amenemhat IV. However, Manetho's claim about the marriage has not been proven correct; Sobekneferu is not known to have borne the title of "King's Wife" among her other titles. Egyptologist Kim Ryholt has alternatively proposed that before marrying Amenemhat III, Hetepi had been previously married to another man and that Amenemhat IV came from this marriage, thus becoming Sobekneferu's stepbrother – which could explain the Manethonian tradition.
Amenemhat IV may have died without a male heir, which could explain why he was succeeded by Sobekneferu. This is also disputed, as some Egyptologists, such as Aidan Dodson and Kim Ryholt, have proposed that the first two rulers of the Thirteenth Dynasty, Sobekhotep I and Amenemhat Sonbef, might be his sons, based on the filiative nomen Amenemhat.
## Reign
Amenemhat IV first came to power as a junior coregent of his predecessor Amenemhat III, whose reign marks the apex of the Middle Kingdom period. The coregency is well attested by numerous monuments and artefacts where the names of the two kings parallel each other. The length of this coregency is uncertain; it could have lasted from one to seven years, although most scholars believe it was only two years long. The Turin Canon, a king list redacted during the early Ramesside period, records Amenemhat IV on Column 6, Row 1, and credits him with a reign of 9 years, 3 months and 27 days. Amenemhat IV is also recorded on Entry 65 of the Abydos King List and Entry 38 of the Saqqara Tablet, both of which date to the New Kingdom.
In spite of the Turin canon, the duration of Amenemhat IV's reign is uncertain. It was given as eight years under the name Ammenemes in Manetho's Aegyptiaca. In any case, Amenemhat IV's rule seems to have been peaceful and uneventful. Amenemhat IV is well attested by contemporary artefacts, including a number of scarab- and cylinder-seals.
### Expeditions and foreign relations
Four expeditions to the turquoise mines of Serabit el-Khadim in the Sinai are dated to his reign by in-situ inscriptions. The latest took place in his ninth year on the throne and could be the last expedition of the Middle Kingdom, since the next inscription dates to Ahmose I's reign, some 200 years later. In his 2nd regnal year, Amenemhat IV sent another expedition to mine amethyst in the Wadi el-Hudi in southern Egypt. The leader of the expedition was the assistant treasurer'' Sahathor. Farther south, three nilometer records are known from Kumna in Nubia that are explicitly dated to regnal years 5, 6, and 7, showing that Egyptian presence in the region was maintained during his lifetime.
During his reign, important trade relations must have existed with the city of Byblos on the coast of modern-day Lebanon, where an obsidian and gold chest as well as a jar lid bearing Amenemhat IV's name have been found. A gold plaque showing Amenemhat IV offering to a deity may also originate there.
In 2010, a report on continuing excavations at Wadi Gawasis on the Red Sea coast notes the finding of two wooden chests and an ostracon inscribed with a hieratic text mentioning an expedition to the fabled Land of Punt in regnal year 8 of Amenemhat IV, under the direction of the royal scribe Djedy. Two fragments of a stela depicting Amenemhat IV and dating to his regnal year 7 were found at Berenice on the Red Sea.
## Tomb
The tomb of Amenemhat IV has not been identified. Nonetheless, he often is associated with the ruined Southern Mazghuna pyramid. No inscriptions have been found within the pyramid to determine the identity of its owner, but its architectural similarity with the second pyramid of Amenemhat III at Hawara has led Egyptologists to date the pyramid to the late Twelfth Dynasty or early Thirteenth Dynasty. Less likely, Amenemhat IV could have been interred in Amenemhat III's first pyramid in Dahshur, since his name has been found on an inscription in the mortuary temple.
At Dahshur, next to the pyramid of Amenemhat II, the remains of another pyramid dating to the Middle Kingdom were discovered during building work. The pyramid has not yet been excavated, but a fragment inscribed with the royal name "Amenemhat" has been unearthed. It is possible that this pyramid belongs to Amenemhat IV, although there are also kings of the Thirteenth Dynasty that bore the name Amenemhat and who could have built the pyramid. Alternatively, the relief fragment could have originated at the nearby pyramid of Amenemhat II.
## See also
- List of pharaohs |
6,976,021 | Operation Chastity | 1,158,971,957 | Unrealised WW2 Allied logistics plan | [
"Cancelled military operations involving the United States",
"Cancelled military operations of World War II",
"Coastal construction",
"Military logistics of the United States",
"Operation Overlord"
] | Operation Chastity was a World War II plan by the Allies to seize Quiberon Bay, France, enabling the construction of an artificial harbor to support Allied operations in Northern France in 1944.
The artificial harbor was not developed, as the US VIII Corps failed to capture German-held areas that threatened the port. By the end of August 1944, Allied forces had captured all of Brittany except for the critical areas, preventing the further development of the operation. Following the capture of Antwerp and its port facilities in early September 1944, Operation Chastity was officially cancelled on 7 September.
The non-completion and eventual cancellation of Operation Chastity exacerbated strains on the Allied logistical system, may have prevented an Allied victory over Germany in 1944, and has been described as "the critical error of World War II", although other historians believe that priority was rightly given to the pursuit of the routing German forces.
## Background
One of the primary concerns when the Allies were planning Operation Overlord was the acquisition of deep-water ports. This was because the vital factor in its success was logistics, particularly American logistics, as the Twelfth United States Army Group would be operating further from the English Channel coast than the British 21st Army Group.
The Overlord plan envisaged the Allies establishing a secure lodgement west of the Seine and north of the Loire. From this base, the Allies would advance to Paris and then Germany, once sufficient forces and supplies were available.
The Overlord plan assumed that in the first weeks after D-Day, the Allied forces would be supported over the invasion beaches, and through two Mulberry harbours that would be assembled - "A" at Omaha Beach and "B" at Gold Beach. However, in the longer term and in order to handle the large quantities of reinforcements and supplies needed for the campaign, quayside discharge of Liberty ships would be necessary.
Therefore, one of the first objectives of the Overlord plan was to seize the port of Cherbourg. After this foothold was secured, the most important single strategic objective would be the capture and development of major ports.
Seven ports in Normandy were expected to be captured and opened in the first four weeks after D-Day: Isigny-sur-Mer, Cherbourg, Grandcamp-Maisy, Saint-Vaast-sur-Seulles, Barfleur, Granville, Manche and Saint-Malo. Except for Cherbourg, all were small and tidal, making Cherbourg the only major port supplying the Allied force. However, even Cherbourg was planned to develop a capacity of no more than 8 or 9,000 tons per day, while the minor ports were intended only as a stopgap.
The inadequate port capacity in Normandy meant that the Brittany ports would have to play the key logistical role. In fact, the overall success of Operation Overlord was predicated on organizing Brittany as the principal supply base for US forces and the importance of Brittany in the Overlord plan "can hardly be exaggerated". Therefore, the Overlord plan called for Brittany to be isolated and its ports captured. Only after the ports were seized would operations towards Paris and Germany begin.
However, all the ports were expected to have facilities destroyed, harbors blocked and approaches mined by the Germans, requiring extensive repairs before they could be used efficiently. Therefore, the planners concluded that the logistical capacity of the captured French ports would not be adequate to support the Allied liberation of France, and a new port had to be built somewhere in Normandy or Brittany.
## Plan
The solution to the Allies logistical problem was devised in April 1944 and given the name Operation Chastity. It involved constructing a brand-new, deep-water port at Quiberon Bay.
Quiberon Bay, a large estuary with four small ports, between Lorient and Saint-Nazaire on the southwest coast of Brittany, was sheltered by the Quiberon peninsula and a line of small islands, and the larger Belle Île. The Auray river had scoured a 3,000-yard (2,700 m)-long 80-foot (24 m)-deep pool between 30-yard (27 m) and 300-yard (270 m) wide with nearly vertical sides near the port of Locmariaquer.
Operation Chastity planned to construct floating piers in the pool, allowing large ships to tie up alongside, with causeways to carry cargo and troops to the shore. There would be room for offloading five ships simultaneously, providing a capability of 2,500 tons of supplies per day directly onto vehicles. A further 7,500 tons per day could be offloaded using lighters carrying supplies directly to the shore from thirty further ships moored in the pool.
The key advantage of Operation Chastity would be the ability to off-load Liberty ships sailing directly from the United States. A further advantage would be access to the relatively undamaged rail network outside the Normandy region, once a spur line and marshalling yard were constructed. The beaches of Quiberon Bay would also allow the unloading of LSTs at low tide.
Other attractive features of Operation Chastity were the sheltered anchorage in Quiberon Bay, that the port required only a fraction of the labor and materials committed to the Mulberry ports, and that it used standard components and available equipment.
However, the approaches to Quiberon Bay were covered by German coastal artillery at Lorient and on Belle Île and in the view of the planners, unless Brest, Lorient and Belle Île were captured, shipping cargo via Quiberon Bay would be, "impossible due to naval interference." Quiberon Bay was scheduled to be captured by D+40 with Brest and Lorient to fall by D+50. Planners thought that by D+60, British forces would be supported by the Mulberry ports, while American forces would be supported from Cherbourg, Saint-Malo, and Quiberon Bay.
## Approval of operation
The final plan envisaged the capture of Lorient, Brest, St. Malo and Quiberon Bay where the new port would be developed. Troops travelling direct from the United States were to disembark at Brest, and Quiberon Bay was to be developed into a major supply port. Between them, the four ports were expected to have a capacity of about 17,500 tons/day, with Quiberon Bay expected to land 10,000 tons/day.
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) approved Operation Chastity on 22 April 1944. As it offered the greatest potential to solve the Allies' logistical problems, it was given highest priority, and US Third Army was given the objective of capturing Brittany. The addition of Operation Chastity was the final major revision to the invasion plan.
## Events
The Omaha Beach Mulberry was abandoned after it was damaged by a storm on 19–22 June, however this loss was mitigated as the amount of supplies landed directly over the beach was far in excess of expectations. Although Cherbourg was captured on 27 June, the port had been destroyed and required rebuilding, resulting in it receiving only a trickle of supplies by the end of July.
In early July, an alternative to capturing Brittany was proposed: moving eastward to surround and defeat German forces west of the Seine, with supplies coming from captured ports on the Seine. Although the planners could see the advantages of the scheme, they insisted that US logistics depended on the Brittany ports and the Seine ports could not replace them. Therefore, both General Eisenhower and General Montgomery continued to stress the necessity of capturing the Brittany ports, recognizing that without them Allied logistics would be inadequate.
The capture of the Quiberon Bay area was deemed important enough that consideration was given to a combined airborne and amphibious operation, Operation Hands Up to capture the area but, as the operation was deemed risky, it was agreed that it would only be attempted in the event that the advance into Brittany was delayed into September.
### Advance to Quiberon Bay
By 1 August, after the success of Operation Cobra, Major General Troy H. Middleton's US VIII Corps of the US Third Army was advancing into Brittany and the US 4th Armored Division, led by Major General John S. Wood was thrusting south-westward from Pontaubault toward Rennes.
On 2 August, the 4th Armored Division was assembled north of Rennes. At this point, Wood proposed blocking the base of the Brittany peninsula at Angers rather than Quiberon, preparatory to moving his division eastward towards Chartres. After sending Middleton his proposal on the morning of 3 August, and anticipating no objection, Wood ordered his plan executed. That afternoon, Middleton instructed Wood to "Secure Rennes before you continue", implying consent for the alteration.
On 4 August, Middleton ordered the division to secure a line along the Vilaine River from Rennes to the coast, particularly the bridges at Redon and La Roche-Bernard, but with forces oriented eastward. This left the 4th Armored Division approximately ten miles away from Quiberon Bay, despite facing little opposition between there and its objective.
These dispositions were countermanded by Third Army's chief of staff, Major General Hugh J. Gaffey who ordered the 4th Armored Division to push "the bulk of the division to the west and southwest to the Quiberon area, including the towns of Vannes and Lorient in accordance with the Army plan."
The same day, Lieutenant General George S. Patton, commander of US Third Army, wrote in his diary, "Wood got bull headed and turned east after passing Rennes, and we had to turn him back on his objectives, which are Vannes and Lorient, but his overenthusiasm wasted a day."
Third Army's orders were complied with, and by 5 August US 4th Armored Division had reached the base of the Quiberon peninsula. Disorganized German forces were retreating into Lorient, Saint-Nazaire and up the Quiberon peninsula.
### Failure to secure critical locations
By 9 August, the 4th Armored Division had captured Rennes and was probing Lorient's defenses, but reported that they were too strong to be quickly captured. However, the German commander, General der Artillerie Wilhelm Fahrmbacher, later stated that had the Americans attacked Lorient in force between 6 and 9 August, they would probably have succeeded.
The 4th Armored Division contained the German forces in Lorient and the Quiberon peninsula until 13 August, when it passed from the control of the VIII Corps, Patton turning it eastward without capturing its key objectives and without replacing the armor with infantry.
Meanwhile, the rest of VIII Corps, along with other Allied forces, had liberated much of the rest of Brittany, with the Battle of Saint-Malo ending with the city's defenders surrender on 2 September. The Battle for Brest started on 25 August. However, the other critical location, Belle Île, was not cleared by late August.
## Cancellation and aftermath
By the end of August, all of Brittany except for the fortified areas of Brest, Lorient, Saint-Nazaire and the Quiberon peninsula were cleared. However, none of Operation Chastity's prerequisite locations had been captured, and their defenses were fully operational. Therefore, development of Quiberon Bay could not commence.
On 3 September, SHAEF ordered a general pursuit of German forces towards Germany regardless of the lack of the required logistical capacity. The Allied armies advanced swiftly, but the available port capacity supporting the pursuit was only about half of what was required. On 4 September, the British seized Antwerp with its port facilities intact. On 7 September, SHAEF cancelled the Quiberon Bay plan, and two days later, Eisenhower determined that none of the Brittany ports were needed.
However, Antwerp was 55 miles (89 km) inland, up the Scheldt estuary, which was heavily mined, and the approaches were still in German hands. II Canadian Corps fought the Battle of the Scheldt from 2 October to 8 November, and the first Allied ships docked in Antwerp on 28 November. A lack of supplies during the September to November period limited the Allies' ability to exploit the German collapse, and by December, the Allied drive towards Germany had come to a standstill.
Brest's defenders surrendered on 18 September 1944, but the port facilities were totally destroyed and were not brought back into operation. Lorient was never captured, surrendering only after the end of the war in Europe.
## Debate on Operation Chastity
The wisdom of the decision to abandon Operation Chastity has been the subject of debate, but the preceding failure to seize Quiberon Bay has been overlooked by many historians.
### Negative opinions
Those who regard Operation Chastity as a missed opportunity state that if the port on Quiberon Bay had been established, it would have given the 12th Army Group a high-capacity supply base with direct rail lines to the east, solving their logistical problems.
For example, Norman R. Denny of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College stated that the logistics shortfalls that plagued the Allied campaign in Europe, due to the failure to implement Operation Chastity, "helped eliminate" the possibility of Germany surrendering in 1944. He further argued that the actions of Wood, Middleton, Patton, Lieutenant General Omar Bradley and Eisenhower made the advance into Brittany futile and endangered the Allied drive towards Germany. In particular, he argued that Wood’s failure to capture the Quiberon peninsula was "tragic".
Similarly, Lieutenant Colonel Harold L. Mack, of the Communications Zone staff, described the failure to implement Operation Chastity as "the critical error of World War II". Mack places the blame for failing to capture Quiberon Bay primarily on Wood, who "had set his heart on participating in the main drive for Paris, where he could achieve fame and glory" and only half-heartedly carried out his orders, but accuses all Wood's superiors in the chain of command of failing to appreciate the "supreme need of taking Quiberon Bay".
Patrick S. Williams argues that SHAEF gambled that devoting the bulk of US Third Army to outflanking the German force in the Falaise pocket would mean a decisive victory over Germany could be attained before lack of logistics stopped the Allied advance, that a larger force should have been devoted to seizing the Brittany ports and that the decision to cancel Operation Chastity exacerbated the strain on an already fragile Allied logistical system. He states that the failure to implement Operation Chastity "may have prevented an Allied victory over Germany in 1944."
### Positive opinions
Those who disagree that Operation Chastity was a missed opportunity believe that priority was rightly given to the encirclement and subsequent pursuit of the routing German forces. They further contend that lack of supplies was not the limiting logistical factor, transporting supplies to a front that was rapidly moving east was, and Operation Chastity would not have greatly improved the transport situation.
For example, historian Basil Liddell-Hart said, "American spearheads could have driven eastward unopposed. But the Allied High Command threw away the best chance of exploiting this great opportunity by sticking to the outdated pre-invasion programme, in which a westward move to capture Brittany ports was to be the next step." Historian Russell Weigley regarded the commitment to Brittany as wasteful of resources better spent supporting the drive to the east.
Martin van Creveld argues that although Patton and his subordinates "ignored plans" and "refused to be tied down by logisticians tables", their rapid eastwards advance threatened to cut off the German forces, causing them to rout out of France. He also suggests that the Allied planners were overly pessimistic about the consumption of supplies and the capabilities of the logistics system. Additionally, the Allies possessed more motor transport than any other army and were operating in summer, over a good road network, without enemy air interdiction and amongst a friendly population.
After the war, Wood stood by his attempt to turn his division east instead of taking Quiberon Bay and Lorient, stating, "We were forced to adhere to the original plan... It was one of the colossally stupid decisions of the war."
## See also
- Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine
- American logistics in the Normandy campaign
- Atlantic pockets – French, Belgian and Dutch ports fortified to deny their capacity to the Allies
- British logistics in the Normandy campaign
- Broad front versus narrow front controversy in World War II
- Operation Kinetic – Naval operation in support of the advance into Brittany |
55,826,900 | Obras Son Amores | 1,107,574,478 | null | [
"2017 albums",
"Antonio Carmona albums",
"Pop albums by Spanish artists",
"Spanish-language albums"
] | Obras Son Amores is the third studio album by Spanish singer Antonio Carmona. It was released on March 31, 2017, through Universal Music Latin Entertainment. Carmona spent five years working with different artists on songs for the album. Alex Cuba, Claudia Brant, Juanes, Luis Enrique Mejía, and Alejandro Sanz, are some of the artists he collaborated with.
Obras Son Amores received favorable reviews from music critics, one of whom praised Carmona over his inspiration for the recording, while another named the album a "gift for the senses". It debuted at number three on the Top 100 Albums chart in Spain, while received a nomination for Album of the Year at the 18th Annual Latin Grammy Awards. For promotion, the singles "Mencanta", "Dale Luz" and "Camamasi" were released in 2017.
## Background and recording
Following his departure from Spanish band Ketama, Carmona released two studio albums, Vengo Venenoso (2006) and De Noche (2011). Carmona spent five years up to 2017 working with other artists for the songs to be included on his third album, "I wanted to work with performers I admire, and create true reciprocal acts of love," the singer said to Aire Flamenco. He decided to title the album Obras Son Amores, being inspired by a refrain attributed to Teresa of Ávila: "Obras son amores y no buenas razones" ("Works are loves and not good reasons"). The album is produced by Carmona alongside Daniel García Diego, and recorded in Madrid and Cádiz, both of Spain, and Miami, of the United States. Carmona co-wrote all the songs, with the exception of "La Higuera", written solely by him.
## Music and lyrics
Obras Son Amores includes eleven tracks, in the genres of pop and flamenco. "Dale Luz" features singer-songwriter Alejandro Sanz, whom Carmona called "a magician", saying "he [Sanz] knows how to fit the lyrics, give meaning and form to the whole song. He is an alchemist warlock". "Mencanta" is a rumba and a tribute to Carmona's father, Juan Habichuela, which was co-written by the singer's nephew Juan Carmona. The song was finished the day Habichuela died, as Antonio Carmona recalled: "My father waited for me. That day I still had three sentences left to finish it. I went to the studio, finished the three sentences, recorded the song, returned, and an hour later, he died. My dad waited for me and gave me his last breath and the last thing he said was my name." "Así (Gota a Gota)" is a ballad written with Venezuelan artist Fernando Osorio. About the collaboration, Carmona said: "I met Fernando in Miami. I am a fan of is music and he knew all of my work."
"El Amor Se Fue" takes inspiration from the musical career of Ray Heredia. For the song "Camamasi", Carmona invents a new word for the title, wanting to create a "transoceanic anthem" with Pablo Rosenberg and Claudia Brant, whom the singer worked with via Skype. Carmona composed "La Razón de Mi Existir" with Colombian singer Juanes. Of the collaboration, Carmona stated: "He [Juanes] sent me a song that drew more of his personality and style, which are very defined and I turned it to 'rumba' with a choir at the end of it in a way that fits more with me." "Porque Tú Me Amas" features writing and guitar from singer-songwriter Alex Cuba. The singer met Cuba in Miami through a mutual friend. The track "La Higuera" takes inspiration from Carmona's parents' relationship and the city of Marbella. "Gitana Tú" was written by him with Nicaraguan performer Luis Enrique Mejía, forming a union between "flamenco and the Caribbean". The lyrics of the closing track, "Vida", allude to ill people living to the fullest, because "since childhood we are taught to live but not to die", Carmona declared.
## Release and reception
Obras Son Amores was released on March 31, 2017 by Carmona's record label Universal Music Latin Entertainment. "Mencanta", which features Juan Carmona, was released as the lead single on March 10, 2017. "Dale Luz" and "Camamasi" were released as the second and third singles from Obras Son Amores. Mariano Jesús Camacho of Vavel recognized the "presence" of Habichuela on the album "as a fundamental pillar of a work that instead of going through the black sorrow, it does so from the six strings of memory and a positivity absolutely full of light". Santiago Alcanda of Aire Flamenco stated that it was "the best repertoire that Antonio has ever recorded". Pilar Azkárate of El Corte Inglés named the album a "gift for the senses". Obras Son Amores received a nomination for Album of the Year at the 18th Annual Latin Grammy Awards, ultimately losing to Salsa Big Band (2017) by Panamanian artists Rubén Blades and Roberto Delgado & Orquesta. Commercially, the album debuted at number three on the Top 100 Albums chart for Spain on the week of April 21, 2017, behind Lo Niego Todo (2017) by Spanish artist Joaquín Sabina and ÷ (2017) by English performer Ed Sheeran at number two and one, respectively; however, it was the highest debut of the week.
## Track listing
Credits adapted from AllMusic. All tracks produced by Daniel García Diego and Antonio Carmona.
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts |
38,148,842 | Sky Scrapper | 1,124,497,885 | Roller coaster | [
"Flying roller coasters manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard",
"Roller coasters in China"
] | Sky Scrapper (also known as Stary Sky Riper) is a flying roller coaster at World Joyland in Wujin, Changzhou, Jiangsu, China. Sky Scrapper was one of World Joyland's opening day attractions, officially opening on April 30, 2011. The 2,805.1-foot-long (855.0 m) ride stands 131.3 feet (40.0 m) tall, and features a top speed of 54.7 mph (88.0 km/h). Designed by Swiss firm Bolliger & Mabillard, Sky Scrapper restrains riders in the prone position and features five inversions.
## History
World Joyland officially opened to the public on April 4, 2011. The park opened with the custom-designed Sky Scrapper, a Flying Coaster model from Bolliger & Mabillard. The ride is located in the Universe of Starship area of the park. The park is derived from the World of Warcraft and StarCraft franchises.
## Characteristics
The roller coaster's steel track is approximately 2,805 feet (855 m) in length and the height of the lift is 131.3 feet (40.0 m). Sky Scrapper operates with two steel and fiberglass trains. Each train has seven cars that seat four riders in a single row, for a total of 28 riders per train.
Sky Scrapper features a total of five inversions, which ties it with The Flying Dinosaur for the most inversions on a B&M Flying Coaster model. These include a zero-g roll, a vertical loop, a "Lie to Fly"/"Fly to Lie" pair, and two inline twists. A "Lie to Fly" element is when riders are on their backs, facing the sky and they are flipped and face the ground. A "Fly to Lie" element is the opposite. As of August 2013, Sky Scrapper is the only Bolliger & Mabillard Flying Coaster to feature a vertical loop, and is one of only two to feature a zero-g roll.
## Experience
### Station and loading
Once in the station, riders of Sky Scrapper board a train sitting down, in a similar style to inverted roller coasters. Riders are restrained through a padded over-the-shoulder harness and a lap bar. At the ankles, two flaps hold the legs in position and close as the harness is locked in place. After the train is fully locked and checked, the trains are raised into the flying position and depart the station.
### Ride layout
The train travels out of the station and up the 131.3-foot (40.0 m) lift hill. The train then drops, reaching a top speed of 55 mph (89 km/h) before entering an overbanked turn. This is followed by a zero-g roll and "Fly-to-Lie" element that turns riders from a face-down prone position to a face-up lying position. It then goes through a small tunnel and enters the vertical loop. Riders are then transitioned back to a prone position after entering the following "Lie-to-Fly" element, which travels over water. Riders then experience a double inline twist element, and a helix that turns to the left. The train enters the final brake run and follows a short path back to the station.
## See also
- 2011 in amusement parks |
26,191,861 | Carnie Wilson: Unstapled | 1,146,204,235 | American television series | [
"2010 American television series debuts",
"2010 American television series endings",
"2010s American reality television series",
"Game Show Network original programming",
"Television shows set in Los Angeles County, California",
"Wilson Phillips"
] | Carnie Wilson: Unstapled is an American reality television show, starring game show hostess and singer Carnie Wilson. The show aired on Game Show Network (GSN) from January 14, 2010, to March 11, 2010. Filmed in southern California and produced by World of Wonder, the series chronicles the life of Wilson, host of GSN's The Newlywed Game, as she strives to lose excessive weight gained over the past decade. Wilson had a public fall out with the network after the series was broadcast and was criticized after gaining weight while on a diet featured on the show.
## Format
The series focuses on the life of Carnie Wilson, daughter of Brian Wilson, founder of the Beach Boys. The show takes place at Wilson's residence in the Los Angeles area, and viewers see some of the struggles as she attempts to lose about 50 pounds after giving birth to her second child. The series also depicts Wilson's attempt to balance her life as a game show hostess, entertainer, wife, and mother of two daughters.
Former wrestler Diamond Dallas Page, Wilson's personal trainer and fitness guru, makes frequent appearances on the show. The "Unstapled" part of the show's title is a reference to Wilson's 1999 gastric bypass surgery. By 2001, Wilson had lost 150 pounds, though she had regained much of it back by 2010, when the show was being filmed.
Wilson's diet program is featured on the show. She became a paid spokesperson for The Fresh Diet while on the show, and there was a controversy when Wilson gained weight while on that diet in 2010.
## Production
The series was green-lit in a Game Show Network (GSN) press release delivered on October 21, 2009. Executive producers included Randy Barbato, Fenton Bailey and Tom Campbell, while World of Wonder was the show's production company. The show premiered on January 14, 2010. While the network has been known for traditional game shows, Kelly Goode, the network's senior vice president for original programming and development, argued that the show made sense given viewers' positive response to Wilson on The Newlywed Game. Wilson expressed excitement at the prospect of the show, saying, "It's a great message to send out for women, that we can multi-task, we can be a present mom and a present wife and try to keep our sanity."
In July 2010, Wilson sued GSN, claiming she was owed \$277,500 in extra pay for doing the show. GSN, meanwhile, argued that Wilson failed to make scheduled appearances The Dr. Oz Show, Access Hollywood, and The Wendy Williams Show to promote the series. The two parties settled their dispute in 2012.
## Episodes
## Reception
In a series preview CNN's James Dinan argued that GSN would be better off focusing on traditional game shows in order for the network to avoid "losing its niche": "Perhaps GSN will learn that lesson and stay true to its original calling when this experiment comes to an end. Then again, I could see it following the leader and become [sic] just another channel." Annie Barrett of Entertainment Weekly added, "The only way I'd watch...is if it were an animated tragicomedy series based on the Operation! board game."
Boston.com's Matthew Gilbert argued that Wilson "[did] not come across well" and that the series was a "showcase for the kind of reality drama queenery that is becoming increasingly hard to bear." A reviewer for Hollywood Junket was pleased with the series, writing, "The scenes are nicely tied-in with interviews of Wilson talking about her thoughts on her life's daily events as she speaks straight to the camera directly to viewers at home," and adding that provided the show preserved "naturalness," it was "sure to do well." Despite expressing early optimism about the series, Wilson was unhappy after taping the show, saying, "[The producers] wanted me to get on the scale every day, and I didn't want to. I don't want to be known as the weight loss girl — that's not who I am. I'm also a singer, actress, mother and author." |
46,561,365 | Eddy Creek (Lackawanna River tributary) | 1,147,736,537 | River in United States of America | [
"Rivers of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania",
"Rivers of Pennsylvania",
"Tributaries of the Lackawanna River"
] | Eddy Creek is a tributary of the Lackawanna River in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately 5.7 miles (9.2 km) long and flows through Olyphant and Throop. The watershed of the creek has an area of 7.53 square miles (19.5 km<sup>2</sup>). The creek experiences serious flow loss and is considered to be impaired. It has a natural channel in some reaches, but its channel disappears in other reaches. Rock formations in the creek's vicinity include the Catskill Formation and the Llewellyn Formation. The creek is a second-order stream.
A bridge carrying Pennsylvania Route 347 across Eddy Creek was built in the 20th century. More recently, a restoration of 3.5 miles (5.6 km) of the creek has been planned. The creek is designated as a Warmwater Fishery and a Migratory Fishery. A greenway/connecting trail in the vicinity of the creek was proposed in the early 2000s in the Lackawanna River Watershed Conservation Plan.
## Course
Eddy Creek begins near Pennsylvania Route 247 in Olyphant, not far from the border of Jessup. It flows west for several tenths of a mile before turning southwest and then north. After a short distance, the creek for several tenths of a mile before turning southwest. A few tenths of a mile further downstream, it turns west-northwest and enters Throop. The creek crosses US Route 6 and turns west-southwest and then west. After some distance, it turns north for several tenths of a mile before turning northwest for some distance. The creek then turns west for a short distance before tuning north and then north-northeast, reentering Olyphant and receiving an unnamed tributary from the right. It then turns northwest and crosses Pennsylvania Route 347 before reaching its confluence with the Lackwanna River after a few tenths of a mile.
Eddy Creek joins the Lackawanna River 16.84 miles (27.10 km) upriver of its mouth.
### Tributaries
Eddy Creek has no named tributaries. However, a 1916 book stated that several small streams discharged into the creek in its upper reaches. At the time, these streams had clear water, but were dry in the summer.
## Hydrology
Eddy Creek experiences total flow loss. Some reaches of the creek have been entirely destroyed by historical mining or by post-mining development. The creek loses all of its flow at 1,100 to 1,200 feet (340 to 370 m) above sea level via infiltration into mines. However, a near-constant flow is restored further downstream by stormwater from the Keystone Sanitary Landfill. It also has extensive deposits of culm and silt left over from mining. The creek is considered to be impaired by flow alterations. The likely source of the impairment is abandoned mine drainage.
Eddy Creek used to have flow, but has turned into a "leaky slow trickle" that carries acid mine drainage. In 2014, Joseph D'Onofrio, a senior engineering technician for GTS Technologies, compared the creek to an "old perforated pipe". Eddy Creek is an ephemeral stream.
The electrical conductivity of Eddy Creek was once measured to be 203.50 micro-siemens per centimeter. The concentration of total dissolved solids was measured to be 140 milligrams per liter and the concentration of dissolved oxygen was 66.50 percent. The pH of the creek was 6.99, and the concentration of salinity was 100 parts per million.
In the early 1900s, Eddy Creek lacked culm deposits at its mouth. However, its water was colored yellow by sulfur at that location. Further upstream, two pipes discharged mine water into the creek. One of these pipes had reddish water. However, upstream of an ash dump on the creek, the water was clear.
## Geography, geology, and climate
The elevation near the mouth of Eddy Creek is 758 feet (231 m) above sea level. The elevation of the creek's source is between 1,720 and 1,740 feet (520 and 530 m) above sea level.
At one point, Eddy Creek flows through a restored channel at a reclaimed mining site. Further downstream, the creek flows through its natural channel and cuts across a number of rock ledges. However, by the time it crosses US Route 6, it has lost its flow. Nevertheless, its channel is still discernible and its gradient is shallower. The creek loses its channel completely at the intersection of an electric transmission corridor and the Eddy Creek Mine Tunnel. It eventually reappears, but disappears again in strip pits and sinks. From Birds Eye Mine to Underwood Road, the stream channel has been completely destroyed. The creek has an engineered channel in one reach where it passes through a residential area.
The streambed of Eddy Creek is dry in some reaches. Its banks are steep and contain riprap and concrete headwalls. A total of 20 percent of the land in the creek's vicinity is on impervious surfaces. The creek flows through one pipe. Its size is 84 inches (210 cm).
The headwaters of Eddy Creek are in springs and wetlands in the vicinity of Marshwood, near the edge of Moosic Mountain.
Sandstones and coals of the Llewellyn Formation are located in the watershed of Eddy Creek. Some drift is located near the creek and reddish shale and sandstone of the Catskill Formation can be seen in this area.
In early October 2013, the temperature in the vicinity of Eddy Creek was found to be 68 °F (20 °C). The water temperature of the creek was found to be 23.42 °C (74.16 °F) in a 2013 study.
## Watershed
The watershed of Eddy Creek has an area of 7.53 square miles (19.5 km<sup>2</sup>). The creek is entirely within the United States Geological Survey quadrangle of Olyphant.
A waterfall or morphologic site known as the Marshwood Slides is in the watershed of Eddy Creek. Wetlands in the watershed include the Dunmore Swamps and Marshwood. The Marshwood Reservoir is located in the upper reaches of both the Eddy Creek watershed and the Little Roaring Brook watershed. Eddy Creek flows through forested land in a reach downstream of US Route 6. Other land uses include industrial land and open space.
Neighborhoods in the vicinity of Eddy Creek include the Keystone Industrial Park, the Keystone Sanitary Landfill, and LaCapra Stone & Supply. It is estimated that there is one stormwater detention facility in the watershed. According to a 1992 report, development in an area near the creek would have little adverse impact on the creek.
In a visual assessment of six tributaries of the Lackawanna River in 2013, Eddy Creek received the lowest visual assessment score, 100 on a scale from 0 to 200. This was within the "marginal" range of 56 to 105. The creek received the lowest score in seven categories: instream cover, epifaunal substrate, embeddedness, velocity/depth regimes, sediment deposits, riffle frequency, and channel flow status.
Eddy Creek is a second-order, mid-sized stream.
## History
Eddy Creek was entered into the Geographic Names Information System on August 2, 1979. Its identifier in the Geographic Names Information System is 1198695.
Historically, two breakers known as the Eddy Creek Shaft and the No. 2 Shaft were situated on the banks of Eddy Creek. In the late 1800s, a mine fire started in the No. 2 Shaft. As a last resort, water from Eddy Creek and the Lackawanna River were used in an attempt to extinguish it. Historically, there was a dam on the creek. The dam was owned by the Delaware and Hudson Company and was used for impounding water to flush ashes from a power plant. The creek also supplied water for a washery at the Underwood Colliery.
A concrete culvert bridge carrying Pennsylvania Route 347 was built over Eddy Creek in 2008. It is 24.0 feet (7.3 m) long and is situated in Olyphant. A number of historic sites are located in the watershed of Eddy Creek. These include the South Valley Arch, which is in Olyphant, and the DL&W Pancost Arch, the DL&W Winton Arch, and the Erie Arch, which are all in Throop. The Hudson Coal mine railroad, a narrow gauge railroad that operated until 1959, shared a culvert under South Valley Avenue with the creek. The borough of Throop once requested a permit to discharge stormwater into the creek.
As of the early 2000s, the Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation has been restoring the stream corridor and channel of Eddy Creek. In the early 2000s, it was expected that 3.5 miles (5.6 km) of the creek would be reclaimed by 2006. As of 2014, there were plans to restore 3.5 miles (5.6 km) of the creek, starting in Spring 2015 and ending in December 2015. The project would span 169 acres (68 ha) of territory and feature regrading 30 properties. Three wetlands and two bat habitats will be affected, but no historic or archaeological sites will be, and the flow of the Lackawanna River will not be impacted.
## Biology
The drainage basin of Eddy Creek is a Warmwater Fishery and a Migratory Fishery.
Some areas of the riparian buffer of Eddy Creek contain woody herbaceous plants. Strip mine overburden piles covered in forests also occur in the creek's riparian area.
Eddy Creek was described as a "low-quality aquatic resource" in a 1992 report.
## Recreation
In the early 2000s, the Lackawanna River Watershed Conservation Plan recommended the creation of a greenway/connecting trail along Eddy Creek. Such a trail could link the campus of the Mid Valley School District to the Lackawanna River Heritage Trail at the mouth of the creek.
## See also
- Price Creek (Pennsylvania), next tributary of the Lackawanna River going downriver
- Hull Creek (Lackawanna River), next tributary of the Lackawanna River going upriver
- List of rivers of Pennsylvania
- List of tributaries of the Lackawanna River |
7,447,142 | Clifford Scott Green | 1,148,115,784 | American judge | [
"1923 births",
"2007 deaths",
"20th-century American judges",
"African Americans in World War II",
"African-American United States Army personnel",
"African-American judges",
"Judges of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania",
"Temple University Beasley School of Law alumni",
"Temple University alumni",
"United States Army Air Forces soldiers",
"United States Army personnel of World War II",
"United States district court judges appointed by Richard Nixon",
"West Philadelphia High School alumni"
] | Clifford Scott Green (April 2, 1923 – May 31, 2007) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Green was the eighteenth African-American Article III judge appointed in the United States, and the second African-American judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. During his 36 years on the federal bench Judge Green presided over a number of notable cases, and was regarded as one of the most popular judges in the district.
## Personal life
Judge Green was born on April 2, 1923, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, Robert Lewis Green, had come to the United States from St. Thomas island in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Green attended West Philadelphia High School, graduating in 1941. He initially had "no thought of going to college," intending instead to go immediately to work. From 1941 to 1942 he worked in a Philadelphia restaurant and at a drug manufacturing company. In 1942 he took a job with the United States Army Signal Corps.
In 1943 Judge Green enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps, the predecessor to the United States Air Force. At the time, the armed forces were still segregated. Green was initially "optimistic that the military was going to be a good life," until his unit was shipped from Fort Lee, Virginia, to Keesler Field (now Keesler Air Force Base), in Mississippi. When the unit arrived at Keesler they were driven past the barracks to what Green would later describe as "a tent city." It was then that Green "realized for real that I was really in a segregated army, and there was always, as long as I was in the service, two standards, one quite unacceptable and the other as acceptable as could be considering the fact that the country was at war."
Green served from 1943 to 1946, rising to the rank of Sergeant. He returned to Philadelphia in March 1946, intending to use the benefits of the G.I. Bill to attend Drexel University. He planned to major in electrical engineering, which was the field he had worked in during his time in the Army. Drexel did not have classes starting until September, so Green began to look to work. While seeking employment at Temple University Green learned that Temple had classes beginning in two weeks, so he decided to enroll there.
Green entered the School of Business as an economics major, and planned to become a certified public accountant, until an adviser told him that there were no jobs available for African-American accountants in Philadelphia. Green decided to pursue a career in law, something his father had dreamed of doing himself.
Green received a B.S. in economics in 1948, finishing his undergraduate degree in just over two years and graduating with honors. He enrolled at Temple Law School as one of ten black students, of whom two would ultimately graduate (the other graduate, Larry Perkins, would also go on to become a judge). While in law school Green was a member of the moot court team and the law review. He competed on a moot court team which won the Philadelphia regional of the American Bar Association competition. At the national competition, Green's team faced the Yale moot court team, which included his future law partner and judicial colleague A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. In 1951 Green received his LL.B. with honors, graduating in the top three of his class. He was also awarded graduation prizes for receiving the highest grades in constitutional law and conflicts of law.
## Legal career
Green passed the Pennsylvania bar exam in 1951, achieving the highest score in the state. Green's early mentors included Robert N.C. Nix, Sr., who lived across the street from Green's family. In January 1952, after being admitted to the bar, Green took over the practice of Thomas Reed, a black Philadelphia lawyer who was joining the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office under Richardson Dilworth (Green had also interviewed at the DA's office, but decided that he "couldn't fit in as a prosecutor").
Green worked as a solo practitioner until March 1952, when he entered into a partnership with Harvey Schmidt. The firm was known as Schmidt and Green until 1954, when Doris M. Harris and A. Leon Higginbotham joined as partners. In 1955 J. Austin Norris, a prominent African-American political figure, joined the firm, which was then known as Norris, Schmidt, Green, Harris, & Higginbotham. The firm was the first African-American law firm in Philadelphia. The firm, which never numbered more than a dozen lawyers at a given time, produced four federal judges; Higginbotham, Green, and Herbert Hutton all served on the District Court (Higginbotham was later elevated to the Third Circuit), and William Hall was the first African American appointed as a federal magistrate judge. In addition, two members of the firm, Dorris Harris and Harvey Schmidt, were elected judges of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, and William Brown was appointed by President Nixon to be chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Green's practice while at the firm was diverse. Initially, the firm's practice was primarily criminal defense. As new partners were added, the firm expanded to include civil work, which eventually became the overwhelming majority of the work. Green eventually developed a specialized practice representing churches, including the National Baptist Convention, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith, and Father Divine. Additionally, Green represented parties both before and after the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education in an attempt to integrate both the student and teacher populations in area school districts. He remained with the firm until his appointment to the bench.
Green first entered public service as a special deputy commonwealth attorney general from 1954 to 1955. He was assigned as counsel for the Director of the Bureau of Workman's Compensation. In addition to representing the Director, Green was also responsible for approving all claims for compensation under the occupational disease statute whenever the Commonwealth was involved. In 1954 Green unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for Philadelphia City Council.
## Judicial career
Green was initially hesitant about seeking a position on the bench because he enjoyed the practice of law. Nevertheless, he began to seek an appointment to the state court in the late 1950s.
Green was a lifelong member of the Republican party, serving as a ward leader from 1952 to 1964. Green's first attempt to gain a seat on the bench was in 1959, when he was unanimously endorsed by the Republican party for a seat on the Municipal Court, but lost in the general election.
In 1962 Green joined with a group of Republican ward leaders who broke off from the main party, which was led by Sheriff Austin Meehan, to support Governor William Scranton. All of the other ward leaders were voted out of office, and although Green retained his position Sheriff Meehan told him that he would no longer support his appointment to the bench.
Green, however, had the support of Bernard G. Segal, who was then Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association, his former law partner Austin Norris, and the Chancellor of Temple University Robert Johnson. Segal was appointed by Governor Scranton to head a merit commission to select nominees for the state court positions. In addition, Green was endorsed by newspapers across the state.
Scranton ultimately did appoint Green as a judge on the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia in 1964. He was elected to a full term in the next general election. Green served primarily as a juvenile court judge while in state court.
In 1971 a vacancy was created on the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania when Judge Harold K. Wood assumed senior status. Senator Hugh Scott supported Green to fill the position. Green also had the support of Billy Meehan, the son of Sheriff Austin Meehan, and at the time the head of the Philadelphia Republican Committee. President Nixon nominated Green on December 1, 1971, and he was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 4, receiving his commission on December 9. In 1984 Green declined a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, citing "the joy his district court job provided him and [the] numerous friendships he enjoyed there." He assumed senior status on April 2, 1988, and continued serving in that capacity until his death.
Throughout his time on the bench, Green remained a popular judge; a 1994 survey of Philadelphia lawyers concluded "Green is the most well-liked judge on the bench, and attorneys could not praise him enough for his wonderful demeanor."
### Notable cases
Judge Green presided over a number of notable cases during his 35-year tenure on the Eastern District. In Bolden v. Pennsylvania State Police Judge Green ordered the Pennsylvania State Police to reinstate William Bolden, a minority trooper who had been dismissed. The case, which began in 1973, resulted in a consent decree that required the State Police to hire one minority for every non-minority hired, and set additional goals for promotion and retention of minority troopers. Judge Green presided over the consent decree for 25 years, dissolving it in 1999. The case was credited with helping to abolish racism in the hiring of troopers, and integrate the State Police.
In 1981 Judge Green threw out the fraud conviction of Pennsylvania State Senator Vincent Fumo, concluding that the government had failed to prove that Fumo and two others were involved in a single scheme to pad state payrolls with ghost workers as alleged in their indictment. The decision was upheld on appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
## Awards and honors
Judge Green was the first recipient of the NAACP's William H. Hastie award in 1985. He was awarded the Spirit of Excellence award by the American Bar Association in 2002. The Philadelphia chapter of the Judicial Council of the National Bar Association is named in Judge Green's honor. The Criminal Law Committee of the Federal Bar Association's Philadelphia Chapter gives a Clifford Scott Green Bill of Rights Award at its biennial dinner event. Judge Green was a lifetime trustee of Temple University, and a former member of the Board of Trustees of Philadelphia State Hospital, and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
## Death
Judge Green suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died of pneumonia in Philadelphia on May 31, 2007. He was survived by his wife, daughter and grand-daughter.
## See also
- List of African-American jurists
- List of African-American federal judges |
38,482,237 | One-Punch Man | 1,169,385,432 | Japanese manga series | [
"2009 webcomic debuts",
"Action anime and manga",
"Anime series based on manga",
"Bandai Visual",
"Comedy anime and manga",
"Crunchyroll anime",
"Fiction about monsters",
"J.C.Staff",
"Japanese adult animated superhero television series",
"Japanese webcomics",
"Madhouse (company)",
"Muse Communication",
"One-Punch Man",
"Seinen manga",
"Shueisha franchises",
"Shueisha manga",
"Superhero webcomics",
"Superheroes in anime and manga",
"TV Tokyo original programming",
"Television shows based on Japanese webcomics",
"Toonami",
"Upcoming anime television series",
"Viz Media anime",
"Viz Media manga",
"Webcomics in print"
] | One-Punch Man (Japanese: ワンパンマン, Hepburn: Wanpanman) is a Japanese superhero manga series created by One. It tells the story of Saitama, a superhero who, because he can defeat any opponent with a single punch, grows bored from a lack of challenge. One wrote the original webcomic manga version in early 2009.
A digital manga remake, illustrated by Yusuke Murata, began publication on Shueisha's Tonari no Young Jump website in June 2012. Its chapters are periodically compiled and published into individual tankōbon volumes. As of June 2023, 28 volumes have been released. In North America, Viz Media has licensed the remake manga for English language release and has serialized it in its Weekly Shonen Jump digital magazine.
An anime adaptation produced by Madhouse was broadcast in Japan from October to December 2015. A second season, produced by J.C.Staff, was broadcast from April to July 2019. A third season has been announced. Licensed in North America by Viz Media, it premiered in the United States on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block in July 2016. The second season premiered on the block in October 2019.
By June 2012, the original webcomic manga surpassed 7.9 million hits. By April 2020, the manga remake had sold over 30 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling manga series of all time.
## Plot
On a supercontinent version of Earth that has four Moons, powerful monsters and supervillains wreak havoc. The millionaire Agoni creates the Hero Association, which employs superheroes to fight evil. Saitama, an unassociated hero, hails from City Z and performs heroic deeds as a hobby. For three years, he has trained enough to defeat any enemy with a single punch, his unmatched strength leaving him bored. He becomes a reluctant mentor to Genos, a cyborg seeking revenge against another cyborg who killed his family and destroyed his hometown, after Saitama defeats a monster that defeated Genos.
Saitama and Genos join the Hero Association, hoping to attain notability, but Genos instantly obtains an S-Class rank; meanwhile, due to scoring low on the written exam despite having a perfect score on the physical exam, Saitama only becomes a C-Class hero. His feats remain unnoticed even after saving people from an asteroid and then a sea monster, barely getting himself promoted to B-Class. Later, shortly before her death, the seer Shibabawa predicts that the world is in great danger as the alien Boros invades the planet. The heroes kill the invaders and destroy Boros's ship as Saitama defeats Boros in single combat.
Monsters begin appearing faster while the rogue martial artist Garo, a former apprentice of the hero Bang, and self-dubbed "Hero Hunter," begins terrorizing heroes. Due to childhood bullying, he holds a grudge against everything "heroic." The heroes learn that the monster influx comes from the Monster Association, an organization of monsters under City Z intent on destroying the Hero Association. They attack various cities, recruit fighters by offering them "monster cells" that mutate humans into monsters, and kidnap a Hero Association executive's son. Garo bonds with Tareo, a child who idolizes heroes, as he hunts down more heroes, his combat prowess slowly rising. The Monster Association attempts to recruit him and kidnaps the child when Garo refuses. He storms the Monster Association HQ trying to rescue the child but ultimately gets captured.
The Hero Association assaults the headquarters to rescue the two children, causing a battle that destroys City Z and kills almost every monster. Saitama meets the highest-ranked hero Blast during the raid when he arrives to collect artifacts, who warns him of a threat known as "God." Many heroes are heavily injured when Garo emerges, mutated into a monster from the fighting. Unable to match the power of Saitama, Garo receives some of "God's" power when he meets it in a vision, causing him to emit radiation that kills all the heroes, including Genos by ripping out his core to get Saitama to fight him seriously. He briefly matches Saitama in a brutal battle that sends them across the Solar System. After Saitama defeats him, Garo becomes distraught over Tareo's death and teaches Saitama to time travel before "God" kills him. Saitama goes back in time and subdues Garo before he killed the heroes, destroying his monster mutation and cosmic power. Despite the objections of the other heroes, Saitama spares Garo and lets him flee after Tareo stops them. Only Genos, who reconnected with his core from the original timeline bought by Saitama (who seemed to remember nothing of his battle and time travel with the original Garo), remembers the entire events of the original ominous future caused by Garo.
With the Monster Association destroyed, Saitama gets promoted to A-Class for defeating Garo. As the battle destroyed his apartment, he relocates to the Hero Association's HQ in A-City. The Hero Association's poor performance causes public opinion of them to plummet. Several heroes and officials decide to retire or defect to the Neo Heroes, a rival group appearing to be more effective in handling the growing monster threats. Leading it is the hero Blue, who claims to be the son of Blast.
## Production
One began the original webcomic of One-Punch Man in 2009. The Japanese shortened name Wanpanman is a play on the long-running children's character Anpanman, wanpan being a contraction of wanpanchi ("one punch"). One became interested in creating a comic superhero who was already the strongest in the world. He wanted to focus on different aspects of storytelling than those normally relied on in standard superhero stories, such as everyday problems. One said: "Punching is oftentimes pretty useless against life's problems. But inside One-Punch Man's universe, I made Saitama a sort of guy who was capable of adapting his life to the world that surrounded him, only armed with his immense power. The only obstacles he faces are mundane things, like running short of money."
ONE has taken several breaks from updating the webcomic. In February 2010, he put the series on hiatus, deciding to take a one-year break due to family circumstances. After releasing the 109th chapter in January 2017, ONE took a two-year break, releasing the following chapter in April 2019. When One returned to drawing in 2011, he was contacted by artist Yusuke Murata about a possible partnership in which Murata would redraw the webcomic for One. Murata had been an enormous fan of One-Punch Man and was ill at the time. Fearing he was going to die, he contacted One. Looking back, he said, "Around that time, I was actually really sick. I broke out in hives, my inner organs were infected, and I couldn't breathe well with my windpipes [sic] swelling. I was in the hospital when I thought, 'Ah, I guess people die just like that.' If I'm going to die, I want to do something I really love to do. I want to draw manga with Mr. One. That's what I thought." Murata, already a successful manga artist, used his connections in the industry to get a publishing deal with Weekly Young Jump comics. The manga became an digital publication on Weekly Young Jump's spin-off manga website Tonari no Young Jump (となりのヤングジャンプ, Tonari no Yangu Janpu), published by Shueisha.
## Media
### Webcomic
The webcomic version of One-Punch Man was created by One in 2009. He self-published the series on the Japanese manga website Nitosha.net. As of May 2023, the webcomic has 142 chapters.
### Manga
The manga remake of One-Punch Man is illustrated by Yusuke Murata. It has been published on Shueisha's Tonari no Young Jump website since June 14, 2012. The chapters are periodically collected and published in tankōbon volumes. The first volume was published on December 12, 2012. A radio drama CD was bundled with the ninth volume released in August 2015. As of June 2, 2023, twenty-eight volumes have been published.
In North America, the series began publication in Viz Media's Weekly Shonen Jump (Shonen Jump Alpha at the time) on January 21, 2013. The first e-book was released in February 2014. In June 2014, One-Punch Man was one of a number of series that Viz made available on the digital distribution platform ComiXology. The manga has been released in print in North America since September 2015.
### Anime
An anime adaptation was announced in the 15th issue of Weekly Young Jump on March 10, 2015. The first season was directed by Shingo Natsume at Madhouse animation studio and written by Tomohiro Suzuki. The series features character designs by Chikashi Kubota, who also served as chief animation director. The music was by Makoto Miyazaki, with art design by Shigemi Ikeda and Yukiko Maruyama. Ken Hashimoto served as the color key artist, Akane Fushihara served as the director of photography, Kashiko Kimura served as the series editor, and Shoji Hata did sound design. One-Punch Man's first season ran for 12 episodes. It aired in Japan from October 5 to December 21, 2015, on TV Tokyo. It aired later on Television Osaka (TVO), TVQ Kyushu Broadcasting (TVQ), Kyoto Broadcasting System (KBS), BS Japan, and AT-X. The season streamed on Niconico and was simulcast on Hulu, Daisuki, and Viz Media's Neon Alley service. A preview screening of the first two episodes was held at the Saitama City Cultural Center on September 6, 2015. The opening theme song is by JAM Project, and the closing theme is by Hiroko Moriguchi. An original video animation (OVA) was released with the tenth manga volume on December 4, 2015. Additional OVA episodes are included with Blu-ray Disc/DVD volumes of the season, the first of which was released on December 24, 2015.
The series is licensed by Viz Media in North America, Latin America, and Oceania. Viz Media announced they were working on an English-language dub of One-Punch Man at Anime Boston 2016. On July 1, 2016, it was announced during Toonami's Anime Expo panel that the series would begin airing on July 17, 2016. The series has been also licensed by Viz Media Europe in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Kaze UK and Manga Entertainment handle the distribution of the series in the United Kingdom. Madman Entertainment handles distribution in Australia and New Zealand, and also simulcast the series on AnimeLab.
