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4,572	Blackbeard	1,173,046,062	English pirate (1680–1718)	[ "1680s births", "1716 crimes", "1717 crimes", "1718 crimes", "1718 deaths", "18th-century English criminals", "18th-century pirates", "American folklore", "Blackbeard", "British military personnel of the War of the Spanish Succession", "English folklore", "English pirates", "English privateers", "History of North Carolina", "Maritime folklore", "Nicknames in crime", "Pardoned pirates", "People from Bristol", "People killed in action", "Recipients of British royal pardons" ]	Edward Teach (alternatively spelled Edward Thatch, c. 1680 – 22 November 1718), better known as Blackbeard, was an English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of Britain's North American colonies. Little is known about his early life, but he may have been a sailor on privateer ships during Queen Anne's War before he settled on the Bahamian island of New Providence, a base for Captain Benjamin Hornigold, whose crew Teach joined around 1716. Hornigold placed him in command of a sloop that he had captured, and the two engaged in numerous acts of piracy. Their numbers were boosted by the addition to their fleet of two more ships, one of which was commanded by Stede Bonnet, but Hornigold retired from piracy toward the end of 1717, taking two vessels with him. Teach captured a French slave ship known as La Concorde, renamed her Queen Anne's Revenge, equipped her with 40 guns, and crewed her with over 300 men. He became a renowned pirate. His nickname derived from his thick black beard and fearsome appearance. He was reported to have tied lit fuses (slow matches) under his hat to frighten his enemies. He formed an alliance of pirates and blockaded the port of Charles Town, South Carolina, ransoming the port's inhabitants. He then ran Queen Anne's Revenge aground on a sandbar near Beaufort, North Carolina. He parted company with Stede Bonnet and settled in Bath, North Carolina, also known as Bath Town, where he accepted a royal pardon. However, he was soon back at sea, where he attracted the attention of Alexander Spotswood, the governor of Virginia. Spotswood arranged for a party of soldiers and sailors to capture him. On 22 November 1718, following a ferocious battle, Teach and several of his crew were killed by a small force of sailors led by Lieutenant Robert Maynard. Teach was a shrewd and calculating leader who spurned the use of violence, relying instead on his fearsome image to elicit the response that he desired from those whom he robbed. He was romanticized after his death and became the inspiration for an archetypal pirate in works of fiction across many genres. ## Early life Little is known about Blackbeard's early life. It is commonly believed that at the time of his death he was between 35 and 40 years old and thus born in about 1680. In contemporary records his name is most often given as Blackbeard, Edward Thatch or Edward Teach. The latter is most often used. Several spellings of his surname exist: Thatch, Thach, Thache, Thack, Tack, Thatche, and Theach. One early source claims that his surname was Drummond, but the lack of any supporting documentation makes this unlikely. Pirates habitually used fictitious surnames while engaged in piracy so as not to tarnish the family name, which makes it unlikely that Teach's real name will ever be known. The 17th-century rise of Britain's American colonies and the rapid 18th-century expansion of the Atlantic slave trade had made Bristol an important international sea port, and Teach was most likely raised in what was then the second-largest city in England. He could almost certainly read and write. He communicated with merchants and when killed had in his possession a letter addressed to him by the Chief Justice and Secretary of the Province of Carolina, Tobias Knight. Author Robert Lee speculated that Teach may therefore have been born into a respectable, wealthy family. He may have arrived in the Caribbean in the last years of the 17th century, on a merchant vessel (possibly a slave ship). The 18th-century author Charles Johnson claimed that Teach was for some time a sailor operating from Jamaica on privateer ships during the War of the Spanish Succession, and that "he had often distinguished himself for his uncommon boldness and personal courage." It is unknown at what point during the war Teach joined the fighting, as with the record of most of his life before he became a pirate. ## Life as a pirate ### New Providence With its history of colonialism, trade and piracy, the West Indies was the setting for many 17th- and 18th-century maritime incidents. The privateer-turned-pirate Henry Jennings and his followers decided, early in the 18th century, to use the uninhabited island of New Providence as a base for their operations since it was within easy reach of the Florida Strait and its busy shipping lanes, which were filled with European vessels crossing the Atlantic. New Providence's harbour could easily accommodate hundreds of ships but was too shallow for the Royal Navy's larger vessels. The author George Woodbury described New Providence as "no city of homes. It was a place of temporary sojourn and refreshment for a literally floating population," continuing, "The only permanent residents were the piratical camp followers, the traders, and the hangers-on. All others were transient." In New Providence, pirates found a welcome respite from the law. Teach was one of those who came to enjoy the island's benefits. Probably shortly after the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht, he moved there from Jamaica, and, along with most privateers once involved in the war, became involved in piracy. Possibly about 1716, he joined the crew of Captain Benjamin Hornigold, a renowned pirate who operated from New Providence's safe waters. In 1716, Hornigold placed Teach in charge of a sloop he had taken as a prize. In early 1717, Hornigold and Teach, each captaining a sloop, set out for the mainland. They captured a boat carrying 120 barrels of flour out of Havana, and shortly thereafter took 100 barrels of wine from a sloop out of Bermuda. A few days later they stopped a vessel sailing from Madeira to Charles Town, South Carolina. Teach and his quartermaster, William Howard, may at this time have struggled to control their crews. By then they had probably developed a taste for Madeira wine, and on 29 September near Cape Charles all they took from the Betty of Virginia was her cargo of Madeira, before they scuttled her with the remaining cargo. It was during this cruise with Hornigold that the earliest known report of Teach was made, in which he is recorded as a pirate in his own right, in command of a large crew. In a report made by a Captain Mathew Munthe on an anti-piracy patrol for North Carolina, "Thatch" was described as operating "a sloop 6 gunns and about 70 men." In September, Teach and Hornigold encountered Stede Bonnet, a landowner and military officer from a wealthy family who had turned to piracy earlier that year. Bonnet's crew of about 70 were reportedly dissatisfied with his command, so with Bonnet's permission, Teach took control of his ship, Revenge. The pirates' flotilla now consisted of three ships: Teach on Revenge, Teach's old sloop, and Hornigold's Ranger. By October, another vessel had been captured and added to the small fleet. The sloops Robert of Philadelphia and Good Intent of Dublin were stopped on 22 October 1717 and their cargo holds emptied. As a former British privateer, Hornigold attacked only his old enemies, but for his crew, the sight of British vessels filled with valuable cargo passing by unharmed became too much, and at some point toward the end of 1717 he was demoted. Whether Teach had any involvement in this decision is unknown, but Hornigold quickly retired from piracy. He took Ranger and one of the sloops, leaving Teach with Revenge and the remaining sloop. The two never met again and, as did many other occupants of New Providence, Hornigold accepted the King's pardon. ### Blackbeard On 28 November 1717 Teach's two ships attacked a French merchant vessel off the coast of Saint Vincent. They each fired a broadside across its bulwarks, killing several of its crew, and forcing its captain to surrender. The ship was La Concorde, a large French Guineaman registered in Saint-Malo and carrying a cargo of slaves. This ship had originally been the English merchantman Concord, captured in 1711 by a French squadron, and then changed hands several times by 1717. Teach and his crews sailed the vessel south along Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to Bequia, where they disembarked her crew and cargo, and converted the ship for their own use. The crew of La Concorde were given the smaller of Teach's two sloops, which they renamed Mauvaise Rencontre ("Bad Meeting"), and sailed for Martinique. Teach may have recruited some of their slaves, but the remainder were left on the island and were later recaptured by the returning crew of Mauvaise Rencontre. Teach immediately renamed La Concorde as Queen Anne's Revenge and equipped her with 40 guns. By this time Teach had placed his lieutenant Richards in command of Bonnet's Revenge. In late November, near Saint Vincent, he attacked the Great Allen. After a lengthy engagement, he forced the large and well-armed merchant ship to surrender. He ordered her to move closer to the shore, disembarked her crew and emptied her cargo holds, and then burned and sank the vessel. The incident was chronicled in the Boston News-Letter, which called Teach the commander of a "French ship of 32 Guns, a Briganteen of 10 guns and a Sloop of 12 guns." It is not known when or where Teach collected the ten-gun briganteen, but by that time he may have been in command of at least 150 men split among three vessels. On 5 December 1717 Teach stopped the merchant sloop Margaret off the coast of Crab Island, near Anguilla. Her captain, Henry Bostock, and crew, remained Teach's prisoners for about eight hours, and were forced to watch as their sloop was ransacked. Bostock, who had been held aboard Queen Anne's Revenge, was returned unharmed to Margaret and was allowed to leave with his crew. He returned to his base of operations on Saint Christopher Island and reported the matter to Governor Walter Hamilton, who requested that he sign an affidavit about the encounter. Bostock's deposition details Teach's command of two vessels: a sloop and a large French guineaman, Dutch-built, with 36 cannons and a crew of 300 men. The captain believed that the larger ship carried valuable gold dust, silver plate, and "a very fine cup" supposedly taken from the commander of Great Allen. Teach's crew had apparently informed Bostock that they had destroyed several other vessels, and that they intended to sail to Hispaniola and lie in wait for an expected Spanish armada, supposedly laden with money to pay the garrisons. Bostock also claimed that Teach had questioned him about the movements of local ships, but also that he had seemed unsurprised when Bostock told him of an expected royal pardon from London for all pirates. Bostock's deposition describes Teach as a "tall spare man with a very black beard which he wore very long". It is the first recorded account of Teach's appearance and is the source of his cognomen, Blackbeard. Later descriptions mention that his thick black beard was braided into pigtails, sometimes tied in with small coloured ribbons. Johnson (1724) described him as "such a figure that imagination cannot form an idea of a fury from hell to look more frightful." Whether Johnson's description was entirely truthful or embellished is unclear, but it seems likely that Teach understood the value of appearances; better to strike fear into the heart of one's enemies, than rely on bluster alone. Teach was tall, with broad shoulders. He wore knee-length boots and dark clothing, topped with a wide hat and sometimes a long coat of brightly coloured silk or velvet. Johnson also described Teach in times of battle as wearing "a sling over his shoulders, with three brace of pistols, hanging in holsters like bandoliers; and stuck lighted slow matches under his hat", the latter apparently to emphasise the fearsome appearance he wished to present to his enemies. Despite his ferocious reputation, there are no verified accounts of his ever having murdered or harmed those he held captive. Teach may have used other aliases; on 30 November, the Monserrat Merchant encountered two ships and a sloop, commanded by a Captain Kentish and Captain Edwards (the latter a known alias of Stede Bonnet). ### Enlargement of Teach's fleet Teach's movements between late 1717 and early 1718 are not known. He and Bonnet were probably responsible for an attack off Sint Eustatius in December 1717. Henry Bostock claimed to have heard the pirates say they would head toward the Spanish-controlled Samaná Bay in Hispaniola, but a cursory search revealed no pirate activity. Captain Hume of HMS Scarborough reported on 6 February that a "Pyrate Ship of 36 Guns and 250 men, and a Sloop of 10 Guns and 100 men were Said to be Cruizing amongst the Leeward Islands". Hume reinforced his crew with soldiers armed with muskets, and joined up with HMS Seaford to track the two ships, to no avail, though they discovered that the two ships had sunk a French vessel off St Christopher Island, and reported also that they had last been seen "gone down the North side of Hispaniola". Although no confirmation exists that these two ships were controlled by Teach and Bonnet, author Angus Konstam believes it very likely they were. In March 1718, while taking on water at Turneffe Island east of Belize, both ships spotted the Jamaican logwood-cutting sloop Adventure making for the harbour. She was stopped and her captain, Harriot, invited to join the pirates. Harriot and his crew accepted the invitation, and Teach sent over a crew to sail Adventure making Israel Hands the captain. They sailed for the Bay of Honduras, where they added another ship and four sloops to their flotilla. On 9 April Teach's enlarged fleet of ships looted and burnt Protestant Caesar. His fleet then sailed to Grand Cayman where they captured a "small turtler". Teach probably sailed toward Havana, where he may have captured a small Spanish vessel that had left the Cuban port. They then sailed to the wrecks of the 1715 Spanish fleet, off the eastern coast of Florida. There Teach disembarked the crew of the captured Spanish sloop, before proceeding north to the port of Charles Town, South Carolina, attacking three vessels along the way. ### Blockade of Charles Town By May 1718, Teach had awarded himself the rank of Commodore and was at the height of his power. Late that month his flotilla blockaded the port of Charles Town in the Province of South Carolina. All vessels entering or leaving the port were stopped, and as the town had no guard ship, its pilot boat was the first to be captured. Over the next five or six days about nine vessels were stopped and ransacked as they attempted to sail past Charles Town Bar, where Teach's fleet was anchored. One such ship, headed for London with a group of prominent Charles Town citizens which included Samuel Wragg (a member of the Council of the Province of Carolina), was the Crowley. Her passengers were questioned about the vessels still in port and then locked below decks for about half a day. Teach informed the prisoners that his fleet required medical supplies from the colonial government of South Carolina, and that if none were forthcoming, all prisoners would be executed, their heads sent to the Governor and all captured ships burnt. Wragg agreed to Teach's demands, and a Mr. Marks and two pirates were given two days to collect the drugs. Teach moved his fleet, and the captured ships, to within about five or six leagues from land. Three days later a messenger, sent by Marks, returned to the fleet; Marks's boat had capsized and delayed their arrival in Charles Town. Teach granted a reprieve of two days, but still the party did not return. He then called a meeting of his fellow sailors and moved eight ships into the harbour, causing panic within the town. When Marks finally returned to the fleet, he explained what had happened. On his arrival he had presented the pirates' demands to the Governor and the drugs had been quickly gathered, but the two pirates sent to escort him had proved difficult to find; they had been busy drinking with friends and were finally discovered, drunk. Teach kept to his side of the bargain and released the captured ships and his prisoners—albeit relieved of their valuables, including the fine clothing some had worn. ### Beaufort Inlet Whilst at Charles Town, Teach learned that Woodes Rogers had left England with several men-of-war, with orders to purge the West Indies of pirates. Teach's flotilla sailed northward along the Atlantic coast and into Topsail Inlet (commonly known as Beaufort Inlet), off the coast of North Carolina. There they intended to careen their ships to scrape their hulls, but on 10 June 1718 the Queen Anne's Revenge ran aground on a sandbar, cracking her main-mast and severely damaging many of her timbers. Teach ordered several sloops to throw ropes across the flagship in an attempt to free her. A sloop commanded by Israel Hands of Adventure also ran aground, and both vessels appeared to be damaged beyond repair, leaving only Revenge and the captured Spanish sloop. ### Pardon Teach had at some stage learnt of the offer of a royal pardon and probably confided in Bonnet his willingness to accept it. The pardon was open to all pirates who surrendered on or before 5 September 1718, but contained a caveat stipulating that immunity was offered only against crimes committed before 5 January. Although in theory this left Bonnet and Teach at risk of being hanged for their actions at Charles Town Bar, most authorities could waive such conditions. Teach thought that Governor Charles Eden was a man he could trust, but to make sure, he waited to see what would happen to another captain. Bonnet left immediately on a small sailing boat for Bath Town, where he surrendered to Governor Eden, and received his pardon. He then travelled back to Beaufort Inlet to collect the Revenge and the remainder of his crew, intending to sail to Saint Thomas Island to receive a commission. Unfortunately for him, Teach had stripped the vessel of its valuables and provisions, and had marooned its crew; Bonnet set out for revenge, but was unable to find him. He and his crew returned to piracy and were captured on 27 September 1718 at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. All but four were tried and hanged in Charles Town. The author Robert Lee surmised that Teach and Hands intentionally ran the ships aground to reduce the fleet's crew complement, increasing their share of the spoils. During the trial of Bonnet's crew, Revenge's boatswain Ignatius Pell testified that "the ship was run ashore and lost, which Thatch [Teach] caused to be done." Lee considers it plausible that Teach let Bonnet in on his plan to accept a pardon from Governor Eden. He suggested that Bonnet do the same, and as war between the Quadruple Alliance of 1718 and Spain was threatening, to consider taking a privateer's commission from England. Lee suggests that Teach also offered Bonnet the return of his ship Revenge. Konstam (2007) proposes a similar idea, explaining that Teach began to see Queen Anne's Revenge as something of a liability; while a pirate fleet was anchored, news of this was sent to neighbouring towns and colonies, and any vessels nearby would delay sailing. It was prudent therefore for Teach not to linger for too long, although wrecking the ship was a somewhat extreme measure. Before sailing northward on his remaining sloop to Ocracoke Inlet, Teach marooned about 25 men on a small sandy island about a league from the mainland. He may have done this to stifle any protest they made, if they guessed their captain's plans. Bonnet rescued them two days later. Teach continued on to Bath, where in June 1718—only days after Bonnet had departed with his pardon—he and his much-reduced crew received their pardon from Governor Eden. He settled in Bath, on the eastern side of Bath Creek at Plum Point, near Eden's home. During July and August he travelled between his base in the town and his sloop off Ocracoke. Johnson's account states that he married the daughter of a local plantation owner, although there is no supporting evidence for this. Eden gave Teach permission to sail to St Thomas to seek a commission as a privateer (a useful way of removing bored and troublesome pirates from the small settlement), and Teach was given official title to his remaining sloop, which he renamed Adventure. By the end of August he had returned to piracy, and in the same month the governor of Pennsylvania issued a warrant for his arrest, but by then Teach was probably operating in Delaware Bay, some distance away. He took two French ships leaving the Caribbean, moved one crew across to the other, and sailed the remaining ship back to Ocracoke. In September he told Eden that he had found the French ship at sea, deserted. A Vice Admiralty Court was quickly convened, presided over by Tobias Knight and the Collector of Customs. The ship was judged as a derelict found at sea, and of its cargo twenty hogsheads of sugar were awarded to Knight and sixty to Eden; Teach and his crew were given what remained in the vessel's hold. Ocracoke Inlet was Teach's favourite anchorage. It was a perfect vantage point from which to view ships travelling between the various settlements of northeast Carolina, and it was from there that Teach first spotted the approaching ship of Charles Vane, another English pirate. Several months earlier Vane had rejected the pardon brought by Woodes Rogers and escaped the men-of-war the English captain brought with him to Nassau. He had also been pursued by Teach's old commander, Benjamin Hornigold, who was by then a pirate hunter. Teach and Vane spent several nights on the southern tip of Ocracoke Island, accompanied by such notorious figures as Israel Hands, Robert Deal and Calico Jack. ### Alexander Spotswood As it spread throughout the neighbouring colonies, the news of Teach and Vane's impromptu party worried the governor of Pennsylvania enough to send out two sloops to capture the pirates. They were unsuccessful, but Governor of Virginia Alexander Spotswood was also concerned that the supposedly retired freebooter and his crew were living in nearby North Carolina. Some of Teach's former crew had already moved into several Virginian seaport towns, prompting Spotswood to issue a proclamation on 10 July, requiring all former pirates to make themselves known to the authorities, to give up their arms and to not travel in groups larger than three. As head of a Crown colony, Spotswood viewed the proprietary colony of North Carolina with contempt; he had little faith in the ability of the Carolinians to control the pirates, who he suspected would be back to their old ways, disrupting Virginian commerce, as soon as their money ran out. Spotswood learned that William Howard, the former quartermaster of Queen Anne's Revenge, was in the area, and believing that he might know of Teach's whereabouts had him and his two slaves arrested. Spotswood had no legal authority to have pirates tried, and as a result, Howard's attorney, John Holloway, brought charges against Captain Brand of HMS Lyme, where Howard was imprisoned. He also sued on Howard's behalf for damages of £500, claiming wrongful arrest. Spotswood's council claimed that under a statute of William III the governor was entitled to try pirates without a jury in times of crisis and that Teach's presence was a crisis. The charges against Howard referred to several acts of piracy supposedly committed after the pardon's cut-off date, in "a sloop belonging to ye subjects of the King of Spain", but ignored the fact that they took place outside Spotswood's jurisdiction and in a vessel then legally owned. Another charge cited two attacks, one of which was the capture of a slave ship off Charles Town Bar, from which one of Howard's slaves was presumed to have come. Howard was sent to await trial before a Court of Vice-Admiralty, on the charge of piracy, but Brand and his colleague, Captain Gordon (of HMS Pearl) refused to serve with Holloway present. Incensed, Holloway had no option but to stand down, and was replaced by the Attorney General of Virginia, John Clayton, whom Spotswood described as "an honester man [than Holloway]". Howard was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged, but was saved by a commission from London, which directed Spotswood to pardon all acts of piracy committed by surrendering pirates before 18 August 1718. Spotswood had obtained from Howard valuable information on Teach's whereabouts, and he planned to send his forces across the border into North Carolina to capture him. He gained the support of two men keen to discredit North Carolina's governor—Edward Moseley and Colonel Maurice Moore. He also wrote to the Lords of Trade, suggesting that the Crown might benefit financially from Teach's capture. Spotswood personally financed the operation, possibly believing that Teach had fabulous treasures hidden away. He ordered Captains Gordon and Brand of HMS Pearl and HMS Lyme to travel overland to Bath. Lieutenant Robert Maynard of HMS Pearl was given command of two commandeered sloops, to approach the town from the sea. An extra incentive for Teach's capture was the offer of a reward from the Assembly of Virginia, over and above any that might be received from the Crown. Maynard took command of the two armed sloops on 17 November. He was given 57 men—33 from HMS Pearl and 24 from HMS Lyme. Maynard and the detachment from HMS Pearl took the larger of the two vessels and named her Jane; the rest took Ranger, commanded by one of Maynard's officers, a Mister Hyde. Some from the two ships' civilian crews remained aboard. They sailed from Kecoughtan, along the James River, on 17 November. The two sloops moved slowly, giving Brand's force time to reach Bath. Brand set out for North Carolina six days later, arriving within three miles of Bath on 23 November. Included in Brand's force were several North Carolinians, including Colonel Moore and Captain Jeremiah Vail, sent to counter any local objection to the presence of foreign soldiers. Moore went into the town to see if Teach was there, reporting back that he was not, but that he was expected at "every minute." Brand then went to Governor Eden's home and informed him of his purpose. The next day, Brand sent two canoes down Pamlico River to Ocracoke Inlet, to see if Teach could be seen. They returned two days later and reported on what eventually transpired. ### Last battle Maynard found the pirates anchored on the inner side of Ocracoke Island, on the evening of 21 November. He had ascertained their position from ships he had stopped along his journey, but being unfamiliar with the local channels and shoals he decided to wait until the following morning to make his attack. He stopped all traffic from entering the inlet—preventing any warning of his presence—and posted a lookout on both sloops to ensure that Teach could not escape to sea. On the other side of the island, Teach was busy entertaining guests and had not set a lookout. With Israel Hands ashore in Bath with about 24 of Adventure's sailors, he also had a much-reduced crew. Johnson (1724) reported Teach had "no more than twenty-five men on board" and that he "gave out to all the vessels that he spoke with that he had forty". "Thirteen white and six Negroes", was the number later reported by Brand to the Admiralty. At daybreak, preceded by a small boat taking soundings, Maynard's two sloops entered the channel. The small craft was quickly spotted by Adventure and fired at as soon as it was within range of her guns. While the boat made a quick retreat to the Jane, Teach cut the Adventure's anchor cable. His crew hoisted the sails and the Adventure manoeuvred to point her starboard guns toward Maynard's sloops, which were slowly closing the gap. Hyde moved Ranger to the port side of Jane and the Union flag was unfurled on each ship. Adventure then turned toward the beach of Ocracoke Island, heading for a narrow channel. What happened next is uncertain. Johnson claimed that there was an exchange of small arms fire following which Adventure ran aground on a sandbar, and Maynard anchored and then lightened his ship to pass over the obstacle. Another version claimed that Jane and Ranger ran aground, although Maynard made no mention of this in his log. The Adventure eventually turned her guns on the two ships and fired. The broadside was devastating; in an instant, Maynard had lost as much as a third of his forces. About 20 on Jane were either wounded or killed and 9 on Ranger. Hyde was dead and his second and third officers either dead or seriously injured. His sloop was so badly damaged that it played no further role in the attack. Contemporary accounts of what happened next are confused, but small-arms fire from Jane may have cut Adventure's jib sheet, causing her to lose control and run onto the sandbar. In the aftermath of Teach's overwhelming attack, Jane and Ranger may also have been grounded; the battle would have become a race to see who could float their ship first. Maynard had kept many of his men below deck, and in anticipation of being boarded told them to prepare for close fighting. Teach watched as the gap between the vessels closed, and ordered his men to be ready. The two vessels contacted one another as the Adventure's grappling hooks hit their target and several grenades, made from powder and shot-filled bottles and ignited by fuses, broke across the sloop's deck. As the smoke cleared, Teach led his men aboard, buoyant at the sight of Maynard's apparently empty ship, his men firing at the small group of men with Maynard at the stern. The rest of Maynard's men then burst from the hold, shouting and firing. The plan to surprise Teach and his crew worked; the pirates were apparently taken aback at the assault. Teach rallied his men and the two groups fought across the deck, which was already slick with blood from those killed or injured by Teach's broadside. Maynard and Teach fired their flintlocks at each other. Maynard managed to hit Teach, while Teach missed. Both then threw their flintlocks away and drew their cutlasses. Teach broke Maynard's cutlass at the hilt. Against superior training and a slight advantage in numbers, the pirates were pushed back toward the bow, allowing the Jane's crew to surround Maynard and Teach, who was by then completely isolated. Teach pressed onward and was about to deliver a killing blow, but was slashed across the neck by one of Maynard's men. This redirected Teach's cutlass to strike Maynard's knuckles instead of killing him. Badly wounded, Teach was then attacked and killed by several more of Maynard's crew. The remaining pirates quickly surrendered. Those left on the Adventure were captured by the Ranger's crew, including one who planned to set fire to the powder room and blow up the ship. Varying accounts exist of the battle's list of casualties; Maynard reported that 8 of his men and 12 pirates were killed. Brand reported that 10 pirates and 11 of Maynard's men were killed. Spotswood claimed ten pirates and ten of the King's men dead. Maynard later examined Teach's body, noting that it had been shot five times and cut about twenty. He also found several items of correspondence, including a letter from Tobias Knight. Teach's corpse was thrown into the inlet and his head was suspended from the bowsprit of Maynard's sloop so that the reward could be collected. On their return to Virginia, Teach's head was placed on a pole at the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay as a warning to other pirates and a greeting to other ships, and it stood there for several years. ## Legacy Lieutenant Maynard remained at Ocracoke for several more days, making repairs and burying the dead. Teach's loot—sugar, cocoa, indigo and cotton—found "in pirate sloops and ashore in a tent where the sloops lay", was sold at auction along with sugar and cotton found in Tobias Knight's barn, for £2,238. Governor Spotswood used a portion of this to pay for the entire operation. The prize money for capturing Teach was to have been about £400 (£ in 2023), but it was split between the crews of HMS Lyme and HMS Pearl. As Captain Brand and his troops had not been the ones fighting for their lives, Maynard thought this extremely unfair. He lost much of any support he may have had though when it was discovered that he and his crew had helped themselves to about £90 of Teach's booty. The two companies did not receive their prize money for another four years, and despite his bravery Maynard was not promoted, and faded into obscurity. The remainder of Teach's crew and former associates were found by Brand, in Bath, and were transported to Williamsburg, Virginia, where they were jailed on charges of piracy. Several were black, prompting Spotswood to ask his council what could be done about "the Circumstances of these Negroes to exempt them from undergoing the same Tryal as other pirates." Regardless, the men were tried with their comrades in Williamsburg's Capitol building, under admiralty law, on 12 March 1719. No records of the day's proceedings remain, but 14 of the 16 accused were found guilty. Of the remaining two, one proved that he had partaken of the fight out of necessity, having been on Teach's ship only as a guest at a drinking party the night before, and not as a pirate. The other, Israel Hands, was not present at the fight. He claimed that during a drinking session Teach had shot him in the knee, and that he was still covered by the royal pardon. The remaining pirates were hanged, then left to rot in gibbets along Williamsburg's Capitol Landing Road (known for some time after as "Gallows Road"). Governor Eden was certainly embarrassed by Spotswood's invasion of North Carolina, and Spotswood disavowed himself of any part of the seizure. He defended his actions, writing to Lord Carteret, a shareholder of the Province of Carolina, that he might benefit from the sale of the seized property and reminding the Earl of the number of Virginians who had died to protect his interests. He argued for the secrecy of the operation by suggesting that Eden "could contribute nothing to the Success of the Design", and told Eden that his authority to capture the pirates came from the king. Eden was heavily criticised for his involvement with Teach and was accused of being his accomplice. By criticising Eden, Spotswood intended to bolster the legitimacy of his invasion. Lee (1974) concludes that although Spotswood may have thought that the ends justified the means, he had no legal authority to invade North Carolina, to capture the pirates and to seize and auction their goods. Eden doubtless shared the same view. As Spotswood had also accused Tobias Knight of being in league with Teach, on 4 April 1719, Eden had Knight brought in for questioning. Israel Hands had, weeks earlier, testified that Knight had been on board the Adventure in August 1718, shortly after Teach had brought a French ship to North Carolina as a prize. Four pirates had testified that with Teach they had visited Knight's home to give him presents. This testimony and the letter found on Teach's body by Maynard appeared compelling, but Knight conducted his defence with competence. Despite being very sick and close to death, he questioned the reliability of Spotswood's witnesses. He claimed that Israel Hands had talked under duress, and that under North Carolinian law the other witness, an African, was unable to testify. The sugar, he argued, was stored at his house legally, and Teach had visited him only on business, in his official capacity. The board found Knight innocent of all charges. He died later that year. Eden was annoyed that the accusations against Knight arose during a trial in which he played no part. The goods which Brand seized were officially North Carolinian property and Eden considered him a thief. The argument raged back and forth between the colonies until Eden's death on 17 March 1722. His will named one of Spotswood's opponents, John Holloway, a beneficiary. In the same year, Spotswood, who for years had fought his enemies in the House of Burgesses and the Council, was replaced by Hugh Drysdale, once Robert Walpole was convinced to act. ## Modern view Official views on pirates were sometimes quite different from those held by contemporary authors, who often described their subjects as despicable rogues of the sea. Privateers who became pirates were generally considered by the English government to be reserve naval forces, and were sometimes given active encouragement; as far back as 1581 Francis Drake was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, when he returned to England from a round-the-world expedition with plunder worth an estimated £1,500,000. Royal pardons were regularly issued, usually when England was on the verge of war, and the public's opinion of pirates was often favourable, some considering them akin to patrons. Economist Peter Leeson believes that pirates were generally shrewd businessmen, far removed from the modern, romanticised view of them as barbarians. After Woodes Rogers' 1718 landing at New Providence and his ending of the pirate republic, piracy in the West Indies fell into terminal decline. With no easily accessible outlet to fence their stolen goods, pirates were reduced to a subsistence livelihood, and following almost a century of naval warfare between the British, French and Spanish—during which sailors could find easy employment—lone privateers found themselves outnumbered by the powerful ships employed by the British Empire to defend its merchant fleets. The popularity of the slave trade helped bring to an end the frontier condition of the West Indies, and in these circumstances, piracy was no longer able to flourish as it once did. Since the end of the Golden Age of Piracy, Teach and his exploits have become the stuff of lore, inspiring books, films and even amusement park rides. Much of what is known about him can be sourced to Charles Johnson's A General Historie of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates, published in Britain in 1724. A recognised authority on the pirates of his time, Johnson's descriptions of such figures as Anne Bonny and Mary Read were for years required reading for those interested in the subject. Readers were titillated by his stories and a second edition was quickly published, though author Angus Konstam suspects that Johnson's entry on Blackbeard was "coloured a little to make a more sensational story." A General Historie, though, is generally considered to be a reliable source. Johnson may have been an assumed alias. As Johnson's accounts have been corroborated in personal and official dispatches, Lee (1974) considers that whoever he was, he had some access to official correspondence. Konstam speculates further, suggesting that Johnson may have been the English playwright Charles Johnson, the British publisher Charles Rivington, or the writer Daniel Defoe. In his 1951 work The Great Days of Piracy, author George Woodbury wrote that Johnson is "obviously a pseudonym", continuing "one cannot help suspecting that he may have been a pirate himself." Despite his infamy, Teach was not the most successful of pirates. Henry Every retired a rich man, and Bartholomew Roberts took an estimated five times the amount Teach stole. Treasure hunters have long busied themselves searching for any trace of his rumoured hoard of gold and silver, but nothing found in the numerous sites explored along the east coast of the US has ever been connected to him. Some tales suggest that pirates often killed a prisoner on the spot where they buried their loot, and Teach is no exception in these stories, but that no finds have come to light is not exceptional; buried pirate treasure is often considered a modern myth for which almost no supporting evidence exists. The available records include nothing to suggest that the burial of treasure was a common practice, except in the imaginations of the writers of fictional accounts such as Treasure Island. Such hoards would necessitate a wealthy owner, and their supposed existence ignores the command structure of a pirate vessel, in which the crew served for a share of the profit. The only pirate ever known to bury treasure was William Kidd; the only treasure so far recovered from Teach's exploits is that taken from the wreckage of what is presumed to be the Queen Anne's Revenge, which was found in 1996. As of 2009 more than 250,000 artefacts had been recovered. A selection is on public display at the North Carolina Maritime Museum. Various superstitious tales exist of Teach's ghost. Unexplained lights at sea are often referred to as "Teach's light", and some recitals claim that the notorious pirate now roams the afterlife searching for his head, for fear that his friends, and the Devil, will not recognise him. A North Carolinian tale holds that Teach's skull was used as the basis for a silver drinking chalice; a local judge even claimed to have drunk from it one night in the 1930s. The name of Blackbeard has been attached to many local attractions, such as Charleston's Blackbeard's Cove. His name and persona have also featured heavily in literature. He is the main subject of Matilda Douglas's fictional 1835 work Blackbeard: A page from the colonial history of Philadelphia. Film renditions of his life include Blackbeard the Pirate (1952) starring West Country native Robert Newton whose exaggerated West Country accent is credited with popularising the stereotypical "pirate voice", Blackbeard's Ghost (1968), Blackbeard: Terror at Sea (2005) and the 2006 Hallmark Channel miniseries Blackbeard. Parallels have also been drawn between Johnson's Blackbeard and the character of Captain Jack Sparrow in the 2003 adventure film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Blackbeard is also portrayed as a central character in three TV series: by John Malkovich in Crossbones (2014), by Ray Stevenson in seasons three and four of Black Sails (2016–2017), and by Taika Waititi in Our Flag Means Death (2022). In 2013 and 2015, the state government of North Carolina uploaded Nautilus Productions videos of the wreck of the Queen Anne's Revenge to its website without permission. As a result Nautilus Productions, the company documenting the recovery since 1998, filed suit in federal court over copyright violations and the passage of "Blackbeard's Law" by the North Carolina General Assembly. Before posting the videos the General Assembly passed "Blackbeard's Law", N.C. Gen Stat §121-25(b), which stated, "All photographs, video recordings, or other documentary materials of a derelict vessel or shipwreck or its contents, relics, artifacts, or historic materials in the custody of any agency of North Carolina government or its subdivisions shall be a public record pursuant to Chapter 132 of the General Statutes." On 5 November 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Allen v. Cooper. The Supreme Court subsequently ruled in the state's favor, and struck down the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act, which Congress passed in 1989 to attempt to curb such infringements of copyright by states. As a result of the ruling Nautilus filed a motion for reconsideration in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. On August 18, 2021 Judge Terrence Boyle granted the motion for reconsideration which North Carolina promptly appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The 4th Circuit denied the state's motion on October 14, 2022. Nautilus then filed their second amended complaint on February 8, 2023 alleging 5th and 14th Amendment violations of Nautilus' constitutional rights, additional copyright violations, and claiming that North Carolina's "Blackbeard's Law" represents a Bill of Attainder. Eight years after the passage of Blackbeard's Law, on June 30, 2023, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper signed a bill repealing the law.
3,381,361	Jay Pritzker Pavilion	1,168,145,684	Bandshell in Millennium Park in Chicago, Illinois, United States	[ "2004 establishments in Illinois", "Bandstands in the United States", "Buildings and structures celebrating the third millennium", "Buildings and structures completed in 2004", "Event venues established in 2004", "Frank Gehry buildings", "Millennium Park", "Modernist architecture in Illinois", "Music venues in Chicago", "Postmodern architecture in the United States", "Pritzker family" ]	Jay Pritzker Pavilion, also known as Pritzker Pavilion or Pritzker Music Pavilion, is a bandshell in Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is located on the south side of Randolph Street and east of the Chicago Landmark Historic Michigan Boulevard District. The pavilion was named after Jay Pritzker, whose family is known for owning Hyatt Hotels. The building was designed by architect Frank Gehry, who accepted the design commission in April 1999; the pavilion was constructed between June 1999 and July 2004, opening officially on July 16, 2004. Pritzker Pavilion serves as the centerpiece for Millennium Park and is the home of the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the Grant Park Music Festival, the nation's only remaining free outdoor classical music series. It also hosts a wide range of music series and annual performing arts events. Performers ranging from mainstream rock bands to classical musicians and opera singers have appeared at the pavilion, which even hosts physical fitness activities such as yoga. All rehearsals at the pavilion are open to the public; trained guides are available for the music festival rehearsals, which are well-attended. Millennium Park is part of the larger Grant Park. The pavilion, which has a capacity of 11,000, is Grant Park's small event outdoor performing arts venue, and complements Petrillo Music Shell, the park's older and larger bandshell. Pritzker Pavilion is built partially atop the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, the park's indoor performing arts venue, with which it shares a loading dock and backstage facilities. Initially the pavilion's lawn seats were free for all concerts, but this changed when Tori Amos performed the first rock concert there on August 31, 2005. The construction of the pavilion created a legal controversy, given that there are historic limitations on the height of buildings in Grant Park. To avoid these legal restrictions, the city classifies the bandshell as a work of art rather than a building. With several design and assembly problems, the construction plans were revised over time, with features eliminated and others added as successful fundraising allowed the budget to grow. In the end, the performance venue was designed with a large fixed seating area, a Great Lawn, a trellis network to support the sound system and a signature Gehry stainless steel headdress. It features a sound system with an acoustic design that replicates an indoor concert hall sound experience. The pavilion and Millennium Park have received recognition by critics, particularly for their accessibility; an accessibility award ceremony held at the pavilion in 2005 described it as "one of the most accessible parks – not just in the United States but possibly the world". ## Design and development The Jay Pritzker Pavilion is a home for the Grant Park Music Festival, which began in 1935 in the original Petrillo Music Shell. Lying between Lake Michigan to the east and the Loop to the west, Grant Park has been Chicago's front yard since the mid-19th century. Its northwest corner, north of Monroe Street and the Art Institute, east of Michigan Avenue, south of Randolph Street, and west of Columbus Drive, had been Illinois Central rail yards and parking lots until 1997, when it was made available for development by the city as Millennium Park. In 2007, Millennium Park trailed only Navy Pier as a Chicago tourist attraction. When the city first determined that a new pavilion should be built, the commission was supposed to go to Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. The original pavilion design was much more modest than the structure that was eventually built, with a smaller shell structure and speakers affixed to poles interspersed throughout the seating area. However, two factors led to the cancellation of the original plans. First, the project's scope changed as a result of additional funds raised by John H. Bryan, former CEO of the Sara Lee Corporation. The second factor was the intervention of the Pritzker family as potential donors. Unimpressed with the pavilion's original design, Cindy Pritzker "mandated that Frank Gehry be involved in its re-design". Jay Pritzker, a prominent Chicago businessman, had died in January 1999; his family own several businesses, including Hyatt Hotels. Jay and Cindy Pritzker had founded the Pritzker Prize in architecture in 1979, and the Pritzker family's Hyatt Foundation continues to award it annually. Architect Frank Gehry had received the Pritzker Prize in 1989. In February 1999, the city announced it was negotiating with Gehry to design a proscenium arch and orchestra enclosure for a bandshell in the new park, as well as a pedestrian bridge over Columbus Drive (which became BP Pedestrian Bridge). The city sought donors to cover Gehry's work, and the Chicago Tribune dubbed him "the hottest architect in the universe" for his acclaimed Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. The Tribune noted Gehry's designs would not include such Mayor Richard M. Daley trademarks as wrought iron and seasonal flower boxes. Millennium Park project manager Edward Uhlir said "Frank [Gehry] is just the cutting edge of the next century of architecture," and noted that no other architect was being sought. Skidmore, Owings and Merrill architect Adrian Smith approached Gehry several times on behalf of the city, which originally asked him about doing just a facade, but Gehry was uninterested. A few months later the city asked him to get involved in Millennium Park; Gehry felt he would prefer to design a building, but that he could not complete it in time for the Millennium, and that he would need a much larger budget than the city had envisioned. The city wanted Gehry, the donors supported him, and he was interested in the project. The key component in the modern themes strategy was Gehry's acceptance of the commission in April 1999. That month, the city announced that the Pritzker family had donated \$15 million to fund Gehry's bandshell and an additional nine donors committed a total of \$10 million. The day of this announcement, after it became clear that Cindy Pritzker would fund the project, Gehry agreed to the design request. In November, when his designs for both the pavilion and bridge were unveiled, Gehry already had the basic design for the bandshell, but said the bridge's design was very preliminary and not well-conceived because funding for it was not committed. The BP Pedestrian Bridge is designed to serve as a buffer against street noise, helping the pavilion's acoustics. According to the Guggenheim Museum, the Jay Pritzker Pavilion "suggests musical qualities", much like Gehry's Experience Music Project in Seattle, Washington. The Pritzker Pavilion follows a series of open-air projects by Gehry, such as the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, the Concord Performing Arts Center in Concord, California, and numerous renovations to the Hollywood Bowl in Hollywood, California. ## Construction Jay Pritzker Pavilion cost \$60 million, a quarter of which came from the Pritzker family donation. It includes 4,000 fixed seats and a 95,000 sq ft (8,800 m<sup>2</sup>) Great Lawn that can accommodate an additional 7,000 people. The pavilion was built above and behind the Harris Theater, which has the benefit that Millennium Park's indoor and outdoor performance venues share a loading dock, rehearsal rooms and other backstage facilities. The bandshell's brushed stainless steel headdress frames the 120 ft (37 m) proscenium theatre; the main stage can accommodate a full orchestra and chorus of 150 members. The bandshell is connected to a trellis of interlocking crisscrossing steel pipes that support the innovative sound system, which mimics indoor concert hall acoustics. The pavilion has restrooms on both its east and west sides. It is one of two features in the park to include accessible restrooms; the other is McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink. The majority of the park's 123 toilet fixtures (78 for women, 45 for men) are located in underground arcades to the east and west of the pavilion, with the ones on the east being heated for winter use. Millennium Park is built on top of a large underground parking garage. Construction started before the park's design was completed, and in January 2000, 17 additional caissons had to be added to the partially built garage to support the weight of Gehry's pavilion. In April the tops of all these caissons had to be rebuilt for changes in the pavilion's foundation. U.S. Equities Realty was responsible for negotiating contracts with Gehry and all contractors. Walsh Construction and its subcontractors were hired to execute three elements of Gehry's design: the structural steel supporting the stainless steel ribbons, the ribbons themselves and the trellis and associated sound system. The LeJeune Steel Company of Minneapolis was the subcontractor for the structural steel. The pavilion's concrete walls frame the orchestra shell space, which is 100 ft (30 m) wide, 50 ft (15 m) tall and has no support columns. The pavilion's roof rests on a dozen north–south trusses supported by east–west truss girders. The south side of the orchestra shell space is enclosed by the glass doors of the proscenium, which are about 50 ft (15 m) tall, 100 ft (30 m) wide and function like aircraft hangar doors made of glass. They were the largest doors that Glass Solutions of Elmhurst, Illinois, ever produced; the thickness of the glass was a design problem for the steel supports. Zahner of Kansas City, Missouri, was the subcontractor for the pavilion's ribbons, described as "stainless steel panels that appear to be peeling back from the central opening". The proscenium's metal ribbons are composed of 697 panels that range from 6 to 300 sq ft (0.56–27.87 m<sup>2</sup>) and 1,600 to 20,000 lb (730–9,070 kg) with a thickness of about 14 in (36 cm). They are made from aluminum with a stainless steel outer layer that has a uniform shade across all panels. The structural steel for the ribbons had an abnormally low fit tolerance of 0.125 in (3.2 mm), rather than the standard 1 to 2 in (25 to 51 mm). The proscenium was inspired by Gehry's 2001 flagship store for Issey Miyake in New York City, which has sculptured titanium that represents pleating. During construction, about five cranes and 18 aerial lifts were on site. The apex of the center element is approximately 150 ft (46 m) high, which was near the limits of basic construction equipment at the time. Acme Structural of Springfield, Missouri, was the subcontractor for the trellis over the Great Lawn, which resulted from the distributed sound system's requirement for speakers every 70 ft (21 m). One way to achieve this would have involved placing the speakers on pipes or columns, but the resulting forest of columns seemed discordant with the architecture. Gehry preferred the trellis although it cost about \$3 million more than speakers arranged on posts would have. The trellis uses 22 criss-crossing arches in a lattice pattern, and is noted for its parabolic grid. The arches use pipes varying in diameter from 12–20 in (30–51 cm) depending upon the load requirements. Arches longer than 300 ft (91 m) have four or five different radii, where radius describes the extent of pipe curvature. The arch pipes connect to the structural steel of the pavilion structure without linking to the metal ribbons. The trellis is 600 by 300 ft (183 by 91 m). The pavilion's construction was aided by the French CATIA software program and internet conferencing. Early plans to incorporate a surrounding waterfall and stairway were abandoned. In the end, budget limitations led to compromises with the original architectural plan that left many elements in their most straightforward form, such as exposed pipes and conduits, or rough concrete. ### Acoustics The Talaske Group of Oak Park, Illinois, was the subcontractor for Jay Pritzker Pavilion's LARES sound system, which "generates the reflected and reverberant energy that surrounds and envelops the listener in an indoor performance venue". The system, which effectively produces an even quality of sound throughout the entire venue, has received critical acclaim for its technological adaptations, such as signal processing in a variety of indoor and outdoor venues. The Pritzker Pavilion is the first permanent outdoor installation of the LARES system in the United States. The trellis has both acoustic and architectural functions; it allows for the precise placement of speakers for sound optimization without visual obstructions, while simultaneously providing a unifying visual canopy. The overall acoustic system is a distributed sound reinforcement system, which allows musicians on stage to hear each other clearly in a way that facilitates ensemble play. In addition, direct natural sound from the stage is reflected from architectural surfaces as well as being reinforced by two sound systems. The forward-facing reinforcement speakers time the relaying of sound so as to make it seem to have arrived directly from the stage with proper clarity and volume levels. Distributed speakers allow for lower sound volumes than would be necessary with centralized speakers, which would disturb neighboring residences and business. Instead of reinforcing the sound like a traditional public address system, the sound system on the trellis system seeks to replicate the acoustics of a concert hall and create a clearly defined concert space. Noise from city disturbances is masked by sound arriving directly from lateral sources. Downward facing speakers simulate sound reflection similar to indoor concert hall wall and ceiling effects. Although Chicago Tribune music critic John von Rhein felt the inaugural concert's sound quality was "a work in progress" that varied with the listener's location in the pavilion, critics Kevin Nance and Wayne Delacoma of the Chicago Sun-Times said that on the opening weekend it was clear that the acousticians, Talaske Group, and Gehry had solved many of the problems presenting classical music outdoors. John von Rhein said in 2005, "the system has been fine-tuned over the past two summers and now delivers a warm, even approximation of concert-hall sound to listeners at even the farthest reaches of the lawn. James Palermo, artistic and general director of the Grant Park Music Festival, felt that musicians were able to interact more effectively with the new sound system because they could hear each other better. ## Controversies Protected by legislation that has been affirmed by four previous Illinois Supreme Court rulings, Grant Park has been "forever open, clear and free" since 1836, which was a year before the city of Chicago was incorporated. In 1839, United States Secretary of War Joel Roberts Poinsett declared the land between Randolph Street and Madison Street east of Michigan Avenue "Public Ground forever to remain vacant of buildings. Aaron Montgomery Ward, who is known both as the inventor of mail order and the protector of Grant Park, twice sued the city of Chicago to force it to remove buildings and structures from Grant Park and to keep it from building new ones. As a result, the city has what are termed the Montgomery Ward height restrictions on buildings and structures in Grant Park. However, Crown Fountain and the 130 ft (40 m) Pritzker Pavilion were exempt from the height restrictions because they were classified as works of art and not buildings or structures. According to The Economist, the pavilion is described as a work of art to dodge the protections established by Ward, who "rules over Grant Park from the grave". The naming of Jay Pritzker Pavilion was a cause for protests. The new pavilion was built as a replacement for Grant Park's decades-old Petrillo Music Shell, which had a long history of hosting free music events and was named after James C. Petrillo, a labor union leader who started free concerts in Grant Park. When the original bandshell was replaced and relocated a bit further north in Grant Park in 1978, the new structure retained the Petrillo name. In the early 2000s decade, the Petrillo family said naming the new music shell in Millennium Park after Jay Pritzker ignored Petrillo's legacy, and threatened legal action. As of 2009, the Petrillo Music Shell was still in use, though Chicago Tribune arts critic Howard Reich described it as "dilapidated" and "dismal". Controversies during construction involved escalating costs and delays; both the pavilion and park opened four years later than originally planned and cost millions of dollars more than expected. Once the pavilion was built, the initial plan was that the lawn seating would be free for all events. An early brochure for the Grant Park Music Festival said "You never need a ticket to attend a concert! The lawn and the general seating section are always admission free." However, when parking revenue fell short of estimates during the first year, the city charged \$10 for lawn seating at the August 31, 2005, concert by Tori Amos. Amos, a classically trained musician who chose only piano and organ accompaniment for her concert, earned positive reviews as the inaugural rock and roll performer in a venue that regularly hosts classical music. The city justified the charge by contending that since the Pavilion is an open-air venue, there were many places in Millennium Park, such as the Cloud Gate, Crown Fountain and Lurie Gardens, where one could have enjoyed the sounds or the atmosphere of the park without having to pay. In addition to charging for lawn seating, the event promoters prohibited concertgoers from bringing beverages, including bottled water, to the lawn; drinks instead had to be purchased onsite. The city later stated that confiscation of unopened beverage bottles was a mistake and that "Bottled water is always allowed at the free concerts we host at the park, and will be allowed at any future events as well." An estimated 300 attendees set up blankets beyond the trellis system, where they could enjoy their own beverages while listening to the concert. The official Chicago policy is that alcohol is permitted throughout Jay Pritzker Pavilion during public performances, but cans and glass bottles are not permitted on the Great Lawn. During the concert, the Gehry-designed BP Pedestrian Bridge that connects Millennium Park with Daley Bicentennial Plaza was closed until 7:00 a.m. the next day. ## Events Jay Pritzker Pavilion competes with Ravinia Park as a Chicago area outdoor music venue. The pavilion hosts free music events such as Chicago Gospel Music Festival from spring to fall. In June, July and August, the Grammy-nominated Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus performs free classical concerts at the Grant Park Music Festival. The festival, a Chicago tradition since 1931, remains the nation's only free, outdoor classical music series. Although the Music Festival shares pavilion space with several other program series and annual performances, its concerts most Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings throughout the heart of the summer are the core of the pavilion's offerings. Travel guide Frommer's lists the park, pavilion, and these free concerts as some of the best free things to do in Chicago. In summer the pavilion also hosts a series of jazz concerts, and the Great Lawn hosts yoga and pilates workouts on Saturday mornings. The Pritzker Prize presentation ceremony, which moves to an architecturally significant location each year, was held in the Pritzker Pavilion in April 2005. Among the annual performers at the pavilion are Steppenwolf Theatre, Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO). At the end of the Grant Park Music Festival season in August, the Festival's Grant Park Orchestra and Carlos Kalmar presented Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Adams' On the Transmigration of Souls, which was written at the request of the New York Philharmonic to honor the victims of the September 11 attacks. On Sunday September 11, 2005, United States Senator Barack Obama (who was later elected President of the United States) served as guest narrator for a 9/11 tribute concert by the CSO. The focal work of the concert was Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait" and the concert was led by former CSO resident conductor William Eddins. Although it was built as a replacement for Grant Park's outdoor concert facilities, larger annual events such as the Chicago Blues and Chicago Jazz Festivals and Taste of Chicago are too large for Jay Pritzker Pavilion and continue to be held in and around Petrillo Music Shell. The pavilion has hosted smaller festivals, such as the Chicago Gospel Music Festival, since 2005. Public opinion has been in favor of moving some of the smaller Blues and Jazz festival events to the pavilion, with its better, more modern acoustics. By 2009, as the city grappled with a budget deficit, it considered realigning parts of the larger festivals and made definite plans to move some of the smaller ones to the more modern venue. On July 18, 2007, the Grant Park Music Festival partnered with the Metro Chicago to produce a free Wednesday-night show celebrating Metro's 25th anniversary and featuring indie band The Decemberists with the Grant Park Orchestra. The show featured new orchestral arrangements of The Decemberists' songs by Sean O'Loughlin, who also conducted in lieu of Kalmar. While the concert was free, the front seating sections were reserved for season membership holders; fans of the band got the remaining seats or sat on the lawn. This led Decemberists' frontman Colin Meloy to encourage the crowd to breach the barriers between the seats and Great Lawn to get closer to the stage for the band's encore performance, which was without the orchestra. Estimated attendance was 11,000 to 15,000, the largest for any free concert at the pavilion to date. Other events include a concert by Wilco on September 12, 2007, the "Poland for Chicago" show with Polish President Lech Kaczyński on September 25, 2007, and a global warming awareness festival which culminated in a performance entitled Arctic at the pavilion in November 2007. Most events at the pavilion remain free; the only public event at the pavilion in the summer of 2008 that charged admission was a concert by Rogue Wave and Death Cab for Cutie on June 3. The pavilion has hosted several one-day events that were noted in international publications, including the United States debut of A Throw of Dice, a 1929 Indian silent movie about two kings with a common love interest, on July 30, 2008. At the debut, Nitin Sawhney and the Grant Park Orchestra accompanied the movie with a live performance. Oprah Winfrey filmed the September 8, 2008, season-opening Oprah Winfrey Show on September 3, 2008, at the pavilion with more than 150 Olympic medalists, including Michael Phelps, Nastia Liukin, Dara Torres, Kobe Bryant, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, in an effort to rally support for the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid. Concerts performed by the Grant Park Orchestra and directed by Kalmar were part of a June 19, 2009, citywide Burnham Plan centennial celebration that included the unveiling of the Burnham Pavilion elsewhere in the park. The concert featured the world premiere of Michael Torke's work for symphony and chorus entitled Plans, paired with Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3. Also, the pavilion serves as host to the annual Chicago Winter Dance Festival. During the festival there is a month of free dance instructions behind the glass doors of the pavilion stage and free skating instruction at the McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink. Among the highlights of the 2010 calendar is the screening of the BBC's nature documentary Planet Earth Live on July 21, with live Grant Park Symphony Orchestra accompaniment featuring the score by five-time Academy Award-nominated composer George Fenton, who serves as conductor. Among the artists who performed with the festival at the pavilion in the 2000s decade are sopranos Karina Gauvin and Erin Wall, tenor Vittorio Grigolo, pianist Stephen Hough, violinists Rachel Barton Pine, James Ehnes, Roby Lakatos, Christian Tetzlaff, and Pinchas Zukerman, and vocalists Otis Clay, Mariza, and Maria del Mar Bonet. All rehearsals at the pavilion are open to the public and well-attended. The festival is represented by a staff of trained guides, called docents, that field questions and provide educational talks during the rehearsals. Besides these public functions, the pavilion is available, as is the entire park, as a venue for private events year-round. The stage's glass and steel doors enable it to provide indoor space protected from the elements when necessary. In addition, the pavilion has a Choral Rehearsal Room that can be rented. ## Reception Critics have said that Jay Pritzker Pavilion is the highlight of Millennium Park. Fodor's travel guide described it as the park's "showstopper" and "stunning", praising its stainless steel and sound system, as well as the variety of events it hosts. Time called the pavilion "dynamic" and recommended it as one of two must-see attractions in the park, while one New York Times writer found herself standing "agog" at what appeared to her to be a "celestial gateway to another universe" and a frame for the sky. Lonely Planet travel guide called the pavilion the anchor of the park, and the 2004 Year in Review issue of Time described it as the park's crown jewel. USA Today described the bandshell as a landmark and the centerpiece of Millennium Park. Another critic described the pavilion as the "most spectacular structure to go up in early-twenty-first-century Chicago". According to the Financial Times, the bandshell's acoustics are unparalleled compared to any contemporary outdoor venue. Critics say that musicians have lauded the onstage acoustics. Another Financial Times critic noted that Gehry revisited some of his past design motifs, such as his use of stainless steel, and explored new ones such as the trellis and sound system. This sentiment was echoed by others. During the opening concert von Rhein noted that the sound is not of uniform quality throughout the venue and opined that the optimal sonics are toward the back of the seated area and front of the lawn. However, he subsequently noted in 2005 "the system has been fine-tuned over the past two summers and now delivers a warm, even approximation of concert-hall sound to listeners at even the farthest reaches of the lawn. Despite the praise it has received, the pavilion has its blemishes: the supporting north side of the structure along Randolph Street has attracted criticism for not being pleasing to the eye, and some observers found the exposed supporting proscenium braces offensive. Critic Fred Bernstein of The New York Times felt that the smooth rounded trellis and sharp-edged bandshell were geometrically discordant. A review in the Chicago Tribune criticized the "ugly concrete structure" surrounding the mixing console in the midst of the fixed seats as the pavilion's "biggest design miscalculation", and called for it be moved. Although modern practice is to locate the sound console in with the audience, Gehry said at a symposium after the park's opening that he wanted "to scrap the big box of a sound booth that sprang up like a weed in the center of the pavilion's seating". The director of Millennium Park was honored for his contribution to creating "one of the most accessible parks – not just in the United States but possibly the world" in a 2005 accessibility award ceremony held at the pavilion. The pavilion's stage is reached by gently sloped ramps instead of stairs, as part of the park's overall accessibility design. The decision to save money and not slope the Great Lawn as much as originally planned was not universally popular. However, Gehry said that the actual slope of the lawn was more accommodating to people with disabilities and better able to accommodate activities than the original plan. ## Position in Chicago's skyline ## See also - List of works by Frank Gehry
233,717	Borobudur	1,172,810,371	9th-century Buddhist temple in Java, Indonesia	[ "820s establishments", "9th-century Buddhist temples", "9th-century establishments in Indonesia", "Archaeoastronomy", "Archaeological sites in Indonesia", "Borobudur", "Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Indonesia", "Buddhist relics", "Buddhist temples in Indonesia", "Cultural Properties of Indonesia in Central Java", "Former Buddhist temples", "Lost ancient cities and towns", "Pyramids in Indonesia", "Religious buildings and structures in Central Java", "Shailendra dynasty", "Tourist attractions in Central Java", "World Heritage Sites in Indonesia" ]	Borobudur, also transcribed Barabudur (Indonesian: Candi Borobudur, Javanese: ꦕꦤ꧀ꦝꦶꦧꦫꦧꦸꦝꦸꦂ, romanized: Candhi Barabudhur) is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist temple in Magelang Regency, not far from the city of Magelang and the town of Muntilan, in Central Java, Indonesia. It is the world's largest Buddhist temple. The temple consists of nine stacked platforms, six square and three circular, topped by a central dome. It is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and originally 504 Buddha statues. The central dome is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues, each seated inside a perforated stupa. Built in 778 until 850 AD during the reign of the Sailendra Dynasty, the temple design follows Javanese Buddhist architecture, which blends the Indonesian indigenous tradition of ancestor worship and the Buddhist concept of attaining nirvāṇa. The temple demonstrates the influences of Gupta art that reflects India's influence on the region, yet there are enough indigenous scenes and elements incorporated to make Borobudur uniquely Indonesian. The monument is a shrine to the Buddha and a place for Buddhist pilgrimage. The pilgrim journey begins at the base of the monument and follows a path around the monument, ascending to the top through three levels symbolic of Buddhist cosmology: Kāmadhātu (the world of desire), Rūpadhātu (the world of forms) and Arūpadhātu (the world of formlessness). The monument guides pilgrims through an extensive system of stairways and corridors with 1,460 narrative relief panels on the walls and the balustrades. Borobudur has one of the largest and most complete ensembles of Buddhist reliefs in the world. Evidence suggests that Borobudur was constructed in the 8th century and subsequently abandoned following the 14th-century decline of Hindu kingdoms in Java and the Javanese conversion to Islam. Worldwide knowledge of its existence was sparked in 1814 by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, then the British ruler of Java, who was advised of its location by native Indonesians. Borobudur has since been preserved through several restorations. The largest restoration project (The second restoration project of Borobudur) was completed at 1983 by the Indonesian government and UNESCO, followed by the monument's listing as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Borobudur is the largest Buddhist temple in the world, and ranks with Bagan in Myanmar and Angkor Wat in Cambodia as one of the great archeological sites of Southeast Asia. Borobudur remains popular for pilgrimage, with Buddhists in Indonesia celebrating Vesak Day at the monument. Borobudur is Indonesia's single most visited tourist attraction. ## Etymology In Indonesian, ancient temples are referred to as candi; thus locals refer to "Borobudur Temple" as Candi Borobudur. The term candi also loosely describes ancient structures, for example, gates and baths. The origins of name Borobudur, is derived from Boro for big and Budur for Buddha. The name Borobudur was first written in Raffles's book on Javan history. Raffles wrote about a monument called Borobudur, but there are no older documents suggesting the same name. The only old Javanese manuscript that hints the monument called Budur as a holy Buddhist sanctuary is Nagarakretagama, written by Mpu Prapanca, a Buddhist scholar of Majapahit court, in 1365. Most candi are named after a nearby village. If it followed Javanese language conventions and was named after the nearby village of Bore, the monument should have been named "BudurBoro". Raffles thought that Budur might correspond to the modern Javanese word Buda ("ancient")—i.e., "ancient Boro". He also suggested that the name might derive from boro, meaning "great" or "honorable" and Budur for Buddha. However, another archaeologist suggests the second component of the name (Budur) comes from Javanese term bhudhara ("mountain"). Another possible etymology by Dutch archaeologist A.J. Bernet Kempers suggests that Borobudur is a corrupted simplified local Javanese pronunciation of Biara Beduhur written in Sanskrit as Vihara Buddha Uhr. The term Buddha-Uhr could mean "the city of Buddhas", while another possible term Beduhur is probably an Old Javanese term, still survived today in Balinese vocabulary, which means "a high place", constructed from the stem word dhuhur or luhur (high). This suggests that Borobudur means vihara of Buddha located on a high place or on a hill. The construction and inauguration of a sacred Buddhist building—possibly a reference to Borobudur—was mentioned in two inscriptions, both discovered in Kedu, Temanggung Regency. The Karangtengah inscription, dated 824, mentioned a sacred building named Jinalaya (the realm of those who have conquered worldly desire and reached enlightenment), inaugurated by Pramodhawardhani, daughter of Samaratungga. The Tri Tepusan inscription, dated 842, is mentioned in the sima, the (tax-free) lands awarded by Çrī Kahulunnan (Pramodhawardhani) to ensure the funding and maintenance of a Kamūlān called Bhūmisambhāra. Kamūlān is from the word mula, which means "the place of origin", a sacred building to honor the ancestors, probably those of the Sailendras. Casparis suggested that Bhūmi Sambhāra Bhudhāra, which in Sanskrit means "the mountain of combined virtues of the ten stages of Boddhisattvahood", was the original name of Borobudur. Additionally, the term Borobudur is possibly derived from the Sanskrit term परमबुद्ध which mean Parama Buddha or Supreme Buddha. ## Location ### The three temples Approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) northwest of Yogyakarta and 86 kilometres (53 mi) west of Surakarta, Borobudur is located in an elevated area between two twin volcanoes, Sundoro-Sumbing and Merbabu-Merapi, and two rivers, the Progo and the Elo. According to local myth, the area known as Kedu Plain is a Javanese "sacred" place and has been dubbed "the garden of Java" due to its high agricultural fertility. During the restoration in the early 20th century, it was discovered that three Buddhist temples in the region, Borobudur, Pawon and Mendut, are positioned along a straight line. A ritual relationship between the three temples must have existed, although the exact ritual process is unknown. ### Ancient lake hypothesis Speculation about a surrounding lake's existence was the subject of intense discussion among archaeologists in the 20th century. In 1931, a Dutch artist and scholar of Hindu and Buddhist architecture, W.O.J. Nieuwenkamp, developed a hypothesis that the Kedu Plain was once a lake and Borobudur initially represented a lotus flower floating on the lake. It has been claimed that Borobudur was built on a bedrock hill, 265 m (869 ft) above sea level and 15 m (49 ft) above the floor of a dried-out paleolake. Dumarçay together with Professor Thanikaimoni took soil samples in 1974 and again in 1977 from trial trenches that had been dug into the hill, as well as from the plain immediately to the south. These samples were later analysed by Thanikaimoni, who examined their pollen and spore content to identify the type of vegetation that had grown in the area around the time of Borobudur's construction. They were unable to discover any pollen or spore samples that were characteristic of any vegetation known to grow in an aquatic environment such as a lake, pond or marsh. The area surrounding Borobudur appears to have been surrounded by agricultural land and palm trees at the time of the monument's construction, as is still the case today. Caesar Voûte and the geomorphologist Dr J.J. Nossin in 1985–86 field studies re-examined the Borobudur lake hypothesis and confirmed the absence of a lake around Borobudur at the time of its construction and active use as a sanctuary. These findings A New Perspective on Some Old Questions Pertaining to Borobudur were published in the 2005 UNESCO publication titled "The Restoration of Borobudur". ## History ### Construction There are no known records of construction or the intended purpose of Borobudur. The duration of construction has been estimated by comparison of carved reliefs on the temple's hidden foot and the inscriptions commonly used in royal charters during the 8th and 9th centuries. Borobudur was likely founded around 800 AD. This corresponds to the period between 760 and 830 AD, the peak of the Sailendra dynasty rule over the Mataram kingdom in central Java, when their power encompassed not only the Srivijayan Empire but also southern Thailand, Indianized kingdoms of Philippines, North Malaya (Kedah, also known in Indian texts as the ancient Hindu state of Kadaram). The construction has been estimated to have taken 75 years with completion during the reign of Samaratungga in 825. There is uncertainty about Hindu and Buddhist rulers in Java around that time. The Sailendras were known as ardent followers of Buddhism, though stone inscriptions found at Sojomerto also suggest they may have been Hindus. It was during this time that many Hindu and Buddhist monuments were built on the plains and mountains around the Kedu Plain. The Buddhist monuments, including Borobudur, were erected around the same period as the Hindu Shiva Prambanan temple compound. In 732 AD, the Shivaite King Sanjaya commissioned a Shivalinga sanctuary to be built on the Wukir hill, only 10 km (6.2 mi) east of Borobudur. Construction of Buddhist temples, including Borobudur, at that time was possible because Sanjaya's immediate successor, Rakai Panangkaran, granted his permission to the Buddhist followers to build such temples. In fact, to show his respect, Panangkaran gave the village of Kalasan to the Buddhist community, as is written in the Kalasan Charter dated 778 AD. This has led some archaeologists to believe that there was never serious conflict concerning religion in Java as it was possible for a Hindu king to patronize the establishment of a Buddhist monument; or for a Buddhist king to act likewise. The 856 battle on the Ratubaka plateau was much after and was a political battle. There was a climate of peaceful coexistence where Sailendra involvement exists in Lara Jonggrang. ### Abandonment Borobudur lay hidden for centuries under layers of volcanic ash and jungle growth. The facts behind its abandonment remain a mystery. It is not known when active use of the monument and Buddhist pilgrimage to it ceased. Sometime between 928 and 1006, King Mpu Sindok moved the capital of the Mataram Kingdom to the region of East Java after a series of volcanic eruptions; it is not certain whether this influenced the abandonment, but several sources mention this as the most likely period of abandonment. The monument is mentioned vaguely as late as c. 1365, in Mpu Prapanca's Nagarakretagama, written during the Majapahit era and mentioning "the vihara in Budur". Soekmono (1976) also mentions the popular belief that the temples were disbanded when the population converted to Islam in the 15th century. The monument was not forgotten completely, though folk stories gradually shifted from its past glory into more superstitious beliefs associated with bad luck and misery. Two old Javanese chronicles (babad) from the 18th century mention cases of bad luck associated with the monument. According to the Babad Tanah Jawi (or the History of Java), the monument was a fatal factor for Mas Dana, a rebel who revolted against Pakubuwono I, the king of Mataram in 1709. It was mentioned that the "Redi Borobudur" hill was besieged and the insurgents were defeated and sentenced to death by the king. In the Babad Mataram (or the History of the Mataram Kingdom), the monument was associated with the misfortune of the crown prince of the Yogyakarta Sultanate in 1757. In spite of a taboo against visiting the monument, "he took such pity on 'the knight who was captured in a cage' (i.e. the statue in one of the perforated stupas) that he could not help coming to see his 'unfortunate friend'". Upon returning to his palace, he fell ill and died one day later. ### Rediscovery Following its capture, Java was under British administration from 1811 to 1816. The appointed governor was Lieutenant Governor-General Thomas Stamford Raffles, who took great interest in the history of Java. He collected Javanese antiques and made notes through contacts with local inhabitants during his tour throughout the island. On an inspection tour to Semarang in 1814, he was informed about a big monument deep in a jungle near the village of Bumisegoro. He was not able to see the site himself, but sent , a Dutch engineer who, among other antiquity explorations had uncovered the Sewu complex in 1806–07, to investigate. In two months, Cornelius and his 200 men cut down trees, burned down vegetation and dug away the earth to reveal the monument. Due to the danger of collapse, he could not unearth all galleries. He reported his findings to Raffles, including various drawings. Although Raffles mentioned the discovery and hard work by Cornelius and his men in only a few sentences, he has been credited with the monument's rediscovery, as the one who had brought it to the world's attention. Christiaan Lodewijk Hartmann, the Resident of the Kedu region, continued Cornelius's work, and in 1835, the whole complex was finally unearthed. His interest in Borobudur was more personal than official. Hartmann did not write any reports of his activities, in particular, the alleged story that he discovered the large statue of Buddha in the main stupa. In 1842, Hartmann investigated the main dome, although what he discovered is unknown and the main stupa remains empty. The Dutch East Indies government then commissioned Frans Carel Wilsen, a Dutch engineering official, who studied the monument and drew hundreds of relief sketches. Jan Frederik Gerrit Brumund was also appointed to make a detailed study of the monument, which was completed in 1859. The government intended to publish an article based on Brumund's study supplemented by Wilsen's drawings, but Brumund refused to cooperate. The government then commissioned another scholar, Conradus Leemans, who compiled a monograph based on Brumund's and Wilsen's sources. In 1873, the first monograph of the detailed study of Borobudur was published, followed by its French translation a year later. The first photograph of the monument was taken in 1872 by the Dutch-Flemish engraver Isidore van Kinsbergen. Appreciation of the site developed slowly, and it served for some time largely as a source of souvenirs and income for "souvenir hunters" and thieves. In 1882, the chief inspector of cultural artifacts recommended that Borobudur be entirely disassembled with the relocation of reliefs into museums due to the unstable condition of the monument. As a result, the government appointed Willem Pieter Groeneveldt, curator of the archaeological collection of the Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences, to undertake a thorough investigation of the site and to assess the actual condition of the complex; his report found that these fears were unjustified and recommended it be left intact. Borobudur was considered as the source of souvenirs, and parts of its sculptures were looted, some even with colonial-government consent. In 1896 King Chulalongkorn of Siam visited Java and requested and was allowed to take home eight cartloads of sculptures taken from Borobudur. These include thirty pieces taken from a number of relief panels, five buddha images, two lions, one gargoyle, several kala motifs from the stairs and gateways, and a guardian statue (dvarapala). Several of these artifacts, most notably the lions, dvarapala, kala, makara and giant waterspouts are now on display in the Java Art room in The National Museum in Bangkok. ### Restoration Borobudur attracted attention in 1885, when the Dutch engineer , Chairman of the Archaeological Society in Yogyakarta, made a discovery about the hidden foot. Photographs that reveal reliefs on the hidden foot were made in 1890–1891. The discovery led the Dutch East Indies government to take steps to safeguard the monument. In 1900, the government set up a commission consisting of three officials to assess the monument: Jan Lourens Andries Brandes, an art historian, , a Dutch army engineer officer, and Benjamin Willem van de Kamer, a construction engineer from the Department of Public Works. In 1902, the commission submitted a threefold plan of proposal to the government. First, the immediate dangers should be avoided by resetting the corners, removing stones that endangered the adjacent parts, strengthening the first balustrades and restoring several niches, archways, stupas and the main dome. Second, after fencing off the courtyards, proper maintenance should be provided and drainage should be improved by restoring floors and spouts. Third, all loose stones should be removed, the monument cleared up to the first balustrades, disfigured stones removed and the main dome restored. The total cost was estimated at that time around 48,800 Dutch guilders. The restoration then was carried out between 1907 and 1911, using the principles of anastylosis and led by Theodor van Erp. The first seven months of restoration were occupied with excavating the grounds around the monument to find missing Buddha heads and panel stones. Van Erp dismantled and rebuilt the upper three circular platforms and stupas. Along the way, Van Erp discovered more things he could do to improve the monument; he submitted another proposal, which was approved with the additional cost of 34,600 guilders. At first glance, Borobudur had been restored to its old glory. Van Erp went further by carefully reconstructing the chattra (three-tiered parasol) pinnacle on top of the main stupa. However, he later dismantled the chattra, citing that there were not enough original stones used in reconstructing the pinnacle, which means that the original design of Borobudur's pinnacle is actually unknown. The dismantled chattra now is stored in Karmawibhangga Museum, a few hundred meters north from Borobudur. Due to the limited budget, the restoration had been primarily focused on cleaning the sculptures, and Van Erp did not solve the drainage problem. Within fifteen years, the gallery walls were sagging, and the reliefs showed signs of new cracks and deterioration. Van Erp used concrete from which alkali salts and calcium hydroxide leached and were transported into the rest of the construction. This caused some problems, so that a further thorough renovation was urgently needed. Small restorations had been performed since then, but not sufficient for complete protection. During World War II and Indonesian National Revolution in 1945 to 1949, Borobudur restoration efforts were halted. The monument suffered further from the weather and drainage problems, which caused the earth core inside the temple to expand, pushing the stone structure and tilting the walls. By 1950s some parts of Borobudur were facing imminent danger of collapsing. In 1965, Indonesia asked the UNESCO for advice on ways to counteract the problem of weathering at Borobudur and other monuments. In 1968 Professor Soekmono, then head of the Archeological Service of Indonesia, launched his "Save Borobudur" campaign, in an effort to organize a massive restoration project. In the late 1960s, the Indonesian government had requested from the international community a major renovation to protect the monument. In 1973, a master plan to restore Borobudur was created. Through an Agreement concerning the Voluntary Contributions to be Given for the Execution of the Project to Preserve Borobudur (Paris, 29 January 1973), 5 countries agreed to contribute to the restoration: Australia (AUD \$200,000), Belgium (BEF fr.250,000), Cyprus (CYP £100,000), France (USD \$77,500) and Germany (DEM DM 2,000,000). The Indonesian government and UNESCO then undertook the complete overhaul of the monument in a big restoration project between 1975 and 1982. In 1975, the actual work began. Over one million stones were dismantled and removed during the restoration, and set aside like pieces of a massive jig-saw puzzle to be individually identified, catalogued, cleaned and treated for preservation. Borobudur became a testing ground for new conservation techniques, including new procedures to battle the microorganisms attacking the stone. The foundation was stabilized, and all 1,460 panels were cleaned. The restoration involved the dismantling of the five square platforms and the improvement of drainage by embedding water channels into the monument. Both impermeable and filter layers were added. This colossal project involved around 600 people to restore the monument and cost a total of US\$6,901,243. After the renovation was finished, UNESCO listed Borobudur as a World Heritage Site in 1991. It is listed under Cultural criteria (i) "to represent a masterpiece of human creative genius", (ii) "to exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design", and (vi) "to be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance". In December 2017, the idea to reinstall chattra on top of Borobudur main stupa's yasthi has been revisited. However, expert said a thorough study is needed on restoring the umbrella-shaped pinnacle. By early 2018, the chattra restoration has not yet commenced. ### Contemporary events #### Religious ceremony Following the major 1973 renovation funded by UNESCO, Borobudur is once again used as a place of worship and pilgrimage. Once a year, during the full moon in May or June, Buddhists in Indonesia observe Vesak (Indonesian: Waisak) day commemorating the birth, death, and the time when Siddhārtha Gautama attained the highest wisdom to become the Lord Buddha. Waisak is an official national holiday in Indonesia, and the ceremony is centered at the three Buddhist temples by walking from Mendut to Pawon and ending at Borobudur. #### Tourism The monument is the single most visited tourist attraction in Indonesia. In 1974, 260,000 tourists, of whom 36,000 were foreigners, visited the monument. The figure climbed to 2.5 million visitors annually (80% were domestic tourists) in the mid-1990s, before the country's economic crisis. Tourism development, however, has been criticized for not including the local community, giving rise to occasional conflicts. In 2003, residents and small businesses around Borobudur organized several meetings and poetry protests, objecting to a provincial government plan to build a three-storey mall complex, dubbed the "Java World". International tourism awards were given to Borobudur archaeological park, such as PATA Grand Pacific Award 2004, PATA Gold Award Winner 2011, and PATA Gold Award Winner 2012. In June 2012, Borobudur was recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest Buddhist archaeological site. #### Conservation UNESCO identified three specific areas of concern under the present state of conservation: (i) vandalism by visitors; (ii) soil erosion in the south-eastern part of the site; and (iii) analysis and restoration of missing elements. The soft soil, the numerous earthquakes and heavy rains lead to the destabilization of the structure. Earthquakes are by far the most important contributing factors, since not only do stones fall down and arches crumble, but the earth itself can move in waves, further destroying the structure. The increasing popularity of the stupa brings in many visitors, most of whom are from Indonesia. Despite warning signs on all levels not to touch anything, the regular transmission of warnings over loudspeakers and the presence of guards, vandalism on reliefs and statues is a common occurrence and problem, leading to further deterioration. As of 2009, there is no system in place to limit the number of visitors allowed per day or to introduce mandatory guided tours only. In August 2014, the Conservation Authority of Borobudur reported some severe abrasion of the stone stairs caused by the scraping of visitors' footwear. The conservation authority planned to install wooden stairs to cover and protect the original stone stairs, just like those installed in Angkor Wat. #### Rehabilitation Borobudur was heavily affected by the eruption of Mount Merapi in October and November 2010. Volcanic ash from Merapi fell on the temple complex, which is approximately 28 kilometres (17 mi) west-southwest of the crater. A layer of ash up to 2.5 centimetres (1 in) thick fell on the temple statues during the eruption of 3–5 November, also killing nearby vegetation, with experts fearing that the acidic ash might damage the historic site. The temple complex was closed from 5 to 9 November to clean up the ashfall. UNESCO donated US\$3 million as a part of the costs towards the rehabilitation of Borobudur after Mount Merapi's 2010 eruption. More than 55,000 stone blocks comprising the temple's structure were dismantled to restore the drainage system, which had been clogged by slurry after the rain. The restoration was finished in November. In January 2012, two German stone-conservation experts spent ten days at the site analyzing the temples and making recommendations to ensure their long-term preservation. In June, Germany agreed to contribute \$130,000 to UNESCO for the second phase of rehabilitation, in which six experts in stone conservation, microbiology, structural engineering and chemical engineering would spend a week in Borobudur in June, then return for another visit in September or October. These missions would launch the preservation activities recommended in the January report and would include capacity building activities to enhance the preservation capabilities of governmental staff and young conservation experts. On 14 February 2014, major tourist attractions in Yogyakarta and Central Java, including Borobudur, Prambanan and Ratu Boko, were closed to visitors, after being severely affected by the volcanic ash from the eruption of Kelud volcano in East Java, located around 200 kilometers east from Yogyakarta. Workers covered the iconic stupas and statues of Borobudur temple to protect the structure from volcanic ash. The Kelud volcano erupted on 13 February 2014 with an explosion heard as far away as Yogyakarta. #### Security threats On 21 January 1985, nine stupas were badly damaged by nine bombs. In 1991, a blind Muslim preacher, Husein Ali Al Habsyie, was sentenced to life imprisonment for masterminding a series of bombings in the mid-1980s, including the temple attack. Two other members of the Islamic extremist group that carried out the bombings were each sentenced to 20 years in 1986, and another man received a 13-year prison term. On 27 May 2006, an earthquake of 6.2 magnitude struck the south coast of Central Java. The event caused severe damage around the region and casualties to the nearby city of Yogyakarta and Prambanan, but Borobudur remained intact. In August 2014, Indonesian police and security forces tightened the security in and around Borobudur temple compound, as a precaution to a threat posted on social media by a self-proclaimed Indonesian branch of ISIS, citing that the terrorists planned to destroy Borobudur and other statues in Indonesia. The security improvements included the repair and increased deployment of CCTV monitors and the implementation of a night patrol in and around the temple compound. The jihadist group follows a strict interpretation of Islam that condemns any anthropomorphic representations such as sculptures as idolatry. #### Visitor overload problem The high volume of visitors ascending the Borobudur's narrow stairs, has caused a severe wear out on the stone of the stairs, eroding the stones surface and made them thinner and smoother. Overall, Borobudur has 2,033 surfaces of stone stairs, spread over four cardinal directions; including the west side, the east, south and north. There are around 1,028 surfaces of them, or about 49.15 percent, that are severely worn out. To avoid further wear of stairs' stones, since November 2014, two main sections of Borobudur stairs – the eastern (ascending route) and northern (descending route) sides – are covered with wooden structures. The similar technique has been applied in Angkor Wat in Cambodia and Egyptian Pyramids. In March 2015, Borobudur Conservation Center proposed further to seal the stairs with rubber cover. Proposals have also been made that visitors be issued special sandals. ## Architecture The archaeological excavation into Borobudur during reconstruction suggests that adherents of Hinduism or a pre-Indic faith had already begun to erect a large structure on Borobudur's hill before the site was appropriated by Buddhists. The foundations are unlike any Hindu or Buddhist shrine structures, and therefore, the initial structure is considered more indigenous Javanese than Hindu or Buddhist. ### Design Borobudur is built as a single large stupa and, when viewed from above, takes the form of a giant tantric Buddhist mandala, simultaneously representing the Buddhist cosmology and the nature of mind. Some scholars reject the idea that it is a mandala based on the fact that no evidence is present to suggest that the Sailendras were followers of Tantric or Vayrayana Buddhism. Moreover the Buddhas of the Borobudur do not identify as the Five Tathagatas. The original foundation is a square, approximately 118 metres (387 ft) on each side. It has nine platforms, of which the lower six are square and the upper three are circular. The upper platform contains seventy-two small stupas surrounding one large central stupa. Each stupa is bell-shaped and pierced by numerous decorative openings. Statues of the Buddha sit inside the pierced enclosures. The design of Borobudur took the form of a step pyramid. Previously, the prehistoric Austronesian megalithic culture in Indonesia had constructed several earth mounds and stone step pyramid structures called punden berundak as discovered in Pangguyangan site near Cisolok and in Cipari near Kuningan. The construction of stone pyramids is based on native beliefs that mountains and high places are the abode of ancestral spirits or hyangs. The punden berundak step pyramid is the basic design in Borobudur, believed to be the continuation of older megalithic tradition incorporated with Mahayana Buddhist ideas and symbolism. The monument's three divisions symbolize the three "realms" of Buddhist cosmology, namely Kamadhatu (the world of desires), Rupadhatu (the world of forms), and finally Arupadhatu (the formless world). Ordinary sentient beings live out their lives on the lowest level, the realm of desire. Those who have burnt out all desire for continued existence leave the world of desire and live in the world on the level of form alone: they see forms but are not drawn to them. Finally, full Buddhas go beyond even form and experience reality at its purest, most fundamental level, the formless ocean of nirvāṇa. The liberation from the cycle of saṃsāra where the enlightened soul had no longer attached to worldly form corresponds to the concept of sūnyatā, the complete voidness or the nonexistence of the self. Kāmadhātu is represented by the base, Rupadhatu by the five square platforms (the body), and Arupadhatu by the three circular platforms and the large topmost stupa. The architectural features between the three stages have metaphorical differences. For instance, square and detailed decorations in the Rupadhatu disappear into plain circular platforms in the Arupadhatu to represent how the world of forms—where men are still attached with forms and names—changes into the world of the formless. Congregational worship in Borobudur is performed in a walking pilgrimage. Pilgrims are guided by the system of staircases and corridors ascending to the top platform. Each platform represents one stage of enlightenment. The path that guides pilgrims was designed to symbolize Buddhist cosmology. In 1885, a hidden structure under the base was accidentally discovered. The "hidden footing" contains reliefs, 160 of which are narratives describing the real Kāmadhātu. The remaining reliefs are panels with short inscriptions that apparently provide instructions for the sculptors, illustrating the scenes to be carved. The real base is hidden by an encasement base, the purpose of which remains a mystery. It was first thought that the real base had to be covered to prevent a disastrous subsidence of the monument into the hill. There is another theory that the encasement base was added because the original hidden footing was incorrectly designed, according to Vastu Shastra, the Indian ancient book about architecture and town planning. Regardless of why it was commissioned, the encasement base was built with detailed and meticulous design and with aesthetic and religious consideration. ### Building structure Approximately 55,000 cubic metres (72,000 cu yd) of andesite stones were taken from neighbouring stone quarries to build the monument. The stone was cut to size, transported to the site and laid without mortar. Knobs, indentations and dovetails were used to form joints between stones. The roof of stupas, niches and arched gateways were constructed in corbelling method. Reliefs were created in situ after the building had been completed. The monument is equipped with a good drainage system to cater to the area's high stormwater run-off. To prevent flooding, 100 spouts are installed at each corner, each with a unique carved gargoyle in the shape of a giant or makara. Borobudur differs markedly from the general design of other structures built for this purpose. Instead of being built on a flat surface, Borobudur is built on a natural hill. However, construction technique is similar to other temples in Java. Without the inner spaces seen in other temples, and with a general design similar to the shape of pyramid, Borobudur was first thought more likely to have served as a stupa, instead of a temple. A stupa is intended as a shrine for the Buddha. Sometimes stupas were built only as devotional symbols of Buddhism. A temple, on the other hand, is used as a house of worship. The meticulous complexity of the monument's design suggests that Borobudur is in fact a temple. Little is known about Gunadharma, the architect of the complex. His name is recounted from Javanese folk tales rather than from written inscriptions. The basic unit of measurement used during construction was the tala, defined as the length of a human face from the forehead's hairline to the tip of the chin or the distance from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the middle finger when both fingers are stretched at their maximum distance. The unit is thus relative from one individual to the next, but the monument has exact measurements. A survey conducted in 1977 revealed frequent findings of a ratio of 4:6:9 around the monument. The architect had used the formula to lay out the precise dimensions of the fractal and self-similar geometry in Borobudur's design. This ratio is also found in the designs of Pawon and Mendut, nearby Buddhist temples. Archeologists have conjectured that the 4:6:9 ratio and the tala have calendrical, astronomical and cosmological significance, as is the case with the temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. The main structure can be divided into three components: base, body, and top. The base is 123 m × 123 m (404 ft × 404 ft) in size with 4 metres (13 ft) walls. The body is composed of five square platforms, each of diminishing height. The first terrace is set back 7 metres (23 ft) from the edge of the base. Each subsequent terrace is set back 2 metres (6.6 ft), leaving a narrow corridor at each stage. The top consists of three circular platforms, with each stage supporting a row of perforated stupas, arranged in concentric circles. There is one main dome at the center, the top of which is the highest point of the monument, 35 metres (115 ft) above ground level. Stairways at the center of each of the four sides give access to the top, with a number of arched gates overlooked by 32 lion statues. The gates are adorned with Kala's head carved on top of each and Makaras projecting from each side. This Kala-Makara motif is commonly found on the gates of Javanese temples. The main entrance is on the eastern side, the location of the first narrative reliefs. Stairways on the slopes of the hill also link the monument to the low-lying plain. ## Reliefs Borobudur is constructed in such a way that it reveals various levels of terraces, showing intricate architecture that goes from being heavily ornamented with bas-reliefs to being plain in Arupadhatu circular terraces. The first four terrace walls are showcases for bas-relief sculptures. These are exquisite, considered to be the most elegant and graceful in the ancient Buddhist world. The bas-reliefs in Borobudur depicted many scenes of daily life in 8th-century ancient Java, from the courtly palace life, hermit in the forest, to those of commoners in the village. It also depicted temple, marketplace, various flora and fauna, and also native vernacular architecture. People depicted here are the images of king, queen, princes, noblemen, courtier, soldier, servant, commoners, priest and hermit. The reliefs also depicted spiritual beings in Buddhism such as asuras, gods, bodhisattvas, kinnaras, gandharvas and apsaras. The images depicted on bas-relief often served as reference for historians to research for certain subjects, such as the study of architecture, weaponry, economy, fashion, and also mode of transportation of 8th-century Maritime Southeast Asia. One of the famous renderings of an 8th-century Southeast Asian double outrigger ship is Borobudur Ship. Today, the actual-size replica of Borobudur Ship that had sailed from Indonesia to Africa in 2004 is displayed in the Samudra Raksa Museum, located a few hundred meters north of Borobudur. The Borobudur reliefs also pay close attention to Indian aesthetic discipline, such as pose and gesture that contain certain meanings and aesthetic value. The reliefs of noblemen, noble women, kings, or divine beings such as apsaras, taras and boddhisattvas are usually portrayed in tribhanga pose, the three-bend pose on neck, hips, and knee, with one leg resting and one upholding the body weight. This position is considered as the most graceful pose, such as the figure of Surasundari holding a lotus. During Borobudur excavation, archeologists discovered colour pigments of blue, red, green, black, as well as bits of gold foil, and concluded that the monument that we see today – a dark gray mass of volcanic stone, lacking in colour – was probably once coated with varjalepa white plaster and then painted with bright colors, serving perhaps as a beacon of Buddhist teaching. The same vajralepa plaster can also be found in Sari, Kalasan and Sewu temples. It is likely that the bas-reliefs of Borobudur was originally quite colourful, before centuries of torrential tropical rainfalls peeled-off the colour pigments. Borobudur contains approximately 2,670 individual bas reliefs (1,460 narrative and 1,212 decorative panels), which cover the façades and balustrades. The total relief surface is 2,500 square metres (27,000 sq ft), and they are distributed at the hidden foot (Kāmadhātu) and the five square platforms (Rupadhatu). The narrative panels, which tell the story of Sudhana and Manohara, are grouped into 11 series that encircle the monument with a total length of 3,000 metres (9,800 ft). The hidden foot contains the first series with 160 narrative panels, and the remaining 10 series are distributed throughout walls and balustrades in four galleries starting from the eastern entrance stairway to the left. Narrative panels on the wall read from right to left, while those on the balustrade read from left to right. This conforms with pradaksina, the ritual of circumambulation performed by pilgrims who move in a clockwise direction while keeping the sanctuary to their right. The hidden foot depicts the workings of karmic law. The walls of the first gallery have two superimposed series of reliefs; each consists of 120 panels. The upper part depicts the biography of Lord Buddha, while the lower part of the wall and also the balustrades in the first and the second galleries tell the story of the Buddha's former lives. The remaining panels are devoted to Sudhana's further wandering about his search, terminated by his attainment of the Perfect Wisdom. ### The law of karma (Karmawibhangga) The 160 hidden panels do not form a continuous story, but each panel provides one complete illustration of cause and effect. There are depictions of blameworthy activities, from gossip to murder, with their corresponding punishments. There are also praiseworthy activities, that include charity and pilgrimage to sanctuaries, and their subsequent rewards. The pains of hell and the pleasure of heaven are also illustrated. There are scenes of daily life, complete with the full panorama of saṃsāra (the endless cycle of birth and death). The encasement base of the Borobudur temple was disassembled to reveal the hidden foot, and the reliefs were photographed by Casijan Chepas in 1890. It is these photographs that are displayed in Borobudur Museum (Karmawibhangga Museum), located just several hundred meters north of the temple. During the restoration, the foot encasement was reinstalled, covering the Karmawibhangga reliefs. Today, only the southeast corner of the hidden foot is revealed and visible for visitors. ### The story of Prince Siddhartha and the birth of Buddha (Lalitavistara) The story starts with the descent of the Buddha from the Tushita heaven and ends with his first sermon in the Deer Park at Sarnath. The relief shows the birth of the Buddha as Prince Siddhartha, son of King Suddhodana and Queen Maya of Kapilavastu (in Nepal). The birth is preceded by 27 panels showing various preparations, in the heavens and on the earth, to welcome the final incarnation of the bodhisattva. Before descending from Tushita heaven, the Bodhisattva entrusted his crown to his successor, the future Buddha Maitreya. He descended on earth in the shape of a white elephant with six tusks, and penetrated to Queen Maya's right womb. Queen Maya had a dream of this event, which was interpreted that his son would become either a sovereign or a Buddha. While Queen Maya felt that it was the time to give birth, she went to the Lumbini park near Kapilavastu. She stood under a sal tree (Shorea robusta), holding one branch with her right hand, and she gave birth to a son, Prince Siddhartha, from her side. The story on the panels continues until the Sermon in the Deer Park at Sarnath, his first sermon after his Enlightenment. ### The stories of Buddha's previous life (Jataka) and other legendary people (Avadana) Jatakas are stories about the Buddha before he was born as Prince Siddhartha. They are the stories that tell about the previous lives of the Buddha, in both human and animal form. The future Buddha may appear in them as a king, an outcast, a god, an elephant—but, in whatever form, he exhibits some virtue that the tale thereby inculcates. Avadanas are similar to jatakas, but the main figure is not the Bodhisattva himself. The saintly deeds in avadanas are attributed to other legendary persons. Jatakas and avadanas are treated in one and the same series in the reliefs of Borobudur. The first twenty lower panels in the first gallery on the wall depict the Sudhanakumaravadana, or the saintly deeds of Sudhana. The first 135 upper panels in the same gallery on the balustrades are devoted to the 34 legends of the Jatakamala. The remaining 237 panels depict stories from other sources, as do the lower series and panels in the second gallery. Some jatakas are depicted twice, for example the story of King Sibhi (Rama's forefather). ### Sudhana's search for the ultimate truth (Gandavyuha) Gandavyuha is the story told in the final chapter of the Avatamsaka Sutra about Sudhana's tireless wandering in search of the Highest Perfect Wisdom. It covers two galleries (third and fourth) and also half of the second gallery, comprising in total of 460 panels. The principal figure of the story, the youth Sudhana, son of an extremely rich merchant, appears on the 16th panel. The preceding 15 panels form a prologue to the story of the miracles during Buddha's samadhi in the Garden of Jeta at Sravasti. Sudhana was instructed by Manjusri to meet the monk Megasri, his first spiritual friend. As his journey continues, Sudhana meets 53 teachers, such as Supratisthita, the physician Megha (Spirit of Knowledge), the banker Muktaka, the monk Saradhvaja, the upasika Asa (Spirit of Supreme Enlightenment), Bhismottaranirghosa, the Brahmin Jayosmayatna, Princess Maitrayani, the monk Sudarsana, a boy called Indriyesvara, the upasika Prabhuta, the banker Ratnachuda, King Anala, the god Siva Mahadeva, Queen Maya, Bodhisattva Maitreya and then back to Manjusri. Each spiritual friend gives Sudhana specific teachings, knowledge, and wisdom. These meetings are shown in the third gallery. After a second meeting with Manjusri, Sudhana went to the residence of Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, depicted in the fourth gallery. The entire series of the fourth gallery is devoted to the teaching of Samantabhadra. The narrative panels finally end with Sudhana's achievement of the Supreme Knowledge and the Ultimate Truth. ## Buddha statues Apart from the story of the Buddhist cosmology carved in stone, Borobudur has many statues of various Buddhas. The cross-legged statues are seated in a lotus position and distributed on the five square platforms (the Rupadhatu level), as well as on the top platform (the Arupadhatu level). The Buddha statues are in niches at the Rupadhatu level, arranged in rows on the outer sides of the balustrades, the number of statues decreasing as platforms progressively diminish to the upper level. The first balustrades have 104 niches, the second 104, the third 88, the fourth 72 and the fifth 64. In total, there are 432 Buddha statues at the Rupadhatu level. At the Arupadhatu level (or the three circular platforms), Buddha statues are placed inside perforated stupas. The first circular platform has 32 stupas, the second 24 and the third 16, which adds up to 72 stupas. Of the original 504 Buddha statues, over 300 are damaged (mostly headless), and 43 are missing. Since the monument's discovery, heads have been acquired by museums (mostly Western) or looted by personal collectors. Some of these Buddha heads are now displayed in numbers of museums, such as the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam, Musée Guimet in Paris, and The British Museum in London. Germany has in 2014 returned its collection and funded their reattachment and further conservation of the site. At first glance, all the Buddha statues appear similar, but there is a subtle difference between them in the mudras, or the position of the hands. There are five groups of mudra: North, East, South, West and Zenith, which represent the five cardinal compass points according to Mahayana. The first four balustrades have the first four mudras: North, East, South and West, of which the Buddha statues that face one compass direction have the corresponding mudra. Buddha statues at the fifth balustrades and inside the 72 stupas on the top platform have the same mudra: Zenith. Each mudra represents one of the Five Dhyani Buddhas; each has its own symbolism. Following the order of Pradakshina (clockwise circumumbulation) starting from the East, the mudras of the Borobudur buddha statues are: ## Legacy The aesthetic and technical mastery of Borobudur, and also its sheer size, has evoked the sense of grandeur and pride for Indonesians. Just like Angkor Wat for Cambodia, Borobudur has become a powerful symbol for Indonesia — to testify for its past greatness. Indonesia's first President Sukarno made a point of showing the site to foreign dignitaries. The Suharto regime — realized its important symbolic and economic meanings — diligently embarked on a massive project to restore the monument with the help from UNESCO. Many museums in Indonesia contain a scale model replica of Borobudur. The monument has become almost an icon, grouped with the wayang puppet play and gamelan music into a vague classical Javanese past from which Indonesians are to draw inspiration. Several archaeological relics taken from Borobudur or its replica have been displayed in some museums in Indonesia and abroad. Other than Karmawibhangga Museum within Borobudur temple ground, some museums boast to host relics of Borobudur, such as Indonesian National Museum in Jakarta, Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam, British Museum in London, and Thai National Museum in Bangkok. Louvre museum in Paris, Malaysian National Museum in Kuala Lumpur, and Museum of World Religions in New Taipei also displayed the replica of Borobudur. The monument has drawn global attention to the classical Buddhist civilization of ancient Java. The rediscovery and reconstruction of Borobudur has been hailed by Indonesian Buddhists as the sign of the Buddhist revival in Indonesia. In 1934, Narada Thera, a missionary monk from Sri Lanka, visited Indonesia for the first time as part of his journey to spread the Dharma in Southeast Asia. This opportunity was used by a few local Buddhists to revive Buddhism in Indonesia. A Bodhi Tree planting ceremony was held in Southeastern side of Borobudur on 10 March 1934 under the blessing of Narada Thera, and some Upasakas were ordained as monks. Once a year, thousands of Buddhist from Indonesia and neighboring countries flock to Borobudur to commemorate national Waisak celebration. The emblem of Central Java province and Magelang Regency bears the image of Borobudur. It has become the symbol of Central Java, and also Indonesia on a wider scale. Borobudur has become the name of several establishments, such as Borobudur University, Borobudur Hotel in Central Jakarta, and several Indonesian restaurants abroad. The monument inspired the architectural designs of two notable five-star hotels in Indonesia: the nearby Amanjiwo (from where the temple can be seen on a clear day), and Hyatt Regency Yogyakarta in Sleman. Borobudur has appeared on Rupiah banknotes and stamps and in numbers of books, publications, documentaries and Indonesian tourism promotion materials. The monument has become one of the main tourism attraction in Indonesia, vital for generating local economy in the region surrounding the temple. The tourism sector of the city of Yogyakarta for example, flourishes partly because of its proximity to Borobudur and Prambanan temples. ### In art and literature In her poetical illustration , to an engraving of a painting by W. Purser in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1836, Letitia Elizabeth Landon reflects on Borobudur from a Christian perspective. ## Gallery ### Gallery of reliefs ### Gallery of Borobudur ## See also - Ancient monuments of Java - Architecture of Indonesia - Candi of Indonesia - Trail of Civilizations - Unfinished Buddha
1,424,178	The Simpsons Movie	1,173,116,357	2007 film directed by David Silverman	[ "2000s American animated films", "2000s English-language films", "2007 animated films", "2007 comedy films", "2007 directorial debut films", "2007 films", "20th Century Fox Animation films", "20th Century Fox animated films", "20th Century Fox films", "American adult animated films", "American animated comedy films", "Animated films based on animated series", "Animated films based on animated television series", "Animated films set in the United States", "Film Roman films", "Films about dysfunctional families", "Films about father–son relationships", "Films based on television series", "Films directed by David Silverman", "Films produced by James L. Brooks", "Films produced by Matt Groening", "Films produced by Richard Sakai", "Films scored by Hans Zimmer", "Films set in 2007", "Films with screenplays by James L. Brooks", "Films with screenplays by John Swartzwelder", "Films with screenplays by Matt Groening", "Fox Television Animation films", "Gracie Films films", "Rough Draft Studios films", "The Simpsons" ]	The Simpsons Movie is a 2007 American animated comedy film based on the Fox animated sitcom The Simpsons. The film was directed by the show's supervising director David Silverman and stars the show's regular cast of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Tress MacNeille, Pamela Hayden, Karl Wiedergott, Marcia Wallace, Maggie Roswell, Russi Taylor, and Joe Mantegna reprising their roles and Albert Brooks as the film's main antagonist, Russ Cargill, head of the EPA. The film follows Homer Simpson, who irresponsibly pollutes the lake in Springfield, causing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to imprison the town under a giant glass dome. After he and his family escape, they ultimately abandon Homer for his selfishness and return to Springfield to prevent the town's demolition by Cargill. Homer works to redeem his folly by returning to Springfield himself in an effort to save it. Although previous attempts to create a Simpsons film had been made, they failed due to the lack of a script. Eventually in 2001, producers James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Al Jean, Mike Scully and Richard Sakai began development on the film and a writing team consisting of Brooks, Groening, Jean, Scully, Ian Maxtone-Graham, George Meyer, David Mirkin, Mike Reiss, Matt Selman, John Swartzwelder and Jon Vitti were assembled. They conceived numerous plot ideas, with Groening's being the one adapted. The script was rewritten over a hundred times, also continuing after work on the animation began in 2006. Consequently, hours of finished material was cut from the final release, including cameo roles from Erin Brockovich, Minnie Driver, Isla Fisher, Edward Norton, and Kelsey Grammer, who would have reprised his role as Sideshow Bob. Tom Hanks and the members of Green Day voice their own animated counterparts in the final cut of the film, while Albert Brooks, a frequent guest performer on the series, provides the voice of its main antagonist, Russ Cargill. Tie-in promotions were made with several companies to promote the film's release, including Burger King and 7-Eleven, the latter of which transformed selected stores into Kwik-E-Marts. The film premiered in Springfield, Vermont, on July 21, 2007, and was released theatrically six days later on July 27 by 20th Century Fox across the United States. The Simpsons Movie received positive reviews and grossed \$536.4 million worldwide, becoming the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2007, the second-highest-grossing traditionally animated film (behind Walt Disney Animation Studios' The Lion King), and the highest-grossing film based on an animated television series. The film received praise for its humor, emotional weight, and callbacks to early seasons. The film was nominated for numerous awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film at the 65th Golden Globe Awards. ## Plot After finishing a concert at Lake Springfield, Green Day tries to engage the audience in a discussion about the environment, but the people refuse to listen and instead throw trash at them. The pollution in the lake erodes the band's barge, causing them to sink and drown. During their memorial, Grampa Simpson has a spiritual experience and frantically prophesies that a disaster will befall Springfield, but only Marge takes it seriously. Concerned about the terrible state of the environment, Lisa and her new friend, Colin (who later becomes her love interest), hold a seminar and convince the town to clean up the lake. Meanwhile, following a series of dares, Homer and Bart go to Krusty Burger, where Homer adopts a pig to save it from being killed by Krusty the Clown. Marge, identifying the pig as a part of Grampa's prophecy, warns Homer to get rid of it, but he refuses. Homer's fawning over the pig makes Bart, now fed up with his father's carelessness, look to their neighbor, Ned Flanders, as a father figure. Homer stores the pig's feces (and some of his own) in an overflowing silo, disgusting Marge. Homer attempts to dispose of it safely at Marge's request, but when he learns Lard Lad's Donuts is giving away their donuts for free after being shut down by the health inspector, Homer, to get to the giveaway faster, dumps the silo in the lake, critically polluting it. Moments later, a squirrel stumbles into it after being chased by a raccoon and becomes severely mutated with many eyes, another part of the prophecy. While bonding on a hike, Bart and Ned notice the squirrel, which is captured by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Russ Cargill, head of the EPA, informs president Arnold Schwarzenegger on Springfield's pollution crisis. As a response, the president orders the federals to imprison Springfield under a giant glass dome, completely fulfilling the prophecy. When Homer's silo is discovered on live television, most of the townspeople form an angry mob and attempt to lynch them. The family escapes through a sinkhole, which destroys their house afterwards, and flees to Alaska, where they try to restart their lives. Within 93 days, Springfield completely exhausts its daily supplies and the townspeople lose their sanity while trying to escape from the dome. Cargill, who does not want word of his imprisonment of Springfield to spread, plots to destroy Springfield by tricking the president into ordering its demolition. The Simpsons see a television advertisement, featuring Tom Hanks, for a new Grand Canyon on the site of Springfield. Realizing that their hometown is in danger, all of them decide to save it, except for Homer, who refuses to help the people who tried to kill them. A distraught Marge leaves behind a video explaining they have no intentions of returning recorded over their wedding video, causing him to run off in search of them. After an encounter with a mysterious Inuit shaman who saves him from being eaten by a polar bear, Homer has an epiphany about saving the town to save himself. Meanwhile, his family is captured by the EPA in Seattle and placed back inside the dome after Homer fails to save them. Homer returns to Springfield as the EPA lowers a time bomb suspended by a rope through a hole at the top of the dome. Homer enters the dome and descends the rope, knocking the escaping townspeople and the bomb off, inadvertently shortening its countdown. Taking a motorcycle, he reunites and reconciles with Bart. Using the motorcycle to travel up the side of the dome, Bart throws the bomb through the hole seconds before it detonates, shattering the dome and freeing the town. Later, Cargill confronts the pair with a shotgun and attempts to kill them for foiling his plan, but before he can do so, Maggie knocks him out by dropping a large rock on his head. As Cargill is fired and arrested for his actions, the townspeople decide to forgive Homer and hail him a hero for saving Springfield from destruction. Riding into the sunset, Homer shares a kiss with Marge on board the motorcycle. Afterwards, as the townspeople work to restore Springfield, they rebuild the Simpsons' house out of gratitude. ## Cast ## Production ### Development The production staff had considered a film adaptation of The Simpsons since early in the series. The show's creator, Matt Groening, felt a feature-length film would allow them to increase the show's scale and animate sequences too complex for the TV series. He intended the film to be made after the show ended, "but that [...] was undone by good ratings". There were attempts to adapt the fourth season episode "Kamp Krusty" into a film, but difficulties were encountered in expanding the episode to feature-length. For a long time, the project was held up. There was difficulty finding a story that was sufficient for a film, and the crew did not have enough time to complete such a project, as they already worked full-time on the show. Groening also expressed a wish to make Simpstasia, a parody of Fantasia; it was never produced, partly because it would have been too difficult to write a feature-length script. At another point, it was briefly suggested to do an anthology-style Treehouse of Horror film, but such suggestion was never pursued. Recurring guest performer Phil Hartman had wished to make a live-action film based on his character Troy McClure; several of the show's staff expressed a desire to help create it, and Josh Weinstein proposed to use the plot of the 1996 episode "A Fish Called Selma" for the film, but the project was canceled following Hartman's death in 1998. The project was officially green-lit by 20th Century Fox in 1997, and Groening and James L. Brooks were set to produce the film. The voice cast was signed on to do the film in 2001, and work then began on the script. The producers were initially worried that creating a film would have a negative effect on the series, as they did not have enough crew to focus their attention on both projects. As the series progressed, additional writers and animators were hired so that both the show and the film could be produced at the same time. Groening and Brooks invited Mike Scully and Al Jean (who continued to work as showrunner on the television series) to produce the film with them. They then signed series director David Silverman to direct the film. The "strongest possible" writing team was assembled, with many of the writers from the show's early seasons being chosen. David Mirkin, Mike Reiss, George Meyer, John Swartzwelder, and Jon Vitti were selected. Ian Maxtone-Graham and Matt Selman would also join later, and Brooks, Groening, Scully, and Jean also wrote parts of the script. Sam Simon did not return having left the show over creative differences in 1993. Former writer Conan O'Brien expressed interest in working with the Simpsons staff again, although he later joked that "I worry that the Simpsons-writing portion of my brain has been destroyed after 14 years of talking to Lindsay Lohan and that guy from One Tree Hill, so maybe it's all for the best." The same went for director Brad Bird who said he had "entertained fantasies of asking if [he] could work on the movie", but did not have enough time due to work on films like The Incredibles and Ratatouille. The producers arranged a deal with Fox that would allow them to abandon production of the film at any point if they felt the script was unsatisfactory. Work continued on the screenplay from late 2003 onwards, taking place in the small bungalow where Matt Groening first pitched The Simpsons in 1987. The writers spent six months discussing a plot, and each of them offered sketchy ideas. On their first brainstorming session, Scully suggested a story in which Steven Spielberg (intended to be voiced by Spielberg himself) would try to blow up Springfield so he could shoot a film with Tom Hanks (who ultimately made a guest appearance voicing himself in the finished film). It was also on this same reunion that Groening introduced the idea of Homer adopting a pet pig, inspired by a pig-waste management story he had read in the news. Jean suggested the family rescue manatees, which became the 2005 episode "The Bonfire of the Manatees", and there was also a notion similar to that of The Truman Show where the characters discovered their lives were a TV show. Groening rejected this, as he felt that the Simpsons should "never become aware of themselves as celebrities", but the idea was later used in the video game The Simpsons Game. Groening read about a town that had to get rid of pig feces in their water supply, which inspired the plot of the film. The decision for Flanders to have an important role also came early on, as Jean wished to see Bart wonder what his life would be like if Flanders were his father. Hank Scorpio, a character from the 1996 episode "You Only Move Twice", was originally meant to return as the main antagonist, but the staff dropped the idea and created Russ Cargill instead. Having eventually decided on the basic outline of the plot for the film, the writers then separated it into seven sections. Jean, Scully, Reiss, Swartzwelder, Vitti, Mirkin, and Meyer wrote 25 pages each, and the group met one month later to merge the seven sections into one "very rough draft". The film's script was written in the same way as the television series: the writers sitting around a table, pitching ideas, and trying to make each other laugh. The script was rewritten over 100 times, and at one point, the film was a musical. However, the songs were continually being shortened and the idea was dropped. Groening described his desire to also make the film dramatically stronger than a TV episode, saying that he wanted to "give you something that you haven't seen before". ### Animation Animation for the film began in January 2006, with the Itchy & Scratchy short being the first scene to be storyboarded. Groening rejected making either a live-action or a CGI film, calling the film's animation "deliberately imperfect" and "a tribute to the art of hand-drawn animation". The film was produced in a widescreen 2.40:1 aspect ratio, to distinguish it from the then 4:3 fullscreen look of the television series, and colored with the largest palette the animators ever had available to them. A lot of the animation was produced using Wacom Cintiq tablets, which allowed images to be drawn directly onto a computer monitor to facilitate production. Animation production work was divided among four studios around the world: Film Roman in Burbank, California, Rough Draft Studios in Glendale, California and Seoul, South Korea, and AKOM, also in Seoul, South Korea, all of whom previously worked on the series. As with the television series, the storyboarding, character designs, background layout, general animation, and animatic parts of production, were done in America. The overseas studios completed the camera work, inbetweening, and digital ink and paint before being shipping the animation back to the United States. Director David Silverman said that unlike the TV series where "you [have] to pick and choose", the film gave them the opportunity to "lavish that attention [on] every single scene". The characters have shadows, unlike in the show. Silverman and the animators looked to films such as The Incredibles, The Triplets of Belleville, and Bad Day at Black Rock for inspiration, as they were "a great education in staging because of how the characters are placed". They also looked for ideas for a dream sequence, in Disney films such as Dumbo and the Pluto cartoon Pluto's Judgment Day and for crowd scenes in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Silverman looked at some of the Simpsons episodes he had directed, primarily his two favorites, "Homie the Clown" and "Three Men and a Comic Book". Mike B. Anderson, Lauren MacMullan, Rich Moore and Steven Dean Moore each directed the animation for around a quarter of the film under Silverman's supervision, with numerous other animators working on scenes. ### Casting For inspiration for the crowd scenes in the film, the production staff referenced a poster featuring more than 320 Simpsons characters. Groening said they tried to include every single character in the film, with 98 having speaking parts, and most members of the crowds being previously established characters instead of generic people. The series' regular voice actors: Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer, as well as semi-regular performers Tress MacNeille, Pamela Hayden, Marcia Wallace, Maggie Roswell, Russi Taylor and Karl Wiedergott, reprised their roles. Joe Mantegna returned as Fat Tony, while Albert Brooks, who supplied many guest voices in episodes, was cast as the main antagonist Russ Cargill after he told the staff that he wanted to be part of the film. For "about a week", Brooks was to reprise the role of Hank Scorpio, but when the character was omitted from the film, he ended up voicing Cargill himself. The cast did the first of three table readings in May 2005, and began recording every week from June 2006 until the end of production. James L. Brooks directed them for the first time since the television show's early seasons. Castellaneta found the recording sessions "more intense" than recording the television series and "more emotionally dramatic". Some scenes, such as Marge's video message to Homer, were recorded over one hundred times, leaving the voice cast exhausted. The writers had written the opening concert scene without a specific band in mind. Green Day were cast in that role having requested to guest star in the show. Tom Hanks also appears as himself in the film and accepted the offer after just one phone call. Everybody Loves Raymond creator Philip Rosenthal provides the voice of the father in the "new Grand Canyon" commercial with Hanks. Due to time restraints, several guests who had recorded parts were cut from the film. Minnie Driver recorded the part of a patronizing grievance counselor in a scene that ended up being cut. Edward Norton recorded the part of the man who gets crushed as the dome is implemented, performing a Woody Allen impression. The staff felt the voice was too distracting, so Castellaneta re-recorded Norton's dialogue with a different voice. Isla Fisher and Erin Brockovich also recorded cameos, but their scenes were cut. Kelsey Grammer recorded lines for Sideshow Bob, who was to appear at several different points, but these scenes were also cut. Johnny Knoxville was also touted as a possible guest star. Although he does not provide the voice, Arnold Schwarzenegger is president of the United States rather than then-President George W. Bush because, according to Groening, "in two years ... the film [would be] out of date". Brooks was nervous about the idea, noting that "[Schwarzenegger's] opinion polls were way down", and has said that they "were [hoping] he'd make a political comeback". The animators began by drawing an accurate caricature of Schwarzenegger, but one of the staff instead suggested an altered version of recurring character Rainier Wolfcastle as president. This idea was developed, with the design of Wolfcastle, himself also a caricature of Schwarzenegger, being given more wrinkles under his eyes and a different hairstyle. ### Editing Every aspect of the film was constantly analyzed, with storylines, jokes and characters regularly being rewritten. Although most animated films do not make extensive changes to the film during active production due to budget restrictions, The Simpsons Movie crew continued to edit their film into 2007, with some edits taking place as late as May, two months before the film was released. James L. Brooks noted, "70 percent of the things in [one of the trailers]—based on where we were eight weeks ago—are no longer in the movie." Matt Groening said that enough material for two more films was cut. Various new characters were created, and then cut because they did not contribute enough. Originally Marge was the character who had the prophetic vision in church. The writers however considered this to be too dark and it was changed to Grampa. The role of Lisa's love interest Colin was frequently revised. He was previously named Dexter and Adrien, and his appearance was completely altered. One idea was to have Milhouse act as Lisa's love interest, but the writers realized "the audience was not as familiar with [his] long-standing crush on [Lisa] as [they had] thought". A car chase in which Homer throws flaming mummies out of a truck at the EPA was replaced with "more emotional and realistic" scenes at the motel and carnival that allowed for a change of pace. The scene of a naked Bart on his skateboard was Matt Groening's idea, who had always wanted to have Bart skateboarding naked, and Mike Scully had the idea of showing Bart's penis for two seconds. Storyboard artist Martin Archer was credited for devising the way to cover Bart's genitals with different things before they are exposed to the viewer. While the crew agreed that the gag would be funny, they wondered it if would mean an R-rating for the film, as they were happy with a PG-13 rating and that the gag was nonsexual and silly. They were ultimately able to get away with the joke because it wasn't live-action nor was it Homer's genitals. Further changes were made after the March 2007 preview screenings of the film in Portland, Oregon and Phoenix, Arizona. This included the deletion of Kang and Kodos heavily criticizing the film during the end credits. A lot of people at the screenings found the original film too coarse, and some of Homer's behavior too unkind, so several scenes were toned down to make him appear nicer. Russ Cargill was redesigned several times, originally appearing as an older man whose speech patterns Albert Brooks based on Donald Rumsfeld. The older model was the one used by Burger King for the action figure. Cargill's scene with Bart and Homer at the film's conclusion was added in to fully resolve his story, and the "Spider-Pig" gag was also a late addition. One excised scene, before the dome is put over Springfield, had Mr. Burns reminding viewers that it was the last point in the film that they could get a refund. Other deletions included Homer's encounter with a sausage truck driver, a scene with Plopper the pig at the end, and a news report, showing the dome's effect on daily life in Springfield in areas such as farming and sports, all of which were featured on the DVD, were cut because they did not fit the overall context of the film. Several musical numbers, at various intervals throughout the film, were cut. These included a song about Alaska, featuring music by Dave Stewart of Eurythmics. Jean said it "got pretty far along in the animation, and then we got scared that the movie began to drag in that section." ### Music Producer James L. Brooks chose Hans Zimmer to compose the film's score, as they were good friends and regular collaborators. Zimmer felt that the score was a "unique challenge", and he had to "try and express the style of The Simpsons without wearing the audience out". He used Danny Elfman's original opening theme, but did not wish to overuse it. He created themes for each member of the family. Homer's leitmotif was a major focus, and Zimmer also composed smaller themes for Bart and Marge. Regular television series composer Alf Clausen was not asked to score the film, noting: "sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug". In addition to their appearance in the film, Green Day recorded its own version of the Simpsons theme, and released it as a single. Zimmer turned the Spider-Pig song into a choral piece, which was a joke he never intended to be put into the film. Zimmer also had to write foreign-language lyrics for the 32 dubbed versions of the song when the film was released internationally. He found translating the song into Spanish the hardest to write. The same choir learned to sing the piece for each of the foreign-language dubs. ## Themes Al Jean described the film's message as being "a man should listen to his wife". In addition, the film parodies two major contemporary issues, religion and environmentalism. The theme of environmentalism is present throughout the film: in Homer's polluting of Lake Springfield, Green Day's cameo, Lisa's activism and her romance with Colin. The villainous Russ Cargill is head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Reviewer Ed Gonzalez argued the plot was a satire of the government's reaction to the effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans. Ian Nathan of Empire magazine criticized this focus, believing it gave the film an "overt political agenda [which] border[s] on polemic". James D. Bloom of Muhlenberg College commented on the "explicitness" of the film's "intellectual agenda", on this issue, shown particularly through Lisa. He wrote that the film's first post-opening credits scene, which sees Green Day fail in an attempt to engage their audience on the issue of the environment, "sets in motion a plot expressly built around cultural agenda-setting" and "reflection on timely 'issues'." Religion is focused on in Grampa's momentary possession, and Marge believing what he said to be a message from God. Groening joked the film "posit[s] the existence of a very active God", when asked if he believed it was likely to offend. Mark I. Pinsky, author of The Gospel According to The Simpsons, said the film "treats genuine faith with respect, while keeping a sharp eye out for religious pretension and hypocrisy of all kinds". Regarding the scene where the tenants of Moe's Tavern and the Church switch locations, he believed it took the "chance to unmask everyone's human fallibility." In analyzing the role of Ned Flanders, he wrote, "It is [the] willingness of The Simpsons to depict all the different sides of us [...] that makes it so rich and funny on our complicated relationship with religion." Trees are a motif in the film, and they were implemented in every important or emotional scene throughout the film. The animators inserted an apple tree behind Lisa and Colin during their initial meeting, which was a reference to the biblical figures of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. ## Cultural references Many cultural references and allusions are made throughout the film. Green Day play "Nearer, My God, to Thee" on violins as their barge sinks, in a sequence parodying the film Titanic. When Bart is riding his skateboard naked, different passing objects are almost constantly covering his genitalia, a nod to similar techniques used in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. Homer and Marge's love scene parodies many Disney films, including Cinderella, with Disney-style animals helping them undress. Originally, the music from The Wizard of Oz was used in that scene, and the fawn had white spots; these were removed because the animators felt it resembled Bambi too clearly. Bart impersonates Mickey Mouse on the train, calling himself "the mascot of an evil corporation". Homer plays Grand Theft Walrus, an allusion to the video game series Grand Theft Auto. In the game, his character shoots a tap-dancing penguin in reference to the film Happy Feet. The "Spider-Pig" song is a parody of the theme song of the 1967 Spider-Man TV series, and the name of Lisa's lecture is An Irritating Truth, a play on Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth. The bomb disposal robot was based on Vincent D'Onofrio's character Leonard "Pyle" Lawrence from the film Full Metal Jacket, who commits suicide in a similar way. At the end of the film, the crowd's celebration is similar to the conclusion of Return of the Jedi, with Carl performing exactly the same hand gestures as Lando Calrissian. The \$1,000 Homer received when entering Alaska is a reference to the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend. As Homer leaves Eski-Moe's he grabs on to a passing truck and uses it to propel himself back to the house, a tribute to actor Buster Keaton, while the epiphany scene features homages to the film Brazil and the works of Salvador Dalí. Hillary Clinton appears as Itchy's vice president, while an Orc from The Lord of the Rings appears in the mob scene. A scene that was cut had Marge and the kids appear on the TV talk show The View to spread the news of Springfield's impending doom. Parts were written for the show's entire panel and the scene was planned to feature Russ Cargill having a gunfight with Joy Behar. Another dropped scene featured Moe describing Springfield's varying physical states inside the dome, one of which was the Disneyland ride Autopia. There are several references to events in previous TV episodes of The Simpsons. These include the wreckage of the ambulance from the episode "Bart the Daredevil" crashed into a tree next to Springfield Gorge. The Carpenters' song "(They Long to Be) Close to You" was used in Homer and Marge's wedding video and had also been used in several emotional moments between them in the TV series. ## Release ### Theatrical On April 1, 2006, 20th Century Fox announced that the film would be released worldwide on July 27, 2007. The film was released a day earlier in Australia and the United Kingdom. Little information about the plot was released in the weeks building up to the film's release. Groening did not feel that "people look in the TV section of the newspaper and think, 'I'll watch this week's Simpsons because I like the plot.' You just tune in and see what happens." Fox held a competition among 16 Springfields across the United States to host the American premiere. Each Springfield produced a film, explaining why their town should host the premiere, with the results being decided via a vote on the USA Today website. Springfield, Minnesota dropped out on May 31, 2007. The winner was announced on July 10 to be Springfield, Vermont. The town beat Springfield, Illinois by 15,367 votes to 14,634. Each of the other 14 entrants held their own smaller screenings of the film on July 26. Springfield, Vermont hosted the world premiere of the film on July 21 with a yellow carpet instead of the traditional red. The film was rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for "irreverent humor throughout"; the production staff had expected this rating. However, the British Board of Film Classification passed the film as a PG with no cuts made. A BBFC spokeswoman said regarding Bart's brief nude scene, "natural nudity with no sexual content is acceptable in PG films". The film was banned in Myanmar, not for the scene of nudity, but for the excessive use of the colors yellow and red, which is prohibited in the country. ### Marketing The convenience store chain 7-Eleven transformed 11 of its stores in the U.S. and one in Canada into Kwik-E-Marts, at the cost of approximately \$10 million. 7-Eleven also sold Simpsons-themed merchandise in many of its stores. This included "Squishees", "Buzz Cola", "Krusty-O's" Cereal, and "Pink Movie Donuts". This promotion resulted in a 30% increase in profits for the altered 7-Eleven stores. Homer performed a special animated opening monologue for the edition of July 24, 2007 of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, as part of another promotion. Promotions also occurred around the world. 20th Century Fox erected a "giant pink donut" in the town of Springfield in Canterbury, New Zealand to celebrate being named Springfield, while in London a double decker bus-sized floating inflatable Spider Pig was set up next to Battersea Power Station. In Dorset, England, an image of Homer was painted next to the hill figure, the Cerne Abbas Giant. This caused outrage amongst local neopagans who performed "rain magic" to try to get it washed away. McFarlane Toys released a line of action figures based on the film while EA Games released The Simpsons Game to coincide with the film's DVD release, although the plot of the game was not based on the film. Samsung released The Simpsons Movie phone, and Microsoft produced a limited edition The Simpsons Movie Xbox 360. Ben & Jerry's created a Simpsons-themed beer and donut-flavored ice cream, entitled "Duff & D'oh! Nuts". Windows Live Messenger presented their users with the opportunity to download a free animated and static content for use within their conversations. Burger King produced a line of Simpsons toy figures that were given away with children's meals, and ran a series of Simpsons-themed television adverts to promote this. JetBlue Airways held a series of online sweepstakes to win a trip to the film's Los Angeles, California premiere. They also included a channel dedicated to The Simpsons on their planes' in-flight entertainment system. ### Home media The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc worldwide on December 3, 2007, and on December 18 in the United States. It contains commentary tracks from both the producers and animators, six short deleted scenes, and a selection of material used to promote the film release. An unfinished deleted scene of the townspeople singing the Springfield Anthem was also included on The Simpsons The Complete Tenth Season DVD box set. Promotions for the DVD release occurred across the United States. The Empire State Building was illuminated yellow, the first time the building had ever been used as part of a film promotion. In the United Kingdom, Fox launched a £5 million advertising campaign. They also signed a £1.6 million deal with the yogurt company Yoplait, to produce a The Simpsons Movie design for their brand Frubes. In its first week it topped the U.S. DVD chart, and generated \$11.8 million in rental revenue. ## Reception ### Critical reception On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 87% based on 223 reviews and an average rating of 7.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Simpsons Movie contains the hearty laughs, biting satire, and honest portrayal of an American family that makes the show so popular. And it boasts slicker animation and polished writing that hearkens back to the show's glory days." On Metacritic, it received a score of 80 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale. British newspapers The Guardian and The Times both gave the film four out of five stars. The Times' James Bone said that it "boasts the same sly cultural references and flashes of brilliance that have earned the television series a following that ranges from tots to comparative literature PhDs". The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw stated that it "gives you everything you could possibly want" and that he thought, "Eighty-five minutes [was] not long enough to do justice to 17 years of comedy genius". Ed Gonzalez praised the film for its political message, likening the Itchy & Scratchy cartoon at the beginning to President Schwarzenegger's situation later on, as well as the film's visual gags. Randy Shulman praised the cast, and described them as having "elevated their vocal work to a craft that goes way beyond simple line readings", and particularly praised Kavner who he said "gave what must be the most heartfelt performance ever". Roger Ebert gave a positive review of three out of four stars, but admitted he was "generally [not] a fan of movies spun off from TV animation". He called it "radical and simple at the same time, subversive and good-hearted, offensive without really meaning to be". Richard Corliss of Time said that the film "doesn't try to be ruder or kinkier, just bigger and better". USA Today film critic Claudia Puig said that the story did "warrant a full-length feature, thanks to a clever plot and non-stop irreverent humor". Patrick Kolan believed that the film was "easily the best stuff to come [from the Simpsons] since season 12 or 13" and praised the animation, but also said that the appearances of characters such as Comic Book Guy and Seymour Skinner were "small and unfunny". Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter praised the film's good nature, stating that the laughs "come in all sizes", but also noted that, "little has been gained bringing the Simpsons to the screen." Variety's Brian Lowry called it "clever, irreverent, satirical and outfitted" but that it was "just barely" capable of sustaining a running time longer than a television episode. Lisa Schwarzbaum praised the voice cast but stated that the "'action' sequences sometimes falter". When comparing the film to the early episodes of the show, Stephen Rowley concluded that the film "has more going for it than the show in its later years, but is still a long way short of what made it so invigorating". The Monthly critic Luke Davies echoed Lowry's concerns about the length: "everything moves with the whip-crack speed of a half-hour episode. And that's the paradox: it makes the film feel like three episodes strung together. We're in a cinema, and we expect something epic." He opined that "in the great arc that is the history of The Simpsons, this film will come to be seen as oddity rather than apotheosis." More negative reception came from the magazine Empire, where reviewer Ian Nathan compared the film to New Coke, saying that "it utterly failed". Phil Villarreal believed that there were "too few laugh-worthy moments" and that "instead of stretching to new frontiers, the film rests on the familiar". Sheila Johnston criticized the pacing of the film and its joke level saying that "the overall momentum flags at times" and that it was "a salvo of comic squibs, some very funny, others limp". David Edwards agreed with this, writing that although "there's a great half-hour show rattling around...the rest is padding at its very dullest", concluding that it "isn't a terrible film, just a terribly disappointing one." Cosmo Landesman believed, "the humour seem[ed] to have lost its satirical bite and wit" and that "much of the comedy is structured around the idiocy of Homer". This assessment was shared by Carina Chocano of the Los Angeles Times, who felt that "once the movie wanders into its contemplation of mortality and meaning, the trenchancy kind of creaks and falls off." She negatively compared it to South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999), a film similarly adapted from an animated television series, saying that, in terms of satire, it offers "nothing we don't hear every night on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." Bruce Newman criticized the fleeting appearances of many of the show's secondary characters, and found the film to be "a disappointment". ### Box office The film earned \$30,758,269 on its opening day in the United States making it the 25th-highest, and fifth-highest non-sequel opening day revenue of all time. It grossed a combined total of \$74,036,787 in its opening weekend on 5,500 screens at 3,922 theaters, reaching the top of the box office for that weekend. This made it the tenth-highest revenue of all time, for an opening weekend in July, and highest among non-sequels, and the highest animated TV adaptation of all time, surpassing The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. This outperformed the expectations of \$40 million that Fox had for the release. It set several American box office records, including highest grossing opening weekend for a non-CG animated film and for a film based on a television series, surpassing Mission: Impossible 2. It was also the third-highest grossing opening weekend for an animated film. It opened at the top of the international box office taking \$96 million from 71 overseas territories, including \$27.8 million in the United Kingdom, the second-highest UK opening ever for a 20th Century Fox film. It contributed to over half of the record 5.5 million people attending British cinemas that weekend. In Australia, it grossed \$13.2 million, the third-highest opening weekend in the country, and the highest for an animated film. The United Kingdom is the highest-grossing country for the film outside in the United States with a \$78.4 million gross overall, with Germany in second place with a \$36.3 million gross overall. The film closed on December 20, 2007, with a gross of \$183.1 million in the United States and a worldwide gross of \$536.4 million. It was the eighth-highest-grossing film worldwide and the tenth-highest grossing in the United States of 2007. ### Accolades The Simpsons Movie won the award for Best Comedy Film at the British Comedy Awards, Best Animation at the inaugural ITV National Movie Awards, and Best Movie at the UK Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards, beating Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, and Shrek the Third. The film's trailer won a Golden Trailer Award in the category Best Animated/Family Film Trailer at the 8th Annual Golden Trailer Awards. Forbes named the film the third best of the year, based on its box office takings and Metacritic critical response score. The film's website received a Webby Award at the 12th Annual Webby Awards in the category "Best Movie and Film Website". At the 35th Annie Awards the film was nominated in four categories: Best Animated Feature, Directing in an Animated Feature Production, Writing in an Animated Feature Production, and Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production for Julie Kavner. All four awards were won by Ratatouille. It was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at the 65th Golden Globe Awards, the BAFTA for Best Animated Film, and the Producers Guild Award for Animated Theatrical Motion Picture. It also received nominations for the Satellite Award for Best Animated or Mixed Media Feature, the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Animated Feature, and the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Animated Feature. Before its release, the film received a nomination at the 2007 MTV Movie Awards for "Best Summer Movie You Haven't Seen Yet", with the award ultimately won by Transformers, and lost the Teen Choice Award for "Choice Summer Movie – Comedy/Musical", which was won by Hairspray. It was also nominated for Favorite Movie Comedy at the People's Choice Awards, losing to Knocked Up. ## Possible sequel In 2014, Brooks stated that he had been approached by Fox and that they had requested a second film. He added that there were no immediate plans, stating, "We've been asked to [develop it], but we haven't. We're doing a lot of other stuff." In December 2014, just prior to the broadcast of the episode "The Man Who Came to Be Dinner", Jean wrote on Twitter that the episode (which had been produced in 2012 and was originally set to air in May 2013) had been held back by himself and Brooks because it was being considered for adaptation into a sequel film as the episode was "cinematic". Jean later expanded that there was the fear of the potential film being considered "not canonical" with the TV series and the potential backlash of overcoming it by using a "memory wipe". In July 2017, Silverman and Jean said that the sequel was in the early stages of development and stressed the toll production of the first picture took on the entire staff. On August 10, 2018, it was reported that a sequel was in development. On July 22, 2019, Groening stated that he had "no doubts" that The Walt Disney Company, which acquired 21st Century Fox early that year, would likely produce a sequel one day. In July 2021, Jean stated that discussions for the potential sequel had stalled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
306,392	Ed, Edd n Eddy	1,173,092,834	Animated television series	[ "1990s American animated comedy television series", "1990s American animated television series", "1990s American children's comedy television series", "1990s American surreal comedy television series", "1990s Canadian animated television series", "1990s Canadian children's television series", "1990s Canadian comedy television series", "1999 American television series debuts", "1999 Canadian television series debuts", "2000s American animated comedy television series", "2000s American animated television series", "2000s American children's comedy television series", "2000s American surreal comedy television series", "2000s Canadian animated television series", "2000s Canadian children's television series", "2000s Canadian comedy television series", "2009 American television series endings", "2009 Canadian television series endings", "A.k.a. Cartoon", "American children's animated comedy television series", "Animated television series about children", "Canadian children's animated comedy television series", "Cartoon Cartoons", "Cartoon Network original programming", "Ed, Edd n Eddy", "English-language television shows", "Fictional trios", "Metafictional television series", "Middle school television series", "Surreal comedy television series", "Teletoon original programming", "Television series created by Danny Antonucci", "Television shows adapted into films", "Television shows adapted into video games", "Television shows filmed in Ottawa", "Television shows filmed in Vancouver" ]	Ed, Edd n Eddy is an animated television series created by Danny Antonucci for Cartoon Network. The series revolves around three friends named Ed, Edd (called "Double D" to avoid confusion with Ed), and Eddy—collectively known as "the Eds"—who are voiced by Matt Hill, Sam Vincent, and Tony Sampson respectively. They live in a suburban cul-de-sac in the fictional town of Peach Creek along with fellow neighborhood children Kevin, Nazz, Sarah, Jimmy, Rolf, Jonny, and the Eds' female adversaries, the Kanker Sisters, Lee, Marie, and May. Under the unofficial leadership of Eddy, the trio frequently invents schemes to make money from their peers to purchase their favorite confection, jawbreakers. Their plans usually fail, leaving them in various, often humiliating and painful, predicaments. Adult cartoonist Antonucci was dared to create a children's cartoon; while designing a commercial, he conceived Ed, Edd n Eddy, designing it to resemble classic cartoons from the 1940s–1970s. When pitching the series to Nickelodeon, the network declined to give him creative control, which Antonucci did not agree. He then pitched the series to Cartoon Network. A deal was made with the network to commission the series under his control, and it premiered on January 4, 1999. During the show's run, several specials and shorts were produced in addition to the regular television series. The series concluded with a television film, Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show, on November 8, 2009. Ed, Edd n Eddy received critical acclaim and became one of Cartoon Network's most successful original series. It won a Reuben Award, two Leo Awards and a SOCAN Award, and was also nominated for another four Leo Awards, an Annie Award and two Kids' Choice Awards. The show attracted an audience of 31 million households, was broadcast in 120 countries, and proved to be popular among children, teenagers, and adults. The series has also included spin-off media such as video games, DVD releases, and a series of books and comic books featuring characters from the series. With a 10-year run, Ed, Edd n Eddy is the longest running Cartoon Network original series. The series also was broadcast on Teletoon in Canada. ## Premise Ed, Edd n Eddy follows the lives of "the Eds", three scheming boys who all share variations of nicknames of the name Edward, but differ greatly in their personalities: Ed (Matt Hill) is the strong and dim-witted yet kind-hearted dogsbody of the group; Edd (Samuel Vincent), called Double D, is an inventor, neat freak, and the most intelligent of the Eds; and Eddy (Tony Sampson) is a devious, quick-tempered, bitter con artist, and self-appointed leader of the Eds. The three devise plans to obtain money from the other kids in their cul-de-sac, which they want to use to buy jawbreakers. However, problems always ensue, and the Eds' schemes usually end in failure and humiliation. The cul-de-sac kids do not include the Eds as part of their group, making the trio outcasts. The group of kids are Jonny (David Paul "Buck" Grove), a loner whom his peers consider to be a nuisance, and spends most of his time with his imaginary friend, a wooden board named Plank; Jimmy (Keenan Christensen), a weak, insecure, and accident-prone child, who is most often seen spending his time with Sarah (Janyse Jaud), Ed's spoiled and ill-tempered younger sister who is attracted to Edd; Rolf (Peter Kelamis), an immigrant whose customs often differ from the other children's; Kevin (Kathleen Barr), a cynical and sardonic jock who detests the Eds, particularly Eddy; Nazz (Tabitha St. Germain; Jenn Forgie; Erin Fitzgerald), usually seen with Kevin, is a calm and friendly blonde girl who the Eds, Jonny, and Kevin are infatuated with. All of the cul-de-sac kids share a common fear of the Kanker Sisters, Lee (Janyse Jaud), May (Erin Fitzgerald; Jenn Forgie), and Marie (Kathleen Barr), three bully girls led by Lee who live in a nearby trailer park that harass the Eds with unwanted advances and wish to marry them. Each Kanker has a preference among the three, with Lee wanting Eddy, Marie wanting Edd, and May wanting Ed. Aside from the Eds, the other cul-de-sac kids, and the Kanker Sisters, no other characters appeared in the series until Santa Claus had a cameo in "Ed, Edd n Eddy's Jingle Jingle Jangle", flying over Peach Creek to quickly drop off presents. During the fifth season, silhouettes of other people were occasionally shown, and in "Mission Ed-Possible", the arms of Eddy's father and Ed's mother were seen. An arm of Eddy's mother was also shown during "Smile for the Ed". In the series finale, Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show, Eddy's adult brother (Terry Klassen) was seen for the first time, making him the only non-main character, and the only adult character to ever fully appear on the show. The series took place mostly within the fictional town of Peach Creek, and new locations were rarely introduced. Its first four seasons are set during a seemingly endless summer vacation, though from the fifth season onwards, the characters are shown attending junior high school in the fall and winter months. ## Production ### Development Although cartoonist Danny Antonucci began his career by working as an animator on various children's series for Hanna-Barbera, his later solo works were edgy and aimed at adult audiences. He gained notoriety with the 1987 short film Lupo the Butcher and then, after founding his own production studio, a.k.a. Cartoon in 1994, created the series The Brothers Grunt for MTV. It was quickly cancelled, however, upon being met with generally poor reviews. On a dare, Antonucci then decided that he would try producing a children's animated series of his own. While designing a commercial, he ended up drawing three characters that he felt particularly pleased with. Growing excited over their potential, he named them Ed, Edd, and Eddy and spent the following months developing a show around them. In 1996, he faxed a one-page concept sheet and pitched the series to Nickelodeon, but the network declined to give him creative control, and Antonucci refused. He then pitched the series to Cartoon Network. The network agreed to let Antonucci have control of the show, and conversations between him and the studio continued. Vice president of programming and production of Cartoon Network, Mike Lazzo, showed high interest in the series and requested a show bible, which came through by fax, a few pages at a time, over a period of the next few months. After an affirmative response from Cartoon Network president Betty Cohen, the legal paperwork and deal-making began, followed by a start-up meeting at the Chateau Marmont Hotel in Los Angeles. A deal was made that Antonucci's studio, a.k.a. Cartoon, would produce Ed, Edd n Eddy, making it the first Cartoon Network original series to be produced by an outside production company rather than Cartoon Network's Hanna-Barbera. The series also entered production and bypassed a seven-minute short; this marked the first time that one of the studio's original series had ever done this. According to Antonucci, he based the characters on real people in his life. The personalities of Ed, Double D, and Eddy are based on his own traits as well as the activities of his two sons, while the cul-de-sac children and the Kanker sisters were all based on children he grew up with. Rolf is based on Antonucci and his cousins, since he was part of an Italian immigrant family, and grew up in a first-generation foreign household with different customs and ways of living, compared to those born in Canada. > Rolf is me and all of my cousins. My parents were right off the boat so I grew up playing to two worlds, the modern world, and the 1950s Italian world. My parents like Rolf's lived — still live in the past, with strong traditions and strange cooking and having a hard time assimilating to modern life. Jimmy is based on one of his cousins, who was rather feminine and spent most of his time playing with girls rather than with boys. Jonny and Plank are inspired by one of Antonucci's childhood friends, a loner who spent most of his time outside with his blanket. He stated that he believed it was important to add Plank, a board of wood, to the show, and that he, "thought it would be really cool to do the show with Plank taking on a character of his own" and to cause Jonny to do things he would usually never do. Some wanted Plank to be able to talk, smile and blink as if he was alive, but Antonucci insisted that it should be treated as a piece of wood, brought to life by Jonny's imagination. ### Casting Matt Hill, Samuel Vincent, and Tony Sampson were respectively cast as Ed, Edd, and Eddy. David Paul "Buck" Grove and Keenan Christensen played the parts of Jonny 2×4 and Jimmy, respectively, while Sarah was voiced by Janyse Jaud. Peter Kelamis voiced Rolf, while Kathleen Barr was cast as Kevin. Nazz was voiced by Tabitha St. Germain in season 1, Jenn Forgie in season 3, and Erin Fitzgerald in seasons 2, 4, 5, and 6. Fitzgerald also played the part of May, one of the Kanker Sisters, except in season 3 when she was voiced by Jenn Forgie. The other two Kanker sisters, Marie and Lee, were voiced by Kathleen Barr and Janyse Jaud. Eddy's adult brother is mentioned frequently throughout the series but does not appear until Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show, where he is voiced by series voice director Terry Klassen. ### Animation Antonucci, an advocate of hand-drawn animation, wanted to ensure Ed, Edd n Eddy was produced in a way similar to cartoons from the 1940s to 1970s. As a result, the series was the last major animated series to use traditional cel animation. Cels were shipped to South Korea for creating the initial animation, and then later edited back at Antonucci's a.k.a. Cartoon studio. To give the impression of movement, Ed, Edd n Eddy uses "boiling lines" or shimmering outlines which Antonucci likens to cartoons of the 1930s. IGN has compared it to Squigglevision, and Animation World Magazine wrote that the way the line varies and shakes gives the animation a distinctive and spontaneous feeling as if it were drawn by children. The boiling line is created by tracing off a drawing three times through sheets of paper. Antonucci explained that he felt it "helps keep the characters alive" and that he wanted to depart from other Cartoon Network series and pay homage to the classic cartoon era. All the children have multicoloured tongues; Antonucci said that the idea came after he saw his son and his friends with different-coloured tongues because of eating different candy while he was working on a storyboard. The characters went through several "walking cycles," a process used to determine how each character should walk or run, turn around, blink, etc. before the crew came up with the final product. ### Music and title sequence Antonucci showed the theme song to the studios when first pitching the series, thinking it would be better than only looking at drawings. It was inspired by the Bob Crosby and The Bob Cats song "Big Noise from Winnetka," which was whistled, something Antonucci enjoyed doing as a child. Composed by Patric Caird, who created all the music in the series, Antonucci performed the whistling himself. The theme song was featured on the compilation album Cartoon Medley. The title sequence was created by Paul Boyd. The music of Ed, Edd, n Eddy is heavily influenced by 1930s and 1940s jazz and jump blues, rockabilly, boogie woogie, and the rock and roll of the 1950s. ### Broadcast Although Ed, Edd n Eddy was originally set to premiere on November 7, 1998, the pilot, "The Ed-touchables / Nagged to Ed," aired on January 4, 1999, as the sixth Cartoon Cartoon, due to minor post-production delays. During the series' original run, episodes often aired as a part of Cartoon Network's weekly programming block "Cartoon Cartoon Fridays." Cartoon Network ran several marathons for either commercial promotions or special airings of one of their shows. The eight-hour "Boy Girl, Boy Girl" marathon ran on March 7, 1999, airing episodes of Ed, Edd n Eddy and The Powerpuff Girls, which had been Cartoon Network's two newest series at the time. Later that year, Ed, Edd n Eddy was featured with other original Cartoon Network series in the third annual "Cartoon Cartoon Weekend," a fifty-three-hour marathon, which ran from August 20 to August 22. In 2002, the show was included in the similar "Cartoon Cartoon Marathon Weekend," which ran from August 23 to August 25. The six-hour "Ed's Day Off Marathon" aired 22 episodes on January 19, 2004, in celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. "The Best Day Edder," in which every episode was shown in chronological order, ran from April 27 to April 28, 2007, and ended with the previously unaired season five finale, which was promoted as the "final episode ever." However, it was quickly followed by "The Eds are Coming" the following month, as part of a special alien-themed event called "Cartoon Network Invaded." As of May 2, 2007, "The Best Day Edder" provided Cartoon Network their best ratings of the year. A seven-hour Sunday marathon, which ran before the premiere of Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show, posted double-digit delivery gains among children ages 9–14 (up 14%), boys ages 9–14 (up 16%) and girls ages 6–11 (up 17%), compared to the same time frame last year, highlighting the network's weekend performance. At the July 2007 San Diego Comic-Con, a cut segment from the season four finale "Take This Ed and Shove It" was screened at the Ed, Edd n Eddy panel. The series' fourth season was originally ordered as the last, but two additional seasons and four specials, including a movie, were ordered as a result of the series' popularity. The series finale is a movie titled Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show, which aired on November 8, 2009. ## Episodes ### Specials Along with an additional fifth and sixth season, Cartoon Network ordered three holiday specials that originally aired in 2004 and 2005. "Ed, Edd n Eddy's Jingle Jingle Jangle," the first, is a Christmas special aired on December 3, 2004. Valentine's Day's "Ed, Edd n Eddy's Hanky Panky Hullabaloo" originally aired on February 11, 2005. The final, Halloween special, "Ed, Edd n Eddy's Boo Haw Haw" aired on October 28, 2005. Antonucci stated that "Boo Haw Haw" was one of his favourite Ed, Edd n Eddy episodes that he worked on. On May 11, 2007, a fourth special, "The Eds are Coming" aired; however, it was not a holiday special, but an adjunct to other Cartoon Network series Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, My Gym Partner's a Monkey, Camp Lazlo, and The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy in the alien-themed mini-series Cartoon Network Invaded that aired all five specials from May 4 to May 28, 2007. ## Appearances in other series or works Besides their own series, Ed, Double D, and Eddy have also appeared in other cartoon series. They appeared in the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episode "Eddie Monster" and were drawn using that series' style of animation, and made a short cameo in "The Grim Adventures of the KND", a crossover of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Codename: Kids Next Door. They also appeared on a small crossover poster during its credits entitled Ed, Edd n Mandy. In 2012, Double D made an appearance in the animated sketch comedy Cartoon Network series Mad episode "Once Upon a Toon." In 2018, Plank appeared in the Robot Chicken episode "3 2 1 2 333, 222, 3...66?" in a segment entitled "Plank: The College Years". The show was featured in the 2002 edition of Cartoon Network's fictional awards program, The 1st 13th Annual Fancy Anvil Awards Show Program Special: Live in Stereo. It won Best Performance by an Inanimate Object in a Dramatic Role for the character of Plank, and Best Performance by a Team in a Cartoon Series for the characters of Ed, Double D, and Eddy. The character of Sarah was nominated for Best Performance by a Female in a Cartoon Series, but lost to Bubbles from The Powerpuff Girls. In 2004, the Eds appeared in a short series of basketball commercials with NBA All-Star Steve Francis. Ed appeared in the "Cartoon Network Elections 2004" with Grim from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy as a team, and they ended up winning, due to the highest number of votes by viewers. The fourth single on American rapper JID's debut album, The Never Story, is titled "EdEddnEddy." In the song, the rapper declares the antics of him and two of his friends are similar to the scams of Ed, Edd, and Eddy. A music video for the song was later released, replicating the series' signature art style. The video was also planned to debut on Adult Swim, but according to JID legal issues prevented this from panning out. ## Reception, legacy, and achievements ### Ratings and run length achievements Ed, Edd n Eddy attracted an audience of 31 million households, was broadcast in 120 countries, and was popular among both children and adults. According to Cartoon Network executive Linda Simensky, the first season did "remarkably well" in ratings following its premiere, becoming one of the top-rated series on the network. It was Cartoon Network's most popular show among boys ages 2–11. In 2005, it was reported that Ed, Edd n Eddy was the number one rated show on Cartoon Network and was known to 79% of children aged 6–11. The series ran for nearly 11 years, making it the longest-running Cartoon Network original series, and at the time of its finale, the longest-running Canadian-produced animated series. ### Critical reception Ed, Edd n Eddy received critical acclaim during its run. David Cornelius of DVD Talk considered the Eds to be child equivalents of The Three Stooges, believing that "the series revels in the sort of frantic, often gross humour kids love so much, and there's just enough oddball insanity at play to make adults giggle just as easily." Cornelius also wrote that the "animation is colourful and intentionally bizarre; bold lines forming the characters and backgrounds wiggle and morph in a delirious haze. This is the animation that's, well, really animated." Despite this, not all reception of the show was positive. Terrence Briggs of Animation World Magazine considered every second of the show "filler" and lamented that the main characters are drawn as "products from the school of acid-trip caricature." After Briggs' review was published, a large number of letters supportive of the show were sent to the magazine, prompting it to "take a second look" at the show. Different reviewers then gave it a positive review, calling it a "fresh show with very different approaches." ### Accolades During its run, Ed, Edd n Eddy was nominated for a Reuben Award, six Leo Awards, an Annie Award, two Kids' Choice Awards and a SOCAN Award, winning the Reuben Award, two Leo Awards and the SOCAN Award. Desi Jedeikin of Smosh.com listed Ed, Edd n Eddy on the website's list of "9 Cartoons That Need a Reboot." Complex included Eddy's room on their list of "Movie and TV Characters' Bedrooms You Wished Were Yours," and ranked Jimmy 14th on their list of "15 Artistic Characters We Miss From Our Childhood." Cracked.com praised the show's high level of violence, stating that it "set the bar on cartoon violence for anything that was played on Cartoon Network, and thus far, none have surpassed them." Bob Higgins, head of creative at Wild Brain, considered Ed, Edd n Eddy to be a "landmark in animation." In August 2002, the New York Museum of Television and Radio featured the episode "An Ed Is Born" as part of the special program "Cartoon Power! Celebrating Cartoon Network's 10th Birthday". ## Other media ### Film The made-for-TV movie Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show serves as the series' finale and premiered in the United States on November 8, 2009; although it had completed production a year earlier and first aired in Scandinavia, Australia, and Southeast Asia. The plot focuses on the Eds' search for Eddy's Brother, a character mentioned several times throughout the series, but never seen until the film. He is voiced by series voice director Terry Klassen. The film was directed by Antonucci, who also co-wrote the script with Rachel Connor, Jono Howard, Mike Kubat, and Stacy Warnick. The story was written by Joel Dickie, Steve Garcia, Jim Miller, Raven Molisee, and Scott Underwood, while the score was written by series composer Patric Caird. The film achieved broad ratings success for Cartoon Network with high delivery gains. ### Home media The first two seasons of Ed, Edd n Eddy were released on DVD by Warner Home Video and Madman Entertainment in 2006 and 2007. The Fools' Par-Ed-Ise DVD, the DVDs of the first two seasons, and several Ed, Edd n Eddy T-shirts were available for purchase on the Cartoon Network Shop. Selected episodes from the series were also featured on various Cartoon Network compilation DVDs. All five seasons of the series, as well as Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show, are available for download on the iTunes Store. The first four seasons were available on Netflix from March 2013 until March 2015. The third season can be downloaded at Google Play. The Eds and Sarah have been free toys in children's meals for Subway. In the United Kingdom the character of Eddy was given away in Kellogg's cereal boxes as one of the Cartoon Network Wobble Heads in 2003. On January 1, 2021, all six seasons were added to the HBO Max streaming service; the single-episode sixth season was combined into the fifth season. The show, along with Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, received a complete series DVD release on October 18, 2022. Amazon Prime added the complete series to its streaming library in December 2022, including the holiday specials and Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show. ### Publications Ed, Edd n Eddy was regularly featured in DC Comics' Cartoon Network Block Party (originally Cartoon Cartoons, the collective name of original Cartoon Network series from 1995 to 2003) comic books, along with other Cartoon Network series. Two books based on the series have been released, both published by Scholastic Inc. in 2005: Ed, Edd n Eddy: Lots of Laughs, written by Jesse Leon McCann, and Ed, Edd n Eddy: Book of Extreme Excuses, written by Howie Dewin. ### Shorts Cartoon Network produced short cartoons involving the Eds which were shown during commercial breaks. A short music video was produced with stylized versions of Ed, Edd, Eddy, and Sarah, entitled "The Incredible Shrinking Day" (listed on the Season 2 DVD as "I'm Not Coming in Anymore"), which aired on Cartoon Network in 2002 and 2003. In the video, Sarah uses a potion to shrink the Eds to a size capable of playing in her dollhouse, with predictable results. Plank starred in a similar video called "My Best Friend Plank," which aired in 2002. ### Video games Four video games based on the series have been produced. Ed, Edd n Eddy: Jawbreakers! was released on September 15, 2003, for the Game Boy Advance. Ed, Edd n Eddy: Giant Jawbreakers was released on March 4, 2004, for mobile phones. Ed, Edd n Eddy: The Mis-Edventures was released in 2005 for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, and Microsoft Windows. The most recent game, Ed, Edd n Eddy: Scam of the Century, was released for the Nintendo DS on October 26, 2007. The games were met with generally mixed reception. Characters and locations from the show appear in other Cartoon Network video games, including 2003's Cartoon Network: Block Party and Cartoon Network Speedway. All three main characters, and the Kanker sisters, appear as non-playable "Nano" characters in the massively multiplayer online game Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall.