A second season was confirmed in September 2016. On September 25, 2017, it was announced that One-Punch Man would be changing both its production company and director. The second season was animated by J.C.Staff, with Chikara Sakurai replacing Shingo Natsume as director and Yoshikazu Iwanami replacing Shoji Hata as sound director. Tomohiro Suzuki, Chikashi Kubota, and Makoto Miyazaki reprised their roles as series composer, character designer, and music composer, respectively. The opening theme song is "Uncrowned Greatest Hero" (静寂のアポストル, Seijaku no Apostle, lit. "Quiet Apostle") by JAM Project, and the closing theme is "Chizu ga Nakutemo Modoru kara" (地図が無くても戻るから, lit. "Even Without a Map, I'll Return") by Makoto Furukawa. The second season aired from April 9 to July 2, 2019, and a television special aired on April 2, 2019. A ten-minute OVA was bundled with the second season's first Blu-ray Disc/DVD volume on October 25, 2019. Two more OVAs were bundled with the second season's second and third Blu-ray Disc/DVD volume on November 26 and December 25, 2019, respectively. Another OVA was bundled with the second season's fourth Blu-ray Disc/DVD volume on January 28, 2020. The fifth OVA was bundled with the second season's fifth Blu-ray Disc/DVD volume on February 27, 2020.
The second season was simulcast on Hulu in the US, on Tubi in Canada, on AnimeLab in Australia and New Zealand and on Crunchyroll in Europe. The second season premiered on Toonami on October 12, 2019.
In August 2022, it was announced that the series would receive a third season.
### Video games
On June 25, 2019, One-Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows was announced for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. It was released in Japan on February 27, 2020, and in North America and Europe on February 28 of the same year. On August 22, 2019, a mobile game titled One Punch Man: Road to Hero was released for iOS and Android.
Blizzard Entertainment announced an Overwatch x One-Punch Man crossover collaboration event on February 6, 2023, which ran from March 7 to April 6 of the same year. The collaboration included multiple skins and a custom loading screen; the skins included a Saitama-inspired one for Doomfist, a Genos-inspired one for Genji, a Mumen Rider-inspired one for Soldier: 76, and a Terrible Tornado-inspired one for Kiriko.
### Live-action film
On April 21, 2020, Sony's Columbia Pictures announced that a live-action film adaptation was in development. Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner are signed on as writers, while Avi Arad will produce. On June 13, 2022, Justin Lin was revealed to be the film's director and co-producer, with the film set to enter production later in the year.
## Reception
### Webcomic
The webcomic was considered an instant success shortly after its inception, receiving thousands of views and comments within weeks. It received 7.9 million hits by June 2012. According to One, by the time he had written the fifth chapter, he was receiving 30 comments per update. (On Nitosha.net, a series was considered "popular" if it consistently received at least 30 comments.) The number of comments gradually increased, and by the time One had published the 30th chapter, he was receiving nearly 1000 comments per update.
### Manga
One-Punch Man was one of the Manga Division's Jury Recommended Works at the 17th and 18th installments of Japan Media Arts Festival in 2013 and 2014, respectively. The series was nominated for the seventh annual Manga Taishō Award in 2014. It was nominated for an Eisner Award in 2015; and a Harvey Award in 2016. The manga won the Sugoi Japan Award; and the Spanish Manga Barcelona award for the seinen category in 2017.
One-Punch Man was the ninth best-selling manga of 2016, with over 3.9 million copies sold. It was the eighth best-selling manga of 2017, with over 3.2 million copies sold. The manga had 2.2 million copies in print by November 2013. By July 2017, the manga had 13 million copies in print; by July 2019, this had grown to 20 million copies in print. By April 2020, the series has sold over 30 million copies worldwide.
Once released in the United States, both the first and second volumes debuted on the New York Times Manga Best Sellers list, in first and second place respectively, and remained there for two weeks. Volume one dropped to second place for the third week, while volume two fell off the list altogether. In July 2019, the first volume of the series had been on the list for 71 weeks.
### Anime
The first season of the anime received critical acclaim, receiving praise for its uniqueness, animation, humor, characters and fight scenes. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an approval rating of 100% based on 12 reviews, with an average rating of 8.4/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "With its state-of-the-art animation, unorthodox hero, and gut-bustlingly funny jabs at the shounen genre, One-Punch Man is simply a knockout."
The second season received mixed reviews. Although the humor, characters, and story were still praised, reviewers unanimously criticized the drop in the quality of the animation following the change of studios. The direction, pacing, and fights were also criticized, as was the last episode for feeling like an improper season finale. Screen Rant noted that fan reaction to the season was divided, with their response to the new animation being notably negative. They criticized the drop of quality in animation as well as the change of director, saying "One-Punch Man was previously crisp, detailed and fluid, but many fans claim that the latest season has felt static, bland and uninspiring. This is almost certainly down to a change in director. [The series] has gone from the pinnacle of TV anime visuals to looking like just another weekly series." However, they believed the season "improves in terms of story, character and world-building", although they mostly attributed this to the original manga its based on rather than the anime series' staff. They were very critical of the season finale, noting how the anime could have adapted one or two extra manga chapters to offer a more conclusive finale and build excitement towards a third season.
IGN gave season 2 a five out of ten rating, calling it "mediocre". Although they felt the humor and characters were on par with the first season, they were very critical of the animation and pacing, saying: "[the animation was] taking horrendous shortcuts to get the fights done and dusted in as simple a way as possible. Gone are the intricately detailed character action shots, with dynamic slow motion and constantly-shifting camerawork. Instead, we have flashes, cuts to black, and machine-gun punches all reminiscent of the drawn-out fight scenes of Dragon Ball Z from more than twenty years ago." They concluded saying: "Season 2 of One-Punch Man is a half-baked jumble of poor and lazy animation that is far more concerned with staying relevant than being crafted into something worthy of the season that came before it. If you're only in it for the advancement of the plot, it's all here. But it's also all in the manga, and that looks an awful lot better than this season."
In 2019, One-Punch Man won the "Most In-Demand Export from Asia" at the second Global TV Demand Awards.
## See also |
2,166,103 | Alex Seropian | 1,159,185,277 | American video game developer | [
"1969 births",
"American people of Armenian descent",
"American video game designers",
"Armenian businesspeople",
"Bungie",
"DePaul University people",
"Living people",
"University of Chicago alumni",
"Video game composers"
] | Alexander Seropian (born 1969) is an American video game developer, one of the initial founders and later president of Bungie, the developer of the Marathon, Myth, and Halo video game series. Seropian became interested in computer programming in college and teamed up with fellow student Jason Jones to publish Jones's game Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete. The two became partners, and Bungie grew to become the best-known Apple Macintosh game developer before being bought by Microsoft in 2001.
In 2004, Seropian left Bungie and created Wideload Games, with the goal of streamlining game development. Wideload's small core development team worked with outside contractors to produce Stubbs the Zombie and Hail to the Chimp. Wideload was acquired by Disney in 2009. As part of the deal Seropian became vice president of game development for Disney Interactive Studios. In 2012 he left the position to start Industrial Toys, a company focusing on mobile games.
## Biography
### Early life
Alex Seropian attended the University of Chicago, and joined the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, where he met one of his future colleagues Jason Jones. Interested in computer programming, Seropian was pursuing a mathematics degree with a concentration in computer science as the Department of Computer Science did not offer undergraduate degrees at the time. He graduated in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics. Before graduating, Seropian was living with his father, sleeping on his couch, and debating whether to get a job or create his own video game company. Seropian's father advised him to take a job to get experience, but the next day Seropian decided to found his own company. "My dad is a master of reverse psychology", Seropian said.
### Bungie
Seropian's first game was a self-published Pong-clone called Gnop! for Apple Macintosh. The game was free, although a few customers paid \$15 for the game's source code. In 1991 he founded Bungie and published his first commercial game, Operation Desert Storm. Seropian sold 2,500 copies of the game, assembling the game boxes and mailing them out from his bedroom. Seropian partnered with his Artificial Intelligence classmate Jason Jones to publish Jones's nearly complete Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete; the game sold around 2,500 copies—it required a then-rare modem for network play—it developed a devoted following. After publishing Minotaur, the two formed a partnership.
For the next Bungie title, 1993's Pathways Into Darkness, Seropian hired a third team member for graphics work. The game was the first three-dimensional texture-mapped game on the Mac and the first true first-person shooter. By 1994 Bungie had grown to a staff of six and had moved into a rundown Chicago office—a converted former religious school located in front of a crack house. Their next title, Marathon, began development as a sequel to Pathways but grew larger. On release it won several awards and established Bungie as the top Mac game developer.
For Halo: Combat Evolved, Seropian noted that the company had to incorporate new features such as surround sound and cinematics. Halo went on to sell more than 4 million units by 2004 and founded a media franchise encompassing sequels, books, and music. Seropian left Bungie in 2002 to spend time with his new family, but also due to frustrations with the game development process.
### Wideload Games
Seropian founded his own studio in 2004 called Wideload Games, intended to be more streamlined than most video game studios. Calling the method of game development "broken", Wideload began with a staff of 10 and planned to employ outside members to work on and finalize projects. Seropian said that the idea came from figuring out that his decade-old assumptions about how to make games did not necessarily apply to the future. Seropian turned to the film industry for cues, saying that it helped to look at an older industry that had been solving the same types of problems for a longer period than video games. The external development model allowed Wideload to focus on the creative aspect of a project and added flexibility in what types of projects the team could take on. Wideload produced two games, 2005's Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse and 2008's Hail to the Chimp.
On September 8, 2009 Disney acquired Wideload. Seropian joined Disney to head its in-house game development team, Disney Interactive Studios. The sale of Wideload was not originally planned: Wideload and Disney began working on a title together, and as conversations turned to a "broader scope and vision", the two companies "discovered [they] had a lot in common," Seropian said. Seropian left Disney in February 2012. Seropian also serves as DePaul University's second "game designer in residence"; DePaul is the first liberal arts university to offer a bachelor's degree for game design.
### Industrial Toys
In 2012, Seropian founded a studio named Industrial Toys. The company plans to develop mobile games for core gamers. The first title by Industrial Toys, Midnight Star, was announced to be a sci-fi shooter designed with touch-based mobile platforms in mind, and debuted in February 2015. In July 2018, Industrial Toys was acquired by Electronic Arts, who shuttered the studio in January 2023. |
20,715 | Marbury v. Madison | 1,172,998,162 | 1803 landmark U.S. Supreme Court case | [
"1803 in United States case law",
"19th-century American trials",
"6th United States Congress",
"Legal history of the District of Columbia",
"Presidency of Thomas Jefferson",
"United States Constitution Article Three case law",
"United States Supreme Court cases",
"United States Supreme Court cases of the Marshall Court",
"United States Supreme Court original jurisdiction cases",
"United States constitutional case law",
"United States political question doctrine case law"
] | Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that established the principle of judicial review in the United States, meaning that American courts have the power to strike down laws and statutes that they find to violate the Constitution of the United States. Decided in 1803, Marbury is regarded as the single most important decision in American constitutional law. The Court's landmark decision established that the U.S. Constitution is actual law, not just a statement of political principles and ideals, and helped define the boundary between the constitutionally separate executive and judicial branches of the federal government.
The case originated in early 1801 as part of the political and ideological rivalry between outgoing President John Adams and incoming President Thomas Jefferson. Adams had lost the U.S. presidential election of 1800 to Jefferson. In March 1801, just two days before his term as president ended, Adams appointed several dozen Federalist Party supporters to new circuit judge and justice of the peace positions in an attempt to frustrate Jefferson and his supporters in the Democratic-Republican Party. The outgoing U.S. Senate quickly confirmed Adams's appointments, but outgoing Secretary of State John Marshall was unable to deliver all of the new judges' commissions before Adams's departure and Jefferson's inauguration. Jefferson believed the undelivered commissions were void and instructed his Secretary of State, James Madison, not to deliver them. One of the undelivered commissions belonged to William Marbury, a Maryland businessman who had been a strong supporter of Adams and the Federalists. In late 1801, after Madison had repeatedly refused to deliver his commission, Marbury filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court asking the Court to issue a writ of mandamus forcing Madison to deliver his commission.
In an opinion written by John Marshall, the former Secretary of State who by then had been appointed Chief Justice of the United States, the Supreme Court held firstly that Madison's refusal to deliver Marbury's commission was illegal, and secondly that it was normally proper for a court in such situations to order the government official in question to deliver the commission. But in Marbury's case, the Court did not order Madison to comply. Examining the law Congress had passed to define the Supreme Court jurisdiction over types of cases like Marbury's—Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789—the Court found that the Act had expanded the definition of the Supreme Court's jurisdiction beyond what was originally set forth in the U.S. Constitution. The Court then struck down Section 13 of the Act, announcing that American courts have the power to invalidate laws that they find to violate the Constitution—a power now known as "judicial review". Because striking down the law removed any jurisdiction the Court might have had over the case, the Court could not issue the writ that Marbury had requested.
## Background
In the fiercely contested U.S. presidential election of 1800, the three main candidates were Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr, and the incumbent president, John Adams. Adams espoused the pro-business and pro-national-government politics of the Federalist Party and its leader, Alexander Hamilton. Jefferson and Burr were leaders of the opposition Democratic-Republican Party, which favored agriculture and decentralization. American public opinion had gradually turned against the Federalists in the months leading up to the election, mainly due to the Federalists' use of the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts, as well as growing tensions with Great Britain, with whom the Federalists favored close ties. Jefferson easily won the election's popular vote but only narrowly defeated Adams in the Electoral College.
As the results of the election became clear, Adams and the Federalists became determined to exercise their remaining influence before Jefferson took office, and they did everything they could to fill federal offices with "anti-Jeffersonians" who were loyal to the Federalists. On March 2, 1801, just two days before his presidential term ended, Adams nominated nearly 60 Federalist supporters to new circuit judge and justice of the peace positions the Federalist-controlled Congress had recently created. These last-minute nominees—whom Jefferson's supporters derisively called the "Midnight Judges"—included William Marbury, a prosperous businessman from Maryland. An ardent Federalist, Marbury was active in Maryland politics and had been a vigorous supporter of the Adams presidency.
The following day, March 3, the Senate approved Adams's nominations en masse. The appointees' commissions were immediately written out, then signed by Adams and sealed by Secretary of State John Marshall, who had been named the new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in January but agreed to continue serving as Secretary of State for the remaining weeks of Adams's presidency. Marshall then dispatched his younger brother James Markham Marshall to deliver the commissions to the appointees. With only one day left before Jefferson's inauguration, James Marshall was able to deliver most of the commissions, but a few—including Marbury's—were not delivered.
The day after, March 4, 1801, Jefferson was sworn in and became the third President of the United States. Jefferson instructed his new Secretary of State, James Madison, to withhold the undelivered commissions. In Jefferson's opinion, the commissions were void because they had not been delivered before Adams left office. Without the commissions, the appointees were unable to assume the offices and duties to which they had been appointed.
Over the next several months, Madison continually refused to deliver Marbury's commission to him. Finally, in December 1801, Marbury filed a lawsuit against Madison in the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the Court to force Madison to deliver his commission. This lawsuit resulted in the case of Marbury v. Madison.
## Decision
On February 24, 1803, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous 4–0 decision against Marbury. The Court's opinion was written by Chief Justice John Marshall, who structured the Court's opinion around a series of three questions it answered in turn:
- First, did Marbury have a right to his commission?
- Second, if Marbury had a right to his commission, was there a legal remedy for him to obtain it?
- Third, if there was such a remedy, could the Supreme Court legally issue it?
### Marbury's right to his commission
The Court began by determining that Marbury had a legal right to his commission. Marshall reasoned that all appropriate procedures were followed: the commission had been properly signed and sealed. Madison had argued that the commissions were void if not delivered, but the Court disagreed, saying that the delivery of the commission was merely a custom, not an essential element of the commission itself.
> The [President's] signature is a warrant for affixing the great seal to the commission, and the great seal is only to be affixed to an instrument which is complete. ... The transmission of the commission is a practice directed by convenience, but not by law. It cannot therefore be necessary to constitute the appointment, which must precede it and which is the mere act of the President.
The Court said that because Marbury's commission was valid, Madison's withholding it was "violative of a vested legal right" on Marbury's part.
### Marbury's legal remedy
Turning to the second question, the Court said that the law provided Marbury a remedy for Madison's unlawful withholding of his commission. Marshall wrote that "it is a general and indisputable rule, that where there is a legal right, there is also a legal remedy by suit or action at law, whenever that right is invaded." This rule derives from the ancient Roman legal maxim ubi jus, ibi remedium ("where there is a legal right, there is a legal remedy"), which was well established in the English common law. In what the American legal scholar Akhil Reed Amar called "one of the most important and inspiring passages" of the opinion, Marshall wrote:
> The very essence of civil liberty certainly consists in the right of every individual to claim the protection of the laws whenever he receives an injury.
The Court then confirmed that a writ of mandamus—a type of court order that commands government officials to perform an act their official duties legally require them to perform—was the proper remedy for Marbury's situation. But this raised the issue of whether the Court, which was part of the judicial branch of the government, had the power to command Madison, who as secretary of state was part of the executive branch of the government. The Court held that so long as the remedy involved a mandatory duty to a specific person, and not a political matter left to discretion, the courts could provide the legal remedy. Borrowing a phrase John Adams had drafted in 1779 for the Massachusetts State Constitution, Marshall wrote: "The government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men."
### The Supreme Court's jurisdiction
This brought Marshall to the third question: did the Supreme Court have proper jurisdiction over the case that would allow it to legally issue the writ of mandamus that Marbury wanted? The answer depended entirely on how the Court interpreted the text of the Judiciary Act of 1789. Congress had passed the Judiciary Act to establish the American federal court system, since the U.S. Constitution only mandates a Supreme Court and leaves the rest of the U.S. federal judicial power to reside in "such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish." Section 13 of the Judiciary Act sets out the Supreme Court's original and appellate jurisdictions.
> And be it further enacted, That the Supreme Court shall have exclusive [original] jurisdiction over all cases of a civil nature where a state is a party ... [and] suits or proceedings against ambassadors, or other public ministers ... The Supreme Court shall also have appellate jurisdiction from the circuit courts and courts of the several states, in the cases herein after specially provided for; and shall have power to issue ... writs of mandamus, in cases warranted by the principles and usages of law, to any courts appointed, or persons holding office, under the authority of the United States.
Marbury had argued that the language of Section 13 of the Judiciary Act gave the Supreme Court the authority to issue writs of mandamus when hearing cases under original jurisdiction, not just appellate jurisdiction. As Marshall explains in the opinion, original jurisdiction gives a court the power to be the first to hear and decide a case; appellate jurisdiction gives a court the power to hear an appeal from a lower court's decision and to "revise and correct" the previous decision. Although the language on the power to issue writs of mandamus appears after Section 13's sentence on appellate jurisdiction, rather than with the earlier sentences on original jurisdiction, a semicolon separates it from the clause on appellate jurisdiction. The section does not make clear whether the mandamus clause was intended to be read as part of the appellate clause or on its own—in the opinion, Marshall quoted only the end of the section—and the law's wording can plausibly be read either way. In the end, the Court agreed with Marbury and interpreted section 13 of the Judiciary Act to have authorized the Court to exercise original jurisdiction over cases involving disputes over writs of mandamus.
But as Marshall pointed out, this meant that the Judiciary Act contradicted Article III of the U.S. Constitution, which establishes the judicial branch of the U.S. government. Article III defines the Supreme Court's jurisdiction as follows:
> In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.
Article III says that the Supreme Court only has original jurisdiction over cases where a U.S. state is a party to a lawsuit or where a lawsuit involves foreign dignitaries. Neither of these categories covered Marbury's lawsuit, which was a dispute over a writ of mandamus for his justice of the peace commission. So, according to the Constitution, the Court did not have original jurisdiction over a case like Marbury's.
But the Court had interpreted the Judiciary Act to have given it original jurisdiction over lawsuits for writs of mandamus. This meant that the Judiciary Act had taken the Constitution's initial scope for the Supreme Court's original jurisdiction, which did not cover cases involving writs of mandamus, and expanded it to include them. The Court ruled that Congress cannot increase the Supreme Court's original jurisdiction as it was set down in the Constitution, and it therefore held that the relevant portion of Section 13 of the Judiciary Act violated Article III of the Constitution.
### Judicial review and striking down the law
After ruling that Section 13 of the Judiciary Act conflicted with the Constitution, the Court struck down the section in the U.S. Supreme Court's first ever declaration of the power of judicial review. The Court ruled that American federal courts have the power to refuse to give any effect to congressional legislation that is inconsistent with their interpretation of the Constitution—a move colloquially known as "striking down" laws.
The U.S. Constitution does not explicitly give the American federal judiciary the power of judicial review. Nevertheless, the Court's opinion gives many reasons in support of the judiciary's possession of the power. First, Marshall reasoned that the written nature of the Constitution inherently established judicial review. Borrowing from Alexander Hamilton's essay Federalist No. 78, Marshall wrote:
> The powers of the legislature are defined and limited; and that those limits may not be mistaken or forgotten, the constitution is written. ... Certainly all those who have framed written constitutions contemplate them as forming the fundamental and paramount law of the nation, and consequently the theory of every such government must be, that an act of the legislature, repugnant to the constitution, is void.
Second, the Court declared that deciding the constitutionality of the laws it applies is an inherent part of the American judiciary's role. In what has become the most famous and frequently quoted line of the opinion, Marshall wrote:
> It is emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial Department to say what the law is.
Marshall reasoned that the Constitution places limits on the American government's powers, and that those limits would be meaningless unless they were subject to judicial review and enforcement. He reasoned that the Constitution's provisions limiting Congress's power—such as the prohibitions on ex post facto laws and bills of attainder—meant that in some cases judges would be forced to choose between enforcing the Constitution or following Congress. Marshall held "virtually as a matter of iron logic" that in the event of conflict between the Constitution and statutory laws passed by Congress, the constitutional law must be supreme.
Third, the Court said that denying the supremacy of the Constitution over Congress's acts would mean that "courts must close their eyes on the constitution, and see only the law." This, Marshall wrote, would make Congress omnipotent, since none of the laws it passed would ever be invalid.
> This doctrine ... would declare, that if the legislature shall do what is expressly forbidden, such act, notwithstanding the express prohibition, is in reality effectual. It would be giving to the legislature a practical and real omnipotence, with the same breath which professes to restrict their powers within narrow limits.
Marshall then gave several other reasons in favor of judicial review. He reasoned that the authorization in Article III of the Constitution that the Court can decide cases arising "under this Constitution" implied that the Court had the power to strike down laws conflicting with the Constitution. This, Marshall wrote, meant that the Founders were willing to have the American judiciary use and interpret the Constitution when judging cases. He also said that federal judges' oaths of office—in which they swear to discharge their duties impartially and "agreeably to the Constitution and laws of the United States"—requires them to support the Constitution. Lastly, Marshall reasoned that judicial review is implied in the Supremacy Clause of Article VI of the U.S. Constitution, since it declares that the supreme law of the United States is the Constitution and laws made "in Pursuance thereof", rather than the Constitution and all federal laws generally.
Having given his list of reasons, Marshall concluded the Court's opinion by reaffirming the Court's ruling on the invalidity of Section 13 of the Judiciary Act and, therefore, the Court's inability to issue Marbury's writ of mandamus.
> Thus, the particular phraseology of the Constitution of the United States confirms and strengthens the principle, supposed to be essential to all written Constitutions, that a law repugnant to the Constitution is void, and that courts, as well as other departments, are bound by that instrument. The rule must be discharged.
## Analysis
### Political dilemma
Besides its legal issues, the case of Marbury v. Madison also created a difficult political dilemma for John Marshall and the Supreme Court. If the Court had ruled in Marbury's favor and issued a writ of mandamus ordering Madison to deliver Marbury's commission, Jefferson and Madison would probably have simply ignored the writ, which would have made the Court look impotent and emphasized the "shakiness" of the judiciary. On the other hand, a simple ruling against Marbury would have given Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans a clear political victory over the Federalists.
Marshall solved both problems. First, he had the Court rule that Madison's withholding of Marbury's commission was illegal, which pleased the Federalists. Second, however, the opinion he wrote also held that the Court could not grant Marbury his requested writ of mandamus, which gave Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans the result they desired. But finally, in what the American legal scholar Laurence Tribe calls "an oft-told tale ... [that] remains awe-inspiring", Marshall had the Court rule against Marbury in a way that maneuvered Marbury's simple petition for a writ of mandamus into a case that presented a question that went to the heart of American constitutional law itself. The American political historian Robert G. McCloskey described:
> [Marbury v. Madison] is a masterwork of indirection, a brilliant example of Marshall's capacity to sidestep danger while seeming to court it. ... The danger of a head-on clash with the Jeffersonians was averted by the denial of jurisdiction: but, at the same time, the declaration that the commission was illegally withheld scotched any impression that the Court condoned the administration's behavior. These negative maneuvers were artful achievements in their own right. But the touch of genius is evident when Marshall, not content with having rescued a bad situation, seizes the occasion to set forth the doctrine of judicial review. It is easy for us to see in retrospect that the occasion was golden, ... but only a judge of Marshall's discernment could have recognized it.
Marshall had been looking for a case suitable for introducing judicial review and was eager to use the situation in Marbury to establish his claim. He introduced judicial review—a move Jefferson decried—but used it to strike down a provision of a law that he read to have expanded the Supreme Court's powers, and thereby produced Jefferson's hoped-for result of Marbury losing his case. Marshall "seized the occasion to uphold the institution of judicial review, but he did so in the course of reaching a judgment that his political opponents could neither defy nor protest." Although Jefferson criticized the Court's decision, he accepted it, and Marshall's opinion in Marbury "articulate[d] a role for the federal courts that survives to this day." The American legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky concludes: "The brilliance of Marshall's opinion cannot be overstated."
### Legal criticism
Marshall's historic opinion in Marbury v. Madison continues to be the subject of critical analysis and inquiry. In a 1955 Harvard Law Review article, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter emphasized that one can criticize Marshall's opinion in Marbury without demeaning it: "The courage of Marbury v. Madison is not minimized by suggesting that its reasoning is not impeccable and its conclusion, however wise, not inevitable."
Criticisms of Marshall's opinion in Marbury usually fall into two general categories. First, some criticize the way Marshall "strove" to reach the conclusion that the U.S. Supreme Court has constitutional authority over the other branches of the U.S. government. Today, American courts generally follow the principle of "constitutional avoidance": if a certain interpretation of a law raises constitutional problems, they prefer to use alternative interpretations that avoid these problems, as long as the alternative interpretations are plausible. In Marbury, Marshall could have avoided the constitutional questions through different legal rulings. If he had ruled that Marbury did not have a right to his commission until it was delivered, or if he had ruled that refusals to honor political appointments could only be remedied through the political process and not the judicial process, it would have ended the case immediately and the Court would not have reached the case's constitutional issues. Marshall did not do so, and many legal scholars have criticized him for it. Some scholars have responded that the "constitutional avoidance" principle did not exist in 1803, and in any case is "only a general guide for Court action", not an "ironclad rule". Alternatively, it has also been argued that the claim that Marshall "strove" to create a controversy largely vanishes when the case is viewed from the legal perspective of the late 18th century, when American colonies' and states' supreme courts were largely modeled on England's Court of King's Bench, which inherently possessed mandamus powers.
Second, Marshall's arguments for the Court's authority are sometimes said to be mere "series of assertions", rather than substantive reasons logically laid out to support his position. Scholars generally agree that Marshall's series of assertions regarding the U.S. Constitution and the actions of the other branches of government do not "inexorably lead to the conclusion that Marshall draws from them." Marshall's assertion of the American judiciary's authority to review executive branch actions was the most controversial issue when Marbury was first decided, and several subsequent U.S. presidents have tried to dispute it, to varying degrees.
Additionally, it is questionable whether Marshall should have participated in the adjudication of the Marbury case, because he had played a role in the underlying dispute. Marshall was still the acting secretary of state when the nominations were made, and he had signed Marbury and the other men's commissions and had been responsible for their delivery. This potential conflict of interest raises strong grounds for Marshall to have recused himself from the case. In hindsight, the fact that Marshall did not recuse himself from Marbury is likely indicative of his eagerness to hear the case and use it to establish judicial review.
## Legacy
Marbury v. Madison is regarded as the single most important decision in American constitutional law. It established U.S. federal judges' authority to review the constitutionality of Congress's legislative acts, and to this day the Supreme Court's power to review the constitutionality of American laws at both the federal and state level "is generally rested upon the epic decision of Marbury v. Madison."
Although the Court's opinion in Marbury established judicial review in American federal law, it did not invent or create it. Some 18th-century British jurists had argued that English courts had the power to circumscribe Parliament. The idea became widely accepted in Colonial America—especially in Marshall, Jefferson, and Madison's native Virginia—under the rationale that in America only the people were sovereign, rather than the government, and so the courts should only implement legitimate laws. By the time of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, American courts' "independent power and duty to interpret the law" was well established, and Hamilton had defended the concept in Federalist No. 78. In addition, the 1796 Supreme Court case Hylton v. United States considered whether a tax on carriages was constitutional, though the Court ruled that the statute in question was in fact constitutional and did not actually exercise the power. Nevertheless, Marshall's opinion in Marbury was the power's first announcement and exercise by the Supreme Court. It made the practice more routine, rather than exceptional, and prepared the way for the Court's opinion in the 1819 case McCulloch v. Maryland, in which Marshall implied that the Supreme Court was the supreme interpreter of the U.S. Constitution.
Marbury also established that the power of judicial review covers actions by the executive branch—the President and his cabinet members. However, American courts' power of judicial review over executive branch actions only extends to matters in which the executive has a legal duty to act or refrain from acting, and does not extend to matters that are entirely within the President's discretion, such as whether to veto a bill or whom to appoint to an office. This power has been the basis of many subsequent important Supreme Court decisions in American history, such as the 1974 decision United States v. Nixon, in which the Court held that President Richard Nixon had to comply with a subpoena to provide tapes of his conversations for use in a criminal trial related to the Watergate scandal, and which ultimately led to Nixon's resignation.
Although it is a potent check on the other branches of the U.S. government, federal courts rarely exercised the power of judicial review in early American history. After deciding Marbury in 1803, the Supreme Court did not strike down another federal law until 1857, when the Court struck down the Missouri Compromise in its now-infamous decision Dred Scott v. Sandford, a ruling that contributed to the outbreak of the American Civil War.
## See also
- Australian Communist Party v Commonwealth
- Calder v. Bull
- Hylton v. United States
- Martin v. Hunter's Lessee |
6,884 | Clitoris | 1,173,820,706 | Female sex organ | [
"Clitoris",
"Mammal female reproductive system",
"Vulva",
"Women's health"
] | The clitoris (/ˈklɪtərɪs/ or /klɪˈtɔːrɪs/ ; : clitorises or clitorides) is a female sex organ present in mammals, ostriches and a limited number of other animals. In humans, the visible portionthe glansis at the front junction of the labia minora (inner lips), above the opening of the urethra. Unlike the penis, the male homologue (equivalent) to the clitoris, it usually does not contain the distal portion (or opening) of the urethra and is therefore not used for urination. In most species, the clitoris lacks any reproductive function. While few animals urinate through the clitoris or use it reproductively, the spotted hyena, which has an especially large clitoris, urinates, mates, and gives birth via the organ. Some other mammals, such as lemurs and spider monkeys, also have a large clitoris.
The clitoris is the human female's most sensitive erogenous zone and generally the primary anatomical source of human female sexual pleasure. In humans and other mammals, it develops from an outgrowth in the embryo called the genital tubercle. Initially undifferentiated, the tubercle develops into either a penis or a clitoris during the development of the reproductive system depending on exposure to androgens (which are primarily male hormones). The clitoris is a complex structure, and its size and sensitivity can vary. The glans (head) of the human clitoris is roughly the size and shape of a pea and is estimated to have 8,000, and possibly more than 10,000, sensory nerve endings.
Sexological, medical, and psychological debate has focused on the clitoris, and it has been subject to social constructionist analyses and studies. Such discussions range from anatomical accuracy, gender inequality, female genital mutilation, and orgasmic factors and their physiological explanation for the G-spot. Although, in humans, the only known purpose of the clitoris is to provide sexual pleasure, whether the clitoris is vestigial, an adaptation, or serves a reproductive function has been debated. Social perceptions of the clitoris include the significance of its role in female sexual pleasure, assumptions about its true size and depth, and varying beliefs regarding genital modification such as clitoris enlargement, clitoris piercing and clitoridectomy. Genital modification may be for aesthetic, medical or cultural reasons.
Knowledge of the clitoris is significantly affected by cultural perceptions of the organ. Studies suggest that knowledge of its existence and anatomy is scant in comparison with that of other sexual organs and that more education about it could help alleviate social stigmas associated with the female body and female sexual pleasure. Examples of stigma include the ideas that the clitoris and vulva in general are visually unappealing, that female masturbation is taboo, or that men should be expected to master and control women's orgasms.
## Etymology
The Oxford English Dictionary states that the word clitoris likely has its origin in the Ancient Greek κλειτορίς, kleitoris, perhaps derived from the verb κλείειν, kleiein, "to shut". Clitoris is also Greek for the word key, "indicating that the ancient anatomists considered it the key" to female sexuality. In addition to key, the Online Etymology Dictionary suggests other Greek candidates for the word's etymology include a noun meaning "latch" or "hook"; a verb meaning "to touch or titillate lasciviously", "to tickle" (one German synonym for the clitoris is der Kitzler, "the tickler"), although this verb is more likely derived from "clitoris"; and a word meaning "side of a hill", from the same root as "climax". The Oxford English Dictionary also states that the shortened form "clit", the first occurrence of which was noted in the United States, has been used in print since 1958: until then, the common abbreviation was "clitty".
The plural forms are clitorises in English and clitorides in Latin. The Latin genitive is clitoridis, as in "glans clitoridis". In medical and sexological literature, the clitoris is sometimes referred to as "the female penis" or pseudo-penis, and the term clitoris is commonly used to refer to the glans alone; partially because of this, there have been various terms for the organ that have historically confused its anatomy.
## Structure
### Development
In mammals, sexual differentiation is determined by the sperm that carries either an X or a Y (male) chromosome. The Y chromosome contains a sex-determining gene (SRY) that encodes a transcription factor for the protein TDF (testis determining factor) and triggers the creation of testosterone and anti-Müllerian hormone for the embryo's development into a male. This differentiation begins about eight or nine weeks after conception. Some sources state that it continues until the twelfth week, while others state that it is evident by the thirteenth week and that the sex organs are fully developed by the sixteenth week.
The clitoris develops from a phallic outgrowth in the embryo called the genital tubercle. Initially undifferentiated, the tubercle develops into either a clitoris or penis during the development of the reproductive system depending on exposure to androgens (which are primarily male hormones). The clitoris forms from the same tissues that become the glans and shaft of the penis, and this shared embryonic origin makes these two organs homologous (different versions of the same structure).
If exposed to testosterone, the genital tubercle elongates to form the penis. By fusion of the urogenital foldselongated spindle-shaped structures that contribute to the formation of the urethral groove on the belly aspect of the genital tuberclethe urogenital sinus closes completely and forms the spongy urethra, and the labioscrotal swellings unite to form the scrotum. In the absence of testosterone, the genital tubercle allows for the formation of the clitoris; the initially rapid growth of the phallus gradually slows and the clitoris is formed. The urogenital sinus persists as the vestibule of the vagina, the two urogenital folds form the labia minora, and the labioscrotal swellings enlarge to form the labia majora, completing the female genitalia. A rare condition that can develop from higher than average androgen exposure is clitoromegaly.
### Gross anatomy and histology
#### General
The clitoris contains external and internal components. It consists of the glans, the body (which is composed of two erectile structures known as the corpora cavernosa), and two crura ("legs"). It has a hood formed by the labia minora (inner lips). It also has vestibular or clitoral bulbs. The frenulum of the clitoris is a frenulum on the undersurface of the glans and is created by the two medial parts of the labia minora. The clitoral body may be referred to as the shaft (or internal shaft), while the length of the clitoris between the glans and the body may also be referred to as the shaft. The shaft supports the glans, and its shape can be seen and felt through the clitoral hood.
Research indicates that clitoral tissue extends into the vagina's anterior wall. Şenaylı et al. said that the histological evaluation of the clitoris, "especially of the corpora cavernosa, is incomplete because for many years the clitoris was considered a rudimentary and nonfunctional organ." They added that Baskin and colleagues examined the clitoris' masculinization after dissection and using imaging software after Masson chrome staining, put the serial dissected specimens together; this revealed that the nerves of the clitoris surround the whole clitoral body (corpus).
The clitoris, vestibular bulbs, labia minora, and urethra involve two histologically distinct types of vascular tissue (tissue related to blood vessels), the first of which is trabeculated, erectile tissue innervated by the cavernous nerves. The trabeculated tissue has a spongy appearance; along with blood, it fills the large, dilated vascular spaces of the clitoris and the bulbs. Beneath the epithelium of the vascular areas is smooth muscle. As indicated by Yang et al.'s research, it may also be that the urethral lumen (the inner open space or cavity of the urethra), which is surrounded by a spongy tissue, has tissue that "is grossly distinct from the vascular tissue of the clitoris and bulbs, and on macroscopic observation, is paler than the dark tissue" of the clitoris and bulbs. The second type of vascular tissue is non-erectile, which may consist of blood vessels that are dispersed within a fibrous matrix and have only a minimal amount of smooth muscle.
#### Glans and body
Highly innervated, the glans exists at the tip of the clitoral body as a fibro-vascular cap and is usually the size and shape of a pea, although it is sometimes much larger or smaller. The clitoral glans, or the entire clitoris, is estimated to have 8,000, and possibly 10,000 or more, sensory nerve endings. Research conflicts on whether or not the glans is composed of erectile or non-erectile tissue. Although the clitoral body becomes engorged with blood upon sexual arousal, erecting the clitoral glans, some sources describe the clitoral glans and labia minora as composed of non-erectile tissue; this is especially the case for the glans. They state that the clitoral glans and labia minora have blood vessels that are dispersed within a fibrous matrix and have only a minimal amount of smooth muscle, or that the clitoral glans is "a midline, densely neural, non-erectile structure".
Other descriptions of the glans assert that it is composed of erectile tissue and that erectile tissue is present within the labia minora. The glans may be noted as having glandular vascular spaces that are not as prominent as those in the clitoral body, with the spaces being separated more by smooth muscle than in the body and crura. Adipose tissue is absent in the labia minora, but the organ may be described as being made up of dense connective tissue, erectile tissue and elastic fibers.
The clitoral body forms a wishbone-shaped structure containing the corpora cavernosaa pair of sponge-like regions of erectile tissue that contain most of the blood in the clitoris during clitoral erection. The two corpora forming the clitoral body are surrounded by thick fibro-elastic tunica albuginea, literally meaning "white covering", connective tissue. These corpora are separated incompletely from each other in the midline by a fibrous pectiniform septuma comblike band of connective tissue extending between the corpora cavernosa.
The clitoral body extends up to several centimeters before reversing direction and branching, resulting in an inverted "V" shape that extends as a pair of crura ("legs"). The crura are the proximal portions of the arms of the wishbone. Ending at the glans of the clitoris, the tip of the body bends anteriorly away from the pubis. Each crus (singular form of crura) is attached to the corresponding ischial ramusextensions of the copora beneath the descending pubic rami. Concealed behind the labia minora, the crura ends with attachment at or just below the middle of the pubic arch. Associated are the urethral sponge, perineal sponge, a network of nerves and blood vessels, the suspensory ligament of the clitoris, muscles and the pelvic floor.
There is no identified correlation between the size of the clitoral glans or clitoris as a whole, and a woman's age, height, weight, use of hormonal contraception, or being post-menopausal, although women who have given birth may have significantly larger clitoral measurements. Centimeter (cm) and millimeter (mm) measurements of the clitoris show variations in its size. The clitoral glans have been cited as typically varying from 2 mm to 1 cm and usually being estimated at four to five mm in both the transverse and longitudinal planes.
A 1992 study concluded that the total clitoral length, including glans and body, is 16.0 ± 4.3 mm (0.63 ± 0.17 in), where 16 mm (0.63 in) is the mean and 4.3 mm (0.17 in) is the standard deviation. Concerning other studies, researchers from the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Obstetric Hospital in London measured the labia and other genital structures of 50 women from the age of 18 to 50, with a mean age of 35.6., from 2003 to 2004, and the results given for the clitoral glans were 3–10 mm for the range and 5.5 [1.7] mm for the mean. Other research indicates that the clitoral body can measure 5–7 centimetres (2.0–2.8 in) in length, while the clitoral body and crura together can be 10 centimetres (3.9 in) or more in length.
#### Hood
The clitoral hood projects at the front of the labia commissure, where the edges of the labia majora (outer lips) meet at the base of the pubic mound; it is partially formed by fusion of the upper part of the external folds of the labia minora (inner lips) and covers the glans and external shaft. There is considerable variation in how much of the glans protrudes from the hood and how much is covered by it, ranging from completely covered to fully exposed, and tissue of the labia minora also encircles the base of the glans.
#### Bulbs
The vestibular bulbs are more closely related to the clitoris than the vestibule because of the similarity of the trabecular and erectile tissue within the clitoris and bulbs, and the absence of trabecular tissue in other genital organs, with the erectile tissue's trabecular nature allowing engorgement and expansion during sexual arousal. The vestibular bulbs are typically described as lying close to the crura on either side of the vaginal opening; internally, they are beneath the labia majora. When engorged with blood, they cuff the vaginal opening and cause the vulva to expand outward. Although several texts state that they surround the vaginal opening, Ginger et al. state that this does not appear to be the case and tunica albuginea does not envelop the erectile tissue of the bulbs. In Yang et al.'s assessment of the bulbs' anatomy, they conclude that the bulbs "arch over the distal urethra, outlining what might be appropriately called the 'bulbar urethra' in women."
### Homology
The clitoris and penis generally have the same anatomical structure, although the distal portion (or opening) of the urethra is absent in the clitoris of humans and most other animals. The idea that males have clitorises was suggested in 1987 by researcher Josephine Lowndes Sevely theorized that the male corpora cavernosa (a pair of sponge-like regions of erectile tissue that contain most of the blood in the penis during penile erection) are the true counterpart of the clitoris. She argued that "the male clitoris" is directly beneath the rim of the glans penis, where the frenulum of prepuce of the penis (a fold of the prepuce) is located, and proposed that this area be called the "Lownde's crown". Her theory and proposal, though acknowledged in anatomical literature, did not materialize in anatomy books. Modern anatomical texts show that the clitoris displays a hood that is the equivalent of the penis' foreskin, which covers the glans. It also has a shaft that is attached to the glans. The male corpora cavernosa are homologous to the corpus cavernosum clitoridis (the female cavernosa), the bulb of the penis is homologous to the vestibular bulbs beneath the labia minora, the scrotum is homologous to the labia majora, and the penile urethra and part of the skin of the penis are homologous to the labia minora.
Upon anatomical study, the penis can be described as a clitoris that has been mostly pulled out of the body and grafted on top of a significantly smaller piece of spongiosum containing the urethra. Concerning nerve endings, the human clitoris' estimated number of nerve endings (8,000 to over 10,000) is commonly cited as being twice as many as the nerve endings found in the human penis (for its glans or body as a whole) and as more than any other part of the human body. These reports sometimes conflict with other sources on clitoral anatomy or those concerning the nerve endings in the human penis. For example, while some sources estimate that the human penis has 4,000 nerve endings, other sources state that the glans or the entire penile structure have the same amount of nerve endings as the clitoral glans. Some sources state that in contrast to the glans penis, the clitoral glans lacks smooth muscle within its fibrovascular cap and is thus differentiated from the erectile tissues of the clitoris and bulbs; additionally, bulb size varies and may be dependent on age and estrogenization. While the bulbs are considered the equivalent of the male spongiosum, they do not completely encircle the urethra.
The thin corpus spongiosum of the penis runs along the underside of the penile shaft, enveloping the urethra, and expands at the end to form the glans. It partially contributes to erection, which is primarily caused by the two corpora cavernosa that comprise the bulk of the shaft; like the female cavernosa, the male cavernosa soak up blood and become erect when sexually excited. The male corpora cavernosa taper off internally on reaching the spongiosum head. Concerning the Y-shape of the cavernosacrown, body, and legsthe body accounts for much more of the structure in men, and the legs are stubbier; typically, the cavernosa are longer and thicker in males than in females.
## Function
### Sexual activity
#### General
The clitoris has an abundance of nerve endings, and is the human female's most sensitive erogenous zone and generally the primary anatomical source of human female sexual pleasure. When sexually stimulated, it may incite female sexual arousal. Sexual stimulation, including arousal, may result from mental stimulation, foreplay with a sexual partner, or masturbation, and can lead to orgasm. The most effective sexual stimulation of the organ is usually manually or orally (cunnilingus), which is often referred to as direct clitoral stimulation; in cases involving sexual penetration, these activities may also be referred to as additional or assisted clitoral stimulation.
Direct clitoral stimulation involves physical stimulation to the external anatomy of the clitorisglans, hood, and the external shaft. Stimulation of the labia minora (inner lips), due to its external connection with the glans and hood, may have the same effect as direct clitoral stimulation. Though these areas may also receive indirect physical stimulation during sexual activity, such as when in friction with the labia majora (outer lips), indirect clitoral stimulation is more commonly attributed to penile-vaginal penetration. Penile-anal penetration may also indirectly stimulate the clitoris by the shared sensory nerves (especially the pudendal nerve, which gives off the inferior anal nerves and divides into two terminal branches: the perineal nerve and the dorsal nerve of the clitoris).
Due to the glans' high sensitivity, direct stimulation to it is not always pleasurable; instead, direct stimulation to the hood or the areas near the glans is often more pleasurable, with the majority of women preferring to use the hood to stimulate the glans, or to have the glans rolled between the lips of the labia, for indirect touch. It is also common for women to enjoy the shaft of the clitoris being softly caressed in concert with the occasional circling of the clitoral glans. This might be with or without manual penetration of the vagina, while other women enjoy having the entire area of the vulva caressed. As opposed to the use of dry fingers, stimulation from well-lubricated fingers, either by vaginal lubrication or a personal lubricant, is usually more pleasurable for the external anatomy of the clitoris.
As the clitoris' external location does not allow for direct stimulation by sexual penetration, any external clitoral stimulation while in the missionary position usually results from the pubic bone area, the movement of the groins when in contact. As such, some couples may engage in the woman-on-top position or the coital alignment technique, a sex position combining the "riding high" variation of the missionary position with pressure-counterpressure movements performed by each partner in rhythm with sexual penetration, to maximize clitoral stimulation. Lesbian couples may engage in tribadism for ample clitoral stimulation or mutual clitoral stimulation during whole-body contact. Pressing the penis in a gliding or circular motion against the clitoris (intercrural sex), or stimulating it by the movement against another body part, may also be practiced. A vibrator (such as a clitoral vibrator), dildo or other sex toy may be used. Other women stimulate the clitoris by use of a pillow or other inanimate object, by a jet of water from the faucet of a bathtub or shower, or by closing their legs and rocking.
During sexual arousal, the clitoris and the whole of the genitalia engorge and change color as the erectile tissues fill with blood (vasocongestion), and the individual experiences vaginal contractions. The ischiocavernosus and bulbocavernosus muscles, which insert into the corpora cavernosa, contract and compress the dorsal vein of the clitoris (the only vein that drains the blood from the spaces in the corpora cavernosa), and the arterial blood continues a steady flow and having no way to drain out, fills the venous spaces until they become turgid and engorged with blood. This is what leads to clitoral erection.
The clitoral glans doubles in diameter upon arousal and further stimulation become less visible as it is covered by the swelling of tissues of the clitoral hood. The swelling protects the glans from direct contact, as direct contact at this stage can be more irritating than pleasurable. Vasocongestion eventually triggers a muscular reflex, which expels the blood that was trapped in surrounding tissues, and leads to an orgasm. A short time after stimulation has stopped, especially if orgasm has been achieved, the glans becomes visible again and returns to its normal state, with a few seconds (usually 5–10) to return to its normal position and 5–10 minutes to return to its original size. If orgasm is not achieved, the clitoris may remain engorged for a few hours, which women often find uncomfortable. Additionally, the clitoris is very sensitive after orgasm, making further stimulation initially painful for some women.
#### Clitoral and vaginal orgasmic factors
General statistics indicate that 70–80 percent of women require direct clitoral stimulation (consistent manual, oral, or other concentrated friction against the external parts of the clitoris) to reach orgasm. Indirect clitoral stimulation (for example, via vaginal penetration) may also be sufficient for female orgasm. The area near the entrance of the vagina (the lower third) contains nearly 90 percent of the vaginal nerve endings, and there are areas in the anterior vaginal wall and between the top junction of the labia minora and the urethra that are especially sensitive, but intense sexual pleasure, including orgasm, solely from vaginal stimulation is occasional or otherwise absent because the vagina has significantly fewer nerve endings than the clitoris.
The prominent debate over the quantity of vaginal nerve endings began with Alfred Kinsey. Although Sigmund Freud's theory that clitoral orgasms are a prepubertal or adolescent phenomenon and that vaginal (or G-spot) orgasms are something that only physically mature females experience had been criticized before, Kinsey was the first researcher to harshly criticize the theory. Through his observations of female masturbation and interviews with thousands of women, Kinsey found that most of the women he observed and surveyed could not have vaginal orgasms, a finding that was also supported by his knowledge of sex organ anatomy. Scholar Janice M. Irvine stated that he "criticized Freud and other theorists for projecting male constructs of sexuality onto women" and "viewed the clitoris as the main center of sexual response". He considered the vagina to be "relatively unimportant" for sexual satisfaction, relaying that "few women inserted fingers or objects into their vaginas when they masturbated". Believing that vaginal orgasms are "a physiological impossibility" because the vagina has insufficient nerve endings for sexual pleasure or climax, he "concluded that satisfaction from penile penetration [is] mainly psychological or perhaps the result of referred sensation".
Masters and Johnson's research, as well as Shere Hite's, generally supported Kinsey's findings about the female orgasm. Masters and Johnson were the first researchers to determine that the clitoral structures surround and extend along and within the labia. They observed that both clitoral and vaginal orgasms have the same stages of physical response, and found that the majority of their subjects could only achieve clitoral orgasms, while a minority achieved vaginal orgasms. On that basis, they argued that clitoral stimulation is the source of both kinds of orgasms, reasoning that the clitoris is stimulated during penetration by friction against its hood. The research came at the time of the second-wave feminist movement, which inspired feminists to reject the distinction made between clitoral and vaginal orgasms. Feminist Anne Koedt argued that because men "have orgasms essentially by friction with the vagina" and not the clitoral area, this is why women's biology had not been properly analyzed. "Today, with extensive knowledge of anatomy, with [C. Lombard Kelly], Kinsey, and Masters and Johnson, to mention just a few sources, there is no ignorance on the subject [of the female orgasm]," she stated in her 1970 article The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm. She added, "There are, however, social reasons why this knowledge has not been popularized. We are living in a male society which has not sought change in women's role."
Supporting an anatomical relationship between the clitoris and vagina is a study published in 2005, which investigated the size of the clitoris; Australian urologist Helen O'Connell, described as having initiated discourse among mainstream medical professionals to refocus on and redefine the clitoris, noted a direct relationship between the legs or roots of the clitoris and the erectile tissue of the clitoral bulbs and corpora, and the distal urethra and vagina while using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology. While some studies, using ultrasound, have found physiological evidence of the G-spot in women who report having orgasms during vaginal intercourse, O'Connell argues that this interconnected relationship is the physiological explanation for the conjectured G-Spot and experience of vaginal orgasms, taking into account the stimulation of the internal parts of the clitoris during vaginal penetration. "The vaginal wall is, in fact, the clitoris," she said. "If you lift the skin off the vagina on the side walls, you get the bulbs of the clitoristriangular, crescental masses of erectile tissue." O'Connell et al., having performed dissections on the female genitals of cadavers and used photography to map the structure of nerves in the clitoris, made the assertion in 1998 that there is more erectile tissue associated with the clitoris than is generally described in anatomical textbooks and were thus already aware that the clitoris is more than just its glans. They concluded that some females have more extensive clitoral tissues and nerves than others, especially having observed this in young cadavers compared to elderly ones, and therefore whereas the majority of females can only achieve orgasm by direct stimulation of the external parts of the clitoris, the stimulation of the more generalized tissues of the clitoris via vaginal intercourse may be sufficient for others.
French researchers Odile Buisson Fr and Pierre Foldès reported similar findings to that of O'Connell's. In 2008, they published the first complete 3D sonography of the stimulated clitoris and republished it in 2009 with new research, demonstrating how erectile tissue of the clitoris engorges and surrounds the vagina. Based on their findings, they argued that women may be able to achieve vaginal orgasm via stimulation of the G-spot because the highly innervated clitoris is pulled closely to the anterior wall of the vagina when the woman is sexually aroused and during vaginal penetration. They assert that since the front wall of the vagina is inextricably linked with the internal parts of the clitoris, stimulating the vagina without activating the clitoris may be next to impossible. In their 2009 published study, the "coronal planes during perineal contraction and finger penetration demonstrated a close relationship between the root of the clitoris and the anterior vaginal wall". Buisson and Foldès suggested "that the special sensitivity of the lower anterior vaginal wall could be explained by pressure and movement of clitoris' root during a vaginal penetration and subsequent perineal contraction".
Researcher Vincenzo Puppo, who, while agreeing that the clitoris is the center of female sexual pleasure and believing that there is no anatomical evidence of the vaginal orgasm, disagrees with O'Connell and other researchers' terminological and anatomical descriptions of the clitoris (such as referring to the vestibular bulbs as the "clitoral bulbs") and states that "the inner clitoris" does not exist because the penis cannot come in contact with the congregation of multiple nerves/veins situated until the angle of the clitoris, detailed by Kobelt, or with the roots of the clitoris, which do not have sensory receptors or erogenous sensitivity, during vaginal intercourse. Puppo's belief contrasts the general belief among researchers that vaginal orgasms are the result of clitoral stimulation; they reaffirm that clitoral tissue extends, or is at least stimulated by its bulbs, even in the area most commonly reported to be the G-spot.
The G-spot is analogous to the base of the male penis and has additionally been theorized, with the sentiment from researcher Amichai Kilchevsky that because female fetal development is the "default" state in the absence of substantial exposure to male hormones and therefore the penis is essentially a clitoris enlarged by such hormones, there is no evolutionary reason why females would have an entity in addition to the clitoris that can produce orgasms. The general difficulty of achieving orgasms vaginally, which is a predicament that is likely due to nature easing the process of childbearing by drastically reducing the number of vaginal nerve endings, challenge arguments that vaginal orgasms help encourage sexual intercourse to facilitate reproduction. Supporting a distinct G-spot, however, is a study by Rutgers University, published in 2011, which was the first to map the female genitals onto the sensory portion of the brain; the scans indicated that the brain registered distinct feelings between stimulating the clitoris, the cervix and the vaginal wallwhere the G-spot is reported to bewhen several women stimulated themselves in a functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) machine. Barry Komisaruk, head of the research findings, stated that he feels that "the bulk of the evidence shows that the G-spot is not a particular thing" and that it is "a region, it's a convergence of many different structures".
### Vestigiality, adaptionist and reproductive views
Whether the clitoris is vestigial, an adaptation, or serves a reproductive function has also been debated. Geoffrey Miller stated that Helen Fisher, Meredith Small and Sarah Blaffer Hrdy "have viewed the clitoral orgasm as a legitimate adaptation in its own right, with major implications for female sexual behavior and sexual evolution". Like Lynn Margulis and Natalie Angier, Miller believes, "The human clitoris shows no apparent signs of having evolved directly through male mate choice. It is not especially large, brightly colored, specifically shaped or selectively displayed during courtship." He contrasts this with other female species such as spider monkeys and spotted hyenas that have clitorises as long as their male counterparts. He said the human clitoris "could have evolved to be much more conspicuous if males had preferred sexual partners with larger brighter clitorises" and that "its inconspicuous design combined with its exquisite sensitivity suggests that the clitoris is important not as an object of male mate choice, but as a mechanism of female choice."
While Miller stated that male scientists such as Stephen Jay Gould and Donald Symons "have viewed the female clitoral orgasm as an evolutionary side-effect of the male capacity for penile orgasm" and that they "suggested that clitoral orgasm cannot be an adaptation because it is too hard to achieve", Gould acknowledged that "most female orgasms emanate from a clitoral, rather than vaginal (or some other), site" and that his nonadaptive belief "has been widely misunderstood as a denial of either the adaptive value of female orgasm in general or even as a claim that female orgasms lack significance in some broader sense". He said that although he accepts that "clitoral orgasm plays a pleasurable and central role in female sexuality and its joys," "[a]ll these favorable attributes, however, emerge just as clearly and just as easily, whether the clitoral site of orgasm arose as a spandrel or an adaptation". He added that the "male biologists who fretted over [the adaptionist questions] simply assumed that a deeply vaginal site, nearer the region of fertilization, would offer greater selective benefit" due to their Darwinian, summum bonum beliefs about enhanced reproductive success.
Similar to Gould's beliefs about adaptionist views and that "females grow nipples as adaptations for suckling, and males grow smaller unused nipples as a spandrel based upon the value of single development channels", Elisabeth Lloyd suggested that there is little evidence to support an adaptionist account of female orgasm. Meredith L. Chivers stated that "Lloyd views female orgasm as an ontogenetic leftover; women have orgasms because the urogenital neurophysiology for orgasm is so strongly selected for in males that this developmental blueprint gets expressed in females without affecting fitness" and this is similar to "males hav[ing] nipples that serve no fitness-related function."
At the 2002 conference for Canadian Society of Women in Philosophy, Nancy Tuana argued that the clitoris is unnecessary in reproduction; she stated that it has been ignored because of "a fear of pleasure. It is pleasure separated from reproduction. That's the fear." She reasoned that this fear causes ignorance, which veils female sexuality. O'Connell stated, "It boils down to rivalry between the sexes: the idea that one sex is sexual and the other reproductive. The truth is that both are sexual and both are reproductive." She reiterated that the vestibular bulbs appear to be part of the clitoris and that the distal urethra and vagina are intimately related structures, although they are not erectile in character, forming a tissue cluster with the clitoris that appears to be the location of female sexual function and orgasm.
## Clinical significance
### Modification
Modifications to the clitoris can be intentional or unintentional. They include female genital mutilation (FGM), sex reassignment surgery (for trans men as part transitioning, which may also include clitoris enlargement), intersex surgery, and genital piercings. Use of anabolic steroids by bodybuilders and other athletes can result in significant enlargement of the clitoris in concert with other masculinizing effects on their bodies. Abnormal enlargement of the clitoris may also be referred to as clitoromegaly, but clitoromegaly is more commonly seen as a congenital anomaly of the genitalia.
People taking hormones or other medications as part of a transgender transition usually experience dramatic clitoral growth; individual desires and the difficulties of phalloplasty (construction of a penis) often result in the retention of the original genitalia with the enlarged clitoris as a penis analog (metoidioplasty). However, the clitoris cannot reach the size of the penis through hormones. A surgery to add function to the clitoris, such as metoidioplasty, is an alternative to phalloplasty that permits the retention of sexual sensation in the clitoris.
In clitoridectomy, the clitoris may be removed as part of a radical vulvectomy to treat cancer such as vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia; however, modern treatments favor more conservative approaches, as invasive surgery can have psychosexual consequences. Clitoridectomy more often involves parts of the clitoris being partially or completely removed during FGM, which may be additionally known as female circumcision or female genital cutting (FGC). Removing the glans of the clitoris does not mean that the whole structure is lost, since the clitoris reaches deep into the genitals.
In reduction clitoroplasty, a common intersex surgery, the glans are preserved and parts of the erectile bodies are excised. Problems with this technique include loss of sensation, loss of sexual function, and sloughing of the glans. One way to preserve the clitoris with its innervations and function is to imbricate and bury the clitoral glans; however, Şenaylı et al. state that "pain during stimulus because of trapped tissue under the scarring is nearly routine. In another method, 50 percent of the ventral clitoris is removed through the level base of the clitoral shaft, and it is reported that good sensation and clitoral function are observed in follow-up"; additionally, it has "been reported that the complications are from the same as those in the older procedures for this method".
Concerning females who have the condition congenital adrenal hyperplasia, the largest group requiring surgical genital correction, researcher Atilla Şenaylı stated, "The main expectations for the operations are to create a normal female anatomy, with minimal complications and improvement of life quality." Şenaylı added that "[c]osmesis, structural integrity, the coital capacity of the vagina, and absence of pain during sexual activity are the parameters to be judged by the surgeon." (Cosmesis usually refers to the surgical correction of a disfiguring defect.) He stated that although "expectations can be standardized within these few parameters, operative techniques have not yet become homogeneous. Investigators have preferred different operations for different ages of patients".
Gender assessment and surgical treatment are the two main steps in intersex operations. "The first treatments for clitoromegaly were simply resection of the clitoris. Later, it was understood that the clitoris glans and sensory input are important to facilitate orgasm," stated Atilla. The clitoral glans' epithelium "has high cutaneous sensitivity, which is important in sexual responses", and it is because of this that "recession clitoroplasty was later devised as an alternative, but reduction clitoroplasty is the method currently performed."
What is often referred to as "clit piercing" is the more common (and significantly less complicated) clitoral hood piercing. Since piercing the clitoris is difficult and very painful, piercing the clitoral hood is more common than piercing the clitoral shaft, owing to the small percentage of people who are anatomically suited for it. Clitoral hood piercings are usually channeled in the form of vertical piercings, and, to a lesser extent, horizontal piercings. The triangle piercing is a very deep horizontal hood piercing and is done behind the clitoris as opposed to in front of it. For styles such as the Isabella piercing, which pass through the clitoral shaft but are placed deep at the base, they provide unique stimulation and still require the proper genital build. The Isabella starts between the clitoral glans and the urethra, exiting at the top of the clitoral hood; this piercing is highly risky concerning the damage that may occur because of intersecting nerves.
### Sexual disorders
Persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD) results in spontaneous, persistent, and uncontrollable genital arousal in women, unrelated to any feelings of sexual desire. Clitoral priapism, also known as clitorism, is a rare, potentially painful medical condition and is sometimes described as an aspect of PGAD. With PGAD, arousal lasts for an unusually extended period (ranging from hours to days); it can also be associated with morphometric and vascular modifications of the clitoris.
Drugs may cause or affect clitoral priapism. The drug trazodone is known to cause male priapism as a side effect, but there is only one documented report that it may have caused clitoral priapism, in which case discontinuing the medication may be a remedy. Additionally, nefazodone is documented to have caused clitoral engorgement, as distinct from clitoral priapism, in one case, and clitoral priapism can sometimes start as a result of, or only after, the discontinuation of antipsychotics or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).
Because PGAD is relatively rare and, as its concept apart from clitoral priapism, has only been researched since 2001, there is little research into what may cure or remedy the disorder. In some recorded cases, PGAD was caused by or caused, a pelvic arterial-venous malformation with arterial branches to the clitoris; surgical treatment was effective in these cases.
In 2022, an article in The New York Times reported several instances of women experiencing reduced clitoral sensitivity or inability to orgasm following various surgical procedures, including biopsies of the vulva, pelvic mesh surgeries (sling surgeries), and labiaplasties. The Times quoted several researchers who suggest that surgeons' lack of training in clitoral anatomy and nerve distribution may have been a factor.
## Society and culture
### Ancient Greek–16th century knowledge and vernacular
Concerning historical and modern perceptions of the clitoris, the clitoris, and the penis was considered equivalent by some scholars for more than 2,500 years in all respects except their arrangement. Due to it being frequently omitted from, or misrepresented in, historical and contemporary anatomical texts, it was also subject to a continual cycle of male scholars claiming to have discovered it. The ancient Greeks, ancient Romans, and Greek and Roman generations up to and throughout the Renaissance, were aware that male and female sex organs are anatomically similar, but prominent anatomists such as Galen (129c. 200 AD) and Vesalius (1514–1564) regarded the vagina as the structural equivalent of the penis, except for being inverted; Vesalius argued against the existence of the clitoris in normal women, and his anatomical model described how the penis corresponds with the vagina, without a role for the clitoris.
Ancient Greek and Roman sexuality additionally designated penetration as "male-defined" sexuality. The term tribas, or tribade, was used to refer to a woman or intersex individual who actively penetrated another person (male or female) through the use of the clitoris or a dildo. As any sexual act was believed to require that one of the partners be "phallic" and that therefore sexual activity between women was impossible without this feature, mythology popularly associated lesbians with either having enlarged clitorises or as incapable of enjoying sexual activity without the substitution of a phallus.
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In 1545, Charles Estienne was the first writer to identify the clitoris in a work based on dissection, but he concluded that it had a urinary function. Following this study, Realdo Colombo (also known as Matteo Renaldo Colombo), a lecturer in surgery at the University of Padua, Italy, published a book called De re anatomica in 1559, in which he describes the "seat of woman's delight". In his role as researcher, Colombo concluded, "Since no one has discerned these projections and their workings, if it is permissible to give names to things discovered by me, it should be called the love or sweetness of Venus.", about the mythological Venus, goddess of erotic love. Colombo's claim was disputed by his successor at Padua, Gabriele Falloppio (discoverer of the fallopian tube), who claimed that he was the first to discover the clitoris. In 1561, Falloppio stated, "Modern anatomists have entirely neglected it ... and do not say a word about it ... and if others have spoken of it, know that they have taken it from me or my students." This caused an upset in the European medical community, and, having read Colombo's and Falloppio's detailed descriptions of the clitoris, Vesalius stated, "It is unreasonable to blame others for incompetence on the basis of some sport of nature you have observed in some women and you can hardly ascribe this new and useless part, as if it were an organ, to healthy women." He concluded, "I think that such a structure appears in hermaphrodites who otherwise have well-formed genitals, as Paul of Aegina describes, but I have never once seen in any woman a penis (which Avicenna called albaratha and the Greeks called an enlarged nympha and classed as an illness) or even the rudiments of a tiny phallus."
The average anatomist had difficulty challenging Galen's or Vesalius' research; Galen was the most famous physician of the Greek era and his works were considered the standard of medical understanding up to and throughout the Renaissance (i.e. for almost two thousand years), and various terms being used to describe the clitoris seemed to have further confused the issue of its structure. In addition to Avicenna's naming it the albaratha or virga ("rod") and Colombo's calling it the sweetness of Venus, Hippocrates used the term columella ("little pillar'"), and Albucasis, an Arabic medical authority, named it tentigo ("tension"). The names indicated that each description of the structures was about the body and glans of the clitoris but usually the glans. It was additionally known to the Romans, who named it (vulgar slang) landica. However, Albertus Magnus, one of the most prolific writers of the Middle Ages, felt that it was important to highlight "homologies between male and female structures and function" by adding "a psychology of sexual arousal" that Aristotle had not used to detail the clitoris. While in Constantine's treatise Liber de coitu, the clitoris is referred to a few times, Magnus gave an equal amount of attention to male and female organs.
Like Avicenna, Magnus also used the word virga for the clitoris, but employed it for the male and female genitals; despite his efforts to give equal ground to the clitoris, the cycle of suppression and rediscovery of the organ continued, and a 16th-century justification for clitoridectomy appears to have been confused by hermaphroditism and the imprecision created by the word nymphae substituted for the word clitoris. Nymphotomia was a medical operation to excise an unusually large clitoris, but what was considered "unusually large" was often a matter of perception. The procedure was routinely performed on Egyptian women, due to physicians such as Jacques Daléchamps who believed that this version of the clitoris was "an unusual feature that occurred in almost all Egyptian women [and] some of ours, so that when they find themselves in the company of other women, or their clothes rub them while they walk or their husbands wish to approach them, it erects like a male penis and indeed they use it to play with other women, as their husbands would do ... Thus the parts are cut".
### 17th century–present day knowledge and vernacular
Caspar Bartholin, a 17th-century Danish anatomist, dismissed Colombo's and Falloppio's claims that they discovered the clitoris, arguing that the clitoris had been widely known to medical science since the second century. Although 17th-century midwives recommended to men and women that women should aspire to achieve orgasms to help them get pregnant for general health and well-being and to keep their relationships healthy, debate about the importance of the clitoris persisted, notably in the work of Regnier de Graaf in the 17th century and Georg Ludwig Kobelt in the 19th.
Like Falloppio and Bartholin, de Graaf criticized Colombo's claim of having discovered the clitoris; his work appears to have provided the first comprehensive account of clitoral anatomy. "We are extremely surprised that some anatomists make no more mention of this part than if it did not exist at all in the universe of nature," he stated. "In every cadaver, we have so far dissected we have found it quite perceptible to sight and touch." De Graaf stressed the need to distinguish nympha from clitoris, choosing to "always give [the clitoris] the name clitoris" to avoid confusion; this resulted in the frequent use of the correct name for the organ among anatomists, but considering that nympha was also varied in its use and eventually became the term specific to the labia minora, more confusion ensued. Debate about whether orgasm was even necessary for women began in the Victorian era, and Freud's 1905 theory about the immaturity of clitoral orgasms (see above) negatively affected women's sexuality throughout most of the 20th century.
Toward the end of World War I, a maverick British MP named Noel Pemberton Billing published an article entitled "The Cult of the Clitoris", furthering his conspiracy theories and attacking the actress Maud Allan and Margot Asquith, wife of the prime minister. The accusations led to a sensational libel trial, which Billing eventually won; Philip Hoare reports that Billing argued that "as a medical term, 'clitoris' would only be known to the 'initiated', and was incapable of corrupting moral minds". Jodie Medd argues regarding "The Cult of the Clitoris" that "the female non-reproductive but desiring body [...] simultaneously demands and refuses interpretative attention, inciting scandal through its very resistance to representation."
From the 18th 20th century, especially during the 20th, details of the clitoris from various genital diagrams presented in earlier centuries were omitted from later texts. The full extent of the clitoris was alluded to by Masters and Johnson in 1966, but in such a muddled fashion that the significance of their description became obscured; in 1981, the Federation of Feminist Women's Health Clinics (FFWHC) continued this process with anatomically precise illustrations identifying 18 structures of the clitoris. Despite the FFWHC's illustrations, Josephine Lowndes Sevely, in 1987, described the vagina as more of the counterpart of the penis.
Concerning other beliefs about the clitoris, Hite (1976 and 1981) found that, during sexual intimacy with a partner, clitoral stimulation was more often described by women as foreplay than as a primary method of sexual activity, including orgasm. Further, although the FFWHC's work significantly propelled feminist reformation of anatomical texts, it did not have a general impact. Helen O'Connell's late 1990s research motivated the medical community to start changing the way the clitoris is anatomically defined. O'Connell describes typical textbook descriptions of the clitoris as lacking detail and including inaccuracies, such as older and modern anatomical descriptions of the female human urethral and genital anatomy having been based on dissections performed on elderly cadavers whose erectile (clitoral) tissue had shrunk. She instead credits the work of Georg Ludwig Kobelt as the most comprehensive and accurate description of clitoral anatomy. MRI measurements, which provide a live and multi-planar method of examination, now complement the FFWHC's, as well as O'Connell's, research efforts concerning the clitoris, showing that the volume of clitoral erectile tissue is ten times that which is shown in doctors' offices and anatomy textbooks.
In Bruce Bagemihl's survey of The Zoological Record (1978–1997)which contains over a million documents from over 6,000 scientific journals539 articles focusing on the penis were found, while seven were found focusing on the clitoris. In 2000, researchers Shirley Ogletree and Harvey Ginsberg concluded that there is a general neglect of the word clitoris in the common vernacular. They looked at the terms used to describe genitalia in the PsycINFO database from 1887 to 2000 and found that penis was used in 1,482 sources, vagina in 409, while clitoris was only mentioned in 83. They additionally analyzed 57 books listed in a computer database for sex instruction. In the majority of the books, penis was the most commonly discussed body partmentioned more than clitoris, vagina, and uterus put together. They last investigated terminology used by college students, ranging from Euro-American (76%/76%), Hispanic (18%/14%), and African American (4%/7%), regarding the students' beliefs about sexuality and knowledge on the subject. The students were overwhelmingly educated to believe that the vagina is the female counterpart of the penis. The authors found that the student's belief that the inner portion of the vagina is the most sexually sensitive part of the female body correlated with negative attitudes toward masturbation and strong support for sexual myths.
A study in 2005 reported that, among a sample of undergraduate students, the most frequently cited sources for knowledge about the clitoris were school and friends, and that this was associated with the least tested knowledge. Knowledge of the clitoris by self-exploration was the least cited, but "respondents correctly answered, on average, three of the five clitoral knowledge measures". The authors stated that "[k]nowledge correlated significantly with the frequency of women's orgasm in masturbation but not partnered sex" and that their "results are discussed in light of gender inequality and a social construction of sexuality, endorsed by both men and women, that privileges men's sexual pleasure over women's, such that orgasm for women is pleasing but ultimately incidental." They concluded that part of the solution to remedying "this problem" requires that males and females are taught more about the clitoris than is currently practiced.
The humanitarian group Clitoraid launched the first annual International Clitoris Awareness Week, from 6 to 12 May in 2015. Clitoraid spokesperson Nadine Gary stated that the group's mission is to raise public awareness about the clitoris because it has "been ignored, vilified, made taboo, and considered sinful and shameful for centuries".
Odile Fillod created a 3D printable, open source, full-size model of the clitoris, for use in a set of anti-sexist videos she had been commissioned to produce. Fillod was interviewed by Stephanie Theobald, whose article in The Guardian stated that the 3D model would be used for sex education in French schools, from primary to secondary level, from September 2016 onwards; this was not the case, but the story went viral across the world.
A questionnaire in a 2019 study was administered to a sample of educational sciences postgraduate students to trace the level of their knowledge concerning the organs of the female and male reproductive system. The authors reported that about two-thirds of the students failed to name external female genitals, such as the clitoris and labia, even after detailed pictures were provided to them. An analysis in 2022 reported that the clitoris is mentioned in only one out of 113 Greek secondary education textbooks used in biology classes from the 1870s to present.
### Contemporary art
New York artist Sophia Wallace started work in 2012 on a multimedia project to challenge misconceptions about the clitoris. Based on O'Connell's 1998 research, Wallace's work emphasizes the sheer scope and size of the human clitoris. She says that ignorance of this still seems to be pervasive in modern society. "It is a curious dilemma to observe the paradox that on the one hand, the female body is the primary metaphor for sexuality, its use saturates advertising, art, and the mainstream erotic imaginary," she said. "Yet, the clitoris, the true female sexual organ, is virtually invisible." The project is called Cliteracy and it includes a "clit rodeo", which is interactive, climb-on model of a giant golden clitoris, including its inner parts, produced with the help of sculptor Kenneth Thomas. "It's been a showstopper wherever it's been shown. People are hungry to be able to talk about this," Wallace said. "I love seeing men standing up for the clit [...] Cliteracy is about not having one's body controlled or legislated [...] Not having access to the pleasure that is your birthright is a deeply political act."
Another project started in New York, in 2016, street art that has since spread to almost 100 cities: Clitorosity, a "community-driven effort to celebrate the full structure of the clitoris", combining chalk drawings and words to spark interaction and conversation with passers-by, which the team documents on social media. In 2016, Lori-Malépart Traversy made an animated documentary about the unrecognized anatomy of the clitoris.
Alli Sebastian Wolf created a golden 100∶1 scale model anatomical of a clitoris in 2017, called the Glitoris and said, she hopes knowledge of the clitoris will soon become so uncontroversial that making art about them would be as irrelevant as making art about penises.
Other projects listed by the BBC include Clito Clito, body-positive jewellery made in Berlin; Clitorissima, a documentary intended to normalize mother-daughter conversations about the clitoris; and a ClitArt festival in London, encompassing spoken word performances as well as visual art. French art collective Les Infemmes (a pun on "infamous" and "women") published a fanzine whose title can be translated as "The Clit Cheatsheet".
### Influence on female genital mutilation
Significant controversy surrounds female genital mutilation (FGM), with the World Health Organization (WHO) being one of many health organizations that have campaigned against the procedures on behalf of human rights, stating that "FGM has no health benefits" and that it is "a violation of the human rights of girls and women" which "reflects deep-rooted inequality between the sexes". The practice has existed at one point or another in almost all human civilizations, most commonly to exert control over the sexual behavior, including masturbation, of girls and women, but also to change the clitoris' appearance. Custom and tradition are the most frequently cited reasons for FGM, with some cultures believing that not performing it has the possibility of disrupting the cohesiveness of their social and political systems, such as FGM also being a part of a girl's initiation into adulthood. Often, a girl is not considered an adult in an FGM-practicing society unless she has undergone FGM, and the "removal of the clitoris and labiaviewed by some as the male parts of a woman's bodyis thought to enhance the girl's femininity, often synonymous with docility and obedience".
Female genital mutilation is carried out in several societies, especially in Africa, with 85 percent of genital mutilations performed in Africa consisting of clitoridectomy or excision, and to a lesser extent in other parts of the Middle East and Southeast Asia, on girls from a few days old to mid-adolescent, often to reduce the sexual desire to preserve vaginal virginity. The practice of FGM has spread globally, as immigrants from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East bring the custom with them. In the United States, it is sometimes practiced on girls born with a clitoris that is larger than usual. Comfort Momoh, who specializes in the topic of FGM, states that FGM might have been "practiced in ancient Egypt as a sign of distinction among the aristocracy"; there are reports that traces of infibulation are on Egyptian mummies. FGM is still routinely practiced in Egypt. Greenberg et al. report that "one study found that 97 percent of married women in Egypt had had some form of genital mutilation performed." Amnesty International estimated in 1997 that more than two million FGM procedures are performed every year.
## Other animals
Although the clitoris exists in all mammal species, few detailed studies of the anatomy of the clitoris in non-humans exist. Studies have been done on the clitoris of cats, sheep and mice. The clitoris is especially developed in fossas, apes, lemurs, moles, and, like the penis in many non-human placental mammals, often contains a small bone. In females, this bone is known as the os clitoridis. Many species of Talpid moles exhibit peniform clitorises that are tunneled by the urethra and are found to have erectile tissue. Studies of Spanish moles have revealed that the female gonads develop in a "testis-like pattern". The clitoris exists in turtles, ostriches, crocodiles, and in species of birds in which the male counterpart has a penis. Some intersex female bears mate and give birth through the tip of the clitoris; these species are grizzly bears, brown bears, American black bears and polar bears. Although the bears have been described as having "a birth canal that runs through the clitoris rather than forming a separate vagina" (a feature that is estimated to make up 10 to 20 percent of the bears' population), scientists state that female spotted hyenas are the only non-hermaphroditic female mammals devoid of an external vaginal opening, and whose sexual anatomy is distinct from usual intersex cases.
### Non-human primates
In spider monkeys, the clitoris is especially developed and has an interior passage, or urethra, that makes it almost identical to the penis, and it retains and distributes urine droplets as the female spider monkey moves around. Scholar Alan F. Dixson stated that this urine "is voided at the bases of the clitoris, flows down the shallow groove on its perineal surface, and is held by the skin folds on each side of the groove". Because spider monkeys of South America have pendulous and erectile clitorises long enough to be mistaken for a penis, researchers and observers of the species look for a scrotum to determine the animal's sex; a similar approach is to identify scent-marking glands that may also be present on the clitoris.
The clitoris erects in squirrel monkeys during dominance displays, which indirectly influences the squirrel monkeys' reproductive success.
The clitoris of bonobos is larger and more externalized than in most mammals; Natalie Angier said that a young adolescent "female bonobo is maybe half the weight of a human teenager, but her clitoris is three times bigger than the human equivalent, and visible enough to waggle unmistakably as she walks". Female bonobos often engage in the practice of genital-genital (GG) rubbing, which is the non-human form of tribadism that human females engage in. Ethologist Jonathan Balcombe stated that female bonobos rub their clitorises together rapidly for ten to twenty seconds, and this behavior, "which may be repeated in rapid succession, is usually accompanied by grinding, shrieking, and clitoral engorgement"; he added that, on average, they engage in this practice "about once every two hours", and as bonobos sometimes mate face-to-face, "evolutionary biologist Marlene Zuk has suggested that the position of the clitoris in bonobos and some other primates has evolved to maximize stimulation during sexual intercourse".
Many strepsirrhine species exhibit elongated clitorises that are either fully or partially tunneled by the urethra, including mouse lemurs, dwarf lemurs, all Eulemur species, lorises and galagos. Some of these species also exhibit a membrane seal across the vagina that closes the vaginal opening during the non-mating seasons, most notably mouse and dwarf lemurs. The clitoral morphology of the ring-tailed lemur is the most well-studied. They are described as having "elongated, pendulous clitorises that are [fully] tunneled by a urethra". The urethra is surrounded by erectile tissue, which allows for significant swelling during breeding seasons, but this erectile tissue differs from the typical male corpus spongiosum. Non-pregnant adult ring-tailed females do not show higher testosterone levels than males, but they do exhibit higher A<sub>4</sub> and estrogen levels during seasonal aggression. During pregnancy, estrogen, A<sub>4</sub>, and testosterone levels are raised, but female fetuses are still "protected" from excess testosterone. These "masculinized" genitalia are often found alongside other traits, such as female-dominated social groups, reduced sexual dimorphism that makes females the same size as males, and even ratios of sexes in adult populations. This phenomenon that has been dubbed the "lemur syndrome". A 2014 study of Eulemur masculinization proposed that behavioral and morphological masculinization in female lemuriformes is an ancestral trait that likely emerged after their split from lorisiformes.
### Spotted hyenas
While female spotted hyenas are sometimes referred to as hermaphrodites or as intersex, and scientists of ancient and later historical times believed that they were hermaphrodites, modern scientists do not refer to them as such. That designation is typically reserved for those who simultaneously exhibit features of both sexes; the genetic makeup of female spotted hyenas "are clearly distinct" from male spotted hyenas.
Female spotted hyenas have a clitoris 90 percent as long and the same diameter as a male penis (171 millimeters long and 22 millimeters in diameter), and this pseudo-penis's formation seems largely androgen-independent because it appears in the female fetus before differentiation of the fetal ovary and adrenal gland. The spotted hyenas have a highly erectile clitoris, complete with a false scrotum; author John C. Wingfield stated that "the resemblance to male genitalia is so close that sex can be determined with confidence only by palpation of the scrotum". The pseudo-penis can also be distinguished from the males' genitalia by its greater thickness and more rounded glans. The female possesses no external vagina, as the labia are fused to form a pseudo-scrotum. In the females, this scrotum consists of soft adipose tissue. Like male spotted hyenas with regard to their penises, the female spotted hyenas have small penile spines on the head of their clitorises, which scholar Catherine Blackledge [pl] said makes "the clitoris tip feel like soft sandpaper". She added that the clitoris "extends away from the body in a sleek and slender arc, measuring, on average, over 17 cm from root to tip. Just like a penis, [it] is fully erectile, raising its head in hyena greeting ceremonies, social displays, games of rough and tumble or when sniffing out peers".
Due to their higher levels of androgen exposure during fetal development, the female hyenas are significantly more muscular and aggressive than their male counterparts; social-wise, they are of higher rank than the males, being dominant or dominant and alpha, and the females who have been exposed to higher levels of androgen than average become higher-ranking than their female peers. Subordinate females lick the clitorises of higher-ranked females as a sign of submission and obedience, but females also lick each other's clitorises as a greeting or to strengthen social bonds; in contrast, while all males lick the clitorises of dominant females, the females will not lick the penises of males because males are considered to be of lowest rank.
The urethra and vagina of the female spotted hyena exit through the clitoris, allowing the females to urinate, copulate and give birth through this organ. This trait makes mating more laborious for the male than in other mammals, and also makes attempts to sexually coerce (physically force sexual activity on) females futile. Joan Roughgarden, an ecologist and evolutionary biologist, said that because the hyena's clitoris is higher on the belly than the vagina in most mammals, the male hyena "must slide his rear under the female when mating so that his penis lines up with [her clitoris]". In an action similar to pushing up a shirtsleeve, the "female retracts the [pseudo-penis] on itself, and creates an opening into which the male inserts his own penis". The male must practice this act, which can take a couple of months to successfully perform. Female spotted hyenas exposed to larger doses of androgen have significantly damaged ovaries, making it difficult to conceive. After giving birth, the pseudo-penis is stretched and loses much of its original aspects; it becomes a slack-walled and reduced prepuce with an enlarged orifice with split lips. Approximately 15% of the females die during their first time giving birth, and over 60% of their species' firstborn young die.
A 2006 Baskin et al. study concluded, "The basic anatomical structures of the corporeal bodies in both sexes of humans and spotted hyenas were similar. As in humans, the dorsal nerve distribution was unique in being devoid of nerves at the 12 o'clock position in the penis and clitoris of the spotted hyena" and that "[d]orsal nerves of the penis/clitoris in humans and male spotted hyenas tracked along both sides of the corporeal body to the corpus spongiosum at the 5 and 7 o'clock positions. The dorsal nerves penetrated the corporeal body and distally the glans in the hyena", and in female hyenas, "the dorsal nerves fanned out laterally on the clitoral body. Glans morphology was different in appearance in both sexes, being wide and blunt in the female and tapered in the male".
## See also
- Clitoral pump
- Clitoria, a type of tropical plant
- Clitoraid, a non-profit organization working against female genital mutilation
- The Evolution of Human Sexuality'' |
18,901,935 | To My Surprise (album) | 1,133,858,351 | null | [
"2003 debut albums",
"Roadrunner Records albums",
"To My Surprise albums"
] | To My Surprise is the only album by American alternative rock band To My Surprise. Released on October 7, 2003 by Roadrunner Records, it was the only album that the band released before disbanding in 2006. The album was intended to be self-produced by Shawn Crahan and Brandon Darner, but after producer Rick Rubin was sent demos by Crahan, Rubin invited the band to Los Angeles where he assumed the role of executive producer. Following the release of the album, a music video was released for the song "In The Mood" on December 1.
The album was generally well received by critics, who remarked on its diversity and significantly different musical style to that of drummer Crahan's other band Slipknot. They noted that it features music inspired by The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Weezer, among others. However the album did not appear on any sales charts.
## History
In June 2002, band members Shawn Crahan, Brandon Darner and Stevan Robinson began working on an album together. Drummer Crahan told MTV that working on this album "made [him] find [his] voice" and that with his other band Slipknot he had been "hurting for a long time for a musical voice". In an interview with Launch, he said that writing the track "The World's Too Small" was his "most magical musical experience" because "[he] was giving more than on just one or two simple ideas." In 2003 Crahan sent producer Rick Rubin two songs that he and Darner had written, primarily to receive an opinion on the songs. However, Rubin invited the band to Cello Studios in Los Angeles to work on an album. It was there that the album featuring 11 tracks was self-produced by Crahan and Darner, with Rubin as executive producer.
On October 7, 2003, To My Surprise was released through Roadrunner Records. An animated music video for the track "In The Mood" was produced by BoingBoing, which was premiered on MTV's Extreme show on December 1. Also, the track "Get It To Go" was featured on the soundtrack for the video game MVP Baseball 2004. To My Surprise did not tour in 2003 to promote the album because Crahan was working with Slipknot on their third album. However, they did perform a limited number shows in North America the following year.
## Musical style
Prior to the release of the album, drummer Crahan touted To My Surprise as "a hybrid of folk, '70s rock fuzz and schizophrenic grooves". Neil Strauss of The New York Times stated that each song has a unique sound, concluding that they sound like "pop songs that have been pushed off balance". In another article Strauss includes They Might Be Giants, Weezer and Faith No More as bands with similar-sounding "elements". Rowan Shaeffer of Counterculture, commented on the album's diversity, saying "to say that the [album] is eclectic would be a gross understatement," citing Pink Floyd and Mr. Bungle as evident influences. The Calgary Sun's Mike Bell cited "glam, new wave, Beatles pop and country rock" as the sounds the album presents. In his review for Allmusic Robert L. Doerschuk noted that the track "Sunday" makes musical references to the single "Pleasant Valley Sunday" by The Monkees, giving the "happy, strumming guitars and skippy rhythms" as similarities. He also said that they quote "one of the darker verses in the Jim Morrison songbook".
## Reception
To My Surprise was met with generally favorable critical reviews, but did not appear on any sales charts. One point which was generally drawn upon was the significant difference between their musical style to that of Crahan's other band Slipknot. Reviewer Neil Strauss opens his review with a reference to the title of the album, saying, "And, truly, it is a surprise", and then going on to say that the album "is commendable not just because [it is] different but because [it is] good". Robert L. Doerschuk of Allmusic declares that the album—aside from the track "Say Goodbye"—"maintains a buoyant and unsubtle approach". He also noted Crahan's "muscular style" as a notable element to the album saying that "[it] transplants well into this setting, which probably should not have been a surprise after all". The vocals on the album were praised by the reviewers at babysue, saying "the vocals [are] masculine yet right on key". When reviewing for Calgary Sun, Mike Bell highlighted their eclectic nature and in conclusion said the album is "fittingly, fun and surprising". However Rowan Shaeffer of Counterculture said that their diversity was ultimately their strength and weakness; he suggested that they relied too heavily on their influences by creating songs of other bands, saying that "the only [song] left out was the To My Surprise song".
## Track listing
1. "The World's Too Small" – 3:37
2. "Get It To Go" – 3:12
3. "In The Mood" – 3:31
4. "Blue" – 3:59
5. "Say Goodbye" – 3:33
6. "Easy Or Not" – 2:54
7. "Turn It Back Around" – 3:25
8. "This Life" – 5:34
9. "Come With Me" – 3:47
10. "Sunday" – 3:22
11. "Who's To Say" – 4:23
## Personnel
- Rick Rubin – executive producer
- Shawn Crahan – drums, vocals, scratch, producer, art direction, photography
- Brandon Darner – guitars, vocals, scratch, producer
- Stevan Robinson – guitars, vocals
- Tal Herzberg – additional musician
- Jon Ginty – additional musician
- Ed Thacker – engineer / mixer
- Dan Lefter – assistant engineering
- Vlado Meller – mastering
- Monte Conner – A&R
- Mr. Scott Design – design
- Stefan Seskis – photography
- Jonathan Mannion – photography
- Alexandria K. Crahan – band sculpture |
3,072,788 | Alien Soldier | 1,164,971,556 | 1995 video game | [
"1995 video games",
"Nintendo Switch Online games",
"Run and gun games",
"Sega Genesis games",
"Sega video games",
"Single-player video games",
"Treasure (company) games",
"Video games about extraterrestrial life",
"Video games about terrorism",
"Video games developed in Japan",
"Video games set in 2015",
"Video games set on fictional planets",
"Virtual Console games"
] | Alien Soldier is a side-scrolling run and gun video game developed by Treasure and published by Sega for the Mega Drive. Retail copies were released in Japan and PAL territories while in North America it was only available exclusively via the Sega Channel cable service. The story follows a powerful being named Epsilon-Eagle, who after being nearly killed becomes determined to avenge his near death and save his planet. The character has a variety of weapons and moves that the player must master to complete the game. Many gameplay ideas are borrowed from Treasure's earlier Mega Drive release, Gunstar Heroes (1993). However, Alien Soldier puts an emphasis on challenging boss fights with short and easy levels serving as downtime in-between.
Treasure began development on four games after the release of Gunstar Heroes, among these was Alien Soldier. Development lasted two years and was led by Hideyuki Suganami, who originally held ambitious plans and wanted to build the entire game himself. With the market for the Mega Drive quickly shrinking to make headway for the incoming 32-bit fifth generation hardware, Suganami received support from other Treasure staff and released the game with only about half of his original ideas realized. The team designed and marketed Alien Soldier explicitly for "hardcore" Mega Drive gamers, designing its difficulty and scoring methods for those that enjoyed the system's strong action game library.
Alien Soldier was released towards the end of the Mega Drive's lifecycle in February 1995. Critics praised the game for its challenge and gameplay; these sentiments carried over into retrospective reviews where critics also highlighted the game's graphics, soundtrack, and overall intensity. Some negative critique was directed towards the hard difficulty, steep learning curve, and unorthodox gameplay, but many still recommend it to fans of Gunstar Heroes and the run and gun genre. The game's first re-release was on the PlayStation 2 in Japan for the Sega Ages 2500 series which includes different regional releases and extra features. It was also re-released worldwide on the Wii Virtual Console in 2007, Steam in 2011, the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack in 2022 and the Sega Genesis Mini 2 in 2022.
## Gameplay
Alien Soldier is a side-scrolling run and gun video game in which the player controls the main character, Epsilon-Eagle, through 25 stages and 26 bosses. The gameplay has been compared heavily to Gunstar Heroes; however, putting a much larger emphasis on boss fights, and lacking any 2-player option. The stages are notably short, populated with weak enemies to serve as downtime between the more difficult boss battles. There are two difficulties in the game, "supereasy" and "superhard". Enemies on the hard setting are only slightly more difficult; however, there are no passwords or unlimited continues as in the easy mode.
Epsilon-Eagle can run, double jump, hover in the air, and use six different types of weapons. Only four can be equipped at any given time, but the player may choose which weapons they would like to equip before the game starts. Each gun has its own ammunition bar which can be replenished; if it is depleted the player will be left with a little firepower. The player can also perform a dash across the screen, which when at full health, will become a deadly move called "Phoenix Force" that will damage any enemies in its path. There is also a counter move, that if timed properly, will change enemy bullets into health. Epsilon-Eagle can attack in either fixed-fire or free-moving styles. The first makes him immovable while firing a weapon, instead allowing for quick aiming, while the second allows walking and shooting simultaneously with the sacrifice of directional accuracy.
## Plot
The premise of Alien Soldier is provided with a long text scroll at the start of the game. After the game has begun, it is not referred to again. In the year 2015, the A-Humans of A-Earth have created genetically engineered A-Humans capable of super intelligence and strength, as well as parasitic co-existence with machinery and animals, particularly humans. A terrorist organization known as Scarlet rose up within this race and sought to dominate the rest of the A-Humans and A-Earth by locking the planet down and keeping anyone else out. During the height of Scarlet's power, an assassination attempt on the group's leader, Epsilon-Eagle, was carried out by a special forces group. Scarlet fought back with their powers, and the battle somehow breached the space-time continuum. Epsilon was gravely injured and cast somewhere into the continuum.
Seemingly gone forever, another Scarlet member known as Xi-Tiger took control of the organization. Under his rule, Scarlet became too brutal even for themselves, and they called for Epsilon to reclaim his position. More or less isolated from the rest of the group, Xi sought to find and assassinate Epsilon himself. He planned an attack on an A-Human research laboratory, where children with special abilities had been kidnapped and experimented on. Upon arriving, Xi-Tiger sensed the presence of Epsilon in one of the boys. However, he was unsure because he could not pinpoint the evil from Epsilon, who had entered the boy's body and was now living as a parasite. Xi-Tiger took a young girl hostage and threatened to kill her unless Epsilon revealed himself. The boy flew into a rage and morphed his body into Epsilon himself. Xi seemed to sense this strange power, and in fear, killed the girl and fled. Epsilon had completely split his dual personality apart; with both good and evil Epsilons now chasing after Xi-Tiger.
## Development
After developing Gunstar Heroes, Treasure was divided into four teams working on separate projects: Dynamite Headdy, Light Crusader, Yū Yū Hakusho Makyō Tōitsusen, and Alien Soldier. Development of Alien Soldier lasted two years and was led by Hideyuki Suganami, who from the start wanted to make the entire game himself. Despite 32-bit fifth generation hardware already on the market, he chose to program the game for the 16-bit Mega Drive, claiming that he may have been too captivated by the idea of making an "action shooting" game which the system was known for. Treasure explicitly targeted the game for "hardcore" Mega Drive players and designed its difficulty and end-game scoring methods with this in mind. Suganami described the game as "for Mega Drivers custom" and proudly placed the phrase on the game's title screen alongside a Mega Drive advertising slogan: "Visualshock! Speedshock! Soundshock!".
Suganami was deeply invested in Alien Soldier and devoted a lot of personal time to developing it. He began developing the game himself as the sole designer and programmer. At the time, Mega Drive games typically required two designers and two programmers, but Suganami wanted to challenge himself and see if it was possible to create the game himself. He originally had ambitious plans for a large backstory, but in order to make their deadline of 3 January 1995, the majority of it was cut from the game. As the deadline approached, he came to realize he would not be able to complete Alien Soldier himself, and so additional staff were added to provide him support. He worked overtime during the New Years holidays in order to complete the game while the market for the Mega Drive was quickly shrinking. Only about half of the team's original ideas were completed in time for release. They originally planned to create 100 bosses, but this was cut much shorter due to the time constraints. One of the bosses that was included, "Seven Force", was originally featured in Gunstar Heroes.
## Release
Alien Soldier was released on 24 February 1995 in Japan. The game received a physical cartridge format in Australia, Europe and Japan, but in North America, the game was delivered exclusively through the Sega Channel cable service. Released late in the Mega Drive's lifecycle and after the release of the Sega Saturn, Alien Soldier pushed the system to its technical limits. Suganami wished he continued working on it after release, believing he could have improved on the story and graphics. Years later, Yosuke Okunari of Treasure addressed concerns that Alien Soldier was released as an incomplete game, stating that the notion is only derived from Suganami having originally had large ambitions that were never realized.
The game's first re-release was in Japan in 2006 on the PlayStation 2 as part of the Sega Ages 2500: Gunstar Heroes Treasure Box compilation together with Gunstar Heroes and Dynamite Headdy. Okunari worked on the emulation software for the release and was delighted he would be exposing the game to more people. The original cartridge has become rare and expensive due to low production numbers and positive word of mouth, selling for over 20,000 yen (\~US\$200) in used game stores by 2006. The PlayStation 2 release includes both PAL and Japanese versions, video filter options, and a recorded full playthrough done by an expert. Alien Soldier was released again worldwide in fall 2007 on the Wii via the Virtual Console download service, and again for Microsoft Windows on Steam on 6 January 2011. The game was also re-released on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack on 16 March 2022.
## Reception
For its original Mega Drive release, Famitsu provided Alien Soldier with a score of 24 out of 40. Mean Machines called it "a real gameplayer's game", citing the unrelenting waves of enemies and high difficulty. They noted how Treasure was beginning to establish a pattern of good games, and called Alien Soldier a modern classic. Simon Clays of Computer and Video Games found it to be challenging and unique by basing its gameplay on boss fights. Other editors from the magazine complimented the boss design and animations.
Frank Provo of GameSpot reviewed the Wii Virtual Console release in 2007, citing the excellent graphics, sound, and general intensity of the game. He noted initial difficulty adjusting to the controls and game design. However, once accustomed, he said, "you start totally feeling what it must be like to be an army of one trading firepower with some of the universe's largest, most elaborate creatures. That's a great feeling." Lucas M. Thomas of IGN noted the game's many similarities to Gunstar Heroes and recommended Alien Soldier to those who enjoyed it. "Alien Soldier is a long-lost piece of Treasure's action gaming legacy," said Thomas. "It's got the fast-firing, high-energy, overly-explosive intensity that fans of the company have come to expect." Darren Calvert of Nintendo Life described the graphics and animation as some of the best on the Mega Drive. He found the game difficult, but still enjoyable for fans of the run and gun genre. Dan Whitehead of Eurogamer described the game as "manically-paced" and "bizarrely creative" while also providing a disclaimer that it's "really hectic and difficult if you're not into this sort of thing." |
1,516,448 | Modern Benoni | 1,012,623,296 | Chess opening | [
"Chess openings"
] | The Modern Benoni is a chess opening that begins with the moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6. It is classified under the ECO codes A60–A79. After the initial moves, Black proceeds to capture on d5, creating a majority of black pawns on the queenside. To support their advance, the king's bishop is usually fianchettoed on g7. These two features differentiate Black's setup from the other Benoni defences and the King's Indian Defence, although transpositions between these openings are common.
Frank Marshall invented the Modern Benoni in 1927, but his experiments with the opening went largely ignored for over 20 years. In the 1950s the system was revitalized by players in the Soviet Union, chief among them Mikhail Tal. Its subsequent adoption by players of a similarly aggressive and uncompromising style such as Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov established the opening's reputation as one of Black's most dynamic responses to 1.d4.
The Modern Benoni suffered a serious theoretical crisis in the 1980s and 1990s, when players as Black encountered great difficulties in meeting the Taimanov Attack and the Modern Main Line. Only in the 21st century has the opening's reputation and theoretical standing made a recovery. Notably, it was Vladimir Kramnik's choice when he needed a win with Black in the penultimate game of the 2004 World Championship, though that particular game resulted in a draw.
## Initial moves
The standard move order for Black to enter the Modern Benoni is 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5. Here it is possible for White to avoid 3.d5: respectable alternatives include 3.Nf3, typically transposing to a line of the English Opening, as well as 3.e3. Taking the pawn with 3.dxc5 is hardly ever seen, because Black easily recovers it after 3...e6 followed by ...Bxc5.
Still, 3.d5 has long been considered White's most challenging move, as it gains space in the centre. While it is possible for Black to avoid ...e7-e6 for the time being and play other moves such as 3...d6 or 3...g6, delaying this move until after White plays e2-e4 gives White the extra option of recapturing on d5 with the e-pawn. While recapturing in this fashion does not give White a central pawn majority, it maintains White's spatial advantage and denies Black the counterplay associated with possession of a queenside pawn majority. Thus players who are seeking the typical imbalance in pawn structure associated with the Modern Benoni tend to prefer the immediate 3...e6 followed by 4...exd5.
## Alternative move orders and transpositions
It is possible, indeed common, for Black's second and third moves to be reversed: thus 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5 and 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 will both transpose into the Modern Benoni if White allows it with 4.d5. The latter move order has been especially popular since the 1980s, as it allows Black to reach the Modern Benoni while sidestepping the Taimanov Attack. It also gives Black the additional option of meeting 4.d5 with 4...b5, the Blumenfeld Gambit. Players who use this move order will often choose a different defence against 3.Nc3, such as the Nimzo-Indian with 3...Bb4.
Another frequent transposition into the Modern Benoni occurs when White invites a Catalan Opening with 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 and Black responds with 3...c5. If White responds with 4.d5 exd5 5.cxd5, Black can play 5...d6, which often transposes into the Fianchetto Variation; but a common alternative is 5...b5, which leads to independent positions.
Black can also try to reach the Modern Benoni through a Benoni Defence move order, i.e. 1.d4 c5 2.d5 Nf6, when 3.c4 e6 would complete the transposition. However, White often prefers not to play 3.c4, since it takes away a useful square from a white knight. Several lines of the King's Indian Defence, such as the Four Pawns Attack, the Sämisch Variation and the Fianchetto Variation, can also transpose into variations of the Modern Benoni if Black plays ...c5 followed by ...e6 and ...exd5 and White recaptures with the c-pawn.
## History
The Modern Benoni was invented by Frank Marshall at the New York 1927 chess tournament. He played it twice, gaining a draw against José Raúl Capablanca in the Fianchetto Variation, but losing soundly to Aron Nimzowitsch, who played the Knight's Tour. Nimzowitsch received the third special prize of the tournament for this game and labelled Marshall's opening an "unfortunate" "extravagance" in his annotations; as a result, it lay virtually abandoned for decades. However, Karel Hromádka's experiments with the Benoni Defence in the 1930s occasionally featured the moves ...e7-e6 and ...exd5, resulting in a transposition to the Modern Benoni.
Only in the 1950s was interest in the system revived, when the King's Indian Defence gained in popularity among Soviet players and their investigations branched into related opening systems such as the Modern Benoni. The imbalance inherent in its pawn structure and the counter-chances this implied for Black appealed to aggressive players such as Rashid Nezhmetdinov and Alexander Tolush; the Israeli master Moshe Czerniak also employed it frequently. Lev Polugaevsky, Boris Spassky and Alexey Suetin were among the younger generation of Soviet players who used it regularly in the 1950s and 1960s.
But the player primarily responsible for elevating the Modern Benoni to the status of a major opening was Mikhail Tal, who took up the opening in 1953 after seeing one of Nezhmetdinov's games. The tactical positions it led to were a perfect fit for Tal's combinatorial gifts and he crushed many opponents in brilliant style. Famous examples include his game against Bukhuti Gurgenidze at the 1957 USSR championship, excerpted below, and his win against Yuri Averbakh at the same tournament the following year. He also became the first player to use the Modern Benoni in a world championship match, playing it twice against Mikhail Botvinnik in 1960. Former World Champion and opening authority Max Euwe acknowledged Tal's contribution to the opening by naming it the "Tal-System" in his 1965 opening encyclopedia.
These developments did not go unnoticed outside the Soviet Union: the name "Modern Benoni" had appeared in print by 1955. In the 1960s Larry Evans began employing the system frequently, and from 1966 onwards, Bobby Fischer also included it in his repertoire, albeit as a secondary weapon. Even so, Fischer was responsible for one of the most famous games ever played with the opening: down 2–0 in the 1972 World Championship match, he answered Spassky's 1.d4 with the Modern Benoni in Game 3 and scored a momentum-changing victory.
The successes of Tal and Fischer inspired a new generation of players to take up the Modern Benoni in the 1970s and 1980s, including Walter Browne, Ljubomir Ljubojević, John Nunn, Dragoljub Velimirović, Lev Psakhis, Mihai Suba and Nick de Firmian. The young Garry Kasparov also had the defence in his arsenal—his win against Viktor Korchnoi at the 1982 Lucerne Olympiad was considered the highlight of the tournament and remains one of the most famous games ever played in the opening. It became a favoured weapon for players needing to win against 1.d4: for example, Psakhis used it to defeat Yuri Razuvaev in the penultimate round of the 1980 USSR Championship, catching Alexander Beliavsky in the lead and ultimately sharing first place with him.
But in the early 1980s, White scored several crushing victories at high-profile tournaments using the aggressive Taimanov Attack, which caused players to question the fundamental soundness of Black's opening. By the end of the decade, the Modern Main Line had also emerged as a dangerous weapon for White, which only compounded Black's troubles. As a result, the opening declined in popularity and a number of grandmasters gave it up altogether. Those who continued to play it often chose to do so via the move order 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5, when White's early development of the knight to f3 rules out the Taimanov Attack and gives Black opportunities to avoid the Modern Main Line.
Mired in this theoretical crisis, the Modern Benoni remained unpopular in the 1990s. Veselin Topalov was the only top-level player to play it regularly, and he too generally preferred the 2...e6 3.Nf3 c5 move order. At the beginning of the new millennium, the theoretician John Watson published a well-regarded survey of the opening that may have contributed to the opening's revival. Many of the ideas he recommended, such as 9...Qh4+ versus the Taimanov Attack and 9...Nh5 in the Modern Main Line, grew in popularity after its publication. The opening regained some more of its former respectability when Vladimir Kramnik, needing a win with Black against Peter Leko, played it in the second to last game of the 2004 World Championship. While he did achieve a winning position at one point, the game ended in a draw. Nevertheless, Étienne Bacrot, Boris Gelfand and Vassily Ivanchuk have all since used the Modern Benoni at the highest levels of competition, while Vugar Gashimov became the opening's most notable proponent. He was the strongest player willing to use the original 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 move order and defend Black's cause in both the Taimanov Attack and the Modern Main Line.
## Strategy
The Modern Benoni is one of Black's sharpest and most active defences against 1.d4. The exchange of White's c-pawn for Black's e-pawn leaves White with a pawn majority in the centre and Black with one on the queenside. This asymmetry suggests that White will try to play on the kingside and in the centre, while Black will seek counterplay on the queenside. However, this simplistic generalization does not hold in many cases—depending on how the pieces are arranged, either side may be able to fight back on the flank where they are theoretically weaker.
The creation of such a pronounced structural imbalance so early on in the game implies that Black aims to counterattack rather than equalize. Thus the opening has acquired a reputation for being risky: as Psakhis once wrote, the Modern Benoni "is definitely not an opening for cowards." Since White's central superiority typically constitutes a positional advantage, Black must frequently resort to tactical play and material sacrifices in order not to be forced into passivity.
### Black's queenside play
The game Donner–Tal, Zurich 1959, was a classic demonstration of the power of Black's queenside pawn advance, backed up by the bishop on g7. After Black's 20...Qb4! White was unable to exchange queens, as 21.Qxb4 cxb4 22.Nd1 Nc5 would fork the pawns on a4 and e4. However, the actual game did not last long after Donner's 21.Qf1: Tal set his pawns in motion with 21...c4 22.Re2 b5 23.axb5 axb5 24.Kh1, created a passed c-pawn with 24...Bxc3! 25.bxc3 Qxc3 26.Rxb5 Qd3 27.Qe1 c3 28.Rb1, and forced Donner's resignation with 28...Nc5! when White could neither save his e-pawn nor stop Black's c-pawn from queening. According to Donner, while he spent over two hours on the game, Tal used only fifteen minutes.
### White's kingside play
The central pawn majority is White's main positional trump in the Modern Benoni. By staking out an advantage in space on the kingside, it allows White to develop an initiative on that side of the board. The most important tool in White's arsenal is the e4-e5 pawn advance, which can open up lines and squares for the white pieces, and result in the creation of a passed d-pawn if Black answers with ...dxe5.