62,353,566	Battle of Marshall's Elm	1,156,313,259	1642 skirmish in Somerset prior to the English Civil War	[ "1642 in England", "17th century in Somerset", "Battles of the English Civil Wars", "Conflicts in 1642", "Military history of Somerset" ]	The battle of Marshall's Elm was a skirmish that took place near Street, in the county of Somerset, South West England, on 4 August 1642. The engagement occurred during the build-up to formal beginning of the First English Civil War on 22 August, while the Royalists and Parliamentarians were recruiting men in the county. The Royalists had established their regional headquarters in Wells, but were threatened by superior Parliamentarian numbers in the vicinity. The Royalist commander sent out a mounted patrol consisting of 60 to 80 cavalry and dragoons, which came across a force of between 500 and 600 Parliamentarian recruits travelling north across the Somerset Levels under the command of Sir John Pyne. The Royalists set an ambush at Marshall's Elm, where the road rose out of the Levels into the Polden Hills. After a parley between the leaders was unsuccessful, the Parliamentarians were caught in the ambush. Facing musket fire from the hidden dragoons, and being charged at by the Royalist cavalry, they were routed. The Royalists killed around 27, and took 60 prisoners, including two of the Parliamentarian officers. Despite their victory, the Royalists were forced to withdraw from Wells, and later from Somerset altogether, due to their inferior numbers. ## Background Conflict between the English Parliament and its monarch on religious, fiscal and legislative matters had been ongoing since at least 1603. The tension between Parliament and King Charles escalated sharply during 1642 after the King had attempted to arrest five Members of Parliament, who he accused of treason. In preparation for the likelihood of conflict with Parliament, Charles appointed the Marquess of Hertford as commander of his forces in the West Country, supported by Sir Ralph Hopton, a local Member of Parliament (MP) and an experienced army officer. Both sides were attempting to recruit the existing militia and new men into their armies. Parliament passed the Militia Ordinance in March 1642 without royal assent, granting themselves control of the militia. In response, Charles granted commissions of array to his commanders, a medieval device for levying soldiers which had not been used since 1557. One such commission was issued to Hertford, for the levying of troops in south-west England and south Wales. Hertford chose Wells in Somerset as the Royalists' headquarters in the West Country, and they arrived in the city on 28 July. The decision was based on the fact that Wells housed the county magazine, had Royalist sympathies, and was geographically central within the area. In his 1973 book, Somerset in the Civil War, the historian David Underdown criticises the decision, citing Wells' vulnerable position in the Mendip Hills, and the strong Parliamentarian views held by the majority of Somerset's rural population. Hopton had previously acted as one of the deputy lieutenants for Somerset, making him responsible for training and leading the county's militia. Hopton's standing helped the Royalists' recruiting, but the general population of the county, many of whom were Calvinist Protestants, or worked in industries depressed by royal policies, was more sympathetic towards Parliament than the King. Broadly speaking, the Royalists were more successful in recruiting cavalry and members of the gentry; Hopton, John Digby and Francis Hawley each brought a troop of horse, but attempts to raise an infantry regiment were unsuccessful. In contrast, the Parliamentarians signed up more men, but many of these were untrained and unarmed countrymen. On 30 July 1642, the Parliamentarians, led by William Strode, one of Parliament's deputy lieutenants in Somerset, held a meeting to collect arms at Shepton Mallet, around four miles (6 km) east-southeast of Wells. Hertford sent Hopton with his cavalry to Shepton on 1 August to confront the Parliamentarians, but he had orders to avoid conflict. When Hopton arrived in Shepton, Strode refused to listen to him, and the two scuffled. A crowd of over 1,000 had gathered, and Hopton withdrew and rejoined his cavalry outside the town. There, the Royalists and the countrymen sympathetic to the Parliamentarians faced off without fighting for several hours before the Royalists pulled back to Wells. ## Prelude The success of the Parliamentarians' recruiting left the Royalists in danger of being surrounded in Wells. Sir John Pyne, an MP who had also been appointed as a deputy lieutenant of Somerset by Parliament in March, and Captain John Preston recruited around 400 men from Taunton (around 24 miles (39 km) south-west of Wells), while Captain Sands brought a further 200 from South Petherton. Pyne had orders to bring the men, described as "a few hundred farmers" by Underdown, to Street, where they would rendezvous with Strode. Hertford was wary of his weak position, and on 4 August he sent a mounted patrol out under the command of Sir John Stawell, composed of three troops of cavalry and some dragoons, numbering around 60 to 80 in all. The patrol, which also included several of the Royalist gentry and the experienced soldier Henry Lunsford, rode south through Glastonbury into the Polden Hills. On reaching the village of Marshall's Elm, just over one mile (2 km) south of Street, and around eight miles (13 km) south of Wells, the patrol spotted Pyne's force marching through cornfields about two miles (3 km) away. ## Battle Having approached from the north, the Royalists had the advantage of higher ground, coming down off the Poldens. Marshall's Elm is located in a depression that acted as a pass between Ivy Thorn Hill and Collard Hill, where the road rose out of the Somerset Levels to climb into the hills. Stawell parleyed with the Parliamentarians, telling them that they could avoid conflict if they aborted their march, but to no effect. While Stawell was engaged in his discussion with the Parliamentarians, Lunsford arranged the Royalist troops; the cavalry were behind the brow of the hill, leaving just their heads and weapons visible, to disguise their numbers; fourteen dragoons dismounted and were hidden in quarry pits lower on the hill by the road. He ordered all the men to hold their fire until he led the attack with the dragoons. Pyne initially continued the Parliamentarian march, but then changed his mind. His order to stop was met with complaints from his men, who said that the Royalist force "were but a few horse and would run away", and they continued up the hill. Pyne's men halted occasionally to fire, but Lunsford held the Royalists' fire until the enemy were within 120 paces, when the dragoons returned fire with their muskets and killed the leader of the Parliamentarian vanguard. The Parliamentarians hesitated, unsure of where the attack had come from, and Stawell led the cavalry charge down the hill. The Parliamentarians were routed; seven were killed at Marshall's Elm, and the Royalists chased some of the fleeing men for three miles (5 km), as far as Somerton. They captured sixty prisoners, who they left in Somerton. Among those captured were the two officers, Preston and Sands. As well as the seven killed at the battle, roughly another twenty died of their wounds. ## Aftermath The battle provided both a tactical and strategic victory for the Royalists, leaving Hertford with an escape route from Wells should it be needed. Underdown credits their cavalry strength and leadership for the victory, highlighting that their leaders were "accustomed to command and confident of their ability to defeat larger forces of poorly officered farmers". He was particularly complimentary of Lunsford, and the experience he brought. One of the region's Parliamentarian leaders, John Ashe, said that the battle "very much daunted the honest countryman". Despite their defeat at Marshall's Elm, the Parliamentarians continued to gather men around Wells. Groups congregated from Bristol, Gloucester, Wiltshire and throughout north-east Somerset; a range of cavalry, musketeers and countrymen wielding makeshift weapons such as pitchforks. The force, which numbered around 12,000, crossed the Mendip Hills and reached a slope overlooking Wells on the evening of 5 August. Pyne held joint command of part of the force with Strode. Hertford sent his cavalry to face them, and both groups agreed to a ceasefire until the next day. Overnight, the Parliamentarians' numbers were swelled by further recruits and reinforcements, and Hertford made a sham of negotiating in the morning to cover his retreat; while the Parliamentarian messengers were riding north out of Wells with his 'offer', his men fled south, covered by a cavalry rearguard led by Hopton. After spending two nights in Somerton, the Royalists withdrew out of Somerset altogether, garrisoning Sherborne Castle in Dorset. The First English Civil War formally began on 22 August, when Charles I raised his royal standard in Nottingham. The battle at Marshall's Elm was not the only engagement to predate the formal start of the war, but the historian Peter Gaunt suggests that it was the bloodiest, while another, Charles Carlton, said that Marshall's Elm was the "first real confrontation" of the war.
415,642	Frances Cleveland	1,173,622,057	First Lady of the United States (1886–1889, 1893–1897)	[ "1864 births", "1947 deaths", "19th-century American women", "20th-century American women", "Activists from Buffalo, New York", "Burials at Princeton Cemetery", "First ladies of the United States", "Grover Cleveland family", "Wells College alumni" ]	Frances Clara Cleveland Preston (, christened Frank Clara; July 21, 1864 – October 29, 1947) was the First Lady of the United States from 1886 to 1889 and again from 1893 until 1897, as the wife of President Grover Cleveland. She is the sole first lady in U.S. history to have served in the role during two non-consecutive terms. Folsom met Grover Cleveland while she was an infant, as he was a friend of her father, Oscar Folsom. When her father died in 1875, Grover became the executor of her father's estate. He took care of Oscar's outstanding financial debts and provided for the well-being of Frances and her mother Emma. She was educated at Wells College, and after graduating she married Grover while he was the incumbent president. When her husband lost reelection in 1888, they went into private life for four years and began having children. They returned to the White House when her husband was elected again in 1892, but much of her time in the second term was dedicated to her children. The Clevelands had five children, four of whom survived to adulthood. Cleveland became involved in education advocacy, serving on the Wells College board, supporting women's education, and organizing the construction of kindergartens. She was widowed in 1908, and she married Thomas J. Preston Jr. in 1913. Cleveland-Preston continued to work in education activism after leaving the White House, becoming involved with Princeton University. During World War I, she advocated military preparedness. She died in 1947 and was buried alongside her first husband in Princeton Cemetery. ## Early life ### Childhood Frances Clara Folsom was born in Buffalo, New York on July 21, 1864. She was the first child of Emma (née Harmon) and Oscar Folsom. Her only sibling, Nellie Augusta, died in infancy in 1872. Folsom's father Oscar was a lawyer, who had a law partnership with Grover Cleveland. Because of this, Folsom and Cleveland first met when she was still an infant. He was a regular presence in her childhood, and he bought her her first baby carriage. Although the Folsoms were financially secure when she was born, her father's gambling habits and his penchant for helping others with his money caused them financial trouble as she grew. Folsom attended school at Madame Brecker's French Kindergarten and Miss Bissell's School for Young Ladies, both of which were among Buffalo's best-regarded schools and guaranteed her an education above that of most women in her time. When not in school, she regularly spent time with Cleveland, known to her as "Uncle Cleve". As a child, she went by the name Frank, and she was christened under this name as a teenager. The name sometimes caused her problems when she was assigned to boys' activities in school. Folsom's father died in a carriage accident on July 23, 1875. Cleveland was given charge of his estate and became Folsom's unofficial guardian. Folsom and her mother moved to live with relatives, first with Folsom's aunt in Saint Paul, Minnesota and then with her grandmother in Medina, New York. They eventually returned to Buffalo and lived in different boarding houses until they found a home. ### Wells College When Folsom was 14, she joined the Presbyterian Church, to which she remained devoted throughout her life. She attended Central High School in Buffalo, where she was briefly engaged to a seminary student, but the engagement was broken when they decided to remain friends. Folsom left Central High School in October 1881, before her schooling was finished. Although Folsom had not finished school, Cleveland used his authority as the mayor of Buffalo to obtain for her a certificate of completion and entry into Wells College in Aurora, New York as a sophomore. Here she learned etiquette and manners from Helen Fairchild Smith, and she quickly became a prominent student at the school, taking her place at the center of its social life. At Wells, she became interested in photography and political science, and she participated in the Phoenix Society, a campus debate club. Folsom received two more marriage proposals at Wells, both on the same day. She accepted one of them, but this engagement was also ended by a decision to remain friends. Cleveland, who became governor of New York at this time, maintained correspondence with Folsom while she attended Wells. He visited her, sent her flowers, and brought her on tours of New York when her schedule permitted. Folsom was unable to attend Cleveland's presidential inauguration as it conflicted with her final exams, but she visited him at the White House during spring break some weeks later. Washington, D.C., left a positive impression on her, and she accompanied the new president on his nightly walks in the East Room while she stayed at the White House. Folsom was also permitted to ascend the Washington Monument before its opening, where she met former first lady Harriet Lane. ### Engagement Folsom graduated from Wells on June 20, 1885, and she spent the summer at her grandfather's home in Wyoming County, New York. Cleveland proposed marriage by letter in August 1885, while Folsom was visiting a friend in Scranton, Pennsylvania. After accepting, Folsom accompanied her mother and her cousin on a year-long tour of Europe. Despite Folsom's eagerness to wed, her mother and her future groom both insisted that she take the opportunity to travel and contemplate her future before marriage. Everyone involved agreed to keep the planned wedding a secret, and the president's sister Rose Cleveland served as White House hostess in the meantime. Rumors of their engagement were initially dismissed as gossip, as speculation of the president's love life was common. Popular gossip considered Frances' mother to be a more likely partner. Rumors grew after reporters caught up with the Folsoms and found them shopping for a wedding gown. By the time of the Folsoms' return voyage, reporters were tracking their whereabouts, and they were forced to board their ship home in secret. They were greeted by the press upon returning to the United States, and rumors of Cleveland's interest were seemingly confirmed when representatives of the president took the Folsoms away. It was only the next night that the White House officially announced that the president intended to marry Frances Folsom. Cleveland visited Folsom in New York while he was in the city attending a Decoration Day parade on May 30, 1886, and the Folsom women took a train to Washington, D.C., on June 1. Media attention quickly turned Folsom into a celebrity. ## First Lady of the United States ### Wedding The wedding of Grover Cleveland and Frances Folsom took place in the Blue Room of the White House on June 2, 1886. The president wished for a quiet wedding, so only 31 guests were invited, and the press was explicitly denied entry. Hundreds of well-wishers gathered outside of the White House to celebrate. Frances Cleveland was the first presidential spouse to marry in the White House, and she was the youngest presidential spouse in American history. She was 21 years old, and her groom was 49. After their wedding, the Clevelands went on honeymoon for a week in Deer Park, Maryland, where they were closely followed by reporters who intruded on their privacy. After returning to the White House, they held two wedding receptions, one of which was open to the public. ### First term Frances Cleveland was immediately popular as first lady, attracting unprecedented publicity. They drew enough attention that the Clevelands chose not to use the living quarters of the White House. Instead, they moved to their private residence, the "Red Top", to escape from the public and the media. Each evening, the couple drove to their private home to oversee improvements. Cleveland worked with socialite Flora Payne to better prepare for a role in high society. She also became close friends with poet Richard Watson Gilder and his wife Helena, and Cleveland accompanied them in meeting prominent writers of the time. She stayed involved with Wells College as well, taking a seat on its board of trustees in 1887. Cleveland maintained an openness with the public that was not shared by her husband or by her predecessor Rose Cleveland. To accommodate all who wished to visit the White House, she hosted many social events on Saturdays to ensure that they did not conflict with the schedules of working women. Cleveland received countless letters from the American people, many of them asking her to influence the president's granting of patronage jobs. She read all of the mail that she received, but she sought assistance from the president's secretaries in replying, eventually hiring her friend Minnie Alexander as a personal secretary. Her openness extended to the White House staff as well, with whom she maintained close relationships. Cleveland was credited with an increase in the president's sociability after their marriage. The president set aside time in his busy schedule to be with his wife, attending the theater and going on carriage rides. While Cleveland had considerable influence in their home life, she had little involvement in the political aspects of her husband's administration. Her popularity nonetheless served her husband's administration well. Many of the president's political opponents acknowledged the difficulty of attacking the administration when the first lady had such support, and critics were careful not to attack her directly lest they provoke backlash. She was once even sent as the president's representative during the Great Tariff Debate of 1888 to quietly observe from the visitors' gallery. In 1887, the Clevelands toured the United States. Frances endured a severe insect bite and a black eye, and she spent so much time shaking hands that she needed to use an ice pack each night. Crowds of people became a constant on their trip, often preventing their carriage from moving. Their visit to Chicago was attended by about 100,000 people, with the crowd becoming so large that Cleveland had to be taken away by aides for her own safety while police and soldiers attempted to control the crowd. Cleveland avoided such publicized appearances for the rest of her time as first lady. Toward the end of the president's first term, opponents began crafting rumors to diminish her reputation. One rumor suggested that Grover was abusive toward Frances. In response, Frances praised her husband and harshly condemned the rumor as a political smear. For the first lady to speak so openly about such a topic was unprecedented. Another rumor suggested that she was unfaithful to her husband, having an affair with newspaper editor Henry Watterson. She remained a prominent figure when her husband sought reelection in the 1888 presidential election. The 1888 Democratic National Convention was the first such convention in which a first lady was recognized during a speech. ### Private life Cleveland's tenure as first lady ended after her husband lost his reelection campaign, but she correctly predicted to the staff that they would return the following term. The Clevelands left the White House, sold the Red Top house, and moved to Madison Avenue in New York. Cleveland struggled with the transition from public to private life, having never run a private household of her own. She underwent a period of depression over the following months, and she retreated to the Gilders' cottage in Marion, New York. The Clevelands found a cottage to rent in the area, and they eventually purchased the Gray Gables summer home in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, where the couple developed their own private home life. Here they often hosted close friends, including the Gilders and actor Joseph Jefferson. Cleveland found comfort in this house, where she and her husband could lead a relatively normal life. Despite no longer being the first lady, Cleveland remained in the public spotlight. In between her tenures as first lady, Cleveland took on charity work and grew more involved in New York social life through her charitable projects. Although they occasionally worked together on these projects, Frances and Grover for the most part led separate social lives after leaving the White House. Among her charitable endeavors was the promotion of kindergartens in New York, serving as the vice president of Gilder's New York Kindergarten Association. Frances received further attention when she became a mother with the birth of Ruth Cleveland in 1891. She dedicated herself to the child, taking on many of the roles that a woman of her status would have typically given to a nurse, such as bathing the child. Grover ran for president again in the 1892 presidential election. Although he never approved of it, Frances' image was often used prominently in campaign material. Her social connections and press coverage were valuable for the Cleveland campaign in New York. Her charity work in the state and her friendship with the Gilders enabled the Clevelands to build connections with New York's Four Hundred society and helped win over disaffected Republicans. These factors contributed to Grover winning in his home state, which he had failed to do in 1888. Nonetheless, he disapproved of any involvement his wife had in the political aspects of his career. After Grover was reelected president, the Clevelands left their home on Madison Avenue, spending the period before the inauguration living on 51st Street next door to their friend Elias Cornelius Benedict and then in Lakewood, New Jersey. ### Second term The Clevelands returned to the White House on March 4, 1893. Just as her husband was the only man to ever hold the presidency for two non-consecutive terms, Frances became the only first lady to serve non-consecutively. She was more apprehensive about taking the role for a second time, now being aware of all that it entailed. Her routine largely resembled that of her first tenure, including her evening drives with the president and her Saturday receptions. She received the familiar crowds that she had encountered during her previous time as first lady as well as heads of state, including one instance in which she disregarded precedent by meeting with Infanta Eulalia of Spain at her hotel. She also continued her work in the establishment of kindergartens and became involved with the Home for Friendless Colored Girls, visiting the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church with the group in 1896. Cleveland became increasingly protective of her husband during his second term—a reversal of their relationship in his first term. The president's work grew more difficult as the Panic of 1893 set in, and Cleveland found herself tending to her husband. The president's health was in decline during his second term, and his wife became increasingly responsible for his well-being, encouraging him to exert himself less. When it became apparent that the president had cancer, she took responsibility for keeping his condition a secret and tending to his health, despite her pregnancy with her second child, which at this time was in its seventh month. She provided excuses for his absences and wrote letters on his behalf, insisting that he was merely suffering from rheumatism. Cleveland had two more daughters as first lady: Esther Cleveland in 1893 and Marion Cleveland in 1895. She gave birth to Esther in the White House, making her the only first lady to give birth in the presidential residence. Much of her time was dedicated to raising her three children, and she would even play on the floor with her children, to the shock of the servants who had never before seen a first lady act in such a manner. Cleveland also took an interest in German culture during her husband's second term, learning to speak the language and hiring a German nurse so her children would learn it as well. Cleveland's time was split between her responsibilities as first lady and those as a mother. Her second term was not as socially active as her first, and she hosted only one reception in the 1894 social season. The Clevelands were upset at the extent of press and public attention focused on their children, and they controversially had the White House closed to the public while they were present. They purchased another private residence, Woodley, where they could live away from the White House. Harassment from the public continued at their new residence, and Cleveland was particularly frightened by an incident in 1894 when three men were stalking their home. Fearing for her children's safety, she had the local police station post a guard at their home, choosing not to worry her husband with the news. Three thousand people attended the first lady's final Saturday reception to shake her hand. Cleveland wept as she left the White House, personally saying goodbye to each member of the White House staff. This organized farewell would be replicated by future first ladies, becoming a tradition. Despite her emotional departure, she later expressed relief that she was no longer first lady, remembering the rumors and falsehoods that had surrounded her. ## Widowhood and remarriage After leaving the White House for the second time, the Clevelands bought Westland, a house in Princeton, New Jersey. They had two more children over the following years: Richard F. Cleveland and Francis Cleveland. Their firstborn daughter, Ruth, died of diphtheria in 1904 at their Gray Gables vacation home. Wishing to avoid memories of their child's illness and death, they sold the home and purchased Intermont, a summer home in Tamworth, New Hampshire. The Clevelands involved themselves with Princeton University and provided financial support for many Princeton students. Grover died in 1908, and Frances was left to raise their four remaining children alone. She refused the pension to which she was legally entitled as a widowed first lady, but she did accept the franking privilege that was offered to presidential widows in 1909. In March 1909, she held a memorial service for her husband at Carnegie Hall. After her husband's death, Cleveland became involved in a legal battle against writer Broughton Brandenburg, who had been paid by The New York Times for an article supposedly written by Grover Cleveland before his death, but which was found to be a forgery created by Brandenburg. She was unable to prevent its publication after she discovered that it was fraudulent. She testified against Brandenburg in court, and he was found guilty of grand larceny. The ordeal made national headlines. Still grieving for her husband, Cleveland spent time away on a vacation to Europe with her family from September 1909 to May 1910. On October 29, 1912, Wells College announced that Cleveland intended to remarry. She was engaged to Thomas J. Preston Jr., professor of archaeology and acting president at Wells College, where she served as a trustee. She was invited to return to the White House for a dinner to celebrate her engagement in January 1913, much to the excitement of the staff who had known her previously. As with her previous engagement decades before, she was secretive about the process to limit media attention. Both Wells College and Princeton University congratulated them with the expectation that the couple would be active at their respective campuses. Frances Cleveland and Thomas Preston were wed on February 10, 1913. She was the first presidential widow to remarry. After their marriage, the Prestons went on honeymoon in Florida. Her second husband went on to teach at Princeton University, where she continued to be a prominent figure in campus social life. ## Later life The Prestons moved to London in April 1914. Frances Cleveland-Preston was vacationing with her children and her mother in St. Moritz, Switzerland, when World War I began in August 1914. They returned to the United States via Genoa, arriving on October 1. Cleveland-Preston and her husband worked with activists Solomon Stanwood Menken and Robert McNutt McElroy throughout the war to promote military preparedness. She was appointed head of the speakers' bureau of the National Security League (NSL), where she was responsible for organizing rallies and other events to support the war effort. She caused controversy by accusing some Americans of being unassimilated, and she resigned from her position on December 8, 1919, after backlash to what some in the NSL saw as overzealous views around patriotic education. Cleveland-Preston became more outspoken in her political beliefs as she grew older, taking a prominent position as an opponent of women's suffrage and serving as the vice president of the New Jersey Association Opposed to Woman's Suffrage from 1913 to 1920. In the 1928 presidential election, she gave her only formal political endorsement to someone other than her first husband, endorsing Al Smith for president. She had met the Smiths and grew upset with the anti-Catholic attacks against them. She was especially sympathetic to his wife Catherine, and Cleveland-Preston made a point of sitting with her at events as a show of support. Cleveland-Preston supported Franklin D. Roosevelt as president in 1932, and she admired his wife Eleanor Roosevelt, but she declined to vote for Roosevelt in 1940 due to her first husband's opposition to a third term. She subsequently supported Harry S. Truman. During the Truman presidency, she was invited to a luncheon at the White House where she met General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower is quoted as not recognizing her and asking where in the city she used to live, prompting her to respond that she had lived in the White House. Later in life, Cleveland-Preston was afflicted by cataracts, and she learned Braille to use a braille typewriter. She continued to use it after her cataracts were removed, translating books into braille for blind children. She was involved with the theater community in her old age, sometimes traveling with the theater troupe founded by her son. Cleveland-Preston attended the Princeton University bicentennial celebration in June 1946, which proved to be her final public appearance. While staying at her son Richard's home for his 50th birthday in Baltimore, she died in her sleep at the age of 83 on October 29, 1947. She was buried in Princeton Cemetery next to President Cleveland, her first husband. ## Legacy Cleveland was much-loved as first lady, drawing an unprecedented level of media and public attention. Her travels and activities were meticulously documented by reporters, to the president's ire. The furor at times even became dangerous, with large crowds pushing to see her, threatening to topple into her and one another. Her presence in the White House mitigated her husband's surly reputation and fostered an image of the president as a loving husband, and later as a loving father. Cleveland's reputation influenced the role of first lady for generations after her tenure. The form letters used by Cleveland as first lady remained in use, eventually being redrafted by Eleanor Roosevelt. In honor of Frances Cleveland, Cleveland Hall was constructed in 1911 on the Wells College campus. Contemporaries ranked her among the greatest of first ladies. In 1982, the Siena College Research Institute polled historians on the performances of first ladies; Cleveland was placed 13th out of 42, but the 2008 edition of the poll placed her 20th of 38. ### Fashion and image Much of Cleveland's fame and media coverage focused on her appearance and her fashion, and her fashion choices were widely imitated by women throughout the United States. These included her hairstyle, a low knot over a shaved nape, which became known as the á la Cleveland. Her fashion choices and purchases influenced the behavior of consumers, and products she reportedly used enjoyed an increase in popularity. An article published by the Atlanta Constitution falsely stated that she no longer purchased bustles, causing a decline in their popularity. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union wrote to her requesting that she dress more modestly, fearing that she was setting a poor example. She declined to do so. Cleveland's immense popularity led to the extensive use of her image in advertising, and many products falsely claimed to have her endorsement. It became such a problem that a bill was introduced to Congress that would establish personality rights for women and criminalize the unauthorized use of a person's image, but the bill did not pass. Cleveland updated her fashion choices during her husband's second term. Reflecting the trends of the Gay Nineties, she wore tight gowns, feather boas, and picture hats. News articles on her activities continued to reference her sense of fashion in her old age. ### Politics Although she was personally interested in politics, Cleveland did not publicly support political causes while serving as first lady. One exception to her avoidance of politics was her interest in the political situation of the Republic of Hawaii, where she endorsed the restoration of monarchy with Princess Ka'iulani's claim to the throne as the heir apparent. She also supported the temperance movement, personally abstaining from alcohol and donating to the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, but she was unwilling to impose these beliefs on others and continued to serve wine at White House receptions. Instead of political activism, she worked with charity groups, including the Needlework Guild, which made clothes for the poor, and the Christmas Club and the Colored Christmas Club, which gave gifts to children during the holiday season. Cleveland's activism focused heavily on the arts, and she was a supporter of international copyright protections, attending a convention on the subject while first lady in 1888. She also provided charitable support, sponsoring many aspiring musicians. Cleveland supported women's education and believed it to be an important step in gender equality. She did not support women's suffrage, and she avoided commenting on the controversial issue during her tenure as first lady. Like many female anti-suffragists of her generation, she felt that involvement in politics was an unfortunate duty to be avoided and that it risked women's control of the domestic sphere. Despite this, she chose to vote in elections after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.
2,192,476	Battle of Prokhorovka	1,172,316,631	Part of Battle of Kursk, World War II (1943)	[ "1943 in the Soviet Union", "Battles and operations of the Soviet–German War", "Battles of World War II involving Germany", "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 Prokhorovka was fought on 12 July 1943 near Prokhorovka, 87 kilometres (54 mi) southeast of Kursk, in the Soviet Union, during the Second World War. Taking place on the Eastern Front, the engagement was part of the wider Battle of Kursk and occurred when the 5th Guards Tank Army of the Soviet Red Army attacked the II SS-Panzer Corps of the German Waffen-SS in one of the largest tank battles in history. In April 1943, the German leadership began preparing for Operation Citadel, with the objective of enveloping and destroying the Soviet forces in the Kursk salient by attacking and breaking through the base of the salient from north and south simultaneously. The German offensive was delayed several times because of the vacillation of the leadership (Hitler repeatedly delayed launching the attack so that more Tiger tanks could be delivered to the front, hoping that a technical advantage would help him win the offensive) and the addition of more forces and new equipment. The Soviet high command, Stavka, had learned of the German intentions and so used the delay to prepare a series of defensive belts along the routes of the planned German offensive. The Soviet leadership also massed several armies deep behind their defences as the Stavka Reserve. The army group, the Steppe Front, was to launch counteroffensives once the German strength had dissipated. The 5th Guards Tank Army was the primary armoured formation of the Steppe Front. On 5 July 1943, the Wehrmacht launched its offensive. On the northern side of the salient, the German forces bogged down within four days. On the southern side, the German 4th Panzer Army, with Army Detachment Kempf on its eastern flank, attacked the Soviet defences of the Voronezh Front. They made slow but steady progress through the Soviet defensive lines. After a week of fighting, the Soviets launched their counteroffensives: Operation Kutuzov on the northern side and a coinciding one on the southern side. On the southern side of the salient near Prokhorovka, the 5th Guards Tank Army engaged the II SS-Panzer Corps of the 4th Panzer Army, resulting in a large clash of armoured fighting vehicles. The 5th Guards Tank Army suffered significant losses in the attack, but succeeded in preventing the Wehrmacht from capturing Prokhorovka and breaking through the third defensive belt, the last heavily fortified one. Having failed to achieve his objective, Hitler, despite the advice of his commanders, cancelled Operation Citadel and began redeploying his forces to deal with new pressing developments elsewhere. The Red Army went on a general offensive by conducting Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev on the southern side and continuing Operation Kutuzov on the northern side. The Soviet Union thus seized the strategic initiative on the Eastern Front, which it held for the rest of the war. ## Background After the conclusion of the battle for the Donets, as the spring rasputitsa (mud) season came to an end in 1943, both the German and Soviet commands considered their plans for future operations. The Soviet premier Joseph Stalin and some senior Soviet officers wanted to seize the initiative first and attack the German forces inside the Soviet Union, but they were convinced by a number of key commanders, including the Deputy Supreme Commander Georgy Zhukov, to assume a defensive posture instead. This would allow the German side to weaken themselves in attacking prepared positions, after which the Soviet forces would be able to respond with a counteroffensive. Strategic discussions also occurred on the German side, with Field Marshal Erich von Manstein arguing for a mobile defence that would give up terrain and allow the Soviet units to advance, while the German forces launched a series of sharp counterattacks against their flanks to inflict heavy attrition. But for political reasons, German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler insisted that the German forces go on the offensive, choosing the Kursk salient for the attack. On 15 April 1943 he authorised preparations for Unternehmen Zitadelle (Operation Citadel). The German offensive plan envisioned an assault at the base of the Kursk salient from both the north and south, with the intent of enveloping and destroying the Soviet forces in the salient. The two spearheads were to meet near the city of Kursk. From the south, the XXXXVIII Panzer Corps and General Paul Hausser's II SS-Panzer Corps, forming the left and right wings of the 4th Panzer Army commanded by Colonel General Hermann Hoth, would drive northward. The III Panzer Corps of Army Detachment Kempf was to protect Hoth's right flank. The 4th Panzer Army and Army Detachment Kempf were under Army Group South, commanded by von Manstein. Air support over the southern portion of the offensive was provided by Colonel General Otto Deßloch's Luftflotte 4 and its major air formation, the 8th Air Corps. The German offensive, originally slated to commence in the beginning of May, was postponed several times as the German leadership reconsidered and vacillated over its prospects, as well as to bring forward more units and equipment. The Soviet leadership, through their intelligence agencies and foreign sources, learned about the German intentions, and therefore the multiple delays by the German high command, the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), allowed them a great deal of time to prepare their defences. Employing defence in depth, they constructed a series of defensive lines to wear down the attacking panzer formations. Three belts made up of extensive minefields, anti-tank ditches, and anti-tank gun emplacements were created; behind those were an additional three belts, which were mostly unoccupied and less fortified. The Voronezh Front, commanded by General Nikolai Vatutin, defended the southern face of the salient. The Steppe Front, commanded by Colonel General Ivan Konev, formed the strategic reserve. It was to be held back east of the salient until the time was right for the Soviet counteroffensive. This formation included Lieutenant General Aleksey Zhadov's 5th Guards Army and Lieutenant General Pavel Rotmistrov's 5th Guards Tank Army. ### German advance leading up to Prokhorovka The Heer launched its attack on the morning of 5 July 1943 and met heavy resistance. There were far more Soviet anti-tank guns, minefields, anti-tank ditches and overall Soviet resistance than had been anticipated, making a breakthrough more difficult to achieve. Furthermore, from the outset they were subjected to frequent counterattacks from Soviet tank units. Despite this, by the end of 5 July the II SS-Panzer Corps had advanced through the first defensive belt on the southern side of the salient and reached the second, although the plan was to breach the first two belts and reach the third on the first day. Nonetheless, the panzer corps' penetration caused great concern among Soviet commanders, compelling Vatutin to commit almost all of the Voronezh Front's operational reserves by the end of the first day. The III Panzer Corps met with stiff resistance as well and had great difficulty creating and maintaining a bridgehead across the Northern Donets River. They eventually succeeded by the morning of 6 July, but the delay in their advance kept them from protecting the east flank of the II SS-Panzer Corps. Late on 6 July, the 5th Guards Tank and 5th Guards Armies of the Steppe Front began moving up from their reserve position. The 5th Guards Tank Army covered the 320–390 kilometres (200–240 mi) over three days, and arrived at the Prokhorovka area on the night of 9 July, and the 5th Guards Army's 33rd Guards Rifle Corps arrived at the settlement on the night of 10 July. Both armies completed their journey and deployment intact without any substantial interference from the Luftwaffe. Slow progress by the XXXXVIII Panzer Corps caused Hoth to shift elements of the II SS-Panzer Corps on 8 July to aid the XXXXVIII Corps' drive towards Oboyan and Kursk. On the same day, the Soviet units counterattacked the II SS-Panzer Corps with several tank corps. These attacks did not destroy the panzer corps as hoped, but slowed its progress. By the end of 8 July, the II SS-Panzer Corps had advanced about 29 kilometres (18 mi) and broken through the first and second defensive belts. On the following day, 9 July, a meeting of the commanders of the German forces on the northern side of the Kursk salient concluded that a breakthrough on the northern side of the salient was unlikely. Nevertheless, they decided to continue their offensive to maintain pressure and inflict casualties, thereby tying down the Soviet forces there. Any level of success for Operation Citadel now depended on a breakthrough being achieved by the 4th Panzer Army and Army Detachment Kempf on the southern side of the Kursk salient. ### German attack towards Prokhorovka On the evening of 9 July, the II SS-Panzer Corps was ordered to shift its own forward progress, from due north to the northeast, towards the settlement of Prokhorovka. Hoth had formulated this move, and had discussed it with Manstein since early May, as he expected large Soviet armoured reserve forces to arrive from the east, and he did not want his corps to be caught crossing the Psel River when they arrived. The plan originally envisioned elements of the XXXXVIII Panzer Corps and III Panzer Corps joining in the attack towards Prokhorovka, but this could not be realised. The Soviet command, however, interpreted the change in direction to be a response to the heavy resistance the German forces had faced driving towards Oboyan, and incorrectly believed the change indicated the German panzer forces had been severely weakened. Soviet intelligence reports issued from 8 to 9 July reported that defensive works were being constructed by German infantry on the flanks of the 4th Panzer Army, and that German armoured formations were not present in these locations, despite the fact that Soviet armoured formations were situated opposite these flanks. Voronezh Front headquarters supposed the Germans must be reaching their limit, and on 10 July decided to set its counterattack to coincide with the planned Soviet counteroffensive on the northern side of the Kursk salient, Operation Kutuzov, which was set for 12 July. Starting on the morning of 10 July, the II SS-Panzer Corps began its attack towards Prokhorovka. Its 3rd SS-Panzergrenadier Division Totenkopf attacked across the Psel River and secured a bridgehead. The 1st SS-Panzergrenadier Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler captured Komsomolets State Farm and Hill 241.6. The 2nd SS-Panzergrenadier Division Das Reich defended the panzer corps' flank from Soviet armoured counterattacks. The II SS-Panzer Corps continued its attack towards Prokhorovka on 11 July. The advance of Leibstandarte was checked by the 2nd Tank Corps, which had been reinforced by the 9th Guards Airborne Division and 301st Anti-Tank Artillery Regiment, both from the 33rd Guards Rifle Corps. Totenkopf was resisted by the 31st Tank Corps, the 33rd Guards Rifle Corps' 95th Guards Rifle Division, and the 11th Motorised Rifle Brigade of the 10th Tank Corps. To the south of Leibstandarte, the 2nd Guards Tank Corps and the 48th Rifle Corps' 183rd Rifle Division opposed the advance of Das Reich. By day's end on 11 July Leibstandarte had advanced deep into the Soviet third defensive belt. They had moved up the Psel corridor, cleared Soviet resistance at the Oktyabrsky ("October") State Farm (Russian: Совхоз Октябрьский), crossed a 15-foot (4.6 m)-deep anti-tank ditch at the base of Hill 252.2 and seized the hill itself after a brief but bloody battle, leaving them only 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) south of Prokhorovka. To its northwest, the panzergrenadiers of Totenkopf had achieved a bridgehead across the Psel and tanks had been brought across, but they had yet to take Hill 226.6 and there was a 5-kilometre (3.1 mi) gap between Totenkopf and Leibstandarte. To the south of Leibstandarte, Das Reich had also met stiff resistance and lagged behind some 4 kilometres (2.5 mi). With its advance, Leibstandarte‍ was exposed on both of its flanks. Late on 11 July the 5th Guards Tank Army prepared for its forthcoming counterattack. Leibstandarte's advance had disrupted Rotmistrov's preparations, as the assembly areas he intended to use for the tank army's 18th and 29th Tank Corps were in German hands by the end of the day, forcing him to hastily revise his plans and select new positions. The arrival of the 5th Guards Tank Army just days earlier was detrimental to it in two major ways: the tank unit commanders did not have an opportunity to reconnoitre the terrain they would be travelling across, and the supporting artillery was unable to site and spot their fire. ## Planning ### German plans for 12 July Late on the evening of 11 July, Hausser, the commander of the II SS-Panzer Corps, issued orders for the next day's advance on Prokhorovka. It was known that the Red Army had dug in many anti-tank guns on the southwest slopes of Prokhorovka, making a direct attack by Leibstandarte very difficult. The plan was for Totenkopf to capture Hill 226.6, and advance northeast along the Psel River to the Kartashyovka–Prokhorovka road, and then strike southeast into the flank and rear of Soviet forces at Prokhorovka. Leibstandarte was ordered to make a limited advance and secure Storozhevoe and Lamki just outside Prokhorovka, then it and Das Reich were to wait until Totenkopf's attack had disrupted the Soviet positions, after which Leibstandarte was to attack the main Soviet defences on the southwest slope of Prokhorovka. To Leibstandarte's right, elements of Das Reich were also to advance eastward to the high ground south of Prokhorovka, then turn south away from Prokhorovka to roll up the Soviet defences opposing the III Panzer Corps' advance and force a gap. The 8th Air Corps was to concentrate its effort to supporting the advance of the II SS-Panzer Corps, with the XXXXVIII Panzer Corps to the west assigned limited air resources. ### Soviet plans for 12 July The 5th Guards Army and 5th Guards Tank Army of the Steppe Front had been brought up from reserve and reassigned to the Voronezh Front on 8 and 11 July respectively. On 11 July, Vatutin ordered the armies of the Voronezh Front to go over to the offensive on the following day. This Soviet counterattack on the southern side of the Kursk salient was planned to coincide with the offensive against Oryol on the northern side, Operation Kutuzov. Vatutin ordered Rotmistrov to destroy the German forces near Prokhorovka with his 5th Guards Tank Army, without allowing the German forces to withdraw southward. For the battle, Rotmistrov ordered his tanks to move forward at high speed to engage the German armour in order to nullify the advantages the Tiger tanks had in the range and firepower of their 88 mm guns. He believed the more manoeuvrable T-34 medium tanks would be able to quickly close in and obtain effective flanking shots against the German heavy tanks. In fact, Soviet intelligence had greatly overestimated the numbers of Ferdinand Jagdpanzer tank destroyers and Tiger tanks possessed by the II SS-Panzer Corps. In actuality there were no Ferdinands with the 4th Panzer Army or Army Group South, as they were all deployed on the northern side of the Kursk salient with the 9th Army. Soviet tank crews frequently mistook the versions of Panzer IV tanks that were armed with the 7.5 cm KwK 40 anti-tank gun, which also had extra armour added to their turret, for Tigers; therefore Soviet reports tended to overestimate the number of Tigers employed by the German side during the Battle of Kursk. Soviet air support in the southern part of the salient was provided by the 2nd Air Army and the 17th Air Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Stepan Krasovsky and Lieutenant General Vladimir Sudets, respectively. However, the bulk of the air support was committed in support of Soviet units attacking the XXXXVIII Panzer Corps to the west of Prokhorovka and the III Panzer Corps to the southeast, and only limited numbers of aircraft were available to support 5th Guards Tank Army's attack. Rotmistrov's plans for a counterattack were threatened by events to the south. The III Panzer Corps managed to cross the Northern Donets at Rzhavets on the night of 11 July, and was about 18 kilometres (11 mi) southeast of Prokhorovka, and advancing northwards. This threat jeopardised Rotmistrov's entire plan by threatening the flank and rear of the 5th Guards Tank Army. Early on 12 July, Vatutin ordered Rotmistrov to send reinforcements to the Soviet 7th Guards and 69th Armies facing the III Panzer Corps. He organised a task force under the command of his deputy, Major General Kuzma Trufanov, which consisted of the 26th Guards Tank Brigade from the 2nd Guards Tank Corps, the 11th and 12th Guards Mechanised Brigades from the 5th Guards Mechanised Corps, and the 53rd Guards Tank Regiment of the 5th Guards Tank Army. Other units of the Voronezh Front also joined the group on its way south. In doing so, Rotmistrov committed over half of his army's reserves before the Battle of Prokhorovka had begun. ## Opposing forces ### Disposition of German forces The German forces involved in the Battle of Prokhorovka were from the three Waffen-SS divisions of the II SS-Panzer Corps: Leibstandarte, Das Reich, and Totenkopf. On the evening of 11 July, the serviceable armour strength of the II SS-Panzer Corps was 294 tanks and assault guns, which included 15 Tigers. The armoured strength of Leibstandarte, Das Reich, and Totenkopf were 77, 95, and 122 tanks and assault guns respectively. Ten of the Tigers were to the north of the Psel River with Totenkopf, four were with Leibstandarte, and Das Reich had just one. Leibstandarte had advanced the most deeply towards Prokhorovka and was situated in the centre of the German position. A railway line, with a 30-feet high railbed, divided Leibstandarte's area into north and south. The bulk of the division was positioned to the north of the rail line, including the division's 1st SS-Panzer Regiment and 2nd SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment, as well as its reconnaissance, artillery and command units. To the south of the rail line was Leibstandarte's 1st SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment, along with the division's 1st SS-Panzerjäger Battalion. Das Reich was positioned to the south of Leibstandarte, and it protected the southern flank of the II SS-Panzer Corps. Totenkopf was positioned to the northwest of Leibstandarte. Totenkopf's 3rd SS-Panzer Regiment had largely crossed over the Psel in preparation for the assault. Leibstandarte placed its lightly armed 1st SS-Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion in the 5-kilometre (3.1 mi) gap between it and Totenkopf to provide some flank protection. The unit was, later on 12 July, buttressed by the division's four remaining Tigers, commanded by SS-Untersturmführer Michael Wittmann. ### Disposition of Soviet forces The main Soviet armoured formation involved in the battle was the 5th Guards Tank Army, which controlled five corps, two of which were Guards units, by 12 July: the 2nd Guards, 2nd, 5th Guards Mechanised, 18th and 29th Tank Corps. Altogether they fielded 793 tanks and 37 to 57 self-propelled guns for a total of approximately 840 armoured fighting vehicles. About two-thirds of these tanks were T-34s, while the remainder were T-70 light tanks, with some 31 to 35 Churchill heavy tanks as well. Not all of the 5th Guards Tank Army was present in the Prokhorovka area during the battle, as part of the formation had been sent south to check the advance of the III Panzer Corps. The Soviet armour of the 5th Guards Tank Army – including the newly attached 2nd Guards Tank Corps and 2nd Tank Corps, as well as the 5th Guards Mechanised Corps held in reserve – that faced the II SS-Panzer Corps on 12 July was about 616 tanks and self-propelled guns. In addition, five artillery regiments, one artillery brigade, and one anti-aircraft artillery division were attached to the 5th Guards Tank Army for the assault. The main attack of the 5th Guards Tank Army was conducted against Leibstandarte by its fresh 29th and 18th Tank Corps that had been brought up from the Soviet strategic reserve. These two Soviet tank corps together provided the greatest number of tanks in the attack, with the 18th Tank Corps fielding 190 tanks and self-propelled guns, and the 29th Tank Corps fielding 212 tanks and self-propelled guns. Infantry support to the 18th and 29th Tank Corps was provided by the 9th Guards Airborne Division. A portion of the 18th Tank Corps was directed against the eastern flank of Totenkopf's 6th SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment Theodor Eicke. On the southeastern wing of the 5th Guards Tank Army, Rotmistrov deployed the 120 tanks of the 2nd Guards Tank Corps. Later on 12 July during the battle, the 26th Guards Tank Brigade of that tank corps with its estimated 40 tanks were sent south to face the III Panzer Corps. The remainder of the 2nd Guards Tank Corps, supported by the remnants of the 2nd Tank Corps, was to attack Das Reich. Their infantry support was provided by the 183rd Rifle Division. The western flank of the 5th Guards Tank Army, which faced Totenkopf, was defended by the 33rd Guards Rifle Corps' 42nd and 95th Guards Rifle Divisions, which were supported by the remnants of the 31st Tank Corps and the heavily depleted 23rd Guards Rifle Corps' 52nd Guards Rifle Division. The forces of the 5th Guards Mechanised Corps that were not sent south were held as reserve northwest of Prokhorovka, and they numbered about 113 tanks and self-propelled guns. Vatutin directed Soviet air assets to commit their main effort towards checking the III Panzer Corps' drive northward, and in supporting the attack against the XXXXVIII Panzer Corps. Missions were flown in support of the attack of the 5th Guards Tank Army as well, but to a limited extent. The 2nd Air Army had some 472 aircraft operational on 12 July, while the 17th Air Army had 300 operational aircraft. ## Battle At 05:45 on 12 July, Leibstandarte's headquarters started receiving reports of the sound of many tank engines as the Soviet tanks moved into their assembly areas for the attack. At around 06:50, elements of Leibstandarte's 1st SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment nudged forward and drove the Soviet infantry out of Storozhevoe, while elements of the division's 2nd SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment fanned out from the Oktyabrsky State Farm. The Soviet forces began a preparatory artillery barrage at around 08:00, and as the last shells fell at 08:30, Rotmistrov radioed the code words "Stal! Stal! Stal!" ("Steel, Steel, Steel!") – the order to commence the attack. With that the Soviet armour of the 5th Guards Tank Army began their advance. ### Ground engagement In total, about 500 tanks and self-propelled guns of the 5th Guards Tank Army attacked the positions of the II SS-Panzer Corps on 12 July, doing so in two waves, with 430 tanks in the first echelon and 70 more in the second. Down from the slopes in front of Prokhorovka, the massed Soviet armour charged with five tank brigades of the 18th and 29th Tank Corps, firing as they came at Leibstandarte's positions. As the Soviet tanks rolled down the slopes, they carried the men of the 9th Guards Airborne Division on their hulls ("tank desant"). The troops of Leibstandarte were not slated to go into action until later in the day. Exhausted from the previous week's fighting, many were just starting their day at the outset of the attack. As the Soviet armour appeared, German outposts all across the corps' frontage began firing purple warning flares signalling a tank attack. Obersturmbannführer Rudolf von Ribbentrop, commander of a panzer company under the 1st SS-Panzer Regiment, stated that he knew at once a major attack was underway. He ordered his company of seven Panzer IVs to follow him over a bridge across an anti-tank ditch. Crossing the bridge they fanned out on the lower slope of Hill 252.2. On the crest of the hill, Sturmbannführer Joachim Peiper's 3rd Panzergrenadier Battalion of the 2nd SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment were being overrun. As Ribbentrop's tanks spread out, he and the 1st SS-Panzer Regiment were suddenly confronted by Soviet tanks of the 29th Tank Corps' 31st and 32nd Tank Brigades: "About 150–200 meters in front of me appeared fifteen, then thirty, then forty tanks. Finally there were too many of them to count." The Soviet armour, firing on the move, charged down the western slopes of Hill 252.2 into the panzer company, and a tank battle ensued. Rotmistrov's tactic to close at high speed disrupted the control and co-ordination of the Soviet tank formations and also greatly reduced their accuracy. In a three-hour battle, the 1st SS-Panzer Regiment engaged the attacking Soviet tanks and repulsed them, reporting that they destroyed about 62 Soviet tanks. Later that afternoon, tanks from the 31st Tank Brigade and the 53rd Motorised Brigade overran elements of the 1st SS-Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion and reached Komsomolets State Farm, threatening Leibstandarte's lines of communication and the division's command post located at Hill 241.6. The Soviet tanks attacked the division's 1st SS-Panzer Artillery Regiment, killing some of the crews before they themselves were destroyed by direct fire from anti-tank teams. Wittmann's group of four Tigers provided support to the reconnaissance battalion in its effort to protect Leibstandarte's left flank, and faced off with the 18th Tank Corps' advancing 181st Tank Brigade. In a three-hour battle the Tigers engaged the Soviet tanks at ranges from 1,000 metres down to point-blank, inflicting heavy losses on the Soviet tankers and successfully repelling their attack. None of the Tigers were lost. Later, elements of the 170th Tank Brigade engaged the 1st SS-Panzer Regiment, which was already fighting the 31st and 32nd Tank Brigades. Despite losing its commander and about 30 tanks in the fight, by early afternoon the 170th Tank Brigade had forced the 1st SS-Panzer Regiment back to the Oktyabrsky State Farm and reached the position of the 1st SS-Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion. At around 18:00, the 170th and 181st Tank Brigades penetrated the German line connecting Totenkopf and Leibstandarte. Assault guns and panzers supporting Totenkopf's 6th SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment Theodor Eicke repelled the Soviet attack and re-established the line, forcing the Soviet tanks to withdraw to the village of Andreyevka. The advance of Soviet armour down Hill 252.2 was disrupted when they reached the anti-tank ditch at the base of the hill. A number of tanks crashed into the 15-foot deep ditch while others moved along the edge looking for a way to cross. Heavy fire was exchanged between the Soviet tanks and two companies of a panzergrenadier battalion on the opposite side of the ditch. Peiper's surviving panzergrenadiers engaged the Soviet infantry and attacked the Soviet tanks with Hafthohlladung magnetic anti-tank grenades. Twenty of his battalion's half-tracks were lost in the fighting, some destroyed in ramming the much heavier Soviet tanks in an effort to stop them. Eventually, due to heavy Soviet pressure and dangerously exposed flanks, Leibstandarte withdrew from the Oktyabrsky State Farm and established firmer defensive lines 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) to the south. ### Air combat The 2nd and 17th Air Armies flew 893 sorties compared to the German 8th Air Corps's 654 sorties over the southern part of the salient. Of note, most of the Soviet sorties flown that day were flown against the XXXXVIII Panzer Corps to the west and the III Panzer Corps to the south. Low clouds in the morning and thunderstorms in the afternoon inhibited air operations over Prokhorovka for both sides. Over the Prokhorovka battlefield the Luftwaffe gained control of the air. Formations of Junkers Ju 87 Stukas, including a small number of the G-2 variants, experimentally equipped with twin 3.7 cm (1.5 in) Bordkanone BK 3,7 cannon in gun pods, that were commanded by Staffelkapitän Hans-Ulrich Rudel, attacked the Soviet formations. They were joined by Focke-Wulf Fw 190 single engine fighter-bombers and Henschel Hs 129 twin-engined ground-attack aircraft, both equipped with 30 mm (1.2 in) anti-tank cannon. In particular, the Hs 129 formations from SG 1 inflicted grievous losses on Soviet tanks. The Stuka wings, StG 2 and StG 77, made their weakest contribution to the Kursk operation since the 5 July – 150 sorties – down from 1,071 on 5 July, but the small Ju 87G contingent proved effective. Luftwaffe liaison officers allotted to German ground forces were able to guide the close air support units to carry out pinpoint attacks. SG 1 and Panzerjägerstaffel/JG 51 flew 248 attack missions, virtually all of them in support of the II SS-Panzer Corps. The 31st Tank Brigade, 29th Tank Corps, reported: "We suffered heavy losses in tanks through enemy artillery and aircraft. At 10:30 our tanks reached the Komsomolets State Farm, but due to continuous air attacks, they were unable to advance any further and shifted to the defence." The tank brigade also reported: "our own air cover was fully absent until 13:00." The 5th Guards Tank Army reported: "the enemy's aircraft literally hung above our combat formations throughout the entire battle, while our own aircraft, and particularly the fighter aviation, was totally insufficient." The 36th Tank Brigade lost its commander to an air attack. German domination of the Prokhorovka air space occurred for several reasons. During the initial stages of the battle it was Soviet tanks that were hit and burned, obscuring the battlefield which made it difficult for Soviet commanders to develop a clear picture of the situation. Added to that was the failure to provide air liaison officers with Red Army forces, who were then unable to call for air support when the German assault formations first appeared. Whereas the German 8th Air Corps assembled powerful concentrations over the Prokhorovka battlefield, the 17th Air Army spread its forces thinly, to support other sectors; the Soviets dominated the air over the 4th Panzer Army's flanks, leaving the skies over Prokhorovka clear. The 2nd Air Army's fighter aviation had been reduced to 266 aircraft, and this force was used in the fighter escort, not the air superiority role. The battle of Prokhorovka absorbed the 8th Air Corps' combat power to the extent it was unable to intervene to support the XXXXVIII Panzer Corps, enabling Soviet defences to defeat the attempted breakthrough in that sector. The posture, dispositions and tactics on 12 July led to few losses on either side in air combat. The 8th Air Corps reported 19 aircraft damaged and destroyed. Only one German aircraft was reported lost in combat with Soviet fighters; the rest were victims of Soviet ground-fire. In return, the 2nd Air Army reported 14 fighters damaged and destroyed (German fighter pilots claimed only seven; though they claimed 16 aircraft of all types shot down). Soviet bomber losses are unknown. ### Result of the engagement By the end of the day, Leibstandarte still held Hill 252.2, but had been exhausted by the effort of turning back five Soviet tank brigades. To its left, Totenkopf had succeeded in capturing Hill 226.6 and had advanced along the northern bank of the Psel River to reach the Kartashyovka–Prokhorovka road, 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) northwest of Prokhorovka in accordance with plan. It was in position to outflank the Soviet forces at Prokhorovka, but was under pressure from Soviet attacks and its hold on the forward ground was tenuous. Forced onto the defensive by the attacks of the 2nd Guards and 2nd Tank Corps, Das Reich was unable to conduct its planned offensive manoeuvres. On the Soviet side, all the tank units under Rotmistrov's 5th Guards Tank Army involved in the battle on 12 July suffered heavy losses. Rotmistrov later wrote that the 29th Tank Corps lost 60 per cent of its armour and the 18th Tank Corps lost 30 per cent on 12 July. A Soviet General Staff report recorded: "Thus on 12 July, the 5th Guards Tank Army failed to accomplish its assigned mission. As a result of the frontal attack, the army's corps fought heavy battles against large enemy tank forces during which they were forced to assume defence." Rotmistrov was forced to shift the 18th and 29th Tank Corps over to defence and reinforce them with infantry. They dug more trenches, dug in some of their tanks, laid new minefields, prepared anti-tank strong points and massed their artillery. The 10th Guards Mechanised and 24th Guards Tank Brigades of the 5th Guards Mechanised Corps made preparations to push Totenkopf back the next morning. Stalin was very disappointed and infuriated by the early reports of heavy Soviet losses in the battle and on the evening of 12 July, he berated Rotmistrov via a phone call. The same evening, he dispatched Zhukov, who had been overseeing Operation Kutuzov, to Vatutin's headquarters as Stavka representative, in order to assume control of coordinating the operations of the Voronezh and Steppe Fronts. A commission was dispatched to investigate the cause of the high losses and the role of Rotmistrov and his plans in the battle; its findings were completed and submitted to Stalin two weeks later, and initially considering sacking Rotmistrov and hauling him before a military tribunal, Stalin eventually changed his mind after the Chief of the General Staff Aleksandr Vasilevsky interceded. ## Following the main engagement On the night of 12 July, Vatutin ordered Soviet forces to prevent any further German advance on Prokhorovka, destroy German forces that had advanced along the northern bank of the Psel River, and stop the III Panzer Corps from making further progress. Orders issued by the German command for 13 July instructed Totenkopf to consolidate its gains of the previous day and then attack into the flank and rear of the Soviet forces around Prokhorovka. Leibstandarte was to strengthen its front line and co-ordinate its attack on Prokhorovka from the south with Totenkopf's attack from the northwest. Das Reich was to consolidate and strengthen its front line and prepare for an offensive operation to link up with the III Panzer Corps. ### Further fighting around Prokhorovka On the morning of 13 July, the 10th Guards Mechanised and 24th Guards Tank Brigades, in cooperation with the 95th and 52nd Guards Rifle Corps, launched attacks against Totenkopf. These Soviet attacks preoccupied Totenkopf and prevented it from attacking towards Prokhorovka. Around noon, Leibstandarte's 1st SS-Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion was ordered to attack northward towards the Psel River to consolidate its front line with Totenkopf, while the division's panzer units were to attack towards Soviet positions northeast of the Oktyabrsky State Farm towards Prokhorovka. The 1st SS-Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion attacked the defensive positions held by the 42nd Guards Rifle Division and the remaining armour of the 18th Tank Corps, while the panzer units attacked the defences of the 9th Guards Airborne Division and 29th Tank Corps. These German attacks were repelled by concentrated anti-tank artillery fire. The 29th Tank Corps responded with a counterattack and penetrated German lines, reaching Komsomolets State Farm before being beaten back by direct fire from German artillery. That afternoon, Totenkopf was ordered to abandon their positions northwest of Prokhorovka and return to tenable positions around Hill 226.6. Soviet attempts to sever the narrow salient were unsuccessful, and Totenkopf completed its withdrawal by nightfall. ### Termination of Operation Citadel On 13 July Hitler summoned Manstein and the commander of Army Group Centre, Field Marshal Günther von Kluge, to his Eastern Front headquarters, the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia. The Allied invasion of Sicily on the night of 9–10 July, combined with the Soviet counteroffensive of Operation Kutuzov against the flank and rear of General Walter Model's 9th Army on the northern side of the Kursk salient on 12 July, and the attacks by strong Soviet forces at Prokhorovka the same day had caused Hitler to stop the offensive and begin redeploying forces to the Mediterranean theatre. He ordered his generals to terminate Operation Citadel. Kluge welcomed the decision, as he was already in the process of withdrawing units of the 9th Army from the northern side of the Kursk salient to deal with Soviet attacks on his flank. But Manstein was greatly disappointed. He argued that his forces were now on the verge of achieving a major breakthrough on the southern side of the salient. As he saw it, with his III Panzer Corps about to link up with the II SS-Panzer Corps at Prokhorovka, and with the XXIV Panzer Corps available as his operational reserve, they would be halting the offensive just at the moment when victory was in hand. With an eye towards the west, Hitler was unwilling to continue the offensive. Manstein persisted, proposing that his forces should at least destroy the Soviet reserves in the southern Kursk salient before Citadel was finally terminated, so that the Soviet fighting capacity in the sector would be depleted for the rest of the summer. Hitler agreed to continue offensive operations in the southern salient until Manstein's goal was achieved. ### Operation Roland After the meeting with Hitler on 13 July, Manstein hastily put together the plans for Operation Roland, realising that he only had a few days to conduct the operation before he lost the II SS-Panzer Corps due to redeployment. The plan called for Das Reich to attack east and south and link up with the III Panzer Corps, which would attack to the northwest. Totenkopf and Leibstandarte were to anchor the western and northern flanks of Das Reich, respectively. Once the link was achieved and the Soviet forces encircled, Prokhorovka would then be attacked shortly thereafter by the combined forces of the II SS-Panzer Corps and III Panzer Corps. The goal of the operation was to destroy the Soviet armoured reserves massed in the southern sector of the Kursk salient, and thereby check Soviet offensive capacity for the rest of the summer. The orders for Operation Roland were issued in the closing hours of 13 July 1943. But after meeting with Manstein, Hitler countermanded the XXIV Panzer Corps' deployment to the Kursk salient, sending them on 14 July to support the 1st Panzer Army to the south. The assault began at 04:00 on 14 July. Following a brief artillery barrage, the 4th SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment Der Führer of Das Reich struck out for the high ground south-west of Pravorot, evicting the remnants of the 2nd Guards Tank Corps from the village of Belenikhino following house-to-house and hand-to-hand fighting. Das Reich's 2nd SS-Panzer Regiment fought off a series of counterattacks and forced the Red Army units to withdraw eastward to a new line. Zhukov ordered the 10th Guards Mechanised Brigade of the 5th Guards Mechanised Corps to reinforce the line. The 7th Panzer Division of the III Panzer Corps made contact with Das Reich, but Trufanov, commanding the Soviet forces in the gap, was aware of the threat and conducted a fighting withdrawal. The link-up failed to trap the Soviet forces, though they abandoned a substantial number of their anti-tank guns. Operation Roland failed to produce a decisive result for the German side, and Totenkopf began withdrawing from its positions north of the Psel, following orders issued late on 15 July, as the II SS-Panzer Corps assumed a defensive stance along its entire front. On 17 July the Soviet Southwestern and Southern Fronts launched a major offensive across the Mius and Donets Rivers against the southern wing of Army Group South, pressing upon the 6th Army and 1st Panzer Army. In the early afternoon of 17 July, Operation Roland was terminated with an order for the II SS-Panzer Corps to begin withdrawing from the Prokhorovka sector back to Belgorod. The 4th Panzer Army and Army Detachment Kempf anticipated the order and began executing it as early as the evening of 16 July. Leibstandarte's tanks were distributed between Das Reich and Totenkopf, and the division was hastily redeployed to Italy, while Das Reich and Totenkopf were dispatched south to meet the new Soviet offensives. ## Casualties and losses Losses for 12 July are difficult to establish for either combatant. Tank losses attributed to the German side vary, in part due to the Wehrmacht's methodology for counting and reporting equipment losses. Only equipment that could not be repaired or that had to be abandoned were counted as losses, but damaged equipment that could be recovered and repaired were simply listed as such. Likewise, reliable figures for tank and personnel casualties for the Red Army in the Battle of Prokhorovka are difficult to establish. ### German The II SS-Panzer Corps reported 842 soldiers killed, wounded, or missing for 12 July, and 2,672 for 12 to 16 July inclusive. Since the German forces controlled much of the Prokhorovka battlefield until 17 July, they were able to recover most of their disabled armoured vehicles. The II SS-Panzer Corps' logistics report for 12 July did not record any confirmed permanent tank losses. Other German sources show that three tanks of the II SS-Panzer Corps (two Panzer IVs and a Tiger) that were immobilised in the battlefield could not be subsequently recovered and therefore the permanent losses can only be adjusted to a possible maximum of three tanks for 12 July. A study by the US Army's Center for Strategy and Force Evaluation attributed six permanent tank losses, not counting Panzer I and Panzer II light tanks or German assault guns if any. Archival files of the II SS-Panzer Corps and 4th Panzer Army show that the II SS-Panzer Corps permanently lost 17 tanks and assault guns from 12 to 23 July inclusive, which therefore represents the maximum permanent losses the unit could have incurred for the engagement on 12 July up till the end of Operation Roland. Archival data of the II SS-Panzer Corps shows that the corps had 294 operable tanks and assault guns on the evening of 11 July, and 251 on the evening of 13 July. Allowing for the possibility that some repaired tanks were returned to service on 13 July, these numbers indicate that at least 43 tanks and assault guns became inoperable during this period, which includes all ten Tigers belonging to Totenkopf and one belonging to Leibstandarte. An estimated total of 60–80 tanks and assault guns of the II SS-Panzer Corps were damaged or destroyed in combat on 12 July. By the end of 16 July, the II SS-Panzer Corps had 292 serviceable tanks and assault guns, almost the same number it had at the beginning of the battle on 12 July. On 12 July, Schlachtgeschwader 1 of the 8th Air Corps reported 11 aircraft damaged, all by Soviet anti-aircraft artillery, of which 6 were total write-offs. ### Soviet A document prepared on 17 July 1943 by the 5th Guards Tank Army headquarters summarised the combat losses incurred by the formation from 12 to 16 July inclusive for all of its five corps, as well as smaller units directly subordinated to the army headquarters. The document reported the following irrecoverable losses: 222 T-34s, 89 T-70s, 12 Churchills, 8 SU-122s, 3 SU-76s, and 240 support vehicles. The document reported damaged vehicles still under repair as 143 T-34s, 56 T-70s, 7 Churchills, 3 SU-122s, and 3 SU-76s, with no figures for support vehicles. The document reported personnel casualties as 2,940 killed in action, 3,510 wounded in action, and 1,157 missing in action. This totals 334 irrevocable losses in tanks and self-propelled guns, with another 212 tanks and self-propelled guns under repair, and 7,607 casualties. The historian Karl-Heinz Frieser argued that the majority of the losses reported in the document must have occurred on 12 July. Adding up the 12 July losses of the 5th Guards Tank Army's component units, historian Valery Zamulin found 3,563 personnel losses, of which 1,505 were killed and missing, and 340 tanks and self-propelled guns damaged or destroyed. For equipment damaged or destroyed, David M. Glantz and Jonathan House estimate that the whole 5th Guards Tank Army lost at least 400 tanks in its attacks on 12 July. The Soviet historians Grigoriy Koltunov and Boris Soloviev estimate about 300 tanks and self-propelled guns of the 5th Guards Tank Army were damaged or destroyed on 12 July. The study by the US Army's Center for Strategy and Force Evaluation reports that the 2nd Guards, 18th and 29th Tanks Corps altogether permanently lost 144 tanks on 12 July, not including self-propelled guns. George Nipe estimates that 600–650 tanks of the 5th Guards Tank Army were damaged or destroyed while fighting both the II SS-Panzer Corps and III Panzer Corps on 12 July. ## Outcome Debate exists over the significance and outcome of the battle. The German forces destroyed many Soviet tanks and temporarily degraded the striking power of the 5th Guards Tank Army, but they were unable to take Prokhorovka or break through into open ground before developments elsewhere forced the termination of Operation Citadel. For the Soviet side, the massive armoured attack of 12 July failed to destroy the II SS-Panzer Corps, but succeeded in exhausting the Germans and eventually contributed to checking their advance. Thus, neither the 5th Guards Tank Army nor the II SS-Panzer Corps accomplished their objectives for 12 July. While the battle is generally considered a tactical success for the German side due to the high numbers of Soviet tanks destroyed, in the wider perspective the Soviets successfully completed their defensive operation at Prokhorovka and created the conditions for their decisive counteroffensive, Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev, just as planned. Ultimately there was no German breakthrough at Prokhorovka or elsewhere in the Kursk salient, becoming the first time in the Second World War that a major German offensive was halted before it could break through enemy defences and penetrate into their operational or strategic depths. With the end of Operation Citadel, the strategic initiative permanently swung over to the Soviet Union for the rest of the war. ## Misconceptions and disputes ### Size of the tank battle and German losses The battle has been widely described as the largest tank engagement or battle in military history, involving 1,200–1,500 tanks and sometimes up to 2,000, but this is incorrect as the battle did not involve that many tanks. The exaggerated figures originated from erroneous Soviet intelligence estimates of German armour reported during and after the battle, and subsequent postwar accounts that repeated this erroneous narrative. Some Soviet estimates reported figures as high as 800 German tanks and assault guns attacking Prokhorovka on 12 July. Comparing Soviet and German archives, the total number of tanks and other heavy armoured fighting vehicles such as assault guns and self-propelled guns deployed by the 5th Guards Tank Army and the II SS-Panzer Corps around Prokhorovka during the battle numbered only about 910. The II SS-Panzer Corps never had the number of tanks and assault guns attributed to it by Soviet estimates at any point during Operation Citadel, not even at the start when it fielded only 494. Even if the definition of the battle was broadened to include the III Panzer Corps and the portion of the 5th Guards Tank Army that faced it, the total number of tanks and other heavy armoured fighting vehicles comes out at a maximum of 1,299. In contrast, for example, the Battle of Brody during Operation Barbarossa involved over 2,000 tanks, up to 6,000 tanks over the duration of the battle, engaged in combat over a 70-kilometre (43 mi) front. Nonetheless, the Battle of Prokhorovka is still regarded as one of the largest tank battles in military history. High figures for tanks lost during the battle have been widely attributed to the Germans, but these are incorrect. For example, Rotmistrov in his postwar accounts of the battle stated that the Germans lost 350–400 tanks, including 70 Tigers, and 3,500–10,000 soldiers on 12 July, and a Soviet General Staff study of the Battle of Kursk reported that the Germans lost 300 tanks, 20 assault guns and over 4,500 soldiers in the battle from 12 to 16 July inclusive. However, archival data of the German units involved show that much lower losses were incurred during the battle. ### Impetus for the attack at Prokhorovka The historians David M. Glantz and Jonathan House asserted that the original intention of the 4th Panzer Army command was to drive northwards, with its two panzer corps driving abreast towards Oboyan and then Kursk but that on 9 July, heavy Soviet resistance along the road to Oboyan forced Hoth to alter his plan disastrously by ordering the II SS-Panzer Corps to swing from northwest to the northeast towards Prokhorovka. Therefore, according to Glantz and House, the Battle of Prokhorovka was not a result of original intentions or planned for but was engendered by tactically flawed late improvisations to the original German plan. That narrative has been disputed by the historian Steven Newton, who dedicated a section of his 2002 publication about Operation Citadel to refuting it. Using first-hand accounts of German officers who executed Operation Citadel and scrutinising Glantz's and House's sources, Newton contended that the plan for the 4th Panzer Army to swing from the Oboyan direction to Prokhorovka was decided as early as May 1943, well before Operation Citadel had commenced, as German planners of Army Group South had always expected an encounter between the 4th Panzer Army and Soviet reserves that would arrive at the Psel River and Prokhorovka. Other historians have corroborated those conclusions. Newton also asserts that has always been the accepted narrative in postwar literature. ### Surprise factor Some historians state that the German troops did not expect the Soviet armoured counterattack and were taken by surprise on 12 July. However, other historians have stated or argued that the German commanders were aware of or at least anticipated the Soviet armour that was massing around Prokhorovka and so the troops could not have been genuinely surprised. The German historian Dieter Brand argues that even though the German commanders expected a major Soviet armoured deployment at Prokhorovka, the frontline German troops were indeed largely taken by surprise when the Soviets counterattacked on the morning of 12 July.
56,470,920	Dispute between Darnhall and Vale Royal Abbey	1,172,405,191	English medieval regional feud	[ "1320s in England", "1330s in England", "Abbots of Vale Royal Abbey", "Feudalism in England", "History of Cheshire", "Protests in England" ]	In the early fourteenth century, tensions between villagers from Darnhall and Over, Cheshire, and their feudal lord, the Abbot of Vale Royal Abbey, erupted into violence over whether they had villein—that is, servile—status. The villagers argued not, while the Abbey believed it was due the villagers' feudal service. Founded by Edward I in 1274, the Cistercian Abbey had been unpopular with locals from the start. This was primarily because it had been granted, in its endowment, exclusive forest rights which surrounding villages saw as theirs by custom, and other feudal dues they did not believe they had to pay. Moreover, the rigorous enforcement of these rights by successive abbots was felt to be excessively harsh. The villagers resented being treated as serfs and made repeated attempts to reject the Abbey's feudal overlordship. The villagers' efforts ranged from appeals to the Abbot, the King's Chief Justice in Cheshire and even to the King and Queen; the latter, at least, appears to have been somewhat sympathetic to their cause. On each occasion, though, the villagers were unsuccessful and were unable to secure release from their villeinhood. The abbots, for their part, may have had significant financial pressures on them. Their house had commenced major building works in 1277, but then lost much of its early royal funding following Edward I's invasion of Wales the same year, which diverted both his money and masons from them. This may have accounted for the strict enforcement of their rights. Their tenants' struggle turned increasingly violent from 1326. The dispute was mainly led by the villagers of Darnhall, in conjunction with their neighbours, particularly those from the nearby village of Over. On several occasions they suffered imprisonment when their appeals failed, and they were also often fined. On one occasion, in an attempt to appeal to Abbot Peter, the villagers of Darnhall and Over followed him to King's Cliffe Hunting Lodge, where the Abbot was meeting the King. Peter was himself appealing for royal assistance against his recalcitrant tenantry. The villagers met him in Rutland on his return journey; an affray broke out, the Abbot's groom was killed, and Peter and his entourage were captured. The King soon intervened and released him; the Abbot then promptly had the villagers imprisoned again. Abbot Peter did not confine himself to confronting his serfs. He also engaged in feuds with the local gentry, and either at their hands or those of his erstwhile tenants, he was murdered in 1339. Nothing is known of any resolution to the dispute, but serfdom was in decline nationally and Peter's successor may have had other local troubles occupying his attention. ## Background The Cistercian Abbey of Vale Royal, in the Weaver Valley, was originally founded by the Lord Edward—later King Edward I—in 1274, in gratitude for his safe passage through a storm on the return from crusade. Originally intended to be a grand, cathedral-style structure with a complement of 100 monks, building started in 1277 under the King's chief architect, Walter of Hereford. It soon fell victim to the financing of Edward I's Welsh wars. The King's lengthy campaigns meant that both money and stonemasons were diverted from the construction of the Abbey, to the construction of new castles in Wales. This made not only its future expansion, but its very existence, precarious. Vale Royal's abbots were not just local religious leaders; they were also feudal lords and as such not necessarily sympathetic landlords. When their tenants appeared before the manorial court, for example, they were not appearing before an abbot, but before a judge, and common law applied. Historians Christopher Harper-Bill and Carole Rawcliffe have highlighted the ruthlessness of religious landlords in the Middle Ages, noting their skill in "exploiting every source of income" and the unpopularity this brought on them. As the medievalists Gwilym Dodd and Alison McHardy have emphasised, "a religious house, like any other landlord, depended on the income from its estates as the main source of its economic wellbeing", and from the late twelfth century, monastic institutions were "particularly assiduous in... seeking to tighten the legal definition of servile status and tenure" for its tenantry. Disputes between religious houses and their tenants were not uncommon. To the south of London, one such feud between the tenants of Tooting and Bec Abbey (the French Abbey had been given possessions in Tooting Bec) had also gone from litigation to outright violence and law-breaking, and it lasted many years. Likewise, Bec Abbey's tenants in Ogbourne St George, Wiltshire, launched a well-organised peasant's revolt in 1309, which also found some support amongst local gentry. In East Anglia, the tenants of Bury St Edmunds Abbey revolted against the Abbot in 1327 in a struggle similar to that of the villagers of Darnhall and Over. That Abbey's chronicler, Jocelin of Brakelond, railed against all tenants who rose up against their lords, claiming that they "waxed fat" compared to their masters. The revolt of Darnhall and Over was thus one of many small-scale temporary villein uprisings before the Peasants' Revolt of June 1381. ## Origins and early years of the dispute The new Abbey was unpopular locally, as locals claimed that both the grants of land its creation required and those for its day-to-day requirements impinged on villagers' customary liberties. Darnhall, previously a royal manor held by the earls of Chester, had been granted to the Abbey in perpetuity, along with its forestry rights and free warren. Villagers were also bound for duties such as leyrwithe—payment, or "redemption", to a lord on the marriage of a daughter—and services ranging from feeding the abbot's puppies and keeping his bees to paying massive death duties. For its part, Over lost its annual fair and weekly market to the Abbey in 1280. Consequently, relations between the Abbey and its tenantry had been fraught since the monks' arrival. Only a year after the Abbey's foundation, tenants of Darnhall tried to refuse the Abbot the customs and services he demanded, and they maintained their position—with increasing vigour—for the next fifty years. Soon after the Abbey's founding, they complained directly to King Edward I, and brought with them their iron ploughshares to demonstrate their status as freemen. The King refused to countenance their arguments, telling them that "as villeins you have come, and as villeins you shall return". They petitioned again in 1307, but with no more success; a commission held by the Justiciar of Chester merely re-confirmed their status. Argument appears to have escalated into violence in 1320, during the abbacy of Richard of Evesham. One of his monks was attacked while collecting tithes in Darnhall, while an Abbey servant, John of Budworth, was killed and his head used as a football by his attackers. Although the villeins of Vale Royal's estate owed no labour service for their land, the villagers of Darnhall and those who joined them remained unhappy with their situation. Paul Booth writes: "they were the victims of the transfer of ownership of their manorial estates from the crown to a desperately under-endowed religious corporation". Villagers from nearby Middlewich also complained that the Abbey owed them restitution for the loss of two salt pits which had been part of the Abbey's endowment. ## The dispute ### 1327–1336 In 1327 the Abbot drew up a custumal for the villages of Darnhall and Over, clearly with the intention of reinforcing and codifying the Abbey's claims. This custumal, suggests historian Richard Hilton, "reveals a harshness of exploitation unparalleled even on the old-established Benedictine houses of the south", and he suggests that by now the villagers "appear to have been fighting against a real social degradation". The monks may have been forced to take harsh measures as landlords—if the Abbey was as poor as it claimed—to ensure a steady income. Ultimately it is impossible to establish whether the Abbey was as tyrannous as the villagers claimed. It is possible that the earls of Chester had been lax in their enforcement of the villagers' serfdom, and that they had therefore become accustomed to a high degree of freedom. It is also possible that it was the monks who had grown lax in their enforcement, and that the villagers of Darnhall and surrounding areas saw an opportunity to take advantage of them. There were at least four occasions of emancipatory manumission (without payment, unusually) in the Vale Royal records between 1329 and 1340, and one scholar, Herbert Hewitt, has noted "an element of irony in the fact that the one corporate body which is known to have liberated any native is also the most distinguished for its rigid insistence on its legal rights over bondmen". It would certainly appear the case that the monks approached their landlord duties with zeal, but also that when manumission did occur, it was insufficient to quell the villagers' ire. Either way, the two villages must have conspired together—and pooled mutual resources, for their campaign would not have been cheap. Both travel and litigation cost money, from the writing of the petition by clerks to their advisement on it by lawyers, let alone the cost of a delegation's upkeep. There was no such thing, says Edward Powell, "as cheap litigation", although there was plenty of it; Richard Firth Green has commented that "what strikes one... is not the lawlessness of the Abbey's tenants but their touching faith in the legal process". By 1328 the tenants' methods of resistance included refusing to grind flour at the abbey's mill, continuing efforts to prevent restrictions from the Abbot on the leasing of their land, and demanding the concomitant right to lease it out themselves, for up to ten years. This incurred multiple punishments—meted out by the Abbot—in the form of fines and imprisonment, which resulted in their eventual submission. The Ledger Book of Vale Royal Abbey records how the following year—as the monks saw it—the rebellious tenantry "plotted maliciously" against the Abbey's "liberty", refusing to accept the abbot's right to punish them "for any offence, except by the assessment of their neighbours"; in other words, they demanded the right to trial by jury. This was denied, they took up arms, but were once again imprisoned. The next outbreak of violence took place in 1336. The Darnhall villagers approached the Cheshire Justiciar, claiming to have been granted their freedom by an "aforetime" royal charter. Although the legal response is now unknown, it was presumably unsuccessful as, on their return to the village, they were again thrown in gaol by the Abbot until they swore an oath to cease their complaints. Firth-Green suggests that this oath was extracted under duress, for on their release they sent a delegation to King Edward III, who was at this time "in the north parts". It is unknown whether the party ever reached him; all that is known is that the group ended up in a Nottingham prison, where they were almost hanged as thieves. This was only avoided by payment of a fine. Another petition to the King, at the Westminster parliament, followed. This time another justiciar was despatched to Cheshire to assess their claims. Before he pronounced on them, however, he was intercepted by the Abbot with Vale Royal's charters. These the justiciar read, and seems to have been immediately persuaded by; as a result, several villagers were again returned to the Abbot for punishment. ### Attack on Abbot Peter In 1336, Abbot Peter denied the villages of Over rights of admission of burgage in the newly chartered borough; this prompted the Over villagers to join again with their Darnhall neighbours against the Abbey, and conflict resurged. They again went to law. As Hilton puts it: "They beset the Justiciar of Cheshire, the King himself, and even Queen Philippa in their search for redress". Indeed, she may have supported them. According to the Abbey record, the peasants still plotted by night against the Abbot. The extent to which he was held personally responsible is indicated by the distances that the villagers were willing to travel to confront him, suggests Hewitt. They went to extreme lengths: on one occasion they travelled as far as Exton, Rutland—a distance of approximately 100 miles—to hunt the Abbot down and ambush him. This occurred in June 1336. Peter had visited the King at the latter's royal hunting lodge at King's Cliffe in an attempt at persuading the King to provide royal assistance against the Abbey's rebellious tenants. On his return journey, passing the village of Exton, Peter and his entourage were set upon by what the Ledger Book called a "great crowd of the country people" from Darnhall. He was well defended by his staff. The same author tells of how the Abbot's cellarer—a monk named Walter le Walche, or Walter Welch—rushed, mounted, from the rear of the party "like a champion sent from God" to defend his master. At this point, the Cheshiremen appear to have been joined by a gang of locals, and as a result, the abbatial party was overwhelmed. The Abbot was "ignominiously taken", and in the course of the struggle his groom was killed. However, the following day, the King, hearing of events, ordered Peter's release, and the arrest of his captors, who were taken to Stamford and imprisoned in chains in "the greatest of misery". Notwithstanding that a man had been killed in the melee, the King soon ordered their release also. Shortly after, the King wrote to Abbot Peter requesting that he return to his tenants the property he had confiscated, which Peter ignored. The Abbot did, however, reduce the £10 fine he had imposed on them to £4. By 1337, the Abbey had asserted and reasserted its rights over its recalcitrant tenantry in court, always receiving favourable judgements, but the villagers of Darnhall and Over refused to accept their position, refused payment of their customary dues, and this year reignited the feud anew. Again, complained The Ledger, the tenants "conspired against their lords [and] endeavoured to gain their liberty". Recording how the people firstly complained to the Chester justiciar, then petitioned parliament, and finally sent a deputation to present their case to the King at Windsor, the writer concluded they were behaving "like mad dogs". Furthermore, when Abbot Peter attempted to collect the monies owed him by confiscating the villagers' goods, they merely decamped with them before he could do so. The Abbot had sufficient political connections and influence in central government to frustrate the villagers' lawsuits. The early encouragement that Hilton says they had received from various "royal and official personages", such as the Queen, would appear to have had little effect. The Abbot's legal victory did not assuage a serious undermining of his authority. As with any lord in the Middle Ages, when his authority was questioned by those of lower social strata, the law would almost inherently find for him; but, notes Hewitt, it would also "be idle to identify legality with justice". It is certainly unlikely that the Abbey attained its near-permanent favourable legal position without a fair amount of legal manipulation and chicanery, as well as great expense. The villages resorted to further violence, and in 1339—probably during a raid on the Abbey's crops or outhouses—both Abbot Peter and his cellarer were killed. Although details of the exact circumstances of their deaths are unknown, they may have been the result of a feud with the local gentry rather than the villages. Peter was engaged in a spirited defence of his house's rights and prerogatives against Sir Thomas de Venables, who is known to have launched similar raids. Before the Abbot's and Welch's deaths, a number of the Abbey's buildings were destroyed, much of the harvest burnt, goods stolen and livestock killed. ## Legacy Despite its assertions of right, the Abbey was never able to fully dominate its own estate or to establish itself as the regional lord from which all tenurial dues sprang. Abbots of Vale Royal continued to face disruption from the populace almost up until the time of the Abbey's dissolution by King Henry VIII in 1536. In 1351, for example, they lamented that they were "so wrongfully annoyed and harassed in many other ways". In the late fourteenth century, Edward the Black Prince wrote to the justice of Chester that he believed the abbots to be "wrongfully annoyed and harassed in many ... ways by the people of these parts ... the Justice is therefore to restrain any persons who from malice are going about to molest or annoy them". And as late as 1442, the Abbot protested that when he attempted to travel to Llanbadarn Fawr, Ceredigion, he was continually at risk of attack from the villagers of the surrounding countryside, who were, he protested, "in a blaze of riot". The immediate outcome of the dispute is unknown. Peter's successor, Robert de Cheyneston, was occupied through much of his abbacy with internal disciplinary problems at the abbey and a bitter feud with Shrewsbury Abbey which had begun in Peter's time. The dispute continued with "many allegations of each party", and was not settled until 1343, when de Cheyneston paid the Abbot of Shrewsbury £100. The Abbey's internal affairs were also problematic. The Ledger Book records that in 1340 two monks were charged with murdering two local men, Robert Hykes and John Bulderdog, and that de Cheyneston himself was arraigned and fined for appropriating burgages belonging to Over. More broadly, serfdom and villeiny were dying out of their own accord. The reasons for this are unknown and much debated among historians. Mark Bailey says, "villein tenures were, in fact, in headlong retreat from the 1350s, and had largely decayed by the 1380s", with what remaining being seasonal work, such as harvest time. He argues that while peasant resistance—such as that which had been seen in Darnhall and Over—continued through the next decade, it was also in decline. This may indicate that it was seen as being less necessary by bondmen. Conversely, Alan Harding argues, albeit on a national level, that the number of commissions of oyer and terminer—investigations headed by a assize judge—into the "rebellious" withdrawal of feudal labour by villeins indicates that such conspiracies continued up until the 1381 Rising. ## See also - Darnhall Abbey
8,025,116	Good Girl Gone Bad	1,170,316,470	null	[ "2007 albums", "Albums produced by Carl Sturken and Evan Rogers", "Albums produced by J. R. Rotem", "Albums produced by Justin Timberlake", "Albums produced by Kuk Harrell", "Albums produced by Ne-Yo", "Albums produced by Neo da Matrix", "Albums produced by Stargate", "Albums produced by Timbaland", "Albums produced by Tricky Stewart", "Albums recorded at Westlake Recording Studios", "Def Jam Recordings albums", "Juno Award for International Album of the Year albums", "Rihanna albums" ]	Good Girl Gone Bad is the third studio album by Barbadian singer Rihanna. It was released on May 31, 2007, by Def Jam Recordings and SRP Records. Rihanna worked with various producers on the album, including Tricky Stewart, The-Dream, Neo da Matrix, Timbaland, Carl Sturken, Evan Rogers and Stargate. Inspired by Brandy's fourth studio album Afrodisiac (2004), Good Girl Gone Bad is a pop, dance-pop and R&B record with 1980s music influences. Described as a turning point in Rihanna's career, it represents a departure from the Caribbean sound of her previous releases, Music of the Sun (2005) and A Girl like Me (2006). Apart from the sound, she also endorsed a new image for the release going from an innocent young woman to an edgier, more mature look. Critics gave generally positive reviews of the album, praising its composition and Rihanna's new musical direction, though some criticized the album's lyrics and inconsistency. The album received seven Grammy Award nominations and one win in the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration category for "Umbrella" at the 2008 ceremony. The album debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart and sold 162,000 copies in its first week. Certified six-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), it sold more than 2.8 million copies in the United States. The album reached number one in Canada, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. As of June 2017, the album has sold over nine million copies worldwide. Good Girl Gone Bad spawned five singles, including the international hits "Umbrella" and "Don't Stop the Music"; Rolling Stone placed the former at number 412 on the magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. To promote the album, Rihanna embarked on her first worldwide concert tour and third overall, the Good Girl Gone Bad Tour. The album was reissued as Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded in June 2008 with three new songs, including the US Billboard Hot 100 number-one hits "Take a Bow" and "Disturbia". It was followed by Rihanna's first remix album, Good Girl Gone Bad: The Remixes, in January 2009, which featured remixes from Moto Blanco, Tony Moran, the Soul Seekerz and the Wideboys. ## Background and title Rihanna's second studio album, A Girl like Me, was released in April 2006. It is a pop-oriented record with dancehall and R&B influences. It had a mixed critical reception: some critics praised Rihanna's new musical direction, while others criticized some of the album's songs. Around its time of release, many critics felt that Rihanna's style, sound, and musical material were too similar to those of American singer Beyoncé. The album sold over 587,308 copies in the United Kingdom and more than 1,330,000 copies in the United States. In early 2007, Rihanna began work on her third studio album. In an interview with MTV News, she announced that "the new music is going in a different direction. Not on purpose, but I just want to hear something fresh and mostly uptempo. I think that's where I want to go on this one. You feel different every album, and [at] this stage I feel like I want to do a lot of uptempo [songs]." The same year, Rihanna dismissed her innocent image for an edgier look with a new hairstyle, which was inspired by actress Charlize Theron's bob cut in the 2005 science fiction thriller Æon Flux. Rihanna explained that she wanted to keep the audience dancing and be soulful at the same time. She sought to make an album that people would listen to without skipping tracks. She cited Afrodisiac (2004), the fourth studio album by American singer Brandy Norwood, as her main inspiration for the album. In May 2007, Rihanna revealed that she called the album Good Girl Gone Bad because it represents her bolder and more independent image: "I'm not the innocent Rihanna anymore. I'm taking a lot more risks and chances. I felt when I cut my hair, it shows people I'm not trying to look or be anybody else. The album is very edgy." ## Recording and production Good Girl Gone Bad was recorded in Westlake Recording Studios and Conway Studios in Los Angeles, Battery Studios and Roc the Mic Studios in New York City, Chicago Recording Company and Pressure Studios in Chicago, Phase One Audio Group in Toronto, Lethal Studios in Bridgetown, Barbados, Espionage Studios in Oslo and Parr Street Studios in Liverpool. Rihanna spent the week of the 2007 Grammy Awards working with American R&B singer-songwriter Ne-Yo, who gave her vocal lessons. They wrote and sang "Hate That I Love You", which was co-written and produced by Norwegian duo Stargate. Ne-Yo told Vibe magazine, "The best way to express an emotion like love is through storytelling. It makes it more 'I can relate to this character in this song because I've been through something similar.' You hear that kind of storytelling in the song that I wrote for Rihanna called 'Hate That I Love You'." American producers Tricky Stewart and Dream had written the track "Umbrella" in 2007 with pop singer Britney Spears in mind. Her label rejected the song before she could hear it, stating they had enough songs for her to record; at the time, Spears was working on her fifth studio album Blackout. The producers then reached out to Mary J. Blige, who did not have time to consider the song for her next album. Finally, L.A. Reid, then-CEO of Def Jam Recordings, bought the record and forwarded it to Rihanna. Initially, Stewart was unsure whether Rihanna was the right artist for the song, but after they had recorded the "ella, ella" catch phrase for the track, he felt optimistic. Rapper Jay Z added rap vocals. Stewart also co-wrote and produced "Breakin' Dishes" with Nash. "Rehab", "Sell Me Candy", and "Lemme Get That" were composed and produced by Timbaland for the album. He was on the FutureSex/LoveShow concert tour with Justin Timberlake to promote Timberlake's 2006 album FutureSex/LoveSounds. After a show in Chicago, they joined Rihanna in the studio, where Timberlake experimented with beats and melodies. Weeks later, the three met in New York City, where Timberlake had conceptualized a song for Rihanna. Timbaland, who penned a song for Rihanna under the title "Rehab", was producing a beat, over which Timberlake improvised his lyrics. Hannon Lane also co-wrote and co-produced the song. Timberlake told Entertainment Weekly that he believed "Rehab" to be "the bridge for [Rihanna] to be accepted as an adult in the music industry". Rihanna told Robert Copsey of Digital Spy that she enjoyed working with Timberlake, and learned much from the sessions. ## Composition A dance-pop, pop and R&B album influenced by 1980s music, Good Girl Gone Bad is a departure from the Caribbean sound of Rihanna's previous two records. Lyrically, the album is close to some teen pop records, "where sexual-ism and consumerism supersede personal connection." The LP opens with the lead single "Umbrella", an R&B song performed with drums and thundercloud synths. Dorian Lynskey of The Guardian compared the singer's vocals to the voices of Ciara and Cassie. The second track, "Push Up On Me", features echo electro claps and surging synths. "Don't Stop the Music" is a dance-pop and techno song that contains rhythmic devices used mainly in hip hop music. The song samples the line "Mama-say, mama-sa, ma-ma-ko-ssa" from Michael Jackson's 1983 single "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'". The fourth song is "Breakin' Dishes"; Peter Robinson of The Observer called it a "wronged-woman bonanza, packed with hooks, chants and flashes of lyrical brilliance." "Shut Up and Drive" is a new wave and pop rock song, influenced by 1970s and 1980s musical styles, sampling New Order's 1983 single "Blue Monday". The collaboration with Ne-Yo, "Hate That I Love You", is a folky R&B song; Nick Levine of Digital Spy compared it to Ne-Yo's singles "Sexy Love" and "Because of You". The seventh track on the album, "Say It", samples the 1990s song "Flex" by Mad Cobra; it consists of silky and warm groove and features island-oriented music characteristics. "Sell Me Candy" features jumbled and noisy production with chaotic beats. The ninth song, "Lemme Get That", has boom-bap beats and is produced by Timbaland. "Rehab" is an old-styled R&B track with a groove that is built around tambourine shakes, acoustic guitar swirls and a subtle backbeat. Doug Rule of Metro Weekly noted similarities among the structures of "Rehab" and Timberlake's 2002 single "Cry Me a River". "Question Existing" is an "eerie, smoky, destitute, emotional, and a sonic sidestep." Tom Breihan of Pitchfork Media described the opening lyrics of the song as inspired by "puerile psuedoporn". The album concludes with the title track "Good Girl Gone Bad", which is played with an acoustic guitar and click tracks. ## Singles Released as the lead single from Good Girl Gone Bad, "Umbrella" was sent to contemporary hit, rhythmic and urban radio in the US on April 24, 2007. The song received acclaim from music critics, who praised its production, vocals and the collaboration between Rihanna and Jay Z. "Umbrella" reached number one in more than seventeen countries worldwide, including on the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. In the United Kingdom, the song topped the singles chart for ten consecutive weeks, while in the United States, it was at the top for seven consecutive weeks. As of June 2013, "Umbrella" has sold 4,236,000 digital copies there, making it Rihanna's fifth-best selling single in the country. Director Chris Applebaum shot the accompanying music video, which features scenes of Rihanna nude and covered in silver paint. The video earned the singer nominations at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards for Best Direction, Video of the Year and Monster Single of the Year; it won the latter two. The second single from the album, "Shut Up and Drive", was serviced to contemporary hit radio in the US on May 13 and rhythmic radio the following week. The song received mixed response from critics: some praised the composition, while others criticized the lyrics. It reached the top ten on more than twelve national charts, including number five on the UK Singles Chart and number 15 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The music video for the song was shot by Anthony Mandler in Prague, the Czech Republic. The third single, "Hate That I Love You", which features Ne-Yo, was sent to contemporary hit, rhythmic and urban radio in the United States on August 21. Critics gave the song positive reviews and praised the collaboration between the singers; they compared it to the previous works written by Ne-Yo, including the song "Irreplaceable" by Beyoncé. "Hate That I Love You" reached number seven on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 15 on the UK Singles Chart. "Don't Stop the Music" was digitally released as an EP via the iTunes Store on September 7. The song received positive reviews from music critics, who praised its production and the interpolation of the "Mama-say, mama-sa, ma-ma-ko-ssa" hook. "Don't Stop the Music" won Best International Song at the 2008 NRJ Music Awards. The single peaked atop of the singles charts in eight countries, reaching number three on the Hot 100 and number four on the UK Singles Chart. It is the seventh-best selling single by Rihanna in the United States, with 3,521,000 digital copies sold as of June 2013. Mandler shot the music video in a nightclub in Prague, the Czech Republic. "Rehab" was released as the fifth and final single from Good Girl Gone Bad; it was sent to contemporary hit radio in the United States on October 6, 2008. Critics were divided on the song's production and composition, and some compared its structure to that of Timberlake's 2007 single "What Goes Around... Comes Around". It reached number 16 on the UK Singles Chart and number 18 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. Anthony Mandler directed the accompanying music video, which was shot in Vasquez Rocks Park, near Los Angeles. Timberlake also appears in the video. ## Marketing ### Release Good Girl Gone Bad was first released by the Universal Music Group on CD in Portugal on May 31, 2007. It was released in the Netherlands and in Poland the following day. The album was launched in Finland and the United Kingdom on June 4 and in the United States the following day on CD and LP. Good Girl Gone Bad was released on CD in Germany on June 8, on LP in Australia on June 12 and on CD in New Zealand on the same date. A deluxe edition of the album, featuring a bonus disc with dance remixes, was launched on June 27 in Japan. In early 2008, Rihanna unveiled a new song, "Take a Bow", on the KIIS-FM radio show On Air with Ryan Seacrest. MTV News reported that the track would serve as the lead single from Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded, a reissue of the original album to mark its first anniversary. Rihanna further announced that the expanded album would contain another two songs, "Disturbia" and the duet with American pop rock band Maroon 5, titled "If I Never See Your Face Again" to supplement the original track listing. Among other achieved awards and nominations, "Disturbia" and "If I Never See Your Face Again" received nominations for Best Dance Recording and Pop Collaboration with Vocals respectively at the 2009 Grammy Awards. Good Girl Gone Bad: The Remixes was released on January 27, 2009, and contains club remixes of tracks from the original album and the re-issue. The songs were remixed by producers and disc jockeys such as Moto Blanco, Tony Moran, Soul Seekerz and Wideboys. Good Girl Gone Bad: The Remixes peaked at number 106 on the Billboard 200 and number four on the US Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart. As of July 2010, it sold 49,000 copies in the United States. ### Live performances Rihanna performed "Umbrella" with "Shut Up and Drive" and "Breakin' Dishes" at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend on May 21, 2007. She performed "Umbrella" with Jay Z at the 2007 MTV Movie Awards at the Gibson Amphitheatre, Universal City, California, on June 3. A reviewer of Rap-Up wrote, "she looked hot and the production was on point" during the performance. She performed the song at the Tonight Show with Jay Leno on June 5 and on June 16 at The View. Rihanna performed "Shut Up and Drive" at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards at The Palms in Las Vegas, and was joined by American rock band Fall Out Boy. In early October 2007, Rihanna was the guest star at the Late Show with David Letterman, where she gave a performance of "Shut Up and Drive". On November 18, Rihanna performed a medley consisting of "Umbrella" and "Hate That I Love You" at the 2007 American Music Awards at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles, California. Ne-Yo accompanied her for the performance of "Hate That I Love You". Rihanna performed "Don't Stop the Music" at the 2008 NRJ Music Awards in Cannes, France, on January 26, 2008. She also performed the song at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards on February 10 in a medley with "Umbrella". For the performance, she was joined by American funk band, The Time. On April 28, 2008, Rihanna performed at the Pepsi Center with Kanye West, N.E.R.D. and Lupe Fiasco. She sang "Rehab", "Hate That I Love You", "Don't Stop the Music" and "Umbrella". On June 20, she was a guest on NBC's Today Concert Series in Rockefeller Center, New York City. She performed "Don't Stop the Music", "Umbrella" and "Take a Bow". She also performed "Rehab" live on November 23, 2008, at the 2008 American Music Awards, where she won the awards for Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist and Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist. ### Tour To further promote the album, Rihanna embarked on her first worldwide and second overall tour, the Good Girl Gone Bad Tour (2007–09). She performed in Europe, North America, Oceania, Asia and Africa. During the concert shows she wore S&M-inspired outfits and high boots. Mike Usinger of The Georgia Straight gave the show a mixed review; he wrote that even though Rihanna's vocals were improved, he felt she still struggled to keep the audience engaged. Jason MacNeil of Canadian Online Explorer gave a positive review of the concert after the show at Molson Amphitheatre, saying "the singer made a rather eye-popping impression, opening with 'Pon de Replay' and clad in a sexy, dominatrix-like studded black leather ensemble." During a show planned for February 13 in Malaysia, Malaysia's conservative Islamic party recommended that Rihanna's concert tour be banned from performing, citing her outfits. A video album, Good Girl Gone Bad Live, was filmed at the Manchester Arena show in Manchester, United Kingdom, on December 6, 2007. The Good Girl Gone Bad Live DVD was released on June 9 and 13, 2008, in the United Kingdom and Germany through Mercury Records and the Universal Music Group respectively. ## Critical reception Good Girl Gone Bad received generally favorable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 72 based on 17 reviews. Uncut called it a "shiny, trans-atlantic blend of Europop vim, R&B grit and Caribbean bounce." Andy Kellman of AllMusic deemed it quintessential pop music and said each of its tracks was a potential hit. Quentin B. Huff of PopMatters praised the album, describing it as "more raw, perhaps edgier and more risqué" than Rihanna's previous material. Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times wrote that the album "sounds as if it were scientifically engineered to deliver hits". Peter Robinson of The Observer commended her collaborators for "masking her own shortcomings" and commented that, "While Rihanna lacks her peers' charisma, she's a great vessel for exhilarating mainstream pop." Pitchfork Media's Tom Breihan found the album varied and satisfying. Neil Drumming of Entertainment Weekly felt that, although it "goes bad when Rihanna tries her hand at treacly ballads and glum sentiment", at times Good Girl Gone Bad is a "thrilling throwback to more than a decade ago, when upstart producers haphazardly mashed R&B with hip-hop to create chunky jeep anthems such as Mary J. Blige's 'Real Love'." In a mixed review, Rodney Dugue of The Village Voice felt that the album "never settles on a sound" and only cited its three Timbaland-produced songs as highlights. Although he found the ballads to be improvements from Rihanna's previous albums, Slant Magazines Sal Cinquemani criticized the lyrics, particularly those written by Justin Timberlake, as an "Achilles' high heel for Rihanna". Alex Macpherson of The Guardian found Rihanna to be "ill-suited" for its dance-pop songs and stated, "The gimmicky samples and pounding beats bury her personality, and the summery reggae of her first two albums is sorely missed." Robert Christgau of MSN Music cited "Umbrella" as a "choice cut", indicating "a good song on an album that isn't worth your time or money". ### Accolades At the 2008 Grammy Awards ceremony, Good Girl Gone Bad received seven Grammy Awards nominations, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year for "Umbrella", Best Dance Recording for "Don't Stop the Music", Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and Best R&B Song for "Hate That I Love You". It won the accolade for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for "Umbrella". Additionally, Rolling Stone placed "Umbrella" at number 412 on their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. The album also won the International Album of the Year award at the 2008 Juno Awards. ## Commercial performance In the United States, Good Girl Gone Bad debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 162,000 copies in its first week. It became Rihanna's then-best start album entry. The next week, it fell to number seven with 81,000 copies sold. The re-issue sold 63,000 copies in the first week and helped Good Girl Gone Bad jump from number 124 to number seven on the US Billboard 200 in its 55th week. It was certified six-time platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA); by November 2013, both Good Girl Gone Bad and the reissue had sold 2,800,000 copies in the United States alone. As of 2015, it is her best-selling album in the country. The album debuted atop of the Canadian Albums Chart and became Rihanna's second number-one album in the country. It was certified quintuple platinum by Music Canada, denoting shipments of more than 500,000 copies. Good Girl Gone Bad debuted at number one on both UK Albums Chart and UK Hip Hop and R&B Albums Chart with sales of 54,000 copies in its first week. It became her first album to top the chart, and stayed on the chart for 177 weeks. It was certified six times platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and sold over 1,904,347 copies in the country, as of 2016. It ended at number 10 on the UK 2007 year-end list and number six on the 2008 year-end list. As of March 2015, Good Girl Gone Bad is the 46th best-selling album of the millennium in the United Kingdom. In Ireland, Good Girl Gone Bad debuted at number three on the Irish Singles Chart on June 7, 2007. After four weeks on the chart, it reached the top. The album peaked at number one on the Swiss Hitparade chart and stayed on the chart for 91 weeks. In Australia, it peaked at number two and was certified triple platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), denoting shipments of over 210,000 copies. To date, the album had sold 9 million album units worldwide. Before its physical release, "Umbrella" achieved the biggest debut in the six-year history of the iTunes Store in the United States, breaking a record previously held by Shakira's 2006 single "Hips Don't Lie". Following its digital release, the song debuted atop the Hot Digital Songs chart, with first-week sales of more than 277,000 units. The single became the highest digital debut in the United States since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking downloads in 2003, surpassing Timberlake's "SexyBack" 250,000 sales record in 2006. ## Legacy According to Biography.com, Good Girl Gone Bad inspired Rihanna to transform her image from a "teen pop princess" persona into a "fully fledged superstar and sex symbol". People magazine noted that Rihanna follows the likes of recording artists Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson and Christina Aguilera "when she sheds her innocent image for an edgier look and sound". Jay-Z also spoke about "Umbrella" and stated that the song represents an artistic growth for Rihanna, "If you listen to the lyrics to that song, you know the depth and how far she's come." Da'Shan Smith of Billboard commented on Good Girl Gone Bad'''s impact for Rihanna's career on the tenth anniversary of the album's release: "The Good Girl era became a universally recognized moment where RiRi solidified her position as an international superstar, her signature bob haircut and newly seductive stage persona captivating fans and press." Regarding the commercial impact of the album, Entertainment Weeklys Margeaux Watson wrote, "For a pop star who was once dismissed as being incapable of yielding more than one hit song per album, Rihanna's newfound staying power is nothing short of remarkable–and proof that there's room for more than one diva in this game." Jason Birchmeier of AllMusic concluded that it was Good Girl Gone Bad that made Rihanna a "full-fledged international pop star with a regular presence atop the charts". Nick Levine of Digital Spy described the album, as the closest thing to a Thriller that 2007/08 is likely to produce. ## Track listing ## Personnel Credits for Good Girl Gone Bad'' adapted from AllMusic. - Jon Marius Aareskjold – engineer, guitar engineer - Angela Allen – marketing coordinator - Stevie Blacke – cello, violin - Tim Blacksmith – management - Jay Brown – A&R - Ed Calle – conductor, horn conductor, orchestration - Carter Administration – executive producer - Shawn Carter – additional personnel, guest artist, primary artist, rap - Demacio Castellon – engineer, mixing - Danny D – management - Kevin "KD" Davis – mixing - Roberto Deste – photography - William Durst – engineer - Mikkel Storleer Eriksen – engineer, instrumentation, musician - Terence Franklyn – assistant, assistant engineer - Rodrigo Gallardo – trumpet - Chris Gehringer – mastering - Richard "Rico" Gonzales – engineer - Augie Haas – trumpet - Kuk Harrell – engineer, vocal producer - Al Hemberger – engineer, mixing - Rob Heselden – production coordination - Ricardo "Slick" Hinkson – assistant engineer - Josh Houghkirk – assistant, mixing Assistant - Marc Jordan – management - Terese Joseph – A&R - Doug Joswick – package production - Anthony Kilhoffer – engineer - John Kricker – trombone - Hannon Lane – keyboards, producer - Daniel Laporte – engineer - Mathieu Lejeune – engineer - Mat LeJeuneat – engineer - Fabienne Leys – artist coordination - Espen Lind – guitar - Adam Lowenberg – marketing, mastering - Deborah Mannis-Gardner – sample clearance - Manny Marroquin – mixing - Roy Matthews – assistant, mixing assistant - Doug Michels – trumpet - Christie Moran – production assistant - Stephen Morris – composer - Shaffer "Ne-Yo" Smith – additional personnel, producer, rap, vocal producer - Greg Ogan – engineer - Deepu Panjwani – assistant engineer - Ciarra Pardo – art direction, design - Phillip Ramos – assistant engineer - Makeba Riddick – vocal producer - Rihanna – vocals - Dusty Robbennolt – assistant engineer - J. Peter Robinson – art direction, design - Evan Rogers – background vocals, executive producer, producer - Dan Satterwhite – tuba - Christa Shaub – management - Tyran "Ty Ty" Smith – A&R - Chris Steinmetz – engineer - Christopher "Tricky" Stewart – drum programming, keyboards, producer - Bernt Rune Stray – guitar - Tim Sturges – assistant engineer - Carl Sturken – executive producer, instrumentation, musician, producer - Rebecca Sweatman – production assistant - Phil Tan – mixing - Grayson Taylor – assistant engineer - Dana Teboe – trombone - Timbaland – producer - Justin Timberlake – background vocals, vocal producer - Mike Tocci – engineer - Marcos Tovar – assistant engineer ## Charts ### Weekly charts ### Year-end charts ### All-time charts ## Certifications and sales ## Release history ## See also - List of number-one albums of 2007 (Canada) - List of number-one albums of 2007 (Ireland) - List of UK Albums Chart number ones of the 2000s - List of best-selling albums of the 2000s in the United Kingdom - List of albums which have spent the most weeks on the UK Albums Chart
488,520	St Vincent-class battleship	1,156,364,787	Warship class of the British Royal Navy	[ "Battleship classes", "Ship classes of the Royal Navy", "St. Vincent-class battleships" ]	The St Vincent-class battleships were a group of three dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. The sister ships spent their entire careers assigned to the Home and Grand Fleets. Aside from participating in the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 and the inconclusive action of 19 August several months later, their service during the First World War generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea. Vanguard was destroyed in 1917 by a magazine explosion with the near total loss of her crew. The remaining pair were obsolete by the end of the war in 1918, and spent their remaining time either in reserve or as training ships before being sold for scrap in the early 1920s. Vanguard's wreck was extensively salvaged before it was declared a war grave. Since 2002, it has been designated as a controlled site under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 and diving on the wreck is generally forbidden. ## Background and description The Admiralty's 1905 draft building plan called for four capital ships in the 1907–1908 Naval Programme, but the new Liberal government cut one of these ships in mid-1906 and postponed another to the 1908–1909 Naval Programme, pending the conclusion of the ongoing Hague Peace Convention. The failure of the Germans to agree to any sort of naval arms control caused the government to reinstate the third ship. The Admiralty took until 12 June 1907 to decide not to build one of them as a battlecruiser, in favour of a squadron of four homogeneous battleships. Three of these would be part of the St Vincent class, while the single battleship planned for the 1908–1909 Naval Programme was later authorised as HMS Neptune. The design of the St Vincent class was derived from the preceding Bellerophon class, with more powerful guns and a slight increase in size and armour. The ships had an overall length of 536 feet (163.4 m), a beam of 84 feet 2 inches (25.7 m), and a normal draught of 28 feet (8.5 m). They displaced 19,700 long tons (20,000 t) at normal load and 22,800 long tons (23,200 t) at deep load. In comparison to the Bellerophon class, the displacement of the St Vincents was increased by 650 long tons (660 t), the length by 10 feet (3 m) and the beam by 18 inches (46 cm); their crews numbered about 755 officers and ratings upon completion and 835 during the war. The St Vincent-class ships were powered by two sets of Parsons direct-drive steam turbines, each of which was housed in a separate engine room. The outer propeller shafts were coupled to the high-pressure turbines and these exhausted into low-pressure turbines which drove the inner shafts. Separate cruising turbines were provided for each shaft. The turbines used steam from eighteen water-tube boilers at a working pressure of 235 psi (1,620 kPa; 17 kgf/cm<sup>2</sup>). They were rated at 24,500 shaft horsepower (18,300 kW) and were intended to give the ships a maximum speed of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph). During their sea trials, the St Vincents handily exceeded their designed speed and horsepower, reaching 21.7 knots (40.2 km/h; 25.0 mph) from 28,128 shp (20,975 kW). They carried 2,700 long tons (2,743 t) of coal and an additional 850 long tons (864 t) of fuel oil that was sprayed on the coal to increase its burn rate. This gave them a range of 6,900 nautical miles (12,800 km; 7,900 mi) at a cruising speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). ### Armament These ships were the first to carry the new 50-calibre breech-loading (BL) 12-inch (305 mm) Mark XI gun, which was 5 calibres longer and had a muzzle velocity about 75 feet per second (23 m/s) higher than the 45-calibre Mark X gun used in the earlier dreadnoughts. They had a reputation for drooping at the muzzle, which was believed to have an adverse effect at long range, but testing at sea showed the muzzle droop to be within normal tolerances and the accuracy at long range to be satisfactory. The increased muzzle velocity of the Mark XI gun gave it a longer range over the Mark X gun as well as increasing the distance at which it could penetrate 12 inches of armour from 7,600 to 9,300 yards (6,949 to 8,504 m) using the same shell. The higher velocity reduced its service life by increasing the wear in the barrel. The St Vincent class were equipped with ten Mark XI guns in five hydraulically powered twin-gun turrets, three along the centreline and the remaining two as wing turrets. The centreline turrets were named 'A', 'X' and 'Y' from front to rear, and the port and starboard wing turrets were 'P' and 'Q' respectively. The guns had a maximum elevation of +20° which gave them a range of 21,200 yards (19,385 m). They fired 850-pound (386 kg) projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 2,825 ft/s (861 m/s) at a rate of two rounds per minute. The ships carried between 80 and 100 shells per gun. The secondary armament of the St Vincents consisted of twenty 50-calibre BL four-inch (102 mm) Mark VII guns. Pairs of these guns were installed in unshielded mounts on the roofs of 'A', 'P', 'Q' and 'Y' turrets and the other dozen were positioned in single mounts at forecastle-deck level in the superstructure. The guns had a maximum elevation of +15° which gave them a range of 11,400 yd (10,424 m) firing 31-pound (14.1 kg) projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 2,821 ft/s (860 m/s). They were provided with 150 rounds per gun; the wartime allowance for each gun was 200 rounds. Four 3-pounder 1.9 in (47 mm) saluting guns were also carried. The ships were equipped with three 18-inch (450 mm) submerged torpedo tubes, one on each broadside and another in the stern, for which nine torpedoes were provided. ### Fire control The control positions for the main armament were located in the spotting tops at the head of the fore and mainmasts. Data from a 9-foot (2.7 m) Barr and Stroud coincidence rangefinder located at each control position, together with the target's speed and course information, was input into a Dumaresq mechanical computer and electrically transmitted to Vickers range clocks located in the transmitting station located beneath each position on the main deck. Wind speed and direction was called down to the transmitting station by either voicepipe or sound-powered telephone. The range clock integrated all the data and converted it into elevation and deflection data for use by the guns. The target's data was also graphically recorded on a plotting table to assist the gunnery officer in predicting the movement of the target. The turrets, transmitting stations and control positions could be connected in almost any combination. As a backup, two turrets in each ship ('A' and 'Y' in St Vincent) could take over if necessary. In 1910–1911, the four-inch guns on the roof of the forward turret of Vanguard were replaced by a 9-or-12-foot (2.7 or 3.7 m) rangefinder. This was removed about a year later, roughly at the same time when the rooftop guns were removed from the forward turrets of the other two ships. In late 1914, the remaining rooftop guns were replaced on the three sister ships by 9-foot rangefinders protected by armoured hoods. Fire-control technology advanced quickly during the years between the St Vincents' commissioning and the start of World War I and the most important development was the director firing system. Mounted high in the ship, a fire-control director electrically provided data to the turrets via a pointer on a dial, which the turret crewmen only had to follow. The director layer fired the guns simultaneously, which aided in spotting the shell splashes and minimised the effects of the roll on the dispersion of the shells. While the exact dates of installation are unknown, St Vincent was equipped with a director by December 1915 and the others by May 1916. The ships were fitted with Mark I Dreyer Fire-control Tables in the transmission stations by early 1916, which combined the functions of the Dumaresq and the range clock. ### Armour The St Vincent-class ships had a waterline belt of Krupp cemented armour that was 10 inches (254 mm) thick between the fore and aftmost barbettes that reduced to 2 inches (51 mm) before it reached the ships' ends. It covered the side of the hull from the middle deck down to 4 feet 11 inches (1.5 m) below the waterline where it thinned to 8 inches (203 mm) amidships. Above this was a strake of 8-inch armour. Transverse bulkheads 5 to 8 inches (127 to 203 mm) thick terminated the thickest parts of the waterline and upper armour belts once they reached the outer portions of the endmost barbettes. The three centreline barbettes were protected by armour 9 inches (229 mm) thick above the main deck and thinned to 5 inches (127 mm) below it. The wing barbettes were similar except that they had 10 inches of armour on their outer faces. The gun turrets had 11-inch (279 mm) faces and sides with 3-inch roofs. The three armoured decks ranged in thickness from 0.75 to 3 inches (19 to 76 mm) with the greatest thickness outside the central armoured citadel. The front and sides of the forward conning tower were protected by 11-inch plates, although the rear and roof were 8 inches and 3 inches thick respectively. The aft conning tower had 8-inch sides and a 3-inch roof. The St Vincents had two longitudinal anti-torpedo bulkheads 1–3 inches (25–76 mm) thick that extended from the forward end of 'A' barbette to the end of 'Y' magazine. In the vicinity of the boiler rooms, the compartments between them were used as coal bunkers. ### Modifications The guns on the forward turret roof were replaced in 1910–1911 by a rangefinder on Vanguard, and on her sisters in 1911–1912. About two years later, gun shields were fitted to most of the guns in the superstructure and the bridge structure was enlarged around the base of the forward tripod mast. During the first year of the war, the base of the forward superstructure was rebuilt to house eight 4-inch guns and the turret-top guns were removed, which reduced their secondary armament to a total of fourteen guns; a pair of 3-inch (76 mm) anti-aircraft (AA) guns were added. Approximately 50 long tons (51 t) of additional deck armour were added after the Battle of Jutland in May 1916. By April 1917, the sisters mounted thirteen 4-inch anti-torpedo boat guns as well as single 4-inch and 3-inch AA guns. The stern torpedo tube was removed in 1917–1918 and St Vincent was equipped to operate kite balloons. In 1918, a high-angle rangefinder was fitted on the forward spotting top of the surviving ships and flying-off platforms were installed on the roofs of the fore and aft turrets of Collingwood. ## Ships ## Careers Upon commissioning, all three ships were assigned to the 1st Division of the Home Fleet and St Vincent became the flagship of the division's second-in-command. In July, they were present when King George V visited the fleet in Torbay and participated in his Coronation Fleet Review at Spithead on 24 June 1911. Less than a year later, the 1st Division was renamed the 1st Battle Squadron (BS) on 1 May 1912. Collingwood became the squadron flagship on 22 June and reverted to a private ship again two years later. Each of the sisters underwent a lengthy refit before the First World War began in mid-1914. Between 17 and 20 July 1914, the sisters took part in a test mobilisation and fleet review. Arriving in Portland afterwards, they were ordered to proceed with the rest of the Home Fleet to Scapa Flow two days later to safeguard the fleet from a possible surprise attack by the Imperial German Navy. After the British declaration of war on Germany on 4 August, the Home Fleet was reorganised as the Grand Fleet and placed under the command of Admiral John Jellicoe. According to pre-war doctrine, the role of the Grand Fleet was to fight a decisive battle against the German High Seas Fleet, but German reluctance to commit their battleships against the superior British force led to indecisive operations. The Grand Fleet spent its time training in the North Sea, punctuated by the occasional mission to intercept a German raid or major fleet sortie. In April 1916, Vanguard was transferred to the 4th Battle Squadron while her sisters remained in the 1st Battle Squadron. ### Battle of Jutland In an attempt to lure out and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet, the German High Seas Fleet departed the Jade Bight early on the morning of 31 May 1916 in support of Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper's battlecruisers, which were to act as bait. The British code breakers of Room 40 at the Admiralty had decoded German radio traffic containing plans of the operation and the Admiralty ordered the Grand Fleet to sortie the night before the Germans, to cut off and destroy the High Seas Fleet. The Grand Fleet rendezvoused with the 2nd Battle Squadron, coming from Cromarty, Scotland, on the morning of 31 May and Jellicoe organised the main body of the Grand Fleet in parallel columns of four-ship divisions. The two divisions of the 2nd BS were on his left (east), the 4th BS was in the centre and the 1st BS on the right. Vanguard and St Vincent were the rear ships of their divisions while Collingwood was the second ship in its division. When Jellicoe ordered the Grand Fleet to deploy to the left and form line astern in anticipation of encountering the High Seas Fleet, this naturally placed the 4th and 1st Battle Squadrons in the centre and rear of the line of battle, respectively, which meant that the sisters were in the rear of the Grand Fleet once it was deployed. This limited their ability to engage the German ships in the poor visibility. All three ships fired at the crippled light cruiser SMS Wiesbaden, possibly scoring some hits, but only St Vincent and Collingwood were able to engage any of the German capital ships. The former hit the battlecruiser SMS Moltke twice, inflicting only minor damage, while Collingwood hit the battlecruiser SMS Derfflinger once, also with little effect. Vanguard and Collingwood also fired at German destroyers, but failed to achieve any hits. None of the sisters fired more than 98 rounds from their main guns during the battle. ### Subsequent activity After the battle, St Vincent and Collingwood joined Vanguard in the 4th BS. The Grand Fleet sortied on 18 August to ambush the High Seas Fleet while it advanced into the southern North Sea, but a series of communication failures and mistakes prevented Jellicoe from intercepting the German fleet before it returned to port. Two light cruisers were sunk by German U-boats during the operation, prompting Jellicoe to decide not to risk the major units of the fleet to German submarines and mines south of 55° 30' North. The Admiralty concurred and stipulated that the Grand Fleet would not sortie unless the German fleet was attempting an invasion of Britain or there was a strong possibility it could be forced into an engagement under suitable conditions. The Admiralty order meant that the Grand Fleet spent far less time at sea. In late February 1917, the 4th BS conducted tactical exercises for a few days. In January 1918, Collingwood and some of the older dreadnoughts cruised off the coast of Norway for several days, possibly to provide distant cover for a convoy to Norway. Along with the rest of the Grand Fleet, she sortied on the afternoon of 23 April when radio transmissions revealed that the High Seas Fleet was at sea, after a failed attempt to intercept the regular British convoy to Norway. The Germans were too far ahead of the British to be caught and no shots were fired. St Vincent was under repair at Invergordon, Scotland, and could not sortie, but was present at Rosyth when the German fleet surrendered on 21 November; Collingwood was refitting in Invergordon. #### Vanguard explosion In the evening of 9 July 1917, Vanguard's magazines exploded while she was anchored in the northern part of Scapa Flow; she sank almost instantly, with only three survivors, one of whom died soon afterwards; 842 men aboard were lost. Collingwood's crew recovered the bodies of three men killed in the explosion. The Board of Inquiry concluded that a fire of unknown origin began in a 4-inch magazine and spread to one or both of the nearby 12-inch magazines, which detonated and sank the ship. ### Postwar years In March 1919, St Vincent was reduced to reserve and became a gunnery training ship at Portsmouth. She then became flagship of the Reserve Fleet in June and was relieved as gunnery training ship in December, when she was transferred to Rosyth. There she remained until listed for disposal in March 1921; she was sold for scrap on 1 December 1921 and demolished. In January 1919, Collingwood was transferred to Devonport and assigned to the Reserve Fleet. Upon the dissolution of the Grand Fleet on 18 March, the Reserve Fleet was renamed the Third Fleet and Collingwood became its flagship. She became a tender to HMS Vivid on 1 October and served as a gunnery and wireless telegraphy training ship until early August 1920, when the ship returned to the reserve. Collingwood served as a boys' training ship on 22 September 1921 until she was paid off on 31 March 1922. Collingwood was sold for scrap on 12 December and was broken up. Much of Vanguard's wreck was salvaged before it was declared a war grave in 1984. The amidships portion of the ship is almost completely gone and 'P' and 'Q' turrets are some 40 metres (130 ft) away, presumably blown there by the magazine explosions. The bow and stern areas are almost intact as has been revealed by a survey authorised by the Ministry of Defence in 2016 in preparation for the centenary commemoration planned for 2017. The wreck was named a controlled site in 2002 and cannot be dived upon, except with permission from the Ministry.