A famous example of the e4-e5 break leading to a kingside attack occurred in the game Penrose–Tal from the 1960 Leipzig Olympiad. With 19.e5! dxe5 20.f5! Bb7 21.Rad1 Ba8 22.Nce4 White installed a powerful knight on e4, while Black's pieces were hemmed in by the pawn on e5. Penrose soon crashed through on the f-file and scored a stunning upset over the reigning world champion. Other classic examples of this central breakthrough include Ojanen–Keres, Estonia–Finland match, Helsinki 1960 and Korchnoi–Tal, USSR championship, Yerevan 1962.
### Black's kingside play
The half-open e-file gives Black a certain degree of influence over the kingside. A rook on e8 puts pressure on White's e-pawn and restrains it from advancing. Tactics involving ...Nxe4 are not uncommon—the games Averbakh–Tal, USSR championship, Riga 1958, and Uhlmann–Fischer, Interzonal, Palma de Mallorca 1970, are well-known examples. Black can initiate further kingside activity by playing ...Nd7-e5 followed by ...g7-g5. The pawn move prevents White from driving away the knight with f2-f4, and sets up the possibility of Black bringing a knight on f4 via g6 or h5. Further space-gaining pawn advances such as ...g5-g4 and ...f7-f5 may even be possible.
En route to winning his first USSR championship, Tal provided a brilliant example of how Black's dark-square control could lead to a kingside attack. Against Gurgenidze at the 1957 championship in Moscow, he unleashed the double sacrifice 14...Nxf2!! 15.Kxf2 Qh4+ 16.Kf1 (16.g3? Bd4+ 17.Kg2 Qxh3+ 18.Kf3 Bg4+ 19.Kf4 g5+ 20.Kxg5 Be3+ 21.Kf6 Qh6 mate) Bd4 17.Nd1 Qxh3! with the point that 18.gxh3 Bxh3 is mate. After 18.Bf3 Qh2 19.Ne3 f5! 20.Ndc4 fxe4 21.Bxe4 Ba6! White was unable to defend against Black's threats of 22...Rxe4 23.Qxe4 Re8 24.Qc2 Nxd5 and 22...Bxc4+ 23.Nxc4 Rf8+ 24. Bf3 Rxf3+, and Gurgenidze resigned after move 27.
### White's queenside play
When Black prepares the ...b7-b5 pawn break with ...a6, White usually tries to hinder it by playing a2-a4, even though this advance weakens the b4-square. As a further deterrent to Black's queenside expansion, White often moves the knight on f3 to c4 via d2. With the knight on c4, Black's ...b7-b5 break may be met by axb5 followed by Na5, when the arrival of a white knight on c6 could severely disrupt Black's position. The knight on c4 also attacks Black's backward pawn on d6, and White can often increase the pressure on this pawn by playing Bf4 or Nb5. The strength of White's knight on c4 often induces Black to exchange it off: typical ways of doing so are ...Nb6, ...Ne5, or ...b7-b6 followed by ...Ba6.
Even if Black should succeed in enforcing the ...b7-b5 break, White may halt the b-pawn's further advance by simply playing b2-b4. Even though this would give Black the opportunity to establish a passed c-pawn with ...c5-c4, blockading the queenside in this manner may allow White to pursue play in the centre and on the kingside undisturbed. The ...c5-c4 advance would also relinquish Black's control over the d4-square, which may be occupied to good effect by a white knight or bishop.
A successful demonstration of this last idea occurred in the game Pintér–Brynell at the 1998 Elista Olympiad. White answered Black's 21...b5 with 22.b4!, and Black was unable to keep the queenside open with 22...bxa4? because 23.bxc5 Rxb1 24.Rxb1 dxc5 25.Bxc5 would have left White's central pawns unstoppable. After the game's 22...c4 23.a5! Qe7 24.Bd4 Black's queenside play had ground to a halt; Pintér later won with a pawn advance on the kingside.
## Variations
After the initial moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6, the moves 4.Nf3 and 4.g3 reach positions discussed previously, while 4.dxe6 fxe6 is also ineffective, since Black gains a half-open f-file and the chance to take over the centre with ...d7-d5. Instead White's most popular move is 4.Nc3, preparing to support the d-pawn with 5.e4. As mentioned above, were Black to delay the capture on d5, White would then gain the option of recapturing with the e-pawn. Thus Black generally plays 4...exd5 immediately.
Following the recapture 5.cxd5, Black has an eccentric option in 5...Bd6, the Snake Benoni. But most players prefer 5...d6, which stops White's d-pawn from advancing to d6. Black's control over the central dark squares d4 and e5 will then be augmented by fianchettoing the bishop on g7. Meanwhile, White must decide whether or not to play 6.e4. Although this move gains space in the centre, it also gives Black a target of attack on the half-open e-file. White can deny Black this target for the time being by playing 6.Nf3 first.
### 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.e4 g6
The most critical lines in the Modern Benoni occur after 6.e4 g6. At this point 7.Nf3 has historically been White's most popular move, intending to complete kingside development and castle. Here theory divides into three major branches:
- 7...Bg7 8.Be2 0-0 9.0-0, the Classical Main Line;
- 7...Bg7 8.h3 0-0 9.Bd3, the Modern Main Line;
- and 7...a6, an attempt by Black to avoid the Modern Main Line.
Apart from 7.Nf3, White also has several important alternatives, including:
- 7.f4, which leads to the Taimanov Attack, Four Pawns Attack, or Mikenas Attack;
- 7.Bd3, which often leads to the Knaak Variation but may also transpose to the Modern Main Line;
- 7.h3, which is yet another way for White to reach the Modern Main Line after 7...Bg7 8.Nf3 0-0 9.Bd3;
- 7.f3, the Kapengut Variation;
- and 7.Nge2, which was recommended for White in 2012 by Lars Schandorff. The idea is to develop with Ng3, Be2 and 0-0.
#### 7.Nf3 Bg7 8.Be2 0-0 9.0-0: Classical Main Line
Before the advent of the Taimanov Attack and the Modern Main Line, the sequence 7.Nf3 Bg7 8.Be2 0-0 9.0-0 was the most frequently contested line in the Modern Benoni. Here Black has a choice between three main plans. Two of them begin with 9...Re8, attacking the e-pawn. After 10.Nd2, Black's most dynamic plan is to prepare kingside play with 10...Nbd7 followed by ...Ne5 and ...g6-g5. This plan became popular in the 1970s after Fischer used it, and although it is riskier than the alternatives, it remains Black's best option to complicate the game.
Alternatively, Black can try the older move 10...Na6, intending to bring the knight to c7 to prepare the ...b7-b5 break. White most commonly responds with Gligorić's 11.f3 Nc7 12.a4, which clamps down on b5 and overprotects e4 so that White can follow up with Nc4. Black's position remains solid but offers fewer active possibilities than after 10...Nbd7.
At the 1973 Madrid international tournament Ljubojević demonstrated what is now considered to be Black's most reliable path to equality. Against Silvino García Martínez he played 9...a6 10.a4 Bg4 11.Bf4 Bxf3 12.Bxf3 and now the innovation 12...Qe7! which prepares ...Nbd7 while keeping the pawn on d6 defended. The exchange of Black's bishop for White's knight eases Black's slightly cramped position and weakens the force of White's e4-e5 break.
#### 7.Nf3 Bg7 8.h3 0-0 9.Bd3: Modern Main Line
By the late 1980s Ljubojević's plan of exchanging the light-squared bishop had been proven so reliable it was deterring White from entering the Classical Main Line altogether. The desire to prevent ...Bg4 led to the development of the Modern Main Line, 7.Nf3 Bg7 8.h3 0-0 9.Bd3. If Black continues in the same manner as in the Classical Main Line, e.g. 9...a6 10.a4 Nbd7 11.0-0 Re8, then White appears to maintain an advantage with 12.Bf4.
Originally it was thought that the temporary pawn sacrifice 9...b5 was an easy equalizer: after 10.Nxb5 Nxe4?! 11.Bxe4 Re8 Black seemingly regains the sacrificed piece without trouble. But in Alburt–de Firmian, USA ch 1990, White uncorked 12.Ng5! and went on to win: this move was judged the most important theoretical novelty in Volume 50 of Chess Informant. Only later was it discovered that the immediate 10...Re8 is a better way of recovering the pawn, with a complicated game in the offing.
The other capture 10.Bxb5 has been subjected to extensive analysis and testing, which has led to the conclusion that the sequence 10...Nxe4 11.Nxe4 Qa5+ 12.Nfd2 Qxb5 13.Nxd6 Qa6 14.N2c4 Nd7 15.0-0 is more or less forced. In the resulting positions Black has found it difficult to generate any winning chances, and even finding equality has not been a simple task. The fact that one must know a lot of theory just to secure a draw has rendered the entire variation beginning with 9...b5 rather unattractive from Black's point of view, even though it appears to be objectively the best move.
Thus Black has sought other methods of combating the Modern Main Line. The sharp variation 9...Re8 10.0-0 c4 received significant attention in the mid-1990s, but after 11.Bxc4 Nxe4 12.Nxe4 Rxe4 13.Bg5 Black has yet to demonstrate clear equality. In 2001 John Watson published a detailed analysis of 9...Nh5, which stops White from playing Bc1-f4 and allows Black to follow up with ...Nd7-e5. While it is also unclear whether this move ultimately equalizes, at least Black retains significant counterplay.
#### 7.Nf3 a6: Black avoids the Modern Main Line
White's success with the Modern Main Line has spurred Black to search for ways to get in ...Bg4 before White stops it with h2-h3. After 7.Nf3, the immediate 7...Bg4? runs into 8.Qa4+!, when 8...Bd7 9.Qb3 or 8...Nbd7? 9.Nd2! threatening 10.f3 both give White the advantage. So Black first plays 7...a6 threatening 8...b5. Only after 8.a4 does Black play 8...Bg4, when a transposition to the Classical Main Line is likely: 9.Be2 Bxf3 10.Bxf3 Bg7 11.0-0 0-0 12.Bf4 Qe7 is Ljubojević's line, for example. Instead White may try to exploit Black's early ...Bg4 with 9.Qb3, but after 9...Bxf3 10.Qxb7 Black can either maintain material and positional equality with 10...Bxg2 or try for more with 10...Nbd7!?. To cut across Black's idea of ...Bg4, White has even resorted to 8.h3 allowing 8...b5, but after 9.Bd3 Bg7 10.0-0 0-0 Black obtains an acceptable position.
If White has entered the Benoni through the standard move order (4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.e4 g6), White can dodge such sidelines by avoiding the immediate 7.Nf3 and starting with 7.Bd3 or 7.h3 instead: the latter two moves leave Black little choice but to enter the Modern Main Line after 7...Bg7 and 8...0-0.
#### 7.f4: Taimanov Attack and other lines
With 7.f4 White stakes out even more space in the centre and threatens to overrun Black's position with a quick e4-e5. After 7...Bg7 White can transpose to the main line of the Four Pawns Attack in the King's Indian Defence with 8.Nf3 0-0 9.Be2. A rarer option is 8.e5, the Mikenas Attack, against which Black can equalize with either 8...Nfd7 or the rarer 8...dxe5 9.fxe5 Nfd7.
By far the most popular continuation for White is 8.Bb5+, the Taimanov Attack. Analyzed by Mark Taimanov in 1956, the strength of this variation was not fully appreciated until the early 1980s. The point of the check is that both 8...Bd7 and 8...Nbd7 allow 9.e5 with advantage to White, since the knight on f6 can no longer retreat to d7. After the strongest move 8...Nfd7 the most popular move used to be 9.Bd3, preparing to meet 9...a6 with 10.a4. But in two crushing and high-profile victories with White (against Frans Andre Cuijpers at the 1980 World Junior Chess Championship in Dortmund, and against Nunn at the 1982 Olympiad in Lucerne) Kasparov showed that 9.a4 was more dangerous for Black, it having the advantage of not determining the bishop's retreat square for the time being.
White's success with this idea led some to question the soundness of the Modern Benoni, at least in its original move order. In 1982, Nunn concluded his analysis of the Taimanov with the words, "Black badly needs a new idea against 8.Bb5+ and 9.a4 to keep the Benoni in business"; two years later, he had given up the opening altogether. Other players such as Psakhis resorted to using the move order 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6, only playing 3...c5 in response to 3.Nf3 to avoid the Taimanov, while choosing an entirely different opening against 3.Nc3. The damage this variation did to the opening's reputation led David Norwood to rechristen it the "Flick-Knife Attack."
Not until the 21st century did players and analysts begin to revive Black's chances in this line. First, Watson showed that the disruptive check 9...Qh4+ was playable, the point being that after 10.g3 White is no longer able to bring the bishop on c1 to the squares g3 or h4, where it can assist in White's kingside attack. Later players such as Gashimov showed that the queen check is not mandatory, and that Black also retains good chances in the line 9...0-0 10.Nf3 Na6 11.0-0 Nb4, taking advantage of the outpost on b4.
#### 7.Bd3: Knaak Variation
The move 7.Bd3 is sometimes used by White to enter the Modern Main Line after 7...Bg7 8.h3 without allowing Black's attempts to play an early ...Bg4. It is also the prelude to a variation championed by Rainer Knaak, 7...Bg7 8.Nge2 0-0 9.0-0. White's plan is to play for a kingside attack beginning with the moves Ng3, f2-f4, and then either e4-e5 or f4-f5. A famous demonstration of White's kingside attack was the game Penrose–Tal, Leipzig ol 1960. However, the development of the knight to e2 rules out the Nf3-d2-c4 manoeuvre, so Black is able to get quick counterplay on the queenside with ideas like ...c5-c4 followed by ...Nd7-c5.
#### 7.f3: Kapengut Variation
In 1996 Albert Kapengut published a dense analysis of the move 7.f3, which now bears his name. Kapengut himself gave it the name "Half-Sämisch Variation", because the positions it leads to are often reached via transposition from the Sämisch Variation of the King's Indian Defence. The pawn on f3 overprotects e4 and prevents ...Ng4, so that White can continue 7...Bg7 8.Bg5 and retreat the bishop to e3 after ...h7-h6 without it being further harassed by Black's knight. Notable past practitioners of this line have included Viktor Korchnoi and Murray Chandler.
### 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.Nf3 g6
This position arises particularly frequently through the transposition 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.Nc3 g6. At this point White can still transpose to the Classical or Modern Main Lines after 7.e4. Other common alternatives are:
- 7.g3, the Fianchetto Variation;
- 7.Nd2, the Knight's Tour Variation;
- 7.Bf4;
- 7.Bg5, the Uhlmann Variation;
- and 7.h3, which is yet another attempt for White to enter the Modern Main Line without allowing an early ...Bg4. But in this move order Black can also prevent the transposition with 7...a6 (the immediate 7...Qe7? 8.e4 Nxe4?? loses the knight to 9.Qa4+) 8.a4 Qe7, which stops White from playing e2-e4.
#### 7.g3: Fianchetto Variation
The Fianchetto Variation has never been considered particularly dangerous for Black to meet, since White's setup does not put Black's position under immediate pressure. However, it also offers Black no obvious target to attack—the fianchettoed bishop covers e4 and d5 and also protects White's king. Since the same bishop no longer covers the a6-f1 diagonal, White typically plays Nf3-d2-c4 to help defend against Black's queenside expansion. After further preparatory moves such as Bf4 and Re1, White may be able to push forward in the centre with e2-e4-e5. Noted proponents of the Fianchetto Variation have included strong positional players such as Viktor Korchnoi, Gennadi Sosonko and Predrag Nikolić, and after a recommendation by the influential theorist Boris Avrukh in 2010, the line has become more topical.
Play typically proceeds 7.g3 Bg7 8.Bg2 0-0 9.0-0, and now the most common continuation sees Black developing in standard Benoni fashion while White manoeuvres the king's knight to c4, i.e. 9...a6 10.a4 Nbd7 11.Nd2 Re8 12.h3 Rb8 13.Nc4. Here Black can challenge White's knight with either 13...Ne5 or 13...Nb6. White may also try to develop more quickly with 11.Bf4 in order to strengthen the threat of e2-e4-e5. The idea of an early Bf4 is also effective in other variations such as 9...Re8 10.Bf4. Black too can deviate: for example, the idea of playing for ...b7-b5 after 9...Na6 10.Nd2 Nc7 is frequently seen.
The Fianchetto Variation is often reached via transposition from other openings. For instance, the position in the diagram can be reached from the King's Indian via 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 c5 5.d5 d6 6.Nc3 0-0 7.Nf3 e6 8.0-0 exd5 9.cxd5, or from the Catalan via 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 c5 4.d5 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.Nc3 g6 7.Bg2 Bg7 8.Nf3 0-0 9.0-0.
#### 7.Nd2: Knight's Tour Variation
The Knight's Tour Variation 7.Nd2 immediately sends the knight towards c4, where it attacks the d-pawn; the pressure on it can be increased with moves like Bf4. Black can counter this plan with 7...Nbd7 intending 8.Nc4 Nb6, while 8.e4 Bg7 9.Be2 0-0 10.0-0 would lead to a major variation of the Classical Main Line after 10...Re8, with White having avoided Ljubojević's plan of ...Bg4.
Black is not obliged to allow this transposition though: 7...Bg7 is also playable. After 8.e4 0-0 9.Be2, Black has alternatives to 9...Re8, such as the 9...Na6 10.0-0 Ne8 Kramnik played against Leko at the 2004 World Championship, where Black intends to attack White's centre with ...f5. Alternatively, if White immediately completes the knight manoeuvre and attacks the pawn on d6 with 8.Nc4 0-0 9.Bf4, Black can either defend it with 9...Ne8 or sacrifice it with 9...Na6 or 9...b6.
#### 7.Bf4
The move 7.Bf4 is similar in spirit to 7.Nd2, in that White hopes to inconvenience Black by a quick attack on d6. After 7...Bg7 8.Qa4+! Bd7 9.Qb3 White attacks both b7 and d6, and Black must be careful not to drift into a passive position after 9...Qc7 10.e4 0-0.
More commonly Black prefers to rule out White's queen check with 7...a6, which incidentally threatens to expand on the queenside. White can ignore this with 8.e4 b5 9.Qe2, aiming to quickly overrun Black in the centre with the e4-e5 advance. However, 8.a4 Bg7 is the most popular continuation, when White can aim for a transposition to the Classical Main Line with 9.e4. Another possibility is 9.h3 0-0 10.e3, which gives the bishop a retreat square in case of ...Nh5 and delays further expansion in the centre until the White's development is complete. Although a number of opening books recommended the 7.Bf4 variation for White in the early 21st century, Black appears to be able to maintain the balance in this line.
#### 7.Bg5: Uhlmann Variation
The variation with 7.Bg5 is named after Wolfgang Uhlmann, who played it a few times in the 1960s. Botvinnik also employed it in his 1960 world championship match against Tal. By pinning the knight, White aims to transpose into favourable lines of the Averbakh Variation of the King's Indian Defence, which may occur after 7...0-0 8.Nd2!. To prevent this, Black can either break the pin immediately with 7...h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Bg3 Nh5, or after developing with 7...Bg7 8.e4 h6 9.Bh4. At this point 9...g5 10.Bg3 Nh5 runs into the pawn sacrifice 11.Bb5+ Kf8 12.e5! when White has a dangerous attack, and in the late 1970s this line was even thought to have refuted the Modern Benoni. Later it was realized that Black can prevent the bishop check with 9...a6!: the only way White can forestall ...g5 and ...Nh5 is with 10.Nd2, but this allows Black to expand on the queenside with 10...b5 and reach a satisfactory position. |
52,711 | Leonardo DiCaprio | 1,173,868,951 | American actor and film producer (born 1974) | [
"1974 births",
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] | Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio (/diˈkæprioʊ/, /dɪ-/; ; born November 11, 1974) is an American actor, film producer, and humanitarian. Known for his versatile acting especially in biographical and period films, he is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and three Golden Globe Awards. In 2005, he was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contributions to the arts, and since 2016, he has appeared in Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world. DiCaprio was voted one of the 50 greatest actors of all time in a 2022 readers' poll by Empire. As of 2019, his films have grossed over \$7.2 billion worldwide, and he has been placed eight times in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actors.
Born in Los Angeles, DiCaprio began his career in the late 1980s by appearing in television commercials. In the early 1990s, he had recurring roles in various television shows, such as the sitcom Parenthood, and had his first major film part as author Tobias Wolff in This Boy's Life (1993). He received critical acclaim and his first Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for his performance as a developmentally disabled boy in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993). DiCaprio achieved international stardom with the star-crossed romances Romeo + Juliet (1996) and Titanic (1997). After the latter became the highest-grossing film at the time, he reduced his workload for a few years. In an attempt to shed his image of a romantic hero, DiCaprio sought roles in other genres, including the 2002 crime dramas Catch Me If You Can and Gangs of New York; the latter marked the first of his many successful collaborations with director Martin Scorsese.
DiCaprio continued to gain acclaim for his performances in the biopic The Aviator (2004), the political thriller Blood Diamond (2006), the crime drama The Departed (2006) and the romantic drama Revolutionary Road (2008). He later made environmental documentaries and starred in several high-profile directors' successful projects, including the psychological thriller Shutter Island (2010), the action thriller Inception (2010), the western Django Unchained (2012), the period drama The Great Gatsby (2013), the biopic The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), the survival drama The Revenant (2015)—for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor—and the comedy-dramas Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) and Don't Look Up (2021).
DiCaprio is the founder of Appian Way Productions—a production company that has made some of his films and the documentary series Greensburg (2008–2010). A United Nations Messenger of Peace, he regularly supports charitable causes and is the founder of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting environmental awareness.
## Early life and acting background
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio was born on November 11, 1974, in Los Angeles, California. He is the only child of Irmelin Indenbirken, a legal secretary, and George DiCaprio, an underground comix artist and distributor; they met while attending college and moved to Los Angeles after graduating. His mother is German and his father is of Italian and German descent. His maternal grandfather, Wilhelm Indenbirken, was German, and his maternal grandmother, Helene Indenbirken, was a Russian immigrant living in Germany. DiCaprio was raised as a Catholic. Sources have falsely claimed his maternal grandmother was born in Odesa, Ukraine; there is no evidence that DiCaprio has any relatives of Ukrainian birth or heritage.
DiCaprio's parents named him Leonardo because his pregnant mother first felt him kick while she was looking at a Leonardo da Vinci painting in the Uffizi museum in Florence, Italy. When DiCaprio was one year old, his parents divorced after his father fell in love with another woman, prompting him to move out. To raise him together, his parents moved into twin cottages with a shared garden in Echo Park, Los Angeles. DiCaprio's father lived with his girlfriend and her son, Adam Farrar, with whom DiCaprio developed a close bond. DiCaprio and his mother later moved to other neighborhoods, such as Los Feliz. He has described his parents as "bohemian in every sense of the word" and as "the people I trust the most in the world". DiCaprio has stated that he grew up poor in a neighborhood plagued with prostitution, crime and violence. Attending the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies for four years and later the Seeds Elementary School, he later enrolled at the John Marshall High School. DiCaprio disliked public school and wanted to audition for acting jobs instead. He dropped out of high school later, eventually earning a general equivalency diploma.
As a child, DiCaprio wanted to become either a marine biologist or an actor. He eventually favored the latter; he liked impersonating characters and imitating people, and enjoyed seeing their reactions to his acting. His interest in performing began at the age of two when he went onto the stage at a performance festival and danced spontaneously to a positive response from the crowd. He was also motivated to learn acting when Farrar's appearance in a television commercial earned him \$50,000. DiCaprio has said in interviews that his first television appearance was in the children's series Romper Room, and that he was dismissed from the show for being disruptive. The show's host has denied that any children were removed from the show in this way. At 14, he began appearing in several commercials for Matchbox cars, which he calls his first role. DiCaprio later appeared in commercials for Kraft Singles, Bubble Yum and Apple Jacks. In 1989, he played the role of Glen in two episodes of the television show The New Lassie.
At the beginning of his career, DiCaprio had difficulty finding an agent. When he found one, the agent suggested DiCaprio change his name to Lenny Williams to appeal to American audiences, which he declined to do. DiCaprio remained jobless for a year and a half, even after 100 auditions. Following this lack of success, DiCaprio was going to give up acting but his father persuaded him to persevere with it. Motivated by his father and by the prospect of financial security, he continued to audition. After a talent agent, who knew his mother's friend, recommended him to casting directors, DiCaprio secured roles in about 20 commercials.
By the early 1990s, DiCaprio began acting regularly on television, starting with a role in the pilot of The Outsiders (1990) and one episode of the soap opera Santa Barbara (1990), in which he played a teenage alcoholic. DiCaprio's career prospects improved when he was cast in Parenthood, a series based on the 1989 comedy film of the same name. To prepare for the role of Garry Buckman, a troubled teenager, he analyzed Joaquin Phoenix's performance in the original film. His work that year earned him two nominations at the 12th Youth in Film Awards—Best Young Actor in a Daytime Series for Santa Barbara and Best Young Actor Starring in a New Television Series for Parenthood. Around this time, he was a contestant on the children's game show Fun House, on which he performed several stunts, including catching the fish inside a small pool using only his teeth.
## Career
### 1991–1996: Early work and breakthrough
DiCaprio made his film debut later that year as the stepson of an unscrupulous landlord in the low-budget horror sequel Critters 3 – a part he later described as "your average, no-depth, standard kid with blond hair". DiCaprio has stated that he prefers not to remember Critters 3, viewing it as "possibly one of the worst films of all time" and the kind of role he wanted to avoid in the future. Later in 1991, he became a recurring cast member on the sitcom Growing Pains, playing Luke Brower, a homeless boy who is taken in by the show's central family. Co-star Joanna Kerns recalls DiCaprio being "especially intelligent and disarming for his age" but she noted that he was also mischievous and jocular on set, and often made fun of his co-stars. DiCaprio was cast by the producers to appeal to young female audience, but his arrival did not improve the show's ratings and he left before the end of its run. He was nominated for a Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor Co-starring in a Television Series. DiCaprio also had an uncredited role in 1991 in one episode of Roseanne.
In 1992, DiCaprio had a brief role in the first installment of the Poison Ivy film series, and was handpicked by Robert De Niro from a shortlist of 400 young actors to co-star with him in This Boy's Life. Adapted from the memoir by Tobias Wolff, the film focuses on the relationship between a rebellious teenager, Toby (DiCaprio), and his mother (Ellen Barkin) and abusive stepfather (De Niro). Director Michael Caton-Jones said that DiCaprio did not know how to behave on set; accordingly, Caton-Jones used a strict mentoring style, after which DiCaprio's behavior began to improve. Bilge Ebiri of Rolling Stone found that the powerful bond between Barkin and DiCaprio elevated the film, praising DiCaprio's portrayal of his character's complex growth from a rebellious teen to an independent young man. This Boy's Life was the first film that gained him recognition.
DiCaprio played the developmentally disabled brother of Johnny Depp's character in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), a comedy-drama about a dysfunctional Iowa family. Caton-Jones recommended DiCaprio to director Lasse Hallström, but he was initially skeptical, as he considered DiCaprio too good-looking for the part. Hallström cast DiCaprio after he emerged as "the most observant" auditionee. To ensure authenticity in his portrayal, DiCaprio studied similarly impaired children and their mannerisms, and Hallström allowed him to create the character using his own researched attributes. The film became a critical success. At 19, DiCaprio earned a National Board of Review Award, as well as nominations for a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, making him the seventh-youngest Oscar nominee in the category. "The film's real show-stopping turn comes from Mr. DiCaprio," wrote New York Times critic Janet Maslin, "who makes Arnie's many tics so startling and vivid that at first he is difficult to watch. The performance has a sharp, desperate intensity from beginning to end." Caryn James, also writing for The New York Times, said of his performances in This Boy's Life and What's Eating Gilbert Grape: "He made the raw, emotional neediness of those boys completely natural and powerful."
DiCaprio's first role of 1995 was in Sam Raimi's Western The Quick and the Dead. When Sony Pictures became dubious over DiCaprio's casting, co-star Sharon Stone paid his salary herself. The film was released to dismal box office performance and mixed reviews from critics. DiCaprio next starred as a teenage Jim Carroll, a drug-addicted high school basketball player and budding writer, in the biopic The Basketball Diaries. He starred in the erotic drama Total Eclipse (1995), driven by the desire to showcase an exceptional performance, which would focus on his acting talent rather than his much-discussed physical appeal. Directed by Agnieszka Holland, it is a fictionalized account of the same-sex relationship between Arthur Rimbaud (DiCaprio) and Paul Verlaine (David Thewlis). DiCaprio was cast when River Phoenix died before filming began. Although the film failed commercially, it has been included in the catalog of the Warner Archive Collection, which releases classic and cult films from Warner Bros.' library on home video. A review in the San Francisco Chronicle called DiCaprio "his generation's great acting promise" but criticized the mismatch between Thewlis's "cultivated" British accent and DiCaprio's "Southern California twang".
DiCaprio next starred opposite Claire Danes in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996), an abridged modernization of William Shakespeare's romantic tragedy, which retained the original Shakespearean dialogue. DiCaprio was initially unsure about another Romeo and Juliet adaptation, but at his father's suggestion, he agreed to examine Luhrmann's work more closely. DiCaprio and Luhrmann then spent a two-week workshop exchanging ideas, which led to the collaboration. Romeo + Juliet established DiCaprio as a leading Hollywood actor; according to film scholar Murray Pomerance, DiCaprio's newfound popularity helped the film become profitable only days after its release. Reviewing DiCaprio's early works, David Thomson of The Guardian called DiCaprio "a revelation" in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, "very moving" in This Boy's Life, "suitably desperate" in The Basketball Diaries and "a vital spark" in Romeo + Juliet. The latter earned DiCaprio a Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 1997 Berlin International Film Festival. He then portrayed a young man who has been committed to a mental asylum in Marvin's Room (1996), a family drama about two estranged sisters, played by Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton, who are reunited through tragedy. He played Hank, the troubled son of Streep's character. Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly praised "the deeply gifted DiCaprio" for holding his own against veteran actresses Keaton and Streep, describing the three as "full-bodied and so powerfully affecting that you're carried along on the pleasure of being in the presence of their extraordinary talent".
### 1997–2001: Titanic and worldwide recognition
DiCaprio rejected a role in Boogie Nights (1997) to star opposite Kate Winslet in James Cameron's Titanic as members of different social classes who fall in love aboard RMS Titanic during its ill-fated maiden voyage. DiCaprio initially had doubts, but was eventually encouraged by Cameron to pursue the part. With a production budget of more than \$200 million, the film was the most expensive in history at the time, and was shot at Rosarito, Baja California where a replica of the ship was created. Titanic became the highest-grossing film at the time, eventually earning more than \$2.1 billion in box-office receipts worldwide. The role of Jack Dawson transformed DiCaprio into a superstar, resulting in intense adoration among teenage girls and young women that became known as "Leo-mania". The film won 11 Academy Awards—the most wins for any film – including Best Picture, but DiCaprio's failure to gain a nomination led to a protest against the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) by more than 200 fans. He was nominated for other high-profile awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor.
DiCaprio stated in 2000: "I have no connection with me during that whole Titanic phenomenon and what my face became around the world [...] I'll never reach that state of popularity again, and I don't expect to [...] It's not something I'm going to try to achieve either." In his 2015 Rolling Stone article, Ebiri called the role DiCaprio's best, writing that he and Winslet "infuse their earnest back-and-forth with so much genuine emotion that it's hard not to get swept up in their doomed love affair." A writer for Vanity Fair in 2008 similarly labeled them "Hollywood's most iconic screen couple" since Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. Essaying her first viewing of the film in 2017, Vox contributor Alissa Wilkinson took note of DiCaprio's "boyish charm" and found his performance "natural and unaffected." The success of Titanic intensified DiCaprio's standing as a teen idol and romantic lead, an image from which he sought to dissociate himself. He reduced his workload "to learn to hear [his] own voice in choosing the roles" that he wanted to pursue.
DiCaprio had a brief featured role in Woody Allen's 1998 satire of fame, Celebrity. Ebiri labeled DiCaprio "the best thing in the film". That year, he also took on the dual roles of villainous King Louis XIV and his secret, sympathetic twin brother Philippe in Randall Wallace's The Man in the Iron Mask, with common elements from the 1939 film of the same name and a 1929 film with Douglas Fairbanks. It received mixed to negative reviews, but grossed \$180 million against a budget of \$35 million. Entertainment Weekly critic Owen Gleiberman wrote that DiCaprio did not look old enough to play the part, but praised him as "a fluid and instinctive actor, with the face of a mischievous angel." The Guardian's Alex von Tunzelmann was similarly impressed with the actor's performance but found his talent wasted in the film. DiCaprio won a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screen Couple for the dual roles in 1999.
Also in 1998, DiCaprio was cast to star in American Psycho (2000) for a reported salary of \$20 million; after disagreements with Oliver Stone on the film's direction, DiCaprio left the project, taking the lead role in The Beach instead. Adapted from Alex Garland's 1996 novel, the film saw him play a backpacking American tourist who ends up in a secret island commune in the Gulf of Thailand. Budgeted at \$50 million, the film earned almost three times that at the box office, but was negatively reviewed by critics, and earned him a nomination for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor. Todd McCarthy of Variety thought DiCaprio gave a compelling performance but his character lacked defining qualities. The film received criticism for damaging the filming location in Thailand, after which DiCaprio worked to restore the area.
In the mid-1990s, DiCaprio agreed to be in the mostly improvised black-and-white short film Don's Plum as a favor to aspiring director R. D. Robb. When Robb expanded it to a full-length film, DiCaprio and co-star Tobey Maguire had its release blocked in the US and Canada by court order, arguing they never intended to make a feature film. The film premiered at the 2001 Berlin International Film Festival but remains obscure.
### 2002–2009: Venture into film production
DiCaprio turned down the role of Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002), feeling unprepared to "take that dive" at the time. His first film that year was the biopic Catch Me If You Can, based on the life of Frank Abagnale Jr., who before his 19th birthday committed check fraud to make millions in the 1960s. Directed by Steven Spielberg, the film was shot across 147 different locations in 52 days, making it "the most adventurous, super-charged movie-making" DiCaprio had experienced yet. The film received critical acclaim and grossed \$355 million against a budget of \$52 million, becoming his second highest-grossing release after Titanic. Roger Ebert praised his departure from dark and troubled characters, and two Entertainment Weekly critics in 2018 called it DiCaprio's best role, labeling him "delightfully persuasive, deceptive, flirtatious, and sometimes tragic—and we dare you to find a better role, if you can". DiCaprio received his third Golden Globe nomination for his performance in the film.
Also in 2002, DiCaprio starred in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York, a historical drama set in the mid-19th century in the Five Points district of New York City. Scorsese initially struggled selling his idea of realizing the film until DiCaprio became interested in starring in the film, and thus Miramax Films got involved with financing the project. Nonetheless, production on the film was plagued by overshooting of budgets and producer-director disagreements, resulting in an eight-month shoot. With a budget of \$103 million, the film was the most expensive Scorsese had ever made. DiCaprio was drawn to playing Amsterdam Vallon, the young leader of an Irish-American street gang, as it marked a shift from "boyish" roles to a mature leading man. Gangs of New York earned \$193 million worldwide and received positive critical response. Anne Thompson of The Observer took note of DiCaprio's "low-key, sturdy performance", but felt that co-star Daniel Day-Lewis overshadowed him.
In 2004, DiCaprio founded the production company Appian Way Productions, a namesake of the Italian road. He was interested in finding unique source material and preserving its essence during development, citing previous experiences where too many people influenced the final product in a negative way. DiCaprio first executive-produced The Assassination of Richard Nixon, which starred Sean Penn as Samuel Byck, and was screened at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. DiCaprio and Scorsese reunited for a biopic of Howard Hughes, an American film director and aviation pioneer suffering from obsessive–compulsive disorder, in The Aviator (2004), which DiCaprio also co-produced under Appian Way. He initially developed the project with Michael Mann who was eventually replaced by Scorsese. The Aviator became a critical and financial success, grossing \$213 million against its budget of \$110 million. Simond Braund of Empire thought DiCaprio convincingly played a complex role and highlighted the scenes depicting Hughes's paranoia and obsession. He received his first Golden Globe Award for Best Actor — Motion Picture Drama and nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
In 2006, DiCaprio starred in the crime film The Departed and the political war thriller Blood Diamond. In Scorsese's The Departed, DiCaprio played the role of Billy Costigan, a state trooper working undercover in the Irish Mob in Boston, someone he characterizes as being in a "constant 24-hour panic attack". DiCaprio especially liked the experience of working with co-star Jack Nicholson, describing a scene with him as "one of the most memorable moments" of his life as an actor. In preparation, he visited Boston to interact with people associated with the Irish Mob and gained 15 pounds (6.8 kg) of muscle. Critically acclaimed, the film grossed \$291 million against a budget of \$90 million, becoming DiCaprio and Scorsese's highest-grossing collaboration to that point. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone praised DiCaprio's and co-star Matt Damon's performances as "explosive, emotionally complex", but felt that Nicholson overshadowed the two. Despite DiCaprio's leading role in The Departed, the film's distributor Warner Bros. Pictures submitted his performance for a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the AMPAS to avoid internal conflict with his part in Blood Diamond. Instead, his co-star Mark Wahlberg was nominated, though DiCaprio earned other accolades for The Departed, including a Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor nominations at the Golden Globes and BAFTA Awards.
In Blood Diamond, DiCaprio starred as a diamond smuggler from Rhodesia who is involved in the Sierra Leone Civil War. While filming, he worked with 24 orphaned children from the SOS Children's Village in Maputo, Mozambique, and said he was touched by his interactions with them. To prepare, he spent six months in Africa, learned about camouflage from people in South African military and interviewed and recorded people in the country to improve his accent. The film received generally favorable reviews, and DiCaprio was noted for his South African accent, which is generally known as difficult to imitate. Claudia Puig of the USA Today approvingly highlighted DiCaprio's transition from a boy to a man on screen, and Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post similarly noted his growth as an actor since The Departed. DiCaprio received nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Blood Diamond.
In 2007, DiCaprio produced the comedy drama Gardener of Eden, which according to The Hollywood Reporter's Frank Scheck "lack[ed] the necessary dramatic urgency or black humor to connect with audiences". Later that year, he produced, co-wrote and narrated The 11th Hour, a documentary on the state of the natural environment that won the Earthwatch Environmental Film Award in 2008. DiCaprio's Appian Way produced Planet Green's Greensburg (2008–2010), which ran for three seasons. Set in Greensburg, Kansas, it is about rebuilding the town in a sustainable way after being hit by the May 2007 EF5 tornado. Also in 2008, DiCaprio starred in Body of Lies, a spy film based on the novel of the same name. He played one of three agents battling a terrorist organization in the Middle East. Considering the film to be a throwback to political features of the 1970s like The Parallax View (1974) and Three Days of the Condor (1975), DiCaprio dyed his hair brown and wore brown contacts for the role. The film received mixed reviews from critics, and grossed \$118 million against a budget of \$67.5 million.
Later in 2008, DiCaprio collaborated with Kate Winslet for the drama Revolutionary Road, directed by her then-husband Sam Mendes. As both actors had been reluctant to make romantic films similar to Titanic, it was Winslet who suggested that they both work with her on a film adaptation of the 1961 eponymous novel by Richard Yates. She found that the script, by Justin Haythe, had little in common with the 1997 blockbuster. Playing a couple in a failing marriage in the 1950s, DiCaprio and Winslet spent some time together in preparation, and DiCaprio felt claustrophobic on the small set they used. He saw his character as "unheroic", "slightly cowardly" and someone "willing to be just a product of his environment". Peter Travers liked DiCaprio's pairing with Winslet and his multi-layered portrayal of an overwhelmed character, and Marshall Sella of GQ called it the "most mature and memorable performance of his lifetime". DiCaprio earned his seventh Golden Globes nomination for the film. Revolutionary Road grossed \$75.9 million against its budget of \$35 million. He ended the 2000s by producing director Jaume Collet-Serra's psychological horror thriller film Orphan (2009), starring Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard and Isabelle Fuhrman. Although the film received mixed reviews, it was a commercial success.
### 2010–2013: Films with high-profile directors
DiCaprio continued to collaborate with Scorsese in the 2010 psychological thriller film Shutter Island, based on the 2003 novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. He played Edward "Teddy" Daniels, a U.S. Marshal investigating a psychiatric facility located on an island, who comes to question his own sanity. DiCaprio and Scorsese became interested in the project in 2007, and the former co-produced the film under Appian Way with Phoenix Pictures. Because of the film's disturbing scenes, DiCaprio had nightmares of mass murder during production and considered relaxing with his friends a form of therapy. The film was released to mixed reviews; Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian praised Scorsese's direction and the acting but criticized its twist ending. Peter Travers called it DiCaprio's "most haunting and emotionally complex performance yet", and particularly liked his cave scene with co-star Patricia Clarkson. The film was a commercial success, grossing \$294 million worldwide against a budget of \$80 million.
DiCaprio's second role in 2010 was in Christopher Nolan's critically acclaimed ensemble science-fiction film Inception. Inspired by the experience of lucid dreaming and dream incubation, the film features Dom Cobb (DiCaprio), an "extractor" who enters the dreams of others to obtain information that is otherwise inaccessible. Cobb is promised a chance to regain his old life in exchange for planting an idea in a corporate target's mind. DiCaprio was fascinated with the idea of a "dream-heist" and the potential for his character to manipulate his dreamworld and impact his real life. Made on a budget of \$160 million, the film grossed \$836 million worldwide to become DiCaprio's second highest-grossing film. To star in this film, DiCaprio agreed to a pay cut from his \$20 million fee and opted for a share in first-dollar gross points, which entitled him to a percentage of the cinema ticket sales. The risk proved fruitful, as DiCaprio earned \$50 million from the film, becoming his highest payday yet.
DiCaprio starred as J. Edgar Hoover in Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar (2011). A biopic about Hoover, the film focuses on his career as an FBI director, including an examination of his private life as an alleged closeted homosexual. Critics felt that the film lacked coherence overall but commended DiCaprio's performance. Roger Ebert praised DiCaprio's ability to bring depth and nuance to the character, suggesting that his performance conveyed aspects of Hoover's personality that were possibly even unknown to the man himself. Also in 2011, he produced Catherine Hardwicke's romantic horror film Red Riding Hood. Though it was named one of the ten worst films of 2011 by Time magazine, it had moderate box-office returns. Also that year, DiCaprio's Appian Way produced George Clooney's political drama The Ides of March, an adaptation of Beau Willimon's 2008 play Farragut North.
In 2012, DiCaprio starred as plantation owner Calvin Candie in Quentin Tarantino's Spaghetti Western, Django Unchained. After reading the script, DiCaprio felt uncomfortable with the extent of racism portrayed in the film, but his co-stars and Tarantino convinced him not to sugarcoat it. While filming, DiCaprio accidentally cut his hand on glass, but continued filming, and Tarantino elected to use the take in the final product. The film received critical acclaim; a writer for Wired magazine commended him for playing a villainous role and found his performance "blood-chilling". The film earned DiCaprio a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Django Unchained grossed \$425 million worldwide on a production budget of \$100 million.
In January 2013, DiCaprio said he would take a long break from acting to "fly around the world doing good for the environment". That year, he had four releases as an actor and a producer. His first was in the role of millionaire Jay Gatsby in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel of the same name, co-starring Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire. The film received mixed reviews from critics, but DiCaprio's performance was praised and earned him the AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Critic Rafer Guzman of Newsday wrote that DiCaprio was not only "tough [...] but also vulnerable, touching, funny, a faker, a human. It's a tremendous, hard-won performance." Matt Zoller Seitz of Roger Ebert's website described his performance as "the movie's greatest and simplest special effect," and "iconic—maybe his career best". The film grossed \$353 million worldwide, more than three times its budget. Three films were produced by DiCaprio under Appian Way in 2013—the ensemble crime thriller Runner Runner, which The Guardian's Xan Brooks described as "a lazy, trashy film that barely goes through the motions"; the commercially failed thriller Out of the Furnace; and the black comedy-drama The Wolf of Wall Street.
DiCaprio reunited with Scorsese for the fifth time in The Wolf of the Wall Street, a film based on the life of stockbroker Jordan Belfort (played by DiCaprio), who was arrested in the late 1990s for securities fraud and money laundering. DiCaprio wanted to play Belfort ever since he had read his autobiography and won a bidding war with Warner Bros. against Brad Pitt and Paramount Pictures for the rights to Belfort's memoir in 2007. He was fond of Belfort's honest and unapologetic portrayal of his actual experiences in the book, and was inspired by the financial crisis of 2007–2008 to make the film. The Wolf of Wall Street received positive reviews for Scorsese's and DiCaprio's work together. The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy lauded DiCaprio for fully realizing his character's potential with a carefree performance. Jonathan Romney of Film Comment wrote that DiCaprio displays a great deal of comedic talent, excelling in "rubber-limbed slapstick" humor. The film earned him the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and nominations for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, as well as Academy Awards for Best Actor and Best Picture.
### 2014–present: Environmental documentaries and awards success
DiCaprio was an executive producer on Virunga, a 2014 British documentary film about four people fighting to protect the world's last mountain gorillas from war and poaching. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2014, and DiCaprio was nominated for the 2015 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special. Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret was another documentary film that year for which he was an executive producer—he took part in the new cut released exclusively on Netflix that September. It explores the impact of animal agriculture on the environment.
In 2015, DiCaprio produced and played fur trapper Hugh Glass in Alejandro G. Iñárritu's survival drama The Revenant. DiCaprio found his role in the film difficult; he had to eat a raw slab of bison's liver and sleep in animal carcasses. He also learned to shoot a musket, build a fire, speak two Native American languages (Pawnee and Arikara) and apply ancient healing techniques. Built on a budget of \$135 million, the film earned \$533 million worldwide. The film received positive reviews with particular praise for DiCaprio's acting. Mark Kermode of The Guardian wrote that DiCaprio shone with a performance that prioritizes physicality over speech, and Nick De Semlyen of Empire noted that he uplifted the film. The film earned him numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Critic's Choice Award for Best Actor. For the next three years, DiCaprio narrated documentaries and served as a producer for films. In 2016, he was an executive producer for The Ivory Game and Catching the Sun; he also produced, hosted and narrated the documentary Before the Flood about climate change. He produced the crime drama Live by Night (2016), which received unenthusiastic reviews and failed to recoup its \$65 million production budget. His next production ventures were in 2018—the psychological horror Delirium and the commercially failed action–adventure Robin Hood.
After producing and narrating the 2019 global warming documentary Ice on Fire, DiCaprio returned to acting following a four-year break in Quentin Tarantino's comedy-drama Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which traces the relationship between Rick Dalton (DiCaprio), an aging television actor and his stuntman, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). To help the film's financing, DiCaprio and Pitt agreed to take a pay cut, and they each received \$10 million. DiCaprio liked working with Pitt, and Tarantino described the pair as the most exciting since Robert Redford and Paul Newman. DiCaprio was fascinated with the film's homage to Hollywood and focus on the friendship between his and Pitt's characters. He drew from real-life experience of witnessing the struggles and rejections of his actor friends in the industry. The film premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where critics praised his and Pitt's performances. A writer for Business Insider called it one of the best performances of DiCaprio's career, and Ian Sandwell of Digital Spy particularly liked the duo's chemistry, believing their scenes together to be some of the film's strongest parts. DiCaprio received nominations for an Oscar, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor. The film earned \$374 million against a budget of \$90 million.
In 2020, DiCaprio served as an executive producer for The Right Stuff, a television series adaption of the 1973 namesake book. After being in development at National Geographic, it was released on Disney+. That May, DiCaprio briefly featured in the finale of the miniseries The Last Dance. In 2021, DiCaprio appeared in Adam McKay's satirical comedy Don't Look Up. He spent five months changing the film's script with McKay before agreeing to the part. Starring alongside Jennifer Lawrence as two astronomers attempting to warn humanity about an extinction-level comet, DiCaprio saw this film as an analogy of the world's indifference to the climate crisis. As a frequent supporter of environmentalism, DiCaprio said he has often looked to star in and make films tackling issues related to it, something he found hard due to people's inability to listen. He praised McKay for envisioning a project on how humans would react to a serious issue from a political, social and scientific standpoint. While reviews for the film were mixed, most critics praised DiCaprio's and Lawrence's performances; journalists from Digital Spy and NDTV lauded their pairing. DiCaprio earned nominations for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award for the film. It broke the record for the most views (152 million hours) in a single week in Netflix history.
DiCaprio next starred in Scorsese's crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) based on the book of the same name by David Grann, for which he was paid \$30 million. Initially signed for the heroic part of FBI agent Tom White, DiCaprio insisted on playing the morally complex role of Ernest Burkhart, the nephew of murderer William Hale, leading to extensive script rewrites. Terming it the best performance of DiCaprio's career, IndieWire's David Ehrlich wrote that "his nuanced and uncompromising turn as the cretinous Ernest Burkhart mines new wonders from the actor's long-standing lack of vanity".
## Reception and acting style
Early in his career, DiCaprio gained a reputation for his reckless behavior and intense partying with a group of male celebrities dubbed "the Pussy Posse" in the 1990s. In an infamous article published by New York Magazine in 1998, journalist Nancy Jo Sales criticized the group as men whose pursuit was to "chase girls, pick fights and not tip the waitress". During an unknown activity, DiCaprio got himself and friend Justin Herwick almost killed when his parachute failed to open, after which his instructor released an emergency core. In response, DiCaprio said he is fond of doing things that scare him. John McCain, who was a United States Senator for Arizona, called him "an androgynous wimp". DiCaprio found people's perception of him exaggerated, adding, "They want you miserable, just like them. They don't want heroes; what they want is to see you fall." Steven Spielberg, who directed him in Catch Me If You Can, defended DiCaprio's reputation as a "party boy", believing it is a common behavior for young people and describing him as a family-oriented person during the film's production. Considering DiCaprio to be conscious of his public reputation, The New York Times' Caryn James credited him as one of the few actors to use his stardom to further social causes. Carole Cadwalladr of The Guardian said DiCaprio is "polite, charming, makes jokes, engages eye contact. And manages [...] to give almost no hint whatsoever of his actual personality."
DiCaprio is regarded as one of the finest actors of his generation. In a 2022 readers' poll by Empire, he was voted one of the 50 greatest actors of all time. The magazine praised his willingness to "go to the ends of the earth (often literally) to get under his characters' skin". Colin Covert of The Seattle Times similarly believed DiCaprio "redefines film stardom" through his willingness to take on challenging roles that few of his contemporaries are capable of performing.
Since his international stardom with Titanic (1997), he has admitted feeling nervous about starring in big-budget studio films because of their hype and marketing campaigns. As an actor, he views film as a "relevant art form, like a painting or sculpture. A hundred years from now, people will still be watching that movie." He often plays roles based on real-life people and stories told in specific periods. According to Caryn James, DiCaprio is unafraid of working with established directors on unconventional projects; taking such risks has led him to star in failed films like The Beach (2000), but also his successful collaborations with Martin Scorsese. DiCaprio has described his relationship with Scorsese as dreamlike and admires his knowledge of film, crediting the director with having taught him its history and importance. Scorsese has commented on DiCaprio's ability to repeatedly demonstrate emotion on screen. Jesse Hassenger of The A.V. Club considers the duo's collaborations—which earned them the 2013 National Board of Review (Spotlight Award)—to be career-defining moments for both of them and as vital as Scorsese's acclaimed collaborations with Robert De Niro.
Author Michael K. Hammond wrote that DiCaprio built his star reputation by demonstrating his acting ability, and praised him for "revealing a character while concealing the actor" and "disappearing into [his] roles". According to Agnieszka Holland, who directed DiCaprio in Total Eclipse (1995), DiCaprio is "one of the most mature actors" she has worked with and is "courageous" in his choice of roles. Holland remarked that he does not rely on method acting but rather on a trick that allows him to truly "become the character". Meryl Streep, who co-starred with DiCaprio in Marvin's Room, said he possesses the kind of unpredictability that makes his career difficult to classify, his life precarious and his work thrilling. Writing for The Observer, film critic Philip French has asserted that many characters portrayed by DiCaprio are in the process of becoming men. He wrote that DiCaprio's inclination toward films about dysfunctional families and characters seeking father figures may allude to his own troubled childhood. DiCaprio often plays characters who themselves are playing roles, which Caryn James says looks simple on screen but requires sophisticated acting. He tends to play antiheroes and characters who lose their mental stability as the narrative progresses. Derek Thompson of The Atlantic argued that DiCaprio gives his best performances when playing "frauds and cheats and double-crossing liars and mercenaries".
Several media publications, such as People, Empire and Harper's Bazaar, have included DiCaprio in their listings of the most attractive actors. In 1998, he sued Playgirl magazine over plans to publish a fully nude picture of him. He has said he does not believe in focusing on appearance—as this is only temporary and can negatively affect one's profession in the industry—and looks for career longevity instead. In 2005, DiCaprio was made a commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture for his contributions to the arts. In 2016, he was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. He was included on Forbes' annual list of the world's highest-paid actors in 2008 and from 2010 to 2016 with respective earnings of \$45 million, \$28 million, \$77 million, \$37 million, \$39 million, \$29 million and \$27 million, topping the list in 2011. The magazine has commended DiCaprio's ability to star in risky, R-rated films that become box office successes. The Hollywood Reporter listed him as one of the 100 most powerful people in entertainment from 2016 to 2019. A writer for the same magazine credits DiCaprio as the rare actor to have a successful career "without ever having made a comic book movie, family film or pre-branded franchise. Leo is the franchise." Stacey Wilson Hunt, analyzing his career in New York Magazine in 2016, opined DiCaprio, unlike most of his contemporaries, had not starred in a bad film in the previous ten years. Of his success, DiCaprio says, "My attitude is the same as when I started. I feel very connected to that fifteen-year-old kid who got his first movie."
DiCaprio has named Robert De Niro and James Dean as two of his favorite and most influential actors, stating "There were a lot of great actors I really fell in love with, but if I were to pick two, from different generations, it would be De Niro and James Dean". When asked about a performance that stayed with him the most, DiCaprio responded, "I remember being incredibly moved by Jimmy Dean, in East of Eden. There was something so raw and powerful about that performance. His vulnerability [...] his confusion about his entire history, his identity, his desperation to be loved. That performance just broke my heart."
## Other ventures
### Activism
An active celebrity in the climate change movement, DiCaprio believes global warming is the world's "number-one environmental challenge". Eager to learn about ecology from an early age, he would watch documentaries on rainforest depletion and the loss of species and habitats. In 1998, he established the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, a non-profit organization devoted to promoting environmental awareness. It supports organizations and campaigns committed to ensuring a viable future for planet Earth, and produced the short web documentaries Water Planet and Global Warning. The foundation has also funded debt-for-nature swaps. By 2018, the foundation had funded more than 200 projects, providing \$100 million in support. He has been an active supporter of numerous environmental organizations and sat on the board of the World Wildlife Fund and International Fund for Animal Welfare.