108,956	Washington, D.C.	1,173,295,333	Capital city of the United States	[ "1790 establishments in the United States", "Capitals in North America", "Contiguous United States", "Members of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization", "Mid-Atlantic states", "Northeastern United States", "Planned capitals", "Planned communities in the United States", "Political divisions of the United States", "Populated places established in 1790", "Populated places on the Potomac River", "Southern United States", "States and territories established in 1790", "Washington metropolitan area", "Washington, D.C." ]	Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly called Washington or D.C., is the capital city of the United States. The city is located on the east bank of the Potomac River, which forms its southwestern border with Virginia and borders Maryland to its north and east. The city was named for George Washington, a Founding Father, victorious commanding general of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War and the first president of the United States who is sometimes referred to as "Father of his country". The district is named for Columbia, the female personification of the nation. Washington, D.C. anchors the southern end of the Northeast megalopolis, one of the nation's largest and most influential cultural, political, and economic regions. As the seat of the U.S. federal government and several international organizations, the city is an important world political capital. It is the eighth-most visited city in the U.S., with over two million visitors as of 2019. The U.S. Constitution provides for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress. As such, the District of Columbia is not part of any state, nor is it one itself. The Residence Act, adopted on July 16, 1790, approved the creation of the capital district along the Potomac River. The city was founded in 1791, and Congress held its first session there in 1800. In 1801, the District of Columbia, formerly part of Maryland and Virginia and including the existing settlements of Georgetown and Alexandria, was officially recognized as the federal district; the city initially comprised only a portion of its modern territory, as a distinct entity within the larger federal district. In 1846, Congress returned the land originally ceded by Virginia, including the city of Alexandria. In 1871, it created a single municipal government for the remaining portion of the district, though locally elected government lasted only three years and did not return for over a century. There have been several unsuccessful efforts to make the district into a state since the 1880s; a statehood bill passed the House of Representatives in 2021 but was not adopted by the U.S. Senate. The city is divided into quadrants, which are centered around the Capitol and include 131 neighborhoods. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 689,545, making it the 23rd-most populous city in the U.S., third-most populous city in the Southeast after Jacksonville and Charlotte, and third-most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic after New York City and Philadelphia. Commuters from the city's Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the city's daytime population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, which includes parts of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia, is the country's sixth-largest metropolitan area with a 2020 population of 6.3 million residents. The city hosts all three branches of the U.S. federal government, Congress (legislative), the president (executive), and the Supreme Court (judicial), and the governmental buildings that house most of the federal government, including the White House, the Capitol, the Supreme Court Building, and multiple federal departments and agencies. The city is home to many national monuments and museums, located primarily on or around the National Mall, including the Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Monument. The city hosts 177 foreign embassies and serves as the headquarters for the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization of American States, and other international organizations. Many of the nation's largest industry associations, non-profit organizations, and think tanks are based in the city, including AARP, American Red Cross, Atlantic Council, Brookings Institution, National Geographic Society, The Heritage Foundation, Wilson Center, and others. A locally elected mayor and 13-member council have governed the district since 1973, though Congress is empowered to overturn local laws. Washington, D.C. residents are, on a federal level, politically disenfranchised since the city's residents do not have voting representation in Congress, although the city's residents elect an at-large congressional delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives who has no voting authority. The city's voters choose three presidential electors in accordance with the Twenty-third Amendment. ## History Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people, also known as the Conoy, inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans arrived and colonized the region in the early 17th century. The Nacotchtank, also called the Nacostines by Catholic missionaries, maintained settlements around the Anacostia River in present-day Washington, D.C. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes ultimately forced the Piscataway people to relocate, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. ### Founding Prior to the establishment of the city as the nation's capital in 1800, the nation's capital was Philadelphia, which served as the capital on five separate occasions during the American Revolution and its aftermath from May 1775 to July 1776, December 1776 to February 1777, March 1777 to September 1777, July 1778, July 1778 to March 1781, and March 1781 to June 1783. The Continental Congress was briefly based in five additional locations: York, Pennsylvania in September 1777, Princeton, New Jersey in 1783, Annapolis, Maryland from November 1783 to August 1784, Trenton, New Jersey from November to December 1784, and New York City from January 1785 to March 1789. On October 6, 1783, after the capital was forced by the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783 to relocate to Princeton, New Jersey, Congress resolved to consider a new location for it. The following day, Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts moved "that buildings for the use of Congress be erected on the banks of the Delaware near Trenton, or of the Potomac, near Georgetown, provided a suitable district can be procured on one of the rivers as aforesaid, for a federal town". In Federalist No. 43, published January 23, 1788, James Madison argued that the new federal government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance and safety. The Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783 emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. Article One, Section Eight of the U.S. Constitution permits the establishment of a "District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States". However, the constitution does not specify a location for the capital. In the Compromise of 1790, Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson agreed that the federal government would pay each state's remaining Revolutionary War debts in exchange for establishing the new national capital in the Southern United States. On July 9, 1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. Under the Residence Act, the exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, who signed the bill into law on July 16, 1790. Formed from land donated by Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles (16 km) on each side and totaling 100 square miles (259 km<sup>2</sup>). Two pre existing settlements were included in the territory: the port of Georgetown, founded in 1751, and the port city of Alexandria, Virginia, founded in 1749. In 1791 and 1792, a team led by Andrew Ellicott, including Ellicott's brothers Joseph and Benjamin and African American astronomer Benjamin Banneker, surveyed the borders of the federal district and placed boundary stones at every mile point; many of these stones are still standing. A new federal city was then constructed on the north bank of the Potomac River, to the east of Georgetown. On September 9, 1791, three commissioners overseeing the capital's construction named the city in honor of President Washington. The same day, the federal district was named Columbia, a feminine form of Columbus, which was a poetic name for the United States commonly used at that time. Congress held its first session there on November 17, 1800. Congress passed the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801, which officially organized the district and placed the entire territory under the exclusive control of the federal government. The area within the district was organized into two counties, the County of Washington to the east and north of the Potomac and the County of Alexandria to the west and south. After the Act's passage, citizens in the district were no longer considered residents of Maryland or Virginia, which ended their representation in Congress. ### Burning during War of 1812 On August 24, 1814, during the War of 1812, British forces invaded and occupied the city after defeating an American force at Bladensburg. In retaliation for acts of destruction by American troops in the Canadas, the British set fire to multiple government buildings in the city, including the United States Capitol, the Treasury Building and the White House. All the buildings set on fire were gutted in what became known as the burning of Washington. However, a storm forced the British to evacuate the city after just 24 hours. Most government buildings were repaired quickly; however, the Capitol was largely under construction at the time and was not completed in its current form until 1868. ### Retrocession and the Civil War In the 1830s, the district's southern territory of Alexandria declined economically due in part to neglect of it by Congress. Alexandria was a major market in the domestic slave trade and pro-slavery residents feared that abolitionists in Congress would end slavery in the district, further depressing the local economy. Alexandria's citizens petitioned Virginia to take back the land it had donated to form the district through a process known as retrocession. The Virginia General Assembly voted in February 1846, to accept the return of Alexandria. On July 9, 1846, Congress went further, agreeing to return all territory that Virginia had ceded to the district during its formation. This left the district's area consisting only of the portion originally donated by Maryland. Confirming the fears of pro-slavery Alexandrians, the Compromise of 1850 outlawed the slave trade in the district, although not slavery itself. The outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 led to the expansion of the federal government and notable growth in the city's population, including a large influx of freed slaves. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Compensated Emancipation Act in 1862, which ended slavery in the district, freeing about 3,100 slaves in the district nine months prior to the Emancipation Proclamation. In 1868, Congress granted the district's African American male residents the right to vote in municipal elections. ### Growth and redevelopment By 1870, the district's population had grown 75% from the previous census to nearly 132,000 residents. Despite the city's growth, however, Washington still had dirt roads and the city lacked basic sanitation. Some members of Congress suggested moving the capital farther west, but President Ulysses S. Grant refused to consider the proposal. Congress passed the Organic Act of 1871, which repealed the individual charters of the cities of Washington and Georgetown, abolished Washington County, and created a new territorial government for the whole District of Columbia and making "the city of Washington...legally indistinguishable from the District of Columbia." After the reorganization, in 1873, President Grant appointed Alexander Robey Shepherd as Governor of the District of Columbia. Shepherd authorized large-scale projects that greatly modernized the city but ultimately bankrupted the district government. In 1874, Congress replaced the territorial government with an appointed three-member board of commissioners. In 1888, the city's first motorized streetcars began service. Their introduction generated growth in areas of the district beyond the City of Washington's original boundaries, leading to an expansion of the district over the next few decades. Georgetown's street grid and other administrative details were formally merged to those of the City of Washington in 1895. However, the city had poor housing conditions and strained public works, leading it to become the first city in the nation to undergo urban renewal projects as part of the City Beautiful movement in the early 20th century. Increased federal spending as a result of the New Deal in the 1930s led to the construction of new government buildings, memorials, and museums in the district, though the chairman of the House Subcommittee on District Appropriations Ross A. Collins from Mississippi justified cuts to funds for welfare and education for local residents, saying that "my constituents wouldn't stand for spending money on niggers." World War II led to an expansion of federal employees in the city; by 1950, the district's population reached its peak of 802,178 residents. ### Civil rights and home rule era The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified in 1961, granting the district three votes in the Electoral College for the election of president and vice president, but still not affording the city's residents representation in Congress. After the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, riots broke out in the city, primarily in the U Street, 14th Street, 7th Street, and H Street corridors, which were predominantly black residential and commercial areas. The riots raged for three days until more than 13,600 federal troops and Washington, D.C. Army National Guardsmen stopped the violence. Many stores and other buildings were burned, and rebuilding from the riots was not completed until the late 1990s. In 1973, Congress enacted the District of Columbia Home Rule Act providing for an elected mayor and 13-member council for the district. In 1975, Walter Washington became the district's first elected and first black mayor. Since the 1980s, the D.C. statehood movement has grown in prominence. In 2016, a referendum on D.C. statehood resulted in an 85% support among resident voters for District of Columbia to become the 51st state of the United States. In March 2017, D.C.'s congressional delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton introduced a bill for D.C. statehood. Reintroduced in 2019 and 2021 as the Washington, D.C., Admission Act, the U.S. House of Representatives passed it in April 2021. After not progressing in the Senate, the statehood bill was introduced again in January 2023. ## Geography Washington, D.C., is located in the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. East Coast. The city has a total area of 68.34 square miles (177 km<sup>2</sup>), of which 61.05 square miles (158.1 km<sup>2</sup>) is land and 7.29 square miles (18.9 km<sup>2</sup>) (10.67%) is water. The district is bordered by Montgomery County, Maryland, to the northwest; Prince George's County, Maryland, to the east; Arlington County, Virginia, to the west; and Alexandria, Virginia, to the south. Washington is 38 miles (61 km) from Baltimore, 124 miles (200 km) from Philadelphia, 227 miles (365 km) from New York City, 242 miles (389 km) from Pittsburgh, 384 miles (618 km) from Charlotte, and 439 miles (707 km) from Boston. The south bank of the Potomac River forms the district's border with Virginia and has two major tributaries, the Anacostia River and Rock Creek. Tiber Creek, a natural watercourse that once passed through the National Mall, was fully enclosed underground during the 1870s. The creek also formed a portion of the now-filled Washington City Canal, which allowed passage through the city to the Anacostia River from 1815 until the 1850s. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal starts in Georgetown and was used during the 19th century to bypass the Little Falls of the Potomac River, located at the northwest edge of the city at the Atlantic Seaboard fall line. The highest natural elevation in the district is 409 feet (125 m) above sea level at Fort Reno Park in upper northwest Washington, D.C. The lowest point is sea level at the Potomac River. The geographic center of Washington is near the intersection of 4th and L Streets NW. The district has 7,464 acres (30.21 km<sup>2</sup>) of parkland, about 19% of the city's total area and the second-highest percentage among high-density U.S. cities after Philadelphia. The city's sizable parkland was a factor in the city being ranked as third in the nation for park access and quality in the 2018 ParkScore ranking of the park systems of the nation's 100 most populous cities, according to Trust for Public Land, a non-profit organization. The National Park Service manages most of the 9,122 acres (36.92 km<sup>2</sup>) of city land owned by the U.S. government. Rock Creek Park is a 1,754-acre (7.10 km<sup>2</sup>) urban forest in Northwest Washington, which extends 9.3 miles (15.0 km) through a stream valley that bisects the city. Established in 1890, it is the country's fourth-oldest national park and is home to a variety of plant and animal species, including raccoon, deer, owls, and coyotes. Other National Park Service properties include the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park, the National Mall and Memorial Parks, Theodore Roosevelt Island, Columbia Island, Fort Dupont Park, Meridian Hill Park, Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens, and Anacostia Park. The District of Columbia Department of Parks and Recreation maintains the city's 900 acres (3.6 km<sup>2</sup>) of athletic fields and playgrounds, 40 swimming pools, and 68 recreation centers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture operates the 446-acre (1.80 km<sup>2</sup>) United States National Arboretum in Northeast Washington, D.C. ### Climate Washington's climate is humid subtropical (Köppen: Cfa), or oceanic (Trewartha: Do bordering Cf downtown). Winters are cool to cold with some snow of varying intensity, while summers are hot and humid. The district is in plant hardiness zone 8a near downtown, and zone 7b elsewhere in the city. Summers are hot and humid with a July daily average of 79.8 °F (26.6 °C) and average daily relative humidity around 66%, which can cause moderate personal discomfort. Heat indices regularly approach 100 °F (38 °C) at the height of summer. The combination of heat and humidity in the summer brings very frequent thunderstorms, some of which occasionally produce tornadoes in the area. Blizzards affect Washington once every four to six years on average. The most violent storms, known as nor'easters, often impact large regions of the East Coast. From January 27 to 28, 1922, the city officially received 28 inches (71 cm) of snowfall, the largest snowstorm since official measurements began in 1885. According to notes kept at the time, the city received between 30 and 36 inches (76 and 91 cm) from a snowstorm in January 1772. Hurricanes or their remnants occasionally impact the area in late summer and early fall. However, they usually are weak by the time they reach Washington, partly due to the city's inland location. Flooding of the Potomac River, however, caused by a combination of high tide, storm surge, and runoff, has been known to cause extensive property damage in the Georgetown neighborhood of the city. Precipitation occurs throughout the year. The highest recorded temperature was 106 °F (41 °C) on August 6, 1918, and on July 20, 1930. The lowest recorded temperature was −15 °F (−26 °C) on February 11, 1899, right before the Great Blizzard of 1899. During a typical year, the city averages about 37 days at or above 90 °F (32 °C) and 64 nights at or below the freezing mark (32 °F or 0 °C). On average, the first day with a minimum at or below freezing is November 18 and the last day is March 27. ## Cityscape Washington, D.C., was a planned city, and many of the District's street grids were developed in that initial plan. In 1791, President George Washington commissioned Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant, a French-born architect and city planner, to design the new capital, and enlisted Scottish surveyor Alexander Ralston to help lay out the city plan. The L'Enfant Plan featured broad streets and avenues radiating out from rectangles, providing room for open space and landscaping. L'Enfant based his design on plans of other major world cities, including Paris, Amsterdam, Karlsruhe, and Milan that Thomas Jefferson had sent to him. L'Enfant's design also envisioned a garden-lined grand avenue approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) in length and 400 feet (120 m) wide in area that is now the National Mall. In March 1792, however, President Washington dismissed L'Enfant due to conflicts with the three commissioners appointed to supervise the capital's construction. Andrew Ellicott, who worked with L'Enfant in surveying the city, was then tasked with completing its design. Though Ellicott revised the original L'Enfant plans, including changing some street patterns, L'Enfant is still credited with the city's overall design. By the early 20th century, however, L'Enfant's vision of a grand national capital was marred by slums and randomly placed buildings in the city, including a railroad station on the National Mall. Congress formed a special committee charged with beautifying Washington's ceremonial core. What became known as the McMillan Plan was finalized in 1901 and included relandscaping the Capitol grounds and the National Mall, clearing slums, and establishing a new citywide park system. The plan is thought to have largely preserved L'Enfant's intended design for the city. By law, the city's skyline is low and sprawling. The federal Height of Buildings Act of 1910 prohibits buildings exceeding the width of the adjacent street plus 20 feet (6.1 m). Despite popular belief, no law has ever limited buildings to the height of the United States Capitol or the 555-foot (169 m) Washington Monument, which remains the district's tallest structure. City leaders have criticized the height restriction as a primary reason why the district has limited affordable housing and traffic problems caused partly by suburban sprawl. Washington, D.C. is divided into four quadrants of unequal area: Northwest (NW), Northeast (NE), Southeast (SE), and Southwest (SW). The axes bounding the quadrants radiate from the U.S. Capitol. All road names include the quadrant abbreviation to indicate their location and house numbers generally correspond with the number of blocks away from the Capitol. Most streets are set out in a grid pattern with east–west streets named with letters (e.g., C Street SW), north–south streets with numbers (e.g., 4th Street NW), and diagonal avenues, many of which are named after states. The City of Washington was bordered by Boundary Street to the north, later renamed Florida Avenue in 1890, Rock Creek to the west, and the Anacostia River to the east. Washington, D.C.'s street grid was extended, where possible, throughout the district starting in 1888. Georgetown's streets were renamed in 1895. Some streets are particularly noteworthy, including Pennsylvania Avenue, which connects the White House to the Capitol, and K Street, which houses the offices of many lobbying groups. Constitution Avenue and Independence Avenue, located on the north and south sides of the National Mall, respectively, are home to many of Washington's iconic museums, including the Smithsonian Institution buildings and the National Archives Building. Washington hosts 177 foreign embassies, constituting approximately 297 buildings beyond the more than 1,600 residential properties owned by foreign countries, many of which are on a section of Massachusetts Avenue informally known as Embassy Row. ### Architecture The architecture of Washington, D.C., varies greatly and is generally popular among tourists and locals. In 2007, six of the top ten buildings in the American Institute of Architects' ranking of America's Favorite Architecture were in the city: the White House, Washington National Cathedral, the Jefferson Memorial, the United States Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The neoclassical, Georgian, Gothic, and Modern styles are reflected among these six structures and many other prominent edifices in the city. Many of the government buildings, monuments, and museums along the National Mall and surrounding areas are heavily inspired by classical Roman and Greek architecture. The designs of the White House, the U.S. Capitol, Supreme Court Building, Washington Monument, National Gallery of Art, Lincoln Memorial, and Jefferson Memorial are all heavily drawn from these classical architectural movements and feature large pediments, domes, columns in classical order, and heavy stone walls. Notable exceptions to the city's classical-style architecture include buildings constructed in the French Second Empire style, including the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. The Thomas Jefferson Building, the main Library of Congress building, and the historic Willard Hotel are built in Beaux-Arts style. Meridian Hill Park contains a cascading waterfall with Italian renaissance-style architecture. Modern, Postmodern, contemporary, and other non-classical architectural styles are also seen in the city's buildings. The National Museum of African American History and Culture deeply contrasts the stone-based neoclassical buildings on the National Mall with a design that combines modern engineering with heavy inspiration from African art. The interior of the Washington Metro stations and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden are designed with strong influence from the 20th-century Brutalism movement. The Smithsonian Institution Building is built of Seneca red sandstone in the Norman Revival style. The Old Post Office building, located on Pennsylvania Avenue and completed in 1899, was the first building in the city to have a steel frame structure and the first to utilize electrical wiring in its design. Notable contemporary residential buildings, restaurants, shops, and office buildings in the city include the Wharf on the Southwest Waterfront, Navy Yard along the Anacostia River, and CityCenterDC in Downtown. The Wharf, given its proximity to the Potomac River, has seen the construction of several high-rise office and residential buildings overlooking the river. Additionally, restaurants, bars, and shops have been opened at street level. Many of these buildings have a modern glass exterior and heavy curvature. CityCenterDC is home to Palmer Alley, a pedestrian-only walkway, and houses several apartment buildings, restaurants, and luxury-brand storefronts with streamlined glass and metal facades. Outside Downtown D.C., architectural styles are more varied. Historic buildings are designed primarily in the Queen Anne, Châteauesque, Richardsonian Romanesque, Georgian Revival, Beaux-Arts, and a variety of Victorian styles. Rowhouses are prominent in areas developed after the Civil War and typically follow Federal and late Victorian designs. Georgetown's Old Stone House, built in 1765, is the oldest-standing building in the city. Founded in 1789, Georgetown University features a mix of Romanesque and Gothic Revival architecture. The Ronald Reagan Building is the largest building in the district with a total area of approximately 3.1 million square feet (288,000 m<sup>2</sup>). Washington Union Station is designed from a combination of different architectural styles. Its Great Hall, which serves as the main hall within the building, has elaborate gold leaf designs along the ceilings and the hall includes several decorative classical-style statues. ## Demographics The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the district's population was 705,749 as of July 2019, an increase of more than 100,000 people compared to the 2010 United States Census. When measured on a decade-over-decade basis, this continues a growth trend since 2000, following a half-century of population decline. But on a year-over-year basis, the July 2019 census count shows a population decline of 16,000 individuals over the preceding 12-month period. Washington was the 24th most populous place in the United States as of 2010. According to data from 2010, commuters from the suburbs increase the district's daytime population to over a million. If the district were a state it would rank 49th in population, ahead of Vermont and Wyoming. The Washington metropolitan area, which includes the district and surrounding suburbs, is the sixth-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. with an estimated six million residents as of 2016. When the Washington area is included with Baltimore and its suburbs, it forms the vast Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area. With a population exceeding 9.8 million residents in 2020, it is the third-largest combined statistical area in the country. According to HUD's 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, there were an estimated 4,410 homeless people in Washington, D.C. According to 2017 Census Bureau data, the population of Washington, D.C. was 47.1% Black or African American, 45.1% White (36.8% non-Hispanic White), 4.3% Asian, 0.6% American Indian or Alaska Native, and 0.1% Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. Individuals from two or more races made up 2.7% of the population. Hispanics of any race made up 11.0% of the district's population. Washington, D.C. has had a significant African American population since the city's foundation. African American residents composed about 30% of the district's total population between 1800 and 1940. The black population reached a peak of 70% by 1970, but has since steadily declined due to many African Americans moving to the surrounding suburbs. Partly as a result of gentrification, there was a 31.4% increase in the non-Hispanic white population and an 11.5% decrease in the black population between 2000 and 2010. According to a study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, D.C. has experienced more "intense" gentrification than any other American city, with 40% of neighborhoods gentrified. Approximately 17% of Washington, D.C. residents were age 18 or younger as of 2010, lower than the U.S. average of 24%. However, at 34 years old, the district had the lowest median age compared to the 50 states as of 2010. As of 2010, there were an estimated 81,734 immigrants living in Washington, D.C. Major sources of immigration include El Salvador, Ethiopia, Mexico, Guatemala, and China, with a concentration of Salvadorans in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood. As of 2010, there were 4,822 same-sex couples in the city, about 2% of total households, according to Williams Institute. Legislation authorizing same-sex marriage passed in 2009, and the district began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in March 2010. As of 2007, approximately a third of Washington, D.C., residents were functionally illiterate compared to a national rate of about one in five. The city's relatively high illiteracy rate is attributed in part to immigrants who are not proficient in English. As of 2011, 85% of D.C. residents age 5 and older spoke English at home as a primary language. Half of residents had at least a four-year college degree in 2006. In 2017, the median household income in D.C. was \$77,649; also in 2017, D.C. residents had a personal income per capita of \$50,832 (higher than any of the 50 states). However, 19% of residents were below the poverty level in 2005, higher than any state except Mississippi. In 2019, the poverty rate stood at 14.7%. As of 2010, more than 90% of Washington, D.C., residents had health insurance coverage, the second-highest rate in the nation. This is due in part to city programs that help provide insurance to low-income individuals who do not qualify for other types of coverage. A 2009 report found that at least three percent of Washington, D.C., residents have HIV or AIDS, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) characterizes as a "generalized and severe" epidemic. Of the district's population, 17% are Baptist, 13% are Catholic, 6% are evangelical Protestant, 4% are Methodist, 3% are Episcopalian or Anglican, 3% are Jewish, 2% are Eastern Orthodox, 1% are Pentecostal, 1% are Buddhist, 1% are Adventist, 1% are Lutheran, 1% are Muslim, 1% are Presbyterian, 1% are Mormon, and 1% are Hindu. The city is populated with many religious buildings, including the Washington National Cathedral, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, which comprises the largest Catholic church building in the United States, and the Islamic Center of Washington, which was the largest mosque in the Western Hemisphere when opened in 1957. St. John's Episcopal Church, located off Lafayette Square, has held services for every U.S. president since James Madison. The Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, built in 1908, is a synagogue located in the Chinatown section of the city. The Washington D.C. Temple is a large Mormon temple located just outside the city in Kensington, Maryland. Viewable from the Capital Beltway, the temple is the tallest Mormon temple in existence and the third-largest by square footage. ## Economy As of 2023, the Washington metropolitan area, including District of Columbia as well as parts of Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia, was one of the nation's largest metropolitan economies. Its growing and diversified economy has an increasing percentage of professional and business service jobs in addition to more traditional jobs rooted in tourism, entertainment, and government. Between 2009 and 2016, gross domestic product per capita in Washington, D.C., consistently ranked at the very top among U.S. states. In 2016, at \$160,472, its GDP per capita was almost three times greater than that of Massachusetts, which was ranked second in the nation. As of 2022, the metropolitan statistical area's unemployment rate was 3.1%, ranking 171 out of the 389 metropolitan areas as defined by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The District of Columbia itself had an unemployment rate of 4.6% during the same time period. In 2019, Washington, D.C., had the highest median household income in the U.S. at \$92,266. According to the District's comprehensive annual financial reports, the top employers by number of employees in 2022 were Georgetown University, Children's National Medical Center, Washington Hospital Center, George Washington University, American University, Georgetown University Hospital, Booz Allen & Hamilton, Insperity PEO Services, Universal Protection Service, Howard University, Medstar Medical Group, George Washington University Hospital, Red Coats, Catholic University of America, and Sibley Memorial Hospital. ### Federal government As of July 2022, 25% of people employed in Washington, D.C., were employed by the federal government. The vast majority of these government employees serve in various executive branch departments, agencies, and institutions, and only a small percentage serve as temporary staff for presidents, Congress members, or in the federal judiciary. Many of the region's residents work for companies and organizations that sign contracts with the federal government or work on issues directly related to the work of the federal government, including law firms, defense contractors, civilian contractors, nonprofit organizations, lobbying firms, trade unions, industry trade groups, and professional associations, many of which have their headquarters in or near Washington, D.C., in order to maintain proximity to the federal government. The largest U.S. government agencies located in or near the city are: the United States Department of Defense headquartered in the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, the United States Postal Service, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, the United States Department of Homeland Security, and the United States Department of Justice. ### Diplomacy and global finance Washington, D.C. hosts more than 175 embassies, ambassador's residences and international cultural centers. Embassy Row is the informal name given to a stretch of Massachusetts Avenue that is occupied by many of the city's foreign embassies. Washington, D.C., is one of the most diverse cities in the world. In 2008, the foreign diplomatic corps in the city employed approximately 10,000 people and contributed an estimated \$400 million annually to the local economy. Many prominent global financial and diplomatic institutions are headquartered in the city, including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organization of American States, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Pan American Health Organization. These institutions seek to use money lending and run development programs, among other financial and economic tools, to improve the economy and development of countries across the globe. The Federal Reserve, which is the central bank of the U.S., is located on Constitution Avenue. Commonly called The Fed, its policies are made by the members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Through monetary policy, the Board adjusts various interest rates in the U.S., which heavily impacts the U.S. economy and economies for countries across the world. Because of the power of the U.S. dollar, the actions of the Board are monitored closely by political, economic, and diplomatic leaders around the world. ### Research and non-profit organizations Washington, D.C., is a leading center for national and international research organizations, especially think tanks that engage in public policy. Several of the nation's largest and most cited think tanks are headquartered in the city, including the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Peterson Institute for International Economics, The Heritage Foundation, Urban Institute, and others. As of 2020, 8% of the country's think tanks are headquartered in Washington, D.C. Many non-think tanks are also leading research centers, such as the MedStar Washington Hospital Center and the Children's National Medical Center. The city is home to many non-profit organizations that engage with issues of domestic and global importance by conducting advanced research, running programs, or advocating on behalf of people. Many of these organizations are headquartered or have major offices in the city. Among these organizations are the UN Foundation, Human Rights Campaign, Amnesty International, and the National Endowment for Democracy. The city is also the country's primary location for international development firms, many of whom find funding by contracting with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which is the U.S. federal government's aid agency and is located in the city. The American Red Cross, a humanitarian agency focused on emergency relief, is also headquartered in the city. ### Private sector According to statistics compiled in 2011, four of the largest 500 companies in the country were headquartered in Washington, D.C. In the 2021 Global Financial Centres Index, Washington was ranked as having the 14th most competitive financial center in the world, and fourth most competitive in the United States (after New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles). Among the largest companies headquartered in the Washington, D.C., area are Fannie Mae, Amtrak, Lockheed Martin, Marriot International, Hilton Worldwide, Danaher Corporation, FTI Consulting, and Hogan Lovells. Due to the building height restrictions in Washington, D.C., taller buildings are able to be built in suburban Maryland and Virginia. Capital One Bank, which is one of the largest banks in the country, is headquartered in nearby Tysons, Virginia, a large and growing financial center located in Fairfax County, Virginia. The headquarters building for Capital One Bank, known as Capital One Tower, is the tallest occupied building in the Washington region. In 2018, Amazon announced it would build a second headquarters building, known as HQ2, in the Crystal City neighborhood of Arlington County, Virginia, which is located just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. In addition to Capital One, some of the largest companies headquartered in Northern Virginia include Hilton, Navy Federal Credit Union, Mars, Freddie Mac, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics. The Washington, D.C., economy also benefits from being home to many prominent news and media organizations. Among these are The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Politico, and The Hill. Television and radio media organizations either headquartered in or near the city or with large offices in the region, include CNN, PBS, C-SPAN, CBS, NBC, Discovery, and NPR, and others. The Gannett Company, which owns USA Today, the nation's largest circulation newspaper, and other media outlets, is headquartered in Tysons, Virginia. ### Tourism Tourism is the city's second-largest industry, after the federal government. Approximately 18.9 million visitors contributed an estimated \$4.8 billion to the local economy in 2012. In 2019, the number of tourists who visited the city increased to 24.6 million, of which 22.8 million were domestic tourists. In total, the tourists spent \$8.15 billion during their stay. This heavy tourism helps many of the region's other industries, such as lodging, food and beverage, entertainment, shopping, and transportation. Additionally, tourism helps the city maintain a robust network of world-class museums and cultural centers, most notably the Smithsonian Institution. The city and wider Washington region has a diverse array of attractions for tourists, such as monuments, memorials, museums, sports events, and trails. Within the city, the National Mall serves as the center of the tourism industry. It is there that many of the city's museums and monuments are located. Adjacent to the mall sits the Tidal Basin, where several additional memorials and monuments lie, including the popular Jefferson Memorial. Additionally, Union Station is a very popular tourist spot with its multitude of restaurants and shops. Among the most visited tourist destinations is Arlington National Cemetery in nearby Arlington County, Virginia. This is a military cemetery that serves as a burial ground for former military combatants. It is also the location of President John F. Kennedy's tomb, marked by an eternal flame. President William Howard Taft is also buried in Arlington. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is located in the cemetery and is guarded 24/7 by a tomb guard. The changing of the guard is a popular tourist attraction and occurs once every hour from October through March and every half-hour during the rest of the year. ## Culture ### Arts Washington, D.C. is a national center for the arts and houses several concert halls and theaters. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is home to the National Symphony Orchestra, the Washington National Opera, and the Washington Ballet. The Kennedy Center Honors are awarded each year to those in the performing arts who have contributed greatly to the cultural life of the United States. This ceremony is often attended by the sitting U.S. president and other dignitaries and celebrities. The Kennedy Center also awards the annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. The historic Ford's Theatre, site of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, continues to function as a theatre and as a museum. The Marine Barracks near Capitol Hill houses the United States Marine Band; founded in 1798, it is the country's oldest professional musical organization. American march composer and Washington-native John Philip Sousa led the Marine Band from 1880 until 1892. Founded in 1925, the United States Navy Band has its headquarters at the Washington Navy Yard and performs at official events and public concerts around the city. Founded in 1950, Arena Stage achieved national attention and spurred growth in the city's independent theater movement that now includes organizations such as the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and the Studio Theatre. Arena Stage opened its newly renovated home in the city's emerging Southwest waterfront area in 2010. The GALA Hispanic Theatre, now housed in the historic Tivoli Theatre in Columbia Heights, was founded in 1976 and is a National Center for the Latino Performing Arts. Other performing arts spaces in the city include the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Federal Triangle, the Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street, the Carter Barron Amphitheater in Rock Creek Park, Constitution Hall in Downtown, the National Theatre in Downtown, the Keegan Theatre in Dupont Circle, the Lisner Auditorium in Foggy Bottom, the Sylvan Theater on the National Mall, and the Warner Theatre in Penn Quarter. The U Street Corridor in Northwest D.C., once known as "Washington's Black Broadway", is home to institutions like the Howard Theatre, Bohemian Caverns, and the Lincoln Theatre, which hosted music legends such as Washington-native Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, and Miles Davis. Just east of U Street is Shaw, which also served as a major cultural center during the jazz age. Intersecting with U Street is Fourteenth Street, which was an extension of the U Street cultural corridor during the 1920s through the 1960s. The collection of Fourteenth Street, U Street, and Shaw was the location of the Black Renaissance in D.C., which was part of the larger Harlem Renaissance. Today, the area starting at Fourteenth Street downtown going north through U Street and east to Shaw boasts a high concentration of bars, restaurants, and theaters, and is among the city's most notable cultural and artistic areas. ### Music Columbia Records, a major music record label in the US, was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1889. The city grew into being one of the most important music cities in the early jazz age. Duke Ellington, among the most prominent jazz composers and musicians of his time, was born and raised in Washington, and began his music career there. Washington has its own native music genre called go-go; a post-funk, percussion-driven flavor of rhythm and blues that was popularized in the late 1970s by D.C. band leader Chuck Brown. The district is an important center for indie culture and music in the United States. The label Dischord Records, formed by Ian MacKaye, frontman of Fugazi, was one of the most crucial independent labels in the genesis of 1980s punk and eventually indie rock in the 1990s. Modern alternative and indie music venues like The Black Cat and the 9:30 Club bring popular acts to the U Street area. The hardcore punk scene in the city, known as D.C. hardcore, is an important genre of D.C.'s contemporary music scene. Starting in the 1970s, it is considered to be one of the most influential punk music movements in the country. ### Cuisine Washington, D.C. is rich in both fine and casual dining and is considered by some to be one of the best cities for dining in the United States. The city has a diverse range of restaurants, including a wide variety of international cuisines. The city's Chinatown, for example, is filled with Chinese-style restaurants. The city also has many Middle Eastern, European, African, Asian, and Latin American cuisine options. D.C. is known for being one of the best cities in the world for Ethiopian cuisine, due in part to the heavy influx of Ethiopian immigrants during the 20th century, many of whom opened restaurants in the city. A part of the Shaw neighborhood in central D.C. is known as "Little Ethiopia" and has a high concentration of Ethiopian restaurants and shops. Among the most famous Washington, D.C.-born foods is the half-smoke, which is a half-beef, half-pork sausage placed in a hotdog-style bun and topped with onion, chilly, and cheese. Additionally, the city is the birthplace of mumbo sauce, a type of condiment often placed on meat and french fries. This sauce is similar to barbecue sauce but sweeter in flavor. Washington, D.C. is also known for popularizing the jumbo slice pizza, which is an enlarged New York-style pizza. The jumbo slice has particular roots in the Adams Morgan neighborhood. Union Market, located in Northeast D.C., is a former farmer's market and wholesale that now houses a large, gourmet food hall. Union Market is now considered to be among the city's major hotspots for good dining. Among the city's signature restaurants is Ben's Chili Bowl, which has been located on U Street since its founding in 1958. The restaurant rose to prominence as a peaceful escape during the violent 1968 race riots in the city. The restaurant is famous for its chili dogs and half-smokes. The restaurant has been visited by numerous presidents and celebrities over the years. Georgetown Cupcake is a cupcake restaurant whose fame grew following its appearance on the reality T.V. show DC Cupcakes. Due to limited dining options along the National Mall, the city is known for having a heavy concentration of food trucks offering diverse ethnic cuisine options parked along the tourist-dense areas of the mall. Washington, D.C.'s fine dining options are extensive, with the Michelin Guide awarding numerous D.C. restaurants with prestigious Michelin stars in recent years. As of 2023, the city has the third-highest number of Michelin stars in the country after New York City and San Francisco. The city's growth as a fine dining location has garnered the attention of several celebrity chefs who have opened restaurants in the city, including José Andrés, Kwame Onwuachi, Gordon Ramsay, and previously Michel Richard. ### Museums Washington, D.C. is home to many of the country's most visited museums and some of the most visited museums in the world. In 2022, the National Museum of Natural History and the National Gallery of Art were the two most visited museums in the country. Overall, Washington had eight of the 28 most visited museums in the US in 2022. That year, the National Museum of Natural History was the fifth-most-visited museum in the world; the National Gallery of Art was the eleventh. #### Smithsonian museums The Smithsonian Institution is an educational foundation chartered by Congress in 1846 that maintains most of the nation's official museums and galleries in Washington, D.C. It is the world's largest research and museum complex. The U.S. government partially funds the Smithsonian, and its collections are open to the public free of charge. The Smithsonian's locations had a combined total of 30 million visits in 2013. The most visited museum is the National Museum of Natural History on the National Mall. Other Smithsonian Institution museums and galleries on the mall include the National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of African Art, the National Museum of American History, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Sackler and Freer galleries, which both focus on Asian art and culture, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Arts and Industries Building, the S. Dillon Ripley Center, and the Smithsonian Institution Building, which serves as the institution's headquarters. The Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery are housed in the Old Patent Office Building near Washington's Chinatown. Renwick Gallery is part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and is located in a separate building near the White House. Other Smithsonian museums and galleries include Anacostia Community Museum in Southeast Washington, the National Postal Museum near Union Station, and the National Zoo in Woodley Park. #### Other museums The National Gallery of Art is on the National Mall near the Capitol and features American and European artworks. The U.S. government owns the gallery and its collections. However, they are not a part of the Smithsonian Institution. The National Building Museum, which occupies the former Pension Building near Judiciary Square, was chartered by Congress and hosts exhibits on architecture, urban planning, and design. The Botanic Garden is a botanical garden and museum operated by the U.S. Congress that is open to the public. There are several private art museums in Washington, D.C., which house major collections and exhibits open to the public, such as the National Museum of Women in the Arts and The Phillips Collection in Dupont Circle, the first museum of modern art in the United States. Other private museums in Washington include the Newseum, the O Street Museum, the International Spy Museum, the National Geographic Society Museum, and the Museum of the Bible. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum near the National Mall maintains exhibits, documentation, and artifacts related to the Holocaust. ### Landmarks #### National Mall and Tidal Basin The National Mall is a large, open park near Downtown Washington between the Lincoln Memorial and the United States Capitol. Given its prominence, the mall is often the location of political protests, concerts, festivals, and presidential inaugurations. The grounds of the Capitol are the location for the annual National Memorial Day Concert, held every year on Memorial Day, as well as A Capitol Fourth, a concert held annually on Independence Day. Both concerts are broadcast across the country on PBS. In the evening on the Fourth of July, the park is home to a large fireworks show. The Washington Monument and the Jefferson Pier are near the center of the mall, south of the White House. Located on the mall directly northwest of the Washington Monument is Constitution Gardens, which includes a garden, park, pond, and a memorial to the signers of the United States Declaration of Independence. Just north of Constitution Gardens is the Lockkeeper's House, which is the second oldest building on the mall, after the White House. The house is operated by the National Park Service (NPS) and is open to the public for visitation. Also on the mall is the National World War II Memorial at the east end of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, as well as the Korean War Veterans Memorial and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Directly south of the mall, the Tidal Basin is a human-made reservoir surrounded by pedestrian paths that feature rows of Japanese cherry trees. Every spring, millions of cherry blossoms bloom, an event which attracts visitors from across the world as part of the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival. The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, George Mason Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, and the District of Columbia War Memorial are around the Tidal Basin. #### Other landmarks Numerous historic landmarks are located outside the National Mall. Among these are the Old Post Office, the Treasury Building, Old Patent Office Building, the National Cathedral, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the National World War I Memorial, the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, Lincoln's Cottage, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial, and the United States Navy Memorial. The Octagon House, which was the building that President James Madison and his administration moved into following the burning of the White House during the War of 1812, is now a historic museum and popular tourist destination. The National Archives is headquartered in a building just north of the National Mall and houses thousands of documents important to American history, including the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Located in three buildings on Capitol Hill, the Library of Congress is the largest library complex in the world with a collection of more than 147 million books, manuscripts, and other materials. The United States Supreme Court is located immediately north of the Library of Congress. The United States Supreme Court Building was completed in 1935; before then, the court held sessions in the Old Senate Chamber of the Capitol. Chinatown, located just north of the National Mall, houses Capital One Arena, which serves as the home arena to the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League and the Washington Wizards of the National Basketball Association, and serves as the city's primary indoor entertainment arena. Chinatown includes several Chinese restaurants and shops. The Friendship Archway is one of the largest Chinese ceremonial archways outside of China and bears the Chinese characters for "Chinatown" below its roof. The Southwest Waterfront along the Potomac River has been redeveloped in recent years and now serves as a popular cultural center. The Wharf, as it is called, contains the city's historic Maine Avenue Fish Market. This is the oldest fish market currently in operation in the entire United States. The Wharf also has many hotels, residential buildings, restaurants, shops, parks, piers, docks and marinas, and live music venues. Several other landmarks are located in neighboring Northern Virginia. Among these are Arlington National Cemetery, including the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, The Pentagon, the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial, the United States Air Force Memorial, Old Town Alexandria, and Mount Vernon, the former home of George Washington. National Harbor in Prince George's County, Maryland, and its Capital Wheel, a ferris wheel providing riders with views of the D.C. area, are also notable landmarks. The National Spelling Bee is held annually since 2011 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. ## Parks There are many parks, gardens, squares, and circles throughout Washington. Rock Creek Park, located in Northwest D.C., is the largest park in the city and is administered by the National Park Service. Located on the northern side of the White House, Lafayette Square is a historic public square. Named after the Marquis de Lafayette, a Frenchman who served as a commander during the American Revolutionary War, the square has been the site of many protests, marches, and speeches over the decades. The houses bordering the square have served as the home to many notable figures, such as First Lady Dolley Madison and Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State William H. Seward, who was stabbed by an intruder in his Lafayette Square house on the evening of President Lincoln's assassination. Located next to the square and on Pennsylvania Avenue across from the White House is the Blair House, which serves as the primary state guest house for the U.S. president. There are several river islands in Washington, D.C., including Theodore Roosevelt Island in the Potomac River, which has trails and is home to the Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial. Columbia Island, also in the Potomac, is home to the Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Grove, the Navy – Merchant Marine Memorial, and a marina. Kingman Island, in the Anacostia River, is home to Langston Golf Course and a public park with trails. Other parks, gardens, and squares include Dumbarton Oaks, Meridian Hill Park, the Yards, Anacostia Park, Lincoln Park, Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens, Franklin Square, McPherson Square, Farragut Square, and Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park. There are a large number of traffic circles and circle parks in Washington, D.C., including Dupont Circle, Logan Circle, Scott Circle, Sheridan Circle, Thomas Circle, Washington Circle, and others. The United States National Arboretum is a dense arboretum in Northeast D.C. filled with gardens and trails. Its most notable landmark is the National Capitol Columns monument. ## Sports Washington, D.C. is one of 13 cities in the United States with teams from the primary four major professional men's sports and is home to one major professional women's team. The Washington Nationals of Major League Baseball are the most popular sports team in the District, as of 2019. They play at Nationals Park, which opened in 2008. The Washington Commanders of the National Football League play at FedExField in nearby Landover, Maryland. The Washington Wizards of the National Basketball Association and the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League play at Capital One Arena in the city's Penn Quarter neighborhood. The Washington Mystics of the Women's National Basketball Association play at Entertainment and Sports Arena. D.C. United of Major League Soccer plays at Audi Field. The city's teams have won a combined 13 professional league championships over their respective histories. The Washington Commanders (named the Washington Redskins until 2020), have won two NFL Championships and three Super Bowls; D.C. United has won four; and the Washington Wizards, then named the Washington Bullets, Washington Capitals, Washington Mystics, and Washington Nationals have each won a single championship. Other professional and semi-professional teams in Washington, D.C. include DC Defenders of the XFL, Old Glory DC of Major League Rugby, the Washington Kastles of World TeamTennis, and the D.C. Divas of the Independent Women's Football League. The William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center in Rock Creek Park hosts the Washington Open, a joint men's ATP Tour 500- and women's WTA Tour 500-level tennis tournament, every summer in late July and early August. Washington, D.C. has two major annual marathon races, the Marine Corps Marathon, held every autumn, and the Rock 'n' Roll USA Marathon, held each spring. The Marine Corps Marathon began in 1976 and is sometimes called "The People's Marathon" because it is the largest marathon that does not offer prize money to participants. The district's four NCAA Division I teams are the American Eagles of American University, George Washington Revolutionaries of George Washington University, the Georgetown Hoyas of Georgetown University, and the Howard Bison and Lady Bison of Howard University. The Georgetown men's basketball team is the most notable and also plays at Capital One Arena. Washington, D.C. area's regional sports television network, NBC Sports Washington, is based in Bethesda, Maryland, and will rebrand as Monumental Sports Network in fall 2023. ## City government ### Politics Article One, Section Eight of the United States Constitution grants the United States Congress "exclusive jurisdiction" over the city. The district did not have an elected local government until the passage of the 1973 Home Rule Act. The Act devolved certain Congressional powers to an elected mayor and the thirteen-member Council of the District of Columbia. However, Congress retains the right to review and overturn laws created by the council and intervene in local affairs. Washington, D.C., is overwhelmingly Democratic, having voted for the Democratic presidential candidate solidly since it was granted electoral votes in 1964. Each of the city's eight wards elects a single member of the council and residents elect four at-large members to represent the district as a whole. The council chair is also elected at-large. There are 37 Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (ANCs) elected by small neighborhood districts. ANCs can issue recommendations on all issues that affect residents; government agencies take their advice under careful consideration. The attorney general of the District of Columbia is elected to a four-year term. Washington, D.C., observes all federal holidays and also celebrates Emancipation Day on April 16, which commemorates the end of slavery in the district. The flag of Washington, D.C., was adopted in 1938 and is a variation on George Washington's family coat of arms. Washington, D.C., has been a member state of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) since 2015. The idiom "Inside the Beltway" is a reference used by media to describe discussions of national political issues inside of Washington, by way of geographical demarcation regarding the region within the Capital's Beltway, Interstate 495, the city's highway loop (beltway) constructed in 1964. The phrase is used as a title for a number of political columns and news items by publications like The Washington Times. ### Budgetary issues The mayor and council set local taxes and a budget, which Congress must approve. The Government Accountability Office and other analysts have estimated that the city's high percentage of tax-exempt property and the Congressional prohibition of commuter taxes create a structural deficit in the district's local budget of anywhere between \$470 million and over \$1 billion per year. Congress typically provides additional grants for federal programs such as Medicaid and the operation of the local justice system; however, analysts claim that the payments do not fully resolve the imbalance. The city's local government, particularly during the mayoralty of Marion Barry, has been criticized for mismanagement and waste. During his administration in 1989, Washington Monthly magazine labeled the district "the worst city government in America". In 1995, at the start of Barry's fourth term, Congress created the District of Columbia Financial Control Board to oversee all municipal spending. Mayor Anthony Williams won election in 1998 and oversaw a period of urban renewal and budget surpluses. The district regained control over its finances in 2001 and the oversight board's operations were suspended. The district has a federally funded "Emergency Planning and Security Fund" to cover security related to visits by foreign leaders and diplomats, presidential inaugurations, protests, and terrorism concerns. During the Trump administration, the fund has run with a deficit. Trump's January 2017 inauguration cost the city \$27 million; of that, \$7 million was never repaid to the fund. Trump's 2019 Independence Day event, "A Salute to America", cost six times more than Independence Day events in past years. ### Voting rights debate Washington, D.C. is not a state and therefore has no federal voting representation in Congress. The city's residents elect a non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives (D.C. at-large), who may sit on committees, participate in debate, and introduce legislation, but cannot vote on the House floor. The district has no official representation in the United States Senate. Neither chamber seats the district's elected "shadow" representative or senators. Unlike residents of U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico or Guam, which also have non-voting delegates, D.C. residents are subject to all federal taxes. In the financial year 2012, D.C. residents and businesses paid \$20.7 billion in federal taxes, more than the taxes collected from 19 states and the highest federal taxes per capita. A 2005 poll found that 78% of Americans did not know residents of Washington, D.C., have less representation in Congress than residents of the 50 states. Efforts to raise awareness about the issue have included campaigns by grassroots organizations and featuring the city's unofficial motto, "End Taxation Without Representation", on D.C. vehicle license plates. There is evidence of nationwide approval for D.C. voting rights; various polls indicate that 61 to 82% of Americans believe D.C. should have voting representation in Congress. Opponents to federal voting rights for Washington, D.C., propose that the Founding Fathers never intended for district residents to have a vote in Congress since the Constitution makes clear that representation must come from the states. Those opposed to making District of Columbia a state claim such a move would destroy the notion of a separate national capital and that statehood would unfairly grant Senate representation to a single city. ## Education District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), the sole public school district in the city, operates the city's 123 public schools. The number of students in DCPS steadily decreased for 39 years until 2009. In the 2010–11 school year, 46,191 students were enrolled in the public school system. DCPS has one of the highest-cost, yet lowest-performing school systems in the country, in terms of both infrastructure and student achievement. Mayor Adrian Fenty's administration made sweeping changes to the system by closing schools, replacing teachers, firing principals, and using private education firms to aid curriculum development. The District of Columbia Public Charter School Board monitors the 52 public charter schools in the city. Due to the perceived problems with the traditional public school system, enrollment in public charter schools had by 2007 steadily increased. As of 2010, D.C., charter schools had a total enrollment of about 32,000, a 9% increase from the prior year. The district is also home to 92 private schools, which enrolled approximately 18,000 students in 2008. ### Higher education Private universities include American University (AU), the Catholic University of America (CUA), Gallaudet University, George Washington University (GWU), Georgetown University (GU), Howard University (HU), the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and Trinity Washington University. The Corcoran College of Art and Design, the oldest art school in the capital, was absorbed into the George Washington University in 2014, now serving as its college of arts. The University of the District of Columbia (UDC) is a public land-grant university providing undergraduate and graduate education. The city's medical research institutions include Washington Hospital Center and Children's National Medical Center. The city is home to three medical schools and associated teaching hospitals: George Washington, Georgetown, and Howard universities. ### Libraries Washington, D.C., has dozens of public and private libraries and library systems, including the District of Columbia Public Library system. #### Library of Congress The Library of Congress is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the de facto national library of the United States. It is a complex of three buildings: Thomas Jefferson Building, John Adams Building and James Madison Memorial Building, all located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. The Jefferson Building houses the library's reading room, a copy of the Gutenberg Bible, Thomas Jefferson's original library, and several museum exhibits. #### District of Columbia Public Library The District of Columbia Public Library operates 26 neighborhood locations including the landmark Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. #### Folger Shakespeare Library Folger Shakespeare Library is a research library and museum located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. It houses the world's largest collection of material related to William Shakespeare and third-largest collection of English books printed before 1641. The Folger Library also runs special events and cultural attractions, most notably the Folger Theatre, which is known for being a leading interpreter of Shakespeare's works, in addition to those from other authors. ## Media Washington, D.C., is a prominent center for national and international media. The Washington Post, founded in 1877, is the city's oldest and most-read local daily newspaper. "The Post", as it is popularly called, is well known as the newspaper that exposed the Watergate scandal. It had the sixth-highest readership of all news dailies in the country in 2011. The Washington Post also publishes a Spanish language newspaper El Tiempo Latino, a leading Spanish-language news source for the Washington area. The Post is headquartered at One Franklin Square just north of Franklin Square in Downtown Washington. The Washington Times is a general interest daily newspaper and popular among conservatives. The alternative weekly Washington City Paper, with a circulation of 47,000, is also based in the city and has a substantial readership in the Washington area. The Atlantic magazine, which has covered politics, international affairs, and cultural issues since 1857, is headquartered at the Watergate complex in Washington. Several community and specialty papers focus on neighborhood and cultural issues, including the weekly Washington Blade and Metro Weekly, which focus on LGBT issues; the Washington Informer and The Washington Afro American, which highlight topics of interest to the black community; and neighborhood newspapers published by The Current Newspapers. Congressional Quarterly, The Hill, Politico, and Roll Call newspapers focus exclusively on issues related to Congress and the federal government. Other publications based in Washington include the National Geographic magazine and political publications such as The Washington Examiner, The New Republic, and Washington Monthly. USA Today, which is the largest newspaper in the country as measured by circulation, as well as its parent company Gannett, which is the largest newspaper publisher in the United States, are both headquartered in nearby Tysons, Virginia. The Washington metropolitan area is the ninth-largest television media market in the nation, with two million homes, representing approximately 2% of the country's television market. Several media companies and cable television channels have their headquarters in the area, including C-SPAN, Radio One, the National Geographic Channel, Smithsonian Networks, National Public Radio (NPR), Travel Channel (in Chevy Chase, Maryland), Discovery Communications (in Silver Spring, Maryland), and PBS (in Arlington County, Virginia). The headquarters of Voice of America, the U.S. government's international news service, is near the Capitol in Southwest Washington, D.C. The city is served by two local NPR affiliates, WAMU and WETA. ## Infrastructure ### Transportation #### Streets and highways There are 1,500 miles (2,400 km) of streets, parkways, and avenues in the district. Due to the freeway revolts of the 1960s, much of the proposed interstate highway system through the middle of Washington was never built. Interstate 95 (I-95), the nation's major east coast highway, therefore bends around the district to form the eastern portion of the Capital Beltway. A portion of the proposed highway funding was directed to the region's public transportation infrastructure instead. The interstate highways that continue into Washington, including I-66 and I-395, both terminate shortly after entering the city. According to a 2010 study, Washington-area commuters spent 70 hours a year in traffic delays, which tied with Chicago for having the nation's worst road congestion. However, 37% of Washington-area commuters take public transportation to work, the second-highest rate in the country. An additional 12% of D.C. commuters walked to work, 6% carpooled, and 3% traveled by bicycle in 2010. #### Cycling In May 2022, the city celebrated the expansion of its bike lane network to 104 miles (167 km), a 60 percent increase from 2015. Of those miles, 24 miles (39 km) were protected bike lanes. It also boasted 62 miles (100 km) of bike trails. As of March 2023, the city has 108 miles (174 km) of bike lanes, with 30 miles (48 km) of them protected bike lanes. D.C. is part of the regional Capital Bikeshare program. Started in 2010, it is one of the largest bicycle sharing systems in the country with more than 4,351 bicycles and more than 395 stations, all provided by PBSC Urban Solutions. #### Walkability A 2021 study by Walk Score ranked Washington, D.C. the fifth-most walkable city in the country. According to the study, the most walkable neighborhoods are U Street, Dupont Circle, and Mount Vernon Square. In 2013, the Washington Metropolitan Area had the eighth lowest percentage of workers who commuted by private automobile (75.7 percent), with 8 percent of area workers traveling via rail transit. #### River crossings There are multiple transportation methods to cross the city's two rivers, the Potomac River and the Anacostia River. There are numerous bridges that take cars, trains, pedestrians, and bikers across the rivers. Among these are Arlington Memorial Bridge, the 14th Street Bridges, Francis Scott Key Bridge, Theodore Roosevelt Bridge, Woodrow Wilson Bridge, and Frederick Douglass Bridge. There are also ferries and water cruises that cross the Potomac River. One of these is the Potomac Water Taxi, operated by Hornblower Cruises, which goes between the Georgetown Waterfront, the Wharf, the Old Town Alexandria Waterfront, and National Harbor. #### Rail The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) operates the Washington Metro, the city's rapid transit rail system. The system serves Washington, D.C. and its Maryland and Northern Virginia suburbs. Metro opened on March 27, 1976, and consists of six lines (each one color coded), 97 stations, and 129 miles (208 km) of track. Metro is the second-busiest rapid transit system in the country and fifth-busiest in North America. It operates mostly as a deep-level subway in more densely populated parts of the D.C. metropolitan area (including most of the District itself), while most of the suburban tracks are at surface level or elevated. Metro is known for its iconic brutalist-style vaulted ceilings in the interior stations. It is also known for having long escalators in some of its underground stations. The longest single-tier escalator in the Western Hemisphere, spanning 230 feet (70 m), is located at Metro's Wheaton station in Maryland. Union Station is the city's main train station and serves approximately 70,000 people each day. It is Amtrak's second-busiest station with 4.6 million passengers annually and is the southern terminus for the Northeast Corridor, which carries long-distance and regional services to New York Penn Station and points in New England. As of 2023, Union Station is the ninth-busiest rail station in the nation and tenth-busiest in North America. Maryland's MARC and Virginia's VRE commuter trains and the Metrorail Red Line also provide service into Union Station. Following renovations in 2011, Union Station became Washington's primary intercity bus transit center. Although Washington, D.C. was known throughout the 19th and early- to mid-20th centuries for its streetcars, these lines were dismantled in the 1960s. In 2016, however, the city brought back a streetcar line, DC Streetcar, which is a single line system in Northeast Washington, D.C., along H Street and Benning Road, known as the H Street/Benning Road Line. #### Bus Two main public bus systems operate in Washington, D.C. Metrobus, operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), is the primary public bus system in Washington, D.C. Serving more than 400,000 riders each weekday, it is one of the nation's largest bus systems by annual ridership. The city also operates its own DC Circulator bus system, which connects commercial and touristic areas within central Washington. The DC Circulator costs only \$1 to ride and is composed of six distinct routes that cover central D.C. and suburban Rosslyn, Virginia. The DC Circulator is run via a public-private partnerships between the District of Columbia Department of Transportation, WMATA, and DC Surface Transit, Inc. (DCST). The bus system services each stop approximately every 10 minutes. Many other public bus systems operate in the various jurisdictions of the Washington region outside of the city in suburban Maryland and Virginia. Among these are the Fairfax Connector in Fairfax County, Virginia; DASH in Alexandria, Virginia; and TheBus in Prince George's County, Maryland. There are also numerous commuter buses that residents of the wider Washington region take to commute into the city for work or other events. Among these are the Loudoun County Transit Commuter Bus and the Maryland Transit Administration Commuter Bus. The city also has several bus lines used by tourists and others visiting the city, including Big Bus Tours, Old Town Trolley Tours, and DC Trails. The city also has many charter buses used in carrying young students and other tourists from across the country to the city and region's historic sites. These buses are often found parked beside the city's most notable tourist attractions, including National Mall. #### Air Three major airports serve the district, though none are within the city's borders. Two of these major airports are located in suburban Virginia and one in suburban Maryland. The closest is Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, which is located in Arlington County, Virginia, just across the Potomac River about 5 miles (8 km) from downtown Washington, D.C. This airport provides primarily domestic flights and has the lowest number of passengers of the three airports in the region. The busiest by number of total passengers is Baltimore/Washington International Airport (BWI), located in Anne Arundel County, Maryland about 30 miles (48 km) northeast of the city. The busiest by international flights and the largest by land size and amount of facilities is Washington Dulles International Airport, located in Dulles, Virginia, about 24 miles (39 km) west of the city. Dulles has the most international passenger traffic of any airport in the Mid-Atlantic outside the New York metropolitan area, including approximately 90% of the international passenger traffic in the Washington-Baltimore region. Each of these three airports also serves as a hub for a major American airline: Reagan National Airport is a hub for American Airlines, Dulles is a major hub for United Airlines and Star Alliance partners, and BWI is an operating base for Southwest Airlines. In 2018, the Washington, D.C. area was the 18th-busiest airport system in the world by passenger traffic, accumulating over 74 million passengers between its three main commercial airports. The President of the United States does not use any of these airports for travel. Instead, he typically travels by Marine One from the White House South Lawn to Joint Base Andrews, located in suburban Maryland. From there, he takes Air Force One to his destination. Joint Base Andrews was built in 1942. From 1942 to 2009, it was solely an Air Force base, but became a joint Air Force and Naval base in 2009, when Andrews Air Force Base and Naval Air Facility Washington were merged into a singular entity with the creation of Joint Base Andrews. ### Utilities The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority, also known as WASA or D.C. Water, is an independent authority of the Washington, D.C., government that provides drinking water and wastewater collection in the city. WASA purchases water from the historic Washington Aqueduct, which is operated by the Army Corps of Engineers. The water, sourced from the Potomac River, is treated and stored in the city's Dalecarlia, Georgetown, and McMillan reservoirs. The aqueduct provides drinking water for a total of 1.1 million people in the district and Virginia, including Arlington, Falls Church, and a portion of Fairfax County. The authority also provides sewage treatment services for an additional 1.6 million people in four surrounding Maryland and Virginia counties. Pepco is the city's electric utility and services 793,000 customers in the district and suburban Maryland. An 1889 law prohibits overhead wires within much of the historic City of Washington. As a result, all power lines and telecommunication cables are located underground in downtown Washington, and traffic signals are placed at the edge of the street. A 2013 plan would bury an additional 60 miles (97 km) of primary power lines throughout the district. Washington Gas is the city's natural gas utility and serves more than a million customers in the district and its suburbs. Incorporated by Congress in 1848, the company installed the city's first gas lights in the Capitol, White House, and along Pennsylvania Avenue. ## Crime Some 67,000 residents, about 10% of the population, are ex-convicts. In 2021 and 2022, the number of homicides continued an upward trend with over 200 homicides in both years, a significant rise from previous lows. In 2012, D.C.'s annual murder count had dropped to 88, the lowest total since 1961. The city was once described as the "murder capital" of the United States during the early 1990s. The number of murders peaked in 1991 at 479, but the level of violence then began to decline significantly. In 2016, the district's Metropolitan Police Department tallied 135 homicides, a 53% increase from 2012 but a 17% decrease from 2015. Many neighborhoods such as Columbia Heights and Logan Circle are becoming safer and vibrant. However, incidents of robberies and thefts have remained higher in these areas because of increased nightlife activity and greater numbers of affluent residents. Even still, citywide reports of both property and violent crimes have declined since their most recent highs in the mid-1990s. On June 26, 2008, the Supreme Court of the United States held in District of Columbia v. Heller that the city's 1976 handgun ban violated the right to keep and bear arms as protected under the Second Amendment. However, the ruling does not prohibit all forms of gun control; laws requiring firearm registration remain in place, as does the city's assault weapon ban. In addition to the Metropolitan Police Department, several federal law enforcement agencies have jurisdiction in the city, including the U.S. Park Police, founded in 1791. ## Sister cities Washington, D.C., has fifteen official sister city agreements. Each of the listed cities is a national capital except for Sunderland, which includes the town of Washington, the ancestral home of George Washington's family. Paris and Rome are each formally recognized as a partner city due to their special one sister city policy. Listed in the order each agreement was first established, they are: - Bangkok, Thailand (1962, renewed 2002 and 2012) - Dakar, Senegal (1980, renewed 2006) - Beijing, China (1984, renewed 2004 and 2012) - Brussels, Belgium (1985, renewed 2002 and 2011) - Athens, Greece (2000) - Paris, France (2000 as a friendship and cooperation agreement, renewed 2005) - Pretoria, South Africa (2002, renewed 2008 and 2011) - Seoul, South Korea (2006) - Accra, Ghana (2006) - Sunderland, United Kingdom (2006, renewed 2012) - Rome, Italy (2011, renewed 2013) - Ankara, Turkey (2011) - Brasília, Brazil (2013) - Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (2013) - San Salvador, El Salvador (2018) ## People List of people from Washington, D.C. ## See also - Index of Washington, D.C.–related articles - Outline of Washington, D.C. - USS District of Columbia ## Explanatory notes
3,860,285	Romance (Luis Miguel album)	1,171,227,231	null	[ "1991 albums", "Albums arranged by Bebu Silvetti", "Albums produced by Luis Miguel", "Covers albums", "Luis Miguel albums", "Spanish-language albums", "Warner Music Latina albums" ]	Romance is the eighth studio album by Mexican singer Luis Miguel. It was released by WEA Latina on 19 November 1991. Although the production was originally intended as another collaboration with Juan Carlos Calderón, that plan was scrapped when Calderón was unable to compose songs for the album. Facing a new-material deadline in his recording contract, at his manager's suggestion Miguel chose bolero music for his next project. Mexican singer-songwriter Armando Manzanero was hired by WEA Latina to co-produce the album with Miguel. Recording began in August 1991 at Ocean Way Recording in Hollywood, California, with Bebu Silvetti the arranger. On the album Miguel covers twelve boleros, originally recorded from 1944 to 1986. The first two singles, "Inolvidable" and "No Sé Tú", reached number one on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart in the United States and spent six months atop the Mexican charts. "Mucho Corazón" and "Cómo" were in the top five of the Hot Latin Songs chart, and "Usted" and "La Barca" received airplay throughout Latin America. Miguel promoted the record with a tour of the United States and Latin America. The album was generally well received by music critics, who praised Miguel's singing and the record's production. The singer received several accolades, including a Grammy nomination for Best Latin Pop Album. Romance sold over eight million copies worldwide, becoming Luis Miguel's all-time bestselling record. In the United States, it spent 32 weeks at number one on the Billboard Latin Pop Albums chart, and was the first Spanish-language album by a non-crossover Latin artist to be certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA); it was also certified gold in Brazil and Taiwan, firsts for a Spanish-speaking artist. Romance is the bestselling record in Argentina by a non-native artist. The album was noted by critics as reviving interest in bolero music. Its success encouraged Miguel to release three more bolero records: Segundo Romance (1994), Romances (1997) and Mis Romances (2001). ## Background and recording Since Miguel signed with WEA Latina in 1986, his albums Soy Como Quiero Ser (1987), Busca una Mujer (1988), and 20 Años (1990) have sold over three million copies cumulatively in Mexico. His early recordings consisted of soft rock and pop ballad tunes, which led to Miguel becoming a teen idol. On 14 January 1991, WEA Latina announced a new album with longtime producer and composer Juan Carlos Calderón, who produced the three previous records by Miguel. Wanting to replicate the success of 20 Años, Calderón would compose pop songs and ballads and find tracks for Miguel to cover in Spanish. Production was scheduled to begin in April, with Italian- and English-language studio albums to follow. The record label was unconvinced by Calderón's pre-selected songs; he had to write more compositions, and production halted indefinitely. Ultimately, he was unable to compose songs for the album. Miguel had a contractual deadline with his label to record new material, and considered recording boleros (slow ballads "endowed with romantic lyrics") after meeting Mexican singer-songwriter Armando Manzanero during a televised interview. The singer had performed boleros (including compositions recorded by Manzanero) during his 1991 tour. At the suggestion of manager Hugo López, and realizing that he could appeal to an older audience, Miguel chose boleros for his next album and WEA Latina hired Manzanero to take over its production. Manzanero was enthusiastic, hoping that Miguel's popularity would introduce the genre to young listeners. On 25 October 1991, the album's title was announced as a homage to boleros; it was Miguel's first as a producer. Recording began on 24 August 1991, at Ocean Way Recording in Hollywood, California. Miguel and Manzanero produced the album, with Bebu Silvetti arranging the strings with additional contributions from 32 violinists under the direction of American conductor Ezra Kliger. On Romance Miguel covers twelve boleros (with each track being described as love numbers), which were selected by Manzanero from five hundred songs including his "Te Extraño" and "No Sé Tú". Seven of the twelve tracks were recorded by 13 September when production was suspended the following day when Miguel was hospitalized with appendicitis. The album's planned late-October release was postponed until 19 November and recording resumed two weeks after Miguel was hospitalized. ## Singles and promotion "Inolvidable" was released as Romance's lead single in November 1991. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart in the United States the week of 25 January 1992, topping the chart for five weeks. Its second single, "No Sé Tú", was released in February 1992 and reached number one on the Hot Latin Songs chart the week of 18 April, topping the chart for seven weeks. The music video for "No Sé Tú" was directed by Pedro Torres and filmed in Miami, it features Miguel and an orchestra performing in front of a building. The video premiered on 16 February on the Mexican variety show Siempre en Domingo. "Inolvidable" and "No Sé Tú" ended 1992 as the third- and second-best-performing Latin songs of the year, respectively, in the United States. In Mexico, the songs topped the charts for a total of six months. The album's third single, "Contigo en la Distancia", was released in Mexico in July 1992; its music video was also directed by Torres and filmed in Miami. "Mucho Corazón" peaked at number three on the Hot Latin Songs chart, with "Cómo" peaking at number four. "Usted" and "La Barca" received airplay throughout Latin America. To promote the record, Miguel began his Romance Tour on 26 June 1992 at a sold out 10,000-seat National Auditorium in Mexico City. After performing throughout Latin America and the United States, he concluded the tour in Chile in December. In addition to touring, Miguel performed at the Seville Expo '92 in Spain. His set list consisted primarily of songs from his earlier career and boleros from Romance. In October 1992 WEA Latina released América & En Vivo, a live EP featuring a new track ("America, America") and tour recordings of "Contigo en la Distancia", "No Sé Tú" and "Inolvidable". AllMusic gave the EP three stars out of five. ## Critical reception AllMusic editor Janet Rosen gave Romance three stars out of five, saying that it "features the usual smooth, well-crafted pop ear candy from Luis Miguel, earnestly sung over strings and polite Latin rhythms". However, she noted that the songs in the album booklet and the lack of liner notes made it difficult for listeners to know what "to make of this presentation". Rosen concluded, "It doesn't matter—the title of the release says it all." Achy Obejas of the Chicago Tribune gave the record four stars out of four, praising Miguel's refusal "to get campy, which gives the effort far more integrity than might have been imagined" and calling his take on boleros "vibrant and real." Mark Holston reviewed the album positively in the magazine Américas, praising Miguel's vocals, the choice of songs and Silvetti's arrangements: "Romance is a reminder of the enduring quality of timeless music". Sun-Sentinel critic John Lannert called Romance a "superb collection of updated classics" and complimented the artist for staying "fairly close to the string-laden original versions". Gloria Calzada of El Informador described the album as "a beauty with twelve songs", stating, "the songs I liked the most were the ones that the masterful Armando Manzanero made". ### Accolades At the 1992 Billboard Music Awards Miguel was the Top Pop Latin Artist and the Top Hot Latin Tracks Artist, and Romance was the Top Pop Latin Album. In Chile, Romance won the Laurel de Oro Award for best album of the year. The singer was the Best Artist From a Non-English-Speaking Country at the Korean International Music Awards. At the 1993 Grammy Awards, Romance was nominated for Best Latin Pop Album, which was awarded to Jon Secada for his album Otro Día Más Sin Verte. That year Romance was also nominated for Pop Album of the Year at the Lo Nuestro Awards, again losing to Secada for his self-titled album. At the 1993 annual Premios Eres, Miguel won three awards: Best Album, Best Male Singer and Best Show (for his tour). The record was the Best International Album and Miguel won the Best International Artist of the Year at the 1993 Ronda de Venezuela awards. ## Commercial performance Romance was released internationally on 19 November 1991, and sold over 400,000 copies in its first 10 days. In Mexico it was certified octuple platinum by the Asociación Mexicana de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas (AMPROFON) for shipping two million copies, the album was also the best selling album in the country in 1992 with 1,623,000 copies sold. In the United States, Romance debuted at number ten on the Billboard Latin Pop Albums chart for the week of 14 December 1991, and reached number one four weeks later. The record topped the chart for 32 consecutive weeks when it was displaced by Jon Secada's eponymous album on the week of 22 August 1992, ending 1992 and 1993 as the bestselling Latin pop album of the year in the country. It was the first record by a Spanish-speaking artist to be certified gold in Brazil and Taiwan, and the first gold certification by a non-crossover Latin artist in the United States (later certified platinum in the U.S. by the RIAA for shipments of one million copies). In South America, Romance was certified platinum in Colombia and Venezuela, gold in Paraguay and triple platinum in Peru. In Argentina was the best selling album of 1992 with 411,502 copies sold, and eventually was certified 16× platinum for sales of over one million copies, the bestselling record by a non-Argentine artist. It received a diamond award from the Argentine Chamber of Phonograms and Videograms Producers (CAPIF), and was certified diamond in Chile and double platinum in Spain. Romance had sold over eight million copies worldwide and is Miguel's bestselling record. ## Influence and legacy Romance was credited by music critics to have renewed mainstream interest in bolero music. According to Chicago Tribune editor Monica Eng, "Just as Harry Connick, Jr. re-popularized the sounds of Sinatra and Tony Bennett, Mexican platinum-selling heartthrob Luis Miguel brought back an appreciation for the music of Mexico's boleristas." In The Wall Street Journal, Mary Talbot compared renewed interest in boleros to the revival of big band and swing music in the Anglo-American market, previously dominated by rock music (which had seized bolero's popularity during the 1960s). Elena Kellner of the Los Angeles Times noted the album's "introducing old favorites to younger audiences" while Achy Obejas of the Chicago Tribune documented Miguel's popularity with older listeners. In Latin Beat Magazine, Franz Reynold wrote that before Miguel, boleros were considered by young people the "music of the ancients, something to be feared, since it seemed to signal the advent of senility". Mark Holston wrote in Américas magazine that the record's "irresistible combination of classic songs, string-laden arrangements, and subtle contemporary influences proved to be the perfect formula to reawaken the bolero's slumbering passions once again." In his book, The Latin Beat: The Rhythms And Roots Of Latin Music From Bossa Nova To Salsa And Beyond, Ed Morales wrote that Miguel's collaboration with Manzanero "brought light to an overlooked master of [bolero]" and "was a significant update of the genre". Romance enhanced Silvetti's reputation as an arranger and producer; according to Leila Cobo of Billboard, the album "categorically redefined the interpretations of traditional boleros" and "sparked a torrent of work for Silvetti, including records with Vic Damone and Engelbert Humperdinck". His arrangements became known as the "Silvetti Sound", which Cobo described as "anchored in sweeping melodies, lush string arrangements, acoustic instrumentation, and above all, unabashed romanticism". Romance's success encouraged Linda Ronstadt, José Luis Rodríguez and Plácido Domingo to record modern versions of traditional boleros. According to Miguel's former manager Mauricio Abaroa, although boleros were still recorded by traditional musicians at the time, "what made Luis Miguel so successful was that it was a young man singing them and that he sang them like modern ballads". During the Billboard Hot Latin Songs Chart's 25th anniversary in 2011, Miguel was number one on the Hot Latin Songs Top Artists chart. Manzanero reflected on their partnership, saying that he "put in the mouths of his generation all of the great romantic songs that had a 30-year history". In 2015, Billboard listed Romance as one of the Essential Latin Albums of Past 50 Years, an editor writes: "What’s become so formulaic in Latin music these days – the tribute album by a contemporary artist honoring a genius of another era – started with Romance". The album's success encouraged Miguel to record three more Romance records. Its follow-up, Segundo Romance, was released in 1994; Manzanero, Calderón and Kiko Cibrian co-produced with Miguel, and it won a Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Performance. In 1997 Romances was released, with Miguel and Manzanero co-producing Silvetti's arrangements; it sold over 4.5 million copies, winning another Grammy for Best Latin Pop Performance. A year later WEA Latina released Todos Los Romances, a three-disc compilation of the romance-themed records. The fourth record in the series, Mis Romances (produced by Miguel), was released in 2001. Although the singer had planned a ten-album series, Mis Romances was critically and commercially unsuccessful. The following year saw the release of Mis Boleros Favoritos, with 13 previously-recorded tracks from the Romance series and a new version of "Hasta Que Vuelvas". According to AllMusic editor Iván Adaime, the record's purpose was to "close this era" of the Romance series. In 2012, Warner Music Latina reissued a commemorative Romance: 20th Anniversary set with a CD, the original LP record and three 45 rpm singles: "Inolvidable", "No Sé Tú" and "Contigo en la Distancia". ## Track listing ## Personnel The following credits are from AllMusic and from the Romance liner notes: ### Performance credits ### Technical credits ## Charts ### Weekly charts ### All-time charts ### Year-end charts ## Certifications and sales ## See also - 1991 in Latin music - List of best-selling albums in Argentina - List of best-selling albums in Brazil - List of best-selling albums in Chile - List of diamond-certified albums in Argentina - List of best-selling albums in Mexico - List of best-selling Latin albums - List of number-one Billboard Latin Pop Albums from the 1990s
69,533,576	Sei pezzi per pianoforte	1,162,482,406	Set of six piano pieces by Ottorino Respighi	[ "1910s compositions", "Compositions by Ottorino Respighi", "Compositions for solo piano", "Music with dedications" ]	The Sei pezzi per pianoforte ("Six pieces for piano"), P 044, is a set of six solo piano pieces written by the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi between 1903 and 1905. These predominantly salonesque pieces are eclectic, drawing influence from different musical styles and composers. The pieces have various musical forms and were composed separately and later published together between 1905 and 1907 in a set under the same title for editorial reasons; Respighi had not conceived them as a suite, and therefore did not intend to have uniformity among the pieces. The set, under Bongiovanni, became his first published work. Five of the six pieces are derived from earlier works by Respighi, and only one of them, the "Canone", has an extant manuscript. The "Valse Caressante" displays elements of French salon; lyricism and Baroque are highlighted in the "Canone"; the most popular of the set, the "Notturno", shows signs of Impressionism; the "Minuetto" is reminiscent of the Classical era; the "Studio" is molded after Chopin's Études; The "Intermezzo-Serenata", resembling Fauré's music, demonstrates Respighi's Romanticism. ## Overview The set consists of six pieces: 1. "Valse Caressante" – E-flat major ("Tempo lento di Valzer.") 2. "Canone" – G minor ("Andantino") 3. "Notturno" – G-flat major ("Lento. ( = 50)") 4. "Minuetto" – G major (No tempo marking) 5. "Studio" – A-flat major ("Presto") 6. "Intermezzo-Serenata" – E major ("Andante calmo") These predominantly salonesque pieces are eclectic, drawing influence from music of earlier periods, and demonstrate Ottorino Respighi's neoclassical compositional style. A more mature compositional technique brought on from studying abroad with the composers Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Max Bruch is also seen. The set contains various musical forms: waltz, canon, nocturne, minuet, étude and intermezzo. The pieces were composed separately between 1903 and 1905, and then published together between 1905 and 1907 in a set under the same title. Although they were published together, Respighi had not composed them conceiving them as a suite, and therefore did not intend to have uniformity among the pieces; thus, publishing them together was merely an editorial decision. The Sei pezzi per pianoforte, published by Bongiovanni, complete the piano output of his youthful period and was his first published work. Five of the six pieces are derived from earlier works by Respighi. The manuscripts of the compositions, except for the "Canone", are lost. ## Pieces ### "Valse Caressante" The first piece, with the French title "Valse Caressante" ("Caressing waltz"), is a solo piano arrangement of a waltz in E-flat major that Respighi composed for his Six pieces for piano and violin (1901–06). It is dedicated to Cesarina Donini Crema, the wife of the librettist of Respighi's opera Re Enzo. The waltz, displaying elements of French salon, is in ABACA rondo form with an introduction and a coda, drawing influence from composers such as Auguste Durand and Frédéric Chopin. The piece begins with an introduction four measures in length, which sets the structure for the rest of the waltz, as every phrase of the waltz is in four measures. In his thesis about Respighi's music, Nathan A. Hess points out the influence Durand's Waltz in E-flat major has on Respighi's waltz: both pieces start with an ornate introduction on the dominant, with Durand employing a ritardando leading to the A section while Respighi uses a fermata following a rallentando, and both pieces mark the first beat of each measure. The A section of the waltz is composed of two motives; the first is an ascending melody in longer note values and the second consists of falling eighth notes. The B section has the melody on the left hand consisting of four measures of ascending and four measures of descending notes; Respighi scholar Potito Pedarra [it] and Respighi researcher Giovanna Gatto hint at its resemblance to a cello. The C section consists of a group of eight notes with accents constantly switching from note to note, which, in a study of Respighi's music, Luca G. Cubisino compares to Chopin's Waltz in F major, Op. 34 No. 3. The A section is repeated a final time and is followed by a coda that ends the work. Stephen Wright calls the piece "suave and urbane." ### "Canone" Originally a part of the unfinished Suite, P 043, the "Canone" ("Canon") in G minor is a canon at the octave, demonstrating a more romantic, serious texture that shows the influence of Johann Sebastian Bach, César Franck and Ferruccio Busoni, as well as the Baroque period in general. The entire piece stays at the octave, with the comes (the voice following the leading voice) appearing in the tenor, something Hess compares with Bach's 24th variation of the Goldberg Variations. The canon is composed of four sections. The first is the Andantino, a canon in two wherein the dux (the leading voice), played at the higher register, is echoed by the comes one octave lower and two beats later. Following a varied repetition of the Andantino, the Agitato appears, switching to the key of E-flat minor. It is characterized by ascending sixteenth notes followed by three descending notes (of longer value), where the comes is on the seventh beat. The section uses two-note grouping reminiscent of the first section, a pattern prevalent in the works of Respighi. The grouped notes eventually transform into technically challenging double sixths that ascend, while the left hand plays a descending scale leading to the grand climax—the Largamente C section. Here, the canon from the opening, now in the major tonic, reappears as triumphant octaves with the dux on the left hand. Subsequently, the second half of the A section is repeated and is followed by an expressive coda that ends the piece. The piece was praised for its lyricism, which led Hess to opine that "we sometimes lose track of imitation between the existing voices." ### "Notturno" The most popular of the set, the "Notturno" ("Nocturne") in G-flat major, represents one of Respighi's finest piano compositions and is often featured as a stand-alone piece in recitals by distinguished pianists. An eclectic work showing signs of Impressionism and Romanticism, this modern piece is signified by tranquil alternating chords (arpeggios) accompanying a "mesmeric melody" with long pedal holds; it has been described as "an exercise in musical moonlight and shadow", and as having a "distinctly Rachmaninovian feel". The metronome marking shown on the first page ("Lento. ( = 50)") was most likely added by the publisher, as Respighi only wrote verbal tempo indications in his early period. Hess compares the work with Chopin's Nocturne in D-flat major, Op. 27, No. 2, emphasizing the influence of the left hand ostinato which in Respighi's work is an arpeggio split between both hands. The opening unfolds with this pattern in double thirds, similar to the music of Claude Debussy with its chord progression: E-flat minor – G-flat major seventh – C-flat major seventh. At measure seven, an A natural appears in the predominantly pentatonic opening, which resolves to B-flat two measures later, likewise showing resemblance to Chopin. The ostinato becomes more note-dense with increased harmonic instability on the second page, passing through the relative minor—E-flat minor. The theme is then played in a gradual crescendo manner, propelling it to the middle section. Dense, accented chords are played in common time in the middle register, and are immediately answered with the soft ostinato arpeggios in a higher register in compound quadruple meter. Runs of ascending sixty-fourth notes replace the arpeggio ostinatos, preparing for the climax. After a half-diminished chord at the climax, an embellished cadenza-like coloratura resembling that of Chopin appears, bringing the piece to the coda that echoes the beginning of the piece. The musicologist Albert Faurot calls the Notturno his "best piece", and the musicologists Maurice Hinson and Wesley Roberts call it Respighi's "finest work for piano." Sergio Martinotti and Elias-Axel Pettersson also spoke fondly of the composition. Jed Distler said that it has "more than a few muffled, overpedalled moments." The "Notturno" has been arranged for piano and organ, as well as for harp. Stand-alone recordings of the piece by distinguished pianists include those by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Sergei Babayan and Imogen Cooper. ### "Minuetto" The "Minuetto" ("Minuet") in G major is based on an earlier composition by Respighi, the Minuetto per archi ("Minuet for strings") from 1903. Dedicated to the composer's study companion Adele Righi, it illustrates Respighi's adoration for archaism, showing influence of Baroque and Classical music, but also Maurice Ravel and Debussy. The piece is in rounded binary form with a trio and has no tempo marking. Cubisino associates the work with Ravel's Menuet antique. The minuet is characterized by thematically contrasting four-measure phrases. The first phrase is a simple doubled melodic line played by both hands an octave apart, as well as a tonic pedal point on G reminiscent of a musette. The third beat of the first and third measures are accented, which Hess suggests creates a "hemiola effect to go along with the minuet's dance steps, which involve a six-beat pattern spanning two measures." The second phrase consists of detached major triads around the dominant. The second section marked Poco più vivace begins with a cascade of sixteenth notes while also using four-measure phrases; Pedarra & Gatto assess that it "looks forward to the Antiche danze per liuto". The trio section marked Un poco più mosso contrasts the minuet with a faster tempo and a shift to C minor. Here, the right hand plays double thirds grouped in two while the left hand plays repeated pedal notes in C, which Pedarra & Gatto compare with the pizzicato of a lute. The last line has an ossia which Cubisino points out is a cadenza modeled after the sixteenth-note runs of the second section, which leads to the piece repeating D.C. al fine. ### "Studio" The "Studio" ("Study") in A-flat major is an étude that focuses on interlocking fifths and sixths. Dedicated to the Countess Ida Peracca Cantelli, it is characterized by its "distinctly French character." The piece is inspired by Chopin's Études, using the same structure and form as Chopin: changing key signatures, alternating hands, and necessary details to master a technical challenge. Due to its harmonies and pedaling, the study has also been compared to Debussy. Interlocking hands and double-note technique are commonplace throughout the study, which becomes evident as the piece progresses. The study is also derived from the unfinished Suite, P 043. The study opens with fast and sixths which, according to Pedarra & Gatto, create a "timid melodic line". The melodic line gains texture in bar 21 when a motivic dialogue emerges between treble and bass. After a crescendo that leads to the B-flat major climax, the piece gets darker while the motivic dialogue fizzles out. A coda of continuous hand-crossing begins from the middle register and gradually moves to the higher register, bringing the piece to its Chopinesque ending. Hess states that the "Studio" is the hardest piece of the set to perform. Faurot compares the interlocking chords of the nocturne with the study, opining that the latter is "more brilliantly exploited." ### "Intermezzo-Serenata" Respighi's "Fauré-like" last piece, the "Intermezzo-Serenata", is a composition from the unfinished Suite, P 043, which itself is a solo piano transcription of a passage of the third act of his opera Re Enzo. Although he was not entirely satisfied with the opera, Respighi did isolate passages that he liked into stand-alone pieces. The "Intermezzo-Serenata" is one of three transcriptions, all of which omit the first ten bars of the original passage. The opening marked Andante calmo unfolds with a salon-like accompaniment resembling a lute, consisting of four sixteenth notes followed by an eighth note; this persists throughout the piece. Meanwhile, the right hand plays a simple but intimate melody, showing Respighi "at his most romantic." In the B section, passages of irregular rhythms are introduced, such as octuplets and triplets. Concurrently, radical changes of harmony are highlighted, such as a sudden switch from F-sharp minor to F major when the first passage is repeated. Pedarra & Gatto show the similarities between the B section and the louder section, highlighting that hints of the B section "are crossed with a chordal motif". A variation of the opening is repeated, leading to a brief coda, ending the work. ## Reception and recordings The Sei pezzi per pianoforte have attracted some attention, receiving a mixed reception. Alan Becker said that the pieces are "brief, tuneful, and fall in the realm of occasional pieces." Sergio Martinotti opined that the set reveals "the birth of an unmistakable stylistic direction", while Giuseppe Piccioli dismissed the set as "lovely but insignificant compositions". Michael Oliver found the set "mildly attractive morceaux de salon, charming but slight." In a Gramophone review of Bongiovanni (Qualiton) recording 5099, which included the Sei pezzi per pianoforte, Jonathan Bellman concluded: > None of these pieces lies outside a salon aesthetic: pretty, elegant, non-virtuoso music. This is not a crime, but it isn't futurism either. These are sweet and fairly unchallenging listening, sometimes growing frankly trivial, but always attractively played. The transformation of Italian lyricism into a 20th Century aesthetic would wait for Luigi Dallapiccola.
31,632,398	Money in the Bank (2011)	1,168,424,976	WWE pay-per-view event	[ "2011 WWE pay-per-view events", "2011 in Illinois", "Events in Rosemont, Illinois", "July 2011 events in the United States", "Professional wrestling in the Chicago metropolitan area", "WWE Money in the Bank" ]	The 2011 Money in the Bank was the second annual Money in the Bank professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. It took place on July 17, 2011, at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois. This was the last Money in the Bank held under the first brand extension, which ended in August, but was reinstated in July 2016. The event featured six matches, including two Money in the Bank ladder matches. Alberto Del Rio won the match for wrestlers from the Raw brand to earn a WWE Championship match at a time of his choosing within the next year, while Daniel Bryan won the match for wrestlers from the SmackDown brand for the same opportunity for the World Heavyweight Championship. In other prominent matches, Christian defeated Randy Orton by disqualification and as per the match stipulation, he won the World Heavyweight Championship. In the main event, Chicago native CM Punk defeated John Cena to win the WWE Championship at his hometown. Money in the Bank was broadcast globally and received positive reviews from critics, with the main event receiving the most praise. For pay-per-view buys, 195,000 customers paid to watch the event compared with 165,000 for the previous year. ## Production ### Background In 2010, WWE established Money in the Bank as a gimmick pay-per-view (PPV) and it was held in July—in April 2011, the promotion ceased going by its full name of World Wrestling Entertainment, with "WWE" becoming an orphaned initialism. The concept of the show came from WWE's established Money in the Bank ladder match that was originally held at WrestleMania from 2005 to 2010. The match features multiple wrestlers using ladders to retrieve a briefcase hanging above the ring. The briefcase contains a contract that guarantees the winner a match for a world championship at any time within the next year. For 2011, two Money in the Bank ladder matches occurred. One was exclusive to wrestlers from the Raw brand while the other was exclusive to those from SmackDown. Raw's match granted a contract for a WWE Championship match while SmackDown's granted a World Heavyweight Championship match contract. The event took place on July 17, 2011, at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois. It was the second event under the Money in the Bank chronology and the last to occur under the first brand split, which ended in August. Tickets went on sale in May 2011 through Ticketmaster with prices ranging from US\$25 to \$300. ### Storylines The professional wrestling matches at Money in the Bank featured professional wrestlers performing as characters in scripted events pre-determined by the hosting promotion, WWE. Storylines between the characters were produced on WWE's weekly television shows Raw and SmackDown with the Raw and SmackDown brands—storyline divisions in which WWE assigned its employees to different programs. These storylines provided the background to the 2011 event, which continued the storylines from the previous event in WWE's 2011 pay-per-view schedule, Capitol Punishment. The main event featured John Cena defending the WWE Championship against CM Punk. Punk defeated Cena in a non-title match on the June 13, 2011 episode of Raw (after a distraction from R-Truth on Cena), and then became the number one contender by winning a triple threat Falls Count Anywhere match against Alberto Del Rio and Rey Mysterio on the June 20 episode of Raw. After the match, Punk revealed that his WWE contract would expire at midnight on July 17, immediately after the Money in the Bank PPV ended; Punk vowed to win the championship and leave the company with it. On the next episode of Raw, Punk cost Cena a tables match against R-Truth, then delivered a worked shoot promo saying that he, rather than Cena, was "the best in the world"; he also berated WWE for not promoting him properly. Punk called Cena an "ass-kisser" and insulted WWE management—including chairman Vince McMahon and executive John Laurinaitis and saying that Dwayne Johnson was main eventing next year's WrestleMania that made him sick. In addition to saying that he was breaking the fourth wall by talking to the camera, Punk proposed that he could defend the WWE Championship by wrestling in other companies such as Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro-Wrestling after leaving the company with the title. As a result, Punk was given a storyline suspension and stripped of his championship match. Cena confronted McMahon and threatened to walk out on him and return the WWE Championship if Punk were not reinstated. McMahon relented on the condition that if Cena lost the title, he would be fired. On the following episode of Raw, McMahon tried to persuade Punk to sign a new contract to ensure the WWE Championship would stay in WWE; McMahon agreed to Punk's demands and apologized to Punk before Cena interrupted the proceedings. The segment resulted in Cena punching Punk, so Punk tore up the agreed contract teasing a face turn for Punk. The main feud from SmackDown was Randy Orton defending the World Heavyweight Championship against Christian. The storyline started on the May 6 episode of SmackDown, when Orton defeated Christian to become the champion less than a week after Christian had won the title. Christian would then invoke his rematch clause against Orton at Over the Limit, in which he lost. At Capitol Punishment on June 19, Orton defeated Christian to retain the title again by pinning him, after the referee failed to notice his foot under the bottom rope. On the June 24 episode of SmackDown, Christian demanded another attempt at the title from SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long; his demand was granted with the proviso that he could defeat Kane. Christian lost the match against Kane by disqualification after interference from Mark Henry. Long then made a tag team match for later that same episode, pitting the team of Christian and Henry against Kane and Orton with a similar stipulation, where Henry pinned Orton to win the match. Afterward, Long offered Henry an attempt at the championship if Henry could defeat Orton again. Henry lost the match by countout after Christian engineered a distraction. This set up a match between Orton and Christian for the title at Money in the Bank. On the July 8 episode of SmackDown, Christian's lawyers in the storyline added a stipulation to the match that if Orton was disqualified or there was "poor officiating", he would lose the title to Christian. The Raw Money in the Bank competitors were announced on the June 27 episode of Raw with no qualifying matches; these were Alberto Del Rio, Alex Riley, Evan Bourne, Jack Swagger, Kofi Kingston, Rey Mysterio, R-Truth, and The Miz. The SmackDown Money in the Bank competitors were announced on the July 1 SmackDown as Cody Rhodes, Daniel Bryan, Heath Slater, Justin Gabriel, Kane, Sheamus, Sin Cara, and Wade Barrett. The feud between Big Show and Mark Henry started on the June 17 episode of SmackDown, when Big Show was forced to face Henry in a match. Big Show knocked out Henry before the bout began, creating a rivalry between the two. Henry interfered in Big Show's matches with Alberto Del Rio at Capitol Punishment and on the June 27 episode of Raw in a steel cage match. Henry versus Big Show was later announced for Money in the Bank. When Brie Bella lost her Divas Championship to Kelly Kelly on the June 20 episode of Raw, a title rematch was announced for Money in the Bank. Kelly had been feuding with the Bella Twins (Nikki and Brie Bella) since May 2011. ## Event ### Preliminary matches The event, featuring commentary by Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, and Booker T, began with the SmackDown Money in the Bank ladder match. During the bout, Sheamus slammed Sin Cara through a ladder propped between the ring apron and the announcers' table with a powerbomb. The ladder was bent in half and Cara was stretchered away from ringside. Near the end of the match, Barrett, Rhodes and Bryan were the only three in the ring. Bryan put Rhodes in a guillotine choke submission hold on top of the ladder in the middle of the ring while Barrett sneaked up the other side of the ladder. After Bryan knocked Rhodes off the ladder, Barrett got Bryan onto his shoulders and tried to throw him off. Bryan countered with repeated elbow strikes to Barrett's head. Bryan then kicked Barrett in the head and unhooked the briefcase to win the contest. In the show's second match, Kelly Kelly defeated Brie Bella to retain the Divas Championship. Kelly won the bout after performing her K2 maneuver on Brie. In the show's third match, Mark Henry defeated Big Show. Henry gained a two-count after a World's Strongest Slam on Big Show. Henry then performed the move again and two running splashes for the pinfall victory. After the match, Henry wrapped a chair around Big Show's ankle and jumped on it, causing an injury to Big Show. The next match was the Raw Money in the Bank match, where all the wrestlers brought ladders. During the match, Evan Bourne performed his signature Air Bourne aerial maneuver, diving from a ladder and landing on the other wrestlers at ringside. Bourne and Miz went for the briefcase but Del Rio toppled their ladder, and Miz was taken backstage with a knee injury. The seven remaining wrestlers simultaneously climbed four ladders in the ring, but fell off one by one. With nobody left in the ring, Miz hopped down to the ring and climbed the ladder with one leg, but Mysterio stopped him by slamming him off the ladder with a sunset flip powerbomb. As Mysterio and Del Rio battled on top of the ladders for the briefcase, Del Rio distracted Mysterio by unmasking him and then pushing him onto another ladder, which tipped over and sent both wrestlers to the mat. Del Rio regrouped and unhooked the briefcase to win the match. In the show's fifth match, Randy Orton defended his World Heavyweight Championship against Christian, with the condition that Christian would win the title if Orton were disqualified or if there was poor officiating. Christian opened the bout by bringing a steel chair into the ring and trying to goad Orton into getting disqualified. Orton balked and threw the chair to the floor. Christian performed his signature Killswitch, but Orton kicked out of the pin at the two count. As Orton was prepared to perform his signature RKO move, Christian spat in his face. An enraged Orton kicked Christian in the groin and was disqualified, so Christian became the new champion. Afterwards, Orton viciously attacked Christian and gave him two RKOs onto the announcers' table. ### Main event match The final match was for the WWE Championship between Champion John Cena and CM Punk. WWE Chairman Vince McMahon had threatened to have Cena fired if he did not retain the title. During the match, two separate signature Attitude Adjustment moves by Cena failed to score the victory. More than 30 minutes into the match, Punk performed his Go to Sleep maneuver, striking Cena's ribs and causing Cena to fall out of the ring. As Punk rolled Cena back into the ring, McMahon and John Laurinaitis emerged from backstage and distracted Punk, resulting in Cena placing Punk in the STF submission hold. Punk did not submit, but McMahon signaled the referee to award Cena the match and sent Laurinaitis to ring the bell. This was reminiscent of the Montreal Screwjob in 1997, where a conspiracy orchestrated by McMahon led to Bret Hart losing his WWF Championship to Shawn Michaels by submission despite Hart never submitting. Not wanting a tainted victory, Cena broke the hold and attacked Laurinaitis. As Cena returned to the ring, Punk performed a Go to Sleep on Cena and pinned him to win the WWE Championship. McMahon ordered the winner of the Raw Money in the Bank match, Alberto Del Rio, to cash in his contract on Punk. When Del Rio ran out and tried to cash in his contract for an immediate WWE Championship match, Punk performed a roundhouse kick on Del Rio before he could do so. After blowing a kiss to a distraught McMahon, Punk fled the arena and left as WWE Champion. ## Reception During the event, WWE announced that its attendance was 14,815. It was later reported that 12,000 attendees had paid, earning WWE \$750,000. The event drew 195,000 pay-per-view purchases, which was an increase of 18.2% from the 165,000 of the previous year's event. This contributed to WWE's PPV revenue of \$15.8 million for the third quarter of 2011 compared with \$13.6 million for the third quarter of 2010. The 2012 Money in the Bank event received 188,000 purchases, a drop of 3.6%. Money in the Bank received positive reviews from critics. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter awarded the Cena–Punk main event five stars out of five, the first WWE match since 1997 to receive such a rating. It was the first match in any promotion in over five years to receive the full five stars, and is the first of five "main roster" (excluding NXT and NXT UK) matches to receive five stars in the 21st century, with the second occurring nearly 11 years later, the third achieved a few months after the second, and the fourth and fifth happening at the following WrestleMania. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter later awarded the event the Best Major Show of 2011, over other professional wrestling events by companies including Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and New Japan Pro-Wrestling, as well as over a kickboxing event by K-1 and mixed martial arts events by Ultimate Fighting Championship. The main event won the Observer award for Match of the Year. Alex Roberts of the Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter attended the event. He criticized the ladder matches as "dangerous spectacles" where many wrestlers "took plenty of painful-looking bumps" but often failed to score "a corresponding crowd reaction". He also stated that the apparent injuries suffered by Sin Cara and the Miz in those matches had unnerved the audience. In contrast, Roberts felt that the two world title matches, which focused on "in-ring psychology and storytelling", were much more "memorable" or even "legendary". Regarding the main event, Roberts said, "even a match-ending run-in bypassed the expected convoluted machinations and played perfectly to the narrative at hand". At the end of 2011, Nathan Kyght of the Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter ranked Money in the Bank the best of 34 pay-per-views in 2011, including those from WWE, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, Ring of Honor, and Dragon Gate USA. Wade Keller, also from the Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter, awarded the Cena–Punk bout five stars out of five, and said the "athleticism wasn't at the A+ level, but everything else that equals magic in pro wrestling happened in the last 40 minutes". Keller awarded the SmackDown Money in the Bank ladder match four stars and said there were "lots of good workers taking a lot of big bumps, but also selling them, during the course of the match". For the Orton–Christian match, Keller said that it was "paced well, executed well, and the finish played into the personalities and storyline of this feud". Regarding the outcome of the Henry–Big Show match, Keller commented that it was "interesting to see WWE really truly get behind Henry for the first time after all of this time". Dave Hillhouse at the Canadian Online Explorer's said Money in the Bank featured "exactly what a main event is supposed to be. A match that overshadows every other bout on the card, that has you, no matter how good each other contest is, looking forward to an ending just to be one step closer to the final contest." Hillhouse rated the main event eight out of ten and the overall event six out of ten. When the Canadian Online Explorer polled its readers on the event, 26% did not watch the event, 5% thought it was disappointing, 6% thought it was okay and 63% thought it was great. In 2013, WWE released a list of their "15 best pay-per-views ever", with 2011's Money in the Bank ranked the second best. WWE also released "the 50 greatest WWE Championship Matches ever" in 2013, with the Cena–Punk match from the event ranked fourth. In 2019, Troy L. Smith of cleveland.com released a list of the "50 greatest wrestling pay-per-views of all time" from every professional wrestling promotion in the world, with 2011's Money in the Bank ranked at number four. Money in the Bank 2011 was released on DVD by WWE Home Video on August 16, 2011; it included Matt Striker interviewing Daniel Bryan as extra content. Eric Cohen of About.com awarded the DVD five stars out of five, and said the event was one of the greatest PPV events of all time and warranted his highest possible recommendation. DVD Talk gave a "Highly Recommended" rating to the DVD, despite "an average technical presentation (no Blu-ray option, either) and no real bonus features". ## Aftermath After CM Punk left the Allstate Arena with the WWE Championship belt, celebrity website TMZ pictured him showing off his newly won title belt on the streets of Chicago with Colt Cabana and Ace Steel. To crown a new WWE Champion, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon started an eight-man tournament on the July 18 episode of Raw, which included all the participants of the Raw Money in the Bank ladder match except Evan Bourne, whose place was filled by Dolph Ziggler. The Miz and Rey Mysterio made it to the tournament finals, which McMahon postponed so he could fire John Cena as a result of the conditions imposed on the Money in the Bank match. Triple H interrupted and announced that the WWE Board of Directors had removed McMahon from power in a vote of no confidence, and that Triple H was to take over the day-to-day operations of WWE. Before leaving, Triple H refused to fire Cena. On July 21, Punk gatecrashed the joint WWE–Mattel panel at the San Diego Comic-Con International with title belt in hand. He confronted Triple H and took exception to WWE attempting to crown a new WWE Champion. Two days later, Punk made a surprise appearance at a show hosted by the All American Wrestling company without his title belt to endorse Gregory Iron, a wrestler with cerebral palsy, as an inspiration for overcoming his impediment. On the July 25 episode of Raw, Mysterio won the tournament to become the new WWE Champion, and immediately had to fend off Alberto Del Rio to prevent him from cashing in his Money in the Bank. Triple H, now Chief Operating Officer, decreed that Mysterio was to face ex-champion Cena later that night for the title; Cena won and again became WWE Champion. After the match, Punk made an unannounced return to WWE with the old WWE Championship belt to confront Cena, resulting in a situation where two wrestlers claimed the rights to the championship. Cena and Punk later fought in a match at SummerSlam on August 14 to crown the undisputed WWE Champion, which Punk won controversially as Triple H didn't see Cena's leg was on the rope and it was actually a rope break. As Punk celebrated, Kevin Nash made his WWE return and assaulted him. Del Rio then cashed in his Money in the Bank contract and pinned Punk to become the new champion after kicking Punk in the head. Punk regained the WWE Championship from Del Rio at Survivor Series in November 2011; starting a 434-day reign until The Rock beat him at the 2013 Royal Rumble event. After losing the World Heavyweight Championship to Christian, Randy Orton was granted a rematch at SummerSlam, where he won a No Holds Barred match to win the title. Meanwhile, in the storyline, Mark Henry went on to crush Kane and Vladimir Kozlov's ankles with steel chairs. He defeated Orton at Night of Champions in September to become World Heavyweight Champion for the first time. Big Show returned from injury in October 2011 to feud with Henry over his title. Daniel Bryan initially declared that he would only cash in his Money in the Bank contract for a World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania XXVIII. However, on the November 25 episode of SmackDown, Bryan cashed in the briefcase after Henry had been knocked out by Big Show to become the World Heavyweight Champion. The match was voided by General Manager Theodore Long as Henry was not medically cleared to compete, and the briefcase was returned to Bryan. At WWE's TLC: Tables, Ladders, and Chairs PPV in December 2011, Henry lost the World Heavyweight Championship to Big Show. After the match, Henry assaulted Big Show which allowed Bryan to cash in his contract and pin Big Show to win the title. Bryan held on to his title long enough to have a World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania XXVIII in April 2012, where he lost his championship to Sheamus. Kelly Kelly's next contender for the Divas Championship was Beth Phoenix; Kelly defeated Phoenix to retain her title at SummerSlam, and Night of Champions, but Phoenix ultimately beat Kelly for the title at Hell in a Cell in October 2011. John Laurinaitis continued to appear on television after Money in the Bank. In October 2011, he was appointed Raw General Manager, replacing Triple H as the on-screen authority figure. During Laurinaitis' rule, he feuded with CM Punk and later with John Cena, until he was fired in the storyline at No Way Out in June 2012. In later Money in the Bank events, John Cena, Randy Orton and Sheamus won Money in the Bank ladder matches in 2012, 2013 and 2015 respectively. Cena cashed in on CM Punk and won via disqualification; thus Punk retained the WWE Championship. Orton cashed in on Daniel Bryan and captured the WWE Championship. Sheamus cashed in on Roman Reigns and captured the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. In WWE's documentary CM Punk: Best in the World released in 2012, it was documented from the out-of-universe perspective that a disenchanted Punk rejected signing a new contract with WWE for more than a year leading up to Money in the Bank. After being persuaded by Joey Mercury and Lars Frederiksen that he could only help wrestlers underappreciated by WWE (like himself) if he stayed, Punk signed a new contract with WWE about an hour before capturing the WWE Championship from Cena, while the pay-per-view event was ongoing. ## Results
11,503,349	African crake	1,144,613,159	A bird in the rail family that breeds in most of sub-Saharan Africa.	[ "Birds described in 1854", "Birds of Africa", "Birds of Sub-Saharan Africa", "Rallidae", "Taxa named by Wilhelm Peters" ]	The African crake (Crecopsis egregia) is a small- to medium-size ground-living bird in the rail family, found in most of central to southern Africa. It is seasonally common in most of its range other than the rainforests and areas that have low annual rainfall. This crake is a partial migrant, moving away from the equator as soon as the rains provide sufficient grass cover to allow it to breed elsewhere. There have been a few records of vagrant birds reaching Atlantic islands. This species nests in a wide variety of grassland types, and agricultural land with tall crops may also be used. A smallish crake, the African crake has brown-streaked blackish upperparts, bluish-grey underparts and black-and-white barring on the flanks and belly. It has a stubby red bill, red eyes, and a white line from the bill to above the eye. It is smaller than the corn crake, which is also lighter-plumaged, and has an eye stripe. The African crake has a range of calls, the most characteristic being a series of rapid grating krrr notes. It is active during the day, and is territorial on both the breeding and non-breeding grounds; the male has a threat display, and may fight at territory boundaries. The nest is a shallow cup of grass leaves built in a depression under a grass tussock or small bush. The 3–11 eggs start hatching after about 14 days, and the black, downy precocial chicks fledge after four to five weeks. The African crake feeds on a wide range of invertebrates, along with some small frogs and fish, and plant material, especially grass seeds. It may itself be eaten by large birds of prey; snakes; or mammals, including humans, and can host parasites. Although it may be displaced temporarily by the burning of grassland, or permanently by agriculture, wetland drainage or urbanisation, its large range and population mean that it is not considered to be threatened. ## Taxonomy The rails are a bird family comprising nearly 150 species. Although the origins of the group are lost in antiquity, the largest number of species and the most primitive forms are found in the Old World, suggesting that this family originated there. The taxonomy of the small crakes is complicated, but the closest relative of the African crake was for many years thought to be the corn crake (Crex crex) which breeds in Europe and Asia, but winters in Africa. The African crake was first described as Ortygometra egregia by Wilhelm Peters in 1854 from a specimen collected in Mozambique, but the genus name failed to become established. For some time it was placed as the sole member of the genus Crecopsis but subsequently moved to Crex, created for this species by German naturalist and ornithologist Johann Matthäus Bechstein in 1803. Richard Bowdler Sharpe considered that the African bird differed sufficiently from the corn crake to have its own genus Crecopsis, and later authors sometimes placed it in Porzana, based on a resemblance to the ash-throated crake, P. albicollis. Structural differences rule out Porzana, and the placement in Crex became the most common and best-supported treatment, until the International Ornithological Committee (IOC) 2020 world bird list moved the crake back to Crecopsis. This followed research that showed that the African crake was most closely related to the Rouget's rail, rather than the corn crake. The genus name Crecopsis is derived from Crex and the Ancient Greek opsis "appearance", and the species name egregia derives from Latin egregius, "outstanding, prominent". ## Description The African crake is a smallish crake, 20–23 cm (7.9–9.1 in) long with a 40–42 cm (16–17 in) wingspan. The male has blackish upperparts streaked with olive-brown, apart from the nape and hindneck which are plain pale brown; there is a white streak from the base of the bill to above the eye. The sides of the head, foreneck, throat and breast are bluish-grey, the flight feathers are dark brown, and the flanks and sides of the belly are barred black and white. The eye is red, the bill is reddish, and the legs and feet are light brown or grey. The sexes are similar in appearance, although the female is slightly smaller and duller than the male, with a less contrasting head pattern. Immature birds have darker and duller upperparts than the adult, a dark bill, grey eye, and less barring on the underparts. There are no subspecific or other geographical variations in plumage. This crake has a complete moult after breeding, mainly prior to migration. Although this species occurs in fairly open habitats, it lacks the pure white undertail used for signalling in open water or gregarious species like the coots and moorhens. The African crake is smaller than the corn crake, which also has darker upperparts, a plain grey face and different underparts barring pattern. In flight, the African species has shorter, blunter wings with a less prominent white leading edge and deeper wingbeats than its relatives. Other sympatric crakes are smaller with white markings on the upperparts, different underparts patterns and a shorter bill. The African rail has dark brown upperparts, a long red bill and red legs and feet. ### Voice Like other rails, this species has a wide range of vocalisations. The male's territorial and advertising call is a series of rapid grating krrr notes repeated two or three times a second for several minutes. It is given most often in the breeding season, usually early or late in the day, but sometimes continues after dark or starts before dawn. The male stands upright with his neck extended when advertising, but will also call when chasing intruders on the ground or in flight. Both sexes give a sharp, loud kip call as an alarm or during territorial interactions, adapting a similar pose as for the advertising call. Once breeding starts, the birds become much quieter, but territorial birds commence the kip call again during the non-breeding season, especially when there is a high density of African crakes in the area. A wheezy kraaa is associated with threat displays and copulation; imitation of this call by a human can bring a rail to within 10 m (33 ft). Newly hatched chicks make a soft wheeeez call, and older chicks cheep. The rasping advertising call is readily distinguished from the hwitt-hwitt-hwitt of spotted crake, the monotonous clockwork tak-tak-tak-tak-tak of striped crake, or the quick-quick of Baillon's crake. The corn crake is silent in Africa. ## Distribution and habitat The African crake occurs throughout sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal east to Kenya, and south to KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, except in arid areas of south and southwest Africa where the annual summer rainfall is less than 300 mm (12 in). It is widespread and locally common in most of its range, apart from the rainforests and the drier regions. Nearly all the South Africa population of about 8,000 birds occur in KwaZulu-Natal and the former Transvaal Province, and much good habitat is protected in the Kruger National Park and iSimangaliso Wetland Park. This crake is only a vagrant to southern Mauritania, southwest Niger, Lesotho, South Africa's northern and eastern Cape Province and North West Province, and southern Botswana. Further afield, it is rare on Bioko Island (Equatorial Guinea), and there have been two records each for São Tomé and Tenerife, the Canary Islands birds being the first records for the Western Palearctic. Holocene remains from North Africa suggest that the species was more widespread when the climate was wetter in what is now the Sahara. This crake is a partial migrant, but although it is less skulking than many of its relatives, its movements are complex and poorly studied; the distribution map is therefore largely hypothetical. It is mainly a wet-season breeder, and many birds move away from the equator as soon as the rains provide sufficient grass cover to allow them to breed elsewhere. Southward movement is mainly from November to April, the return north beginning when burning or drought reduces the grass cover again. This species is present throughout the year in some West African countries, and in equatorial regions, but even in those areas numbers vary seasonally due to local movements; north-south migration has been noted within countries including Nigeria, Senegal, The Gambia, Ivory Coast and Cameroon. Migration involves small groups of up to eight birds. It may be one or two months after the rains begin before the grass is sufficiently high for breeding birds to arrive. Even in southern Africa, some birds may stay after breeding if enough usable habitat remains. The habitat is predominantly grassland, ranging from wetland edges and seasonal marshes to savanna, lightly wooded dry grassland, and grassy forest clearings. The crake also frequents corn, rice and cotton fields, derelict farmland and sugarcane plantations close to water. A wide range of grass species are used, with a preferred height of 0.3–1 m (0.98–3.28 ft) tall but vegetation is acceptable up to 2 m (6.6 ft) tall. It normally prefers moister and shorter grassland habitats than does the corn crake, and its breeding territories often contain or are close to thickets or termite mounds. It occurs from sea level to 2,000 m (6,600 ft) but is rare in the higher altitude grasslands. Its grassland habitat is frequently burned in the dry season, forcing the birds to move elsewhere. In an East African study, the average area occupied by one bird was 2.6 hectares (6.4 acres) when breeding, and 1.97 to 2.73 ha (4.9 to 6.7 acres) at other times. The highest densities occur in lush or moist grassland such as the Okavango Delta. ## Behaviour The African crake is active during the day, especially at dusk, during light rain, or after heavier rain. It is less skulking and easier to flush from cover than other crakes, and is often seen at the edges of roads and tracks. An observer in a vehicle can approach to within 1 m (3.3 ft). When a bird is flushed it normally flies less than 50 m (160 ft), but new arrivals may occasionally fly twice as far. A flushed crake will frequently land in a wet area or behind a thicket, and crouch on landing. In short grass, it can escape from a dog using its speed and manoeuvrability, running with the body held almost horizontal. It may roost in a depression near grass tussock and it will bathe in puddles. The African crake is territorial on both the breeding and non-breeding grounds; the male threat display involves the bird standing upright and spreading the feathers of the flanks and belly like a fan to show the barred underparts. He may march towards the intruder, or walk side by side with another displaying male. The female may accompany the male, but with feathers less widely fanned. Fighting at territorial boundaries involves the male birds jumping at each other and pecking. Paired females will attack other females in the territory, especially if the male has shown an interest in them. ### Breeding Breeding behavior commences with a courtship chase with the female running in a crouch, pursued by the male, who adopts a more upright stance and has his neck outstretched. The female may stop and lower her head and tail to allow copulation; this takes just a few seconds, but may be repeated several times in an hour. The nest is a shallow cup of grass leaves, sometimes with a loose canopy, built in a depression and hidden under a grass tussock or small bush; it may be on dry ground or slightly raised above standing water, or occasionally floating. The nest is about 20 cm (7.9 in) across with the internal cup 2–5 cm (0.79–1.97 in) deep, and 11–12 cm (4.3–4.7 in) wide. The clutch size is from 3 to 11 pink-coloured eggs; the first is often laid when the nest is little more than a pad of grass, and a further egg is laid on each subsequent day. Both sexes incubate, and the eggs start hatching after about 14 days; all hatch with 48 hours despite the extended laying period. The black, downy precocial chicks soon leave the nest but are fed and protected by the parents. Fledging occurs after four to five weeks, and the young can fly before they are fully grown. It is not known whether a second brood is raised. ### Feeding The African crake feeds on invertebrates including earthworms, gastropods, molluscs and the adults and larvae of insects, especially termites, ants, beetles and grasshoppers. Vertebrate prey such as small frogs or fish may also be taken. Plant material is eaten, especially grass seeds, but also green shoots, leaves and other seeds. The crake searches for food both within vegetation and in the open, picking insects and seeds from the ground, turning over leaf litter, or digging with its bill in soft or very dry ground. It will chase faster moving prey, reach up to take food from plants, and wade to pluck food items from the water. Crop plants such as rice, maize and peas may sometimes be eaten, but this bird is not an agricultural pest species. It forages singly, in pairs or in family groups, sometimes in association with other grassland birds such as great snipes, blue quails and corn crakes. Chicks are fed mainly on animal food. As with other rails, grit is swallowed to help break up food in the stomach. ## Predators and parasites Predators include the leopard, serval, cats, the black-headed heron, dark chanting goshawk, African hawk-eagle and Wahlberg's eagle. In South Africa, newly hatched chicks were taken by a boomslang. If surprised, an African crake will leap vertically into the air before running away, a tactic believed to help it to evade snakes or terrestrial mammals. Parasites of this species include ticks of the family Ixodidae, and a feather mite, Metanalges elongatus, of the subspecies M. e. curtus. The nominate form of the mite occurs thousands of kilometres away in New Caledonia. ## Status The African crake has a huge breeding range estimated at 11,700,000 km<sup>2</sup> (4,500,000 mi<sup>2</sup>). Its population is unknown, but it is common in most of its range, and its numbers appear to be stable. It is therefore classed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. Overgrazing, agriculture and the loss of wetland and moist grassland have reduced the availability of suitable habitat in many areas, such as some parts of the southern KwaZulu-Natal coast which have been urbanised or planted with sugarcane. In other areas, grassland may have increased locally in recent years as woodland is cleared. This crake is considered to be good eating, and is killed for food in some regions. Despite these adverse factors, it appears to be under no real threat. Although most rails in the Old World are covered by the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA), the African crake is not listed even in Kenya, where it is considered "near-threatened". Like its relative, the corn crake, it is too terrestrial to be classed as a wetland species. ## Cited texts
7,047,921	Little Miss Sunshine	1,173,230,920	2006 American dark tragicomedy road film	[ "2000s American films", "2000s English-language films", "2000s road comedy-drama films", "2006 LGBT-related films", "2006 black comedy films", "2006 comedy-drama films", "2006 directorial debut films", "2006 films", "2006 independent films", "American LGBT-related films", "American black comedy films", "American independent films", "American road comedy-drama films", "BAFTA winners (films)", "Best Foreign Film César Award winners", "Big Beach (company) films", "Child beauty pageants", "Fargo", "Films about beauty pageants", "Films about depression", "Films about dysfunctional families", "Films about suicide", "Films adapted into plays", "Films directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris", "Films featuring a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award-winning performance", "Films scored by Mychael Danna", "Films set in Arizona", "Films set in California", "Films set in New Mexico", "Films shot in Arizona", "Films shot in California", "Films shot in New Mexico", "Films whose writer won the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award", "Films whose writer won the Best Original Screenplay BAFTA Award", "Films with screenplays by Michael Arndt", "Fox Searchlight Pictures films", "Independent Spirit Award for Best Film winners", "LGBT-related comedy-drama films" ]	Little Miss Sunshine is a 2006 American tragicomedy road film and the feature film directorial debut of the husband–wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. The screenplay was written by first-time writer Michael Arndt. The film stars an ensemble cast consisting of Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin, and Alan Arkin, all of whom play members of a dysfunctional family taking the youngest (Breslin) to compete in a child beauty pageant. It was produced by Big Beach Films on a budget of US\$8 million. Filming began on June 6, 2005, and took place over 30 days in Arizona and Southern California. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2006, and its distribution rights were bought by Fox Searchlight Pictures for one of the biggest deals made in the history of the festival. The film had a limited release in the United States on July 26, 2006, and expanded to a wider release starting on August 18. Little Miss Sunshine was a box office success, earning \$101 million, and was praised mainly for the performances (particularly towards Breslin and Arkin), direction, screenplay and humor. The film garnered four nominations at the 79th Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Arndt and Arkin won Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor, respectively, and Breslin was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. It also won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature and received numerous other accolades. The film also won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. ## Plot Sheryl Hoover is an overworked mother of two living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her gay brother, Frank, an unemployed scholar of Proust, is temporarily living with the family after having attempted suicide. Sheryl's husband Richard is striving to build a career as a motivational speaker and life coach. Dwayne, Sheryl's Nietzsche-reading teenage son from a previous marriage, has taken a vow of silence until he can accomplish his dream of becoming a fighter pilot. Richard's foul-mouthed father, Edwin, lives with the family after being evicted from a retirement home for snorting heroin. Olive, the daughter of Richard and Sheryl and the youngest of the Hoover family, is an aspiring beauty queen who is coached by Edwin. Olive learns she has qualified for the "Little Miss Sunshine" beauty pageant, being held in Redondo Beach, California, in two days. Richard, Sheryl, and Edwin want to support her, and Frank and Dwayne cannot be left alone, so the whole family goes. Because they have little money, they go on an 800-mile (1,300 km) road trip in their yellow Volkswagen van. Family tensions play out along the way, amidst the aging van's mechanical problems. When the van breaks down early on, the family learns that they must push the van until it is moving at about 20 mph (32 km/h) before it is put into gear, at which point they have to run up to the side door and jump in. Later on, the van's horn starts honking unceasingly by itself, which leads to the family being pulled over by a state trooper. Throughout the trip, the family suffers numerous personal setbacks and discovers their need for each other's support. Richard loses an important contract that would have jump-started his motivational business. Frank encounters the ex-boyfriend who, in leaving him for an academic rival, had prompted his suicide attempt. Edwin dies from a heroin overdose, and the family has to smuggle his body out of the hospital, almost getting caught by the police. During the final leg of the trip, Dwayne discovers that he is color blind, meaning he cannot become a pilot. This prompts him to finally break his silence and scream his disdain for his family, though he apologizes after Olive calms him with a hug. After a frantic race against the clock, the family arrives at the pageant hotel. The other contestants are slim, sexualized pre-teen girls who perform elaborate dance numbers with great panache. Richard and Dwayne realize that the amateur Olive is certain to be humiliated and try to talk her out of performing. Sheryl insists that they "let Olive be Olive," and Olive goes on stage, revealing her hitherto-unseen dance routine which Edwin had taught her to be a striptease performed to a Rocasound revamp of Rick James' "Super Freak." Despite the other girls being over-sexualized, Olive's burlesque performance horrifies most of the audience and organizers, who demand Olive be removed from the stage. The members of the Hoover family join Olive onstage and dance alongside her to show their support. The family is later released from the hotel's security office on the condition that Olive never enters a beauty pageant in California again. Piling into the van with the horn still honking, they happily smash through the barrier of the hotel's toll booth and begin their trip back home to Albuquerque. ## Cast ## Production ### Casting When choosing the cast for the film, directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris were assisted by casting directors Kim Davis and Justine Baddeley who had worked with them on previous music videos. Davis and Baddeley traveled to "every English-speaking country" to search for the actress to portray Olive Hoover, and they finally chose actress Abigail Breslin through an audition when she was six. Paul Dano was cast as Dwayne two years before production began and in preparation for portraying his character, spent a few days taking his own vow of silence. The role of Frank, the suicidal Proust scholar, was originally written for Bill Murray, and there was also studio pressure for Robin Williams. The directing duo chose Steve Carell for the role a few months before filming began, and in an interview revealed: "When we met with Steve Carell, we didn't know he could do this based upon what he had done. But when we met with him and talked to him about the character, the tone of the movie and the way we were approaching it, he was right on the same page with us." Although known to Comedy Central viewers for many years as a correspondent on the highly rated satirical news program The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, at the time Carell was cast for Little Miss Sunshine, he was relatively unknown in Hollywood. Producers of the film were worried that he was not a big enough star and did not have much acting experience. ### Script and development The script was written by Michael Arndt and was originally about an East Coast road trip from Maryland to Florida, but was shifted to a journey from New Mexico to California because of budget issues. Arndt started the script on May 23, 2000, and completed the first rough draft by May 26. He had initially planned on shooting the film himself by raising several thousand dollars and using a camcorder. Instead, he gave the screenplay to producers Ron Yerxa and Albert Berger who teamed up with Deep River Productions to find a potential director. Arndt included the character Stan Grossman (here played by Bryan Cranston) as a tribute to the film Fargo. The producers met directors Dayton and Faris while producing Election and in turn gave the script to them to read in 2001. The directors commented later on the script stating: "This film really struck a chord. We felt like it was written for us." The script was purchased from first-time screenwriter Arndt for \$250,000 by Marc Turtletaub, one of the film's producers, on December 21, 2001. Yerxa and Berger remained as producers as they were responsible for finding the directors and cinematographer, assisting in the ending re-shoot, and helping bring the film to the Sundance Film Festival. The film was pitched to several studios, and the only interested studio was Focus Features, who wanted to film it in Canada. After the studio attempted to have the film be centered on the character Richard Hoover, and Arndt disagreed, he was fired and replaced by another writer. The new writer added several scenes, including Richard's confrontation with the character who dismisses his motivational technique business. A corporate change brought in a new studio head and Arndt was rehired when the new writer left after four weeks of rewriting the script. After two years of pre-production, Focus Features dropped the film in August 2004. Marc Turtletaub paid \$400,000 to Focus Features to buy back the rights to the film and for development costs. He also paid for the \$8 million budget, allowing Little Miss Sunshine to then be filmed. ### Filming Principal photography began on June 6, 2005. Filming took place over 30 days in Arizona and southern California, with scenes shot in keeping with the chronological order of the script. Arndt re-wrote the ending to the film six weeks before the film's release at the Sundance Film Festival, and this was filmed in December 2005. The film was dedicated to Rebecca Annitto, the niece of producer Peter Saraf and an extra in scenes set in the diner and the convenience store, who was killed in a car accident on September 14, 2005. #### Volkswagen T2 Microbus When writing the script, Arndt chose the Volkswagen T2 Microbus to use for the road trip based on his experience with the vehicle and its practicality for filming: "I remember thinking, it's a road trip, what vehicle are you going to put them in? And [the] VW bus just seems logical, just because you have these high ceilings and these clean sight lines where you can put the camera. In the front windshield looking back and seeing everybody." Five VW Microbuses were used for the family car as some were modified for different filming techniques. Three of the vans had engines, and the two without were mounted on trailers. During pre-production, the cinematographer used a basic video camera and set it up at angles inside the van to determine the best locations to shoot from during filming. Many of the problems associated with the van that were included in the plot (a broken clutch, a stuck horn, and a detached door), were based on similar problems that writer Arndt experienced during a childhood trip that involved the same type of vehicle. In an interview, actor Greg Kinnear jokingly described how the scenes were filmed when he was driving: "I was going like 50 miles an hour [80 km/h] in this '71 VW van that doesn't have side airbags. Basically, you'd wait for this huge camera truck to come whizzing in front of us with the camera. 'Okay, go!' I mean, it was insanity; it's the most dangerous movie I've ever made." While filming the scenes in the van, the actors would at times remain in the vehicle for three or four hours a day. For scenes in which Alan Arkin's character was swearing excessively, Breslin had her headphones on and could not hear the dialogue, just like her character in the film. Only when she saw the film did she know what was being said. On July 25, 2006, Fox Searchlight Pictures invited VW bus owners to a screening at Vineland Drive-In theater in Industry, California. Over 60 of the vans were present at the screening. #### Pageant Prior to writing the script, Arndt read in a newspaper about Arnold Schwarzenegger speaking to a group of high school students and saying "If there's one thing in this world I hate, it's losers. I despise them." As a result, Arndt developed his script lampooning the thought process: "And I thought there's something so wrong with that attitude ... I wanted to ... attack that idea that in life you're going up or you're going down ... So to a degree, a child beauty pageant is the epitome of the ultimate stupid meaningless competition people put themselves through." Co-director Jonathan Dayton also commented on the importance of the pageant to the film: "As far as the pageant goes, it was very important to us that the film not be about pageants. It's about being out of place, it's about not knowing where you're going to end up ..." All the girls acting as participants in the beauty pageant, except Abigail Breslin, were veterans of real beauty pageants. They looked the same and performed the same acts as they had in their real-life pageants. To prepare for filming, the directors attended several pageants in Southern California and met with a coordinator to learn more about the pageant process. A mother of a contestant in the film claimed that the film overplayed practices that the contestants go through: "Most pageants aren't quite like that, with shaving the girls' legs, spraying them with fake tans and putting on so much makeup." When Focus Features initially wanted to film in Canada, the directors opposed it, believing the costs of flying all of the pageant girls and their families would be excessive. The contestants and their families instead spent two weeks filming in a hotel in Ventura with most of the equipment and costumes being provided by the contestants' parents. To make Breslin's character the "plump" figure as shown in the film, she had to wear a padded suit during filming. For Olive's final scene involving her dancing routine, Breslin spent two weeks preparing with a choreographer. ## Release ### Sundance Film Festival Following the film's premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2006, several studios placed bids; Fox Searchlight Pictures won, offering \$10.5 million, plus 10% of all the gross revenues. The deal occurred less than a day after the premiere and was one of the biggest deals made in the history of the festival. The previous year's festival had the film Hustle & Flow receive \$9 million from Paramount Classics and in 1999, Happy, Texas received \$10 million from Miramax Films. ### Box office Little Miss Sunshine initially opened in seven theaters in the U.S. in its first week, earning \$498,796. On July 29, 2006, the first Saturday after its initial limited release, Little Miss Sunshine earned a \$20,335 per-theater average gross. It had the highest per-theater average gross of all the films shown in the United States every day for the first 21 days of its release, until being surpassed by the IMAX film Deep Sea 3D on August 15. In its third week of release Little Miss Sunshine entered the list of top ten highest grossing American films for the week. It remained in the top ten until the 11th week of release, when it dropped to 11th place. The highest position it reached was third, which occurred in its fifth week of release. The largest number of theaters the film appeared in was 1,602. Internationally, the film earned over \$5 million in Australia, \$3 million in Germany, \$4 million in Spain, and \$6 million combined in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Malta. Little Miss Sunshine has had gross receipts of \$59,891,098 in North America and \$40,632,083 internationally for a total of \$100,523,181. ### Home media The DVD was released on December 19, 2006. It includes a dual-disc widescreen/full screen format, two commentary tracks, four alternate endings, and a music video by DeVotchKa. In its first week of release, DVD sales totaled \$19,614,299 and it was the sixth-most sold DVD of the week. By September 16, 2008, gross domestic DVD sales totaled \$55,516,832. Rentals of the film from its release through April 15, 2007, totalled \$46.32 million. The film was released on Blu-ray on February 10, 2009. ## Reception ### Critical response On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received a 91% positive aggregate rating, based on 218 reviews, with an average rating of 7.72/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Little Miss Sunshine succeeds thanks to a strong ensemble cast that includes Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Alan Arkin, and Abigail Breslin, as well as a delightfully funny script." On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 80 out of 100, based on reviews from 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews." Michael Medved gave Little Miss Sunshine four out of four, saying that "... this startling and irresistible dark comedy counts as one of the very best films of the year ..." and that directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the movie itself, and actors Alan Arkin, Abigail Breslin, and Steve Carell deserved Oscar nominations. Joel Siegel issued an 'A' rating, saying that "Orson Welles would have to come back to life for this not to make my year-end Top 10 list." Stella Papamichael of BBC News called the film "a winning blend of sophistication and silliness". USA Today's Claudia Puig commented on Breslin's depiction of Olive Hoover, "If Olive had been played by any other little girl, she would not have affected us as mightily as it did." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly labeled the film with a 'C' rating, calling the characters "walking, talking catalogs of screenwriter index-card data". Jim Ridley of The Village Voice called the movie a "rickety vehicle that travels mostly downhill" and a "Sundance clunker". Liam Lacey of The Globe and Mail criticized the film, stating "Though Little Miss Sunshine is consistently contrived in its characters' too-cute misery, the conclusion, which is genuinely outrageous and uplifting, is almost worth the hype." Anna Nimouse of National Review wrote that the film "is praised as a 'feel-good' film, perhaps for moviegoers who like bamboo under their fingernails. If you are miserable, then Little Miss Sunshine is the film for you". Paste Magazine named it one of the 50 Best Movies of the Decade (2000–2009), ranking it at \#34. Roger Ebert reflected on the film's themes, writing "Little Miss Sunshine shows us a world in which there's a form, a brochure, a procedure, a job title, a diet, a step-by-step program, a career path, a prize, a retirement community, to quantify, sort, categorize and process every human emotion or desire. Nothing exists that cannot be compartmentalized or turned into a self-improvement mantra about 'winners and losers.'" Brian Tallerico of UGO.com also focused on the film's themes: "Little Miss Sunshine teaches us to embrace that middle ground, acknowledging that life may just be a beauty pageant, where we're often going to be outdone by someone prettier, smarter, or just plain luckier, but if we get up on that stage and be ourselves, everything will turn out fine." ### Accolades Little Miss Sunshine was nominated for and won multiple awards from numerous film organizations and festivals. It was nominated for four Academy Awards and was awarded two at the 79th Academy Awards: Michael Arndt received "Best Original Screenplay" and Alan Arkin received "Best Supporting Actor". In addition, the AFI Awards deemed it the "Movie of the Year", while the BAFTA Awards awarded it two awards out of six nominations with "Best Screenplay" for Arndt and "Best Actor in a Supporting Role" for Arkin. The Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards, Screen Actors Guild (SAG), and Washington D.C. Area Film Critics commended the film for its ensemble cast. Then 10-year-old Abigail Breslin was nominated for several Best Supporting Actress and Breakthrough Performance awards. The Deauville Film Festival awarded the film the "Grand Special Prize" while the Palm Springs International Film Festival awarded it the "Chairman's Vanguard Award". The Independent Spirit Awards awarded it four awards out of five nominations, including "Best Feature" and "Best Director". The film's soundtrack was nominated for "Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television, or Other Visual Media" at the Grammy Awards, but lost to Walk the Line. The film also had multiple nominations at the MTV Movie Awards, Satellite Awards, Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, and Golden Globe Awards, among others. #### Number of producers controversy in Academy Awards There was some controversy concerning how many producers should receive an award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for their work in producing the film. In 1999, the Academy decided that up to a maximum of three producers are eligible to be included in an award for a film. The rule was implemented to prevent numerous involved filmmakers to appear on stage when a film was receiving an award. The Producers Guild of America (PGA) has not set a limit of producers that can be honored for a film. In the case of Little Miss Sunshine, there were five producers (Marc Turtletaub, Peter Saraf, Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa, and David Friendly) and the Academy did not want to include Berger and Yerxa. The two producers were responsible for finding the script, introducing the directors to the other producers, choosing the cinematographer, assisting in the re-shoot of the ending, and helping bring the film to the Sundance Film Festival. The Academy acknowledged that the two were partners in the production process, but declared that only individual producers are recognized by the Academy. Deeming the two producers' work as a collective effort, the Academy refused to consider either Berger or Yerxa for the award. Producer David Hoberman commented on the support for honoring all five producers, stating "If there are five people actually involved in producing a movie, there's no reason why someone who's made a good enough film to be nominated for an Academy Award should be precluded from being rewarded for the work they did." Film producer and author Lynda Obst who was affiliated with an Academy Award producer committee, also commented: "By and large, five people don't make a movie. If this is an exception, then it's a sad situation. But you don't destroy a rule for an exception." The PGA had previously honored all five of the producers. Albert Berger, reacting to the Academy's decision while at a panel for the film, stated "No matter what the Academy decided, we produced this movie." In June 2007, the Academy announced that they would allow exceptions for films that had more than three producers in the future, stating, "The committee has the right, in what it determines to be a rare and extraordinary circumstance, to name any additional qualified producer as a nominee." ## Music ### Score The score for Little Miss Sunshine was written by the Denver band DeVotchKa and composer Mychael Danna. Performed by DeVotchKa, much of the music was adapted from their pre-existing songs, such as "How It Ends", which became "The Winner Is", "The Enemy Guns" and "You Love Me" from the album How It Ends, and "La Llorona" from Una Volta. Directors Dayton and Faris were introduced to DeVotchKa's music after hearing the song "You Love Me" on Los Angeles' KCRW radio station. The directors were so impressed with the music that they purchased iPods for cast members containing DeVotchKa albums. Mychael Danna was brought in to help arrange the pre-existing material and collaborate with DeVotchKa on new material for the film. The Little Miss Sunshine score was not eligible for Academy Award consideration due to the percentage of material derived from already written DeVotchKa songs. The DeVotchka song "Til the End of Time" received a nomination for a 2006 Satellite Award as "Best Original Song". Both DeVotchKa and Danna received 2007 Grammy nominations for their work on the soundtrack. ### Soundtrack The soundtrack reached \#42 on the "Top Independent Albums" and 24 on "Top Soundtracks" in the U.S. for 2006. It contains two songs by Sufjan Stevens ("No Man's Land" and "Chicago"), and songs by Tony Tisdale ("Catwalkin'") and Rick James ("Super Freak"). Two additional songs in the film that were written by Gordon Pogoda—"Let It Go" and "You've Got Me Dancing" (the latter of which he co-wrote with Barry Upton)—are featured during the pageant scenes near the end of the film. "Super Freak", the source music danced to by Olive during the pageant competition, was introduced during post-production by a suggestion from the music supervisor. Arndt's screenplay had called for Prince's song "Peach"; during filming, the ZZ Top song "Gimme All Your Lovin'" was used. For the film, "Super Freak" was remixed by record producer Sebastian Arocha Morton (known professionally as ROCAsound). #### Track listing ## Musical A musical based on the film, with music and lyrics by William Finn and book and direction by James Lapine, was workshopped at the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab at White Oak in Yulee, Florida October 25 through November 7, 2009. It then premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse from February 15 through March 27, 2011. The cast features Hunter Foster, Malcolm Gets, Georgi James, Dick Latessa, Jennifer Laura Thompson, and Taylor Trensch. On March 11, 2011, Gets left the show. Ensemble member Andrew Samonsky took over the role of Uncle Frank, and understudy Ryan Wagner took over the role of Joshua Rose until the show closed on March 27, 2011. The musical premiered at Second Stage Theatre on October 15, 2013 (previews), and officially on November 14, 2013. The production closed on December 15, 2013. The cast features Hannah Rose Nordberg as Olive Hoover, Stephanie J. Block as Sheryl Hoover, Rory O'Malley as Frank Hoover, Wesley Taylor as Joshua Rose, Josh Lamon as Buddy, David Rasche as Grandpa Hoover, Jennifer Sanchez as Miss California and Logan Rowland as Dwayne Hoover.
65,692,760	Portsmouth War Memorial	1,112,756,707	Memorial in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England	[ "1921 sculptures", "Buildings and structures in Portsmouth", "Grade II* listed buildings in Hampshire", "Grade II* listed monuments and memorials", "Monuments and memorials in Hampshire", "Outdoor sculptures in England", "Sculptures by Charles Sargeant Jagger", "Sculptures of men in the United Kingdom", "Stone sculptures in the United Kingdom", "World War I memorials in England" ]	The City of Portsmouth War Memorial, also referred to as the Guildhall Square War Memorial, is a First World War memorial in Guildhall Square in the centre of Portsmouth, Hampshire, on the south coast of England. Portsmouth was and remains a port and home to a major naval dockyard. The dockyard and the armed forces provided much of the employment in the area in the early 20th century. As such, the town suffered significant losses in the First World War. Planning for a war memorial began shortly after the end of the conflict and a committee was established for the purpose. It selected a site adjacent to a railway embankment close to the Town Hall (renamed the Guildhall in 1926 when Portsmouth was granted city status) and chose the architects James Gibson and Walter Gordon, with sculptural elements by Charles Sargeant Jagger, from an open competition. The memorial consists of a semi-circular sunken recess (exedra) with a screen wall. Bronze panels fixed to the wall list the names of the city's dead. Archways in the wall lead out of Guildhall Square towards Victoria Park and the railway station, and balustrades lead away back into Guildhall Square, terminating in sculptures by Jagger of a life-size soldier and sailor with machine guns. In the centre is a cenotaph surmounted with an urn and decorated on the sides with relief carvings of wartime scenes. Prince Arthur unveiled the memorial on 19 October 1921, before its completion. Guildhall Square was redeveloped in the 1970s and the memorial was adjusted slightly and another wall was created adjacent to the site. The names of casualties from the Second World War and a monument to that conflict were added in the 21st century. The First World War memorial is a grade II\* listed building. ## Background In the aftermath of the First World War and its unprecedented casualties, thousands of war memorials were built across Britain; nearly every town and city erected some sort of memorial. Portsmouth was and remains a port city and home to a major naval base. As such, many of the city's residents served in the Royal Navy or embarked on ships to fight in the British Army. Immediately before the war, over 25 per cent of Portsmouth's male working-age population served in the army or the navy and many more were employed in the dockyard. Around 6,000 Portsmouth residents were killed in the war, out of a population of around 200,000 and a workforce of around 85,000 as of the 1911 census. In 1914, 15,000 people were employed in the naval dockyard, a number which had more than doubled since the turn of the century as a result of the Anglo-German naval arms race. The first local casualties of the war came from the sinking of HMS Amphion by a German mine within hours of Britain's entry into the war in August 1914. One of the largest groups of casualties came from the Battle of Jutland in 1916, the largest naval engagement of the conflict. Six Portsmouth-based ships were sunk at Jutland, with the loss of 4,000 lives, many of them local men. Portsmouth was also a significant garrison town, with soldiers stationed there for the defence of the south coast and others en route to other points in the British Empire. In 1914, the 9th Infantry Brigade was barracked in Portsmouth and, at the outbreak of war, formed part of the British Expeditionary Force sent to France. Portsmouth additionally maintained a significant part-time volunteer Territorial Force unit—the Portsmouth Troop of the Hampshire Yeomanry, the officers of which included many of the town's dignitaries. With the foundation of Kitchener's Army and the call for volunteers, the town and surrounding area raised a further two pals battalions. Local historians estimate that more than one-third of the volunteers were killed. Charles Sargeant Jagger (1885–1934) was a sculptor who joined the army at the outbreak of the First World War. He was wounded several times and awarded the Military Cross for gallantry. After the war, he largely established his artistic reputation with his designs for war memorials. His first memorial commission was the Hoylake and West Kirby War Memorial. The expressive figures he sculpted for that memorial were highly praised and were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1921, leading to commissions for war memorials across England and several battlefield memorials abroad. Although memorialisation of the First World War was largely the preserve of architects, Jagger enjoyed more success as a designer of war memorials than any other British sculptor, receiving several high-profile commissions. After Portsmouth, he went on to design the Great Western Railway War Memorial and the highly celebrated Royal Artillery Memorial in London. All feature Jagger's characteristic "Tommy", a soldier in action, rather than a spiritual figure. ## Commissioning Discussions about commemorating Portsmouth's dead began almost immediately after the end of the war. The mayor, John Timpson, launched an appeal with a letter to the local newspaper, the Hampshire Telegraph and Post, on 27 December 1918, calling for both donations and suggestions as to the form of a memorial. To mark the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, which officially ended hostilities in June 1919, the Royal Navy fired a 101-gun salute off the Portsmouth coast. Several local churches proceeded with their own commemorations and each parish had kept its own roll of honour. A war memorial committee was established to organise the town's civic commemorations. The committee decided to erect a memorial at a site near the Town Hall (renamed the Guildhall in 1926 when Portsmouth was granted city status), adjacent to an embankment carrying the railway out of Portsmouth & Southsea railway station. The site was chosen as a prominent city-centre location, close to the town hall and Victoria Park. The committee put the contract to design the memorial to a competition. Fifty designs were submitted and that of the London architectural firm of James Gibson and Walter Gordon was selected by an assessor from the Royal Institute of British Architects in early 1919. Gibson and Gordon produced a design involving several sculptural elements, for which they engaged Jagger. The contract for the construction work was won by a local firm, but the quote of just under £20,000 (approximately ) exceeded the available budget and the architects were instructed to scale back their design. As a result, they removed several design elements, including an arch linking the memorial to the railway station, several statues, a fountain, and metalwork. The final cost was £15,808. ## Design The memorial is built from Portland stone. It consists of a semicircular sunken recess, known as an exedra, with a screen wall 20 ft (6 m) high, creating a separate precinct. Attached to the wall are bronze panels listing the names of 4,500 dead, 500 of which were from Jutland. The names are organised by branch of service, with those from the army on the northern side, those from the navy on the southern side, and a smaller section in the middle for the fledgling Royal Air Force. Within the wall are two arched entrances with wrought iron gates. One, on the northern side, leads beneath the railway and into Victoria Park; the other, on the southern side, leads out of Guildhall Square. Above the panels is the inscription "THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE". The wall terminates in rusticated piers, each containing a recess with a seat supporting a bronze-coloured urn. Above the recesses is a relief carving of a trophy and a shield with a cluster of weapons behind, decorated to the front and sides with oak, laurel, and Acanthus; the whole carving is topped with a crown. Extending from the pillars are curved balustrades which terminate in stone pedestals. Mounted on these are two sculptures, flanking the entrance to the memorial. The sculpture on the south side is a sailor with a Lewis gun, representing the navy, and that on the north side is a soldier operating a Vickers machine gun, representing the army. The centrepiece of the memorial is a cenotaph on a base of three steps. On its sides are shallow relief carvings of wartime scenes. The front relief is of two warships engaged in battle at sea and the rear shows multiple warships engaging a submarine. On the left-hand side (when viewed from the front) is a naval gun crew loading a shell, and on the right is a group of marching soldiers. Above the reliefs is a large Greek-style cornice and the structure culminates in a gadrooned sarcophagus urn. In the centre of the screen wall is a metal plaque, which bears the dedication: > This memorial was erected by the people of Portsmouth in proud and loving memory of those who in the glorious morning of their days for England's sake lost all but England's praise. May light perpetual shine upon them. Other plaques on the memorial commemorate its unveiling and denote that it was paid for by public subscription. A stone plinth was added in 2003, with the dedication: "TO HONOUR ALL THOSE WHO DIED SERVING THEIR COUNTRY IN TIMES OF PEACE OR CONFLICT. 'WE WILL REMEMBER'". Alan Borg, an art historian and museum curator, described Jagger's sculpted figures guarding the entrance to the memorial as an "interesting and effective version of the soldier in action". Another art historian, Geoff Archer, wrote that the memorial as "a particularly impressive example" of a sanctuary or precinct with a large wall used for lists of names, though described Jagger's flanking statues as "significantly his least successful" compared to his more stationary figures on other memorials, particularly his memorials for the Royal Artillery and the Great Western Railway. Historic England described the memorial as "an eloquent tribute to the servicemen and women of Portsmouth, and the sacrifices they made during the First World War" and praises its "distinguished design" and architectural interest in bringing together multiple "high-quality elements in a harmonious whole, creating a memorial of unusual dignity and power". It praises Jagger's sculptural work, describing it as "accomplished and animated sculpture" and noting the realism for which Jagger was famed and his "ability to evoke the physical reality of war", and notes its group value with other historic buildings in the area, including the Guildhall, the University of Portsmouth buildings, and the statue of Queen Victoria, as well as Victoria Park, which is a registered historic park. ## History The foundation stone of the memorial was laid on 25 May 1921, and the memorial was unveiled on 19 October 1921, before it was fully completed. A crowd of 30,000 people attended the ceremony, which was presided over by Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn. Funds raised by the war memorial committee were also donated to the Royal Portsmouth Hospital. Most were used to improve the services offered by the hospital, but a portion was used to build a memorial gate as an improved entrance from the city centre. The gate was opened by Princess Helena Victoria in May 1922. It was demolished, along with the hospital itself, and the area redeveloped in the late 20th century. In the 1970s, Guildhall Square was redeveloped and the war memorial was reduced in size slightly from an oval shape to a round one and some elements were rearranged to fit. As part of the redevelopment, a wall was created to the east of the memorial. A separate cenotaph-style monument to the Second World War casualties was added to the site, in front of the wall, in 2005. The rectangular cenotaph features carvings of the badges of the armed forces and on the front, near the top, is the city's coat of arms. It was unveiled by Princess Alexandra in 2005. A wall containing 610 names was added in 2012 after a local fundraising campaign. The final names were added in 2013 after Portsmouth City Council provided a grant of £27,000. In the 21st century, Portsmouth continues to be dominated by the Royal Navy and the dockyard, although downsized, still plays a vital part in city life. The memorial remains the focal point for the annual Remembrance Sunday services in the city, which are well attended, including by representatives of the armed forces. The memorial was designated a grade II listed building in 1972 and upgraded to grade II\* in 2016 to mark the centenary of the Battle of Jutland. Listed building status offers statutory protection from demolition or modification; grade II\* is reserved for "particularly important buildings of more than special interest" and is applied to about 5.5 per cent of listings. ## See also - Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Commonwealth War Graves Commission memorial on Southsea Common - Grade II\* listed buildings in Portsmouth - Grade II\* listed war memorials in England
24,879,604	The Volcano (British Columbia)	1,090,873,879	Mountain in British Columbia, Canada	[ "Boundary Ranges", "Cinder cones of British Columbia", "Holocene volcanoes", "Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province", "One-thousanders of British Columbia", "Polygenetic cinder cones", "Rift volcanoes", "Stikine Country" ]	The Volcano, also known as Lava Fork volcano, is a small cinder cone in the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. It is located approximately 60 km (40 mi) northwest of the small community of Stewart near the head of Lava Fork. With a summit elevation of 1,656 m (5,433 ft) and a topographic prominence of 311 m (1,020 ft), it rises above the surrounding rugged landscape on a remote mountain ridge that represents the northern flank of a glaciated U-shaped valley. Lava Fork volcano is associated with a small group of volcanoes called the Iskut volcanic field. This forms part of the much larger Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province, which extends from the Alaska–Yukon border to near the port city of Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Eruptive activity at The Volcano is relatively young compared to most other volcanoes in the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province. Geologic studies have shown that The Volcano and its eruptive products were emplaced in the last 400 years; this is well after the last glacial period, which ended about 10,000 years ago. ## Geology The Volcano is the southernmost of ten volcanoes comprising the Iskut volcanic field, as well as the most recent to erupt. Its structure is poorly formed and has been reduced by erosion from alpine glacial ice found at its elevation and latitude. It represents one of the few historically active volcanoes in the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province, with a base elevation estimated to be 100 m (330 ft). Like most cinder cones, The Volcano consists of a pile of loose volcanic ash, lapilli-sized tephra and volcanic bombs. These were deposited during periods of lava fountain activity. The vent area contains volcanic bombs up to 0.5 m (1.6 ft) long and small deposits of sulfur precipitated from volcanic gases. Like other Iskut-Unuk River Cones, The Volcano has its origins in continental rifting—a long rupture in the Earth's crust where the lithosphere is being pulled apart. This incipient rifting has formed as a result of the Pacific Plate sliding northward along the Queen Charlotte Fault, on its way to the Aleutian Trench. As the continental crust stretches, the near surface rocks fracture along steeply dipping cracks parallel to the rift known as faults. Basaltic magma rises along these fractures to create effusive eruptions. The rift zone has existed for at least 14.9 million years, and has created the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province. Several dormant volcanoes in the province are potentially active, with The Volcano being one of the three having erupted in the last few hundred years. Tseax Cone, which last erupted in the 18th century, is the southernmost volcano in the province, while Prindle Volcano in easternmost-central Alaska, which last erupted more than 10,000 years ago, is generally considered the northernmost. ### Volcanic history At least two phases of volcanic activity have been identified at The Volcano. Each event was followed by the eruption of lengthy basaltic lava flows that flowed down steep granitic flanks of the mountain ridge on which The Volcano lies. After this took place, they travelled through the Lava Fork valley for 5 km (3 mi). Here, the flows crossed the British Columbia border into the U.S. state of Alaska and blocked the Blue River, a tributary of the Unuk River, forming several lakes. The lava flows in total are about 22 km (14 mi) long and still contain their original features from when they cooled, including pressure ridges and lava channels. A series of large trees were engulfed by the lava flows during eruption. The bases of the trees burned and the upper trunks and branches collapsed into the solidifying lava, leaving the trees embedded on the surface of the lava flows. After the flows solidified, tree molds and lava tubes collapsed to form volcanic pits. At the southern end of one of the lava flows, it spreads into a broad terminal lobe on the flat alluvial plain of the Unuk River. Volcanic ash and lava from The Volcano still linger on small glaciers near Mount Lewis Cass, a 2,094-metre-high (6,870 ft) mountain near the Alaska–British Columbia border. At least one lava flow from The Volcano was notified by a surveyor named Fremont Morse in 1905 during a survey for the International Boundary Commission. In 1906, Morse wrote that the most recently erupted lava flow had "probably occurred within less than fifty years". Since Morse's report, tree ring and radiocarbon dating techniques have been used to establish the dates of The Volcano's two volcanic phases. The first is estimated to have occurred about 360 years ago and the latest possibly took place only 150 years ago. This indicates that The Volcano is the youngest known volcanic mountain in Canada and that its volcanic activity is recent compared to many other volcanoes in British Columbia. In several documents, the last eruption of The Volcano is written to have occurred in 1904. However, according to the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program, this eruption is considered uncertain. Although The Volcano is estimated to have last erupted 150 years ago, it is one of the five volcanoes in the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province that have recorded seismicity since 1985. Others include Castle Rock (two events), Hoodoo Mountain (eight events), Crow Lagoon (four events) and the Mount Edziza volcanic complex (eight events). Seismic data suggest that these volcanoes still contain active magma chambers, indicating that some Northern Cordilleran volcanoes are probably active, with significant potential hazards. The seismic activity corresponds both with some of Canada's recently formed volcanoes and with persistent volcanoes that have had major explosive activity throughout their history, such as Hoodoo Mountain and the Mount Edziza volcanic complex. ## Human history ### Naming controversy The name of the peak was suggested by an explorer named Chris Dickinson during the Cambridge Coast Mountains Expedition in 1979. It was adopted on November 24, 1980, and has been its official name since then. However, this name for the peak does not normally show up in any volcanological resources. Instead, it is informally referred to as Lava Fork or Lava Fork volcano due to its close association with the creek of the same name. The reason for this controversy is because The Volcano is generic. In speech it may not be obvious whether The Volcano or the volcano is intended, leading to confusion. Similar named volcanoes in Canada include Volcano Vent in the Tuya volcanic field of northwestern British Columbia and Volcano Mountain in the Fort Selkirk volcanic field of central Yukon. As of 2009, the unofficial terms for The Volcano continue to be used by Natural Resources Canada. ### Protection and monitoring The Volcano, its eruptive products and a large mineral spring are protected in Lava Forks Provincial Park. Founded in 2001 as a Class A provincial park, this highly remote park covers an area of 7,000 ha (17,000 acres). Lying within its boundaries are the Lava Lakes, two lakes dammed by lava flows erupted from The Volcano. Located in asserted traditional territory of the Tahltan First Nation, Lava Forks Provincial Park provides a location to study ecological processes associated with primary succession or the establishment of vegetation after a major disturbance. After 150 years of non-eruptive activity, vegetation has grown on the surface of the lava flows, including mosses and lichens. Western Hemlock, Mountain Hemlock and Alpine tundra biogeoclimatic subzones also occur in the area, which form part of the Boundary Ranges Ecosection. Like other Iskut-Unuk River Cones, The Volcano is not monitored closely enough by the Geological Survey of Canada to ascertain its activity level. The Canadian National Seismograph Network has been established to monitor earthquakes throughout Canada, but it is too far away to provide an accurate indication of activity under the mountain. The seismograph network may sense an increase in seismic activity if The Volcano becomes highly restless, but this may only provide a warning for a large eruption; the system might detect activity only once the mountain has started erupting. If The Volcano were to erupt, mechanisms exist to orchestrate relief efforts. The Interagency Volcanic Event Notification Plan was created to outline the notification procedure of some of the main agencies that would respond to an erupting volcano in Canada, an eruption close to the Canada–United States border or any eruption that would affect Canada. ## Volcanic hazards At least seven eruptions have occurred in the Iskut-Unuk River volcanic field in the last 10,000 years. Since around 1600, all eruptions have occurred from The Volcano, which has a total eruption volume of 2.2 km<sup>3</sup> (0.53 cu mi). Future eruptions from The Volcano will probably be similar in character to those that have occurred throughout its 360-year eruptive history. There is a one in 200 chance per year of an eruption occurring in Canada and one in 220 chance per year of an effusive eruption. An eruption in the foreseeable future is probably more likely along the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province than in an unrelated volcanic zone outside the province. This is because the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province, which includes the Iskut-Unuk River Cones, is the most active volcanic zone in Canada. ### Effects A small range of effects are expected from future eruptions at The Volcano. Its remote uninhabited location makes volcanic hazards less extreme and is therefore not very hazardous. Ash and rock fragments (tephra) ejected during lava fountain activity are unlikely to be high enough to disrupt regional air traffic. However, they could possibly endanger lower flying aircraft along the northern coastal corridor between Vancouver and Alaska. The closest major air route is about 170 km (110 mi) to the east. Volcanic ash reduces visibility and can cause jet engine failure, as well as damage to other aircraft systems. Lava flows emitted during future volcanic eruptions would likely be basaltic in nature based on the composition of its lavas produced during past volcanic activity. Basaltic lava flows are low in silica content and can spread rapidly and move quickly downslope. The last eruption at The Volcano 150 years ago had a large impact on fish, plant and animal inhabitants in the valley the lava flows travelled through to cross the Canada–United States border. Because of these circumstances, future eruptions may again block the flow of local water courses if the volume of the erupted lavas are significant enough. This would again have disastrous consequences for fish habitats and spawning grounds. However, there are neither records of any impacts on people during this eruption, nor evidence that it was even witnessed by people. A repeat of wildfires in the Lava Fork valley is also a possibility due to the existence of vegetation on and around the erupted lavas. ## See also - Cinder Mountain - Cone Glacier Volcano - Iskut Canyon Cone - King Creek Cone - List of cinder cones - List of Northern Cordilleran volcanoes - Second Canyon Cone - Snippaker Creek Cone - Tom MacKay Creek Cone - Volcanism of Western Canada
18,798,090	Southern Cross Expedition	1,172,765,966	1898–1900 research expedition to Antarctica	[ "1898 in Antarctica", "1898 in science", "1899 in Antarctica", "1899 in science", "1900 in Antarctica", "1900 in science", "Antarctic expeditions", "Expeditions from the United Kingdom", "Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration", "History of the Ross Dependency", "United Kingdom and the Antarctic" ]	The Southern Cross Expedition, otherwise known as the British Antarctic Expedition, 1898–1900, was the first British venture of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, and the forerunner of the more celebrated journeys of Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton. The brainchild of the Anglo-Norwegian explorer Carsten Borchgrevink, it was the first expedition to over-winter on the Antarctic mainland, the first to visit the Great Ice Barrier—later known as the Ross Ice Shelf—since Sir James Clark Ross's groundbreaking expedition of 1839 to 1843, and the first to effect a landing on the Barrier's surface. It also pioneered the use of dogs and sledges in Antarctic travel. The expedition was privately financed by the British magazine publisher Sir George Newnes. Borchgrevink's party sailed in the Southern Cross, and spent the southern winter of 1899 at Cape Adare, the northwest extremity of the Ross Sea coastline. Here they carried out an extensive programme of scientific observations, although opportunities for inland exploration were restricted by the mountainous and glaciated terrain surrounding the base. In January 1900, the party left Cape Adare in Southern Cross to explore the Ross Sea, following the route taken by Ross 60 years earlier. They reached the Great Ice Barrier, where a team of three made the first sledge journey on the Barrier surface, during which a new Farthest South record latitude was established at 78° 50′S. On its return to Britain the expedition was coolly received by London's geographical establishment exemplified by the Royal Geographical Society, which resented the pre-emption of the pioneering Antarctic role they envisaged for the Discovery Expedition. There were also questions about Borchgrevink's leadership qualities, and criticism of the limited extent of scientific results. Thus, despite the number of significant "firsts", Borchgrevink was never accorded the heroic status of Scott or Shackleton, and his expedition was soon forgotten in the dramas which surrounded these and other Heroic Age explorers. However, Roald Amundsen, conqueror of the South Pole in 1911, acknowledged that Borchgrevink's expedition had removed the greatest obstacles to Antarctic travel, and had opened the way for all the expeditions that followed. ## Background Born in Oslo in 1864 to a Norwegian father and an English mother, Carsten Borchgrevink emigrated to Australia in 1888, where he worked as a land surveyor in the interior before accepting a provincial schoolteaching appointment in New South Wales. Having a taste for adventure, in 1894 he joined a commercial whaling expedition, led by Henryk Bull, which penetrated Antarctic waters and reached Cape Adare, the western portal to the Ross Sea. A party including Bull and Borchgrevink briefly landed there, and claimed to be the first men to set foot on the Antarctic continent—although the American sealer John Davis believed he had landed on the Antarctic Peninsula in 1821. Bull's party also visited Possession Island in the Ross Sea, leaving a message in a tin box as proof of their journey. Borchgrevink was convinced that the Cape Adare location, with its huge penguin rookery providing a ready supply of fresh food and blubber, could serve as a base at which a future expedition could overwinter and subsequently explore the Antarctic interior. After his return from Cape Adare, Borchgrevink spent much of the following years in Britain and Australia, seeking financial backing for an Antarctic expedition. Despite a well-received address to the 1895 Sixth International Geographical Congress in London, in which he professed his willingness to lead such a venture, he was initially unsuccessful. The Royal Geographical Society (RGS) was preparing its own plans for a large-scale National Antarctic Expedition (which eventually became the Discovery Expedition 1901–04) and was in search of funds; Borchgrevink was regarded by RGS president Sir Clements Markham as a foreign interloper and a rival for funding. Borchgrevink persuaded the publisher Sir George Newnes (whose business rival Alfred Harmsworth was backing the RGS venture) to meet the full cost of his expedition, some £40,000. This gift infuriated Markham and the RGS, since Newnes's donation, had it come their way would, he said have been enough "to get the National Expedition on its legs". Newnes stipulated that Borchgrevink's expedition should sail under the British flag, and be styled the "British Antarctic Expedition". Borchgrevink readily agreed to these conditions, even though only two of the entire expedition party were British. This annoyed Markham all the more, and he subsequently rebuked the RGS librarian Hugh Robert Mill for attending the Southern Cross Expedition launch. Mill had toasted the success of the expedition, calling it "a reproach to human enterprise" that there were parts of the earth that man had never attempted to reach. He hoped that this reproach would be lifted through "the munificence of Sir George Newnes and the courage of Mr Borchgrevink". ## Organisation ### Expedition objectives Borchgrevink's original expedition objectives included the development of commercial opportunities, as well as scientific and geographical discovery. However, his plans to exploit the extensive guano deposits that he had observed during his 1894–95 voyage were not pursued. Research would be carried out across a range of disciplines, and Borchgrevink hoped that the scientific results would be complemented by spectacular geographical discoveries and journeys, even perhaps an attempt on the geographical South Pole itself; he was unaware at this stage that the site of the base at Cape Adare would not allow access to the hinterland of Antarctica. ### Ship For his expedition's ship, Borchgrevink purchased in 1897 a steam whaler, Pollux, that had been built in 1886 in Arendal on the south east coast of Norway, to the design of renowned shipbuilder Colin Archer. Archer had designed and built Fridtjof Nansen's ship, Fram, which in 1896 had returned unscathed from its long drift in the northern polar ocean during Nansen's Fram expedition. Pollux, which Borchgrevink renamed Southern Cross, was barque-rigged, 520 gross register tons, and 146 feet (45 m) overall length. The ship was taken to Archer's yard in Larvik to be fitted out with engines designed to Borchgrevink's specification. Although Markham continued to question the ship's seaworthiness, she was able to fulfil all that was required of her in Antarctic waters. Like several of the historic polar ships her post-expedition life was relatively short. She was sold to the Newfoundland Sealing Company, and in April 1914, was lost with her entire complement of 173, in the 1914 Newfoundland sealing disaster. ### Personnel The ten-man shore party who were to winter at Cape Adare consisted of Borchgrevink, five scientists, a medical officer, a cook who also served as a general assistant, and two dog drivers. Five—including Borchgrevink—were Norwegian, two were English, one Australian and the two dog experts from northern Norway, sometimes described in expedition accounts as Lapps or "Finns". Among the scientists was the Tasmanian Louis Bernacchi, who had studied magnetism and meteorology at the Melbourne Observatory. He had been appointed to the Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897–1899, but had been unable to take up his post when the expedition's ship, the , had failed to call at Melbourne on its way south. Bernacchi then travelled to London and secured a place on Borchgrevink's scientific staff. His later chronicle of the expedition was critical of aspects of Borchgrevink's leadership, but defended the expedition's scientific achievements. In 1901, Bernacchi would return to Antarctica as a physicist on Scott's Discovery expedition. Another of Borchgrevink's men who later served Scott's expedition, as commander of the relief ship , was William Colbeck, who held a lieutenant's commission in the Royal Naval Reserve. In preparation for the Southern Cross Expedition, Colbeck had taken a course in magnetism at Kew Observatory. Borchgrevink's assistant zoologist was Hugh Blackwell Evans, a vicar's son from Bristol, who had spent three years on a cattle ranch in Canada and had also been on a sealing voyage to the Kerguelen Islands. The chief zoologist was Nicolai Hanson, a graduate from the Royal Frederick University. Also in the shore party was Herluf Kløvstad, the expedition's medical officer, whose previous appointment had been to a lunatic asylum in Bergen. The others were Anton Fougner, scientific assistant and general handyman; Kolbein Ellifsen, cook and general assistant; and the two Sami dog-handlers, Per Savio and Ole Must, who, at 21 and 20 years of age respectively, were the youngest of the party. The ship's company, under Captain Bernard Jensen, consisted of 19 Norwegian officers and seamen and one Swedish steward. Jensen was an experienced ice navigator in Arctic and Antarctic waters, and had been with Borchgrevink on Bull's Antarctic voyage in 1894–1895. ## Voyage ### Cape Adare Southern Cross left London on 23 August 1898, after inspection by the Duke of York (the future King George V), who presented a Union Flag. The ship was carrying 31 men and 90 Siberian sledge dogs, the first to be taken on an Antarctic expedition. After final provisioning in Hobart, Tasmania, Southern Cross sailed for the Antarctic on 19 December. She crossed the Antarctic Circle on 23 January 1899, and after a three-week delay in pack ice sighted Cape Adare on 16 February, before anchoring close to the shore on the following day. Cape Adare, discovered by Antarctic explorer James Clark Ross during his 1839–43 expedition, lies at the end of a long promontory, below which is the large triangular shingle foreshore where Bull and Borchgrevink had made their brief landing in 1895. This foreshore held one of the largest Adelie penguin rookeries on the entire continent and had ample room, as Borchgrevink had remarked in 1895, "for houses, tents and provisions". The abundance of penguins would provide both a winter larder and a fuel source. Unloading began on 17 February. First ashore were the dogs, with their two Sami handlers, Savio and Must, who remained with them and thus became the first men to spend a night on the Antarctic continent. During the next twelve days the rest of the equipment and supplies were landed, and two prefabricated huts were erected, one as living quarters and the other for storage. These were the first buildings erected on the continent. A third structure was contrived from spare materials, to serve as a magnetic observation hut. As accommodation for ten men the "living hut" was small and cramped, and seemingly precarious—Bernacchi later described it as "fifteen feet square, lashed down by cables to the rocky shore". The dogs were housed in kennels fashioned from packing cases. By 2 March the base, christened "Camp Ridley" after Borchgrevink's English mother's maiden name, was fully established, and the Duke of York's flag raised. That day, Southern Cross departed to winter in Australia. The living hut contained a small ante-room used as a photographic darkroom, and another for taxidermy. Daylight was admitted to the hut via a double-glazed, shuttered window, and through a small square pane high on the northern wall. Bunks were fitted around the outer walls, and a table and stove dominated the centre. During the few remaining weeks of Antarctic summer, members of the party practised travel with dogs and sledges on the sea ice in nearby Robertson Bay, surveyed the coastline, collected specimens of birds and fish, and slaughtered seals and penguins for food and fuel. Outside activities were largely curtailed in mid-May, with the onset of winter. ### Antarctic winter Winter proved to be a difficult time; Bernacchi wrote of rising boredom and irritation: "Officers and men, ten of us in all, found tempers wearing thin". During this period of confinement, Borchgrevink's weaknesses as a commander were exposed; he was, according to Bernacchi, "in many respects ... not a good leader". The polar historian Ranulph Fiennes later described the conditions as "democratic anarchy", with dirt, disorder and inactivity the order of the day. Borchgrevink's lack of scientific training, and his inability to make simple observations, were additional matters of concern. Nevertheless, the programme of scientific observations was maintained throughout the winter. Exercise was taken outside the hut when the weather permitted, and as a further diversion Savio improvised a sauna in the snowdrifts. Concerts were held, including lantern slides, songs and readings. During this time there were two near-fatal incidents; in the first, a candle left burning beside a bunk set fire to the hut and caused extensive damage. In the second, three of the party were nearly asphyxiated by coal fire fumes as they slept. The party was well-supplied with a variety of basic foodstuffs—butter, tea and coffee, herrings, sardines, cheeses, soup, tinned tripe, plum pudding, dry potatoes and vegetables. There were nevertheless complaints about the lack of luxuries, Colbeck noting that "all the tinned fruits supplied for the land party were either eaten on the passage or left on board for the [ship's] crew". There was also a shortage of tobacco; in spite of an intended provision of half a ton (500 kg), only a quantity of chewing tobacco was landed. The zoologist, Nicolai Hanson, had fallen ill during the winter. On 14 October 1899 he died, apparently of an intestinal disorder, and became the first person to be buried on the Antarctic continent. The grave was dynamited from the frozen ground at the summit of the Cape. Bernacchi wrote: "There amidst profound silence and peace, there is nothing to disturb that eternal sleep except the flight of seabirds". Hanson left a wife, and a baby daughter born after he left for the Antarctic. As winter gave way to spring, the party prepared for more ambitious inland journeys using the dogs and sledges. Their base camp was cut off from the continent's interior by high mountain ranges, and journeys along the coastline were frustrated by unsafe sea ice. These factors severely restricted their exploration, which was largely confined to the vicinity of Robertson Bay. Here, a small island was discovered, which was named Duke of York Island, after the expedition's patron. A few years later this find was dismissed by members of Scott's Discovery Expedition, who claimed that the island "did not exist", but its position has since been confirmed at 71°38′S, 170°04′E. ### Ross Sea exploration On 28 January 1900 Southern Cross returned. Borchgrevink and his party quickly vacated the camp, and on 2 February he took the ship south into the Ross Sea. Evidence of a hasty and disorderly departure from Cape Adare was noted two years later by members of the Discovery Expedition, when Edward Wilson wrote; "... heaps of refuse all around, and a mountain of provision boxes, dead birds, seals, dogs, sledging gear ... and heaven knows what else". Southern Cross first called at Possession Island, where the tin box left by Borchgrevink and Bull in 1895 was recovered. They then proceeded southwards, following the Victoria Land coast and discovering further islands, one of which Borchgrevink named after Sir Clements Markham, whose hostility towards the expedition was evidently unchanged by this honour. Southern Cross then sailed on to Ross Island, observed the volcano Mount Erebus, and attempted a landing at Cape Crozier, at the foot of Mount Terror. Here, Borchgrevink and Captain Jensen were almost drowned by a large wave caused by a calving or breakaway of ice from the adjacent Great Ice Barrier. Following the path of James Clark Ross sixty years previously, they proceeded eastwards along the Barrier edge, to find the inlet where, in 1843, Ross had reached his farthest south. Observations indicated that the Barrier edge had moved some 30 statute miles (50 km) south since Ross's time, which meant that the ship were already south of Ross's record. Borchgrevink was determined to make a landing on the Barrier itself, and in the vicinity of Ross's inlet he found a spot where the ice sloped sufficiently to suggest that a landing was possible. On 16 February he, Colbeck and Savio landed with dogs and a sledge, ascended to the Barrier surface, and then journeyed a few miles south to a point which they calculated as 78°50′S, a new Farthest South record. They were the first persons to travel on the Barrier surface, earning Amundsen's approbation: "We must acknowledge that, by ascending the Barrier, Borchgrevink opened the way to the south, and threw aside the greatest obstacle to the expeditions that followed". Close to the same spot ten years later, Amundsen would establish his base camp "Framheim", prior to his successful South Pole journey. On its passage northward, Southern Cross halted at Franklin Island, off the Victoria Land coast, and made a series of magnetic calculations. These indicated that the location of the South Magnetic Pole was, as expected, within Victoria Land, but further north and further west than had previously been assumed. The party then sailed for home, crossing the Antarctic Circle on 28 February. On 1 April, news of their safe return was sent by telegram from Bluff, New Zealand. The dogs were left on Native Island, New Zealand. Due to quarantine requirements, many of the dogs were killed but a few remained. 9 of the remaining dogs were bought by Ernest Shackleton. ## Aftermath Southern Cross returned to England in June 1900, to a cool welcome; public attention was distracted by the preparations for the upcoming Discovery Expedition, due to sail the following year. Borchgrevink meanwhile pronounced his voyage a great success, stating: "The Antarctic regions might be another Klondyke"—in terms of the prospects for fishing, sealing, and mineral extraction. He had proved that it was possible for a resident expedition to survive an Antarctic winter, and had made a series of geographical discoveries. These included new islands in Robertson's Bay and the Ross Sea, and the first landings on Franklin Island, Coulman Island, Ross Island and the Great Ice Barrier. The survey of the Victoria Land coast had revealed the "important geographical discovery ... of the Southern Cross Fjord, as well as the excellent camping place at the foot of Mount Melbourne". The most significant exploration achievement, Borchgrevink thought, was the scaling of the Great Ice Barrier and the journey to "the furthest south ever reached by man". Borchgrevink's account of the expedition, First on the Antarctic Continent, was published the following year; the English edition, much of which may have been embroidered by Newnes's staff, was criticised for its "journalistic" style and for its bragging tone. The author, whom commentators recognised was "not known for either his modesty or his tact", embarked on a lecture tour of England and Scotland, but the reception was generally poor. Despite the unexplained disappearance of many of Hanson's notes, Hugh Robert Mill described the expedition as "interesting as a dashing piece of scientific work". The meteorological and magnetic conditions of Victoria Land had been recorded for a full year; the location of the South Magnetic Pole had been calculated (though not visited); samples of the continent's natural fauna and flora, and of its geology, had been collected. Borchgrevink also claimed the discovery of new insect and shallow-water fauna species, proving "bi-polarity" (existence of species in proximity to the North and South poles). The geographical establishments in Britain and abroad were slow to give formal recognition to the expedition. The Royal Geographical Society gave Borchgrevink a fellowship, and other medals and honours eventually followed from Norway, Denmark and the United States, but the expedition's achievements were not widely recognised. Markham persisted in describing Borchgrevink as cunning and unprincipled; Amundsen's warm tribute was a lone approving voice. According to Scott's biographer David Crane, if Borchgrevink had been a British naval officer his expedition would have been treated differently, but "a Norwegian seaman/schoolmaster was never going to be taken seriously". A belated recognition came in 1930, long after Markham's death, when the Royal Geographical Society presented Borchgrevink with its Patron's Medal. It admitted that "justice had not been done at the time to the pioneer work of the Southern Cross expedition", and that the magnitude of the difficulties it had overcome had previously been underestimated. After the expedition, Borchgrevink lived quietly, largely out of the public eye. He died in Oslo on 21 April 1934.
390,763	Silverchair	1,173,245,801	Australian rock band	[ "1992 establishments in Australia", "2011 disestablishments in Australia", "ARIA Award winners", "Australian alternative metal musical groups", "Australian grunge groups", "Australian musical trios", "Australian post-grunge groups", "Australian rock music groups", "Musical groups disestablished in 2011", "Musical groups established in 1992", "New South Wales musical groups", "Newcastle, New South Wales", "Silverchair", "World Music Awards winners" ]	Silverchair was an Australian rock band, which formed in 1992 as Innocent Criminals in Newcastle, New South Wales, with Daniel Johns on vocals and guitars, Ben Gillies on drums, and Chris Joannou on bass guitar. The group got their big break in mid-1994 when they won a national demo competition conducted by SBS TV show Nomad and ABC radio station Triple J. The band was signed by Murmur and were successful in Australia and internationally. Silverchair has sold over 10 million albums worldwide. Silverchair have won more ARIA Music Awards than any other artist in history, earning 21 wins from 49 nominations. They also received six APRA Awards, with Johns winning three songwriting awards in 2008. All five of their studio albums debuted at number one on the ARIA Albums Chart: Frogstomp (1995), Freak Show (1997), Neon Ballroom (1999), Diorama (2002), and Young Modern (2007). Three singles reached the number-one slot on the related ARIA Singles Chart: "Tomorrow" (1994), "Freak" (1997), and "Straight Lines" (2007). Silverchair's alternative rock sound evolved throughout their career, with differing styles on specific albums growing more ambitious over the years, from grunge on their debut to more recent work displaying orchestral and art rock influences. The songwriting and singing of Johns had evolved steadily while the band had developed an increased element of complexity. In 2003, following the release of Diorama, the band announced a hiatus, during which time members recorded with side projects the Dissociatives, the Mess Hall, and Tambalane. Silverchair reunited at the 2005 Wave Aid concerts. In 2007, they released their fifth album, Young Modern, and played the Across the Great Divide tour with contemporaries Powderfinger. In May 2011, Silverchair announced an indefinite hiatus. ## History ### 1994–1997: Formation and early grunge releases Silverchair's founders, Ben Gillies and Daniel Johns, attended the same primary school in the Newcastle suburb of Merewether. At "age 11 or 12", singer-guitarist Johns and drummer Gillies rapped over an electronic keyboard's demo button under their first band name, The Silly Men. As teenagers, they started playing music together more prominently—in one class, they built a stage out of desks and played rap songs for their schoolmates. When they moved on to Newcastle High School, fellow student Chris Joannou joined the pair on bass guitar. In 1994, they formed Innocent Criminals with Tobin Finnane as a second guitarist, but he soon left. They played numerous shows around the Hunter Region in their early teens; their repertoire included cover versions of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Black Sabbath. In 1994, Innocent Criminals entered YouthRock—a national competition for school-based bands—and placed first ahead of older competition. The band recorded demos of "Acid Rain", "Cicada", "Pure Massacre", and "Tomorrow" early in the year at Platinum Sound Studios. In April, the band's mainstream breakthrough came when they won a national competition called Pick Me, using their demo of "Tomorrow". The competition was conducted by the SBS TV show Nomad and Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) alternative radio station Triple J. As part of the prize, Triple J recorded the song and ABC filmed a video, which was aired on 16 June. For the video's broadcast, they had changed their name to Silverchair (styled as silverchair until 2002). In a 1994 interview with Melbourne magazine Buzz, the band claimed the name derived from a radio request for "Sliver" by Nirvana and "Berlin Chair" by You Am I being mixed up as Silver Chair. It was later revealed they were named for the C. S. Lewis–penned novel The Silver Chair from The Chronicles of Narnia series. Johns later said of the fake story in a July 2007 interview: "We can't just say it's the name of a book and [that] we were looking for name of a book and thought that sounded good, so we thought we'd come up with a story..." Aside from Innocent Criminals, the band has used The George Costanza Trio and Short Elvis as aliases. Following a bidding war between rival labels, Silverchair signed a three-album recording contract with Sony Music subsidiary Murmur Records. Initially, the group were managed by their parents. Sony A&R manager John Watson, who was jointly responsible for signing the group, subsequently left the label to become their band manager. In September, their Triple J recording of "Tomorrow" was released as a four-track extended play. From late October, it spent six weeks at number-one on the ARIA Singles Chart. In 1995, a re-recorded version of "Tomorrow" (and a new video) was made for the United States market, becoming the most played song on US modern rock radio that year. Silverchair's debut album, Frogstomp, was recorded in nine days, with production by Kevin Shirley (Lime Spiders, Peter Wells) and released in March 1995. At the time of recording, the band members were 15 years old and still attending high school. Frogstomps lyrical concepts were fiction-based, drawing inspiration from television, hometown tragedies, and perceptions of the pain of friends. The album was well received: AllMusic and Rolling Stone rated it in four and four-and-a-half stars, respectively, praising the intensity of the album, especially "Tomorrow". Frogstomp was a number-one album in Australia and New Zealand. It reached the Billboard 200 Top 10, making Silverchair the first Australian band to do so since INXS. It was certified as a US double-platinum album by the RIAA, triple-platinum in Canada by the CRIA, and multi-platinum in Australia. The album sold more than 4 million copies worldwide. Paste magazine called this album the "last stand" of grunge. As Frogstomp and "Tomorrow" continued to gain popularity through 1995, the group toured the US, where they supported Red Hot Chili Peppers in June, the Ramones in September, and played on the roof of Radio City Music Hall at the MTV Music Awards. In between touring, they continued their secondary education in Newcastle. At the ARIA Music Awards of 1995, the band won five awards out of nine nominations. To collect their awards on the night, they sent Josh Shirley, the young son of the album's producer. At the ceremony, they performed Radio Birdman's "New Race" with Tim Rogers (of You Am I); in 2019, Dan Condon of Double J rated this as one of the "7 great performances from the history of the ARIA Awards." On 9 December 1995, Silverchair played two songs, "Tomorrow" and "Pure Massacre" on Saturday Night Live. In a January 1996 murder case, the defendant counsel for Brian Bassett, 16, and Nicholaus McDonald, 18, of McCleary, Washington, claimed that the pair listened to "Israel's Son", from Frogstomp, which contributed to the 10 August 1995 murders of Bassett's parents and a younger brother. McDonald's lawyer cited the lyrics "Hate is what I feel for you/I want you to know that I want you dead" which were "almost a script. They're relevant to everything that happened". The band's manager, Watson, issued a statement that they did not condone nor intend any such acts of violence. Prosecutors rejected the defence case and convinced the jury that the murder was committed to "steal money and belongings and run off to California." Silverchair began recording their second studio album, Freak Show, in May 1996 while experiencing the success of Frogstomp in Australia and the US. Produced by Nick Launay (Birthday Party, Models, Midnight Oil) and released in February 1997, the album reached number one in Australia and yielded three top-10 singles: "Freak", "Abuse Me", and "Cemetery". Its fourth single, "The Door", reached No. 25. The songs focused on the anger and backlash that the expectations of Frogstomp brought upon the band. Freak Show was certified gold in the US, 2× platinum in Australia, and global sales eventually exceeded 1.5 million copies. ### 1997–2003: Artistic experimentation, critical and commercial success By late 1997, the trio had completed their secondary education, and, from May 1998, they worked on their third album, Neon Ballroom, with Launay producing again. It was released in March 1999 and peaked at the number-one position in Australia. Australian rock music historian Ian McFarlane said, "As well as being the band's best album to date, it was universally acknowledged as one of the best albums of the year." The band originally intended to take a 12-month break, but in the end they decided to devote their time to making music. Neon Ballroom provided three Australian top-20 singles: "Anthem for the Year 2000", "Ana's Song (Open Fire)" and "Miss You Love"; a fourth single, "Paint Pastel Princess", did not reach the top 50. The albums charted well internationally: Freak Show reached No. 2 in Canada, and Neon Ballroom reached No. 5. Both reached the top 40 on the United Kingdom Albums Chart. "Abuse Me" reached No. 4 on Billboard'''s Hot Modern Rock Tracks and Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks charts. "Ana's Song (Open Fire)" peaked at No. 12 on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks. In 1999, Johns announced that he had developed the eating disorder anorexia nervosa due to anxiety. Johns noted that the lyrics to "Ana's Song (Open Fire)" dealt with his disorder, where he would "eat what he needed ... to stay awake." He revealed that his eating problems developed from the time of Freak Show and when Neon Ballroom was written he "hated music, really everything about it", but he felt that he "couldn't stop doing it; I felt like a slave to it." Johns sought therapy and medication but felt "It's easier for me to express it through music and lyrics". Silverchair added an auxiliary keyboardist, Sam Holloway (ex-Cordrazine), for the Neon Ballroom Tour. The US leg had the group playing with The Offspring and Red Hot Chili Peppers, while Silverchair's tour of UK and European had The Living End as the support act. Rolling Stones Neva Chonin attributed their chart success to the album's more "mature" sound. In Europe and South America it became the group's most successful album to date. The group appeared at festivals in Reading and Edgefest, amongst others. Following the tour, the band announced that they would be taking a 12-month break. Their only live performance in 2000 was at the Falls Festival on New Year's Eve. On 21 January 2001, the band played to 250,000 people at Rock in Rio, a show they described as the highlight of their career until that point. After the release of Neon Ballroom, Silverchair's three-album contract with Sony Music had ended. The group eventually signed with Atlantic Records for North and South America, and they formed their own label with Watson, Eleven: A Music Company (distributed by EMI), for Australia and Asia. In November 2000, after the group had left the label, Sony issued The Best Of: Volume 1 without the band's involvement. Johns disavowed the compilation, saying, "We thought about putting out ads in the street press to make people aware that we weren't endorsing it, but that would have blown the whole thing out of proportion ... If people want to buy it, they can buy it[,] but I wouldn't buy it if I was a silverchair fan." In June 2001, Silverchair entered a studio in Sydney with producer David Bottrill (Tool, Peter Gabriel, King Crimson) to start work on their fourth album, Diorama. Johns formally assumed the role of a co-producer. The album name means "a world within a world". Most tracks came from Johns' new-found method of writing material on a piano, a technique he developed during the band's break after Neon Ballroom. In order to complete the vision for Diorama, several other musicians contributed to the album, including Van Dyke Parks, who provided orchestral arrangements to "Tuna in the Brine", "Luv Your Life", and "Across the Night". Paul Mac (from Itch-E and Scratch-E) and Jim Moginie (from Midnight Oil) both on piano also collaborated with the band. While recording Diorama, Johns referred to himself as an artist, rather than simply being in a "rock band". Upon its release, critics commented that the album was more artistic than previous works. Early in December, the first single, "The Greatest View", was released to Australian radio networks. Its physical release in January 2002 coincided with the band's appearance on the Big Day Out tour. Early in 2002, Johns was diagnosed with reactive arthritis, which made it difficult for him to play the guitar, and subsequent performances supporting the album's release were cancelled. In March 2002, Diorama was issued and topped the ARIA Albums Chart; it became their fourth number-one album and spent 50 weeks in the top 50. Four singles were released from the album: "The Greatest View", "Without You", "Luv Your Life" and "Across the Night"; "The Greatest View" charted highest, reaching No. 3. In October, Silverchair were successful at the ARIA Music Awards of 2002, winning five awards, including 'Best Rock Album' and 'Best Group', and 'Producer of the Year' for Johns. The band played "The Greatest View" at the ceremony; the song was also nominated for 'Best Video'. Two singles (and a related video) were nominated for further ARIA Awards in 2003. Following the 2002 ARIA Awards, the band announced their first indefinite hiatus. Johns said it was necessary "given the fact the band were together for over a decade and yet were only, on average, 23 years old". From March to June 2003, Silverchair undertook the Across the Night Tour to perform Diorama. Their hometown performance on 19 April was recorded as Live from Faraway Stables for a 2-CD and 2-DVD release in November. After the tour finished in June, the group announced another indefinite hiatus. ### 2003–2005: Extended break and side projects In 2000, while also working with Silverchair, Johns and Mac released an internet-only EP, I Can't Believe It's Not Rock. In mid-2003, during Silverchair's hiatus, the pair re-united and formed The Dissociatives, releasing a self-titled album in April 2004. The duo provided the theme music for the popular ABC-TV music quiz show Spicks and Specks by reworking a 1966 Bee Gees hit of the same name. Johns also collaborated with then-wife Natalie Imbruglia on her Counting Down the Days album, released in April 2005. Joannou worked with blues rock group The Mess Hall; he co-produced—with Matt Lovell—their six-track extended play Feeling Sideways, which was released in May 2003. The album was nominated for the ARIA Award for 'Best Independent Release' in 2003. Joannou and Lovell co-produced The Mess Hall's studio album Notes from a Ceiling, which was issued in June 2005. Joannou and Lovell received a nomination at the ARIA Music Awards of 2005 for 'Producer of the Year'. In 2003, Gillies formed Tambalane with Wes Carr, initially as a song-writing project, and they released a self-titled album in 2005 and toured Australia. The 2004 Boxing Day tsunami resulted in the WaveAid fundraising concert held in January 2005; Silverchair performed to help raise funds for aid organisations working in disaster-affected areas. As a result of WaveAid, the band decided to resume working together. Gillies explained the band's reunion as due to a special "chemistry" between band members, telling the Sydney Morning Herald, "It only took us 15 years, but recently we've realised, 'We've really got something special and we should just go for it.'" ### 2005–2011: Return from hiatus After performing at Wave Aid, Silverchair reunited, and by late 2005 began preparations for their next studio album, Young Modern. Johns had written about 50 songs during the hiatus for a possible solo album or other project but decided to use them for Silverchair. In 2006, after five weeks' practice, the group demoed tracks in the Hunter Region before recording at Los Angeles' Seedy Underbelly Studios with Launay as producer. Parks again arranged orchestral tracks for the band—they travelled to Prague to record with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. The group also used Mac, Luke Steele (The Sleepy Jackson, Empire of the Sun) and Julian Hamilton (The Presets, The Dissociatives). Hamilton also co-wrote songs with Johns. Silverchair self-funded the album's production to ease the pressures they faced when working with a record label. The band toured extensively before releasing the album, performing at Homebake and numerous other shows. Both Mac and Hamilton joined the tour as auxiliary members providing keyboards. In October, they performed a cover of Midnight Oil's 1981 single "Don't Wanna Be the One" at the ARIA Music Awards of 2006 as part of that band's induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame. During the performance, Johns spray-painted "PG 4 PM" (Peter Garrett for Prime Minister) on a stage wall, paying tribute to that band's frontman, who was at that time a Federal Member of Parliament and Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts. Young Modern was released in March 2007, as was the first single, "Straight Lines". Three more singles—"Reflections of a Sound", "If You Keep Losing Sleep", and "Mind Reader"—were released later. Young Modern became the fifth Silverchair album to top the ARIA Albums chart; they became the first artists to have five number-one albums on the ARIA Albums chart. "Straight Lines" also became the band's third number-one single in Australia. In June 2007, Silverchair and fellow rock group Powderfinger announced the Across the Great Divide Tour. The tour promoted the efforts of Reconciliation Australia in mending the 17-year gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children. Support acts on the tour were John Butler, Missy Higgins, Kev Carmody, Troy Cassar-Daley, Clare Bowditch and Deborah Conway. Young Modern and "Straight Lines" each won three awards at the ARIA Music Awards of 2007, taking Silverchair's total to 20. The group also won three APRA Awards for their song "Straight Lines", including Songwriter of the Year, which Johns was awarded for a record third time. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2008, Silverchair and Powderfinger each won Best Music DVD for Across the Great Divide, for Silverchair this was their 21st win from 49 nominations. According to Silverchair's website, as of June 2009, the group had begun work on the follow-up to Young Modern; they had spent three weeks recording in Australia with future sessions earmarked for later that year. No release date was set, but the band uploaded in-studio videos of them working on several tracks to their official website. In December, Johns called in to Triple J's breakfast show, Robbie, Marieke and The Doctor, and discussed the band's new album which they were working on in Newcastle. He told them, "the main difference is there's a lot of experimentation with instruments and synths... I think there's only guitar on four songs out of fifty so far," but added the new material is "surprisingly rocky given there's no guitar." In April 2010, via the band's website, Joannou announced they would perform two new songs called "16" and "Machina Collecta" at May's Groovin' the Moo festival. He said work was progressing well and confirmed there was, as yet, no title for the proposed album and that they were simply referring to it as Album No. 6. The final concert of the festival was at Bunbury on 15 May. By year's end, work on the album had stopped because each member had pursued other interests. ### 2011–present: Breakup and "indefinite hibernation" On 25 May 2011, Silverchair announced another indefinite hiatus: > We formed Silverchair nearly 20 years ago when we were just 12 years old. Today we stand by the same rules now as we did back then... if the band stops being fun and if it's no longer fulfilling creatively, then we need to stop... Despite our best efforts over the last year or so, it's become increasingly clear that the spark simply isn't there between the three of us at the moment. Therefore after much soul searching we wanted to let you know that we're putting Silverchair into "indefinite hibernation" and we've decided to each do our own thing for the foreseeable future. Sydney Morning Herald's music writer, Bernard Zuel, said the band's use of "indefinite hibernation" was a way to soften the blow of the group's break-up for fans; he expected future reunions and performances for worthy causes. By June, Gillies was in the final stages of about 12 months of working on his solo album, and he said that it was not a continuation of his earlier work with Tambalane. In October, Johns was working on the soundtrack for My Mind's Own Melody—a short film. In May 2012, Johns recorded the new anthem for Qantas, titled "Atlas". It is the first piece of commercial music Johns has composed. A remastered version of Frogstomp, which included bonus content, was released on 27 March 2015. The members of Silverchair have occasionally stated that they have not ruled out a reunion. Gillies has said that there are plans to release a new Silverchair album, which was almost finished before the hiatus. On 17 November 2017, the Silverchair tribute compilation album Spawn (Again): A Tribute to Silverchair was released by UNFD, with Johns saying he came to "appreciate" the experience. The album is composed of cover songs by Australian bands signed onto UNFD as a tribute to Silverchair, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their album Freak Show. Speaking to The Daily Telegraph in 2018, Daniel Johns expressed his love for the band—and appreciation of what the band had produced—but said he had no desire to reform the band. In May 2020, a picture of Johns playing electric guitar appeared online, leading to the Newcastle Herald speculating that a reunion was possible. However, in October 2021, when Johns was interviewed by Carrie Bickmore on the Australian news-current affairs and talk show The Project, he once again affirmed that the band will not reunite, while also stating that he still plans to work on new music but has no intentions to perform live again. In a separate interview with Carrie Bickmore, Johns elaborated further, stating that during his time with Silverchair, he had been the victim of sustained verbal abuse from the public because of his association with the band. This impacted his mental health greatly. Johns was open to musical collaboration with his former bandmates but not as a continuation of Silverchair as a band. ## Musical style Silverchair are generally classified as an alternative rock and grunge band, although their loyalty to specific genres has changed as they have matured. Much of the band's early grunge and post-grunge work was inspired by Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Black Sabbath. According to Ian McFarlane, "frogstomp captured the tempo of the times with its mix of Soundgarden/Pearl Jam/Bush post-grunge noise and teenage lyrical angst." In their early years, the perceived stylistic similarities led to Silverchair being derisively dubbed as 'Silverhighchair', 'not Soundgarden but Kindergarden' and 'Nirvana in Pyjamas' by the Australian media. The latter is a sarcastic conflated reference to the band's youth and the popular Australian children's TV series Bananas in Pyjamas. McFarlane stated, "Freak Show and tracks like 'Freak' were firmly in Nirvana territory with a hint of Led Zeppelin's Eastern mysticism". Gillies noted that the band were inspired by the Seattle Sound, as well as The Beatles and The Doors, and were highly impressionable in their youth. Johns admitted that "We were always influenced a lot by Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin[;] it just so happened that we weren't very good at playing that style of music. So we were put in the whole grunge category because it was such a garage-y, heavy music term." Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll felt that Johns "had never intended to use his problems for inspiration, but in the end the music was the best way to unburden himself. Neon Ballroom took six months to record. The album's passion and musical sophistication proved to the world that silverchair were a force to be reckoned with". According to 100 Best Australian Albums, by three fellow journalists—John O'Donnell, Toby Creswell and Craig Mathieson—Neon Ballroom's lead-in track, "Emotion Sickness", described Johns' life in the 1990s and "addressed [his] desire to move beyond the imitative sounds of Silverchair's first two albums ... and create something new and original". "Ana's Song (Open Fire)" directly focussed on his eating disorder; "[it] became a hit all over the world and opened up for discussion the fact that males could also be affected by anorexia." AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine felt Diorama "was a shockingly creative and impressive step forward that showed the band shedding its grunge past and adding horns, strings, and mature lyrics to its arsenal." Fellow AllMusic reviewer Bradley Torreano noted that "they somehow kept going and kept improving ... Silverchair has grown up and put together a fine mix of orchestral pop and rock on Diorama." Bernard Zuel described how the Diorama concert tour marked a move from hard rock towards art rock: "they stepped out of the arenas and barns and 'got classy' ... finally having admitted to harbouring artistic ambition (a very un-Australian band thing to do), they've proved they have the ability". In writing Young Modern, Johns tried to make the music sound very simple despite a complex musical structure. The lyrics were written after the music was created, sometimes as late as the day of recording. As Johns dreads writing lyrics, he suggested that the band could produce an instrumental album at some stage in the future. Johns is the band's primary songwriter, and notes that while Joannou and Gillies do not have significant influence on what he writes, they are key to the band's overall sound. For that album, Hamilton co-wrote four songs with Johns including the APRA Award-winning "Straight Lines". Joannou believed that Young Modern was simpler than Diorama but "still as complex underneath with simple pop song elements". He said that much of the band's success resulted from trying to push themselves harder in recording and writing. Self-producing has allowed the band to do so without the pressures of a record label. Gillies notes that Silverchair will often "run the risk of losing fans" with their work, and this was evident in the changes in musical direction in Diorama and Young Modern. However, he described this as a good thing, describing the fact "that we haven't been pigeonholed, and people really don't know what to expect" as one of the attractive elements of the band. Despite the ups and downs of success at a young age, Gillies says that he and the band "appreciate what we've achieved and what we've got" in their careers. The band have received six APRA Awards, with Johns winning three songwriting awards at the 2008 ceremony. ### Reception Frogstomp was described as similar to Nirvana and Pearl Jam; Erlewine noted that it followed in "the alternative rock tradition" of those bands. Erlewine also stated that "their songwriting abilities aren't as strong" as those of their peers. Contrarily, Rolling Stone claimed that the band had risen above their peers, applauding Johns' "ragged vocals". Herald Sun journalist Nue Te Koha praised Frogstomp for "breaking the drought of Australian music making an impact overseas". However, he felt "It is highly debatable whether the three teens have gone to the world with a new sound or something identifiably Australian ... Silverchair's image and sound are blatantly ... Nirvana meets Pearl Jam". Nimmervoll disputed Te Koha's view, "It's not original, it's not Australian. Bah, humbug ... It's just as well Britain didn't say the same thing when The Beatles reinvented American R&B". Freak Show saw the band show more of their own musical style rather than copying others, and thus received more praise for its songwriting than its predecessor. Yahoo! Music's Sandy Masuo described the lyrics as "moving" and "emotional". Johns' vocal delivery was complimented: "[his] bittersweet, crackly voice tops the ample power chordage ... [he] hits shivery, emotional notes that convey both sweet idealism and disappointment". Zuel felt that with this album, the band "have outgrown the jokes, predictions and their own understated teenage ambitions to find they have become (gasp!) career musicians." In 100 Best Australian Albums (2010), their third album, Neon Ballroom, was placed at No. 25, according to its authors. Entertainment Weekly approved of the further advancement in Neon Ballroom, commenting on "plush strings on these adult arrangements". There were once again significant advancements in songwriting; Johns was described as "furious, motivated, and all grown up". However, Rolling Stone said the album seemed confused, commenting that Silverchair "can't decide what they want to do" with their music. Meanwhile, Diorama was seen as an extension of the band's originality, with its "[h]eavy orchestration, unpredictable melodic shifts and a whimsical pop sensibility". According to PopMatters' Nikki Tranter, the album stood out in an otherwise dull Australian music market. AllMusic's Clayton Bolger described Young Modern as an improvement by the band, praising "catchy melodic hooks, inspired lyrical themes, and stunning string arrangements". He claimed the album was the pinnacle of the band's development. PopMatters' Nick Pearson saw the opposite, claiming that "[o]nce you reach the level of intellectual maturity where you can tell the difference between cryptic but poetic lyrics and nonsensical crap, you have outgrown Silverchair". Pearson called the album an attempt to secure a safer territory and assure sales, after the success of past works, calling it more boring than its predecessors. Other reviewers noted influences from cult British band XTC. In July 2009, "Tomorrow" was voted number 33 by the Australian public in Triple J's Hottest 100 of all time. As of January 2018, the group have sold 9 million albums worldwide. At the annual ARIA Music Awards, Silverchair holds the record for the most nominated artist, with 49, and the most awards won, with 21. Their breakthrough year was in 1995, when they won five out of nine nominations, including 'Best New Talent', and 'Breakthrough Artist' for both album and single categories. Their most successful year was at the 2007 ceremony, where they won six of eight nominations. ## Members - Ben Gillies – drums, percussion - Chris Joannou – bass guitar - Daniel Johns – lead vocals, lead guitar, piano, harpsichord, orchestral arrangements ### Auxiliary members - Tobin Finane – rhythm guitar (1992, only in Innocent Criminals) - Sam Holloway – keyboards, samples (1999–2001) - Paul Mac – keyboards, piano, remixing, programming (2001–2003, 2006–2007) - Julian Hamilton – keyboards, backing vocals (2001–2003, 2007) ## Discography Studio albums - Frogstomp (1995) - Freak Show (1997) - Neon Ballroom (1999) - Diorama (2002) - Young Modern'' (2007) ## See also - List of awards and nominations received by Silverchair - Music of Australia
4,110,299	MLS Cup 1996	1,169,228,304	Inaugural edition of the MLS Cup	[ "1996 Major League Soccer season", "1996 in sports in Massachusetts", "D.C. United matches", "LA Galaxy matches", "MLS Cup", "October 1996 sports events in the United States", "Soccer in Massachusetts", "Sports competitions in Foxborough, Massachusetts" ]	MLS Cup 1996 was the inaugural edition of the MLS Cup, the championship match of Major League Soccer (MLS), the top-level soccer league of the United States. Hosted at Foxboro Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, on October 20, 1996, it was contested by D.C. United and the Los Angeles Galaxy to decide the champion of the 1996 season. Both finalists finished in the top two spots of their respective conferences, with D.C. placing second in the East and Los Angeles atop the West. The two teams also had identical win–loss records in the first two rounds of the playoffs, losing the opening match of the Conference Semifinals and winning the remaining four matches of both rounds. The final match was played in heavy rain due to the proximity of Hurricane Lili, which also inundated the field. The MLS Cup had an attendance of 34,643 spectators, falling short of the 42,000 people who paid for tickets, and included a large contingent of traveling D.C. supporters. The match ended in a 3–2 victory for D.C. United, with a golden goal scored by Eddie Pope in overtime that followed a second-half comeback for the team. Los Angeles had taken a 2–0 lead in the 56th minute on goals by Eduardo Hurtado and Chris Armas, but conceded two goals to D.C. in the second half to force overtime. Marco Etcheverry assisted both goals, which began as free kicks that were headed into the goal by substitutes Tony Sanneh and Shawn Medved. Etcheverry went on to take the corner kick that led to Pope's goal and was named the man of the match. The finalists also earned a berth in the 1997 CONCACAF Champions' Cup and met in the semifinals, which ended in a victory for the Galaxy. ## Venue Foxboro Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts, was announced as the venue of the inaugural MLS Cup during a league press conference on August 29, 1996. The other finalist, Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington, D.C., was instead given hosting priority for the 1997 edition. The 58,098-seat stadium was the home venue of the New England Revolution and the New England Patriots of the National Football League. The league had planned to limit capacity to 33,000 seats for the championship, but canceled those plans as ticket sales reached more than 40,000 in the days prior to the cup. ## Road to the final Major League Soccer (MLS) was formed as the Division I league of the United States in the early 1990s during organization of the 1994 FIFA World Cup to comply with FIFA's hosting requirements. The league decided on a playoff format to determine its yearly champion in a fashion similar to other sports leagues in North America. It also adopted an Americanized version of the game's rules, including a 35-yard (32 m) shootout to decide tied matches (for which the winners earned one point) and a countdown clock to keep time. The inaugural MLS season was delayed to 1996 and consisted of ten teams organized into two conferences, divided between east and west. Each team played 32 matches in the regular season, which ran from April to September, facing opponents from the same conference four times and outside of their conference three to four times. The top four teams from each conference qualified for the playoffs, which were organized into three rounds and played from late September to October. The first two rounds, named the Conference Semifinals and Conference Finals, were home-and-away series organized into a best-of-three format with a hosting advantage for the higher seed. The winners of the Conference Finals advanced to the single-match MLS Cup final, which would be held at a predetermined neutral venue. MLS Cup 1996 was contested by D.C. United, who finished second in the Eastern Conference, and the Los Angeles Galaxy, who finished first in the Western Conference. The two finalists played each other three times during the regular season, with the Galaxy winning away 2–1 on April 20 and at home 3–1 on May 5, D.C. winning 2–1 on August 18 at RFK Memorial Stadium. Both teams finished with a 4–1 record in the playoffs, losing only the opening match of the Conference Semifinals, and shared comparable records during the regular season. ### D.C. United Washington, D.C., was awarded an MLS franchise on June 15, 1994, which would play at RFK Memorial Stadium and later be named D.C. United. The league allocated U.S. defender Jeff Agoos, U.S. midfielder John Harkes, and Bolivian forwards Marco Etcheverry and Juan Berthy Suárez to D.C. United, which signed former University of Virginia Cavaliers coach Bruce Arena as its manager in January 1996. In the general player draft, D.C. was given the last pick and signed Salvadorian forward Raúl Díaz Arce in the first round, completing a trio of Latin American attackers, and several starting players in later rounds. With its two picks in the college draft, United selected defender Eddie Pope in the first round and midfielder Jesse Marsch in the third round; in the supplemental draft, D.C. used its single pick on Argentine midfielder Mario Gori. D.C. United played in the inaugural league match against the San Jose Clash at Spartan Stadium on April 6, losing 1–0 to a goal by Eric Wynalda. The team went on to lose three more matches in April, including its home opener, before defeating the Dallas Burn on May 1 by a score of 3–1. In their next victory, 5–2 on May 15 against the Columbus Crew, newly added forward Steve Rammel scored the first hat-trick in league history while Etcheverry recorded three assists. D.C. went on to win three matches in a row to start June and earn the second-place spot in the Eastern Conference, trailing the Tampa Bay Mutiny by eight points. Bruce Arena spent part of his time in June and July as coach of the Olympic team, causing him to miss several D.C. matches. The team remained in second place behind Tampa Bay for much of July and August, with a losing record, but was the fourth-highest scoring team in the league. The points gap between the two teams had increased to eleven at the beginning of August, but was reduced to five after D.C. United defeated the Mutiny three times. D.C. won four straight matches in late August and clinched a playoff berth, but still fell short of home-field advantage in the playoffs. The team finished the season with two more wins and two losses, retaining its second-place spot with a 16–16 record. In the first round of the playoffs, D.C. played the third-place New York/New Jersey MetroStars, with whom they had developed a rivalry. The first leg, played at Giants Stadium on September 24, was the first playoff match in league history and ended in a 2–2 draw in regular time. The MetroStars won the match 6–5 in a shootout, which lasted eleven rounds until captain Peter Vermes scored the winning goal. Vermes was originally scheduled to be the eighth kicker for the MetroStars, but requested to be moved to the eleventh round because of an injury; D.C. officials claimed that the move made him an ineligible kicker and disputed the result, which the league ruled was valid. United won the second leg at home with a lone goal by Marco Etcheverry in the 72nd minute, following several hard tackles and an ejection for D.C. striker Jaime Moreno, to set up the third leg at RFK Memorial Stadium. D.C. United took a 1–0 lead in the 65th minute of the match on a goal by Rammel off a deflection by several MetroStars defenders. The MetroStars responded with an equalizing goal in the 86th minute on a strike by Antony de Ávila, but conceded a penalty in the final minute of regular time after Rob Johnson tripped Etcheverry. Díaz Arce converted the penalty kick to give D.C. a 2–1 win and clinch their place in the Eastern Conference Final. United faced the Tampa Bay Mutiny, the regular season champions with a home advantage, in the Eastern Conference Final, which was rescheduled due to stadium conflicts for both teams. D.C. hosted the first leg and took advantage of Tampa's missing defender Frank Yallop to win 4–1 after being tied 1–1 at halftime. Díaz Arce scored a hat-trick, while Rammel scored the winning goal with a header in the 54th minute. D.C. United went on to win 2–1 in the second leg hosted by Tampa Bay, with goals by Richie Williams and Díaz Arce in the second half to clinch an MLS Cup appearance. ### Los Angeles Galaxy Los Angeles was one of the original seven franchises awarded by MLS in 1994, and was owned by a group of investors led by banker Marc Rapaport. Former U.S. national team manager Lothar Osiander was hired as the first head coach of the Los Angeles franchise, which was named the Los Angeles Galaxy. The Galaxy had already acquired Mexican goalkeeper Jorge Campos, the league's first major international signing, and were also allocated American defender Dan Calichman, Salvadorian midfielder Mauricio Cienfuegos, and Ecuadorian striker Eduardo Hurtado. Osiander selected several experienced national team members in the general draft, including defenders Robin Fraser and Curt Onalfo, and midfielder Jorge Salcedo. The team also filled its roster by adding midfielders Greg Vanney and Chris Armas and forwards Guillermo Jara and Ante Razov from the collegiate and supplemental drafts in early March. National team winger Cobi Jones also signed with the Galaxy as a marquee player and left the team with 23 players on its roster, which was cut to 18 to fall under league regulations. The Galaxy debuted to a crowd of 69,255 spectators at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, and defeated the MetroStars 2–1. The team quickly took first place in the Western Conference by winning its first twelve matches, including the first eight without a shootout. The Galaxy led the league with 2.4 goals per game and 1.0 goals against average, with Eduardo Hurtado leading eleven goalscorers with seven goals. The winning streak was broken by the last-place Colorado Rapids on June 30, beginning a four-match losing streak that lasted through July and caused tension between the players and coaching staff. Los Angeles alternated between wins and losses in early August before beginning a five-match losing streak that saw them fall to second place in the Western Conference behind the Kansas City Wiz. By the end of the month, the team had fallen to third place behind the Dallas Burn, but qualified for the playoffs ahead of Colorado and the San Jose Clash. Los Angeles climbed back into first place in mid-September with victories over San Jose and twice against Dallas to finish the regular season with a 19–13 record and 49 points atop the Western Conference and second overall in MLS. Hurtado finished second in scoring, with 21 goals and seven assists, and was named to the MLS Best XI alongside Marcos Cienfuegos and Robin Fraser. The Galaxy faced the fourth-place San Jose Clash in the Conference Semifinals, who they won all four regular season matches against. The Clash hosted the first leg and won 1–0 on a headed goal by Tayt Ianni in the 36th minute, which came after several chances to score for the home side. Los Angeles tied the series at one match apiece with goals in the final six minutes by Fraser and Hurtado to win 2–0 in the second leg at the Rose Bowl. San Jose striker Eric Wynalda and defender Oscar Draguicevich were ejected late during the match after each being shown two yellow cards, and were suspended for the third leg. The Galaxy advanced to the Western Conference Final after a 2–0 victory in the third leg, with two goals scored in the first half by Hurtado and Cienfuegos from a controversial penalty kick called against Ben Iroha. The Western Conference Final was played between the Galaxy and the third-seeded Kansas City Wiz, who had defeated the second-place Dallas Burn. Los Angeles hosted the first leg and won 2–1 with a volleyed goal by Chris Armas in the 48th minute and a 25-yard (23 m) shot by Greg Vanney in the 57th minute; Kansas City had responded to the first goal with an equalizer by Preki in the 52nd minute after a run through the Galaxy defense, but were unable to find a second goal. Preki opened the scoring in the 69th minute of the second leg with a penalty kick after being fouled in the box by Vanney, who went on to tie the match in the 77th minute after finishing a cross from Cienfuegos. The second leg remained tied after regulation time and overtime, with several disallowed goals called against Kansas City, and was decided in a penalty shootout from 35 yards (32 m). The shootout was won 3–1 by the Galaxy, with the winning shot by Robin Fraser in the fifth round, and the team advanced to the MLS Cup final. ### Summary of results Note: In all results below, the score of the finalist is given first (H: home; A: away). Playoffs were in best-of-three format with penalty shootout (SO) if scores were tied. ## Broadcasting The inaugural MLS Cup final was broadcast in the United States on ABC in English, with a broadcast team that was used by ESPN for its previous MLS matches during the regular season and playoffs. Phil Schoen was the play-by-play commentator, while Ty Keough and Bill McDermott provided color analysis; Roger Twibell was the studio anchor and was joined by Revolution defender Alexi Lalas, who also performed the national anthem with his electric guitar. The final reached an estimated audience of 1.6 million viewers, exceeding league expectations but falling short of other sports programming from that day. In local markets, the match had an estimated Nielsen rating of 2.4 in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area and 3.3 in Greater Los Angeles. ## Match ### Summary A nor'easter swept through New England following Hurricane Lili, bringing winds gusting at 30 to 50 miles per hour (48 to 80 km/h) and a rainstorm that inundated the field ahead of the match, which weighed down the tarp covering the field and created several shallow puddles. The weather caused league officials to consider cancellation or postponement of the MLS Cup final, but the lack of lightning allowed the match to continue as planned, kicking off with a temperature of 54 °F (12 °C). The storm also caused the cancellation of Major League Baseball's World Series opening game, which was being played on the same night in New York City. A total of 42,368 tickets were sold before the match, but only 34,643 spectators were counted in attendance, including approximately 5,000 to 7,000 United fans and supporters' group members who traveled from Washington, D.C. The match also attracted international attention, resulting in an overfilled press box that was cleared out by the fire marshal for a potential capacity code violation. Both teams fielded most of their regular players, with the exception of Los Angeles captain Dan Calichman, who was suspended for yellow card accumulation during the playoffs. The Galaxy kicked off the match and had early control of possession, which they leveraged into several attacking chances. The opening goal of the final was scored in the fifth minute by Eduardo Hurtado, who headed a cross from Mauricio Cienfuegos on the right wing. Hurtado celebrated by sliding stomach-first with his teammates onto the waterlogged pitch. D.C. gained more possession of the ball during the remainder of the first half while looking for an equalizing goal, while Los Angeles switched to counter-attacking plays. Several shots towards goal from United, including a chance for Richie Williams in the 11th minute, missed the target or were saved by Jorge Campos. The Galaxy continued to have the most scoring chances early in the second half and took a 2–0 lead in the 56th minute as Chris Armas dribbled past four defenders to make a left-footed shot from 16 yards (15 m). Weather conditions worsened as the match went on, with passes and other balls stopped by the water-logged field and higher winds. D.C. United coach Bruce Arena brought on two midfielders, Tony Sanneh and Shawn Medved, midway through the second half who helped shift momentum in the team's favor. Sanneh scored D.C.'s first goal in the 73rd minute, heading in a free kick that was won by Jaime Moreno and taken by Marco Etcheverry from 40 yards (37 m). Los Angeles coach Lothar Osiander responded by sending on two of his own substitutes, forward Ante Razov and defender Curt Onalfo, but the team was unable to extend its lead after Cobi Jones hit the crossbar with a chipped shot in the 78th minute. Moreno won a second free kick near the penalty area in the 81st minute, setting up another shot taken by Etcheverry. Jorge Campos saved the free kick with a punch and a follow-up shot by Medved, but was unable to keep the rebound from Medved, who scored the tying goal from 8 yards (24 ft). After several attempts by various D.C. players to score a winning goal, the match reached the end of regulation time and proceeded into sudden death overtime. The Galaxy were unable to capitalize on several chances early in overtime before conceding a corner kick to D.C. United in the 94th minute. Etcheverry took the corner kick, which was redirected into the goal by defender Eddie Pope in the 6-yard (5.5 m) box, clinching a 3–2 victory for D.C. United. Pope celebrated the championship-winning golden goal by diving into the field before being mobbed by his teammates. For his three assists, Etcheverry was named the MLS Cup most valuable player. ### Details ## Post-match The match was called "a great exclamation point on an incredible season" by league commissioner Doug Logan, despite the weather conditions. The winning D.C. United players celebrated on the field for 30 minutes and returned the following day to a welcome by 1,000 fans at Reagan National Airport. D.C. went on to complete the "double" by winning a second trophy, the 1996 U.S. Open Cup, a week later at RFK Memorial Stadium by defeating the Rochester Raging Rhinos of the second-division A-League by a score of 3–0. D.C. United returned as MLS Cup finalists in the following three seasons, winning two more championships in 1997 and 1999, the latter of which was a rematch against the Galaxy in Foxborough. D.C. and Los Angeles qualified as the U.S. representatives for the 1997 CONCACAF Champions' Cup, which was primarily hosted at RFK Memorial Stadium in Washington, D.C. The Galaxy played Santos Laguna in the qualifying playoffs and won 4–1 to earn a berth in the quarterfinals alongside D.C. United. Both teams defeated their quarterfinals opponent, with Los Angeles defeating Salvadorian club C.D. Luis Ángel Firpo 2–0 and hosts D.C. winning 1–0 against United Petrotrin of Trinidad and Tobago. The Galaxy then met D.C. United in the semifinals and won 1–0, the lone goal scored by Cobi Jones in the tenth minute, but were defeated 5–3 in the final by Cruz Azul, who won their fifth Champions' Cup.
84,156	Demetrius III Eucaerus	1,173,332,713	King of Syria from 96 to 87 BC	[ "1st-century BC Seleucid monarchs", "2nd-century BC births", "Prisoners and detainees of the Parthian Empire", "Year of birth unknown", "Year of death unknown" ]	Demetrius III Theos Philopator Soter Philometor Euergetes Callinicus (Ancient Greek: Δημήτριος θεός Φιλοπάτωρ σωτήρ Φιλομήτωρ Εὐεργέτης Καλλίνικος, surnamed Eucaerus; between 124 and 109 BC – after 87 BC) was a Hellenistic Seleucid monarch who reigned as the King of Syria between 96 and 87 BC. He was a son of Antiochus VIII and, most likely, his Egyptian wife Tryphaena. Demetrius III's early life was spent in a period of civil war between his father and his uncle Antiochus IX, which ended with the assassination of Antiochus VIII in 96 BC. After the death of their father, Demetrius III took control of Damascus while his brother Seleucus VI prepared for war against Antiochus IX, who occupied the Syrian capital Antioch. The civil war dragged on; Seleucus VI eliminated his uncle, whose heir Antiochus X counterattacked and drove Seleucus VI to his death. Then the twins Antiochus XI and Philip I, brothers of Demetrius III, attempted to avenge Seleucus VI; it ended with the death of Antiochus XI and the interference of Demetrius III on the side of Philip I in a war against Antiochus X that probably lasted until 88 BC. In 89 BC, Demetrius III invaded Judaea and crushed the forces of its king, Alexander Jannaeus; his near victory was cut short by the death of Antiochus X. Demetrius III rushed to Antioch before Philip I could take advantage of the power vacuum and strengthen his position relative to Demetrius III. By 87 BC, Demetrius III had most of Syria under his authority. He attempted to appease the public by promoting the importance of the local Semitic gods, and he may have given Damascus the dynastic name Demetrias. By late 87 BC, Demetrius III attacked Philip I in the city of Beroea, where Philip I's allies called on the Parthians for help. The allied forces routed Demetrius III and besieged him in his camp; he was forced to surrender and spent the rest of his life in exile in Parthia. Philip I took Antioch, while Antiochus XII, another brother of Demetrius III, took Damascus. ## Background, family and early life The Seleucid Empire, based in Syria, disintegrated in the second century BC as a result of dynastic feuds and Egyptian interference. A long civil war caused the nation to fragment as pretenders from the royal family fought for the throne. This lasted until about 123 BC, when Antiochus VIII provided a degree of stability which lasted for a decade. To maintain a degree of peace, Egypt and Syria attempted dynastic marriages, which helped Egypt destabilise Syria by supporting one candidate to the throne over another. In 124 BC, the Egyptian princess Tryphaena was married to Antiochus VIII. Five sons were born to the couple: Seleucus VI, the twins Antiochus XI and Philip I, Demetrius III and Antiochus XII. In 113 BC, Antiochus VIII's half-brother Antiochus IX declared himself king; the siblings fought relentlessly for a decade and a half. Antiochus IX killed Tryphaena in 109 BC. Antiochus VIII was assassinated in 96 BC; this date is deduced from the statement of the first century historian Josephus, who wrote that Antiochus VIII, who assumed the throne in 125 BC, ruled for twenty-nine years, and is corroborated by the third century historian Porphyry, who gave the Seleucid year (SE) 216 (97/96 BC) for Antiochus VIII's death. Following the death of his brother, Antiochus IX took the Syrian capital, Antioch, while Seleucus VI, established in Cilicia, prepared for war against his uncle. In modern literature, Seleucus VI is considered the eldest son, and Demetrius III is considered younger than Antiochus XI and Philip I. However, almost nothing is known about the early life of Demetrius III, who might have been the eldest son himself. According to Josephus, before assuming the throne, Demetrius III lived in the city of Knidos. ## Reign Antiochus IX did not take Damascus following the death of his brother; he was probably focused on the threat of Seleucus VI and could not spare the resources for an occupation of Damascus. This eased Demetrius III's elevation to the throne; he took Damascus in 96 BC. The earliest coins struck in the name of Demetrius were produced in Damascus in 216 SE (97/96 BC); only one Damascene obverse die is known from 216 SE (97/96 BC), indicating that Demetrius's reign started late that year, giving him little time to produce more dies. The only ancient works of literature dealing with Demetrius III's career are those of Josephus and the Pesher Nahum, a sectarian commentary on the Book of Nahum. Historian Kay Ehling noted that Josephus's account is a condensed summary and the actual course of events surrounding Demetrius III's seizure of power needs to be reconstructed. Thus, interpreting the numismatic evidence is instrumental for the problematic chronological reconstruction of Demetrius III's reign. ### Name and royal titulary Demetrius (translit. Demetrios) is a Greek name that means "belonging to Demeter", the Greek goddess of fertility. Seleucid kings were mostly named Seleucus and Antiochus; "Demetrius" was used by the Antigonid dynasty of Macedonia as a royal name, and its use by the Seleucids, who had Antigonid descent, probably signified that they were heirs of the latter. Hellenistic kings did not use regnal numbers, which is a modern practice; instead, they used epithets to distinguish themselves from similarly named monarchs. Demetrius III's most used epithets are Theos (divine), Philopator (father loving) and Soter (saviour); the aforementioned epithets appear together on all his Damascene and Antiochene coins. In Cilicia, two epithets were used in conjunction: Philometor (mother-loving) and Euergetes (benefactor). The coins from Seleucia Pieria bear three epithets together: the ones appearing on the coins of Cilicia, combined with the epithet Callinicus (nobly victorious). Theos Philopator Soter served to emphasise Demetrius III's descent from the line of his grandfather Demetrius II who bore the epithet Theos; Soter was an epithet of Demetrius III's great-grandfather Demetrius I, while Philopator represented his devotion to his deceased father Antiochus VIII. With Philometor, Demetrius III probably sought to emphasise his Ptolemaic royal Egyptian descent through his mother Tryphaena. Eucaerus is a popular nickname used by the majority of modern historians to denote Demetrius III, but it is a mistranscription of the nickname given by Josephus in his works The Jewish War and Antiquities of the Jews. The earliest Greek manuscripts of Josephus's works contain the nickname Akairos in three places. Eucaerus appeared as a later development, and is attested in the Latin versions of the manuscripts. It was probably a copyist, thinking that Akairos was a mistake and trying to correct it, that led to the appearance of Eucaerus. Eucaerus translates to "well-timed", while Akairos means "the untimely one". Josephus did not explain the origin of Akairos. Such popular nicknames are never found on coins, but are handed down only through ancient literature; neither Eucaerus or Akairos was used by Demetrius III on his coinage. Josephus is the only source for the nickname; in the view of historians David Levenson and Thomas Martin, Eucaerus should not be used to refer to Demetrius; instead, Akairos, or one of his official epithets should be used. ### Manner of succession According to Josephus, Tryphaena's brother Ptolemy IX of Egypt installed Demetrius III in Damascus following the death of Antiochus XI Epiphanes in 93 BC; this statement cannot be correct as the date given by Josephus contradicts the numismatic evidence from Damascus. Despite the chronological error, several arguments justify the theory of a collaboration between Ptolemy IX and Demetrius III; according to Ehling, the assumption of the epithet Philometor (mother loving) was meant to highlight Demetrius III's relation to his uncle Ptolemy IX. Two main reconstructions of Demetrius III's rise to power exist: - Demetrius III started his reign in Damascus: the numismatist Oliver Hoover viewed the ascendance of Demetrius III in the context of the war of sceptres, a military conflict between Ptolemy IX and his mother Cleopatra III, who was allied with Alexander Jannaeus of Judaea. This war took place in Coele-Syria and ended in 101 BC; Ptolemy IX was defeated and retreated to Cyprus. However, Hoover noted that Josephus synchronised the retreat of Ptolemy IX with the death of Antiochus VIII in 97/96 BC; such a synchronisation is perceived as imprecise by many scholars, but Hoover suggested that Josephus consciously associated the two events. According to Hoover, Josephus's account regarding Ptolemy IX's installation of Demetrius III in Damascus indicates that the Egyptian monarch did not evacuate Syria after the conclusion of his war with Cleopatra III, or that he perhaps invaded a second time to help Demetrius III following the death of his father. Ptolemy IX probably hoped to use his nephew as an agent in the region; if Demetrius III was installed by his uncle in Damascus in 216 SE (97/96 BC), then Josephus's synchronisation between Ptolemy IX's departure and the death of Antiochus VIII is correct. - Demetrius III took Antioch before Damascus: Ehling proposed a different reconstruction of events; he contested the dating of Antiochus VIII's death to 96 BC based on Demetrius III's earliest dated coins and argued in favour of 215 SE (98/97 BC) for the former's death and the latter's succession. Ehling's argument agrees with the view of the numismatist Arthur Houghton, who noted that the volume of coins minted by Seleucus VI, the immediate successor of Antiochus VIII, before his takeover of Antioch in 95 BC, surpassed any other mint known from the late Seleucid period. This led Houghton to suggest 98 or 97 BC instead of 96 BC for the death of Antiochus VIII as one year was not enough for Seleucus VI to produce his coins. Hoover rejected the new dating, noting that it was not rare for a king to double his production in a single year during military campaigns, which was the case for Seleucus VI, who was preparing for war against his uncle Antiochus IX. The academic consensus prefers 96 BC for the death of Antiochus VIII. Ehling's construction of Demetrius III's early reign has Demetrius III declaring himself king immediately after the death of his father with the help of Ptolemy IX, who, in the view of Ehling, probably supported his nephew with money, troops and ships. Demetrius III landed in Seleucia Pieria, whose inhabitants were known for being Ptolemaic sympathisers, and was crowned king. Demetrius III next took Antioch and spent a few weeks in the city before the arrival of Antiochus IX. Demetrius III then marched on Damascus and made it his capital in 97 BC. Ehling's argument is based on coins bearing the epithets Philometor Euergetes, which were attributed by some numismatists to Antioch, but are likely Cilician. Since all the Damascene coins of Demetrius, which ceased production when the monarch lost his throne, carried dates from 216 SE (97/96 BC) to 225 SE (88/87 BC), and the coins bearing the epithets Philometor Euregetes from Antioch bear no dates, then it is logical, in the view of Ehling, to assume that the Antiochene issues preceded the Damascene one. Ehling explained the change of royal titulary from Philometor Euergetes Callinicus in the north to Theos Philopator Soter in Damascus as a sign of a break between Demetrius III and Ptolemy IX; the Syrian king cast aside the epithet Philometor, which emphasised his mother's Ptolemaic ancestry, and instead invoked his father's heritage by assuming the epithet Philopator. On the other hand, the majority of numismatists date Demetrius III's Antiochene coins to the year 225 SE (88/87 BC). ### Policy Demetrius III seems to have been content with leaving the struggle against Antiochus IX and his heirs to his many brothers; he took advantage of the chaos in the north to consolidate his authority in Damascus. Drawing his legitimacy from his father, he appeared on his coinage with an exaggerated hawked nose in the likeness of Antiochus VIII. Coins from a city named Demetrias, bearing on their reverse a portrait of the Tyche of Damascus, are evidence that Demetrius III might have refounded Damascus and given it the dynastic name Demetrias. Damascene coins mention the city as "holy"; it must have been a privilege bestowed upon it by Demetrius III who possibly also conferred the right of asylum on his capital. Seleucid kings mostly depicted Greek gods on their coinage, but Demetrius III ruled a contracted realm, where the local cults gained more importance as the Seleucids no longer ruled a heterogeneous kingdom. Local cults came under royal patronage as Seleucid kings attempted to gain the support of their non-Greek subjects. On his royal silver coins from Damascus, the supreme Semitic goddess Atargatis appeared on the reverse, while municipal coins continued to use the portraits of traditional Greek deities. The radiate crown, a sign of divinity, was employed by Demetrius III on some of his coins; this can be an indication that he ritually married Atargatis. Marrying the supreme goddess indicated that the king considered himself the manifestation of Syria's supreme god and Atargatis' partner, Hadad. The practise was started at an unknown date by Antiochus IV (died 164 BC), the first king to employ the radiate crown, who chose Hierapolis-Bambyce, Atargatis's most important sanctuary, to ritually marry Diana, the manifestation of Atargatis in Syria. As was typical for a Seleucid king, Demetrius III aimed to acquire as much territory as possible and sought to expand his domains in Syria. The city of Gadara was conquered by Alexander Jannaeus in 100 BC, but the city freed itself and reverted to the Seleucids after the defeat of the Judaean king at the hands of the Nabataeans, an event that happened in 93 BC at the latest. Gadara was of great strategic importance for Demetrius III as a major military hub for operations in the south; controlling it was vital to the war effort against the Judaeans. ### The struggle against Antiochus X In 95 BC, Seleucus VI entered Antioch after defeating and killing Antiochus IX, whose son Antiochus X fled to Aradus and declared himself king. In 94 BC, Seleucus VI was driven out of the capital by Antiochus X; the former escaped to the Cilician city of Mopsuestia where he perished during a local uprising. Antiochus XI and Philip I avenged Seleucus VI, and Antiochus XI drove Antiochus X out of the capital in 93 BC. Antiochus X was able to regain the city and kill Antiochus XI the same year. In the spring of 93 BC, Demetrius III marched in support of his brother Philip I; Demetrius III might have marched north earlier to support Antiochus XI in his final battle. According to Josephus, Demetrius III and Philip I waged a fierce war against Antiochus X; the language of Josephus indicates that Antiochus X was in a defensive position rather than planning massive campaigns against his cousins. In 220 SE (93/92 BC), no coins were produced for Demetrius III in Damascus; this could mean that he lost control over the city. It is possible that either the Judaeans or the Nabataeans took advantage of Demetrius III's departure to help his brother and occupied the city; the King regained Damascus in 221 SE (92/91 BC). Antiochus X's date of death is unknown; traditional scholarship, with no evidence, gives the year 92 BC, then has Demetrius taking control of Antioch and ruling it for five years until his downfall in 87 BC. Those traditional dates are hard to justify; using a methodology based on estimating the annual die usage average rate (the Esty formula), Hoover proposed the year 224 SE (89/88 BC) for the end of Antiochus X's reign. It is estimated that only one to three dies were used by Demetrius III for his Antiochene coins, a number too small to justify a five-year-long reign in Antioch; no literary sources specify the year 92 BC as the date of Demetrius III's occupation of Antioch, and none of his Antiochene coins bear a date. ### Judaean campaign Following the defeat of Alexander Jannaeus at the hands of the Nabataeans, Judaea was caught in a civil war between the king and a religious group called the Pharisees. According to Josephus, Alexander Jannaeus' opponents persuaded Demetrius III to invade Judaea as it would be conquered easily owing to the civil war. Josephus gave two accounts regarding the numerical strength of Demetrius III; in Antiquities of the Jews, the Syrian king had 3,000 cavalry and 40,000 infantry. In the Jewish War, Demetrius III commanded 3,000 cavalry and 14,000 infantry. The latter number is more logical; the number given in Antiquities of the Jews could be an error by a copyist. The date of the campaign is unclear in Josephus's account. 88 BC is traditionally considered the date of Demetrius III's Judaean campaign, but numismatic evidence shows that coin production increased massively in Damascus in 222 SE (91/90 BC) and 223 SE (90/89 BC). This increase indicates that Demetrius was securing the necessary funds for his campaign, making 89 BC more likely as the date of the invasion. The political situation in Syria in 89 BC helped Demetrius III initiate his invasion of Judaea; Antiochus X was in Antioch while Damascus was firmly in the hands of Demetrius III and there is no indication of a war with his brother Philip I. The motives of Demetrius III are not specified in Josephus's account; the historian gives the impression that Demetrius III helped the Pharisees free of charge, which is hard to accept. The Syrian king's help must have been conditioned on political concessions by the Jewish rebels. Evidence for Demetrius III's motives is provided by the Pesher Nahum, which reads: [Interpreted, this concerns Deme]trius king of Greece who sought, on the counsel of those who seek smooth things, to enter Jerusalem; the academic consensus identifies "Demetrius king of Greece" with Demetrius III. The motive leading Demetrius III to attack Judaea might not have had anything to do with the call of the Pharisees. If Alexander Jannaeus took advantage of Demetrius's absence in 93 BC to wrest control of Damascus, then the invasion was probably in retribution against Judaea. It is also possible that Demetrius wanted to take advantage of Judaea's human resources in the struggle against his rivals to the Syrian throne. Finally, the Syrian kings, including Demetrius III's father, never fully accepted the independence of Judaea and entertained plans to reconquer it; the campaign of Demetrius III can be seen in this context. Demetrius III was the first Seleucid king to set foot in Judaea since Antiochus VII (died 129 BC); according to Josephus, the Syrian king came with his army to the vicinity of Shechem (near Nablus), which he chose as the site for his camp. Alexander Jannaeus marched to meet his enemy; Demetrius III tried to persuade Alexander Jannaeus's mercenaries to defect as they were Greeks like him, but the troops did not answer his call. Following this failed attempt, the two kings engaged in battle; Demetrius III lost many troops but decimated Alexander Jannaeus's mercenaries and gained victory. The Judaean king fled to the nearby mountains and according to Josephus, when the 6,000 Judaean rebels in Demetrius III's ranks saw this, they felt pity for their king and deserted Demetrius to join Alexander Jannaeus. At this point, Demetrius III withdrew back to Syria. The account of Josephus indicates that Demetrius III ended his Judaean campaign because his Jewish allies deserted him, but this is hard to accept; Josephus probably inflated the numbers of Judaeans in the Syrian army, and Demetrius III still had enough soldiers to wage wars in Syria after he departed Judaea. It is more likely that events in Syria forced Demetrius III to conclude his invasion of Judaea. Probably in 88 BC, Antiochus X died while fighting the Parthians, and this must have forced Demetrius III to rush north and fill the power vacuum before Philip I. Demetrius III may have feared that his brother would turn on him and try to take Damascus for himself; if it was not for the death of Antiochus X, Demetrius III would probably have conquered Judaea. ### Height of power and defeat According to Josephus, following the conclusion of his Judaean campaign, Demetrius III marched on Philip I. During this conflict, which is datable to 225 SE (88/87 BC), soldiers from Antioch were mentioned for the first time in the ranks of Demetrius III, indicating that he took control of the Syrian capital in this year. No bronze coinage was minted in the name of Demetrius III in Antioch as the city began issuing its own civic bronze coins in 221 SE (92/91 BC); Demetrius III issued silver coins in the Syrian capital as silver coinage remained a royal prerogative. Most of the kingdom came under the authority of Demetrius III; his coins were minted in Antioch, Damascus, Seleucia Pieria and Tarsus. According to Josephus, Demetrius III attacked his brother in Beroea with an army of 10,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry. Philip I's ally, Straton, the tyrant of the city, called on Aziz, an Arab phylarch (tribal leader), and the Parthian governor Mithridates Sinaces for help; the allies' archery drove Demetrius III to take cover in his camp, where he was besieged and eventually surrendered after thirst took its toll on his men. ## Aftermath The year of Demetrius III's defeat is most likely 87 BC; the date of Demetrius III's last coin from Damascus is 225 SE (88/87 BC). According to Josephus, Demetrius III was captured and sent to Parthia, where he was treated by the Parthian king with "great honour" until he died of illness. Josephus wrote that the Parthian king was named Mithradates, likely Mithridates III. Demetrius III was probably childless; in Damascus, he was succeeded by Antiochus XII, whose first coin was minted in 226 SE (87/86 BC), indicating an immediate succession. Philip I released any captive who was a citizen of Antioch, a step that must have eased his entry into Antioch, which took place soon after the capture of Demetrius III. ## Family tree \\|- \\|style="text-align: left;"\\|Citations: \\|- ## See also - List of Syrian monarchs - Timeline of Syrian history ## Explanatory notes
985,206	Johnny Owen	1,102,154,503	Welsh boxer (1956–1980)	[ "1956 births", "1980 deaths", "Bantamweight boxers", "Deaths due to injuries sustained in boxing", "Filmed deaths in sports", "Sports deaths in California", "Sportspeople from Merthyr Tydfil", "Welsh male boxers" ]	John Richard Owens (7 January 1956 – 4 November 1980) was a Welsh professional boxer who fought under the name Johnny Owen. His seemingly fragile appearance earned him many epithets, including the "Merthyr Matchstick" and the "Bionic Bantam". He began boxing at the age of eight and undertook a long amateur career, competing in more than 120 fights and representing Wales in competitions. He turned professional in September 1976 at the age of 20, winning his debut bout against George Sutton. Owen beat Sutton again in his sixth professional fight to win his first title, the vacant bantamweight title in the Welsh Area. Owen challenged for the British bantamweight title in his tenth professional fight in 1977. He defeated champion Paddy Maguire in the eleventh round to win the title, becoming the first Welshman in more than 60 years to hold the belt. Owen recorded five further victories, including a defence of his British title against Wayne Evans, before meeting Paul Ferreri for the Commonwealth bantamweight title. He defeated the experienced Australian on points to claim the Commonwealth title and challenged Juan Francisco Rodríguez for the European title four months later. The fight in Almería, Spain, was shrouded in controversy and Owen suffered his first defeat in a highly contentious decision. Owen went on to win seven consecutive bouts within a year to rechallenge Rodríguez in February 1980. He avenged his earlier defeat by beating Rodríguez on points to win the European title. He challenged World Boxing Council (WBC) champion Lupe Pintor for his world bantamweight title on 19 September 1980, losing the contest by way of a twelfth round knockout after being knocked down for the third time. Owen left the ring on a stretcher and never regained consciousness. He fell into a coma and died seven weeks later in a Los Angeles hospital at the age of 24. Owen possessed a professional career record of 25 wins (11 by knockout), 1 draw and 2 defeats. His only career losses came against Rodríguez and Pintor. He remains revered in the South Wales Valleys where he was raised, particularly in his hometown of Merthyr Tydfil where a statue commemorating his life and career was unveiled in 2002. ## Early life Johnny Owen was born John Richard Owens at Gwaunfarren Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil on 7 January 1956, the fourth of eight children to working-class parents Dick and Edith Owens (née Hale). He had four brothers, Phillip, Vivian, Kelvin and Dilwyn, and three sisters, Marilyn, Susan and Shereen. The Owens family hailed from Llanidloes but moved south, settling in the village of Penwaunfawr, on the outskirts of Merthyr Tydfil. His paternal grandmother worked in the local mines while his grandfather Will worked in an ironworks and was an amateur boxer. His mother was born in Merthyr Tydfil, although her family hailed from Lydney in Gloucestershire, where her father had worked as a farmer. His mother's side of the family were of Irish ancestry. Both sets of Owen's ancestors had moved to the South Wales Valleys in search of work with increased steel, iron and coal production attracting workers from all over Britain. Owen's parents settled in a rented council house in Heol Bryn Selu on Gellideg housing estate in Merthyr. In his 2006 biography of Owen, Rick Broadbent described an adolescent Owen as "a sensitive, quiet soul, he was deeply in tune with the moods and needs of those close to him." Owen attended the local school, Gellideg Juniors. A mild-mannered child, he was described by his teachers as a "quiet, hardworking, and very good-natured and well-behaved pupil". By the age of seven, he was doing the family's weekly shop and his father later recalled that, when the family was infected by a flu virus, Owen "fed us soup and made sure we all had our medicine. He looked after us." Owen's father worked as a miner for 13 years but eventually secured a job as a moulder at a boot-making factory owned by Dunlop. His wife had suffered complications during the birth of the couple's seventh child and her health deteriorated so much that she was hospitalised for an extended period. Owen's father nearly placed his children into care to continue working but reversed his decision after receiving assurances that he would not lose his job. ## Amateur career Owen began to box at the age of eight, idolising fellow Merthyr-born boxer Jimmy Wilde. Along with his siblings Vivian and Kelvin, in the spring of 1962, he joined the Merthyr Amateur Boxing Club housed in a small hut on nearby Plymouth Street. Broadbent describes how, by age ten, Owen developed "some rudimentary ring craft and already had the boundless energy that would be his signature ... His punches were light but his effort huge." Owen and the other members of his club travelled the country, competing against youth clubs from Wales and England. Each year culminated in the Welsh amateur championships, a junior event which stipulated that a fighter must have gained 7 pounds (3.2 kg) each year they entered. Martyn Galleozzie, who trained alongside Owen, noted how Owen struggled to achieve the weight increase each year and was fed cakes and biscuits on the journey to try and make weight. Galleozzie also stated how his mother once sewed lead into the lining of Owen's shorts to make weight. Owen joined Hoover Amateur Boxing Club soon after, where he trained with Idris Sutton and modelled his fighting style on Eddie Thomas. Owen was a quiet, reserved, friendly character outside the ring and often needed to be coaxed into fighting full force. In his youth, he suffered a loss to future WBC flyweight champion Charlie Magri in a bout in Gurnos. Owen attended Georgetown Secondary Modern School until the age of 16 when he left to take up a role as a machine operator in a local Suko nuts and bolts manufacturing factory. His exertions in the factory, coupled with his frequent runs in the hills of the South Wales Valleys with his brother Kelvin, led Owen to develop renowned levels of speed and stamina. His job however caused him health issues as the swarf from the factory led to Owen developing infections on occasion. A septic finger injury led to a lacklustre defeat to George Sutton in the 1975 Welsh Amateur Boxing Association (ABA) Championships after Owen refused to pull out of the fight. In November 1973, Owen was invited to fight Welsh amateur champion Bryn Griffiths after his opponent had fallen ill and pulled out of a bout. Despite the short notice, Owen was confident of his ability to make the step up against Griffiths and was proved right when he recorded a points victory over the champion. Griffiths later won a rematch between the pair. At the age of 18, Owen met Maurice O'Sullivan for the 1974 Welsh ABA youth title in O'Sullivan's hometown of Cardiff after reaching the final of the tournament on 4 April. Despite Owen and his father being convinced of his victory, the judges awarded the fight to O'Sullivan who himself offered the trophy to Owen, although he refused to accept it. Owen's father Dick later stated that an official from the Welsh ABA approached him after the fight and confessed how the organisation had been under pressure to ensure O'Sullivan's victory in order for him to be selected for the 1974 British Commonwealth Games in New Zealand. Owen's father was becoming an increasing influence on his son's training especially when the two trainers at Owen's gym began suffering ill-health. When Dick was unable to take training, Owen would run the sessions at the gym for local fighters. Owen represented Wales at amateur level several times; his performance in a 1974 tournament between Wales and Scotland drew praise in the local press. After defeating John Raeside in the second round during their bout in Pontypool, he was described as reducing his opponent "to helplessness with a non-stop two-fisted assault" and was chosen as the most impressive fighter in the two teams on the night. Owen became well-known for his seemingly small, thin frame as he grew older; he was chosen to represent Wales in a contest against Sweden in February 1975 and was greeted with jeers and laughter when he removed his robe. The nickname "Matchstick Man" was coined at the event as Owen comfortably stopped his opponent in the second round. Having initially boxed as a featherweight, Owen began fighting in the heavier bantamweight class soon after and won his first bout at the weight against Englishman Allan Smith of the Metropolitan Police Amateur Boxing Club. His physique attracted further attention in November 1975; while representing Wales against an army team, a doctor initially refused to pass him fit to fight believing him to be too frail to box. After his father intervened, the fight went ahead and Owen won on points. Owen enjoyed a lengthy amateur boxing career, taking in some 124 fights. He won 106 bouts in his amateur career, losing the remaining 18. He represented Wales at amateur level 19 times, suffering defeat on only two occasions. One of his victories came over 1974 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist John Bambrick. His amateur career ended on two disappointing notes; he suffered defeat in his Welsh senior amateur title fight against Jimmy Evans before losing his last amateur fight against Paul Chance. ## Professional career ### Early fights and Welsh bantamweight title Owen turned professional on 1 September 1976, signing with New Tredegar-based manager Dai Gardiner along with another fighter, Billy Vivian. The decision to turn professional prompted a change of name; Owen had been fighting under his given name as an amateur but was advised by his new management that a ring name would benefit his career. Owen's initial suggestion was Sion Rhisart Owain, the Welsh translation of his given name, although he was dissuaded from this option as it was deemed too political. His brother Kelvin instead suggested adopting the name Johnny Owen. Owen's initial aspirations were low, Kelvin stated how Owen had turned professional with the ultimate aim of claiming a British title or a Lonsdale Belt. Nonetheless, Owen was driven to turn professional by a desire to support his family and escape his relatively poor upbringing. One of his former youth coaches stated his belief that Owen understood he could "fight and make money for his family. He wanted to buy them a house but, really, ... the reason he boxed was because he had to." His debut match ended with a one-point victory over fellow Welshman George Sutton, at Pontypool Leisure Centre, on 30 September; at the time, Sutton was ranked as the number three contender for the British title and had needed a challenger on short notice. His victory earned him his first professional purse of £125 (around £920 in 2021). The decision to fight an already established opponent proved astute as victory immediately saw Owen's standing rise in the boxing community. After his debut bout, Owen and his team agreed that he would not date during his professional career, with Owen believing that the dedication required to his career would be unfair on both him and his partner. His second fight was against Northern Irishman Neil McLaughlin in his opponent's home nation during the height of The Troubles. The card suffered several interruptions: there were angry outbursts when British soldiers entered the arena, a bomb threat was phoned in against the site and, during Owen's bout, the lights failed for several minutes. The fight ended in a controversial draw. Owen finished his first year as a professional by comfortably defeating Englishman Ian Murray in Tonypandy. He knocked Murray down twice before the referee stopped the fight in the seventh round. At the start of the following year, Owen met McLaughlin in a rematch in West Bromwich. Away from his opponent's home nation, the fight proved a more one-sided affair as Owen secured an 80–76 points victory. This led promoter Heddwyn Taylor to raise the idea of Owen challenging reigning champion George Sutton for the Welsh bantamweight title. Although Owen had already beaten Sutton as a professional, the request was denied by the Welsh Area Boxing Council who deemed that he was too inexperienced. Unable to challenge for the title, Owen's promoters found themselves in need of an opponent and could only secure another rematch with McLaughlin. Even though Owen and his trainers voiced their displeasure over the bout, he went on to defeat McLaughlin for a second time in February. The Welsh Area Boxing Council reconsidered its decision and allowed a title fight between Owen and Sutton to go ahead on 29 March, with the bout regarded as an eliminator for the British title. The fight was an even contest in the early rounds until Owen rocked Sutton in the fifth with a right hook. Owen's stamina gave him a distinct advantage as the fight wore on and he emerged victorious with a 99–97 points victory to become Welsh bantamweight champion. It was from his Welsh title win that Owen gained another of his nicknames, the "Bionic Bantam", after a reporter for the Western Mail likened him to Steve Austin from The Six Million Dollar Man. ### British bantamweight title Owen's championship win resulted in him becoming a possible challenger for the British bantamweight champion Paddy Maguire. To move into contention, Owen was booked to fight Scottish bantamweight champion Johnny Kellie at the Albany Hotel in Glasgow. It was widely believed that the winner would be booked as Maguire's next opponent. During the fight Owen became infuriated with Kellie's tactics as his opponent relied on holding to waste time, when Owen was gaining the advantage, and he believed the referee was not penalising Kellie for it. Further issues were raised when Owen lost his gumshield and the referee forced him to continue without it. Owen was spurred on by these irritations and knocked Kellie down twice in quick succession before the referee stopped the fight in the sixth round. When the offer of a British title fight with Maguire failed to materialise, Owen instead fought debutant fighter Terry Hanna at Ebbw Vale Leisure Centre in June 1977, defeating him with a fourth-round knockout. Further disappointment followed as Maguire took a fight against Franco Zurlo in September of the same year, leaving Owen with an offer of a second rematch against George Sutton on only three days' notice. The fight took place at Midland Social Club in Solihull and Sutton proved a sterner test than most had anticipated in the early rounds, landing a strong punch to Owen's jaw that wobbled him. Owen was able to recover and won the fight on points. Despite Owen's victories, it still seemed likely that he would be forced to wait for a match with Maguire. However, when the official challenger Wayne Evans declined the opportunity to fight Maguire, stating that he needed more experience, Owen stepped in and the fight was scheduled for November 1977 at the National Sporting Club in London. Maguire was entering the fight on a three-fight losing streak, having suffered defeats to Heleno Ferreira and Alberto Sandoval before unsuccessfully challenging Zurlo for the European bantamweight championship, and Owen was expected to be a serious threat to the Irishman's two-year reign. Owen edged the early rounds of the fight as his longer reach caused Maguire problems and the champion was warned on more than one occasion for use of the head and low blows. Already ahead on points, Owen dominated the eighth round and nearly knocked down Maguire. Such was Owen's dominance, Maguire's promoter Mickey Duff threatened to end the fight. The champion rallied in the ninth round but the referee stopped the fight in the eleventh after Owen had opened a large cut above Maguire's eye. In only his tenth professional bout, Owen was crowned the British bantamweight champion at the age of 21, becoming the first Welsh fighter to hold the title since Bill Beynon in 1913. He was awarded the belt by Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, while Maguire subsequently announced his retirement from boxing. Owen's victory brought him a new found level of fame to which the young fighter was unaccustomed. On his return to Merthyr the day after the fight, he met with the town's mayor and two parties were held in his honour in local clubs. He was named Welsh Boxer of the Year for 1977 and finished fourth in voting for the 1977 BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year. Owen returned to the ring in January 1978 in a non-title fight against Scottish boxer Alan Oag, defeating his opponent in the eighth round. A month later, Owen fought Antonio Medina at Marton Country Club near Newcastle and was surprised early on when his opponent emerged as a southpaw, the first time he had faced a fighter using the stance in his career. Owen's team had neglected to research their opponent ahead of the bout and the initial surprise caught Owen off-guard. Even so, he emerged victorious on points. Owen's first defence of his British title was booked for 6 April 1978 at Ebbw Vale Leisure Centre against fellow Welshman Wayne Evans. The two fighters possessed near identical records; both entered the bout 11–0 with Owen also recording a draw. The fight was eagerly anticipated as it was both the first time the British bantamweight title had been contested in Wales and the first time it had featured two Welsh fighters. Owen was the stronger of the pair in the opening four rounds and Evans was hampered by a knuckle injury that had plagued his career. In the fifth round, Evans caught Owen with a punch that ruptured his eardrum and caused bleeding from the ear. Despite being almost unable to hear on one side, Owen took control of the fight after the fifth round and wore Evans down, eventually knocking him down in the ninth. Evans made it back to his feet for the end of the round but the start of the tenth saw Owen continue his assault, stopping Evans early in the round to successfully defend his title. ### Commonwealth bantamweight title In June 1978 Owen fought twice, defeating Dave Smith on points at the National Sporting Club before stopping Davy Larmour in the seventh round of a fight at the Double Diamond Club in Caerphilly two weeks later. The possibility of Owen competing for either the Commonwealth or European bantamweight titles was being raised and he received an offer of between £2000–2500 to fight the reigning Commonwealth champion, Ghanaian Sulley Shittu, in his opponent's home country. Shittu, however, was stripped of the title by the Commonwealth Championship Committee soon after having failed to meet a challenger in the required time. Australian Paul Ferreri, who had lost the belt to Shittu in January 1977, stated his willingness to contest the vacant Commonwealth title with Owen, offering the Welshman £4,000, on the stipulation that the fight be held in his home country. Owen rejected the offer over the distance and fears that partisan Australian judges could make the fight unwinnable. He instead met Englishman Wally Angliss, stopping him in the third round after Angliss had suffered a deep cut above his left eye. Eager for the fight to go ahead, Ferreri dropped his request for the fight to be based in Australia and accepted a bout with Owen in Ebbw Vale on 2 November 1978. Ferreri was described by The Times as "world class opposition, such as Owen has never faced before." A former holder of the Commonwealth title, he entered the fight with nearly 70 professional bouts to Owen's 16 and had never been beaten by a British fighter. Ferreri proved a stern test for Owen, with his counter-punching style causing the Welshman problems in the opening rounds. By the eleventh round of the fifteen-round contest, The Times judged the fight to be "fascinatingly poised" but Owen's renowned stamina and the eight-year age gap proved telling as he was described as "covering the last four rounds of the fight like a sprinter". The referee awarded the fight 148–145 in Owen's favour and both fighters received plaudits from the capacity crowd; Ferreri was given a standing ovation by the largely Welsh crowd and Owen was carried to the dressing room on the shoulders of his team in celebration. Both Owen and the fight received several plaudits in annual award ceremonies, including Owen being named Best Young Fighter by the Boxing Writers' Club, becoming only the third Welshman after Howard Winstone and Dai Dower to receive the award. Owen was also named BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year for 1978, becoming the first boxer to win the award since Winstone more than a decade earlier. ### European bantamweight title challenge Owen's victory led him to challenge for the division's European title, held by Juan Francisco Rodríguez of Spain. The fight was originally scheduled for the end of 1978 but Rodríguez withdrew from the bout due to a case of flu, and it was rearranged for three months later. It was Owen's eighteenth contest and his first overseas, taking place in the champion's hometown of Almería. The fight was preceded by a series of allegations of foul play by Owen's camp. He was promised the use of the same training facilities as the champion in the afternoons, once Rodríguez had finished his sessions. In practice, however, Owen and his team often found themselves waiting at the gym for Rodríguez to finish his training, taking up hours of Owen's sessions. At the weigh-in, Owen was marginally overweight, prompting a last minute training session involving running up and down the hotel stairs until he hit the 118 pounds (54 kg) limit. Rodríguez also exceeded the weight limit by a larger margin, more than could be lost in the allowed time. Owen and his team returned to the hotel with the intent of returning to Britain, believing the fight would be called off. However, Owen's manager Dai Gardiner returned to announce that the Spanish officials had passed Rodríguez fit to fight despite having weighed in 3 ounces (85 g) overweight. Owen decided to go ahead with the bout, eager not to return to Britain empty-handed. Gardiner also held concerns over local judges heading into the fight and predicted that, in order to win, Owen would have to stop his opponent. The fight was held in the town's bullring in front of a capacity crowd and Owen entered the arena to loud jeers. The first round was relatively uneventful as both fighters settled. When Owen returned to his corner, his father was infuriated after smelling wintergreen oil on Owen. Believing the substance came from Rodríguez's gloves, he approached the referee who ignored Dick Owens' complaints. The British Boxing Board of Control's (BBBofC) representative at the fight, Harry Vines, attempted to approach Owen's team to find out what was causing commotion and found himself being pushed and shoved by members of the crowd before Spanish police ordered him to return to his seat. Rodríguez used several underhand manoeuvres against Owen, including illegal use of the head and elbows and attempted to screw his thumb into Owen's eye, eventually receiving an official warning from the referee in the twelfth round after being reprimanded on several occasions. At the start of the tenth round, Owen returned to the middle of the ring but was forced to wait as Rodríguez took several extra minutes to leave his corner before standing to taunt his opponent in front of the home crowd. Rodríguez was awarded the victory on points in a decision that Steve Bunce later declared: "In what has been regarded as a 'home-town decision travesty', Rodríguez was awarded a fight he had so obviously lost." The Dictionary of Welsh Biography went further and described the decision as "an insult to the good name of boxing". Owen and his team returned to Wales despondent and infuriated. Their ire was further increased when the Spanish Boxing Federation withheld £1,200 from Owen's fee in retaliation for an incident the previous year when a Spanish boxer had been deducted pay for retiring from a fight in Britain. The Welsh Area Boxing Council held an investigation into the fight, during which Vines described the incident as "the worst decision he'd ever experienced". However, the council had no power over Spanish promoters and there was no alternative for Owen other than to accept the loss, although the BBBofC did refund Owen the money that been deducted from his paycheck. Gardiner arranged a high-profile bout with American Jose Gonzalez in an attempt to immediately showcase Owen internationally again but the fight was postponed when Gonzalez failed to make weight. With Owen ready to fight, Lee Graham was named as a late replacement but was little match for Owen who won on points. A more experienced opponent was arranged a month later, Frenchman Guy Caudron who had won 35 of his 49 career fights proved more of a test for Owen. Caudron lasted 12 rounds but was defeated 99–97 on points. Despite having fought in 19 professional bouts, it was only after the Caudron fight that Owen left his job at the Suko factory as his boxing schedule became too hectic to continue working. Owen made his first defence of his Commonwealth title and his third of his British title in June 1979 against Dave Smith, an opponent he had beaten the previous year, at the Double Diamond Club in Caerphilly. Owen was eager to impress in the fight as victory would also see him achieve a lifelong ambition of retaining a Lonsdale Belt, which became the permanent property of a fighter once they had completed three successful defences. From the first round he dominated Smith, whose trainer eventually threw in the towel during the twelfth round. By now, Owen had set his sights on a rematch with Rodríguez for the European title. He met Neil McLaughlin for a fourth time on 17 September 1979 at the Albany Hotel in Glasgow and recorded a comfortable 100–95 points victory to secure his 20th professional win. A fight against American Isaac Vega was booked for 4 October of the same year. When Owen and his team arrived at Ebbw Vale Leisure Centre for the bout they found that Vega had pulled out of the contest without warning and the American promoters instead offered a replacement, Jose Garcia. Owen's camp knew nothing of the new opponent but went along with the change to provide Owen with much needed competition. Garcia had only fought professionally once before, losing by knockout in the first round more than a year before. Garcia provided little competition for Owen with the referee stopping the fight in the fifth round. ### Rematch with Rodríguez Owen ended 1979 with one further victory over American David Vasquez, a fighter who had unsuccessfully challenged world champion Lupe Pintor a year earlier and had been in line to meet Wilfredo Gómez. Although he provided a challenge for Owen, Vasquez ultimately lost to the Welshman on points. The victory put Owen in contention for a rematch against Rodríguez and the fight was confirmed at the start of 1980, due for the early months of the year. Two weeks later Owen fought fellow Welshman Glyn Davies at the National Sporting Club. Davies was described as a "tough old pro" who had fought over 40 times professionally but he lasted only five rounds before the referee stopped the fight in Owen's favour. After the bout, Davies remarked: "I have been beaten by the next world champion." Owen decided to invest some of his earnings by purchasing a shop on Galon Uchaf housing estate in his hometown of Merthyr. Owen and his camp were enthusiastic when their promoter offered them a rematch with Rodríguez for the European title. Rodríguez was short of competitors willing to fight in his home country and was forced to accept the Ebbw Vale Leisure Centre to secure a large prize fund. The venue was filled to capacity, with more than 1,800 spectators. The fight started slowly and Rodríguez restricted the early pace of the opening rounds by holding Owen on the blindside of the referee. Rodríguez continued a defensive, counter-punching style and caught Owen several times as the Welshman continually advanced, attempting to push the pace between the fifth and eighth rounds. Owen did cause damage to his opponent after trapping him on the ropes during the sixth. As Rodríguez tired, Owen continued his pattern of pressing him around the ring and controlled the remaining rounds of the fight. The three judges awarded Owen a unanimous victory to crown him European bantamweight champion. ### Final bout With Owen the European champion, a fight against the WBC title holder, Mexican Lupe Pintor was reported to be under consideration. However, Owen's next fight was confirmed as a British and Commonwealth title defence against Englishman John Feeney at Empire Pool in London. Owen did not consider Feeney at the same level as Ferreri or Rodríguez, but with an 18–0 record, Feeney was an upcoming prospect in British boxing. Feeney started spritely in the opening rounds but Owen's relentless pressure wore down the opposition fighter and he emerged victorious with a comfortable win on points. In its report of the fight, The Times described fighting Owen as like "trying to beat a carpet, so resilient is he ... the carpet ends up by giving you a dusting." Ranked as the number four bantamweight in the world by the WBC, Owen was offered a lucrative title fight against Pintor by promoter Mickey Duff. The two parties had discussed a potential meeting in Wales, an option to which Pintor was open, but promoters in the country could not match the purse offered by American promoters and the fight was held in Los Angeles. Owen stated that, should he win the fight, his plan was to defend the belt three times before retiring to Merthyr. Pintor had edged a highly controversial split decision over stablemate and long-time champion Carlos Zárate to win his world bantamweight title in June 1978. Zárate retired in disgust following the decision, but Pintor proved to be an able successor and had defended his title twice heading into the fight. Owen arrived in Los Angeles a week before the fight to acclimatise to the humidity. Both Owen and Pintor would go for early morning runs in the local area and would sometimes pass in a nearby park without acknowledging each other. Both fighters trained at the gym facilities in the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. Owen found the press intrusion from the Mexican reporters difficult to deal with; he was hounded everywhere during the day and his motel room phone rang so often that Dai Gardiner requested the motel block any incoming calls. Eventually, Owen snapped and threatened to disrupt the fight schedule unless action was taken. The fight promoter promptly intervened and the press backed off. The bout was held at the Grand Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles, on 19 September 1980. The arena had a capacity of 10,000 but estimates have put the crowd at well beyond that. The crowd was predominantly Mexican, with Pintor receiving fervent support. While some Welsh fans had travelled to support Owen they were said to be "outnumbered 100 to 1 at least". Owen was considered the underdog with odds on his victory being offered at 6–1 before the fight, but he surprised many in the opening round by actively pursuing Pintor around the ring, seeking to engage with the champion. His pressure was rewarded in the third and fourth rounds, both of which he won on most observers' scorecards, although Pintor responded with some strong right hands. Pintor began to realise that Owen was a considerable threat, perhaps more than he had anticipated, and responded in the fourth by landing a strong shot to Owen, although the Welshman quickly shook it off. In the fifth round, Owen suffered a large cut to the inside of his bottom lip that began to bleed profusely, leaving him swallowing blood for the remainder of the fight. The ringside doctor and the referee inspected the cut but deemed Owen was fit to continue. Pintor looked to take control of the fight and was the stronger through rounds six to eight, although he did receive cuts to both eyes. By this stage in the fight most observers judged the fight to be evenly poised, with some even giving Owen a slight lead. Pintor began to fight more aggressively in the ninth round and his approach paid off when he caught Owen with a punch that knocked the Welshman down for the first time in his professional career. Owen got to his feet quickly and assured the referee that he was fine but the momentum of the fight moved in the champion's direction and from the tenth round Pintor was in the ascendency. An exhausted Owen battled on through the eleventh round and referee Marty Denkin approached Owen's corner to end the fight but was told he was fine to continue. Owen returned for the twelfth and was knocked down a second time but again got to his feet. With 25 seconds remaining in the round, Pintor caught Owen with a strong right hand to the head and Owen crumpled to the floor. The referee immediately called an end to the fight rather than count Owen out, stating he had seen Owen's pupils go up into his head, indicating he was unconscious before he fell to the floor. Owen suffered convulsions in the ring as doctors treated him and blood poured from his mouth. The crowd showed little sympathy for Owen's condition; beer and other debris were thrown into the ring and Owen's corner men were shoved and pushed as they attempted to aid their fighter. Ken Bryant, a member of Owen's team, had his wallet pickpocketed from his coat as he attended to the stricken fighter. Owen was loaded onto a stretcher and carried out of the arena before being taken to California Hospital Medical Center. He was taken into surgery, where doctors removed a blood clot from his brain after a three-hour operation. The BBC regarded the knockout as so disturbing that it cancelled its replay broadcast of the fight in the UK and instead aired an edited highlights segment. ## Death The hospital where Owen was treated received more than 100 calls and telegrams from well-wishers within the first 24 hours after the fight. Owen's mother arrived in the United States a day later. The neurosurgeon in charge of Owen revealed how they had discovered that Owen possessed both an unusually delicate skull and a strong jaw. As a result, Pintor's punch had inadvertently pushed Owen's jawbone through his skull and into his brain, causing irreparable damage. Owen underwent a second operation soon after to relieve pressure on his brain but soon contracted pneumonia. Once this had cleared, a third surgery was required but Owen remained unconscious. Although his doctor believed his condition was improving, a second bout of pneumonia on 4 November ultimately ended his life at 24 years old with his parents by his bedside. Owen's body was returned to Wales where he was held in Merthyr Parish Church. The coffin was kept in a public area and thousands of visitors attended the church to pay tribute to Owen. His funeral ceremony was held at High Street Baptist Church. The church held around 1,000 people while around 4,000 waited outside where the ceremony was broadcast through loudspeakers. He was buried in Pant Cemetery in Merthyr on 11 November. Hundreds of floral tributes were sent on the day, including from Muhammad Ali and singer Tom Jones. The Secretary of State for Wales, Nicholas Edwards, sent a telegram to Owen's family in which he proclaimed "All Wales is saddened to hear of Johnny Owen's death". The Times reported that the entire town of Merthyr "closed" on the day of his funeral. Pintor was devastated by the death of Owen and contemplated retiring from boxing. The Owens family held no malice towards Pintor and absolved him of any blame for Owen's death. They sent him messages of support after the fight and encouraged the Mexican fighter to continue boxing. The WBC claimed that Owen had been insured for \$50,000, but this later proved to be false as the payments were capped at \$25,000 that would first be put towards medical expenses. The cost of Owen's treatment was \$94,000, more than three times the insurance payout. The remaining medical bills were paid by a public appeal that raised \$128,000 for Owen, with his family donating the remaining money to charity. In his will, Owen left £45,189 to his family, having earned less than £7,000 for his title fight with Pintor after expenses. Owen's death, along with those of Kim Deuk-koo and Francisco Bejines in the early 1980s, ultimately led to boxing title fights being fought over 12 instead of 15 rounds in an attempt to improve the safety of fighters. ## Fighting style Owen was renowned for his dedication to boxing, training relentlessly and often doing more work than his trainers asked of him. His dedication was such that he never drank alcohol and it is widely believed that he abstained from romantic relationships. This led to Hugh McIlvanney of The Observer labelling Owen as "The Virgin Soldier" in 1979. Owen's training involved running considerable distances, between 9 and 12 miles (14 and 19 km) on normal days, contributing to his thin physique. Owen's manager, Dai Gardiner, was accused of starving Owen to maintain his leanness and allow him to compete at bantamweight. His stamina was regarded as inexhaustible; Winford Jones, a boxing writer and former referee, described Owen: "His great skill wasn't his strength – though he never took a backwards step and could punch as hard as anyone of his weight – it was his stamina. He could fight for hours, and would wear opponents down by outlasting them." Jones also stated that Owen's stamina made him an ideal fighter in the professional ranks where fights often went over ten rounds compared to his amateur career, where fights typically lasted three. His reliance on his ability to outlast fighters sometimes led to weak points during the early rounds of fights. Srikumar Sen of The Times noted "Owen is a slow starter and can be caught early". Although he did not possess devastating knockout power, Owen was noted for his "fast accurate punching". Owen's punching power was often debated, with some doubting that he possessed the power required to become a world champion. Michael Katz of The New York Times wrote after his victory over John Feeney that "the guy (Owen) can't punch. If he could he would be illegal because he's got so much else." Owen was also praised for his sportsmanship towards other fighters. Idris Sutton, who trained Owen from an early age, described him as "a real gentleman. I never saw him throw a foul punch or do anything dirty ... If he saw his opponent slipping, he would stand back and give him a chance to get up. He ... would never look to take advantage of an accident. And if you beat him fair and square he'd be the first to shake your hand." Lupe Pintor later described his admiration of Owen, remarking that he "was very honorable because he had determination, not only the determination of winning but representing a society, his people, that's the greatest thing I admired about him, his will, his hunger, that's something that made him very special." ## Legacy A year after his death, a pub in Merthyr named The Matchstick Man opened. The following year, a plaque was unveiled at Prince Charles Hospital after some of the money donated to charity by Owen's family had been given to the establishment. The Johnny Owen Courage Award and the Johnny Owen Carer's Award are presented annually at the hospital. A community centre, named the Johnny Owen Centre, was built on the Gurnos Estate in Merthyr shortly following his death in 1980. The building was demolished in 2018 after the owner, Merthyr Valley Homes, deemed it to be too costly to modernise. In 2002, a statue of Owen was erected in his hometown Merthyr at a cost of £40,000. His family attended the ceremony during which the statue was unveiled by Pintor, who travelled from his home country to attend. The same year, Dick Owens travelled to Mexico to meet with Pintor as part of the BBC Four documentary Johnny Owen: The Long Journey in which the two men met for the first time since 1980. The documentary won two BAFTA awards for best documentary drama and best direction in the Welsh production category. Historian Martin Johnes has argued that Owen was an "emblematic figure who represented both the ideals of Welsh working-class communities and their suffering and courage in the face of adversity and tragedy". Johnes' research demonstrates how Owen's story was told and retold, with its meaning and relevance shifting in the postindustrial environment of Merthyr and South Wales. He noted that Owen's funeral resembled those of the victims of coal mining pit disasters which had frequented the area while the Western Mail described him as "the latest hero of a town scarred by bitter memories". In his published work on Owen, Johnes ends by stating that Owen "remains a heroic figure" in the South Wales Valleys. ## Professional boxing record ## See also - List of British bantamweight boxing champions - List of Commonwealth Boxing Council bantamweight champions - List of European Boxing Union bantamweight champions - List of Lonsdale Belt Winners
55,773,076	Battle of Trapani	1,169,327,914	1266 battle of the War of Saint Sabas	[ "1266 in Europe", "13th century in the Republic of Genoa", "13th century in the Republic of Venice", "Battles in Sicily", "Conflicts in 1266", "Naval battles of the Venetian–Genoese wars", "Trapani", "War of Saint Sabas" ]	The Battle of Trapani took place on 23 June 1266 off Trapani, Sicily, between the fleets of the Republic of Genoa and the Republic of Venice, as part of the War of Saint Sabas (1256–1270). During the war, the Venetians held the upper hand in naval confrontations, forcing the Genoese to resort to commerce raiding and avoid fleet battles. In the 1266 campaign, the Genoese had an advantage in numbers, but this was not known to the Genoese commander, Lanfranco Borbonino. As a result, the Genoese tarried at Corsica until the end of May. The Venetian fleet under Jacopo Dondulo, was left to sail back and forth awaiting the appearance of the Genoese fleet in the waters around southern Italy and Sicily. Fearing that the other side had more ships, both sides reinforced their fleets with additional ships, but the Genoese retained a small numerical advantage. The two fleets met near Trapani in Sicily on 22 June. After learning of the Venetian fleet's smaller size, the Genoese war council resolved to attack, but during the night Borbonino reversed the decision and instead ordered his ships to take up a defensive position, bound together with chains, near the shore. As the Venetian fleet attacked on the 23rd, many of the Genoese ships' crews, mostly manned by hired foreigners, lost heart and abandoned their ships. The battle was a crushing Venetian victory, as they sank or captured the entire Genoese fleet. On their return to Genoa, Borbonino and most of his captains were tried and fined large sums for cowardice. Despite the loss, Genoa continued the war, in which neither side was able to gain a decisive advantage, until it was ended through French mediation in 1270. ## Background The War of Saint Sabas between the rival Italian maritime republics of Venice and Genoa broke out in 1256 over access to and control of the ports and markets of the Eastern Mediterranean. In the Battle of Acre in 1258 and again in the Battle of Settepozzi in 1263, the Venetian navy demonstrated its superiority over its Genoese counterpart. Consequently, the Genoese avoided direct confrontations with the Venetian battle fleet. Instead, they engaged in commerce raiding against the Venetian merchant convoys. This type of warfare is exemplified by the Battle of Saseno in August 1264, when the annual Venetian trade convoy (muda) to the Levant was captured by the Genoese. At the same time, the Venetians' diplomatic position improved, as the Byzantine emperor, Michael VIII Palaiologos, broke his treaty of alliance with Genoa, due to the poor Genoese performance against Venice. In 1264, he expelled the Genoese from Constantinople and sought a rapprochement with Venice that culminated in a provisional non-aggression pact in 1265, although it was not ratified until three years later. 1265 saw no major combat at sea and the Venetian fleet of 16 galleys under the admiral Giovanni Delfino successfully escorted the year's trade convoy to the Levant and back to Venice. The Genoese fleet of ten galleys, under the prominent nobleman Simone Guercio, had tarried in sailing until the Venetians were already back in the Adriatic Sea. According to the naval historian Camillo Manfroni [it], there were two reasons why warfare was conducted in such an almost desultory manner: both sides faced severe financial shortages, and furthermore, were confronted with the landing in Italy of the ambitious French prince, Charles of Anjou, leading both naval powers to adopt a cautious stance. ## Opening moves For the 1266 raiding campaign, Genoa prepared a fleet comprising 18 galleys and a large nave under Lanfranco Borbonino. As the fleet departed for Corsica in late April, news arrived of increased Venetian naval strength, and nine more galleys were ordered into action; they joined the rest of the fleet at Bonifacio in May. In reality, the Venetian fleet only counted 15 galleys according to the Venetian chronicler Martino da Canal (the Genoese Annali Genovesi report only ten). Jacopo Dondulo (often erroneously called Dandolo), an experienced sailor who was said to "know the harbours and holes where the Genoese lay in hiding", was appointed as its commander. Due to financial constraints, the bulk of the fleet was to be furnished by the Venetian colonies—four galleys from Crete, three galleys from Zara, and three galleys and a galleot (a type of light galley) from Negroponte—while only four galleys were equipped in Venice itself. Dondulo led his fleet to Tunis, where they captured a Genoese ship in a night attack, removed its crew and cargo, and burned it. The next day, a small merchant vessel from Savona was likewise captured. On the way back to Messina, the Venetians encountered and defeated a pirate squadron of two galleys and a saetta from the Genoese port of Porto Venere, capturing one of the galleys with most of its crew. The Venetians may have hoped to encounter the Genoese battle fleet at or near the Straits of Messina, but luckily for them, given the actual strength of the two fleets, the Genoese remained at Bonifacio. The Venetians, after unloading their booty at Messina, set sail for Venice. In the meantime, news had reached Venice of the large Genoese fleet, and a further 10 galleys under the veteran commander Marco Gradenigo had been dispatched to join Dondulo. The two squadrons met at Ragusa, and their commanders decided to return to Sicily to search for the Genoese fleet. Faced with the apparent inactivity of the Genoese, which recalled the previous year, many of the Venetian patricians serving with the fleet were growing anxious to leave so that they could participate in the summer trade convoy which would soon depart for the Levant, so the Venetian fleet had to stop at Apulia—likely at Gallipoli—and allow them to disembark and make their way to Venice overland. ## Battle In the meantime, Borbonino received reports that the Venetians had assembled 30 galleys or even more, though in reality he had a slight numerical advantage. As a result, he decided to abandon the nave, and distribute its crew to the other vessels to enhance their combat strength. In early June, Borbonino led his fleet out of Bonifacio to confront the Venetians. On 22 June, the Genoese were at Trapani, when they received intelligence that the Venetian fleet was at Marsala nearby, and that it was smaller than Borbonino had feared. Borbonino convened a council of war, comprising the three councillors appointed to advise the fleet commander, and all the galley captains. The Genoese captains did not trust their crews, many of whom, according to the sources, were Lombards and other foreigners hired as substitutes by Genoese citizens eager to avoid the hardships and dangers of rowing in a war galley. As a result, the council resolved to attack the Venetians from the direction of the open sea, so that the crews would not be tempted to abandon their posts and swim for the shore. However, shortly afterwards, Borbonino decided otherwise. Possibly influenced by previous Venetian victories in open combat, he decided to adopt a purely defensive position, chaining his ships together, with their sterns turned to the safety of the shore, and their prows directed seaward. This tactic offered many advantages to the defender, especially, according to historian John Dotson, "in the face of a more skillful, aggressive opponent": it ensured that his fleet would not be flanked or split apart, and that reinforcements could be quickly moved to any threatened ship. On the other hand, it presupposed that the defenders would possess discipline and steadfastness. To further bolster his crews, Borbonino hired large numbers of local Trapanese, offering them one gold agostaro coin per day. Borbonino's order was carried out during the night, and when, next day, the Venetian fleet arrived at Trapani, they found the Genoese galleys bound and chained together. Taking this as a sign of poor morale among their opponents, and despite the contrary wind, the Venetians eagerly advanced upon the Genoese, raising loud shouts to further discourage them. Twice the Venetian attempts to break the Genoese line failed, but on the third attempt they succeeded in detaching three Genoese galleys from the main body. The Genoese had tried to counter the Venetian attacks by setting a burning raft adrift against their enemy's ships, but when they saw the Venetian success, panic began to spread among the Genoese crews. Already disheartened by their commander's apparent lack of confidence, the Genoese began to abandon their ships and swim ashore to safety, so that in the end the Venetians were able to capture all 27 Genoese galleys, as well as those of the crew who remained behind. The Venetians towed 24 of the captured galleys away, while three were burned on the spot. Many Genoese were killed, including some 1,200 drowned; 600 were taken captive. ## Aftermath Borbonino and his officers were able to escape, but once the news of the battle arrived in Genoa, they were tried for cowardice and incompetence. On 25 July, all except for five of the galley captains were found guilty, and sentenced to confiscation of their goods and banishment, which could only be lifted after paying heavy fines. Borbonino was sentenced to a fine of 10,000 Genoese pounds to lift his banishment, his councillors—Rinaldo Cebà and Bonavia Conte da Noli are named—to 3,000 (or 2,000, according to the Annali Genovesi) pounds, and the galley captains—only one, Ogerio Vacca, is named—1,000 pounds. All were likewise condemned to recompense the Republic for its expenses in equipping the fleet. Indeed, while da Canal provides a vivid and detailed account of the battle, the Annali Genovesi simply report that the Genoese crews abandoned their ships, almost as soon as the Venetians were sighted. Manfroni comments that the Genoese government and its chronicler were probably eager to put the entire blame of the defeat on Borbonino's shoulders and excuse the disaster through his supposed cowardice. On the Venetian side, Dondulo was acclaimed a hero on his return to Venice in July, towing the captured ships, and was duly elected as Captain General of the Sea, Venice's highest naval command position. He soon fell out with Doge Reniero Zeno, however: the Doge insisted that the fleet restrict itself to escorting the merchant convoys, whereas Dondulo strongly supported the idea that the fleet should, rather than return to Venice once the convoys were safely under way, remain at sea seeking to attack Genoese shipping. As a result of this disagreement, Dondulo resigned and was replaced by his lieutenant, Marco Zeno. The Venetian triumph at Trapani did not immediately impact the course of the war. Genoa was still capable of quickly replenishing its losses; already in August, another Genoese fleet of 25 ships under Oberto D'Oria, a member of the powerful Doria family and future ruler of Genoa, set sail and made for the Adriatic. Furthermore, given that the cause and objective of the conflict was commercial, neither side entertained the thought of attempting to sail against the other's core territory for an all-out blow. The stalemate between the two powers continued, until King Louis IX of France, keen to use the Venetian and Genoese fleets in his planned Eighth Crusade, coerced both to sign a five-year-truce in the Treaty of Cremona in 1270.
26,266,013	Xixiasaurus	1,170,981,079	Genus of dinosaur	[ "Fossil taxa described in 2010", "Late Cretaceous dinosaurs of Asia", "Paleontology in Henan", "Taxa named by Lü Junchang", "Troodontids" ]	Xixiasaurus (/ˌʃiːʃiəˈsɔːrəs/) is a genus of troodontid dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous Period in what is now China. The only known specimen was discovered in Xixia County, Henan Province, in central China, and became the holotype of the new genus and species Xixiasaurus henanensis in 2010. The names refer to the areas of discovery, and can be translated as "Henan Xixia lizard". The specimen consists of an almost complete skull (except for the hindmost portion), part of the lower jaw, and teeth, as well as a partial right forelimb. Xixiasaurus is estimated to have been 1.5 metres (5 ft) long and to have weighed 8 kilograms (18 lb). As a troodontid, it would have been bird-like and lightly built, with grasping hands and an enlarged sickle-shaped claw on the second toe. Its skull was long, with a long, low snout that formed a tapering U-shape when seen from below. The frontal bone of the forehead was dome-like in side view, which indicates it had an enlarged braincase. It differed from other troodontids in that the front of the dentary bone of the lower jaw was down-turned. Unlike in most troodontids, the teeth of Xixiasaurus did not have serrations; instead, their carinae (front and back edges) were smooth and sharp. It was distinct among troodontids in having 22 teeth in each maxilla (in other genera the maxillary tooth count was either higher or lower). The precise relationships of Xixiasaurus with other troodontids are uncertain, but it had some similarities with Byronosaurus. Though troodontids with unserrated teeth were once thought to form a clade, the taxonomic significance of this feature has been questioned. Troodontids had large brains, keen senses, and were probably agile. There has been debate about their diet, with some researchers arguing that they were carnivorous, and others that they were omnivorous or herbivorous. The lack of serrated teeth in Xixiasaurus and some other troodontids indicates these were herbivorous, as they had lost the ability to slice meat. Xixiasaurus is known from the Majiacun Formation, the exact age of which is uncertain. These sedimentary rocks were deposited by braided streams and meandering streams, and are noted for containing abundant dinosaur eggs. ## Discovery The holotype specimen (catalogued as HGM 41HIII−0201 in Henan Geological Museum, Zhengzhou) was discovered near Songgou Village, which is in the northeast region of Xixia County, in Henan Province of central China. This area of the Xixia Basin exposes the Majiacun Formation. In 2010, the specimen was described as the new genus and species Xixiasaurus henanensis by the palaeontologist Lü Junchang and colleagues. The generic name refers to Xixia County coupled with saurus, meaning "lizard", while the specific name refers to Henan Province. The full name can be translated as "Henan Xixia lizard". Remains of troodontids are very rare compared to those of other small theropod dinosaurs (only thirteen troodontid taxa were known at the time Xixiasaurus was named), and have mainly been found in Asia. The holotype specimen is the only known Xixiasaurus fossil, and consists of an almost complete skull except for the hindmost portion, as well as a partial right forelimb. The connection between the frontal (forehead bone) and nasal (bone running at the upper length of the snout) bones is displaced, and part of the braincase is missing. Most of the snout is preserved, with the dentition of the right side being well-preserved. Only the front part of the left dentary bone (tooth-bearing bone of the mandible) and some of its broken teeth are preserved. Though several teeth are missing from both jaws, their original number can be determined in the upper jaw, since their sockets there are preserved. The forelimb (of which all preserved parts are articulated) consists of the middle part of the radius and ulna (bones of the lower arm), the extremity of the second and third metacarpals (hand bones), the complete first finger, and the first phalanx bone of the second finger. In 2014, the palaeontologist Takanobu Tsuihiji and colleagues stated that a bone Lü and colleagues had originally identified as the vomer (part of the palate) of Xixiasaurus was instead part of the premaxillae or maxillae (the main bones of the upper jaw), based on comparison with the vomer of the more complete troodontid Gobivenator. ## Description Xixiasaurus is estimated to have been around 1.5 metres (5 ft) long, and to have weighed about 8 kilograms (18 lb). Since the nasal bones of the holotype specimen were not fused, it may not have been a mature individual. As a troodontid maniraptoran, it would have been bird-like, lightly built, with raptorial (grasping) hands and an enlarged sickle-shaped claw on the hyper-extendible second toe. Fossils of other troodontids, such as Jianianhualong, show that members of the group were covered in pennaceous feathers, with long feathers on the arms and legs, and frond-like feathering on the tail (similar to the avialan Archaeopteryx). The skull of Xixiasaurus was long, similar to that of Byronosaurus overall, and the snout was distinctly long and low. The premaxillae were not fused to each other, and bore a few small pits on their side surfaces. When viewed from below, the front margin of the upper jaw formed a tapering U-shape, distinct from the shape in other troodontids; the U-shape tapered less in Byronosaurus and was very elongated in Sinornithoides, for example. Viewed from above, the nasal processes that extended hindwards from the premaxillae were wedged between the premaxillary processes of the nasal bones, which extended forwards. The nasal process of the premaxilla ended at the level of the hind margin of the external narial opening (bony nostril), and was quadrangular in cross-section rather than triangular, as in Byronosaurus. The nasal process of the premaxilla formed the upper hind corner of the narial opening, and Xixiasaurus was distinct in having an opening on the side surface at the base of the nasal process. The suture between the premaxilla and maxilla curved upwards from the front of the snout, and straightened out under the narial opening when seen from the side. The maxillary process of the premaxilla tapered hindwards and wedged between a small forwards-extended process of the maxilla and the main part of that bone. The maxilla was kept from being part of the margin of the narial opening by the maxillary process. The maxillary process of the premaxilla extended hindwards to the same level as the nasal process. Due to not being fused together, the premaxillae had a fissure along their lower midline. There were two small openings (connected to each other by a shallow groove) near the base of the third and fourth premaxillary teeth, but none near the first and second. The maxilla was much longer than high, forming most of the skull's side surface, and to the front, most of the lower margin of the narial opening. The narial opening was roughly oval, with its long axis (the longest stretch from its front to the back) being parallel with the lower margin of the maxilla. The side surface of the maxilla below the narial opening was covered with small pits and foramina (openings), as in Byronosaurus, and the row of these was just above and parallel to the margin of the tooth-row. The side surface of the maxilla had three large, elongated openings, called the anterior, maxillary, and antorbital fenestrae. The anterior fenestra appears to have been entirely enclosed by the maxilla, and there were two rows of small pits below it. The back of the maxillary fenestra had a bony wall called the interfenestral bar, which separated it from the antorbital fenestra, as in Byronosaurus. The antorbital fenestra (the largest of the three openings, located in front of the orbit) was rectangular in side view, and the part of the maxilla below it was low and did not have small foramina, unlike the front part. The maxillary teeth were placed along most of the lower margin of the antorbital fenestra. On the lower side, the maxilla formed an extensive internal shelf which contributed to a large secondary palate (which separated the nasal airways from the mouth), extending backwards from the contact with the premaxilla. The front part of the palatal shelf had three small openings, and there was a row of nutrient foramina (which allowed blood to supply the bone with nutrients) in a groove just above and parallel to the tooth row margin. The nasal bones were elongated, 100 millimetres (4 in) long and 8.8 millimetres (0.35 in) wide. They were not fused together, and covered the top of the rostrum (snout) for most of their length. At the front, the nasal formed the boundary at the lower back of the narial opening. The nasal sloped downwards at the front, whereas it flattened hindwards. The frontal bones were 65 millimetres (2.6 in) long, and were not fused. Each frontal was triangular when viewed from above, and as in other troodontids, the frontals were widest at the point where they contacted the postorbital bones (bone behind the eye socket). The frontal was overlapped by the nasal and lacrimal bones (bone in front of the eye socket) at the middle front, and its frontmost part contacted the hind end of the nasal. Seen from the side, the hind part of the frontal was dome-like, which indicates that Xixiasaurus had an enlarged braincase. The rim of the orbit (eye socket) was raised, with weak notches along the margins. The lacrimal bone was T-shaped in side view; its front process was very long and reached the hind margin of the antorbital fenestra, forming most of the latter's upper hind border, as in Byronosaurus. It differed from other troodontids in that the front end of the dentary of the lower jaw was downturned, similar to what is seen in therizinosaurian theropods. The mandibular symphysis (the area where the two halves of the mandible connected at the front) was short, and this region was slightly curved towards the middle. Two rows of foramina ran along the outer side of the dentary, just below the first seven dentary teeth (only one of the rows continued hindwards past the seventh of these teeth). The foramina lay in a groove, which is a distinct feature of troodontids, while the inner surface of the dentary was smooth. A narrow, deep Meckelian groove ran at the inner side of the dentary, just above its lower margin, towards the front of the mandibular symphysis. Just behind the symphysis and below the Meckelian groove, a distinct foramen was present, similar to the condition in Urbacodon. On the outer side of the dentary, at the level of the Meckelian groove, there was a shallow groove with elongated pits. Unlike most troodontids, Xixiasaurus did not have serrations on its teeth, and their carinae (front and back edges) were instead smooth and sharp, as in Byronosaurus. Xixiasaurus had four closely packed teeth in each premaxilla, as in most other theropods, with roughly oval alveoli (tooth-sockets). The premaxillary teeth were smaller than the hindmost teeth of the maxilla. There was a distinct constriction between the crown and root of the premaxillary and frontmost ten maxillary teeth. The inner surfaces of the premaxillary tooth crowns were convex and the outer surfaces were somewhat concave, which created a D-shape when viewed in cross-section, a feature shared with a few other troodontids. It was distinct among troodontids in having 22 teeth in each maxilla (though not all teeth were preserved in the holotype, their number can be determined from the alveoli); other genera had either a higher or lower maxillary tooth count than Xixiasaurus. The first seven maxillary teeth were tightly packed and much smaller than those further back, and had distinct constrictions between their crowns and roots. The outer surfaces of the crowns had distinct grooves close to the carinae, similar to Urbacodon. The teeth curved backwards and were compressed from side to side, and the bases of the crowns were less expanded behind the tenth maxillary tooth. As in Byronosaurus, the maxillary teeth were heterodont (differentiated), with the fifteenth tooth being largest. The radius bone of the lower arm was much thinner than the ulna. The third metacarpal was thinner than the second, and their outermost edges were at the same level, which indicates these two metacarpals were equal in length. The claw of the first finger was sharp, and had a large flexor tubercle (where a tendon was inserted). The first phalanx of the first finger was 3.6 centimetres (1.4 in) long, and the first phalanx of the second was 3 centimetres (1.2 in). ## Classification Lü and colleagues assigned Xixiasaurus to the family Troodontidae based on its high tooth-count, constriction between the crowns and roots of the teeth, close packing of teeth near the tip of the dentary, and distinct groove for the neurovascular foramina on the dentary. They found Xixiasaurus to be most closely related to Byronosaurus of Mongolia, and suggested the two may have formed a clade with Urbacodon from Uzbekistan consisting of troodontids with unserrated teeth, which radiated across Asia (while noting that serrations had been lost independently in different groups of theropods). A 2012 phylogenetic analysis by the paleontologist Alan H. Turner and colleagues instead found Xixiasaurus to belong in a clade with Sinovenator and Mei (both also from China), due to sharing a maxillary process of the premaxilla that separated the maxilla from the nasal behind the narial opening. In 2016, the palaeontologists Alexander Averianov and Hans-Dieter Sues did not identify a clade formed of troodontids with unserrated teeth, but found them to be successive sister taxa to a more derived (or "advanced") clade of troodontids with serrated teeth. They suggested that the D-shaped cross-section of the premaxillary teeth could be one possible feature uniting Xixiasaurus, Byronosaurus, and Urbacodon. The following cladogram shows the position of Xixiasaurus within Troodontidae according to a 2017 analysis by the palaeontologist Caizhi Shen and colleagues: In 2019, the palaeontologist Scott Hartman and colleagues recovered Xixiasaurus as the sister taxon of Sinusonasus, in a clade with Daliansaurus and Hesperornithoides (sharing features such as a straight ulna and having an upwards projected curve on the claw of the first finger). Troodontids have mainly been discovered in the northern hemisphere, largely restricted to Asia and North America. They appear to have reached their greatest diversity during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous in Asia. Troodontids probably originated in Asia, and if genera such as Anchiornis are considered part of the family, it would have evolved by the Early Jurassic. Troodontids are grouped in the clade Paraves, along with dromaeosaurids and birds. Troodontids and dromaeosaurids have also been grouped together in the clade Deinonychosauria, based on the shared sickle-claw on their hyper-extendible second toe, but some studies have found troodontids to be more closely related to birds than to dromaeosaurids. ## Palaeobiology Troodontids had some of the highest encephalization quotients (a measure of the ratio between actual brain size and the brain size predicted from body size) among non-avian dinosaurs. As suggested by their large eye-sockets and well-developed middle-ears, they appear to have had keen senses. They also had proportionately long legs, which indicates they were agile. Due to their large brains, possible stereoscopic vision, grasping hands, and enlarged sickle-claws, troodontids were generally assumed to have been predatory. In 1998, the palaeontologist Thomas R. Holtz and colleagues pointed out that the serrations on the teeth of troodontids were different from those of typical, carnivorous theropods in their large size and wide spacing, which is similar to the condition in herbivorous dinosaurs (including therizinosaurid theropods) and lizards rather than carnivorous dinosaurs. They suggested that this difference in coarseness may be related to the size and resistance of plant and meat fibres, and that troodontids may have been herbivorous or omnivorous. They also pointed out that some features that had been interpreted as predatory adaptations in troodontids were also found in herbivorous and omnivorous animals, such as primates and raccoons. In 2001, the palaeontologists Philip J. Currie and Dong Zhiming rejected the idea that troodontids could have been herbivorous. They stated that troodontid anatomy was consistent with a carnivorous lifestyle, and pointed out that the structure of their serrations was not much different from those of other theropods. They noted that troodontid features such as sharply pointed serrations that curved up towards the tip of the teeth, razor sharp enamel between the serrations, and blood grooves at the bases, were not seen in herbivorous dinosaurs, which had simpler, cone shaped serrations. Lü and colleagues discussed the previous studies of troodontid diet, and suggested that the loss of serrations in the teeth of Xixiasaurus and some other troodontids was related to a change in their diet. Since the teeth would appear to have lost their typical ability to slice meat, at least these troodontids may therefore have been either herbivorous or omnivorous. In 2015, the palaeontologist Christophe Hendrickx and colleagues suggested that basal (or "primitive") troodontids with unserrated teeth were herbivorous, whereas more derived troodontids with serrated teeth were carnivorous or omnivorous. ## Palaeoenvironment Xixiasaurus is known from the mid-lower part of the Majiacun Formation of China, which dates to the Late Cretaceous period, but there has been disagreement about the exact geological age of the formation. Lü and colleagues suggested the formation dated to the Campanian age, based on the similarity between Xixiasaurus and the Campanian genus Byronosaurus. A Cenomanian to Turonian age for the formation had earlier been suggested based on spores, pollen, and dinosaur eggs; a Coniacian to Santonian age has been suggested as well, and Coniacian to Campanian or Santonian to Maastrichtian ages have been suggested based on bivalve fossils. Some studies have also suggested that the formation is as old as Early Cretaceous. The Majiacun Formation is represented by an 800–1,200 metres (2,600–3,900 ft) thick layer of brown and red sandstones, with muddier intervals of purple to green, or brown to red. The lower and middle units of the formation are composed of sandstone, siltstone, and mudstone. Eggs and eggshells are often found in the muddy siltstones. The formations of the Xixia Basin are thought to be of continental origin (due to the absence of marine fossils), probably deposited by rivers and within lakes. The Majiacun Formation itself is interpreted as representing deposits of braided streams and meandering streams. The formation was part of the Yunmeng Lake drainage system during the Late Cretaceous. The palaeoclimate of the Xixia basin is inferred to have been subtropical, sub-humid to sub-arid, based on the preponderance of C3 plants identified in the diet of the dinosaurs there (determined through isotopic study of egg shells). Other dinosaurs from the formation include the alvarezsaurid Xixianykus, the hadrosauroid Zhanghenglong, an unnamed spinosaurid, ankylosaurid, and sauropods. The discovery of abundant and diverse dinosaur eggs in Henan Province has been considered "one of the significant scientific events" in China. Dinosaur ootaxa (taxa based on eggs) from the Majiacun Formation include Prismatoolithus (which may belong to troodontids), Ovaloolithus, Paraspheroolithus, Placoolithus, Dendroolithus, Youngoolithus, and Nanhiungoolithus. Reptiles include turtles and crocodilians. Invertebrates include the bivalves Plicatounio and Sphaerium and the clam shrimp Tylestheria (invertebrate trace fossils are also known). Spores of plants such as Schizaeoisporites, Cicatruicosisporites, Lygodiumsporites, Cyathidites, Osmundacidites, and Pagiophyllumpollenites have also been identified. ## See also - Timeline of troodontid research
160,071	Otto Klemperer	1,173,068,200	Conductor and composer (1885–1973)	[ "1885 births", "1973 deaths", "19th-century Prussian people", "20th-century American composers", "20th-century American conductors (music)", "20th-century American male musicians", "American classical composers", "American male classical composers", "American male conductors (music)", "American people of Bohemian descent", "American people of Czech-Jewish descent", "American people of German-Jewish descent", "American people of Sephardic-Jewish descent", "Berlin University of the Arts alumni", "Deutsche Grammophon artists", "German classical composers", "German conductors (music)", "German male classical composers", "German male conductors (music)", "Hoch Conservatory alumni", "Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music", "Jewish classical composers", "Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States", "Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany", "Music Academy of the West founders", "Musicians from Wrocław", "Musicians from the Province of Silesia", "Naturalized citizens of Israel", "Naturalized citizens of the United States", "People with bipolar disorder", "Prussian emigrants to the United States", "Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)" ]	Otto Nossan Klemperer (14 May 1885 – 6 July 1973) was a conductor and composer, originally based in Germany, and then the US, Hungary and finally Britain. His early career was in opera houses, but he became better known as a concert-hall conductor. A protégé of the composer and conductor Gustav Mahler, from 1907 Klemperer was appointed to a succession of increasingly senior conductorships in opera houses in and around Germany. Between 1929 and 1931 he was director of the Kroll Opera in Berlin, where he presented new works and avant-garde productions of classics. He was from a Jewish family, and the rise of the Nazis caused him to leave Germany in 1933. Shortly afterwards he was appointed chief conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and guest-conducted other American orchestras, including the San Francisco Symphony, the New York Philharmonic and later the Pittsburgh Symphony, which he reorganised as a permanent ensemble. In the late 1930s Klemperer became ill with a brain tumour. An operation to remove it was successful, but left him lame and partly paralysed on his right side. Throughout his life he had bipolar disorder, and after the operation he went through an intense manic phase of the illness and then a long spell of severe depression. His career was seriously disrupted and did not fully recover until the mid-1940s. He served as the musical director of the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest from 1947 to 1950. Klemperer's later career centred on London. In 1951 he began an association with the Philharmonia Orchestra. By that time better known for his readings of the core German symphonic repertoire than for experimental modern music, he gave concerts and made almost 200 recordings with the Philharmonia and its successor, the New Philharmonia, until his retirement in 1972. His approach to Mozart was not universally liked, being thought of by some as heavy, but he became widely considered the most authoritative interpreter of the symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner and Mahler. ## Life and career ### Early years Otto Nossan Klemperer was born on 14 May 1885 in Breslau, Province of Silesia, in what was then the Imperial German state of Prussia; the city is now Wrocław, Poland. He was the second child and only son of Nathan Klemperer and his wife Ida, née Nathan. The family name had originally been Klopper, but was changed to Klemperer in 1787 in response to a decree by the Austrian Emperor Joseph II aimed at assimilating Jews into Christian society. Nathan Klemperer was originally from Josefov, the ghetto in the Bohemian city of Prague; Ida was from a more prosperous Jewish family in Hamburg. Both parents were musical: Nathan sang and Ida played the piano. When Klemperer was four the family moved from Breslau to Hamburg, where Nathan earned a modest living in commercial posts and his wife gave piano lessons. It was decided quite early in Klemperer's life that he would become a professional musician, and when he was about five he started piano lessons with his mother. At the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt he studied the piano with James Kwast and theory with Ivan Knorr. Kwast moved to Berlin, first to the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory and then to the Stern Conservatory. Klemperer followed him at each move, and later credited him with the whole basis of his musical development. Among Klemperer's other teachers was Hans Pfitzner, with whom he studied composition and conducting. In 1905 Klemperer met Gustav Mahler at a rehearsal of the latter's Second Symphony in Berlin. Oscar Fried conducted, and Klemperer was given charge of the off-stage orchestra. He later made a piano arrangement (now lost) of the symphony, which he played to the composer in 1907 when visiting Vienna. In the interim he made his public debut as a conductor in May 1906, taking over from Fried after the first night of the fifty-performance run of Max Reinhardt's production of Orpheus in the Underworld at the New Theatre, Berlin. Mahler wrote a short testimonial, recommending Klemperer, on a small card which Klemperer kept for the rest of his life. On the strength of it he was appointed chorus master and assistant conductor at the New German Theatre in Prague in 1907. ### German opera houses From Prague, Klemperer moved to be assistant conductor at the Hamburg State Opera (1910–1912), where the sopranos Lotte Lehmann and Elisabeth Schumann made their joint débuts under his direction. His first chief conductorship was at Barmen (1912–1913), after which he moved to the much larger Strasbourg Opera (1914–1917) as deputy to Pfitzner. From 1917 to 1924 he was chief conductor of the Cologne Opera. During his Cologne years he married Johanna Geisler, a singer in the opera company, in 1919. She was a Christian, and he had converted from Judaism. He remained a practising Roman Catholic until 1967, when he left the faith and returned to Judaism. The couple had two children: Werner, who became an actor, and Lotte, who became her father's assistant and eventually carer. Johanna continued her operatic career, sometimes in performances conducted by her husband. She retired from singing by the mid-1930s. The couple remained close and mutually supportive until her death in 1956. In 1923 Klemperer turned down an invitation to succeed Leo Blech as musical director of the Berlin State Opera because he did not believe he would be given enough artistic authority over productions. The following year he became conductor at the Prussian State Theatre in Wiesbaden (1924–1927), a smaller theatre than others in which he had worked, but one where he had the control he sought over stagings. There he conducted new, and often modernistic, productions of a range of operas from The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Fidelio and Lohengrin to Elektra and The Soldier's Tale. He found his tenure there rewarding and fulfilling, later describing it as the happiest time in his career. Klemperer visited Russia in 1924, conducting there during a six-week stay; he returned each year until 1936. In 1926 he made his American début, succeeding Eugene Goossens as guest conductor of the New York Symphony Orchestra. In his eight-week engagement with the orchestra he gave Mahler's Ninth Symphony and Janáček's Sinfonietta their first performances in the US. ### Berlin In 1927 the authorities in Berlin decided to establish a new opera company to complement the State Opera, highlighting new works and innovative productions. The company, officially Staatsoper am Platz der Republik, was better known as the Kroll Opera. Leo Kestenberg, the influential head of the Prussian Ministry of Culture, proposed Klemperer as its first director. Klemperer was offered a ten-year contract and accepted it on condition that he would be allowed to conduct orchestral concerts in the theatre, and that he could employ his chosen design and stage experts. The conductor's biographer Peter Heyworth describes Klemperer's tenure at the Kroll as "of crucial significance in his career and the development of opera in the first half of the 20th century". In both concert and operatic performances Klemperer introduced much new music. Asked later which were the most important of the operas he introduced there, he listed: In Heyworth's view, the modern approach to production at the Kroll − contrasting with conventional representational settings and costumes − exemplified in "a drastically stylised production" of Der fliegende Holländer in 1929 was "a decisive forerunner of Wieland Wagner's innovations at Bayreuth". The production divided critical opinion, which ranged from "A new outrage to a German masterpiece ... grotesque" to "an unusual and magnificent performance ... a fresh wind has blown tinsel and cobwebs away". In 1929 Klemperer made his British début, conducting the London Symphony Orchestra in the first London performance of Bruckner's Eighth Symphony. Not all the British music critics were convinced by the symphony, but the conductor was widely praised for "the power of a dominating personality", "masterful control" and as "a great orchestral commander". A leading critic called for the BBC to give Klemperer a long-term appointment in London. The Kroll Opera closed in 1931, ostensibly because of a financial crisis, although in Klemperer's view the motives were political. He said that Heinz Tietjen, director of the State Opera, told him that it was not, as Klemperer supposed, anti-Semitism that had worked against him: "No, that is not so important. It's your whole political and artistic direction they don't like." Klemperer's contract obliged him to transfer to the main State Opera, where, with such conductors as Bruno Walter, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Leo Blech already established, there was little important work for him. He remained there until 1933, when the rise of the Nazis caused him to leave for safety in Switzerland, joined by his wife and children. ### Los Angeles In exile from Germany, Klemperer found that conducting work was far from plentiful, although he secured some prestigious engagements in Vienna and at the Salzburg Festival. He was sounded out by William Andrews Clark, founder and sponsor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, about becoming the orchestra's chief conductor in succession to Artur Rodziński, who was leaving to take over the Cleveland Orchestra. The Los Angeles orchestra was not then regarded as among the finest American ensembles, and the salary was less than Klemperer would have liked, but he accepted and sailed to the US in 1935. The orchestra's finances were perilous; Clark had lost a substantial portion of his fortune in the Great Depression and could no longer afford subventions on the scale of earlier years. Despite box-office constraints, Klemperer successfully introduced unfamiliar works including Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde and Second Symphony, Bruckner's Fourth and Seventh Symphonies, and works by Stravinsky. He programmed music from Gurrelieder by his fellow exile and Los Angeles neighbour Arnold Schoenberg, although the composer complained that Klemperer did not perform his works more often. Klemperer insisted that the local public was not ready for such demanding music; Schoenberg did not bear a grudge and, as Klemperer always aspired to compose as well as to conduct, Schoenberg gave him composition lessons. Klemperer considered him "the greatest living teacher of composition, although ... he never mentioned the twelve-tone system". The musicologist Hans Keller nevertheless found "tonal varieties of the Schoenbergian method" used "penetratingly" in Klemperer's compositions. In 1935, at Arthur Judson's invitation, Klemperer conducted the New York Philharmonic for four weeks. The orchestra's chief conductor, Arturo Toscanini, was in Europe and Klemperer took charge of the opening concerts of the season. The New York concert-going public was deeply conservative but despite Judson's warning that programming Mahler would be highly damaging at the box-office, Klemperer insisted on giving the Second Symphony. The notices praised the conducting – Oscar Thompson wrote in Musical America that the performance was the best he had heard since Mahler conducted the work in New York in 1906 – but the ticket sales were as poor as Judson had predicted, and the orchestra had a deficit of \$5,000 from the concert. When Toscanini resigned from the orchestra the following year, Klemperer hoped to be considered as his successor, but recognised that after "this affair of the Mahler symphony" he would not be re-engaged. Nonetheless, when the then little-known John Barbirolli was announced as Toscanini's successor, Klemperer wrote a vehement letter to Judson protesting at being passed over. Having returned to Los Angeles, Klemperer conducted the orchestra's concerts there and in out-of-town venues such as San Diego, Santa Barbara, Fresno and Claremont. He and the orchestra worked with leading soloists, including Artur Schnabel, Emanuel Feuermann, Joseph Szigeti, Bronisław Huberman and Lotte Lehmann. Pierre Monteux was conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and he and Klemperer guest-conducted each other's orchestras. After a concert under Klemperer in 1936, the San Francisco Chronicle'''s music critic hailed him as one of the world's greatest conductors, along with Furtwängler, Walter and Toscanini. ### 1938 to 1945 The governing board of the Pittsburgh Symphony approached Klemperer in early 1938, seeking his help in reconstituting the orchestra – an ad hoc group since 1927 – as a permanent ensemble. He held auditions in Pittsburgh and, more fruitfully, in New York, and after three weeks of intensive rehearsal the orchestra was ready for the opening concerts of the season, which he conducted. The results were highly successful, and he was offered a large salary to remain as the orchestra's chief conductor. He was contractually committed to Los Angeles, but contemplated taking on the direction of both orchestras. He decided against it and Fritz Reiner was appointed as conductor in Pittsburgh. In 1939 Klemperer began to suffer from serious balance problems. A potentially fatal brain tumour was diagnosed and he travelled to Boston for an operation to remove it. The operation was successful, but left him lame and partly paralysed on his right side. He had long had bipolar disorder (in the parlance of the time he was "manic depressive") and after the operation he went through an intense manic phase of the illness, which lasted for nearly three years and was followed by a long spell of severe depression. In 1941, after he walked out of a mental sanatorium in Rye, New York, the local police put out an alarm, describing him as "dangerous and insane". He was found two days later in Morristown, New Jersey and appeared composed. A doctor who examined him said he was "temperamental and unstrung" but not dangerous, and he was released. The board of the Los Angeles orchestra terminated his contract, and his subsequent appearances were few, and seldom with prestigious ensembles, in Los Angeles or elsewhere. As her father struggled to support the family from his modest fees, Lotte worked in a factory to bring in some money. ### Post-war By 1946 Klemperer had recovered his health enough to return to Europe for a conducting tour. His first concert was in Stockholm, where he met the music scholar Aladár Tóth, husband of the pianist Annie Fischer; Tóth was soon to be an important influence on his career. On another tour in 1947 Klemperer conducted The Marriage of Figaro at the Salzburg Festival and Don Giovanni in Vienna. While he was in Salzburg, Tóth, who had been appointed director of the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest, invited him to become the company's musical director. Klemperer accepted, and served from 1947 to 1950. In Budapest he conducted the major Mozart operas and Fidelio, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin and Die Meistersinger, as well as works from the Italian repertory, and many concerts. In March 1948 Klemperer made his first post-war appearance in London, conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra. He conducted Bach's Third Orchestral Suite from the harpsichord, Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements and Beethoven's Eroica Symphony. Klemperer left the Budapest post in 1950, frustrated by the political interference of the communist regime. He held no permanent conductorship for the next nine years. In the early 1950s he freelanced in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Britain, Canada, France, Germany and elsewhere. In London in 1951 he conducted two Philharmonia concerts at the new Royal Festival Hall, eliciting high praise from reviewers. The music critic of The Times wrote: After this, Klemperer's seemingly resurgent career received another severe set-back. At Montreal airport later in 1951 he slipped on ice and fell, breaking his hip. He was hospitalised for eight months. Then for a year he and his family were, as he put it, virtually prisoners in the US because of obstacles to leaving the country, following new legislation. With the help of an accomplished lawyer, he secured temporary six-month passports in 1954, and moved with his wife and daughter to Switzerland. He settled in Zürich, and obtained German citizenship and right of residency in Switzerland. ### London From the mid-1950s, Klemperer's domestic base was in Zürich and his musical base in London, where his career became associated with the Philharmonia. It was widely regarded as the best orchestra in Britain in the 1950s: Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians described it as "an elite whose virtuosity transformed British concert life", and The Times called it "the Rolls-Royce of British orchestras". Its founder and proprietor, Walter Legge, engaged a range of prominent conductors for his concerts. By the early 1950s the most closely identified with the orchestra was Herbert von Karajan, but he was clearly the heir apparent to the ailing Furtwängler as chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Salzburg Festival; anticipating that Karajan would become unavailable to the Philharmonia, Legge built up a relationship with Klemperer, who was admired by the players, the critics and the public. Legge was a senior producer for Columbia, part of the EMI recording group. As Columbia paid for the rehearsals for recordings, Legge's concerts tended to feature works he had recorded immediately beforehand, so that the orchestra was fully rehearsed at no cost to him. This suited Klemperer, who though he disliked making recordings enjoyed the luxury of "hav[ing] time to prepare a work properly". According to the critic William Mann, Klemperer's repertory by now was: In 1957 Legge launched the Philharmonia Chorus, which made its debut in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony conducted by Klemperer. In The Observer Heyworth wrote that with "what promises to be our best choir [and] our best orchestra and a great conductor", Legge had given London "a Beethoven cycle that any city in the world, be it Vienna or New York, would envy". Wieland Wagner invited Klemperer to conduct Tristan und Isolde at the 1959 Holland Festival, and they agreed to collaborate on Die Meistersinger at Bayreuth, but neither plan was realised, because Klemperer suffered a further physical setback: in October 1958 while smoking in bed he set his bedclothes alight. His burns were life-threatening, and his recovery slow. It was not for nearly a year, until September 1959, that he recovered his health enough to conduct again. On Klemperer's return to the Philharmonia, Legge stood before the orchestra and appointed him conductor for life – the Philharmonia's first principal conductor. Klemperer's concerts in the 1960s included more works from outside the core German repertory, including Bartók's Divertimento, and symphonies by Berlioz, Dvořák, Mahler and Tchaikovsky. Klemperer returned to opera in 1961, making his Covent Garden début in Fidelio for which he directed the staging as well as the music. He had to a considerable extent moved away from the experimental stagings of the Kroll years; the 1961 Fidelio was described as "traditional, unfussy, grandly conceived, and profoundly revealing", and of "deep serenity" musically. Klemperer directed and conducted another Fidelio in Zürich the following year, at the opera house, only a few hundred yards from his home. He battled with entrenched interests in the Zürich orchestra to secure the best players, but he succeeded and the performances were well received. At Covent Garden he later directed and conducted two more new productions: Die Zauberflöte (1962), and Lohengrin (1963), neither of which was as well reviewed as Fidelio. ### Later years During the early 1960s Legge became disenchanted with the orchestral music scene. His freedom to programme what he pleased was hampered by new committees at the Festival Hall and EMI, and his orchestra was less in demand in the studios. In March 1964, with no advance warning to the orchestra, he issued a press statement announcing that "after the fulfilment of its present commitments the activities of the Philharmonia Orchestra will be suspended for an indefinite period." Klemperer said that Legge had not warned him beforehand of the announcement, although Legge later maintained that he had done so. With Klemperer's strong support the players refused to be disbanded and formed themselves into a self-governing ensemble as the New Philharmonia Orchestra (NPO). They elected him as their president. He remained in the position until his retirement eight years later. In his later years Klemperer returned to the Jewish faith, and was a strong supporter of the state of Israel. He visited his younger sister, who lived there, and while in Jerusalem in 1970 he accepted the offer of Israeli citizenship, though continuing to retain his German citizenship and permanent Swiss residency. As Klemperer aged, his concentration and control of the orchestra declined. At one recording session he dozed off while conducting, and he found his hearing and eyesight under strain from concentrating for the length of a concert. One of his players told André Previn, "Sadly, he got a bit deaf and shaky. You'd be thinking 'poor old Klemperer', then suddenly the veil of infirmity would drop and he'd be wonderfully vigorous again." Klemperer continued to conduct and record with the New Philharmonia until the last concert of his career – at the Festival Hall on 26 September 1971 – and his final recording session two days later. The programme for the concert was Beethoven's King Stephen overture, and Fourth Piano Concerto, with Daniel Adni as soloist, and Brahms's Third Symphony. The recording, with the orchestra's wind players, was of Mozart's Serenade No. 11 in E flat, K. 375. The following January, after flying from Zürich to London to conduct Bruckner's Seventh Symphony, Klemperer announced the day before the concert that he could no longer cope with the strain of public performances. He hoped to be able to go on making recordings, as he felt he might be able to manage the shorter spans of recording takes, and intended to conduct Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Bach's St John Passion for EMI, but neither plan came to fruition. Heyworth writes about the conductor's last years: Klemperer retired to his home in Zürich, where he died in his sleep on 6 July 1973. His wife predeceased him and he was survived by their two children. He was buried in the Jewish cemetery at Friesenberg, Zürich, four days later. ## Compositions Klemperer said, "I am mainly a conductor who also composes. Naturally, I would be glad to be remembered as a conductor and as a composer." German conductors of his generation began their careers when it was rare for a conductor not to compose: composition was seen as part of the traditional training of a kapellmeister. He began composing at an early age, and started writing songs in his mid-teens. He extensively revised some of his compositions and destroyed others. Hearing Debussy's opera Pelléas et Mélisande in Prague in 1908 changed Klemperer's compositional ideas. He later viewed the music he composed after that as his first mature works. He continued to write songs, both orchestral and with piano – there were about 100 in all – and in about 1915 he wrote two operas, Wehen (meaning "labour pains") and Das Ziel (The Goal). Neither was publicly staged, although the composer conducted a private concert performance of Das Ziel in Berlin in 1931. The "Merry Waltz" from the latter is the best-known of his compositions. Of his nine string quartets, eight survive. EMI recorded the Seventh in 1970. In 1919 he composed a Missa Sacra for soloists, chorus and orchestra, and also a setting of Psalm 23. Klemperer gave the premiere of his First Symphony with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam in 1961, and that of the final version of his Second with the New Philharmonia in 1969, recording it for EMI a few weeks later. He wrote six symphonies. Harold Schonberg, music critic of The New York Times, said that the First Symphony, with its incorporation of the Marseillaise in the second movement, "sounded like Charles Ives in one of his wilder moments". When the recording of the Second Symphony was issued in 1970, the critic Edward Greenfield wrote, "There is a gritty quality about much of Klemperer's fast music [with] sharp-edged unison passages ... but give Klemperer a slow tempo and he will melt with amazing rapidity ... the slow movement is astonishingly sweet, with one passage – clarinet over pizzicato strings – recalling the world of Lehár or even Viennese café music." The critic Meirion Bowen wrote of the same work that it was "the product of an outstanding conductor musing on the works of composers he has championed throughout his career". ## Recordings Although he did not enjoy recording, Klemperer's discography is extensive. His first recording was an acoustic set of the slow movement of Bruckner's Eighth Symphony, made for Polydor in 1924 with the Staatskapelle Berlin. His early recordings include Beethoven symphonies and less characteristic repertoire including the first recording of Ravel's Alborada del gracioso, and "Nuages" and "Fêtes" from Debussy's Nocturnes (1926). Then, in between recordings of mostly German classics – including works by Brahms, Bruckner, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Richard Strauss and Wagner – he ventured into the light French repertoire with the overtures to Fra Diavolo and La belle Hélène (1929). From the Los Angeles years there is only one purpose-made studio recording but several transcriptions of live radio broadcasts, ranging from symphonies by Beethoven, Bruckner and Dvořák to excerpts from operas by Gounod, Massenet, Puccini and Verdi. There are no commercial studio recordings from Klemperer's time in Budapest, but live performances in the opera house or on air were recorded and have been issued on CD, including complete sets of Lohengrin, Fidelio, The Magic Flute, The Tales of Hoffmann, Die Meistersinger and Così fan tutte, all sung in Hungarian. For the Vox label Klemperer recorded several sets in Vienna in 1951, including Beethoven's Missa solemnis praised by Legge as "grave and powerful". In the same year his broadcast performances in the Concertgebouw of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder and Second Symphony, with the soloists Jo Vincent and Kathleen Ferrier, were recorded and have been issued on disc by Decca. During the 1950s many other live broadcasts conducted by Klemperer were recorded, and later published on CD, with orchestras including the Bavarian Radio Symphony, Concertgebouw, Cologne Radio Symphony, RIAS Symphony, Berlin and the Vienna Symphony. In October 1954 Klemperer made the first of his many recordings with the Philharmonia: Mozart's Jupiter Symphony. ("Extremely impressive ... epic", commented The Gramophone, "carried through unfalteringly to the end.") Between then and 1972 he conducted the orchestra, and its successor, the New Philharmonia, in recordings of nearly two hundred different works. With the original Philharmonia they included more Mozart symphonies, complete symphony cycles of Beethoven and Brahms, symphonies by Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Schumann, Bruckner, Dvořák, Tchaikovsky and Mahler, and other orchestral works by, among others, Bach, Johann Strauss, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky, Wagner and Weill. From the choral repertoire he and the Philharmonia Chorus and Orchestra recorded Bach's St Matthew Passion, Handel's Messiah and Brahms's German Requiem. His complete opera recordings with the Philharmonia were Fidelio and The Magic Flute. Solo singers in these recordings included Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gottlob Frick, Christa Ludwig, Peter Pears, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Jon Vickers. After the players reconstituted themselves as the New Philharmonia in 1964 Klemperer worked extensively with them in the studios, recording eight symphonies by Haydn, three by Schumann, four by Bruckner and two by Mahler. A complete Beethoven piano concerto cycle featured Daniel Barenboim as soloist. The major choral recordings were of Beethoven's Missa solemnis and Bach's B minor Mass. Reviewing the former, Alec Robertson wrote that it "must take its place on the heights among the greatest recordings of our time". The Bach set divided critical opinion: Robertson called it "a spiritual experience ... a glorious achievement"; the Stereo Record Guide, though conceding "the majesty of Klemperer's conception", found it "disappointing ... with plodding tempi". There were four complete operas: Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni, Der fliegende Holländer and The Marriage of Figaro. Soloists included, among the women, Janet Baker, Teresa Berganza, Mirella Freni, Anja Silja and Elisabeth Söderström, and among the men, Theo Adam, Gabriel Bacquier, Geraint Evans, Nicolai Gedda and Nicolai Ghiaurov. ## Honours, legacy and reputation ### Honours and legacy In 1933 Klemperer was presented with the Goethe Medal by President Hindenburg in Berlin. He was awarded the Leipzig Orchestral Nikisch Prize in 1966, and held honorary degrees from Occidental College and the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1971 he was appointed an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in London. From Germany he held the Grand Medal of Merit with Star (1958) and the Order of Merit (1967). The first movement from Klemperer's 1959 Philharmonia recording of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony was selected by NASA for inclusion on the Voyager Golden Record, sent into space on the Voyager space craft. The record contained sounds and images selected as examples of the diversity of life and culture on Earth. In 1973 Lotte Klemperer presented the Royal Academy of Music with a collection of her father's books and marked-up scores, together with a portrait and some of his batons. This is now known as the Otto Klemperer Collection. One of the academy's two named professorships in conducting is the Klemperer Chair (currently, at 2023, held by Semyon Bychkov). ### Reputation The Washington Post's music critic Joseph McLellan wrote when Klemperer died, "An age of giants has ended ... They are all gone: Toscanini, Walter, Furtwängler, Beecham, Szell, Reiner, and, now Klemperer." The Times said that in Britain he had been revered as the greatest of living conductors. In the view of Grove's Dictionary, following Toscanini's retirement in April 1954 and Furtwängler's death seven months later, Klemperer was "generally accepted as the most authoritative interpreter of the central Austro-German repertory". Many musicians disagreed with Klemperer's way of conducting Mozart. Sir Neville Cardus of The Guardian observed, "It was not for him the gallant Mozart presented by Sir Thomas Beecham; far from it. Klemperer's Mozart was made of sterner stuff." Mann complained that the conductor's direction of The Marriage of Figaro was "didactic, humourless, tortoise-like", though his colleague Stanley Sadie found "Klemperer's leisured, cool, almost dispassionate view of the opera is not without its attractiveness. ... The deliberation and the poise are not what we are used to in Figaro, and they say something about it which is worth hearing." It was not only in Mozart that Klemperer's tempi attracted adverse comment: a frequent criticism in his later years was that his tempi were slow. The EMI producer Suvi Raj Grubb wrote: Cardus expressed regret that Klemperer had too rarely been allowed to programme Bruckner, "whose symphonies he encompassed with a grip and a vision which saw the end of a large musical shape in the beginning". Cardus added: It was as a Beethoven conductor that Klemperer became most celebrated. The Record Guide said of the 1951 recording of the Missa solemnis, "it is seldom that we hear in the concert hall a performance so clear, so fervent and so musical as that which Klemperer has achieved ... [with] the impression of sublimity achieved by this splendid performance." Of his contemporaneous recording of the Fifth Symphony, the same writers called it "a really individual reading", preferable to those of Toscanini, Walter or Erich Kleiber: "Klemperer treats the work as if he had just discovered its greatness, illuminating every page with a ceaseless care for detail." Mann wrote of the 1962 recording of Fidelio, "the performance is so stunning that after it operagoers may almost despair of hearing a Fidelio'' that will not prove a disappointment." The Philharmonia's first horn, Alan Civil, said, "It took a Klemperer to throw fresh light on Beethoven, and I found his Beethoven cycles marvellous. I mean, I don't want to play Beethoven with any other conductor", and a colleague from the orchestra said, "It's as though Beethoven himself were standing there." ## Notes, references and sources
34,344,124	Terminator 2: Judgment Day	1,173,914,184	1991 film directed by James Cameron	[ "1990s American films", "1990s English-language films", "1990s chase films", "1990s dystopian films", "1990s science fiction action films", "1991 films", "3D re-releases", "American chase films", "American films about revenge", "American post-apocalyptic films", "American science fiction action films", "American sequel films", "Apocalyptic films", "Articles containing video clips", "BAFTA winners (films)", "Carolco Pictures films", "Cyborg films", "Fictional portrayals of the Los Angeles Police Department", "Films about World War III", "Films about mother–son relationships", "Films about shapeshifting", "Films about single parent families", "Films about technological impact", "Films about time travel", "Films directed by James Cameron", "Films produced by James Cameron", "Films scored by Brad Fiedel", "Films set in 1995", "Films set in 1997", "Films set in 2029", "Films set in California", "Films set in Los Angeles", "Films set in psychiatric hospitals", "Films set in the future", "Films shot in California", "Films shot in New Mexico", "Films that won the Academy Award for Best Makeup", "Films that won the Best Sound Editing Academy Award", "Films that won the Best Sound Mixing Academy Award", "Films that won the Best Visual Effects Academy Award", "Films using stop-motion animation", "Films with screenplays by James Cameron", "Films with screenplays by William Wisher Jr.", "Girls with guns films", "Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation winning works", "Lightstorm Entertainment films", "Nanotechnology in fiction", "Techno-thriller films", "Terminator (franchise) films", "TriStar Pictures films" ]	Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a 1991 American science fiction action film directed by James Cameron, who co-wrote the script with William Wisher. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Robert Patrick, and Edward Furlong, it is the sequel to The Terminator (1984) and is the second installment in the Terminator franchise. In the film, the malevolent artificial intelligence Skynet sends a Terminator—a highly advanced killing machine—back in time to 1995 to kill the future leader of the human resistance John Connor, when he is a child. The resistance sends back a less-advanced, reprogrammed Terminator to protect Connor and ensure the future of humanity. The Terminator was considered a significant success, enhancing Schwarzenegger's and Cameron's careers, but work on a sequel stalled because of animosity between the pair and Hemdale Film Corporation, which partially owned the film's rights. In 1990, Schwarzenegger and Cameron persuaded Carolco Pictures to purchase the rights from The Terminator producer Gale Anne Hurd and Hemdale, which was financially struggling. A release date was set for the following year, leaving Cameron and Wisher seven weeks to write the script. Principal photography began from October 1990 to March 1991, taking place in and around Los Angeles on an estimated \$94–102 million budget, making it the most expensive film made at the time. The advanced visual effects by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), which include the first use of a computer-generated main character in a blockbuster film, resulted in a schedule overrun. Theatrical prints were not delivered to theaters until the night before its release on July 3, 1991. Terminator 2 earned \$519–520.9 million, making it the highest-grossing film of 1991 worldwide, and the third-highest-grossing film of its time. Critics praised the visual effects, action sequences and cast, especially Patrick's performance as the T-1000 as a great cinematic villain, while criticism was directed towards the film's violence. Terminator 2 won several accolades, including Saturn, BAFTA, and Academy awards. Terminator 2 merchandise includes video games, comic books, novels, and T2-3D: Battle Across Time, a live-action attraction. Terminator 2 is considered one of the best science fiction, action, and sequel films ever made, as well as equal to or better than The Terminator. It is also seen as a major influence on visual effects in films, helping usher in the transition from practical effects to reliance on computer-generated imagery. Although Cameron intended for Terminator 2 to be the end of the franchise, it was followed by a series of sequels, including Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Terminator Salvation (2009), Terminator Genisys (2015), and Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), as well as a 2008 television series. ## Plot In 2029, Earth has been ravaged by the war between the malevolent artificial intelligence Skynet and the human resistance. Skynet sends the T-1000—an advanced, prototype, shape-shifting Terminator made of virtually indestructible liquid metal—back in time to kill the resistance leader John Connor when he is a child. To protect Connor, the resistance sends back a reprogrammed T-800 Terminator, a less-advanced metal endoskeleton covered in synthetic flesh. In 1995 Los Angeles, John's mother Sarah has been incarcerated at the Pescadero State Hospital for her violent efforts to prevent "Judgment Day"—the prophesied events of August 29, 1997, when Skynet will gain sentience and, in response to its creators' attempts to deactivate it, incite a nuclear holocaust. John, taken in by foster parents, considers Sarah's beliefs to be delusional and resents her efforts to prepare him for his future role. The T-1000 locates John in a shopping mall, but the T-800 intervenes, coming to John's aid and enabling their joint escape. John calls to warn his foster parents, but the T-800 deduces the T-1000 has already killed them. Realizing the T-800 is programmed to obey him, John forbids it from killing people and orders it to save Sarah from the T-1000. The T-800 and John intercept Sarah during an escape attempt but Sarah flees in horror because the T-800 resembles the Terminator that was sent to kill her in 1984. John and the T-800 persuade her to join them, and they escape the pursuing T-1000. Although distrustful of the T-800, Sarah uses its knowledge of the future to learn that a revolutionary microprocessor, being developed by Cyberdyne Systems engineer Miles Dyson, will be crucial to Skynet's creation. Over the course of their journey, Sarah sees the T-800 serving as a friend and father figure to John, who teaches it catchphrases and hand signs while encouraging it to become more human-like. Sarah plans to escape to Mexico with John, but a nightmare about Judgment Day convinces her to kill Dyson. She attacks Dyson in his home, but realizes she cannot kill a person and relents. John arrives and reconciles with Sarah while the T-800 convinces Dyson of the future consequences of his work. Dyson reveals his research has been reverse engineered from the damaged CPU and severed arm of the 1984 Terminator. Believing his work must be destroyed, Dyson, Sarah, John, and the T-800 break into Cyberdyne, retrieve the CPU and the arm, and set explosives to destroy the lab. The police assault the building and fatally shoot Dyson, but he detonates the explosives as he dies. The T-1000 pursues the surviving trio, cornering them in a steel mill. Sarah and John split up to escape while the T-1000 mangles the T-800 and briefly deactivates it by destroying its power source. The T-1000 assumes Sarah's appearance to lure out John but Sarah intervenes and, along with the reactivated T-800, pushes it into a vat of molten steel, where it disintegrates. The T-800 explains it must also be destroyed to prevent it from serving as a foundation for Skynet. Despite John's tearful protests, the T-800 persuades him its destruction is the only way to protect their future. Sarah shakes the T-800's hand and, having come to respect it, helps lower it into the vat. Before its destruction, the T-800 gives John a thumbs-up. As Sarah drives down a highway with John, she reflects on her renewed hope for an unknown future, musing if the T-800 could learn the value of life, so can humanity. ## Cast - Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator: a reprogrammed Model 101 Series 800 "T-800" Terminator that is composed of human tissue over a metal endoskeleton - Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor: a self-trained soldier who is dedicated to preventing the rise of Skynet - Edward Furlong as John Connor: Sarah's son who is destined to lead the human resistance in opposition to Skynet - Robert Patrick as T-1000: an advanced, shape-shifting, prototype Terminator that is composed of liquid metal - Earl Boen as Dr. Peter Silberman: Sarah's doctor at Pescadero State Hospital - Joe Morton as Miles Bennett Dyson: Director of special projects at Cyberdyne Systems Corporation The film's cast also includes Jenette Goldstein and Xander Berkeley as John's foster parents Janelle and Todd Voight, Cástulo Guerra as Sarah's friend Enrique Salceda, S. Epatha Merkerson and DeVaughn Nixon as Dyson's wife Tarissa and son Danny, and Danny Cooksey as John's friend Tim. Hamilton's twin sister Leslie Hamilton Gearren appears as the T-1000 impersonating Sarah when Hamilton is also on-screen. Twins Don and Dan Stanton portray a guard at Pescadero State Hospital and the T-1000 imitating him. Other cast members includes Ken Gibbel as an abusive orderly, Robert Winley, Ron Young, Charles Robert Brown, and Pete Schrum as men who confront the T-800 in a biker bar, Abdul Salaam El Razzac as Gibbons, a Cyberdyne guard, and Dean Norris as the SWAT team leader. Michael Edwards portrays the John Connor of 2029 and Hamilton's infant son Dalton Abbott portrays John in a dream sequence. Co-writer William Wisher cameos as a man photographing the T-800 in the mall, and Michael Biehn reprises his role as resistance soldier Kyle Reese in scenes that were removed from the theatrical release. ## Production ### Development The Terminator had been a surprise hit, earning \$78.4 million against its \$6.4 million budget, confirming Schwarzenegger's status as a lead actor and establishing James Cameron as a mainstream director. Schwarzenegger expressed interest in a sequel, saying "I always felt we should continue the story ... I told [Cameron] that right after we finished the first film". Cameron said Schwarzenegger had always been more enthusiastic about a sequel than he was, because Cameron considered the original a complete story. Discussions to make a sequel stalled until 1989, in part due to Cameron's work on other films such as Aliens (1986) and The Abyss (1989), but also due to a dispute with rights holder Hemdale Film Corporation. Hemdale co-founder John Daly had attempted to alter the ending of The Terminator against Cameron's wishes, nearly resulting in a physical confrontation. A sequel could not be made without Hemdale's approval as Cameron had surrendered 50% of his rights to the company to get The Terminator made. Cameron had also sold half of the remaining stake to his ex-wife Gale Anne Hurd, producer and co-writer on the first film, for \$1 following their 1989 divorce. By 1990, Hemdale was being sued by Cameron, Schwarzenegger, Hurd, and special-effects artist Stan Winston for unpaid profits from The Terminator. Schwarzenegger, aware Hemdale was experiencing financial difficulties, convinced Carolco Pictures to purchase the film rights to The Terminator, having worked with the independent film studio on the big-budget, science fiction film Total Recall (1990). Owner Mario Kassar described the rights acquisition as the most difficult deal Carolco ever conducted. He accepted a \$10 million offer for Hemdale's share, considering it a sum fabricated to ward him off, and paid Hurd \$5 million for her share. Prior to development, the total cost of the acquisition rose to \$17 million after factoring in incidental costs. Kassar told Cameron that in order to recoup his investment, the film would proceed with or without him, offering Cameron \$6 million to be involved and write the script. The film would become a collaboration between several production studios: Carolco, Le Studio Canal+, Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment, and Hurd's Pacific Western Productions. The studio also had an existing U.S. distribution deal with TriStar Pictures, which stipulated that the film be ready for release by May 27, 1991, Memorial Day. ### Writing With a scheduled release date, Cameron had six to seven weeks to write the sequel. He approached his frequent collaborator and The Terminator co-writer William Wisher in March 1990. They spent two weeks developing a film treatment based on Cameron's vision to form a relationship between John Connor and the T-800, a concept Wisher believed was a joke. Their treatment diverged from the "science fiction slasher" theme of the original, focusing on the unconventional family bond formed between Sarah, John, and the T-800. Cameron said this relationship is "the heart of the movie", comparing it to the Tin Man receiving a heart in The Wizard of Oz (1939). Cameron's concept featured Skynet and the resistance each sending a T-800—both played by Schwarzenegger—into the past, one to kill John and the other to protect him. Wisher believed a fight between two identical Terminators would be boring. The pair briefly considered a larger "Super-Terminator", but found it uninteresting and adopted an early idea Cameron had for The Terminator—a liquid-metal Terminator resembling an average-sized human in contrast to Schwarzenegger's large frame. The first half of their concept concluded with the destruction of Skynet's T-800, forcing it to use the T-1000, its ultimate weapon. Although he once considered removing the T-1000 altogether, Cameron solidified it as the only antagonist. Cameron and Wisher had the T-1000 take on the appearance of a police officer, allowing it to operate with less suspicion. Wisher found it challenging to depict the T-800 as "good" without making it non-threatening at the same time. The pair decided to give it the ability to learn and develop emotions, becoming more human over time. They kept the T-800's dialogue brief, relying on the audience to infer a lot of meaning through "small bites". Its catchphrase, "Hasta la vista, baby", was something Wisher and Cameron said after their telephone calls. Wisher developed the first half of the treatment at Cameron's home over the course of four weeks, while Cameron worked on the latter half. Many pages were removed, including a "convoluted" subplot about Dyson, and a massacre of a camp of survivalists helping Sarah. Cameron, who did not consider the budget while writing, had to cut some elaborate scenes, including a nine-minute opening that showed a time travel machine being used in 2029. Wisher and Cameron also frequently conferred with special-effects studio Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) to determine which ideas were achievable. Cameron and Wisher analyzed the first film to help envision each character's development and evolution. Cameron believed Sarah's knowledge of the future would isolate her, forcing her to associate with survivalists and become a self-sufficient commando. She was written to have become an emotionally cold and distant character comparable to a Terminator, especially when deciding to go after Dyson. Instead of beginning the story with Sarah, John is placed with a foster family to increase tension. John's character was inspired by the 1985 Sting song, "Russians", with Cameron recalling, "I remember sitting there once, high on E ... I was struck by [the lyrics] 'I hope the Russians love their children too'. And I thought ... The idea of a nuclear war is just so antithetical to life itself'. That's where [John] came from". They spent three days refining the script before flying to Cannes, where Terminator 2 was announced in early May 1990. Schwarzenegger initially struggled with portions of the script, once asking "What is 'polyalloy'?" He also expressed concern about his character's non-lethal depiction, which conflicted with his action-hero persona and portrayal of the character in The Terminator. Cameron explained he wanted to defy audience expectations. Schwarzenegger requested: "Just make me cool". ### Casting Schwarzenegger became interested in reprising his role after finding the character more complex and sympathetic than in the previous film. To accurately portray a fearless and emotionless machine, he trained extensively with stunt coordinator Joel Kramer to remain unaffected by fire and explosions around him. Schwarzenegger earned \$12–\$15 million for his involvement. Carolco had been blamed for the increase in exorbitant salaries paid to actors, having paid Schwarzenegger around \$11 million for Total Recall (1990). They justified the expense as the value of their leads' wide appeal in markets outside the U.S. To lessen the immediate financial burden, Carolco paid most of Schwarzenegger's salary with a financed \$12.75 million Gulfstream III jet. Cameron refused to re-cast Hamilton's role but developed plans to work around her absence if she chose not to return. Negotiations were protracted but concluded promptly after Cameron informed Carolco the script could not be finished until he knew if Hamilton would be involved. Hamilton received roughly \$1 million, which she described as "quite a bit more" than her earnings for The Terminator but expressed disappointment at the pay disparity between her and Schwarzenegger. Hamilton requested Sarah exhibit a "crazy" demeanor, explaining that after years of living with the impending doom of humanity, she believed Sarah would have transformed into an untamed entity, a warrior combined with a psychologically unstable woman. She continued: "[The T-800] is a better human than I am, and I'm a better Terminator than he is". Cameron considered giving the character a facial scar but determined applying it daily would be difficult. Hamilton undertook extensive preparation for her role, working with a personal trainer for three hours a day, six days a week, and maintaining a strict, low-fat diet, losing about 12 pounds (5.4 kg) of body weight. She also received judo and military training from former Israeli commando Uziel Gal. Between training, filming, and spending time with her infant son Dalton, Hamilton averaged only four hours of sleep per day. She described her experience as "sheer hell" but enjoyed showing off her new physique. Hamilton's twin sister, Leslie, was also cast in scenes where two versions of Sarah appear on-screen simultaneously. Patrick, who was living in his car, was one of several actors in their late 20s considered for the T-1000 role. Cameron wanted a lithe actor resembling a newly recruited police officer to contrast with Schwarzenegger. According to Cameron, "If the [T-800] series is a kind of human Panzer tank, then the [T-1000] series had to be a Porsche". Casting director Mali Finn believed Patrick had the "intense presence" they wanted. Patrick auditioned by acting like an emotionless hunter and later participated in a screen test to judge the way lighting worked with his skin and eyes. For his character, he drew inspiration from Schwarzenegger's performance in The Terminator and observed hunting creatures—reptiles, insects, cats, and sharks. Patrick's facial expressions were based on those of an eagle, keeping his head tilted down to imply constant forward movement. He also employed a mixture of military posture with martial arts to express a fluid motion that differed from the T-800's rigid movements. The role demanded Patrick be lean and fast, requiring peak physical shape. He learned to sprint without displaying heavy breathing and exhaustion, and received specialized training from Gal. Weapons master Harry Lu taught Patrick to operate and reload weapons, such as the T-1000's Beretta 92FS, without looking and eventually without blinking. Singer Billy Idol was originally cast for the role before a motorbike accident seriously injured his leg. In a 2021 retrospective, Cameron said Idol had an interesting aesthetic but in hindsight, he probably would not have cast him. Singer Blackie Lawless of the rock band W.A.S.P. was also considered but deemed too tall. Furlong, among hundreds of other prospects, secured the role at his last audition. Cameron believed that early candidates for the role of John Connor were either overexposed in other media or came from advertisement backgrounds, which trained them to be happy and perky. Furlong had no acting experience and was discovered by Finn at the Boys & Girls Club in Pasadena. Cameron described Furlong as having a "surliness, an intelligence, just a question of pulling it out". He was required to take acting lessons, learn Spanish, and be able to ride a motorcycle and repair guns. Joe Morton believed his casting as Miles Dyson had to do with Cameron wanting a minority character to be integral to the changing of the world. Morton avoided interacting with the cast so that their on-screen relationships would seem believably distant. The role of Dyson was reduced after the preferred casting choice, Denzel Washington, declined it because the role mainly required him to act scared. ### Filming The planned three months of pre-production was reduced to meet the release schedule, leaving Cameron without the time he wanted to prepare all aspects before filming began. Over a week, he spent several hours each day choreographing vehicle scenes with toy cars and trucks, filming the results, and printing the footage for storyboard artists. There was no time to properly test practical effects before filming so if effects did not work, the filmmakers had to work around them. Principal photography began on October 8–9, 1990, with a \$60 million budget. Scenes were filmed out of sequence to prioritize those requiring extensive visual effects. Schwarzenegger found this difficult because he was meant to convey subtle signs of the T-800's progressive humanity and was unsure what was fitting for each scene. Cinematographer Adam Greenberg, who also worked on The Terminator, described the greater scope of the sequel as the most daunting prospect. Where he had been able to shout instructions to his crew on the original film, he used one of 187 walkie-talkies to conduct efforts over an expansive area. The production was arduous, in part because of Cameron, who was known for his short temper and uncompromising "dictatorial" manner. The crew made T-shirts bearing the slogan "You can't scare me—I work for Jim Cameron". Schwarzenegger described him as a supportive but "demanding taskmaster" with a "fanaticism for physical and visual detail". Even so, by the 101st day of filming, Schwarzenegger and Hamilton were frustrated by the high number of takes Cameron performed, spending five days just on close-ups of Hamilton in the Dyson home. To stay on schedule, Cameron worked through Christmas and persuaded Schwarzenegger to cancel a visit to American troops in Saudi Arabia with U.S. President George H. W. Bush to film his scenes. The production filmed in many locations in and around Los Angeles. The now-destroyed Corral bar in Sylmar is where the T-800 confronts a group of bikers. Location manager Jim Morris chose Corral because it was raised above ground, allowing the scene to take place over different levels. The 1991 police beating of Rodney King took place at the same location a week after filming, being captured on the same videotape a spectator used to capture the filming of the biker bar scenes. On one occasion, a woman who was oblivious to ongoing filming walked into the bar. When she asked Schwarzenegger, who was wearing only a pair of shorts, what was going on, he replied: "It's male-stripper night". Executives suggested cutting the scene to save money but Cameron and Schwarzenegger refused. The T-1000 arriving in 1996 was filmed at the Sixth Street Viaduct, and John hacking an ATM at a bank in Van Nuys. His foster parents' residence is situated in the Canoga Park neighborhood, deliberately chosen for its generic appearance. The Terminators confronting John takes place inside Santa Monica Place mall, although exterior shots were captured at Northridge Fashion Center because there was less traffic. In the subsequent scene, Patrick's training allowed him to outrun John on his dirtbike, so the bike's maximum speed was increased. The T-1000 continues its pursuit using a truck, in a scene filmed at the Bull Creek spillway. Other locations include the Lake View Terrace hospital, standing in as Pescadero State Hospital, and the Petersen Automotive Museum used as its garage. In a 2012 interview, Hamilton said she suffered permanent partial hearing loss after not wearing earplugs during the hospital elevator scene, where the T-800 fires a gun, as well as shell shock from months of exposure to violence, loud noise, and gunfire. Elysian Park serves as the site of Sarah's apocalyptic dream, and scenes at the Dyson home were captured at a private property in Malibu. The Cyberdyne Building's destruction was filmed at an abandoned office in San Jose, scheduled for demolition. To bring a heightened sense of authenticity, real members of the Los Angeles Police Department's SWAT division were featured in the scene, although Cameron embellished their tactics to be visually interesting. In a spontaneous decision during Morton's death scene, Cameron opted to detonate nearby glass to examine its visual impact. The final highway chase was filmed along the Terminal Island Freeway near Long Beach, of which a 2.5-mile (4.0 km) stretch was closed to traffic every night for two weeks. Scenes set during the future war of 2029 were filmed in the rubble of an abandoned steel mill in Oxnard, California, in a one-half square mile (1.3 km<sup>2</sup>) space that was enhanced with burned bicycles and cars from a 1989 fire at the Universal Studios Lot. Terminator 2's ending was filmed in the closed Kaiser Steel mill in Fontana, which Greenberg made appear operational mainly through lighting techniques. Despite appearing to be actively smelting steel, the mill was frigid and dangerous because of the moving machinery and high catwalks. The T-800's thumbs-up during his death was added during filming (Hamilton considered it too sentimental). Six months of filming concluded on March 28, 1991, about three weeks behind schedule. ### Post-production Terminator 2 was edited by Conrad Buff IV, Richard A. Harris, and Mark Goldblatt, who said although there was more time to edit than on The Terminator, it was still relatively small given the greater scope of the sequel. They described the complexity of scenes such as the final battle between the Terminators, which required a seamless combination of live-action, practical effect shots, and CGI. After having to rush editing at the end of The Abyss, Cameron limited filming on Terminator 2 to five days a week so he could help edit the film on weekends from the start of filming. Several scenes were deleted, in part to reduce its running time. These include Kyle Reese appearing to Sarah in a dream and encouraging her to continue fighting, Sarah being beaten in the hospital, the T-1000 killing John's dog (a scene the animal-loving Patrick was not a fan of), John teaching the T-800 to smile and discussing whether it fears death, the T-1000 malfunctioning after being frozen in the steel mill, and additional scenes with Dyson's family. Schwarzenegger unsuccessfully rallied to retain his favorite scene, in which John and Sarah modify the T-800's CPU, allowing it to learn and evolve. Sarah attempts to destroy the CPU but John defends the T-800. The scene was replaced with dialogue indicating the T-800 already possesses the ability to learn. The scripted ending depicted an alternative 2029 that was filmed at the Los Angeles Arboretum in Arcadia, in which an aged Sarah narrates how Skynet was never created while John, now a senator, plays with his daughter. To make the film more evocative and memorable, Cameron changed this scene to one in which the characters look out at the road ahead. The production ran until about two days before the film's theatrical release. Delays were mainly caused by the rendering of shots at Consolidated Film Industries, the most difficult of which was the T-1000's death. Co-producer Stephanie Austin said the production crew worked twenty-four-hour shifts and slept on site. The 137 minute long release print was delivered to theaters the night before its release. There were two private pre-release screenings: one for family, friends, and crew at Skywalker Ranch and another in Los Angeles for studio executives. Austin said, "People were stamping their feet and clapping for ten or fifteen minutes", at which point the crew knew they had succeeded. During test screenings the ending was well received, and was described as a "touching" favorite scene. The minimum estimated cost to produce Terminator 2 had been \$60 million, dwarfing the budget of the first film. Cameron and Schwarzenegger said the final budget, excluding marketing, was about \$70 million, and the cost of making the film was about \$51 million. According to Carolco executives Peter Hoffman and Roger Smith, the film cost \$75 million before marketing, saying Terminator 2 was only "modestly" over budget. Including marketing and other costs, the film's total budget is reported to be between \$94 million and \$102 million. Kassar said he had secured 110% of the budget from advances and guarantees of \$91 million, including North American television (\$7 million) and home-video (\$10 million) rights, and \$61 million from theatrical, home-video and television rights outside the U.S. The distribution deal with TriStar Pictures earned it a set percentage of the budget—an estimated \$4 million. News sources labelled Terminator 2 the most-expensive independent film ever and predicted it would "bankrupt Carolco". ### Special effects and design A 10-month schedule and about \$15–\$17 million of Terminator 2's budget was allocated to the entirety of its special effects, including \$5 million for the T-1000 alone, and a further \$1 million for stunts, at the time one of the largest-ever stunt budgets. Four main companies were involved in creating the 150 visual effects. ILM under special effects supervisor Dennis Muren managed the computer-generated imagery (CGI) effects, Stan Winston Studio the prosthetics and animatronics, Fantasy II Film Effects developed miniatures and optical effects, and 4-Ward Productions were responsible for creating a nuclear explosion effect. Pacific Data Images and Video Image provided some additional effects. The cost and time involved in producing CGI meant the effect was used sparingly, appearing in 42–43 shots, alongside 50–60 practical effects. Produced near the advent of CGI, realizing the T-1000 was a risky endeavor as there was no backup plan in place if the CGI did not work as intended or could not be composited effectively with Winston's practical effects. The computer systems needed to animate and render the T-1000 CGI cost thousands of dollars alone, but creating the character also relied on a variety of practical appliances, visual illusions, and filming techniques. A team of up to 35 at ILM were required for the five minutes of screen time the T-1000's effects appear, and the process was so complex that rendering 15 seconds of footage took up to ten days. ### Music The Terminator composer Brad Fiedel returned for the sequel, working in his garage in Studio City, Los Angeles. Film industry professionals regarded his return with concern and skepticism as they believed his style would not suit the film. Fiedel quickly realized he would not receive the finished footage until late in the production after most effects were completed, which made it difficult to commit to decisions such as use of an orchestra because, unlike ambient music, the score had to accompany the on-screen action. Fiedel and Cameron wanted the musical tone to be "warmer" due to its focus on a nobler Terminator and young John. Fiedel experimented with sounds and shared them with Cameron for feedback. While The Terminator score had mainly used oscillators and synthesizers, Fiedel recorded real instruments and modified their sounds. He developed a library of sounds for characters such as the T-1000, whose theme was created by sampling brass-instrument players warming up and improvising. Fiedel said to the players, "You're an insane asylum. You're a bedlam of instruments." He slowed down the resulting sample and lowered the pitch, describing it as "artificial intelligent monks chanting". Cameron considered the "atonal" sound "too avant-garde", to which Fiedel replied, "you're creating something that people have never seen before, and [the score] ought to sound like something people have never heard before to support that". Tri-Star asked Schwarzenegger to arrange a tie-in music video and theme song for the film. He chose to work with rock band Guns N' Roses because they were popular and there was "a rose in the movie and bloody guns". The band offered the use of "You Could Be Mine", the debut single from their album Use Your Illusion II (1991). The music video, featuring Schwarzenegger as the T-800 pursuing the band, was directed by Stan Winston, Andrew Morahan, and Jeffrey Abelson. Patrick unsuccessfully lobbied to use "Head Like a Hole" by Nine Inch Nails as the tie-in song, in part because his brother, Richard Patrick, was their tour guitarist. Wisher suggested using "Bad to the Bone" by George Thorogood & the Destroyers as the T-800 puts on the biker clothes. Although Cameron did not like the idea, Wisher said he later found Cameron had used the song but had forgotten it was his idea. "Guitars, Cadillacs" by Dwight Yoakam also features in Terminator 2. ## Release ### Context The summer theatrical season, spanning from mid-May to early September, was anticipated to witness strong competition among studios. Fifty-five films were slated for release compared to thirty-seven in 1990. Release dates underwent frequent changes as studios aimed to evade direct competition and optimize their films' chances of success to compensate for the 20% increase in film production costs since 1990. This increase was partly attributed to hefty salaries demanded by stars who also claimed a portion of the film's profits. Moreover, revenues from box-office receipts, video sales, and television-network deals were on the decline. Films scheduled for release included City Slickers, The Naked Gun 21⁄2: The Smell of Fear, Only the Lonely, Hudson Hawk, The Rocketeer, What About Bob?, and Point Break. Terminator 2 was among the films expected to do well, along with Backdraft, Dying Young, and the year's predicted top film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. It was also seen as having strong international appeal. An unnamed studio executive said audiences were seeking escapist entertainment such as comedy or action, and avoiding films about less-positive subject matter. ### Marketing and promotion Schwarzenegger was involved in Terminator 2's marketing and merchandising campaign, which was estimated to be worth at least \$20 million. By 1991, advertising for Terminator 2 was ubiquitous with high audience recognition and despite its U.S. R rating, which restricted the film to audiences aged 17 and over unless accompanied by an adult, merchandise was mainly aimed at children. Tristar contributed about \$20 million for marketing, which included a \$150,000 teaser trailer that was directed by Winston and depicts the construction of a T-800. Trailers ran for six months before the film's release. Tristar incentivized cinema staff to play it frequently by offering chances to win Terminator 2-branded goods and tickets to the premiere. Fast-food restaurants and soft-drink manufacturers, such as Subway and Pepsi, also offered Terminator 2-themed food and drink, alongside promotional posters. The premiere took place on July 1, 1991, at the Cineplex Odeon in Century City, Los Angeles. According to Fiedel, it was treated as a major event, unlike the premiere of The Terminator, during which the audience was skeptical or laughed at the wrong times. Celebrities in attendance included Maria Shriver, Nicolas Cage, Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone, Michael Douglas, and Furlong's date Soleil Moon Frye. ### Box office Terminator 2: Judgment Day opened in the United States and Canada on July 3, leading into the Independence Day holiday weekend. It had the highest-grossing Wednesday opening with \$11.8 million. Between Friday and Sunday, the film grossed \$31.8 million from 2,274 theaters, an average of \$13,969 per theater, making it the number-one film of the weekend ahead of The Naked Gun 21⁄2 (\$11.6 million) in its second weekend and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (\$10.3 million) in its fourth. Over the five-day holiday weekend (Wednesday to Sunday), Terminator 2 grossed \$52.3 million, becoming the second-highest opening five-day total ever behind Batman's \$57 million in 1989, It set a record opening for an R-rated film and for an Independence Day weekend. The opening week audience was evenly split between adults, teenagers, and children, about 25%–30% of whom were women, although Tri-Star said the figure was higher. The film benefited from repeat viewings by young audience members. One theater chain executive said: "... nothing since Batman has created the frenzy for tickets we saw this weekend with Terminator. At virtually all our locations, we are selling out ... the word-of-mouth buzz out there is just phenomenal". Industry professional Lawrence Kasanoff said it was an "open secret" that despite the R rating, children were seeing the film, remarking "When T2 opened, I saw kids skateboard up to the ticket window ..." It retained the number-one position in its second weekend, grossing \$20.7 million, ahead of the debuts of One Hundred and One Dalmatians (\$10.3 million) and Boyz n the Hood (\$10 million), and in its third weekend with \$14.9 million, ahead of Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (\$10.2 million) and One Hundred and One Dalmatians (\$7.8 million). Terminator 2: Judgment Day fell to number two in its fifth weekend, grossing \$8.6 million against the debut of the comedy Hot Shots! (\$10.8 million). It remained in the top-five highest-grossing films for twelve consecutive weeks and the top-ten highest-grossing films for fifteen weeks. In total, Terminator 2: Judgment Day spent about twenty-six weeks in theaters in a total of 2,495 cinemas, and grossed \$204.8 million, making it the highest-grossing film of the year, ahead of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (\$165 million), Beauty and the Beast (\$145 million), and The Silence of the Lambs (\$130 million). This also made it the thirteenth-highest-grossing film of its time, behind Back to the Future (1985), and the highest-grossing R-rated film. The Los Angeles Times estimated after the theater and distributor cuts, the box-office returns to Carolco would be well over twenty percent of the film's cost. Outside the U.S. and Canada, Terminator 2: Judgment Day set numerous box office records. In the United Kingdom it had a record three-day opening weekend of \$4.4 million (and a one-week record of \$7.8 million) and went on to gross at least \$30 million. In France it grossed a record \$9.5 million in its opening week (the biggest opening since Rocky IV) and \$16 million in two weeks. In Germany it grossed a record \$8 million in five days and also had a record Australian opening weekend of \$1.9 million. In Thailand it was the highest-grossing western-hemisphere film ever with a gross of \$1.2 million. The film also performed well in Brazil and grossed at least \$51 million in Japan. Internationally, the film grossed about \$312.1 million, making it the first film to gross over \$300 million outside of the U.S. and Canada. Terminator 2: Judgment Day is estimated to have grossed a worldwide total of \$519–\$520.9 million, making it the year's highest-grossing film, and the third-highest-grossing film ever, behind 1977's Star Wars (\$530 million) and 1982's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (\$619 million). ## Reception ### Critical response Terminator 2: Judgment Day was released to general acclaim. Many reviews focused on the state-of-the-art physical, special, and make-up effects, which were roundly praised as "revolutionary" and "spectacular", particularly those relating to the T-1000 as a "technological wonder". Several publications wrote Cameron's ability to realize cinematic action blockbusters was unmatched. Janet Maslin said at his best, despite occasional lapses into melodrama, Cameron's work is akin to that of director Stanley Kubrick. Both Maslin and The Austin Chronicle commented on the kindness and compassion in the film. The Austin Chronicle contrasted it to the lack of a moral message in The Terminator and Travers described it as a "visionary parable" but they, alongside others, criticized Terminator 2's "muddled" message about protecting the value of human life and peace by using extreme violence to prevent the use of nuclear weapons, war, and technological reliance. Reviewers generally agreed the narrative early in the film is stronger than the one near the end. Owen Glieberman said the first hour has a genuine "emotional pull" and according to Roger Ebert, the initial concept of a boy finding a father figure in a Terminator that is learning to be human is "intriguing", but Glieberman said the narrative weakens once Hamilton's character joins the group. Travers and Corliss wrote it stumbles after hours of relentless action and a "conventional climax". Despite this observation, Glieberman praised the final battle between the T-1000 and the protagonists. Empire's review and Terrence Rafferty found the film's narrative less satisfying and idea-driven than that of The Terminator. Glieberman said despite it being an effective and witty thriller, Terminator 2: Judgment Day comes across as an expensive B movie when compared with "visionary spectacles" such as the Mad Max series and RoboCop (1987). Kenneth Turan said Terminator 2's action scenes succeed without the extreme gore and violence of RoboCop. Ebert and Maslin, among others, appreciated the twist on Schwarzenegger's public action-hero persona by making him a hero who does not kill his enemies. David Ansen and Glieberman found humor in the T-800's non-lethal methods and efforts to become more human-like. Maslin and Hinson agreed, as in The Terminator, Schwarzenegger's role is perfect for his acting abilities. Hinson said Schwarzenegger portrayed more humanity as a machine than he did when portraying normal people. In contrast, Empire suggested the change was a concession to Schwarzenegger's young fans and Peter Travers chose the T-800's death as a "cornball" scene that is out of place for the actor and film. Several reviewers praised the T-1000 character for the combination of Patrick's "chilling" expressionless performance and the advanced special effects, which create an implacable, "showstopping" villain. Empire called the character "one of the great monsters of the cinema". Glieberman said the character's absence from much of the film's second act is to the film's detriment, and Hinson wrote the T-1000 lacks any "soul" and thus a way for the audience to identify with it. Critics generally agreed Hamilton portrays a "fierce" female hero with an impressive physique that lets her outshine another action hero, Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley in Cameron's Aliens (1986). Other publications found Sarah Connor's narrations about peace to be "heavy-handed", overused, and "unintentionally amusing". Furlong was praised for giving a natural performance at a young age, and Hinson wrote despite limited screentime, Morton made an impression. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A+" on a scale of A+ to F. ### Accolades At the 1992 Saturn Awards, Terminator 2: Judgment Day received awards for Best Science Fiction Film, Best Director (Cameron), Best Actress (Hamilton), Best Performance by a Younger Actor (Furlong), and Best Special Effects, as well as nomination for Best Actor (Schwarzenegger). It also won Favorite Motion Picture at the 18th People's Choice Awards. For the 45th British Academy Film Awards, Terminator 2 received awards for Best Sound (Lee Orloff, Tom Johnson, Gary Rydstrom, Gary Summers) and Best Special Visual Effects (Stan Winston, Dennis Muren, Gene Warren Jr., Robert Skotak), as well as a nomination for Best Production Design (Joseph Nemec III). The 64th Academy Awards earned Terminator 2 four awards: Best Makeup (Winston and Jeff Dawn), Best Sound (Orloff, Johnson, Rydstrom, and Summers), Best Sound Effects Editing (Rydstrom and Gloria S. Borders), and Best Visual Effects (Muren, Winston, Warren Jr., and Skotak), as well as nominations for Best Cinematography (Adam Greenberg) and Best Film Editing (Conrad Buff, Mark Goldblatt and Richard A. Harris). It was the first film to win an Academy Award when its predecessor had not been nominated. It received six awards at the 1992 MTV Movie Awards, including: Best Movie, Best Action Sequence ("L.A. Freeway Scene"), Best Breakthrough Performance (Furlong), Best Female Performance (Hamilton), Best Male Performance (Schwarzenegger), and nominations for Best Song From a Movie ("You Could Be Mine"), Best Villain (Patrick), and Most Desirable Female (Hamilton), as well as a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation (Cameron and Wisher). ## Post-release ### Aftermath Terminator 2: Judgment Day launched the careers or raised the profiles of its principal actors. According to industry professionals, Schwarzenegger became the top international star ahead of actors such as Mel Gibson and Tom Cruise. It also marked the start of a lasting friendship between Schwarzenegger and Cameron, who formed a "midlife crisis motorcycle club" and reunited for the action film True Lies (1994). Cameron and Hamilton began a romantic relationship in 1991, married in 1997, and later divorced. In 1992 Cameron was given a five-year, \$500 million contract by 20th Century Fox to produce twelve films. Furlong became a highly sought after actor and Patrick found dealing with his new-found recognition difficult as people asked him to impersonate the T-1000. Despite the film's success, Carolco reported 1991 losses of \$265.1 million, which was caused by the financial problems of its other films and subsidiaries. Support from investors failed to prevent the studio filing for bankruptcy in 1995 and its assets, including Terminator 2, were sold to Canal Plus for \$58 million. ### Home media In December 1991, Terminator 2: Judgment Day was released on VHS and LaserDisc. It was a popular rental in the U.S. and Canada, with a record 714,000 copies shipped to retailers, and it became the best-selling rental by mid-January 1992. Varèse Sarabande released Fiedel's score, which spent six weeks on the Billboard 200 record chart, peaking at number 70. The theme song "You Could Be Mine" peaked at number 29 on the U.S. Billboard 100, and performed well in the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Spain, and Canada. A "Special Edition" LaserDisc was released in 1993, featuring a 15-minute extended version of the film that restored deleted scenes, interviews with cast and crew, storyboards, designs, and unrestored deleted scenes. Cameron stated he did not use the label "Director's Cut" because he considered the theatrical releases to be definitive and the extended versions as opportunities to restore "depth and character made omissible by theatrical running time". The theatrical version was released on DVD in 1997. In 2000, an "Ultimate Edition" DVD was released, containing the theatrical and "Special Edition" cuts, and a new "Extended Cut", containing a scene of the T-1000 inspecting John's bedroom, and the alternate ending. Terminator 2 special effects coordinator Van Ling supervised the release. The "Extreme Edition" was released in 2003, featuring the theatrical and "Special Edition" cuts, a remastered 1080p image, Cameron's first commentary, and a documentary about the film's influence on special effects. Terminator 2 was released on Blu-ray in 2006, followed in 2009 by a "Skynet Edition" that contains the theatrical and "Special Edition" cuts, and commentaries with the cast and crew. This release includes a limited collector's set containing the Blu-ray, the "Ultimate" and "Extreme" editions on DVDs, a digital download version, all extant special features, and a 14-inch (360 mm) T-800 skull bust. A 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray version that includes a standard Blu-ray and digital version, was released in 2017. This release also offered a collector's option that includes one of 6,000 life-size replicas of a T-800 skeleton forearm, each signed by Cameron and individually numbered, the soundtrack, the theatrical, "Special", "Extended", and 2017 3D remaster cuts, and "Reprogramming the Terminator", a documentary that includes interviews with Schwarzenegger, Cameron, Furlong, and others. ### Other media Terminator 2: Judgment Day was marketed with numerous tie-in products, including toys, puppets, trading cards, jigsaw puzzles, clothing, a perfume named "Hero", and a novelization by Randall Frakes that expands on the film's ending. In 1991 Marvel Comics adapted the film into a comic book, which was followed by expansions of the Terminator 2 narrative, including Malibu Comics's "Cybernetic Dawn" and "Nuclear Twilight" (1995–1996), Dynamite Entertainment's "Infinity" and "Revolution" (2007), and the T2 novel series by S. M. Stirling in the early 2000s. Several video game adaptations of Terminator 2 were published, including a pinball machine and an arcade game in 1991. The arcade game was popular enough to be ported to home consoles as T2: The Arcade Game. Multiple studios developed widely differing adaptations for home consoles, includingTerminator 2 for Game Boy and Terminator 2 for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). A later adaptation was developed for the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and a different game was published for home computers. Merchandise for Terminator 2: Judgment Day was estimated to have generated \$400 million in sales. In 1996, T2-3D: Battle Across Time, a live-action attraction, was opened at Universal Studios Florida, and later at locations in Hollywood and Japan. The twenty-minute attraction was co-written and directed by Cameron and cost \$60 million to produce, including live-action stunts and a \$24 million, 12-minute, 3D film starring Schwarzenegger, Hamilton, Patrick, and Furlong as their in-world characters, making it the most-expensive film per minute produced of its time. In it, Sarah and John attempt to stop Cyberdyne, which has developed Skynet. They are confronted by the T-1000 but saved by the T-800, which returns to 2029 with John to defeat Skynet and its latest creation, the T-1000000. ### 3D remaster Cameron oversaw a year-long 3D remaster and subsequent theatrical re-release of Terminator 2: Judgment Day in August 2017. Cameron said: "If you've never seen it, this'll be the version you want to see and remember". Cameron made visual modifications to the film to fix errors that had bothered him, including the addition of windshield glass to the T-1000's truck, which fell out during its stunt fall and reappears in later scenes, concealing the obvious use of stuntmen for Furlong and Schwarzenegger during the same scene, concealed more of Patrick's nudity during his introduction, and brightened the visuals. The 3D remaster's theatrical release was seen as a disappointment, earning about \$562,000 in its debut across 386 theaters compared to the 3D re-release of Cameron's Titanic in 2012, which fetched \$17 million. ## Themes and analysis ### Themes A central theme of Terminator 2: Judgment Day is the relationship between John Connor and the T-800 that serves as a surrogate for the father (Kyle Reese) he never knew. Cameron said: "Sure, there's going to be big, thunderous action sequences, but the heart of the movie is that relationship", comparing it with the Tin Man getting a heart in The Wizard of Oz. As with Cameron's earlier film Aliens, Terminator 2 focuses on compassion and parental figures, depicting the T-800 as a relentless protector and father figure to John, against the equally relentless T-1000. The T-800 is designed to emulate humans for infiltration purposes but as it grows and evolves, its emotions become real and it learns from John to feel grief. The T-800 chooses to sacrifice its life to ensure the survival of everyone else. In 1991 essayist Robert Bly wrote elderly men were not offering suitable role models for young men, and in Terminator 2, Sarah denounces the many men in her past who failed to be a father for John, except for the T-800. Once its role is complete, the T-800 leaves John for his own good after stating it lacks the emotions John must rely on. While John teaches the T-800 about humanity, his biological mother Sarah has become less human because of her knowledge about the future. Cameron said: "She's a sad character—a tragic character ... she believes that everyone she meets, talks to, or interacts with will be dead very soon". This theme of machine-like humans links with Cameron's and Wisher's choice to make the T-1000 appear as a police officer because thematically they believed it represents humans who should have empathy for others becoming more machine-like and detached from their emotions. The SWAT team at Cyberdyne shoots Dyson, an African American, without warning. Cinephilia described Dyson as the most-human character in the film, an intelligent, optimistic family man who represents real-world encounters between police forces and people of color, compared to their encounter with the Caucasian T-800, during which they warn him before opening fire. Following her escape from the state hospital, Sarah appears to embrace John but is actually checking him for injuries, forgoing any emotional attachment for the practicality of ensuring his survival and bringing about his destiny as a future leader. The T-800 is portrayed as a better parent than Sarah, offering him undivided attention while Sarah remains distant and focused on the future rather than the present. Philosophy professor Richard T. McClelland notes Sarah acceptance of the T-800 as John's surrogate father is such that she leaves it in control of John when she leaves to kill Dyson. Sarah's dream about the nuclear holocaust that will kill six billion people, including her son, incites her to kill Dyson before he can complete the work that will bring about Skynet but when the moment comes, she is unable to fully forsake her humanity and murder him with no emotion. Cameron described this as a question of humanity's worth if we abandon it to win the battle for its existence. Compared to the bleak, nihilistic theme of the first film, Terminator 2 emphasizes the concept of free will and the value of human life. Schwarzenegger quoted the film's line "no fate but what we make", saying people have control over their own destinies. Terminator 2 also comments on the use of violence. On its release, reviewers were critical of Terminator 2: Judgment Day's message about preserving peace through violence. Owen Gleiberman stated "reckless indifference" to human life is intrinsic to the film but the T-800 maiming people rather than killing them potentially condemns victims of violence to a life of pain. Cameron described the film as the "world's most violent anti-war movie", and said it is about people struggling with their own violent natures. In particular, Cameron had been concerned by the original antagonist T-800's status as a cultural icon and power fantasy as a lethal, unstoppable force of strength and power, and chose to redefine it in Terminator 2, retaining the power fantasy without taking lives. Cinephilia said it is not morally possible to recover from killing people so Terminator 2 is about redeeming the T-800 and Sarah. ### Analysis According to Professor Jefffrey A. Brown, there was a growth of female-led action films in the wake of Alien's success. Brown believes this reflected the increase in more women assuming non-traditional roles and the division between professional critics—who perceive a masculinization of the female hero—and audiences who embrace characters regardless of gender. The hyper-masculine heroes played by Schwarzenegger, Stallone, and Jean-Claude Van Damme were replaced with independent women who are capable of defending themselves and defeating villains in films such Terminator 2 and The Silence of the Lambs. Brown said these female characters often perform stereotypical male actions and have muscular physiques rather than feminine, "soft" bodies. He considers Hamilton's undershirt to be symbolic of typically male action heroes such as John McClane and John Rambo, as well as women displaying masculine traits such as Rachel McLish in Aces: Iron Eagle III (1992). Despite the emphasis on strong femininity, Hamilton's character remains secondary to Schwarzenegger's. Sarah's efforts to defeat the T-1000 fall short until the last-minute intervention of the T-800. Author Victoria Warren said this allows the female character to be strong enough to be admired but not strong enough to undermine the male protagonist's masculinity. Professors Amanda Fernbach and Thomas B. Byers said the rigid form of the T-800 represents reactionary masculinity that is in direct opposition to the gender-bending T-1000, which represents a post-modern, fluid nature that is outside traditional norms and in opposition to patriarchy and the preservation of the traditional family. Author Mark Duckenfield said Terminator 2: Judgment Day can be seen as an unintended allegory for the decline of United States industries against successful Japanese technology firms with the cutting-edge T-1000 representing Japan against the older, less-advanced T-800. The U.S. industries, which were sometimes seen as villains during the economic boom of the 1980s, are seen as more sympathetic in the face of obsolescence, just as the T-800 is presented as friendlier and still powerful but no longer overwhelmingly so. Duckenfield considers the final scene, which takes place in a steel mill—a place of American industry—symbolic. According to Warren, Terminator 2 reflects Cold War American values that emphasized principles of American culture, in particular individualism and rejection of government intervention. The institutions the film's protagonists should be able to rely on, such as the government, the police, and technology, are the ones attempting to stop them because they do not believe in the protagonists' doomsday prophecy. ## Legacy ### Cultural influence Terminator 2 is considered a highly influential film, setting a benchmark for sequels, action set pieces, and visual effects. Cameron and special-effects supervisor Dennis Muren said the groundbreaking special effects in Terminator 2 demonstrated the possibilities of computer generated effects and without it, effects-focused films such as Jurassic Park (1993) would not have been possible. Various publications have referenced Terminator 2's influence on special effects, describing it as the most important special-effects film since Tron (1982), and began the era of reliance on CGI effects for films such as Jurassic Park and The Matrix (1999). In 2007 the Visual Effects Society, an entertainment-industry organization of visual effects practitioners, named Terminator 2 as the 14th-most-influential visual-effects film of all time, and the T-1000 is listed by Guinness World Records as the "first major blockbuster movie character generated using computers". According to The Guardian, the film's "groundbreaking" effects led to "CGI laziness", a reliance on computer graphics over practical effects, stunts, and craft. A 2014 Entertainment Weekly article said Terminator 2 contributed to the contemporary Hollywood high-budget, science fiction epic film, and a reliance on turning films into franchises targeted at young audiences and broad demographics. Den of Geek described it as one of the most influential blockbusters since the thriller Jaws (1975). Several filmmakers and creative leads have named it as an influence on their work, including Steven Caple Jr., Ryan Coogler, Kevin Feige, and Hideo Kojima. With a \$94–102 million budget, Terminator 2: Judgment Day was the most expensive movie made in its time, and, as of 2023, it remains Schwarzenegger's highest-grossing film. Alongside her appearance in The Terminator, Hamilton's Sarah Connor became regarded as one of the greatest and most-influential cinematic female action heroes and an iconic character. Patrick's T-1000 is considered one of the most iconic cinematic villains. He made cameo appearances as the T-1000 in Wayne's World (1992) and Schwarzenegger's Last Action Hero (1993). In Last Action Hero, Stallone replaces Schwarzenegger as the T-800 on the Terminator 2 poster. The T-800's line "Hasta la vista, baby" is considered an iconic piece of movie dialogue that is often quoted. Schwarzenegger also used it in speeches during his political career. Terminator 2: Judgment Day has been referenced in a variety of media, including television, films, and video games. The biker bar scene was recreated for a 2015 advertisement, which featured Schwarzenegger, for the video game WWE 2K16—the bar patrons were replaced with WWE wrestlers. ### Retrospective assessments Since its release, Terminator 2: Judgment Day has been assessed as one of the best action, science fiction, and sequel films ever made. Terminator 2 and The Terminator are generally considered as the standout films in the Terminator franchise, with each taking turns in the top spot. Some publications have listed Terminator 2 among the greatest films made. In 2001 the American Film Institute (AFI) ranked Terminator 2 number 77 on its 100 Years ... 100 Thrills list, recognizing the "most heart-pounding movies", and the 2003 list of the 100 Best Heroes & Villains ranked the T-800 character as the forty-eighth-best hero. The 2005 list of the 100 Best Movie Quotes listed the T-800 dialog line "Hasta la vista, baby" as the 76th-best quotation, and the 2008 AFI's 10 Top 10 named Terminator 2 as the eighth-best science fiction film. To mark Schwarzenegger's 75th birthday in 2022, Variety listed Terminator 2: Judgment Day as the best film in his 46-year career. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes offers a approval rating from the aggregated reviews of critics, with an average score of . The website's critical consensus says: "T2 features thrilling action sequences and eye-popping visual effects, but what takes this sci-fi/action landmark to the next level is the depth of the human (and cyborg) characters". The film has a score of 75 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 22 critics' reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". During Terminator 2's 30th anniversary in 2021, Cameron, among others, said despite using older models of cars, the film's visuals still compare well with contemporary films. Cameron also said Terminator 2 remains relevant because artificial intelligence had become a ubiquitous reality rather than a fantasy. In 2006 Terminator 2 was listed at number 32 on Film4's 50 Films to See Before You Die list, and is included in the film reference book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. Rotten Tomatoes lists it as one of 300 essential movies and at number 123 on its list of 200 essential movies. Popular Mechanics and Rolling Stone jointly listed it alongside The Terminator as the third-best time travel film ever made. Rolling Stone's reader-voted list of the best sequels ranks Terminator 2 second behind The Godfather Part II (1974), and Empire readers ranked the film 17th on its 2017 "100 Greatest Movies" list. ## Sequels Cameron said he had no intentions for further sequels, believing Terminator 2 "brings the story full circle and ends. And I think ending it at this point is a good idea". Wisher and Cameron wrote the script with the intention of leaving no option for a sequel. Even so, four sequels followed: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Terminator Salvation (2009), Terminator Genisys (2015), and Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), though none replicated the successes of The Terminator or Terminator 2. Schwarzenegger returned for all but Terminator Salvation, while Cameron and Hamilton returned only for Dark Fate, a direct sequel to the events of Terminator 2. Although better critically received than other post-Terminator 2 sequels, Dark Fate is also considered a failure. Analysts blamed audience disinterest on the diminishing quality of the series since Terminator 2, and repeated attempts to reboot the series. Fans also criticized Dark Fate's opening scene, in which a T-800 kills Furlong's teenage John Connor. Entertainment website Collider wrote this retroactively damages the ending of Terminator 2. A television series, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008–2009), also takes place after the events of Terminator 2, and ignores the events in sequels Terminator 3 and beyond.