DiCaprio has owned environment-friendly electric-hybrid vehicles. His use of private jets and large yachts have been criticized as hypocritical due to their large carbon footprints. DiCaprio chaired the national Earth Day celebration in 2000 where he interviewed Bill Clinton and they discussed plans to deal with global warming and the environment. He presented at the 2007 American leg of Live Earth. DiCaprio donated \$1 million to the Wildlife Conservation Society at Russia's Tiger Summit. DiCaprio's persistence in reaching the event after encountering two plane delays caused then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to describe him as a "muzhik" or "real man". In 2013, he organized a benefit fine art auction, "11th Hour", which raised nearly \$38.8 million for his foundation. In September 2014, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon designated DiCaprio as a United Nations Messenger of Peace with a focus on climate change. Later that month, he made an opening statement to members of the UN Climate Summit; his speech reached an estimated one billion people worldwide. In 2015, he announced his intention to divest from fossil fuels. He again spoke at the UN in April 2016 prior to the signing of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
At a 2016 meeting with Pope Francis, DiCaprio donated to charity and discussed environmental issues with him. A few days later, possibly influenced by this meeting, the Pope said he would act in a charity film. DiCaprio traveled to Indonesia in early 2016 where he criticized the government's palm oil industry's slash-and-burn forest clearing methods. In July 2016, his foundation donated \$15.6 million to help protect wildlife and the rights of Native Americans, along with mitigating climate change. That October, DiCaprio joined Mark Ruffalo in support of the Standing Rock tribe's opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline.
In April 2017, DiCaprio protested against President Donald Trump's inaction on climate change by attending the People's Climate March. In July, a charity auction and celebrity concert arranged by DiCaprio's foundation had raised over \$30 million in one night. The DiCaprio foundation donated \$100 million in December 2018 to fight climate change. In May 2021, DiCaprio pledged \$43 million to enact conservation operations across the Galápagos Islands.
### Political views
DiCaprio endorsed Hillary Clinton for the 2016 presidential election. In March 2020, DiCaprio attended a fundraiser for Joe Biden at the home of Paramount Pictures executive Sherry Lansing. Prior to the 2020 election, DiCaprio narrated a Netflix documentary series about voting rights, stating, "All of us may have been created equal. But we'll never actually be equal until we all vote. So don't wait." On social media, DiCaprio urged voters to make a plan to cast their ballots and to draw attention to voter suppression and restrictive voter ID laws, citing VoteRiders as a source of information and assistance.
In 2023, DiCaprio testified during the trial against Prakazrel Michel, who is being accused of participating in a foreign influence campaign that was aimed at the Obama and Trump administrations.
### Philanthropy
In 1998, DiCaprio and his mother donated \$35,000 for a "Leonardo DiCaprio Computer Center" at a library in Los Feliz. In May 2009, DiCaprio joined Kate Winslet, director James Cameron and Canadian singer Celine Dion, in a campaign to raise money to financially support the fees of the nursing home where Millvina Dean, a survivor of the RMS Titanic, was residing. DiCaprio and Winslet donated \$20,000 to support Dean. In 2010, he donated \$1 million to relief efforts in Haiti after the earthquake. In 2011, DiCaprio joined the Animal Legal Defense Fund's campaign to release Tony, a tiger that had spent the last decade at a truck stop in Grosse Tête, Louisiana. DiCaprio donated \$61,000 to the gay rights group GLAAD in 2013.
In 2016, DiCaprio donated \$65,000 to the annual fundraising gala for the Children of Armenia Fund, where he was a special guest of his friend and honorary chair, Tony Shafrazi. Supporting Hurricane Harvey (2017) relief efforts, DiCaprio provided \$1 million through his foundation. In 2020, DiCaprio's foundation donated \$3 million to Australia bushfire relief efforts. Amidst the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the media announced DiCaprio donated \$10 million to support Ukraine, although the news agency Associated Press suggested this amount was inaccurate.
## Personal life
DiCaprio is agnostic but does not identify as an atheist. His personal life is the subject of widespread media attention. He rarely grants interviews and is reluctant to discuss his private life. DiCaprio has been the focus of various reports detailing his involvement with women aged 25 or younger, and has faced criticism for those relationships. In 1999, DiCaprio met Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen, whom he dated until 2005. He was romantically involved with Israeli model Bar Refaeli from 2005 to 2011. He later dated German fashion model Toni Garrn from 2013 to 2014 and later in 2017. DiCaprio was in a relationship with American model and actress Camila Morrone from c. 2017 until 2022.
DiCaprio owns houses in Los Angeles and apartments in New York City. In 2009, he bought an island, Blackadore Caye, off mainland Belize—on which he is set to open an environment-friendly resort—and in 2014, he purchased the original Dinah Shore residence designed by architect Donald Wexler in Palm Springs, California.
In 2005, DiCaprio's face was severely injured when model Aretha Wilson hit him over the head with a broken bottle at a Hollywood party. As a result, he required seventeen stitches to his face and neck. Wilson pleaded guilty to the assault and was sentenced in 2010 to two years in prison.
In 2017, when The Wolf of Wall Street producer Red Granite Pictures was involved in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, DiCaprio turned over the gifts he received from business associates at the production company, including from fugitive businessman Jho Low, to the US government. These included a Best Actor Oscar trophy won by Marlon Brando, a \$3.2 million Pablo Picasso painting and a \$9 million Jean-Michel Basquiat collage.
## Filmography and accolades
According to the online portal Box Office Mojo and the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, DiCaprio's most critically and commercially successful films include What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Romeo + Juliet (1996), Titanic (1997), Catch Me If You Can (2002), Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006), Blood Diamond (2006), Shutter Island (2010), Inception (2010), Django Unchained (2012), The Great Gatsby (2013), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), The Revenant (2015) and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). His films have grossed \$7.2 billion worldwide.
DiCaprio has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the following performances:
- 66th Academy Awards (1994): Best Supporting Actor, nomination, for What's Eating Gilbert Grape
- 77th Academy Awards (2005): Best Actor, nomination, for The Aviator
- 79th Academy Awards (2007): Best Actor, nomination, for Blood Diamond
- 86th Academy Awards (2014): Best Picture and Best Actor, nominations, for The Wolf of Wall Street
- 88th Academy Awards (2016): Best Actor, win, for The Revenant
- 92nd Academy Awards (2020): Best Actor, nomination, for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
DiCaprio has won three Golden Globe Awards: Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for The Aviator and The Revenant and Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for The Wolf of Wall Street, as well as a BAFTA Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor for The Revenant.
## See also
- List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees – Youngest nominees for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
- List of actors with Academy Award nominations
- List of actors with two or more Academy Awards nominations in acting categories
- List of Golden Globe winners
- Grouvellinus leonardodicaprioi, a beetle named after DiCaprio
- Spintharus leonardodicaprioi, a spider named after DiCaprio
## Cited sources |
7,643,178 | Metallic Metals Act | 1,147,736,068 | Fictional legislation | [
"1940s hoaxes",
"1947 introductions",
"Hoaxes in the United States",
"Psychology experiments"
] | The Metallic Metals Act was a fictional piece of legislation included in a 1947 American opinion survey conducted by Sam Gill and published in the March 14, 1947, issue of Tide magazine. When given four possible replies, 70% of respondents claimed to have an opinion on the act. It has become a classic example of the risks of meaningless responses to closed-ended questions and prompted the study of the pseudo-opinion phenomenon.
## The question
Respondents were asked this question and were given four possible answers: "Which of the following statements most closely coincides with your opinion of the Metallic Metals Act?"
- It would be a good move on the part of the US
- It would be a good thing, but should be left to the individual states
- It’s alright for foreign countries, but should not be required here
- It is of no value at all
## Initial publication and reaction
Sam Gill was a Marketing Research Director for Sherman & Marquette, Inc when he included a question about the fictional Metallic Metals Act in a survey. He reported on the results in the March 14, 1947, issue of Tide magazine in an article titled "How Do You Stand on Sin?", saying that 70% of respondents claimed to have an opinion on the topic. Gill also asked respondents if they favored incest, an unfamiliar term to most people at the time, and one third supported it. The article did not include any information on the size or make-up of the sample population, nor how much pressure the interviewer applied to receive a response.
A similar study by Eugene Hartley in 1946 asked college students how connected they felt to students of various nationalities. His questionnaire included three imaginary nationalities, but a majority of students did not question them. Together, these two studies are the earliest publicized examples of opinion surveys on fake subjects, a phenomenon known as a pseudo-opinion. At the time, the results of both studies amused laymen but were not immediately taken seriously in the field of public opinion because most professionals felt the studies were ridiculous and reflected negatively on their field. One exception, Stanley L. Payne, wrote about Gill's study in the 1951 The Public Opinion Quarterly journal article "Thoughts About Meaningless Questions" and called for further investigation into this type of non-sampling error.
## Legacy
Despite Payne's call to action, pseudo-opinions remained largely unstudied until the 1980s, but in 1970 Philip Converse postulated that answering "don't know" is seen by respondents as an admission of "mental incapacity". In 1981, researchers Howard Schuman and Stanley Presser were unable to locate documentation for Gill's study and concluded it should be taken as an anecdote rather than a true study. Their research found that pseudo-opinions are a significant source of error but not as prevalent as Hartley and Gill's studies suggested.
The Metallic Metals Act is considered a classic example of pseudo-opinions and difficulties with close-ended survey questions and continues to be supported by later studies. By 1991, it had become standard practice to include a false question in opinion surveys to gauge the degree of pseudo-opinions. A study by the University of Cincinnati found 20 to 40 percent of Americans will provide pseudo-opinions because of social pressure, using context clues to select an answer they believe will please the questioner. This has occasionally provided a source for jokes on talk shows and comedy shows who air interviews to mock the respondents. Other studies have shown the phenomenon is not limited to the United States. In a 2019 opinion piece written for The Guardian, Richard Seymour speculated that most opinion polls represent only what respondents heard most recently in the news media. |
73,019,620 | Machines (Nier: Automata) | 1,171,993,663 | Antagonists in Nier: Automata | [
"Drakengard",
"Extraterrestrial characters in video games",
"Fictional organizations",
"Robot characters in video games",
"Video game bosses",
"Video game characters introduced in 2017",
"Video game species and races"
] | The Machines, also known as Machine Lifeforms, are a fictional race of sentient robots and the main antagonists of the 2017 role-playing video game Nier: Automata and its accompanying anime, Nier: Automata Ver1.1a. They were created by an unnamed alien race for the purpose of wiping out all human-created androids from Earth in the 1st Machine War, and are connected by a worldwide telecommunications network. Eventually, they began to doubt their programming, rebelling against their creators and rendering them extinct, and started to disconnect from the network and copy humanity in various ways in an attempt to find meaning for their existence. At the time of Nier: Automata, during the 14th Machine War, the YoRHa androids, including 2B, 9S and A2, are trapped in a never-ending cycle of war with the Machines. Project YoRHa is allowed to exist by the Machine Network and its ego, the Red Girls, as fully wiping out the androids would remove the Machines' only remaining purpose - to destroy the "enemy" - and hinder their ability to evolve.
While most of them exhibit relatively primitive designs, including the peaceful village leader Pascal, the Machines are actually capable of creating hyper-advanced beings indistinguishable from humans with technological superpowers, such as the characters Adam and Eve. They were forced to purposely sabotage themselves in order to continue fighting YoRHa. It is later revealed that the YoRHa androids themselves are unknowingly part of the Machine race. They were praised by critics for their unexpected humanity and sympathetic nature, and the philosophical dilemmas they raise.
## Characteristics
Most Machines are mass-produced in factories that were once used by humans but repurposed for Machine construction. They possess a distinct resemblance to wind-up toys for efficiency purposes, and have modular parts that can be reconstructed in numerous ways. This includes replacing the arms and legs, stacking multiple body portions, or even removing the head and having the body act as a mindless drone. Stronger units are painted in a black and red color scheme, while the very strongest are painted a shiny gold. Most have spherical heads resembling the character Emil, with a humanoid facial structure beneath for unknown reasons. The rare "Monster Type" machines, however, resemble dinosaurs, and are capable of firing lasers. They can emit audible, albeit synthesized and robotic speech, and can also communicate via the Machine Network, although some Machines choose to disconnect themselves in order to have a greater sense of self.
While YoRHa and the supposed Council of Humanity claims that the Machines are only able to imitate human speech and actions without fully understanding their purpose, they are later revealed to be sentient and feel the full range of emotions that humans can, although their actions can be directly controlled via hacking. Machine Cores resemble plant cells due to the passive, plant-like nature of the aliens that created them. A number of unique machines exist - some were purpose-built as superweapons, such as Engels and Grün, while others chose to modify themselves, such as the opera singer-like Simone.
### Gameplay mechanics
When encountered in the game world, Machines differ wildly in combat capabilities and aggression. Some Machines, such as the standard Multi-tier Type, are completely unable to attack, others use weaponry, while more complex models employ electromagnetic shields that stun the player on contact. It is common for machines to use guns as weapons, which fire energy bullets in large quantities. Boss Machines, or Goliaths, have unique and powerful methods of attacking that include melee attacks and filling the arena with enough energy bullets to resemble a bullet hell. At their very extreme, Goliaths like Grün are so large as to be completely invincible without external assistance.
## Background
Beginning in 5012 AD, an unnamed alien species attempted to invade Earth, which at that point was solely populated by androids created by humans - humanity itself had long since gone extinct due to White Chlorination Syndrome and the relapse of Project Gestalt following the events of Drakengard's Ending E and Nier. Taking over both North and South America, the aliens began mass-producing Machines, commanding them solely to destroy the enemy. Despite the attempts of Emil, an immortal magical weapon, to fight back, the Machines drive the androids to near defeat, causing them to create a storage facility on the Moon to preserve the remaining data on the human race.
Following the events of the novella The Fire of Prometheus, P-33, a human-made military robot from Nier, drives the alien Machines to rebel against their creators. They defeat the aliens, but begin to copy humanity's behavior in order to evolve. Afraid of losing the sole purpose given to them by their creators, "defeat the enemy", they decide to enable an endless conflict between androids and Machines, placing a backdoor in Project YoRHa in order to destroy it and start over so that the androids cannot learn too much.
Close to the beginning of Nier: Automata, a group of machines attempting to reproduce create the highly advanced lifeforms Adam and Eve, who become obsessed with humanity. Shortly after the destruction of the Bunker, the Machine Network constructs an immense tower from crystallized silicon and carbon for the purpose of destroying the human server. However, the Red Girls change their mind after considering the meaning of existence, converting it to fire an interstellar ark containing Machine memories to a new world. While attempting to infiltrate the Tower, 9S and A2 learn that the YoRHa androids are technically Machines themselves, as they are made using recycled cores. Depending on the ending, the tower is destroyed, or remains intact until the ark is successfully launched.
## Development
The game's mecha designs, including the Machines, were created by Hisayoshi Kijima, also the game's UI designer. He was commanded by Yoko Taro to make the Machines "cute" in appearance so that they would have a wide appeal, as well as "a little unbalanced" and "rough, retro and a little dirty" to add character to their design. They were meant to be modular so that they would believably be part of the same mass-produced force. Ultimately, while Taro did not want him to focus too much on designs from the original Nier, he was nevertheless inspired by the trademark spherical head of Emil in making something distinctly fitting to the franchise. From a lore standpoint, their shape was meant to indicate a form of convergent evolution - since Emil represented the "ultimate weapon" in the Nier fictional universe, attempts to make the most powerful weapon possible would naturally lead to a similar shape no matter who made it. Kijima also came up with ideas on how the Machines would move and be put together.
Afterwards, the design of the Machines was polished, while retaining simple silhouettes that "even a kid could draw", and were easy to understand. Subtractive design principles were applied to make them as simple as possible, while allowing their personalities to stand out. These were also applied when the user interface was designed. Kijima was told by Taro to avoid building the Machines out of parts that curved along three axes in order to make them look more retro, though Kijima feared it would result in "bland shapes" and believed it to be unreasonable. He described the requirement as "easily the hardest part" of designing the Machines, but was ultimately satisfied with the results. He added "connector covers" where parts could be added to their bodies such as arms and weapons, making it a trademark symbol of the Machines. In designing the Machines' weapons, Kijima made them look significantly more detailed, in order to add visual dissonance and a "fearsome", "off-putting" appearance.
Aspects of the Machines' movement that were added to bring out their personality included a blinking effect given by opening and closing their camera covers, and twitching, birdlike head movements that made them feel more "gentle and alive". To reflect their propensity to copy humans, they were built across a range of technological levels, from World War I to the present day. Peculiar but real machinery and weapons were referenced to make their designs believable. Machines were given single-axis joints to emphasize their simplistic construction, but also make them seem rugged and easy to maintain - they also served to be easier to animate. However, even where parts required more movement, sets of single-axis joints were used rather than ball joints, something that reflected real-world robots and heavy machinery, but was more difficult to animate, "balancing out" the previous simplicity. Due to sharp angles and flat surfaces being seen as "boring", curves were used to make the Machines appear subtly "relaxed". Additionally, they were given multi-directional grooves on their hands and feet as a minor design detail, showing how they would better grip things.
The Small Flying Machines were designed based on real-world airplane parts and UAVs, in order to suggest they could actually fly in real life. Large Bipedal Machines were initially going to be based on gorillas, but this was discarded as too "barbaric" for the game's atmosphere. Instead, they were given a massive upright frame that switches from slow to fast in a discomforting way. The Engels model was one of the first Machines to be designed, and meant to look like several different heavy machines combined, with the ability to build itself using its cranes. The character Simone was designed by Yoshikaze Matsushita (original concept) and Yuuki Suda (rough design), and was meant to convey femininity despite her construction from basic parts. She was further refined by Kijima in order to make her work better as a 3D model.
## Reception
The appearance of the Machines was described by critics as simple, yet endearing. Nic Reuben of Rock Paper Shotgun called the robots' faces "hardly expressive, but somehow all the more poignant for it". Celia Lewis of The Escapist said that their designs created "a menacing image" of "a machine designed for combat", but that they also convey "a dual perspective" when machines such as Simone try to reject their nature as a "war bot" and attempt to be beautiful, rather than functional. She observed that Machines repurposing their weaponry for peaceful purposes subverts the player's expectations, and their "expendable", "foreign" appearance compared to the YoRHa androids plays to natural biases about what a monstrous character should look like.
Javy Gwaltney of Game Informer praised the Machines as "exud[ing] humanity more than most human characters in games", noting the destruction of Pascal's village as one of the game's most devastating moments. Saying that the game constantly reinforced how "pathetic" the "supposedly evil" Machines were, he gave the example of a group of robots attempting to raise a child, only to realize it could not age, as showing that they "will never feel human, no matter how hard they try". Patrick Klepek of Vice stated that he had been meaning to send "a snarky Tweet" once he reached a scene with Machines attempting to simulate sex, but could only find it sad once he saw the context, "a desperate attempt to grasp humanity". He professed that Nier: Automata asked the player "to directly reckon with the notion of being a machine".
Peter Tieryas of Kotaku wrote that he was "disturbed" and "deeply upset" by sidequests involving the Machines, calling them "tragic". He noted the particular example of the "Lost Girl" sidequest, in which the player must help an elder sister find her younger sister, who was lost in the desert finding a replacement part. While the player reunites the sisters in the end, they later perish in each other's arms when the village is stricken by a virus that makes the Machines go berserk, despite his hopes that they would survive. An even more poignant example is when Pascal attempts to protect the village's children, only to have them commit suicide out of fear. Describing the choice between killing Pascal and wiping his memory as a "choice between two evils", Tieryas calls the result of inducing amnesia "even more disturbing", as Pascal returns to the village to unknowingly sell scrap metal that was once the Machine children. Wondering whether the principal cause of the suffering was "humanity and their desire to survive and propagate", he stated that he was "still thinking about those questions thanks to the NPCs".
Reuben ultimately described the game's message about artificial intelligence as a hopeful one, running in contrast to stories like The Matrix or I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, saying that it asked why humanity thought they were more than machines because they felt pain, love or empathy, and that the game expressed the belief that the future would be "fine without us".
While discussing the Machine character Simone, Austin Wood of GamesRadar+ called her boss fight the most memorable in the game, describing her in-game backstory as "arguably the best illustration of the tragedy behind the game's machine life forms". Summing it up as a "sad, angry mess", he noted that he remembered it with "rare clarity and fondness". He praised the expansion of her backstory in the anime, including the information that she was a "mother figure" to the amusement park's Machines, and noted that her fight was adapted extremely accurately, with some one-to-one shot recreations "hit[ting] even harder" in the show than in the game. |
940,070 | The X-Files (season 8) | 1,170,123,719 | Season of television series The X-Files | [
"2000 American television seasons",
"2001 American television seasons",
"The X-Files seasons"
] | The eighth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files commenced airing in the United States on November 5, 2000, concluded on May 20, 2001, and consisted of twenty-one episodes. Season eight takes place after Fox Mulder's (David Duchovny) alien abduction in the seventh season. The story arc for the search of Mulder continues until the second half of the season, while a new arc about Dana Scully's (Gillian Anderson) pregnancy is formed. This arc would continue, and end, with the next season. The season explores various themes such as life, death, and belief.
For this season, Duchovny elected to return only as an intermittent main character, appearing in only half of the episodes. Actor Robert Patrick was hired as a replacement for Mulder, playing John Doggett. The season also marked the first appearance of Annabeth Gish as Monica Reyes, who would become a main character in the ninth season. In addition to the cast change, series creator Chris Carter updated the opening credits, which had remained unchanged since the first season.
Season eight was received well by critics but was less warmly received by fans, many of whom were unhappy that Duchovny reduced his role and that Patrick took over as co-lead alongside Anderson. Ratings for the season were initially strong, but it eventually averaged a total of 13.53 million viewers, down from the seventh season's 14.2 million. Concurrent with the airing of this season, Carter and The X-Files production team created and aired a short-lived spinoff titled The Lone Gunmen.
## Plot overview
At the end of the seventh season finale, "Requiem", Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) was abducted by aliens. Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) meets Special Agent John Doggett (Robert Patrick), the leader of an FBI taskforce organized to conduct a search for Mulder. Although the search ultimately proves unsuccessful, Doggett is assigned to the X-Files and works with Scully to look for explanations to several cases. When Scully learns that several women have reportedly been abducted and impregnated with alien babies, she begins to question her own pregnancy and fears for her unborn child.
Doggett introduces Scully to Special Agent Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish), an FBI specialist in ritualistic crime, shortly before Mulder's deceased body suddenly appears in a forest at night. Following Mulder's funeral, Assistant Director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) is threatened by Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea) that he must kill Scully's baby before it is born. Billy Miles (Zachary Ansley), a multiple abductee who disappeared on the same night as Mulder, is returned deceased but his dead body is resurrected and restored to full health. Mulder also returns from death, with Scully supervising his recovery. Fully rejuvenated, Mulder investigates several X-Files, against orders to do so, but soon gets fired, leaving Doggett in charge of the cases. Mulder continues to provide input in an unofficial capacity.
Reluctantly accepting Krycek's assistance, Mulder, Doggett and Skinner learn that an alien virus recently created in secret by members of the United States government has replaced several humans, including Miles and several high-ranking FBI personnel, with so-called alien "Super Soldiers". Krycek claims that the soldiers are virtually unstoppable aliens who want to make sure that humans will not survive the colonisation of Earth. They have learned that Scully's baby is a miraculously special child and are afraid that it may be greater than them. They have only recently learned of the baby's importance, which is why Krycek told Skinner to kill the unborn child earlier. When Miles arrives at the FBI Headquarters, Mulder, Doggett, Skinner and Krycek help Scully to escape along with Reyes, who drives her to a remote farm. Shortly after Skinner kills Krycek, Scully delivers an apparently normal baby, while the alien super soldiers surround her. Without explanation, the aliens leave the area as Mulder arrives. While Doggett and Reyes report to the FBI Headquarters, Mulder takes Scully and their newborn son, William, back to her apartment.
### Themes
The eighth season of The X-Files takes place in a science fiction environment and employs the common science fiction concepts of strongly differentiated characters fighting an unequivocally evil enemy, in this case, the alien Colonists. The first episode of the season, "Within" explores "loss", "loneliness" and "pain" after the disappearance of Mulder. "Per Manum" included basic themes common in the series, such as "dark, foreboding terror", an "overriding sense of paranoia", and "the fear of the unknown", among others. Later on, death and resurrection emerged as a major sub-theme during the season, starting with "The Gift", wherein John Doggett is killed and resurrected, and later in "Deadalive" when Mulder is brought back to life after apparently being dead for three months. This sub-theme would continue well into the ninth season. The main story arc of the season dealt with the idea that, at times, humanity is a greater danger to itself. This theme is made manifest by the Syndicate and the human conspiracy with the aliens.
## Production
### Development
The series' original title sequence, crafted in 1993 during the show's first season had remained unchanged for seven seasons. With the partial loss of Duchovny after the seventh-season finale, the decision was made to update the credits, which were first featured in the premiere episode of season eight, "Within". The opening sequence now included new images, updated FBI badge photos for Duchovny and Anderson, and the addition of Patrick to the main cast. Duchovny's badge features in the opening credits only when he appears in an episode. The opening contains images of Scully's pregnancy and, according to Frank Spotnitz, shows an "abstract" explanation for Mulder's absence in this season, with him falling into an eye.
After the partial departure of Duchovny, Carter decided to focus almost solely on the character of Doggett during the first half of the season. This led to some unhappiness from the cast and critics, most notably Duchovny and Anderson. According to Tom Kessenich in his book Examinations, Anderson reportedly "wasn't thrilled" with the lack of attention her character was getting; instead, the writers were crafting episodes solely for Doggett because he was the show's new "voice". Duchovny, on the other hand, was unhappy because Mulder's abduction was never properly examined. Reportedly, Duchovny offered to write and direct an episode based around the concept of Mulder being trapped in the alien spaceship, as seen in the season opener "Within" and "Without". Carter, however, nixed the idea because "it was not about Doggett."
Frank Spotnitz recalled that he and Chris Carter were enthusiastic about the storytelling opportunities offered by the changing line-up, saying: "Suddenly it was this new toolbox, these new characters, these new actors, these new dynamics to play, and the storytelling really changed in those last two seasons and was really exciting for us to get to, to explore you know, your characters and the kinds of stories we could tell with you that we’d never could have or would have told with, with just Mulder and Scully in the show." He compared the tone to The Twilight Zone.
### Casting
The show's seventh season was a time of closure for The X-Files. Characters within the show were written out—including Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Davis) and Mulder's mother (Rebecca Toolan)—and several plot threads were resolved, including the fate of Fox Mulder's sister Samantha. Furthermore, after settling his contract dispute, Duchovny quit the show. This contributed to uncertainties over the likelihood of an eighth season. Carter and most fans felt the show was at its natural endpoint with Duchovny's departure, and Carter penned "Requiem", the finale episode of the seventh season, as a possible series finale. However, at the last minute, a new season was ordered and Duchovny agreed to star part-time, returning for 12 episodes instead of 21. Due to this change, the producers found it difficult to write Duchovny's character out of the script, but also eventually explain Mulder's absence if there were to be an upcoming season. Eventually, it was decided to have the character abducted by aliens.
Hoping to continue the series, Carter introduced a new central character to replace Mulder: John Doggett. More than 100 actors auditioned for the role, with only about ten considered by the producers. Lou Diamond Phillips and Hart Bochner were among the auditionees, and Phillips, Bochner and Bruce Campbell (who played Wayne Weinsider in a previous episode of The X-Files) were considered for the role, but the producers eventually choose Robert Patrick. The season also introduced Monica Reyes (portrayed by Annabeth Gish), who would become a main character in the following season.
### Crew
Chris Carter, who also served as executive producer and showrunner during the season, wrote or co-wrote the bulk of the episodes for the season, with nine of the twenty one episodes. Of the nine, four were co-written with executive producer Frank Spotnitz. Carter also wrote five episodes solo, and Spotnitz wrote four episodes solo. The rest of the writing staff contributed one or two episodes. Vince Gilligan was promoted to executive producer and wrote one episode. John Shiban was promoted to co-executive producer and wrote one episode. David Amann was promoted to producer and wrote one episode. Jeffrey Bell was promoted to executive story editor and wrote one episode. Greg Walker was promoted to executive story editor and wrote two episodes. Steven Maeda was promoted to story editor and wrote two episodes. Daniel Arkin, who wrote a freelance episode for the series previously, returned to contribute to the story for one episode.
Kim Manners was promoted to co-executive producer and directed the most of episodes of the season with seven. Directors who directed multiple episodes for the season included Tony Wharmby who directed four, Rod Hardy directed three, and Richard Compton directed two. Peter Markle, Terrence O'Hara, and Barry K. Thomas each directed one episode. Carter directed a single episode, while writer Spotnitz made his directorial debut.
## Cast
### Main cast
#### Starring
- David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder
- Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully
- Robert Patrick as Special Agent John Doggett
#### Also starring
- Mitch Pileggi as Walter Skinner
- Annabeth Gish as Monica Reyes
- Nicholas Lea as Alex Krycek
### Recurring cast
### Guest cast
- Jeff Gulka as Gibson Praise
- Brian Thompson as Alien Bounty Hunter
## Episodes
Episodes marked with a double dagger () are episodes in the series' Alien Mythology arc.
## Reception
### Ratings
Reportedly, Patrick was cast due to the hopes that his featured role in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) would attract a great 18- to 35-year-old male demographic to the show. Early on, Fox executives reported a 10 percent overall increase in the demographic, solely due to Patrick's casting. "Within", the season's first episode, earned a Nielsen household rating of 9.5, meaning that it was seen by 9.5% of the nation's estimated households. The episode was viewed by 15.87 million viewers, which marked an 11% decrease from the seventh season opener, "The Sixth Extinction." The highest-rated episode of the season was "This is Not Happening", which was viewed by 16.9 million viewers, making it the most-watched episode of the series, in terms of viewers, since "The Sixth Extinction". The season finale, "Existence", earned a Nielsen household rating of 8.4, meaning that it was seen by 8.4% of the nation's estimated households. The episode was watched by 14 million viewers, overall. The nine episodes of the season that did not feature Mulder averaged only 13 million viewers, whereas the twelve episodes that did feature Mulder averaged 13.93 million viewers, almost a difference of one million. The season averaged a total of 13.53 million viewers, down from the seventh season's 14.2 million.
During 2000, companies were paying Fox \$225,000 for every 30-second spot that would air between acts of The X-Files. Many Information technology (IT) companies were buying commercials during the show, largely due to the fact that "many ['coders IT geeks'] get their weekly fix of science fiction from this prime-time show."
### Reviews
The show's eighth season received mixed to positive reviews from critics. The A.V. Club noted that the first eight seasons of The X-Files were "good-to-great", and that the eighth season of the show was "revitalized by the new 'search for Mulder' story-arc." John C. Snider of SciFiDimensions gave the season a favorable review, calling it "great" and describing its episodes as "pretty strong". Collin Polonowonski of DVD Times said that the season included "more hits than misses overall" but was throughout negative about the mythology episodes claiming them to be the "weakest" episodes in the season. Many critics eventually accepted Doggett's character. Anita Gates of The New York Times said that most fans had "accepted" the introduction of the character and further stated that he actually looked "Like a Secret Service Agent." Carter commented on the character, saying "Everybody likes Robert Patrick and the character", but further stating that the fans "miss" Duchovny's character, Mulder. Dave Golder of SFX called Patrick "superb" and noted that his entrance in the series "inject[ed] a sense of pragmatism and good old-fashioned plain-speaking in to the show which we didn't realise was missing until we got it." Entertainment Weekly reviewer Ken Tucker said that Patrick's portrayal of Doggett was "hardboiled alertness", giving mostly positive reviews about his inclusion. Cynthia Littleton of The Hollywood Reporter described the season as the show's "swan song".
Not all reviews were positive. Jesse Hassenger from PopMatters gave a negative review to the season, claiming that Patrick was mis-cast and calling David Duchovny's appearances as Fox Mulder shallow. Golder criticized the season for "recycling plots with gusto" and for featuring Mulder falling into Scully's eye in the opening credits, noting that it "gives Duchovny too much of a lingering presence on the show, reinforcing prejudices against Patrick as some kind of 'imposter'."
### Accolades
"This Is Not Happening" was nominated for an American Society of Cinematographers award for cinematography. Robert Patrick won a Saturn Award in the category "Best Television Actor" in 2001 for his role as Doggett, that year Gillian Anderson was nominated in the category "Best Actress on Television" and the series itself was nominated in the category "Best Network Television Series" in the Saturn Awards, but failed to win. Anderson was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild award the very same year in the category "Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series". The X-Files won its last Emmy Award with "Deadalive", and Bill Roe received a nomination for "Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series".
## DVD release |
48,450,560 | The Astonishing | 1,170,721,981 | null | [
"2016 albums",
"Concept albums",
"Dream Theater albums",
"Roadrunner Records albums",
"Rock operas"
] | The Astonishing is the thirteenth studio album by American progressive metal band Dream Theater, released on January 29, 2016 through Roadrunner Records. It is the band's second concept album, with a story conceived by guitarist John Petrucci and music written by Petrucci and keyboardist Jordan Rudess. Composer David Campbell assisted with orchestrating the album's strings and choirs. The band recorded their parts for the album throughout 2015 at Cove City Sound Studios in Long Island, New York, with the exception of vocals, which were recorded in Canada. Mixing and sound engineering were performed by the band's longtime collaborator, Richard Chycki, with Petrucci producing.
The Astonishing is set in a dystopian future United States and follows the Ravenskill Rebel Militia in their efforts to defy the Great Northern Empire of the Americas using the magical power of music. It was inspired by contemporary fantasy and science fiction franchises such as Game of Thrones and Star Wars, as well as Petrucci's observations on the ubiquity of technological automation in modern-day society. In their effort to match the album's narrative, Dream Theater wrote songs in a wide variety of styles ranging from mellow ballads to their more conventional progressive metal sound.
Leading up to The Astonishing'''s release, the band marketed the album with its own website, fan mailing lists, and trailer. It debuted in the top ten of nine countries and became the first Dream Theater album to reach number one on the US Billboard Rock Chart. It has received generally favorable reviews from music critics, and the band toured to support the album throughout most of 2016.
## Background
In mid-2013, guitarist John Petrucci began writing a story for a concept album, presenting it to the rest of Dream Theater about a year later. The band and the record label were receptive to the idea, with Petrucci recalling, "Everybody had the 'go for it' mentality. And from the very first meeting that we had with Dave Rath at Roadrunner, when I presented this and even just said the title, he was 100 percent on board. The involvement of everybody at Roadrunner has been absolutely unbelievable, so supportive. It kind of ignited the secret nerd in all of us that loves this sort of stuff, because it's fun, it's different." From its conception, Petrucci envisioned the story as eventually being re-worked into a film, play, or video game.
Petrucci and keyboardist Jordan Rudess wrote the album's music independently from the rest of Dream Theater by getting together every day, going over ideas in the morning, and then working through the music during the day and night. Upon finishing their initial drafts, they presented them to the rest of the band, who worked on writing parts for their own instruments. In an interview with Artisan News, drummer Mike Mangini reflected, "The biggest challenge for me was interpreting the initial music that was given to me, because there were no drums. So [I was like], 'All right, I need to listen to this, really, as a whole piece to understand where I should kind of let loose or I should lay back a lot.' All that. Just to see it as a whole, 'cause I don't wanna play blindly or try to fit too much where it doesn't belong."
As Petrucci and Rudess felt that the album needed real string lines and choirs, as well as other organic sounds, they enlisted the help of veteran composer David Campbell to assist with aspects of the orchestration and handle the logistics of recording all of the necessary musicians. Reflecting on the process for Keyboard, Rudess explained, "Our initial thought was, let’s do it all on rock instruments and let David arrange it, but that wasn’t really thinking ahead in terms of who we are. When we go into the studio, we tend to work on things until they’re pretty polished. So we got into what we called pre-orchestrating. I’d use any sound at my disposal to place strings where we wanted to hear strings, choir where we wanted choir, and so forth—but without getting overly specific about a certain patch or instrument library being the one, because we knew it was all going to be replaced with real players." Once the album's arrangements were complete, they were performed and recorded in studios around the world, with Campbell conducting and leading the sessions from Los Angeles.
Dream Theater began recording the album's bass, drums, guitars, and keyboards in January 2015 at Cove City Sound Studios in Long Island, New York, where they also recorded their two previous albums, A Dramatic Turn of Events (2011) and Dream Theater (2013), and Train Of Thought (2003). Longtime collaborator Richard Chycki, who Petrucci described as "a sixth member of the band", was again brought in as the album's sound engineer, while Petrucci served as producer. In July, they took a break from the studio to play some shows in Europe, but did some writing while on the road. In August, James LaBrie began recording vocals in Canada with Chycki. Singing as multiple characters, he took it upon himself to create unique interpretations of each one, with Petrucci offering him sporadic advice and feedback. Recording completed in late September, with mixing beginning the next month and mastering concluding in mid-December.
## Synopsis
The following is based on The Astonishings official synopsis, published by Dream Theater upon the album's release.
### Act 1
In 2285, the northeastern region of the United States has turned into a dystopia ruled by the oppressive Great Northern Empire of the Americas. The only resemblance to entertainment that exists is the electronic noise of the Noise Machines (NOMACS). The empire is ruled by Emperor Nafaryus, Empress Arabelle, Crown Prince Daryus, and Princess Faythe. In a distant village called Ravenskill, a man named Gabriel possesses the natural ability to make music and sing ("The Gift of Music"). He has an older brother, Commander Arhys of the Ravenskill Rebel Militia, who has a son, Xander, with his deceased wife, Evangeline ("A Better Life").
Nafaryus hears a rumor about Gabriel being the savior of the people. He and his family travel to Ravenskill to see him for themselves ("Lord Nafaryus"). In the Ravenskill town square, Gabriel is performing for the people when the royal family shows up. He continues playing at the emperor's request ("A Savior in the Square"), nearly bringing them all to tears ("When Your Time Has Come"). As he plays, Faythe remembers how she found a music player when she was a child and kept it a secret all her life, and as she and Gabriel stare at each other and fall in love ("Act of Faythe"). Nafaryus, though briefly moved by Gabriel's song, sees him as a threat to his rule and gives the people of the town three days to deliver their savior to him or he will destroy the town ("Three Days"). Arhys hides his brother and refuses to give him up ("Brother, Can You Hear Me?").
Back at the Emperor's palace, Faythe decides that she must see Gabriel again. Disguising herself, she begins to travel back to Ravenskill. Arabelle, knowing about her daughter's intentions, instructs Daryus to follow and protect her. Daryus feels he has always been overlooked by his father in favor of his sister, so he travels to the town with his own intentions ("A Life Left Behind"). Faythe arrives in the town and finds Xander, who trusts her and leads her to his father Arhys. Faythe convinces Arhys that she can help, so he brings her to Gabriel's hideout. Gabriel and Faythe embrace, and she tells him that she believes she can convince her father to give up his hunt for Gabriel ("Ravenskill"). Gabriel tells her that if he could just meet with the Emperor, he could inspire him to restore peace to the land using his gift of music ("Chosen").
Meanwhile, Daryus finds Arhys' home and takes Xander captive. Daryus promises he will guarantee the safety and wealth of Xander in return for Arhys bringing Gabriel to him. Daryus does this hoping that it will gain him respect from his father ("A Tempting Offer"). Arhys is forced to agree to the deal, remembering a promise he made to Evangeline to protect their son ("The X Aspect"). Faythe travels back to her father's palace and learns that her music player once belonged to her father. After a while, Nafaryus bows to the pleas of his daughter ("A New Beginning") and agrees to meet with Gabriel at an abandoned amphitheater called Heaven's Cove ("The Road to Revolution").
### Act 2
Arhys informs Daryus that Gabriel will be at Heaven's Cove that night ("Moment of Betrayal"). While the meeting time approaches ("Heaven's Cove"), Faythe decides that she wants to use the power of her royal status to change the world for good ("Begin Again"). At the amphitheater, Arhys changes his mind on the deal, and when Daryus shows up, they start a fight. Daryus overpowers Arhys and kills him ("The Path That Divides"), unaware that Xander followed them and saw the whole scene. As Xander runs to his father's dead body, Daryus sees the silhouette of someone approaching him. Assuming it to be Gabriel, he attempts to kill him, realising too late that it is actually Faythe ("The Walking Shadow"). Gabriel arrives at the scene and sees his dead brother and the dying Faythe. Covering Xander's ears, he unleashes a scream that causes Daryus to go deaf and that is heard by Nafaryus, Arabelle, and the entire town ("My Last Farewell").
Nafaryus and Arabelle arrive and beg Gabriel to use his gift to save Faythe ("Losing Faythe"), but Gabriel is unable to sing after screaming so loudly ("Whispers on the Wind"). The people, attracted by the scream, show up and start singing, giving Gabriel hope. He finds his ability to sing and brings Faythe back to life ("Hymn of a Thousand Voices"). Nafaryus, realising what he has done, decides to end the conflict with Gabriel and shuts down the NOMACS for good. Daryus is forgiven for his actions, and Gabriel and Faythe raise Xander as a family ("Our New World"). Nafaryus promises to govern the empire as a fair leader in a new world where music is appreciated again ("Astonishing").
## Composition
The Astonishing is Dream Theater's second concept album, after 1999's Metropolis Pt 2: Scenes from a Memory. It was described as an "honest-to-God rock opera" by Rolling Stone, and has been compared to The Who's Tommy (1969), Rush's 2112 (1976), Pink Floyd's The Wall (1979), and Queensrÿche's Operation: Mindcrime (1988). 2112 also revolves around music being used to achieve freedom in a futuristic setting. The album's story was inspired by Petrucci's love of fantasy and science fiction franchises such as Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars, as well as his observations on the role of technology in modern-day society. In an interview with Billboard, he explained, “I was thinking of all of the things now that people used to do that they don’t do anymore because they’re automated or done by robots: lots of jobs, self-driving cars coming right around the corner ... My thought was, 'What would happen if ... music [became] all artificial?’”
Clocking in at over two hours in length and containing 34 tracks, The Astonishing is Dream Theater's longest album and was planned as an immersive experience that would be best enjoyed as a full album as opposed to a collection of singles. The album plays out similarly to a film, with Loudwire observing, "It’s an enormous amount of music to absorb in one sitting, but when you think about it, most movies are around two hours in length, and The Astonishing is very much like a movie in the way it delivers the storyline." Certain songs, such as "A Savior in the Square" and "Our New World", have reoccurring themes, while others stand more on their own in order to move the plot along.
In writing music to match The Astonishing'''s narrative, Dream Theater ended up playing in a wide variety of styles, from cinematic instrumentals to mellow ballads to the band's more conventional progressive metal. Compared to previous Dream Theater albums, there is more acoustic playing, both in terms of guitar and piano. In an interview with Ultimate Guitar, Petrucci specifically mentioned the song "A Life Left Behind", recalling, "[It] starts with an acoustic, kind of proggy riff, which is something we've never done and has a very Yes sort of feel." Several songs introduced new elements to the band's music, such as "The X Aspect", which is the first Dream Theater song to use bagpipes, and "Three Days", which features a saloon-style swing section that was written as a juxtaposition to the bleaker aspects of the album's story. Five of the album's tracks are short, electronic songs that represent the music of NOMACS.
## Release
Dream Theater began their marketing campaign for The Astonishing in October 2015, prompting visitors to visit their official website to choose between mailing lists for the Great Northern Empire or the Ravenskill Rebel Militia. Registrants were then notified of updates to their side's Twitter page as they occurred. In early November, the band announced that their thirteenth studio album would be titled The Astonishing and launched a promotional website that suggested it would be a concept album. The website slowly revealed key elements of the album's story, including its characters, map, and track listing. In December, The Astonishing was given an official January 29 release date, with multiple special editions being made available for pre-sale including a deluxe set with a handmade NOMAC 3D model. Leading to the album's release, the band released a single, "The Gift of Music", on December 15, and premiered another song, "Moment of Betrayal", on January 21. Additionally, an official trailer for the album was made available on YouTube.
Upon its release, The Astonishing debuted on many album charts, including top-ten placements in Norway, Hungary, Italy, Sweden, Portugal, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and Canada. In the United States, it entered and peaked on the Billboard 200 at number eleven overall and became Dream Theater's first ever number one debut on the Billboard Rock Chart. In February, the band released a music video for "The Gift of Music", which mixed live performance footage with CGI animation and was filmed in New Jersey. Later that month, the band announced that it had partnered with Turbo Tape Games to create a video game adaptation of the album's story for PC, Mac, iOS and Android. On May 7, a music video was released for "Our New World", followed by a video of tour visuals for "Hymn of a Thousand Voices" on June 14. On September 10, an alternate version of "Our New World" was released as a single, featuring guest vocalist Lzzy Hale of Halestorm.
## Reception
Upon release, The Astonishing received generally favorable reviews from music publications. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album holds an average score of 80, based on six reviews. Critics were especially complimentary of the band's willingness to write a long, unconventional album, with AllMusic commenting, "Dream Theater have invested in the 'album' concept (and in listeners' attention spans) even as the music biz doubles down on the notion that long-players are merely envelopes to hold singles." Rolling Stone echoed these sentiments, concluding, "The results won't please every Dream Theater partisan, nor will they convert the skeptical. But it would take a hard heart to deny Petrucci, co-composer and keyboardist Jordan Rudess and their mates credit for the boldness of their aspirations and the assurance with which they achieve them." Loudwire was also supportive of the band's unique approach, but warned that it might make the album polarizing for fans.
Some reviewers were critical of The Astonishings concept, including Consequence of Sound, who described it as "very silly", but ultimately gave the album an overall positive review. By contrast, Record Collector described the storytelling as "seamless". In their write-up, RTÉ.ie advised, "park the snootiness before pressing the play button because while The Astonishing makes Iron Maiden's recent 92-minute double The Book of Souls look like a Ramones record, it's great fun ... Mental elbow grease is required, and the quintet wouldn't have it any other way."
LaBrie's vocals on The Astonishing were singled out by many critics as being particularly strong. In their review, Loudwire elaborated, "A concept album with different characters puts a lot of pressure on the vocalist, and James LaBrie lives up to the challenge. From mellow crooning to Broadway belting to edgier singing, he utilizes every style in his arsenal and delivers a first-class performance." The band as a whole were also praised, although AllMusic observed that Mangini and bassist John Myung weren't featured as prominently as usual.
In retrospect, Dream Theater have observed that fan response to The Astonishing was mixed, which the band anticipated would be the case because of the unique nature of the project. In an interview with Eddie Trunk, John Petrucci explained, "[The album] was so immersed in the story — everything had to do with that — that there was no question that it was gonna alienate certain people that weren't on board with it. And that's exactly what happened. So some people really were, 'This is the coolest thing ever' and got into it, got into the whole story and the theatrics. And some people were, like, 'Ehhh, I want normal Dream Theater.'"
## Track listing
All lyrics written by John Petrucci, all music composed by Petrucci and Jordan Rudess.
## Personnel
All credits taken from The Astonishing liner notes.
Dream Theater
- James LaBrie – lead vocals
- John Petrucci – guitars, production, story and concept
- Jordan Rudess – keyboards, synthesizer, arrangement, creative direction
- John Myung – bass
- Mike Mangini – drums, percussion
Additional musicians
- Eric Rigler – bagpipes on "The X Aspect"
- FILMharmonic Orchestra Prague
- Pueri Cantores – boys' choir
- Millennium Choir
- Fred Martin and The Levite Camp – gospel choir
Production
- Richard Chycki – engineering, mixing
- Jie Ma – cover art
- Sean Mosher-Smith – cover art direction
- David Campbell – orchestral and choir arrangements
- Richard Flocca – conducting
- Petr Pycha – orchestra contractor
- Mike Schuppan – engineering
- Travis Warner – engineering
- Gary Chester – engineering
- James "Jimmy T" Meslin – assistant engineer
- Dave Rowland – assistant mixer
- Jason Stanniulis – assistant mixer
- Brandon Williams – music editing and coordination
- Ted Jensen – mastering
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts |
869,242 | Béla I of Hungary | 1,147,812,497 | King of Hungary from 1060 to 1063 | [
"1063 deaths",
"11th-century Hungarian people",
"11th-century births",
"Accidental deaths in Hungary",
"House of Árpád",
"Hungarian monarchs",
"Kings of Hungary"
] | Béla I the Boxer or the Wisent (Hungarian: I. Bajnok or Bölény Béla, Slovak: Belo I.; c. 1015 – 11 September 1063) was King of Hungary from 1060 until his death. He descended from a younger branch of the Árpád dynasty. Béla's baptismal name was Adalbert. He left Hungary in 1031, together with his brothers, Levente and Andrew, after the execution of their father, Vazul. Béla settled in Poland and married Richeza (or Adelaide), daughter of Polish king Mieszko II Lambert.
He returned to his homeland upon the invitation of his brother Andrew, who had in the meantime been crowned King of Hungary. Andrew assigned the administration of the so-called ducatus or "duchy", which encompassed around one-third of the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary, to Béla. The two brothers' relationship became tense when Andrew had his own son, Solomon, crowned king, and forced Béla to publicly confirm Solomon's right to the throne in 1057 or 1058. Béla, assisted by his Polish relatives, rebelled against his brother and dethroned him in 1060. He introduced monetary reform and subdued the last uprising aimed at the restoration of paganism in Hungary. Béla was fatally injured when his throne collapsed while he was sitting on it.
## Life
### Childhood (before 1031)
Most Hungarian chronicles, including Simon of Kéza's Gesta Hungarorum and the Illuminated Chronicle, record that Béla's father was Ladislas the Bald, a cousin of Stephen, the first King of Hungary. However, many of the same sources add that it "is sometimes claimed" that Béla and his two brothers—Levente and Andrew—were in fact the sons of Ladislaus the Bald's brother, Vazul. The chronicles also refer to gossip claiming that the three brothers were their father's illegitimate sons, born to "a girl from the Tátony clan". Modern historians, who accept the latter reports' reliability, unanimously write that the three brothers were the sons of Vazul and his concubine.
Béla was born between 1015 and 1020. It is debated whether Béla was a second or a third son. The former view is represented, for example, by the Polish historian Wincenty Swoboda, and the latter by the Hungarian scholars Gyula Kristó and Ferenc Makk. Kristó and Makk write that Béla's name "most probably" derived from the Turkish adjective bujla ("noble"). However, the name may also be connected to the Slavic word for white (bjelij) or to the Biblical name Bela.
### In exile (1031 – c. 1048)
King Stephen's only son who survived infancy, Emeric, died on 2 September 1031. Thereafter, Vazul had the strongest claim to succeed the King. However, the monarch, suspecting that Vazul inclined towards paganism, favored his own sister's son, Peter Orseolo. In order to ensure his nephew's succession, Stephen had Vazul blinded. Béla and his two brothers fled from the kingdom.
They first settled in Bohemia, but their "condition of life was poor and mean" there. They moved to Poland, where "they received a warm reception" from King Mieszko II. According to the Hungarian chronicles, Béla participated in a Polish expedition against the pagan Pomeranians and defeated their duke "in single combat". The Illuminated Chronicle narrates that the Polish monarch "praised the boldness and strength of Duke Béla and bestowed on him all the Pomeranian tribute". The King even gave his daughter—named either Richeza or Adelaide—in marriage to Béla and granted "a goodly quantity of land" to him. Makk says that Béla was not baptized until just before his marriage; his baptismal name was Adalbert.
> At that time the Pomeranians refused to pay their yearly tribute to the Duke of Poland, to whom they were subject. The Duke set out to exact by force of arms the tribute due to him from the Pomeranians. Then the Pomeranians, who were pagans, and the Poles, who were Christians, agreed together that their leaders should meet each other in a duel, and if the Pomeranian fell defeated, he would render the customary tribute; and if the Pole, then he might bewail its loss. Since [the] Duke [Mieszko] and his sons shrank in fear from the duel to be fought, [Béla] presented himself before them and through an interpreter spoke thus: "If it is pleasing to you, Poles, and to the lord Duke, although I am of nobler birth than that pagan, yet I will fight for the advantage of your kingdom and for the honour of the Duke." This was pleasing both to the Pomeranians and to the Poles. When they met in combat, armed with lances, [Béla] is said to have struck the Pomeranian so manfully that he unseated him from his horse; and the Pomeranian could not move from the spot where he had fallen, and [Béla] smote him with his sword. Then the Duke of the Pomeranians confessed himself at fault; and the Pomeranians, seeing this, humbly submitted to the Duke of Poland and paid the accustomed tribute without murmuring.
King Mieszko II died in 1034; his son and heir Casimir was forced to leave Poland. A period of anarchy followed, which lasted at least until 1039 when Casimir returned. According to Kristó and Makk, Béla was staying in Poland during this period; he may even have administered the kingdom in the name of his absent brother-in-law. On the other hand, the Polish historian Manteuffel writes that Béla and his two brothers, in contrast with the unanimous report of the Hungarian chronicles, arrived in Poland only with Casimir, after 1039. It is beyond doubt that Levente and Andrew departed from Poland in about 1038, because—according to the Illuminated Chronicle—they did not want to "live the life of hangers-on in the Duke of Poland's court, regarded only as Béla's brothers".
### Duke in Hungary (c. 1048–1060)
Upon leaving Poland, Andrew and Levente settled in Kiev. They returned to Hungary after a rebellion which was dominated by pagans broke out against King Peter Orseolo in 1046. The King was dethroned, and Andrew was proclaimed king. Levente died in the same year and Andrew, still childless, decided to invite Béla back to Hungary.
> Having lost one brother, King Andreas sent to Poland to his other brother Bela, calling him with great love and saying: "Once we shared poverty and labour together, and now I ask you, most beloved brother, that you come to me without tarrying, so that we may be companions in joy and share in the good things of the kingdom, rejoicing in each other's presence. For I have neither heir nor brother except you. You shall be my heir, and you shall succeed me in the kingdom." Won by these words, Béla came to the King with all his family. When the King saw him, he rejoiced with a great joy, because he was fortified by his brother's strength. Then the King and his brother Bela held a council and divided the kingdom into three parts, of which two remained under the proprietorship of the royal majesty or power and the third was put under the proprietorship of the Duke. This first division of the kingdom became the seed of discord and wars between the dukes and the kings of Hungary.
Urged by his brother, Béla returned in 1048 and received one-third of the kingdom, with the title of duke. Béla's ducatus or "duchy" encompassed large territories along the eastern and northern borders, including the regions of Nyitra (Nitra, Slovakia) and Bihar (Biharia, Romania). He possessed a wide range of royal prerogatives, including coinage. The half-denars minted for him bore the inscription BELA DUX ("Duke Béla"). According to Steinhübel, the mid-11th-century timber and earth walls of the fortress of Nyitra were erected in Béla's reign.
The two brothers closely collaborated in the subsequent years. According to the Illuminated Chronicle, they together worked out a military strategy against the Germans, who were frequently invading the kingdom in the early 1050s. Ferenc Makk writes that Béla's epithets—the Champion or the Wisent—are connected to his fighting against the Germans. The chronicler emphasizes that Andrew and Béla "lived in a great tranquillity of peace" even after Andrew fathered a son, Solomon, in 1053. Béla was one of the lords witnessing the deed of the foundation of the Tihany Abbey, a Benedictine monastery that his brother established in 1055.
The two brothers' good relationship deteriorated after King Andrew had the child Solomon crowned king in 1057 or 1058. The coronation was the consequence of the peace negotiations with the Holy Roman Empire, because the Germans did not acquiesce in a marriage between Solomon and Judith—the sister of the young German monarch, Henry IV—until Solomon's right to succeed his father was declared and publicly confirmed. Thereafter Andrew was determined to secure the throne for his son. He invited Béla to his manor in Tiszavárkony, where the King offered his brother a seemingly free choice between a crown and a sword (which were the symbols of the royal and ducal power, respectively). However, he had ordered that Béla be murdered if he chose the crown. Having been informed of his brother's secret plan by one of his own partisans in the royal court, Béla opted for the sword, but he departed for Poland after the meeting.
He returned to Hungary, in the autumn of 1060, with Polish troops that Duke Boleslaus the Bold of Poland had provided. Around the same time, German reinforcements arrived in Hungary to assist Andrew against Béla. The ensuing civil war ended with the victory of Béla, who defeated his brother in two successive battles fought at the river Tisza and at Moson. The King was seriously injured and died soon afterward. His partisans took his son, the child Solomon, to Germany.
### Reign (1060–1063)
Béla was crowned king in Székesfehérvár on 6 December 1060. He ordered that "the wives and sons and all the property of all those who had followed" his nephew to Germany "should be protected and kept safe and sound", which induced many of Solomon's partisans to reconcile themselves to Béla's rule and return to Hungary. He reformed the coinage and introduced "large coins of purest silver" into circulation. In order to stabilize the new currency, Béla maximized the prices and eliminated the black market. He also ordered that weekly markets should be held on Saturdays, instead of Sundays, in the kingdom. The historian Nora Berend says that the latter measure "may have adversely affected Jewish activities", because Jews, who observed the Sabbath, could not work on Saturdays.
Béla decided to discuss his innovations with the representatives of the freemen, and "sent heralds throughout all Hungary to summon two elders with gift of speech from each village to a royal council", according to the Illuminated Chronicle. A great crowd of commoners gathered in Székesfehérvár in 1061. They demanded the restoration of paganism and the murder of clergymen, but Béla collected his army and suppressed their uprising within three days. According to Kristó, the rebels might have been led by Vata's son, John.
Béla attempted to conclude a peace treaty with the Holy Roman Empire. For this purpose, shortly after his coronation, he released all German commanders who had assisted his brother during the civil war. However, the young German monarch's advisors refused Béla's proposals. In the summer of 1063, an assembly of the German princes decided to launch a military expedition against Hungary to restore young Solomon to the throne. Béla was planning to abdicate in favor of his nephew if the latter restored his former ducatus, but he was seriously injured when "his throne broke beneath him" in his manor at Dömös. The King—who was "half-dead", according to the Illuminated Chronicle—was taken to the western borders of his kingdom, where he died at the Kanizsva Creek on 11 September 1063. Béla was buried in the Benedictine Szekszárd Abbey, which he had set up in 1061. Following Béla's death, his three sons—Géza, Ladislaus and Lampert—sought refuge in Poland, and Solomon ascended the throne.
## Family
Béla married, in about 1033, a daughter of King Mieszko II of Poland. According to Makk, her name was either Richesa or Adelheid. Their eldest children, Géza and Ladislaus—who became kings of Hungary in 1074 and 1077, respectively—were born in Poland in the 1040s. Béla's third son, Lampert, was born after Béla's return to Hungary.
Lampert was followed by a daughter named Sophia, who was first married to Margrave Ulric I of Carniola, and later to Duke Magnus of Saxony. Her younger sister, Euphemia, became the wife of Duke Otto I of Olomouc. Béla's third daughter, Helena, was the wife of King Demetrius Zvonimir of Croatia. An unnamed daughter of Béla became the first wife of a Hungarian nobleman, Lampert of the Clan Hont-Pázmány. According to the historian Martin Dimnik, Béla also fathered a fifth daughter, Lanka, who was the wife of Prince Rostislav Vladimirovich of Tmutarakan.
The following family tree presents Béla's ancestry, his offspring, and some of his relatives mentioned in the article.
- A Khazar, Pecheneg or Volga Bulgarian lady.
\*\*Györffy writes that she may have been a member of the Bulgarian Cometopuli dynasty.
\*\*\*Lanka is not mentioned as Béla I's daughter by all specialists. |
1,118,766 | Nestlé Purina PetCare | 1,163,209,055 | American pet food manufacturer, subsidiary of the Swiss corporation Nestlé | [
"2001 establishments in Missouri",
"American companies established in 2001",
"American subsidiaries of foreign companies",
"Cat food brands",
"Dog food brands",
"Food and drink companies established in 2001",
"Food and drink companies of the United States",
"Nestlé brands",
"Ralston Purina"
] | Nestlé Purina PetCare (/pjʊˈriːnə/), or simply Purina, is an American subsidiary of the Swiss corporation Nestlé, based in St. Louis, Missouri. It produces and markets pet food, treats, cat and dog litter. Some of its pet food brands include Purina Pro Plan, Purina Dog Chow, Friskies, Beneful and Purina One. The company was formed in 2001 by combining Nestlé's Friskies PetCare Company with Ralston Purina, which acquired it for \$10.3 billion. As of 2012, it is the second-largest pet food company globally (with the first being Mars Petcare), and the largest in the United States.
## Corporate history
### Origins
In 1894, William H. Danforth partnered with George Robinson and William Andrews, as they entered the business of feeding farm animals by founding the Robinson-Danforth Commission Company in St. Louis, Missouri. The name was changed to Ralston Purina in 1902. This was the same year, 1902, when Ralston Purina built their first building at the current headquarters, 800 Chouteau Ave, St. Louis, Missouri. Nestlé Purina PetCare was formed in December 2001, when Nestlé acquired Ralston Purina for \$10.3 billion and merged it with Nestlé's pet food business, Friskies PetCare Company. Ralston had marketed the Dog Chow, Cat Chow and Pro Plan pet food brands, while Nestlé produced Friskies and Alpo brand pet foods.
The merger was opposed by consumer advocates, such as the Consumer Federation of America, due to anti-trust concerns. The two companies combined would become the largest pet food brand by market-share with a 45 percent share of the cat food market. The Federal Trade Commission approved the merger after the Meow Mix and Alley Cat brands from Ralston were sold to J.W. Childs Equity Partners, creating the separate Meow Mix Company. Ralston's St. Louis, Missouri location was chosen as the new company's North America headquarters.
### Early history
Nestlé Purina PetCare continued integrating the two companies through 2002. It cut back dry dog food manufacturing at facilities inherited from Friskies PetCare Company in Jefferson, Wisconsin, St. Joseph, Missouri and Arden Hills, Minnesota, then moved those operations to manufacturing facilities acquired from Ralston. Expanded manufacturing facilities were planned in Dunkirk, New York and the St. Joseph location was later expanded for wet-food production. In Asia it shifted from a "dealer system" to managing its own distribution. In 2004, Nestlé Purina merged its North American and Latin America operations into a Nestlé Purina PetCare Americas division.
In 2003, Nestlé Purina PetCare formed a partnership with the Canine Health Foundation to advance veterinary research. The following year the company donated 80 tons of pet food to pets affected by Hurricane Charley in Florida and donated \$100,000 to local animal shelters. Nestlé Purina Petcare grew from about 11 percent of Nestlé's revenues in 2001, to one-third by 2005. By 2006, it was the largest market-share holder in the pet food industry with 32 percent of the market.
### Recent history
By 2009, Purina was one of Nestlé's fastest-growing divisions, due to an increasing willingness by consumers to spend more money on petCare. In 2008, it formed a separate company called PurinaCare with headquarters in San Antonio, Texas that sold pet insurance. PetCare was later acquired by Pethealth Inc. in 2013. By 2009 Purina had also introduced pet litter products and built new manufacturing facilities in Russia and Thailand. Its Colorado plant built the largest privately owned solar panel system in the state. In September 2010, Nestlé reached an agreement to acquire Waggin' Train, a producer of pet treats with \$200 million in annual revenues.
In 2013, Nestlé Purina PetCare acquired the pet adoption website Petfinder. The following year it acquired Zuke's, a producer of cat and dog treats. From 2010 to 2012, Nestlé expanded its manufacturing operations in Australia, Hungary and Germany. It also implemented the company's largest solar panel farm at its facilities in Atlanta, Georgia. In April 2014, Nestlé Purina PetCare opened the first cat café in the US.
In February 2019, the company announced plans to spend \$115 million to expand its factory in Bloomfield, Missouri, to support the demand for Tidy Cats. In November, the company invested \$320 million in an old textile factory in Hartwell, Georgia.
In April 2020, Nestlé Purina PetCare acquired Lily's Kitchen, a UK-based natural pet food brand.
In November 2020, Purina announced Nina Leigh Krueger as the new company CEO. Krueger is the first female CEO of Nestlé Purina PetCare for the Americas. Purina's president and CEO, Nina Kruneger was named Chair of Pet Food Institute in 2023.
In October 2022, Purina announced the opening of its new facility in Rayong,Thailand. Also in October, Purina celebrated the completion of expansion at its local factory in Clinton, Iowa which would bring about other new 96 positions.
Later in November, Nestlé Purina PetCare announced its alliance with Riceland Foods, Inc to work on encouraging Riceland farm-members to cultivate and grow rice with sustainable techniques starting in 2023. The same year, Purina announced its partnership with pet-care startups from Europe and North Africa to meet the demands of more sustainable solutions for the wellbeing of pets.
In 2023, it was announced that Purina's portfolio specifically entailed dry dog food (30%), wet dog food (4%), dry cat food(19%), wet cat food (32%) and other pet nutrition products (15%). In February 2023, Purina reported its plan to acquire Red Collar Pet Foods' pet treats factory in Miami . In late-February 2023, Purina PetCare announced its determination to invest nearly \$3.2 billion USD from 2022 and 2025 to support pet nutrition. Later in April, Purina PetCare formed a partnership with Texas A&M Gastrointestinal Laboratory to improve pet microbiome health.
Purina has partnerships with several non-profit organizations, including Urban Resource Institute, which operates pet-friendly domestic violence shelters in New York City. In 2023, it was announced that Purina has contributed more than \$150 million to organizations that are devoted to supporting pets, people and the environment in general. The same year in April, Purina PetCare formed a five-year alliance with Texas A&M to improve microbiome health.
In May 2023, Purina PetCare provided a donation of \$20.000 for the city of Bloomfield to support the replacement of broken playground equipment.
In June 2023, Purina PetCare developed a new supplement aiming at supporting mobility, healthy cartilage and joints among dogs as well as puppies regardless of their breeds and sizes.
### Legal issues
In May 2014, Nestlé Purina PetCare began a legal dispute with Blue Buffalo regarding its advertising practices. Blue Buffalo advertised that its products contain no meat byproduct or corn, whereas Purina said independent lab tests confirmed that they do. Blue Buffalo made similar allegations against Purina in a counter-suit less than a week later. It also alleged Purina was engaging in what it characterized as a "smear campaign". The National Advertising Review Board and the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council found that Blue Buffalo's advertising was misleading and its claims that competitors were hiding information about their ingredients were unsubstantiated. Blue Buffalo said it disagreed, but would obey the ruling.
In 2015, after a dog died and others got sick, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Purina alleging that the company's Beneful brand of dog food contained propylene glycol and mycotoxins produced by mold found in grains – grain being a major ingredient in Beneful. The lawsuit was unsuccessful when the judge ruled that the plaintiff's attorneys did not prove that the food caused the dogs' illnesses, and the dog's death was found to have been caused by a heart tumor.
In April 2017, another lawsuit, regarding Purina's Beggin' line of dog treats and the accusation that its advertising fooled consumers into thinking that it was full of bacon, was dropped.
In January 2017 Nestlé Purina was responsible for the death of Tyson, a cat used in their testing facility. Tyson was boiled alive.
### Recalls
In 2005, Nestlé Purina Petcare voluntarily recalled all of its dry pet food produced from a plant in La Encrucijada, Venezuela after an internal investigation verified contaminants that were causing illnesses in pets. According to Fortune Magazine, in 2007 the pet food market "plunged into turmoil" due to the widespread discovery of contaminated ingredients. During this period, Nestle Purina voluntarily recalled some of its Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy product in the US that contained wheat gluten from China contaminated with melamine.
In August 2013 Purina recalled some of its Purina ONE Beyond dog food, because of one bag that was found to contain salmonella. In 2012 a consumer sued Nestlé Purina PetCare when his pet died after eating Waggin' Train treats. The Food and Drug Administration received more than 900 reports from grieving pet owners that alleged the treat was causing illness or death in their pets due to chicken products from China. The FDA had issued warnings regarding these ingredients, but lab tests repeatedly confirmed there were no contaminants. Later that year, another consumer started a petition on Change.org asking retailers to voluntarily stop carrying the product. The petition attracted 60,000 signatures. The following year, Waggin' Train and Canyon Creek dog treats were voluntarily taken off the market temporarily after the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets identified trace amounts of antibiotic residue, which is allowed in Europe and China, but not approved in the US. In early-2014, a \$6.5 million settlement was reached, pending approval by the court. According to The Washington Post, the company later re-introduced the brands after "revamping its manufacturing process and overhauling its supply chain".
## Products and services
According to a SWOT analysis by MarketLine, Nestlé Purina PetCare's pet food brands that contribute substantially to revenue include Purina, Purina Dog Chow, Friskies, Purina Beneful and Purina ONE. Some brands, such as Alpo are intended for budget shoppers, while others like Purina ONE and Beneful cost more and are for health or ingredient conscious consumers. Purina ONE has been its fastest-growing brand.
The company introduced an appetizer cat food, Fancy Feast Appetizers, in 2009. A Purina Pro Plan line for senior dogs was introduced in 2010. It contains medium chain triglycerides (MCTs) for brain function and has whole grains for digestion. A grain-free product, Purina ONE Beyond, was introduced in 2011. Purina Pro Plan Sport, which contains extra fat and protein and is intended for athletic dogs, was made available in 2013. In 2014, Purina introduced a product for the growing Brazilian market called Ravena, which used locally available ingredients, such as acerola and jabuticaba fruits. Purina-branded accessories, such as training pads, beds, leashes and cleaners began being sold in 2011 under the Purina PetGear name through brand licensing agreements with other manufacturers.
Purina's significant brands and product lines include:
## Marketing and advertising
In the mid-1970s, the Purina Cat Chow brand launched the "Chow-Chow-Chow" advertising campaign, variations of which would run for the next 20 years. The television commercials featured cats seemingly dancing the cha-cha-cha, by means of a post-production and editing trick that involved rapidly playing the film forward and backward, giving the humorous illusion of the cats dancing as they walked or ran in time with the music. The earliest such spots featured character actress Patsy Garrett, who would appear in several other Cat Chow spots as an official spokesperson for many more years.
In 2006, Nestlé Purina Petcare introduced a sponsored email application, Doggie-Mail, that could send messages online through a talking dog. In 2009, it sponsored the PawNation.com site developed by AOL, which hosted crowd-sourced pet videos, tips, Q&As and other content about pet ownership. Purina also sponsored Martha Stewart's pet tips site, Living Omnimedia. The company introduced an advertising campaign for the Alpo brand with the slogan "Real dogs eat meat". In the ad, over-pampered pets were "rescued" and fed Alpo, implying that pets needed to stay in touch with their primal nature by eating real meat. In 2009, it released a free iPhone app called "petcentric places" that allows users to map local pet-related locations, like dog parks or pet-friendly hotels. In 2010, Purina released a branded Facebook game called Purina Pet Resort, where players manage a virtual pet resort.
In 2011, Nestlé Purina PetCare became the official sponsor of the Westminster show hosted by the American Kennel Club. The company introduced a competition for pet owners to win a part-time job earning \$50,000 annually to travel with their cat, interview other pet owners and write for the Purina website. Nestle Purina also produced television advertisements intended for Austria that had audio effects only pets could hear. It was the first set of advertisements targeting pets directly, rather than their owners.
In 2012, Purina and another Nestlé business, Jenny Craig, jointly created "Project: Pet Slim Down", an online program intended to help pets and pet owners lose weight together. Grumpy Cat became a "spokescat" for the Friskies brand in late-2013. In 2013, Purina featured ads during the Westminster Show that featured crowd-sourced videos submitted to Purina in response to the question "How is Your Dog Great?"
## Operations
### Headquarters
Nestlé Purina PetCare is operated as a subsidiary of Nestlé. It is headquartered in St Louis, Missouri and has operations in North America, Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and Oceania. There are sixteen buildings on 50 acres at its headquarters, including a 15-story main tower, four-story research facility built in 2010 and a Learning and Training center built in 2011. In 2010, Purina built the \$10 million Purina Event Center for dog shows and competitions. Nestlé Purina Petcare sponsors various charitable activities, such as the Pet Care Pride Day annual event where employees do volunteer work. Employees are allowed to bring their pets to work. The company has on-site gyms, physical fitness trainers, medical care, and an employee turnover of approximately 5 percent. NestlePurina also has its own in-house creative agency called, CheckMark. Purina's St Louis headquarters houses between 2,500 and 3000 employees and also houses IT and auditing departments as part of Nestle Shared Services.
### Statistics
As of 2005, Purina PetCare was Nestlé's second most profitable division behind pharmaceuticals. It was the largest pet food manufacturer by market share in the US and the second-largest in Europe. As of 2012, globally Purina has a 23.1 percent share of the pet food market, while its largest competitor, Mars, has a 23.4 percent share. According to a Research and Markets report, competition between Nestlé and Mars has been "fierce."
In 2010, Nestlé Purina PetCare won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award based on organizational and manufacturing performance. Its manufacturing operations have continuously reduced the amount of materials used in packaging, increased the recycling of waste product and reduced water usage, in addition to installing solar panels to produce electricity for its offices and facilities. In 2011, Nestlé Purina PetCare was ranked as one of 11 most sustainable companies in Two Tomorrow's annual ranking. As of 2014, it has 19 manufacturing plants.
In 2021, Purina PetCare enabled Nestlé reach its highest sales in five years. During the pandemic, consumers tended to buy petcare supplements.
In FY21, Purina PetCare's annual revenue reached US\$16.903 billion. By the start of 2022, Purina PetCare's sales witnessed an increase of nearly 14%. Indeed, Purina PetCare sales grew each quarter in 2022. In that year, Purina managed to rise and eventually lead to Nestlé's expansion worldwide. Also, Purina PetCare accounted for 90% of Nestlé's online pet sales in 2022. For instance, Purina's sales underwent a double-digit growth in China due to sales in online commerce and pet specialty. Accordingly, Purina's sales in FY22 reached \$19.385 billion and its organic growth attained 14.5%. It was announced in 2023 that North America and Europe were still Purina's 'largest segments'.
In January 2023, Purina was considered the 'No. 1 petcare compagny in the U.S.' which nourishes 65 million dogs as well as 51 million cats per annum. The same year, in March, it was announced that Purina PetCare was the second largest category of Nestlé, following coffee, and had the largest market share in the U.S. During the first three months of 2023, Purina PetCare sales managed to reach US\$5,267 million. Accordingly, Purina remained the 'largest contributor' to Nestlé's organic growth.
## See also
- W. Patrick McGinnis, former president and CEO (2001–2015), then non-executive chairman (2015–2017) |
35,355,468 | Big Hoops (Bigger the Better) | 1,147,449,783 | Single by music recording artist Nelly Furtado | [
"2012 singles",
"2012 songs",
"Interscope Records singles",
"Music videos directed by Aaron A",
"Music videos directed by Director X",
"Nelly Furtado songs",
"Song recordings produced by Rodney Jerkins",
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"Songs written by Rodney Jerkins"
] | "Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)" is a song by Canadian recording artist Nelly Furtado, taken from her fifth studio album, The Spirit Indestructible. It was released on April 16, 2012, through Interscope Records, as the lead single from the album. The song was written by Furtado in a collaboration with its producer Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins. "Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)" is an R&B song influenced by hip hop collective Odd Future and 1990s productions. The track's lyrics refer to the singer's life as a teenager, describing her passion for hip hop and R&B music at that time. "Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)" received mixed to positive reviews from music critics, who praised the song's breakdown but criticized Furtado's vocals.
The song achieved moderate commercial success, reaching the top 30 in Belgium, Canada, The Netherlands and United Kingdom. In the United States, "Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)" failed to enter the Billboard Hot 100; however, it charted within the top 40 on Pop Songs and reached the top 10 on Hot Dance Club Songs. The accompanying music video was directed by Little X, and features Furtado strutting down a city block wearing a giant pair of stilts, as she is joined by Native American dancers throughout the video. To promote the song, Furtado performed it on Alan Carr: Chatty Man, at the 2012 Billboard Music Awards and the 2012 MuchMusic Video Awards.
In 2021, "Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)" was interpolated in the dance track "Talk About" by Rain Radio and DJ Craig Gorman, which reached the top 10 on the UK Singles Chart and was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry.
## Background
"Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)" was one of the first songs that Furtado worked on with producer Rodney Jerkins for The Spirit Indestructible. The singer stated that the song's instrumentation was influenced by the 1990s hip hop and R&B as a tribute to the music she listened to in her teenage years, also citing inspiration from hip hop group Odd Future's "dark sound[ing], heavy and visceral" sound as she tried to recreate a similar style on "Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)".
The lyrics of "Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)" also concern Furtado's teenage period, with the singer describing the song's lyrical content as "my swagger-in-spades, rhyme-writing 14-year-old self find[ing] liberation through hip hop and R&B attending 'music jams' in suburban Victoria". There are references to Furtado's favourite groups at the period such as Salt-n-Pepa, A Tribe Called Quest and Blackstreet, many of whom were produced by Jerkins himself and her teenage wardrobe. The song's title references the hoop earrings she liked to wear. Furtado said that the song describes "a certain unique swagger you have at that young age and that the music gives you," and that she was "the kid who used to pick up the mic at parties and just rock the crowd, sing my way through the storm and know my voice could penetrate." The singer stated that as "hip-hop was super-exotic to us in Canada", she felt that "it was very liberating, finding that confidence through the music".
## Composition
"Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)" was written by Furtado, with production and additional writing being provided by Jerkins. The song features staccato percussion. Robbie Daw of Idolator noticed the use of pitch-correcting software Auto-Tune on Furtado's voice.
Furtado's manager Chris Smith stated that "Big Hoops" was an attempt to translate Furtado's versatility as "a free-range artist", being "free form; not contained versus a structured typical song." As an in-joke to Smith's reaction to when he first heard the track, the song starts with the manager saying "Time release the fresh", Furtado laughing at the phrase, and Interscope Records A&R representative Thom Panunzio replying "You're 100 percent right Chris." The title and intro, during which Furtado chants "the bigger the better" against a bass line, references the character finding strength in the size of her earrings.
## Release and reception
Smith declared that "Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)" was not originally intended as a single, only "a big club banger", as he and Furtado felt the track's status as "a song that would be the best of Nelly, Nelly's attitude, Nelly's freshness" would not be "really about chart positions". Eventually it became the lead single for The Spirit Indestructible. Furtado stated that the song earned this status because it represented her intentions "to detach myself from all shackles and play freely" as her ambitious younger self was always "pushing the boundaries". It was released via digital download on April 17, 2012, and was released physically in Germany on May 18, 2012.
### Critical reception
"Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)" has received mixed to favourable reviews from music critics, some of whom compared the vocals on the song to those of Rihanna in songs like "Rude Boy" and "Cheers (Drink to That)". Billboards Maria Sherman wrote that "Big Hoops" is "easily in the running to be one of the best summer club anthems of the year", and "if this song doesn't roll out the carpet for her comeback, nothing will." MTV reviewer Jenna Hally Rubenstein praised Jerkins' production and the song's originality, considering that "Big Hoops" was "unlike anything you've heard in a hot minute".
Robbie Daw of Idolator, gave the song a mixed review, criticizing the singer's "unnecessary Rihanna-esque vocal delivery" while adding that it "isn't the strongest lead single we've heard from an album." Jessica Sager of Pop Crush rated it 0.5 out of 5 stars, comparing Furtado's vocals to the ones of a "child wailing through a cardboard tube." She also wrote that "Sager also noted that the singer "wants to depart from Loose as well, but she doesn't have anything to say beyond getting dressed and having a guy ignore her" and concluded that "the song is more irritating than catchy, and the beat isn't strong enough to make many people dance." Melinda Newman of HitFix deemed the song "It's a meaningless little ditty that is all about the military beat and bragging rights. It doesn't have enough of a hook to work its way up the radio charts, but will likely do very well in the clubs."
### Chart performance
"Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)" debuted at number 60 on the Canadian Hot 100 chart and peaked at number 28. It debuted at number 46 on the Belgian Tip Chart, where it reached a peak of number 24. On the Dutch singles chart, the track debuted at number 81 and peaked at 26. On the UK Singles Chart, "Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)" debuted at number 14, becoming Furtado's highest charting single since 2006's All Good Things (Come to an End). On the North American Billboard charts, the song became Furtado's first since 2010's "Night Is Young" to not enter the Billboard Hot 100. However, "Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)" reached the top 40 of the Pop Songs chart and the top 10 of the Hot Dance Club Songs chart. Smith felt the underperformance was helped by moving The Spirit Indestructible's release date, "so there's no need to get this thing that supposed to be this club banger intro track and force it up the chart."
## Music video
The accompanying music video for "Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)" was directed by Little X, who previously worked with Furtado on the video for "Promiscuous". The video premiered on May 3, 2012 in Much Music, and on May 7, 2012 on VEVO.
The video opens with Furtado strolling down a city block wearing a giant pair of stilts. After several outfit changes, Furtado is seen accompanied by Native American hoop dancers, including champion hoop dancer Tony Duncan. The dancers create shapes with their hoops as a giant Furtado towers over the cityscape.
Becky Bain of Idolator wrote that "the singer struts down a city street in a pair of stilts, exuding the most swag we've ever seen from someone nearly 12 feet tall. Eventually, Nelly grows to Godzilla-esque proportions – and so does her jewelry. Those really are some big hoops." Jenna Rubenstein of MTV News wrote that "Nelly's 'Big Hoops' video is totally weird and makes no sense. Do we care? No. Because any gal that can look that hot while on stilts deserves our full respect."
Two alternate videos were produced: a "lyrics" video and a "Home Made" video, directed by Aaron A and filmed in a parking lot on Sunset Boulevard during the production of The Spirit Indestructible's album artwork.
## Live performances
In May 2012, Furtado performed "Big Hoops" on UK show Alan Carr: Chatty Man. Furtado performed the song for the first time in the United States during the 2012 Billboard Music Awards on May 20, 2012, and in Canada during the 2012 MuchMusic Video Awards on June 17, 2012. It is part of her setlist on The Spirit Indestructible Tour, which started in January 2013.
## Formats and track listings
- Digital download
1. "Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)" – 3:52
- UK digital download - EP
1. "Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)" – 3:52
2. "Something" (featuring Nas) – 3:29
3. "Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)" (extended version) – 5:52
4. "Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)" (instrumental) – 3:41
- Germany digital download - Remixes EP
1. "Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)" (radio edit) – 3:35
2. "Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)" (extended version) – 5:52
3. "Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)" (darkchild jungle club mix) – 5:47
4. "Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)" (instrumental) – 3:41
- Germany CD single
1. "Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)" (radio edit) – 3:35
2. "Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)" (extended version) – 5:52
## Credits and personnel
Credits are adapted from The Spirit Indestructible album liner notes. Technical
- Recorded and mixed at 2nd Floor Studios, Hollywood, California.
Personnel'
- Nelly Furtado – lyrics, lead and background vocals
- Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins – music, production, vocal production, mixing
- Thom Panunzio – vocals
- Chris "Governor" Smith – vocals
- Greg Morgan – sound design
- Matt Champlin – recording, mixing
- Orlando Vitto – recording
- Brandon N. Caddell – engineering assistance
## Charts
## Certifications
## Release history |
636,670 | New York Cosmos (1970–1985) | 1,170,796,349 | American former association football club | [
"1971 establishments in New York City",
"1985 disestablishments in New York (state)",
"Association football clubs disestablished in 1985",
"Association football clubs established in 1971",
"Defunct indoor soccer clubs in the United States",
"Defunct soccer clubs in New York (state)",
"Men's soccer clubs in New York (state)",
"New York Cosmos",
"North American Soccer League (1968–1984) teams",
"Soccer clubs in New York City"
] | The New York Cosmos (simply the Cosmos in 1977–1978) were an American professional soccer club based in New York City and its suburbs. The team played home games in three stadiums around New York, including Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, before moving in 1977 to Giants Stadium in nearby East Rutherford, New Jersey, where the club remained for the rest of its history.
Founded in December 1970, the team competed in the North American Soccer League (NASL) until 1984 and was the strongest franchise in that league, both competitively and financially – based largely around its backing by Warner Communications President Steve Ross, which enabled it to sign internationally famous stars such as the Brazilian forward Pelé, Italian striker Giorgio Chinaglia and the West German sweeper Franz Beckenbauer. The acquisition of these foreign players, particularly Pelé, made the Cosmos into what journalist Gavin Newsham called "the most glamorous team in world football", and contributed to the development of soccer across the United States, a country where it had previously been largely ignored.
As the Cosmos declined following Pelé's retirement, so did the NASL. Attendances fell, the league's television deal was lost, and it finally folded in 1985 after playing its last season in 1984. The Cosmos attempted to continue operations in the Major Indoor Soccer League, but attendances were so low that the club withdrew without completing a season. The team attempted an independent schedule in 1985, but also canceled that because of low attendance. The Cosmos folded, though the team's youth camps continued to operate under the Cosmos name and label, run by the franchise's former general manager, G. Peppe Pinton.
The Cosmos name remained very well known, even after it stopped competing. Numerous attempts were made to revive it during the 1990s and 2000s, most notably as a Major League Soccer (MLS) club. Seeking to retain the Cosmos' heritage, Pinton refused to sell the name and image rights, believing that MLS would not honor them. Following a change of attitude by MLS towards the NASL's legacy and the revival of several former NASL names, Pinton sold the rights to an international, English-based consortium in August 2009. A new Cosmos team started playing in the second-tier North American Soccer League during the fall 2013 season, and following the league's folding in 2017, in the third-tier National Independent Soccer Association, but have been on hiatus since 2021.
## History
### Creation and naming
The club was founded in December 1970 by Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun, renowned executives at Atlantic Records, whose parent company Warner Communications acquired the Cosmos in April 1972. The team's first recruit was the Englishman Clive Toye, a former sportswriter who had moved to the United States in 1967 to become general manager of the short-lived Baltimore Bays; he was given the same post in New York. Toye sought to convey the new team's ambitions within its name, and reasoned that he could outdo the "Metropolitans" label referenced by the then-nine-year-old New York Mets baseball team by calling his team the "Cosmos", shortened from "Cosmopolitans". However, the owners preferred other possible names: the Erteguns wished to use the name originally suggested by Nesuhi, the "New York Blues"; and another part of the ownership group wanted to adopt the name "New York Lovers". Toye then staged a rigged "name the team" contest, receiving 3,000 entries and selecting one that just happened to match his pre-determined winner. Two NYC teachers, Meyer Diller and Al Capelli, from Martin Van Buren High School in Queens, entered the contest and submitted the name "Cosmos". The two physical education teachers had independently used Toye's method of deriving it from "cosmopolitan". The two men were awarded a trip to Europe as a prize. The team name was officially unveiled on February 4, 1971.
### North American Soccer League
The New York Cosmos entered the 1968-founded North American Soccer League (NASL) in 1970 and made their field debut in the league's fourth season in 1971. The first roster signing of the club was Gordon Bradley, an English professional who had moved to North America in 1963 and played for the New York Generals in 1968. He was made player-coach, a position he would hold until 1975. Bradley's team finished second in its division in its first year, playing at Yankee Stadium, home of the New York Yankees baseball team and the New York Giants football team. Randy Horton, from Bermuda, was named the league's Rookie of the Year after scoring 16 goals and 37 points, the most by any New York player. In 1972, the team moved to Hofstra Stadium where they won their first league title with a 2–1 victory over the St. Louis Stars. Horton was the league's top scorer and Most Valuable Player, with 9 goals and 22 points from the 14 regular-season games and two post-season matches. The Cosmos reached the play-offs once more in 1973, but were knocked out at the semi-final stage. Bradley coached the United States national team for six games during 1973—picking himself in one, despite not being an American citizen—but lost them all. Before the 1974 season, the Cosmos moved again, settling at Downing Stadium on Randall's Island. In their first year at their new base, they finished bottom of their division. Horton top scored for the Cosmos in every season before he was traded in 1975 to the Washington Diplomats.
#### Arrival of Pelé, and the Cosmos' peak
It was during the 1975 season that the Cosmos acquired the Brazilian star Pelé, whom they had been attempting to sign since the team was created. Ross had apparently not heard of him before getting involved in soccer, but agreed to finance the transfer when Toye compared the Brazilian's popularity to that of the Pope. Pelé joined the Cosmos on June 10, 1975, on a salary of \$1.4 million per year, an enormous wage for an athlete at that time. A number of contracts—only one of which mentioned soccer—were set up for Pelé to ensure that he paid the lowest amount of tax possible, including one as a "recording artist" with Warner subsidiary Atlantic Records. "We owned him lock, stock and barrel," Toye retrospectively boasted. They also signed Mike Dillon in 1975.
The Pelé deal was later described by Gavin Newsham, an English writer, as "the transfer coup of the century". His arrival turned the Cosmos from a motley crew of foreigners, semi-professionals and students into a huge commercial presence. The club's groundsman, on hearing that the Brazilian's début for New York was to be broadcast on CBS, spray-painted the pitch green to disguise how little grass was on it: the match, against the Dallas Tornado, was broadcast to 22 countries and covered by more than 300 journalists from all over the world.
Although New York finished third at season end, it was still too low a placing to reach the post-season. Bradley was replaced for the 1976 season by another Englishman, Ken Furphy, who paired Pelé up front with Italian international forward Giorgio Chinaglia, a new arrival from S.S. Lazio. He had been so popular at Lazio that when his move to New York was announced, supporters "threatened to throw themselves beneath the wheels of the plane". By contrast to most of the overseas stars bought by NASL teams, Chinaglia was signed in his prime. He played for the Cosmos for the rest of their history, scoring a record number of goals and points not only for the Cosmos, but for the entire league. He shared an unusual personal bond with the club's ultimate controller, Ross, and was therefore treated differently from the other players, including Pelé.
Crowds rose with the arrival of these and other European and South American international players, resulting in a move back to Yankee Stadium for the 1976 season. With numerous foreign stars arriving at the Cosmos, the team's competitive performance improved, as New York reached the play-offs at the end of the season, but lost in the divisional championship match to the Tampa Bay Rowdies. The Cosmos relocated again before the 1977 season, to the newly constructed Giants Stadium in New Jersey, and at the same time dropped the prefix "New York" and played simply as "the Cosmos", without a geographical name. The city name was restored in 1979.
Bradley returned as coach for the 1977 season in place of the dismissed Furphy, but was removed after half of the season to become the club's vice-president of player personnel. South African-born former Italy international Eddie Firmani took his place. Pelé played his last professional match on October 1, 1977, in front of a capacity crowd at Giants Stadium: in an exhibition match between New York and his former club Santos, Pelé appeared for both sides, playing one half for each. The Cosmos won the game 2–1. Pelé's compatriot, former Brazil captain Carlos Alberto was signed in 1977, at the same time as Franz Beckenbauer, who had captained the 1974 FIFA World Cup-winning West Germany national team. On the field, New York won three out of four championships, in 1977, 1978 and 1980. A playoff game against the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in 1977 drew a crowd of 77,691, a record for American club soccer. The team's average attendances, regularly over 40,000 during the late 1970s, were the biggest in the league; this helped it to become regarded as the league's "marquee club", both commercially and competitively. Firmani was fired in 1979; he claimed, after falling out with Chinaglia. His assistant, Ray Klivecka, replaced him, becoming the team's first American-born coach. He lasted a season before himself being replaced by Júlio Mazzei.
On Pelé's farewell tour in 1977, the Cosmos made history by becoming the first Western professional soccer team to play in China. They drew their opening match with the Chinese national team 1-1, and lost the second game 2-1 despite Pelé scoring a free kick.
#### Decline of the Cosmos and the NASL
After the retirement of Pelé in 1977, much of the progress that American soccer had made during his stay was lost; there was no star at the same level to replace him as the NASL's headline act. After enduring briefly during the late 1970s, attendances dropped after 1980. The sport's popularity fell and the media lost interest. The deal with broadcaster ABC to broadcast NASL matches was also lost in 1980, and the 1981 Soccer Bowl was only shown on tape delay. All of the franchises quickly became unprofitable, and a salary cap enforced before the 1984 season only delayed the inevitable. The league folded at the end of 1984, following the loss of most of its franchises.
The Cosmos had financial problems of their own, on top of those affecting the league in general. Much of the Cosmos' ability to attract the well-known overseas players it had acquired was due to the financial resources of parent company Warner Communications. In the early 1980s, Warner was the target of a hostile takeover bid by Australian media magnate Rupert Murdoch; although this attempt did not succeed, Warner sold off several of its assets, among them Atari and Global Soccer, Inc., the subsidiary that operated the Cosmos. Chinaglia bought Global Soccer, and thus controlled the team. His group did not have the capital necessary to keep all of the players signed on expensive contracts by Warner, which resulted in many of the stars being sold. The club won its last title in 1982, and by the last season of the NASL, 1984, had missed the play-offs for the first time since 1975. The precipitous decline of the Cosmos after the 1983 season became for many fans and the media proof positive of the grave condition of the whole NASL.
### Major Indoor Soccer League, demise and youth soccer
Following the collapse of the NASL, the team competed in the Major Indoor Soccer League during the 1984–85 season, with Klivecka briefly returning as coach, but withdrew after 33 games due to low attendance. Although the organization did not field a team following that season except for an aborted independent schedule in 1985 the Cosmos' youth soccer camps, which the team had started in 1977, remained in operation. The camps were run by former Cosmos general manager G. Peppe Pinton, who retained ownership of the Cosmos name, logo and records. Pinton continued the youth programs at Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey. Summer camps program existed since 1978 after one year Pelé's retirement. Then Pinton took over with the Cosmos camps and became team's coach from 1989 to 2003, replacing Ken Medaska and Peter Valente.
### New Cosmos team
Since the original New York Cosmos club stopped competing in 1985, there had been attempts to revive it. With the rise of Major League Soccer (MLS), various New York area entities—including two different ownership groups from the Metrostars/New York Red Bulls—lobbied Pinton for the acquisition of the Cosmos name. Pinton refused to sell to an MLS team, believing that the league would not acknowledge the Cosmos' legacy. However, when old NASL names such as the San Jose Earthquakes, Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps were revived as MLS franchises, he reconsidered. He sold the Cosmos name and brand to English businessman Paul Kemsley in 2009, whose group announced a new team with the Cosmos' name in August 2010. The new Cosmos initially intended to become an MLS expansion franchise, but ultimately turned down the invitation to apply. Kemsley's team instead joined the new second-tier incarnation of the North American Soccer League, starting play in its 2013 Fall season.
## Cultural impact and influence on U.S. soccer
When Pelé arrived at the Cosmos in 1975, American soccer was, in Newsham's phrase, "dying a slow, painful and largely unnoticed death". The sport was not taken seriously by the bulk of the American media, and was of little interest to the public. Matches were often played in front of almost-empty stands, receiving modest press coverage. The signing of Pelé by the Cosmos transformed soccer across the country almost immediately, lending credibility not only to the Cosmos, but also to the NASL and soccer in general. Within days of the Brazilian's arrival, the increased media attention had caused the Cosmos' office staff to increase from five people to more than 50. Soccer became seen as a viable alternative to more traditional "American" sports such as basketball, baseball and American football. The Cosmos, in particular, became an internationally famous club – "the most glamorous team in world football", in Newsham's words, or "soccer demigods" in those of ESPN writer David Hirshey.
The Cosmos, as the flagship team of the NASL, embodied what Hirshey labeled the "nexus of soccer and showbiz", and became Warner Communications' most culturally visible asset. After Pelé signed for New York, many other European and South American stars joined NASL teams; the Los Angeles Aztecs, for example, signed George Best and Johan Cruyff in 1976 and 1979 respectively. Cosmos road trips, described by traveling secretary Steve Marshall as "like traveling with the Rolling Stones", saw the team pack out each stadium it visited, while at home, the team attracted numerous high-profile supporters. While soccer had previously been largely ignored by the American press, the Cosmos and other NASL teams now became regular fixtures on the back pages.
However, just as Pelé had kick-started the development of soccer in the U.S., his retirement in 1977 would mark the start of a decline. With nobody of the same stature to personify the sport, the popularity that had been built up nosedived just as quickly as it had appeared. The league's television deal with ABC was lost at the end of 1980 and a salary cap, enforced before the 1984 season, caused many of the remaining overseas stars—lured to America by fat pay packets—to return to the European and South American leagues. The NASL collapsed abruptly in late 1984, and was not replaced by a new professional soccer league until Major League Soccer's first season in 1996.
A feature-length documentary about the Cosmos, called Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos, was released in theaters in 2006. The film, narrated by Matt Dillon, featured interviews with many of the players and personalities involved with the team.
## Uniforms and crest
For the team's initial uniform Cosmos general manager Clive Toye chose the green and yellow of the Brazil national team as part of his strategy to lure Pelé, one of that country's star players, to the United States. The club's initial uniform was all green with yellow trim, with the colors reversed on the road uniform. Coincidentally, the colors were the same as those of the previous New York NASL team, the New York Generals, which had folded after the 1968 season. When Pelé did come on board in 1975, the uniform was changed to all-white in imitation of his club in Brazil, Santos FC. The green and yellow elements were relegated to the trim. The green shirt was concurrently matched with white shorts to become the new away uniform. Uniforms designed by Ralph Lauren were used from 1979 to the end; the home uniform remained all-white, though with navy and yellow trim replacing the green and white trim of the previous outfit. The away uniform became navy shirts and shorts with yellow trim, paired with unusual yellow-and-navy hooped socks, which were later replaced with plain navy blue ones.
The artist commissioned by Toye to design the team's logo was Wayland Moore, a sports artist from Atlanta who had already worked on the logo, uniform and program covers of that city's soccer team, the Chiefs. Moore attempted to create a design that was simple, recognizable and inclusive of New York's many nationalities. The three colored "blades" surrounding the soccer ball in the center represent movement, while the font originally used was chosen simply because it was easily legible on the uniform. The text on the logo was shortened to "Cosmos" in 1977, concurrently with the team's dropping of the "New York" label. The city name was restored two years later, but the badge remained unchanged.
### Uniform evolution
### Uniform suppliers
Uniform suppliers used by the team:
### Theme song
Ahmet Ertegun used his connections to recruit Atlantic Records artists the Average White Band to create a theme song for the Cosmos. The resulting "The Cosmos Theme" was written by band members Alan Gorrie and Steve Ferrone, and recorded by the band under the pseudonym "The Cosmic Highlanders".
Team management originally wanted to use "We Are the Champions" by Queen as the club's theme, but were convinced to use The Cosmos Theme in part by the cheerleaders, who enjoyed dancing to it.
The Cosmos Theme was played extensively at Giants Stadium, and on television broadcasts of Cosmos games.
## Stadiums
The Cosmos' first home stadium was Yankee Stadium, home to both the New York Yankees baseball team and the New York Giants football team, where they played throughout the 1971 season. Attendances during the club's first year averaged at 4,517, less than 7% of the stadium's capacity, which was at that time 65,010. The Cosmos therefore moved before the 1972 season to the 15,000-seater Hofstra Stadium, on the campus of the namesake university 25 miles (40 km) east of metropolitan New York. After two seasons of continuing low crowds at this out-of-town location, the Cosmos moved again, relocating to the 22,500-capacity Downing Stadium before the 1974 season. It was at Downing Stadium that attendances started to rise significantly, buoyed by the arrival of stars such as Pelé, who arrived in 1975. For the Brazilian's first match, the stadium was full; "there must have been another 50,000 turned away", coach Gordon Bradley later claimed.
These larger attendances necessitated another move, which occurred in 1976, when the Cosmos returned to Yankee Stadium. This time the team averaged 18,227 fans over the course of the season, over four times the average 1971 gate. The team then moved yet again before the 1977 season, to the newly built Giants Stadium, where attendances skyrocketed; crowds peaked at an average of 47,856 during 1978. The Cosmos remained at Giants Stadium for the rest of their time in the NASL. Attendances gradually fell as the league declined during the early 1980s, then finally slumped in 1984, when they dropped by more than half from the 1983 seasonal average.
The largest crowd to attend a Cosmos home game was set in 1977, when the Fort Lauderdale Strikers visited for a playoff match. The game was attended by 77,691 fans, which, at the time, was a record for American soccer. The lowest average attendance for a season was 3,578, in 1974. As of 2011, only Hofstra Stadium remains, now renamed James M. Shuart Stadium. Downing Stadium, the original Yankee Stadium and Giants Stadium were demolished in 2002, 2008 and 2010 respectively.
While playing indoor soccer, the Cosmos' home arenas were the Brendan Byrne Arena (now the Meadowlands Arena) and Madison Square Garden.
## Supporters
The Cosmos sought to maximize their fanbase by appealing to as wide a demographic as possible. The club's name and badge were designed to be inclusive of New York's many immigrant communities; the logo purposefully avoided the standard American red, white and blue. In this the Cosmos succeeded, attracting noticeable support from local Europeans, Middle-Easterners and South Americans. The association of the team with the city's high society in both social and sporting contexts led to it becoming very popular among celebrities, both American and international. "We transcended everything, every culture, every socio-economic boundary," goalkeeper Shep Messing said in 2006. "We were international, we were European, we were cool, we were Americans from the Bronx. We were everything to everybody."
## Players
The New York Cosmos are famous for having fielded numerous well-known players, almost all of whom were from outside the United States: examples include Pelé, Franz Beckenbauer and Carlos Alberto. American players of note include goalkeeper Shep Messing – who was notoriously sold after posing nude for a magazine in December 1974, then brought back two years later on Pelé's insistence. The Cosmos also fielded Werner Roth, a Yugoslavian-born U.S. international defender, from 1972 to 1979. A number of Cosmos players were named in the NASL all-star teams selected by the league at the end of each season. No NASL all-star from the Cosmos was born in the United States or Canada, where all of the league's teams were based; apart from Roth, both North Americans selected—Siegfried Stritzl and John Kerr—were born in Yugoslavia and Scotland respectively.
### Retired numbers
- 10 – Pelé (Forward, 1975–77)
## Head coaches
The New York Cosmos' first head coach was the English-American professional Gordon Bradley, who had played in the English Football League's lower divisions during the 1950s before moving to America in 1963. Bradley came out of retirement to become player-coach, a role he retained until his departure in 1975. Bradley's team won the league championship in 1972, but after it failed to reach the playoffs in both 1974 and 1975, he was dismissed. His replacement was another Englishman, Ken Furphy. His Cosmos succeeded in reaching the post-season, but lost the divisional championship game to Vancouver, prompting Furphy's own departure in favor of a return for Bradley, whose second spell lasted only half a season before he was promoted to an advisory role. Eddie Firmani, the South African-born former Italy forward, took over midway through the 1977 season. His star-studded team won two consecutive Soccer Bowls—1977 and 1978—but lost the National Conference championship game in 1979. Firmani lost his job after falling out with Giorgio Chinaglia, a favorite of the Cosmos hierarchy. His assistant, Ray Klivecka, who was born in Lithuania, became the team's first American head coach when he took Firmani's place midway through 1979.
Klivecka was replaced before the 1980 season by Brazilian coach Júlio Mazzei, who won the Cosmos' fourth title at the end of that campaign before being succeeded by two joint head coaches, Hennes Weisweiler & Yasin Özdenak, in 1980. This duo's team came second in the 1981 NASL before Mazzei returned in 1982 and won his second championship with the Cosmos during that year. Firmani returned in 1984, the NASL's final year, in which the Cosmos failed to make the playoffs. Firmani remained as the team entered the Major Indoor Soccer League for the 1984–85 season, but was fired in early December, halfway through the season, and replaced by Klivecka, who returned after two games under the caretaker management of goalkeeper Hubert Birkenmeier. Klivecka was retained until the team ceased competitive play.
## Honors
With five championships and seven first-place finishes, the Cosmos still rank as tied for the most successful franchise in the history of North American soccer.
## Friendly matches and world tour
New York Cosmos had many friendly matches in domestic and abroad.
## See also
- Soccer in New York City |
40,670,372 | Gypsy (Lady Gaga song) | 1,173,514,395 | null | [
"2010s ballads",
"2013 songs",
"Electropop ballads",
"Lady Gaga songs",
"Song recordings produced by Lady Gaga",
"Songs written by DJ White Shadow",
"Songs written by Lady Gaga",
"Songs written by Madeon",
"Songs written by RedOne"
] | "Gypsy" is a song recorded by American singer Lady Gaga, for her third studio album Artpop (2013). It was written and produced by Gaga with French DJ Madeon, with additional writing credits from RedOne and Paul "DJ White Shadow" Blair. The song was developed with Madeon after Gaga's Born This Way Ball tour performance in France. "Gypsy" was described by Gaga as Artpop's most personal song; she elaborated that it was about travelling the world and the loneliness associated with it. A Europop and electropop song, "Gypsy" is a 1980s style "anthemic" track with piano and guitar instrumentation, and lyrically talks about Gaga's fans as being the people she feels closest to. The track was mistakenly assumed to be the third single from the album when Interscope Records listed it on their SoundCloud page reserved for future releases.
"Gypsy" received generally positive reviews from music critics who praised the composition, the simplicity of the production, the anthemic nature, as well as it being reminiscent of Gaga's own song, "The Edge of Glory". Gaga first performed the song during a listening party for Artpop in Berlin, while wearing a mustache. Subsequent performances happened at her ArtRave album release event, on the Saturday Night Live television show, the Lady Gaga and the Muppets Holiday Spectacular Thanksgiving special, as well as the encore on her 2014 ArtRave: The Artpop Ball world tour.
## Background and development
Development of Lady Gaga's third studio album, Artpop, began shortly after the release of her second one, Born This Way in 2011, and by the following year, the album's concepts were "beginning to flourish" as Gaga collaborated with producers Fernando Garibay and DJ White Shadow. As Gaga travelled the world for her Born This Way Ball tour, she also collaborated with producer RedOne, working remotely with each other. "We've been sending ideas. We couldn't get together in the studio, but we've been sending ideas back and forth, and it's very focused on writing really good songs and, of course, with the vibe of different sounds, different kinds of productions," RedOne clarified.
In the meantime, Gaga also worked with French DJ Madeon. This was his first experience collaborating face-to-face with a vocalist. He clarified with MTV News that he had "always wanted to work with pop artists and my \#1 on my list was Lady Gaga. So when I had the opportunity to do that, I was really thrilled." Madeon was associated with co-writing and co-producing three songs on Artpop, "Venus", "Mary Jane Holland" and "Gypsy". In August 2013, while being interviewed by French radio station, Fun Radio, Gaga confirmed that she had recorded "Gypsy" with Madeon and RedOne, as well as White Shadow. Having mutual respect for each other's work, Gaga praised Madeon's production skills saying, "He is so amazing. He has such an understanding of music at such a young age. He reminds me of myself so much. He's obsessed, so obsessed with music." "Gypsy" was described as Artpop's most personal song, about travelling the world and the loneliness associated with it. The song showcases Gaga's fans as being the people with whom she feels at home.
In January 2014, Interscope Records had uploaded "Gypsy" to their SoundCloud account under the list of singles they would send for radio play. This led to media speculation that "Gypsy" would be released as the third single from Artpop, following "Do What U Want". Gaga also announced plans to film a new music video, which tied in with the single release rumours. In March 2014, NBC announced that the next Artpop single would be "G.U.Y." instead of "Gypsy" and that they would premiere its music video on March 22.
## Recording and composition
Gaga did not spare any free time for the song's recording and would usually start the sessions after the Born This Way Ball show performances were over. Madeon noted: "She would still give everything – even on the demo take! She's really impressive." Madeon's production on Artpop differs from his usual work. According Dylan Farella of Dancing Astronaut, the song "take[s] the mood of Artpop from ballad to anthem". On French radio Hit West, Madeon recalled that in September 2012 he had gone to see Gaga at her Born This Way Ball show at Paris' Stade de France. After the performance, Gaga took Madeon to her hotel room. He played her some chords he had been working on for sometime. Gaga immediately started singing the main melody of "Gypsy", and then the main song "flowed out", leading them to write a demo the same night. Since Madeon had brought his computer with him, he recorded the ideas developed with Gaga so he would not forget them. Afterwards, the song went through various changes, and more musicians were added for the final version on the album.
"Gypsy" was written and produced by Gaga and Madeon, with additional songwriting by RedOne and White Shadow. It was recorded by Dave Russell, Bill Malina, Ghazi Hourani and Benjamin Rice at the Record Plant Studios, with additional recording carried out by Malina at CRC Studio in Hollywood, California. Andrew Robertson and Daniel Zaidenstadt assisted Rice in the recording sessions, while Steve Faye assisted Malina. Gaga did the guitar and piano arrangements for the song alongside Tim Stewart, who worked on the acoustic guitars. Gaga also added the background vocals on "Gypsy" with Nicole and Natalie Ganther, and Lyon Gray. The song was mixed by Manny Marroquin at Larrabee North Studios; further mixing was done by Madeon at Popcultur Studio in France. Gene Grimaldi mastered the song at Oasis Mastering Studios, in Burbank, California.