1,669,508	Carrow Road	1,171,487,212	Football stadium in Norwich, England	[ "1935 establishments in England", "English Football League venues", "Football venues in England", "Norwich City F.C.", "Premier League venues", "Sports venues completed in 1935", "Sports venues in Norwich" ]	Carrow Road is a football stadium in Norwich, Norfolk, England, and is the home of EFL Championship side Norwich City. The stadium is east of the city, near Norwich railway station and the River Wensum. Norwich City FC originally played at Newmarket Road before moving to The Nest. When The Nest was deemed inadequate for the size of crowds it was attracting, the Carrow Road ground, named after the road on which it is located, was purpose-built by Norwich City in just 82 days and opened on 31 August 1935. The stadium has been altered and upgraded several times during its history, notably following a fire that destroyed the old City Stand in 1984. Having once accommodated standing supporters, the ground has been all-seater since 1992. The ground's current capacity is 27,359. The stadium's record attendance since becoming an all-seater ground is 27,137, set during a Premier League match versus Newcastle United on 2 April 2016. In the days when fans could stand on terraces, Carrow Road saw a crowd of 43,984 when hosting Leicester City for an FA Cup match in 1963. Carrow Road has also hosted under-21 international football and a number of concerts, including performances by Elton John and George Michael. The Carrow Road site includes catering facilities and a Holiday Inn hotel offering rooms with views of the pitch. ## History ### Background Norwich City F.C. played at Newmarket Road from 1902 to 1908, with a record attendance of 10,366 in 1908. Following a dispute over the conditions of renting Newmarket Road, the club moved to a new home in 1908, a converted disused chalk pit in Rosary Road, Norwich. The new ground became known as The Nest, named for Norwich City's nickname, "The Canaries". By the 1930s, the ground capacity was proving insufficient for the growing crowds: The Nest's largest crowd was 25,037 in the 1934–35 FA Cup. The physical limitations of the site of The Nest meant that expansion was not possible, and there were safety problems with the existing structures. The club began looking for alternative accommodation in 1926, their hand forced finally when one corner of the pitch subsided up to 30 feet after old chalk workings collapsed. An attempt to patch up the problem with railway sleepers and soil failed to impress The Football Association (FA), who wrote to the club on 15 May 1935, saying The Nest "was no longer suitable for large crowds and measures must be taken". The club's dilemma was acute: the FA no longer approved of large crowds at The Nest, but the new season was just weeks away. About half a mile south of The Nest, they found a new site, the Boulton Paul Sports Ground in Carrow Road, which belonged to J. & J. Colman. ### Stadium's name and initial construction history The new stadium took its name from the street which encloses the ground on three sides, the fourth boundary being the River Wensum. The name "Carrow" originally refers to the former Carrow Abbey that once stood on the riverside, its name in turn having possible Norse origins. In 1800, John Ridges, owner of the Carrow Abbey Estate and the land opposite on the banks of the Wensum in Thorpe Hamlet, "granted permission for a proposed road access across his grounds to Carrow". By 1811, Philip M. Martineau, a surgeon, owned the building, lands and manor of Carrow, including the adjacent Thorpe land. Carrow Hill Road was created on his Carrow Abbey Estate, to provide work for the poor in the community. The road linked Martineau's Bracondale Estate to Carrow Toll Bridge, installed in 1810. Norwich Railway Co. had acquired the land in Thorpe around Carrow Road by the 1840s, and by 1860 the Thorpe site of the future stadium belonged to the firm of J. & J. Colman. The stadium's Thorpe Corner acknowledges this historical link. In 1935, Colman's offered the 20-year leasehold to Norwich City and construction of the new stadium began swiftly on the site: tenders were issued on the day the site was purchased and ten days later, on 11 June, work began. Initial materials were sourced by demolishing the former "Chicken Run" section of The Nest, with the rubble dumped as a bank at the river end of the new ground. Thereafter, work proceeded quickly, with most of the stands and terraces built by 17 August. A practice match was held on 26 August with work "still in progress", and, after just 82 days, on 31 August, the ground was opened for a Second Division fixture featuring West Ham United. The stadium had an initial capacity of 35,000, including 5,000 seats under cover. Norwich won the game 4–3; the attendance was 29,779, which set a new club record crowd for a home game. The first competitive goal at the ground was scored by Norwich's Duggie Lochhead. The new stadium was described by club officials as "the largest construction job in the city since the building of Norwich Castle", "miraculously built in just 82 days" and "the eighth wonder of the world". An aerial photograph from August 1935 shows three sides of open terracing, and a covered stand with a Colman's Mustard advertisement painted on its roof, visible only from the air. The club's association with Colman's has continued into the modern era; in 1997 the club signed a shirt sponsorship deal with the company. The mustard manufacturer's original factory was located adjacent to the stadium in Carrow Road, and the ground was opened by Russell Colman, the President of the club. The author Simon Inglis describes the early Carrow Road as comprising "a Main Stand, a covered end terrace and two large open banks". The covered terrace was paid for by Captain Evelyn Barclay, the vice-president of Norwich City; it was constructed in time for the opening of the 1937–38 season, and while the original construction is long gone, the end retains the name of its benefactor. At this time, the ground's capacity was 38,000, with space for 10,000 of "the more vociferous of the home and away supporters", in the new Barclay end. The new ground received a royal seal of approval: on 29 October 1938, King George VI watched twenty minutes of the home game versus Millwall, the first time a ruling monarch had watched a Second Division match. ### Ground developments Floodlights were erected at the ground in 1956 and the £9,000 cost nearly sent the club into bankruptcy. However, Norwich's success in the 1958–59 FA Cup (where as a Third Division club they reached the semi-final, losing to First Division Luton Town after a replay) secured the financial status of the club and provided sufficient funds for a cover to be built over the South Stand. In 1963, the record was set for attendance at Carrow Road: a crowd of 43,984 watched a sixth round FA Cup match against Leicester City, and the South Stand was covered shortly afterwards. In the wake of the Ibrox stadium disaster in 1971, a government enquiry brought more stringent safety requirements, which, when applied to Carrow Road, resulted in the capacity being drastically reduced to around 20,000. With focus on the dangers of standing, seats began to replace terracing: by 1979, the stadium had a capacity of 28,392, with seats for 12,675. A fire in 1984 partially destroyed one of the stands which eventually led to its complete demolition and replacement by 1987 with a new City Stand. When it opened, then chairman Robert Chase compared the experience of visiting the new stand to "going to the theatre – the only difference being that our stage is covered with grass". After the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 and the subsequent outcome of the Taylor Report in 1990, the stadium was converted to all-seater. In 2003 the South Stand was replaced by the new, 8,000-seat Jarrold Stand. In the summer of 2010, work was undertaken to increase the ground's capacity from 26,018 to 27,000. This was achieved by finding additional capacity for seats within the existing stands. ### Pitch In 2004, £700,000 was invested in improving the pitch. The former all-grass surface was replaced with a sand-based Desso GrassMaster one, the mix of artificial and real grass which, according to the then groundsman Gary Kemp "guarantee[d] that the pitch would be looking good enough for every match to be broadcast on TV". The under-soil heating system "can clear snow and ice within eight hours of being turned on". ### Eightieth anniversary In anticipation of the ground's 80th anniversary on 31 August 2015, a rematch of the original fixture versus West Ham was played on 28 July. As part of the celebrations, the club offered season ticket holders the opportunity to mark their seats with their name or a message. Fans were also offered the chance to buy tickets for a celebratory dinner with the first-team squad, the menu provided by the club's joint majority shareholder, the celebrity chef Delia Smith. ## Stands The current stadium consists of four stands; the Regency Security Stand, the Barclay, the Geoffrey Watling City Stand and the most recent addition, the rebuilt South Stand. ### Regency Security Stand This end of the ground, closest to the River Wensum, was originally known as the "River End", a name that still persists among fans. An old stand was demolished in April 1979 and a two-tiered replacement was completed in December 1979. The stand was officially named the Norwich & Peterborough Stand in the 1990s, after a sponsorship deal with the Norwich & Peterborough Building Society. An extra 160 seats were installed in the summer of 2010, bringing the capacity up to 6239 The stand was renamed the Regency Security Stand after a deal with Regency Security, the current security firm of the club. ### The Barclay The Barclay is named after Captain Evelyn Barclay, a former vice-president of the club, who donated the cost of roofing the original stand. This was built in 1937, but demolished in 1992, when a new two-tier structure, modelled on the River End was built in accordance with the recommendations of the Taylor Report, with the current capacity sitting at 6,267. Local brewers Woodforde's Brewery were announced as the stand's sponsors in June 2018. ### Geoffrey Watling City Stand The single-tiered Geoffrey Watling City Stand was built following a severe fire in its ageing predecessor on 25 October 1984. The fire was apparently caused by an employee of the club leaving a three-bar electric fire switched on overnight. The City Stand (as it was named at the time) cost £1.7 million to build and was used for the first time on 30 August 1986 when City hosted Southampton. It was formally opened by the Duchess of Kent on 14 February 1987. The stand was renamed in honour of Norwich City president Geoffrey Watling, who died in 2004, aged 91. The stand has the lowest capacity of the four; it also houses the directors' box, the press area and hospitality suites. Where The Barclay extends around to meet the Geoffrey Watling City Stand is the Thorpe corner infill, known to supporters as 'The Snakepit'. The current capacity is 4338. ### The South Stand The South Stand is on the site of the former South Stand, which was named in honour of Sir Arthur South. The new stand was partially opened for the game against Sheffield United on 31 January 2004, and fully opened for the next home match, a game versus West Ham. It was opened by Ken Brown, a former manager of both clubs. From 2004 until May 2016 the stand was sponsored by Jarrolds, a local department store. It is a single-tiered stand of cantilever construction with a capacity of 8,434. From 2016, the infill where the hotel is situated a large rotating screen which allows fans in the South Stand and the Barclay Stand to see various video broadcasts relating to the club. It is currently the only rotating big screen in world football. The corner infill between the Jarrold and Norwich & Peterborough stands is called the Joma Community Stand. It was built in 2005 and named after sponsors Aviva. It seats up to 1,708 fans, and also provides extensive facilities for disabled supporters. On 15 June 2016, it was announced that following the termination of Jarrold as the stand's sponsor, the stand would revert to its historical name of the South Stand. Irish coffee company The Galway Roast were announced as the stand's new sponsors, which would be officially called The South Stand sponsored by The Galway Roast. On 2 November 2016, the club announced that the sponsorship deal with The Galway Roast had been terminated and the stand would once again simply be known as The South Stand. On 25 November 2016, the club announced a new sponsorship of The South Stand with NVCS with their Green Farm Coffee brand. Although the stand name remained the same with the new sponsor. #### Visiting supporter accommodation Accommodation for visiting supporters is provided in the end of the South Stand closest to The Barclay. The Essential Football Fan describes the away end as follows: > "As you would expect from a new stand, the facilities and view of the playing action are good. The normal allocation in this area is 2,500 fans although this can be increased further for cup games. If you are located at the very back of the stand then you can enjoy some fine views of the city." ## Other facilities and services The corner between The Barclay and the Jarrold Stand contains a Holiday Inn hotel, which opened in 2007. The hotel, with six floors and 150 rooms, is held by Holiday Inn on a 150-year lease from the club, which received in return a 30% stake in the hotel and £1.1 million. Catering at Carrow Road is provided by Delia's Canary Catering, which is part of Norwich City Football Club PLC. Smith took control of the catering at the club in 1999. Coffee is supplied to Carrow Road by Green Farm Coffee. Coffee is available in the kiosks to fans as instant coffee and fresh filter coffee is provided in the boxes and throughout restaurants including Delia's Restaurant and Bar and Yellows American Bar & Grill. Catering facilities include: "Yellows American Bar & Grill", an American-style diner located in the Norwich & Peterborough Stand; and "Delia's Restaurant and Bar", located in the Norwich & Peterborough Stand. "The Gunn Club" is a catering facility behind The Barclay, named after former player and manager Bryan Gunn. There are a number of other conference facilities around the ground, many named after former players and club officials such as Darren Huckerby and Sir Arthur South, as well as club sponsors Lotus Cars. ## Transport Carrow Road is approximately ten minutes walking distance from Norwich railway station, which is on the Great Eastern Main Line to Liverpool Street station. Although resident parking scheme is in force in the roads surrounding the stadium, a park-and-ride facility operates around the city centre enabling visitors to the ground to arrive by bus. ## Future plans for construction Norwich City have a capped season ticket allocation of 22,000, with a waiting list. The club regularly sells out its home allocation of tickets and, in 2013–14, the ground had an occupancy rate of 99.95%, one of the highest in the Premier League. In this context, the club has often stated that it plans to increase the capacity of the stadium in the future, The Geoffrey Watling City Stand has foundations designed to support a second tier, and the roof could be removed and replaced after a second tier is added. In January 2011, chairman Alan Bowkett announced an interest in expanding the ground by about 8,000 seats, because Carrow Road was routinely close to capacity. Bowkett said: > The trade off is between capacity and price. I've had some conversations with people saying 'it's getting a bit expensive Alan' and I know it is. I think the obvious route is the Geoffrey Watling stand, whether you put another layer on it or take it down and re-build, I don't know. Probably the sensible thing to do is bite the bullet, take it down and build a new stand, but it means 18 to 24 months without revenue and the people in that stand tend to be the people who have been the supporters for many generations. In 2012, the club commissioned the University of East Anglia to undertake a study of the costs of significantly increasing the ground's capacity. The study's report cited a cost of £20 million to expand the ground by 7,000 seats. In response, chief executive David McNally announced that the club would therefore only expand the stadium at such a time that Norwich City has become a fixture in the Premier League. At the club's 2015 AGM, it was reiterated that expansion of the ground was not a priority, although developing the training facilities at Colney, was. ## Other uses ### International football Carrow Road has never hosted a match involving the England national team, but the England under-21 team has played at the stadium on five occasions. The first was in 1983 in a European Under-21 Championship qualifying match against Denmark, which England won 4–1. The team played another qualifying match in the same tournament at the stadium in 1997, beating Greece 4–2. The Slovakia team featured in a friendly match at the ground in June 2007, England winning 5–0 in front of a crowd of 20,193 people. In 2010, the ground played host to a play-off against Romania, a game the home side won 2–1 in front of a then record all-seated attendance for the stadium of 25,749. Most recently, in October 2012, the England U21s defeated their Serbian counterparts 1–0 at Carrow Road. Games involving the England under-19 team and the full England women's team have also been played at the stadium. The women's team have played there on three occasions; the first a 1–0 defeat to Nigeria in July 2002, in front of over 8,000 fans, and the second a 1–0 victory over Iceland in March 2006, before a 9,616 crowd. In February 2022 a crowd of 14,284 saw England draw 0-0 with Spain in the Arnold Clark Cup, with Norfolk-born player Lauren Hemp making a substitute appearance at her local stadium. ### Music The stadium has occasionally hosted music concerts. Status Quo played a concert there in 1997. Elton John, supported by Lulu, appeared at the venue in 2005. George Michael gave a performance there on 12 June 2007, supported by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, and Rod Stewart performed a concert at the stadium in June 2011. The Elton John and George Michael concerts both attracted crowds of over 20,000 people. Andrew Cullen, the director of sales and marketing for the Carrow Road ground, told BBC Radio Norfolk prior to the George Michael performance that he hoped such concerts would become an annual summer event for the venue, if big enough star names could be attracted. Westlife were due to be performing in the stadium on 19 June 2020 for their "Stadiums in the Summer Tour" before it was cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Take That performed at the stadium in 2017 and 2019 and are also due to perform there again in 2024. Summer 2022 saw The Killers perform on 9 June and Elton John perform on 15 June. Summer of 2023 saw Arctic Monkeys performing there in on 7 June. ## Summary of ground records - Highest attendance: 43,984, Norwich City 0–2 Leicester City, 1962–63 FA Cup sixth round, 30 March 1963. - Highest attendance (all-seater): 27,137, Norwich City 3–2 Newcastle United, 2015–16 Premier League, 2 April 2016. - Biggest margin of victory: 8, Norwich City 8–0 Walsall, Football League Third Division South, 29 December 1951, Norwich City 8–0 Sutton United, 1988–89 FA Cup fourth round, 28 January 1989. - Biggest margin of defeat: 6, Norwich City 1–7 Colchester United, Football League One, 8 August 2009. - Goals in a game: 9 (several occurrences). Most recently; Norwich City 4–5 Liverpool, 2015–16 Premier League, 23 January 2016. - Fastest goal from kick-off: Victor Johnson, 10 seconds.
177,907	Harold Innis	1,170,414,206	Canadian academic (1894–1952)	[ "1894 births", "1952 deaths", "20th-century American economists", "20th-century Canadian economists", "20th-century Canadian historians", "20th-century political scientists", "Academic staff of McMaster University", "Academic staff of the University of Toronto", "Anti-Americanism", "Canadian Expeditionary Force soldiers", "Canadian agnostics", "Canadian male non-fiction writers", "Canadian political philosophers", "Communication theorists", "Economic historians", "Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada", "Harold Innis", "Historians of Canada", "Historians of printing", "Literacy and society theorists", "Mass media theorists", "McMaster University alumni", "Members of the American Philosophical Society", "North American cultural studies", "People from Oxford County, Ontario", "Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)", "Philosophers of technology", "Presidents of the American Economic Association", "Presidents of the Canadian Political Science Association", "Theorists on Western civilization", "University of Chicago alumni" ]	Harold Adams Innis FRSC (November 5, 1894 – November 9, 1952) was a Canadian professor of political economy at the University of Toronto and the author of seminal works on media, communication theory, and Canadian economic history. He helped develop the staples thesis, which holds that Canada's culture, political history, and economy have been decisively influenced by the exploitation and export of a series of "staples" such as fur, fish, lumber, wheat, mined metals, and coal. The staple thesis dominated economic history in Canada from the 1930s to 1960s, and continues to be a fundamental part of the Canadian political economic tradition. Innis's writings on communication explore the role of media in shaping the culture and development of civilizations. He argued, for example, that a balance between oral and written forms of communication contributed to the flourishing of Greek civilization in the 5th century BC. He warned, however, that Western civilization is now imperiled by powerful, advertising-driven media obsessed by "present-mindedness" and the "continuous, systematic, ruthless destruction of elements of permanence essential to cultural activity." His intellectual bond with Eric A. Havelock formed the foundations of the Toronto School of communication theory, which provided a source of inspiration for future members of the school Marshall McLuhan and Edmund Snow Carpenter. Innis laid the basis for scholarship that looked at the social sciences from a distinctly Canadian point of view. As the head of the University of Toronto's political economy department, he worked to build up a cadre of Canadian scholars so that universities would not continue to rely as heavily on British or American-trained professors unfamiliar with Canada's history and culture. He was successful in establishing sources of financing for Canadian scholarly research. As the Cold War grew hotter after 1947, Innis grew increasingly hostile to the United States. He warned repeatedly that Canada was becoming a subservient colony to its much more powerful southern neighbor. "We are indeed fighting for our lives," he warned, pointing especially to the "pernicious influence of American advertising.... We can only survive by taking persistent action at strategic points against American imperialism in all its attractive guises." His views influenced some younger scholars, including Donald Creighton. Innis also tried to defend universities from political and economic pressures. He believed that independent universities, as centres of critical thought, were essential to the survival of Western civilization. His intellectual disciple and university colleague, Marshall McLuhan, lamented Innis's premature death as a disastrous loss for human understanding. McLuhan wrote: "I am pleased to think of my own book The Gutenberg Galaxy as a footnote to the observations of Innis on the subject of the psychic and social consequences, first of writing then of printing." ## Rural roots ### Early life Innis was born on November 5, 1894, on a small livestock and dairy farm near the community of Otterville in southwestern Ontario's Oxford County. As a boy he loved the rhythms and routines of farm life and he never forgot his rural origins. His mother, Mary Adams Innis, had named him Herald, hoping he would become a minister in the strict evangelical Baptist faith that she and her husband William shared. At the time, the Baptist church was an important part of life in rural areas. It gave isolated families a sense of community and embodied the values of individualism and independence. Its far-flung congregations were not ruled by a centralized, bureaucratic authority. Innis became an agnostic in later life, but never lost his interest in religion. According to his friend and biographer Donald Creighton, Innis's character was moulded by the church: > The strict sense of values and the feeling of devotion to a cause, which became so characteristic of him in later life, were derived, in part at least, from the instruction imparted so zealously and unquestioningly inside the severely unadorned walls of the Baptist Church at Otterville. Innis attended the one-room schoolhouse in Otterville and the community's high school. He travelled 20 miles (32 km) by train to Woodstock, Ontario, to complete his secondary education at a Baptist-run college. He intended to become a public-school teacher and passed the entrance examinations for teacher training, but decided to take a year off to earn the money he would need to support himself at an Ontario teachers' college. At age 18, therefore, he returned to the one-room schoolhouse at Otterville to teach for one term until the local school board could recruit a fully qualified teacher. The experience made him realize that the life of a teacher in a small, rural school was not for him. ### University studies In October 1913, Innis started classes at McMaster University (then in Toronto). McMaster was a natural choice for him because it was a Baptist university and many students who attended Woodstock College went there. McMaster's liberal arts professors encouraged critical thinking and debate. Innis was especially influenced by James Ten Broeke [Wikidata], the university's one-man philosophy department. Ten Broeke posed an essay question that Innis pondered for the rest of his life: "Why do we attend to the things to which we attend?" Before his final undergraduate year at McMaster, Innis spent a summer teaching at the Northern Star School in the frontier farming community of Landonville near Vermilion, Alberta. The experience gave him a sense of the vastness of Canada. He also learned about Western grievances over high interest rates and steep transportation costs. In his final undergraduate year, Innis focused on history and economics. He kept in mind a remark made by history lecturer W. S. Wallace that the economic interpretation of history was not the only possible one but that it went the deepest. ### First World War service After graduating from McMaster, Innis felt that his Christian principles compelled him to enlist in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He was sent to France in the fall of 1916 to fight in the First World War. Trench warfare with its "mud and lice and rats" had a devastating effect on him. Innis's role as an artillery signaller gave him firsthand experience of life (and death) on the front lines as he participated in the successful Canadian attack on Vimy Ridge. Signallers, or spotters, watched where each artillery shell landed, then sent back aiming corrections so that the next shells could hit their targets more accurately. On July 7, 1917, Innis received a serious shrapnel wound in his right thigh that required eight months of hospital treatment in England. Innis's war was over. His biographer, John Watson, notes the physical wound took seven years to heal, but the psychological damage lasted a lifetime. Innis experienced recurring bouts of depression and nervous exhaustion because of his military service. Watson also notes that the Great War influenced Innis's intellectual outlook. It strengthened his Canadian nationalism; sharpened his opinion of what he thought were the destructive effects of technology, including the communications media that were used so effectively to "sell" the war; and led him, for the first time, to doubt his Baptist faith. ## Graduate studies ### McMaster and Chicago Harold Innis completed a Master of Arts degree at McMaster, graduating in April 1918. His thesis, called The Returned Soldier, "was a detailed description of the public policy measures that were necessary, not only to provide a supportive milieu to help veterans get over the effects of the war, but also to move on with national reconstruction." Innis did his postgraduate work at the University of Chicago and was awarded his PhD, with a dissertation on the history of Canadian Pacific Railway, in August 1920. His two years at Chicago had a profound influence on his later work. His interest in economics deepened and he decided to become a professional economist. The economics faculty at Chicago questioned abstract and universalist neoclassical theories, then in vogue, arguing that general rules for economic policy should be derived from specific case studies. Innis was influenced by the university's two eminent communications scholars, George Herbert Mead and Robert E. Park. Although he did not attend any of those famous professors' classes, Innis did absorb their idea that communication involved much more than the transmission of information. James W. Carey writes that Mead and Park "characterized communication as the entire process whereby a culture is brought into existence, maintained in time, and sedimented into institutions." While at Chicago, Innis was exposed to the ideas of Thorstein Veblen, the iconoclastic thinker who drew on his deep knowledge of philosophy and economics to write scathing critiques of contemporary thought and culture. Veblen had left Chicago years before, but his ideas were still strongly felt there. Years later, in an essay on Veblen, Innis praised him for waging war against "standardized static economics." Innis got his first taste of university teaching at Chicago, where he delivered several introductory economics courses. One of his students was Mary Quayle, the woman he would marry in May 1921 when he was 26 and she 22. Together they had four children, Donald (1924), Mary (1927), Hugh (1930), and Anne (1933). Mary Quayle Innis was herself a notable economist and writer. Her book, An Economic History of Canada, was published in 1935. Her novel, Stand on a Rainbow appeared in 1943. Her other books include Mrs. Simcoe's Diary (1965), The Clear Spirit: Canadian Women and Their Times (1966) and Unfold the Years (1949), a history of the Young Women's Christian Association. She also edited Harold Innis's posthumous Essays in Canadian Economic History (1956) and a 1972 reissue of his Empire and Communications. Donald Quayle Innis became a geography professor at the State University of New York. Mary married a surgeon and did graduate work in French literature. Hugh Innis became a professor at Ryerson University where he taught communications and economics. Anne Innis Dagg did doctoral work in biology and became an advisor for the independent studies program at the University of Waterloo and published books on zoology, feminism, and Canadian women's history. ### History of the CPR Harold Innis wrote his PhD thesis on the history of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). The completion of Canada's first transcontinental railway in 1885 had been a defining moment in Canadian history. Innis's thesis, eventually published as a book in 1923, can be seen as an early attempt to document the railway's significance from an economic historian's point of view. It uses voluminous statistics to underpin its arguments. Innis maintains that the difficult and expensive construction project was sustained by fears of American annexation of the Canadian West. Innis argues that "the history of the Canadian Pacific Railroad is primarily the history of the spread of Western civilization over the northern half of the North American continent." As Robert Babe notes, the railway brought industrialization, transporting coal and building supplies to manufacturing sites. It was also a kind of communications medium that contributed to the spread of European civilization. Babe writes that, for Innis, the CPR's equipment "comprised a massive, energy-consuming, fast-moving, powerful, capital-intensive 'sign' dropped into the very midst of indigenous peoples, whose entire way of life was disrupted, and eventually shattered as a result. Communications scholar Arthur Kroker argues that Innis's study of the Canadian Pacific Railway was only the first in which he attempted to demonstrate that "technology is not something external to Canadian being; but on the contrary, is the necessary condition and lasting consequence of Canadian existence." It also reflected Innis's lifelong interest in the exercise of economic and political power. His CPR history ends, for example, with a recounting of Western grievances against economic policies, such as high freight rates and the steep import tariffs designed to protect fledgling Canadian manufacturers. Westerners complained that the National Policy funnelled money from Prairie farmers into the pockets of the Eastern business establishment. "Western Canada," Innis wrote, "has paid for the development of Canadian nationality, and it would appear that it must continue to pay. The acquisitiveness of Eastern Canada shows little sign of abatement." ## Staples thesis Harold Innis is considered the leading founder of a Canadian school of economic thought known as the staples theory. It holds that Canada's culture, political history and economy have been decisively shaped by the exploitation and export of a series of "staples" such as fur, fish, wood, wheat, mined metals and fossil fuels. Innis theorized that the reliance on exporting natural resources made Canada dependent on more industrially advanced countries and resulted in periodic disruptions to economic life as the international demand for staples rose and fell; as the staple itself became increasingly scarce; and, as technological change resulted in shifts from one staple to others. Innis pointed out, for example, that as furs became scarce and trade in that staple declined, it became necessary to develop and export other staples such as wheat, potash and especially lumber. The export of the new staples was made possible through improved transportation networks that included first canals and later railways. ### "Dirt" research In 1920, Innis joined the department of political economy at the University of Toronto. He was assigned to teach courses in commerce, economic history and economic theory. He decided to focus his scholarly research on Canadian economic history, a hugely neglected subject, and he settled on the fur trade as his first area of study. Furs had brought French and English traders to Canada, motivating them to travel west along the continent's interlocking lake and river systems to the Pacific coast. Innis realized that he had to search out archival documents to understand the history of the fur trade and also travel the country himself gathering masses of firsthand information and accumulating what he called "dirt" experience. Thus, Innis travelled extensively beginning in the summer of 1924 when he and a friend paddled an 18-foot (5.5 m) canvas-covered canoe hundreds of miles down the Peace River to Lake Athabasca; then down the Slave River to Great Slave Lake. They completed their journey down the Mackenzie, Canada's longest river, to the Arctic Ocean on a small Hudson's Bay Company tug. During his travels, Innis supplemented his fur research by gathering information on other staple products such as lumber, pulp and paper, minerals, grain and fish. He travelled so extensively that by the early 1940s, he had visited every part of Canada except for the Western Arctic and the east side of Hudson Bay. Everywhere that Innis went, his methods were the same: he interviewed people connected with the production of staple products and listened to their stories. ### Fur trade in Canada Harold Innis's interest in the relationship between empires and colonies was developed in his classic study, The Fur Trade in Canada: An Introduction to Canadian Economic History (1930). The book chronicles the trade in beaver fur from the early 16th century to the 1920s. Instead of focusing on the "heroic" European adventurers who explored the Canadian wilderness as conventional histories had done, Innis documents how the interplay of geography, technology and economic forces shaped both the fur trade and Canada's political and economic destiny. He argues that the fur trade largely determined Canada's boundaries, and he comes to the conclusion that the country "emerged not in spite of geography but because of it." In line with that observation, Innis notably proposes that European settlement of the Saint Lawrence River Valley followed the economic and social patterns of indigenous peoples, making for a Canadian historical and cultural continuity that predates and postdates European settlement. Unlike many historians who see Canadian history as beginning with the arrival of Europeans, Innis emphasizes the cultural and economic contributions of First Nations peoples. "We have not yet realized," he writes, "that the Indian and his culture was fundamental to the growth of Canadian institutions." The Innisian perspective on the development of Canadian political, economic and social institutions was an early form of neo-institutionalism, which became an accepted part of the Canadian political science tradition well before American and European counterparts. The Fur Trade in Canada concludes by arguing that Canadian economic history can best be understood by examining how one staple product gave way to another—furs to timber, for example, and the later importance of wheat and minerals. Reliance on staples made Canada economically dependent on more industrially advanced countries and the "cyclonic" shifts from one staple to another caused frequent disruptions in the country's economic life. The Fur Trade in Canada also describes the cultural interactions among three groups of people: the Europeans in fashionable metropolitan centres who regarded beaver hats as luxury items; the European colonial settlers who saw beaver fur as a staple that could be exported to pay for essential manufactured goods from the home country, and First Nations peoples who traded furs for industrial goods such as metal pots, knives, guns and liquor. Innis describes the central role First Nations peoples played in the development of the fur trade. Without their skilled hunting techniques, knowledge of the territory and advanced tools such as snowshoes, toboggans and birch-bark canoes, the fur trade would not have existed. However, dependence on European technologies disrupted First Nations societies. "The new technology with its radical innovations," Innis writes, "brought about such a rapid shift in the prevailing Indian culture as to lead to wholesale destruction of the peoples concerned by warfare and disease." Historian Carl Berger argues that by placing First Nations culture at the centre of his analysis of the fur trade, Innis "was the first to explain adequately the disintegration of native society under the thrust of European capitalism." ### Cod fishery After the publication of his book on the fur trade, Innis turned to a study of an earlier staple, the cod fished for centuries off the eastern coasts of North America. The result was The Cod Fisheries: The History of an International Economy published in 1940, 10 years after the fur trade study. Innis tells the detailed history of competing empires in the exploitation of a teeming natural resource, a history that ranges over 500 years. While his study of the fur trade focused on the continental interior with its interlocking rivers and lakes, The Cod Fisheries looks outward at global trade and empire, showing the far-reaching effects of one staple product both on imperial centres and on marginal colonies such as Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and New England. ## Communications theories Innis's study of the effects of interconnected lakes and rivers on Canadian development and European empire sparked his interest in the complex economic and cultural relationships between transportation systems and communications. During the 1940s, Innis also began studying pulp and paper, an industry of central importance to the Canadian economy. The research provided an additional crossover point from his work on staple products to his communications studies. Biographer Paul Heyer writes that Innis "followed pulp and paper through its subsequent stages: newspapers and journalism, books and advertising. In other words, from looking at a natural resource-based industry he turned his attention to a cultural industry in which information, and ultimately knowledge, was a commodity that circulated, had value, and empowered those who controlled it." One of Innis's primary contributions to communications studies was to apply the dimensions of time and space to various media. He divided media into time-binding and space-binding types. Time-binding media are durable and include clay or stone tablets. Space-binding media are more ephemeral and include modern media such as radio, television, and mass circulation newspapers. Innis examined the rise and fall of ancient empires as a way of tracing the effects of communications media. He looked at media that led to the growth of an empire; those that sustained it during its periods of success, and then, the communications changes that hastened an empire's collapse. He tried to show that media 'biases' toward time or space affected the complex interrelationships needed to sustain an empire. The interrelationships included the partnership between the knowledge (and ideas) necessary to create and maintain an empire and the power (or force) required to expand and defend it. For Innis, the interplay between knowledge and power was always a crucial factor in understanding empire. Innis argued that a balance between the spoken word and writing contributed to the flourishing of Ancient Greece in the time of Plato. The balance between the time-biased medium of speech and the space-biased medium of writing was eventually upset, Innis argued, as the oral tradition gave way to the dominance of writing. The torch of empire then passed from Greece to Rome. Innis's analysis of the effects of communications on the rise and fall of empires led him to warn grimly that Western civilization was now facing its own profound crisis. The development of powerful communications media such as mass-circulation newspapers had shifted the balance decisively in favour of space and power, over time, continuity and knowledge. The balance required for cultural survival had been upset by what Innis saw as "mechanized" communications media used to transmit information quickly over long distances. The new media had contributed to an obsession with "present-mindedness", wiping out concerns about past or future. Innis wrote, > The overwhelming pressure of mechanization evident in the newspaper and the magazine, has led to the creation of vast monopolies of communication. Their entrenched positions involve a continuous, systematic, ruthless destruction of elements of permanence essential to cultural activity. Western civilization could be saved, Innis argued, only by recovering the balance between space and time. For him, that meant reinvigorating the oral tradition within universities while freeing institutions of higher learning from political and commercial pressures. In his essay, A Plea for Time, he suggested that genuine dialogue within universities could produce the critical thinking necessary to restore the balance between power and knowledge. Then, universities could muster the courage to attack the monopolies that always imperil civilization. Although Innis remains appreciated and respected for the grand and unique nature of his later efforts regarding communications theories, he was not without critics. Particularly, the fragmentary and mosaic writing style exemplified in Empire and Communications has been criticized as ambiguous, aggressively nonlinear, and lacking connections between levels of analysis. Biographers have suggested that the style may have been a result of Innis's illness late in his career. ## Academic and public career ### Influence in the 1930s Aside from his work on The Cod Fisheries, Innis wrote extensively in the 1930s about other staple products such as minerals and wheat as well as Canada's immense economic problems in the Great Depression. During the summers of 1932 and 1933, he travelled to the West to see the effects of the Depression for himself. The next year, in an essay entitled, The Canadian Economy and the Depression, Innis outlined the plight of "a country susceptible to the slightest ground-swell of international disturbance" but beset by regional differences that made it difficult to devise effective solutions. He described a prairie economy dependent on the export of wheat but afflicted by severe drought, on the one hand, and the increased political power of Canada's growing cities, sheltered from direct reliance on the staples trade, on the other. The result was political conflict and a breakdown in federal–provincial relations. "We lack vital information on which to base prospective policies to meet this situation," Innis warned, because of "the weak position of the social sciences in Canada." Innis's reputation as a public intellectual was growing steadily and, in 1934, Premier Angus Lewis Macdonald invited him to serve on a Royal Commission to examine Nova Scotia's economic problems. The next year, he helped establish The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science. In 1936, he was appointed a full University of Toronto professor and a year later, became the head of the university's Department of Political Economy. Innis was appointed president of the Canadian Political Science Association in 1938. His inaugural address, The Penetrative Powers of the Price System, must have baffled his listeners as he ranged over centuries of economic history jumping abruptly from one topic to the next linking monetary developments to patterns of trade and settlement. The address was an ambitious attempt to show the disruptive effects of new technologies culminating in the modern shift from an industrial system based on coal and iron to the newest sources of industrial power, electricity, oil, and steel. Innis also tried to show the commercial effects of mass circulation newspapers, made possible by expanded newsprint production, and of the new medium of radio, which "threatens to circumvent the walls imposed by tariffs and to reach across boundaries frequently denied to other media of communication." Both media, Innis argued, stimulated the demand for consumer goods and both promoted nationalism. Innis was also a central participant in an international project that produced 25 scholarly volumes between 1936 and 1945. It was a series called The Relations of Canada and the United States overseen by James T. Shotwell, director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Innis edited and wrote prefaces for the volumes contributed by Canadian scholars. His own study of the cod fisheries also appeared as part of the series. His work with Shotwell enabled Innis to gain access to Carnegie money to further Canadian academic research. As John Watson points out, "the project offered one of the few sources of research funds in rather lean times." ### Politics and the Great Depression The era of the "Dirty Thirties" with its mass unemployment, poverty and despair gave rise to new Canadian political movements. In Alberta, for example, the radio evangelist William "Bible Bill" Aberhart led his populist Social Credit party to victory in 1935. Three years earlier in Calgary, Alberta, social reformers had founded a new political party, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). It advocated democratic socialism and a mixed economy with public ownership of key industries. Frank Underhill, one of Innis's colleagues at the University of Toronto was a founding member of the CCF. Innis and Underhill had both been members of an earlier group at the university that declared itself "dissatisfied with the policies of the two major [political] parties in Canada" and that aimed at "forming a definite body of progressive opinion." In 1931, Innis presented a paper to the group on "Economic Conditions in Canada", but he later recoiled from participating in party politics, denouncing partisans like Underhill as "hot gospellers." Innis maintained that scholars had no place in active politics and that they should instead devote themselves, first to research on public problems, and then to the production of knowledge based on critical thought. He saw the university, with its emphasis on dialogue, open-mindedness and skepticism, as an institution that could foster such thinking and research. "The university could provide an environment," he wrote, "as free as possible from the biases of the various institutions that form the state, so that its intellectuals could continue to seek out and explore other perspectives." Although sympathetic to the plight of western farmers and urban, unemployed workers, Innis did not embrace socialism. Eric Havelock, a left-leaning colleague explained many years later that Innis distrusted political "solutions" imported from elsewhere, especially those based on Marxist analysis with its emphasis on class conflict. He worried, too, that as Canada's ties with Britain weakened, the country would fall under the spell of American ideas instead of developing its own based on Canada's unique circumstances. Havelock added: > He has been called the radical conservative of his day — not a bad designation of a complex mind, clear sighted, cautious, perhaps at bottom pessimistic in areas where thinkers we would label 'progressive' felt less difficulty in taking a stand; never content to select only one or two elements in a complicated equation in order to build a quick-order policy or program; far ranging enough in intellect to take in the whole sum of the factors, and comprehend their often contradictory effects. ### Late career and death In the 1940s, Harold Innis reached the height of his influence in both academic circles and Canadian society. In 1941, he helped establish the American-based Economic History Association and its Journal of Economic History. He later became the association's second president. Innis played a central role in founding two important sources for the funding of academic research: the Canadian Social Science Research Council (1940) and the Humanities Research Council of Canada (1944). In 1944, the University of New Brunswick awarded Innis an honorary degree, as did his alma mater, McMaster University. Université Laval, the University of Manitoba and the University of Glasgow would also confer honorary degrees in 1947–48. In 1945, Innis spent nearly a month in the Soviet Union where he had been invited to attend the 220th anniversary celebrations marking the founding of the country's Academy of Sciences. Later, in his essay Reflections on Russia, he mused about the differences between the Soviet "producer" economy and the West's "consumer" ethos: > [A]n economy which emphasizes consumer's goods is characterized by communication industries largely dependent on advertising and by constant efforts to reach the largest number of readers or listeners; an economy emphasizing producer's goods is characterized by communications industries largely dependent on government support. As a result of this contrast, a common public opinion in Russia and the West is hard to achieve. Innis's trip to Moscow and Leningrad came shortly before US–Soviet rivalry led to the hostility of the Cold War. Innis lamented the rise in international tensions. He saw the Soviet Union as a stabilizing counterbalance to the American emphasis on commercialism, the individual and constant change. For Innis, Russia was a society within the Western tradition, not an alien civilization. He abhorred the nuclear arms race and saw it as the triumph of force over knowledge, a modern form of the medieval Inquisition. "The Middle Ages burned its heretics," he wrote, "and the modern age threatens them with atom bombs." In 1946, Innis was elected president of the Royal Society of Canada, the country's senior body of scientists and scholars. The same year, he served on the Manitoba Royal Commission on Adult Education and published Political Economy in the Modern State, a collection of his speeches and essays that reflected both his staples research and his new work in communications. In 1947, Innis was appointed the University of Toronto's dean of graduate studies. In 1948, he delivered lectures at the University of London and Nottingham University. He was elected an International Member of the American Philosophical Society that same year. He also gave the prestigious Beit lectures at Oxford, later published in his book Empire and Communications. In 1949, Innis was appointed as a commissioner on the federal government's Royal Commission on Transportation, a position that involved extensive travel at a time when his health was starting to fail. The last decade of his career, during which he worked on his communications studies, was an unhappy time for Innis. He was academically isolated because his colleagues in economics could not fathom how the new work related to his pioneering research in staples theory. Biographer John Watson writes that "the almost complete lack of positive response to the communications works, contributed to his sense of overwork and depression." Innis died of prostate cancer on November 8, 1952, a few days after his 58th birthday. In commemoration, Innis College at the University of Toronto and Innis Library at McMaster University were named in his honour. Following his premature death, Innis' significance increasingly deepened as scholars in several academic disciplines continued to build upon his writings. Marshall Poe's general media theory that proposes two sub-theories were inspired by Innis. Douglas C. North expanded on Innis' "vent for surplus" theory of economic development by applying it to regional development in the United States and underdeveloped countries. In addition, James W. Carey adopted Innis as a "reference point in his conception of two models of communication." ## Innis and McLuhan Marshall McLuhan was a colleague of Innis's at the University of Toronto. As a young English professor, McLuhan was flattered when he learned that Innis had put his book The Mechanical Bride on the reading list of the fourth-year economics course. McLuhan built on Innis's idea that in studying the effects of communications media, technological form mattered more than content. Biographer Paul Heyer writes that Innis's concept of the "bias" of a particular medium of communication can be seen as a "less flamboyant precursor to McLuhan's legendary phrase 'the medium is the message.'" Innis, for example, tried to show how printed media such as books or newspapers were "biased" toward control over space and secular power, while engraved media such as stone or clay tablets were "biased" in favour of continuity in time and metaphysical or religious knowledge. McLuhan focused on what may be called a medium's "sensory bias" arguing, for example, that books and newspapers appealed to the rationality of the eye, while radio played to the irrationality of the ear. The differences in the Innisian and McLuhanesque approaches were summarized by the late James W. Carey: > Both McLuhan and Innis assume the centrality of communication technology; where they differ is in the principal kinds of effects they see deriving from this technology. Whereas Innis sees communication technology principally affecting social organization and culture, McLuhan sees its principal effect on sensory organization and thought. McLuhan has much to say about perception and thought but little to say about institutions; Innis says much about institutions and little about perception and thought. Biographer John Watson notes that Innis's work was profoundly political while McLuhan's was not. He writes that "the mechanization of knowledge, not the relative sensual bias of media, is the key to Innis's work. That also underlies the politicization of Innis's position vis-a-vis that of McLuhan." Watson adds that Innis believed very different media could produce similar effects. "For Innis, the yellow press of the United States and the Nazi loudspeaker had the same form of negative effect: they reduced men from thinking beings to mere automatons in a chain of command." Watson argues that while McLuhan separated media according to their sensory bias, Innis examined a different set of interrelationships, the "dialectic of power and knowledge" in specific historical circumstances. For Watson, Innis's work is therefore more flexible and less deterministic than McLuhan's. As scholars and teachers, Innis and McLuhan shared a similar dilemma since both argued that book culture tended to produce fixed points of view and homogeneity of thought; yet both produced many books. In his introduction to the 1964 reprint of The Bias of Communication, McLuhan marvelled at Innis's technique of juxtaposing "his insights in a mosaic structure of seemingly unrelated and disproportioned sentences and aphorisms." McLuhan argued that although that made reading Innis's dense prose difficult ("a pattern of insights that are not packaged for the consumer palate"), Innis's method approximated "the natural form of conversation or dialogue rather than of written discourse." Best of all, it yielded "insight" and "pattern recognition" rather than the "classified knowledge" so overvalued by print-trained scholars. "How exciting it was to encounter a writer whose every phrase invited prolonged meditation and exploration," McLuhan added. McLuhan's own books with their reliance on aphorisms, puns, quips, "probes" and oddly juxtaposed observations also employ that mosaic technique. Innis's theories of political economy, media and society remain highly relevant: he had a profound influence on critical media theory and communications and, in conjunction with McLuhan, offered groundbreaking Canadian perspectives on the function of communication technologies as key agents in social and historical change. Together, their works advanced a theory of history in which communication is central to social change and transformation. ## Selected works - 1923\. A History of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Revised edition (1971). Toronto: University of Toronto Press. - 1930\. The Fur Trade in Canada: An Introduction to Canadian Economic History. Revised edition (1956). Toronto: University of Toronto Press. - 1930\. Peter Pond, Fur Trader and Adventurer. Toronto: Irwin & Gordon. - 1940\. The Cod Fisheries: The History of an International Economy. Toronto: The Ryerson Press - 1946\. Political Economy in the Modern State. Toronto: The Ryerson Press - 1948\. The Diary of Simeon Perkins: 1766–1780. Toronto: Champlain Society. [editor] - 1950\. Empire and Communications. Oxford: Clarendon Press. - 1951\. The Bias of Communication. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. - 1952\. The Strategy of Culture. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. - 1952\. Changing Concepts of Time. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. - 1956\. Essays in Canadian Economic History, edited by Mary Q. Innis. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. - 1980\. The Idea File of Harold Adams Innis, edited by William Christian. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ## See also - Historiography of Canada - History of communication - History of technology - Innis-Gérin Medal - Metropolitan-hinterland thesis - Monopolies of knowledge - Orality - Technological nationalism
488,508	HMS Neptune (1909)	1,160,510,982	1909 battleship	[ "1909 ships", "Neptune-class battleships", "Ships built in Portsmouth", "World War I battleships of the United Kingdom" ]	HMS Neptune was a dreadnought battleship built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century, the sole ship of her class. She was the first British battleship to be built with superfiring guns. Shortly after her completion in 1911, she carried out trials of an experimental fire-control director and then became the flagship of the Home Fleet. Neptune became a private ship in early 1914 and was assigned to the 1st Battle Squadron. The ship became part of the Grand Fleet when it was formed shortly after the beginning of the First World War in August 1914. Aside from participating in the Battle of Jutland in May 1916, and the inconclusive action of 19 August several months later, her service during the war generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea. Neptune was deemed obsolete after the war and was reduced to reserve before being sold for scrap in 1922 and subsequently broken up. ## Background and description The launch of Dreadnought in 1906 precipitated a naval arms race when Germany accelerated its naval construction plans in response. Despite this sudden expansion of another nation's fleet, the British Admiralty felt secure in the knowledge that Germany would have only four modern capital ships in commission by 1910, while the Royal Navy would have eleven. Accordingly, they proposed the construction of only a single battleship and a battlecruiser in the 1908–1909 naval budget that they sent to the government in December. The Liberals, committed to reducing military expenditures and increasing social welfare spending, wished to cut the budget by £1,340,000 below the previous year's budget, but were ultimately persuaded not to do so after the Prime Minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, was thoroughly briefed on each part of the budget in February 1908. The debates over the budget in March were heated; critics were dissatisfied with the number of ships being built, arguing that the Government was too complacent about the superiority of the Royal Navy over the Imperial German Navy, but they were satisfied when H. H. Asquith, Chancellor of the Exchequer, filling in for the fatally ill Prime Minister, announced that the government was prepared to build as many dreadnoughts as required to negate any possible German superiority as of the end of 1911. Neptune was an improved version of the preceding St Vincent class with additional armour and the armament rearranged for greater efficiency. She was the first British dreadnought that differed in her gun turret layout from Dreadnought. Unlike the earlier ships, her wing turrets were staggered "en echelon" so all five turrets could shoot on the broadside, although in practise the blast damage to the superstructure and boats made this impractical except in an emergency. This was done to match the 10-gun broadside of the latest foreign designs like the American Delaware class, although the all-centreline turret configuration of the American ships eliminated the blast problems that compromised the effectiveness of the "en echelon" arrangement. Neptune was also the first British dreadnought to be equipped with superfiring turrets, in an effort to shorten the ship and reduce costs. A further saving in length was achieved by siting the ship's boats on girders over the two wing turrets to reduce the length of the vessel. The drawback to this arrangement was that if the girders were damaged during combat, they could fall onto the turrets, immobilising them. The bridge was also situated above the conning tower, which similarly risked being obscured if the bridge collapsed. Neptune had an overall length of 546 feet (166.4 m), a beam of 85 feet (25.9 m), and a deep draught of 28 feet 6 inches (8.7 m). She displaced 19,680 long tons (20,000 t) at normal load and 23,123 long tons (23,494 t) at deep load. The ship had a metacentric height of 6.5 feet (2.0 m) at deep load. Her crew numbered about 756 officers and ratings upon completion and 813 in 1914. The ship was powered by two sets of Parsons direct-drive steam turbines, each of which was housed in a separate engine room. The outer propeller shafts were coupled to the high-pressure turbines and these exhausted into low-pressure turbines which drove the inner shafts. The turbines used steam from eighteen Yarrow boilers at a working pressure of 235 psi (1,620 kPa; 17 kgf/cm<sup>2</sup>). They were rated at 25,000 shaft horsepower (19,000 kW) and gave Neptune a maximum speed of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph). She carried a maximum of 2,710 long tons (2,753 t) of coal and an additional 790 long tons (803 t) of fuel oil that was sprayed on the coal to increase its burn rate. This gave her a range of 6,330 nautical miles (11,720 km; 7,280 mi) at a cruising speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). ### Armament Neptune was equipped with ten 50-calibre breech-loading (BL) 12-inch (305 mm) Mark XI guns in five hydraulically powered twin-gun turrets, three along the centreline and the remaining two as wing turrets. The centreline turrets were designated 'A', 'X' and 'Y', from front to rear, and the port and starboard wing turrets were 'P' and 'Q' respectively. The guns had a maximum elevation of +20° which gave them a range of 21,200 yards (19,385 m). They fired 850-pound (386 kg) projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 2,825 ft/s (861 m/s) at a rate of two rounds per minute. The ship carried 100 shells per gun. Neptune was the first British dreadnought with her secondary armament of sixteen 50-calibre BL four-inch (102 mm) Mark VII guns installed in unshielded single mounts in the superstructure. This change was made to address the problems that plagued the turret-roof locations used in earlier battleships. Notably, the exposed guns were difficult to work when the main armament was in action as was replenishing their ammunition. Furthermore, the guns could not be centrally controlled to coordinate fire at the most dangerous targets. The guns had a maximum elevation of +15° which gave them a range of 11,400 yd (10,424 m). They fired 31-pound (14.1 kg) projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 2,821 ft/s (860 m/s). They were provided with 150 rounds per gun. Four quick-firing three-pounder (1.9 in (47 mm)) Hotchkiss saluting guns were also carried. The ships were equipped with three 18-inch (450 mm) submerged torpedo tubes, one on each broadside and another in the stern, for which 18 torpedoes were provided. ### Fire control The control positions for the main armament were located in the spotting tops at the head of the fore and mainmasts. Data from a nine-foot (2.7 m) Barr and Stroud coincidence rangefinder located at each control position was input into a Dumaresq mechanical computer and electrically transmitted to Vickers range clocks located in the transmitting station located beneath each position on the main deck, where it was converted into elevation and deflection data for use by the guns. The target's data was also graphically recorded on a plotting table to assist the gunnery officer in predicting the movement of the target. The turrets, transmitting stations, and control positions could be connected in almost any combination. Neptune was the first British dreadnought to be built with a gunnery director, albeit an experimental prototype designed by Vice-Admiral Sir Percy Scott. This was mounted on the foremast, underneath the spotting top and electrically provided data to the turrets via pointer on a dial, which the turret crewmen only had to follow. The director layer fired the guns simultaneously which aided in spotting the shell splashes and minimised the effects of the roll on the dispersion of the shells. The ship's director was later replaced as a new one was ordered in 1913 and installed by May 1916. Additional nine-foot rangefinders, protected by armoured hoods, were added for each gun turret in late 1914. Furthermore, the ship was fitted with Mark I Dreyer Fire-control Tables by early 1916 in each transmission station that combined the functions of the Dumaresq and the range clock. ### Armour Neptune had a waterline belt of Krupp cemented armour that was 10 inches (254 mm) thick between the fore and aftmost barbettes that reduced to 2.5 inches (64 mm) before it reached the ships' ends. It covered the side of the hull from the middle deck down to 4 feet 4 inches (1.3 m) below the waterline where it thinned to 8 inches (203 mm) amidships. Above this was a strake of 8-inch armour. The forward oblique 5-inch (127 mm) bulkheads connected the amidships portion of waterline and upper armour belts once they reached the outer portions of the forward barbette. Similarly the aft bulkhead connected the armour belts to the rearmost barbette, although it was 8 inches thick. The three centreline barbettes were protected by armour 9 inches (229 mm) thick above the main deck and thinned to 5 inches (127 mm) below it. The wing barbettes were similar except that they had 10 inches of armour on their outer faces. The gun turrets had 11-inch (279 mm) faces and sides with 3-inch roofs. The three armoured decks ranged in thickness from 1.25 to 3 inches (32 to 76 mm) with the greater thicknesses outside the central armoured citadel. The front and sides of the conning tower were protected by 11-inch plates, although the rear and roof were 8 inches and 3 inches thick respectively. The torpedo control tower aft had 3-inch sides and a 2-inch roof. Neptune had two longitudinal anti-torpedo bulkheads that ranged in thickness from 1 to 3 inches (25 to 76 mm) and extended from the forward end of 'A' barbette to the end of 'Y' magazine. She was the first British dreadnought to protect her boiler uptakes with 1-inch armour plates. The compartments between the boiler rooms were used as coal bunkers. ### Modifications Gun shields were fitted to the forward four-inch guns after September 1913 and the upper forward four-inch guns were enclosed. In 1914–1915, the upper amidships four-inch guns were enclosed, the forward boat girder was removed and a three-inch (76 mm) anti-aircraft (AA) gun was added on the quarterdeck. Approximately 50 long tons (51 t) of deck armour was added after the Battle of Jutland in May 1916. By early 1917, four guns had been removed from the aft superstructure and a single four-inch AA gun had been added, for a total of a dozen four-inch guns. The stern torpedo tube was removed in 1917–1918 as was the aft spotting top. A high-angle rangefinder was fitted on the remaining spotting top and a flying-off platform was installed on the 'A' turret in 1918. ## Construction and career Neptune, named after the Roman god of the sea, was ordered on 14 December 1908. She was laid down at HM Dockyard, Portsmouth on 19 January 1909, launched on 30 September and completed in January 1911 at the cost of £1,668,916, including her armament. The ship was commissioned on 19 January 1911 for trials with Scott's experimental gunnery director that lasted until 11 March and were witnessed by Rear-Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, commander of the Atlantic Fleet. Neptune relieved Dreadnought as the flagship of the Home Fleet and of the 1st Division on 25 March and then participated in the Coronation Fleet Review at Spithead on 24 June. On 1 May 1912, the 1st Division was renamed the 1st Battle Squadron (BS); Neptune was relieved as the squadron's flagship on 22 June. The ship participated in the Parliamentary Naval Review on 9 July at Spithead. Neptune became a private ship on 10 March 1914 when she was replaced by Iron Duke as the flagship of the Home Fleet and rejoined the 1st BS. ### First World War Between 17 and 20 July 1914 Neptune took part in a test mobilisation and fleet review as part of the British response to the July Crisis. Arriving in Portland on 27 July, she was ordered to proceed with the rest of the Home Fleet to Scapa Flow two days later to safeguard the fleet from a possible German surprise attack. In August 1914, following the outbreak of the First World War, the Home Fleet was reorganised as the Grand Fleet, and placed under the command of Admiral Jellicoe. Most of it was briefly based (22 October to 3 November) at Lough Swilly, Ireland, while the defences at Scapa were strengthened. On the evening of 22 November 1914, the Grand Fleet conducted a fruitless sweep in the southern half of the North Sea; Neptune stood with the main body in support of Vice-Admiral David Beatty's 1st Battlecruiser Squadron. The fleet was back in port in Scapa Flow by 27 November and the ship began a refit on 11 December. Neptune's refit had concluded by the evening of 23 January 1915 as she joined the rest of the Grand Fleet when it sailed in support of Beatty's battlecruisers, but the fleet was too far away participate in the ensuing Battle of Dogger Bank the following day. On 7–10 March, the Grand Fleet made a sweep in the northern North Sea, during which it conducted training manoeuvres. Another such cruise took place on 16–19 March; while returning home after the conclusion of the exercises, Neptune was unsuccessfully attacked by the German submarine SM U-29. While manoeuvring for another attack, the submarine was spotted by Dreadnought which rammed and cut it in half. There were no survivors. On 11 April, the Grand Fleet, including Neptune, made a patrol in the central North Sea and returned to port on 14 April; another patrol in the area took place on 17–19 April, followed by gunnery drills off the Shetland Islands on 20–21 April. The Grand Fleet conducted sweeps into the central North Sea on 17–19 May and 29–31 May without encountering any German vessels. During 11–14 June the fleet practised gunnery and battle exercises west of Shetland, and trained off Shetland three days later. On 2–5 September, the fleet went on another cruise in the northern end of the North Sea, conducting gunnery drills, and spent the rest of the month performing numerous training exercises. The ship, together with the majority of the Grand Fleet, made another sweep into the North Sea from 13 to 15 October. Almost three weeks later, Neptune participated in another fleet training operation west of Orkney during 2–5 November. The fleet departed for a cruise in the North Sea on 26 February 1916; Jellicoe had intended to use the Harwich Force to sweep the Heligoland Bight, but bad weather prevented operations in the southern North Sea. As a result, the operation was confined to the northern end of the sea. Another sweep began on 6 March, but had to be abandoned the following day as the weather grew too severe for the escorting destroyers. On the night of 25 March, Neptune and the rest of the fleet sailed from Scapa Flow to support Beatty's battlecruisers and other light forces raiding the German Zeppelin base at Tondern. By the time the Grand Fleet approached the area on 26 March, the British and German forces had already disengaged and a strong gale threatened the light craft, so the fleet was ordered to return to base. On 21 April, the Grand Fleet conducted a demonstration off Horns Reef to distract the Germans while the Imperial Russian Navy relaid its defensive minefields in the Baltic Sea. During the night of 22/23 April, Neptune was accidentally rammed by the neutral merchant ship SS Needvaal in thick fog, but the battleship was only lightly damaged. The fleet returned to Scapa Flow on 24 April and refuelled before proceeding south in response to intelligence reports that the Germans were about to launch a raid on Lowestoft, but arrived in the area only after the Germans had withdrawn. On 2–4 May, the fleet made another demonstration off Horns Reef to keep German attention focused on the North Sea. #### Battle of Jutland The German High Seas Fleet, composed of sixteen dreadnoughts, six pre-dreadnoughts and supporting ships, departed the Jade Bight early on the morning of 31 May in an attempt to lure out and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet. The High Seas Fleet sailed in concert with Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper's five battlecruisers. The Royal Navy's Room 40 had intercepted and decrypted German radio traffic containing plans of the operation. In response the Admiralty ordered the Grand Fleet, totalling some 28 dreadnoughts and 9 battlecruisers, to sortie the night before to cut off and destroy the High Seas Fleet. On 31 May, Neptune, under the command of Captain Vivian Bernard, was assigned to the 5th Division of the 1st BS and was the nineteenth ship from the head of the battle line after deployment. During the first stage of the general engagement, the ship fired two salvos from her main guns at a barely visible battleship at 18:40. Around the time that the High Seas Fleet was reversing course beginning at 18:55 to re-engage the Grand Fleet, Neptune fired one salvo at the crippled light cruiser SMS Wiesbaden with unknown effect. After the turn the ships of the 1st BS were the closest ones to the Germans and, at approximately 19:10, she fired four salvos at the battlecruiser SMS Derfflinger, claiming two hits, although neither can be confirmed. Shortly afterwards, the ship fired her main and secondary guns at enemy destroyers without result and then had to turn away to dodge three torpedoes. This was the last time Neptune fired her guns during the battle. She expended a total of 48 twelve-inch shells (21 high explosive and 27 common pointed, capped) and 48 shells from her four-inch guns during the battle. #### Subsequent activity After the battle, the ship was transferred to the 4th Battle Squadron. The Grand Fleet sortied on 18 August to ambush the High Seas Fleet while it advanced into the southern North Sea, but a series of miscommunications and mistakes prevented Jellicoe from intercepting the German fleet before it returned to port. Two light cruisers were sunk by German U-boats during the operation, prompting Jellicoe to decide to not risk the major units of the fleet south of 55° 30' North due to the prevalence of German submarines and mines. The Admiralty concurred and stipulated that the Grand Fleet would not sortie unless the German fleet was attempting an invasion of Britain or there was a strong possibility it could be forced into an engagement under suitable conditions. On 22 April 1918, the High Seas Fleet sailed north for the last time in an unsuccessful attempt to intercept a convoy to Norway, and had to turn back two days later after the battlecruiser SMS Moltke suffered engine damage. The Grand Fleet sortied from Rosyth on the 24th when the operation was discovered, but was unable to catch the Germans. Neptune was present at Rosyth when the German fleet surrendered on 21 November and was reduced to reserve there on 1 February 1919 as she was thoroughly obsolete in comparison to the latest dreadnoughts. The ship was listed for disposal in March 1921 and was sold for scrap to Hughes Bolckow in September 1922. She was towed to Blyth, Northumberland on 22 September to begin demolition.
49,268,543	Thank You (Meghan Trainor album)	1,168,316,700	null	[ "2016 albums", "Albums produced by Chris Gelbuda", "Albums produced by Kevin Kadish", "Albums produced by Ricky Reed", "Epic Records albums", "Meghan Trainor albums" ]	Thank You is the second major-label studio album by American singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor. Epic Records released it on May 13, 2016, after a week of exclusive streaming on Apple Music. Trainor wrote most of its material with songwriter Jacob Kasher Hindlin and the album's producer Ricky Reed. Influenced by various genres including dance, hip hop, funk, and Caribbean music, Trainor conceived the abum to showcase her versatility. It features guest appearances by Yo Gotti, LunchMoney Lewis, Trainor's mother, and R. City. Thank You is a pop, dance-pop, and R&B album which explores themes such as self-acceptance, empowerment, and Trainor's experiences with fame. She promoted the album with public appearances and televised performances. After its release, Trainor embarked on the Untouchable Tour (2016). Thank You was supported by three singles: "No" and "Me Too", which respectively peaked at numbers three and thirteen on the US Billboard Hot 100, and "Better". Reviewers were divided about Thank You; a few thought its production was an improvement from Trainor's debut major-label studio album, Title (2015), while others believed it lacked artistic identity and criticized the lyrical themes. In the US, the album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 with first week sales of 107,000 album-equivalent units. It peaked within the top five in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Scotland, and the United Kingdom and received Platinum certifications in the US and Canada. ## Background Meghan Trainor signed a contract with Epic Records in 2014 and released her debut single, "All About That Bass", in June that year. The song reached number one in 58 countries and sold 11 million units worldwide. Trainor's artists and repertoire contact asked her to work on similar material with its co-writer, Kevin Kadish, for her debut major-label studio album, Title (2015). Her father had always encouraged her to "write for every genre", and she believed she had the ability to compose music in a variety of styles. Trainor created more doo-wop songs but believed they did not showcase her versatility: "I don't want to be stuck here because honestly it's not what I do. I do pop songs. I do Caribbean songs. I do everything." The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and became the ninth-best-selling album of 2015. It produced three top-10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, and she won the 2016 Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Trainor was embroiled in controversies surrounding the lyrics of "All About That Bass" and the portrayal of gender roles in the music video for her song "Dear Future Husband" (2015). Some critics questioned the sustainability of her commercial success and anticipated a decline with subsequent releases. ## Recording and production In October 2015, Trainor began holding studio sessions for her second major-label studio album. Kadish reprised his role as producer and co-writer. A fan of the music project Wallpaper, Trainor co-wrote songs with its frontman, producer Ricky Reed, and his frequent collaborator Jacob Kasher Hindlin. In a December 2015 interview, she revealed that the album would be completed soon, with an expected release in "February or March", and she confirmed collaborations with her mother and R. City. On December 11, the day after Trainor co-wrote the song "Just a Friend to You" with Chris Gelbuda, she uploaded three clips of it to Instagram. She described the two albums' worth of material initially conceived as "these great doo-wop-y throwback songs that were huge". Upon hearing the material, L.A. Reid, the chairman of Epic Records, encouraged her to go back to the drawing board because she lacked a proper lead single for the project, a behavior that Trainor described as typical of him. In a session that started with the idea of a dancehall-inspired rhythm, Trainor, Reed, and Hindlin wrote the song "No". When Reid heard it, he jumped up and said "that's what I'm talkin' about!", playing it 29 times in succession. Ultimately, "No" changed the direction of Thank You, as the three started experimenting with new musical styles and produced six more tracks. The doo-wop material was retained on the album's deluxe version. Along with Reed, the executive producer, its producers include Tommy Brown, Steven Franks, Johan Carlsson, Thomas Troelsen, the Elev3n, Gelbuda, Kadish, Twice as Nice, the Monsters & Strangerz, and German. Trainor chose Thank You as the album title after writing its title track to express gratitude for her fans and others who supported her career: "I wanted this album to be dedicated to everyone who helped me get here — from my family, to my fans, to radio people, to magazines. Everyone." She was influenced by various genres—dance, hip hop, funk, and Caribbean music which she was introduced to by her Trinidadian uncle. Trainor cited Bruno Mars as an inspiration due to his ability to "pull off" a diverse amount of musical styles, along with artists she listened to during her childhood like Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley and ones she missed hearing on the radio—NSYNC and Destiny's Child. She thought listeners would be unable to recognize Thank You as her album on first listen: "When you first listen to [the album] you might go, 'Whoa, who is this?' Then you hear my quirky lyrics and throwback melodies, and it sounds like Meghan Trainor sounds." ## Composition ### Overview The standard edition of Thank You includes 12 tracks; the deluxe edition contains three additional original songs, and the Target version has all 15 tracks and two more. The album predominantly comprises a pop, R&B, and dance-pop sound. Rolling Stone's Christopher R. Weingarten thought it is "a brash pop statement" that expands Trainor's sound into "dance-, rap- and Carribbean-influenced tunes". Allan Raible of ABC News described Thank You's style as "funk, faux hip-hop, and some ballads", and Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic believed its "shiny, happy pop" was equally influenced by "modern R&B and Y2K throwback". Lyrically, the album is about self-acceptance, empowerment, and Trainor's experiences with her recent fame. ### Songs The album opens with "Watch Me Do", an upbeat song which recalls hip hop music from the 1990s, referencing several songs from the genre. In its lyrics, Trainor denounces her detractors and flaunts her looks and riches; The Boston Globe's Marc Hirsh described it as "James-Brown-by-way-of-Bruno-Mars rubbery electro-hip-hop funk groove". "Me Too" is an electro and R&B song about self-love. The third track, "No", is a dance-pop and R&B song, with lyrics about sexual consent and women's empowerment. "Better", featuring Yo Gotti, is a soca and reggae song, whose instrumentation of percussion, guitar, and a "loping beat" give it a "Caribbean feel" according to PopMatters' Chris Conaton. Its lyrics are about Trainor addressing an ex-lover and acknowledging she deserves better than him. The fifth track, "Hopeless Romantic" is a stripped-down doo-wop love ballad, based on a simplistic guitar and vocal arrangement. "I Love Me", featuring LunchMoney Lewis, is a song about confidence with a groovy baseline, which The Guardian's Dave Simpson described as a "self-help-manual-with-beats" and the Knoxville News Sentinel's Chuck Campbell called a "clappy/plucky sing-along" that seems like a mashup of "Happy" (2013) and "Uptown Funk" (2014). The seventh track, "Kindly Calm Me Down", is a piano ballad reminiscent of the work of Adele and places emphasis on Trainor's voice as she pleads her lover to mollify her. "Woman Up", a hawkish song with lyrics commanding women to lift their hands if they are good without a man, reworks the 2014 Ashley Roberts song of the same name. "Just a Friend to You" is a ukelele-driven song about unreciprocated affection towards someone. The 10th track, "I Won't Let You Down", is the lyrical opposite of "Better"; Trainor declares her partner deserves better than the way she has been treating him. "Dance Like Yo Daddy" includes squawking saxophone sounds and audacious background vocals and is about eschewing one's wariness and dancing. The standard edition closes with "Champagne Problems", on which Trainor complains about first world problems, like bad wi-fi connections and her phone discharging. "Mom" contains a recorded phone conversation between Trainor and her mother, along with girl group background vocals and a Motown-influenced horn segment. "Friends" is a sing-along, in which Trainor celebrates having a delightful time because she is in the company of her friends. The deluxe edition closes with the title track, which features R. City. The Target version includes the songs "Goosebumps" and "Throwback Love", which also appear on the Japanese edition along with a karaoke version of "No" and the song "Good to Be Alive". ## Release and promotion Trainor's public image evolved with the release of Thank You; in an interview with her, Weingarten described it as "[Trainor] emerging from a poodle-skirt shell into a modern pop star". In February 2016, she got a shorter haircut and dyed her hair auburn, allowing her to travel outside without being recognized. Trainor started identifying as a feminist, after previously refusing to consider herself one. Her objective with the album was "to model someone who is cool with herself". Thank You was streamed exclusively on Apple Music during the week preceding its release. The album was officially released to other platforms on May 13, 2016. Thank You was promoted with the release of three singles. The first two, "No" and Me Too", were released on March 4 and May 5, 2016, respectively, and peaked at numbers three and thirteen on the Billboard Hot 100. Writing for the magazine, Jada Yuan described them as "bona fide hits". Some critics accused Trainor of staging a publicity stunt when she pulled the latter song's music video due to alleged unapproved digital alteration of her waist size; Trainor denied the allegations. "Better" was released as the third single from the album on August 29, 2016, and it commercially underperformed. Trainor promoted Thank You with public appearances and televised live performances at award shows, including the iHeartRadio Music Awards and Billboard Music Awards. Her appearances on television talk shows included The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Today, and The Graham Norton Show. A performance of "Me Too" on The Tonight Show drew attention when Trainor fell to the floor while trying to grab a hold of a microphone stand. Songs from the album were featured in television shows and movies. It was supported by the Untouchable Tour, which began in Vancouver, British Columbia, in July 2016, and concluded in Boston in September 2016. Hailee Steinfeld and Common Kings served as opening acts. ## Critical reception Thank You received generally mixed reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 60, based on 10 reviews. Spins Dan Weiss called it a huge advancement from Title, for which he credited Reed's funk-influenced production that did not incorporate synthesizers. Erlewine believed Thank You is more modern and consistent as it is rooted in refined and fashionable sensibilities, but he added that it is too self-congratulatory and exposes the "seams in [the] construction" of Trainor's music. Newsday's Glenn Gamboa wrote that Trainor is among the most talented new artists at writing songs suited to her persona, and Conaton thought the album marked musical development and took her nearer to the more unvaried sound of popular music. Some critics thought Thank You did not showcase Trainor's artistic identity. Hirsh opined that she emulates several other artists on the album. The Observer's Michael Cragg described its songs as "identity-free filler". Campbell thought Thank You proved Trainor had not yet established her identity and portrayed a witty and determined pop star with lacking certitude. Patrick Ryan of USA Today wrote that the album attempts to be many things and falls short but portends a bright future for her. Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Isabella Biedenharn believed Trainor had a "bit of an identity crisis"; she praised her jocular songwriting on the upbeat tracks but added that its attempts at being intimate fall short. Raible believed she is a gifted performer but Thank You fails to exhibit her talent; he preferred its ballads and encouraged her to take that direction for more success. Other reviewers commented on the lyrical themes. Slant Magazine's Alexa Camp stated that with Thank You, Trainor continued promoting a narrow and materialistic type of feminism. Camp criticized the album as kind of a parody, which insincerely supports a millennial generation brought up on flimsy self-validation. Simpson called it "a bit of a hotchpotch", and he wrote that its songs about female empowerment actually appeal to "the male gaze" when dissected. Hazel Cills of MTV News wrote that other pop and R&B female empowerment songs would outshine the precise "'you want to be me' positioning" of Thank You, and she described the album as an assortment of "trend-grabbing dresses" that would fall apart by the following year. ## Commercial performance Thank You peaked within the top five in several countries where Title had reached number one, however, the album was still a commercial succes. In the US, Thank You debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 dated June 4, 2016, with 107,000 album-equivalent units, including 84,000 pure sales, during its first week. The figure marked a decline from Title's opening week of 238,000 album-equivalent units. The Recording Industry Association of America certified it Platinum in 2018. Thank You debuted at number four on the Canadian Albums Chart and received a Platinum certification from Music Canada in 2017. The album peaked at number five in the UK and spent nine weeks on the chart. It was certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry in 2020. In Australia, Thank You reached number three and spent eight weeks in the top ten. The album earned a Gold certification from the Australian Recording Industry Association in July 2016. It debuted at number five in New Zealand and spent seven weeks on the chart. Elsewhere, Thank You charted within the top thirty, at number five in Scotland, number eight in Spain, number fifteen in Ireland, number sixteen in Switzerland, number twenty in Austria, the Netherlands, and Norway, number twenty-two in Sweden, and number twenty-five in Germany. The album received a Gold certification from IFPI Danmark in 2021. ## Track listing Notes - signifies a vocal producer - signifies a co-producer - signifies an additional producer - The Target edition tracks were later released on other platforms. Sample credits - "Woman Up" contains a sample of Ashley Roberts's song of the same name (written by James G. Morales, Matthew Morales, Julio David Rodriguez, Nash Overstreet, Erika Nuri, and Shane Stevens) - "Goosebumps" contains a portion of the composition "African Suspense" by The Young Divines (written by Robert Riley, Charles White, and Billy Ball) ## Personnel Recording locations and personnel are adapted from the album's liner notes. Recording locations - Recorded and engineered at Ricky Reed's studio (Elysian Park, Los Angeles, California), Vietom Studios (Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California), Hooked on Sonics (Memphis, Tennessee), MXM Studios (Los Angeles, California), Windmark Recording (Santa Monica, California), Vibeland Studios (New York City, New York), The Attic (Nashville, Tennessee), The Green Room (Nashville, Tennessee), The Carriage House (Nolensville, Tennessee), The Record Plant (Hollywood, California), Studio Willow-Valley (Gothenburg, Sweden), R8D Studios (North Hollywood, California) - Mixed at The Carriage House (Nolensville, Tennessee) - Mastered at Sterling Sound (New York City, New York) - Management – Atom Factory, a division of Coalition Media Group (Los Angeles, California) - Legal – Myman Greenspan Fineman/Fox Rosenberg & Light LLP Personnel' - Meghan Trainor – vocals, background vocals, executive producer, programming, choir - Ricky Reed – executive producer, programming, bass (tracks 1–2, 6–7, 9), guitar (tracks 1–2, 4, 6, 8), keyboards (tracks 1–4, 6, 8, 10–11, 14), piano (tracks 3, 6, 10) - Tommy Brown – producer, programming, guitar (track 4), keyboards (tracks 4, 7) - Mr. Franks – producer, programming, guitar (track 4), keyboards (tracks 4, 14) - Johan Carlsson – producer, programming, acoustic guitar (tracks 5, 13), guitar (tracks 5, 13), background vocals, piano (track 13), synthesizer (track 13), tambourine (track 13) - Thomas Troelsen – producer, programming, background vocals, bass (track 6), tambourine (track 6) - The Elev3n – producer, programming - Chris Gelbuda – producer, background vocals, guitar (track 9) - Kevin Kadish – producer, programming, baritone saxophone (track 11), electric guitar (track 11), piano (track 11), tambourine (track 11) - Twice as Nice – producer, programming - The Monsters and the Strangerz – producer, programming - Tom Peyton – drums (tracks 1–2) - Chris Gehringer – mastering - Manny Marroquin – mixing (tracks 1–4, 6–12, 14) - John Hanes – mixing (tracks 5, 13) - Serban Ghenea – mixing (tracks 5, 13, 15) - Yo Gotti – vocals (track 4) - LunchMoney Lewis – vocals (track 6) - Kelli Trainor – vocals (track 13), choir - R. City – vocals (track 15) - James G. Morales – background vocals, drums (track 7–8), keyboards (track 8) - Matthew Morales – background vocals, strings (track 7), horn (track 8) - Julio David Rodriguez – background vocals, bass (tracks 7–8), guitar (track 7–8) - Jelli Dorman – background vocals - Taylor Parks – background vocals - Jennifer Hartswick – background vocals - Ross Golan – background vocals - Anita Marisa Boriboon – art director, design - Maya Krispin – styling - Lorien Meillon – hair - Alison Christian – make-up - Tom Schrimacher – photography ## Charts ### Weekly charts ### Year-end charts ## Certifications ## Release history
16,984,249	Viatkogorgon	1,165,823,130	Extinct genus of therapsids	[ "Fossil taxa described in 1999", "Fossils of Russia", "Gorgonopsia", "Lopingian synapsids of Europe", "Permian Russia", "Prehistoric therapsid genera" ]	Viatkogorgon is a genus of gorgonopsian (a type of therapsid, the group that includes modern mammals) that lived during the Permian period in what is now Russia. The first fossil was found at the Kotelnich locality near the Vyatka River and was made the holotype of the new genus and species V. ivachnenkoi in 1999. The generic name refers to the river and the related genus Gorgonops—the gorgons of Greek mythology are often referenced in the names of the group. The specific name honors the paleontologist Mikhail F. Ivakhnenko. The holotype skeleton is one of the most complete gorgonopsian specimens known and includes rarely preserved elements such as gastralia (abdominal ribs) and a sclerotic ring (a bony ring inside the eye). A larger, but poorly preserved specimen has also been assigned to the species. The holotype specimen is about 80 cm (31 in) long, including the 14 cm (5.5 in) long skull, making Viatkogorgon a relatively small gorgonopsian. The assigned specimen is larger, with a 17 cm (6.7 in) long skull, and the holotype may have been young. As a gorgonopsian, it would have been skeletally robust with a somewhat dog-like stance, though with outwards-turned elbows. The snout was high, and the teeth were generally recurved (curved backward), pointed, and serrated. The canines (the saber teeth) were much larger than the incisors at the front and postcanines behind but relatively small for a gorgonopsian. Viatkogorgon was characterized by its unusually large eye socket and sclerotic ring. It was distinct from other gorgonopsians in that the lower end of the postorbital bar was narrow, and it had a very large sulcus (or furrow) at the back of the skull on each side. Since gorgonopsians have been described mainly from skulls, it is uncertain how widespread the postcranial features of Viatkogorgon were in other members of the group. The skeleton of Viatkogorgon was unusual in having gastralia, in that the tail was differentiated with a front and hind part, with the former less flexible, and in that some of the foot bones and its digits were reduced in size and interconnected. Gorgonopsians were a group of carnivorous stem mammals with saber teeth that disappeared at the end of the Permian. Phylogenetic analysis has found Viatkogorgon to be one of the earliest-diverging gorgonopsians, after Nochnitsa, also from Kotelnich. All other gorgonopsians appear to belong to two, later-diverging Russian and African groups. Viatkogorgon's proportionally large sclerotic ring suggests nocturnal habits. Gorgonopsians would have been relatively fast predators, killing their prey by delivering slashing bites with their saber teeth. The skeleton of Viatkogorgon had features such as a vertebral column with increased vertical curvature, including the hind part of the tail, and restricted mobility of some digits of the feet, likened to a flipper-like structure indicating it may have been a relatively good swimmer. The age of the Vanyushonki Member of the Kotelnich succession, from which Viatkogorgon is known, is not determined but is thought to date to either the late or middle Permian epoch. ## Discovery In 1999, the paleontologist Leonid P. Tatarinov described and named a new genus and species of gorgonopsian (a group of stem-mammals with saber teeth that lived during the Permian period), Viatkogorgon ivakhnenkoi. The holotype specimen (cataloged as PIN 2212/61 in the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow), on which the scientific name is based, was found in 1992 at the Kotelnich locality of Kotelnichsky District, in Russia's Kirov Oblast. The Kotelnich locality contains a series of Permian exposures on the banks of the Vyatka River. The generic name Viatkogorgon refers to the Vyatka River, and to Gorgonops, the name of a related genus. The name "gorgon", referring to the monstrous hags of Greek mythology, is often used in the generic names of gorgonopsians. The specific name ivakhnenkoi honors the paleontologist Mikhail F. Ivakhnenko. The specific name was spelled V. ivachnenkoi in a 2001 article by the paleontologists Elena G. Kordikova and Albert J. Khlyupin, a spelling which Tatarinov also used in 2004, while some other researchers have continued using the original spelling. Russian gorgonopsid discoveries began in the 1890s with notable finds like Inostrancevia, one of the largest members of the group. There were fewer finds during the 20th century, with Viatkogorgon being the first recognized gorgonopsian from Russia, the only place outside Africa where the group is definitely known, since 1974. The holotype skeleton is one of the most complete gorgonopsian specimens known (a 2023 study called it the most complete), and preserves almost the entire postcranial skeleton (the rest of the skeleton apart from the skull). This includes elements rarely preserved intact in therapsids (the group in which gorgonopsians belong), such as the gastralia (or abdominal ribs, a feature found among reptiles, for example). The skull is relatively poorly preserved in comparison, with the left side and the palate badly broken. The skull roof is reconstructed in plaster, except for the snout tip and left postorbital bone (the bone that formed the hind border of the eye socket). Overall, the skull is also compressed from side to side, which makes it narrower than it would have been in life when viewed from above. The right sclerotic ring (a bony ring inside the eye) is preserved, which is otherwise uncommonly preserved in theriodont (the sub-group of therapsids to which gorgonopsians belong) fossils. The proatlas, atlas and axis (the first bones of the vertebral column) are attached to the skull. Tatarinov only described the skull of Viatkogorgon in the 1999 article, wherein he also named the new scylacosaur genus Kotelcephalon, because the article was restricted in volume, but he preliminarily described the postcranium in 2004. In 2018, the paleontologists Christian F. Kammerer and Vladimir Masyutin redescribed the skull of Viatkogorgon and stated that a detailed description of the postcranium would greatly improve understanding of the skeletal anatomy of gorgonopsian, but noted it was unavailable for study during their research, as it was part of a traveling exhibition. They also named the new gorgonopsian Nochnitsa from Kotelnich in the article. In 2002, Ivakhnenko reported an additional, larger Viatkogorgon specimen (cataloged as PIN 4678/5), which is very poorly preserved. ## Description The almost complete Viatkogorgon holotype specimen is about 80 cm (31 in) long, including the skull. The skull is 14 cm (5.5 in), the preserved part of the tail is approximately 17 cm (6.7 in), the forelimb is approximately 24 cm (9.4 in), and the hindlimb is more than 26.5 cm (10.4 in). It was relatively small for a gorgonopsian; for comparison, Inostrancevia and Rubidgea measured at least 3 m (120 in) in length. Ivakhnenko suggested in 2002 that the holotype specimen was possibly a young individual, based on it having a narrow postorbital bar; the width of this bar widened with age in Estemmenosuchus, for example. For comparison, the skull of the larger assigned specimen is 17 cm (6.7 in) long, and its postorbital bar is 1 cm (0.39 in) wide, while that of the holotype is 0.6 cm (0.24 in). The skull length was therefore increased 1.3-fold, and the width of the postorbital bar was increased by a factor of 1.6. Gorgonopsians were skeletally robust, yet long-limbed for therapsids, with a somewhat dog-like stance, though with outwards-turned elbows. It is unknown whether non-mammaliaform therapsids such as gorgonopsians were covered in hair or not. ### Skull The snout of Viatkogorgon was high and narrow, though much of the skull's narrowness was due to sideways compression of the fossil. The premaxilla (the frontmost bone of the upper jaw) was little exposed on the side surface of the snout, as in Nochnitsa. The internarial bar (which divided the nostrils) curved slightly hindward in side view, so that the lower front margin of the snout was blunt rather than pointed. The upper tip of the premaxilla extended to the upper front edge of the bony nostril. Few of the upper incisors (front teeth) are preserved intact in the holotype, but the partial tooth roots and tooth sockets show it would have had five incisors on each side, as is typical for gorgonopsians. The upper incisors were weakly curved and spatulate (spoon-shaped), with clear serrations towards their tips. It is uncertain if they decreased in size further back in the tooth-row, because the holotype's only two intact incisors are the same tooth of each side (I5). In general, the teeth were pointed, flattened on the outer side, and somewhat convex on the inner side, and the serrated area of each tooth was displaced towards the outer edge of the crowns. The septomaxilla (a small bone between the nasal bone and the maxilla, the main bone of the upper jaw) had a shorter side facing process than Nochnitsa. The maxilla was proportionally taller and shorter from front to back than in Nochnitsa, and whereas the upper margin of the latter's maxilla was rounded, there was a broad process that extended hindward between the nasal and lacrimal bone (a bone that formed the front border of the eye socket) in Viatkogorgon. The hindward directed process that formed the lower margin of the maxilla was shorter than in Nochnitsa, not reaching the midpoint of the eye socket. The "step" by the diastema (gap) between the incisors and the canine (the saber-tooth) was deeper than in Nochnitsa, and the part of the maxilla that bore the canine was very convex, which gave the impression of a "flange" when seen in side view. The canine was relatively small for a gorgonopsian, as was the case in Nochnitsa, and bore serrations on its hind edge. The tooth row behind the canine was short and consisted of four closely packed postcanines, which were recurved (curved backwards), unlike those of Nochnitsa. The postcanines were substantially shorter than the incisors, a regular feature of gorgonopsians, and almost three times shorter than the canines. There was a weak margin above the postcanine tooth-row on the maxilla, to a larger extent than Nochnitsa, but less than in the gorgonopsian Eriphostoma and rubidgeines. The nasal bone of Viatkogorgon was somewhat broader at the front (by the hind edge of the bony nostril) than in Nochnitsa. The prefrontal bone (at the forehead, above and in front of the eye) was proportionally shorter than in Nochnitsa and contributed less to the upper front margin of the eye socket, where the lacrimal bone formed a larger part instead. Viatkogorgon was characterized by its unusually large eye socket with its proportionally large sclerotic ring. The diameter of the eye socket was 2.8 cm (1.1 in), while the outer diameter of the sclerotic ring was 2.3 cm (0.91 in), and its inner diameter 1.5 cm (0.59 in). The ring consisted of 15 ossicles (small bones also termed plates) which overlapped each other with no gaps, and the rims of the ring were regularly rounded. The jugal bone, which formed the lower border of the eye socket of Viatkogorgon, formed a more extensive part of the side of the face than in Nochnitsa. Viatkogorgon was distinct from all gorgonopsians except Nochnitsa in that the lower end of the postorbital bar (between the eye socket and the temporal fenestra opening behind the eye socket) was narrow, forming a straight rod when seen in side view. It was broader and lacked the curvature seen in the bar of Nochnitsa. In other gorgonopsians, the lower end of the postorbital bar was expanded where it contacted the jugal bone, even if the rest of the upper length of this bar was narrow. The skull of Viatkogorgon was also distinct in having a very large sulcus (or furrow) on the squamosal bone on each side at the back of the skull, which extended onto a squamosal flange which impinged on the lower edge of the temporal fenestra. Apart from being much larger and expansive than the squamosal sulcus of Nochnitsa, this feature had a distinct boundary and a flange that pointed back and down in both. The palatal structure of Viatkogorgon was typical for gorgonopsians. It had teeth on the palatine bone (bony palate) placed on stout tubercles (also called bosses, with 15–18 teeth on each), which formed two rows that extended along the outer and inner edges of each tubercle. Each tooth row formed two lines, with the outer line being longer than the inner. The surface of the tubercle was weakly concave and smooth between the teeth. There were also tooth-bearing tubercles on the pterygoid bone behind the palatine bone, though less developed, and the teeth here (12–13 on each) were similar to those of Sauroctonus. They were much smaller than the palatine teeth, covered the entire surface of the tubercles, and formed three rows. There were also teeth on the transverse processes of the pterygoid, which formed only one row mainly on the inner part, unlike in Sauroctonus. Unlike the teeth on the tubercles, these teeth were strongly worn and probably not replaced in adults. The lower jaw of Viatkogorgon was typical for gorgonopsians, unlike that of Nochnitsa, with a tall mandibular symphysis (the area where the two halves of the mandible connected at the front) and distinct mentum (or "chin"). The lower jaw was somewhat shorter than the upper jaw. The lower teeth are badly preserved in the holotype, but they appear to have been very similar to the upper; the single preserved incisor is recurved and spatulate, and the lower postcanine is weakly recurved, and both at least have serrations on their hind edges. The dentary bone (the tooth-bearing bone at the front of the lower jaw) was generally taller than that of Nochnitsa, and its coronoid process (part of where the jaw connected to the skull) sloped more sharply, with a weakly concave hind edge, as is typical in gorgonopsians. The articular bone (which formed the jaw-joint) was typical of gorgonopsians and had a downward protruding retroarticular process (a process at the back of the jaw where muscles attached). ### Vertebrae and ribs Since gorgonopsians have been described mainly from remains of their skulls, with scant known postcranial remains, it is uncertain how widespread the postcranial features of Viatkogorgon were in other members of the group. Viatkogorgon had seven cervical vertebrae (of the neck), twenty or twenty-one thoracic vertebrae (of the body in front of the pelvis, fifteen when excluding the five lumbar vertebrae, those between the ribcage and the pelvis), three sacral vertebrae (associated with the pelvis), and at least twenty caudal vertebrae (of the tail). The structure of the atlas was similar to other gorgonopsians, and the other neck vertebrae were massive, particularly the axis. The axis had a relatively large intercentrum, a very large neural spine, which expanded from front to back, and a very high front side. The zygapophyses (the articular processes that connected adjacent vertebrae) were horizontal in the axis but became more vertical beginning by the third vertebra. The thoracic vertebrae of Viatkogorgon were somewhat shorter than the lumbar vertebrae, and their neural spines were moderately tall, with horizontal zygapophyses. The neural spines became somewhat taller beginning at the second third part of the thoracic region, and were vertical in side view, though in the hind part of this region they were inclined rearwards and their front edge became convex (showing the transition from thoracic to lumbar vertebrae). The front ten or eleven thoracic ribs were very long and directed back and down. They were closely adjoined and attached at the front edge of the centrum by two closely positioned articular heads, as in the other ribs. The hindmost four or five thoracic rib pairs shortened gradually, transitioning into the lumbar ribs, whose articular heads got closer together. The sternum (breast bone) was 13 mm (0.51 in) long, shaped like a rectangular plate, and had three costal processes on each side, similar to Aelurognathus. The gastralia of Viatkogorgon formed an unusual, latticed frame of segmentally arranged narrow bars, located under the frontmost thoracic ribs. The bars were arranged in two layers at an angle to each other, with at least thirteen bars extended frontwards and down at the deeper layer. The four at the upper layer continued the thoracic vertebrae and extended hindward and down. The left bars overlay the lower ends of the right bars in some cases, and these elements were much thinner and denser spaced than ribs. No element connecting the right and left ribs has been identified. The lumbar region was slightly differentiated from the thoracic region in having shorter ribs. The first and second lumbar ribs curved slightly hindward, were directed almost to the sides in the third, and curved slightly forwards in the hindmost two vertebrae. The lumbar ribs appear to have been single headed, unlike the thoracic ribs. The lumbar vertebrae were massive, longer than the thoracic ones, and had horizontally positioned zygagophyses and somewhat thickened neural spines, whose front edges narrowed towards the top. The three frontmost lumbar vertebrae had horizontal diapophyses (processes which projected from the sides of the neural arches over the neural canal of the vertebrae), while these turned in a vertical direction in the two hindmost ones, as seen in some other gorgonopsians. Of the three sacral vertebrae, only the hindmost two connected to the ilium of the pelvis by expanded ribs, the ends of which adjoined each other to form a common articular facet. The articular facet of the frontmost vertebra was isolated from the other two, and only connected with a shortened, rudimentary rib. The tail region of Viatkogorgon was clearly differentiated into a front and hind part, the front part consisting of five caudal vertebrae which together measured 5.7–5.8 cm (2.2–2.3 in) in length. The ribs were short and massive in this part of the tail region. The zygapophyses were unusually inclined upwards, with their hind edges raised in relation to their front edges. The position of the zygapophyses would have restricted sideways movement at the base of the tail. The zygapophyses of the fourth and fifth caudal vertebrae were less inclined. The ribs of two of the front caudal vertebrae were 12 mm (0.47 in) long, whereas they shortened abruptly so that the one of the fifth vertebra was only 4–5 mm (0.16–0.20 in) long. All the ribs here were double-headed, and all the neural spines were relatively massive, though they abruptly decreased in length hindward. The hind part of the tail consisted of 15 vertebrae, which lacked caudal ribs. In at least four of these vertebrae, the zygapophyses were almost raised to the extent of those of the vertebrae that adjoined their front, while they were positioned almost horizontally towards the back. The neural spines here were low and narrow, and the space between the vertebrae had well-developed hypapophyses (processes that project down from the vertebrae) that did not taper. The hypapophyses were inclined hindward and adjoined two vertebrae at the front, and covered the hypapophyses hindward adjoining vertebrae from below. ### Limbs and limb girdles The scapula (shoulder blade) was 7 cm (2.8 in) long, nearly 1 cm (0.39 in) wide at the joint with the humerus (upper arm bone), and its upper edge expanded to a width of 2.5 cm (0.98 in). A relatively low crest extended along the hind edge of the bone's lower third, and slightly deviated at the front from the edge of the scapula. The coracoids (part of the pectoral girdle in vertebrates other than mammals) were displaced somewhat upwards and closely adjoined the inner surface of the scapula, projecting from the front and back of that bone. The external foramen (opening) of the coracoid opened in front of the scapula. The internal foramen opened into an incisure between the procoracoid and the scapula, a position also seen only in Gorgonops among gorgonopsians. The humerus was shorter than the femur (thigh bone), 9.5 cm (3.7 in) and 10.3 cm (4.1 in) long respectively but much more massive. The deltopectoral crest (where muscles attached to the upper arm) of Viatkogorgon projected to about the same extent as in Sauroctonus but with a more poorly developed greater trochanter (a site for muscle attachment). The humerus of Viatkogorgon was similar to that of Aelurognathus, though with a more massive elbow joint, almost 2 cm (0.79 in) in diameter across. The lower epicondyles (the rounded parts at the end of a bone) of the humerus were very well-developed and projected far above the surfaces that articulated with the lower bones, with rough crests at the edges. The crest on the medial epicondyle (associated with the radius of the lower arm) was massive, and the crest of the lateral epicondyle (associated with the ulna) was longer, 20% of the humerus' length but less massive. Most other gorgonopsians did not have as prominent and sculptured lateral epicondyles, except for one indeterminate specimen. There were two epicondylar foramina, one more extended and in a more upward position, the difference between the two being greater than in Lycaenops. The strongly developed upper epicondyles made the humerus of Viatkogorgon s-shaped, while those of almost all other gorgonopsians were only slightly concave on one side. The lower arm was about 7 cm (2.8 in) long. The radius was narrower than the ulna but also flattened from top to bottom. The ulna was much more massive than the radius and had a well-developed ulnar process. The ulna was flattened from top to bottom, and its upper part had a roughened area bordered by crests, which marked where the flexor muscles of the hand originated. Viatkogorgon's hand was narrow and about 7 cm (2.8 in) long. The middle digits projected to a larger extent than the ones on the foot and had a typical gorgonopsian structure. Viatkogorgon was unusual in having two small additional centrale bones among the carpal bones of the hands, while most other gorgonopsians had only one. The fifth digit of the hand was very specialized, and its structure was superficially like the human thumb, the first digit in the human hand. The other digits were more typical in appearance. The first digit had short bones, and the third digit was the longest, like other gorgonopsians, but its length exceeded the others to a larger extent. The phalanx bones of the fourth digit were complex, their outer ends having a disk-like element that attached tightly with the main part of the phalanges, yet these were of the same length as the ordinary phalanges. The ilium of Viatkogorgon differed from that of Lycaenops in that its preacetabular part (the part in front of the acetabulum, the hip joint where the femur connected) was better developed with a pronounced muscular depression. This probably provided an area for attachment for the iliotibial muscle that connected with the lower leg. The upper margin of the ilium was raised far above where this bone articulated with the sacrum and had a longitudinal crest on the inner surface. This was separated from another crest by a fossa which, along with a broad depression, may have provided an area of attachment for part of the ilio-pubo-femoralis internus muscle. The pubic bone was thickened, rod-like, and directed forwards and down at an angle of about 45 degrees, resembling the pubic bones of archosaurian reptiles (the group that includes crocodiles and dinosaurs). The acetabulum was very large and horizontally elongated, measuring over 20 mm (0.79 in) long and 15 mm (0.59 in) high. On the lower edge of this opening, a notch separated the ischium from the pubic bone. The femur was proportionally long, 10.3 cm (4.1 in), 70% of the skull's length. It was more massive than that of Lycaenops, and curved along its long axis, to the same extent as in Sauroctonus. The head of the femur was round, about 12 mm (0.47 in) in diameter, directed inward at about a 30-degree angle, and its surface was well-built. The femoral head narrowed towards its back, and it likely entered the hind part of the acetabulum. The greater trochanter descended to about the femur's mid-length. Two long crests extended along the bone, above and below the front of the greater trochanter. The first was probably the inner trochanter, which was typically present in gorgonopsians, but the other has not been identified previously in the group. The lower leg was shorter than the femur, 9 cm (3.5 in) at most, and its surface sculpturing was more pronounced than in other gorgonopsians, resembling cynodonts. The tibia (lower leg bone) of Viatkogorgon had structures not identified in other gorgonopsians, such as a flattened surface on the preaxial epicondyle, and a crest at the upper half back of the bone that bordered a broad area. The fibula (lower leg bone) was more massive than those of other gorgonopsians and had a massive sculptured crest at its middle; this surface sculpturing diminished towards the lower end of the fibula, and the crest abruptly decreased in height, features not seen in other gorgonopsians. Viatkogorgon's foot was 7.5 cm (3.0 in) long, and its general structure was similar to those of other gorgonopsians, though some features were notable. The proximal row of bones towards the heel consisted of only two bones as in mammals—a massive astragalus and a fibulare. In the distal row at the front of the foot, the fourth and fifth tarsals were fused, as in other gorgonopsians, but the row of intermediate centralia in Viatkogorgon was unusually well-developed; gorgonopsians usually had only one centrale, whereas Viatkogorgon had an additional one. Another unusual feature was that the articular facets of the hindmost foot bones extended onto the front side of the fibula and tibia of the lower leg. The tarsus (the hindmost cluster of bones in the foot) was 2.5 cm (0.98 in) long, and the metatarsal bones (those between the tarsus and the digits) ranged from 0.8 cm (0.31 in), the first, to 2.1 cm (0.83 in), the fourth. The foot's digits were short, the fourth being 2.5 cm (0.98 in), a little longer than the third. The digits varied slightly in length, with the second and fifth digits being only slightly shorter than the third and fourth. The shortening of the metatarsals added to the impression that the digits were short. The first and fifth digits were somewhat hooked; the first was relatively short, about 1.8 cm (0.71 in) long. The phalangeal formula (the number and distribution of phalanx bones in the digits) of gorgonopsians was similar to that of mammals, while the study of Viatkogorgon indicates there was a reduction in phalanges (leading to phalanges becoming disk-like) combined with fusion of them. In the first digit of the foot, two phalanges were almost completely fused. In the third digit the second and third phalanges were shortened and fused. The fourth digit had three phalanges that were shortened, almost disk-like, and fused. Therefore, the phalangeal formula was 1-2, 3, 3-4, 3-5, 3. There was contact between the metatarsals towards the back of the foot, as well as contacts between some metatarsals and phalanges and contacts between the bases of the second and third digits. Ligaments probably mediated the front contacts between the metatarsals and phalanges. The ungual phalanx (claw bone) of the fifth digit was notable in being hooked and somewhat lengthened. ## Classification Gorgonopsians were a group of carnivorous therapsids that included the apex predators of the late Permian. While they were abundant, they varied little in morphology. Though widespread in southern Africa during the Permian, they are poorly represented in the fossil record of the rest of the world, and only definitely known from Russia. Gorgonopsians were early synapsids, the group in which modern mammals belong; similar to reptiles in some respects, they are therefore considered stem-mammals (earlier inaccurately termed "mammal-like reptiles"). Gorgonopsians were the first group of predatory animals to develop saber teeth, long before true mammals and dinosaurs evolved. This feature later evolved independently multiple times in different predatory mammal groups, such as felids and thylacosmilids. Gorgonopsians disappeared with the end-Permian mass extinction. In his 1999 description, Tatarinov found Viatkogorgon to belong in the gorgonopsian subfamily Sycosaurinae within the family Gorgonopsidae, based on features such as small size and the narrowness of the snout. This subfamily was not previously known from Russia. He also noted some similarities to members of the family Rubidgeidae. Ivakhnenko considered Sycosaurinae, including Viatkogorgon, to be part of Rubidgeidae in 2002. In his 2004 description of the postcranial skeleton, Tatarinov cautioned that this provided little information about the taxonomic position of Viatkogorgon among gorgonopsians—some features being unique and others occurring in other members of the group. The lack of information resulted from only a few gorgonopsians having had their skeletons examined. Nevertheless, he found the structure of its feet similar to gorgonopsians such as Arctognathus and Aelurognathus. In 2018, Kammerer and Masyutin stated that while the early evolution of Gorgonopsia is poorly understood, Viatkogorgon and Nochnitsa expand the knowledge of gorgonopsians from the middle Permian or earliest late Permian of Laurasia, the northern landmass of the supercontinent Pangaea, consisting of what is now Eurasia and North America. In their phylogenetic analysis, Nochnitsa was found to be the basalmost (earliest-diverging) gorgonopsian followed by Viatkogorgon (based on its lack of a lower expansion on its postorbital bar, a feature seen in later-diverging genera), these being outside a clade grouping all other gorgonopsians. That clade was again divided into two groups, one consisting of Russian and the other consisting of African gorgonopsians, based on shared skull features. The following cladogram showing the position of Viatkogorgon within Gorgonopsia follows Kammerer and Masyutin, 2018: In contrast, previous analyses had not found gorgonopsians to be grouped geographically, with some studies placing Russian genera such as Inostrancevia in African families. Previously, it had not been suspected that different gorgonopsian groups were endemic to different regions. Kammerer and Masyutin found it surprising since there were many Russo-African sister taxon relationships between other therapsid groups, dicynodonts and burnetiamorphs in particular. This indicated there had been an extensive dispersal of coeval therapsid groups between continents. They cautioned that the paleobiogeography of tetrapod animals (ancestrally four-limbed vertebrates) during the Permian remained poorly understood, with the expected dispersal abilities of various therapsid groups often differing from what can be seen in the fossil record and suggested more research was needed. Kammerer and Masyutin noted that while Viatkogorgon and Nochnitsa added to gorgonopsian diversity of the Kotelnich fauna, the group remained less rich in species than the therocephalians there. The low diversity and small size of the gorgonopsians there indicated that the assemblage of therapids was similar to that seen in the Pristerognathus Assemblage Zone in the Karoo Basin, South Africa, prior to the main round of gorgonopsian diversification there. In this regard, they found the basal position of Nochnitsa and Viatkogorgon intriguing, though they did not find it indicative of the Kotelnich locality being of an earlier age than the middle Permian South African strata that bear gorgonopsian fossils, based on the other kinds of therapid groups found among those faunas. They stated that while the "Russian clade" of gorgonopsians had probably diverged by the time the Kotelnich fauna existed, the absence of that clade in this locality suggests it had not yet undergone substantial diversification in Russia, and only became the dominant group of therapsid predators in the region later. ## Paleobiology Tatarinov noted in 1999 that Viatkogorgon could have pressed food against the concave, smooth palatine areas between the palatal teeth with its tongue. Palatal teeth are thought to have helped early synapsids and other basal amniotes (ancestrally land-dwelling vertebrates) grip food; these were lost in mammals which developed secondary palates instead. In 2018, Kammerer and Masyutin considered the sclerotic ring of Viatkogorgon remarkably large in proportion to its large eye socket, falling well within what would be considered scotopic vision (ability to see in darkness) in therapsids, which suggests nocturnal habits. The Russian paleontologist Valeriy K. Golubev examined assemblages of Permian land vertebrates in Eastern Europe in 1999. He noted that Viatkogorgon and the therocephalian Viatkosuchus, the largest predators of the Kotelnich Subassemblage, were relatively small, not much different in size from the smaller predators of their assemblage, such as the therocephalians Scalopodon, Scalopodontes and Kotelcephalon. In 2019, the Russian paleontologists Yulia A. Suchkova and Golubev stated that the therocephalian Gorynychus from Kotelnich would have shared its niche as a dominant predator with Viatkogorgon. The paleoartist and writer Mauricio Antón provided an overview of gorgonopsian biology in a 2013 book, writing that despite their differences from saber-toothed mammals, many features of their skeletons indicated they were not sluggish reptiles but active predators. While their brains were relatively smaller than those of mammals, and their sideways placed eyes provided limited stereoscopic vision, they had well-developed turbinals in their nasal cavity, a feature associated with an advanced sense of smell, which would have helped them track prey and carrion. The canine saber teeth were used for delivering the slashing killing-bite, while the incisors, which formed an arch in front of the saber teeth, held the prey and cut the flesh while feeding. To allow them to increase their gape when biting, gorgonopsians had several bones in their mandibles that could move in relation to each other and had a double articulation with the skull—unlike in mammals where the rear joint articular bone has become the malleus ear bone. Antón envisioned gorgonopsians would hunt by leaving their cover when prey was close enough, and use their relatively greater speed to pounce quickly on it, grab it with their forelimbs, and bite any part of the body that would fit in their jaws. Such a bite would cause a large loss of blood, but the predator would continue to try to bite vulnerable parts of the body. ### Motion In 2004, Tatarinov interpreted the behavior of Viatkogorgon based on its skeletal features, which, while being generally similar to those of other gorgonopsians, had certain features that are unique or poorly understood. These concerned features of the locomotor apparatus in particular, which indicated a stage of swimming adaptations, while other features were consistent with those commonly seen in its group. Like other gorgonopsians, it had a long lumbar region of the vertebrae, of which the hindmost vertebrae showed an increased capability for vertical curvature, which was also the case for the neck vertebrae and, unusually, the hind part of the tail region. The presence of well-developed gastralia was one of its most unusual features among theriodonts, as were the hypapophyses of the tail region. In addition, the broad and somewhat shortened foot with unusual intermetatarsal contacts, which restricted the mobility of its individual digits, indicated transformation of the foot into a flipper-like structure. Tatarinov hypothesized these features to be adaptations for swimming; while Viatkogorgon was not a specialized aquatic predator, Tatarinov suggested its tail and feet enabled it to swim better than most other gorgonopsians. In particular, he thought the hind part of the tail was probably used for swimming, as is the case with reptiles with long tails that have hypapohyses, like Mosasaurus. Tatarinov noted that since the claw on the hindlimb's fifth digit was hooked and somewhat lengthened, it could have been used for protection and grooming, as in modern monotremes. The first digit could have had this function to a lesser degree, as it was free from contacting foot bones. The forelimb of Viatkogorgon was less specialized and could have performed more universal functions, as it lacked contacts between the digits. Antón stated in 2013 that while the post-cranial skeletons of gorgonopsians were basically reptilian, their stance was far more upright than in more primitive synapsids, like pelycosaurs, which were more sprawling. Regular locomotion of gorgonopsians would have been similar to the "high walks" seen in crocodilians, wherein the belly is carried above the ground, with the feet pointing forwards, and the limbs carried under the trunk instead of to the sides. The forelimbs had a more horizontal posture than the hindlimbs, with the elbows pointing outwards during movement, but the gait of the hindlimbs would have resembled that of mammals. As in reptiles, the tail muscles (such as the caudofemoralis) were important in flexion of the hindlimb, whereas the tails of mammals are merely for balance. Their feet were probably plantigrade (where the soles were placed flat on the ground), though they were likely more swift and agile than their prey. Their feet were more symmetrical compared to the reptilian condition, making contact with the ground more efficient, similar to running mammals. ## Paleoenvironment Viatkogorgon is known from the Kotelnich locality, which consists of a series of Permian red bed exposures along the banks of the Vyatka River in Russia. It is specifically from the Vanyushonki Member, which is the oldest rock unit in the Kotelnich succession, consisting of pale or brown mudstones (clay and silts, with some fine-grained sand) as well as gray mudstone, and dark red mudstone at the base of this exposure. These mudstones were possibly deposited from suspension in standing water bodies on floodplains or shallow ephemeral lakes, that remained flooded for short periods of time, but the exact environment has not yet been determined, due to the lack of a primary structure of the sediments. The abundance of fossil rootlets and large herbivores indicates the landscape represented by the Vanyushonki Member was relatively humid and well-vegetated. The Kotelnich faunal complex was possibly coeval (of the same age) with the Pristerognathus Assemblage Zone of South Africa, which dates to either the latest Guadalupian epoch of the middle Permian 260.26 million years ago, or the early late Permian. The Vanyushonki Member is the source of most of the tetrapod fossils from the Kotelnich locality, with skeletal remains being abundant here, often consisting of complete, articulated skeletons. Apart from the gorgonopsians Viatkogorgon and Nochnitsa, therapsids from the locality include the anomodont Suminia and the therocephalians Chlynovia, Gorynychus, Karenites, Perplexisaurus, Scalopodon, Scalopodontes, and Viatkosuchus. The pareiasaur Deltavjatia is particularly abundant there, and the parareptile Emeroleter is present. Fossil ostracods, root traces, and tree stumps have also been found.