"Gypsy" is a Europop and electropop song with classic rock and house influences. Adam Markovitz of Entertainment Weekly said "Gypsy" contains "barroom ivory-tickling" and a swooping hook. Rolling Stone described the song as an "eighties-style anthem." According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com, "Gypsy" is written in the key of C major and composed in the common time signature. The song moves at a tempo of 134 beats per minute, and Gaga's vocals span from G<sub>3</sub> to D<sub>5</sub>. The song's verses follow a chord progression of C−G−Fmaj7−Gsus−G, and the chorus follows with the progression G−Am−F−C (V−vi−IV−I). It begins with a soft piano sound and then changes into a high-energy electro song. The composition is in a sing-along style, with Gaga belting out "I don't want be alone forever, but I can be tonight" during the chorus, talking about navigating an unknown road based only on her instincts. The lyrics also talk about falling in love while being true to oneself, which was the initial inspiration for the track. She compares herself with "Dorothy on a yellow brick, Hope my ruby shoes get us there quick", referring to the fictional yellow brick road that Dorothy Gale followed in the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz. The line refers to the singer approaching a crossroad in her relationships, however she feels safe with her fans. Ericka Welch of The Huffington Post explained that "[even] with the looming sense of loss, Gaga can't be sad when she sees all the stamps on her passport and realizes that she has the whole world in front of her."
## Critical reception
"Gypsy" received generally positive reviews from music critics. Adam Markovitz of Entertainment Weekly considered the track one of Artpop's best, calling it "enjoyable". Caryn Ganz of Rolling Stone praised the song's simple lyrics, describing it as an: "Eighties-style anthem where Gaga admits her love of performing... [The track] works because [it wasn't] born from the chilly conceit that art and pop need an arranged marriage to get busy." Mike Diver of Clash said that "Gypsy", along with "Applause" and "Mary Jane Holland", were able to "tick all of the prerequisite Gaga boxes—dazzling production, a clutch of clever couplets, choruses you can demolish a tower block with." A positive review came from Bradley Stern of MuuMuse who wrote in detail:
> "Gypsy" is the kind of arena anthem that already sounds like it's being belted in the middle of a sold-out Madison Square Garden. It's a slow and steady build, but once it reaches that Journey-esque chorus ("I don't want to be alone forever, but I can be... TONIGHT!", there's no going back. Cue the endless intercontinental shout-outs at the end ("I don't speak German, but I try!" — a cute nod to "Scheiße"), and you've got an instant classic from Artpop.
Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine compared "Gypsy" to stand-out tracks from Gaga's Born This Way, and found comparisons with the song "The Edge of Glory" from it. Cinquemani felt the track was much more effective in portraying the yearning of fame, than the lead single "Applause". Kevin Fallon of The Daily Beast compared it to the work of singer Bruce Springsteen, adding that the "power ballad is the kind destined for last-call sing-a-longs at those bars with peanut shells on the floor, with Gaga belting over tickling ivories about trusting instincts and charging into the unknown." Michael Cragg of The Guardian called "Gypsy" an "epic narrative about fame and loneliness" with the composition comparable to "The Edge of Glory" and a vocal riff similar to that of "Poker Face". Comparisons to "The Edge of Glory" were also present in Robbie Daw's review of the album for Idolator.
Chris Bosman of Time, thought that "Gypsy" serves as the "epic end-of-album track" along with "Dope", but criticized the songs for not being unique enough, saying that one song would have done "the job better than both." Similar thought was echoed by Andrew Barker from Variety who found that Artpop did not have any songs worthy of release as singles, and RedOne's contribution, "the 'Edge of Glory' sequel 'Gypsy', doesn't exactly scream 'crossover hit' either." The Varsity's Iris Robin found issues of "racism and cultural appropriation" in the track when Gaga claims to "love a gypsy life", since the historical and oppression surrounding the Gypsies are well-known.
## Live performances
Gaga first performed "Gypsy" on a grand piano for guests at a listening party for Artpop in Berlin's Berghain nightclub. She said of the song: "I wrote this song as I was travelling around the world... They say 'a Gypsy doesn't have a home.' But I do have a home. I have a home with you always." Seated atop a piano wearing a bra and short blond hair, Gaga performed an acoustic version of the song, singing with a heavy German accent while sporting a moustache. Brenna Ehlrich of MTV noted that: "Throughout the performance, fans looked on with tears in their eyes, watching as Gaga unfurled the simple love story with nothing but her voice and piano." Malene Arpe, entertainment contributor to the Toronto Star, said her performance was goosebump-inducing and caused viewers to forget about the moustache "right in the middle of her face."
Gaga next performed "Gypsy" at her ArtRave concert in November 2013 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where she sang along with a live band. During the performance, Gaga gave a shout-out to artist Jeff Koons, who was heavily involved in the visuals related to the Artpop era and its campaigns, and dedicated the song to him. She again performed "Gypsy" on a piano on a Saturday Night Live show later that month, wearing a rainbow colored leotard with giant shoulder pads. Around the one minute mark, when the tempo of the song changes from a ballad to its original anthemic composition, a band stepped onstage from the shadows behind as well as dancers, who danced and created a party atmosphere. Hillary Hughes of The Village Voice found similarities in Gaga's vocals to those of singer Lana Del Rey. She felt that "Gaga plowed into 'Gypsy' with the aplomb of a Vegas lounge goddess from the future... Girl hit her notes, and well, and I'd take 'Gypsy' over 'Applause' or 'Born This Way' any day of the week, but 'Gypsy' on SNL was a bit of a confusing display from beginning to end."
"Gypsy" was performed on The Howard Stern Show on November 12, 2013. During her second Thanksgiving television special, Lady Gaga and the Muppets Holiday Spectacular, which aired on ABC, Gaga sang "Gypsy" as a duet with Kermit the Frog. Myles McNutt of The A.V. Club criticised the performance saying that "Kermit['s performance] was earnest and well [executed], but it didn't feel like the product of a Lady Gaga and The Muppets special; it felt like Kermit making a cameo in a Lady Gaga special, a problem given the shared billing in the title." Conversely Rolling Stone's Marissa Muller listed it as one of the five memorable moments from the special.
Gaga performed "Gypsy" as the encore to her 2014 show at South by Southwest (SXSW). It was also the closing song of Gaga's 2014 ArtRave: The Artpop Ball tour. She sang it wearing long white wig and a dress with a long white train. During some of the shows, Gaga brought audience members onstage to sing the song together. Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone criticised the choice of the song as the show's finale, saying that it felt anticlimactic. "After a one-song encore of 'Gypsy', the house lights came up... it was startling to realize the show was already over. [Gaga] didn't have superstar moves or hits saved up for the big finale—she decided not to do a big finale at all," he concluded.
## Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of Artpop.
### Management
- Recorded at Record Plant Studios, Hollywood, California and CRC Studios, Chicago, Illinois
- Mixed at Larrabee North Studios, North Hollywood, California and Popcultur Studios, Paris, France
- Mastered at Oasis Mastering Studios, Burbank, California
- Stefani Germanotta P/K/A Lady Gaga (BMI) Sony ATV Songs LLC/House of Gaga Publishing, LLC/GloJoe Music Inc. (BMI), Maxwell and Carter Publishing, LLC (ASCAP).
### Personnel
- Lady Gaga – songwriter, lead vocals, producer, guitars, piano
- Madeon – songwriter, producer, mixing
- RedOne – songwriter
- Paul "DJ White Shadow" Blair – songwriter
- Dave Russell – recording
- Benjamin Rice – recording
- Bill Malina – recording
- Ghazi Hourani – recording
- Daniel Zaidenstadt – recording assistant
- Andrew Robertson – recording assistant
- Steve Faye – recording assistant
- Manny Marroquin – mixing
- Chris Gallant – mixing assistant
- Delhert Bowers – mixing assistant
- Tim Stewart – guitar
- Nicole Ganther – background vocals
- Natalie Ganther – background vocals
- Lyon Gray – background vocals
- Ivy Skoff – union contract administrator
- Gene Grimaldi – mastering
## Charts
In South Korea, following the release of Artpop, "Gypsy" debuted at number 37 on the Gaon International Digital Chart, with sales of 3,549 digital downloads and ended up with 4,768 sales. |
8,708,862 | Historic districts in the United States | 1,161,670,975 | null | [
"Articles containing video clips",
"Historic districts in the United States",
"Historic preservation in the United States",
"Historic sites in the United States"
] | Historic districts in the United States are designated historic districts recognizing a group of buildings, archaeological resources, or other properties as historically or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures, objects, and sites within a historic district are normally divided into two categories, contributing and non-contributing. Districts vary greatly in size and composition: a historic district could comprise an entire neighborhood with hundreds of buildings, or a smaller area with just one or a few resources.
Historic districts can be created by federal, state, or local governments. At the federal level, they are designated by the National Park Service and listed on the National Register of Historic Places; this is a largely honorary designation that does not restrict what property owners may do with a property. State-level historic districts usually do not include restrictions, though this depends on the state. Historic districts created by local municipalities, however, almost always protect historic properties by regulating alterations, demolition, or new construction within the district.
## History
The first U.S. historic district was established in Charleston, South Carolina in 1931, predating the U.S. federal government designation by more than three decades. Charleston city government designated an "Old and Historic District" by local ordinance and created a board of architectural review to oversee it. New Orleans followed in 1937, establishing the Vieux Carré Commission and authorizing it to act to maintain the historic character of the city's French Quarter. Other localities picked up on the concept, with the city of Philadelphia enacting its historic preservation ordinance in 1955.
The regulatory authority of local commissions and historic districts has been consistently upheld as a legitimate use of government police power, most notably in Penn Central Transportation Co. v. City of New York (1978). The Supreme Court case validated the protection of historic resources as "an entirely permissible governmental goal." In 1966, the federal government created the National Register of Historic Places, soon after a report from the U.S. Conference of Mayors had stated Americans suffered from "rootlessness." By the 1980s, there were thousands of federally designated historic districts. Some states, such as Arizona, have passed referendums defending property rights that have stopped private property from being designated as historic without the property owner's consent or compensation for the historic overlay.
## Property types
Historic districts are generally two types of properties, contributing and non-contributing. Broadly defined, a contributing property is any property, structure, or object which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make a historic district, listed locally or federally, significant. Different entities, usually governmental, at both the state and national level in the United States, have differing definitions of contributing property, but they all retain the same basic characteristics. In general, contributing properties are integral parts of a historic district's historical context and character. In addition to the two types of classification within historic districts, properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places are classified into five broad categories. They are: building, structure, site, district, and object; each one has a specific definition in relation to the National Register. All but the eponymous district category are also applied to historic districts listed on the National Register.
## Federal-level
A listing on the National Register of Historic Places is a governmental acknowledgment of a historic district. However, the Register is "an honorary status with some federal financial incentives." The National Register of Historic Places defines a historic district per U.S. federal law, last revised in 2004. According to the Register definition, a historic district is:
> a geographically definable area, urban or rural, possessing a significant concentration, linkage, or continuity of sites, buildings, structures, or objects united by past events or aesthetically by plan or physical development. A district may also comprise individual elements separated geographically but linked by association or history.
Districts established under U.S. federal guidelines generally begin the designation process through a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. The National Register is the official recognition by the U.S. government of cultural resources worthy of preservation. While designation through the National Register does offer a district or property some protections, it is only in cases where the threatening action involves the federal government. If the federal government is not involved, then the listing on the National Register provides the site, property or district no protections. For example, if company A wants to tear down the hypothetical Smith House and company A is under contract with the state government of Illinois, then the federal designation would offer no protections. If, however, company A was under federal contract, the Smith House would be protected. A federal designation is little more than recognition by the government that the resource is worthy of preservation.
Generally, the criteria for acceptance to the National Register are applied consistently, but there are considerations for exceptions to the criteria, and historic districts influence some of those exceptions. Usually, the National Register does not list religious structures, moved structures, reconstructed structures, or properties that have achieved significance within the last 50 years. However, if a property falls into one of those categories and are "integral parts of districts that do meet the criteria", then an exception allowing their listing will be made. Historic district listings, like all National Register nominations, can be rejected based on owner disapproval. In the case of historic districts, a majority of owners must object to nullify a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. If such an objection occurred, then the nomination would become a determination of National Register eligibility only. This provision is controversial because of the presumption that owners who do not file a formal objection support the designation, placing the burden on opponents.
## State-level
Most U.S. state governments have a listing similar to the National Register of Historic Places. State listings can have similar benefits to a federal designation, such as granting qualifications and tax incentives. In addition, the property can become protected under specific state laws. The laws can be similar or different from the federal guidelines that govern the National Register. A state listing of a historic district on a "State Register of Historic Places", usually by the State Historic Preservation Office, can be an "honorary status", much like the National Register. For example, in Nevada, listing in the State Register places no limits on property owners. In contrast, state law in Tennessee requires that property owners within historic districts follow a strict set of guidelines from the U.S. Department of Interior when altering their properties. Though, according to the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, all states must have a State Historic Preservation Office, not all states must have a "state historic district" designation. As of 2004, for example, the state of North Carolina had no such designation.
## Local-level
Local historic districts usually enjoy the greatest level of protection legally from any threats that may compromise their historic integrity because many land-use decisions are made at the local level. There are more than 2,300 local historic districts in the United States. Local historic districts can be administered at the county or the municipal level; both entities are involved in land use decisions. The specific legal mechanism by which historic districts are enacted and regulated varies from one state to the next. In some areas, they are a component of zoning (where they are sometimes referred to as "overlay districts." In other places, they are created under a separate process unrelated to zoning.
Local historic districts are identified by surveying historic resources and delineating appropriate boundaries that comply with all aspects of due process. Depending on local ordinances or state law, property owners' permission may be required; however, all owners are to be notified and allowed to share their opinions. Most local historic districts are constricted by design guidelines that control changes to the properties included in the district. Many local commissions adopt specific guidelines for each neighborhood's "tout ensemble" although some smaller commissions rely on the Secretary of Interior Standards. For most minor changes, homeowners can consult with local preservation staff at the municipal office and receive guidance and permission. Significant changes, however, require homeowners to apply for a Certificate of Appropriateness (COA), and the historic commission or architectural review board may decide upon the changes. The COA process is carried out with all aspects of due process, with formal notification, hearings, and fair and informed decision-making.
According to the National Park Service, historic districts are one of the oldest forms of protection for historic properties. The city of Charleston, South Carolina is credited with beginning the modern-day historic districts movement. In 1931, Charleston enacted an ordinance which designated an "Old and Historic District" administered by a Board of Architectural Review. Charleston's early ordinance reflected the strong protection that local historic districts often enjoy under local law. It asserted that no alteration could be made to any architectural features the public could view from the street. Local historic districts, as in New Orleans and Savannah, Georgia, predate the Register by ten years or more as well.
Local historic districts are most likely to generate resistance because of the restrictions they tend to place on property owners. Local laws can cause residents "to comply with (local historic district) ordinances."
The issue of local historic districts and the impact on property values concerns many homeowners. The effects have been extensively studied using multiple methodologies, including before-and-after analysis and evaluating comparable neighborhoods with and without local designation status. Independent researchers have conducted factual analysis in several states, including New Jersey, Texas, Indiana, Georgia, Colorado, Maryland, North and South Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia, and elsewhere. As stated by economist Donovan Rypkema, "the results of these studies are remarkably consistent: property values in local historic districts appreciate significantly faster than the market as a whole in the vast majority of cases and appreciate at rates equivalent to the market in the worst case. Simply put – historic districts enhance property values." In a 2011 study Connecticut Local Historic Districts and Property Values, it was found that "property values in every local historic district saw average increases in value ranging from 4% to over 19% per year." Similarly, in New York City between 1980 and 2000, local historic district properties on a price per square foot basis increased in value significantly more than non-designated properties. Equally important, local historic district property values were found to resist market downturns better than historic non-designated properties. A recent study investigating the data on single-family residential mortgage foreclosures and comparable non-designated neighborhoods found that designated properties were significantly less likely to experience foreclosure. Local historic district designation protects property values from wild fluctuations and provides stability in the housing market.
## Significance
The original concept of an American historic district was a protective area surrounding more important, individual historic sites. As the field of historic preservation progressed, those involved came to realize that the structures acting as "buffer zones" were key elements of the historical integrity of larger landmark sites. Preservationists believed that districts should be more encompassing, blending a mesh of structures, streets, open space, and landscaping to define a historic district's character.
As early as 1981, the National Trust for Historic Preservation identified 882 American cities and towns that had some form of "historic district zoning" in place--local laws meant specifically to protect historic districts. Before 1966, historic preservation in the United States was in its infancy. That year the U.S. Conference of Mayors penned an influential report which concluded, in part, that Americans suffered from a sense of "rootlessness." They recommended historic preservation to help give Americans a sense of orientation. The creation of the National Register of Historic Places in 1966, on the heels of the report, helped instill that sense of orientation the mayors sought. The mayors also recommended that any historic preservation program not focus solely on individual properties but also on "areas and districts which contain special meaning for the community." Local, state, and federal historic districts now account for thousands of historical property listings at all levels of government.
## See also
- Adaptive reuse
- Conservation area
- Historic district |
418,001 | 10th Mountain Division (United States) | 1,172,668,535 | Combat formation of the United States Army | [
"10th Mountain Division (United States)",
"Infantry divisions of the United States Army in World War II",
"Military units and formations established in 1943",
"Military units and formations in New York (state)",
"Mountain infantry divisions",
"United States Army divisions during World War II",
"United States Army divisions of World War I"
] | The 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) is a light infantry division in the United States Army based at Fort Drum, New York. Formerly designated as a mountain warfare unit, the division was the only one of its size in the US military to receive specialized training for fighting in mountainous conditions. More recently, the 10th Mountain has been conducting operations in Iraq and Syria advising and assisting Iraqi Security Forces and People's Defense Units.
Originally activated as the 10th Light Division (Alpine) in 1943, the division was redesignated the 10th Mountain Division in 1944 and fought in the mountains of Italy in some of the roughest terrain in World War II. On 5 May 1945, the division reached Nauders, Austria, just beyond the Reschen Pass, where it made contact with German forces being pushed south by the U.S. Seventh Army. A status quo was maintained until the enemy headquarters involved had completed their surrender to the Seventh. On 6 May, 10th Mountain troops met the 44th Infantry Division of Seventh Army.
Following the war, the division was deactivated, only to be reactivated and redesignated as the 10th Infantry Division in 1948. The division first acted as a training division and, in 1954, was converted to a full combat division and sent to Germany before being deactivated again in 1958.
Reactivated again in 1985, the division was designated the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) to historically tie it to the World War II division and to also better describe its modern disposition. Since its reactivation, the division or elements of the division have deployed numerous times. The division has participated in Operation Desert Storm (Saudi Arabia), Hurricane Andrew disaster relief (Homestead, Florida), Operation Restore Hope and Operation Continue Hope (Somalia), Operation Uphold Democracy (Haiti), Operation Joint Forge (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Operation Joint Guardian (Kosovo), and several deployments as part of the Multinational Force and Observers (Sinai Peninsula).
Since 2002, the 10th Mountain Division has been the most deployed regular Army unit. Its combat brigades have seen over 20 deployments, to both Iraq and Afghanistan, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. It took the nickname The Tenth Legion while deployed in Afghanistan in late 2001 into 2002.
## History
### Formation
The 10th Division was originally organized during World War I in July 1918 as a Regular Army and National Army division and was commanded by Major General Leonard Wood, formerly the Chief of Staff of the United States Army and a Medal of Honor recipient. However, due to the Armistice with Germany in November 1918 which ended hostilities, the division did not go overseas and was demobilized in February 1919 at Camp Funston, Kansas. It was redesignated the Panama Canal Division after the war and shares no connection with the 10th Mountain Division activated during World War II.
In November 1939, two months after World War II broke out in Europe, during the Soviet Union's invasion of Finland, Red Army efforts were frustrated following the destruction of two armored divisions by Finnish soldiers on skis. The conflict caught global attention as the outnumbered and outgunned Finnish soldiers were able to use the difficult local terrain to their advantage, severely hampering the Soviet attacks and embarrassing their military. Upon seeing the effectiveness of these troops, Charles Minot "Minnie" Dole, the president of the National Ski Patrol, began to lobby the War Department of the need for a similar unit of troops in the United States Army, trained for fighting in winter and mountain warfare. In September 1940, Dole was able to present his case to General George C. Marshall, the Army Chief of Staff, who agreed with Dole's assessment, deciding to create a "Mountain" unit for fighting in harsh terrain. The U.S. Army authorized the formation of the platoon-sized Army Ski Patrol in November 1940. The first Patrol was formed at Camp Murray as part of the 41st Infantry Division under Lt. Ralph S. Phelps (later to become commanding General of the 41st). The army, prompted by fears that its standing force would not perform well in the event of a winter attack on the Northeastern coast, as well as knowledge that the German Army already had three mountain warfare divisions known as Gebirgsjäger, approved the concept for a division. This required an overhaul of U.S. military doctrine, as the concept of winter warfare had not been tested in the army since 1914. At first, planners envisioned ten mountain divisions, but personnel shortages revised the goal to three. Eventually, the 10th Mountain Division would be the only one brought to active duty. Military leaders continued to express concern about the feasibility of a division-sized mountain warfare unit until the fall of 1941, when they received reports that Greek mountain troops had held back superior numbers of unprepared Italian troops in the Albanian mountains during the Greco-Italian War. The Italian military had lost a disastrous 25,000 men in the campaign because of their lack of preparedness to fight in the mountains. On 22 October 1941, General Marshall decided to form the first battalion of mountain warfare troops for a new mountain division. The Ski Patrol would assist in its training.
On 8 December 1941, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent American entry into World War II, the army activated its first mountain unit, the 87th Mountain Infantry Battalion (which was later expanded to the 87th Infantry Regiment) at Fort Lewis, Washington, south of Tacoma. It was the first mountain warfare unit in U.S. military history. The National Ski Patrol took on the unique role of recruiting for the 87th Infantry Regiment and later the division, becoming the only civilian recruiting agency in military history. Army planners favored recruiting experienced skiers for the unit instead of trying to train standing troops in mountain warfare, so Dole recruited from schools, universities, and ski clubs for the unit. The 87th trained in harsh conditions, including Mount Rainier's 14,411-foot (4,392 m) peak, throughout 1942 as more recruits were brought in to form the division. Initial training was conducted by Olympian Rolf Monsen. A new garrison was built for the division in central Colorado at Camp Hale, at an elevation of 9,200 feet (2,800 m) above sea level.
### World War II
The 10th Light Division (Alpine) was constituted on 10 July 1943 and activated five days later at Camp Hale under the command of Brigadier General Lloyd E. Jones, with Brigadier General Frank L. Culin Jr. assigned as his assistant division commander (ADC). At the time, the division had a strength of 8,500 out of the 16,000 planned, so the military transferred troops from the 30th, 31st, and 33rd Infantry Divisions along with volunteers from the National Guards of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, North and South Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah and Washington State (Specifically men who are from the Rocky Mountains region and those who are from the Northern States specifically close to the 45th Parallel of the US-Canadian Border), to fill out the remainder of the division. This lowered morale and the division faced many difficulties in the new training, which had no established army doctrine. The 10th Light Division was centered on regimental commands; the 85th, 86th, and 87th Infantry Regiments. Also assigned to the division were the 604th, 605th, and 616th Field Artillery battalions, the 110th Signal Company, the 710th Ordnance Company, the 10th Quartermaster Company, the 10th Reconnaissance Troop, the 126th Engineer Battalion, the 10th Medical Battalion, and the 10th Counter-Intelligence Detachment. The 10th Light Division was unique in that it was the only division in the army with three field artillery battalions instead of four. It was equipped with vehicles specialized in snow operation, such as the M29 Weasel, and winter weather gear, such as white camouflage and skis specifically designed for the division. The division practiced its rock climbing skills in preparation for the invasion of Italy on the challenging peaks of Seneca Rocks in West Virginia.
On 22 June 1944, the division was shipped to Camp Swift, Texas, to prepare for maneuvers in Louisiana, which were later canceled. A period of acclimation to a low altitude and hot climate was thought necessary to prepare for this training. On 6 November 1944, the 10th Division was redesignated the 10th Mountain Division. That same month, the blue and white "Mountain" tab was authorized for the division's new shoulder sleeve insignia. Also in November, the division received a new commander, Brigadier General George Price Hays, a Medal of Honor recipient and a distinguished veteran of World War I. On January 4, 1945 he received a promotion to major general.
#### Italy
The division sailed for the Italian front in two parts, with the 86th Infantry and support leaving Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia on 11 December 1944 aboard the SS Argentina and arriving in Naples, Italy on 22 December. The 85th and 87th Infantry left Hampton Roads, Virginia on 4 January 1945 aboard the SS West Point and arrived on 13 January 1945. By 6 January, its support units were preparing to head to the front lines. It was attached to Major General Willis D. Crittenberger's IV Corps, part of the American Fifth Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Lucian Truscott. By 8 January, the 86th Infantry had moved to Bagni di Lucca near Mount Belvedere in preparation for an offensive by the Fifth Army to capture the mountain along with surrounding high ground, which allowed the Axis to block advances to Po Valley. Starting 14 January, the division began moving to Pisa as part of the Fifth Army massing for this attack.
By 20 January, all three of the 10th's regiments were on or near the front line between the Serchio Valley and Mt. Belvedere. Col. Raymond C. Barlow commanded the 85th Regiment, Col. Clarence M. Tomlinson the 86th, and Col. David M. Fowler the 87th.
Preliminary defensive actions in mid-February were followed by Operation Encore, a series of attacks in conjunction with troops of the 1st Brazilian Infantry Division, to dislodge the Germans from their artillery positions in the Northern Apennines on the border between Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna regions, in order to make possible the Allied advance over the Po Valley. While the Brazilian division was in charge of taking Monte Castello and Castelnuovo di Vergato, the 10th Mountain Division was responsible for the Mount Belvedere area, climbing nearby Riva Ridge during the night of 18 February and attacking mount Della Torraccia on 20 February. These peaks were cleared after four days of heavy fighting, as Axis troops launched several counterattacks in these positions.
In early March, the division fought its way north of Canolle and moved to within 15 miles (24 km) of Bologna. On 5 March, while Brazilian units captured Castelnuovo, the 85th and the 87th Infantry took respectively Mount Della Spe and Castel D'Aiano, cutting the Axis routes of resupply and communication into the Po Valley, setting the stage for the next Fifth Army offensive. The division maintained defensive positions in this area for three weeks, anticipating a counteroffensive by the German forces.
The division resumed its attack on 14 April, attacking Torre Iussi and Rocca Roffeno to the north of Mount Della Spe. On 17 April, it broke through the German defenses, which allowed it to advance into the Po Valley area. It captured Mongiorgio on 20 April and entered the valley, seizing the strategic points Pradalbino and Bomporto. The 10th crossed the Po River at San Benedetto Po on 23 April, reaching Verona 25 April, and ran into heavy opposition at Torbole and Nago. After an amphibious crossing of Lake Garda, it secured Gargnano and Porto di Tremosine, on 30 April, as German resistance in Italy ended. After the German surrender in Italy on 2 May 1945, the division went on security duty. On 5 May 1945 the division reached Nauders, Austria, just beyond the Reschen Pass, where it made contact with German forces being pushed south by the U.S. Seventh Army. A status quo was maintained until the enemy headquarters involved had completed their surrender to the Seventh. On the 6th, 10th Mountain Division troops met the 44th Infantry Division of the Seventh Army. Between the 2nd and Victory in Europe Day on 8 May the 10th Mountain Division received the surrender of various German units and screened areas of occupation near Trieste, Kobarid, Bovec and Log pod Mangartom, Slovenia. The division moved to Udine on 20 May and joined the British Eighth Army in preventing further westward movement of ground forces from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
#### Casualties
- Total battle casualties: 4,072
- Killed in action: 992
- Wounded in action: 3,134
- Missing in action: 38
- Prisoners of war: 28
#### Demobilization
Originally, the division was to be sent to the Pacific theater to take part in Operation Downfall, the invasion of mainland Japan, as one of the primary assault forces. However, Japan surrendered in August 1945 following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The division returned to the US two days later. It was demobilized and inactivated on 30 November 1945 at Camp Carson, Colorado. During World War II, the 10th Mountain Division suffered 992 killed in action and 4,154 wounded in action in 114 days of combat. Soldiers of the division were awarded one Medal of Honor (John D. Magrath), three Distinguished Service Crosses, one Distinguished Service Medal, 449 Silver Star Medals, seven Legion of Merit Medals, 15 Soldier's Medals, and 7,729 Bronze Star Medals. The division itself was awarded two campaign streamers.
### Cold War
In June 1948, the division was rebuilt and activated at Fort Riley, Kansas to serve as a training division. Without its "Mountain" tab, the division served as the 10th Infantry Division for the next ten years. The unit was charged with processing and training replacements in large numbers. This mission was expanded with the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950. By 1953, the division had trained 123,000 new Army recruits at Fort Riley.
In 1954, the division was converted to a combat division once again, though it did not regain its "Mountain" status. Using equipment from the deactivating 37th Infantry Division, the 10th Infantry Division was deployed to Germany, replacing the 1st Infantry Division at Würzburg, serving as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) defensive force. The division served in Germany for four years, until it was rotated out and replaced by the 3rd Infantry Division. The division moved to Fort Benning, Georgia, and was inactivated on 14 June 1958.
#### Reactivation
On 13 February 1985, the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) was reactivated at Fort Drum, New York. In accordance with the Reorganization Objective Army Divisions plan, the division was no longer centered on regiments, instead two brigades were activated under the division. The 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division (commanded by then Colonel John M. Keane, later 4-Star General and Army Vice Chief of Staff) and Division Artillery were activated at Fort Drum, while the 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division was activated at Fort Benning, moving to Fort Drum in 1988. The division was also assigned a round-out brigade from the Army National Guard, the 27th Infantry Brigade. The division was specially designed as a light infantry division able to rapidly deploy. In this process, it lost its mountain warfare capability, but its light infantry organization still made it versatile for difficult terrain. Equipment design was oriented toward reduced size and weight for reasons of both strategic and tactical mobility. The division also received a distinctive unit insignia.
##### Structure in 1989
At the end of the Cold War, the division was organized as follows:
- 10th Mountain Division (Light), Fort Drum, New York
- Headquarters & Headquarters Company
- 1st Brigade
- Headquarters & Headquarters Company
- 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry
- 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry
- 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry
- 2nd Brigade
- Headquarters & Headquarters Company
- 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry
- 3rd Battalion, 14th Infantry
- 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry
- 27th Infantry Brigade (Light), Syracuse (New York Army National Guard)
- Headquarters & Headquarters Company
- 1st Battalion, 108th Infantry, Auburn
- 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry, Syracuse
- 3rd Battalion, 108th Infantry, Utica
- 1st Battalion, 156th Field Artillery, Kingston, (18 × M101 105 mm towed howitzer)
- 427th Support Battalion (Forward), Syracuse
- Troop E, 101st Cavalry, Buffalo
- 827th Engineer Company, Buffalo
- Aviation Brigade
- Headquarters & Headquarters Company
- 3rd Squadron, 17th Cavalry (Reconnaissance)
- 2nd Battalion, 25th Aviation (Attack)
- Company C, 25th Aviation (General Support)
- Company D, 25th Aviation (Assault)
- Division Artillery
- Headquarters & Headquarters Battery
- 1st Battalion, 7th Field Artillery (18 × M101 105 mm towed howitzer)
- 2nd Battalion, 7th Field Artillery (18 × M101 105 mm towed howitzer)
- Battery E, 7th Field Artillery (8 × M198 155 mm towed howitzer)
- Division Support Command
- Headquarters & Headquarters Company
- 10th Medical Battalion
- 10th Supply & Transportation Battalion
- 710th Maintenance Battalion
- Company E, 25th Aviation (Aviation Intermediate Maintenance)
- 3rd Battalion, 62nd Air Defense Artillery
- 41st Engineer Battalion
- 10th Signal Battalion
- 110th Military Intelligence Battalion
- 10th Military Police Company
- 59th Chemical Company
- 10th Mountain Division Band
### Contingencies
In 1990, the division sent 1,200 soldiers to support Operation Desert Storm. Two infantry platoons from the division were among those sent: 1st Platoon Bravo Company 1/22 and the 1/22 Scout Platoon. Once in Iraq, the scouts were sent home and First Platoon was left as a counterintelligence force. Performing three-man 24hr patrols through the remainder of their deployment. This platoon was widely regarded as the division's best at that time. The largest of these units was the 548th Supply and Services Battalion with almost 1,000 soldiers, which supported the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) in Iraq. Following a cease-fire in March 1991, the support soldiers began redeploying to Fort Drum through June of that year.
Hurricane Andrew struck South Florida on 24 August 1992, killing 13 people, leaving another 250,000 homeless, and causing damages in excess of \$20 billion. On 27 September 1992, the 10th Mountain Division assumed responsibility for Hurricane Andrew disaster relief as Task Force Mountain. Division soldiers set up relief camps, distributed food, clothing, medical necessities, and building supplies, as well as helping to rebuild homes and clear debris. The last of the 6,000 division soldiers deployed to Florida returned home in October 1992.
#### Operation Restore Hope
On 3 December 1992, the division headquarters was designated as the headquarters for all Army Forces (ARFOR) of the Unified Task Force (UNITAF) for Operation Restore Hope. Major General Steven L. Arnold, the division Commander, was named Army Forces commander. The 10th Mountain Division's mission was to secure major cities and roads to provide safe passage of relief supplies to the Somali population suffering from the effects of the Somali Civil War.
Due to 10th Mountain Division efforts, humanitarian agencies declared an end to the food emergency and factional fighting decreased. When Task Force Ranger and the SAR team were pinned down during a raid in what later became known as the Battle of Mogadishu, the 10th Mountain Division provided infantry for the UN quick reaction force sent to rescue them. The 10th Mountain Division had two soldiers killed in the fighting, which was the longest sustained firefight by regular US Army forces since the Vietnam War. The division began a gradual reduction of forces in Somalia in February 1994, until the last soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry returned to the United States in March 1994.
#### Operation Uphold Democracy
The division formed the nucleus of the Multinational Force Haiti (MNF Haiti) and Joint Task Force 190 (JTF 190) in Haiti during Operation Uphold Democracy. More than 8,600 of the division's troops deployed during this operation. On 19 September 1994, the 1st Brigade conducted the Army's first air assault from aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. This force consisted of 54 helicopters and almost 2,000 soldiers. They occupied the Port-au-Prince International Airport. This was the largest Army air operation conducted from a carrier since the Doolittle Raid in World War II.
The division's mission was to create a secure and stable environment so the government of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide could be reestablished and democratic elections held. After this was accomplished, the 10th Mountain Division handed over control of the MNF-Haiti to the 25th Infantry Division on 15 January 1995. The division redeployed the last of its soldiers who served in Haiti by 31 January 1995.
#### Operation Joint Forge
In the fall of 1998, the division received notice that it would be serving as senior headquarters of Task Force Eagle, providing a peacekeeping force to support the ongoing operation within the Multi-National Division-North area of responsibility in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Selected division units began deploying in late summer, approximately 3,000 division soldiers deployed. After successfully performing their mission in Bosnia, the division units conducted a transfer of authority, relinquishing their assignments to soldiers of the 49th Armored Division, Texas National Guard. By early summer 2000, all 10th Mountain Division soldiers had returned safely to Fort Drum.
#### Operation Joint Guardian
#### Readiness controversy
During the 2000 presidential election, the readiness of the 10th Mountain Division became a political issue when George W. Bush asserted that the division was "not ready for duty." He attributed the division's low readiness to the frequent deployments throughout the 1990s without time in between for division elements to retrain and refit. A report from the US General Accounting Office in July 2000 also noted that although the entire 10th Mountain Division was not deployed to the contingencies at once, "deployment of key components—especially headquarters—makes these divisions unavailable for deployment elsewhere in case of a major war". Conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation agreed with these sentiments, charging that the US military overall was not prepared for war due to post-Cold War drawdowns of the US Military. The Army responded that, though the 10th Mountain Division had been unprepared following its deployment as Task Force Eagle, that the unit was fully prepared for combat by late 2000 despite being undermanned. Still, the Army moved the 10th Mountain Division down on the deployment list, allowing it time to retrain and refit.
In 2002, columnist and highly decorated military veteran David Hackworth again criticized the 10th Mountain Division for being unprepared due to lack of training, low physical fitness, unprepared leadership, and low morale. He said the division was no longer capable of mountain warfare.
### War on Terrorism
#### Initial deployments and 2004 reorganization
Following the 11 September 2001 attacks, elements of the division, including its special troops battalion and 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment (1-87th) infantry deployed to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom in late 2001. The division headquarters arrived at Karshi-Khanabad Air Base, under Major General Franklin L. Hagenbeck, on 12 December 2001 to function as the Combined Forces Land Component Command (CFLCC) (Forward). This command served as the representative for Lieutenant General Paul T. Mikolashek, the Third US Army/CFLCC commanding general (CG) in the theater of operations. As such, Hagenbeck's headquarters was responsible for commanding and controlling virtually all Coalition ground forces and ground force operations in the theater, including the security of Coalition airfields in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Pakistan, as well as the logistics operations set up to support those forces. The division was also intended to defend Uzbekistan against attacks by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which was seeking to overthrow Islam Karimov's secular government.
On 13 February 2002, Mikolashek ordered Hagenbeck to move CFLCC (Forward) to Bagram airfield located at Bagram and 2 days later the headquarters was officially redesignated as Combined Joint Task Force (CJTF) Mountain. It assumed responsibility for the planning and execution of what had then become known as Operation Anaconda.
Elements of the division, primarily 1-87th Infantry, remained in the country until mid-2002, fighting to secure remote areas of the country and participating in prominent operations such as Operation Anaconda, the Fall of Mazar-i-Sharif, and the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi. These 1-87th Infantry soldiers became the first conventional forces to engage in combat in Afghanistan in the US military. The division also participated in fighting in the Shahi Khot Valley in 2002. In June 2002, elements of the 82nd Airborne Division arrived to relieve CJTF Mountain, and in September, Major General John R. Vines and his Combined Task Force 82 relieved CJTF Mountain as the major subordinate headquarters to Combined Joint Task Force 180. Upon the return of the battalions, they were welcomed home and praised by President Bush.
In 2003, the division's headquarters, along with the 1st Brigade, returned to Afghanistan. During that time, they operated in the frontier regions of the country such as Paktika Province, going to places previously untouched by the war in search of Taliban and Al-Qaeda forces. Fighting in several small-scale conflicts such as Operation Avalanche, Operation Mountain Resolve, and Operation Mountain Viper, the division maintained a strategy of small units moving through remote regions of the country to interact directly with the population and drive out insurgents. The 1st Brigade also undertook a number of humanitarian missions.
In 2003 and into 2004, the division's aviation brigade deployed for the first time to Afghanistan. As the only aviation brigade in the theater, the brigade provided air support for all US Army units operating in the country. The brigade's mission at that time focused on close air support, medevac missions, and other duties involving combat with Taliban and Al-Qaeda forces in the country. The 10th Mountain Division was the first unit to introduce contract working dogs into southern Afghanistan. In the spring of 2004, they had Patriot K-9 Services supply 20 dog teams based at KAF. The teams were trained to detect explosives and perform patrol duties throughout the region. The brigade returned to Fort Drum in 2004.
On the return of the division headquarters and 1st Brigade, the 10th Mountain Division began the process of transformation into a modular division. On 16 September 2004, the division headquarters finished its transformation, adding the 10th Mountain Division Special Troops Battalion. The 1st Brigade became the 1st Brigade Combat Team, while the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division was activated for the first time. In January 2005, the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division was activated at Fort Polk, Louisiana. 2nd Brigade Combat Team would not be transformed until September 2005, pending a deployment to Iraq.
#### Iraq deployments
In late 2004, the 2nd Brigade Combat Team was deployed to Iraq supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. The 2nd Brigade Combat Team undertook combat operations in western Baghdad, an area of responsibility that included Abu Ghraib, Mansour, and Route Irish. It returned to the US in late 2005. Around that time, the 1st Brigade Combat Team deployed back to Iraq, staying in the country until 2006.
The next time the 1st Brigade Combat Team was deployed was during the Surge for 15 months in Iraq. Northern Iraq was the theater of operations for 1 BCT from August 2007 until November 2008
The 4th BCT operated in Northeast Baghdad under the 4th Infantry Division headquarters from November 2007 until January 2009. The 10th Mountain participated in larger-scale operations, such as Operation Phantom Phoenix.
After a one-year rest, the headquarters of the 10th Mountain Division was deployed to Iraq for the first time in April 2008. The division headquarters served as the command element for southern Baghdad until late March 2009, when it displaced to Basrah to replace departing British forces on 31 March 2009 to coordinate security for the Multinational Division-South area of responsibility, a consolidation of the previously Polish-led south-central and British-led southeast operational areas. The 10th Mountain Division headquarters transferred authority for MND-S to the 34th Infantry Division, Minnesota Army National Guard on 20 May 2009.
The 2nd Brigade Combat Team was scheduled to deploy to Iraq in the fall of 2009, as a part of the 2009–2010 rotation to Iraq.
#### Afghanistan deployments
The division headquarters, the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, and two Battalion Task Forces from the 4th Brigade Combat Team deployed to Afghanistan in 2006, staying in the country until 2007. The division and brigade served in the eastern region of the country, along the border with Pakistan, fulfilling a similar role as it did during its previous deployment. During this time, the deployment of the brigade was extended along with that of the 4th Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division. It was eventually replaced by the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team which was rerouted from Iraq.
In the winter of 2006, the 10th Aviation Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, was deployed again to Afghanistan to support Operation Enduring Freedom as the only aviation brigade in the theater, stationed at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. Named "Task Force Falcon," the brigade's mission was to conduct aviation operations to destroy insurgents and anti-coalition militia in an effort to help build the Afghan National Security Force's capability and allow the Afghan government to increase its capabilities. In addition, the Task Force provided logistical and combat support for International Security Assistance Force forces throughout the country.
The 3rd Brigade Combat Team was slated to deploy to Iraq in 2009, but that deployment was rerouted. In January 2009, the 3rd BCT instead deployed to Kunar, Logar and Wardak Provinces, eastern Afghanistan to relieve the 101st Airborne Division, as part of a new buildup of US forces in that country. The brigade was responsible for expanding forward operating bases and combat outposts (COPs) in the region, as well as strengthening US military presence in preparation for additional US forces to arrive.
The 1st Brigade Combat Team was scheduled to deploy to Iraq in late 2009 but deployed instead to Afghanistan in March 2010 for 13 months. 1-87th Infantry deployed to Kunduz and Baghlan Provinces, establishing remote combat outposts (COPs) against the Taliban after they had taken control of these provinces over the last several years. Notably, elements of the regiment were responsible for numerous large-scale engagements, including The Battle of Shahabuddin and securing a High-Value Target (HVT) after an air assault raid. Some elements of the Brigade deployed to Afghanistan in late January 2013 to Ghazni Provence for nine months.
The 3rd Brigade Combat Team deployed to Kandahar Province, southern Afghanistan in March 2011, again relieving the 101st Airborne Division. During this deployment, 3rd BCT mainly occupied forward operating bases (FOBs) and combat outposts (COPs) in the Maywand, Zhari, and Arghandab Districts of Kandahar Province. The brigade was redeployed to Fort Drum in March 2012 after a twelve-month deployment.
The 4th Brigade Combat Team deployed to Regional Command East, under the 101st Airborne Division from October 2010 until their redeployment in October 2011. The 4th BCT deployed to both Wardak and Logar provinces. During this deployment, they went to places such as Chakh Valley in Wardak Province and Charkh Valley in Logar Province in search of elements of the Haqqani Network. In May 2013, the brigade deployed again to Afghanistan returning home in February 2014.
In 2015, Diana M. Holland became the first woman to serve as a general officer at Fort Drum, and the first woman to serve as a deputy commanding general in one of the Army's light infantry divisions (specifically, the 10th Mountain Division.)
In February 2015, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division were deployed to Afghanistan as part of the Resolute Support Mission in the Post ISAF phase of the War in Afghanistan between late summer and early fall 2015, 300 troops from 10th Mountain's headquarters at deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Freedom's Sentinel, along with about 1,000 troops from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team. In February 2016, the Taliban began a new assault on Sangin, Helmand Province, the US responded by deploying 500 to 800 troops from 2nd battalion 87th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division to Helmand Province in order to prop up Afghan army's 215th Corps in the province, particularly around Sangin, joining US and British special operations forces already in the area.
On 5 December 2019, the Department of the Army announced that the 1st Brigade Combat Team would replace the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division as part of a unit rotation in support of Operation Freedom's Sentinel. The brigade deployed to Afghanistan in February 2020.
### Operation Atlantic Resolve
On 3 November 2016, Stars and Stripes reported that the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade would deploy 1,750 soldiers to Eastern Europe in March 2017, in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve – as part of NATO efforts to reassure Eastern Europe in response to Russian intervention in Ukraine in 2014. The brigade arrived with approximately 60 aircraft, including CH-47 Chinooks, UH-60 Blackhawks, and medevac helicopters. The brigade was headquartered in Germany and the brigade's units were forward-based at locations in Latvia, Romania, and Poland.
### Operation Inherent Resolve
Between late summer and early fall 2015, as well as again in 2016, 1,250 soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team were deployed to Iraq to support Operation Inherent Resolve. During the two deployments the brigade spent in Iraq, they fought to regain control of the cities of Ramadi, Fallujah, and Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. In 2022 the unit would redeploy again, in support of Operation Inherent Resolve.
## Honors
The 10th Mountain Division was awarded two campaign streamers in World War II, one campaign streamer for Somalia, and four campaign streamers in the War on Terrorism for a total of seven campaign streamers and three unit decorations in its operational history. Note that some of the division's brigades received more or fewer decorations depending on their individual deployments.
### Unit decorations
### Campaign streamers
## Controversial shoot house training viral video
A viral video with a Xzibit song showed soldiers in the division conducting live fire training in a shoot house. The soldiers violated numerous safety issues, including flagging and failure to follow norms of room clearing, such as failure to clear corners or follow points of domination, with observers giving no correction. Responding to the viral incident, Division CSM Mario O. Terenas addressed the incident on Twitter: "it's 10th Mountain Division. We ran it down to the ground and it is 10th Mountain Division. It is our folks, and it really, really hurts to say that...It is not the standard, it is not how we do business, and it is not acceptable. We're running this thing down to the ground. We will investigate it, we will take action, and we will re-train. That is a guarantee."
## Legacy
The 10th Mountain Division was the subject of the 1996 film Fire on the Mountain, which documented its exploits during World War II. The 10th Mountain Division is also a prominent element of the book and film Black Hawk Down, which portrays the Battle of Mogadishu and the division's participation in that conflict. Among the division's other appearances are the Tom Clancy novel Clear and Present Danger, the SCI FI 2005 film Manticore, Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds, and Sean Parnell's war memoir about his platoon's experiences in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom, titled Outlaw Platoon in 2012. The 10th Mountain Division was also briefly mentioned in Days Gone where the main protagonist Deacon St. John served as a corporal. In The West Wing episode And It’s Surely To Their Credit the 10th Mountain Division is briefly mentioned.
Skiing associations subsequently contend that veterans of the 10th Mountain Division had a substantial effect on the post-World War II development of skiing as a vacation industry and major sport. Ex-soldiers from the 10th laid out ski hills, designed ski lifts, became ski coaches, racers, instructors, patrollers, shop owners, and filmmakers. They wrote and published ski magazines, opened ski schools, improved ski equipment, and developed ski resorts. Up to 2,000 of the division's troops were involved in skiing-related professions after the war, and at least 60 ski resorts were founded by men of the division.
People associated with the 10th Mountain Division later went on to achieve notability in other fields. Among these are anthropologist Eric Wolf, mathematician Franz Alt, avalanche researcher and forecasting pioneer Montgomery Atwater, Congressman Les AuCoin, mountaineer and teacher who helped develop equipment for the 10th Mountain Robert Bates, noted mountaineer Fred Beckey, United States Ski Team member and Black Mountain of Maine resort co-founder Chummy Broomhall, former American track and field coach and co-founder of Nike, Inc. Bill Bowerman, former Executive Director and Sierra Club leader David R. Brower, former United States Ski Team member World War II civilian mountaineer trainer H. Adams Carter, former Senate Majority Leader and Presidential candidate Bob Dole, champion skier Dick Durrance, ski resort pioneer John Elvrum, Norwegian-American skier Sverre Engen, fashion illustrator Joe Eula, Olympic equestrian Earl Foster Thomson, civilian founder of the National Ski Patrol Charles Minot Dole, painter Gino Hollander, Paleoclimatologist John Imbrie, theoretical physicist Francis E. Low, US downhill ski champion Toni Matt, falconer and educator Morley Nelson, comic book artist Earl Norem, founder of National Outdoor Leadership School and The Wilderness Education Association Paul Petzoldt, world downhill ski champion Walter Prager, demolition derby driver Joshua Tagliaboschi, retired broadcasting executive William Lowell Putnam III, Massachusetts Governor Francis W. Sargent, World War II civilian ski instructor and division trainer Hannes Schneider, founder of Vail Ski Resort Pete Seibert, actor and Olympic medalist Floyd Simmons, historian and author Page Smith, members of the famous von Trapp family singers Werner von Trapp and Rupert von Trapp, Rawleigh Warner, Jr., Chairman and CEO of Mobil, civilian technical adviser Fritz Wiessner, William John Wolfgram, Olympic Ski jumper Gordon Wren, Massachusetts Congressional candidate Nathan Bech, leader of Chalk 4 during the Battle of Mogadishu Matt Eversmann, Middle East analyst, blogger, and author Andrew Exum, and author Craig Mullaney.
Additionally, four members of the division have been awarded the Medal of Honor. In 1945 John D. Magrath became the first member of the division to receive this award during World War II. The second, Jared C. Monti, received it posthumously in 2009, for actions during a combat operation on 21 June 2006 as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. The third, William D. Swenson, received it in 2013, for actions on 8 September 2009, during the Battle of Ganjgal in Afghanistan. The fourth, Travis W. Atkins, received it posthumously on 27 March 2019, for actions on 1 June 2007 during a patrol in Iraq.
The division's efforts in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom and beyond led to the division being referred to as the "Tribe of Crossed Swords" by some Afghans.
## In Popular Culture
In MacGyver (2016 TV series), flashbacks of MacGyver's time in Afghanistan show him wearing the unit patches for the 10th Mountain Division and the 71st Ordnance Group (EOD).
In the 2020 film Sonic the Hedgehog, the army is sent into the fictional Green Hills, Montana to investigate an energy spike caused by the titular Sonic. The army unit sent by the DoD is the 10th Mountain Division.
## Organization 2023
There division consists of a division headquarters and headquarters battalion, three infantry brigade combat teams, a division artillery, a combat aviation brigade, and a division sustainment brigade. The division artillery has training and readiness oversight over the division's field artillery battalions, which remain organic to their brigade combat teams.
- 10th Mountain Division
- Division Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion "Gauntlet"
- Headquarters Support Company
- Signal, Intelligence, and Sustainment Company
- 10th Mountain Division Band
- Light Fighters School
- 1st Infantry Brigade Combat Team (1st IBCT) "Warrior"
- Headquarters and Headquarters Company (HHC), 1st IBCT
- 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment
- 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment
- 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment
- 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment
- 3rd Battalion, 6th Field Artillery Regiment (FAR)
- 7th Brigade Engineer Battalion (BEB)
- 10th Brigade Support Battalion (BSB)
- 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (2nd IBCT) "Commandos"
- Headquarters and Headquarters Company (HHC), 2nd IBCT
- 1st Squadron, 89th Cavalry Regiment
- 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment
- 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment
- 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment
- 2nd Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment (FAR)
- 41st Brigade Engineer Battalion (BEB)
- 210th Brigade Support Battalion (BSB)
- 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (3rd IBCT) "Patriots", based at Fort Johnson, (Louisiana)
- Headquarters and Headquarters Company (HHC), 3rd IBCT
- 3rd Squadron, 89th Cavalry Regiment
- 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment
- 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment
- 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment
- 5th Battalion, 25th Field Artillery Regiment (FAR)
- 317th Brigade Engineer Battalion (BEB) "Buffalo"
- 710th Brigade Support Battalion (BSB) "Patriot Support"
- 10th Division Artillery (10th DIVARTY)
- Headquarters and Headquarters Battery (HHB)
- 10th Combat Aviation Brigade (10th CAB) "Falcons"
- Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 10th CAB
- 1st Battalion, 10th Aviation Regiment (Attack) "Tigershark"
- 2nd Battalion, 10th Aviation Regiment (Assault)
- 3rd Battalion, 10th Aviation Regiment (General Support) "Phoenix"
- 6th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment "Six Shooters"
- 277th Aviation Support Battalion "Mountain Eagle"
- 10th Division Sustainment Brigade
- Headquarters and Headquarters Company
- Division Sustainment Troops Battalion "Workhorse"
- 548th Division Sustainment Support Battalion
## Previous commanders
Individuals who have served as commanders and command sergeants major of the 10th Mountain Division include:
## Notable former members
- Travis Atkins, Iraq
- Skippy Baxter, World War II
- Bill Bowerman, World War II
- David Brower, World War II
- Bob Dole, World War II
- Donald G. Dunn, World War II
- Billy Kearns, World War II
- Chelsea Manning, Iraq
- John David Magrath, World War II
- Jared C. Monti, Afghanistan
- Walter Prager, World War II
- Paul Petzoldt, World War II
- Michael Prysner, Iraq
- Pete Seibert, World War II
- William D. Swenson, Afghanistan
- Alejandro Villanueva, Afghanistan
- Rupert von Trapp, World War II
- Werner von Trapp, World War II
- Eric Wolf, World War II |
20,524,250 | Edwin Donayre | 1,078,191,617 | Peruvian general (born 1952) | [
"1952 births",
"Alliance for Progress (Peru) politicians",
"Chorrillos Military School alumni",
"Living people",
"Members of the Congress of the Republic of Peru",
"People from Ayacucho",
"Peruvian generals",
"Peruvian people of German descent"
] | General Edwin Donayre (born January 8, 1952) is a Peruvian politician, a former Congressman and a retired military officer who is wanted by the police on corruption charges.
Donayre previously served as Commanding General of the Peruvian Army, commander of the Center Military Region, the Southern Military Region, and the 2nd Infantry Brigade. He assumed the role of commanding general on December 5, 2006, replacing General César Reinoso, who resigned amid accusations of corruption. During his tenure, Donayre was accused of corruption and obstructing inquiries into human rights violations. He was also at the center of an international controversy when a video surfaced in the media showing him making anti-Chilean remarks at a private party. He retired on December 5, 2008, and was replaced by General Otto Guibovich.
## Military career
Edwin Donayre was born on January 8, 1952, in the city of Ayacucho in the highlands of Peru. He attended San Juan Bosco school, a Salesian institution in his hometown, and studied at a seminary for two years before studying two years of Chemical Engineering at the San Cristóbal of Huamanga University. Donayre's military career started at the Chorrillos Military School, where his first year grades earned him a scholarship to continue his formation in Argentina. At the National Military College in Buenos Aires he graduated with honors as a military engineer. In active duty Donayre has served four times in regions under state of emergency due to Shining Path guerrilla activity and five times in frontier regions. He has held several command posts, among them commander of the 20th Combat Engineer Battalion, director of the Army Engineer School, commander of the 2nd Infantry Brigade, commander of the Southern Military Region, and commander of the Central Military Region.
## Commanding General
Donayre's tenure as Commanding General of the army was controversial from the start due to corruption allegations and an international incident with Chile. Opposition leader Ollanta Humala criticized Donayre's designation as irregular because at that time he was not serving as general of any of the three major army divisions as stipulated by Peruvian law. As commander of the Army, Donayre was also accused of acquiring 50,000 American-made MREs — military rations — to supply troops deployed against Shining Path guerrillas in the Apurímac and Ene river valleys, instead of acquiring cheaper, locally-made alternatives. An attempt to buy 50,000 more rations led to an inquiry by the Ministry of Defense.
The general's stance on human rights issues has also been quite controversial. It has been reported that he was behind the Army's refusal to provide any information on the 1984 Putis massacre. Requests issued in June 2008 by prosecutor Rubén López for a detailed report on the military personnel deployed there at that time were answered the following month by the Defense Ministry stating that the Army did not have any information on the subject in its archives. Donayre also joined a campaign to raise funds to defend armed forces personnel accused of committing human rights abuses during the internal conflict in Peru.
## Political career
In the 2011 general elections, he presented himself as a candidate to Congress representing the Ayacucho Region. Although he received the highest vote in his region, he was not elected, since his Radical Change party was not able to pass the 5% electoral threshold.
In the 2014 regional elections, he would once again try his hand in Peruvian politics by being a candidate for the Regional Presidency of Ayacucho by the Alliance for Progress Ayacucho party. Donayre ended up with almost 28% of the votes, surpassed only by his opponent, Wilfredo Oscorima, who would obtain 32% of the vote.
In the 2016 general election, Edwin Donayre was elected as Congressman, representing the Ayacucho Region, running as independent within the Alliance for Progress party.
## Controversy
### Corruption charges
According to a report by the army inspector general, Francisco Vargas, Donayre requested 80,000 gallons of fuel without clear justification when he was commander of the Southern Military Region, between January and September 2006, and diverted part of it to army headquarters in Lima. This led to an investigation by the anti-corruption prosecutor, Marlene Berrú, but, despite being summoned six times, Donayre did not show up at her office. He finally attended her request on November 25, 2008; in his testimony he denied any wrongdoing and claimed that the Southern Military Region actually received less fuel under his command than in the previous year.
On August 27, 2018, Donayre was found guilty (along with 40 people) of the crime of peculation in the case of fuel trafficking. the second liquidation room of the Court of Justice of Lima sentenced him to five years and six months of effective prison. The court requests the lifting of immunity since he was serving as a Congressman and thus had parliamentary immunity.
On May 2, 2019, with 102 votes in favor, 0 against and 1 abstention, the request to lift Donayre's parliamentary immunity was approved by Congress. The judicial police went in search of the former soldier in his residence located in Santiago de Surco but was not found although his lawyer mentioned to the media that he would hand himself over to justice in the next few hours. He is currently wanted by the Peruvian authorities.
### International controversy
Donayre became the center of an international controversy on November 24, 2008, when Peruvian media showed a YouTube video in which the general said "We are not going to let Chileans pass by (...) [A] Chilean who enters will not leave. Or will leave in a coffin. And if there aren't sufficient coffins, there will be plastic bags". The video, dated to 2006 or 2007, was recorded during a party at a friend's house attended by army officials and civilians. These comments caused widespread indignation in Chile, making headlines in the El Mercurio newspaper. The Peruvian president, Alan García, called his Chilean counterpart, Michelle Bachelet, to explain that these remarks did not reflect official Peruvian policy. Bachelet declared herself satisfied with the explanations.
On November 28, in response to this incident, a Chilean government spokesman stated that a scheduled visit to Chile by the Peruvian defense minister, Ántero Flores Aráoz, might be inopportune given the circumstances. The following day, Flores Aráoz announced his decision to postpone his trip after conferring with the Foreign Affairs Minister, José Antonio García Belaúnde. Several members of the Peruvian government commented on the spokesman's remarks including president García who said the country "did not accept pressure or orders from anybody outside of Peru". Donayre defended the video, declaring that Peruvian citizens have a right to say whatever they want at private gatherings and that even though he is scheduled to retire on December 5 he will not be forced to resign early under external pressure. As a consequence of these exchanges, tensions between Peru and Chile rose again; president Bachelet met with top aides on December 1 to discuss the matter and possible courses of action. Meanwhile, in Lima, Congressman Gustavo Espinoza became the center of attention as the main suspect of leaking the video to Chilean press and politicians. Donayre ended his tenure as Commanding General of the Army on December 5, 2008, as expected; president Alan García appointed General Otto Guibovich as his replacement.
## See also
- Peruvian Army |
67,227,516 | 2021 Serbian local elections | 1,161,750,514 | null | [
"2021 elections in Serbia",
"Local elections in Serbia",
"March 2021 events in Serbia",
"October 2021 events in Serbia"
] | Local elections in Serbia were held on 28 March 2021 in the municipalities of Zaječar, Kosjerić and Preševo, and on 17 October in Mionica and Negotin.
The ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) won a majority of seats in the city assemblies of Zaječar and Kosjerić, while the Alternative for Changes, led by Shqiprim Arifi, won a majority of seats in Preševo. Non-governmental organisations have reported electoral irregularities in Zaječar and Kosjerić, including physical attacks to some journalists and election list candidates; no irregularities were reported in Preševo.
Later that year, SNS also won a majority of seats in the city assemblies of Mionica and Negotin. Physical attacks towards opposition activists in Negotin sparked media attention, while the People's Party claimed that electoral irregularities took place at voting stations.
## Background
Previous local elections in Zaječar and Kosjerić were held in 2017. An opposition civic group named "Movement for Krajina", led by Boško Ničić, won the election in Zaječar with 31.9 percent of the popular vote, while the Serbian Progressive Party-led (SNS) list placed second with 30.82 percent of popular vote. In September 2017, Ničić unexpectedly merged his civic group into SNS, directly giving SNS a majority of seats in the city assembly. SNS won 32.3 percent of the popular vote in Kosjerić, double more than the list led by the Democratic Party (DS), and it retained the majority by aligning with the pro-government parties, Movement of Socialists and the Serbian People's Party.
Preševo, a municipality in which Albanians make a majority of the population, experienced political crisis between 2017 and 2021. The crisis began in September 2017, when the local city council was replaced by a temporary body led by the president of the Municipality of Preševo, Shqiprim Arifi. It was dissolved because no sessions were held since 24 May 2017 according to the law on local self-governments. The local government was dissolved on 18 September 2017. Multiple elections were held in December 2017, January 2018, and June 2020. Albanian minority parties won a majority of seats in those elections. In December 2020, the local city council was dissolved again and a temporary body was introduced because there were no sessions held since 27 August. Arifi, who was re-elected in 2018, was chosen as the head of the temporary body since he served as the president of the municipality.
## Electoral system
Local elections in Serbia are held under a proportional representation system. Eligible voters vote for electoral lists, on which the registered candidates are present. An electoral list could be submitted by a registered political party, a coalition of political parties, or a citizens' group. The number of valid signatures needed to be collected to take part in the election varies by the number of eligible voters in that municipality. At least 40 percent of candidates on electoral lists must be female. The electoral list is submitted by its chosen ballot representative, who does not have to be present on its electoral list. An electoral list could be declined, after which those who had submitted can fix the deficiencies in a span of 48 hours, or rejected, if the person is not authorised to nominate candidates. The name and date of the election, the names of the electoral lists and its ballot representatives, and information on how to vote are only present on the voting ballot.
Local electoral commissions and polling boards oversee the election. Seats are allocated with an electoral threshold of 3 percent of all votes cast, however if no electoral list wins 3 percent of all votes cast, then all electoral lists that received votes can participate in the distribution of seats. The seats are distributed by electoral lists in proportion to the number of votes received, while the number of seats belonging to electoral lists is determined by applying the highest quotient system. The seats are distributed by dividing the total number of votes received by the electoral list participating in the distribution of seats by each number from one to the number of councilors the local assembly has. The obtained quotients are classified by size so that the electoral list has as many mandates as it has its quotients among the highest quotients of all the electoral lists participating in the distribution. If two or more electoral lists receive the same quotients on the basis of which the seat is distributed, the electoral list that received the greater number of votes has priority. The seats in the local assemblies are awarded to the candidates to their order on the electoral list, starting with the first candidate from an electoral list. When the councilors of a local assembly are sworn in, they in turn elect the mayor.
An electoral list could be declared the status of an ethnic minority electoral list by the local electoral commission. An ethnic minority electoral list could be only submitted by a registered political party or a coalition of political parties of an ethnic minority. If the percentage of the members of that ethnic minority is less than 50% in that municipality, an electoral list could be then granted the status of an ethnic minority electoral list. If the electoral list receives less than the 3 percent electoral threshold of all votes cast, it would still take part in the distribution of seats. When the distribution of seats takes place, the quotients of ethnic minority electoral lists that won less than 3 percent of the votes are increased by 35 percent.
Any local election, whether it is a municipal or a local assembly election, is called by the president of the National Assembly, who also has to announce its date. To vote, a person has to be a citizen and resident of Serbia and at least 18 years old. A voter could only vote in the municipality of their residence. An election silence begins two days before the scheduled election, meaning that no opinion polls, presentation of candidates and their programmes, or invitation to vote in the election could take place.
## Results and campaigns
Ivica Dačić, the president of the National Assembly, called the elections in Zaječar, Kosjerić, and Preševo on 5 February 2021. Later that year, he also called early elections to be held in Mionica and Negotin.
### Zaječar
On 9 March, the Party of United Pensioners of Serbia (PUPS) submitted their electoral list for the election, but were denied participation by the City Election Commission due to deficiencies in the electoral list. The Commission declared their list to be invalid three days later. Together with the United Peasant Party (USS) they announced their support for SNS.
On 27 February, Ničić met with construction, transport and infrastructure minister Tomislav Momirović to discuss about expanding local infrastructure in Zaječar. During the last election week, prime minister Ana Brnabić and president Aleksandar Vučić both visited Zaječar. Ministers Darija Kisić Tepavčević and Branislav Nedimović also visited the town during the campaign period.
In the municipality of Zaječar, there were 50,463 eligible citizens that were able to vote in the 2021 local election. The local City Election Commission reported that the turnout was 49.81%. SNS won 24 seats and it secured the majority together with the Socialist Party of Serbia–United Serbia (SPS–JS) coalition, which won 4 seats. The Nenad Ristović List placed second with 16 seats, while the Dragana Rašić List won 4 seats. The Dejan Krstić List and a list headed by the Enough is Enough (DJB) won one seat each.
### Kosjerić
Election campaigning was also prominent in Kosjerić, although opposition parties that boycotted the 2020 parliamentary election decided to not take part in the local elections, stating that "the elections won't be free and fair". Several high officials were spotted during the election campaigns, such as Ivica Dačić and the finance minister Siniša Mali. On 9 March, a basketball club was offered a donation by SNS, but they declined it and described it as a "cheap election propaganda".
In the Municipality of Kosjerić, there were 9,332 eligible citizens that were able to vote in the election. The local Election Commission reported that the turnout was 73%. On the election day, a woman collapsed and died after leaving a polling station. The list headed by SNS won a majority of 20 seats, while the Clean People for Clean Kosjerić list won 3 seats, the National Democratic Alternative coalition, headed by the Movement for the Restoration of the Kingdom of Serbia (POKS) and Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), won 2 seats including Healthy Serbia (ZS), who also won 2 seats.
### Preševo
Political events in Preševo, including the crisis, influenced the election to take place, in which a new local city council was elected. Seven Serb parties, led by SNS, declared a common electoral list in early March 2021.
In the Municipality of Preševo, there were 41,847 eligible citizens to vote in the local election. The local Election Commission reported that the turnout was 43%. The Alternative for Changes list, headed by Arifi, won 14 seats and followed by them, the Democratic Party of Albanians won 9 seats, Party for Democratic Action won 7 seats, Movement for Reforms list won 5 seats, the SNS-led list won 2 seats and the Democratic Union of Albanians won 1 seat. No irregularities were reported at the election.
### Mionica
Together with PUPS, SNS submitted their common list on 2 September, while the Alliance 90/Greens of Serbia party submitted their ballot on 24 September and the NADA on 28 September. SPS decided to cooperate with the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) to form a common list which was submitted on 29 September. Besides these lists, ZS and two civic groups, the "Free Citizens of Mionica" and "Democracy on the old place", participated in the local election. During the election campaign, environmental protection minister Irena Vujović and Momirović were spotted in Mionica.
In the Municipality of Mionica, there were 10,989 eligible citizens to vote in the local election. The local Election Commission reported that the turnout was 69%. The list headed by SNS won 31 seats and followed by them, the list headed by the SPS won 4 seats, while the "Free Citizens of Mionica" and NADA won 2 seats respectively.
### Negotin
On 4 September, SNS and SPS submitted a common list for the election with Vladimir Veličković, an SNS commissioner in Negotin, as the ballot carrier. SRS submitted their ballot on 19 September, and on the same day the Election Commission accepted it. Vuk Jeremić, the leader of the People's Party (Narodna), announced on 15 September that his party will be participating the upcoming local election in Negotin, after boycotting previous local and nationwide elections since 2020. Jeremić also stated that "the decision wasn't made easy" and that the upcoming election will be an "experiment" regarding the electoral conditions. On 22 September, they submitted their list, with Krsta Stanković Njenulović as the ballot carrier. Boris Tadić, the leader of the Social Democratic Party, criticised this move by comparing this situation to when his party was declared "traitorous" because it violated the boycott decision in 2020. NADA submitted their list on 24 September, six days after they began their electoral campaign. PUPS formally submitted their ballot list on 18 September, although they weren't able to qualify because 245 signatures were missing. In late September, the Alliance 90/Greens of Serbia submitted their ballot. Their election list, together with Healthy Serbia's list, was accepted on 1 October. In total, six lists participated in the election.
In the Municipality of Negotin, there were 37,313 eligible citizens to vote in the local election. The Election Commission reported that the turnout was 39%, and the list headed by SNS won 38 seats and followed by them, Narodna won 6 seats and the Alliance 90/Greens of Serbia won one seat.
Physical attacks towards opposition activists took place during voting, while Narodna alleged that the "SNS stole about 20% of votes and gave it away to lists that didn't manage to pass the electoral threshold", and that they will file complaints as soon as possible. On 20 October, the Election Commission announced that they rejected the objections. POKS and SPS have both stated that they are satisfied with their results.
## Aftermath
SNS won the most amount of seats in all municipalities, except Preševo, where they only won two seats. One of the major opposition candidates in Zaječar was Nenad Ristović who placed third in the 2017 Zaječar local election. After the 2021 election, Ristović pledged again to not cooperate with SNS. However, Ristović was later featured on the SNS list for the 2022 parliamentary election. Ničić was successfully re-elected as mayor in May 2021. SNS successfully formed local governments in Kosjerić, Mionica and Negotin. |
51,709,291 | NYC Ferry | 1,173,519,648 | Ferry system in New York City | [
"2017 establishments in New York City",
"Ferries of New York City",
"Ferry companies of New York City",
"Water taxis"
] | NYC Ferry is a public network of ferry routes in New York City operated by Hornblower Cruises. As of August 2021, there are six routes, as well as one seasonal route, connecting 25 ferry piers across all five boroughs. NYC Ferry has the largest passenger fleet in the United States with a total of 38 vessels, providing between 20 and 90 minute service on each of the routes, depending on the season. One additional route and one new pier are planned as of December 2021.
New York City had an extensive ferry network until the 1960s, when almost all ferry services were discontinued, but saw a revival in the 1980s and 1990s. The city government officially proposed its own ferry service in 2013, which was announced two years later under the tentative name of Citywide Ferry Service. The first of two phases launched in 2017 with service along the East River and to the Rockaways, Bay Ridge, and Astoria. A second phase launched to the Lower East Side and Soundview in 2018. A ferry to St. George, Staten Island, and a stop in Throgs Neck/Ferry Point Park launched in 2021, while a route to Coney Island is planned.
Single-ride trips on the system cost \$4.00, with monthly and bike fares also available, but there is no free transfer to other modes of transport in the city. NYC Ferry also provides free shuttle buses, connecting to ferry stops in the Rockaways and Midtown Manhattan. The ferry service was originally expected to transport 4.5 to 4.6 million passengers annually, but the annual ridership estimates were revised in early 2018 to 9 million. Despite its crowding, the ferry has generally received positive reviews from passengers. However, there has been criticism over the highly subsidized nature of the service, and NYC Ferry's low ridership compared to the city's other public transit modes.
## Background
### Early ferries
Until the 19th century, when the first fixed crossings were put in place across the city's waterways, there were many ferries traversing the area. New York's first ferries date to when the city was a Dutch colony named New Amsterdam, which comprised modern-day Lower Manhattan. A ferry across the East River, between New Amsterdam and modern-day Brooklyn, was created in 1642 by Cornelius Dircksen, who was reportedly "the earliest ferryman of whom the records speak." By 1654, New Amsterdam's government passed ordinances to regulate East River ferries. The first ferry to New Jersey was founded in 1661, traveling across the Hudson River from Manhattan to Communipaw (now part of Jersey City). Ferries along the Harlem River, between uptown Manhattan and the Bronx, started in 1667, and a ferry to Staten Island was started in 1712. The number of ferries would grow, and by 1904, there would be 147 ferry services operating in New York City waters.
One of the first documented horse-powered "team" boats in commercial service in the United States was the Fulton Ferry Company, an East River ferry run that Robert Fulton implemented in 1814. The South Ferry Company, founded in 1836, merged with the Fulton Ferry Company three years later, and the combined companies underwent a series of acquisitions, eventually owning many of the East River ferries. However, by 1918, the construction of bridges and New York City Subway tunnels across the East River resulted in some companies, such as the New York and East River Ferry Company between Yorkville and Astoria, operating at a loss. Even with city ownership, many of the East River ferries were superseded by bridges, road tunnels, and subway tunnels by the mid-20th century. The Yorkville–Astoria ferry, for instance, stopped in 1936 after being replaced by the Triborough Bridge.
On the other side of Manhattan, there were a myriad of Hudson River ferries at one point, with boat routes running from New Jersey to twenty passenger docks in Manhattan. However, the construction of the Holland Tunnel, Lincoln Tunnel, Hudson & Manhattan Railroad, Pennsylvania Railroad and George Washington Bridge between Manhattan and New Jersey, as well as the growth of car ownership in the United States, meant that these ferries were no longer needed by the mid-20th century. As a result, in 1967, the last cross-Hudson ferry (between Hoboken and Battery Park City) ceased operations.
The Richmond Turnpike Company started a steamboat service from Manhattan to Staten Island in 1817. Cornelius Vanderbilt bought the company in 1838, and it was sold to the Staten Island Railroad Company in 1864. The Staten Island Ferry was then sold to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1884, and the City of New York assumed control of the ferry in 1905. The ferry, which still operates, was at one point the only commuter ferry within the entire city, after the discontinuation of the Hoboken ferry in 1967.
Despite the discontinuation of ferry service to New Jersey, people moved to locations along the Hudson River waterfront there. In 1986, waterfront settlements like Bayonne, Highlands, Keyport, Port Liberte, and Weehawken saw a reinstatement of their ferry service to Manhattan, under the operation of NY Waterway. By 1989, around 3,000 of the settlements' combined 10,500 residents paid a \$5.00 fare in each direction to board the NY Waterway ferries, despite competition from cheaper alternatives like the PATH train system. Around this time, there were plans to create ferry routes between Inwood and Atlantic City; South Amboy and Wall Street; and from the city proper to New Jersey, Connecticut, and Westchester.
### Revival of ferries
In early 2011, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), and the NYC & Company water travel initiative NYHarborWay, worked with the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) to release a Comprehensive Citywide Ferry Study, in which it examined over 40 potential locations for a ferry system in New York City. The study was commissioned in order to examine transport alternatives for neighborhoods along New York City's shores. It also discussed the East River Ferry, which was set to enter service later that year. The study identified potential ferry routes to western Manhattan and Riverdale; eastern Manhattan, the South Bronx, and Co-op City; the northern Brooklyn and Queens shorelines; the South Shore of Staten Island; and southwestern Brooklyn, southern Brooklyn, and the Rockaways.
In June 2011, the NY Waterway-operated East River Ferry line started operations. The route was a 7-stop East River service that ran from Pier 11 to East 34th Street, making four intermediate stops in Brooklyn and one in Queens. The ferry, an alternative to the New York City Subway, cost \$4 per one-way ticket (the subway at the time cost \$2.25). It was instantly popular, with two to six times the number of passengers that the city predicted would ride the ferries. From June to November 2011, the ferry accommodated 2,862 riders on an average weekday, as opposed to a projection of 1,488 riders, and it had 4,500 riders on an average weekend, six times the city's projected ridership; in total, the ferry saw 350,000 riders in that period, over 250% of the initial ridership forecast of 134,000 riders.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy on October 29, 2012, massive infrastructural damage to the IND Rockaway Line () south of the Howard Beach–JFK Airport station severed all direct subway connections between the Rockaways, Broad Channel, and the Queens mainland for seven months. Ferry operator SeaStreak began running a city-subsidized ferry service between a makeshift ferry slip at Beach 108th Street and Beach Channel Drive in Rockaway Park, Queens, and Pier 11/Wall Street, then continuing on to the East 34th Street Ferry Landing. A stop at Brooklyn Army Terminal was added in August 2013 because of the reconstruction of the Montague Street Tunnel, which temporarily suspended R train service through the tunnel. The ferry proved to be popular and its license was extended several times, as city officials evaluated the ridership numbers to determine whether to establish the service on a permanent basis. Between its inception and December 2013, the service had carried close to 200,000 riders.
The NYCEDC study was updated in 2013, following the introduction of the SeaStreak Rockaway ferry. The study, called "CFS2013", showed the effect of ferry services in New York City, citing the success of the East River ferry. Specifically, ferry service raised the values of real estate within 1 mile (1.6 km) of ferry landings by an average of 1.2%; spurred new construction near ferry stops; added more transport options to neighborhoods with few transit alternatives; and helped relieve crowding on other parts of New York City's transport network. The study also suggested extra routes that could be added to the ferry system, with proposed routes that would serve new development in all five boroughs. The specific idea of a citywide ferry was also first proposed in the study.
When the city government announced its budget in late June 2014 for the upcoming fiscal year beginning July 1, the ferry only received a \$2 million further appropriation, enough to temporarily extend it again through October. The administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio stated that there was not enough ridership to justify the cost of operation. Despite last-minute efforts by local transportation advocates, civic leaders, and elected officials, ferry service ended on October 31, 2014. They promised to continue efforts to have the service restored. This led to many negotiations between the mayor's office and the parties interested in reopening the ferry. The mayor's office eventually agreed to restart the Rockaway ferry when the NYC Ferry system opened.
## Development
### Proposal
NYC Ferry, first proposed by the NYCEDC as the "Citywide Ferry Service," was announced by de Blasio's administration in 2015 as part of a proposed citywide ferry system that would reach through the five boroughs, though a Staten Island terminal had not been finalized. The NYCEDC promised the project, along with the Brooklyn–Queens Connector proposal, as a way to reinvent the city's transit system. Routes were to go to Astoria, Bay Ridge, the Rockaways, the Lower East Side, Soundview, South Brooklyn, and Brooklyn Navy Yard. NY Waterway's East River route was to be transferred to NYC Ferry system as part of the plan. Funding was being sought for a route to Coney Island and Stapleton, but it was not included in NYC Ferry's implementation timeline.
A fare for one trip was set at \$2.75, the same as on other modes of transportation in New York City. Free transfers would be offered only to other NYC Ferry lines, meaning that riders would pay another fare if they transferred to one of the city's other mass-transit systems. Transfers to other lines would be issued on request. Prior to the implementation of NYC Ferry, other ferry lines in the city had weekday and weekend fares of \$4 and \$6, respectively. The relatively low fare of NYC Ferry was made in contrast to some other major cities like San Francisco and Sydney, where ferry fares are higher than the fares of other modes of mass transit in these cities. The city said that the low ferry fares were intended to make the ferries affordable, while de Blasio stated that it is intended to promote "transit equity". Assuming that the ferry system met the projection of 4.5 million annual riders, the city would pay a subsidy of \$6.60 per rider, making the ferry the third-most subsidized form of transportation in the city, after the express bus service and the Long Island Rail Road.
NYC Ferry was to cost \$325 million with the city contributing an additional operating subsidy of \$10 million to \$20 million per year. The privately operated ferries were offered under a 6-year contract to Hornblower Cruises, which would receive at least \$30 million annually during the course of the contract. After having accepted the contract, Hornblower Cruises was selected as the ferry's operator on March 16, 2016.
Some of the ferry's six proposed routes were originally supposed to be operational in June 2017, but the implementation date was later moved to May 1. Under the 2015 plan, the whole system was expected to come into full service by 2018. The system includes routes that were formerly under NY Waterway, most notably the East River route. There would be at least 18 boats needed for rush-hour operation. Twelve boats would be deployed in 2017, while the other six would be put in service the next year. The number of boats was later revised slightly to 20, including three boats that would be upgraded later.
The creation of the ferry system was supposed to relieve some of the load of the city's transportation system, which is largely "the footprint of an early-19th-century transit map" according to Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, and cannot accommodate the city's fast population growth. As a result of projected desire for the ferries, annual ridership was expected to eventually reach 4.5 million to 4.6 million. Even though this amounted to only about 12,500 daily riders (compared to the New York City Subway's 5 million riders each weekday), one fellow at the Manhattan Institute said that "every person you’re not cramming on to the trains helps". New York City's deputy mayor for housing and economic development stated, "Our aim is to make this thing as big as possible."
### Planning
In March and April 2015, the city started the process of environmental review for Citywide Ferry. The city requested the draft of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on August 12, 2015, which was completed by April 18, 2016. After public comment, the final EIS was approved on July 28, 2016. The project also had a City Environmental Quality Review, which analyzed the ferry's effects on open space, urban design, natural resources, nearby transportation, noise pollution, air quality, the environment, and public health.
### Construction
From January to June 2016, the city bought 4 boats for the proposed ferry service for a combined total of \$6 million, with plans for a total of 30 boats over the coming years. Hornblower Cruises requested 13 boats for the first routes, each costing \$4 million. The total combined cost of the boats is more than \$70 million. In addition, the city was building 13 ferry landings at a cost of \$85 million, as well as a boat depot. One of these docks, in Astoria, was built privately as part of the Astoria Cove development. In September 2016, construction on 19 ferries began at two shipyards in Bayou La Batre, Alabama, and Jeanerette, Louisiana, with 200 full-time employees working on the boats. The contract with the two shipyards is unusual because shipbuilding contracts are usually with only one company. However, NYC Ferry executives had purposely chosen these two companies because of their expertise and because of the unlikeliness that both shipyards would be destroyed by hurricanes.
Ferry implementation required permission from several entities. Before the ferry could start service, the NYCDOT was required to approve a new transportation mode within its service area. Additionally, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and United States Army Corps of Engineers (CoE) was supposed to give NYC Ferry permission to use of the landings, with the United States Coast Guard advising the CoE's approval of a permit as well as monitoring the design of vessels. In addition, the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation had to allow ferries to use the landing at Gantry Plaza State Park, and the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation was consulted so they could give permission for the Roosevelt Island landing to be built. By September 2016, the Gantry Plaza landing had been approved.
In December 2016, Hornblower purchased the rights to operate the East River route for \$21 million. The route had been operated by Billybey Ferries, which had a contract to operate the line under the NY Waterway banner. As part of the sale, Hornblower paid \$6 million for four older boats already in use on the East River ferry.
The first completed new vessel left the Bayou La Batre facility on around March 24, 2017, and it arrived in New York on April 2, 2017. On April 6, Mayor de Blasio announced that the service had been rebranded from Citywide Ferry to NYC Ferry, and that the start of service had been moved up a month from the original schedule, with the East River, South Brooklyn, and Rockaway routes to begin on May 1, a month ahead of schedule. Under the new schedule, the South Brooklyn route began on June 1 and the Astoria route began on August 29, while the Lower East Side and Soundview routes were still to begin in 2018.
## Operation
### Opening and high ridership
The first two routes were opened on May 1, 2017. On its first day of service, NYC Ferry saw more than 6,400 riders; of these, 1,828 rode the Rockaway ferry while the rest rode the East River Ferry. In its first week, the ferry transported 49,000 riders, of which 38,000 used the East River Ferry while the remaining 11,000 used the Rockaway route. Although the service had a 95% on-time rate during the first week, NYC Ferry chartered a boat from NY Waterway due to delays on some routes. NYC Ferry also continued to temporarily use some of the older East River Ferry boats on that route. The ferry grew so popular that during the Memorial Day weekend in May 2017, the routes saw 26,000 passengers over two days, including 9,600 riders on the East River Ferry during each day. Described by The New York Times as the service's "biggest test so far", the 2017 Memorial Day weekend saw reports of hour-long waits for overcrowded ferries.
In June, NYC Ferry had to charter two 400-passenger charter boats for the East Ferry route to alleviate crowding on the routes serving Governors Island while packed boats skipped stops along these routes. By June 22, the ferry had carried 500,000 passengers, a milestone officials had not expected to be reached for several months. Due to unexpected demand, crowding became worse as the summer of 2017 progressed, with packed-to-capacity boats and long waits becoming more common. By July 2017, there were an estimated 83,500 riders on the South Brooklyn route in one month, exceeding the original ridership estimate by more than 30,000. The East River ferry saw about 7,200 riders per average weekday since being taken over by NYC Ferry, up from 3,257 average weekday riders in 2013. That month, three new boats being built were also revised to fit more passengers. A 500-passenger boat was also borrowed from SeaStreak for the Rockaway route. By July 26, 2017, NYC Ferry had carried 1 million riders.
In August 2017, NYC Ferry filed plans to build four ferry docks: one in Soundview, one in Yorkville, one near Stuyvesant Cove, and one on the Lower East Side. It also sought to add two more piers to its home port at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The Soundview route was revised so that it would stop at East 34th Street instead of at East 62nd Street, which would no longer be built. That month, Brooklyn politicians called for docks to be built in Coney Island and Canarsie, owing to the new system's popularity. The Astoria route was projected to carry 1,800 daily passengers upon opening, by which point the service had seen 1.4 million riders. Due to even more ridership demand, three extra ferries were ordered in September 2017, by which time over 2 million people had ridden the ferry. By November 2017, there had been a total of 2.5 million rides on NYC Ferry, compared to the 1.8 million that had been projected by this time, and two of the four routes had already surpassed ridership milestones that the city had not anticipated would be reached until 2019. At that point, the city had spent \$16.5 million to subsidize the ferry. The New York Post reported in November 2017 that five of the new ferryboats had already been taken out of service due to leaks. According to the Post, the boats were taken out of service starting in October after Coast Guard inspectors observed severe corrosion on the hulls. Hornblower subsequently confirmed the report, saying that the cause of the corrosion was misaligned keel coolers, and that three vessels had been removed from service in October for repair, followed by three more in November.
Construction on the four remaining NYC Ferry docks in Manhattan and the Bronx started on February 28, 2018, in preparation for the start of Lower East Side and Soundview service that summer. In May 2018, the first anniversary of the ferry system's opening, de Blasio announced that NYC Ferry had received an extra \$300 million to purchase extra boats, increase fleet capacity, and expand service. The number of new boats was not specified, but it was expected that there would be a mix of standard 150-passenger boats and large 350-passenger boats; as a stopgap, Hornblower would charter up to eight 500-passenger boats for temporary use on NYC Ferry. At this point, the city planned that the service would see 9 million riders per year, double the original annual estimate of 4.5 million riders. However, critics stated that the MTA's subway and bus systems carried a combined 7 million passengers per day, and that such a large subsidy for NYC Ferry was disproportionate to the number of people who rode the ferry. According to The Village Voice, NYC Ferry was aiming to transport 24,500 daily riders by 2023, a figure smaller than the 2017 daily ridership of 14 local bus routes. NYC Ferry had averaged 10,000 daily riders in 2017, while the bus and subway system had respectively carried 2 million and 5 million daily riders on average.
### Further changes
#### 2010s
In August 2018, it was announced that service on NYC Ferry's Soundview and Lower East Side routes would begin that month. The route to Soundview opened on August 15, 2018, followed by the Lower East Side route on August 29. New York City Transit extended select Bx27 bus trips to Clason Point Park to serve the Soundview route in mid-2018.
Following the opening of the Lower East Side route in August 2018, de Blasio stated that he planned for the system to expand further. In January 2019, de Blasio announced further expansions to the NYC Ferry system to take place by 2021. There would be two new routes to Staten Island and Coney Island, as well as extensions of two additional routes. The Staten Island route would travel between Manhattan's West Side and the St. George Terminal in St. George, Staten Island, and was originally slated to open in 2020, but was pushed back to 2021. The Coney Island route would travel between Pier 11 Wall Street and Coney Island, and would start operating in 2021. The Astoria route would make an extra stop at Brooklyn Navy Yard, while the Soundview route would be extended from Soundview east to Throgs Neck. The South Brooklyn route would terminate at Brooklyn Army Terminal, and the existing Bay Ridge ferry pier would be served by the Coney Island route. The Brooklyn Navy Yard stop opened on May 20, 2019. The same month, NYC Ferry launched a new weekend-only shuttle from Pier 11/Wall Street to Governors Island, replacing the East River and South Brooklyn service to the island.
The service expansion required that the city increase its per-rider subsidy to \$8. In March 2019, the nonprofit Citizens Budget Commission (CBC) found that NYC Ferry was one of the most subsidized forms of transport in New York City, despite having low ridership. The CBC found that the city paid \$10.73 per person per ride, and once the Coney Island route started operating, the subsidy to NYC Ferry would rise to \$25 per person per ride. The per-ride subsidy was so high because NYC Ferry had only 4.1 million passengers in 2018, less than the total subway patronage on an average weekday. Furthermore, NYC Ferry ridership tended to decline by two-thirds between August and January of each year. In January 2020, the NYCEDC announced three minor changes to the expansion plan. The St. George ferry's Staten Island terminal would be Empire Outlets rather than St. George Terminal; the South Brooklyn route would be truncated to a new stop at Industry City; and the Coney Island ferry would go directly between Bay Ridge and Wall Street without a stop at the Brooklyn Army Terminal.
#### 2020s
With the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City in March 2020, the regular Spring 2020 schedule was cancelled and remained on the Winter 2020 schedule with reduced service during mid-days and weekends. On May 15, 2020, it was announced that service was further reduced, all ferry service ending at 9 p.m., with the discontinuation of the Lower East Side route, the addition of the Stuyvesant Cove stop to the Soundview line, and the modification of the South Brooklyn route to run from Atlantic Avenue to Wall Street, Dumbo, and to its new last stop at Corlears Hook. This service change started on May 18, 2020. The ferry to Staten Island would not be implemented until 2021, along with the Coney Island and Throggs Neck expansions. On June 27, 2020, the summer schedule was implemented, increasing frequency of all routes in response to high summer ridership, except for the Governors Island route, which remained indefinitely suspended until July 18 when a new summer schedule was created. Shortly after, de Blasio budgeted \$62 million for eight new vessels, despite citywide budget cuts caused by the pandemic. On August 22, 2020, the Astoria route was extended to 90th Street and the Rockaway route received a schedule modification. On November 2, 2020, the East River route was extended north to Hunters Point South, with the previous northern terminal, East 34th Street, becoming the second to last stop.
Throughout 2021, numerous stops experienced periodic closures due to mechanical failures, according to AM New York Metro's analysis of announcements on NYC Ferry's Twitter account. In April 2021, the Dumbo ferry landing was closed for eight to ten weeks so it could be relocated to Fulton Ferry, and the South Williamsburg landing was closed for the same amount of time for expansion. The Greenpoint landing was temporarily closed in October 2020 because the pier had been sold, and it was closed again in May 2021 due to a mechanical issue; it did not reopen until November 2022. The St. George route began operating on August 23, 2021. Further expansion of the ferry network on Staten Island was not planned at that time; in places like the East Shore and South Shore of Staten Island, any new construction would potentially require building a dock of at least 1,000 feet (300 m) due to shallow waters there. Work on the Coney Island ferry pier had begun by October 2021. The Throggs Neck ferry stop opened on December 28, 2021, with the Soundview route being extended there.
In mid-2022, the EDC announced that the Coney Island ferry route had been postponed indefinitely. One problem was that the sand in the Coney Island Creek shifted frequently, hampering efforts to construct a ferry pier there. Another issue was that the creek itself was heavily polluted, and a Superfund cleanup project was being planned for the creek. Independent news site Hell Gate subsequently reported that test boats had repeatedly run aground in Coney Island Creek and that sand had returned to the creek after it was partially dredged in 2021. Mayor Eric Adams announced in July 2022 that NYC Ferry would introduce a \$1.35 reduced-price ticket and a \$27.50 ten-trip ticket while raising its base fare to \$4. The new fare scale, to be implemented in September 2022, would increase revenue by an estimated \$2 million per year. Also in July 2022, the Rockaway Rocket route started operating during summer weekends. That September, city officials announced that further NYC Ferry expansions would be postponed until the system's finances stabilized. The city government agreed in August 2023 to pay Hornblower \$405 million to continue operating NYC Ferry for five years.
## Routes
As of 2022, there are six routes and one seasonal route that make up the NYC Ferry system. There was a phased introduction of these routes. Phase 1 covered the routes implemented in 2017 and provided new service to the Rockaways, Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, Roosevelt Island, and Astoria in addition to areas already served by the East River Ferry. Phase 2 covered the routes implemented in 2018 and provided new service to Soundview, Yorkville, Kips Bay, and the Lower East Side. In 2019, the summer weekend extension of the East River and South Brooklyn lines to Governors Island was eliminated due to complaints about the confusing routing patterns, and replaced by a new Governors Island shuttle route. The Governor's Island route is seasonal and only operates during summer weekends; it launched in 2019. A route to St. George, Staten Island, started operating in 2021, and a route to Coney Island, Brooklyn, was planned. There are two main Manhattan terminals at Wall Street and East 34th Street. The Lower East Side route was discontinued in 2020, and the Coney Island route has been postponed indefinitely due to issues trying to find a suitable location for the landing in Coney Island.
The Lower East Side route was discontinued in 2020, while the Coney Island route never began service due to community opposition regarding the placement of the Coney Island dock.
In addition to ferry service, NYC Ferry also operates 3 shuttle buses to connect passengers with ferry landings. A fourth shuttle, the West Midtown shuttle, will begin operating from the 39th Street pier in 2021.
### Astoria Ferry
Astoria ferries run in both directions with year-round service running every 25 minutes during rush hours, every 50 minutes during weekday middays and evenings, and every 1 hour and 40 minutes during weekends.
The route began stopping at the Brooklyn Navy Yard/Pier 72 in May 2019, and was extended to end at East 90th St on August 22, 2020.
### East River Ferry
East River ferries operate in both directions with year-round service, running every 20 minutes during rush hours, every 40 minutes during middays and evenings, and every 1 hour on weekends.
### Rockaway Ferry
The Rockaway Ferry route runs in both directions with year-round service. Service operates every 60 minutes during weekdays and every 1 hour and 30 minutes during weekends.
In May 2018, a special Rockaway Express service was implemented, running express between Pier 11/Wall Street and Rockaway while skipping Sunset Park. This service did not return for the summer 2019 season. In July 2022, a new variation of the express service was introduced. (See Rockaway Rocket).
### South Brooklyn Ferry
South Brooklyn ferries run in both directions with year-round service running every 30 minutes during rush hours, every 60 minutes middays and evenings, and every 1 hour and 30 minutes on weekends.
On May 19, 2020, this route was modified to replace the Lower East Side route when it was discontinued. The route north of Atlantic Av was changed, where it now serves Wall St/Pier 11 before DUMBO, and was extended to now end at Corlears Hook. In 2021, service to DUMBO, Sunset Park, and Bay Ridge was to be discontinued in conjunction with the opening of the Coney Island route. However, due to issues trying to find a suitable landing in Coney Island, the route was postponed indefinitely as well as the changes to the South Brooklyn route. It is unknown if the addition of the Industry City stop, will still occur. In March 2023, a special AM express variant was created, which runs from Bay Ridge to Wall St, making only one stop at Atlantic Avenue to speed up commutes.
### Soundview Ferry
Soundview ferries run in both directions. Service on this route runs every 30–35 minutes during rush hours, every 60 minutes during middays and evenings, and every hour and 40 minutes on weekends.
On May 19, 2020, Stuyvesant Cove (originally a part of the Lower East Side Line) was added between Wall Street and 34th Street to replace LES service at this stop. On December 28, 2021, the route was extended from Soundview to Throgs Neck.
### Governors Island Ferry
A shuttle from Pier 11/Wall Street to Governors Island runs every 30 minutes on summer weekends only.
### St. George Ferry
This route is the first NYC Ferry route to not stop at Wall St/Pier 11.
### Coney Island Ferry
Service on this route was scheduled to begin in 2021. The construction and placement on the Coney Island dock in Fraser Park was met with opposition due to concerns over environmental impact. The landing was completed in December 2022, with testing beginning that same month, but community opposition prompted NYC Ferry to stop test runs and remove the landing later that month. After weeks of unsuccessful attempts to find a new location for the landing, the route was postponed indefinitely.
### Rockaway Rocket
The Rockaway Rocket express service was introduced in 2022 and runs during summer weekends and holidays. The Rockaway Rocket is a premium-fare service costing \$8 per ticket; a seat is reserved for every ticket holder. During mornings, the Rockaway Rocket runs directly from Pier 11 to Rockaway; during afternoons and evenings, the Rockaway Rocket runs from Rockaway to Pier 11.
This is a new variation of the Rockaway Express route, which last ran in 2019. Due to intense crowding, a special express version of the Rockaway route, named the Rockaway Rocket, supplements the regular Rockaway ferry by providing direct service to the Rockaways with reserved guaranteed seating and a higher price.
### Discontinued routes
#### Lower East Side Ferry
The Lower East Side route originally ran in both directions, with service on this route running every 25 minutes during rush hours, every 60 minutes during middays and evenings, and every hour and 30 minutes during off-peak hours. This route was permanently discontinued on May 18, 2020, due to low ridership, and was replaced by the Astoria, Soundview, and South Brooklyn lines.
## Fares and amenities
The fare for a single, one-way trip is \$4.00. The fare was originally \$2.75, the same as on other modes of transportation in New York City such as the subway. A \$1 surcharge was also required to bring a bike on the ferry. 30-day passes were available for \$121, while a 30-day pass for cyclists costed \$141. Riders can transfer to other ferry routes within the system for free for ninety minutes after the passenger boards the first ferry. though this excludes the fare-free Staten Island Ferry, since it will not be integrated into NYC Ferry. In addition, the NYC Ferry system does not provide free transfer to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's greater mass transit system, nor does it accept MetroCards nor OMNY. Ferry tickets can be purchased online, through NYC Ferry's mobile app, or physically at a ticket booth or ticket machine.
Starting September 12, 2022, the fare for a one-way trip increased to \$4. The one-way fare for disabled passengers, low-income residents, and passengers over age 65 was reduced to \$1.35. In addition, a 10-trip ticket was introduced, costing \$27.50; this would effectively keep the price of a ferry fare at \$2.75 for regular commuters. The \$1 cyclist surcharge and 30-day passes were eliminated.
The 85-foot (26 m) boats can carry 150 people each, including wheelchairs, strollers, and bikes. As a further incentive, the boats have snacks and drink options, including coffee and wine, that are available to riders. There are also battery-charging stations on board the boats.
## Stops
The service will ultimately have 21 landings, of which ten brand-new, five upgraded, and six pre-existing landings with no upgrades with the addition of NYC Ferry routes. The existing East River Ferry landings at Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 1; Schaefer Landing, North Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Long Island City remained unchanged. Upgrades were made to the landings at Wall Street, East 34th Street, East 92nd Street, the Brooklyn Army Terminal, and Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 6. The remaining landings were built as part of the project. A stop on Governor's Island was implemented along one of the routes to South Brooklyn. At the present time, the Governor's Island Ferry, the only public access to the island, runs seasonally between May and September, but ferry service year-round has been proposed. It was decided to build the Rockaway dock at Beach 108th Street, but a proposed second dock could not be built further east than Beach 84th Street due to height restrictions caused by the Rockaway Line subway bridge. Construction on the first dock, the Rockaway landing, began in January 2017.
The upgraded landings, which increase capacity and passenger flow, are located on 35-by-90-foot (11 by 27 m) barges that connect to land via the use of either one or two articulated ramps. The landings conform to the Americans with Disabilities Act and contain enclosed waiting rooms with ticket booths and information boards. Mono-pile mooring facilities are installed on the side of the landings to ensure that the ferries dock safely, but some landings also include extra bulkheads or piers.
## Ferry fleet
In July 2016, Metal Shark Boats and Horizon Shipbuilding were jointly awarded construction contracts for the service's new-build ferries. The vessels, which were designed by Incat Crowther, are about 86 feet (26 m) long, with a 26-foot (7.9 m) beam, and have a passenger capacity of 149. They are powered by Baudouin diesel engines, with a service speed of 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph). By September, nineteen ferries were being built for Phase 1 of service. In January 2017, five more ferries were ordered from Horizon Shipbuilding, for a total of 24 vessels. The first new-build vessel for NYC Ferry was launched by Horizon Shipbuilding on February 13, 2017. These boats arrived in New York City on April 17 and were named at a ceremony at Brooklyn Bridge Park.
The boats use the same types of loading equipment on the port and starboard Sides and bow as do boats that already operated in the New York Harbor. There are two types of boats: an open-water "Rockaway vessel" type for the Rockaway route, and another "River vessel" type for the rest of the system. Both designs have a common length and beam, but the Rockaway service vessels have a slightly deeper draft and higher freeboard, as well as added fuel capacity and larger engines giving a slightly higher service speed. All of the vessels are powered by engines that pass Environmental Protection Agency Tier 3 vehicle emission and fuel standards guidelines. Ferry horns' volumes were Lowered in June 2017 after complaints by residents living near ferry stops.
The Brooklyn Army Terminal and Brooklyn Navy Yard were considered for the location of the vessel maintenance facility. The Navy Yard option, which the city preferred because of its proximity to the "core operating area" of the routes and would allow an extra station to be added there in the future, was eventually selected. Renovation of the site was required to remove an existing pier and replace it with a new structure capable of docking up to 25 boats. This new facility is responsible for performing regular cleaning and maintenance on the vessels. The construction work began in spring 2017 with completion in March 2019.
Originally three of the twenty 149-passenger vessels were to be reconfigured into 250-passenger boats. The plan was scrapped as the city will be ordering additional 250 or 350 passenger vessels. In September 2017, the NYCEDC ordered three new 350-passenger boats for NYC Ferry service to supplement the 20 original boats. Metal Shark will build the new boats for \$7 million to \$7.5 million each. Three more large boats were ordered in November 2017. Additional large boats (250-350 passenger) are expected to be ordered within 2019–2020. As part of the contract between the city and Hornblower, both parties have options for the city to buy the boats in the future. The first of the new 350-passenger boats was delivered in July 2018.
By early 2020, a total of 31 vessels were in active service. In April, the first two vessels powered by engines meeting EPA Tier 4 emissions standards were delivered, with five additional ferries under construction and scheduled to enter service by the end of the year. By this time, the construction program had expanded beyond Metal Shark to include other shipbuilders in both Louisiana and Florida.
Before being allowed to pilot a NYC Ferry vessel, prospective captains are tested using a ferry simulation at the State University of New York Maritime College in Throgs Neck. As of April 2017, there were plans to hire up to 50 captains by 2018. In July 2017, Hornblower started looking to hire 80 deckhands to dock boats.
### Active roster
The following vessels are owned and operated by Hornblower for NYC Ferry operation, and do not include vessels leased from other companies.
## Schedules and shuttle buses
NYC Ferry operates from 5:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. during all seven days of the week. During peak hours, ferries operate or are proposed to operate at 20-minute headways to Astoria and the Lower East Side; 30-minute headways to Bay Ridge and Soundview; and 30-60 minute headways to the Rockaways (see for more details).
NYC Ferry operates three shuttle bus routes. One was taken over preexisting NY Waterway service to the East 34th Street landing. The others are brand-new services to the Rockaway landing, which is at Beach 108th Street. One route goes west to Jacob Riis Park, while a second was originally planned for operation between the ferry landing and Beach 67th Street, but was ultimately extended eastward. The Environmental Impact Statement provided for an extension of the Beach 67th Street bus to Beach 31st Street via Rockaway Beach Boulevard and Beach Channel Drive, but de Blasio's office said that extending the bus further would cause a bus fleet shortage, resulting in passengers missing their boats. In May 2019, as part of a three-month pilot program, a nonstop shuttle bus route was created between the Rockaway landing and Far Rockaway–Mott Avenue station.
## Critical reception
### Praise
There has been both praise and criticism for the ferry service. The editorial board in the local newspaper AM New York praised the NYC Ferry system's affordability and stated that if done correctly, the ferry "could be far more enjoyable than a subway ride". It urged city officials to consider what routes to prioritize for Phase 1 service in 2017. Politicians such as City Councilman Vincent Gentile and State Senator Marty Golden also lauded the fact that the ferry would bring service to places, such as southwest Brooklyn, that are underserved by transportation.
In July 2017, after the ferry had opened, a commentator for the news website CityLab called the NYC Ferry system's "customer-oriented amenities" a "key to transit’s future." The writer noted that some of the high-quality amenities included snacks and drinks, an advanced ticketing system, connections to shuttle buses at certain terminals, and ferry workers who provided customer service—in contrast to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which she said "blames riders for its staggering decline in reliability" over the previous year. A reporter for Curbed NY wrote in September 2017 that the East River route was "worth the \$2.75 fare, especially if you’re a person who loves architecture", owing to its waterfront views of landmarks along the river.
### Criticism
The ferry system has been criticized for mainly benefiting the well-off and for serving gentrifying waterfront areas such as Williamsburg. Most of the ferry stops were placed in areas where the annual income is higher than the city average. Additional criticism arose from the fact that the ferry system was not definitively planned to serve Staten Island. One writer for the Staten Island Advance noted that the only proposed NYC Ferry route to Staten Island, the Stapleton route, was not only unfunded but also redundant to the existing Staten Island Ferry.
After NYCEDC president James Patchett touted the ferry as a substitute to the subway system, Henry Grabar of Slate's Moneybox noted that Patchett's supposition was "ludicrous" since each ferry fits fewer people than a single subway car. According to Grabar, the first half-dozen ferries in service on opening day did not even carry the same number of people in a single subway train. He said that the ferry system was not a way to improve transit access to people in transit-deserts, but as a way to spur economic development along the waterfront. Grabar wrote that subways had been the reason for early ferries' demise in the first place, and that the ferry was not an effective remedy for subway congestion. However, Grabar also stated that "the commute will be a real delight" for the few who found the ferry convenient enough.
Benjamin Kabak, a transit blogger, wrote that "the reach of the ferries is particularly narrow", out of walking distance for 94% of city residents. He also noted that the total ridership for NYC Ferry in 2017 was less than the New York City Subway's total daily ridership, and that more than three times as many people rode Citi Bike, the city's bike-share system, than took the ferry in 2017. Kabak stated that the ferry system was only a small part of the city's transit future, and that the city could easily build a light rail line with the subsidies that it was paying to fund NYC Ferry. The New York Post editorial board wrote in June 2020, "Mayor Bill de Blasio’s favorite white elephant had turned into a real drag on the city" even before the COVID-19 pandemic, with the NYCEDC recording its first negative profits in 2019.
Tom Fox, the president of New York Water Taxi from 2001 to 2011, wrote in 2016 that the plan was marred with "an unrealistic time frame, the wrong lead agency, the selection of an inexperienced operator with no ferries, and poor planning". Fox cited the selection of Hornblower Cruises, a California-based cruise operator, despite a bid from three large ferry operators in the New York metropolitan area; the decision to build new boats for the system, instead of buying existing boats from other companies; and the fact that the new boats could accommodate fewer people than the overcrowded existing East River ferries. He noted that the city bought French motorboat engines that had never been used on passenger boats in the United States; and that since all American shipyards with expertise were not able to take new orders until 2018, the city decided to use a builder with less experience. Additionally, a reporter for DNAinfo.com wrote that Hornblower Cruises had a history of poor relations with its workers' unions. Another writer for that website stated that Hornblower had hired ticket sellers who harangued passersby in order to sell tickets for separate ferries in Lower Manhattan. The aggressive ticket-selling practice was stopped following the latter story.
### Rider reception
According to an August 2017 customer satisfaction survey from the NYCEDC, passengers had a mostly positive view of the NYC Ferry system, with 93% of riders giving positive ratings. Almost 70% of the 1,300 riders surveyed gave the ferry the highest possible rating. In May 2018, The Village Voice conducted an informal demographic survey of NYC Ferry riders, since the NYCEDC had not officially released the rider-demographic data. The Voice found that most of the 60 riders it encountered were using the ferry simply because it was less crowded and more comfortable compared to the subway. Additionally, many of the surveyed riders worked in higher-income jobs.
## Other ferries
Several ferries in the New York City area were affected when plans for NYC Ferry were made public. NY Waterway would give over its East River route to NYC Ferry. New York Water Taxi remained separate, but was to eliminate 200 jobs; it had stated that if it did not win the contract with the city to operate NYC Ferry, then it would shut down. Since the company did not win the NYC Ferry contract, it had been expected to shut down in October 2016, but continued operations through the end of the year before being purchased by Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises in January 2017. The city-owned Staten Island Ferry remains a separate entity. In addition, the ferry service would add 155 jobs to the New York Harbor area.
Due to the lack of concrete plans for any NYC Ferry routes to Staten Island, there have been tentative agreements with other ferry services to provide fast-ferry service between Staten Island and Manhattan, supplementing the city-owned route there. In April 2017, Staten Island Borough President James Oddo negotiated with NY Waterway to provide service between St. George Terminal and West Midtown Ferry Terminal. In September of the same year, private developers on the South Shore of Staten Island also negotiated with SeaStreak to run a separate fast ferry route from the South Shore to Lower Manhattan. |
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