47,733,580	Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies	1,145,596,982	Music reference book	[ "1970s in music", "1981 non-fiction books", "American anthologies", "American non-fiction books", "Books about pop music", "Books about rock music", "Books by Robert Christgau", "Consumer guides", "Da Capo Press books", "Encyclopedias of music", "Houghton Mifflin books", "Music guides", "The Village Voice", "Works about music genres" ]	Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies is a music reference book by American music journalist and essayist Robert Christgau. It was first published in October 1981 by Ticknor & Fields. The book compiles approximately 3,000 of Christgau's capsule album reviews, most of which were originally written for his "Consumer Guide" column in The Village Voice throughout the 1970s. The entries feature annotated details about each record's release and cover a variety of genres related to rock music. Christgau's reviews are informed by an interest in the aesthetic and political dimensions of popular music, a belief that it could be consumed intelligently, and a desire to communicate his ideas to readers in an entertaining, provocative, and compact way. Many of the older reviews were rewritten for the guide to reflect his changed perspective and matured stylistic approach. He undertook an intense preparation process for the book during 1979 and 1980, which temporarily hindered both his awareness of current music and his marriage to fellow writer Carola Dibbell, whom he later credited as an influence on his work. The guide was critically well received, earning praise for its extensive discography, Christgau's judgment, and his colorful writing. Reviewers also noted his opinionated tastes, analytical commentary, pithy language, and critical quips. A staple of rock-era reference works, Christgau's Record Guide became widely popular in libraries as a source for popular music studies and as an authoritative guide for fellow critics, record collectors, and music shops, influencing the development of critical standards for evaluating music. It later appeared on several expert lists of the best popular music literature. Christgau's Record Guide has been reprinted several times in book form and later on Christgau's website in its entirety. Two more "Consumer Guide" collections have been published, compiling his capsule reviews from the 1980s and the 1990s, respectively. ## Background In 1969, Robert Christgau began reviewing contemporary album releases in his "Consumer Guide" column, which was published more-or-less monthly in The Village Voice – an alternative weekly newspaper local to New York City – and for brief periods in Newsday and Creem magazine during the 1970s. His method was to select about 20 albums to review in capsule format, averaging approximately 50 words each, and to assign each album a letter grade rating on a scale from A-plus to E-minus. The column was a product of The Village Voice's deal with Christgau – allotting him one 2,500-word piece per month – and his desire to provide prospective buyers with ratings of albums, including those that did not receive significant radio airplay. Some of Christgau's early columns were reprinted in his first book, Any Old Way You Choose It, a 1973 anthology of essays previously published in the Voice and Newsday. Among the most revered and influential of the early rock critics, Christgau wrote the "Consumer Guide" with a conviction that popular music could be consumed intelligently and discussed in a manner similar to books in literary criticism. His opinions and enthusiasms for music were informed by left-leaning politics, principles of humanism and secularism, and an interest in finding new understandings of the aesthetic and political dimensions in popular culture's intersection with the avant-garde. As a journalist, he wanted to convey his findings confidently and in a way that would entertain and provoke his readership. As such, his writing took on a densely compressed style featuring insulting language, slang, personal asides, and highbrow allusions meant to engage readers with an extensive knowledge of culture and music history, including popular music's canon and the metanarratives of specific musicians. Over the course of the 1970s, Christgau broadened The Village Voice's readership nationally with his writing and editorial leadership, transforming the newspaper into a premier venue for popular music criticism at a time when the field began to peak in cultural influence. His own reputation developed as the field's leading American writer, with a cult following of the "Consumer Guide" column. ## Preparation In the late 1970s, Christgau conceived of a book that would collect reviews from his columns through that decade. He began to pitch Christgau's Record Guide to publishers in early 1979 and received a publishing deal shortly thereafter. He soon realized that the proposed book would not adequately represent the decade unless he significantly revised and expanded his existing columns. He believed his existing body of reviews overlooked important musical artists and would likely comprise less than two-thirds of the needed material for the book. In July of that year, he took a vacation from The Village Voice and left New York for Maine with his wife, fellow writer Carola Dibbell, to work on the book. They chartered a boathouse and brought with them a stereo system and numerous LP records. As Christgau recalled in his memoir Going Into the City (2015), "I had hundreds of records to find out about, hundreds to find, hundreds to re-review, hundreds to touch up." Christgau continued working on the book after his return to New York. He was aided significantly by access to the record library of his neighbor, fellow journalist Vince Aletti, who owned all of James Brown's scarcely catalogued Polydor LPs from the 1970s. Beginning with Brown, Christgau re-examined the discographies of major artists in a chronological manner to curtail a sense of hindsight in the writing. "When possible", he said, "I piled on the changer artists I actually felt like hearing that day in a ploy intended to scare up the excited little feeling in the pit of my stomach without which I am loath to give any album an A." The work intensified in 1980; from the beginning of February to the end of July he spent every day preparing the book. Recounting in his memoir, he said he worked 14 hours daily while "in book mode", which "was so grueling that for most of 1980 I was barely aware of the music of the moment, the only such hiatus in what is now fifty years." Christgau's intense immersion into preparing the book also put a strain on his marriage to Dibbell, as did their efforts to overcome infertility. In his words, the guide almost ruined his personal life: "We postponed further parenthood strategization. We hardly ever went out. The apartment sank to new depths of disarray as LPs and paper migrated into the dining room. And since I was home every minute with the stereo on, my life partner could never be alone, with herself or with her work." Dibbell's admission of an affair at the time led to a brief separation before she and Christgau reunited with a stronger commitment to each other, reflected in the book's dedication: "TO CAROLA – NEVER AGAIN." As they mended their relationship, Christgau slowed down his work pace in August 1980 while allowing Dibbell to "provide the tough edits I needed". In his memoir, he paid tribute to her influence on his work: "Her aesthetic responsiveness was unending ... no one affected my writing like Carola". Christgau finished the guide in mid-September, submitting the manuscript a few weeks past his publisher's deadline. ## Content and scope Christgau's Record Guide collects approximately 3,000 "Consumer Guide" reviews of albums through the 1970s. The reviews are arranged alphabetically by artist name and accompanied by annotations for each record. Christgau regraded some older albums to reflect his changed perspective, while omitting other records and text from the original columns in favor of new material. Much of the material was previously unpublished, as more than half of the original reviews were expanded and extensively revised by Christgau for the guide, especially those covering the decade's first half. "Much of the early CG material was rewritten for the book for a reason", Christgau explained: "I didn't evolve my current high-density stylistic approach until 1975 or so". He wanted to retain parts of the original text as much as possible, "not just to poach language but to inject what sense of the moment I could". The book covers albums from a variety of rock-related genres including hard rock, heavy metal, punk rock, funk, disco, soul, blues, country, and reggae. With regard to its scope, Christgau said he "tried to grade every '70s rock album worth owning" and what he called "semipopular" music, while maintaining a perspective of being "equal" with rock listeners. The reviews often feature analytical commentary on the aesthetic or cultural significance of the music, as well as critical one-liner jokes. For example, his review of the Leonard Cohen album Live Songs (1973) states Cohen "risks turning into the Pete Seeger of romantic existentialism", while the Doobie Brothers' Takin' It to the Streets (1976) is panned in a single sentence: "You can lead a Doobie to the recording studio, but you can't make him think." The book is appended with introductory essays by Christgau, including a historical overview of rock and an explanation of his grading system; an A-plus record is defined as "an organically conceived masterpiece that repays prolonged listening", while "E records are frequently cited as proof that there is no God." Other unworthy music of note is relegated to two pages of lists toward the end of the guide, titled "Who Cares?" and "Meltdown". The last section of the book, titled "A Basic Record Library", lists the albums he regarded as the essential records of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, respectively. ## Publication history Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies was first published in October 1981 by Ticknor & Fields (an imprint of Houghton Mifflin) in New Haven, Connecticut. It was released at a time when bookstores saw an influx of rock music reference books as publishers competed with one another for the market. The book was published in the United Kingdom the following year through the London-based Vermilion imprint, and was reprinted in 1985 by Houghton Mifflin in New York. In 1990, Christgau's Record Guide was reprinted by Da Capo Press under the title Rock Albums of the Seventies: A Critical Guide. In the reprint's introduction, Christgau said he had revised some of the content. It was followed by Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s that same year and Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s in 2000, forming a three-volume series of books compiling the capsule reviews. The contents of all three "Consumer Guide" collections were made freely available on Christgau's website when it went online in 2001 with the help of fellow critic and web designer Tom Hull. ## Reception ### Popular press Christgau's Record Guide was well received in the popular music press during the 1980s. Reviewing the book in 1982 for The New York Times, Robert Palmer found it notable among the recent slew of rock reference publications "because it is both obsessively complete and caustically outspoken". He identified qualities of maturity, intelligence, and humor in Christgau's music criticism, and recommended the book as a valuable resource for those with a serious interest in contemporary rock, even if some of the opinions may prove divisive. "It is a bit too cantankerously opinionated to deserve an A-plus," Palmer wrote, "but it certainly repays reading and rereading." Liam Lacey of The Globe and Mail called the guide "archly entertaining", while a reviewer for The Washington Post said Christgau "writes beautifully, and his book is a provocative capsule history of '70s pop". In The Harvard Crimson, David M. Handelman gave the guide an "A" grade and deemed Christgau "everything a rock critic should be" and without the pretensions of contemporaries like John Rockwell, Kit Rachlis, and Dave Marsh: "There's non [sic] of the tortured delving into non existent souls. He trashes trash, and embraces fun, genius, and things between." Handelman also supported his brevity of style and the capsule-style format, arguing that anything longer is often unreasonable for a review of an album; "how many people read beyond the good/bad label?", he questioned. Herb Hendler named Christgau's Record Guide among the books and magazines "relevant to youth and the rock era" in Year by Year in the Rock Era (1983), a chronicle of rock music's cultural impact from 1954 to 1982. Steve Simels, who had been inspired to pursue a journalistic career by Christgau's early 1970s writing, ended up reviewing the book for Stereo Review and offered qualified praise. He regarded Christgau's reviews as indisputably well-written with fair-minded critical judgment, impressive witticisms and one-liners, and a deeper interest in black music than most other white critics. But Simels expressed reservations about what he perceived to be a mawkish sense of feminist conscience, "knee-jerk" liberal politics, and a predilection for "conceptual music", exemplified by "A" grades for all four Ramones albums. After laboring through the entire guide, he found himself "surprised to discover how even-handed [Christgau]'s been over the long haul", and wrote in sum that it is worth reading, even if not entirely reliable. In High Fidelity, David Browne said some of Christgau's musings would be too complicated for newcomers to rock journalism, but concluded that "he remains one of pop's most astute critics" and the guide functions best as a way of discovering good records – such as Bill Withers's Still Bill (1972) – otherwise obscured by the complex discography of 1970s popular music. Some reviewers were more critical of the book. Marsh, who had cited the "Consumer Guide" concept as an influence on his contemporaneous Rolling Stone Record Guide, gave the collection a B-plus in Musician. He found Christgau "concise, contentious, condescending, provocative and pedagogic" with a shrewd sense of judgment and sharp insight, but complained of gratuitous, off-topic commentary and possible attempts to keep up with fashionable consensus, as there were no clear indications which reviews had been rewritten in retrospect for the book. Marsh ultimately questioned whether Christgau's tough-mindedness and ideological rigidity made him ideal for a guide book and asked what it means if "the most influential rock critic has never written a book that wasn't an anthology". A response by Christgau was published in the magazine a few months later, in which he expressed appreciation for Marsh's "kind words" about the book and referred back to its introductory essay to answer questions posed in the review: > Though I don't indicate which reviews are newly written, I do state that I've reconsidered every record I had doubts about and stand by every judgment. As the co-editor of a competing consumer guide, Dave knows that the most important thing to do when you're reviewing records is to listen to them first. British music scholar Paul Taylor issued different complaints about the book in his 1985 guide to literature on popular music, Popular Music Since 1955. He called Christgau's Record Guide "an odd collection" for several reasons. "Included are certainly the best albums", he observed, "but it is the way in which the bad examples are selected that is dubious, and simply mediocre records are avoided." ### Academic journals Beyond the popular press, the book also garnered positive notice among academic journals focusing on reference works and curation of library collections. A review in Choice magazine highly recommended the guide, arguing that it functions superbly as a read for spontaneous pleasure and a reference to rock's "major and minor classics" while highlighting the last section for librarians assembling a rock record collection. Illinois Libraries, the journal publication of the Illinois Library Association, advised AV librarians to consult the guide for help in selecting music recordings to archive. The journal's reviewer called Christgau "a senior critic if rock music has such a thing" and suggested readers focus less on his dislikes of artists like John Denver and more on his "well-founded and meaningful" enthusiasm for Terry Garthwaite, Brian Eno, and the Ramones. Lee Ash, general editor of the Haworth Press's Special Collections journal, reviewed Christgau's Record Guide as among books recommended to library special collections. The guide's "quality, content, scope, and evaluative notes" impressed Ash, who had a greater familiarity with discographies of early chamber music and only a mild enthusiasm for rock music. He concluded it is an essential guide for music collection and providing "critical material for argument". In Library Journal, P. G. Feehan regarded Christgau as a rigorous, smart critic and the book an excellent companion to The Rolling Stone Record Guide, particularly because of his extensive coverage of albums from fringe and import record labels. Feehan's one cavil was "his four-letter-word-studded, hip/smart style, which may turn off readers from west of the Hudson River". ## Legacy and influence Christgau's Record Guide and similar review collections played a role in the rise of rock critics as tastemakers, promoters, and cultural historians in the music industry, whose standards were being reinvented by rock music. These critics constructed their own versions of what popular music academic Roy Shuker called "the traditional high-low culture split, usually around notions of artistic integrity, authenticity, and the nature of commercialism". As with The Rolling Stone Record Guide, Christgau's Record Guide became popular with music aficionados, collectors, and both secondhand and specialty record stores, who kept copies of different volumes on hand. Christgau's guides to the 1970s and 1980s were "bibles in the field", as Shuker described, "establishing orthodoxies as to the relative value of various styles or genres and pantheons of artists". While reviewing the 1980s volume for the Chicago Tribune in 1990, Greg Kot said Christgau's Record Guide and Ira Robbins's Trouser Press Record Guide had been "the bibles of my existence as a rock critic". Fellow critic Rob Sheffield named it among his six favorite books in a list published by The Week, believing other "obsessive music freaks" likely own it too. "This book is the all-time rock-'n'-roll argument starter", he said, "and I'll be arguing with it for the rest of my life." It was also read by novelists Dylan Hicks and Jonathan Lethem when they were young adults; Lethem later revealed that "for years, I calibrated my record collection against the grades ... jotting dissenting views in pencil in the margins". In retrospect, Christgau said the book "greatly enhance[d] my personal profile as well as reaching readers I'm proud are still out there." The guide was published in an era when popular music studies were the domain of non-academic sources such as journalists rather than music departments and classical academics. It became widely popular in library catalogues by the late 1980s, along with other anthologized works of rock journalism by critics like Ellen Willis and Lester Bangs. The "Consumer Guide" reviews collected in the book were cited by Weisbard as part of rock and popular music's reinvention of critical standards. The end of the 20th century saw another paradigm shift, as paid journalism declined and academic departments gradually embraced popular music studies. In 1997, the Music Library Association used both 1970s and 1980s volumes as references to prepare select rock recordings for A Basic Music Library: Essential Scores and Sound Recordings, published by the American Library Association as a guide for librarians and other specialist collectors. Christgau believed the 1970s guide was the most "authoritative" in the "Consumer Guide" book series because the decade's smaller music market was easier to process. He characterized the first volume as "a kind of canon-defining work, making the case for Van Morrison and, say, the McGarrigle sisters, and against Black Sabbath and, say, Donny Hathaway." In comparison to The Rolling Stone Record Guide, Christgau said "I think mine is better, but that's not worth arguing. What's undeniable is that mine was written by one person, and was therefore an act of sensibility rather than cultural fiat, with no canonizing intention albeit some canonizing effect (which was soon nullified by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame [in 1983], a status grab far more effective than any book)." In the two decades that followed, he felt the canon grew "far murkier, vaster, and more various", while his personal taste became more idiosyncratic and divergent from general critical consensus. According to The Boston Globe's Ivan Kreilkamp, the "audacious, canon-defining work" remained the critic's most impactful work. In Eric Weisbard's opinion, Christgau "wasn't so much canonizing as using the endless listening party to find new wrinkles in his, and popular music's, unsummarizable aesthetic". Christgau's Record Guide has been regarded as "essential rock writing" by literary academic Cornel Bonca. Chuck Eddy included it in his buying guide to books on rock music, while Jon Savage recommended it as a useful discography of 1970s punk rock. In 2006, all three "Consumer Guide" books were collectively ranked fifth on The A.V. Club's list of the 17 essential books about popular music; in the opinion of the list's writers, Christgau "made a sublime art of the capsule review, packing pithy observations and heartfelt appreciation into 150-word boxes". Michaelangelo Matos, a staff writer for the website, was greatly influenced by Christgau and said the first two volumes were books he had read most frequently as an adult. He highlighted Christgau's humor, ability to extract the essence of an album in a few sentences, and punctuating of reviews with letter grades, "a cunning rhetorical device as much as simple judgment". In 2016, Billboard placed the first volume at number 47 on a list of the 100 greatest music books; an accompanying blurb read: "His '70s collection offers a fantastic primer on rock and soul's most fruitful decade. Whether or not you share Christgau's passion for Al Green's 'Let's Get Married' or his disdain for all things Eagles, you'll love his pith and wit." On June 23, 2019, after a Twitter user directed Christgau's attention to the Wikipedia article about the book, the critic tweeted the following response: "Wow ... I had no idea this full-bodied, even-handed, remarkably accurate article existed. I'm proud of all my books, but this convinces me that the '70s guide is the most influential." Dibbell also tweeted a response to the article, saying it is a "very thorough account of the arduous preparation and enduring reception for this great collection". ## See also - 1970s in music - Album era - Classic rock - Music criticism - Music journalism - Rockism and poptimism - Spin Alternative Record Guide
5,422,144	Taylor Swift	1,173,848,704	American singer-songwriter (born 1989)	[ "1989 births", "21st-century American actresses", "21st-century American philanthropists", "21st-century American songwriters", "21st-century American women guitarists", "21st-century American women pianists", "21st-century American women singers", "21st-century women philanthropists", "Actresses from Nashville, Tennessee", "Alternative rock singers", "American acoustic guitarists", "American country banjoists", "American country guitarists", "American country pianists", "American country record producers", "American country singer-songwriters", "American feminists", "American film actresses", "American folk guitarists", "American folk musicians", "American folk singers", "American mezzo-sopranos", "American multi-instrumentalists", "American music video directors", "American people of German descent", "American people of Italian descent", "American people of Scottish descent", "American pop guitarists", "American pop pianists", "American synth-pop musicians", "American television actresses", "American voice actresses", "American women country singers", "American women guitarists", "American women philanthropists", "American women pop singers", "American women record producers", "American women rock singers", "American women singer-songwriters", "American women songwriters", "Big Machine Records artists", "Brit Award winners", "Christians from Tennessee", "Country musicians from Pennsylvania", "Country musicians from Tennessee", "Country pop musicians", "Featured articles", "Female music video directors", "Feminist musicians", "Film directors from Pennsylvania", "Film directors from Tennessee", "Grammy Award winners", "Guitarists from Pennsylvania", "Guitarists from Tennessee", "Living people", "MTV Europe Music Award winners", "MTV Video Music Award winners", "NME Awards winners", "Philanthropists from Pennsylvania", "Philanthropists from Tennessee", "Primetime Emmy Award winners", "RCA Records artists", "Record producers from Pennsylvania", "Record producers from Tennessee", "Republic Records artists", "Singer-songwriters from Pennsylvania", "Singer-songwriters from Tennessee", "Singers from Nashville, Tennessee", "Sony Music Publishing artists", "Synth-pop singers", "Taylor Swift", "Universal Music Group artists" ]	Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Recognized for her songwriting, musical versatility, artistic reinventions, and influence on the music industry, she is a prominent cultural figure of the 21st century. Swift began professional songwriting at age 14 and signed with Big Machine Records in 2005 to become a country singer. Under Big Machine, she released six studio albums, four of them to country radio, starting with her self-titled album in 2006. Her next, Fearless (2008), explored country pop, and its singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me" catapulted her to prominence. Speak Now (2010) incorporated rock influences, while Red (2012) experimented with electronic elements and featured Swift's first Billboard Hot 100 number-one song, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together". She forwent her country image with 1989 (2014), a synth-pop album supported by the chart-topping songs "Shake It Off", "Blank Space", and "Bad Blood". Media scrutiny inspired the hip-hop-flavored Reputation (2017) and its number-one single "Look What You Made Me Do". After signing a new contract with Republic Records in 2018, Swift released the pop album Lover (2019) and autobiographical documentary Miss Americana (2020). She embraced indie folk and alternative rock on her 2020 albums Folklore and Evermore, explored chill-out styles on Midnights (2022), and re-recorded four of her first six albums as "Taylor's Versions" following a dispute with Big Machine. The albums and their number-one songs "Cardigan", "Willow", "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)", and "Anti-Hero" broke various records. In 2023, Swift embarked on the Eras Tour, her most expansive concert tour. She has also directed music videos and films such as All Too Well: The Short Film (2021). Having sold over 200 million records globally, Swift is one of the best-selling musicians, the most-streamed female artist on Spotify, and the only act to have five albums with first-week sales of over one million copies in the US. She has been featured in listicles such as Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time, Billboard's "Greatest of All Time Artists", the Time 100, and Forbes Celebrity 100. Among her accolades are 12 Grammy Awards, including three Album of the Year wins, a Primetime Emmy Award, 40 American Music Awards, 29 Billboard Music Awards, 12 Country Music Association Awards, three IFPI Global Recording Artist of the Year awards, and 101 Guinness World Records. Honored with titles such as Artist of the Decade and Woman of the Decade, Swift is an advocate for artists' rights and women's empowerment. ## Life and career ### Early life Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989, in West Reading, Pennsylvania. Her father, Scott Kingsley Swift, is a former stockbroker for Merrill Lynch and her mother, Andrea Gardner Swift (née Finlay), is a former homemaker who previously worked as a mutual fund marketing executive. She has a younger brother, actor Austin Swift, and their maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay, was an opera singer. Named after singer-songwriter James Taylor, Swift has Scottish, German and Italian heritage. She spent her early years on a Christmas tree farm that her father had purchased from one of his clients. She identifies as a Christian. She attended preschool and kindergarten at Alvernia Montessori School, run by the Bernadine Franciscan sisters, before transferring to the Wyndcroft School. The family moved to a rented house in the suburban town of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, where Swift attended Wyomissing Area Junior/Senior High School. She spent summers in Stone Harbor, New Jersey, until she was 14 years old, performing in a local coffee shop. Swift is a fan of the Philadelphia Eagles. At age nine, Swift became interested in musical theater and performed in four Berks Youth Theatre Academy productions. She also traveled regularly to New York City for vocal and acting lessons. Swift later shifted her focus toward country music, inspired by Shania Twain's songs, which made her "want to just run around the block four times and daydream about everything." She spent weekends performing at local festivals and events. After watching a documentary about Faith Hill, Swift felt sure she needed to move to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue a career in music. She traveled there with her mother at age eleven to visit record labels and submitted demo tapes of Dolly Parton and the Dixie Chicks karaoke covers. She was rejected, however, because "everyone in that town wanted to do what I wanted to do. So, I kept thinking to myself, I need to figure out a way to be different." When Swift was around 12 years old, computer repairman and local musician Ronnie Cremer taught her to play guitar. "Kiss Me" by Sixpence None the Richer was the first song Swift learned to play. Cremer helped with her first efforts as a songwriter, leading her to write "Lucky You". In 2003, Swift and her parents started working with New York-based talent manager Dan Dymtrow. With his help, Swift modeled for Abercrombie & Fitch as part of their "Rising Stars" campaign, had an original song included on a Maybelline compilation CD, and met with major record labels. After performing original songs at an RCA Records showcase, Swift, then 13 years old, was given an artist development deal and began making frequent trips to Nashville with her mother. To help Swift break into the country music scene, her father transferred to Merrill Lynch's Nashville office when she was 14 years old, and the family relocated to Hendersonville, Tennessee. Swift initially attended Hendersonville High School before transferring to Aaron Academy after two years, which better accommodated her touring schedule through homeschooling. She graduated one year early. ### 2004–2008: Career beginnings and first album In Nashville, Swift worked with experienced Music Row songwriters such as Troy Verges, Brett Beavers, Brett James, Mac McAnally, and the Warren Brothers and formed a lasting working relationship with Liz Rose. They began meeting for two-hour writing sessions every Tuesday afternoon after school. Rose called the sessions "some of the easiest I've ever done. Basically, I was just her editor. She'd write about what happened in school that day. She had such a clear vision of what she was trying to say. And she'd come in with the most incredible hooks." Swift became the youngest artist signed by the Sony/ATV Tree publishing house, but left the Sony-owned RCA Records at the age of 14 due to the label's lack of care and them "cut[ting] other people's stuff". She was also concerned that development deals may shelve artists: and recalled: "I genuinely felt that I was running out of time. I wanted to capture these years of my life on an album while they still represented what I was going through." At an industry showcase at Nashville's Bluebird Cafe in 2005, Swift caught the attention of Scott Borchetta, a DreamWorks Records executive who was preparing to form an independent record label, Big Machine Records. She had first met Borchetta in 2004. She was one of Big Machine's first signings, and her father purchased a three-percent stake in the company for an estimated \$120,000. She began working on her eponymous debut album with producer Nathan Chapman, with whom she felt she had the right "chemistry". Swift wrote three of the album's songs alone and co-wrote the remaining eight with Rose, Robert Ellis Orrall, Brian Maher, and Angelo Petraglia. Taylor Swift was released on October 24, 2006. Country Weekly critic Chris Neal deemed Swift better than previous aspiring teenage country singers because of her "honesty, intelligence and idealism". The album peaked at number five on the U.S. Billboard 200, on which it spent 157 weeks—the longest stay on the chart by any release in the U.S. in the 2000s decade. Swift became the first female country music artist to write or co-write every track on a U.S. platinum-certified debut album. Big Machine Records was still in its infancy during the June 2006 release of the lead single, "Tim McGraw", which Swift and her mother helped promote by packaging and sending copies of the CD single to country radio stations. As there was not enough furniture at the label yet, they would sit on the floor to do so. She spent much of 2006 promoting Taylor Swift with a radio tour, television appearances; she opened for Rascal Flatts on select dates during their 2006 tour, as a replacement for Eric Church. Borchetta said that although record industry peers initially disapproved of his signing a 15-year-old singer-songwriter, Swift tapped into a previously unknown market—teenage girls who listen to country music. Following "Tim McGraw", four more singles were released throughout 2007 and 2008: "Teardrops on My Guitar", "Our Song", "Picture to Burn" and "Should've Said No". All appeared on Billboard's Hot Country Songs, with "Our Song" and "Should've Said No" reaching number one. With "Our Song", Swift became the youngest person to single-handedly write and sing a number-one song on the chart. "Teardrops on My Guitar" reached number thirteen on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Swift also released two EPs, The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection in October 2007 and Beautiful Eyes in July 2008. She promoted her debut album extensively as the opening act for other country musicians' tours in 2006 and 2007, including those by George Strait, Brad Paisley, and Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. Swift won multiple accolades for Taylor Swift. She was one of the recipients of the Nashville Songwriters Association's Songwriter/Artist of the Year in 2007, becoming the youngest person to be honored with the title. She also won the Country Music Association's Horizon Award for Best New Artist, the Academy of Country Music Awards' Top New Female Vocalist, and the American Music Awards' Favorite Country Female Artist honor. She was also nominated for Best New Artist at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards. In 2008, she opened for Rascal Flatts again, and dated singer Joe Jonas for three months. ### 2008–2010: Fearless and acting debut Swift's second studio album, Fearless, was released on November 11, 2008, in North America, and in March 2009, in other markets. Critics lauded Swift's honest and vulnerable songwriting in contrast to other teenage singers. Five singles were released in 2008 through 2009: "Love Story", "White Horse", "You Belong with Me", "Fifteen", and "Fearless". "Love Story", the lead single, peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one in Australia. It was the first country song to top Billboard's Pop Songs chart. "You Belong with Me" was the album's highest-charting single on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number two, and was the first country song to top Billboard's all-genre Radio Songs chart. All five singles were Hot Country Songs top-10 entries, with "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me" topping the chart. Fearless became her first number-one album on the Billboard 200 and 2009's top-selling album in the U.S. The Fearless Tour, Swift's first headlining concert tour, grossed over \$63 million. Journey to Fearless, a three-part documentary miniseries, aired on television and was later released on DVD and Blu-ray. Swift also performed as a supporting act for Keith Urban's Escape Together World Tour in 2009. In 2009, the music video for "You Belong with Me" was named Best Female Video at the MTV Video Music Awards. Her acceptance speech was interrupted by rapper Kanye West, an incident that became the subject of controversy, widespread media attention, and many Internet memes. That year she won five American Music Awards, including Artist of the Year and Favorite Country Album. Billboard named her 2009's Artist of the Year. The album ranked number 99 on NPR's 2017 list of the 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women. She won Video of the Year and Female Video of the Year for "Love Story" at the 2009 CMT Music Awards, where she made a parody video of the song with rapper T-Pain called "Thug Story". At the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, Fearless was named Album of the Year and Best Country Album, and "White Horse" won Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance. Swift was the youngest artist to win Album of the Year. At the 2009 Country Music Association Awards, Swift won Album of the Year for Fearless and was named Entertainer of the Year, the youngest person to win the honor. Swift featured on John Mayer's single "Half of My Heart" and Boys Like Girls' single "Two Is Better Than One", the latter of which she co-wrote. She co-wrote and recorded "Best Days of Your Life" with Kellie Pickler, and co-wrote two songs for the Hannah Montana: The Movie soundtrack—"You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home" and "Crazier". She contributed two songs to the Valentine's Day soundtrack, including the single "Today Was a Fairytale", which was her first number-one on the Canadian Hot 100, and peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. While shooting her film debut Valentine's Day in October 2009, Swift dated co-star Taylor Lautner. In 2009, she made her television debut as a rebellious teenager in an CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode. She hosted and performed as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live; she was the first host to write their own opening monologue. ### 2010–2014: Speak Now and Red In August 2010, Swift released "Mine", the lead single from her third studio album, Speak Now. It entered the Hot 100 at number three. Swift wrote the album alone and co-produced every track. Speak Now, released on October 25, 2010, debuted atop the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of one million copies. It became the fastest-selling digital album by a female artist, with 278,000 downloads in a week, earning Swift an entry in the 2010 Guinness World Records. Critics appreciated Swift's grown-up perspectives; Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone wrote, "in a mere four years, the 20-year-old Nashville firecracker has put her name on three dozen or so of the smartest songs released by anyone in pop, rock or country." The songs "Mine", "Back to December", "Mean", "The Story of Us", "Sparks Fly", and "Ours" were released as singles, with the latter two reaching number one on the Hot Country Songs chart. "Back to December" and "Mean" peaked in the top ten in Canada. She briefly dated actor Jake Gyllenhaal in 2010. At the 54th Annual Grammy Awards in 2012, Swift won Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance for "Mean", which she performed during the ceremony. Swift won other awards for Speak Now, including Songwriter/Artist of the Year by the Nashville Songwriters Association (2010 and 2011), Woman of the Year by Billboard (2011), and Entertainer of the Year by the Academy of Country Music (2011 and 2012) and the Country Music Association in 2011. At the American Music Awards of 2011, Swift won Artist of the Year and Favorite Country Album. Rolling Stone placed Speak Now at number 45 in its 2012 list of the "50 Best Female Albums of All Time", writing: "She might get played on the country station, but she's one of the few genuine rock stars we've got these days, with a flawless ear for what makes a song click." The Speak Now World Tour ran from February 2011 to March 2012 and grossed over \$123 million, followed up with its live album, Speak Now World Tour: Live. She contributed two original songs to The Hunger Games soundtrack album: "Safe & Sound", co-written and recorded with the Civil Wars and T-Bone Burnett, and "Eyes Open". "Safe & Sound" won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. Swift featured on B.o.B's single "Both of Us", released in May 2012. Swift dated Conor Kennedy that year. In August 2012, Swift released "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", the lead single from her fourth studio album, Red. It became her first number one in the U.S. and New Zealand, and reached the top slot on iTunes' digital song sales chart 50 minutes after its release, earning the Fastest Selling Single in Digital History Guinness World Record. Other singles released from the album include "Begin Again", "I Knew You Were Trouble", "22", "Everything Has Changed", "The Last Time", and "Red". "I Knew You Were Trouble" reached the top five on charts in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S. Three singles, "Begin Again", "22", and "Red", reached the top 20 in the U.S. Red was released on October 22, 2012. On Red, Swift worked with longtime collaborators Nathan Chapman and Liz Rose, as well as new producers such as Max Martin and Shellback. The album incorporated many pop and rock styles such as heartland rock, dubstep and dance-pop. Randall Roberts of Los Angeles Times said Swift "strives for something much more grand and accomplished" with Red. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 1.21 million copies, making Swift the first female to have two million-selling album openings—a Guinness World Record. Red was Swift's first number-one album in the U.K. The Red Tour ran from March 2013 to June 2014 and grossed over \$150 million, becoming the highest-grossing country tour when it completed. The album earned several accolades, including four nominations at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards (2014). Its single "I Knew You Were Trouble" won Best Female Video at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. Swift received American Music Awards for Best Female Country Artist in 2012, and Artist of the Year in 2013. She received the Nashville Songwriters Association's Songwriter/Artist Award for the fifth and sixth consecutive years in 2012 and 2013. Swift was honored by the Association with the Pinnacle Award, making her the second recipient of the accolade after Garth Brooks. During this time, she briefly dated English singer Harry Styles. In 2013, Swift recorded "Sweeter than Fiction", a song she wrote and produced with Jack Antonoff for the One Chance film soundtrack. The song received a Best Original Song nomination at the 71st Golden Globe Awards. She provided guest vocals for Tim McGraw's song "Highway Don't Care", which featured guitar work by Keith Urban. Swift performed "As Tears Go By" with the Rolling Stones in Chicago, Illinois as part of the band's 50 & Counting tour. She joined Florida Georgia Line on stage during their set at the 2013 Country Radio Seminar to sing "Cruise". Swift voiced Audrey in the animated film The Lorax (2012), made a cameo in the sitcom New Girl (2013), and had a supporting role in the dystopian drama film The Giver (2014). ### 2014–2018: 1989 and Reputation In March 2014, Swift began living in New York City. She worked on her fifth studio album, 1989, with producers Jack Antonoff, Max Martin, Shellback, Imogen Heap, Ryan Tedder, and Ali Payami. She promoted the album through various campaigns, including inviting fans, called "Swifties", to secret album-listening sessions for the first time. The album was released on October 27, 2014, and debuted atop the U.S. Billboard 200 with sales of 1.28 million copies in its first week. Its singles "Shake It Off", "Blank Space" and "Bad Blood" reached number one in Australia, Canada and the U.S., the first two making Swift the first woman to replace herself at the Hot 100 top spot; other singles include "Style", "Wildest Dreams", "Out of the Woods" and "New Romantics". The 1989 World Tour ran from May to December 2015 and was the highest-grossing tour of the year with \$250 million in total revenue. Prior to 1989's release, Swift stressed the importance of albums to artists and fans. In November 2014, she removed her entire catalog from Spotify, arguing that the streaming company's ad-supported, free service undermined the premium service, which provides higher royalties for songwriters. In a June 2015 open letter, Swift criticized Apple Music for not offering royalties to artists during the streaming service's free three-month trial period and stated that she would pull 1989 from the catalog. The following day, Apple Inc. announced that it would pay artists during the free trial period, and Swift agreed to let 1989 on the streaming service. Swift's intellectual property rights holding company, TAS Rights Management, filed for 73 trademarks related to Swift and the 1989 era memes. She then returned her entire catalog plus 1989 to Spotify, Amazon Music and Google Play and other digital streaming platforms in June 2017. Swift was named Billboard's Woman of the Year in 2014, becoming the first artist to win the award twice. At the 2014 American Music Awards, Swift received the inaugural Dick Clark Award for Excellence. On her 25th birthday in 2014, the Grammy Museum at L.A. Live opened an exhibit in her honor in Los Angeles that ran until October 4, 2015, and broke museum attendance records. In 2015, Swift won the Brit Award for International Female Solo Artist. The video for "Bad Blood" won Video of the Year and Best Collaboration at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards. Swift was one of eight artists to receive a 50th Anniversary Milestone Award at the 2015 Academy of Country Music Awards. At the 58th Grammy Awards in 2016, 1989 won Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album, and "Bad Blood" won Best Music Video. Swift was the first woman and fifth act overall to win Album of the Year twice as a lead artist. Swift dated Scottish DJ Calvin Harris from March 2015 to June 2016. Prior to their breakup, they co-wrote the song "This Is What You Came For", which features vocals from Barbadian singer Rihanna; Swift was initially credited under the pseudonym Nils Sjöberg. After briefly dating English actor Tom Hiddleston, Swift began dating English actor Joe Alwyn in September 2016. She wrote the song "Better Man" for country band Little Big Town; it earned Swift an award for Song of the Year at the 51st CMA Awards. Swift and English singer Zayn Malik released a single together, "I Don't Wanna Live Forever", for the soundtrack of the film Fifty Shades Darker (2017). The song reached number two in the U.S. and won Best Collaboration at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards. In August 2017, Swift successfully sued David Mueller, a former radio jockey for KYGO-FM. Four years earlier, Swift had informed Mueller's bosses that he had sexually assaulted her by groping her at an event. After being fired, Mueller accused Swift of lying and sued her for damages from his loss of employment. Shortly after, Swift counter-sued for sexual assault for nominal damages of only one dollar. The jury rejected Mueller's claims and ruled in favor of Swift. After a one-year hiatus from public spotlight, Swift cleared her social media accounts and released "Look What You Made Me Do" as the lead single from her sixth album, Reputation. The single was Swift's first U.K. number-one single. It topped charts in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and the U.S. Reputation was released on November 10, 2017. It incorporated a heavy electropop sound, along with hip hop, R&B, and EDM influences. Reviewers praised Swift's mature artistry, but some denounced the themes of fame and gossip. The album debuted atop the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 1.21 million copies. Swift became the first act to have four albums sell one million copies within one week in the U.S. The album topped the charts in the UK, Australia, and Canada, and had sold over 4.5 million copies worldwide as of 2018. It spawned three other international singles, including the U.S. top-five entry "...Ready for It?", and two U.S. top-20 singles—"End Game" (featuring Ed Sheeran and rapper Future) and "Delicate". Swift launched the short-lived The Swift Life mobile app for fans in late 2017. Reputation was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards in 2019. At the American Music Awards of 2018, Swift won four awards, including Artist of the Year and Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist. After the 2018 AMAs, Swift garnered a total of 23 awards, becoming the most awarded female musician in AMA history, a record previously held by Whitney Houston. In April 2018, Swift featured on country duo Sugarland's "Babe". In support of Reputation, she embarked on her Reputation Stadium Tour from May to November 2018. In the U.S., the tour grossed \$266.1 million in box office and sold over two million tickets, breaking many records, the most prominent being the highest-grossing North American concert tour in history. It grossed \$345.7 million worldwide. It was followed up with an accompanying concert film on Netflix. ### 2018–2020: Lover, Folklore, and Evermore Reputation was Swift's last album under Big Machine. In November 2018, she signed a new deal with the Universal Music Group; her subsequent releases were promoted by Republic Records. Swift said the contract included a provision for her to maintain ownership of her masters. In addition, in the event that Universal sold any part of its stake in Spotify, it agreed to distribute a non-recoupable portion of the proceeds among its artists. Vox called it a huge commitment from Universal, which was "far from assured" until Swift intervened. Swift released her seventh studio album, Lover, on August 23, 2019. Besides Jack Antonoff, Swift worked with new producers Louis Bell, Frank Dukes, and Joel Little. Lover made Swift the first female artist to have a sixth consecutive album sell more than 500,000 copies in one week in the U.S. Critics commended the album's free-spirited mood and emotional intimacy. The lead single, "Me!", peaked at number two on the Hot 100. Other singles from Lover were the U.S. top-10 singles "You Need to Calm Down" and "Lover", top-40 single "The Man", and "Cruel Summer", which became a resurgent success in 2023 and charted in the top 10. Lover was the world's best-selling album by a solo artist of 2019, selling 3.2 million copies. Lover and its singles earned nominations at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards in 2020. At the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards, "Me!" won Best Visual Effects, and "You Need to Calm Down" won Video of the Year and Video for Good. Swift was the first female and second artist overall to win Video of the Year for a video that they directed. While promoting Lover, Swift became embroiled in a public dispute with talent manager Scooter Braun and Big Machine over the purchase of the masters of her back catalog. Swift said she had been trying to buy the masters, but Big Machine would only allow her to do so if she exchanged one new album for each older one under new contract, which she refused to sign. Swift began re-recording her back catalog in November 2020. Besides music, she played Bombalurina in the film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats (2019), for which she co-wrote and recorded the Golden Globe-nominated original song "Beautiful Ghosts". Critics panned the film but praised Swift's performance. The documentary Miss Americana, which chronicled parts of Swift's life and career, premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was released on Netflix that January. Swift signed a global publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing Group in February 2020 after her 16-year-old contract with Sony/ATV expired. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Swift released two surprise albums: Folklore on July 24, and Evermore on December 11, 2020. Both explore indie folk and alternative rock with a more muted production compared to her previous upbeat pop songs. Swift wrote and recorded the albums with producers Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner from the National. Alwyn co-wrote and co-produced select songs under the pseudonym William Bowery. The albums garnered widespread critical acclaim. The Guardian and Vox opined that Folklore and Evermore emphasized Swift's work ethic and increased her artistic credibility. Three singles supported each of the albums, catering the U.S. mainstream radio, country radio, and triple A radio. The singles, in that order, were "Cardigan", "Betty", and "Exile" from Folklore, and "Willow", "No Body, No Crime", and "Coney Island" from Evermore. Swift became the first artist to debut a U.S. number-one album and a number-one song at the same time with Folklore's "Cardigan" and Evermore's "Willow". Folklore was 2020's best-selling album in the U.S. with 1.2 million copies. It won Album of the Year at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, making Swift the first woman to win the award thrice. At the 2020 American Music Awards, she won three awards, including Artist of the Year for a record third consecutive time. She was 2020's highest-paid musician in the U.S., and the world's highest-paid solo musician. ### 2021–present: Re-recordings, Midnights, and the Eras Tour Following the masters dispute, Swift released three re-recorded albums—Fearless (Taylor's Version) and Red (Taylor's Version) in 2021 and Speak Now (Taylor's Version) in 2023. All three peaked atop the Billboard 200, becoming the first ever re-recorded albums to do so. Fearless (Taylor's Version) was preceded by "Love Story (Taylor's Version)", the re-recording of Swift's 2008 single, which made her the second artist after Dolly Parton to have both the original and re-recorded versions of a song reach number one on the Hot Country Songs chart. Red (Taylor's Version) was supported by "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)", which became the longest song in history to top the Hot 100. The song was accompanied by a short film, which won a Grammy Award for Best Music Video and Swift's record third MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year. Her fourth re-recorded album, 1989 (Taylor's Version), will be released on October 27, 2023. The album was preceded by two re-recorded songs, "Wildest Dreams (Taylor's Version)" and "This Love (Taylor's Version)". Amidst the re-recording projects, Swift's tenth studio album, Midnights, was released on October 21, 2022. It experiments with chill-out music and received critical acclaim, with Rolling Stone critics dubbing it an instant classic. It was Swift's fifth album to open atop the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of over one million copies and broke various sales and streaming records, including the most U.S. first-week vinyl sales and the most single-day streams and most single-week streams on Spotify. Its tracks, led by the single "Anti-Hero", monopolized the entire top 10 of the Hot 100, making Swift the first artist to do so. Two other singles, "Lavender Haze" and "Karma", both peaked at number two on the Hot 100. To support Midnights and all of her albums to date, Swift embarked on the Eras Tour in March 2023. Media outlets extensively covered the tour's cultural and economic impact, and its U.S. leg broke the record for the most tickets sold in a day. Ticketmaster received public and political criticisms for mishandling ticket sales and alleged monopoly in the concert industry. A concert film of the tour is set for release to North American theatres on October 13, 2023. Beyond her albums, Swift featured on five songs from 2021 to 2023: "Renegade" and "Birch" by Big Red Machine, a remix of "Gasoline" by Haim, "The Joker and the Queen" by Ed Sheeran, and "The Alcott" by the National. For the soundtrack of the 2022 film Where the Crawdads Sing, she recorded "Carolina", which received nominations for Best Original Song at the Golden Globes and Best Song Written for Visual Media at the Grammy Awards. Swift's music releases, touring, and related activities culminated in an unprecedented height of popularity post-pandemic. Music Business Worldwide remarked that she entered a "new stratosphere of global career success". Swift received the Songwriter Icon Award from the National Music Publishers' Association. Outside music, she had a bit part in the 2022 period comedy Amsterdam and ventured into directing a feature film under Searchlight Pictures. ## Artistry ### Influences One of Swift's earliest memories of music is listening to her grandmother, Marjorie Finlay, sing in church. As a child, she enjoyed Disney film soundtracks: "My parents noticed that, once I had run out of words, I would just make up my own." Swift said she owes her confidence to her mother, who helped her prepare for class presentations as a child. She also attributes her "fascination with writing and storytelling" to her mother. Swift was drawn to the storytelling aspect of country music, and was introduced to the genre listening to "the great female country artists" of the 1990s—Shania Twain, Faith Hill, and the Dixie Chicks. Twain, both as a songwriter and performer, was her biggest musical influence. Hill was Swift's childhood role model, and she would often imitate her. She admired the Dixie Chicks' defiant attitude and their ability to play their own instruments. Swift also explored the music of older country stars such as Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, and Dolly Parton, the last of whom she believes is exemplary to female songwriters, and alt-country artists like Patty Griffin and Lori McKenna. As a songwriter, Swift was influenced by Joni Mitchell, citing especially how Mitchell's autobiographical lyrics convey the deepest emotions: "I think [Blue] is my favorite because it explores somebody's soul so deeply." Swift has also been influenced by various pop and rock artists. She lists Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Bryan Adams, the Rolling Stones, Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson, and Carly Simon as her career role models. She likes Springsteen and the Stones for remaining musically relevant for a long time and credits the Stones with being "a huge influence on my entire outlook on my career." As she grows older, Swift aspires to prioritize music over fame like Harris did. Her synth-pop album 1989 was influenced by some of her favorite 1980s pop acts, including Peter Gabriel, Annie Lennox, Phil Collins, and Madonna. She has also cited Keith Urban's musical style and Fall Out Boy's lyrics as major influences. Additionally, she expressed admiration for Beyoncé, who Swift stated "paved the road that every female artist is walking down now". ### Genres Swift is known for venturing into various music genres and undergoing artistic reinventions, having been described as a "music chameleon". She self-identified as a country musician until 2012, when she released her fourth studio album, Red. Her albums were promoted to country radio, but music critics noted wide-ranging styles of pop and rock. After 2010, they observed that Swift's melodies are rooted in pop music, and the country music elements are limited to instruments such as banjo, mandolin, and fiddle, and her slight twang; some commented that her country music identity was an indicator of her narrative songwriting rather than musical style. Although the Nashville music industry was receptive of Swift's status as a country musician, critics accused her of abandoning the legitimate roots of country music in favor of crossover success in the mainstream pop market. Red's eclectic pop, rock, and electronic styles intensified the critical debate, to which Swift responded, "I leave the genre labeling to other people." Music journalist Jody Rosen commented that by originating her musical career in Nashville, Swift made a "bait-and-switch maneuver ... planting roots in loamy country soil, then pivoting to pop". She abandoned her country music identity in 2014 with the release of her synth-pop fifth studio album, 1989. Swift described it as her first "documented, official pop album". Her subsequent albums Reputation (2017) and Lover (2019) have an upbeat pop production; the former incorporates hip hop, trap, and EDM elements. Midnights (2022), on the other hand, is distinguished by a more experimental, "subdued and amorphous pop sound". Although reviews of Swift's pop albums were generally positive, some critics lamented that the pop music production indicated Swift's pursuit of mainstream success, eroding her authenticity as a songwriter nurtured by her country music background—a criticism that has been retrospectively described as rockist. Musicologist Nate Sloan remarked that Swift's pop music transition was rather motivated by her need to expand her artistry. Swift eschewed mainstream pop in favor of alternative styles like indie rock with her 2020 studio albums Folklore and Evermore. Clash said her career "has always been one of transcendence and covert boundary-pushing", reaching a point at which "Taylor Swift is just Taylor Swift", not defined by any genre. ### Voice Swift possesses a mezzo-soprano vocal range, and a generally soft but versatile timbre. As a country singer, her vocals were criticized by some as weak and strained compared to those of her contemporaries. Swift admitted her vocal ability often concerned her in her early career and has worked hard to improve. Reviews of her vocals remained mixed after she transitioned to pop music with 1989; critics complained that she lacked proper technique but appreciated her usage of her voice to communicate her feelings to the audience, prioritizing "intimacy over power and nuance". They also praised her for refraining from correcting her pitch with Auto-Tune. Los Angeles Times remarked, Swift's defining vocal feature is her attention to detail to convey an exact feeling—"the line that slides down like a contented sigh or up like a raised eyebrow". With Reputation, critics noted she was "learning how to use her voice as a percussion instrument of its own", swapping her "signature" expressive vocals for "cool, conversational, detached" cadences and rhythms similar to hip hop and R&B styles. Alternative Press stated that her "evocative" vocal stylings are more reminiscent of pop-punk and emo genres. Reviews of Swift's later albums and performances were more appreciative of her vocals, finding them less nasal, richer, more resonant, and more powerful. With Folklore and Evermore, Swift received praise for her sharp and agile yet translucent and controlled voice. Pitchfork described her vocals on the albums as "versatile and expressive". Music theory professor Alyssa Barna called Swift's timbre "breathy and bright" in the upper register and "full and dark" in the lower. With her 2021 re-recorded albums, critics began to praise the mature, deeper and "fuller" tone of her voice. An i review said Swift's voice is "leagues better now" with her newfound vocal furniture. The Guardian highlighted "yo-yoing vocal yelps" and passionate climaxes as the trademarks of Swift's voice, and that her country twang faded away. Midnights received acclaim for Swift's nuanced vocal delivery. She ranked 102nd on the 2023 Rolling Stone list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time. In a review of the Eras Tour, The New Yorker critic Amanda Petrusich praised Swift's "stronger" vocals, clarity and tone. ### Songwriting Swift has been referred to as one of the greatest songwriters of all time by several publications. English-language scholars like Jonathan Bate and Stephanie Burt have noted that her literary sensibility, sense of melody and verbal writing style are rare amongst her peers. Swift's bridges are often underscored as one of the best aspects of her songs, earning her the title "Queen of Bridges" from Time. In The New Yorker in 2011, Swift said she identifies as a songwriter first: "I write songs, and my voice is just a way to get those lyrics across". Her personal experiences were a common inspiration for her early songs, which helped her navigate life. Her "diaristic" technique began with identifying an emotion, followed by a corresponding melody. On her first three studio albums, love, heartbreak, and insecurities, from an adolescent perspective, were dominant themes. She delved into the tumult of toxic relationships on Red, and embraced nostalgia and post-romance positivity on 1989. Reputation was inspired by the downsides of Swift's fame, and Lover detailed her realization of the "full spectrum of love". Other themes in Swift's music include family dynamics, friendship, alienation, self-awareness, and tackling vitriol, especially sexism. Her confessional lyrics received positive reviews from critics, who highlighted their vivid details and emotional engagement, which they found uncommon in pop music. Critics also praised her melodic compositions; Rolling Stone described Swift as "a songwriting savant with an intuitive gift for verse-chorus-bridge architecture". NPR dubbed Swift "a master of the vernacular in her lyrics", remarking that her songs offer emotional engagement because "the wit and clarity of her arrangements turn them from standard fare to heartfelt disclosures". Despite the positive reception, The New Yorker stated she was generally portrayed "more as a skilled technician than as a Dylanesque visionary". Tabloid media often speculated and linked the subjects of her songs with her ex-lovers, a practice reviewers and Swift herself criticized as sexist. Aside from clues in album liner notes, Swift avoided talking about the subjects of her songs. On her 2020 albums Folklore and Evermore, Swift was inspired by escapism and romanticism to explore fictional narratives. Without referencing her personal life, she imposed emotions onto imagined characters and story arcs, which liberated her from tabloid attention and suggested new paths for her artistry. Swift explained that she welcomed the new songwriting direction after she stopped worrying about commercial success. According to Spin, she explored complex emotions with "precision and devastation" on Evermore. Consequence stated her 2020 albums provided a chance to convince skeptics of Swift had "songwriting power", noting her transformation from "teenage wunderkind to a confident and careful adult". Swift divides her writing into three types: "quill lyrics", referring to songs rooted in antiquated poeticism; "fountain pen lyrics", based on modern and vivid storylines; and "glitter gel pen lyrics", which are lively and frivolous. Critics note the fifth track of every Swift album as the most "emotionally vulnerable" song of the album. Awarding her with the Songwriter Icon Award in 2021, the National Music Publishers' Association remarked that "no one is more influential when it comes to writing music today" than Swift. The Week deemed her the foremost female songwriter of modern times, and the Nashville Songwriters Association International named her Songwriter-Artist of the Decade in 2022. Swift has also published two original poems: "Why She Disappeared" and "If You're Anything Like Me". ### Performances Journalists have described Swift as one of the best performers and entertainers in mainstream music. Often praised for her showmanship and stage presence, Swift is known for her ability to command large audiences, such as in a stadium, without having to rely fully on dance like her contemporaries do. According to V magazine's Greg Krelenstein, she possesses "a rare gift of turning a stadium spectacle into an intimate setting", irrespective of "whether [she is] plucking a guitar or leading an army of dancers". In a 2008 review of Swift's early performances, Sasha Frere-Jones of The New Yorker called her a "preternaturally skilled" entertainer with a vibrant stage presence: "[Swift] returned the crowd's energy with the professionalism she has shown since the age of fourteen." In 2018, Stereogum's Chris DeVille wrote that her onstage persona emulates those of "classic rock deities", while The Mercury News' Jim Harrington felt the Reputation Stadium Tour showcased Swift's growth as a performer, "especially in regard to her ability to command a stage." In 2023, Adrian Horton of The Guardian noted Swift's "seemingly endless stamina" on the Eras Tour, and i critic Ilana Kaplan called Swift's showmanship "unparalleled". Critics have highlighted Swift's versatility as an entertainer, praising her ability to switch onstage personas and performance styles depending on the varying themes and aesthetics of her albums. Her concert productions have been characterized by elaborate Broadway theatricality and high technology, and her performances frequently incorporate a live band, with whom she has played and toured since 2007. Swift also often accompanies herself with musical instruments such as electric guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, and sometimes six-string banjo and ukulele. Interacting frequently with the audience, her solo acoustic performances have been described as intimate and emotionally resonant, complementing her storytelling-based lyrics and connection with fans. Lydia Burgham of The Spinoff opined that the intimacy of Swift's acoustic performances remain "integral to her singer-songwriter origins". Chris Willman of Variety called Swift "pop's most approachable superstar", and the 21st century's most popular performer. ### Video and film Swift emphasizes visuals as a key creative component of her music making process. She has collaborated with different directors to produce her music videos, and over time she has become more involved with writing and directing. She developed the concept and treatment for "Mean" in 2011 and co-directed the music video for "Mine" with Roman White the year before. In an interview, White said that Swift "was keenly involved in writing the treatment, casting and wardrobe. And she stayed for both the 15-hour shooting days, even when she wasn't in the scenes." From 2014 to 2018, Swift collaborated with director Joseph Kahn on eight music videos—four each from her albums 1989 and Reputation. Kahn has praised Swift's involvement in the craft. She worked with American Express for the "Blank Space" music video (which Kahn directed), and served as an executive producer for the interactive app AMEX Unstaged: Taylor Swift Experience, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Interactive Program in 2015. Swift produced the music video for "Bad Blood" and won a Grammy Award for Best Music Video in 2016. Her production company, Taylor Swift Productions, Inc., is credited with producing all of her visual media starting with the 2018 concert documentary Reputation Stadium Tour. She continued to co-direct music videos for the Lover singles "Me!" with Dave Meyers, and "You Need to Calm Down" (also serving as a co-executive producer) and "Lover" with Drew Kirsch, but ventured into sole direction with the videos for "The Man" (which won her the MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction), "Cardigan", "Willow", "Anti-Hero" and "Bejeweled". After Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions, Swift debuted as a filmmaker with All Too Well: The Short Film, which made her the first artist to win the Grammy Award for Best Music Video as a sole director. Swift has cited Chloé Zhao, Greta Gerwig, Nora Ephron, Guillermo del Toro, John Cassavetes, and Noah Baumbach as her filmmaking influences. ## Achievements Swift has won 12 Grammy Awards (including three for Album of the Year—tying for the most by an artist), an Emmy Award, 40 American Music Awards (the most won by an artist), 29 Billboard Music Awards (the most won by a woman), 101 Guinness World Records, 14 MTV Video Music Awards (including three Video of the Year wins—the most by an act), 12 Country Music Association Awards (including the Pinnacle Award), eight Academy of Country Music Awards, and two Brit Awards. As a songwriter, she has been honored by the Nashville Songwriters Association, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the National Music Publishers' Association and was the youngest person on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time in 2015. At the 64th BMI Awards in 2016, Swift was the first woman to be honored with an award named after its recipient. From available data, Swift has amassed over 50 million album sales and 150 million single sales as of 2019, and 114 million units globally, including 78 billion streams as of 2021. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) ranked her as the Global Recording Artist of the Year for a record three times (2014, 2019 and 2022). Swift has the most number-one albums in the United Kingdom and Ireland for a female artist this millennium, earned the highest income for an artist on Chinese digital music platforms—, and is the first artist to replace themselves at the top spot as well as occupy the entire top five of the Australian albums chart. Her Reputation Stadium Tour (2018) is the highest-grossing North American tour ever, and she was the world's highest-grossing female touring act of the 2010s. Beginning with Fearless, all of her studio albums opened with over a million global units. On Spotify, Swift is the most streamed female act, the only artist to have received more than 200 million streams in one day (228 million streams on October 21, 2022), and the only female act to reach 100 million monthly listeners. The most entries and the most simultaneous entries for an artist on the Billboard Global 200, with 122 and 31 songs, respectively, are among her feats. In the US, Swift has sold over 37.3 million albums as of 2019, when Billboard placed her eighth on its Greatest of All Time Artists Chart. Nine of her songs have topped the Billboard Hot 100. She is the longest-reigning act of the Billboard Artist 100 (78 weeks), the soloist with the most cumulative weeks (62) atop the Billboard 200, the woman with the most Billboard 200 number-ones (12), Hot 100 entries (212), top-ten songs (42), and weeks atop the Top Country Albums (99), and the act with the most Digital Songs number-ones (26). Swift is the first woman to simultaneously chart four albums in the top 10 and 11 albums on the entire Billboard 200. She is the second highest-certified female digital singles artist (and fifth overall) in the U.S., with 137.5 million total units certified by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and the first woman to have both an album (Fearless) and a song ("Shake It Off") certified Diamond. Swift has appeared in various power listings. Time included her on its annual list of the 100 most influential people in 2010, 2015, and 2019. She was one of the "Silence Breakers" honored as Time Person of the Year in 2017 for speaking up about sexual assault. In 2014, she was named to Forbes' 30 Under 30 list in the music category and again in 2017 in its "All-Star Alumni" category. Swift became the youngest woman to be included on Forbes' list of the 100 most powerful women in 2015, ranked at number 64. Swift received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from New York University and served as its commencement speaker on May 18, 2022. ## Cultural status Swift has made a profound impact on the music industry in various aspects. Publications describe Swift as a cultural "vitality" or zeitgeist, with Billboard noting only few artists have had her chart success, critical acclaim, and fan support, resulting in her wide impact. Publications consider Swift's million-selling albums an anomaly in the streaming-dominated industry following the end of the album era in the 2010s. Swift is the only artist in Luminate Data history to have five albums sell over a million copies in a week, leading New York magazine to call her "the one bending the music industry to her will". Swift is also regarded as a champion of independent record shops, contributing to the 21st-century vinyl revival. Variety dubbed Swift the "Queen of Stream" after she achieved multiple streaming feats. Economist Alan Krueger devised his concept "rockonomics"—a microeconomic analysis of the music industry—using Swift, whom he considers an "economic genius". In 2013, New York magazine's Jody Rosen dubbed Swift the "world's biggest pop star", and opined that the trajectory of her stardom has defied established patterns: "[Swift] falls between genres, eras, demographics, paradigms, trends", leaving all the other artists such as Beyoncé, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, and Justin Bieber "all vying for second place". According to CNN, Swift began the 2010s decade as a country star and ended it as an "all-time musical titan". She was the most googled woman in 2019 and musician in 2022. ### Legacy Swift helped shape the modern country music scene, having extended her success and fame beyond the U.S., pioneered the use of internet (Myspace) as a marketing tool, and introduced the genre to a younger generation. Country labels have since become interested in signing young singers who write their own music; her guitar performances contributed to the "Taylor Swift factor", a phenomenon to which upsurge in guitar sales to women, a previously ignored demographic, is attributed. According to publications, Swift changed the contemporary music landscape "forever" with the genre transitions across her career, a discography that accommodates cultural shifts, and her power "to pull any sound she wants into mainstream orbit". Furthermore, in being personal and vulnerable in her lyrics, music journalist Nick Catucci opined Swift helped make space for later singers like Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, and Halsey to do the same. Scholars have also highlighted the literary sensibility and poptimist implications of Swift and her music in the 21st century. Swift has influenced numerous music artists, and her albums have inspired an entire generation of singer-songwriters. Journalists praise her ability to change industry practices, noting how her actions reformed policies of streaming platforms, prompted awareness of intellectual property among upcoming musicians, and reshaped the concert ticketing model. Various sources deem Swift's music a paradigm representing the millennial generation; Vox called her the "millennial Bruce Springsteen", and The Times named her "the Bob Dylan of our age". In recognition of her cultural impact, Swift earned the title Woman of the Decade (2010s) from Billboard, Artist of the Decade (2010s) at the American Music Awards, and Global Icon at the Brit Awards. Swift is also a subject of academic study; her artistry and fame are popular topics of scholarly media research. Various educational institutions offer courses on Swift in literary, cultural and sociopolitical contexts. Her songs are studied by evolutionary psychologists and cultural analysts to understand the relationship between popular music and human mating strategies. Entomologists named a millipede species Nannaria swiftae in her honor. Senior artists such as Carole King, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Billy Joel, Mick Jagger, Madonna, Parton, and Springsteen have praised Swift's musicianship. King regards Swift her "professional grand daughter" and thanked Swift for "carrying the torch forward". Springsteen called her a "tremendous" writer, while Starr and Joel considered Swift the Beatles' successor. ### Public image Swift's music, life and image are points of attention in global celebrity culture. Initially a teen idol, she has become a dominant figure in popular culture, often referred to as a pop icon. Publications note her immense popularity and longevity as the kind of fame unwitnessed since the 20th century. Music critics Sam Sanders and Ann Powers regard Swift as a "surprisingly successful composite of megawatt pop star and bedroom singer-songwriter." Journalists have written about Swift's polite and "open" personality, calling her a "media darling" and "a reporter's dream". Awarding her for her humanitarian endeavors in 2012, former First Lady Michelle Obama described Swift as an artist who "has rocketed to the top of the music industry but still keeps her feet on the ground, someone who has shattered every expectation of what a 22-year-old can accomplish". Swift was labeled by the media in her early career as "America's Sweetheart" for her likability and girl-next-door image. YouGov surveys ranked her as the world's most admired female musician from 2019 to 2021. Though Swift is reluctant to publicly discuss her personal life, believing it to be "a career weakness", it is a topic of widespread media attention and tabloid speculation, with all her moves "closely monitored and analyzed." Clash described Swift as a lightning rod for both praise and criticism. The New York Times asserted in 2013 that her "dating history has begun to stir what feels like the beginning of a backlash" and questioned whether she was in the midst of a "quarter-life crisis". Critics have highlighted that Swift's life and career have been subject to intense misogyny and slut-shaming. Glamour opined Swift is an easy target for male derision, triggering "fragile male egos". The Daily Telegraph said her antennae for sexism are crucial for the industry. Swift has also been a victim of numerous house break-ins and stalkers, some of whom were armed. Swift owns three cats—Meredith Grey, Olivia Benson, and Benjamin Button—which have featured or referenced variously in her videos and other works. Benson is the third richest pet animal in the world, with an estimated net worth of \$97 million. ### Entrepreneurship Media outlets describe Swift as a savvy businesswoman. She is also known for her traditional album rollouts, consisting of a variety of promotional activities that Rolling Stone termed as an inescapable "multimedia bonanza". Easter eggs and cryptic teasers became a common practice in contemporary pop music because of Swift. Publications describe her discography as a music "universe" subject to analyses by fans, critics and journalists. Swift maintains an active presence on social media and a close relationship with fans, to which many journalists attribute her success. Swift has endorsed many brands and businesses. In 2009, she launched a l.e.i. sundress range at Walmart, and designed American Greetings cards and Jakks Pacific dolls. Also that year, she became a spokesperson for the National Hockey League's Nashville Predators and Sony Cyber-shot digital cameras. Swift launched two Elizabeth Arden fragrances—"Wonderstruck" and "Wonderstruck Enchanted", followed by "Taylor" and its "Made of Starlight" variation in 2013, and "Incredible Things" in 2014. She signed a multi-year deal with AT&T in 2016 and bank corporation Capital One in 2019. Swift released a sustainable clothing line with Stella McCartney in 2019. In light of her philanthropic support for independent record stores during the COVID-19 pandemic, Record Store Day named Swift their first-ever global ambassador. ### Politics Swift identifies as a pro-choice feminist, and is one of the founding signatories of the Time's Up movement against sexual harassment. She criticized the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade (1973) and end federal abortion rights in 2022. Swift advocates for LGBT rights, and has called for the passing of the Equality Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity. The New York Times wrote her 2011 music video for "Mean" had a positive impact on the LGBTQ+ community. Swift performed during WorldPride NYC 2019 at the Stonewall Inn, a gay rights monument. She has donated to the LGBT organizations Tennessee Equality Project and GLAAD. A supporter of the March for Our Lives movement and gun control reform in the U.S., Swift is a vocal critic of white supremacy, racism, and police brutality. In 2020, she urged her fans to check their voter registration ahead of elections, which resulted in 65,000 people registering to vote within one day of her post, and endorsed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the U.S. presidential election. Following the George Floyd protests, she donated to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Black Lives Matter movement, called for the removal of Confederate monuments in Tennessee, and advocated for Juneteenth to become a national holiday. ## Wealth Swift's net worth is \$740 million, per an estimate by Forbes in June 2023, making her the richest female musician in U.S. history with music as the only main source of income. Additionally, her publication rights over her first six albums were valued at \$200 million in 2022. Forbes named her the annual top-earning female musician four times (2016, 2019, 2021, and 2022). She was the highest-paid celebrity of 2016 with \$170 million—a feat recognized by the Guinness World Records as the highest annual earnings ever for a female musician, which she herself surpassed with \$185 million in 2019. Overall, Swift was the highest paid female artist of the 2010s decade, earning \$825 million. She has also developed a real estate portfolio worth \$150 million as of 2023, with houses in Nashville, New York City, Los Angeles, and Rhode Island. ### Philanthropy Swift is well known for her philanthropic efforts. She was ranked at number one on DoSomething's "Gone Good" list, and has received the "Star of Compassion" accolade from the Tennessee Disaster Services, The Big Help Award from the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards for her "dedication to helping others" as well as "inspiring others through action". In 2008, she donated \$100,000 to the Red Cross to help the victims of the Iowa flood. In 2009, she sang at BBC's Children in Need concert and raised £13,000 for the cause. Swift has performed at charity relief events, including Sydney's Sound Relief concert. In response to the May 2010 Tennessee floods, Swift donated \$500,000 during a telethon hosted by WSMV. In 2011, Swift used a dress rehearsal of her Speak Now tour as a benefit concert for victims of recent tornadoes in the U.S., raising more than \$750,000. In 2016, she donated \$1 million to Louisiana flood relief efforts and \$100,000 to the Dolly Parton Fire Fund. Swift donated to food banks after Hurricane Harvey struck Houston in 2017 and at every stop of the Eras Tour in 2023; she also directly employed local businesses throughout the tour and gave \$55 million in bonus payments to her entire crew. In 2020, Swift donated \$1 million for Tennessee tornado relief. She is also a supporter of the arts. A benefactor of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, Swift has donated \$75,000 to Nashville's Hendersonville High School to help refurbish the school auditorium, \$4 million to fund the building of a new education center at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, \$60,000 to the music departments of six U.S. colleges, and \$100,000 to the Nashville Symphony. Also a promoter of children's literacy, she has donated money and books to various schools around the country to improve education. In 2007, Swift partnered with the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police to launch a campaign to protect children from online predators. She has donated items to several charities for auction, including the UNICEF Tap Project and MusiCares. As recipient of the Academy of Country Music's Entertainer of the Year in 2011, Swift donated \$25,000 to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Tennessee. In 2012, Swift participated in the Stand Up to Cancer telethon, performing the charity single "Ronan", which she wrote in memory of a four-year-old boy who died of neuroblastoma. She has also donated \$100,000 to the V Foundation for Cancer Research and \$50,000 to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Swift has encouraged young people to volunteer in their local communities as part of Global Youth Service Day. Swift donated to fellow singer-songwriter Kesha to help with her legal battles against Dr. Luke and to actress Mariska Hargitay's Joyful Heart Foundation organization. After the COVID-19 pandemic began, Swift donated to the World Health Organization and Feeding America, supported independent record stores, and offered a signed guitar for auction to raise money for the National Health Service. Swift performed "Soon You'll Get Better" on the One World: Together At Home television special, a benefit concert curated by Lady Gaga for Global Citizen to raise funds for the World Health Organization's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. In 2018 and 2021, Swift donated to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. In addition to charitable causes, she has made donations to her fans several times for their medical or academic expenses. ## Discography ### Studio albums - Taylor Swift (2006) - Fearless (2008) - Speak Now (2010) - Red (2012) - 1989 (2014) - Reputation (2017) - Lover (2019) - Folklore (2020) - Evermore (2020) - Midnights (2022) ### Re-recorded albums - Fearless (Taylor's Version) (2021) - Red (Taylor's Version) (2021) - Speak Now (Taylor's Version) (2023) - 1989 (Taylor's Version) (2023) ## Filmography - Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience (2009) - Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009) - Valentine's Day (2010) - Journey to Fearless (2010) - The Lorax (2012) - The Giver (2014) - The 1989 World Tour Live (2015) - Taylor Swift: Reputation Stadium Tour (2018) - Cats (2019) - Miss Americana (2020) - Taylor Swift: City of Lover (2020) - Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions (2020) - All Too Well: The Short Film (2021) - Amsterdam (2022) - Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (2023) ## Tours - Fearless Tour (2009–2010) - Speak Now World Tour (2011–2012) - The Red Tour (2013–2014) - The 1989 World Tour (2015) - Reputation Stadium Tour (2018) - The Eras Tour (2023–2024) ## See also - List of best-selling female music artists - List of Grammy Award winners and nominees by country - List of highest-certified music artists in the United States - List of most-followed Instagram accounts - List of most-followed Twitter accounts - List of most-subscribed YouTube channels
623,160	Ray Reardon	1,160,066,020	Welsh professional snooker player (born 1932)	[ "1932 births", "Living people", "Masters (snooker) champions", "Members of the Order of the British Empire", "Officers in English police forces", "People from Brixham", "Sportspeople from Tredegar", "Welsh people of Irish descent", "Welsh police officers", "Welsh snooker players", "Winners of the professional snooker world championship", "World number one snooker players" ]	Raymond Reardon MBE (born 8 October 1932) is a Welsh retired professional snooker player. He turned professional in 1967 aged 35 and dominated the sport in the 1970s, winning the World Snooker Championship six times and more than a dozen other tournaments. Reardon was World Champion in 1970, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1978, and runner-up in 1982. He won the inaugural Pot Black tournament in 1969, the 1976 Masters and the 1982 Professional Players Tournament. Reardon was the first player to be ranked "world number one" when world rankings were introduced during the 1976–77 season, a position that he held for the next five years. He regained the top-ranking position in 1982, after which his form declined and he dropped out of the elite top-16 ranked players after the 1986–87 season. He remained one of snooker's top players into his 50s, setting several records. In 1978, Reardon became the oldest world snooker champion, aged 45 years and 203 days, a record that lasted until 2022 when Ronnie O'Sullivan won the title aged 46 years and 148 days. Reardon also became the oldest player to win a ranking event, which he accomplished in 1982, aged 50 years and 14 days. He never achieved a maximum break in tournament play; his highest in competition was 146. Reardon retired from professional competition in 1991. Reardon mentored O'Sullivan in preparation for his 2004 World Championship campaign, helping him lift his second world title. Before turning professional in 1978, Steve Davis was inspired to emulate certain aspects of Reardon's playing style that he felt would improve his own game. Reardon's dark widow's peak and prominent eye teeth earned him the nickname "Dracula". He is the president of Churston golf club in Devon, where he has been a member for over 40 years. Reardon was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1985. ## Early life Reardon was born on 8 October 1932, in the coal mining community of Tredegar in Monmouthshire, Wales. When eight years old, he was introduced to a version of snooker by his uncle, and at ten he was practising cue sports twice-weekly at Tredegar Workmen's Institute as well as on a scaled-down billiard table at home. He primarily played English billiards rather than snooker, which, according to authors Luke Williams and Paul Gadsby, helped improve his control of the and his . At the age of 14, following in the footsteps of his father, Reardon turned down a place at a grammar school to become a miner at Ty Trist Colliery. He wore white gloves while mining, to protect his hands for snooker. In March 1959, Reardon married Sue, a pottery painter. After a rockfall in which he was buried for three hours, and with Sue's encouragement, he quit mining and became a police officer in 1960 when his family moved to Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. ## Amateur snooker career In 1949, Reardon won the News of the World Amateur title and was awarded an ash cue stick, presented to him by 15-time world snooker champion, Joe Davis. Reardon used this cue for almost 30 years until it came apart shortly after the 1978 World Championship final. He reached the final of the 1949–50 under-19 Junior championship, losing 2–3 to Jack Carney. Reardon first won the Welsh Amateur Championship in 1950, defeating the defending champion John Ford 5–3 in the final, and he retained the title every year until 1955. He reached the final of the 1956 English Amateur Championship, where he led Tommy Gordon 7–3 after the first day, but lost the from his cue early on the second day and was defeated 9–11. Reardon played a fellow Tredegar resident, Cliff Wilson, in a succession of and faced him several times in amateur tournaments. Their contests attracted hundreds of spectators and in his 1979 book, The Story of Billiards and Snooker, Clive Everton describes them as "modern snooker's nearest equivalent to a bare knuckle prize fight." After losing in the first round of the 1957 English Amateur Championship, Reardon decided to take some time out from competitive snooker to work on improving his game. He next entered the championship in 1964, when he won the title by defeating John Spencer 11–8 in the final. This victory led to an invitation to tour South Africa with Jonathan Barron, which proved so successful that Reardon was offered the opportunity to return and tour again as a professional. Based on this offer, he resigned from the police force and turned professional in 1967. ## Professional career ### Six times world snooker champion Reardon's first appearance at the World Snooker Championship was in 1969 in a quarter-final against Fred Davis in Stoke-on-Trent. The match featured lengthy tactical exchanges between the players, resulting in some of the longest sessions ever recorded in World Championship play. Neither player was ahead by more than two until Reardon won the 27th frame to lead 15–12, after which Davis won six frames in a row. The best-of-49-frames match went to a , which Davis won. In July 1969, the BBC began broadcasting Pot Black, a competition of one-frame matches which became popular with viewers and enhanced the profile and earning power of the participants. Reardon won the first series by defeating Spencer 88–29 in the one-frame final. In London in April 1970, Reardon won the World Championship for the first time, defeating Davis in the quarter-finals, Spencer in the semi-finals, and John Pulman 37–33 in the final, having led 27–14 before Pulman reduced the lead to one frame at 34–33. At the next World Championship, played in Australia in November 1970, Reardon won all four of his round-robin group matches, and qualified for a place in the semi-finals, where Spencer established a winning margin against him at 25–7 and finished the match 34–15 ahead after . Reardon won the October 1971 edition of the Park Drive 2000, defeating Spencer 4–3 in the final after placing second in the round-robin stage (behind Spencer who had placed first). In the Spring 1972 edition, he made a break of 146 in the round-robin, which was the highest-ever break in competitive play at that time. This remained the highest official break of Reardon's career, as he never achieved a maximum break of 147 in tournament play. At the 1972 World Championship, Reardon lost his first match 22–25 to Rex Williams in the quarter-finals. He reached the final of the 1973 World Championship in Manchester, beating Jim Meadowcroft 16–10, and Spencer 23–22. He lost the first seven frames of the final to Eddie Charlton, but took 17 of the next 23 to hold a four-frame advantage at 17–13 and then moved further ahead into a 27–25 lead. At this point in the match, he complained to the organisers about the television lighting reflecting on the ; when his complaint was not resolved by the organisers, he approached the tournament sponsors and threatened to withdraw from the competition, after which the lighting was changed. Reardon was ahead 31–29 going into the last day, and won 38–32 to claim his second world title. Reardon defended his World Championship title in 1974, defeating Meadowcroft 15–3, Marcus Owen 15–11 and Davis 15–3 before beating Graham Miles 22–12 in the final. In a post-match interview, Reardon suggested that he had not played "any better than mediocre" in the final, but that Miles had not created any pressure for him, adding: "I don't feel the elation that I felt at winning last year." He also won the 1974 Pontins Professional, leading 9–4 in the final and winning it 10–9 after Spencer took five consecutive frames to force a decider. In 1975, Reardon reached the final of the inaugural Masters by winning 5–4 on the against Williams in the semi-final, but lost the final 8–9 to Spencer on a . At the 1975 World Championship in Australia, he won a tough quarter-final against Spencer, 19–17, and then eliminated Alex Higgins 19–14 in the semi-finals to meet Charlton in the final. Reardon was leading 16–8, but Charlton won the following nine frames and then went ahead 28–23 before Reardon pulled back seven of the next eight frames to lead 30–29. Charlton took the 60th frame to tie the match but Reardon won the vital 61st frame to secure the world title for the third successive year. A week later, at Pontins in Prestatyn, Wales, he retained the Professional title and won the Spring Open title. Reardon won the Masters in January 1976, beating Miles 7–3 in the final. He had earned his place in the final by defeating Pulman 4–1 in the quarter-finals, in a match where the highest break (compiled by Pulman) was only 22, and then Charlton 5–4 in the semi-finals. In 1976 Reardon won his fifth world title, defeating John Dunning 15–7, Dennis Taylor 15–2 and Perrie Mans 20–10. During the final in Manchester against Higgins, Reardon complained about the television lighting (which was changed), the quality of the table (to which adjustments were subsequently made), and the referee (who was replaced). Higgins led in the early stages of the match, but Reardon recovered to 15–13 before winning 12 of the next 15 frames for a 27–16 victory. He claimed the Pontins Professional title for the third consecutive year, defeating Fred Davis 10–9 in a contest described by Snooker Scene's correspondent as the best match of the professional season for "quality, interest and excitement". Both players made a century break in the match, Reardon pulling ahead to 8–5 after losing all of the first three frames, but then needing the last two when Davis took the score to 9–8. Reardon also won the 1976 World Professional Match-play Championship in Australia, defeating the event's promoter Charlton 31–24 in the final. Reardon reached the final of the 1977 Masters, beating Williams 4–1 in the quarter-finals and Miles 5–2 in the semi-finals, but lost the final 6–7 to Doug Mountjoy. He was also runner-up at the 1977 Benson & Hedges Ireland Tournament, losing 2–5 to Higgins. Reardon's successful run at the World Championship ended in 1977 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, when he lost to Spencer in the quarter-finals 6–13; it was his first defeat at the World Championship since his quarter-final loss to Williams in 1972. Reardon regained the world title in 1978 in Sheffield; after recovering from 2–7 down to beat Mountjoy 13–9 in the last-16 round, he defeated Bill Werbeniuk 13–6, Charlton 18–14, and Mans 25–18 in the final to lift the trophy for the sixth and final time. Aged 45 years and 203 days, Reardon was the oldest winner of the World Snooker Championship, a record that lasted until 2022 when Ronnie O'Sullivan won the title aged 46 years and 148 days. Soon after establishing this record, Reardon regained the Pontins Professional title, taking it for the fourth time in five years, defeating Spencer 7–2 in the final. The same year, his old rival from Tredegar, Wilson, won the World Amateur Championship. ### Later professional career Toward the end of 1978, Reardon beat Patsy Fagan 6–1 and Higgins 11–9 to win the one-off "Champion of Champions" event, sponsored by the Daily Mirror and held at the Wembley Conference Centre. He also won the 1979 Forward Chemicals Tournament. Reardon regained his Pot Black title in 1979 by defeating Mountjoy 2–1 in the final. This was Reardon's first win since he won the inaugural event in 1969, although he was runner-up in 1970, 1972 and 1980. At the 1979 World Championship, he lost to Dennis Taylor in the quarter-finals, and was eliminated by David Taylor at the same stage in 1980. He progressed one stage further in 1981, beating Spencer 13–11 and Werbeniuk 13–10 before being defeated by Mountjoy in the semi-finals. Mountjoy scored a championship record break of 145 during the match, which he won 16–10. In 1979, Reardon joined with Mountjoy and the reigning World Champion, Terry Griffiths, to win the first World Challenge Cup for Wales, defeating England (Fred Davis, Spencer and Miles) in the final, 14–3. The same Wales team retained the title in 1980. At the 1982 Highland Masters, Reardon eliminated Steve Davis in the semi-finals before winning the event by defeating Spencer 11–4 in the final.He reached the final of the 1982 World Championship, losing to Higgins 15–18. En route to the final, he defeated Jim Donnelly 10–5, John Virgo 13–8, Silvino Francisco 13–8, and Charlton, in the semi-finals, by 16–11 after winning five successive frames from 11-all. In the final, Reardon built a 5–3 lead, but was behind 7–10 at the end of the first day. He later levelled the match at 15–15, but Higgins won the last three frames to claim the title. For the 1982–83 season, Reardon returned to number one in the world rankings, which at the time was only based on performances at the World Championships over previous years. He won the Professional Players Tournament in late 1982, beating Jimmy White 10–5 in the final, reached the final of the Benson & Hedges Masters, losing 7–9 to Cliff Thorburn, and won the 1983 International Masters, where he defeated Davis 2–1 in the semi-final group stages, before prevailing 9–6 against White in the final, having trailed 3–5. At the Professional Players Tournament, Reardon set a record as the oldest winner of a ranking tournament at the age of 50 years and 14 days. He also regained the Welsh Professional Title, eliminating Griffiths 9–4 and Mountjoy 9–1 in the semi-final and final respectively. At the 1983 World Championship, he lost 12–13 in the second round to Tony Knowles; he reached the quarter-finals in 1984 but was eliminated 2–13 by Kirk Stevens. Reardon first wore spectacles in a match at the 1985 British Open, which he lost 4–5 to Dave Martin after leading 4–1. He reached the semi-finals of the 1985 World Championship (playing with unassisted vision), where he lost 5–16 to Davis. He lost to John Campbell in the first round of the 1986 World Championship, and to Davis in the second round in 1987. After dropping out of the top-16 rankings in 1987, Reardon whitewashed Davis 5–0 in the third round of the 1988 British Open, using his old cue (encouraged to rebuild it by Davis) with which he had won his world titles. In the next round, playing under TV lighting, he suffered a drying of contact lenses (which he started using in 1987) and lost 2–5 to David Roe, having led 2–1. In 1985, Reardon left his wife Sue, with whom he had two children, to live with Carol Covington. He told reporters from the Daily Mirror that Sue had been "fully informed" of his eight-year affair with Covington. The Reardons divorced in December 1986, and Reardon married Covington in June 1987. ## Retirement and legacy Reardon played his last competitive ranking match in the second round of qualifying for the 1991 World Championship, where he was defeated 5–10 by Jason Prince, losing three frames on the final black. Afterwards, Reardon said that he felt "no bitterness" but that he would not be returning. Aged 58 and having slipped to 127th in the provisional rankings, Reardon halted his playing career, mentioning that he had not entered any tournaments for the following season because the qualifying event dates clashed with his exhibition commitments on the holiday camp circuit, but adding that "even if it were feasible, [he] wouldn't play" except in invitation or seniors events. He later played in the 2000 World Seniors Masters where he lost his opening one-frame match 46–69 to Miles. He advised Ronnie O'Sullivan on the way to his 2004 World Championship victory, giving him psychological and tactical help. When the snooker world rankings were introduced in 1976, Reardon was the first to claim the position of world number one, retaining it until 1981. His win in the 1982 Professional Players Tournament at 50 contributed to his recapturing the world number one position in the first set of rankings to be calculated on tournaments other than the World Championship. Reardon and Spencer were the first players to exploit the commercial opportunities made available by the increasing interest in snooker in the early 1970s. After winning Pot Black in 1969 and the world title in 1970, Reardon took up offers for exhibition matches and holiday camp exhibition engagements. Everton and Gordon Burn (1986) have both noted that his peak as a player pre-dated the real boom in snooker that happened in the 1980s. In January 1976, Reardon was the subject of an episode of the British TV show, This is Your Life, the guests including Spencer, Charlton, Higgins, Pulman, Miles, Thorburn, Jackie Rea and Joyce Gardner. Later that year, he was a guest on The David Nixon Show, and in 1979 he was a guest on Parkinson, A Question of Sport, and The Paul Daniels Magic Show. His later guest appearances included Punchlines (1981), Saturday Superstore (1984), The Rod and Emu Show (1984), Sorry! (1985), and The Little and Large Show (1987). He appeared on the snooker-themed game show Big Break several times. Ian Wooldridge wrote and presented a Ray Reardon special on BBC2 in 1984, and the same channel broadcast Ray Reardon at 80 in 2012. Reardon was a castaway on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs in 1979, and chose a set of golf clubs and balls as his luxury item. His prominent eye teeth and widow's peak led to him being nicknamed "Dracula"; the sobriquet was first used by Paul Daniels after Reardon appeared on one of his television shows. Everton has described Reardon in his early career as a "deadly long potter", and praised his "nerve with which he identifies and seizes frame winning openings." Jack Karnehm wrote that Reardon achieved "complete and utter dominance of the game" by 1976, and "had a determination and will to win unequalled since the heyday of Joe Davis." Williams and Gadsby describe Reardon as "without doubt the most successful snooker player of the 1970s" and claim "he set new standards for mental fortitude" in the game. After seeing Reardon play at Pontins in 1975, Steve Davis incorporated elements that he had observed in Reardon's game into his own, including a pause before hitting the cue ball, and his "approach" to the shot. Burn wrote "Ray Reardon behaved as if he thought he was special. And Stevewith a little encouragement from [his manager] Barry [Hearn]decided that was how he was going to behave from now on." Davis admitted that he had lost some respect for Reardon when, as a new professional, he experienced Reardon asking for the pack of to be six times, claiming that the referee had not placed them correctly. Unsettled by what he felt might be gamesmanship on Reardon's part, Davis had lost the match 0–4. Spencer stated in his autobiography that he was never friendly with Reardon, and suggested that he was "the sort of person who could laugh 24 hours a day if it was to his advantage". Reardon was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1985 Birthday Honours for services to snooker. He resides in Devon, and is the president of the golf club in Churston, a position that he has held since at least 2004, having been a member since the 1970s. He made a playing appearance at a Snooker Legends evening in Plymouth in July 2010. The Welsh Open trophy was renamed the Ray Reardon Trophy in his honour, starting with the 2017 edition of the tournament. ## Performance and rankings timeline ## Career finals Sources for the ranking and non-ranking final results can be found in the Performance timeline section above. ### Ranking finals: 6 (5 titles) ### Non-ranking finals: 44 (19 titles) ### Team finals: 6 (3 titles) ### Pro-am finals: 3 (1 title) ### Amateur finals: 8 (7 titles) ## Publications
3,594,988	Ernie Toshack	1,162,539,159	Australian cricketer (1914–2003)	[ "1914 births", "2003 deaths", "Australia Test cricketers", "Cricketers from New South Wales", "New South Wales cricketers", "People from the Far West (New South Wales)", "The Invincibles (cricket)" ]	Ernest Raymond Herbert Toshack (8 December 1914 – 11 May 2003) was an Australian cricketer who played in 12 Tests from 1946 to 1948. A left arm medium paced bowler known for his accuracy and stamina in the application of leg theory, Toshack was a member of Don Bradman's "Invincibles" that toured England in 1948 without being defeated. Toshack reinforced the Australian new ball attack of Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller. Born in 1914, Toshack overcame many obstacles to reach international level cricket. He was orphaned as an infant, and his early cricket career was hindered because of financial difficulties caused by the Great Depression. The Second World War prevented Toshack from competing at first-class level until he was into his thirties. In 1945–46, the first season of cricket after the end of the War, Toshack made his debut at first-class level and after only seven matches in the Sheffield Shield he was selected for Australia's tour of New Zealand. In Wellington, he opened the bowling in a match that was retrospectively classed as an official Test match. Toshack became a regular member of the Australian team, playing in all of its Tests until the 1947–48 series against India. He took his career-best match bowling figures of 11 wickets for 31 runs (11/31) in the First Test but began to suffer recurring knee injuries, and a medical board had to approve his selection for the 1948 England tour. Toshack played in the first four Tests before being injured. After a long convalescence, he attempted a comeback during Australia's 1949–50 season, but further injury forced him to retire. He was a parsimonious bowler, who was popular with crowds for his sense of humour. ## Early years Born in the western New South Wales bush town of Cobar on 8 December 1914, Toshack was one of five children of a stationmaster. Orphaned at the age of six, he was raised by relatives in Lyndhurst in the central east of the state, and played his early cricket and rugby league for Cowra. At this time, Toshack's ambition was to play rugby league for Australia. One of his childhood friends, Edgar Newham, also played both sports and wanted to play Test cricket. However, the town's doctor, a local community leader, advised that they were targeting the wrong sport, and the two boys followed his recommendation. Newham later played rugby league for Australia. In his youth he was also a boxer, and earned the nickname "Johnson" for his resemblance to American black heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson. In the mid-1930s, he made brief appearances for the State Colts and Second XI, and played cricket against the likes of the Test cricketer Stan McCabe. In December 1933, Toshack played in a colts match for New South Wales against Queensland. He took 3/63 (three wickets at a cost of 63 runs) and 3/36 but was unable to prevent a five-wicket defeat. He then took a total of 3/88 in a match for New South Wales Country against their city counterparts, and was promoted into the state's Second XI. Toshack took a total of 1/91 in a match against the Victorian Second XI and did not play for his state again until 1945. His cricket aspirations, already hindered due to economic difficulties caused by the Great Depression, were further interrupted when he neede to use a wheelchair for months after a ruptured appendix in 1938. He was not allowed to enlist in the Australian Defence Force during World War II and worked at the Lithgow Small Arms Factory, in the town of Lithgow on the edge of the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. Only at the end of the war, aged 30, did he go to Sydney. At the time, he was a medium-fast left-arm bowler and approached the Petersham cricket club – as Toshack lived in the locality, it had the right to register him ahead of other clubs. Petersham did not select Toshack, so he joined Marrickville in Sydney Grade Cricket, starting in the third grade team in 1944–45. Within two matches, he rose to the first grade team. By this time, Petersham regretted its decision to spurn Toshack and lodged a complaint with the cricket authorities, claiming that he was obliged to represent Petersham and ineligible to play for Marrickville. Toshack later recalled that Petersham were "told where to go". ## First-class and Test debut Upon the resumption of first-class cricket in 1945–46, Toshack made his debut for New South Wales against Queensland as an opening bowler aged almost 31, and was quickly among the wickets. He took four 4/69 in his first innings as his team took a 128-run lead, but he managed only 0/87 from 20 overs in the second innings as New South Wales fell to a four-wicket loss, failing to defend a target of 270. His first wicket was that of Geoff Cook. Toshack's most successful match of the season came in the following fixture, against South Australia. Taking 4/30 and 4/78 as New South Wales won by an innings. He then took 2/36 and 3/54 in an innings victory over the Australian Services. By the end of the season, in March 1946, Toshack had taken 35 wickets in seven first-class matches, at an average of 18.82, making him the second highest wicket-taker behind George Tribe. He performed consistently and took at least four wickets in each match; his innings best was 4/30. Toshack was selected for a non-Test tour of New Zealand. He played in three provincial tour matches against Auckland, Canterbury and Wellington, all of which were won by an innings. He took match figures of 7/91 against Auckland and 8/58 against Wellington. In the final match of the tour, Toshack opened the bowling for Australia with fellow debutant Ray Lindwall in a match against New Zealand at Wellington that was retrospectively recognised as a Test two years later. As it was eight years since Australia's last Test, a new post-war generation of international cricketers made their debut. Toshack was one of seven Australians playing their first Test. New Zealand were routed inside two days on a damp pitch, having been dismissed for 42 in their first innings after winning the toss and choosing to bat. Toshack's first Test wicket was that of opposing captain Walter Hadlee, who was caught by Keith Miller. Toshack took three further wickets to end with innings figures of 4/12. He did not bat as Australia made 8/198. New Zealand were then bowled out in their second innings for 54; Toshack took 2/6 as Australia recorded an innings victory. He dismissed Eric Tindill and Ces Burke in both innings. The performance ensured that Toshack would become an integral part of Australia's attack for the next three years. Toshack ended the tour with 23 wickets at 10.34 in four matches. Toshack started the 1946–47 season strongly, taking 5/46 and 4/70 as New South Wales opened the season with a five-wicket win over Queensland. He removed Australian wicket-keeper Don Tallon twice. After going wicketless in a rain-curtailed match for his state against England, Toshack was selected to make his Ashes debut in the First Test at Brisbane. With the emergence of leading all rounder Keith Miller, Toshack was relegated to first change bowler as Miller began his much celebrated partnership with Lindwall. Toshack was unbeaten on one in his first innings with the bat when Australia were bowled out for 645 on the third day. On a sticky wicket, Toshack initially struggled, bowling his characteristic leg stump line. England struggled to 117 runs for the loss of five wickets (5/117) at the end of the fourth day despite many interruptions caused by rain. Norman Yardley and captain Wally Hammond had defied the Australian bowlers since coming together at 5/66. On the fifth and final morning, captain Don Bradman advised him to pitch straighter and at a slower pace. Before play began Bradman took him down the pitch and showed him exactly where he wanted him to bowl and even make him bowl a practice over alongside to make sure he got it right. Having started the day wicketless, Toshack dismissed Yardley and Hammond in the space of 13 runs to break the English resistance and finished with an economical 3/17 from 17 overs as England were bowled out for 141. Bradman enforced the follow-on, and with Lindwall indisposed, Toshack took the new ball with Miller. He continued where he finished in the first innings, taking four of the first six wickets (Bill Edrich, Denis Compton, Hammond and Yardley) as the English top order were reduced to 6/65. He ended the innings with 6/82 as England were bowled out twice in a day to lose by an innings and 332 runs. The remaining four Tests were less successful: only in one innings did he take more than one wicket. In the Second Test at Sydney the pitch favoured spin bowling and Toshack only bowled 13 overs without taking a wicket as Australia claimed another innings victory. He took match figures of 2/127 on a flat pitch in the Third Test in Melbourne, removing Len Hutton and Compton. During the match, Toshack came in to bat in the second innings with Australia nine wickets down. He defended stubbornly and ended unbeaten on two as his partner Lindwall went from 81 to 100 to score the fastest Test century by an Australian, in 88 balls. Toshack was more productive in the drawn Fourth Test in Adelaide, where he took match figures of 5/135 from 66 eight ball overs in extreme heat, including the wicket of Hammond twice, Edrich and Joe Hardstaff junior. Ahead of the final Test, Toshack removed Compton, Edrich and Godfrey Evans in a drawn match for Victoria against the tourists. He took only one wicket in the Fifth Test as Australia sealed the series 3–0 with a five-wicket win. Toshack finished the series with 17 wickets at a bowling average of 25.71. His first-class season was not as productive as in his debut year; he took 33 wickets at an average of 30.93 in eleven matches, making him the sixth highest wicket-taker for the season. Toshack had a particularly unsuccessful time in the two Sheffield Shield matches against arch-rivals Victoria, which were lost by heavy margins of an innings and 114 runs, and 288 runs respectively. In the first match he took 0/133 after Australian teammate Miller hit three sixes from his opening over. In the second match he took a total of 3/144. Victoria went on to win the title. The following 1947–48 season, Toshack warmed up for the Test campaign against the touring Indians by taking 2/64 and 4/65 for New South Wales in an innings win, dismissing Hemu Adhikari twice. He retained his position in the national team, and in the First Test at Brisbane on a wet pitch, Toshack took ten wickets for the only time in his Test career. In reply to Australia's 8/382 declared, India had been reduced to 5/23 by Lindwall, Miller and Bill Johnston before Vijay Hazare and captain Lala Amarnath took the score to 53 without further loss, prompting Toshack's introduction into the attack. He dismissed both and removed the remaining lower-order batsmen to end with 5/2 in 19 balls as India were bowled out after adding only five further runs. Bradman enforced the follow on and India reached 1/27 before a spell of 6/29 from Toshack reduced them to 8/89, including the wickets of Hazare, Amarnath and Khanderao Rangnekar for a second time. India were bowled out for 98 as Australia won by an innings and 226 runs. Injury persistently curtailed Toshack during the season, and he missed a month of cricket, including the next two Tests. He returned for the second match against arch-rivals Victoria, and took 6/38 and 2/71 to play a key role in a New South Wales victory by six wickets. His victims in the first innings included Test batsmen Lindsay Hassett, Neil Harvey and Sam Loxton as New South Wales took a decisive 290-run lead. He dismissed Hassett and Ken Meuleman in the second innings to help set up victory. Toshack only played in one further Test during the season, the Fourth, where he was less successful with match figures of 2/139. He dismissed centurion Dattu Phadkar as Australia went on to win the series 4–0. When fit, Toshack was a heavy wicket-taker; his 41 wickets at 20.26 placed him second only to Bill Johnston's 42 among Australian bowlers for the season. ## Invincibles tour By the end of the Indian series, knee injuries had begun to hamper Toshack, and he only made the trip to England for the 1948 tour on a 3–2 majority vote by a medical team, despite being one of the first selected by the board. Two Melbourne doctors ruled him unfit, but three specialists from his home state presented a more optimistic outlook that allowed him to tour. The tour was to guarantee him immortality as a member of Bradman's "Invincibles". He grew tired of signing autographs during the voyage, and entrusted a friend with the task. As a result, there are still sheets circulating with his name mis-spelt as Toshak. Between the new-ball attacks of Lindwall, Keith Miller and Johnston every 55 overs, Toshack played the role of stifling England's scoring. In one match against Sussex, his 17 overs yielded only three scoring shots. He finished the match bowling 32 overs while conceding 29 runs. At Bramall Lane, Sheffield, he recorded the best innings analysis of his first-class career, taking 7/81 from 40 consecutive overs, bemusing the Yorkshire spectators with his accent and distinctive "Ow Wizz Ee" appealing. Bradman considered his 6/51 against the Marylebone Cricket Club at Lord's as the best performance of all. He removed the leading English batsmen Len Hutton and Denis Compton, as well as Martin Donnelly and Ken Cranston. In particular, Toshack was involved in an extended battle with Compton before dismissing him; Bradman said that their duel was "worth going a long way to see". This performance helped Australia to take an innings victory over a team that was virtually a full-strength England outfit and allowed Australia to take a psychological victory in a dress rehearsal ahead of the Tests. Toshack's performance in the First Test at Trent Bridge was a quiet one, taking a wicket in each innings. He was involved in an aggressive final wicket partnership of 32 with Johnston, scoring 19 runs, his best at Test level to date in just 18 minutes. Toshack's best Test performance was his 5/40 in the second innings of the Second Test at Lord's when Miller was unable to bowl after being injured, including the wickets of Cyril Washbrook, Bill Edrich, captain Yardley and Alec Coxon. During this performance, he employed two short legs and a silly mid-off. He had a moderately successful Third Test, taking figures of 3/101 in the only Test that Australia did not win. His knee injury flared again in the Fourth Test after taking an ineffective 1/112 in the first innings, he was unable to bowl in the second innings of an Australian win. He made a recovery and it was hoped that he would be able to play in the Fifth Test, but he injured again himself in the lead-up match against Lancashire. He was taken to London for cartilage surgery, ending his tour and his Test career. An inept batsman with an average of 5.78 in first-class fixtures, Toshack managed a Test average of 51 on the 1948 tour after being out only once, behind only Arthur Morris, Sid Barnes, Bradman and Neil Harvey. The unbeaten 20 he managed in the Lord's Test was his best first-class score, made in an uninhibited tenth-wicket stand with Johnston. Due to the fragility of his knee, Toshack was used sparingly in the tour games, playing in only 11 of the 29 non-Test matches on the tour. Toshack totalled 50 wickets at the average of 21.12 for the tour. The knee injury prevented Toshack from playing during the 1948–1949 Australian domestic season. The Australian team to tour South Africa in 1949–50 was named at the end of the previous season, and Toshack was omitted after a season on the sidelines. At the start of the 1949–50 season, when his Test teammates were sailing across the Indian Ocean to South Africa, Toshack made a strong start to his first-class comeback. He took 4/41 and 5/59 in a Shield match against Queensland in Brisbane, removing Ken Mackay and Wally Grout twice, helping to seal a close 15-run win. In the second match, against Western Australia, Toshack took 4/68 in the first innings before his injury resurfaced. New South Wales won the match despite Toshack's inability to bowl in the second innings. The injury cost Toshack dearly; it forced him to retire from first-class cricket and cost him a Test recall. Toshack had been offered a position on the South African tour as a reinforcement for Johnston, who had been involved in a car crash. Instead, Miller took the position and played in all five Tests. ## Style Bowling primarily from over the wicket, his accuracy, changes of pace, and movement in both directions, coupled with a leg stump line to a packed leg-side field, made scoring off him difficult. He achieved his success in a manner not dissimilar to Derek Underwood a generation later. His accuracy and stamina allowed Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller, one of Australia's finest fast bowling pairs of all time, to draw breath between short and incisive bursts of pace and swing. Standing 6 feet 2 inches (188 cm), he was particularly effective on sticky wickets, reducing his speed to slow medium pace and using a repertoire of off cutters, inswingers, outswingers and leg breaks. Bowling a leg-stump line from over the wicket with a leg side cordon of two short legs and a silly mid-on, he was described by Bradman as "unique in every way". Bradman further added "I cannot remember another of the same type...He worried and got out the best bats, was amazingly accurate and must have turned in fine figures had not his cartilage given way." He usually bowled with four men on the off side including a slip, and five on the leg. When the pitch was wet, he moved a further man to the on side to field at leg slip. Nicknamed the "Black Prince" because of his tanned skin, Toshack's looks and sense of humor made him a crowd favorite, as did his theatrical appealing, which was more reminiscent of later eras of cricketers. His vocal appealing prompted the journalist and former Australian Test batsman Jack Fingleton to dub him "The Voice", while teammate Sid Barnes called him "The film star" because of his looks. His sense of fun was often on show. While on the 1948 tour, he would often wear a bowler hat, grab a furled umbrella, and place a cigar in his mouth, parodying an Englishman. ## After cricket Following his career, Toshack joined a firm of builders and spent 25 years as a foreman and supervisor on construction sites around Sydney. He also wrote about cricket and enjoyed cultivating his vegetable garden in the northern Sydney suburb of Hornsby Heights. Toshack died on 11 May 2003. He was survived by his wife Cathleen Hogan, whom he married in 1939, their only daughter, three granddaughters and two great-granddaughters. ## Test match performance
188,590	Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi	1,172,185,988	Aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy	[ "1925 ships", "2019 archaeological discoveries", "Aircraft carrier fires", "Aircraft carriers of the Imperial Japanese Navy", "Aircraft carriers sunk by aircraft", "Amagi-class battlecruisers", "Attack on Pearl Harbor", "Maritime incidents in June 1942", "Scuttled vessels", "Second Sino-Japanese War naval ships of Japan", "Ships built by Kure Naval Arsenal", "Ships of the Battle of Midway", "Ships sunk by US aircraft", "World War II aircraft carriers of Japan", "World War II shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean" ]	Akagi (Japanese: 赤城, "red castle") was an aircraft carrier built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), named after Mount Akagi in present-day Gunma Prefecture. Though she was laid down as an Amagi-class battlecruiser, Akagi was converted to an aircraft carrier while still under construction to comply with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty. The ship was rebuilt from 1935 to 1938 with her original three flight decks consolidated into a single enlarged flight deck and an island superstructure. The second Japanese aircraft carrier to enter service, and the first large or "fleet" carrier, Akagi and the related Kaga figured prominently in the development of the IJN's new carrier striking force doctrine that grouped carriers together, concentrating their air power. This doctrine enabled Japan to attain its strategic goals during the early stages of the Pacific War from December 1941 until mid-1942. Akagi's aircraft served in the Second Sino-Japanese War in the late 1930s. Upon the formation of the First Air Fleet or Kido Butai (Striking Force) in early 1941, she became its flagship, and remained so for the duration of her service. With other fleet carriers, she took part in the Attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and the invasion of Rabaul in the Southwest Pacific in January 1942. The following month, her aircraft bombed Darwin, Australia, and assisted in the conquest of the Dutch East Indies. In March and April 1942, Akagi's aircraft helped sink a British heavy cruiser and an Australian destroyer in the Indian Ocean Raid. After a brief refit, Akagi and three other fleet carriers of the Kido Butai participated in the Battle of Midway in June 1942. After bombarding American forces on the atoll, Akagi and the other carriers were attacked by aircraft from Midway and the carriers Enterprise, Hornet, and Yorktown. Dive bombers from Enterprise severely damaged Akagi. When it became obvious she could not be saved, she was scuttled by Japanese destroyers to prevent her from falling into enemy hands. The loss of Akagi and three other IJN carriers at Midway was a crucial strategic defeat for Japan and contributed significantly to the Allies' ultimate victory in the Pacific. Her wreck was located in October 2019 by the Research Vessel Petrel. ## Design ### Construction and launch Akagi was laid down as an Amagi-class battlecruiser at Kure, Japan, on 6 December 1920. Construction was halted, however, when Japan signed the Washington Naval Treaty on 6 February 1922. The treaty placed restrictions on the construction of battleships and battlecruisers although it authorized conversion of two battleship or battlecruiser hulls under construction into aircraft carriers of up to 33,000 long tons (34,000 t) displacement. The IJN had decided, following the launch of its first aircraft carrier, Hōshō, to construct two larger, faster carriers for operations with major fleet units. The incomplete hulls of Amagi and Akagi were thus selected for completion as the two large carriers under the 1924 fleet construction program. ¥24.7 million was originally budgeted to complete Akagi as a battlecruiser and an estimated ¥8 million had been expended when construction stopped in February 1922. Shortly thereafter, the Diet approved an additional ¥90 million to complete Akagi and Amagi as carriers. Her guns were turned over to the Imperial Japanese Army for use as coastal artillery; one of her main-gun turrets was installed on Iki Island in the Strait of Tsushima in 1932. The rest of her guns were placed in reserve and scrapped in 1943. Construction of Akagi as an aircraft carrier began on 19 November 1923. Amagi's hull was damaged beyond economically feasible repair in the Great Kantō earthquake of 1 September 1923 and was broken up and scrapped. Akagi, the only remaining member of her class, was launched as a carrier on 22 April 1925 and commissioned at Kure Naval Arsenal on 25 March 1927, although trials continued through November 1927. She was the second carrier to enter service with the IJN, after Hōshō and before Kaga (which replaced Amagi). Since Akagi was initially conceived as a battlecruiser, the prevailing ship naming conventions dictated that she (like her sister ships) be named after a mountain. Akagi came from Mount Akagi, a dormant volcano in the Kantō region (the name literally means "red castle"). After she was redesignated as an aircraft carrier, her mountain name remained, in contrast to ships like Sōryū that were originally built as aircraft carriers, which were named after flying creatures. Her name was previously given to the Maya-class gunboat Akagi. Akagi was completed at a length of 261.21 meters (857 ft) overall. She had a beam of 31 meters (101 ft 8 in) and, at deep load, a draft of 8.08 meters (26 ft 6 in). She displaced 26,900 long tons (27,300 t) at (standard) load, and 34,364 long tons (34,920 t) at full load, nearly 7,000 long tons (7,100 t) less than her designed displacement as a battlecruiser. Her complement totaled 1,600 crewmembers. ### Flight deck arrangements Akagi and Kaga were completed with three superimposed flight decks, the only carriers ever to be designed so. The British carriers converted from "large light cruisers", Glorious, Courageous, and Furious, each had two flight decks, but there is no evidence that the Japanese copied the British model. It is more likely that it was a case of convergent evolution to improve launch and recovery cycle flexibility by allowing simultaneous launch and recovery of aircraft. Akagi's main flight deck was 190.2 meters (624 ft 0 in) long and 30.5 meters (100 ft) wide, her middle flight deck (beginning right in front of the bridge) was only 15 meters (49 ft 3 in) long and her lower flight deck was 55.02 meters (180 ft 6 in) long. The utility of her middle flight deck was questionable as it was so short that only some lightly loaded aircraft could use it, even in an era when the aircraft were much lighter and smaller than during World War II. The upper flight deck sloped slightly from amidships toward the bow and toward the stern to assist landings and takeoffs for the underpowered aircraft of that time. As completed, the ship had two main hangar decks and a third auxiliary hangar, giving a total capacity of 60 aircraft. The third and lowest hangar deck was used only for storing disassembled aircraft. The two main hangars opened onto the middle and lower flight decks to allow aircraft to take off directly from the hangars while landing operations were in progress on the main flight deck above. The upper and middle hangar areas totaled about 80,375 square feet (7,467.1 m<sup>2</sup>), the lower hangar about 8,515 square feet (791.1 m<sup>2</sup>). No catapults were fitted. Her forward aircraft lift was offset to starboard and 11.8 by 13 meters (38 ft 9 in × 42 ft 8 in) in size. Her aft lift was on the centerline and 12.8 by 8.4 meters (42 ft 0 in × 27 ft 7 in). The aft elevator serviced the upper flight deck and all three hangar decks. Her arresting gear was an unsatisfactory British longitudinal system used on the carrier Furious that relied on friction between the arrester hook and the cables. The Japanese were well aware of this system's flaws, as it was already in use on their first carrier, Hōshō, but had no alternatives available when Akagi was completed. It was replaced during the ship's refit in 1931 with a Japanese-designed transverse cable system with six wires and that was replaced in turn before Akagi began her modernization in 1935 by the Kure Model 4 type (Kure shiki 4 gata). There was no island superstructure when the carrier was completed; the carrier was commanded from a space below the forward end of the upper flight deck. The ship carried approximately 150,000 US gallons (570,000 L) of aviation fuel for her embarked aircraft. As originally completed, Akagi carried an air group of 28 Mitsubishi B1M3 torpedo bombers, 16 Nakajima A1N fighters and 16 Mitsubishi 2MR reconnaissance aircraft. ### Armament and armor Akagi was armed with ten 50-caliber 20 cm 3rd Year Type No. 1 guns, six in casemates aft and the rest in two twin-gun turrets, one on each side of the middle flight deck. They fired 110-kilogram (240 lb) projectiles at a rate of 3–6 rounds per minute with a muzzle velocity of 870 m/s (2,900 ft/s); at 25°, this provided a maximum range between 22,600 and 24,000 meters (24,700 and 26,200 yd). The turrets were nominally capable of 70° elevation to provide additional anti-aircraft fire, but in practice the maximum elevation was only 55°. The slow rate of fire and the fixed 5° loading angle minimized any real anti-aircraft capability. This heavy gun armament was provided in case she was surprised by enemy cruisers and forced to give battle, but her large and vulnerable flight deck, hangars, and superstructure made her more of a target in any surface action than a fighting warship. Carrier doctrine was still evolving at this time and the impracticality of carriers engaging in gun duels had not yet been realized. The ship carried dedicated anti-aircraft armament of six twin 45-caliber 12 cm 10th Year Type gun mounts fitted on sponsons below the level of the funnels, where they could not fire across the flight deck, three mounts per side. These guns fired 20.3-kilogram (45 lb) projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 825–830 m/s (2,710–2,720 ft/s); at 45°, this provided a maximum range of 16,000 meters (17,000 yd), and they had a maximum ceiling of 10,000 meters (11,000 yd) at 75° elevation. Their effective rate of fire was 6–8 rounds per minute. Akagi's waterline armored belt was reduced from 254 to 152 mm (10 to 6 in) and placed lower on the ship than originally designed. The upper part of her torpedo bulge was given 102 mm (4 in) of armor. Her deck armor was also reduced from 96 to 79 mm (3.8 to 3.1 in). The modifications improved the ship's stability by helping compensate for the increased topside weight of the double hangar deck. ### Propulsion In Akagi's predecessor, Hōshō, the hot exhaust gases vented by swivelling funnels posed a danger to the ship, and wind-tunnel testing had not suggested any solutions. Akagi and Kaga were given different solutions to evaluate in real-world conditions. Akagi was given two funnels on the starboard side. The larger, forward funnel was angled 30° below horizontal with its mouth facing the sea, and the smaller one exhausted vertically a little past the edge of the flight deck. The forward funnel was fitted with a water-cooling system to reduce the turbulence caused by hot exhaust gases and a cover that could be raised to allow the exhaust gases to escape if the ship developed a severe list and the mouth of the funnel touched the sea. Kaga adopted a version of this configuration when she was modernized during the mid-1930s. Akagi was completed with four Gihon geared steam turbine sets, each driving one propeller shaft, that produced a total of 131,000 shaft horsepower (98,000 kW). Steam for these turbines was provided by nineteen Type B Kampon boilers with a working pressure of 20 kg/cm<sup>2</sup> (1,961 kPa; 284 psi). Some boilers were oil-fired, and the others used a mix of fuel oil and coal. As a battlecruiser, she was expected to achieve 28.5 knots (52.8 km/h; 32.8 mph), but the reduction in displacement from 41,200 to 34,000 long tons (41,900 to 34,500 t) increased her maximum speed to 32.5 knots (60.2 km/h; 37.4 mph), which was reached during her sea trials on 17 June 1927. She carried 3,900 long tons (4,000 t) of fuel oil and 2,100 long tons (2,100 t) of coal that gave her a range of 8,000 nautical miles (15,000 km; 9,200 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph). ## Early service Akagi joined the Combined Fleet in August 1927 and was assigned to the First Carrier Division upon its formation on 1 April 1928, serving as the division's flagship under Rear Admiral Sankichi Takahashi. The carrier's early career was uneventful, consisting of various training exercises. From 10 December 1928 to 1 November 1929, the ship was captained by Isoroku Yamamoto, future commander of the Combined Fleet. Akagi was reduced to second-class reserve status on 1 December 1931 in preparation for a short refit in which her arresting gear was replaced and her radio and ventilation systems were overhauled and improved. After completion of the refit, Akagi became a first-class reserve ship in December 1932. On 25 April 1933, she resumed active service and joined the Second Carrier Division and participated in that year's Special Fleet Maneuvers. At this time, the IJN's carrier doctrine was still in its early stages. Akagi and the IJN's other carriers were initially given roles as tactical force multipliers supporting the fleet's battleships in the IJN's "decisive battle" doctrine. In this role, Akagi's aircraft were to attack enemy battleships with bombs and torpedoes. Aerial strikes against enemy carriers were later (beginning around 1932–1933) deemed of equal importance, with the goal of establishing air superiority during the initial stages of battle. The essential component in this strategy was that the Japanese carrier aircraft must be able to strike first with a massed, preemptive aerial attack. In fleet training exercises, the carriers began to operate together in front of or with the main battle line. The new strategy emphasized maximum speed from both the carriers and the aircraft they carried as well as larger aircraft with greater range. Thus, longer flight decks on the carriers were required in order to handle the newer, heavier aircraft which were entering service. As a result, on 15 November 1935 Akagi was placed in third-class reserve to begin an extensive modernization at Sasebo Naval Arsenal. ## Reconstruction Akagi's modernization involved far less work than that of Kaga, but took three times as long due to financial difficulties related to the Great Depression. The ship's three flight decks were judged too small to handle the larger and heavier aircraft then coming into service. As a result, the middle and lower flight decks were eliminated in favor of two enclosed hangar decks that extended almost the full length of the ship. The upper and middle hangar areas' total space increased to about 93,000 square feet (8,600 m<sup>2</sup>); the lower hangar remained the same size. The upper flight deck was extended to the bow, increasing its length to 249.17 meters (817 ft 6 in) and raising aircraft capacity to 86 (61 operational and 25 in storage). A third elevator midships, 11.8 by 13 meters (38 ft 9 in × 42 ft 8 in) in size, was added. Her arrester gear was replaced by a Japanese-designed, hydraulic Type 1 system with 9 wires. The modernization added an island superstructure on the port side of the ship, which was an unusual arrangement; the only other carrier to share this feature was a contemporary, the Hiryū. The port side was chosen as an experiment to see if that side was better for flight operations by moving the island away from the ship's exhaust outlets. The new flight deck inclined slightly fore and aft from a point about three-eighths of the way aft. Akagi's speed was already satisfactory and the only changes to her machinery were the replacement of the mixed coal/oil-fired boilers with modern oil-fired units and the improvement of the ventilation arrangements. Although the engine horsepower increased from 131,200 to 133,000, her speed declined slightly from 32.5 to 31.2 knots (60.2 to 57.8 km/h; 37.4 to 35.9 mph) on trials because of the increase in her displacement to 41,300 long tons (42,000 t). Her bunkerage was increased to 7,500 long tons (7,600 t) of fuel oil which increased her endurance to 10,000 nautical miles (18,520 km; 11,510 mi) at 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph). The rear vertical funnel was changed to match the forward funnel and incorporated into the same casing. The two gun turrets on the middle flight deck were removed and 14 twin 25 mm (1 in) Type 96 gun mounts were added on sponsons. They fired .25-kilogram (0.55 lb) projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 900 m/s (3,000 ft/s); at 50°, this provided a maximum range of 7,500 m (8,200 yd), and an effective ceiling of 5,500 m (18,000 ft). The maximum effective rate of fire was only between 110 and 120 rounds per minute due to the frequent need to change the 15-round magazines. Six Type 95 directors were fitted to control the new 25 mm guns and two new Type 94 anti-aircraft directors replaced the outdated Type 91s. After the modernization, Akagi carried one Type 89 director for the 20 cm (7.9 in) guns; it is uncertain how many were carried before then. The ship's crew increased to 2,000 after the reconstruction. The ship's anti-aircraft guns were grouped amidships and placed relatively low on the hull. Thus, the guns could not be brought to bear directly forward or aft. Also, the island blocked the forward arcs of the port battery. As a result, the ship was vulnerable to attack by dive bombers. The ship's 12 cm 10th Year Type guns were scheduled to be replaced by more modern 12.7 cm (5 in) Type 89 mounts in 1942. The anti-aircraft sponsons were to be raised one deck to allow them some measure of cross-deck fire as was done during Kaga's modernization. However, the ship was lost in combat before the upgrade could take place. Several major weaknesses in Akagi's design were not rectified. Akagi's aviation fuel tanks were incorporated directly into the structure of the carrier, meaning that shocks to the ship, such as those caused by bomb or shell hits, would be transmitted directly to the tanks, resulting in cracks or leaks. Also, the fully enclosed structure of the new hangar decks made firefighting difficult, at least in part because fuel vapors could accumulate in the hangars. Adding to the danger was the requirement of the Japanese carrier doctrine that aircraft be serviced, fueled, and armed whenever possible on the hangar decks rather than on the flight deck. Furthermore, the carrier's hangar and flight decks carried little armor protection, and there was no redundancy in the ship's fire-extinguishing systems. These weaknesses would later be crucial factors in the loss of the ship. ## Lead-up to World War II Akagi's modernization was completed on 31 August 1938. She was reclassified as a first reserve ship on 15 November, but did not rejoin the First Carrier Division until the following month. In her new configuration, the carrier embarked 12 Mitsubishi A5M Type 96 "Claude" fighters with four disassembled spares, 19 Aichi D1A "Susie" dive bombers with five spares, and 35 Yokosuka B4Y "Jean" horizontal/torpedo bombers with 16 spares. She sailed for southern Chinese waters on 30 January 1939 and supported ground operations there, including attacks on Guilin and Liuzhou, until 19 February, when she returned to Japan. Akagi supported operations in central China between 27 March and 2 April 1940. She was reclassified as a special purpose ship (Tokubetse Ilomokan) on 15 November 1940, while she was being overhauled. The Japanese experiences off China had helped further develop the IJN's carrier doctrine. One lesson learned in China was the importance of concentration and mass in projecting naval air power ashore. Therefore, in April 1941, the IJN formed the First Air Fleet, or Kido Butai, to combine all of its fleet carriers under a single command. On 10 April, Akagi and Kaga were assigned to the First Carrier Division as part of the new carrier fleet, which also included the Second (with carriers Hiryū and Sōryū), and Fifth (with Shōkaku and Zuikaku) carrier divisions. The IJN centered its doctrine on air strikes that combined the air groups of entire carrier divisions, rather than individual carriers. When multiple carrier divisions were operating together, the divisions' air groups were combined. This doctrine of combined, massed, carrier-based air attack groups was the most advanced of its kind in the world. The IJN, however, remained concerned that concentrating all of its carriers together would render them vulnerable to being wiped out all at once by a massive enemy air or surface strike. Thus, the IJN developed a compromise solution in which the fleet carriers would operate closely together within their carrier divisions but the divisions themselves would operate in loose rectangular formations, with approximately 7,000 meters (7,700 yd) separating each carrier. The Japanese doctrine held that entire carrier air groups should not be launched in a single massed attack. Instead, each carrier would launch a "deckload strike" of all its aircraft that could be spotted at one time on each flight deck. Subsequent attack waves consisted of the next deckload of aircraft. Thus, First Air Fleet air attacks would often consist of at least two massed waves of aircraft. The First Air Fleet was not considered to be the IJN's primary strategic striking force. The IJN still considered the First Air Fleet an integral component in the Combined Fleet's Kantai Kessen or "decisive battle" task force centered on battleships. Akagi was designated as the flagship for the First Air Fleet, a role the ship retained until her sinking 14 months later. Although the concentration of so many fleet carriers into a single unit was a new and revolutionary offensive strategic concept, the First Air Fleet suffered from several defensive deficiencies that gave it, in Mark Peattie's words, a glass jaw': it could throw a punch but couldn't take one." Japanese carrier anti-aircraft guns and associated fire-control systems had several design and configuration deficiencies that limited their effectiveness. Also, the IJN's fleet combat air patrol (CAP) consisted of too few fighter aircraft and was hampered by an inadequate early warning system, including lack of radar. In addition, poor radio communications with the fighter aircraft inhibited effective command and control of the CAP. Furthermore, the carriers' escorting warships were not trained or deployed to provide close anti-aircraft support. These deficiencies, combined with the shipboard weaknesses previously detailed, would eventually doom Akagi and other First Air Fleet carriers. ## World War II ### Pearl Harbor and subsequent operations In preparation for the attack, the ship was anchored at Ariake Bay, Kyushu beginning in September 1941 while her aircraft were based at Kagoshima to train with the other 1st Air Fleet air units for the Pearl Harbor operation. Once preparations and training were completed, Akagi assembled with the rest of the First Air Fleet at Hitokappu Bay in the Kuril Islands on 22 November 1941. The ships departed on 26 November 1941 for Hawaii. Commanded by Captain Kiichi Hasegawa, Akagi was Vice Admiral Chūichi Nagumo's flagship for the striking force for the attack on Pearl Harbor that attempted to cripple the United States Pacific Fleet. Akagi and the other five carriers, from a position 230 nautical miles (430 km; 260 mi) north of Oahu, launched two waves of aircraft on the morning of 7 December 1941. In the first wave, 27 Nakajima B5N "Kate" torpedo bombers from Akagi torpedoed the battleships Oklahoma, West Virginia, and California while 9 of the ship's Mitsubishi A6M Zeros attacked the air base at Hickam Field. In the second wave, 18 Aichi D3A "Val" dive bombers from the carrier targeted the battleships Maryland and Pennsylvania, the light cruiser Raleigh, the destroyer Shaw, and the fleet oiler Neosho while nine "Zeros" attacked various American airfields. One of the carrier's Zeros was shot down by American anti-aircraft guns during the first wave attack, killing its pilot. In addition to the aircraft which participated in the raid, three of the carrier's fighters were assigned to the CAP. One of the carrier's Zero fighters attacked a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber that had just arrived from the mainland, setting it on fire as it landed at Hickam, killing one of its crew. In January 1942, together with the rest of the First and Fifth Carrier Divisions, Akagi supported the invasion of Rabaul in the Bismarck Archipelago, as the Japanese moved to secure their southern defensive perimeter against attacks from Australia. She provided 20 B5Ns and 9 Zeros for the initial airstrike on Rabaul on 20 January 1942. The First Carrier Division attacked Allied positions at nearby Kavieng the following day, of which Akagi contributed 9 A6M Zeros and 18 D3As. On the 22nd, Akagi's D3As and Zeros again attacked Rabaul before returning to Truk on 27 January. The Second Carrier Division, with Sōryū and Hiryū, had been detached to support the invasion of Wake Island on 23 December 1941 and did not reunite with the rest of the carrier mobile striking force until February 1942. Akagi, along with Kaga and the carrier Zuikaku, sortied in search of American naval forces raiding the Marshall Islands on 1 February 1942, before being recalled. On 7 February Akagi and the carriers of the First and Second Carrier Divisions were ordered south to the Timor Sea where, on 19 February, from a point 100 nautical miles (190 km; 120 mi) southeast of the easternmost tip of Timor, they launched air strikes against Darwin, Australia, in an attempt to destroy its port and airfield facilities to prevent any interference with the invasion of Java. Akagi contributed 18 B5Ns, 18 D3As, and 9 Zeros to the attack, which caught the defenders by surprise. Eight ships were sunk, including the American destroyer Peary, and fourteen more were damaged. None of the carrier's aircraft were lost in the attack and the attack was effective in preventing Darwin from contributing to the Allied defense of Java. On 1 March, the American oiler Pecos was sunk by D3As from Sōryū and Akagi. Later that same day the American destroyer Edsall was attacked and sunk by D3As from Akagi and Sōryū, in combination with gunfire from two battleships and two heavy cruisers of the escort force. Akagi and her consorts covered the invasion of Java, although her main contribution appears to have been providing 18 B5Ns and 9 Zeros for the 5 March air strike on Tjilatjap. This group was very successful, sinking eight ships in the harbor there and none of Akagi's aircraft were lost. Most of the Allied forces in the Dutch East Indies surrendered to the Japanese later in March. The Kido Butai then sailed for Staring Bay on Celebes Island to refuel and recuperate. ### Indian Ocean raid On 26 March, Akagi set sail for the Indian Ocean raid with the rest of the Kido Butai. The Japanese intent was to defeat the British Eastern Fleet and destroy British airpower in the region in order to secure the flank of their operations in Burma. On 5 April 1942, Akagi launched 17 B5Ns and 9 Zeros in an air strike against Colombo, Ceylon, which damaged the port facilities. None of the aircraft were lost and the Zero pilots claimed to have shot down a dozen of the defending British fighters. Later that day, 17 D3As from Akagi helped to sink the British heavy cruisers Cornwall and Dorsetshire. On 9 April, she attacked Trincomalee with 18 B5Ns, escorted by 6 Zeros which claimed to have shot down 5 Hawker Hurricane fighters (only two of which can be confirmed from Allied records) without loss to themselves. Meanwhile, a floatplane from the battleship Haruna spotted the small aircraft carrier Hermes, escorted by the Australian destroyer , and every available D3A was launched to attack the ships. Akagi contributed 17 dive bombers and they helped to sink both ships; they also spotted the oil tanker RFA Athelstone, escorted by the corvette Hollyhock, and sank both without loss. During the day's actions, the carrier narrowly escaped damage when nine British Bristol Blenheim bombers from Ceylon penetrated the CAP and dropped their bombs from 11,000 feet (3,400 m), just missing the carrier and the heavy cruiser Tone. Four of the Blenheims were subsequently shot down by CAP fighters and one was shot down by aircraft from the carriers' returning air strike. After the raid, the carrier mobile striking force returned to Japan to refit and replenish. On 19 April 1942, while near Taiwan during the transit to Japan, Akagi, Sōryū, and Hiryū were sent in pursuit of the American carriers Hornet and Enterprise, which had launched the Doolittle Raid. They found only empty ocean, however, for the American carriers had immediately departed the area to return to Hawaii. Akagi and the other carriers shortly abandoned the chase and dropped anchor at Hashirajima anchorage on 22 April. On 25 April, Captain Taijiro Aoki relieved Hasegawa as skipper of the carrier. Having been engaged in constant operations for four and a half months, the ship, along with the other three carriers of the First and Second Carrier Divisions, was hurriedly refitted and replenished in preparation for the Combined Fleet's next major operation, scheduled to begin one month hence. The Fifth Carrier Division, with Shōkaku and Zuikaku, had been detached in mid-April to support Operation Mo, resulting in the Battle of the Coral Sea. While at Hashirajima, Akagi's air group was based ashore in Kagoshima and conducted flight and weapons training with the other First Air Fleet carrier units. ### Midway Concerned by the US carrier strikes in the Marshall Islands, Lae-Salamaua, and the Doolittle raids, Yamamoto determined to force the US Navy into a showdown to eliminate the American carrier threat. He decided to invade and occupy Midway Island, which he was sure would draw out the American carrier forces to battle. The Japanese codenamed the Midway invasion Operation MI. On 25 May 1942, Akagi set out with the Combined Fleet's carrier striking force in the company of carriers Kaga, Hiryū, and Sōryū, which constituted the First and Second Carrier Divisions, for the attack on Midway Island. Once again, Nagumo flew his flag on Akagi. Because of damage and losses suffered during the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Fifth Carrier Division with carriers Shōkaku and Zuikaku were absent from the operation. Akagi's aircraft complement consisted of 24 Zeros, 18 D3As, and 18 B5Ns. With the fleet positioned 250 nautical miles (460 km; 290 mi) northwest of Midway Island at dawn (04:45 local time) on 4 June 1942, Akagi's portion of the 108-plane combined air raid was a strike on the airfield on Eastern Island with 18 dive bombers escorted by nine Zeros. The carrier's B5Ns were armed with torpedoes and kept ready in case enemy ships were discovered during the Midway operation. The only loss during the raid from Akagi's air group was one Zero shot down by AA fire and three damaged; four dive bombers were damaged, of which one could not be repaired. Unbeknownst to the Japanese, the US Navy had discovered the Japanese MI plan by breaking the Japanese cipher and had prepared an ambush using its three available carriers, positioned northeast of Midway. One of Akagi's torpedo bombers was launched to augment the search for any American ships that might be in the area. The carrier contributed three Zeros to the total of 11 assigned to the initial combat air patrol over the four carriers. By 07:00, the carrier had 11 fighters with the CAP which helped to defend the Kido Butai from the first US attackers from Midway Island at 07:10. At this time, Nagumo's carriers were attacked by six US Navy Grumman TBF Avengers from Torpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8) and four United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) B-26 Marauders, all carrying torpedoes. The Avengers went after Hiryū while the Marauders attacked Akagi. The 30 CAP Zeroes in the air at this time, including the 11 from Akagi, immediately attacked the American aircraft, shooting down five of the Avengers and two of the B-26s. One of Akagi's Zeroes, however, was shot down by defensive fire from the B-26s. Several of the Marauders dropped their torpedoes, but all either missed or failed to detonate. One B-26, piloted by Lieutenant James Muri, strafed Akagi after dropping its torpedo, killing two men. Another, after being seriously damaged by anti-aircraft fire, did not pull out of its run, and instead headed directly for Akagi's bridge. The aircraft, either attempting a suicide ramming, or out of control due to battle damage or a wounded or killed pilot, narrowly missed crashing into the carrier's bridge, which could have killed Nagumo and his command staff, before it cartwheeled into the sea. This experience may well have contributed to Nagumo's determination to launch another attack on Midway, in direct violation of Yamamoto's order to keep the reserve strike force armed for anti-ship operations. At 07:15, Nagumo ordered the B5Ns on Kaga and Akagi rearmed with bombs for another attack on Midway itself. This process was limited by the number of ordnance carts (used to handle the bombs and torpedoes) and ordnance elevators, preventing torpedoes from being struck below until after all the bombs were moved up from their magazine, assembled, and mounted on the aircraft. This process normally took about an hour and a half; more time would be required to bring the aircraft up to the flight deck, warm up and launch the strike group. Around 07:40, Nagumo reversed his order when he received a message from one of his scout aircraft that American warships had been spotted. Three of Akagi's CAP Zeroes landed aboard the carrier at 07:36. At 07:40, her lone scout returned, having sighted nothing. #### Sinking At 07:55, the next American strike from Midway arrived in the form of 16 Marine SBD-2 Dauntless dive bombers of VMSB-241 under Major Lofton R. Henderson. Akagi's three remaining CAP fighters were among the nine still aloft that attacked Henderson's planes, shooting down six of them as they executed a fruitless glide bombing attack on Hiryū. At roughly the same time, the Japanese carriers were attacked by 12 USAAF B-17 Flying Fortresses, bombing from 20,000 feet (6,100 m). The high altitude of the bombers gave the Japanese captains enough time to anticipate where the bombs would land and successfully maneuver their ships out of the impact area. Four B-17s attacked Akagi, but missed with all their bombs. Akagi reinforced the CAP with launches of three Zeros at 08:08 and four at 08:32. These fresh Zeros helped defeat the next American air strike from Midway, 11 Vought SB2U Vindicators from VMSB-241, which attacked the battleship Haruna starting around 08:30. Three of the Vindicators were shot down, and Haruna escaped damage. Although all the American air strikes had thus far caused negligible damage, they kept the Japanese carrier forces off-balance as Nagumo endeavored to prepare a response to news, received at 08:20, of the sighting of American carrier forces to his northeast. Akagi began recovering her Midway strike force at 08:37 and finished shortly after 09:00. The landed aircraft were quickly struck below, while the carriers' crews began preparations to spot aircraft for the strike against the American carrier forces. The preparations, however, were interrupted at 09:18 when the first American carrier aircraft to attack were sighted. These consisted of 15 Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bombers of VT-8, led by John C. Waldron from the carrier Hornet. The six airborne Akagi CAP Zeroes joined the other 15 CAP fighters currently aloft in destroying Waldron's planes. All 15 of the American planes were shot down as they attempted a torpedo attack on Soryū, leaving one surviving aviator treading water. Shortly afterwards 14 Devastators from VT-6 from the carrier Enterprise, led by Eugene E. Lindsey, attacked. Lindsey's aircraft tried to sandwich Kaga, but the CAP, reinforced by an additional eight Zeros launched by Akagi at 09:33 and 09:40, shot down all but four of the Devastators, and Kaga dodged the torpedoes. Defensive fire from the Devastators shot down one of Akagi's Zeros. Minutes after the torpedo plane attacks, American carrier-based dive bombers arrived over the Japanese carriers almost undetected and began their dives. It was at this time, around 10:20, that in the words of Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully, the "Japanese air defenses would finally and catastrophically fail." Twenty-eight dive bombers from Enterprise, led by C. Wade McClusky, began an attack on Kaga, hitting her with at least four bombs. At the last minute, one of McClusky's elements of three bombers from VB-6, led by squadron commander Richard Best who deduced Kaga to be fatally damaged, broke off and dove simultaneously on Akagi. At approximately 10:26, the three bombers hit her with one 1,000-pound (450 kg) bomb and just missed with two others. The first near-miss landed 5–10 m (16–33 ft) to port, near her island. The third bomb just missed the flight deck and plunged into the water next to the stern. The second bomb, likely dropped by Best, landed at the aft edge of the middle elevator and detonated in the upper hangar. This hit set off explosions among the fully armed and fueled B5N torpedo bombers that were being prepared for an air strike against the American carriers, resulting in an uncontrollable fire. At 10:29, Aoki ordered the ship's magazines flooded. The forward magazines were promptly flooded, but the aft magazines were not due to valve damage, likely caused by the near miss aft. The ship's main water pump also appears to have been damaged, greatly hindering fire fighting efforts. On the upper hangar deck, at 10:32 damage control teams attempted to control the spreading fires by employing the one-shot fire-suppression system. Whether the system functioned or not is unclear, but the burning aviation fuel proved impossible to control, and serious fires began to advance deeper into the interior of the ship. At 10:40, additional damage caused by the near-miss aft made itself known when the ship's rudder jammed 30 degrees to starboard during an evasive maneuver. Shortly thereafter, the fires broke through the flight deck and heat and smoke made the ship's bridge unusable. At 10:46, Nagumo transferred his flag to the light cruiser Nagara. Akagi stopped dead in the water at 13:50 and her crew, except for Aoki and damage-control personnel, was evacuated. She continued to burn as her crew fought a losing battle against the spreading fires. The damage-control teams and Aoki were evacuated from the still floating ship later that night. At 04:50 on 5 June, Yamamoto ordered Akagi scuttled, saying to his staff, "I was once the captain of Akagi, and it is with heartfelt regret that I must now order that she be sunk." Destroyers Arashi, Hagikaze, Maikaze, and Nowaki each fired one torpedo into the carrier and she sank, bow first, at 05:20 at . Two hundred and sixty-seven men of the ship's crew were lost, the fewest of any of the Japanese fleet carriers lost in the battle. The loss of Akagi and the three other IJN carriers at Midway, comprising two thirds of Japan's total number of fleet carriers and the experienced core of the First Air Fleet, was a crucial strategic defeat for Japan and contributed significantly to Japan's ultimate defeat in the war. In an effort to conceal the defeat, Akagi was not immediately removed from the Navy's registry of ships, instead being listed as "unmanned" before finally being struck from the registry on 25 September 1942. ## Wreck survey On 20 October 2019, the Director of Undersea Operations for Vulcan Inc. Rob Kraft and Naval History and Heritage Command historian Frank Thompson aboard identified the wreck of Akagi using high-frequency sonar. Located 1,300 miles (2,100 km) north west of Pearl Harbor, Akagi was found at a depth of 18,011 feet (5,490 m). It is reported that the wreck is upright, on its keel and is largely intact. Two days before the discovery of Akagi, Petrel had discovered the wreck of Kaga.
3,573,298	No. 77 Squadron RAAF	1,146,256,871	Royal Australian Air Force squadron	[ "1942 establishments in Australia", "Aircraft squadrons of the Royal Australian Air Force in World War II", "Military units and formations established in 1942", "Military units and formations of Australia in the Korean War", "RAAF squadrons" ]	No. 77 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) squadron headquartered at RAAF Base Williamtown, New South Wales. It is controlled by No. 81 Wing, part of Air Combat Group, and equipped with Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II multi-role stealth fighters. The squadron was formed at RAAF Station Pearce, Western Australia, in March 1942 and saw action in the South West Pacific theatre of World War II, operating Curtis P-40 Kittyhawks. After the war, it re-equipped with North American P-51 Mustangs and deployed to Japan as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force. The squadron was about to return to Australia when the Korean War broke out in June 1950, after which it joined United Nations forces supporting South Korea. It converted from Mustangs to Gloster Meteor jets between April and July 1951 and remained in Korea until October 1954, claiming five MiG-15s and over five thousand buildings and vehicles destroyed during the war for the loss of almost sixty aircraft, mainly to ground fire. No. 77 Squadron re-equipped with CAC Sabres at Williamtown in November 1956. Two years later it transferred to RAAF Butterworth in Malaya to join the air campaign against communist guerrillas in the last stages of the Emergency. The squadron remained at Butterworth during the 1960s, providing regional air defence during the Konfrontasi between Indonesia and Malaysia. It returned to Williamtown in early 1969 to re-equip with Dassault Mirage III supersonic jet fighters. No. 77 Squadron began converting to McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet multi-role fighters in June 1987. It supplied a detachment of four aircraft to the American base on Diego Garcia in 2001–02, supporting the war in Afghanistan, and deployed to the Middle East as part of the war against the Islamic State in 2015–17. Along with its Hornets, the squadron briefly operated Pilatus PC-9s in the forward air control role in the early 2000s. It began converting to F-35A Lightnings in January 2021. ## Role and equipment No. 77 Squadron is located at RAAF Base Williamtown, New South Wales, and controlled by No. 81 Wing, which is part of Air Combat Group. No. 81 Wing maintains three fighter squadrons for offensive and defensive counter-air operations. As well as air-to-air combat, No. 77 Squadron is tasked with land strike, close air support and maritime strike missions. Its staff includes maintenance, supply and other support personnel. The unit motto is "Swift to Destroy" and the crest features an oriental temple lion, a legacy of No. 77 Squadron's role in the Korean War. Nicknamed the "grumpy monkey", the lion represents "a defender of peace, which, when disturbed, is swift to destroy". The squadron is equipped with the Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II multi-role stealth fighter, which it began operating in January 2021. Capable of 9G manoeuvres, the single-seat, single-engined F-35 is armed with a 25 mm cannon and can carry short- and medium-range air-to-air missiles and guided air-to-surface ordnance in an internal weapons bay. It can be refuelled in flight by the RAAF's Airbus KC-30A Multi Role Tanker Transports. RAAF staff are responsible for day-to-day maintenance of the F-35; deeper-level maintenance is performed by Lockheed Martin through a contract with BAE Systems Australia. No. 77 Squadron regularly undertakes exercises with air forces from South-East Asia, New Zealand and the United States. ## History ### World War II As the Japanese advanced in the South West Pacific during early 1942, the RAAF hurriedly established three fighter units—Nos. 75, 76 and 77 Squadrons—equipped with Curtiss P-40E Kittyhawks recently delivered from the United States. No. 77 Squadron was formed at RAAF Station Pearce, Western Australia, on 16 March, with a complement of three officers and 100 men. Temporarily commanded by Squadron Leader D. F. Forsyth, the unit was initially responsible for the defence of Perth. Squadron Leader Dick Cresswell assumed command on 20 April. The squadron transferred to Batchelor Airfield near Darwin, Northern Territory, in August, the first RAAF fighter unit to be stationed in the area. Until this time, air defence over Darwin had been provided by the P-40s flown by the USAAF's 49th Fighter Group. No. 77 Squadron moved to another of Darwin's satellite airfields, Livingstone, in September. Among its pilots was John Gorton, future Prime Minister of Australia. No. 77 Squadron saw action defending Darwin from Japanese air raids and claimed its first aerial victory just after 5 a.m. on 23 November 1942, when Cresswell destroyed a Mitsubishi "Betty" bomber. It was the first "kill" for an Australian squadron over the mainland, and the first night victory over Australia. As of 24 December, the unit's strength was twenty-four Kittyhawks. In February 1943, concurrent with No. 1 Wing and its three Supermarine Spitfire squadrons becoming operational in the Darwin area, No. 77 Squadron was transferred to Milne Bay in New Guinea. Along with Nos. 6, 75 and 100 Squadrons it came under the control of the newly formed No. 71 Wing, which was part of No. 9 Operational Group, the RAAF's main mobile formation in the South West Pacific Area. No. 77 Squadron registered its first daytime victory on 11 April, when a Kittyhawk shot down a Mitsubishi Zero taking part in a raid on Allied shipping near Buna. Three days later the Japanese attacked Milne Bay; the squadron claimed four bombers and a fighter for the loss of one Kittyhawk. By this time, Allied headquarters had finalised plans for a drive north to the Philippines involving heavy attacks on Rabaul and the occupation of territory in New Guinea, New Britain and the Solomon Islands. No. 77 Squadron began moving to Goodenough Island in May 1943, and was fully established and ready for operations by 15 June. As Japanese fighter opposition was limited, the squadron took part in several ground-attack missions in New Britain, armed with incendiary and general-purpose bombs, a practice that had been employed by Kittyhawk units in the Middle East. During one such raid on 2 August, Cresswell's designated successor as commanding officer, Flight Lieutenant Daryl Sproule, was forced to crash-land on a beach and was captured and executed by the Japanese. Cresswell remained in command until Squadron Leader "Buster" Brown took over on 20 August. Japanese fighter strength in New Britain and New Guinea increased in September and October, and eight of No. 77 Squadron's Kittyhawks were briefly detached to Nadzab as escorts for the CAC Boomerangs of No. 4 Squadron, which were supporting the 7th Australian Division. In January 1944, No. 77 Squadron took part in the two largest raids mounted by the RAAF to that time, each involving over seventy aircraft attacking targets in New Britain. It was subsequently assigned to Los Negros in the Admiralty Islands, joining Nos. 76 and 79 Squadrons under No. 73 Wing. No. 77 Squadron's ground party went ashore at Los Negros on 6 March, in the middle of a firefight with Japanese forces. Fourteen of the squadron's Kittyhawks arrived a week later, and another ten on 28 March. Their primary duty was providing air cover for Allied shipping, though no Japanese aircraft were encountered; they also flew ground-attack missions in support of US troops on Manus Island. Following the capture of the Admiralties, which completed the isolation of Rabaul, No. 77 Squadron remained with No. 73 Wing on garrison duty at Los Negros from May to July 1944. Between 13 August and 14 September 1944, the squadron transferred to Noemfoor in western New Guinea to join Nos. 76 and 82 Squadrons as part of No. 81 Wing under No. 10 Operational Group (later the Australian First Tactical Air Force), which had taken over the mobile role previously performed by No. 9 Group and was supporting the American landings along the north coast of New Guinea. Cresswell, now a wing commander, arrived for his second tour of duty as commanding officer on 26 September. Operating P-40N Kittyhawks, No. 77 Squadron bombed Japanese positions on the Vogelkop Peninsula in October and on Halmahera in November. Cresswell handed over command in March 1945. The squadron moved to Morotai on 13 April and conducted ground-attack sorties over the Dutch East Indies until 30 June, when it redeployed with No. 81 Wing to Labuan to support the 9th Australian Division in North Borneo until hostilities ended in August 1945. The squadron's tally of aerial victories during the war was seven aircraft destroyed and four "probables", for the loss of eighteen pilots killed. ### Occupation of Japan No. 77 Squadron began re-equipping with North American P-51 Mustangs at Labuan in September 1945. In the wake of Japan's surrender, No. 81 Wing became part of Australia's contribution to the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF). No. 77 Squadron was the last of the wing's three flying units to deploy to Japan, arriving at Bofu, a former kamikaze base, on 21 March 1946. No. 481 (Maintenance) Squadron provided technical service for the Mustangs. Occupation duties proved uneventful, the main operational task being surveillance patrols, but units maintained an intensive training regime and undertook combined exercises with other Allied forces. Many RAAF personnel were accompanied to Japan by their families. No. 81 Wing transferred to Iwakuni in April 1948, the same month that the Federal government decided to reduce Australia's contribution to BCOF, retaining only No. 77 Squadron in Japan. Wing headquarters and No. 481 Squadron disbanded in November 1948, and No. 77 Squadron came under the aegis of a new organisation called RAAF Component. The squadron was now the largest operational unit in the RAAF, with a strength of 299 officers and men, forty Mustangs, three CAC Wirraways, two Douglas C-47 Dakotas and two Austers. The Dakotas and Austers formed the No. 77 Squadron Communications Flight. In December 1949, the Mustangs competed in a gunnery competition against three groups of Mustangs and two groups of F-80 Shooting Star jets belonging to the US Far East Air Force (FEAF). No. 77 Squadron's Flight Lieutenant "Bay" Adams achieved the highest individual score of the competition, earning the personal congratulations of Lieutenant Generals George E. Stratemeyer, commander of FEAF, and Horace Robertson, commander of BCOF. The RAAF personnel were preparing to return to Australia when, on 25 June 1950, they were placed on standby for action in the Korean War, which had just broken out. ### Korean War Led by Wing Commander Lou Spence, No. 77 Squadron was committed to action over Korea as part of United Nations Command (UN), and came under the operational control of the US Fifth Air Force. The Australian unit was specifically requested by General Douglas MacArthur, commander of UN forces; the Mustang was considered the best long-range ground-attack aircraft in the theatre, and Stratemeyer contended that No. 77 Squadron was the best Mustang outfit in Japan. The squadron flew its initial escort and patrol sorties from Iwakuni on 2 July 1950, becoming the first non-American UN unit to commence operations. Several Australian families were still living at Iwakuni pending their repatriation from what had become an operational theatre, and could watch the Mustangs depart for missions over Korea. A friendly fire incident occurred on 3 July 1950, when No. 77 Squadron attacked a train full of US and South Korean troops on the main highway between Suwon and Pyongtaek, inflicting many casualties, twenty-nine of them fatal. Spence had raised concerns before the mission that the North Koreans could not have penetrated so far south, but was assured by Fifth Air Force controllers that the target was correct; the incident was widely reported in US newspapers but a public statement by Stratemeyer cleared the RAAF of any blame. No. 77 Squadron did not encounter enemy aircraft in the opening phase of the war but often faced intense ground fire. It suffered its first fatality on 7 July when its deputy commander, Squadron Leader Graham Strout, was killed during a raid on Samchok. He was also the first Australian, and the first non-American UN serviceman, to die in Korea. For the next two months, equipped with bombs, rockets and napalm, No. 77 Squadron supported UN troops retreating before the North Korean advance. To expedite turnaround times between missions, the Mustangs, which were still based at Iwakuni, often refuelled and rearmed at Taegu near the Pusan Perimeter, where UN forces made a last-ditch stand on the southern tip of Korea. One of the squadron's Dakotas regularly flew between Iwakuni and Taegu carrying ordnance and spare parts. According to the official history of the Air Force in 1946–71, the squadron's part in the victory at Pusan earned recognition "not only for the RAAF but also Australia at the highest political levels in the United States". During a visit to Japan in August 1950, Prime Minister Robert Menzies presented the Gloucester Cup to No. 77 Squadron as the RAAF's most proficient unit of the past year. That month, the squadron claimed thirty-five tanks, 212 other vehicles, eighteen railway engines or cars, and thirteen fuel or ammunition dumps destroyed. On 3 September 1950, Sergeant Bill Harrop was forced down behind enemy lines and executed by the North Koreans. Six days later, Spence was killed when his Mustang failed to pull out of a dive during a napalm attack on Angang-ni. His death was a serious blow to the squadron, and the RAAF despatched Cresswell on his third tour as commanding officer to replace him. Cresswell arrived at Iwakuni on 17 September and set about restoring morale, undertaking four sorties on his first day of operations three days later. MacArthur had meanwhile launched an amphibious landing behind North Korean lines at Inchon on 15 September, forcing the communists to retreat from the Pusan Perimeter. No. 77 Squadron was transferred from Iwakuni to Pohang, South Korea, on 12 October, to support UN forces advancing northwards. On 20 October, the squadron became a component of the RAAF's newly established No. 91 (Composite) Wing, which also included No. 391 (Base) Squadron, No. 491 (Maintenance) Squadron, and No. 30 Communications Flight, formerly the No. 77 Squadron Communications Flight. The wing and all units except No. 77 Squadron, which came under the operational control of the US 35th Fighter-Interceptor Group, were headquartered at Iwakuni. China entered the war in mid-October 1950, attacking advancing UN troops as they closed in on the Yalu River. No. 77 Squadron undertook its first sorties against Chinese ground forces on 1 November. The squadron flew its first missions supporting the Australian Army on 5 November, when it attacked Chinese troops opposing the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, at Pakchon. No. 77 Squadron personnel were housed in tents in freezing conditions at Pohung; two pilots died from burns after a fire in their quarters on 14 November. Two days later the Australians began moving forward with the 35th Group to Yonpo Airfield, near Hamhung. North Korea's counter-attack, supported by Chinese forces, led to the squadron being withdrawn to Pusan on 3 December 1950. The communists operated a Russian-designed swept-wing jet fighter, the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, that was far superior to all other fighters in the theatre except the new North American F-86 Sabre. Although the MiGs carried Chinese or North Korean markings, they were frequently operated by seasoned Russian air force pilots, whose deployment was unofficial, as the Soviet Union was not a combatant in the Korean War. The RAAF attempted to procure Sabres to replace No. 77 Squadron's Mustangs, but the priority being given to re-equipping the USAF meant that deliveries would not be possible until 1954. The Australian government agreed to purchase Gloster Meteor straight-wing jet fighters from Britain as the only viable alternative; the initial order included thirty-six single-seat Mk.8 interceptors and four two-seat Mk.7 trainers. No. 77 Squadron completed its last Mustang mission on 6 April 1951 and returned to Iwakuni the next day to begin converting to Meteors. It subsequently transferred to Kimpo, South Korea, and commenced operations with its new aircraft on 29 July. The squadron deployed twenty-two Meteors at Kimpo, and came under the control of the USAF's 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing. Although it had operated effectively as a ground-attack unit with its Mustangs, No. 77 Squadron's primary role in the RAAF was interception, and it was expected that with the Meteor it could again focus on fighter duties, particularly as by this stage the USAF had only two squadrons of Sabres in the theatre. Wing Commander Gordon Steege succeeded Cresswell on 16 August 1951, by which time No. 77 Squadron's Meteors had conducted offensive sweeps up the Yalu River with USAF Sabres, and escorted Boeing B-29 Superfortresses on bombing missions. MiG-15s had appeared on several occasions without engaging the Meteors; it was speculated at the time, and subsequently confirmed, that they had been observing the performance of the newly arrived RAAF jets. No. 77 Squadron's first Meteor fatalities occurred on 22 August, when two aircraft collided in mid-air as they returned to Kimpo after a sweep. The Meteors first engaged MiG-15s on 25 August, but scored no hits. Four days later, eight Meteors and sixteen Sabres fought twelve MiGs; one RAAF pilot ejected when his aircraft was shot down, and a second Meteor was badly damaged. One week later another Meteor suffered severe damage in a dogfight with MiGs. As a result of these clashes, Steege became convinced that the Meteor was outclassed as a fighter. Following discussions with the Fifth Air Force, he decided to take No. 77 Squadron out of its air-to-air combat role and curtail its operations in "MiG Alley", the area between the Yalu and Chongchon Rivers on North Korea's border with Manchuria. This caused controversy among those who believed that proper tactics exploiting the Meteor's manoeuvrability and heavy armament would have allowed it to remain competitive as a fighter; for the Australian pilots the change of role amounted to a loss of prestige. The Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal George Jones, backed the decision, which relegated the squadron mainly to escort duty and local air defence. Morale suffered and it was not until Wing Commander Ron Susans succeeded Steege on 26 December 1951 that the Meteors were once more assigned an offensive role, namely ground attack. In the intervening period, Flight Lieutenant "Smoky" Dawson registered No. 77 Squadron's first jet combat claim when he damaged a MiG during an escort mission near Anju, North Korea, on 26 September 1951. On 27 October, Flying Officer Les Reading was credited with damaging another MiG while covering B-29s over Sinanju; it was subsequently confirmed as having been destroyed, making it the squadron's first MiG "kill". The squadron was awarded the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation for "exceptionally meritorious service & heroism" on 1 November. On 1 December 1951, over Sunchon, at least twenty Soviet-piloted MiGs from the 176th Guards Fighter Air Regiment (176 GvIAP) attacked a formation of fourteen Meteors. Both sides apparently overestimated the scale of the battle and the damage inflicted to their opponents: three Meteors—one flown by Pilot Officer Vance Drummond—were lost, but Soviet pilots claimed nine destroyed; Australian pilots claimed one MiG shot down and another damaged, from a formation of at least forty, though Russian sources suggest that all the MiGs returned to base and less than twenty-five were available to 176 GvIAP at the time. On 8 January 1952, Susans led the squadron on its first ground-attack mission in Meteors, which were armed with eight rockets under the wings as well as their four internal 20 mm cannon, at Chongdan. They continued to operate mainly in the ground-attack role until the end of the war, but registered two more victories over MiGs near Pyongyang on 4 and 8 May 1952. The squadron took part in a mass air strike on 29 August, when 420 UN aircraft attacked Pyongyang. One Meteor was shot down and another damaged by MiGs following a ground-attack mission on 2 October 1952. The squadron played a leading role in the destruction of a large North Korean convoy on 16 March 1953: two Meteors discovered a line of some 140 vehicles in a mountain pass south of Wonsan, halted it by destroying trucks at the front and rear of the convoy, and then called in further support from Kimpo and the USAF. The Australian aircraft eventually claimed twenty-four trucks out of a total of ninety vehicles destroyed or damaged by UN forces. No. 77 Squadron was credited with downing its last MiG southeast of Pyongyang on 27 March. Squadron Leader Len McGlinchey became its final wartime fatality when his Meteor crashed while taking off from Kimpo on 16 July. Following the Korean Armistice Agreement on 27 July 1953, the squadron remained in South Korea on garrison duties—initially at Kimpo, later at Kunsan—until transferring to Iwakuni on 12 October 1954. It departed for Australia on 19 November and arrived in Sydney on 3 December, having been based overseas for eleven years, a record for an RAAF unit. Its performance in the early days of the war has been cited as a factor in the United States' decision to ratify the ANZUS treaty in September 1951. The squadron's casualty rate in Korea was twenty-five percent killed or captured. Forty-one pilots died, thirty-five from the RAAF and six on exchange from the Royal Air Force. A further seven pilots became prisoners of war. Aircraft losses totalled almost sixty, including over forty Meteors, mostly to ground fire. The squadron flew 18,872 sorties: 3,872 in Mustangs and 15,000 in Meteors. It was credited with shooting down five MiG-15s and destroying 3,700 buildings, 1,408 vehicles, ninety-eight railway engines and carriages, and sixteen bridges. ### Malayan Emergency and Konfrontasi No. 77 Squadron became operational at RAAF Base Williamtown, New South Wales, on 4 January 1955. On 21 March, it joined Nos. 3 and 75 Squadrons as part of No. 78 Wing, which had recently been reorganised following garrison duty in Malta. No. 77 Squadron ceased Meteor operations in August 1956 and re-formed on 19 November equipped with CAC Sabres. Between October 1958 and February 1959, Nos. 3 and 77 Squadrons deployed with No. 78 Wing to RAAF Butterworth in Malaya, to support Commonwealth forces in the Emergency. The Sabres were among the first to wear the RAAF's recently introduced "leaping kangaroo" roundel. No. 478 (Maintenance) Squadron provided servicing for the aircraft. No. 77 Squadron undertook its first mission dive-bombing communist guerrillas on 13 August 1959, and flew two more ground-attack sorties on 10 June 1960. The RAAF pilots also sometimes tried to startle the communists by diving their jets through the sound barrier to create sonic booms that simulated the sound of artillery fire. Two No. 77 Squadron Sabres collided in mid-air on 22 July, but both pilots ejected safely. The Emergency was declared officially over on 31 July 1960. The RAAF squadrons remained at Butterworth as part of Australia's contribution to the Commonwealth Strategic Reserve. Eight Sabres, along with their pilots and ground crew, were detached from No. 77 Squadron in May 1962 to re-form No. 79 Squadron at Ubon, Thailand. The Sabres were flown to Thailand via Singapore to give the appearance that they were not drawn from the Strategic Reserve, thus preserving Malaysia's neutrality. Personnel and equipment from Nos. 3 and 77 Squadrons continued to rotate through No. 79 Squadron on a regular basis. The Butterworth-based Sabres, armed with Sidewinder missiles, were responsible for regional air defence during the Konfrontasi between Indonesia and Malaysia from July 1963 until August 1966, though no combat took place. From 26 October until 27 November 1965, a detachment of six Sabres from No. 77 Squadron was based at Labuan to conduct combat patrols over the Indonesian–Malaysian border on Borneo. Following the disbandment of No. 78 Wing on 1 November 1967, No. 77 Squadron became an independently operating unit under the command of Headquarters RAAF Butterworth. ### Supersonic era No. 77 Squadron returned to Williamtown in early 1969 to re-equip with Dassault Mirage III supersonic fighters, undertaking its initial flights on 7 July. The Mirages were charged with interception, high- and low-angle bombing, close air support, and photo reconnaissance; their armament included 30 mm cannon, Sidewinder missiles and conventional bombs. No. 77 Squadron's prime role was ground attack, although none of the RAAF's Mirages ever saw combat. No. 481 Squadron was responsible for day-to-day servicing, as well as most heavy maintenance. No. 77 Squadron suffered its first fatal Mirage accident on 3 April 1973, when an aircraft crashed during a training flight at low altitude. Another pilot was killed when his Mirage hit the water during formation flying at night on 24 June 1976. The squadron began training with laser-guided bombs in October 1980. As of March 1984, its aircraft complement was nineteen Mirages. Two pilots died following a mid-air collision at low level on 9 April that year. On 1 January 1985, in preparation for the introduction of the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet to Australian service, No. 77 Squadron took over all Mirages and Macchi MB-326s of No. 2 Operational Conversion Unit, assuming responsibility for fighter combat instructor, introductory fighter, and Mirage conversion courses. The transfer swelled the squadron's strength to fifty-six aircraft—forty Mirages and sixteen Macchis—and over 500 officers and men, making it the largest operational unit in the RAAF. Along with a heavily expanded training program, and its existing Australian Army close support role, No. 77 Squadron's fleet support commitment was increased to take up the slack resulting from the diminution of the Royal Australian Navy's fixed-wing capability. Its last fatal accident with the Mirage occurred on 2 May 1986; the aircraft crashed into water during air-to-air gunnery practice. The squadron began phasing out the Mirage in July 1986, and took delivery of its first Hornet on 29 June 1987. It had come under the control of a newly re-formed No. 81 Wing that February. No. 77 Squadron's last Mirage departed Williamtown on 27 November 1987. Hornet maintenance at Williamtown was the responsibility of No. 481 Wing, which had evolved from No. 481 Squadron. One of No. 77 Squadron's Hornets crashed near Rockhampton, Queensland, on 19 May 1992, killing the pilot and his passenger, a defence scientist. In September that year, the squadron undertook a proving exercise over Halifax Bay in Far North Queensland, when four of its Hornets—refuelled in flight on the round trip from Williamtown by a Boeing 707 tanker—became the first jet aircraft in Australia to drop aerial mines. No. 481 Wing was reorganised as No. 402 Wing in July 1996; the latter transferred its functions to No. 81 Wing's flying squadrons in July 1998. No. 77 Squadron operated a detachment of Pilatus PC-9 aircraft in the forward air control role from 2000 until 2003; this role was subsequently filled by the Forward Air Control Development Unit. Four Hornets from No. 77 Squadron were deployed to protect the US base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean between November 2001 and February 2002, during the early phase of the war in Afghanistan. In March 2006, the squadron sent a detachment of aircraft to RAAF Base East Sale, Victoria, to assist with security for the Commonwealth Games being held in Melbourne. No. 77 Squadron deployed to the Middle East in October 2015 as part of Operation Okra, Australia's contribution to the war against the Islamic State; by the end of the year it had flown twenty-one strike missions over Syria. A rotation from No. 3 Squadron replaced No. 77 Squadron's contingent in the first half of 2016. Each of No. 81 Wing's fighter squadron's deployed at least once to the Middle East; No. 77 Squadron's second and final rotation began in January 2017, when it took over from a No. 75 Squadron contingent. No. 77 Squadron returned to Williamtown in May, bringing its total deployment period to ten months. In December 2017, No. 77 Squadron was assigned all of No. 3 Squadron's Hornets and most of its personnel when the latter unit was re-formed to operate the Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II multi-role stealth fighter; the aircraft and personnel were assigned to a newly established "C" Flight within No. 77 Squadron. No. 77 Squadron ceased flying Hornets on 11 December 2020. It began converting to the F-35 the following month. Deliveries of F-35s to No. 77 squadron continued through 2022. ## Battle honours - World War II: Milne Bay, Morotai, Borneo 1945, New Guinea 1943–1944, Darwin 1942–1943, Dutch New Guinea, New Britain 1943 - Korean War: Korea 1950–1953 - Malayan Emergency and Konfrontasi: Malaya 1948–1960, Malaysia (Confrontation) 1962–1966 ## Aircraft operated - Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk (March 1942 – September 1945) - North American P-51 Mustang (September 1945 – April 1951) - Gloster Meteor (April 1951 – August 1956) - CAC Sabre (November 1956 – July 1969) - Dassault Mirage III (July 1969 – June 1987) - Macchi MB-326 (January 1985 – June 1987) - McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet (June 1987 – December 2020) - Pilatus PC-9 (2000–2003) - Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II (January 2021 –) ## See also - McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet in Australian service
1,902	American Airlines Flight 77	1,173,134,378	Hijacked passenger flight that flew into the Pentagon on 9/11	[ "2001 fires in the United States", "2001 in Virginia", "2001 murders in the United States", "Accidents and incidents involving the Boeing 757", "Aircraft hijackings in the United States", "Airliner accidents and incidents caused by hijacking", "Airliner accidents and incidents in Virginia", "Airliner accidents and incidents involving deliberate crashes", "Airliners involved in the September 11 attacks", "American Airlines Flight 77", "American Airlines accidents and incidents", "Articles containing video clips", "Attacks in the United States in 2001", "Attacks on government buildings and structures", "Attacks on military installations in the 2000s", "Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 2001", "Dulles International Airport", "Filmed murder–suicides", "Islamic terrorism in the United States", "Mass murder in 2001", "Mass murder in Virginia", "Mass murder in the United States", "Murder–suicides in Virginia", "Murder–suicides in the United States", "Suicides in Virginia", "Terrorist incidents in the United States in 2001", "The Pentagon" ]	American Airlines Flight 77 was a scheduled domestic transcontinental passenger flight from Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia to Los Angeles International Airport in California. The Boeing 757-223 aircraft serving the flight was hijacked by five al-Qaeda terrorists on the morning of September 11, 2001, as part of the September 11 attacks. The hijacked airliner was deliberately crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, killing all 64 aboard and another 125 in the building. Flight 77 became airborne at 08:20. Thirty-one minutes after takeoff, the attackers stormed the cockpit and forced the passengers and crew to the rear of the cabin, threatening the hostages but initially sparing all of them. Lead hijacker Hani Hanjour assumed control of the aircraft after having undergone extensive flight training as part of his preparation for the attack. In the meantime, two people aboard discreetly made phone calls to family members and relayed information on the situation without the knowledge of their assailants. Hanjour flew the airplane into the west side of the Pentagon at 09:37 ET. Many people witnessed the impact, and news sources began reporting on the incident within minutes, but no clear footage of the crash itself is available to the public. The 757 severely damaged an area of the Pentagon and caused a large fire that took several days to extinguish. By 10:10 a.m., the damage inflicted by the plane as well as the ignited jet fuel led to a localized collapse of the Pentagon's western flank, followed forty minutes later by another five stories of the structure. Flight 77 was the third of four passenger jets to be commandeered by terrorists that morning, and the last to reach a target intended by al-Qaeda. The hijacking was to be coordinated with that of United Airlines Flight 93, which was flown in the direction of Washington, D.C., the U.S. capital. The terrorists on Flight 93 had their sights set on a federal government building not far from the Pentagon, but were forced to crash the plane in a Pennsylvania field when the passengers fought for control after being alerted to the previous suicide attacks, including Flight 77's. The damaged sections of the Pentagon were rebuilt in 2002, with occupants moving back into the completed areas that August. The 184 victims of the attack are memorialized in the Pentagon Memorial adjacent to the crash site. The 1.93-acre (7,800 m<sup>2</sup>) park contains a bench for each of the victims, arranged according to their year of birth. ## Background The flight was commandeered as part of the September 11 attacks. The attacks themselves cost somewhere in the region of \$400,000 and \$500,000 to execute, but the source of this financial support remains unknown. Led by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was described as being the "principal architect" of the attacks in the 9/11 Commission Report, al-Qaeda was motivated by several factors, not least of which was anti-Americanism and anti-Western sentiment. Because al-Qaeda only had the resources to commandeer four passenger jets, there was disagreement between Mohammed and Osama bin Laden over which targets should be prioritized. Mohammed favored striking the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center complex in New York City, while bin-Laden was bent on toppling the United States federal government, a goal he believed could be accomplished by destroying the Pentagon, the White House and the United States Capitol. Though bin Laden himself expressed a preference for the destruction of the White House over the Capitol, his subordinates disagreed, citing its difficulty in striking from the air. Hani Hanjour―likely while in the presence of fellow Flight 77 accomplice Nawaf al-Hazmi―scoped out the DMV on July 20, 2001 by renting a plane and taking a practice flight from Fairfield, New Jersey to Gaithersburg, Maryland in order to determine the feasibility of each of the possible candidates. In the end, 19 terrorists participated in the attacks against the United States, consisting of three groups of five men each and one group of four. The nine hijackers on Flight 77 and United Airlines Flight 93 were assigned the task of striking governmental structures in or near the national capital of Washington, D.C., and as such, the objective was for the two hijackings to be coordinated insofar as both planes being aimed towards targets in the Washington metropolitan area. Significant complications faced by the four terrorists on Flight 93 ensured that Flight 77 was the only one to successfully attack a target intended by al-Qaeda when it struck the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia at 09:37, while a passenger uprising forced the hijackers aboard Flight 93 to crash the plane in rural Pennsylvania. Regardless, the degree of coordination between Flight 77 and Flight 93 was evidently less than that of American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, the two airliners that were flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center 17 minutes apart in a joint attack on New York City. Flights 11 and 175 both departed from Logan International Airport in Boston for Los Angeles International Airport, and crashed into targets that stood next to each other, in contrast to the Pentagon and the federal government building Flight 93 was set to crash into, which were simply located in the same general area. One noteworthy difference between the attacks in the National Capital Region and those in New York is that the teams on Flights 77 and 93 did not follow suit with their counterparts on Flights 11 and 175 by booking planes from the same airport with the same California destination in mind. Flight 77's group hijacked a plane out of Dulles International Airport in Virginia, conveniently situated near the Pentagon and consequently the capital, on a flight path destined for LAX. Conversely, Flight 93 departed from Newark International Airport in New Jersey, nearly 200 miles northeast of D.C., bound for San Francisco International Airport. There was also no contact between Hanjour and Flight 93 hijacker pilot Ziad Jarrah on the day of the attacks, whereas Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi spoke over the phone while preparing to board their respective flights, apparently to confirm the attacks were ready to begin. The reason why al-Qaeda selected four planes from three airports instead of two airports remains unknown, but it is believed that the act of hijacking two planes on the same flight path would have enabled better coordination between the teams on Flight 11 and Flight 175, both of which clearly succeeded, unlike Flight 77 and Flight 93’s only partially successful attack on the U.S. government. ## Hijackers The hijackers on American Airlines Flight77 were five Saudi men between the ages of 20 and 29. They were led by Hanjour, who piloted the aircraft into the Pentagon. Hanjour first arrived in the United States in 1990. Hanjour trained at the CRM Airline Training Center in Scottsdale, Arizona, earning his FAA commercial pilot's certificate in April 1999. He had wanted to be a commercial pilot for Saudia but was rejected when he applied to the civil aviation school in Jeddah in 1999. Hanjour's brother later explained that, frustrated at not finding a job, Hanjour "increasingly turned his attention toward religious texts and cassette tapes of militant Islamic preachers." Hanjour returned to Saudi Arabia after being certified as a pilot, but left again in late 1999, telling his family he was going to the United Arab Emirates to work for an airline. Hanjour likely went to Afghanistan, where Al-Qaeda recruits were screened for special skills they might have. Already having selected the Hamburg cell members, Al Qaeda leaders selected Hanjour to lead the fourth team of hijackers. In December 2000, Hanjour arrived in San Diego, joining "muscle" hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, who had been there since January of that year. Alec Station, the CIA's unit dedicated to tracking Osama bin Laden, had discovered that al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar had multiple-entry visas to the United States. An FBI agent inside the unit and his supervisor Mark Rossini (Former Federal Bureau of Investigation Supervisory Agent) sought to alert FBI headquarters, but the CIA officer supervising Rossini at Alec Station rebuffed him on the grounds that the FBI lacked jurisdiction. Soon after arriving in San Diego, Hanjour and Hazmi left for Mesa, Arizona, where Hanjour began refresher training at Arizona Aviation. In April 2001, they relocated to Falls Church, Virginia, where they awaited the arrival of the remaining "muscle" hijackers. One of these men, Majed Moqed, arrived on May 2, 2001, with Flight175 hijacker Ahmed al-Ghamdi from Dubai at Dulles International Airport. They moved into an apartment with Hazmi and Hanjour. On May 21, 2001, Hanjour rented a room in Paterson, New Jersey, where he stayed with other hijackers through the end of August. The last Flight77 "muscle" hijacker, Salem al-Hazmi, arrived on June 29, 2001, with Abdulaziz al-Omari (a hijacker of Flight11) at John F. Kennedy International Airport from the United Arab Emirates. They stayed with Hanjour. Hanjour received ground instruction and did practice flights at Air Fleet Training Systems in Teterboro, New Jersey, and at Caldwell Flight Academy in Fairfield, New Jersey. Hanjour moved out of the room in Paterson and arrived at the Valencia Motel in Laurel, Maryland, on September 2, 2001. While in Maryland, Hanjour and fellow hijackers trained at Gold's Gym in Greenbelt. On September 10, he completed a certification flight, using a terrain recognition system for navigation, at Congressional Air Charters in Gaithersburg, Maryland. On September 10 Nawaf al-Hazmi, accompanied by other hijackers, checked into the Marriott in Herndon, Virginia, near Dulles Airport. ### Suspected accomplices According to a U.S. State Department cable leaked in the WikiLeaks dump in February 2010, the FBI has investigated another suspect, Mohammed al-Mansoori. He had associated with three Qatari citizens who flew from Los Angeles to London (via Washington) and Qatar on the eve of the attacks, after allegedly surveying the World Trade Center and the White House. U.S. law enforcement officials said the data about the four men was "just one of many leads that were thoroughly investigated at the time and never led to terrorism charges." An official added that the three Qatari citizens had never been questioned by the FBI. Eleanor Hill, the former staff director for the congressional joint inquiry on the September 11 attacks, said the cable reinforces questions about the thoroughness of the FBI's investigation. She also said that the inquiry concluded the hijackers had a support network that helped them in different ways. The three Qatari men were booked to fly from Los Angeles to Washington on September 10, 2001, on the same plane that was hijacked and piloted into the Pentagon on the following day. Instead, they flew from Los Angeles to Qatar, via Washington and London. While the cable said Mansoori was currently under investigation, U.S. law enforcement officials said there was no active investigation of him or of the Qatari citizens mentioned in the cable. ## Flight The aircraft involved in the hijacking was a Boeing 757-223 (registration The aircraft had its first flight on April 25, 1991 and was delivered to American Airlines on May 8, 1991. The crew included Captain Charles Burlingame (51) (a Naval Academy graduate and former fighter pilot), First Officer David Charlebois (39), purser Renee May and flight attendants Michele Heidenberger, Jennifer Lewis and Kenneth Lewis. The capacity of the aircraft was 188 passengers, but with 58 passengers on September 11, the load factor was 33 percent. American Airlines said Tuesdays were the least-traveled day of the week, with the same load factor seen on Tuesdays in the previous three months for Flight77. Passenger Barbara Olson, whose husband Theodore Olson served as the 42nd Solicitor General of the United States, was en route to a recording of the TV show Politically Incorrect. A group of three 11-year-old children, their chaperones, and two National Geographic Society staff members were also on board, embarking on an educational trip west to the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary near Santa Barbara, California. Former Georgetown University basketball coach John Thompson had originally booked a ticket on Flight77. As he would tell the story many times in the following years, including a September 12, 2011 interview on Jim Rome's radio show, he had been scheduled to appear on that show on September 12, 2001. Thompson was planning to be in Las Vegas for a friend's birthday on September 13, and initially insisted on traveling to Rome's Los Angeles studio on the 11th. However, this did not work for the show, which wanted him to travel on the day of the show. After a Rome staffer personally assured Thompson he would be able to travel from Los Angeles to Las Vegas immediately after the show, Thompson changed his travel plans. He would later feel the impact from the crash at his home near the Pentagon. ### Boarding and departure On the morning of September 11, 2001, the five hijackers arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport. At 07:15 AM ET, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Majed Moqed checked in at the American Airlines ticket counter for Flight77, arriving at the passenger security checkpoint a few minutes later at 07:18. Both men set off the metal detector and were put through secondary screening. Moqed continued to set off the alarm, so he was searched with a hand wand. The Hazmi brothers checked in together at the ticket counter at 07:29. Hani Hanjour checked in separately and arrived at the passenger security checkpoint at 07:35. Hanjour was followed minutes later at the checkpoint by Salem and Nawaf al-Hazmi, who also set off the metal detector's alarm. The screener at the checkpoint never resolved what set off the alarm. As seen in security footage later released, Nawaf al-Hazmi appeared to have an unidentified item in his back pocket. Utility knives up to four inches were permitted at the time by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as carry-on items. The passenger security checkpoint at Dulles International Airport was operated by Argenbright Security, under contract with United Airlines. The hijackers were all selected for extra screening of their checked bags. Hanjour, al-Mihdhar, and Moqed were chosen by the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS) criteria, while the brothers Nawaf and Salem al-Hazmi were selected because they did not provide adequate identification and were deemed suspicious by the airline check-in agent. Hanjour, Mihdhar, and Nawaf al-Hazmi did not check any bags for the flight. Checked bags belonging to Moqed and Salem al-Hazmi were held until they boarded the aircraft. Flight 77 was scheduled to depart for Los Angeles at 08:10; 58 passengers boarded through Gate D26, including the five hijackers. The 53 other passengers on board excluding the hijackers were 26 men, 22 women, and five children ranging in age from three to eleven. On the flight, Hani Hanjour was seated up front in 1B, while Salem and Nawaf al-Hazmi were likewise seated in first class, in seats 5E and 5F. Majed Moqed and Khalid al-Mihdhar were seated farther back in 12A and 12B, in economy class. Flight77 left the gate on time and took off from Runway 30 at Dulles at 08:20. The attacks were already underway by this point, as American Airlines Flight 11 had been hijacked six minutes earlier. Shortly after Flight 77 became airborne, FAA flight controller Danielle O'Brien made a routine handoff of the flight to a colleague at the FAA's Indianapolis Center. For reasons she couldn't explain and would never fully understand, O'Brien didn't use one of her normal sendoffs to the pilots: "Good day," or "Have a nice flight." Instead, she wished them, "Good luck." Flight 77 reached its assigned cruising altitude of 35,000 feet (10,668 m) at 8:46 a.m., four minutes after the hijacking of United Airlines Flight 175 commenced and the very same minute Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The final communication between Flight 77 and controllers on the ground occurred four minutes later at 08:50:51, as Hanjour and his team prepared to strike. ## Hijacking The terrorists launched their assault at 08:51, by which point the North Tower had been on fire for around five minutes and Flight 175 was within 12 minutes of striking the South Tower. Flight 93 had also become airborne from Newark at 08:42, but had been delayed on the runway for as long as 42 minutes and would not be seized until 09:28, ruining al-Qaeda's plan to harmonize its takeover with Flight 77's. Three minutes after the hijacking began, according to the commission, the attackers on Flight 77 were in full control of the aircraft. The modus operandi of Hanjour’s group was in stark contrast to the other three teams, in that while the victims were threatened with knives and box cutters, there were no reports of any injuries or deaths prior to the crash; both pilots were spared when the cockpit was breached, and the use of chemical weapons or bomb threats was not reported by either of the two people who made phone calls from the rear of the cabin. At 08:54, as the plane flew in the vicinity over Pike County, Ohio, it began deviating from its normal assigned flight path and turned south. Two minutes later, the plane's transponder was switched off. The flight's autopilot was promptly engaged and set on a course heading eastbound towards Washington, D.C. The FAA was aware at this point there was an emergency on board the airplane. After learning of a second hijacking involving an American Airlines aircraft and the hijacking of a United Airlines jet, American Airlines' executive vice president Gerard Arpey ordered a nationwide ground stop for the airline. For several minutes, Indianapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center and dispatchers for American Airlines made several failed attempts to contact the hijacked airliner, giving up just as Flight 175 flew into the World Trade Center's South Tower at 09:03. The plane had been flying over an area of limited radar coverage at the time of its hijacking. With air controllers unable to contact the flight by radio, an Indianapolis official declared that it had possibly crashed at 09:09, twenty-eight minutes before it actually did. Sometime between 09:17 and 09:22, Hanjour broadcast a deceptive announcement via the cabin’s public address system, advising those aboard that the plane was being hijacked and that their best chance of survival was by not resisting. This tactic was used on Flight 11 and on Flight 93 with the aim of deceiving the passengers and crew into believing the plan was to land the plane after securing a ransom; in both cases, however, the terrorists’ understanding of the internal communication systems used aboard aircraft was evidently not as good as Hanjour's, as they keyed the wrong microphone and unintentionally allowed controllers on the ground to eavesdrop. ### Calls Two people on board the aircraft made a total of three phone calls to contacts on the ground. At 09:12, flight attendant Renee May made a phone call lasting just under two minutes to her mother, Nancy May, in Las Vegas. During the phone call, she made the erroneous claim that "six persons" had forced "us" to the rear of the airplane, but did not explain whether the people crowded together were crew members, passengers, or both. May asked her mother to contact American Airlines, which she and her husband promptly did, although the company was well-aware of the hijacking by this point. At 09:16, Barbara Olson made a call to her husband Ted, quietly explaining that the plane had been hijacked and that those responsible were armed with knives and box cutters. She revealed that everyone, including the pilots, had been moved to the back of the cabin and that the call was being made without the knowledge of the hostage takers. The connection dropped a minute into the conversation. Theodore Olson contacted the command center at the Department of Justice, and tried unsuccessfully to contact Attorney General John Ashcroft. Barbara Olson called again five minutes later, informing her husband of the announcement Hanjour―"the pilot"―made over the loudspeaker, and asked him, "What do I tell the pilot to do?" Inquired of her whereabouts, Barbara replied saying that they were flying low over a residential area. In the background, Ted overheard another passenger mentioning that the plane was flying northeast. He then made his wife aware of the suicide attacks on the World Trade Center, causing her to go quiet; Ted wondered if this meant she had been shocked into silence. After expressing their feelings and reassuring one another, the call cut off for the last time, at 9:26 a.m. ### Crash `At 9:29 a.m., one minute after Flight 93 was hijacked, the terrorists aboard Flight 77 disengaged the autopilot and took manual control of the plane. Turning and descending rapidly as it made its final approach toward Washington, the airplane was detected again on radar screens by controllers at Dulles, who mistook it for a military fighter at first glance due to its high speed and maneuvering.` While Flight77 was 5 miles (8.0 km) west-southwest of the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, it made a 330-degree spiral turn clockwise. By the end of the revolution, the 757 was descending 2,200 feet (670 m), pointed toward the Pentagon and downtown Washington. Advancing the throttles to full power, Hanjour rapidly began diving toward his target. The wings clipped five street lights as the plane flew level above the ground, while the right wing in particular struck a portable generator, creating a smoke trail seconds before smashing into the Pentagon. Flying at a speed of 530 miles per hour (850 km/h; 240 m/s; 460 kn) over the Navy Annex Building adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery, Flight77 crashed into the Pentagon's western flank at 09:37:46. The plane struck the establishment at the first-floor level and was rolled slightly to the left, with the right wing elevated as it crashed. The front part of the fuselage immediately disintegrated upon impact, while the mid and tail sections continued moving for another fraction of a second, with tail section debris penetrating farthest into the building. In total, the aircraft took eight-tenths of a second to pass 310 feet (94 m) through the three outermost of the structure's five rings and unleashed a fireball that rose 200 feet (61 m) above the building. The 64 people aboard the flight were killed instantly, while a further 125 people in the Pentagon were either killed outright or fatally injured. In the minutes leading up to the crash, Reagan Airport controllers had asked a passing Air National Guard Lockheed C-130 Hercules to identify and follow the aircraft. The pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Steven O'Brien, told them he believed it was either a Boeing757 or 767, observing that its silver fuselage meant it was most likely an American Airlines jet. O'Brien mentioned having difficulty picking out the airplane in the "East Coast haze", but moments later reported seeing a "huge" fireball. His initial assumption as he approached the crash site was that the plane had simply hit the ground, but upon closer inspection he saw the damage done to the Pentagon's west side and relayed to Reagan control, "Looks like that aircraft crashed into the Pentagon, sir." At the time of the attacks, approximately 18,000 people worked in the Pentagon, 4,000 fewer than before renovations began in 1998. The section of the Pentagon that was struck, which had recently been renovated at a cost of \$250million, housed the Naval Command Center. The fatalities in the Pentagon included 55 military personnel and 70 civilians. Of those 125 killed, 92 were on the first floor, 31 were on the second floor, and two were on the third. Seven Defense Intelligence Agency civilian employees were killed while the Office of the Secretary of Defense lost one contractor. The U.S. Army suffered 75 fatalities – 53 civilians (47 employees and six contractors) and 22 soldiers – while the U.S. Navy suffered 42 fatalities – nine civilians (six employees and three contractors) and 33 sailors. Lieutenant General Timothy Maude, an Army deputy chief of staff, was the highest-ranking military officer killed at the Pentagon; also killed was retired Rear Admiral Wilson Flagg, a passenger on the plane. LT Mari-Rae Sopper, JAGC, USNR, was also on board the flight, and was the first Navy Judge Advocate ever to be killed in action. Another 106 were injured on the ground and were treated at area hospitals. On the side where the plane hit, the Pentagon is bordered by Interstate 395 and Washington Boulevard. Motorist Mary Lyman, who was on I-395, saw the airplane pass over at a "steep angle toward the ground and going fast" and then saw the cloud of smoke from the Pentagon. Omar Campo, another witness, was on the other side of the road: > I was cutting the grass and it came in screaming over my head. I felt the impact. The whole ground shook and the whole area was full of fire. I could never imagine I would see anything like that here. Afework Hagos, a computer programmer, was on his way to work and stuck in a traffic jam near the Pentagon when the airplane flew over. "There was a huge screaming noise and I got out of the car as the plane came over. Everybody was running away in different directions. It was tilting its wings up and down like it was trying to balance. It hit some lampposts on the way in." Daryl Donley witnessed the crash and took some of the first photographs of the site. USA Today reporter Mike Walter was driving on Washington Boulevard when he witnessed the crash: > I looked out my window and I saw this plane, this jet, an American Airlines jet, coming. And I thought, 'This doesn't add up, it's really low.' And I saw it. I mean it was like a cruise missile with wings. It went right there and slammed right into the Pentagon. Terrance Kean, who lived in a nearby apartment building, heard the noise of loud jet engines, glanced out his window, and saw a "very, very large passenger jet". He watched "it just plow right into the side of the Pentagon. The nose penetrated into the portico. And then it sort of disappeared, and there was fire and smoke everywhere." Tim Timmerman, who is a pilot himself, noticed American Airlines markings on the aircraft as he saw it hit the Pentagon. Other drivers on Washington Boulevard, Interstate 395, and Columbia Pike witnessed the crash, as did people in Pentagon City, Crystal City, and other nearby locations. ## Rescue and recovery Rescue efforts began immediately after the crash. Almost all the successful rescues of survivors occurred within half an hour of the impact. Initially, rescue efforts were led by the military and civilian employees within the building. Within minutes, the first fire companies arrived and found these volunteers searching near the impact site. The firemen ordered them to leave as they were not properly equipped or trained to deal with the hazards. The Arlington County Fire Department (ACFD) assumed command of the immediate rescue operation within ten minutes of the crash. ACFD Assistant Chief James Schwartz implemented an incident command system (ICS) to coordinate response efforts among multiple agencies. It took about an hour for the ICS structure to become fully operational. Firefighters from Fort Myer and Reagan National Airport arrived within minutes. Rescue and firefighting efforts were impeded by rumors of additional incoming planes. Chief Schwartz ordered two evacuations during the day in response to these rumors. As firefighters attempted to extinguish the fires, they watched the building in fear of a structural collapse. One firefighter remarked that they "pretty much knew the building was going to collapse because it started making weird sounds and creaking." Officials saw a cornice of the building move and ordered an evacuation. Minutes later, at 10:10, the upper floors of the damaged area of the Pentagon collapsed. The collapsed area was about 95 feet (29 m) at its widest point and 50 feet (15 m) at its deepest. The amount of time between impact and collapse allowed everyone on the fourth and fifth levels to evacuate safely before the structure collapsed. After 11:00, firefighters mounted a two-pronged attack against the fires. Officials estimated temperatures of up to 2,000 °F (1,090 °C). While progress was made against the interior fires by late afternoon, firefighters realized a flammable layer of wood under the Pentagon's slate roof had caught fire and begun to spread. Typical firefighting tactics were rendered useless by the reinforced structure as firefighters were unable to reach the fire to extinguish it. Firefighters instead made firebreaks in the roof on September 12 to prevent further spreading. At 18:00 on the 12th, Arlington County issued a press release stating the fire was "controlled" but not fully "extinguished". Firefighters continued to put out smaller fires that ignited in the succeeding days. Various pieces of aircraft debris were found within the wreckage at the Pentagon. While on fire and escaping from the Navy Command Center, Lt. Kevin Shaeffer observed a chunk of the aircraft's nose cone and the nose landing gear in the service road between rings B and C. Early in the morning on Friday, September 14, Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue Team members Carlton Burkhammer and Brian Moravitz came across an "intact seat from the plane's cockpit", while paramedics and firefighters located the two black boxes near the punch out hole in the A–E drive, nearly 300 feet (91 m) into the building. The cockpit voice recorder was too badly damaged and charred to retrieve any information, though the flight data recorder yielded useful information. Investigators also found a part of Nawaf al-Hazmi's driver's license in the North Parking Lot rubble pile. Personal effects belonging to victims were found and taken to Fort Myer. ### Remains Army engineers determined by 17:30 on the first day that no survivors remained in the damaged section of the building. In the days after the crash, news reports emerged that up to 800 people had died. Army soldiers from Fort Belvoir were the first teams to survey the interior of the crash site and noted the presence of human remains. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Urban Search and Rescue teams, including Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue assisted the search for remains, working through the National Interagency Incident Management System (NIIMS). Kevin Rimrodt, a Navy photographer surveying the Navy Command Center after the attacks, remarked that "there were so many bodies, I'd almost step on them. So I'd have to really take care to look backwards as I'm backing up in the dark, looking with a flashlight, making sure I'm not stepping on somebody." Debris from the Pentagon was taken to the Pentagon's north parking lot for more detailed search for remains and evidence. Remains recovered from the Pentagon were photographed, and turned over to the Armed Forces Medical Examiner office, located at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. The medical examiner's office was able to identify remains belonging to 179 of the victims. Investigators eventually identified 184 of the 189 people who died in the attack. The remains of the five hijackers were identified through a process of elimination, and were turned over as evidence to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). On September 21, the ACFD relinquished control of the crime scene to the FBI. The Washington Field Office, National Capital Response Squad (NCRS), and the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) led the crime scene investigation at the Pentagon. By October 2, 2001, the search for evidence and remains was complete and the site was turned over to Pentagon officials. In 2002, the remains of 25 victims were buried collectively at Arlington National Cemetery, with a five-sided granite marker inscribed with the names of all the victims in the Pentagon. The ceremony also honored the five victims whose remains were never found. ### Flight recorders About 03:40 on September 14, a paramedic and a firefighter who were searching through the debris of the impact site found two dark boxes, about 1.5 by 2 feet (46 by 61 cm) long. They called for an FBI agent, who in turn called for someone from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The NTSB employee confirmed that these were the flight recorders ("black boxes") from American Airlines Flight77. Dick Bridges, deputy manager for Arlington County, Virginia, said the cockpit voice recorder was damaged on the outside and the flight data recorder was charred. Bridges said the recorders were found "right where the plane came into the building". The cockpit voice recorder was transported to the NTSB lab in Washington, D.C., to see what data was salvageable. In its report, the NTSB identified the unit as an L-3 Communications, Fairchild Aviation Recorders model A-100A cockpit voice recorder – a device which records on magnetic tape. No usable segments of tape were found inside the recorder; according to the NTSB's report, "[t]he majority of the recording tape was fused into a solid block of charred plastic". On the other hand, all the data from the flight data recorder, which used a solid-state drive, was recovered. ### Continuity of operations At the moment of impact, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was in his office on the other side of the Pentagon, away from the crash site. He ran to the site and assisted the injured. Rumsfeld returned to his office, and went to a conference room in the Executive Support Center where he joined a secure videoteleconference with Vice President Dick Cheney and other officials. On the day of the attacks, DoD officials considered moving their command operations to Site R, a backup facility in Pennsylvania. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld insisted he remain at the Pentagon, and sent Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to Site R. The National Military Command Center (NMCC) continued to operate at the Pentagon, even as smoke entered the facility. Engineers and building managers manipulated the ventilation and other building systems that still functioned to draw smoke out of the NMCC and bring in fresh air. During a press conference held inside the Pentagon at 18:42, Rumsfeld announced, "The Pentagon's functioning. It will be in business tomorrow." Pentagon employees returned the next day to offices in mostly unaffected areas of the building. By the end of September, more workers returned to the lightly damaged areas of the Pentagon. ## Aftermath Early estimates on rebuilding the damaged section of the Pentagon were that it would take three years to complete. However, the project moved forward at an accelerated pace and was completed by the first anniversary of the attack. The rebuilt section of the Pentagon includes a small indoor memorial and chapel at the point of impact. An outdoor memorial, commissioned by the Pentagon and designed by Julie Beckman and Keith Kaseman, was completed on schedule for its dedication on September 11, 2008. Since September 11, American Airlines continued to fly from Dulles International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport until 2020, when flights were permanently suspended. As of 2022, American Airlines operates the flight from Washington to LAX from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport as Flight 1275 departing at 08:55 using an Airbus A321neo. ### Security camera videos The Department of Defense released filmed footage on May 16, 2006, that was recorded by a security camera of American Airlines Flight77 crashing into the Pentagon, with a plane visible in one frame, as a "thin white blur" and an explosion following. The images were made public in response to a December 2004 Freedom of Information Act request by Judicial Watch. Some still images from the video had previously been released and publicly circulated, but this was the first official release of the edited video of the crash. A nearby Citgo service station also had security cameras, but a video released on September 15, 2006, did not show the crash because the camera was pointed away from the crash site. The Doubletree Hotel, located nearby in Crystal City, Virginia, also had a security camera video. The FBI released the video on December 4, 2006, in response to a FOIA lawsuit filed by Scott Bingham. The footage is "grainy and the focus is soft, but a rapidly growing tower of smoke is visible in the distance on the upper edge of the frame as the plane crashes into the building." ### Memorials On September 12, 2002, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and General Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, dedicated the Victims of Terrorist Attack on the Pentagon Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. The memorial specifically honors the five individuals for whom no identifiable remains were found. This included Dana Falkenberg, age three, who was aboard American Airlines Flight77 with her parents and older sister. A portion of the remains of 25 other victims are also buried at the site. The memorial is a pentagonal granite marker 4.5 feet (1.4 m) high. On five sides of the memorial along the top are inscribed the words "Victims of Terrorist Attack on the Pentagon September 11, 2001". Aluminum plaques, painted black, are inscribed with the names of the 184 victims of the terrorist attack. The site is located in Section 64, on a slight rise, which gives it a view of the Pentagon. At the National September 11 Memorial, the names of the Pentagon victims are inscribed on six panels at the South Pool. The Pentagon Memorial, located just southwest of The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, is a permanent outdoor memorial to the 184 people who died as victims in the building and on American Airlines Flight77 during the September11 attacks. Designed by Julie Beckman and Keith Kaseman of the architectural firm of Kaseman Beckman Advanced Strategies with engineers Buro Happold, the memorial opened on September 11, 2008, seven years after the attack. ## Nationalities of victims on the aircraft The 53 passengers (excluding the hijackers) and six crew were from: ## See also - American Airlines Flight 11 - United Airlines Flight 93 - United Airlines Flight 175 - List of aircraft hijackings
14,299,975	1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack	1,173,865,388	Deliberate Salmonella contamination in Oregon, US	[ "1984 health disasters", "1984 in Oregon", "Adulteration", "Bioterrorism", "Crime in Oregon", "Health disasters in the United States", "Mass poisoning", "Rajneesh movement", "Religiously motivated violence in the United States", "Salmonellosis", "Scandals in Oregon", "Terrorist incidents in Oregon", "Terrorist incidents in the United States in 1984", "Wasco County, Oregon" ]	In 1984, 751 people suffered food poisoning in The Dalles, Oregon, United States, due to the deliberate contamination of salad bars at ten local restaurants with Salmonella. A group of prominent followers of Rajneesh (later known as Osho) led by Ma Anand Sheela had hoped to incapacitate the voting population of the city so that their own candidates would win the 1984 Wasco County elections. The incident was the first and is still the single largest bioterrorist attack in U.S. history. Rajneesh's followers had previously gained political control of Antelope, Oregon, as they were based in the nearby intentional community of Rajneeshpuram, and they now sought election to two of the three seats on the Wasco County Circuit Court that were up for election in November 1984. Some Rajneeshpuram officials feared that they would not get enough votes, so they decided to incapacitate voters in The Dalles, the largest population center in Wasco County. The chosen biological agent was Salmonella enterica Typhimurium, which was first delivered through glasses of water to two county commissioners and then at salad bars and in salad dressing. As a result of the attack, 751 people contracted salmonellosis, 45 of whom were hospitalized, but none died. An initial investigation by the Oregon Health Authority and the Centers for Disease Control did not rule out deliberate contamination, and the agents and contamination were confirmed a year later, on February 28, 1985. Congressman James H. Weaver gave a speech in the U.S. House of Representatives in which he "accused the Rajneeshees of sprinkling Salmonella culture on salad bar ingredients in eight restaurants". At a press conference in September 1985, Rajneesh accused several of his followers of participation in this and other crimes, including an aborted plan in 1985 to assassinate a United States Attorney, and he asked state and federal authorities to investigate. Oregon Attorney General David B. Frohnmayer set up an inter-agency task force composed of Oregon State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and executed search warrants in Rajneeshpuram. A sample of bacteria was found in a Rajneeshpuram medical laboratory which matched the contaminant that had sickened the town residents. Two leading Rajneeshpuram officials were convicted on charges of attempted murder and served 29 months of 20-year sentences in a minimum-security federal prison. The history of the group and its exploits is the subject of a 2018 six-part documentary series on Netflix called Wild, Wild Country. ## Planning In 1981, several thousand of Rajneesh's followers had moved onto the "Big Muddy Ranch" in rural Wasco County, Oregon, where they later incorporated as an intentional community called "Rajneeshpuram". They had taken political control of the small nearby town of Antelope, Oregon (population 75), the name of which they changed to "Rajneesh". The group had started on friendly terms with the local population, but relations soon degraded because of land-use conflicts and the commune's dramatic expansion. After being denied building permits for Rajneeshpuram, the commune leadership sought to gain political control over the rest of the county by influencing the November 1984 county election. Their goal was to win two of three seats on the Wasco county commission, as well as the sheriff's office. Their attempts to influence the election included the "Share-a-Home" program, in which they transported thousands of homeless people to Rajneeshpuram and attempted to register them to vote to inflate the constituency of voters for the group's candidates. The Wasco County clerk countered this attempt at voter-suppression by enforcing a regulation that required all new voters to submit their qualifications when registering to vote. The commune leadership planned to sicken and incapacitate voters in The Dalles, where most of the county's voters resided, to sway the election. Approximately twelve people were involved in the plots to employ biological agents, and at least eleven were involved in planning them. No more than four appear to have been involved in development at the Rajneeshpuram medical laboratory; not all of those were necessarily aware of the objectives of their work. At least eight individuals helped spread the bacteria. The main planners of the attack included Sheela Silverman (Ma Anand Sheela), Rajneesh's chief lieutenant, and Diane Yvonne Onang (Ma Anand Puja), a nurse practitioner and secretary-treasurer of the Rajneesh Medical Corporation. They purchased Salmonella bacteria from a medical supply company in Seattle, Washington, and staff cultured it in labs within the commune. They contaminated the produce at the salad bars as a "trial run". The group also tried to introduce pathogens into The Dalles' water system. If successful, they planned to use the same techniques closer to Election Day. They did not carry out the second part of the plan. The commune decided to boycott the election when it became clear that those brought in through the "Share-a-Home" program would not be allowed to vote. Two visiting Wasco County commissioners were infected via glasses of water containing Salmonella bacteria during a visit to Rajneeshpuram on August 29, 1984. Both men fell ill and one was hospitalized. Afterward, members of Sheela's team spread Salmonella on produce in grocery stores and on doorknobs and urinal handles in the county courthouse, but these actions did not produce the desired effects. In September and October 1984, they contaminated the salad bars of ten local restaurants with Salmonella, infecting 751 people. Forty-five people received hospital treatment; all survived. The primary delivery tactic involved one member concealing a plastic bag containing a light-brown liquid with the Salmonella bacteria (referred to by the perpetrators as "salsa"), and either spreading it over the food at a salad bar, or pouring it into salad dressing. By September 24, 1984, more than 150 people were violently ill. By the end of September, 751 cases of acute gastroenteritis were documented; lab testing determined that all of the victims were infected with Salmonella enterica Typhimurium. Symptoms included diarrhea, fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, headaches, abdominal pain, and bloody stools. Victims ranged in age from an infant, born two days after his mother's infection and initially given a five percent chance of survival, to an 87-year-old. Local residents suspected that Rajneesh's followers were behind the poisonings. They turned out in droves on Election Day to prevent the cult from winning any county positions, thus rendering the plot unsuccessful. The Rajneeshees eventually withdrew their candidate from the November 1984 ballot. Only 239 of the commune's 7,000 residents voted; most were not U.S. citizens and could not vote. The outbreak cost local restaurants hundreds of thousands of dollars and health officials shut down the salad bars of the affected establishments. Some residents feared further attacks and stayed at home. One resident said: "People were so horrified and scared. People wouldn't go out, they wouldn't go out alone. People were becoming prisoners." ## Investigation Officials and investigators from a number of different state and federal agencies investigated the outbreak. Michael Skeels, director of the Oregon State Public Health Laboratory at the time, said that the incident provoked such a large public health investigation because "it was the largest food-related outbreak in the U.S. in 1984". The investigation identified the bacteria as Salmonella enterica Typhimurium and initially concluded that the outbreak had been due to food handlers' poor personal hygiene. Workers preparing food at the affected restaurants had fallen ill before most patrons had. Oregon Democratic Congressman James H. Weaver continued to investigate because he believed that the officials' conclusion did not adequately explain the facts. He contacted physicians at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other agencies and urged them to investigate Rajneeshpuram. According to Lewis F. Carter's book Charisma and Control in Rajneeshpuram, "many treated his concern" as paranoid or as an example of "Rajneeshee bashing". On February 28, 1985, Weaver gave a speech at the U.S. House of Representatives in which he accused the Rajneeshees of contaminating salad bar ingredients in eight restaurants. As events later showed, Weaver had presented a well-reasoned, if only circumstantial, case; these circumstantial elements were confirmed by evidence found after investigators gained access to Rajneeshpuram several months later. Months later, starting on September 16, 1985, Rajneesh, who had recently emerged from a four-year period of public silence and self-imposed isolation (although he had continued to meet with his assistant) at the commune, convened press conferences: he stated that Sheela and nineteen other commune leaders, including Puja, had left Rajneeshpuram over the weekend and gone to Europe. He said that he had received information from commune residents that Sheela and her team had committed a number of serious crimes. Calling them a "gang of fascists", he said they had tried to poison his doctor and Rajneesh's female companion, as well as the Jefferson County district attorney and the water system in The Dalles. Rajneesh voiced suspicions that they had poisoned a county commissioner and Judge William Hulse, and that they may have been responsible for the salmonellosis outbreak in The Dalles. He invited state and federal law enforcement officials to Rajneeshpuram to investigate. His allegations were initially greeted with skepticism by outside observers. Oregon Attorney General David B. Frohnmayer established a task force among the Wasco County Sheriff's office, the Oregon State Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the National Guard that set up headquarters at Rajneeshpuram to investigate the allegations. They obtained search warrants and subpoenas; 50 investigators entered the ranch on October 2, 1985. Skeels found glass vials containing Salmonella "bactrol disks" in the laboratory of a Rajneeshpuram medical clinic. Analysis by the CDC lab in Atlanta confirmed that the bacteria from the Rajneesh laboratory were an exact match to those that sickened individuals who had eaten at local restaurants. The investigation also revealed experimentation at Rajneeshpuram with poisons, chemicals and bacteria which had been carried out during 1984 and 1985. Skeels described the scene at the Rajneesh laboratory as "a bacteriological freezer-dryer for large-scale production" of microbes. Investigators found a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook, and literature on the manufacture and usage of explosives and military bio-warfare. Investigators believed that the commune had previously carried out similar attacks in Salem, Portland and other cities in Oregon. According to court testimony, the plotters boasted that they had attacked a nursing home and a salad bar at the Mid-Columbia Medical Center, but no such attempts were ever proven in court. As a result of the bioterrorism investigation, law enforcement officials discovered that there had been an aborted plot by Rajneeshees to murder Charles Turner, a former United States Attorney for Oregon. An invoice dated September 25, 1984, from the American Type Culture Collection of microbes was discovered, showing an order received by the Rajneeshpuram laboratory for Salmonella typhi, the bacterium that causes the life-threatening illness typhoid fever. ## Prosecution The mayor of Rajneeshpuram, David Berry Knapp (Swami Krishna Deva; also known as KD), turned state's evidence and gave an account of his knowledge of the Salmonella attack to the FBI. He claimed that Sheela said "she had talked with [Rajneesh] about the plot to decrease voter turnout in The Dalles by making people sick. Sheela said that [Rajneesh] commented that it was best not to hurt people, but if a few died not to worry." In Miller's Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War, this statement is attributed to Sheela. According to KD's testimony, she played doubters a tape of Rajneesh's muffled voice saying, "if it was necessary to do things to preserve [his] vision, then do it," and interpreted this to mean that murder in his name was fine, telling doubters "not to worry" if a few people had to die. According to the account of Satya Bharti Franklin, when writing about theories about tapes Sheela claimed to have, "As many of us knew, she'd had a wide variety of Bhagwan's discourse tapes edited over the years until they said only what she wanted them to say, while ashram/ranch videos and films had been judiously spliced and edited, rewriting history. It was a process many of us, including me, had been involved with in one way or another. Whatever tapes she had in her possession proved nothing." John Jay Shelfer (Swami Prem Jayananda), Sheela's husband at Rajneeshpuram, recalled in 2020 that "Sheela was very good at framing the issues in a way that would invite Osho's approval of whatever she approved to do. She might ask a general, broad question, get an answer, and then, she would go back and use that as Osho authorising whatever it was that she wanted to do. She would provide and limit information as it would help support what she wanted." According to a 1994 study published in the journal Sociology of Religion, "[m]ost sannyasins indicated that they believed that [Rajneesh] knew about Ma Anand Sheela's illegal activities." Frances FitzGerald writes in Cities on a Hill that most of Rajneesh's followers "believed [him] incapable of doing, or willing, violence against another person", and that almost all thought the responsibility for the criminality was Sheela's—according to FitzGerald, the followers believed the guru had not known anything about it. Carus writes in Toxic Terror that "There is no way to know to what extent [Rajneesh] participated in actual decision-making. His followers believed he was involved in every important decision that Sheela made, but those allegations were never proven." Rajneesh insisted that Sheela, who he said was his only source of information during his period of isolation, used her position to impose "a fascist state" on the commune. He acknowledged that the key to her actions was his silence. Rajneesh left Oregon by plane on October 27, 1985, and was arrested when he landed in Charlotte, North Carolina, and charged with 35 counts of deliberate violations of immigration laws. As part of a plea agreement, he pleaded guilty to two counts of making false statements to immigration officials. Rajneesh received a ten-year suspended sentence and a fine of US\$400,000, and was deported and barred from reentering the U.S. for a period of five years. He was never prosecuted for crimes related to the Salmonella attack. Sheela and Puja were arrested in West Germany on October 28, 1985. After protracted negotiations between the two governments, they were extradited to the U.S., reaching Portland on February 6, 1986. They were charged with attempting to murder Rajneesh's personal physician, first-degree assault for poisoning Judge William Hulse, second-degree assault for poisoning The Dalles Commissioner Raymond Matthews, and product tampering for the poisonings in The Dalles, as well as wiretapping and immigration offenses. The U.S. Attorney's office handled the prosecution of the poisoning cases related to the ten restaurants, and the Oregon Attorney General's office prosecuted the poisoning cases of Commissioner Matthews and Judge Hulse. On July 22, 1986, both women entered Alford pleas for the Salmonella attack and the other charges, and received sentences ranging from three to twenty years, to be served concurrently. Sheela received 20 years for the attempted murder of Rajneesh's physician, 20 years for first-degree assault in the poisoning of Judge Hulse, ten years for second-degree assault in the poisoning of Commissioner Matthews, four-and-a-half years for her role in the attack, four-and-a-half years for the wiretapping conspiracy, and five years' probation for immigration fraud; Puja received fifteen, fifteen, seven-and-a-half, and four-and-a-half years, respectively, for her role in the first four of these crimes, as well as three years' probation for the wiretapping conspiracy. Both Sheela and Puja were released on parole early for good behavior, after serving twenty-nine months of their sentences in a minimum-security federal prison. Sheela's green card was revoked; she moved to Switzerland. She remarried there and went on to run two nursing homes. ## Aftermath The Oregonian ran a 20-part series on Rajneesh's movement, beginning in June 1985, which included an investigation into the Salmonella incident. As a result of a follow-up investigation, The Oregonian learned that Leslie L. Zaitz, one of their investigative journalists, had been placed as number three on a top-ten hit list by Sheela's group. Frohnmayer commented on the poisoning incident and other acts perpetrated by the group, stating: "The Rajneeshees committed the most significant crimes of their kind in the history of the United States ... The largest single incident of fraudulent marriages, the most massive scheme of wiretapping and bugging, and the largest mass poisoning." Looking back on the incident, Skeels stated, "We lost our innocence over this ... We really learned to be more suspicious ... The first significant biological attack on a U.S. community was not carried out by foreign terrorists smuggled into New York, but by legal residents of a U.S. community. The next time it happens it could be with more lethal agents ... We in public health are really not ready to deal with that." Milton Leitenberg noted in the 2005 work Assessing the Biological Weapons and Bioterrorism Threat, "there is apparently no other 'terrorist' group that is known to have successfully cultured any pathogen." Federal and state investigators requested that details of the incident not be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) for twelve years, for they feared a description of the events could spark copycat crimes, and JAMA complied. No repeat attacks or hoaxes subsequently occurred, and a detailed account of the incident and investigation was published in JAMA in 1997. A 1999 empirical analysis in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases published by the CDC described six motivational factors associated with bioterrorism, including: charismatic leadership, no outside constituency, apocalyptic ideology, loner or splinter group, sense of paranoia and grandiosity, and defensive aggression. According to the article, the "Rajneesh Cult" satisfied all motivational factors except for an "apocalyptic ideology". An analysis in the book Cults, Religion and Violence disputes the link to charismatic leadership, pointing out that in this and other cases, it was organizational lieutenants who played a pivotal role in the initiation of violence. Arguing for a contextual rather than decisive view of charisma, the authors state that the attribution of outcomes to the personality of a single individual, even a charismatic leader, usually camouflages a far more complex field of social relationships. U.S. media revisited the incident during the 2001 anthrax attacks. The 2001 publication of Judith Miller's Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War, which contained an analysis and detailed description of the events, also brought discussion of the incident back into the news. Residents of The Dalles commented that they have an understanding of how bioterrorism can occur in the United States. The incident had spread fear in the community, and drained the local economy. All but one of the restaurants affected went out of business. In 2005, the Oregon State Land Board agreed to sell 480 acres (1.9 km<sup>2</sup>) of Wasco County, including Rajneeshpuram, to the Colorado-based youth ministry Young Life. On February 18, 2005, Court TV aired an episode of Forensic Files about the incident, "'Bio-Attack' – Oregon Cult Poisonings". The salmonellosis outbreak was also discussed in the media within the context of the 2006 North American E. coli outbreak. The book Emerging Infectious Diseases: Trends and Issues cites the 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack, along with the Aum Shinrikyo group's attempts to use anthrax and other agents, as exceptions to the belief "that only foreign-state supported groups have the resources to execute a credible bioterrorism event". According to Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons Since 1945, these are the only two confirmed uses of biological weapons for terrorist purposes to harm humans. The incident was the single largest bioterrorist attack in U.S. history. In the chapter "Influencing An Election: America's First Modern Bioterrorist Attack" in his 2006 book Terrorism on American Soil: A Concise History of Plots and Perpetrators from the Famous to the Forgotten, author Joseph T. McCann concludes: "In every respect, the Salmonella attack carried out by the cult members was a major bioterrorist attack that fortunately failed to achieve its ultimate goal and resulted in no fatalities." ## See also - 1985 Rajneeshee assassination plot - 2001 anthrax attacks - List of terrorist incidents - Terrorism in the United States
9,246,090	Fiji parrotfinch	1,123,946,467	Species of bird in the family Estreldidae	[ "Birds described in 1852", "Endemic birds of Fiji", "Erythrura" ]	The Fiji parrotfinch (Erythrura pealii) is a species of estrildid finch endemic to Fiji that was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the red-headed parrotfinch. This parrotfinch is a small, mainly green bird with a red head and tail and a stubby dark grey bill. It is found in both forested and open habitats, and has adapted well to man-made environments such as grasslands, pasture and gardens. Pairs have a courtship display in which they fly above the trees in an undulating flight, calling constantly. Breeding birds build a domed grass nest with a side entrance, and lay a clutch normally of four white eggs. Newly hatched chicks are naked and pink, with blue balls at the upper and lower corners of the gape, and black markings inside the mouth; older fledglings resemble the adults, but lack the red head colouring. The Fiji parrotfinch eats seeds, especially of grasses, and also readily feeds on insects and nectar. It forms small flocks of up to six birds after the breeding season. Parrotfinches may be preyed upon by indigenous birds of prey such as the endemic Fiji goshawk, or by introduced mammals such as the small Asian mongoose, rats, and mice, and they may be susceptible to disease. The Fiji species, despite being both uncommon and endemic to one island group, appears to be stable in numbers. It is therefore classified as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, and it is protected under Fijian law. ## Taxonomy The parrotfinches are a genus of estrildid finches found in Southeast Asia and Australasia. They are small birds with short rounded wings and tails. Most species have green bodies, and all but one have the red tail that gives the genus its scientific name Erythrura, which is derived from the Ancient Greek ερυθρός erythros, "red", and ουρά oura, "tail". The English name of Fijian Fire-tail Finch was used in early writings. The Fiji parrotfinch was initially described by American naturalist and entomologist Titian Peale. As chief naturalist for the United States Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842 led by Charles Wilkes, Peale collected and preserved many specimens, including the red-throated parrotfinch from Samoa and the Fiji parrotfinch from Vanua Levu. Peale named the latter species as Geospiza prasina. Peale's birds were reviewed by German physician and ornithologist Gustav Hartlaub. Hartlaub moved the Fiji species to the genus Erythrura, and then had to change the specific name, since another bird, the pin-tailed parrotfinch already had the binomial E. prasina. He renamed the Fiji bird as E. pealii in honour of its finder. The Fijian common names kulakula and qiqikula are derived from "kula", red. The Fiji parrotfinch and the royal parrotfinch of northern Vanuatu are now again usually considered to be distinct species, but they were formerly frequently treated as subspecies of the Samoan red-headed parrotfinch, E. cyaneovirens. ## Description The Fiji parrotfinch is a small finch, 10 cm (4 in) in length. The adult male has a bright green body and wings, red head, and scarlet rump and tail. The blackish feathering of the chin becomes dark blue on the lower throat and turquoise on the upper breast before fading into the green of the underparts. The stubby bill is blackish-grey, the eyes are reddish-brown and the legs and feet are pinkish-brown. The female is very similar to the male, but possibly slightly duller and with paler flanks. Young birds have a dark-tipped yellow bill and sometimes a bluish face which gradually turns red, but the rest of the plumage is like the adult. Full mature plumage is achieved at about 20 months. Some rare individuals of this parrotfinch have the entire head and face blue, apparently due to a natural mutation. The flight of the Fiji parrotfinch is fast and undulating with rapid wingbeats, and frequent calling. It tends to fly fairly high, landing in the tree tops, then descending to seek food. Its call is a high, thin seep or peep, similar to those of other parrotfinches such as blue-faced and red-throated, and is often repeated in bursts of varying length. The song is a long whistled double note similar to, but less urgent, than that of the orange-breasted myzomela, a Fijian endemic honeyeater. Fiji has another Erythrura species, the rare and endangered pink-billed parrotfinch. This is a larger bird with a green head, blue crown and black face, and a very large pink bill. The Fiji parrotfinch resembles the closely related royal and red-headed parrotfinches, and the rare blue-headed variant is very like the blue-faced parrotfinch, but these three species do not occur in Fiji. ## Distribution and habitat The Fiji parrotfinch is endemic to Fiji, where it is found on the four largest islands (Viti Levu, Vanua Levu, Taveuni and Kadavu) and also in the smaller western islands of the Mamanuca and the Yasawa groups. It is uncommon but widespread, found in both forested and open habitats, from sea level to at least 1,200 m (3,900 ft) on Viti Levu. It appears to be less common on Taveuni than the larger islands. It has adapted well to man-made habitats, and is seen in grasslands, pasture, rice paddies, parks and gardens. Many parrotfinch species are mainly forest birds, but American ornithologist Jared Diamond has suggested that in the central Pacific, where there are no seed-eating munias occupying the open habitats, species such as Vanuatu's blue-faced parrotfinch and its Fijian relative have expanded into grassy areas of their islands to exploit the supply of seeds. ## Behaviour This species has a courtship flight conducted above the trees. The pair fly on a strongly oscillating path with one bird ascending while the other is descending, both calling constantly. After display, the birds land on a branch for a mating ritual which starts with locking bills, followed by the female hanging upside-down for a variable period of time, and then copulation while the male holds the female's neck. The flight and mating rituals have been recorded for three-coloured and red-throated parrotfinches, and may be typical for the genus. The nest is built with fresh grass blades, and is domed with a side entrance. It is always hidden in thick foliage, but can be at any height from the ground. The normal clutch is four spherical whitish eggs. Chicks are naked and have pinkish skin; the distinctive gape has blue nodular spots technically termed as papillae or tubercles at the upper and lower corners, and the yellow palate has a ring of five black spots. Most young estrildid finches beg for food with their wings held against the side, but juvenile parrotfinches lift the wing on the side away from the feeding parent. This behaviour may restrict competition for food from other nestlings. When not breeding, the Fiji parrotfinch is gregarious, and is usually found in small flocks of up to six birds. It feeds on seeds, usually at the "milk" (watery ripe) stage. A favourite is the Guinea grass, Megathyrsus maximus. The finch will also take seed from rice ears, and its spread into gardens has been aided by another preferred food plant, carpet grass, Axonopus compressus, which is a common lawn grass in Fiji. This finch readily takes insects, often extracted from under loose bark or tree crevices. It also feeds on nectar and small berries. In some areas, this finch's diet may bring it into conflict with rice growers, but there is no evidence that this protected species is seen as a serious agricultural threat either in Fiji, or in Australia, where it is kept in captivity in small numbers. ## Predators and parasites The common endemic Fiji goshawk is a specialist predator of small and medium-sized birds, and the swamp harrier is also a widespread predator, often taking fledglings. The local subspecies of the peregrine falcon, Falco peregrinus nesiotes will hunt finches, but is itself rare and declining. Barn owls eat mainly rats, but sometimes take small birds. Rats and mice use Fiji parrotfinch nests, and may be significant predators of the species, and the small Asian mongoose will prey on birds feeding on the ground. The fan-tailed cuckoo, which has an endemic Fijian subspecies, is a brood parasite, but the parrotfinch does not appear to be a host of this large cuckoo. No specific parasites of Fiji parrotfinch have been recorded, but microsporidiosis and avian malaria, both spread by parasites, have been found in captive populations of other parrotfinch species. ## Status The Fijian parrotfinch is endemic to a single country; although its population is unknown, it is described as uncommon or locally common. In the absence of evidence for any decline in numbers, its population is believed to be stable, and it is therefore classed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. It is protected under Schedule 2 of Fiji's Endangered and Protected Species Act 2002, which regulates the import and trade of species that are not thought to be at a high risk of extinction, but may be threatened if trade in those species is not regulated. In the early 20th century, Europeans in Fiji kept these finches as cagebirds, calling them croton finches because of their liking for the croton bush, but the pet trade appears not to be a significant factor at present. Fiji's native birdlife has been badly affected by agriculture, deforestation and introduced pests like rats and mongooses. Although Important Bird Areas have been established on Taveuni and the forest east of Vanua Levu, conservation problems persist. The Fiji parrotfinch has adapted well to man-made landscapes; it is neither a ground nor hole nester, so it avoids predation from the mongoose and competition for nest sites with introduced common and jungle mynas. Introduced rodents are able to access the nests and may affect breeding productivity. The potential introduction of other species, such as snakes, or diseases like avian malaria could lead to major losses among bird species. ## Cited texts
765,766	The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind	1,173,333,231	2002 video game	[ "2002 video games", "Action role-playing video games", "Bethesda Game Studios games", "Fantasy video games", "NetImmerse engine games", "Open-world video games", "Role-playing video games", "Single-player video games", "The Elder Scrolls", "Ubisoft games", "Video game sequels", "Video games about slavery", "Video games developed in the United States", "Video games scored by Jeremy Soule", "Video games set on fictional islands", "Video games with expansion packs", "Video games with gender-selectable protagonists", "Windows games", "Xbox Cloud Gaming games", "Xbox games" ]	The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is an open-world action role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the third installment in The Elder Scrolls series, following 1996's The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, and was released in 2002 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox. The main story takes place on Vvardenfell, an island in the Dunmer (Dark Elf) province of Morrowind, part of the continent of Tamriel. The central quests concern the demigod Dagoth Ur, housed within the volcanic Red Mountain, who seeks to gain power and break Morrowind free from Imperial reign. Though primarily a fantasy game, with many gameplay elements and Western medieval and fantasy fiction tropes inspired by Dungeons & Dragons and previous role-playing games, Morrowind also features some steampunk elements, and drew much inspiration from Middle Eastern and East Asian cultures. Morrowind was designed with an open-ended, freeform style of gameplay in mind, with less of an emphasis on the main plot than its predecessors. This choice received mixed reactions, though such feelings were tempered by reviewers' appreciation of Morrowind's expansive, detailed game world. Morrowind achieved critical and commercial success, winning various awards including Game of the Year and selling over four million copies worldwide by 2005. It has since been considered one of the best video games ever made. The game spawned two expansion packs: Tribunal and Bloodmoon. Both were repackaged into a full set (along with several minor add-ons) and titled Morrowind: Game of the Year Edition, which was released in October 2003. Morrowind was followed by The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in 2006. ## Gameplay ### Character creation Morrowind begins with the player's character, having been imprisoned, arriving in Morrowind by boat to be pardoned. A tutorial depicting the prisoner's release moves the player through the process of character creation. The player is successively asked questions by a fellow prisoner, an officer, and a bureaucrat as the player is registered as a free citizen; choosing, in the process, the player character's name, race, gender, class, and birthsign. These affect the player's starting attributes, skills, and abilities. The player determines their class in one of three ways: picking from a class list, generating a class via questions, or creating a custom class themselves. ### Skill system The player character's proficiency with a skill is increased through practice, training, and study. Practice involves performing the specific actions associated with a given skill, which gradually raises the character's proficiency in that skill. Raising weapon skills requires striking an enemy with the appropriate weapon; raising armor skills requires being struck while wearing the appropriate type of armor; etc. Training involves paying money to non-player characters (NPCs) in exchange for immediate proficiency increases in that skill. Study requires reading books found, some of which will immediately raise a skill when read. Weaponry skills affect the character's chance to hit. Armor skills affect the defensive strength of the armor. Other skills affect proficiency in other actions such as potion-making, running, lockpicking, etc. Morrowind, like its predecessor Daggerfall, makes a distinction between attributes and skills; skills are individual proficiencies in particular schools of battle or with particular armor classes, and attributes are broader proficiencies, such as strength and endurance, which are either tied to important features unconnected to any skill, (health, evasion chance, etc.) or improve the efficiency of a wide variety of skills. Strength, for example, improves the damage of any physical blow dealt by the player character. Attributes, however, are improved only when the player levels up. The player levels up their character by gaining levels in ten pre-determined skills, listed as major and minor skills. Each time the player levels up their character, they can select three attributes to augment as well. The player is better able to augment attributes related to their skill set, as each level gained in a particular skill adds to the multiplier by which the skill's governing attribute is augmented. ### Combat The simplest melee attack is a chop action. The slightly more complex slash and thrust attacks are performed by clicking in unison with tapping a directional key, though by turning on the "always use best attack" option, players can eliminate the moving element, freeing them to focus on the combat. A melee weapon's damage potential is rated for each of these attacks. Reviewers found little value in choosing between the three types of attacks for most weapons and recommended the "always use best attack" option. Hidden arithmetic modifiers, applied to each combatant's skills, determines whether or not the attack hits. In the game's original release, the player was given no indication of the amount of health left in their enemies and no indication of the strength of the player's attacks. Reviewers took the absence badly, wishing for more visible feedback. Bethesda added enemy health bars in patch 1.1.0605, released one month after Morrowind's initial release. ### Free-form design Morrowind, following the tradition established by its predecessors in The Elder Scrolls series, is an open world, with few constricting boundaries on the player's actions. From the beginning of the game, players are put in a world where they are left to roam, steal, quest, and explore, without necessarily following the main quest. Lead designer Ken Rolston, when asked before Morrowind's release what he thought were the "core, untouchable design elements" of The Elder Scrolls series which "set them apart from other games", responded immediately: "Free-form experience." In Rolston's view, the game's central plot is a chance to introduce the player to a cross-current of conflicting factions, background themes, and the characters of the game, rather than the primary focus of the player's experience. "Every [The Elder Scrolls] game has to let you create the kind of character you want, and then do the things you want. We would never have a [The Elder Scrolls] role-playing game force you to be a certain character or go down a certain path." To allow for this behavior, Morrowind, in addition to creating an extensive main quest, provides detailed discursive quests for a variety of factions, including various guilds, religious organizations, and aristocratic houses, in addition to side-quests found by exploration. The main plot itself may be undertaken in many ways. There are, in the words of critic Craig Lindley, "a very specific set of central plot points within this main plot. But the plot points are partially ordered: seven high-level tasks must be completed, but their constituent sub-tasks... can be accomplished in any order, and this is repeated for the sub-tasks involved in those sub-tasks." The choices the player makes in their performance of these tasks thus become methods of character interpretation; a set of dramatic tools establishing the player's newly created self-identity. According to Gamasutra's Matt Barton, some have argued that these changes put Morrowind closer in spirit to the original Dungeons & Dragons tabletop game, where players take a more creative role in their play, and where players are left to decide for themselves the "right" action. This is a view paralleled by Rolston, who has stated that "The goal of every [The Elder Scrolls] game is to create something that resembles a pen and paper RPG on the computer." The sheer number of quest possibilities, combined with what developer Ken Rolston identified as a lack of "narrative urgency", left many critics dissatisfied with the main plot. Ken Rolston later stated that the main quest might have been presented with greater force, in the style of the game's successor, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, without losing the free-form design of the series, but such concerns were not addressed before Morrowind's release. ## Plot While Morrowind contains many quests and storylines, the central plot revolves around the Tribunal, a triumvirate of god-like beings ruling over Morrowind, and their struggle against a former ally, the demigod Dagoth Ur and his Sixth House – a cult of followers stretching out from Red Mountain, the volcanic center of Vvardenfell, the island on which the game is set. Dagoth Ur has used the Heart of Lorkhan, an artifact of great power, to make himself immortal and now seeks to drive the Imperial Legion occupiers from Morrowind using his network of spies, as well as Akulakhan, an enormous mechanical golem powered by the Heart of Lorkhan. After a storm and a strange dream vision, the player character begins in a town called Seyda Neen, fresh off a boat from a mainland prison, freed by the string-pulling of the current ruler of the Tamrielic Empire, Emperor Uriel Septim VII. The player is given the task of meeting Caius Cosades, a member of the Blades, a secret group of spies and agents working for the Emperor and the Empire. Cosades inducts the player into the Blades on the Emperor's orders and sets the player on various quests to uncover the mysterious disappearances and revelations that the citizens of Vvardenfell have experienced, particularly the Sixth House and the Ashlander prophecies of the Nerevarine. It is later revealed that the induction under Cosades, and the player's release from prison, was due to the Emperor's suspicion that the player might be the Nerevarine – a reincarnation of the legendary Dunmer hero Indoril Nerevar – or at least someone who would make a convincing impostor to use for political gain. The player is tasked with uncovering the prophecies regarding the Nerevarine and to fulfill them to finally defeat Dagoth Ur and his Sixth House cult. Prophecies from the nomadic Dunmer people living in the Ashlands, the Ashlanders, predict that Nerevar's incarnate will fulfill a set of seven prophecies. The first two prophecies are that the Nerevarine will be born on a certain day to uncertain parents, and will be immune to Corprus disease, a Divine disease created by Dagoth Ur. The player has already fulfilled the first, and hence was chosen for the task. The player becomes immune to Corprus by contracting the disease and surviving an experimental cure. Fulfilling these, the player seeks to complete the third prophecy, a test to find the Moon-and-Star (also called One-Clan-Under-Moon-And-Star), the symbolic ring originally worn by Nerevar, which has the power to instantly kill anyone, apart from himself (and by extension, the Nerevarine), who tries to wear it. Upon finding and equipping the ring, the player receives a vision from Azura, the ancient Daedric Prince of the Dawn and Dusk, who confirms that the player is Nerevar's incarnate. The Nerevarine completes the fourth and fifth trials, which are to rally the Great Houses of the Dunmer and Ashlanders of Vvardenfell under one banner. After receiving the support and being declared "Hortator" by every Great House and "Nerevarine" by all nomadic Ashlander tribes, the player is officially, albeit reluctantly, called "Nerevarine" by the Tribunal Temple, who normally persecutes anyone who claims to be the Nerevarine and sentences them to death. The Nerevarine is invited to the palace of the poet god-king Vivec, one of the three deities that form the basis of Morrowind's religion, known as the Tribunal, to discuss the assault on Dagoth Ur's stronghold in the heart of Red Mountain. Vivec presents the player with the gauntlet 'Wraithguard', an ancient Dwemer artifact that allows the use of the tools Sunder and Keening. These ancient weapons were created by the Dwemer to tap into the power of the fabled Heart of Lorkhan, which they found beneath Red Mountain - and these same tools have been used by the Tribunal and Dagoth Ur to reach their god-like status. The tools can also destroy the fabled Heart of Lorkhan, but without having the Wraithguard equipped, they will deal a fatal blow to whoever wields them. The player travels into Red Mountain to Dagoth Ur's citadel. After talking with Dagoth Ur, who attempts to sway the player to his side with the claim that he is merely following Nerevar's final orders, the player and Dagoth Ur fight. Besting Dagoth Ur, the Nerevarine soon discovers that while the Heart of Lorkhan is still intact, Dagoth Ur remains immortal and he soon returns from death. Making his way to the heart of the mountain, the Nerevarine finds the Heart of Lorkhan and destroys it, severing Dagoth Ur from his power and ultimately killing him. Akulakhan's Chamber, where Lorkhan's heart resided, is destroyed in the process as the cavern collapses, and in turn, Red Mountain is cleared of blight and The Sixth House falls. Upon escaping from the chamber, the Nerevarine is congratulated by Azura, who comes to reward the player's efforts of fulfilling the prophecy. The game does not end upon the completion of the main quest, but the game world Vvardenfell is affected in many different ways. The Blight Storms cease to plague the land, and the weak-minded followers of the Sixth House are reawakened, remembering nothing of their ordeal. The Dreamers who harassed the Nerevarine fall silent, and the Nerevarine becomes widely known as the savior of Vvardenfell. The quintessential consequence of defeating Dagoth Ur was the destruction of the Heart of Lorkhan. Due to their immortality linked to the heart, Vivec and the Tribunal become mortal again, leaving Vivec's future in question and up to the player to determine his fate. The loss of divinity among the Tribunal is the main plot point of the game's first expansion, Tribunal. ## Setting Morrowind takes place on Vvardenfell, an island in the Dunmer-dominated province of Morrowind, far from the typically European-inspired lands to the west and south depicted in Daggerfall and Arena. Along with graphical improvements, one of the most apparent differences between Morrowind and the earlier games in the series is that Morrowind takes place in a much smaller area than the previous games. While Arena featured the entirety of Tamriel as an explorable area, and Daggerfall featured sizeable portions of two provinces of Tamriel, Hammerfell and High Rock, Morrowind includes only the "relatively small" island of Vvardenfell within the province of Morrowind. The change was a result of a conscious choice on the part of the developers to feature more detail and variety in the game. Whereas Daggerfall and Arena's dungeons were randomly generated, each area in Morrowind was specifically detailed, and each item was individually placed. As a result, reviewers were generally impressed with the game world's variety, as this maintained the perception of an "enormous" game-world. The game area expands to the walled city of Mournhold on Morrowind's mainland in the Tribunal expansion, and the island of Solstheim to the northwest of Vvardenfell in the Bloodmoon expansion. Morrowind's developers, rather than basing the culture of Morrowind onto the typical Medieval European setting of fantasy games, chose a more eclectic route, taking elements from African cultures, specifically Ancient Egyptian, but also early Japanese, and Middle Eastern cultures. with Egyptian architecture cited in particular for its significant influence on Balmora's Hlaalu architecture. Executive producer Todd Howard felt that the use of Morrowind as a backdrop was integral in the development of the game's style. While admitting some elements of the partially medieval Imperial culture more typical of fantasy to retain familiarity with the earlier installments of the series, Morrowind's Dark Elven setting "opened huge new avenues for creating cultures and sites that are not traditionally seen in a fantasy setting". The development team also gave particular credit to the Ridley Scott film Gladiator, high fantasy, The Dark Crystal, and Conan the Barbarian as influences. The game has over 300 books (not counting spell scrolls). One particular compilation of the text was 1,241 sheets of 8.25 × 11 inch paper. PC Gamer weighted the in-game text as equal to six typical-size novels. Many of these books provide long, serial stories, and provide hints as to the background and history of the game. One critic, Phillip Scuderi, remembered Morrowind for its great literary richness. To him, the in-game literature and its integration within the game were Morrowind's "most original and lasting contribution to the history of games", one that would place it beside Planescape: Torment as one of the most important games of all time. Such themes are echoed in other responses to the game, such as that of RPGamer's Joseph Witham, who found the story "discreet" in its progression, with a dungeon-crawling feel, standing alongside a "whole world of unique history" with books forming the greater part of the player's interaction with that world. Most of the books were reused in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The game has a great deal of geographic variation in climate, flora, and, to some extent, fauna as well. Besides that, there is also some variety in politics and culture among the in-game populations, the combination of which adds to the uniqueness of different parts of the island. On top of that, there is an archaeological aspect to the game, which gives a certain degree of depth to the story as well as the option for further exploration. Additionally, there are various kinds of limits in visibility such as fog and dust, which are countered with "clear day/night" effects that also enhance visibility to some extent. The in-game exploration is chiefly based on walking and running; however, there are instances when swimming and sometimes levitation is involved. Transportation of other kinds, such as teleportation, and traveling by boat or on the back of giant flea-like creatures called silt striders, is available for a fee when moving between the various settlements on Vvardenfell as a method of fast travel. ## Development A third title in The Elder Scrolls series was conceived during the development of Daggerfall, though it was initially to be set in the Summerset Isles and called Tribunal. Following the release of Daggerfall, it was set up around an SVGA version of XnGine, which Bethesda later used in Battlespire, and set in the province of Morrowind. The game was "much closer to Daggerfall in scope", encompassing the whole province of Morrowind, rather than the isle of Vvardenfell, and allowing the player to join all five Dunmer Great Houses. The blight was conceived as a dynamic force, progressively expanding and destroying cities in its wake. It was finally decided that the scope of the original design was too grand given the technology current at the time. According to Ken Rolston, something was said approximating "We're not ready for it, we don't want to jump into this and fail". The project was put on hold in 1997, as Bethesda went on to develop Redguard and Battlespire, though the project remained in the back of the developers' minds throughout this period. The completion of Redguard in 1998 led to a return to the Morrowind project, as the developers felt a yearning in their audience to return to the classically epic forms of the earlier titles. Finding that the gaps between their technical capacities and those of rival companies had grown in the interim, Bethesda sought to revitalize itself and return to the forefront of the industry, an effort spearheaded by project leader Todd Howard. The XnGine was scrapped and replaced with a licensed copy of NetImmerse, a Direct3D powered engine, with transform and lighting capacity, 32-bit textures and skeletal animation. During their promotional campaign, Bethesda deliberately paralleled their screenshot releases with the announcement of NVIDIA's GeForce 4, as "being indicative of the outstanding water effects the technology is capable of". The scale of the game was much reduced from the earlier concept, focusing primarily on Dagoth Ur and a smaller area of land. It was decided that the game world would be populated using the methods the team had developed in Redguard; that is, the game objects would be crafted by hand, rather than generated using the random algorithmic methods of Arena and Daggerfall. By 2000, Morrowind was to be unequivocally a single-player game, with no chance of multiplayer extension. In the words of Pete Hines, Bethesda's Director of Marketing and PR: "No. Not on release, not three months after, no no no." The project, despite the reduced scale, became a massive investment. According to the team's reasoning, the endeavor took "close to 100 man-years to create". To accomplish this feat, Bethesda tripled their staff and spent their first year of development on The Elder Scrolls Construction Set, allowing the game staff to easily balance the game and to modify it in small increments rather than large. According to project leader Todd Howard, the Construction Set came as the result of a collective yearning to develop a "role-playing operating system", capable of extension and modification, rather than a particular type of game. Despite the additional staff, designer Ken Rolston would later state that, compared to Oblivion, Morrowind had a small design team. Around 40 developers worked on the game. In May 2000, Bethesda set the first expected PC release date in late 2001. On May 5, 2001, Bethesda announced an additional Morrowind release for Microsoft's Xbox. The project was, according to the same release, something that Bethesda had been working on with Microsoft since they had first known of the console. Morrowind had an impressive showing at E3 2001, demonstrating a beta build to the public. The same beta build was demonstrated to the staff of PC Gamer for another preview and was kept around the office as late as June 19 as the subject of later previews, while another test build was developed alongside. Later order forms, such as those by Electronics Boutique, set the date in November. On October 10, 2001, GameSpot reported that Morrowind's release date had been set back to March 2002. On October 12, a press release from Bethesda gave the date of "Spring 2002", confirming GameSpot's supposition of delay without agreeing on the more specific date of "March". Though no rationale behind the delay was given at the time, developer Pete Hines later attributed the delay to a need for game testing and balancing. Although the PC version of Morrowind had gone gold by April 23, 2002, and was released on May 1 in North America, the Xbox release was delayed further. On April 15, GameSpot suggested an Xbox release date sometime in May and a scheduled "going gold" date for the Xbox version in the first week of the same month. In contradiction of GameSpot's supposition, a June 4 Bethesda press release set June 7 as the Xbox release date. On January 3, 2002, Bethesda announced that game publisher Ubi Soft would take control of the European distribution of Morrowind and eight other Bethesda games. Under Ubi Soft's supervision, Morrowind's European release took place in two stages. A "semi-localized" version of the game was released in May, containing a translated manual but leaving the game's text in untranslated English. A fully localized version of the game, with translated versions of both, was released in August. Ubi Soft group brand manager Thomas Petersen described the difficulties of translating a "universe featuring more than a million words" as "quite a task". In a break from standard industry practice, Bethesda decided to publish its strategy guide in-house, rather than contracting it out to a third-party publisher like BradyGames or Prima Games. The decision resulted from a belief among Bethesda staff that they believed in and understood Morrowind more than any external agency and deserved more royalties than were commonly rewarded. Bethesda hired Peter Olafson, a noted game journalist and friend of the company, and they began work on the guide in January 2002, four months before release. The resulting product, Morrowind Prophecies Strategy Guide, sold over 200,000 copies as of September 24, 2003. Although the royalties from most third-party game publishers approach 25% to 30% only infrequently, Bethesda managed a 70% profit margin on their own. ### Audio Morrowind's soundtrack was composed by Jeremy Soule, a video game composer whose previous soundtracks for Total Annihilation and Icewind Dale had earned some acclaim from the gaming press. In a Bethesda press release, Soule stated that the "epic quality" of the Elder Scrolls series was "particularly compatible with the grand, orchestral style of music" that Soule enjoys composing "the most". Outside Bethesda press releases, some have criticized Morrowind's soundtrack. In their reviews of the game, both GameSpot and GameSpy criticized the length of the game's soundtrack and praised its general production quality. In the words of GameSpot's Greg Kasavin: "The very first time you boot up Morrowind, you'll be treated to a memorable, stirring theme filled with soaring strings and booming percussion. You'll proceed to hear it literally every five minutes or so during play." Soule was aware of the problem and chose to create a soft and minimalist score so as not to wear out players' ears. In a feature for Gamasutra, Scott B. Morton, although praising the music itself, declared that Morrowind's soundtrack did not work effectively with the game's gameplay, accomplishing little as an emotional device. Morrowind's soundtrack is ambient, with cues only for battle encounters. In Morton's view, the lack of variation, response to the game's action, and the short length leave players detached from the game world. Alexander Brandon, in another Gamasutra feature, praised Morrowind's soundtrack for its innovative instrumentation. In Brandon's opinion, its use of orchestral elements in conjunction with synthesized ones, and the use of what Brandon termed "the 'Bolero' approach", left the game's soundtrack feeling "incredibly dramatic". In February 2003, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Morrowind in the category of "Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition" at the 6th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, but ultimately lost to Medal of Honor: Frontline. Morrowind also contained a fair bit of voiced dialogue; an aspect somewhat better received by the gaming press. Of note is Lynda Carter, television's Wonder Woman, promoted by Bethesda for her role in voicing the female Nords in the game. Morrowind's race-specific voice acting received praise from some reviewers, though was met with disdain from others, who disliked the discord between a culturally inflected voice spoken in an alien dialect and the grammatically flawless dialogue printed in the dialogue boxes. The Special Edition Soundtrack was released over DirectSong as a digital release. ## Reception Worldwide sales of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind reached almost 95,000 units by the end of June 2002, and rose to 200,000 copies by the end of September. By August 2005, the game had surpassed 4 million copies sold. In the United States, Morrowind's computer version sold 300,000 copies and earned \$11.7 million by August 2006, after its release in April 2002. It was the country's 62nd best-selling computer game between January 2000 and August 2006. Combined sales of all Elder Scrolls computer games released between those dates had reached 990,000 units in the United States by August 2006. Morrowind was the best-selling RPG for Xbox in 2002. It was one of the top 10 best-selling games on Xbox from May through October 2003, a full year after its initial launch. The only other game to accomplish this feat was Halo. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind was well received by critics. It was congratulated most frequently for its breadth of scope, the richness of its visuals, and the freedom it worked into its design. Alongside the compliments, however, came criticism that the game designers had overstretched themselves, leaving glitches in various spots, and made a game too taxing to be run on an average machine, with one reviewer calling it "a resource pig". In a retrospective by 1Up, the breadth and open-endedness of Morrowind are suggested to have contributed to the decline of single-player RPGs on home computers by leading customers to MMORPGs, where they could have a similar experience. In spite of this, reviewers generally felt that the drawbacks of the game were minor in comparison to its strengths. IGN concluded that "Morrowind isn't perfect and its system requirements are huge; but its accomplishments outweigh any reservations." GameSpot's review concluded with a similar summation. "Morrowind does have numerous drawbacks ... But they're all generally minor enough that most anyone should be able to look past them ... They'll otherwise find that Morrowind fulfills its many ambitious intentions. It's a beautiful-looking, sprawling, and completely open-ended game that allows you to play pretty much however you like". The game environment of Morrowind was applauded as large and richly detailed, particularly for its real-time weather effects, day/night cycle, and its great variety of plant and animal life. Xbox Nation commended the game for its "sheer scope", and credited that aspect as the game's "biggest selling point", though it criticized the slowdowns, travel times and questing complexities that resulted from it. In contrast to the "generic" nature of Daggerfall's design, reviewers found Morrowind's design spectacular, varied, and stunning. GameSpot stated that "Simply exploring Morrowind is possibly the best thing about it." The mildly complex reciprocal skill system was generally praised, with a few exceptions. IGN, though finding the manual's description of the system unclear, found the classes well balanced and well designed for all play styles. GameSpot found the system transparent and sensible. PC Gamer, by contrast, found the system unbalanced, with combat privileged over other features. Computer Gaming World felt the system's privileging of combinations of single-handed combat weapons and shields over double-handed weapons unnecessarily exploitable, but appreciated the freedom offered by the broad skillset and action-dependent leveling. GameSpy gave strong commendation to the system, stating that "The advancement system makes so much sense that it makes other games, even games set in the D&D world such as Baldur's Gate, look silly by comparison". Morrowind's combat system was poorly received by the gaming press. GameSpot characterized it as one of the game's major weak points, and GameSpy devoted the majority of their review's minor complaints to it. The system was disparaged for its simplicity and tendency to bore. One element about Morrowind that received particular, and near-universal, criticism, was the game's journal system. In Morrowind, the player has a journal which is automatically updated with information from time to time following conversations with NPCs and important developments in the plot, each new entry following all those previous. Though IGN and GamePro commended the general interface for its relative ease of use, the journal was almost universally reviled. The journal was found to quickly become a "muddled mess", "hundreds of pages long", without any useful method of organization by quest title or completion level. Computer Gaming World called the feature an "anal-retentive nightmare of confusion", and called it one of the game's two greatest shortcomings. However, Bethesda remedied the complaints to some extent in the subsequent expansion Tribunal. There, the journal was organized by quests and could be more easily navigated. Despite being Bethesda's first major title to be produced for a console, Morrowind's Xbox release was well received in the gaming press. The inability to use add-on modifications on the Xbox version was unhappily felt, as was the decreased resolution, but the qualities of detail and open-endedness which had similarly graced the PC release made good the Xbox release's faults. Morrowind's Xbox release sold very well; it continued to rank among the top 10 sellers on the console one year after its initial release, a feat matched only by Halo: Combat Evolved. In spite of its critical and commercial success, Morrowind did not win any end-of-year press awards for its Xbox release. ### Awards The editors of Computer Games Magazine named Morrowind the third-best computer game of 2002, and wrote, "Unlike its ambitious but ultimately flawed predecessors, this is Herculean role-playing that works." It was a nominee for PC Gamer US's "2002 Best Roleplaying Game" award, which ultimately went to Neverwinter Nights. Morrowind won GameSpy's PC RPG of the Year Award, though it lost to Neverwinter Nights in reader polls, ranking 24% against Neverwinter's 34.9% popular support. It won IGN's RPG Vault's Game of the Year Award, IGN's PC Roleplaying Game of the Year Award in both its editorial and popular forms, RPG Vault's Game of the Year Award 2002, and was IGN's reader's choice for Best Story. Morrowind lost GameSpot's best PC RPG of 2002 award to Neverwinter Nights, but won best Xbox RPG, and was nominated in the "Best Story on Xbox" and "Best Graphics (Artistic) on Xbox" categories. Morrowind, in addition to its nomination for "Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition", was also nominated in the category of "Computer Role-Playing Game of the Year" at the 6th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, but lost, again, to Neverwinter Nights. In 2003, Morrowind received the dubious honor of ranking 21st on GameSpy's "25 Most Overrated Games" list, for its "buggy, repetitive, and dull gameplay". In 2010, IGN ranked Dagoth Ur 90th in "Top 100 Videogame Villains". ## Expansions and compilations ### Tribunal The Elder Scrolls III: Tribunal, announced on September 2, 2002, and scheduled for a PC-only release, went gold on November 1 and was released, with little fanfare, on November 6. Tribunal puts the player in the self-contained, walled city of Mournhold, the capital of the province of Morrowind; the new city is not connected to Morrowind's landmass, Vvardenfell, and the player must teleport to it. The storyline continues the story of the Tribunal deities. The choice to produce the expansion was primarily inspired by the success of Morrowind's release, as well as a general feeling that Elder Scrolls series games are ongoing experiences that merit new things for their players to do. Development on the game began immediately after Morrowind shipped, giving the developers a mere five-month development cycle to release the game—a very fast cycle for the industry. The prior existence of the Construction Set, however, meant that the team "already had the tools in place to add content and features very quickly." Interface improvements—specifically, an overhaul of Morrowind's journal system—were among the key goals for Tribunal's release. The new journal allowed the player to sort quests individually and by completion, reducing the confusion caused by the original's jumbling together of every quest into a single chronological stream. The game's reviewers took well to the change, although some criticized the incomplete implementation of the system, and others found the system continued to be "a bit unwieldy." Reviews of Tribunal were generally positive, though to lesser amounts than was the case for Morrowind. Aggregate scoring sites gave the game generally favorable scores: Metacritic, a score of 80; GameRankings, a score of 82. Most critics commented on the higher linearity of the experience, combined with a reduction in the total size of the play area, giving the changes mixed reviews. GameSpot reported sullenly on the change: "it's somewhat surprising that the Tribunal expansion confines your adventures to the relatively small setting of the municipality Mournhold," and that, in light of this change, "Tribunal doesn't have many of the features that made Morrowind so appealing." IGN stated that although "you'll rarely lose sight of what you're doing or why," a fact that may make the game more "comprehensible" for some players, "the lack of interaction with the rest of the world is pretty depressing." RPGamer, by contrast, was unequivocally positive about the change: "Bethesda ... neatly sidesteps two of the most difficult atmospheric flaws of Morrowind—the constant sense of emptiness, and the bland outdoor landscapes—by having the story take place entirely within the city of Mournhold ... This smaller, tighter playing field ensures that every minor detail can and does get attention." ### Bloodmoon The Elder Scrolls III: Bloodmoon, announced on February 14, 2003, and scheduled for release in May of the same year, went gold by May 23, and was released on June 6. Bethesda began work on the expansion immediately following the release of Tribunal in November 2002. Bloodmoon is a larger expansion than Tribunal, in terms of area covered and content created; it expands the game's main map to include the untamed island of Solstheim located to the northwest of Vvardenfell, a frigid northern tundra sprinkled with forests, and many new varieties of creatures, such as the short but tough rieklings. These additions marked a return to the "open-ended gameplay" and "free-form exploration" of the original, in contrast to the linearity and confinement of Tribunal. Reviews for Bloodmoon were, again, generally positive. Aggregate scoring sites gave the game generally favorable scores: Metacritic, a score of 85; GameRankings, a score of 83. One of the key selling points of Bloodmoon was its reintegration of werewolves, a feature that had been included in Daggerfall, but was absent in Morrowind, despite being a feature prominently advertised in previews before the game's release. Morrowind instead included vampirism, which was almost an "Easter egg" in terms of how many players remained unfamiliar with the feature. Players become werewolves by catching the lycanthropic disease "Sanies Lupinus" and letting three days pass without getting it cured. Once the disease has been fully integrated, the player transforms every night, regardless of the lunar cycle. Being a werewolf provides ability increases, though their strength was reduced relative to the major bonuses offered by lycanthropy in Daggerfall. Some reviewers found the addition to be a welcome challenge, but others thought it frustrating and poorly implemented. ### Game of the Year Edition The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Game of the Year Edition was announced May 12, 2003, and released October 31 of the same year. It compiled both the Tribunal and Bloodmoon expansions, along with patches available only for the PC release, plus a variety of minor quest and item add-ons, and offered them up in one single package for both PC and Xbox platforms. This provided Xbox players with most of the game content they had not previously had access to. Absent, however, from the Xbox version was the improved journal included in Bethesda's Bloodmoon and Tribunal releases, as well as the later patched editions of Morrowind's original release. Reviewers responded to the absence negatively. Nonetheless, reviews for the GotY set were generally positive – more so than for all previous releases of the game. Metacritic gave the edition an aggregate score of 89; GameRankings, an 88. PC Gamer redistributed this version under their "PC Gamer Presents" line. ## Modifications Bethesda Softworks, the developer of Morrowind, offers the ability to change the game via plugins (often referred to as modifications, or mods for short) using The Elder Scrolls Construction Set, which comes with the PC version of the game. The Construction Set, and a variety of third-party mod-making tools, allow the modder to create and edit different objects, places, characters, dialogues, races, birthsigns, abilities, and skills. Characters can be made as strong or as fast as the user wants, and allows the player to experience the game in a way that would not normally be possible within the game's mechanics. These plugins are usually easy to install and can change almost everything in the game. Plugins can add or modify existing mechanics, creatures, weapons, armor, quests, people, playable species, Easter eggs, stores, player-owned houses, cities, plotlines, and entire landmasses with some or all of the above. Organized projects, such as Tamriel Rebuilt and Project: Tamriel, attempt to recreate the originally envisioned Morrowind province and other parties of Tamriel, as seen in other The Elder Scrolls games. For example, there are interpretations of both Cyrodiil and Skyrim, the settings of later The Elder Scrolls games. The total conversion mod, Arktwend, developed by SureAI (the same developers behind Nehrim: At Fate's Edge and Enderal: The Shards of Order) was developed on Morrowind's engine and requires Morrowind, Tribunal, and Bloodmoon to play. Many change or enhance the graphical aspects of the game, such as lighting, 3D models, colors, and textures. Others attempt to optimise demanding meshes (e.g. by reducing draw calls or texture atlasing) or fix unpatched bugs left in the game with unofficial patches. Additionally, Bethesda has produced official mods, such as Siege at Firemoth, which may be found on the official site. All official plugins are included in the GOG.com release of the Game of the Year Edition. ## OpenMW OpenMW is an open-source, free-software replacement game engine that supports playing the original and add-on Morrowind content natively (without emulation or a virtual machine) on Linux, macOS, Windows, and certain Android devices. It supports higher-resolution graphics (installed as mods) than the original Bethesda engine, but requires a copy of the original game, in any edition, for its data files. Most third-party mods that are not dependent on any MS Windows executables and which are free of serious scripting syntax errors are also compatible with OpenMW. Since 2016, all of the quests, classes, races, and other character choices of Morrowind and its official expansions and add-ons are fully playable in OpenMW, though it remains in extended beta testing as of 2020. OpenMW is also the basis for TES3MP, an attempt to develop a networked, multiplayer version of the game, in early alpha testing as of 2017. ## Remasters as add-ons for later TES games Another fan labor effort, The Elder Scrolls Renewal Project, has been working on remastering Morrowind to run as add-ons for later games in The Elder Scrolls franchise (as Morroblivion for Oblivion, and Skywind for Skyrim). The project is also working on a remaster of Oblivion to run within Skyrim (Under the name Skyblivion).
15,985,351	The Good Terrorist	1,145,282,595	1985 political novel by Doris Lessing	[ "1985 British novels", "Alfred A. Knopf books", "British political novels", "Jonathan Cape books", "Novels about revolutionaries", "Novels about terrorism", "Novels by Doris Lessing", "Novels set in London", "Squatting", "Third-person narrative novels" ]	The Good Terrorist is a 1985 political novel written by the British novelist Doris Lessing. The book's protagonist is the naïve drifter Alice, who squats with a group of radicals in London and is drawn into their terrorist activities. Lessing was spurred to write The Good Terrorist by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombing of the Harrods department store in London in 1983. She had been a member of the British Communist Party, but left after the 1956 Hungarian uprising. Some reviewers labelled the novel a satire, while Lessing called it humorous. The title is an oxymoron which highlights Alice's ambivalent nature. The Good Terrorist divided reviewers. Some praised its insight and characterisation, others faulted its style and the characters' lack of depth. One critic complimented Lessing's "strong descriptive prose and her precise and realistic characterisations", another her "brilliant account of the types of individuals who commit terrorist acts", yet another called it "surprisingly bland", and the characters "trivial or two-dimensional or crippled by self-delusions". The Good Terrorist was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and won the Mondello Prize and the WH Smith Literary Award. ## Plot summary The Good Terrorist is written in the subjective third person from the point of view of Alice, an unemployed politics and economics graduate in her mid-thirties who drifts from commune to commune. She is trailed by Jasper, a graduate she took in at a student commune she lived in fifteen years previously, who sponges off her. Alice fell in love with him, only to become frustrated by his aloofness and burgeoning homosexuality. She considers herself a revolutionary, fighting against "fascist imperialism", but is still dependent on her parents, whom she treats with contempt. In the early 1980s, Alice joins a squat of like-minded "comrades" in a derelict house in London. Other members of the squat include Bert, its ineffective leader, and a lesbian couple, the maternal Roberta and her unstable and fragile partner Faye. The abandoned house is in a state of disrepair and earmarked by the City Council for demolition. In the face of the indifference of her comrades, Alice takes it upon herself to clean up and renovate the house. She also persuades the authorities to restore the electricity and water supplies. Alice becomes the house's "mother", cooking for everyone, and dealing with the local police, who are trying to evict them. The members of the squat belong to the Communist Centre Union (CCU), and attend demonstrations and pickets. Alice involves herself in some of these activities, but spends most of her time working on the house. To be more useful to the struggle, Jasper and Bert travel to Ireland and the Soviet Union to offer their services to the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the KGB, but are turned down. A more organised group of revolutionaries moves in next door and start using Alice's house as a conduit for arms, to which Alice objects. Mysterious strangers visit the squat and question their decision making. The comrades eventually decide to act on their own, calling themselves "Freeborn British Communists". They start experimenting with explosives and build a car bomb. Alice does not fully support this action, but accepts the majority decision. They target an upmarket hotel in Knightsbridge, but their inexperience results in the premature detonation of the bomb, which kills Faye and several passers-by. The remaining comrades, shaken by what they have done, decide to leave the squat and split up. Alice, disillusioned by Jasper, chooses not to follow him and remains behind because she cannot bear to abandon the house into which she has poured so much effort. Despite her initial reservations about the bombing, Alice feels a need to justify their actions to others, but realises it would be fruitless because "[o]rdinary people simply didn't understand". She acknowledges that she is a terrorist now, though she cannot remember when the change happened. ## Background Doris Lessing's interest in politics began in the 1940s while she was living in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). She was attracted to a group of "quasi-Communist[s]" and joined the chapter of the Left Book Club in Salisbury (now Harare). Later, prompted by the conflicts arising from racial segregation prominent in Rhodesia at the time, she also joined the Southern Rhodesian Labour Party. Lessing moved to London in 1949 and began her writing career there. She became a member of the British Communist Party in the early 1950s, and was an active campaigner against the use of nuclear weapons. By 1964, Lessing had published six novels, but grew disillusioned with Communism following the 1956 Hungarian uprising and, after reading The Sufis by Idries Shah, turned her attention to Sufism, an Islamic belief system. This prompted her to write her five-volume "space fiction" series, Canopus in Argos: Archives, which drew on Sufi concepts. The series was not well received by some of her readers, who felt she had abandoned her "rational worldview". The Good Terrorist was Lessing's first book to be published after the Canopus in Argos series, which prompted several retorts from reviewers, including, "Lessing has returned to Earth", and "Lessing returns to reality". Several commentators have labelled The Good Terrorist as a satire, while Lessing called it humorous. She said: > [I]t's not a book with a political statement. It's ... about a certain kind of political person, a kind of self-styled revolutionary that can only be produced by affluent societies. There's a great deal of playacting that I don't think you'd find in extreme left revolutionaries in societies where they have an immediate challenge. Lessing said she was inspired to write The Good Terrorist by the IRA bombing of the Harrods department store in London in 1983. She recalled, "the media reported it to sound as if it was the work of amateurs. I started to think, what kind of amateurs could they be?" and realised "how easy it would be for a kid, not really knowing what he or she was doing, to drift into a terrorist group." Lessing already had Alice in mind as the central character: "I know several people like Alice—this mixture of ... maternal caring, ... and who can contemplate killing large numbers of people without a moment's bother." She described Alice as "quietly comic[al]" because she is so full of contradictions. She said she was surprised how some of the characters (other than Jasper, Alice's love interest) developed, such as the pill-popping and fragile Faye, who turned out to be a "destroyed person". ## Genre The Good Terrorist has been labelled a "political novel" by the publishers and some reviewers, including Alison Lurie in The New York Review of Books. Lurie stated that as political fiction, it is "one of the best novels ... about the terrorist mentality" since Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent (1907), although this was questioned by William H. Pritchard in The Hudson Review, who wrote that compared to Conrad, The Good Terrorist is "shapeless". Several commentators have called it more a novel about politics than political fiction. In From the Margins of Empire: Christina Stead, Doris Lessing, Nadine Gordimer, Louise Yelin called the work a novel about politics, rather than a political novel per se. The Good Terrorist has also been called a satire. In her book Doris Lessing: The Poetics of Change, Gayle Greene called it a "satire of a group of revolutionaries", and Susan Watkins, writing in Doris Lessing: Border Crossings, described it as a "dry and satirical examination of a woman's involvement with a left-wing splinter group". A biography of Lessing for the Swedish Academy on the occasion of her being awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature called it "a satirical picture of the need of the contemporary left for total control and the female protagonist's misdirected martyrdom and subjugation". Yelin said the novel "oscillat[ed] between satire and nostalgia". Academic Robert E. Kuehn felt that it is not satire at all and that while the book could have been a "satire of the blackest and most hilarious kind", in his opinion Lessing "has no sense of humor, and instead of lashing [the characters] with the satirist's whip, she treats them with unremitting and belittling irony". Virginia Scott called the novel a fantasy. Drawing on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in The International Fiction Review, she wrote that "[Lessing's] Alice with her group of political revolutionaries can be seen as a serious fantasy which has striking parallels to ... Carroll's Alice". Both Alices enter a house and are confronted by seemingly impossible challenges: Carroll's Alice has to navigate passages too small to fit through, while Lessing's Alice finds herself in a barely inhabitable house that is earmarked for demolition. Both Alices are able to change their appearances: in Wonderland, Alice adjusts her size to suit her needs; in The Good Terrorist, Alice changes her demeanour to get what she wants from others. Scott noted that at one point in The Good Terrorist, Faye refers to Alice as "Alice the Wonder, the wondrous Alice", alluding to Carroll's Alice. ## Themes The American novelist Judith Freeman wrote that one of the common themes in The Good Terrorist is that of keeping one's identity in a collective, of preserving "individual conscience". This theme suggests that problems occur when we are coerced into conforming. Freeman said that Alice is a "quintessential good woman ... the little Hausefrau [sic] revolutionary", who turns bad under peer pressure. Another theme present is the symbolic nature of the house. Margaret Scanlan stated that as in books like Mansfield Park and Jane Eyre, The Good Terrorist "defines a woman in terms of her house". Writing in the journal Studies in the Novel, Katherine Fishburn said that Lessing often uses a house to symbolise "psychological or ontological change", and that here, "the house ... symbolizes Alice's function in the story". Yelin described The Good Terrorist as "an urban, dystopian updating of the house-as-England genre, [where] ... England is represented by a house in London". Several critics have focused on the theme of motherhood. In "Mothers and Daughters/Aging and Dying", Claire Sprague wrote that Lessing often dwells on the theme of mothers passing their behaviours onto their daughters, and how the cycle of daughters fighting their mothers permeates each generation. The British novelist Jane Rogers said that The Good Terrorist "is as unsparing and incisive about motherhood as it is about the extreme left", and that motherhood here "is terrible": Alice's mother is reduced to despair continually yielding to her selfish daughter's demands; Alice mothers Jasper, and has a similar despairing relationship with him. Rogers added that motherhood is depicted here as a compulsion to protect the weak, despite their propensity to retaliate and hurt you. Feminist themes and the subjugation of women have also been associated with The Good Terrorist. Scanlan indicated that while many of the comrades in the book are women, they find that political activity does not elevate their position, and that they are "trapped in the patriarchy they despise". Yelin suggested that although Lessing ridicules the male members of the CCU and their role playing, she is also critical of the female members "who collude in male-dominant political organizations and thus in their own oppression". But with the book's allusions to Jasper's homosexuality, Yelin added that Lessing's "critique of women's infatuation with patriarchal misogyny and their emotional dependence on misogynist men" is muted by homophobia and the "misogyny pervasive in patriarchal constructions of (male) heterosexuality". ## Critical analysis Several critics have called The Good Terrorists title an oxymoron. Robert Boschman suggested it is indicative of Alice's "contradictory personality" – she renovates the squat's house, yet is focused on destroying society. In The Hudson Review, George Kearns wrote that the title "hovers above the novel with ... irony". The reader assumes that Alice is the "good terrorist", but that while she may be a good person, she is "rotten at being a terrorist". Writing in World Literature Today, Mona Knapp concluded that Lessing's heroine, the "good terrorist", is neither a good person, nor a good revolutionary. She knows how to renovate houses and manipulate people to her advantage, but she is unemployed and steals money from her parents. When real revolutionaries start using the squat to ship arms, she panics and, going behind her comrades' backs, makes a telephone call to the authorities to warn them. Knapp called Alice "a bad terrorist and a stunted human being". Fishburn suggested that it is Lessing herself who is the "good terrorist", symbolised here by Alice, but that hers is "political terrorism of a literary kind", where she frequently disguises her ideas in "very domestic-looking fiction", and "direct[ly] challenge[s] ... our sense of reality". Kuehn described Alice as "well-intentioned, canny and sometimes lovable", but as someone who, at 36, never grew up, and is still dependent on her parents. Yelin said Alice is "in a state of perpetual adolescence", and her need to "mother everyone" is "an extreme case of psychological regression or failure to thrive". Greene wrote that Alice's "humanitarianism is ludicrous in her world", and described her as "so furiously at odds with herself" because she is too immature to comprehend what is happening and her actions vary from being helpful to dangerous. Boschman called Lessing's narrative "ironic" because it highlights the divide between who Alice is and who she thinks she is, and her efforts to pretend there is no discrepancy. Alice refuses to acknowledge that her "maternal activities" stem from her desire to win her mother's approval and, believing that her mother has "betrayed and abandoned" her, turns to Jasper as a way to "continue to sustain her beliefs about herself and the world". Even though Jasper takes advantage of her adoration of him by mistreating her, Alice still clings to him because her self-image "vigorously qualifies her perception of [him], and thus proliferates the denial and self-deception". The fact that Jasper has turned to homosexuality, which Alice dismisses as "his emotional life", "suits her own repressed desires". Kuehn called Alice's obsession with the "hapless" and "repellent" Jasper "just comprehensible", adding that she feels safe with his gayness, even though she has to endure his abuse. Knapp stated that while Lessing exposes self-styled insurrectionists as "spoiled and immature products of the middle class", she also derides their ineptness at affecting any meaningful change. Lessing is critical of the state which "feeds the very hand that terrorizes it", yet she also condemns those institutions that exploits the working class and ignores the homeless. Knapp remarks that Lessing does not resolve these ambiguities, but instead highlights the failings of the state and those seeking to overthrow it. Scanlan compared Lessing's comrades to Richard E. Rubenstein's terrorists in his book Alchemists of Revolution: Terrorism in the Modern World. Rubenstein wrote that when "ambitious idealists" have no "creative ruling class to follow or a rebellious lower class to lead [they] have often taken upon themselves the burden of representative action", which he said "is a formula for disaster". ## Reception Critical opinion is divided on The Good Terrorist. Elizabeth Lowry highlighted this in the London Review of Books: "[Lessing] has been sharply criticised for the pedestrian quality of her prose, and as vigorously defended". The Irish literary critic Denis Donoghue complained that the style of the novel is "insistently drab", and Kuehn referred to Lessing's text as "surprisingly bland". Lowry noted that the English academic Clare Hanson defended the book by saying that it is "a grey and textureless novel because it ... speaks a grey and textureless language". Freeman described the book a "graceful and accomplished story", and a "brilliant account of the types of individuals who commit terrorist acts". Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Freeman described Lessing as "one of our most valuable writers" who "has an uncanny grasp of human relationships". In a review in the Sun-Sentinel, Bonnie Gross wrote that it was Lessing's "most accessible" book to date, and that her "strong descriptive prose and her precise and realistic characterizations" made it "remarkable" and "rewarding reading". Gross considered the female characters, particularly Alice, much more developed than the male ones. Amanda Sebestyen wrote in The Women's Review of Books that at first glance the ideas in The Good Terrorist appear deceptively simple, and the plot predictable. But she added that Lessing's strength is her "stoic narrat[ion] of the daily effort of living", which excels in describing day-to-day life in a squat. Sebestyen also praised the book's depiction of Alice, who "speak[s] to me most disquietingly about myself and my generation". In a review in Off Our Backs, an American feminist publication, Vickie Leonard called The Good Terrorist a "fascinating book" that is "extremely well written" with characters that are "exciting" and "realistic". Leonard added that even though Alice is not a feminist, the book illustrates the author's "strong admiration for women and their accomplishments". Writing in The Guardian, Rogers described The Good Terrorist as "a novel in unsparing close-up" that examines society through the eyes of individuals. She said it is "witty and ... angry at human stupidity and destructiveness", and within the context of recent terrorist attacks in London, it is an example of "fiction going where factual writing cannot". A critic in Kirkus Reviews wrote that Alice's story is "an extraordinary tour de force—a psychological portrait that's realistic with a vengeance". The reviewer added that although Alice is "self-deluding" and not always likeable, the novel's strength are the characters and its depiction of political motivation. Donoghue wrote in The New York Times that he did not care much about what happened to Alice and her comrades. He felt that Lessing presents Alice as "an unquestioned rigmarole of reactions and prejudices", which leaves no room for any further interest. Donoghue complained that Lessing has not made up her mind on whether her characters are "the salt of the earth or its scum". In a review in the Chicago Tribune, Kuehn felt that the work has little impact and is not memorable. He said Lessing's real interest is character development, but complained that the characters are "trivial or two-dimensional or crippled by self-delusions". The Good Terrorist was shortlisted for the 1985 Booker Prize, and in 1986 won the Mondello Prize and the WH Smith Literary Award. In 2007 Lessing was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for being "part of both the history of literature and living literature". In the award ceremony speech by Swedish writer Per Wästberg, The Good Terrorist was cited as "an in-depth account of the extreme leftwing squatting culture that sponges off female self-sacrifice". Following Lessing's death in 2013, The Guardian put The Good Terrorist in their list of the top five Lessing books. Indian writer Neel Mukherjee included the novel in his 2015 "top 10 books about revolutionaries", also published in The Guardian. ## Publication history The Good Terrorist was first published in September 1985 in hardcover by Jonathan Cape in the United Kingdom, and by Alfred A. Knopf in the United States. The first paperback edition was published in the United Kingdom in September 1986 by Grafton. An unabridged 13-hour audio cassette edition, narrated by Nadia May, was released in the United States in April 1999 by Blackstone Audio. The novel has been translated into several other languages including Catalan, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Swedish.
167,961	John Gielgud	1,169,983,620	English actor and theatre director (1904–2000)	[ "1904 births", "2000 deaths", "20th-century English male actors", "20th-century Lithuanian nobility", "20th-century Polish nobility", "Actors awarded knighthoods", "Alumni of RADA", "Audiobook narrators", "BAFTA fellows", "Best British Actor BAFTA Award winners", "Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winners", "Best Supporting Actor BAFTA Award winners", "Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe (film) winners", "Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe (television) winners", "Drama Desk Award winners", "English film directors", "English gay actors", "English male Shakespearean actors", "English male film actors", "English male radio actors", "English male stage actors", "English male television actors", "English people of Lithuanian descent", "English people of Polish descent", "Gielgud family", "Grammy Award winners", "Knights Bachelor", "LGBT theatre directors", "Laurence Olivier Award winners", "Male actors from London", "Members of the Order of Merit", "Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour", "Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners", "People convicted for homosexuality in the United Kingdom", "People educated at Westminster School, London", "People from Aylesbury Vale", "People from South Kensington", "Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale", "Special Tony Award recipients", "Terry family", "Tony Award winners" ]	Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH (/ˈɡiːlɡʊd/; 14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000) was an English actor and theatre director whose career spanned eight decades. With Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he was one of the trinity of actors who dominated the British stage for much of the 20th century. A member of the Terry family theatrical dynasty, he gained his first paid acting work as a junior member of his cousin Phyllis Neilson-Terry's company in 1922. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art he worked in repertory theatre and in the West End before establishing himself at the Old Vic as an exponent of Shakespeare in 1929–31. During the 1930s Gielgud was a stage star in the West End and on Broadway, appearing in new works and classics. He began a parallel career as a director, and set up his own company at the Queen's Theatre, London. He was regarded by many as the finest Hamlet of his era, and was also known for high comedy roles such as John Worthing in The Importance of Being Earnest. In the 1950s Gielgud feared that his career was threatened when he was convicted and fined for a homosexual offence, but his colleagues and the public supported him loyally. When avant-garde plays began to supersede traditional West End productions in the later 1950s he found no new suitable stage roles, and for several years he was best known in the theatre for his one-man Shakespeare show Ages of Man. From the late 1960s he found new plays that suited him, by authors including Alan Bennett, David Storey and Harold Pinter. During the first half of his career, Gielgud did not take the cinema seriously. Though he made his first film in 1924, and had successes with The Good Companions (1933) and Julius Caesar (1953), he did not begin a regular film career until his sixties. He appeared in more than sixty films between Becket (1964), for which he received his first Academy Award nomination for playing Louis VII of France, and Elizabeth (1998). As the acid-tongued Hobson in Arthur (1981) he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His film work further earned him a Golden Globe Award and two BAFTAs. Although largely indifferent to awards, Gielgud had the rare distinction of winning an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Tony. He was famous from the start of his career for his voice and his mastery of Shakespearean verse. He broadcast more than a hundred radio and television dramas between 1929 and 1994, and made commercial recordings of many plays, including ten of Shakespeare's. Among his honours, he was knighted in 1953 and the Gielgud Theatre was named after him. From 1977 to 1989, he was president of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. ## Life and career ### Background and early years Gielgud was born on 14 April 1904 in South Kensington, London, the third of the four children of Frank Henry Gielgud (1860–1949) and his second wife, Kate Terry-Gielgud, née Terry-Lewis (1868–1958). Gielgud's older brothers were Lewis, who became a senior official of the Red Cross and UNESCO, and Val, later head of BBC radio drama; his younger sister Eleanor became John's secretary for many years. On his father's side, Gielgud was of Lithuanian and Polish descent. The surname derives from Gelgaudiškis, a village in Lithuania. The Counts Gielgud had owned the Gelgaudiškis Manor on the Nemunas river, but their estates were confiscated after they took part in a failed uprising against Russian rule in 1830–31. Jan Gielgud took refuge in England with his family; one of his grandchildren was Frank Gielgud, whose maternal grandmother was a famous Polish actress, Aniela Aszpergerowa. Frank married into a family with wide theatrical connections. His wife, who was on the stage until she married, was the daughter of the actress Kate Terry, and a member of the stage dynasty that included Ellen, Fred and Marion Terry, Mabel Terry-Lewis and Edith and Edward Gordon Craig. Frank had no theatrical ambitions and worked all his life as a stockbroker in the City of London. In 1912, aged eight, Gielgud went to Hillside preparatory school in Surrey as his elder brothers had done. For a child with no interest in sport he acquitted himself reasonably well in cricket and rugby for the school. In class, he hated mathematics, was fair at classics, and excelled at English and divinity. Hillside encouraged his interest in drama, and he played several leading roles in school productions, including Mark Antony in Julius Caesar and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. After Hillside, Lewis and Val had won scholarships to Eton and Rugby, respectively; lacking their academic achievement, John failed to secure such a scholarship. He was sent as a day boy to Westminster School where, as he later said, he had access to the West End "in time to touch the fringe of the great century of the theatre". He saw Sarah Bernhardt act, Adeline Genée dance and Albert Chevalier, Vesta Tilley and Marie Lloyd perform in the music halls. The school choir sang in services at Westminster Abbey, which appealed to his fondness for ritual. He showed talent at sketching, and for a while thought of scenic design as a possible career. The young Gielgud's father took him to concerts, which he liked, and galleries and museums, "which bored me rigid". Both parents were keen theatregoers, but did not encourage their children to follow an acting career. Val Gielgud recalled, "Our parents looked distinctly sideways at the Stage as a means of livelihood, and when John showed some talent for drawing his father spoke crisply of the advantages of an architect's office." On leaving Westminster in 1921, Gielgud persuaded his reluctant parents to let him take drama lessons on the understanding that if he was not self-supporting by the age of twenty-five he would seek an office post. ### First acting experience Gielgud, aged seventeen, joined a private drama school run by Constance Benson, wife of the actor-manager Sir Frank Benson. On the new boy's first day Lady Benson remarked on his physical awkwardness: "she said I walked like a cat with rickets. It dealt a severe blow to my conceit, which was a good thing." Before and after joining the school he played in several amateur productions, and in November 1921 made his debut with a professional company, though he himself was not paid. He played the Herald in Henry V at the Old Vic; he had one line to speak and, he recalled, spoke it badly. He was kept on for the rest of the season in walk-on parts in King Lear, Wat Tyler and Peer Gynt, with no lines. Gielgud's first substantial engagement came through his family. In 1922 his cousin Phyllis Neilson-Terry invited him to tour in J. B. Fagan's The Wheel, as understudy, bit-part player and assistant stage manager, an invitation he accepted. A colleague, recognising that the young man had talent but lacked technique, recommended him to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Gielgud was awarded a scholarship to the academy and trained there throughout 1923 under Kenneth Barnes, Helen Haye and Claude Rains. The actor-manager Nigel Playfair, a friend of Gielgud's family, saw him in a student presentation of J. M. Barrie's The Admirable Crichton. Playfair was impressed and cast him as Felix, the poet-butterfly, in the British premiere of the Čapek brothers' The Insect Play. Gielgud later said that he made a poor impression in the part: "I am surprised that the audience did not throw things at me." The critics were cautious but not hostile to the play; it did not attract the public and closed after a month. While still continuing his studies at RADA, Gielgud appeared again for Playfair in Robert E Lee by John Drinkwater. After leaving the academy at the end of 1923 Gielgud played a Christmas season as Charley in Charley's Aunt in the West End, and then joined Fagan's repertory company at the Oxford Playhouse. Gielgud was in the Oxford company in January and February 1924, from October 1924 to the end of January 1925, and in August 1925. He played a wide range of parts in classics and modern plays, greatly increasing his technical abilities in the process. The role he most enjoyed was Trofimov in The Cherry Orchard, his first experience of Chekhov: "It was the first time I ever went out on stage feeling that perhaps, after all, I could really be an actor." ### Early West End roles Between Gielgud's first two Oxford seasons, the producer Barry Jackson cast him as Romeo to the Juliet of Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies at the Regent's Theatre, London, in May 1924. The production was not a great success, but the two performers became close friends and frequently worked together throughout their careers. Gielgud made his screen debut during 1924 as Daniel Arnault in Walter Summers's silent film Who Is the Man? (1924). In May 1925 the Oxford production of The Cherry Orchard was brought to the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith. Gielgud again played Trofimov. His distinctive speaking voice attracted attention and led to work for BBC Radio, which his biographer Sheridan Morley calls "a medium he made his own for seventy years". In the same year Noël Coward chose Gielgud as his understudy in his play The Vortex. For the last month of the West End run Gielgud took over Coward's role of Nicky Lancaster, the drug-addicted son of a nymphomaniac mother. It was in Gielgud's words "a highly-strung, nervous, hysterical part which depended a lot upon emotion". He found it tiring to play because he had not yet learned how to pace himself, but he thought it "a thrilling engagement because it led to so many great things afterwards". The success of The Cherry Orchard led to what one critic called a "Chekhov boom" in British theatres, and Gielgud was among its leading players. As Konstantin in The Seagull in October 1925 he impressed the Russian director Theodore Komisarjevsky, who cast him as Tusenbach in the British premiere of Three Sisters. The production received enthusiastic reviews, and Gielgud's highly praised performance enhanced his reputation as a potential star. There followed three years of mixed fortunes for him, with successes in fringe productions, but West End stardom was elusive. In 1926 the producer Basil Dean offered Gielgud the lead role, Lewis Dodd, in a dramatisation of Margaret Kennedy's best-selling novel, The Constant Nymph. Before rehearsals began Dean found that a bigger star than Gielgud was available, namely Coward, to whom he gave the part. Gielgud had an enforceable contractual claim to the role, but Dean, a notorious bully, was a powerful force in British theatre. Intimidated, Gielgud accepted the position of understudy, with a guarantee that he would take over the lead from Coward when the latter, who disliked playing in long runs, left. In the event Coward, who had been overworking, suffered a nervous collapse three weeks after the opening night, and Gielgud played the lead for the rest of the run. The play ran for nearly a year in London and then went on tour. By this time Gielgud was earning enough to leave the family home and take a small flat in the West End. He had his first serious romantic relationship, living with John Perry, an unsuccessful actor, later a writer, who remained a lifelong friend after their affair ended. Morley makes the point that, like Coward, Gielgud's principal passion was the stage; both men had casual dalliances, but were more comfortable with "low-maintenance" long-term partners who did not impede their theatrical work and ambitions. In 1928 Gielgud made his Broadway debut as the Grand Duke Alexander in Alfred Neumann's The Patriot. The play was a failure, closing after a week, but Gielgud liked New York and received favourable reviews from critics including Alexander Woollcott and Brooks Atkinson. After returning to London he starred in a succession of short runs, including Ibsen's Ghosts with Mrs Patrick Campbell (1928), and Reginald Berkeley's The Lady with a Lamp (1929) with Edith Evans and Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies. In 1928 he made his second film, The Clue of the New Pin. This, billed as "the first British full-length talkie", was an adaptation of an Edgar Wallace mystery story; Gielgud played a young scoundrel who commits two murders and very nearly a third before he himself is killed. ### Old Vic In 1929 Harcourt Williams, newly appointed as director of productions at the Old Vic, invited Gielgud to join the company for the forthcoming season. The Old Vic, in an unfashionable area of London south of the Thames, was run by Lilian Baylis to offer plays and operas to a mostly working-class audience at low ticket prices. She paid her performers very modest wages, but the theatre was known for its unrivalled repertory of classics, mostly Shakespeare, and Gielgud was not the first West End star to take a large pay cut to work there. It was, in Morley's words, the place to learn Shakespearean technique and try new ideas. During his first season at the Old Vic, Gielgud played Romeo to the Juliet of Adele Dixon, Antonio in The Merchant of Venice, Cleante in The Imaginary Invalid, the title role in Richard II, and Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream. His Romeo was not well reviewed, but as Richard II Gielgud was recognised by critics as a Shakespearean actor of undoubted authority. The reviewer in The Times commented on his sensitiveness, strength and firmness, and called his performance "work of genuine distinction, not only in its grasp of character, but in its control of language". Later in the season he was cast as Mark Antony in Julius Caesar, Orlando in As You Like It, the Emperor in Androcles and the Lion and the title role in Pirandello's The Man with the Flower in His Mouth. In April 1930 Gielgud finished the season playing Hamlet. Williams's production used the complete text of the play. This was regarded as a radical innovation; extensive cuts had been customary for earlier productions. A running time of nearly five hours did not dampen the enthusiasm of the public, the critics or the acting profession. Sybil Thorndike said, "I never hoped to see Hamlet played as in one's dreams ... I've had an evening of being swept right off my feet into another life – far more real than the life I live in, and moved, moved beyond words." The production gained such a reputation that the Old Vic began to attract large numbers of West End theatregoers. Demand was so great that the cast moved to the Queen's Theatre, in Shaftesbury Avenue, where Williams staged the piece with the text discreetly shortened. The effect of the cuts was to give the title role even more prominence. Gielgud's Hamlet was richly praised by the critics. Ivor Brown called it "a tremendous performance ... the best Hamlet of [my] experience". James Agate wrote, "I have no hesitation whatsoever in saying that it is the high water-mark of English Shakespearean acting of our time." Hamlet was a role with which Gielgud was associated over the next decade and more. After the run at the Queen's finished he turned to another part for which he became well known, John Worthing in The Importance of Being Earnest. Gielgud's biographer Jonathan Croall comments that the two roles illustrated two sides of the actor's personality: on the one hand the romantic and soulful Hamlet, and on the other the witty and superficial Worthing. The formidable Lady Bracknell was played by his aunt, Mabel Terry-Lewis. The Times observed, "Mr Gielgud and Miss Terry-Lewis together are brilliant ... they have the supreme grace of always allowing Wilde to speak in his own voice." Returning to the Old Vic for the 1930–31 season, Gielgud found several changes to the company. Donald Wolfit, who loathed him and was himself disliked by his colleagues, was dropped, as was Adele Dixon. Gielgud was uncertain of the suitability of the most prominent new recruit, Ralph Richardson, but Williams was sure that after this season Gielgud would move on; he saw Richardson as a potential replacement. The two actors had little in common. Richardson recalled, "He was a kind of brilliant butterfly, while I was a very gloomy sort of boy", and "I found his clothes extravagant, I found his conversation flippant. He was the New Young Man of his time and I didn't like him." The first production of the season was Henry IV, Part 1, in which Gielgud as Hotspur had the best of the reviews. Richardson's notices, and the relationship of the two leading men, improved markedly when Gielgud, who was playing Prospero in The Tempest, helped Richardson with his performance as Caliban: > He gave me about two hundred ideas, as he usually does, twenty-five of which I eagerly seized on, and when I went away I thought, "This chap, you know, I don't like him very much but by God he knows something about this here play." ... And then out of that we formed a friendship. The friendship and professional association lasted for more than fifty years, until the end of Richardson's life. Gielgud's other roles in this season were Lord Trinket in The Jealous Wife, Richard II again, Antony in Antony and Cleopatra, Malvolio in Twelfth Night, Sergius in Arms and the Man, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing – another role for which he became celebrated – and he concluded the season as King Lear. His performance divided opinion. The Times commented, "It is a mountain of a part, and at the end of the evening the peak remains unscaled"; in The Manchester Guardian, however, Brown wrote that Gielgud "is a match for the thunder, and at length takes the Dover road with a broken tranquillity that allowed every word of the King's agony to be clear as well as poignant". ### West End star Returning to the West End, Gielgud starred in J. B. Priestley's The Good Companions, adapted for the stage by the author and Edward Knoblock. The production ran from May 1931 for 331 performances, and Gielgud described it as his first real taste of commercial success. He played Inigo Jollifant, a young schoolmaster who abandons teaching to join a travelling theatre troupe. This crowd-pleaser drew disapproval from the more austere reviewers, who felt Gielgud should be doing something more demanding, but he found playing a conventional juvenile lead had challenges of its own and helped him improve his technique. During the run of the play he made another film, Insult (1932), a melodrama about the French Foreign Legion, and he starred in a cinema version of The Good Companions in 1933, with Jessie Matthews. A letter to a friend reveals Gielgud's view of film acting: "There is talk of my doing Inigo in the film of The Good Companions, which appals my soul but appeals to my pocket." In his first volume of memoirs, published in 1939, Gielgud devoted two pages to describing the things about filming that he detested. Unlike his contemporaries Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he made few films until after the Second World War, and did not establish himself as a prominent film actor until many years after that. As he put it in 1994, "I was stupid enough to toss my head and stick to the stage while watching Larry and Ralph sign lucrative Korda contracts." In 1932 Gielgud turned to directing. At the invitation of George Devine, the president of the Oxford University Dramatic Society, Gielgud took charge of a production of Romeo and Juliet by the society, featuring two guest stars: Peggy Ashcroft as Juliet and Edith Evans as the Nurse. The rest of the cast were students, led by Christopher Hassall as Romeo, and included Devine, William Devlin and Terence Rattigan. The experience was satisfactory to Gielgud: he enjoyed the attentions of the undergraduates, had a brief affair with one of them, James Lees-Milne, and was widely praised for his inspiring direction and his protégés' success with the play. Already notorious for his innocent slips of the tongue (he called them "Gielgoofs"), in a speech after the final performance he referred to Ashcroft and Evans as "Two leading ladies, the like of whom I hope I shall never meet again". During the rest of 1932 Gielgud played in a new piece, Musical Chairs by Ronald Mackenzie, and directed one new and one classic play, Strange Orchestra by Rodney Ackland in the West End, and The Merchant of Venice at the Old Vic, with Malcolm Keen as Shylock and Ashcroft as Portia. In 1932 he starred in Richard of Bordeaux by Elizabeth MacKintosh. This, a retelling in modern language of the events of Richard II, was greeted as the most successful historical play since Shaw's Saint Joan nine years earlier, more faithful to the events than Shakespeare had been. After an uncertain start in the West End it rapidly became a sell-out hit and played in London and on tour over the next three years. Between seasons of Richard, in 1934 Gielgud returned to Hamlet in London and on tour, directing and playing the title role. The production was a box-office success, and the critics were lavish in their praise. In The New York Times, Charles Morgan wrote, "I have never before heard the rhythm and verse and the naturalness of speech so gently combined. ... If I see a better performance of this play than this before I die, it will be a miracle." Morley writes that junior members of the cast such as Alec Guinness and Frith Banbury would gather in the wings every night "to watch what they seemed intuitively already to know was to be the Hamlet of their time". The following year Gielgud staged perhaps his most famous Shakespeare production, a Romeo and Juliet in which he co-starred with Ashcroft and Olivier. Gielgud had spotted Olivier's potential and gave him a major step up in his career. For the first weeks of the run Gielgud played Mercutio and Olivier played Romeo, after which they exchanged roles. As at Oxford, Ashcroft and Evans were Juliet and the nurse. The production broke all box-office records for the play, running at the New Theatre for 189 performances. Olivier was enraged at the notices after the first night, which praised the virility of his performance but fiercely criticised his speaking of Shakespeare's verse, comparing it with his co-star's mastery of the poetry. The friendship between the two men was prickly, on Olivier's side, for the rest of his life. In May 1936 Gielgud played Trigorin in The Seagull, with Evans as Arkadina and Ashcroft as Nina. Komisarjevsky directed, which made rehearsals difficult as Ashcroft, with whom he had been living, had just left him. Nonetheless, Morley writes, the critical reception was ecstatic. In the same year Gielgud made his last pre-war film, co-starring with Madeleine Carroll in Alfred Hitchcock's Secret Agent. The director's insensitivity to actors made Gielgud nervous and further increased his dislike of filming. The two stars were praised for their performances, but Hitchcock's "preoccupation with incident" was felt by critics to make the leading roles one-dimensional, and the laurels went to Peter Lorre as Gielgud's deranged assistant. From September 1936 to February 1937 Gielgud played Hamlet in North America, opening in Toronto before moving to New York and Boston. He was nervous about starring on Broadway for the first time, particularly as it became known that the popular actor Leslie Howard was to appear there in a rival production of the play. When Gielgud opened at the Empire Theatre in October the reviews were mixed, but, as the actor wrote to his mother, the audience response was extraordinary. "They stay at the end and shout every night and the stage door is beset by fans." Howard's production opened in November; it was, in Gielgud's words, a débâcle, and the "battle of the Hamlets" heralded in the New York press was over almost as soon as it had begun. Howard's version closed within a month; the run of Gielgud's production beat Broadway records for the play. ### Queen's Theatre company After his return from America in February 1937 Gielgud starred in He Was Born Gay by Emlyn Williams. This romantic tragedy about French royalty after the Revolution was quite well received during its pre-London tour, but was savaged by the critics in the West End. The Times said, "This is one of those occasions on which criticism does not stand about talking, but rubs its eyes and withdraws hastily with an embarrassed, incredulous, and uncomprehending blush. What made Mr Emlyn Williams write this play or Mr Gielgud and Miss Ffrangcon-Davies appear in it is not to be understood." The play closed after twelve performances. Its failure, so soon after his Shakespearean triumphs, prompted Gielgud to examine his career and his life. His domestic relationship with Perry was comfortable but unexciting, he saw no future in a film career, and the Old Vic could not afford to stage the classics on the large scale to which he aspired. He decided that he must form his own company to play Shakespeare and other classic plays in the West End. Gielgud invested £5,000, most of his earnings from the American Hamlet; Perry, who had family money, put in the same sum. From September 1937 to April 1938 Gielgud was the tenant of the Queen's Theatre, where he presented a season consisting of Richard II, The School for Scandal, Three Sisters, and The Merchant of Venice. His company included Harry Andrews, Peggy Ashcroft, Glen Byam Shaw, George Devine, Michael Redgrave and Harcourt Williams, with Angela Baddeley and Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies as guests. His own roles were King Richard, Joseph Surface, Vershinin and Shylock. Gielgud's performances drew superlatives from reviewers and colleagues. Agate considered his Richard II, "probably the best piece of Shakespearean acting on the English stage today". Olivier said that Gielgud's Joseph Surface was "the best light comedy performance I've ever seen, or ever shall see". The venture did not make much money, and in July 1938 Gielgud turned to more conventional West End enterprises, in unconventional circumstances. He directed Spring Meeting, a farce by Perry and Molly Keane, presented by Binkie Beaumont, for whom Perry had just left Gielgud. Somehow the three men remained on excellent terms. In September of the same year Gielgud appeared in Dodie Smith's sentimental comedy Dear Octopus. The following year he directed and appeared in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Globe, with Evans playing Lady Bracknell for the first time. They were gratified when Allan Aynesworth, who had played Algernon in the 1895 premiere, said that the new production "caught the gaiety and exactly the right atmosphere. It's all delightful!" ### War and post-war At the start of the Second World War Gielgud volunteered for active service, but was told that men of his age, thirty-five, would not be wanted for at least six months. The government quickly came to the view that most actors would do more good performing to entertain the troops and the general public than serving, whether suitable or not, in the armed forces. Gielgud directed Michael Redgrave in a 1940 London production of The Beggar's Opera for the Glyndebourne Festival. This was a chaotic affair: Gielgud's direction confused his star, and when Redgrave lost his voice Gielgud had to step in and sing the role as best he could. Gielgud felt that something serious or even solemn was necessary for wartime London, where most entertainment was light-hearted. Together with Harley Granville-Barker and Guthrie he reopened the Old Vic with Shakespeare. His King Lear once again divided the critics, but his Prospero was a considerable success. He played the role quite differently from his attempt on the same stage in 1930: in place of the "manic conjurer" his Prospero was "very far from the usual mixture of Father Christmas, a Colonial Bishop, and the President of the Magicians' Union ... a clear, arresting picture of a virile Renaissance notable", according to Brown. The critics singled out, among the other players, Jack Hawkins as Caliban, Marius Goring as Ariel, Jessica Tandy as Miranda and Alec Guinness as Ferdinand. Following the example of several of his stage colleagues, Gielgud joined tours of military camps. He gave recitals of prose and poetry, and acted in a triple bill of short plays, including two from Coward's Tonight at 8.30, but he found at first that less highbrow performers like Beatrice Lillie were better than he at entertaining the troops. He returned to filming in 1940, as Disraeli in Thorold Dickinson's The Prime Minister. In this morale-boosting film he portrayed the politician from ages thirty to seventy; this was, in Morley's view, the first time he seemed at home before the camera. Gielgud made no more films for the next ten years; he turned down the role of Julius Caesar in the 1945 film of Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra with Vivien Leigh. He and Leigh were close friends, and Shaw tried hard to persuade him to play the part, but Gielgud had taken a strong dislike to the director, Gabriel Pascal. Caesar was eventually played by Gielgud's former teacher, Claude Rains. Throughout 1941 and 1942 Gielgud worked continually, in Barrie's Dear Brutus, another Importance of Being Earnest in the West End, and Macbeth on tour. Returning, with more assurance than before, to entertaining the troops, he so far departed from his classical style as to join Lillie and Michael Wilding singing a comic trio. His 1943 revival of William Congreve's Love for Love on tour and then in London received high praise from reviewers. In 1944 he was approached by Ralph Richardson, who had been asked by the governors of the Old Vic to form a new company. Unwilling to take sole charge, Richardson proposed a managing triumvirate of Gielgud, Olivier and himself. Gielgud declined: "It would be a disaster, you would have to spend your whole time as referee between Larry and me." A 1944–45 season at the Haymarket for Beaumont included a Hamlet that many considered his finest. Agate wrote, "Mr Gielgud is now completely and authoritatively master of this tremendous part. ... I hold that this is, and is likely to remain, the best Hamlet of our time." Also in the season were A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Duchess of Malfi and the first major revival of Lady Windermere's Fan (1945). These productions attracted much praise, but at this point in his career Gielgud was somewhat overshadowed by his old colleagues. Olivier was celebrated for his recent film of Henry V, and with Richardson (and John Burrell in Gielgud's stead) was making the Old Vic "the most famous theatre in the Anglo-Saxon world" according to the critic Harold Hobson. In late 1945 and early 1946 Gielgud toured for ENSA in the Middle and Far East with Hamlet and Coward's Blithe Spirit. During this tour he played Hamlet on stage for the last time. He was Raskolnikoff in a stage version of Crime and Punishment, in the West End in 1946 and on Broadway the following year. Agate thought it the best thing Gielgud had done so far, other than Hamlet. Between these two engagements Gielgud toured North America in The Importance of Being Earnest and Love for Love. Edith Evans was tired of the role of Lady Bracknell, and refused to join him; Margaret Rutherford played the part to great acclaim. Gielgud was in demand as a director, with six productions in 1948–49. They included The Heiress in 1949, when he was brought in at the last moment to direct Richardson and Ashcroft, saving what seemed a doomed production; it ran for 644 performances. His last big hit of the 1940s was as Thomas Mendip in The Lady's Not for Burning, which he also directed. The London cast included the young Claire Bloom and Richard Burton, who went with Gielgud when he took the piece to the US the following year. ### 1950s – film success and personal crisis At the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, Gielgud did much to reclaim his position as a leading Shakespearean. His cold, unsympathetic Angelo in Peter Brook's production of Measure for Measure (1950) showed the public a new, naturalistic manner in his playing. He followed this with three other Shakespeare productions with Brook, which were well received. His own attempt at direction in Stratford, for Richardson's Macbeth in 1952, was much less successful, with poor notices for the star and worse ones for the director. In 1953 Gielgud made his first Hollywood film, the sole classical actor in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Julius Caesar, playing Cassius. Marlon Brando (Mark Antony) was in awe of him, and James Mason (Brutus) was disheartened at Gielgud's seemingly effortless skill. Gielgud, for his part, felt he learned much about film technique from Mason. Gielgud enjoyed his four-month stay in California, not least, as Morley comments, for the relaxed attitude there to homosexuality. Returning to London later in 1953 Gielgud took over management of the Lyric, Hammersmith, for a classical season of Richard II, Congreve's The Way of the World, and Thomas Otway's Venice Preserv'd, directing the first, acting in the last, and doing both in the second. Feeling he was too old for Richard, he cast the young Paul Scofield; both the actor and the production were a critical and commercial success. During the season Gielgud was knighted in the 1953 Coronation Honours. On the evening of 20 October 1953, Gielgud, usually highly discreet about casual sex, was arrested in Chelsea for cottaging (i.e. cruising for sex in a public lavatory). Until the 1960s sexual activity of any kind between men was illegal in Britain. The Home Secretary of the day, David Maxwell Fyfe, was fervently homophobic, urging the police to arrest anyone who contravened the Victorian laws against homosexuality. Gielgud was fined; when the press reported the story, he thought his disgrace would end his career. When the news broke he was in Liverpool on the pre-London tour of a new play, A Day by the Sea. According to the biographer Richard Huggett, Gielgud was so paralysed by nerves that the prospect of going onstage as usual seemed impossible, but his fellow players, led by Sybil Thorndike, encouraged him: > She grabbed him and whispered fiercely, "Come on, John darling, they won't boo me, and led him firmly on to the stage. To everybody's astonishment and indescribable relief, the audience gave him a standing ovation. They cheered, they applauded, they shouted. The message was quite clear. The English public had always been loyal to its favourites, and this was their chance to show that they didn't care tuppence what he had done in his private life ... they loved him and respected him dearly. It was a moment never to be forgotten by those who witnessed it. His career was safe, but the episode briefly affected Gielgud's health; he suffered a nervous breakdown some months afterwards. He never spoke publicly about the incident, and it was quickly sidelined by the press and politely ignored by writers during his lifetime. Privately he made donations to gay campaign groups, but did not endorse them in public. In his later years he said to the actor Simon Callow, "I do admire people like you and Ian McKellen for coming out, but I can't be doing with that myself." Between December 1953 and June 1955 Gielgud concentrated on directing and did not appear on stage. His productions ranged from a revival of Charley's Aunt with John Mills to The Cherry Orchard with Ffrangcon-Davies, and Twelfth Night with Olivier. His return to the stage was in a production of King Lear, which was badly hampered by costumes and scenery by Isamu Noguchi that the critics found ludicrous. A revival of Much Ado About Nothing with Ashcroft in 1955 was much better received; in The Manchester Guardian, Philip Hope-Wallace called it "Shakespearean comedy for once perfectly realised". In 1955 Gielgud made his second appearance in a film of Shakespeare, portraying Clarence in Olivier's Richard III. In the second half of the 1950s Gielgud's career was in the doldrums as far as new plays were concerned. British theatre was moving away from the West End glamour of Beaumont's productions to more avant-garde works. Olivier had a great success in John Osborne's The Entertainer in 1957, but Gielgud was not in tune with the new wave of writers. He remained in demand as a Shakespearean, but there were few new plays suitable for him. He directed and played the lead in Coward's Nude with Violin in 1956, which was dismissed by the critics as old-fashioned, though it ran for more than a year. He made two film appearances, playing a cameo comedy scene with Coward as a prospective manservant in Michael Anderson's Around the World in 80 Days (1956), and as the father of Elizabeth Barrett Browning in Sidney Franklin's 1957 remake of The Barretts of Wimpole Street. He did not consider his performance as the tyrannical father convincing, and confessed that he undertook it only for the large fee ("it will set me up for a couple of years") and to keep him before the public in America, where he had not performed for over four years. During 1957 Gielgud directed Berlioz's The Trojans at Covent Garden and played Prospero at Drury Lane, but the production central to his career over the late 1950s and into the 1960s was his one-man show The Ages of Man. He first appeared in this in 1956 and revived it every year until 1967. It was an anthology of Shakespearean speeches and sonnets, compiled by George Rylands, in which, wearing modern evening clothes on a plain stage, Gielgud recited the verses, with his own linking commentary. He performed it all over Britain, mainland Europe, Australasia and the US, including a performance at the White House in 1965. He found there were advantages to performing solo: "You've no idea how much easier it is without a Juliet. When there's a beautiful girl above you on a balcony, or lying on a tomb with candles round her, naturally the audience look at her the whole time, and Romeo has to pull out all the stops to get any attention." His performance on Broadway won him a Special Tony Award in 1959, and an audio recording in 1979 received a Grammy Award. He made many other recordings, both before and after this, including ten Shakespeare plays. Gielgud continued to try, without much success, to find new plays that suited him as an actor, but his direction of Peter Shaffer's first play, Five Finger Exercise (1958), received acclaim. While in the US for the Shaffer play, Gielgud revived Much Ado About Nothing, this time with Margaret Leighton as his Beatrice. Most of the New York critics praised the production, and they all praised the co-stars. He gave his first performances on television during 1959, in Rattigan's The Browning Version for CBS and N. C. Hunter's A Day by the Sea for ITV. He appeared in more than fifty more plays on television over the next four decades. ### 1960s During the early 1960s Gielgud had more successes as a director than as an actor. He directed the first London performance of Britten's opera A Midsummer Night's Dream (1961) at Covent Garden and Hugh Wheeler's Big Fish, Little Fish on Broadway, the latter winning him a Tony for Best Direction of a Play in 1961. His performance as Othello at Stratford in the same year was less successful; Franco Zeffirelli's production was thought ponderous and Gielgud "singularly unvehement". As Gaev in The Cherry Orchard to the Ranevskaya of Ashcroft he had the best of the notices; his co-star and the production received mixed reviews. The following year Gielgud directed Richardson in The School for Scandal, first at the Haymarket and then on a North American tour, which he joined as, in his words, "the oldest Joseph Surface in the business". In 1962 Gielgud met Martin Hensler (1932–99), an interior designer exiled from Hungary. He was temperamental, and Gielgud's friends often found him difficult, but the two became a long-term couple and lived together until Hensler's death. Under his influence Gielgud moved his main residence from central London to the South Pavilion of Wotton House at Wotton Underwood in Buckinghamshire. Gielgud received an Oscar nomination for his performance as King Louis VII of France in Becket (1964), with Richard Burton in the title role. Morley comments, "A minor but flashy role, this had considerable and long-lasting importance; his unrivalled theatrical dignity could greatly enhance a film." In 1964 Gielgud directed Burton in Hamlet on Broadway. Burton's performance received reviews ranging from polite to hostile, but the production was a box-office success, and a film was made of it. Gielgud finally began to take the cinema seriously, for financial and sometimes artistic reasons. He told his agent to accept any reasonable film offers. His films of the mid-1960s were in Tony Richardson's The Loved One (1965), which Croall termed a disaster despite later acclaim, and Orson Welles's Falstaff film, Chimes at Midnight (1966), which was unsuccessful at the time but has since been recognised as "one of the best, albeit most eccentric, of all Shakespearean movies", according to Morley. Much of Gielgud's theatre work in the later 1960s was as a director: Chekhov's Ivanov at the Phoenix in London and the Shubert in New York, Peter Ustinov's Half Way Up the Tree at the Queen's and Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Coliseum. One potentially outstanding acting role, Ibsen's Bishop Nicholas, fell through in 1967 when Olivier, with whom he was to co-star at the National Theatre in The Pretenders, was ill. Gielgud played Orgon in Tartuffe and the title role in Seneca's Oedipus during the National's 1967–68 season, but according to Croall neither production was satisfactory. After this, Gielgud at last found a modern role that suited him and which he played to acclaim: the Headmaster in Alan Bennett's first play, Forty Years On (1968). The notices for both play and star were excellent. In The Daily Telegraph John Barber wrote, "Gielgud dominates all with an unexpected caricature of a mincing pedant, his noble features blurred so as to mimic a fussed and fatuous egghead. From the great mandarin of the theatre, a delicious comic creation." Having finally embraced film-making, Gielgud appeared in six films in 1967–69. His most substantial role was Lord Raglan in Tony Richardson's The Charge of the Light Brigade. His other roles, in films including Michael Anderson's The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968) as a fictional pope and Richard Attenborough's Oh! What a Lovely War (1969) as Count Leopold Berchtold, were cameo appearances in character roles. ### 1970s – Indian summer In 1970 Gielgud played another modern role in which he had great success; he joined Ralph Richardson at the Royal Court in Chelsea in David Storey's Home. The play is set in the gardens of a nursing home for mental patients, though this is not clear at first. The two elderly men converse in a desultory way, are joined and briefly enlivened by two more extrovert female patients, are slightly scared by another male patient, and are then left together, conversing even more emptily. The Punch critic, Jeremy Kingston, wrote: > At the end of the play, as the climax to two perfect, delicate performances, Sir Ralph and Sir John are standing, staring out above the heads of the audience, cheeks wet with tears in memory of some unnamed misery, weeping soundlessly as the lights fade on them. It makes a tragic, unforgettable close. The play transferred to the West End and then to Broadway. In The New York Times Clive Barnes wrote, "The two men, bleakly examining the little nothingness of their lives, are John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson giving two of the greatest performances of two careers that have been among the glories of the English-speaking theater." The original cast recorded the play for television in 1972. In the first half of the decade Gielgud made seven films and six television dramas. Morley describes his choice as indiscriminate, but singles out for praise his performances in 1974 as the Old Cardinal in Joseph Losey's Galileo and the manservant Beddoes in Sidney Lumet's Murder on the Orient Express. In a 1971 BBC presentation of James Elroy Flecker's Hassan, Gielgud played the Caliph to Richardson's Hassan. The critic of The Illustrated London News said that viewers would "shiver at a towering performance by Gielgud, as a Caliph with all the purring beauty and ruthlessness of a great golden leopard". In the theatre Gielgud directed Coward's Private Lives and Somerset Maugham's The Constant Wife (both 1973, London and 1974, New York). His final production as a director was Pinero's The Gay Lord Quex (1975). Gielgud continued his long stage association with Richardson in Harold Pinter's No Man's Land (1975), directed by Hall at the National. Richardson played Hirst, a prosperous but isolated and vulnerable author, and Gielgud was Spooner, a down-at-heel sponger and opportunist. Hall found the play "extremely funny and also extremely bleak". The production was a critical and box-office success and, over a period of three years, played at the Old Vic, in the West End, at the Lyttelton Theatre in the new National Theatre complex, on Broadway and on television. In Julian Mitchell's Half-Life (1977) at the National, Gielgud was warmly praised by reviewers; he reprised the role at the Duke of York's Theatre in the West End in 1978 and on tour the following year. In the latter part of the decade Gielgud worked more for cinema and television than on stage. His film work included what Morley calls "his most embarrassing professional appearance", in Caligula (1979), Gore Vidal's story of Ancient Rome, spiced with pornographic scenes. In Gielgud's ten other films from this period, his most substantial role was Clive Langham in Alain Resnais' Providence (1977). Gielgud thought it "by far the most exciting film I have ever made". He won a New York Film Critics Circle award for his performance as a dying author, "drunk half the time ... throwing bottles about, and roaring a lot of very coarse dialogue". His other film parts included the Head Master of Eton in Jack Gold's Aces High (1976) and Tomlinson in Otto Preminger's The Human Factor (1979). For television his roles included Lord Henry Wotton in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1976), John of Gaunt in Richard II (1978) and Chorus in Romeo and Juliet (1978). ### Later years In the 1980s Gielgud appeared in more than twenty films. Morley singles out as noteworthy The Elephant Man (1980), as the chairman of the Royal London Hospital, Chariots of Fire (1981), as the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, Gandhi (1982), as Lord Irwin (the latter two winning Academy Awards as Best Picture), The Shooting Party (1984) and Plenty (1985), directed by David Lynch, Hugh Hudson, Richard Attenborough, Alan Bridges and Fred Schepisi respectively. Tony Palmer's Wagner (1983) was the only film in which Gielgud, Richardson, and Olivier played scenes together. Gielgud made cameo appearances in films of little merit, lending distinction while not damaging his own reputation. He told an interviewer, "They pay me very well for two or three days' work a month, so why not? It's nice at my age to be able to travel all over the world at other people's expense." Gielgud's most successful film performance of the decade was Steve Gordon's comedy Arthur (1981), which starred Dudley Moore as a self-indulgent playboy. Gielgud played Hobson, Moore's butler. He turned the part down twice before finally accepting it, nervous, after the Caligula débâcle, of the strong language used by the acerbic Hobson. He won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor and other awards for the performance. He placed little value on awards, and avoided presentation ceremonies whenever he could: "I really detest all the mutual congratulation baloney and the invidious comparisons which they evoke." For television Gielgud played nineteen roles during the 1980s; they included Edward Ryder in an eleven-part adaptation of Waugh's Brideshead Revisited (1982). The Times said that he gave the role "a desolate and calculated malice which carries almost singlehandedly [the] first two episodes". Near the end of the decade, Gielgud was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for his role as Aaron Jastrow, a Jewish professor murdered in the Holocaust, in the mini-series War and Remembrance. At the decade's end he played a rakish journalist, Haverford Downs, in John Mortimer's Summer's Lease, for which he won an Emmy Award after its 1991 American broadcast. Gielgud's final West End play was Hugh Whitemore's The Best of Friends (1988). He played Sir Sydney Cockerell, director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, in a representation of a friendship between Cockerell, Bernard Shaw and Laurentia McLachlan, a Benedictine nun. Gielgud had some trouble learning his lines; at one performance he almost forgot them, momentarily distracted by seeing in a 1938 copy of The Times, read by his character, a review of his own portrayal of Vershinin in Three Sisters fifty years earlier. In 1990 Gielgud made his last film appearance in a leading role, playing Prospero in Prospero's Books, Peter Greenaway's adaptation of The Tempest. Reviews for the film were mixed, but Gielgud's performance in one of his signature roles was much praised. He continued to work on radio, as he had done throughout his career; Croall lists more than fifty BBC radio productions of plays starring Gielgud between 1929 and 1994. To mark his ninetieth birthday he played Lear for the last time; for the BBC Kenneth Branagh gathered a cast that included Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins and Emma Thompson as Lear's daughters, with actors such as Bob Hoskins, Derek Jacobi and Simon Russell Beale in supporting roles. He continued to appear on television until 1998; his last major role in the medium was in a BBC production in 1994 of J. B. Priestley's rarely-revived Summer Day's Dream. Subsequently, he made further cameo appearances in films including Branagh's Hamlet (as King Priam, 1996), Dragonheart (as the voice of King Arthur, 1996), and Shine (as Cecil Parkes, 1996). His last feature film appearance was as Pope Pius V in Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth (1998). In 2000 he had a non-speaking role alongside Pinter in a film of Beckett's short play Catastrophe directed by David Mamet. Gielgud's partner, Martin Hensler, died in 1999. After this, Gielgud went into a physical and psychological decline; he died at home on 21 May the following year, at the age of 96. At his request there was no memorial service, and his funeral at All Saints' Church, Wotton Underwood was private, for family and close friends. ## Honours, character and reputation Gielgud's state honours were Knight Bachelor (1953), Legion of Honour (France, 1960), Companion of Honour (1977), and Order of Merit (UK, 1996). He was awarded honorary degrees by St Andrews, Oxford and Brandeis universities. From 1977 to 1989 Gielgud was president of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art – a symbolic position – and was the academy's first honorary fellow (1989). In 1994 the Globe Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue was renamed the Gielgud Theatre. He had not acted on stage for six years, and felt out of touch with the West End: he commented on the renaming of the theatre, "At last there is a name in lights on the Avenue which I actually recognise, even if it is my own." Gielgud was uninterested in religion or politics. As a boy he had been fascinated by the rituals at Westminster Abbey, but his brief attraction to religion quickly faded, and as an adult he was a non-believer. His indifference to politics was illustrated at a formal dinner not long after the Second World War when he asked a fellow guest, "Whereabouts are you living now?", unaware that, as he was talking to Clement Attlee, the answer was "10 Downing Street". In his Who's Who entry Gielgud listed his hobbies as music and painting, but his concentration on his work, which Emlyn Williams called fanatical, left little scope for leisure activities. His dedication to his art was not solemn. The critic Nicholas de Jongh wrote that Gielgud's personality was "such infinite, mischievous fun", and Coward's biographer Cole Lesley recalled the pleasure of Gielgud's company, "the words tumbling out of his mouth in an avalanche, frequently having to wipe away his own tears of laughter at the funniness of the disasters he recounted, disasters always against himself". Together with Richardson and Olivier, Gielgud was internationally recognised as one of the "great trinity of theatrical knights" who dominated the British stage for more than fifty years during the middle and later decades of the 20th century. The critic Michael Coveney wrote, for Gielgud's ninety-fifth birthday: > I have seen Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Alec Guinness and Peggy Ashcroft but John Gielgud is something else. Gielgud is the lone survivor of those great actors whose careers laid the foundation stones of modern theatre. He is acclaimed as the greatest speaker of Shakespearean verse this century. People my age and younger can only take on trust the impact of the Hamlet whose influence lasted more than 30 years. Even the recordings do not quite convey the mellifluous magic of the voice once described by Guinness as a "silver trumpet muffled in silk". > > He is indelibly linked with the roles of Prospero and King Lear – regarded as pinnacles of theatrical achievement – yet he is also widely remembered for his wonderful comic touch as Jack Worthing in Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. But his influence goes far beyond his performances. Without Gielgud there would be no National Theatre or Royal Shakespeare Company. He was a pioneer in establishing the first permanent companies in the West End. In an obituary in The Independent Alan Strachan, having discussed Gielgud's work for cinema, radio and television, concluded that "any consideration of Gielgud's rich and often astonishing career must return to the stage; as he wrote at the close of An Actor and His Time (1979), he saw the theatre as 'more than an occupation or a profession; for me it has been a life'." ## Books by Gielgud ### Autobiography ### Anthology ### Acting versions - Based on a translation by Edward Nicolaeff. ## See also - List of British actors - List of British Academy Award nominees and winners - List of actors with Academy Award nominations - List of actors with two or more Academy Award nominations in acting categories - List of LGBT Academy Award winners and nominees
15,329,558	Operation Perch	1,173,511,671	British offensive of the Second World War	[ "1944 in France", "Battle for Caen", "Battles of World War II involving Germany", "Conflicts in 1944", "June 1944 events", "Land battles of World War II involving the United Kingdom" ]	Operation Perch was a British offensive of the Second World War which took place from 7 to 14 June 1944, during the early stages of the Battle of Normandy. The operation was intended to encircle and seize the German occupied city of Caen, which was a D-Day objective for the British 3rd Infantry Division in the early phases of Operation Overlord. Operation Perch was to begin immediately after the British beach landings with an advance to the south-east of Caen by XXX Corps. Three days after the invasion the city was still in German hands and the operation was amended. The operation was expanded to include I Corps for a pincer attack on Caen. On the next day, XXX Corps in the west pushed south to Tilly-sur-Seulles, which was occupied by the Panzer-Lehr Division; the village was captured and re-captured several times. I Corps began the eastern thrust two days later from the Orne bridgehead, which had been secured in Operation Tonga on D-Day. I Corps was also delayed by constant counter-attacks of the 21st Panzer Division. With mounting casualties and no sign of a German collapse, the offensive east of Caen was suspended on 13 June. Further west in the US First Army area, American attacks forced a gap in the German defences. Part of the 7th Armoured Division was diverted from Tilly-sur-Seulles, to advance through the gap in a flanking manoeuvre and force the Panzer Lehr Division to fall back, to avoid encirclement. On 14 June, after two days of battle including the Battle of Villers-Bocage, the 7th Armoured Division was ordered to withdraw towards Caumont. Plans were made to resume the offensive once the 7th Armoured Division had been reinforced but the plans came to nothing when a storm in the English Channel seriously delayed the landing of supplies and reinforcements. The battle is controversial because many historians and writers have concluded that it was failures by British divisional and corps commanders that squandered an opportunity to capture Caen, rather than the Germans achieving a defensive success. To resist the offensive, the Germans had committed their most powerful armoured reserves, which deprived them of the fighting power for a counter-offensive and forfeited the initiative to the Allies. ## Background ### Operation Overlord The Norman town of Caen was a D-Day objective for the 3rd Infantry Division, which landed on Sword Beach on 6 June 1944. The capture of Caen was the most ambitious objective of I Corps (Lieutenant-General John Crocker). The Overlord plan called for the Second Army (Lieutenant-General Miles Dempsey) to secure the city and then form a front line from Caumont-l'Éventé to the south-east of Caen, acquiring airfields and protecting the left flank of the US First Army while it moved on Cherbourg. Possession of Caen and its surroundings would give the Second Army a suitable staging area for a push south to capture Falaise, which could be used as the pivot for a swing left of the Allied front to advance on Argentan and then towards the Touques River. The terrain between Caen and Vimont was especially promising, being open, dry and conducive to swift offensive operations. The Allies greatly outnumbered the Germans in tanks and mobile units and a battle of manoeuvre would be to their advantage. ### Operation Perch Operation Perch was intended to create the threat of a British break-out to the south-east of Caen by XXX Corps. The 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division landed on Gold Beach on 6 June and was to rapidly move inland and capture Bayeux and the road to Tilly-sur-Seulles. The 7th Armoured Division and the 8th Armoured Brigade would then take over from the 50th Northumbrian Division and advance from Tilly-sur-Seulles to Mont Pinçon. XXX Corps landed on Gold Beach at 07:30 on 6 June, cleared seven exits off the beach and advanced 5 mi (8.0 km) inland. German resistance at Le Hamel delayed the division and prevented the achievement of all of the D-Day objectives before dark. Patrols had reached Bayeux and made contact with the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, which had landed on Juno Beach to the east. The 47 Royal Marine Commando advanced westwards along the coast, to link up with the American forces moving inland from Omaha Beach but fell short of Port-en-Bessin-Huppain by 3 mi (4.8 km). During the afternoon, the German LXXXIV Corps ordered its reserve, 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend (Kampfgruppe Meyer), to strike into the flank of the 50th Division north of Bayeux. While advancing to the attack, a battalion was ordered towards Omaha beach, weakening the counter-attack which was a costly failure. On 7 June, the bulk of the 7th Armoured Division landed on schedule and XXX Corps secured its remaining D-Day objectives, including Bayeux and Port-en-Bessin-Huppain. The German LXXXIV Corps sent its last reserve unit, Mobile Brigade 30, towards Gold Beach to repeat the counter-attack, which also failed and the brigade was destroyed north of Bayeux. The survivors of the two counter-attacks were driven into a pocket north of the city by the Anglo-American advance, although the Americans did not discover that this had happened. From Sword Beach, the 3rd Infantry Division of I Corps had advanced towards Caen but diverted units to capture German positions along the 9.3 mi (15.0 km) route, which reduced the strength of the infantry attack and the accompanying 27th Armoured Brigade was delayed by congestion in the beachhead. The division was stopped short of Caen by the 21st Panzer Division. ## Prelude ### Operation Wild Oats On 9 June the Allied ground forces commander, General Bernard Montgomery, met Dempsey and Omar Bradley (US First Army commander) and it was decided that Caen would be taken by a pincer movement, Operation Wild Oats. From the east the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division and the 4th Armoured Brigade of I Corps, would cross east into the 6th Airborne Division bridgehead over the Orne and attack towards Cagny, 6 mi (9.7 km) to the south-east of Caen. XXX Corps to the west would send the 7th Armoured Division across the Odon River to take Évrecy and Hill 112. The 1st Airborne Division would then drop between the pincers but Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, the Allied air commander exercised a veto of the airborne plan as too risky for the transport aircraft. ### German preparations Late on 7 June, the I SS-Panzer Corps was transferred from the command of the 7th Army to Panzergruppe West (Armoured Group West, General Geyr von Schweppenburg). Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, the supreme commander in the west (OB West), ordered Panzergruppe West to plan a counter-attack for 10 June. This attack was cancelled by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel the commander of Army Group B, due to lack of troops. German units were rushed to Normandy to contain the invasion. The I SS-Panzer Corps consisted of the Panzer-Lehr-Division, one of the strongest divisions in the German army, the 12th SS-Panzer Division Hitlerjugend and the 21st Panzer Division. The leading elements of the Panzer-Lehr Division arrived during the night of 9 June at the Tilly-sur-Seulles, having lost up to 200 vehicles to aerial attacks during its 90 mi (140 km) drive from Chartres, having been diverted from facing the British I Corps north of Caen due to the success of the 50th Northumbrian Division. Parts of the 12th SS-Panzer Division, the 21st Panzer Division and the remains of the 716th Static Infantry Division were moved to Caen, facing I Corps. Several attacks were launched against the Anglo-Canadian beachhead north of Caen. In the early hours of 9 June, the survivors of Kampfgruppe Meyer and Mobile Brigade 30 broke out of the pocket north of Bayeux. Later in the day, XXX Corps linked with the Americans while the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division reached the north-east outskirts of Tilly-sur-Seulles and encountered the tanks of the Panzer-Lehr Division. During the evening, Panzer-Lehr and the 12th SS-Panzer Division counter-attacked and overran a British infantry company, before being forced back the next morning. ## Battle ### XXX Corps On 10 June, the 7th Armoured Division took over parts of the 50th Northumbrian Division front with the 56th Infantry Brigade under command. By nightfall, the 7th Armoured Division had reached the north-western fringe of Tilly-sur-Seulles and next day penetrated the village, capturing the central crossroads. The Panzer-Lehr Division made several counter-attacks, which forced the British out and attacks by the 50th (Northumbrian) Division bogged down in the bocage. Army Group B planned to relieve the armoured divisions facing the Second Army from 11 June and replace them with infantry divisions, to concentrate the tanks in the Carentan area and avert the danger to Cherbourg. Adolf Hitler over-ruled Rommel and the next day ordered him not to retreat and instead to roll up the Allied beachhead from east to west, starting with the Orne bridgehead. ### I Corps While XXX Corps attacked Tilly-sur-Seulles, an attack by I Corps was postponed until 12 June, because of weather delays, which slowed the landing of the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division and the 4th Armoured Brigade. On 10 June, German tanks and infantry made several attacks on the 6th Airborne Division in the Orne bridgehead, which forestalled the British attack. The Germans were repulsed with the help of naval gunfire and then counter-attacked; a captured German officer remarked that his "battalion had been virtually wiped out" during twelve hours of fighting. In the evening, a German attack on Ranville was repulsed with many German casualties. The vanguard of the 51st Highland Division arrived during the evening and attacked Bréville at dawn, which was also a costly failure; other elements of the division quickly secured Touffréville. During the afternoon of 11 June, The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada and 1st Hussars attacked Le Mesnil-Patry to assist the advance of the 69th Brigade of the 50th Northumbrian Division but the attack was another costly failure. On 12 June, German attacks were launched from the Bréville area against the Orne bridgehead. Fighting lasted all day and casualties were severe on both sides but during the evening the Germans pulled back. To close the gap in the British perimeter, the decision was made to secure Bréville and the 12th Battalion the Parachute Regiment captured the village by midnight but had 141 casualties among 160 men in the attack. The 51st Highland Division was opposed by the 21st Panzer Division in its efforts to push south to Saint Honorine and with the Highlanders contained, the offensive east of Caen was called off on 13 June. ### Caumont Gap Although the attempt to envelop Caen had been repulsed, on the right flank of XXX Corps (the junction of the British Second and First US armies) the possibility for a flanking manoeuvre had developed. Since D-Day, the British and Americans had destroyed five German battle groups in this area, including the reserves of LXXXIV Corps, leaving only remnants of the 352nd Infantry Division in the Trévières–Agy sector. The 352nd Division had been in action since its defence of Omaha, on 6 June, and had received few replacements. The 1st US Infantry Division and the 2nd US Infantry Division had forced the collapse of the left flank of the 352nd Division. On the night of 9/10 June, the 352nd Division received permission to retire to Saint-Lô, which created a 7.5 mi (12.1 km) gap in the German lines near Caumont-l'Éventé. Only the reconnaissance battalion of the 17th SS-Panzergrenadier Division, which had been detached when the division was moved west ready for a counter-offensive at Carentan, remained in the area. The Germans planned to use the 2nd Panzer Division to plug the gap but on 10 June, the bulk of the 2nd Panzer Division was strung out between Amiens and Alençon and was not expected to arrive in strength for another three days. General Hans Freiherr von Funck of XLVII Panzer Corps rushed the divisional reconnaissance battalion to Caumont, with orders to hold the high ground. The I SS-Panzer Corps commander, Sepp Dietrich, ordered his only reserve Schwere SS-Panzerabteilung 101, to move behind the Panzer-Lehr and 12th SS-Panzer divisions to cover the open left flank. The 2nd Company, schwere SS-Panzer Battalion 101, under the command of Michael Wittmann and with five operational Tiger tanks, was ordered to a position south of Point 213 on the Villers-Bocage ridge and arrived on 12 June, after a five-day drive from Beauvais. On 12 June, Dempsey met with Lieutenant-General Gerard Bucknall (XXX Corps) and Major-General George Erskine (7th Armoured Division) and ordered Erskine to disengage the division from the fighting around Tilly-sur-Seulles. The 7th Armoured Division was to exploit the gap to seize Villers-Bocage and advance behind the left flank of the Panzer-Lehr Division, to a ridge about 1.6 mi (2.6 km) east of the town. It was believed that the appearance of British tanks behind the Panzer-Lehr Division on high ground astride German supply-lines would compel the Panzer-Lehr Division to withdraw or be trapped. To support the flanking move of the 7th Armoured Division, the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division was to continue its attack against the Panzer-Lehr Division around Tilly-sur-Seulles. The US V Corps would push forward at the same time, the 1st US Infantry Division to capture Caumont and the high ground nearby and the 2nd US Infantry Division to advance towards Saint-Lô. The 7th Armoured Division was slow to redeploy and spent the morning of 12 June continuing the attack on Tilly-sur-Seulles, according to its original orders. At 12:00, Erskine ordered Brigadier Robert "Looney" Hinde (commander of the 22nd Armoured Brigade) to move through the gap at once. With the 131st Infantry Brigade ready for action, the 56th Infantry Brigade was returned to the control of the 50th Northumbrian Division. The 7th Armoured Division armoured reconnaissance regiment, the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars, began to reconnoitre the route and the rest of the division departed from Trungy at around 16:00. Four hours later, the main body approached Livry after an unopposed advance of 12 mi (19 km), the last 6 mi (9.7 km) of which were though German-held territory. North of Livry, the leading 8th Hussar Cromwell tanks were knocked out by an anti-tank gun of the Panzer-Lehr Division Escort Company; infantry and tanks were brought forward and cleared the position after two hours. On reaching the vicinity of La Mulotiere, Hinde halted for the night, to disguise the objective of the advance. The Cromwells of the 8th Hussar and the 11th (Prince Albert's Own) Hussar (the XXX Corps armoured car regiment) reconnoitred the flanks. The 11th Hussars found no resistance on the right, linking with the 1st US Infantry Division near Caumont; on the left flank, the 8th Hussars located elements of the Panzer-Lehr Division just under 2 mi (3.2 km) away. ### Battle of Villers-Bocage The British advance resumed at 05:30, and at about 08:30 the vanguard of the 22nd Armoured Brigade group entered the west end of Villers-Bocage. A squadron of the 4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), moved through the town and occupied Point 213, an area of high ground to the east on the Caen road. The regimental headquarters and a company of infantry occupied the eastern end of the town along the main road. At about 09:00, the foremost British tanks were engaged by 3–5 Tiger tanks of the 2nd Company, Schwere SS-Panzerabteilung 101. A Tiger under the command of Michael Wittmann, entered Villers-Bocage and destroyed several tanks of the 4th County of London Yeomanry regimental headquarters and reconnaissance troop, then attacked British tanks entering the town from the west, before attempting to withdraw. The Tiger was immobilised by British return fire and was abandoned by the crew who fled towards Château Orbois to report to the Panzer-Lehr Division. In fewer than 15 minutes, 13–14 tanks, two anti-tank guns and 13–15 transport vehicles had been destroyed, many by Wittmann. During the rest of the morning, an infantry battalion from the 22nd Armoured Brigade group took up defensive positions in the town; the troops at Point 213 had been cut off and a force was assembled to extricate them. The relief force was unable to advance on the ridge and when more German forces arrived between 11:00 and 13:00, the trapped squadron surrendered. More German troops had arrived, and engaged the 22nd Armoured Brigade group along the road back to Livry. Tanks of the Panzer-Lehr Division arrived to seal off the north and west exits from Villers-Bocage but were ambushed by British anti-tank guns and several were disabled before the British position was silenced. The Schwere SS-Panzerabteilung 101 was ambushed in the town centre. Several Tigers and a Panzer IV were knocked out by anti-tank guns, a Sherman Firefly and British infantry. The disabled tanks were later set on fire and British and German infantry fought throughout the afternoon. The British positions were bombarded by heavy artillery and several German attacks were repulsed by British field artillery firing over open sights. A British company was overrun, a platoon taken prisoner and the battalion headquarters came under fire. Hinde decided that the brigade group should withdraw until morning to Point 174, an area of high ground to the west of Villers-Bocage near Amayé-sur-Seulles. At 20:00, the withdrawal began under cover of an artillery bombardment and was accomplished largely unmolested. ### 14 June #### 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division On the morning of 14 June, Montgomery abandoned the pincer attack on Caen, because he lacked "sufficient strength to act offensively on both flanks". XXX Corps was ordered to continue in a "concentrated single blow" while in the I Corps area, the attack by the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division was "piped down". The 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division continued the attack southwards, to pin down German forces. On 14 June, supported by the divisional artillery and the Royal Air Force, the division attacked with two brigades towards la Senaudière, la Belle Epine, Lingèvres and Verrières. If the attack succeeded, it was to be exploited to capture Hottot-les-Bagues. To prepare the route of the attack, a reconnaissance-in-force was conducted the evening before but the panzergrenadiers of the Panzer-Lehr Division inflicted many casualties on the British troops; German casualties are unknown, although one tank was destroyed. The main attack began at 10:15 the next morning, when the 151st (Durham) Infantry Brigade and tanks of the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards, advanced towards Lingèvres and Verrières. The German defenders held their fire until the British were less than 150 yd (140 m) from their position. The fighting culminated with an assault by the 6th Durham Light Infantry (DLI), with much artillery support, that captured the German positions. Two companies advanced to Verrières, which was found to be unoccupied but further advances were checked by German infantry and tanks. The 9th DLI was also held up by German machine-gun fire and needed their reserve companies, to break through the German positions. At about 13:30, the battalion captured Lingèvres and moved anti-tank guns into the village, although most of these were put out of action by the first German counter-attack. Two Panthers were spotted approaching Lingèvres by Sergeant Wilfred Harris, commander of a Sherman Firefly, who engaged at 400 yd (370 m), destroying the first and disabling the second. While Harris moved, an infantry tank-hunting party, led by Major John Mogg (acting battalion commander of the 9th DLI) finished off the damaged Panther. Other tank-hunting parties drove off another Panther, a British M4 Sherman was destroyed and a third Panther was knocked out by a Sherman. Three more Panthers moved towards the village and Harris destroyed the lead vehicle outside the village and the other two inside, including one in the centre of Lingèvres. The 231st Infantry Brigade reached its objectives by nightfall and linked with the 151st Infantry Brigade. A 6th DLI officer said that the attack was the best one launched by the battalion during the campaign. Nine German tanks were knocked out during the day but the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division had been unable to break through the Panzer-Lehr defences and the DLI suffered c. 353 casualties. #### Battle of the Island The 22nd Armoured Brigade group had completed their withdrawal by 14 June and formed a brigade box for all-round defence (with an area of fewer than 2 km<sup>2</sup> (0.77 sq mi)) near Hill 174. The fighting became known as the Battle of the Island or Island Position as named in the 22nd Armoured Brigade group after action report. Other names given to the action are the Battle of the Brigade Box and the Battle of Amayé-sur-Seulles. The Panzer-Lehr Division had defended against the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division attack and to counter-attack the 7th Armoured Division penetration, with the support of the 1st Company Schwere SS-Panzerabteilung 101. The 2nd Panzer Division reconnaissance battalion and other small infantry units also faced the brigade box but the tanks of the 2nd Panzer Division had still not arrived. The British 131st Infantry Brigade (one infantry battalion and an armoured regiment) had moved up to Livry. During the morning, the 131st Infantry Brigade kept the road from the brigade box to the Livry–Briquessard area open and Typhoon fighter bombers attacked German positions near the box. German infantry spotted advancing towards the brigade box were bombarded by heavy artillery and repulsed. Around 09:00, more infantry attacked the box and came too close for artillery fire. Hand-to-hand fighting began and a British platoon was overrun, a British counter-attack by infantry and tanks repulsed the German infantry and restored the position. The Germans resorted to harassing fire, sniping, mortar bombardments and heavy artillery fire. After a long artillery bombardment, simultaneous attacks from the north and south, by tanks and infantry were made at 19:00, which broke into the box and closed on the brigade headquarters, before being driven back around 22:30. #### Operation Aniseed The 7th Armoured Division commander was confident that the box was secure but the failure of the 50th Northumbrian Infantry Division to break through the Panzer-Lehr Division and reach the 7th Armoured Division, led to orders for the brigade group to retire to straighten the front line. The retirement, codenamed Operation Aniseed, began just after midnight. Decoy raids by Bomber Command on Aunay-sur-Odon and Evrecy, caused 29 casualties, destroyed a Tiger tank and damaged three more. Artillery harassing fire was maintained north and south of the withdrawal route but the Germans did little to intervene. Germans losses included 700–800 casualties and 8–20 tanks, including several Tigers; British casualties were light and only three tanks were lost. Reynolds called the German casualty figures "exaggerated" and in his report, Hinde wrote "It is questionable whether the expenditure of artillery and small arms ammunition was justified by the scale of the enemy's efforts". ## Aftermath ### Analysis The failure of the operation led Dempsey to write that there was "no chance now of a snap operation with airborne troops either to seize Caen or to deepen the bridgehead on XXX Corps front. It is clear now that Caen can be taken only by set-piece assault and we do not have the men or ammunition for that at this time". After the war he wrote that the attack by the 7th Armoured Division should have succeeded and that his doubts about the suitability of Bucknall and Erskine increased. Dempsey called the handling of the battle a disgrace and said that the decision to withdraw from Villers-Bocage was made by the corps commander and Erskine. Carlo D'Este called Dempsey's comments "excessively harsh" but historians generally support them, suggesting that a great opportunity swiftly to capture Caen had been squandered by Bucknall. John Buckley wrote that Bucknall was not ready to support the attack once problems developed and that Erskine was not capable of mastering the situation. The British official historian, Lionel Ellis, wrote that the result was "disappointing" but that the fighting power of the Panzer-Lehr Division and with the unexpected arrival of the 2nd Panzer Division, the 7th Armoured Division "could hardly have achieved full success". In 2001, Michael Reynolds wrote that the 2nd Panzer Division tanks were nowhere near Villers-Bocage. Hubert Meyer wrote that Operation Perch failed because the 50th Northumbrian Division and its armoured brigade could not overcome the Panzer-Lehr-Division, the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division attack in the east end of the bridgehead failed and because of the rapid counter-attack by advanced elements of the 2nd Panzer Division. The allocation of insufficient infantry to the attack has been criticised, because there were two infantry battalions and most of the 1st Battalion the Rifle Brigade available to the 7th Armoured Division on 13 June and three fresh infantry brigades in the bridgehead. Reynolds wrote that Bucknall was at fault for failing to concentrate his forces. D'Este concurred but Bucknall defended his decision claiming the "49 [Division] ... [had] no recent battle experience and it was important to launch them nicely into their first fighting in a properly coordinated battle, and not bundle them helter-skelter into hot armoured scrapping like that around V[illers]-B[ocage] and Amaye". Buckley wrote that the operation was a failure of command. Terry Copp wrote that Dempsey continued to underestimate the German strength and commitment to defending the ground they held. Mungo Melvin wrote that Dempsey and the Second Army handled subordinate formations poorly, by not giving subordinates definite tasks, clear intentions and allowing discretion in the implementation of orders. Chester Wilmot called Operation Perch a strategic success, "By the premature commitment of his armour, Rommel had delayed the British advance, but in the process he had played into Montgomery's hands for, once the panzer divisions were locked into battle with Second Army, they could not be used for their proper offensive task". Stephen Badsey wrote that Montgomery's message to Bradley, "Caen is the key to Cherbourg" was true. The risk of a break-out past Caen immobilised the German armoured divisions at the east end of front, unable mount a counter-offensive against the First US Army. Hitler's interference saved Rommel's military reputation because the unsuitability of the Cotentin for armoured operations, the difficulties involved in movement and supply in the area and the strength of the Anglo-Canadian force, would have led to a more rapid and complete defeat of the German army in Normandy. By his order of 12 June, Hitler made the rest of the campaign a battle of attrition. ### Casualties During Operation Perch, Schwere SS-Panzerabteilung 101 suffered 27 casualties, had nine tanks destroyed and a further 21 damaged; leaving the battalion with only 15 operational tanks by 16 June. For most of the formations involved in the fighting, specific casualty data are unavailable. By the end of June, the Panzer-Lehr Division had suffered 2,972 casualties and reported the loss of 51 tanks and assault guns, 82 half tracks and 294 other vehicles. By 16 June, the 12th SS-Panzer Division had reported 1,417 casualties and by 26 June the division had lost 41 tanks. By 16 June, the 21st Panzer Division had suffered 1,864 casualties; before the invasion, the division had 112 tanks and by 16 June the division reported 85 tanks operational. By the end of June, the 7th Armoured Division had suffered 1,149 casualties and lost at least 38 tanks during Operation Perch. By the end of the month, the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division had suffered 4,476 casualties. ### Battle honours The British and Commonwealth system of battle honours recognised participation in the expansion of the bridgehead during the period of Operation Perch in 1956, 1957 and in 1958. One unit was awarded the honour Port En Bessin, one formation the honour Sully, four units the honour Breville, and 11 regiments the honour Villers-Bocage. Additionally, for participating in the expansion of the bridgehead between 14 and 19 June, ten units were awarded the honour Tilly Sur Seulles. ### Subsequent operations The battle between 50th Northumbrian Division and Panzer-Lehr Division continued for several days and by 15 June, XXX Corps claimed to have destroyed at least 70 German tanks. On 18 June, the British re-entered Tilly-sur-Seulles and consolidated the village next day against light opposition; it had changed hands 23 times. The British attacked towards Hottot-les-Bagues against the Panzer-Lehr Division and gained a foothold in the village, until forced out by German counter-attacks by tanks and infantry. The British retook the village and then withdrew during the night. The 7th Armoured Division was withdrawn to be reinforced by the 33rd Armoured Brigade, which was landing in the beachhead. The reinforced division was intended to attack again but on 19 June a storm began in the English Channel, which delayed the landing of supplies and British attacks were postponed. Caen north of the Orne was captured during Operation Charnwood (8–9 July) and the north bank suburbs were taken during Operation Atlantic (18–20 July).
1,319,795	Deinosuchus	1,172,478,112	Genus of a giant crocodylian	[ "Apex predators", "Campanian genus extinctions", "Campanian genus first appearances", "Campanian life", "Crocodilians", "Fossil taxa described in 1909", "Late Cretaceous crocodylomorphs of North America", "Late Cretaceous reptiles of North America", "Prehistoric pseudosuchian genera", "Taxa named by William Jacob Holland" ]	Deinosuchus (/ˌdaɪnəˈsjuːkəs/) is an extinct genus of alligatoroid crocodilian, related to modern alligators and caimans, that lived 82 to 73 million years ago (Ma), during the late Cretaceous period. The name translates as "terrible crocodile" and is derived from the Greek deinos (δεινός), "terrible", and soukhos (σοῦχος), "crocodile". The first remains were discovered in North Carolina (United States) in the 1850s; the genus was named and described in 1909. Additional fragments were discovered in the 1940s and were later incorporated into an influential, though inaccurate, skull reconstruction at the American Museum of Natural History. Knowledge of Deinosuchus remains incomplete, but better cranial material found in recent years has expanded scientific understanding of this massive predator. Although Deinosuchus was far larger than any modern crocodile or alligator, with the largest adults measuring 10.6 meters (35 ft) in total length, its overall appearance was fairly similar to its smaller relatives. It had large, robust teeth built for crushing, and its back was covered with thick hemispherical osteoderms. One study indicated Deinosuchus may have lived for up to 50 years, growing at a rate similar to that of modern crocodilians, but maintaining this growth over a much longer time. Deinosuchus fossils have been described from 10 U.S. states, including Texas, Montana, and many along the East Coast. Fossils have also been found in northern Mexico. It lived on both sides of the Western Interior Seaway, and was an opportunistic apex predator in the coastal regions of eastern North America. Deinosuchus reached its largest size in its western habitat, but the eastern populations were far more abundant. Opinion remains divided as to whether these two populations represent separate species. Deinosuchus was probably capable of killing and eating large dinosaurs. It may have also fed upon sea turtles, fish, and other aquatic and terrestrial prey. ## Description ### Morphology Despite its large size, the overall appearance of Deinosuchus was not considerably different from that of modern crocodilians. Deinosuchus had an alligator-like, broad snout, with a slightly bulbous tip. Each premaxilla contained four teeth, with the pair nearest to the tip of the snout being significantly smaller than the other two. Each maxilla (the main tooth-bearing bone in the upper jaw) contained 21 or 22 teeth. The tooth count for each dentary (tooth-bearing bone in the lower jaw) was at least 22. All the teeth were very thick and robust; those close to the rear of the jaws were short, rounded, and blunt. They appear to have been adapted for crushing, rather than piercing. When the mouth was closed, only the fourth tooth of the lower jaw would have been visible. The skull of Deinosuchus itself was of a unique shape not seen in any other living or extinct crocodilians; the skull was broad, but inflated at the front around the nares. Two holes in the premaxilla in front of the nares are present in this genus and are unique autapomorphies not seen in other crocodilians, but nothing is known at present regarding their function. Modern saltwater crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) have the strongest recorded bite of any living animal, with a maximum force of 16,414 N (1,673.8 kgf; 3,690 lbf) for a 4.59 meters (15.1 ft), 531 kilograms (1,171 lb) specimen. The bite force of Deinosuchus has been estimated to be 18,000 N (1,835 kgf; 4,047 lbf) to 102,803 N (10,483 kgf; 23,111 lbf). Deinosuchus had a secondary bony palate, which would have permitted it to breathe through its nostrils while the rest of the head remained submerged underwater. The vertebrae were articulated in a procoelous manner, meaning they had a concave hollow on the front end and a convex bulge on the rear; these would have fit together to produce a ball and socket joint. The secondary palate and procoelous vertebrae are advanced features also found in modern eusuchian crocodilians. The osteoderms (scutes) covering the back of Deinosuchus were unusually large, heavy, and deeply pitted; some were of a roughly hemispherical shape. Deep pits and grooves on these osteoderms served as attachment points for connective tissue. Together, the osteoderms and connective tissue would have served as load-bearing reinforcement to support the massive body of Deinosuchus out of water. These deeply pitted osteoderms have been used to suggest that, despite its bulk, Deinosuchus could probably have walked on land much like modern-day crocodiles. ### Size The large size of Deinosuchus has generally been recognized despite the fragmentary nature of the fossils assigned to it. However, estimates of how large it really was have varied considerably over the years. The original estimate from 1954 for the type specimen of the then-named "Phobosuchus riograndensis" were based on a skull of 1.5 meters (4.9 ft) and a lower jaw of 1.8 meters (5.9 ft) long, reconstructed with similar proportions to the Cuban crocodile giving a total estimated length of 15 meters (49 ft). However, this reconstruction is currently considered to be inaccurate. Using more complete remains, it was estimated in 1999 that the size attained by specimens of Deinosuchus varied from 8 to 10 meters (26 to 33 ft) with weights from 2.5 to 5 metric tons (2.8 to 5.5 short tons). This was later corroborated when it was noted that most known specimens of D. rugosus usually had skulls of about 1 meter (3.3 ft) with estimated total lengths of 8 meters (26 ft) and weights of 2.3 metric tons (2.5 short tons). A reasonably well-preserved skull specimen discovered in Texas indicated the animal's head measured about 1.31 meters (4.3 ft), and its body length was estimated at 9.8 meters (32 ft). However, the largest fragmentary remains of D. riograndensis were 1.5 times the size of those of the average D. rugosus and it was determined that the largest individuals of this species may have been up to 12 meters (39 ft) in length and perhaps weighed as much as 8.5 metric tons (9.4 short tons). A particularly large mandibular fragment from a D. riograndensis specimen was estimated to have come from an individual with a skull length of 147.5 centimeters (4.84 ft). This length was used in conjunction with a regression equation relating skull length to total length in the American alligator to estimate a total length of 10.6 meters (35 ft) for this particular specimen. This is only slightly lower than previous estimates for the species. Deinosuchus has often been described as the largest crocodyliform of all time. However, other crocodyliforms such as Purussaurus, Gryposuchus, Rhamphosuchus, Euthecodon, and Sarcosuchus may have equaled or exceeded it in size. ## Paleobiology ### Habitat Deinosuchus was present on both sides of the Western Interior Seaway. Specimens have been described from 10 U.S. states: Utah, Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico, New Jersey, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, and North Carolina. David Schwimmer has said Deinosuchus fossils have been found in South Carolina and Delaware as well, but none of them from those two states have been formally described. A Deinosuchus osteoderm from the San Carlos Formation was also reported in 2006, so the giant crocodilian's range may have included parts of northern Mexico. There is also a report describing a possible Deinosuchus scute from Colorado. Deinosuchus fossils are most abundant in the Gulf Coastal Plain region of Georgia, near the Alabama border. All known specimens of Deinosuchus were found in rocks dated to the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous period. The oldest examples of this genus lived approximately 82 Ma, and the youngest lived around 73 Ma. The distribution of Deinosuchus specimens indicates these giant crocodilians may have preferred estuarine environments. In the Aguja Formation of Texas, where some of the largest specimens of Deinosuchus have been found, these massive predators probably inhabited brackish-water bays. Although some specimens have also been found in marine deposits, it is not clear whether Deinosuchus ventured out into the ocean (like modern-day saltwater crocodiles); these remains might have been displaced after the animals died. Deinosuchus has been described as a "conspicuous" component of a purportedly distinct biome occupying the southern half of Late Cretaceous North America. ### Diet In 1954, Edwin H. Colbert and Roland T. Bird speculated that Deinosuchus "may very well have hunted and devoured some of the dinosaurs with which it was contemporaneous". Colbert restated this hypothesis more confidently in 1961: "Certainly this crocodile must have been a predator of dinosaurs; otherwise why would it have been so overwhelmingly gigantic? It hunted in the water where the giant theropods could not go." David R. Schwimmer proposed in 2002 that several hadrosaurid tail vertebrae found near Big Bend National Park show evidence of Deinosuchus tooth marks, strengthening the hypothesis that Deinosuchus fed on dinosaurs in at least some instances. In 2003, Christopher A. Brochu agreed that Deinosuchus "probably dined on ornithopods from time to time." Deinosuchus is generally thought to have employed hunting tactics similar to those of modern crocodilians, ambushing dinosaurs and other terrestrial animals at the water's edge and then submerging them until they drowned. A 2014 study suggested that it would have been able to perform a "death roll", like modern crocodiles. Schwimmer and G. Dent Williams proposed in 1996 that Deinosuchus may have preyed on marine turtles. Deinosuchus would probably have used the robust, flat teeth near the back of its jaws to crush the turtle shells. The "side-necked" sea turtle Bothremys was especially common in the eastern habitat of Deinosuchus, and several of its shells have been found with bite marks that were most likely inflicted by the giant crocodilian. Schwimmer concluded in 2002 that the feeding patterns of Deinosuchus most likely varied by geographic location; the smaller Deinosuchus specimens of eastern North America would have been opportunistic feeders in an ecological niche similar to that of the modern American alligator. They would have consumed marine turtles, large fish, and smaller dinosaurs. The bigger, but less common, Deinosuchus that lived in Texas and Montana might have been more specialized hunters, capturing and eating large dinosaurs. Schwimmer noted no theropod dinosaurs in Deinosuchus's eastern range approached its size, indicating the massive crocodilian could have been the region's apex predator. ### Growth rates A 1999 study by Gregory M. Erickson and Christopher A. Brochu suggested the growth rate of Deinosuchus was comparable to that of modern crocodilians, but was maintained over a far longer time. Their estimates, based on growth rings in the dorsal osteoderms of various specimens, indicated each Deinosuchus might have taken over 35 years to reach full adult size, and the oldest individuals may have lived for more than 50 years. This was a completely different growth strategy than that of large dinosaurs, which reached adult size much more quickly and had shorter lifespans. According to Erickson, a full-grown Deinosuchus "must have seen several generations of dinosaurs come and go". Schwimmer noted in 2002 that Erickson and Brochu's assumptions about growth rates are only valid if the osteodermal rings reflect annual periods, as they do in modern crocodilians. According to Schwimmer, the growth ring patterns observed could have been affected by a variety of factors, including "migrations of their prey, wet-dry seasonal climate variations, or oceanic circulation and nutrient cycles". If the ring cycle were biannual rather than annual, this might indicate Deinosuchus grew faster than modern crocodilians, and had a similar maximum lifespan. ## Discovery and naming In 1858, geologist Ebenezer Emmons described two large fossil teeth found in Bladen County, North Carolina. Emmons assigned these teeth to Polyptychodon, which he then believed to be "a genus of crocodilian reptiles". Later discoveries showed that Polyptychodon was actually a pliosaur, a type of marine reptile. The teeth described by Emmons were thick, slightly curved, and covered with vertically grooved enamel; he assigned them a new species name, P. rugosus. Although not initially recognized as such, these teeth were probably the first Deinosuchus remains to be scientifically described. Another large tooth that likely came from Deinosuchus, discovered in neighboring Sampson County, was named Polydectes biturgidus by Edward Drinker Cope in 1869. In 1903, at Willow Creek, Montana, several fossil osteoderms were discovered "lying upon the surface of the soil" by John Bell Hatcher and T.W. Stanton. These osteoderms were initially attributed to the ankylosaurid dinosaur Euoplocephalus. Excavation at the site, carried out by W.H. Utterback, yielded further fossils, including additional osteoderms, as well as vertebrae, ribs, and a pubis. When these specimens were examined, it became clear that they belonged to a large crocodilian and not a dinosaur; upon learning this, Hatcher "immediately lost interest" in the material. After Hatcher died in 1904, his colleague W. J. Holland studied and described the fossils. Holland assigned these specimens to a new genus and species, Deinosuchus hatcheri, in 1909. Deinosuchus comes from the Greek δεινός/deinos, meaning "terrible", and σοῦχος/suchos, meaning "crocodile". A 1940 expedition by the American Museum of Natural History yielded more fossils of giant crocodilians, this time from Big Bend National Park in Texas. These specimens were described by Edwin H. Colbert and Roland T. Bird in 1954, under the name Phobosuchus riograndensis. Donald Baird and Jack Horner later assigned the Big Bend remains to Deinosuchus, which has been accepted by most modern authorities. The genus name Phobosuchus, which was initially created by Baron Franz Nopcsa in 1924, has since been discarded because it contained a variety of different crocodilian species that turned out to not be closely related to each other. The American Museum of Natural History incorporated the skull and jaw fragments into a plaster restoration, modeled after the present-day Cuban crocodile. Colbert and Bird stated this was a "conservative" reconstruction, since an even greater length could have been obtained if a long-skulled modern species, such as the saltwater crocodile had been used as the template. Because it was not then known that Deinosuchus had a broad snout, Colbert and Bird miscalculated the proportions of the skull, and the reconstruction greatly exaggerated its overall width and length. Despite its inaccuracies, the reconstructed skull became the best-known specimen of Deinosuchus, and brought public attention to this giant crocodilian for the first time. Numerous additional specimens of Deinosuchus were discovered over the next several decades. Most were quite fragmentary, but they expanded knowledge of the giant predator's geographic range. As noted by Chris Brochu, the osteoderms are distinctive enough that even "bone granola" can adequately confirm the presence of Deinosuchus. Better cranial material was also found; by 2002, David R. Schwimmer was able to create a composite computer reconstruction of 90% of the skull. ## Classification and species Since the discovery of the earliest fragmentary remains that will come to be known as Deinosuchus, it was considered a relative of crocodiles and initially placed in the family (crocodylidae) in 1954 based on dental features. However, the finding of new specimens from Texas and Georgia in 1999 led to phylogenetic analysis placing Deinosuchus in a basal position within the clade Alligatoroidea along with Leidyosuchus. This classification was bolstered in 2005 by the discovery of a well-preserved Deinosuchus brain case from the Blufftown Formation of Alabama, which shows some features reminiscent of those in the modern American alligator, although Deinosuchus was not considered a direct ancestor of modern alligators. The species pertaining to Deinosuchus since the resurrection of the generic name in 1979 have been traditionally recognized as D. rugosus from Appalachia and the larger D. hatcheri/riograndensis from Laramidia, characterized by differences of the shape of their osteoderms and teeth. However, based on the lack of distinctive enough differences beyond size, they have increasingly been considered all the same species. In their overview of crocodyliform material from the Kaiparowits Formation of Utah, Irmis et al. (2013) noted that D. rugosus is dubious due to its holotype teeth being undiagnostic, and recommended using Deinosuchus hatcheri for Deinosuchus material from Laramidia, while stressing that cranial Deinosuchus material from Appalachia has not been described. In a 2020 study, Cossette and Brochu agreed that D. rugosus is dubious and undiagnostic, rendering it a nomen dubium, and alternatively named a new species D. schwimmeri (named after fellow paleontologist David R. Schwimmer) from Appalachia, which included several specimens previously ascribed to D. rugosus. They also noted that the highly incomplete D. hatcheri holotype can be distinguished by the unique shape of the edge of its indented osteoderms, although this may not be reliable because the osteoderms of the other species may simply not be as well preserved. However, due to the incomplete nature of the type species D. hatcheri, Cossette and Brochu proposed to transfer the type species to the better preserved D. riograndensis, which would allow for improved identification and differentiation of the Deinosuchus species. Phylogenetic analysis places Deinosuchus as a basal member of Alligatoroidea, as shown in the simplified cladogram below: ## See also - Sarcosuchus - Stomatosuchus
3,290,060	Music of Athens, Georgia	1,172,790,957	History of popular music in Athens, Georgia	[ "American music by city", "Athens, Georgia", "Music of Georgia (U.S. state)", "Music scenes", "R.E.M.", "The B-52's" ]	The music of Athens, Georgia includes a wide variety of popular music and was an important part of the early evolution of alternative rock and new wave. The city is well known as the home of chart-topping bands like R.E.M., Widespread Panic, The B-52's and the Indigo Girls. and several long-time indie rock groups. Athens hosts the Athens Symphony Orchestra and other music institutions, as well as prominent local music media, such as the college radio station WUOG. Much of the modern Athens music scene relies on students from the large University of Georgia campus in the city. The University sponsors Western classical performances and groups specializing in other styles. Athens became a center for music in the region during the Civil War and gained further fame in the early twentieth century with the founding of the Morton Theatre, which was a major touring destination for African American performers. The city's local rock music scene can be traced to the 1950s, with live music at Allen's Hamburgers in Normaltown. International attention came in the 1970s when The B–52's began releasing the first of several best-selling recordings. Athens-based rock bands have performed in a wide array of styles, and the city has never had a characteristic style of rock; most of the bands have been united only in their quirky and iconoclastic image. Music author Richie Unterberger describes the town as an unlikely center for musical development, as a "sleepy [place where] it's difficult to imagine anyone working up a sweat, let alone playing rock music." The contributions of Athens to rock, country music, and bluegrass have earned it the nickname "the Liverpool of the South", and the city is known as one of the American birthplaces for both modern alternative rock and new wave music. Athens was home to the first and most famous college music scene in the country, beginning in the 1970s. ## Music venues and institutions Athens' local music is based primarily in the small downtown area of the northern part of the town. The nightclub 40 Watt Club is among the most famous indie rock venues on the East Coast; the club opened on Halloween in 1978, with a band called Strictly American featuring Curtis Crowe, founder of the club and future member of the band Pylon. Other major music venues in the city include the Georgia Theater, a converted cinema that hosted both local and touring performers. The Theater burned down in June 2009, but has been fully remodeled into a state of the art music venue reopening in early August 2011), the Caledonia Lounge, the historic Foundry Music Venue (which was originally built in 1850 as an iron foundry), and the UGA Performing Arts Center, home to the Ramsey Concert Hall and the Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall. Monroe Morton's Morton Theater became a major part of the city's African American community in the early 20th century; it claims to be the only theater from that era remaining in operation. Athens is home to the summer music festival Athfest, the Athens Popfest and the late spring Athens Human Rights Festival and North Georgia Folk Festival. The college radio station WUOG (90.5 FM), the low-power (100.7) FM WPPP-LP and the free weekly Flagpole are the city's most prominent modern music media. Athens has never produced a major local label like many similar indie rock towns; the most important label of the 1970s and 1980s was DB Records, based out of Atlanta, though jangle pop pioneers Kindercore Records and Wuxtry Records were also Athens-based. Athens is home to long-running indie label Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records, which has been operating consistently since 1999. Local music institutions include the Athens Symphony Orchestra, Athens Choral Society (founded in 1971), Athens Youth Symphony and the Athens Folk Music and Dance Society. The Athens Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1978 as a firmly non-profit, strictly volunteer organization, conducted by Albert Ligotti of the University of Georgia. The first performance came in 1979; the Orchestra now has two regular performances, one in the summer and one in the winter, and has also done shows for young people, pops concerts and Christmas concerts. In 1996, the Athens Symphony moved into its modern home, the Classic Center Theatre in downtown Athens. The University of Georgia's Athens campus has long been an important part of local music. Country Music Hall of Fame songwriter and performer "Whispering" Bill Anderson attended UGA and used to play guitar around campus. The faculty of the Hugh Hodgson School of Music operate the Georgia Brass Quintet and Georgia Woodwind Quintet. Student institutions include the ARCO Chamber Orchestra, Men's and Women's Glee Clubs, several concert choirs, jazz bands, and brass and woodwind ensembles, the Redcoat Marching Band, the University Philharmonia and a Symphony Orchestra. The University of Georgia also has multiple a cappella groups, including With Someone Else's Money, Noteworthy, and the Accidentals, who are regionally known. The Georgia Bulldogs baseball team who play at Foley Field feature organist Matthew Kaminski (musician). ## History The earliest music in North Georgia, including what is now Athens, was that of the Native Americans of the area, principally the Creek and the Cherokee. Athens was officially chartered in 1806, and began growing rapidly near the middle of the 19th century. By the time of the American Civil War in the 1860s, the city was an important part of musical life in Georgia. The war accelerated the development of the city's musical importance, as Athens was largely spared widespread destruction while the larger city of Atlanta took a long time to recover. Major touring acts like the Dixie Family and The Slomans visited Athens during the war; the Dixie Family, a prominent touring group, performed disastrously, according to local newspapers, who said that the highlight of the performance came from four local African American musicians, and the Dixie Family had absconded with the concert's proceeds, which had been promised to the local Ladies Aid Society. In the 1870s, the city was almost half African American, and local black-owned industry flourished; among the residents was Bob Cole, born in 1868 to a musically active family. Cole would later become a pioneer in African American theater, known for works like the 1898 musical A Trip to Coontown and the song La Hoola Boola. African American industry, churches and other institutions grew rapidly in prominence through the end of the 19th century. The city's African American community was well established by the beginning of the 20th century, when the corner of Lumpkin and Washington Streets became a major center for the city's black culture. This area was known as the Hot Corner, and was owned by a number of black professional businesses, as well as many performance spaces and a renowned opera house in the Morton Building that hosted such national figures as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. The Morton Theater was one of the preeminent venues in the city in the early 20th century, and is the only such theater to survive to the present, though it was not in operation for many years, until re-opening in 1993. ### Origins of the modern scene In the 1950s, the city's musical life consisted primarily of dances at local venues like the American Legion Hall and the YMCA, where popular bandleaders included most famously Jimmy Dorsey. The Canteen was a spot in Memorial Park in Athens, which became an important performance space after local musician Terry "Mad Dog" Melton and his group began playing there in 1958. The Canteen later hosted local Motown/beach legends The Jesters, who have continued to perform from 1964 to the present. Later in the 1960s and into the 1970s, locally prominent bands gradually changed from primarily cover bands to more well rounded groups, while the city's musical opportunities grew with the foundation of venues and institutions. This period has been called the Normaltown River of Music, and included long-time local performers like Mad Dog Melton as well as Brian Burke, Davis Causey and Randall Bramblett, many of whom later worked with Gregg Allman, Sea Level and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. The most influential local bands to emerge from this period included the Normaltown Flyers, and Dixie Grease. Allen's Hamburgers, where the Normaltown Flyers were the house band for many years, opened in 1955 on Prince Avenue and closed there in 2004. Bars like The Last Resort (currently the Last Resort Grille restaurant) opened in the 1960s, beginning the local club scene just as some bands were beginning to gain some regional fame for Athens. ### Rock Many members of Athens's most prominent later bands became locally renowned starting in the 1970s, including The B-52's. In the late 1970s, the 40 Watt Club became a well-known regional attraction for music fans. The early 1980s saw a host of new bands and venues appear, including the Uptown Lounge in 1984, while the city's musical subculture became more diversified. LSD, a hallucinogenic drug, was widely used in the college music scene in this era. With the local industry's growth in the 1980s, the 40 Watt Club moved to a larger space, and in 1989 the landmark Georgia Theatre was reopened as a music venue. Studio 1093, was established in the Boulevard neighborhood by recording engineer, Jim Hawkins who had designed the studio for Capricorn Records in Macon, GA. Studio 1093 was rented to R.E.M. and remained an Athens staple until 2018 playing host to both established musicians and those just starting out. Ort's Oldies, a used record store on Jackson Street, and its proprietor, William Orten Carlton, commonly known as Ort, were among the institutional figures that made the Athens music scene possible. Ort has an excellent memory for rock trivia, which served him well in running the store. Perhaps more importantly, his off-the-wall sense of humor and warmly iconoclastic personality (and his thrift-sale wardrobe) were regularly on display at parties, gigs and musical venues around town. A final element in creating and sustaining the Athens musical culture was the University of Georgia Lamar Dodd School of Art. The great majority of Athens' musicians and their fan base were associated with the University's liberal arts curriculum, and the School of Art, rather than the music department, was the area where the creative and musical alliances that later defined the scene began forming in the 1970s. Michael Stipe of R.E.M. was an art major (although he did not graduate), and the Art School incubated other major figures such as Curtis Crowe, founding member and drummer for Pylon. The cinematographer for the documentary film Athens GA: Inside/Out was James Herbert, an art school professor. Herbert went on to direct music videos for various Athens bands including 14 for R.E.M. Rock photographer, Jason Thrasher has documented many Athens musicians in his 2017 book, Athens Potluck. The B–52's and R.E.M. became by far the most famous musical products of Athens in the 1980s, when both bands launched a string of hits. The B–52's formed after a St. Valentine's Day party in 1977. The members had little musical knowledge, but performed new wave music with a cheeky and humorous image and sound. They were known for their campy thrift store fashion, and their unusual and eye-catching music videos for hits like "Rock Lobster" and "Love Shack". Though The B–52's were the first Athens band to achieve national prominence, their popularity was soon eclipsed by R.E.M.. The future members of R.E.M. moved to Athens to work and/or attend the University of Georgia, including bassist Mike Mills and former drummer Bill Berry. The group began performing as R.E.M. in 1980. They became locally prominent, and released a single, "Radio Free Europe", that was a major college rock hit. Their popularity grew with a series of singles, EPs and albums that made R.E.M. the top underground band in the country, finally breaking into the mainstream with 1987's "The One I Love" and "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)." By 1991's Out of Time album which featured vocals by Kate Pierson of The B–52's —and its acclaimed follow–up Automatic for the People (named after the motto of Weaver D's, a local Athens soul-food eatery), R.E.M. had become one of the world's biggest rock bands. The band's style went through many evolutions but originally had a jangle pop sound and harmonies often compared to folk–rock band The Byrds; singer and songwriter Michael Stipe is known for obscure, allusive lyrics delivered in a monotonous drone. The success of R.E.M. and The B–52's brought attention from major labels and music media to Athens, and many local bands received a career boost. The band Pylon was a long-standing and influential part of the Athens scene, and became critical darlings in the 1980s, but never achieved significant mainstream success. This was partially because they eschewed several record contracts from the major labels due to a lack of trust in music corporations. Pylon's dance rock style was not very accessible or commercial, and was accompanied by grating, chanting-style vocals, funky guitars and bass-heavy beats. Other 1980s local bands with nationwide alternative followings included Love Tractor, Oh-OK, with Michael Stipe's sister Lynda Stipe, vocalist Linda Hopper (later of Magnapop) and future solo performer Matthew Sweet, Dreams So Real. The members of R.E.M. have remained fixtures in Athens as they have also become international stars, helping out local performers like Vic Chesnutt, the Chickasaw Mudd Puppies and Jack Logan. The Elephant 6 Collective, a group of like-minded indie bands, gained limited nationwide exposure starting in the mid-1990s with the rise of Neutral Milk Hotel, Elf Power and Olivia Tremor Control. The same period saw the Kindercore Records roster find critical acclaim, including the bands Sunshine Fix, Masters of the Hemisphere, Japancakes, Love Tractor, Gresham Disco and Of Montreal. Candy, a DJ store owned by Michael Lachowski of Pylon, opened in 1998; the store became an important part of the burgeoning dance music scene that produced Danger Mouse, Phungus and DJ 43. ### Other styles Athens is near the Blue Ridge Mountains area of North Georgia; this is an important region in the development of several varieties of folk music, including the Appalachian bluegrass style and the Piedmont blues. North Georgia's bluegrass heritage can be traced back to the 19th century, when bluegrass was a nascent style throughout Appalachia and North Georgia was home to major fiddling contests, beginning in the 1880s. A 1983 recording expedition by Art and Margo Rosenbaum documented the continued existence of many forms of folk music, including work songs, string bands, African American hymns and spirituals, banjo tunes and unaccompanied ballads; the collection includes a chapter devoted to Doc and Lucy Barnes of Athens. Athens' modern contributions to the field of bluegrass include the Packway Handle Band and BlueBilly Grit. Athens' local country scene has never been as significant as the profusion of indie rock bands; however, modern Athens rock takes many elements from the folk, bluegrass and country traditions, including such bands as the Normaltown Flyers. The band Drive-By Truckers, Power Play, and the Holman Autry Band, have done much in recent years to make country rock a major part of Athens' musical identity. Recent bands such as The Broken String Band have emerged influenced by the folk rock genre. The rapper Bubba Sparxxx, originally from South Georgia, has also helped diversify Athens' country heritage, by adding a rural image and elements of country music to his Dirty South style of hip hop music. Folk artists and singer-songwriters have always flourished in the Athens atmosphere, albeit, as mentioned, not as significantly as pop and rock. Some of Athens' most notable solo singer-songwriter performers are Vic Chesnutt, Corey Smith, T. Graham Brown, John Berry, Patterson Hood, along with younger, emerging musicians like Thayer Sarrano and T. Hardy Morris. Athens also has an Irish band community representing several Irish folk bands such as The Green Flag Band. Athens also was the launching point for some nationally recognized contemporary Christian music artists including Mark Heard, who started playing while a student at the University of Georgia, and the Vigilantes of Love. A Latin music scene has emerged since 2019 with a diverse array of different musical styles that include bossa nova, samba, salsa music, and tango. According to Flagpole Magazine Latin music was once relegated to the fringes of Athens music, but has become a much larger part of the music scene. Latin events hosted in Athens include the LatinxFest, Argentina Food, Wine and Culture Festival, Milonga Tropical, and regular Latin Night events presented by Athens Latin, hosted by rotating venues. Notable performers include Beto Cacao, Grogus, Incatepec, Athens Tango Project, Quiabo De Chapeu, and Bichos Vivos. Musicians have also presented Latin music through stage play performances such as Lupita's Revenge, a silhouette puppet show in conjunction with a five-person band that plays a variety of Latin American musical styles in a multicultural theme. Local Athens musicians have been supportive of Latin music and there have been collaborative efforts between prominent Athens musicians and Latin Music artists. Art Rosenbaum helped to produce Beto Cacao's album, Undocorridos. There have also been collaborative efforts between Will Cullen Hart from The Elephant 6 Recording Company, Pylon's Vanessa Briscoe Hay and Athens Tango Project. ### Post-2000 Athens has been home to several notable acts, including Kishi Bashi, Dead Confederate, Futurebirds, Reptar, The Whigs, New Madrid, of Montreal, Perpetual Groove, Phosphorescent and Lera Lynn. In 2017 Kindercore Records revamped as Kindercore Vinyl, which is one of the few vinyl pressing plants in the United States. Kindercore has pressed for artists such as Sufjan Stevens, Cindy Wilson, and Willie Nelson. There have been a few documentaries released about this era. The 2018 documentary, Athens Rising: The Sicyon Project: Volume One, presents stories about the arts in Athens and features several acts from this era, including Athens Tango Project, Dimmen, Potted Plant, Half Acid, Linqua Franqa, Scooterbabe, Cinemechanica, Waitress, Blue Bodies, A. Mack, Joe Shadowy Peeples, The YOD, Follow Forever, KXNG BLANCO, Caulfield, WesdaRuler, Murk Daddy Flex, Jay Gonzalez (Drive-By Truckers) and Calico Vision. The 2020 documentary, Athens, Georgia: Over/Under, is an inside look at the DIY scene of the town, featuring concerts and footage from 2010 to 2019. It was originally started as a project for WUOG. It is a semi-update of the 1980s film Athens, GA: Inside/Out and features interviews and performances by Reptar, New Madrid, Nana Grizol, John Fernandes of Elephant 6 Collective, David Barbe, Gordon Lamb of Flagpole Magazine, Nate Mitchell of Wuxtry Records and many more. It serves as a counterpoint to the idealism of Athens, GA: Inside/Out and shows the progress of the town from the view point of director Thomas Bauer and The Rodney Kings, showing the rise of bands like Reptar and New Madrid in the 2010 scene to later disintegration of bands, and ends with the closing of Go Bar on New Year's 2019. Andrew N. Shearer of Gonzoriffic cited it as a great follow up to the film in his podcast, and Flagpole similarly noted it as being of significance, saying "It provides a pretty realistic impression of a particular time and place, without attempting to glamorize or mythologize itself." In August 2020, it was included in Athens-Clarke County Library's archive of works of importance. ## Video game Athens was the home of Robert Prince, a long time Athens musician, when he wrote the music and created the sound effects for early computer and video games, including the Commander Keen series, Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. Athens is also the home of the rock band, Bit Brigade, who play shows in which they recreate the soundtracks to the video games Castlevania, Contra, Mega Man 2, Metroid, Ninja Gaiden, and The Legend of Zelda, while a speedrun of the featured game is played live. ## See also - Howard Finster
2,632,189	Hurricane Ophelia (2005)	1,170,359,804	Category 1 Atlantic hurricane in 2005	[ "2005 Atlantic hurricane season", "2005 disasters in Canada", "2005 natural disasters in the United States", "Category 1 Atlantic hurricanes", "Hurricanes in Canada", "Hurricanes in North Carolina", "September 2005 events in North America", "Tropical cyclones in 2005" ]	Hurricane Ophelia was a long-lived tropical cyclone in September 2005 that moved along an erratic path off the East Coast of the United States for much of its existence. The fifteenth named storm and the eighth hurricane of the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, Ophelia originated from a complex set of systems across the Atlantic in early September. An area of low pressure consolidated near the Bahamas and was classified as Tropical Depression Sixteen on September 6. Stuck in a region of meager steering currents, largely dominated by a lull between two ridges to the north and east, this system moved along a looping course with a general northward trajectory. The following day it organized into Tropical Storm Ophelia and soon reached hurricane status on September 8. Over the next week, Ophelia's intensity oscillated between tropical storm and hurricane levels due to intrusions of dry air, varying levels of wind shear, and gradual upwelling of cooler waters along its meandering path. Gradually growing in size, the system reached hurricane strength for the fourth time and its peak strength on September 14, with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (140 km/h). By this time Ophelia had completed a second loop and was moving northwest toward North Carolina. Changing direction once again, the system turned away from the state though its eyewall scraped the coastline for two days. The system degraded to tropical storm strength for a final time on September 16 as it began accelerating northeast. Becoming embedded within the westerlies, Ophelia transitioned into an extratropical cyclone the next day. Remaining on a steady east-northeast to northeast path for the next week, Ophelia traversed Atlantic Canada and the northern Atlantic Ocean before dissipating on September 23 over the Norwegian Sea. Ophelia's erratic track prompted warnings and watches for a large swath of the Eastern Seaboard, ultimately a greater area than necessary. With the storm occurring on the heels of Hurricane Katrina, state governments were quick to prepare shelters out of an abundance of caution. National Guard servicemen were deployed to North Carolina while thousands more were on standby there and in South Carolina. More than 2,000 people used public shelters as Ophelia approached land. As the hurricane's core remained largely offshore, its impacts were significantly less than feared. Some coastal locales saw heavy rain, notably more than 15 in (380 mm) in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The greatest impacts were felt in North Carolina, where more than 240,000 people lost power and more than 1,500 homes were damaged. Total monetary losses in the state were estimated at \$70 million. Extensive beach erosion occurred due to the hurricane's prolonged effects. Tropical storm-force wind gusts and heavy rain caused minor damage in Florida, Massachusetts, and South Carolina. Rough seas led to one fatality in Florida and left another person missing in South Carolina while rain-slicked roads contributed to a fatal accident in North Carolina. Atlantic Canada saw negligible effects as Ophelia's remnants traversed the region; one person died after falling from his roof while preparing for the storm. In the storm's wake, 37 of North Carolina's counties were declared disaster areas. The Federal Emergency Management Agency provided roughly \$5.2 million in public assistance and the National Guard assisted with distribution of relief supplies. ## Meteorological history ### Background The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the most active on record at the time by numerous metrics, with 28 tropical or subtropical storms forming throughout the year. It also proved to be a ruinous year, with thousands of fatalities and more than \$100 billion in damage. Above-normal sea surface temperature anomalies, averaging 1.8 °F (1 °C) in the western tropical Atlantic and Caribbean Sea contributed to the development of these storms. The Climate Prediction Center determined four primary factors driving the season's activity: the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation, the reduction of atmospheric convection in the tropical Pacific, record-high sea surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic and Caribbean, and conducive wind and pressure patterns across the western Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. Additionally, the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) was in a neutral phase, lowering the likelihood of storms making landfall on the East Coast of the United States and leading to a concentration of impacts farther west. September saw considerable activity, with five hurricanes developing. ### Origins On September 1, 2005, a cold front emerged off the East Coast of the United States and propagated southeast. The system became increasingly elongated into a trough over the following days, eventually extending from near the Florida Peninsula east to the edge of Tropical Depression Lee east of Bermuda. By September 4, two defined areas of low pressure consolidated along the trough: one south of Bermuda that would later become Hurricane Nate and the second near the Bahamas which would become Hurricane Ophelia. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center (NHC) described the dual lows as a "complex scenario" and stated that possible tropical cyclogenesis would be slow to occur. Initially drifting south, the latter system reversed course on September 5 as convection organized around the low within an area of favorable upper-level conditions. Based on satellite data and synoptic observations, the NHC estimated that Tropical Depression Sixteen formed around 06:00 UTC on September 6 between Andros and Grand Bahama. Winds at Freeport and Settlement Point reached 30 mph (45 km/h). Situated within a region of weak steering currents, the depression drifted generally north and later north-northwest, crossing Grand Bahama around 16:00 UTC. Wind shear displaced convection north of the broad center as it traversed the northern Bahamas. Initially, the system consisted of three defined mesoscale convective systems (MCS) spanning an area 120 mi (200 km) across, each producing areas of heavy rain. Throughout September 6, the MCSs congealed into a single spiral rainband and the precursor to an eyewall. ### Fluctuation in strength and track Early in the storm's lifecycle, meteorologists struggled with a complex track forecast as models depicted a wide-range of scenarios for the depression. Some models took the system into the Gulf of Mexico and others kept the system off the coast of the Southeastern United States. The cyclone was stuck between two lobes of the subtropical ridge to the north as a strong trough moved off the eastern United States. The system became more organized on September 7 and intensified into Tropical Storm Ophelia approximately 115 mi (185 km) east-southeast of Cape Canaveral, Florida. This marked the earliest formation of a season's fifteenth named storm. This record was later tied by Hurricane Nate in 2011 and subsequently broken by Tropical Storm Omar on September 1, 2020. Becoming embedded within a broad trough extending from Florida, through Ophelia and Nate, and all the way east to Hurricane Maria over the central Atlantic, Ophelia executed a slow counter-clockwise loop. During this time it steadily intensified as banding features coalesced around the storm. High sea surface temperatures of 84 °F (29 °C) fueled bursts of deep convection throughout September 8. Following the formation of an eyewall and well-defined upper-level outflow, Ophelia intensified into a hurricane around 21:00 UTC on September 8 with sustained winds reaching 75 mph (120 km/h). The hurricane's prolonged lack of movement resulted in the upwelling of cooler waters which in turn caused it to weaken back to a tropical storm early on September 9. Later on September 9, Ophelia began moving slowly northeast in response to a mid-latitude trough. The storm soon developed a 12 mi (19 km) wide eye and regained hurricane status around 18:00 UTC. Soon thereafter, increasing wind shear and intrusions of dry air into the hurricane's core caused degradation of its structure. However, Ophelia's structure once again improved late on September 10 with a 35 mi (55 km) wide eye developing; this coincided with it regaining hurricane status for the third time. Concurrently, it attained its lowest central pressure of 976 mbar (hPa; 28.82 inHg). Over the next two days the hurricane executed a clockwise loop within an area of weak steering between two ridges. Its slow movement led to further upwelling of cooler waters even over the relatively warm Gulf Stream. Gradual degradation of the hurricane's structure occurred as it looped back to the west-southwest, with meager convection unable to maintain vertical mixing. Sea surface temperatures beneath the system had plummeted to an average of 74.3 °F (23.5 °C) by this time, and with insufficient heat content convection within the eyewall collapsed. Slightly warmer waters farther from the center helped support a broken ring around the decaying center. By 00:00 UTC on September 12, Ophelia weakened back to a tropical storm for the third time. An unusual eyewall replacement cycle commenced with its inner core dissipating and a larger eye organizing around it; its radius of maximum wind doubled from about 30 mi (50 km) to 60 mi (100 km). This differed from classical replacement cycles as Ophelia never displayed defined concentric eyewalls, rather the inner one degraded as the outer one formed. After completing the two-day-long loop, the storm proceeded along a slow northwest and later northward trajectory toward the Carolinas. ### North Carolina impact and extratropical transition After remaining largely steady-state from September 12 into the early part of September 13, convection became increasingly organized as it moved back over the Gulf Stream. Maintaining a broad circulation, the storm's smaller core rotated erratically within it while the overall system progressed steadily north. Ophelia regained hurricane strength for a fourth and final time early on September 14. The system displayed an increasingly organized eye once again and expansive outflow aloft. The ridge previously halting the hurricane's northward motion began accelerating off the New England coastline; however, westerly flow in its wake would not be strong enough to induce significant acceleration of Ophelia. Accordingly the hurricane began an "excruciatingly long passage" along the shores of North Carolina. Throughout September 14, the storm's eye expanded to a diameter of 60 mi (95 km). A more defined inner eyewall featured small vortices which enhanced the vertical mixing of winds. Around 12:00 UTC it attained maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (140 km/h), the highest during its existence. Over the next two days, the hurricane's eyewall scraped the North Carolina coastline bringing hurricane-force winds to these areas. A station at Cape Lookout measured a peak two-minute sustained wind of 75 mph (121 km/h) while an unverified gust of 104 mph (167 km/h) was reported in Davis. Ophelia once again became caught between two ridges on September 15 as it turned east. Over a two-day period, Ophelia's eyewall impacted areas from Wilmington to Morehead City. The combination of dry air coming from land and cooler shelf waters caused convection on the hurricane's west side to collapse; its proximity to the Gulf Stream enabled it to maintain convection elsewhere in its circulation. Ophelia pulled away from North Carolina early on September 16 as it weakened to a tropical storm for the final time. The storm accelerated east late on September 16 as it became embedded within the mid-latitude westerlies. An approaching baroclinic wave over the Great Lakes also induced a northward component to Ophelia's track. Increasing shear displaced convection north of its center and caused its core to become vertically tilted. After a brief resurgence in convection, Ophelia began transitioning into an extratropical cyclone on September 17 as it interacted with an approaching trough. Its surface center became increasingly separated from the strongest winds and thunderstorm activity. During this time the storm made its closest approach to Massachusetts, passing 70 mi (110 km) to the southeast of Cape Cod. Ophelia completed its extratropical transition by 00:00 UTC on September 18 as it approached Nova Scotia. The system remained just offshore, with its center scraping the coast of Guysborough County in the eastern portion of the island. It then traversed the Cabot Strait before making landfall in south-central Newfoundland around 18:00 UTC with maximum winds of 50 mph (85 km/h). Ophelia traversed the island within six hours, emerging over the north Atlantic Ocean by September 19. The cyclone continued along an east-northeast to northeast path for several days as it spun down. Ophelia ultimately dissipated on September 23 over the Norwegian Sea. ### Research As part of their annual Hurricane Field Program, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) conducts research flights into tropical cyclones to study internal mechanics and improve forecasts. Part of the Frequent-Monitoring Experiment under the broader Intensity Forecasting Experiment (IFEX), Ophelia was extensively documented throughout its lifecycle. As such, 462 dropsondes were deployed in the storm between September 6 and 17, the second-most in a single storm during 2005, only behind the 503 dropped into Hurricane Rita later in September. The Naval Research Laboratory in conjunction with NOAA conducted research flights into the tropical depression that became Ophelia on September 6. Additional flights were made as part of The Hurricane Rainband and Intensity Change Experiment (RAINEX). The multitude of recon flights during the developmental stages of Ophelia provided detailed data that supported the first in-depth study of the role of mesoscale convective systems in the genesis of tropical cyclones. As part of a joint project between NOAA and Aerosonde Ltd, an AAI Aerosonde unmanned aerial vehicle was flown into the outer bands of Hurricane Ophelia on September 16. This was the first such mission conducted into a tropical cyclone. Flying at an altitude of 2,500 ft (760 m), the vehicle measured peak winds of 85 mph (137 km/h). A concurrent NOAA Hurricane Hunter mission corroborated the vehicle's measurements, and the project was considered a success. This was followed two weeks later by the first successful Aerosonde core penetration of a tropical cyclone within Typhoon Longwang near Taiwan. The final research mission into Ophelia was conducted on September 17, focusing on its extratropical transition. A collaborative effort between NOAA and Canada's Atmospheric Environment Service, two recon missions were flown into the storm to study structural changes during this transitory period. This marked the first detailed dynamic core structure of such a system. ## Preparations Throughout the existence of Hurricane Ophelia, the NHC, Canadian Hurricane Center (CHC), and Bahamas Department of Meteorology issued numerous tropical cyclone warnings and watches between September 6 and 17. The hurricane's erratic movement led to watches and warnings being issued for a much larger region than necessary across the East Coast of the United States, with some forecasts calling for landfalls that did not verify. ### United States With gas prices already elevated because of Hurricane Katrina's effects in the Gulf of Mexico, gas prices fluctuated due to disruptions from Hurricane Ophelia. Prices initially rose in the southeast as the system was developing before dropping as the storm turned away from Florida. They later rose in Maine as the system impacted North Carolina. #### Florida Already suffering from a volley of six hurricane impacts since 2004, concerns were raised over Ophelia's potential effects in Florida. With an uncertain track, the main issue presented was beach erosion, especially in areas significantly affected by Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in 2004. Ophelia was the first major beach erosion event to test the \$30 million shoreline restoration in Brevard County. A public shelter was opened in Daytona Beach, Volusia County; only 13 people used the shelter and were relocated to a Red Cross facility. Schools in the county were closed on September 8 over flooding concerns. Fourteen ships departed Naval Station Mayport to avoid the storm. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission search and rescue teams previously sent to Mississippi returned to the state. Mariners as far west as Tallahassee were advised of possible adverse conditions. Shipment of the Space Shuttle external tank to NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center was delayed in order to protect the equipment. The tank was originally meant to be delivered to a facility in New Orleans but that structure was closed indefinitely due to damage from Hurricane Katrina. Concerns over flooding were raised in Polk County with areas already heavily saturated ahead of the storm. Pumping of water into Lake Rosalie was authorized by the South Florida Water Management District, but the pumps were unlikely to arrive in time. Similarly, water levels at Lake Griffin, Rock Lake, and Lake Irish in Seminole County were elevated and posed a flood risk. #### The Carolinas The South Carolina Emergency Management Division advised residents in flood-prone areas to remain abreast of the storm. Forecasts on September 10 indicated Ophelia would strike South Carolina and local emergency management officials held meetings to discuss preparations. Governor Mark Sanford requested the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) suspend transport of Katrina refugees to the receiving centers in Charleston and Colombia. Any potential evacuees from Ophelia would be directed to hotels in the Midlands. Although 1,650 members of the South Carolina National Guard were already deployed on anti-terror missions and Katrina-related relief, 7,100 remained in reserve if needed. Eighty-five state troopers were deployed to coastal areas to assist local police. The Red Cross opened shelters on September 10 in the Lowcountry, but closed them the following day due to lack of use. Charleston County also opened public shelters before the issuance of any evacuation orders. Voluntary evacuation orders were issued for barrier islands, coastal residents, those living in mobile homes, and people living in flood-prone areas of Horry and Georgetown counties on September 13. The Red Cross opened three shelters across both counties; only 25 people used them. Statewide, approximately 2,000 people sought refuge across 45 shelters. Horry County officials revised evacuation procedures in light of the large loss of life from Katrina in the Gulf Coast, with emphasis placed on relocating poor, sick, and elderly persons. Schools in Georgetown and Horry counties closed while Coastal Carolina University and Horry-Georgetown Technical College suspended classes. Football and volleyball matches between Charleston Southern University and The Citadel on September 12 were postponed. The Cougar Classic golf tournament at Yeamans Hall Club teed off early due to the storm. North Carolina Governor Mike Easley declared a state of emergency on September 10. Flood concerns were high along Pamlico Sound and the Neuse River where a storm surge of 6 to 11 ft (1.8 to 3.4 m) was forecast. Low-lying areas along the Neuse River in particular were severely impacted by Hurricane Isabel in 2003. Mandatory evacuation orders were issued for the approximately 800 tourists on Ocracoke Island on September 11. The decision was made at least partly in response to the effects of Hurricane Alex the previous year. Communities elsewhere in the state were uncertain whether or not to issue evacuation orders. Mandatory evacuations were issued for six counties, including Hatteras Island, while eight others had voluntary orders in place by September 14. Sixty shelters were opened statewide. At least 95 people used public shelters in Wilmington. Evacuations were ordered for a 20-block area of Washington that had flooded during Hurricane Fran in 1996. Ferry service across the Pamlico Sound was suspended on September 12 due to high seas. Both of the state's major ports were shut down. Schools were closed across five counties on September 13. Classes were suspended at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and East Carolina University. The North Carolina National Guard deployed 300 troops to staging centers in eastern areas of the state. The National Guard was supplemented by 460 highway patrol officers, swift-water and urban search and rescue teams, and seven helicopters. Two warehouses stocked with two days-worth of food for 10,000 people were readied. FEMA deployed 250 personnel, a larger-than-normal response for a storm of Ophelia's intensity in light of the damage caused by Katrina. Progress Energy mobilized at least 900 people to restore power, including 600 supplementary personnel. Linemen originally sent to the Gulf Coast were recalled to the state and 140 additional workers from South Carolina Electric & Gas Company were provided. The United States Department of Energy deployed personnel to assist local services. The Brunswick Nuclear Generating Station declared an "unusual event" as a precautionary measure. #### Elsewhere Virginia Governor Mark Warner declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard. On September 13, 23 F-15 Eagles and 90 personnel were relocated from Langley Air Force Base to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. The Maryland Emergency Management Agency held daily briefings on the storm, though effects in the state were expected to be minimal. Concern was raised for the possibility of flooding along Chesapeake Bay. Campgrounds throughout Cape Cod were shut down for the duration of the storm. Food and water were provided to 200 people who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina and living at Camp Edwards. Counselors were provided to assist anyone stressed from experiencing another storm. In Chatham, Massachusetts, fishermen moved their boats to safety while the local harbormaster ensured docked vessels were properly secured. ### Canada In Atlantic Canada, residents were extra cautious of the approaching storm, primarily because of memories of Hurricane Juan in 2003. Debris from Juan remained scattered across Nova Scotia two years after the storm. The CHC initially forecast hurricane-force winds to impact parts of Nova Scotia, but later tempered expectations as Ophelia weakened on approach. The Halifax Daily News described city residents as "surprisingly complacent", with media broadcasts "[not] ...hyped up at all". Expected rainfall from the storm led to Nova Scotia's Department of Natural Resources ending a fire ban for western areas of the province on September 15. Nova Scotia Power, criticized for its poor response after Juan, placed hundreds of workers on standby and requested additional personnel from other provinces. Ahead of the storm's arrival, the Emergency Management Offices of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador Emergency Measures advised residents to take appropriate precautions to protect themselves and property. They highlighted the recent devastation wrought by Katrina in the United States and damaging events in Atlantic Canada over the past several years. Residents across the region secured boats and stocked up on supplies. ## Impact ### Southeastern United States Meandering off eastern Florida for several days, Ophelia produced a prolonged period of increased swells across the state. Tides generally reached 1 to 2 ft (0.30 to 0.61 m) above normal, with Flagler County seeing the most significant effects. There, breaking waves of 6 to 8 ft (1.8 to 2.4 m) caused moderate beach erosion. Water reached the banks of a canal in Palm Coast, with occasional splashes over the top on September 9. A portion of State Road A1A was undermined by erosion and closed near Flagler Beach. The Florida Department of Transportation used dump trucks to shore up the road with large rocks. On September 11, a father and daughter were pulled out to sea off Duval County; they were later rescued. Squall lines associated with the storm produced locally heavy rain and strong winds, with a storm spotter in Duval estimating winds of 62 mph (100 km/h). Minor street flooding occurred in a poor drainage area within Jacksonville. A peak storm surge of 3.03 ft (0.92 m) was measured in Mayport. A small area along the east-central coast experienced tropical storm-force winds, with a NASA station in Cape Canaveral reporting sustained winds of 39 mph (63 km/h) and a gust to 60 mph (97 km/h). On September 12, the body of a man was found in Palm Beach Shores near an empty boat; his death is presumed to be the result of rough seas produced by Ophelia. The entire east coast saw at least 1 in (25 mm) of rain, with accumulations exceeding 5 in (130 mm) in northeastern coastal counties. Accumulations were greatest in Flagler County where three-day rainfall totals reached 15.2 in (390 mm) in Palm Coast; this was the highest total from Ophelia in the state. Secondary roads saw up to 12 in (300 mm) of standing water in poor drainage areas in the city. The collective effects of Ophelia and six other tropical cyclones that impacted Florida in 2005 led to the addition of 20.2 mi (32.5 km) of critically eroded beaches and 0.2 mi (0.32 km) of critically eroded inlet shorelines. In South Florida, temperatures rose 3–5 °F (1.7–2.8 °C) above normal. Effects from Ophelia in Georgia were limited to the immediate coastline, with these areas largely receiving 3 in (76 mm) of rain at most. Accumulations peaked at 3.15 in (80 mm) on Sapelo Island. Sustained winds at St. Simons reached 35 mph (56 km/h) while a minor storm surge of 1.87 ft (0.57 m) was observed at the Fort Pulaski National Monument. The National Centers for Environmental Information received no reports of significant damage in the state. In South Carolina, persistent onshore flow beginning on September 7 caused significant erosion at Hunting Island State Park. The outer bands of the hurricane impacted extreme eastern portions of the state (primarily Charleston, Georgetown, and Horry counties) on September 13 to 14. Several towns and cities experienced tropical storm-force wind gusts, with gusts peaking at 56 mph (90 km/h) at the Ben Sawyer Bridge. On the mainland, gusts reached 49 mph (79 km/h) at the Arthur Ravenel Bridge and 44 mph (71 km/h) in Charleston, Folly Beach, Myrtle Beach. The winds downed trees in McClellanville and Mount Pleasant, and some power outages were reported. Heavy rainfall was concentrated along the state border with North Carolina; accumulations peaked at 6.3 in (160 mm) in North Myrtle Beach. A peak storm surge of 2.81 ft (0.86 m) was observed in Springmaid Beach. Coastal areas saw minor beach erosion. Overall damage was limited across the state. A teenage surfer went missing about 200 yd (180 m) off the coast of Folly Beach. Rescue operations for the surfer were suspended on September 14 due to continued rough seas. ### North Carolina Meandering along the coastline for three days, Ophelia was a prolonged rain and wind event for North Carolina. Despite its long duration, damage from the hurricane was less than anticipated. An initial insured damage estimate of \$800 million, yielding an approximate \$1.6 billion in total damage, was given soon after the storm. However, later assessments by the American Insurance Services Group gave an insured loss estimate of \$35 million, yielding a total cost of \$70 million. The National Centers for Environmental Information tabulated damage at \$62 million. The state's agriculture industry suffered approximately \$19.6 million in damage. Annual beach nourishment projects are credited with reducing the severity of damage from the hurricane. One indirect fatality was linked to the hurricane when a car hydroplaned on a rain-slicked road in Franklin County. East Carolina University political scientist Carmine Scavo indicated that as a reactionary response to Katrina, the state was "possibly overprepared" for the hurricane. At the storm's peak on September 14 to 15, over 240,000 customers were without power. By September 16, only 5,700 homes remained without power. The hurricane's eyewall battered coastal areas from Wilmington to Cape Hatteras for up to 36 hours from September 14 to 15. Hurricane-force wind gusts with near-hurricane-force sustained winds occurred in these areas. A peak two-minute sustained wind of 75 mph (121 km/h) and a gust to 92 mph (148 km/h) was observed at Cape Lookout. A gust to 93 mph (150 km/h) was observed on Cedar Island. A six-minute sustained wind of 68 mph (109 km/h) and gust to 79 mph (127 km/h) was observed in Wrightsville Beach. Additionally, there was an unverified measurement of a gust to 103 mph (166 km/h) in Davis. Tropical storm-force wind gusts extended as far as 100 mi (155 km) inland. Offshore, the ship Sanmar (callsign V2EX) measured sustained winds of 74 mph (119 km/h) about 85 mi (140 km) east-southeast of Morehead City. Persistent onshore flow resulted in the entire coastline experiencing a storm surge of at least 1 ft (0.30 m). Surge was greatest along the interior Pamlico Sound, especially along the lower reaches of the Newport, Neuse, and Pamlico Rivers; however, the peak coincided with low tide. A peak surge of 8 ft (2.4 m) occurred along Clubfoot Creek. The displacement of water left parts of the Sound's seafloor exposed. Ocean-facing coastlines of Carteret and Onslow Counties saw surges of 4 to 6 ft (1.2 to 1.8 m). Near Atlantic Beach, two cannons, an anchor, and other debris from the Queen Anne's Revenge were uncovered by churning waters. Heavy rain accompanied the storm's three-day impact, with the greatest totals occurring along the immediate coastline. Peak accumulations were concentrated in Brunswick County, reaching a maxima of 17.5 in (440 mm) at the Oak Island water treatment plant. Accumulations as much as 12 in (300 mm) extended northward to Oracoke Island. Trace amounts of rain fell across half the state. Heavy rainfall across Brunswick County caused widespread flooding. At least 200 homes were damaged on Bald Head Island and floodwaters briefly isolated 15 houses during the storm. Floodwaters reached a depth of 4 ft (1.2 m) in some locations, rendering roads impassable. A 50 ft (15 m) section of coastal road was washed away in Ocean Isle. Wind damage was confined to eastern areas of the county and consisted of minimal structural damage and downed trees. Damage across Carteret County was primarily concentrated in coastal communities and barrier islands. Numerous docks and piers were damaged or destroyed. About 100 ft (30 m) of the 1,000 ft (300 m) long Bogue Inlet Pier was destroyed. Six homes were destroyed and 120 others were damaged in Salter Path. In Emerald Isle, 25 people required rescue. The county's beaches lost a total of 1,427,388 cubic yards (1,091,316 cubic meters) of sand, with Emerald Isle accounting for about one-third of this. Wind gusts up to 84 mph (135 km/h) in New Hanover County prompted officials to suspend emergency patrols; however, police and firefighters remained on-call. Damage across the county reached \$4.9 million, with barrier islands suffering the brunt of damage. A total of 636 structures sustained varying degrees of damage with wind being the primary cause. Coastal erosion was extensive, with Carolina Beach, Kure Beach, and Wrightsville Beach losing 25 to 80 percent of their beaches extending into the primary protective dunes. Septic tanks were exposed in some areas. At least 1 ft (0.30 m) of water covered a main road in Carolina Beach. A fishing vessel was stranded about 175 mi (275 km) off Wrightsville Beach amid 35 ft (11 m) seas and gusts to 100 mph (160 km/h) after being struck by lightning. A force main in the Hewletts Creek watershed burst due to an influx of water from the hurricane, resulting in a 750,000 US gal (2,800,000 L) spill. Damage across Pender County reached \$1.5 million, and was primarily concentrated in Surf City and on Topsail Island. Hurricane-force wind gusts caused minor damage to about 500 homes. Salt water flooding occurred along the backside of Topsail Island as water levels in the adjacent sound rose. Some areas of Topsail Island lost 25 ft (7.6 m) of beach and were gouged up to 4 ft (1.2 m) vertically. Eight duplexes were undermined by the erosion, potentially rendering them uninhabitable. On the mainland of Pender County, damage was relatively light, limited to some downed trees and minor flooding. A total of 388 homes were damaged across Onslow County, five of which were condemned. The Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune suffered \$1.2 million in damage, with the majority coming from the 300 ft (91 m) Riseley Pier. About 150 ft (46 m) of the pier was destroyed, and sand surrounding the support pillars was eroded to the point where the remaining structure was unstable. The pier was condemned in October and eventually slated for demolition in February 2010. Minor wind damage occurred in parts of Craven, Duplin, Jones, and Lenoir counties. Persistent northeasterly flow caused flooding in low-lying areas of New Bern by September 12. Inland counties, including Columbus, Duplin, and Samson, primarily suffered agricultural damage. Little damage occurred in Dare County, with preliminary losses reaching only \$19,500. ### Elsewhere in the United States and Canada Rip currents were reported in coastal Delaware on September 16 to 17. The combination of onshore flow and a full moon led to minor coastal flooding in Cape May and Monmouth counties in New Jersey. On September 16, water levels in Cape May reached 6.98 ft (2.13 m) above the mean lower water level. From September 15 to 17, moisture brought north from Ophelia interacted with a cold front, leading to widespread heavy rain in the Northeast. In Essex County, New Jersey, flash floods of roadways prompted water rescues. In Irvington, a local creek rose rapidly and inundated the Garden State Parkway with 3 to 4 ft (0.91 to 1.22 m) of water. Several streets in Suffolk County, New York, became impassible from swiftly moving water. In Upstate New York, heavy rain fell across the Adirondacks on September 16 to 17, leading to localized flash floods. Scattered thunderstorms, some severe, elsewhere in the state downed trees and power lines. Rainfall directly associated with Ophelia's passage in New Jersey and New York reached 2.4 in (61 mm) and 1.8 in (46 mm), respectively. Flash floods occurred in Fairfield and New London counties in Connecticut. Rainfall directly associated with Ophelia reached 2.57 in (65 mm) in Stafford Springs. Ophelia brought locally heavy rain and gusty winds to southeastern Massachusetts as it brushed the state late on September 16. Wind gusts on Nantucket reached 40 mph (64 km/h) while rainfall peaked at 3.62 in (92 mm) in Falmouth. Offshore, waves reached 19 ft (5.8 m) high. Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Virginia received minimal rainfall with state accumulations peaking at 1.5 in (38 mm), 0.89 in (23 mm), 1.84 in (47 mm), 0.6 in (15 mm), and 0.88 in (22 mm) respectively. Meteorologist Ted McIldoon at the CHC described Ophelia as a "typical storm for [Atlantic Canada]." Heavy rain affected much of Nova Scotia while the strongest winds remained offshore. Winds in the province peaked at 50 mph (80 km/h) on Beaver Island. Only one power outage occurred, affecting 130 residents in Stewiacke. One person died after slipping off a ladder while checking his roof for leaks. Much of Nova Scotia received 1 to 2 in (25 to 50 mm) of rain, with a swath of 2 to 3 in (50 to 70 mm) across the center of the province. A peak of 3.46 in (87.9 mm) was measured on Cape Sable Island. In Newfoundland, over 2.0 in (50 mm) of rain fell over parts of the eastern region of the province. Farther west, portions of New Brunswick received up to 1 in (25 mm) of rain. ## Aftermath On September 15, North Carolina Governor Easley requested assistance from the South Carolina Government. South Carolina Governor Sanford signed an executive order providing members of their state's National Guard, and personnel and equipment from their Emergency Management Department. On September 16, FEMA and state disaster estimators sent out four teams to ascertain the scope of Ophelia's effects. President George W. Bush declared 37 counties disaster areas where damage was reported. Governor Easley requested government assistance on September 22 as cleanup costs and damage to public utilities exceeded \$16.5 million. He later wrote a letter to President Bush on September 26 formally asking for assistance in Carteret, Craven, Hyde, Jones, Pamlico, and Onslow Counties. President Bush signed this request October 7, designating ten counties (the requested six plus Brunswick, Dare, New Hanover, and Pender Counties) as major disaster areas. FEMA ultimately provided \$5,201,233.40 in public assistance to the designated counties. Of the 300 National Guard troops initially deployed in the state, 180 were relieved from duty shortly after the hurricane's passage. The remaining soldiers distributed relief supplies and aided local emergency personnel. The Salvation Army provided meals to 175 people in Morehead City. Band Together, a nonprofit organization, held a disaster relief show for victims of Katrina and Ophelia on September 21; benefits went to the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina. Construction companies in Carteret County were overwhelmed with requests to repair docks and piers in the month following Ophelia. North Carolina Senate President Marc Basnight and North Carolina House Speaker James B. Black suggested building codes be reformed for all structures to have windows resistant to 200 mph (320 km/h) winds. Basnight emphasized that "the kind of building that goes on the coast has to change ... [they] are catching damage each and every time." With funding from FEMA, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) restored 11 mi (18 km) of beaches along Emerald Isle, Indian Beach, and Pine Knoll Shores, North Carolina, between January 10 and March 29, 2007. In total, 1,229,836 cubic yards (940,277 cubic meters) of sand was distributed at a cost of \$13,773,768. The USCAE conducted additional nourishment projects around Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Ecological effects from the hurricane were largely minor. The influx of brackish water into the Emily and Richardson Preyer Buckridge Coastal Reserve negatively impacted the health of local Chamaecyparis thyoides (Atlantic white cedar) trees. The draining of swamp water into Beard Creek dropped dissolved oxygen levels and caused a significant fish kill event with an estimated 28,500 fish dying. A 2008 study on the effects of Ophelia and Tropical Storm Ernesto in 2006 noted a significant increase in Vibrio spp. populations in relation to their passage. Ecological biochemistry composition along the Neuse River estuary saw little disturbance; however, disruption to ferry services limited the sample frequency during data collection. ## See also - Other storms with the same name - List of Category 1 Atlantic hurricanes - List of wettest tropical cyclones in North Carolina - List of United States hurricanes:
3,610,052	Podokesaurus	1,172,987,388	Coelophysoid theropod dinosaur genus from Early Jurassic Period	[ "Coelophysoids", "Early Jurassic dinosaurs of North America", "Fossil taxa described in 1911", "Hettangian genus first appearances", "Holyoke, Massachusetts", "Paleontology in Massachusetts", "Sinemurian genus extinctions", "Symbols of Massachusetts", "Taxa named by Mignon Talbot" ]	Podokesaurus is a genus of coelophysoid dinosaur that lived in what is now the eastern United States during the Early Jurassic Period. The first fossil was discovered by the geologist Mignon Talbot near Mount Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 1910. The specimen was fragmentary, preserving much of the body, limbs, and tail. In 1911, Talbot described and named the new genus and species Podokesaurus holyokensis based on it. The full name can be translated as "swift-footed lizard of Holyoke". This discovery made Talbot the first woman to find and describe a non-bird dinosaur. The holotype fossil was recognized as significant and was studied by other researchers, but was lost when the building it was kept in burned down in 1917; no unequivocal Podokesaurus specimens have since been discovered. It was made state dinosaur of Massachusetts in 2022. Estimated to have been about 1 m (3 ft) in length and 1–40 kg (2–90 lb) in weight, Podokesaurus was lightly constructed with hollow bones, and would have been similar to Coelophysis, being slender, long-necked, and with sharp, recurved teeth. The vertebrae were very light and hollow, and some were slightly concave at each end. The cervical (neck) vertebrae were relatively large in length and diameter compared to the dorsal (back) vertebrae, and the caudal (tail) vertebrae were long and slender. The humerus (upper-arm bone) was small and delicate, less than half the length of the femur (thigh-bone). The pubis (pubic bone) was very long, expanding both at the front and hind ends. The femur was slender, nearly straight, had thin walls, and was expanded at the back side of its lower end. The three metatarsals of the lower leg were closely appressed together forming a compact structure. Since it was one of the few small theropods known at the time it was described, the affinities of Podokesaurus were long unclear. It was placed in the family Podokesauridae along with other small theropods, and was speculated to have been similar to a proto-bird. It was suggested it was a synonym of Coelophysis and a natural cast specimen was assigned to it, but these ideas are not currently accepted. The family Podokesauridae is not in use anymore, having been replaced by Coelophysidae, and Podokesaurus is thought to have been a coelophysoid. As such, Podokesaurus would have been a fleet-footed predator, with powerful forelimbs and grasping hands. It is estimated it could have run at 15–20 km/h (9–12 mph). Podokesaurus is thought to have been collected from the Portland Formation, the age of which has long been unclear, but is currently believed to date to the Hettangian–Sinemurian stages of the Early Jurassic, between 201 and 190 million years ago. ## Discovery and history In 1910, the American geologist Mignon Talbot was walking with her sister Ellen to Holyoke, Massachusetts, in the eastern US, when they passed a farm and noticed a small hill nearby. It had a gravel pit at one side, and was formed by an accumulation of sand, gravel, and boulders left by a receding glacier. Talbot noticed a white streak on a sandstone boulder at the bottom of the gravel pit, and upon discovering these were bones, she told her sister she had found a "real live fossil". This was because many fossil tracks had previously been discovered in the Connecticut Valley (that she had often taken her students to see), but few actual dinosaur skeletons, and none at Mount Holyoke. She was granted permission by the land owner to collect the specimen for Mount Holyoke College (an all-women's college a few miles from there), where she was head of the geology department. The next day she brought a group of workmen to collect the specimen, and found another piece of sandstone that contained the rest of the fossil as well as impressions of those in the first slab. The specimen appeared to have been exposed for years with no one noticing it, the boulder having been broken open by people or frost. The fossil was brought to the laboratory where it was prepared and photographed. The incomplete specimen preserved 5 cervical (neck), 11 dorsal (back) and 24 caudal (tail) vertebrae, a fragment of the left scapula (shoulder blade) and right coracoid (part of the pectoral girdle), a partial left humerus (upper arm bone), phalanx bones of 3 fingers, including 2 unguals (claw bones), ribs, the pubis and ischium (bones forming the lower front and lower back of the pelvis, respectively), the femora (thigh bones), the left tibia (lower leg bone), a fragment of the right astragalus (a bone in the ankle), articulated metatarsals (foot bones) of the left foot, followed by 3 pedal phalanges (toe bones), partial metatarsals and possible phalanges of the right foot, and fragments of uncertain identity. The light and delicate bones were in their natural position or nearly so within the rock, except for the tail and uncertain fragments, which were a few centimeters away from the skeleton, following a long gap in the skeleton behind the pelvis. The front half of the neck was missing. The significance of the fossil was confirmed at an intercollegiate meeting of geology departments, and when the American paleontologist Richard Swann Lull subsequently encouraged Talbot to describe the specimen, she replied she did not know anything about dinosaurs, but Lull suggested she should study them and then describe it. In December 1910, Talbot read a preliminary description of the fossil at the Paleontological Society meeting at Pittsburgh, and in June 1911 she published a short scientific description, in which she made the specimen the holotype of the new genus and species Podokesaurus holyokensis. The generic name is derived from the Ancient Greek words podōkēs (ποδώκης), which means "swift (or fleet)-footed", an epithet commonly used in reference to the Greek hero Achilles, and saura (σαύρα) meaning "lizard", while the specific name refers to Holyoke. In full, the name can be translated as "swift-footed lizard of Holyoke". The discovery and naming of Podokesaurus made Talbot the first woman to find and describe a non-bird dinosaur. The American paleontologist Robert T. Bakker stated in 2014 that while old professors grumbled that women were unfit for working with fossils during his time at university, Talbot's discovery of Podokesaurus was a counterargument to that. By the time the description was published, Talbot had sent the fossil to the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University for further preparation and study, where cast replicas were also made of the bones as they lay in the rock. There, Lull drew a reconstruction of the skeleton, basing the parts missing from the fossil on the equivalents in Compsognathus, and created a model of the animal in life, which Talbot later described as having a "sardonic smile". Lull expanded on Talbot's article in a 1915 publication, wherein he also proposed other identities for some of the bones than what she had originally suggested, including a partial coracoid instead of a scapula and part of the tibia instead of the ilium (part of the hips). Lull suggested that the boulder containing the fossil must have come from a ledge which lay on the south side of the Holyoke Range, about two or three miles north of where it was found, and specified that it was from the Longmeadow Sandstone. Lull had sent his manuscript to the Danish ornithologist Gerhard Heilmann for criticism prior to publication. Heilmann published his response in a 1913 article in which he included previously unpublished photos of the fossil received from Talbot, as well as his own restorations. He disagreed with some of Lull's anatomical interpretations, and had corresponded regarding the fossil with the American zoologist Robert Wilson Shufeldt about his contentions. Heilmann's article was one in a series about the origin of birds, wherein he examined the skeletons of prehistoric reptiles to find traits that may have been ancestral to birds. In a 1916 Washington Academy of Sciences meeting, Shufeldt gave an account of his correspondence with Lull, Talbot, and Heilmann, and agreed with the latter in some of his criticisms of Lull's restoration of Podokesaurus. Talbot wanted the fossil to stay at Yale or Washington on permanent exhibit, where it could "be with its kind", but it was kept at Mount Holyoke in the old science building, Williston Hall, as a local specimen, where it became a "pet curiosity" for the students. During the Christmas break of 1917, Williston Hall burned down, and no remains of the Podokesaurus fossil were found in the rubble. The American writer Christopher Benfey pointed out in 2002 that Podokesaurus therefore had the peculiar distinction of being the dinosaur that vanished twice. The German paleontologist Friedrich von Huene was the last to study and describe the holotype specimen, in a 1914 publication before it was destroyed (he had studied it at Yale before Talbot's description was published). While the college's fossil collections were almost entirely destroyed by the fire, its facilities and collections continued to grow and improve afterwards due to Talbot's efforts. No other unequivocal Podokesaurus specimens have since been found, but cast replicas of the type specimen remain at the Peabody Museum of Natural History and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Podokesaurus received little further attention until new and abundant fossils of Coelophysis were discovered in the late 1940s, and the anatomy of small theropod dinosaurs became clearer; the American paleontologists Edwin Harris Colbert and Donald Baird compared Podokesaurus with Coelophysis in 1958, using the casts of the former. Along with the sauropodomorph Anchisaurus, Podokesaurus was among the first substantial collections of dinosaur skeletal material known from the East Coast of North America. Apart from a tooth (assigned to Coelophysis in 1976), all other Early Jurassic theropod records on the East Coast are footprints. In 2021, Podokesaurus and Anchisaurus were proposed as contenders for state dinosaur of Massachusetts by Representative Jack Patrick Lewis, with Podokesaurus winning the online poll. On May 2, 2022, Governor Charlie Baker signed a law making it the official state dinosaur. ## Description The preserved body of the only known Podokesaurus fossil was 18 cm (7 in) long. Lull estimated the complete length of Podokesaurus to have been 1,150 mm (3.77 ft), the neck accounting for 130 mm (5.1 in), the back for 170 mm (6.7 in), the sacrum (the vertebrae of the pelvic region) for 45 mm (1.8 in), and the tail for 730 mm (2.40 ft). Von Huene estimated the animal to have been 1,100 mm (3.6 ft) long, with the tail accounting for about 70 cm (2.3 ft), more than 1.5 times the rest of the skeleton together. Colbert estimated the animal's length at about 1 m (3.3 ft). In 1995, the writer Jan Peczkis estimated Podokesaurus to have weighed 10–40 kg (22–88 lb), through pelvic height determination (based on von Huene's measurements). The paleontologist Gregory S. Paul estimated it to have weighed 1 kg (2 lb) in 2016 (based on a 1 m length estimate). Talbot stated in 1937 that those scientists who had seen the specimen did not think it was a young individual as there were no indications of cartilage that would turn to bone with age, while Paul thought it was possibly juvenile. In general, the animal was lightly constructed, with hollow bones. As a coelophysoid, it would likely have been similar in build to for example Coelophysis, being slender, long-necked, and with sharp, recurved teeth. Since few other small theropods were known at the time Podokesaurus was described, it was mainly compared to the later genera Compsognathus, Ornitholestes, and Ornithomimus, which were thought related. Due to the fragmentary nature of the Podokesaurus specimen and the fact that it is lost, the identity and shape of some of its bones are today unclear. As only casts of the specimen now remain, it is only possible to get a general impression of the preserved skeleton and its proportions. Talbot identified bone fragments next to the tail as skull bones because two of them were bilaterally symmetric, and one was broadly convex with a sulcus (or furrow) at the midline, and according to Lull, was possibly placed at the upper wall of the skull, not far from the frontal bones. Lull thought other of these elements may have been part of the nasal bones. Von Huene instead interpreted these bones as caudals from the middle of the tail. ### Postcranial skeleton The vertebrae were very light and hollow, and some were slightly concave at each end. The cervical vertebrae were relatively large in length and diameter compared to the dorsals, and had styliform (resembling a pen or bristle in shape) cervical ribs which were long, straight, and narrow, as in Anchisaurus. The front dorsals were much shorter than the cervicals, then again increased in size towards the pelvis. They measured 12–13 mm (0.47–0.51 in) in length. The neural spines of the dorsals were narrow, high, and curved backwards, but not as expanded from front to back as in Compsognathus. The dorsal ribs were strongly curved and very slender and hollow, reminiscent of those in Saltopus and Hallopus, the largest being 52 mm (2.0 in) long and 2 mm (0.1 in) wide. The transverse processes (that connected with the ribs on each side of a vertebra) formed a circular arc downward from each side of a dorsal, extending about as far from the centrum (the "body" of a vertebra) as the spinous process was high. The zygapophyses (processes that connected adjacent vertebrae) were well-developed. The centra were relatively longer than those of Ornithomimus, while those of Compsognathus resembled those of Podokesaurus more, but were shorter. While the hind part of the tail was located some distance away from the rest of the skeleton, Lull believed it was in its natural position and that it would have been very long, the intermediate vertebrae having been swept away. The caudal vertebrae were very long and slender, and along with their chevrons (bones on the undersides of the caudals), resembled those of Ornitholestes. A typical caudal was 17 mm (0.67 in) long and 4 mm (0.16 in) in diameter. The caudals were very similar in length and did not decrease in length until the last few in the succession. Just in front of the pubis there was a cluster of slender gastralia (abdominal ribs), the longest of which was 18 mm (0.71 in) long. The frontmost gastralia had broadened ends, which is often the condition in sternal ribs. The humerus was small and very delicate, 42 mm (1.7 in) long, less than half the length of the femur. It had a strong processus lateralis (a process directed to the side) 30 mm (1.2 in) above its lower end. Lull found it similar to that of Ornitholestes, apart from the radial crest (that connected with the radius bone of the lower arm) not being as high, showing little muscular power. Von Huene estimated the radius to have been 30 mm (1.2 in) long. Lull found the hand more similar to that of Compsognathus than of Ornitholestes. Only slender phalanx bones of the three fingers were preserved, including sharp, curved claws. The pubis was very long, expanding both at the front and hind ends. It was 6 mm (0.24 in) wide and 95 mm (3.7 in) long, and its lower expansion was 10 mm (0.39 in) in diameter. Talbot found the pubis similar to that of the then undescribed Procompsognathus. Lull argued that the pubis lay approximately in position in the fossil, pointing forwards. Heilmann instead believed the bone had been moved out of position before burial, and would have been directed backwards. Colbert and Baird suggested the pubis was directed forwards, but that it curved slightly upwards instead of downwards due to natural warping and cracking of the bone. The ischium was 55 mm (2.2 in) long, 15.5 mm (0.61 in) wide at the end closest to the body, and its slender shaft was 4 mm (0.16 in) in diameter, and somewhat thickened at its lower end. Lull found it similar to those of Compsognathus and Ornitholestes. Below the acetabulum (where the femur connects with the pelvis) there was a broad lamella running towards the pubis. The femur was slender, nearly straight, had thin walls, and was expanded at the back side of its lower end. It was 86 mm (3.4 in) long and 6.5 mm (0.26 in) in diameter just below the fourth trochanter (a flange placed mid-length at the back of the femur). The fourth trochanter was strong, 18 mm (0.71 in) long and about 2 mm (0.079 in) high, and was situated past the middle of the shaft, towards the lower end. The condyles (round prominences) of the femur's lower end protruded strongly hindwards. The tibia was a thin, narrow shaft, 104 mm (4.1 in) in length, and about 7 mm (0.28 in) in diameter. Talbot stated the very thin fibula lay close to the tibia and was of almost equal length, while von Huene thought this was instead part of the crushed tibia. The three metatarsals of the lower leg were closely appressed together forming a compact structure, similar to what was seen in Ornithomimus, but not fused into a tarsometatarsus, as seen in birds. The length of the metatarsals was 75 mm (3.0 in), while their width was 9 mm (0.35 in). The most complete pedal phalanx was very slender and 12 mm (0.47 in) long. ## Classification ### Early interpretations When reading her preliminary description in 1910, Talbot suggested Podokesaurus to have been an "herbivorous dinosaur", but further work at Yale University showed that some bones had been incorrectly identified, and the ischium of the pelvis with a well-developed ridge was found to resemble that of Compsognathus. She refrained from making a definite classification of the specimen in her 1911 description due to the lack of jaw and foot-bones which could have aided in this, but concluded it would have belonged to a "carnivorous dinosaur" based on the shape and position of the pubis, as well as the absence of a postpubis. She considered the fossil to be Triassic in age (the first of the three Mesozoic periods). In 1914, von Huene named the new family Podokesauridae, wherein he, in addition to Podokesaurus, included Saltopus, Procompsognathus, Coelophysis, and Tanystropheus. He placed this group under Coelurosauria, which at the time was used to include small theropods in general. Heilmann considered Podokesaurus very similar to the early bird Archaeopteryx in 1913, and wondered why Talbot had not made any comparisons to it. He particularly found the legs and the pelvis, when the pubis was interpreted as pointing backwards (as in birds), similar to what it might look like in a bird ancestor, while considering Lull's reconstruction of a forward-directed pubis unlikely. He also found parts of the shoulder blade, forelimbs, and even tail bones similar to those of birds. He furthermore pointed to the presence of abdominal ribs and that the bones were hollow, and concluded that nothing precluded Podokesaurus from being a very primitive proto-bird, with not yet fused middle-foot bones. The only feature he found inconsistent with this interpretation was the short finger with a claw, if it was not instead part of a toe. He suggested that the issue could be determined if the skull, sternum, and clavicle were found in the rock, bones that would be important clues for classification. Heilmann wished for a clearer explanation of the placement of the middle-foot bones in relation to each other, and found it surprising that Lull's reconstruction of Podokesaurus showed an even more appressed middle-foot than was present in the later supposed descendant Ornithomimus, which he thought would have developed a completely bird-like middle-foot by that time. Heilmann found Podokesaurus very unusual for a dinosaur from the Triassic, and thought it was one of the earliest bipedal vertebrates. He suggested that since it was so different from Thecodontosaurus and Plateosaurus, those may not have been dinosaurs, or Podokesaurus could instead have been related to Saltopus or parasuchians, but found its fossils too insufficient to say anything definite about the issue. Shufeldt elaborated on his and Heilmann's interpretation of the pubis in 1915, and stated the bone had probably been displaced during fossilization. He pointed out that if it had faced forward, it would have been in forcible contact with the abdominal ribs that would have been dangerous for internal organs during movement. Lull found Heilmann and Shufeldt's criticisms of his pelvis reconstruction probable in 1915. He listed Podokesauridae under the superfamily Compsognatha, and suggested Podokesaurus was perhaps ancestral to the later North American genera Ornitholestes and Ornithimimus. In 1916, Heilmann pointed out that early dinosaurs, parasuchians, and pterosaurs all had similarities to birds, as well as to each other, and that Triassic reptiles like Scleromochlus, Saltopus, and Podokesaurus, were difficult to separate. He proposed that Podokesaurus and other bipedal reptiles from the Triassic were descended from pseudosuchians (which many types of archosaurs were classified as at the time) that may have evolved bipedality by the Permian. He concluded that birds were descended from ornithosuchian pseudosuchians rather than from dinosaurs, due to their bipedality and bird-like legs. The paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn used Podokesaurus as an example of a "carnivorous dinosaur of the bird-like type" in 1917, while stating that similarities between birds and dinosaurs were due to parallel evolution. The paleontologist Franz Nopcsa von Felső-Szilvás created the subfamily Podokesaurinae in 1928, within which he included Podokesaurus, Procerosaurus, Saltopus, and Tanystropheus. Von Huene grouped Podokesaurus, Coelophysis, Spinosuchus, Halticosaurus, Saltopus, Avipes, and Velocipes in Podokesauridae in 1932. ### Relation to Coelophysis In 1958, Colbert and Baird described a theropod specimen consisting of natural casts of bones in sandstone (probably formed when the bones were dissolved by acidic water, leaving molds of the bones), including a pubis, tibia, and some ribs. They found the specimen similar to Coelophysis and Podokesaurus, referring to it as C. sp. (of unknown species). They considered the natural cast and Podokesaurus to be from the Portland Arkose of the Newark Group in the Connecticut valley. Though Podokesaurus was smaller than the others (being comparable in size to the smallest-known Coelophysis specimens), these researchers suggested that because it was so similar to them, this raised questions as to its validity. In 1964, Colbert synomymized Podokesaurus with Coelophysis, (since the latter name was older), coining the new combination C. holyokensis. He also suggested that the natural cast belonged to C. holyokensis. Colbert stated that Podokesaurus could only be distinguished from Coelophysis by the neural spines of its vertebrae not being as long from front to back, and because the ischium differed in shape. He found these differences to be similar to those seen between modern reptile species within the same genus, and that they represented eastern (C. holyokensis) and western (C. bauri) species of the same genus. While he admitted that these conclusions were not ironclad, and that Podokesaurus may indeed have been distinct, he said the burden of proof should be on the proponents of such a view. In 1977, the paleontologists Paul E. Olsen and Peter Galton redated the Newark Supergroup (which the Portland Formation belongs to) to the Early Jurassic instead of the preceding Triassic as was previously thought. This was part of a study in which Olsen compared the fauna of various formations and concluded there had not been a sudden, widespread extinction event at the Triassic-Jurassic border, but that it had instead been gradual. Olsen stated in 1980 that while the exact provenance and systematic position of Podokesaurus will probably remain uncertain, the Portland Formation it was thought to be from was probably Early Jurassic in age, and therefore 15 million years younger than Coelophysis from the Triassic. Since features shared between Podokesaurus and Coelophysis are also known in other small theropods, such as Syntarsus, Olsen suggested that Podokesaurus should be retained as a separate genus of indeterminate theropods, to avoid overextending the temporal range of Coelophysis. He also applied this argument to the natural cast, regarding it as incertae sedis (with uncertain relationships) among theropods rather than as Podokesaurus or Coelophysis. The paleontologist Samuel P. Welles stated in 1984 that the family Podokesauridae had become a "catch-all" for most Triassic theropods. While he found Coelophysis the most similar to Podokesaurus among theropods, he thought the two differed greatly in that the fourth trochanter of the latter was below midheight on the femur (unlike the higher position in most other theropods), and its metatarsals were of equal length. The paleontologist Kevin Padian stated in 1986 that while Colbert's suggestion of synonymy was possible, the discernible similarities between Podokesaurus and Coelophysis were primitive theropod features, and the two were not as close in time as once thought. Paul said in 1988 that while the family Podokesauridae was still used for Coelophysis and kin, Podokesaurus was not based on good remains to begin with, and with only bad cast replicas remaining, he thought there would always be disagreement about the taxon. He found this to be too much ambiguity to put up with, and proposed the name Coelophysidae should be used instead (Halticosauridae, another contender, was also based on too fragmentary remains). In 1989, Colbert also doubted the synonymy of Podokesaurus with Coelophysis, and that the natural casts belonged to the latter, due to their revised Early Jurassic ages, and he made no attempt to resolve the status of Podokesaurus due to the only specimen being lost. He retained the name Podokesauridae for the family. In 1990, the paleontologists Timothy Rowe and Jacques Gauthier considered Podokesauridae a taxonomic waste-basket, wherein taxa had been grouped based on phenetic resemblance and stratigraphic division, and therefore under continuous revision and instability. They considered it possible that Podokesaurus and the natural cast specimen were Coelophysis, but found that their similarities were not shared exclusively by them, but were ancestral features among theropods. They therefore agreed that the name Podokesaurus should be restricted to the holotype, and that it and the natural cast should be considered Theropoda incertae sedis. In the same volume, the paleontologist David B. Norman agreed with this assessment, and stated the features used to unite Podokesaurus with Coelophysis merely confirm that they were dinosaurs rather than establish a specific relation between them. The paleontologist Thomas R. Holtz agreed in 1994 that the family name Podokesauridae should be replaced by Coelophysidae. By this time, the idea that small theropods should be grouped in Coelurosauria and large theropods in Carnosauria was falling out of favor, and Coelophysoidea was considered a separate group of gracile, early theropods. The paleontologists David B. Weishampel and Luther Young suggested ceratosaurian affinities for Podokesaurus in 1996. The paleontologist Ronald S. Tykoski and Rowe noted in 2004 that while Podokesaurus had coelophysoid features (such as a small, knob-like expansion on the lower part of the pubis), it did not have any derived traits that would unite it with Coelophysis. They agreed with earlier researchers that the name Podokesaurus should be restricted to the holotype, and concluded that the natural cast may be a coelophysoid, but could not be identified beyond being a theropod. In 2004, the paleontologists Matthew T. Carrano and Scott D. Sampson stated that Podokesaurus was almost certainly a coelophysoid similar to Coelophysis. It had coelophysoid features such as a long, downward curved pubis, that was longer than the ischium, and an additional foramen (opening) on the pubis, below the oburator foramen, but little more could be said about its affinities. Carrano and colleagues stated in 2004 that Segisaurus and Podokesaurus were among the latest-surviving coelophysoids, and that the evolutionary radiation of this group may have ended by the latest part of the Early Jurassic. Also in 2004, the paleontologists Anthea Bristowe and Michael A. Raath listed Podokesaurus as a synonym of Coelophysis without elaboration. Tykoski rejected synonymy between the two in his 2005 dissertation, but left Podokesaurus out of his analysis. Paul suggested in 2016 that Podokesaurus may have formed the family Coelophysidae with Coelophysis, Panguraptor, and Procompsognathus. ## Paleobiology Talbot suggested that the short, slender humerus, long, straight hindlimb bones, and the well-developed fourth trochanter of the femur indicated that Podokesaurus was bipedal. She found the fact that the tibia was much longer than the femur, that the metatarsals were very long, over half the length of the tibia, and the skeleton's light construction, were indicative of rapid locomotion. Talbot stated that Lull thought this was an adaptation to climatic conditions, as the animal must have been able to travel fast and far for water in its semi-arid region. Talbot also reported a small piece of smooth, polished quartz among the ribs, and suggested it could have been a gastrolith (stomach stone), and so the first time these were found in association with a carnivorous dinosaur. Von Huene agreed the stone was a gastrolith, distinct from the surrounding sandstone, and added it was 11 mm (0.43 in) long. Lull found the animal to have been essentially a slender, cursorial (adapted for running) animal, with carnivorous habits, but that the slenderness that made it swift also confined it to small prey. In 1932, von Huene proposed that small coelurosaurs had a jumping gait, due to their lower legs being longer than their upper legs, contrasting with the alternating steps of carnosaurs. With its large fourth trocanther, he thought Podokesaurus had probably abandoned this jumping gait, instead moving with rapid, alternating steps similar to ratite birds. In 1982, the paleontologist Richard A. Thulborn estimated the speed of various dinosaurs, based on the relationships between speed, gait, and body size of modern animals (mainly mammals). By extrapolating the stride length and cadence of Podokesaurus, he estimated it could have run at about 15–20 km/h (9–12 mph). He concluded that if a dinosaur could match a mammal in speed, it must have had similar levels of efficiency in locomotor ability and physiology. He cautioned that comparison was difficult because dinosaur anatomy differed significantly from that of mammals and birds. Differences included the massive tails of dinosaurs, and hindlimb retractor muscles that originated behind the femur, while these muscles originate more forward in mammals and extant birds. Weishampel stated in 2006 that as a coelophysoid, Podokesaurus would have been a fleet-footed predator, with powerful forelimbs and grasping hands. Lull found that fossil footprints named Grallator cursorius agreed with the foot and stride of Podokesaurus. These were abundant at a quarry in South Hadley (where they were found alongside large Otozoum moodii tracks), which he thought supported this identity. In 1926, Heilmann suggested that the foot of Procompsognathus was a better match for the G. cursorius tracks, due to the proportions of its toe bones. The paleontologist Wilhelm Bock stated in 1952 that while very similar Grallator tracks had been attributed to various small dinosaurs (such as Podokesaurus), he considered such correlations too specific, and that the best that could be said was such tracks represented small coelurosaurians. The writer Donald F. Glut suggested in 1997 that a slab with tracks from the Brunswick Formation of New York previously attributed to Coelophysis may instead have been produced by Podokesaurus, based on its Jurassic age. This formation is now known as the Passaic Formation, and instead thought to be Late Triassic in age. ## Paleoenvironment The only known specimen of Podokesaurus is thought to have been collected from the Portland Formation (earlier known as the Portland Arkose) in the Hartford Basin of Massachusetts. The age of this formation has long been unclear (it was thought to be Triassic until 1977), but it is currently thought to date to the Hettangian–Sinemurian stages of the Early Jurassic, between 201 and 190 million years ago (earlier thought to be the Pliensbachian–Toarcian stages). In 2016, the paleontologist Robert E. Weems and colleagues suggested the Portland Formation should be elevated to a geological group within the Newark Supergroup (as the Portland Group), and thereby replacing the former name "Agawam Group". They also reinstated the Longmeadow Sandstone, where Podokesaurus was found, as a formation (within the uppermost Portland Group); it had earlier been considered identical to the Portland Formation. The Portland Group represents the uppermost part of the Newark Supergroup, and was deposited after the Central Atlantic magmatic province was formed during the end of the Triassic and the beginning of the Jurassic. The Longmeadow Sandstone consists of fluvial (deposited by rivers and streams) red mudstones, sandstones, conglomerates, minor red eolian (deposited by wind) sandstones and siltstones. Other animals known from the formation include the sauropodomorph dinosaur Anchisaurus, the crocodylomorph Stegomosuchus, and fish such as Acentrophorus and Semionotus. Dinosaur tracks include the ichnogenera Anchisauripus, Anomoepus, Eubrontes, and Grallator. ## See also - Timeline of coelophysoid research
316,815	Judith Resnik	1,164,108,673	American engineer and astronaut (1949–1986)	[ "1949 births", "1986 deaths", "Accidental deaths in Florida", "American people of Israeli descent", "American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent", "American women engineers", "Burials at Arlington National Cemetery", "Carnegie Mellon University College of Engineering alumni", "Jewish-American history", "NASA civilian astronauts", "People from Akron, Ohio", "Recipients of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor", "Space Shuttle Challenger disaster", "Space Shuttle Challenger disaster victims", "Space Shuttle program astronauts", "Systems engineers", "University of Maryland, College Park alumni", "Women astronauts" ]	Judith Arlene Resnik (April 5, 1949 – January 28, 1986) was an American electrical engineer, software engineer, biomedical engineer, pilot and NASA astronaut who died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. She was the fourth woman, the second American woman and the first Jewish woman of any nationality to fly in space, logging 145 hours in orbit. Recognized while still a child for her intellectual brilliance, Resnik was accepted at Carnegie Institute of Technology after becoming only the sixteenth woman in the history of the United States to have attained a perfect score on the SAT exam. She graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from Carnegie Mellon before attaining a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland. Resnik worked for RCA as an engineer on Navy missile and radar projects, as a senior systems engineer for Xerox Corporation, and published research on special-purpose integrated circuitry. She was also a pilot and made research contributions to biomedical engineering as a research fellow at the National Institutes of Health. At age 28, Resnik was selected by NASA as a mission specialist. She was part of NASA Astronaut Group 8, the first group to include women. While training on the astronaut program, she developed software and operating procedures for NASA missions. Her first space flight was the STS-41-D mission in August and September 1984, the twelfth Space Shuttle flight, and the maiden voyage of, where her duties included operating its robotic arm. Her second Shuttle mission was STS-51-L in January 1986 aboard. She died when it broke up shortly after liftoff and crashed into the ocean. ## Early life Judith Arlene Resnik was born in Akron, Ohio, on April 5, 1949, the daughter of Marvin Resnik, an optometrist, and his wife Sarah (née Polensky), a legal secretary. She had a brother, Charles, who was four years younger. Her father was the son of a rabbi, and he had been born in Preluke in Ukraine. His family had emigrated to Mandatory Palestine in the 1920s, and then to the United States after the 1929 Hebron massacre. He was fluent in eight languages and served in the U.S. Army during World War II in military intelligence, conducting prisoner of war interrogations and aerial reconnaissance in the Pacific Theater and the subsequent occupation of Japan. Resnik grew up in an observant Jewish home, studying at Hebrew school at Beth El Synagogue in Akron and celebrating her Bat Mitzvah in 1962. The Bat Mitzvah was not common at this time. Resnik was noticed for her intellectual ability while still in kindergarten, and she entered elementary school a year early. She attended Fairlawn Elementary School, Simon Perkins Junior High School, and Harvey S. Firestone High School. She was an outstanding student, excelling in mathematics, languages and piano. She played classical piano, and at one point considered a career as a concert pianist. Before college, she attained a perfect score on her SAT exam, the only woman in the country to do so that year and only the sixteenth woman in US history. She graduated from Firestone in 1966 as valedictorian and runner-up homecoming queen. Although her mother disapproved of her dating, Resnik had a series of boyfriends. She preferred to socialize with boys from the nearby Copley High School rather than from Firestone, where her intellectual reputation preceded her. She met Len Nahmi (who eventually became a pilot) at a basketball game. He was half Irish and half Lebanese, and her mother disapproved of him. Nonetheless, she continued to see him secretly, and when she stayed with a cousin in Cleveland while taking a college course available to high school students, she also met with him there. Her parents acrimoniously divorced while she was a teenager, and custody was given to her mother, as was the custom in the United States. Her mother's dislike of Nahmi became more intense, and Nahmi eventually ended their relationship to spare Resnik more pain. When she was 17, she prepared and filed a successful court case so that her custody could be switched from her mother to her father, with whom she was particularly close. She tore up letters from her mother unopened. Her father remarried, and she acquired twin stepsisters, Linda and Sandy, who were nine years older than she was, and with whom she became close. At age 17, Resnik entered Carnegie Institute of Technology, where she joined the Alpha Epsilon Phi sorority. She began college intending to become a math major, but in her second year, after attending electrical engineering lectures with her boyfriend Michael Oldak, she developed a passion for the subject. She was one of three female students in electrical engineering. She was a gourmet cook and a navigator in sports car rallies, in which she took part many times with Oldak in his Triumph TR6. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University (as it now was) in 1970. She became a member of Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu honor societies. Resnik married Oldak on July 14, 1970. Her mother attended the wedding; two sets of invitations were sent out, one describing her as her father's daughter, and the other as her mother's. Upon graduation from Carnegie Mellon, Resnik and Oldak moved to Moorestown, New Jersey, where they both worked for RCA. She was a design engineer on missile and radar projects and won the Graduate Study Program Award. She performed circuit design for the missile and surface radar division. While at RCA, she worked for the Navy building custom integrated circuitry for the phased-array radar control systems and developed electronics and software for NASA's sounding rocket and telemetry systems programs. An academic paper she wrote on special purpose integrated circuitry caught the attention of NASA during this time. She registered for master's degree evening courses at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1971, Oldak was accepted into Georgetown University Law Center, and they moved to Washington, D.C. Resnik continued to work for RCA, transferring to its office in Springfield, Virginia, and she continued pursuing her master's degree at the University of Maryland. She then entered a doctoral program. Resnik and Oldak divorced in 1975—he wanted children and she did not—but they remained in contact and on good terms. While working on her doctorate, Resnik switched jobs in 1974, and went to work as a research fellow in biomedical engineering at the Laboratory of Neurophysiology at the National Institutes of Health. As a biomedical engineer, Resnik researched the physiology of visual systems. In 1977 she earned her PhD in electrical engineering with honors at the University of Maryland, writing her dissertation on "Bleaching kinetics of visual pigments". Her research involved the effects of electrical currents on the retina. An academic paper co-written by her concerning the biomedical engineering of optometry ("A novel rapid scanning microspectrophotometer and its use in measuring rhodopsin photoproduct pathways and kinetics in frog retinas") was published in the Journal of the Optical Society of America in 1978. ## NASA astronaut ### Selection and training After her divorce from Oldak, Resnik reconnected with Nahmi, who was now a commercial airline pilot. When he heard that the National Air and Space Administration (NASA) was recruiting women to become astronauts, he encouraged her to apply. They read Carrying the Fire, the 1974 book by Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins, and she met with him in his office at the National Air and Space Museum. She also met with another former astronaut, John Glenn, who was now a United States senator from her home state of Ohio. Nahmi convinced her to obtain a private pilot's license to bolster her credentials. Resnik qualified as a pilot in 1977, while completing her Ph.D., having achieved near-perfect scores in her flying exams (two 100s and a 98). When she received a promotion at RCA and again when she completed her doctorate, he suggested she send NASA a telegram informing them. Resnik's mentor and advisor, Professor Angel G. Jordan, then Dean of Carnegie Mellon College of Engineering and later provost of Carnegie Mellon, also encouraged Resnik to apply for the program. After she completed her doctorate, Resnik became a senior systems engineer for Xerox Corporation in Los Angeles, working in product development. She rented an apartment in Redondo Beach, California, where she would jog along the beach to improve her stamina and reduce her weight. In January 1978, at age 28, Resnik was selected as a mission specialist with NASA Astronaut Group 8, one of twenty-nine men and six women selected out of 8,029 applicants in the first NASA astronaut selection that included women. This involved taking a pay cut, as her new salary was considerably less than what she was being paid at Xerox. Her fellow astronaut candidates nicknamed her "JR". She dated some of them. She trained intensely and with great determination, focusing particularly on her physical fitness. She piloted the Northrop T-38 Talon, an aircraft used by NASA astronauts for transportation and training. Astronaut Jerome Apt described her as "an excellent pilot". Asked about Resnik, fellow astronaut Rhea Seddon said: "I thought she was really really bright, obviously a very beautiful person, flirtatious, funny. She was just a live wire. We would do the happy hours, or we'd go on these NASA trips, and Judy was just a star attraction." Resnik worked on research into the principle of orbital systems, flight software and the development of systems of manual control of spacecraft. She developed the software and operating procedures for the Space Shuttle's Remote Manipulator System (RMS). She also developed the deployment systems for the tethered satellite systems and worked on orbiter development, writing software for NASA to use on its missions. She disliked the part of her job that required making public appearances and drumming up support for the space program. She avoided television interviews when possible, and resented intrusive questions about her private life, such as questions about her divorce. Other astronauts felt that either Resnik or Sally Ride would become the first woman in the group to fly in space, as they received the sorts of technical assignments that best prepared them for flight, such as capsule communicator (CapCom) duties. The shortlisted candidates for the mission specialist assignments for the STS-7 mission included all six women, but since the mission involved the use of the RMS, the choice of the first to fly on the Space Shuttle narrowed to Resnik, Ride and Anna Fisher, who had specialized on it. Resnik was considered best qualified, but was passed over in favor of Ride because it was felt that Resnik was less comfortable with public affairs issues, and the first American woman to fly in space would attract an unusual amount of public interest. ### STS-41-D In February 1983, Resnik was assigned to the crew of STS-41-D, the twelfth Space Shuttle flight, the maiden voyage of the , along with Henry Hartsfield, Michael Coats, Steven Hawley and Mike Mullane. During a visit to a contractor's factory, Resnik whispered to Mullane: "there are no maidens on this flight". She was the center of attention on such visits, and one contractor engineer became a stalker, sending her unwelcome letters, poems and gifts. Eventually, after he appeared in the office, he had to be dealt with by NASA security. After Hawley and Mullane had a fawning encounter with actor Bo Derek, who was working on the film Tarzan, the Ape Man, Resnik started calling Mullane "Tarzan" and Hawley "Cheetah"; when the office secretaries heard about this, they began referring to the STS-41-D crew as the "zoo crew". Resnik was a fan of the actor Tom Selleck, and had a coffee cup that said: "Excuse No. 1: I'm Saving Myself for Tom Selleck." Her crewmates hid a poster of Tom Selleck behind the bathroom curtain on Discovery. The STS-41-D mission's launch was delayed three times. The first attempt, on June 25, 1984, was aborted due to a failure of the backup computer. The following day, during the second attempt, the computer detected a fault in one of the Space Shuttle main engines, and shut them down four seconds before liftoff. This was the first time a NASA space mission had been aborted after starting the engines since Gemini 6 in 1965. Discovery had to be taken back to the Vehicle Assembly Building, where the faulty engine was replaced. A further launch attempt was made on August 29, but was again delayed for a day due to a software issue. Finally, on August 30, Discovery lifted off for the first time, and was in orbit eight minutes later. Resnik invited her family to watch the launch from the VIP viewing area. This included her father, brother, Oldak and Nahmi. Her mother was also in attendance, to avoid bad publicity. Resnik became the second American woman in space. She was also the first American Jewish astronaut to go into space, and the first Jewish woman. Her duties included operating the Space Shuttle's robotic arm, which she helped create and on which she was an expert. On the first day of the mission, Resnik and Mullane deployed the first of three commercial communications satellites, the SBS-4 satellite for Satellite Business Systems. On the second day, the crew released a second satellite, Syncom IV-2, also known as Leasat 2, for the U.S. Navy. While Hartsfield was filming its release with the IMAX camera for the documentary The Dream is Alive, Resnik's hair became caught in the camera's belt feed mechanism. The camera jammed, and she had to be cut free with scissors. Strands of loose hair floated about the cabin. Hartsfield informed the mission control center that the camera had jammed, but did not say why. Coats was able to repair the camera, and Hartsfield continued filming, while Resnik kept her distance. The crew deployed a third satellite, Telstar 302 for Telesat of Canada, without mishap the following day. That day Resnik also deployed the OAST-1 solar array wing, considered a potential future way of generating more electrical power during space missions. After performing several dynamic tests that day and the next, she reported that the experiment was well-behaved and matched ground simulations of the array. During the mission, she held up a hand-written sign saying "Hi Dad" to the cameras, and in a live televised broadcast told President Ronald Reagan "the Earth looks great". When Reagan asked her if the flight was all she hoped it would be, she replied, "It certainly is and I couldn't have picked a better crew to fly with." After the mission, Hartsfield described Resnik as the "astronaut's astronaut", and Mullane wrote: "I was also happy to be crewed with Judy ... She was smart, hardworking, and dependable, all the things you would want in a fellow crewmember." Discovery landed at Edwards Air Force Base on September 5, after a flight lasting 6 days and 56 minutes. ### Space Shuttle Challenger disaster On January 29, 1985, NASA announced that Resnik had been assigned to the crew of STS-51-L. The main objective of this mission was to launch TDRS-B, the second in a series of NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellites. It would also carry the Spartan (Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Astronomy), which would use two ultraviolet spectrometers to study the tail of Comet Halley. Resnik was primarily responsible for the operation of the RMS and, with fellow astronaut Ronald McNair, would deploy and later retrieve the Spartan. The flight would also carry Christa McAuliffe, a teacher-observer selected as part of NASA's Teacher in Space Project. Resnik was part of the team of astronauts who flew to Washington, D.C., to speak to the 113 finalists, and provide them an insider's view of a Space Shuttle mission. They were taken to the National Air and Space Museum, where they viewed The Dream is Alive with its scenes of Resnik deploying a satellite and eating and sleeping in space. She told them that it was a shame that they could not all fly in space, but privately she disagreed with NASA's decision to send non-astronauts on the Space Shuttle. Resnik's assignment was tied to McAuliffe's; NASA wanted McAuliffe to fly with a veteran female astronaut. Initially scheduled for January 24, 1986, the launch was delayed until January 28 by rain, high winds, a troublesome bolt on the 's hatch and freezing temperatures. Resnik's father and stepmother, and her brother and his family watched the launch from the VIP area, as did her Firestone High math teacher. Selleck declined her invitation to attend. Resnik carried a locket for her niece, a signet ring for her nephew and a cigarette lighter for Nahmi. Challenger lifted off from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39B at 11:38 on January 28. A minute later it broke up, torn apart by aerodynamic forces after a catastrophic failure of an O-ring seal on the starboard solid rocket booster. The cabin remained intact until it hit the water at 333 kilometres per hour (207 mph), killing all on board. Resnik's last recorded words aboard Challenger regarded scanning for "LVLH" (low-vertical/low-horizontal), reminding the cockpit crew of a switch configuration change to the attitude direction indicator. Following the disaster, examination of the recovered vehicle cockpit revealed that the Personal Egress Air Packs were activated for pilot Michael J. Smith and two other crew members. The location of Smith's activation switch on the back of his seat means either Resnik or Ellison Onizuka likely activated it for him. Mike Mullane wrote: > Mike Smith's PEAP had been turned on by Judy or El, I wondered if I would have had the presence of mind to do the same thing had I been in Challenger's cockpit. Or would I have been locked in a catatonic paralysis of fear? There had been nothing in our training concerning the activation of a PEAP in the event of an in-flight emergency. The fact that Judy or El had done so for Mike Smith made them heroic in my mind. They had been able to block out the terrifying sights and sounds and motions of Challenger's destruction and had reached for that switch. It was the type of thing a true astronaut would do—maintain their cool in the direst of circumstances. This is the only evidence that shows Onizuka and Resnik were alive after the cockpit separated from the vehicle. If the cabin had lost pressure, the air packs alone would not have sustained the crew during the two-minute descent. Resnik's remains were recovered from the crashed vehicle cockpit by Navy divers from the USS Preserver. They were cremated and buried in Arlington National Cemetery on May 20, 1986, commingled with those of her six Challenger crewmates. ## Legacy Resnik was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. She was also awarded the NASA Space Flight Medal for her first flight. Landmarks and buildings named for her include a dormitory at her alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University; Judith A. Resnik Elementary School in Gaithersburg, Maryland; Judith A. Resnik Community Learning Center (formerly Fairlawn Elementary) which she had attended was renamed in her honor in her hometown of Akron; and Judith A. Resnik Middle School, established in 2016, in San Antonio, Texas. A crater on the Moon was named after her, as was one on Venus, where all features are named after women. An asteroid, 3356 Resnik, was also named after her. A memorial to Resnik and the rest of the crew of Challenger was dedicated in Seabrook, Texas, where she lived while stationed at the Johnson Space Center. She is also commemorated on the Space Mirror Memorial at the Kennedy Space Center. The IEEE Judith A. Resnik Award was established in 1986 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and is presented annually to an individual or team in recognition of outstanding contributions to space engineering in areas of relevance to the IEEE. The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) awards the Resnik Challenger Medal annually to "a woman who has changed the space industry, has personally contributed innovative technology verified by flight experience ... and will be recognized through future decades as having created milestones in the development of space as a resource for all humankind." The Challenger Center was established in 1986 by the families of the Challenger crew, including Resnik's brother, Charles, in honor of the crew members. Its goal is to increase children's interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Julie Fulton portrayed Resnik in the 1990 made-for-TV movie Challenger. ## See also - List of female astronauts
39,237,133	Chris Gragg	1,173,725,622	American football player and coach (born 1990)	[ "1990 births", "21st-century African-American sportspeople", "African-American players of American football", "American football tight ends", "Arkansas Razorbacks football players", "Buffalo Bills players", "Living people", "Memphis Tigers football coaches", "New York Jets players", "People from Warren, Arkansas", "Players of American football from Pine Bluff, Arkansas", "University of Memphis alumni" ]	Christopher Le'Edward Gragg (born June 30, 1990) is an American former professional football player who was a tight end for three seasons with the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL). Born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, Gragg played college football for the Arkansas Razorbacks and was selected by the Bills in the seventh round of the 2013 NFL Draft. Gragg played as a wide receiver for Warren High School, and converted to a tight end after his freshman season at the University of Arkansas. In his sophomore and junior seasons for the Razorbacks, the team made appearances in Bowl Championship Series games and defeated the Kansas State Wildcats in the 2012 Cotton Bowl Classic. A knee injury caused Gragg to miss eight games his senior season as Arkansas finished with a losing record. Gragg participated in the NFL Scouting Combine, an evaluative competition among prospective NFL players, and topped several statistics among the tight ends in attendance; in the following draft, the Bills chose him with the 222nd overall selection. Gragg made his NFL debut for Buffalo on October 13, 2013, and played in nine regular-season games during the 2013 NFL season. He played in ten games in 2014 and thirteen games in 2015 before missing the 2016 season due to injury. He signed with the New York Jets in 2017, but did not play any regular-season games for the team after a preseason injury. Gragg indicated he was retired from the NFL as of December 2019 and, in 2020, worked as an assistant coach for the Memphis Tigers football team. ## Early life Christopher Le'Edward Gragg was born on June 30, 1990, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, to Tenita and Kelvin Gragg, both of whom worked as educators. Kelvin coached the Warren High School football team, and Chris served as the team's water boy until he was in junior high school. Gragg played football as a wide receiver for Warren alongside future NFL players Jarius Wright and Greg Childs. During his senior year, Gragg accumulated 420 receiving yards and caught 8 touchdowns. Recruiting website Rivals.com evaluated him as a 2-star prospect on a 1–5 star scale and ranked Gragg as the 15th best player in Arkansas at his position, while Scout.com ranked him as the 148th best receiver in the nation. In July 2007, Gragg committed to (agreed to attend and play for) the University of Arkansas, as did three other players from Warren. ## Collegiate career In his freshman season, Gragg played in all twelve of the Arkansas Razorbacks' games as the team finished with a 5–7 win–loss record. During the second game of the season, against the Louisiana–Monroe Warhawks, Gragg caught a 25-yard pass from quarterback Casey Dick on fourth down and one to continue a drive that ended with a game-winning touchdown. The catch was Gragg's only reception in 2008. In spring 2009, Gragg converted from a wide receiver into a tight end, and was listed as the number-three tight end on the Razorbacks' depth chart. He was given a medical redshirt and did not play during the 2009 season after he dislocated his ankle in a preseason practice. In September 2010, Gragg was listed as the number three tight end on the Razorbacks' depth chart. When Arkansas faced the Georgia Bulldogs on September 18, 2010, Gragg caught a touchdown from a 57-yard pass for his first reception of the year. The 2010 Arkansas Razorbacks ended the year with a 10–3 record, and were invited to play in the Sugar Bowl against the Ohio State Buckeyes, a game that Arkansas lost 31–26. Gragg made one catch for 16 yards in the contest; he finished the year with 8 receptions for 171 yards and two touchdowns. Prior to the 2011 season, Gragg replaced D. J. Williams, a first-string tight end who graduated in 2010. In the Razorbacks' eleventh game of the season, Gragg caught 8 passes for 119 yards, both single-game career highs, as the team defeated the Mississippi State Bulldogs and moved to a 10–1 record. After the game, the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) system, which averaged team positions in the Harris Interactive College Football Poll, the Coaches' Poll, and six computer rankings to list teams by their combined average position, ranked Arkansas as the third-best team in the nation behind the Louisiana State University Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide. After a loss to the Tigers on November 25, the Razorbacks fell out of contention for the BCS National Championship Game, a game in which the top two teams in the BCS poll played at the end of the regular season. Arkansas finished the year ranked sixth in BCS standings and were invited to play in the 2012 Cotton Bowl Classic, where they defeated the Kansas State Wildcats 29–16: with the victory, Arkansas tied a team record for most wins in a season. Over the season, Gragg caught 41 receptions, third most on the team, for 518 yards and two touchdowns. In July 2012, Gragg was listed as a preseason nominee for the John Mackey Award, a recognition presented annually by the Nassau County Sports Commission to the best tight end in college football, and was voted to the second team of the Coaches Preseason All-Southeastern Conference (SEC) squad, an honorific roster composed of the second-best players in the SEC. In July, ESPN writers Edward Aschoff and Chris Low ranked Gragg as the best tight end in the conference. In Arkansas' season opener against the Jacksonville State Gamecocks, Gragg accumulated 110 yards and two touchdowns over 7 catches, a performance for which he earned the John Mackey Tight End of the Week award. On September 9, Gragg suffered a bone bruise in his knee against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights which caused him to miss the next three games; upon return, Gragg reaggravated the injury and missed the remainder of the season's matches. He finished his final season at Arkansas with 22 receptions for 289 yards and three touchdowns, while the team ended with a 4–8 record. After his senior year, Gragg participated in the NFL Scouting Combine, an evaluative competition among prospective NFL players, where he ran the fastest 40-yard dash time, the third-fastest 3 cone drill, had the longest broad jump, and the highest vertical jump among tight ends in attendance. ## Professional career ### Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills drafted Gragg in the seventh round of the 2013 NFL Draft, with the 222nd overall selection, a slot they obtained from a trade with the St. Louis Rams. Gragg signed a contract with the Bills in May 2013. In preseason practice, Gragg was one of five tight ends on the Buffalo team. When the Bills cut their roster to meet the NFL's 2013 53-man limit by August 31, Gragg made the team. In September 2013, ESPN columnist Mike Rodak gave the Bills a C grade in tight end depth on an A–F scale and said Gragg "would be in the bottom 10 percent of NFL starters at [the position]". Gragg made his regular-season NFL debut on October 13 against the Cincinnati Bengals, and caught his first career reception and touchdown against the Pittsburgh Steelers four games later. When Buffalo faced the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on December 8, Gragg started a game for the first time during the regular season. By the end of 2013, Gragg caught 5 receptions for 53 yards and a touchdown in nine career games played. Collectively, the Bills finished last in the AFC East with a 6–10 record. Prior to the Bills' 2014 training camp, Rodak gave Gragg a 45% chance to make Buffalo's 53-man roster: Rodak described him as "the most athletic tight end" with the Bills, but also wrote that "there might not be a spot for Gragg" with tight ends Tony Moeaki, Scott Chandler, and Lee Smith on the team. Gragg made Buffalo's 53-man roster. In the fourth quarter of the Bills' regular-season October 5 matchup against the Detroit Lions, Gragg caught a touchdown pass that, with an added two-point conversion, tied the game; Buffalo won the contest, 17–14, and moved to a 3–2 record. When he attempted to catch a low-thrown pass in the second half of a game against the New York Jets on November 24, Gragg injured his right knee, which caused him to miss the remainder of the Bills' season. During 2014, over the ten games in which he played, Gragg accumulated 7 receptions for 48 yards and a touchdown as Buffalo finished with a 9–7 record, second in the AFC East behind the New England Patriots. Gragg underwent surgery for his knee in January 2015. In the 2015 preseason, Gragg finished with 8 receptions for 128 yards and a touchdown; during the 2015 regular season, Gragg set career highs in games played, with 13, receptions, with 12, and receiving yards, with 150, as the Bills finished 8–8 and missed the playoffs. His 150 receiving yards and 12 receptions were second most among Bills tight ends. In an August 2016 preseason game against the Indianapolis Colts, Gragg blocked a punt on the Colts' second drive, which resulted in a safety, and scored a touchdown on a 19-yard pass from EJ Manuel on the next drive. In a summary of the game, Zac Jackson, a writer for Profootballtalk.com, said Gragg "[had] been a valuable utility man for the Bills over the last three seasons", and that he "[seemed] on his way to playing a similar role" for Buffalo that season. On August 26, 2016, Gragg suffered a torn ACL in a preseason game against the Washington Redskins that sidelined him for the entire 2016 season. ### Later career Gragg became a free agent in March 2017. According to Gragg, he visited with the Jacksonville Jaguars on March 15, but did not sign with the team. On July 28, 2017, Gragg signed with the Jets; to make room for Gragg, the Jets waived wide receiver K. D. Cannon. In a preseason game against the Philadelphia Eagles, Gragg suffered an ankle injury after a 20-yard catch; he was placed on the Jets' injured reserve list on September 1, 2017. In four preseason games with the Jets, Gragg totaled 6 receptions for 64 yards and no touchdowns. He did not play in any regular-season games for the Jets. In March 2019, Gragg worked out for the San Francisco 49ers, though he did not sign with the team. While playing in the NFL, Gragg stood at 6 feet 3 inches (191 cm) and weighed 244 pounds (111 kg). ## Post-NFL career and personal life On his Twitter account, Gragg indicated that he was retired from the NFL as of December 2019. In 2020, Gragg worked as a graduate assistant coach for wide receivers with the Memphis Tigers football team. Gragg has a brother, Will, who played college football for Arkansas and for the University of Pittsburgh Panthers as a tight end. Chris has a degree in sports management from the University of Arkansas.
300,668	SMS Lützow	1,172,955,160	Battlecruiser of the German Imperial Navy	[ "1913 ships", "Derfflinger-class battlecruisers", "Maritime incidents in 1916", "Ships built by Schichau", "Ships built in Danzig", "Ships sunk at the Battle of Jutland", "World War I battlecruisers of Germany" ]	SMS Lützow was the second Derfflinger-class battlecruiser built by the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) before World War I. Ordered as a replacement for the old protected cruiser Kaiserin Augusta, Lützow was launched on 29 November 1913, but not completed until 1916. Lützow was a sister ship to Derfflinger from which she differed slightly in that she was armed with an additional pair of 15 cm (5.9 inch) secondary guns and had an additional watertight compartment in her hull. She was named in honor of the Prussian general Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow who fought in the Napoleonic Wars. Lützow was commissioned on 8 August 1915, but did not join I Scouting Group until 20 March due to engine damage during trials. This was after most of the major actions conducted by the German battlecruiser force had taken place. As a result, Lützow saw very little action during the war. She took part in only one bombardment operation: the Bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft on 24–25 April 1916, after which she became Admiral Franz von Hipper's flagship. One month later, the ship was heavily engaged during the Battle of Jutland, on 31 May–1 June. During the battle, Lützow sank the British battlecruiser HMS Invincible and is sometimes given credit for sinking the armored cruiser HMS Defence. However, she was heavily damaged by an estimated 24 heavy-caliber shell hits. With her bow thoroughly flooded, the ship was unable to make the return voyage to Germany; her crew was evacuated and she was sunk by torpedoes fired by one of her escorts, the torpedo boat G38. ## Design The Derfflinger class was authorized for the 1911 fiscal year as part of the 1906 naval law; design work had begun in early 1910. After their British counterparts had begun installing 34.3 cm (13.5 in) guns in their battlecruisers, senior officers in the German naval command came to the conclusion that an increase in the caliber of the main battery guns from 28 cm (11 in) to 30.5 cm (12 in) would be necessary. To keep costs from growing too quickly, the number of guns was reduced from ten to eight, compared to the earlier Seydlitz, but a more efficient superfiring arrangement was adopted. Lützow, the second member of the class, was allocated to the 1912 construction program. Lützow was 210.4 m (690 ft 3 in) long overall and had a beam of 29 m (95 ft 2 in) and a draft of 9.2 m (30 ft 2 in) forward and 9.56 m (31 ft 4 in) aft. She was designed to displace 26,600 t (26,200 long tons) normally and she reached 26,741 t (26,319 long tons) at full load. The ship was powered by four Parsons steam turbines that drove four screw propellers. Steam was provided by eighteen naval boilers, fourteen of which burned coal, the other four burning fuel oil. Lützow's powerplant was rated at 63,000 metric horsepower (62,138 shp; 46,336 kW), which generated a top speed of 26.4 knots (48.9 km/h; 30.4 mph). The ship had a crew that consisted of 44 officers and 1,068 to 1,138 enlisted men. While serving as the squadron flagship, her crew was augmented by an additional 14 officers and 62 enlisted men in the commander's staff. Lützow's armament consisted of a main battery of eight 30.5 cm SK L/50 guns in four gun turrets, mounted in superfiring pairs fore and aft of the central superstructure. Her secondary armament consisted of fourteen 15 cm SK L/45 guns mounted in casemates at main deck level. She also carried eight 8.8 cm SK L/45 quick-firing guns in anti-aircraft mounts. The armament suite was rounded out with four 60 cm (24 in) torpedo tubes, all placed in the hull, below the waterline. Lützow was protected by an armor belt that was 300 mm (11.8 in) thick in the central citadel of the ship where it protected the ammunition magazines and propulsion machinery spaces. Her deck was 30 to 80 mm (1.2 to 3.1 in) thick, with the thicker armor sloping down at the sides to connect to the lower edge of the belt. Her main battery turrets had 270 mm (10.6 in) thick faces. Her secondary casemates received 150 mm (5.9 in) of armor protection. The forward conning tower, where the ship's commander controlled the vessel, had 300 mm walls. ## Service Lützow was ordered as Ersatz Kaiserin Augusta, to replace the elderly protected cruiser Kaiserin Augusta, which was by then 20 years old. Built by Schichau-Werke in Danzig, her keel was laid down in May 1912, and she was launched on 29 November 1913. Lützow was commissioned on 8 August 1915 for trials, and was sent to Kiel on 23 August. The torpedo boats G192, G194, and G196 provided a screen for hostile submarines that might be operating in the area, the four vessels arriving the next day. There she completed her final fitting out, including her armament. On 13 September, she began her trials, including torpedo firing tests on 15 September and gunnery tests on 6 October. While on trials on 25 October, Lützow's port low-pressure turbine was badly damaged. Repairs were conducted in Kiel until late January 1916, after which the ship underwent further trials. These were finished on 19 February; Lützow was assigned to I Scouting Group on 20 March, and arrived at her new unit four days later. The ship's first and only commander was Kapitän zur See (Captain at Sea) Victor Harder. On 24 April, Lützow and the battlecruisers Seydlitz and Moltke made a brief sortie into the North Sea, cruising to the eastern end of the Amrun Bank, since British destroyers had been reported to have been in the area. A second sweep followed two days later, also to the Amrun Bank. While on this operation, a British submarine attempted to torpedo Lützow without success. Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Friedrich Boedicker, the deputy commander of I Scouting Group, temporarily raised his flag aboard the ship from 29 March to 11 April. On 21–22 April, Lützow joined the rest of the High Seas Fleet for a sortie into the North Sea that failed to locate any British warships. ### Bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft Lützow' first major operation was the bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft on 24–25 April. Konteradmiral Franz von Hipper, the commander of I Scouting Group, was away on sick leave, so the German ships were under the command of Boedicker. Seydlitz, the flagship, followed by Derfflinger, Lützow, Moltke, and Von der Tann left the Jade Estuary at 10:55 on 24 April, and were supported by a screening force of six light cruisers and two torpedo boat flotillas. The heavy units of the High Seas Fleet sailed at 13:40, with the objective to provide distant support for Boedicker's ships. The British Admiralty was made aware of the German sortie through the interception of German wireless signals, and deployed the Grand Fleet at 15:50. In the meantime, by 14:00, Boedicker's ships had reached a position off Norderney, at which point he turned his ships northward to avoid the Dutch observers on the island of Terschelling. At 15:38, Seydlitz struck a mine, which tore a 15-metre (49 ft) long hole in her hull, just abaft of the starboard broadside torpedo tube, allowing 1,400 short tons (1,250 long tons) of water to enter the ship. Seydlitz turned back with the screen of light cruisers at a speed of 15 knots (28 km/h). The four remaining battlecruisers turned south immediately in the direction of Norderney to avoid further mine damage. By 16:00, Seydlitz was clear of imminent danger, so the ship stopped to allow Boedicker to disembark. The torpedo boat V28 took Boedicker to Lützow. At 04:50 on 25 April, the German battlecruisers were approaching Lowestoft when the light cruisers Rostock and Elbing, which had been covering the southern flank, spotted the light cruisers and destroyers of Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt's Harwich Force. Boedicker refused to be distracted by the British ships, and instead trained his ships' guns on Lowestoft. The German battlecruisers destroyed two 6 in (15 cm) shore batteries and inflicted other damage to the town. In the process, a single 6 in shell from one of the shore batteries struck Moltke, but the ship sustained no significant damage. At 05:20, the German raiders turned north, towards Yarmouth, which they reached by 05:42. The visibility was so poor that the German ships fired one salvo each, with the exception of Derfflinger, which fired fourteen rounds from her main battery. The German ships turned back south, and at 05:47 encountered for the second time the Harwich Force, which had by then been engaged by the six light cruisers of the German screening ships. Boedicker's ships opened fire from a range of 12,000 m (13,000 yards). Tyrwhitt immediately turned his ships around and fled south, but not before the cruiser Conquest sustained severe damage. Due to reports of British submarines and torpedo attacks, Boedicker broke off the chase and turned back east towards the High Seas Fleet. At this point, Admiral Reinhard Scheer, commander of the High Seas Fleet, turned back towards Germany, having been warned of the Grand Fleet's sortie from Scapa Flow. ### Battle of Jutland At 02:00 CET, on 31 May 1916, I Scouting Group departed the Jade estuary; Lützow, Hipper's flagship, was the leading vessel, followed by her sister Derfflinger, Seydlitz, Moltke, and Von der Tann. The ships were accompanied by II Scouting Group, under the command of Rear Admiral Boedicker, composed of the four light cruisers Frankfurt, Wiesbaden, Pillau, and Elbing. The reconnaissance force was screened by 30 torpedo boats of II, VI, and IX Flotillas, directed by the cruiser Regensburg. An hour and a half later, the High Seas Fleet—under the command of Admiral Scheer—left the Jade with 16 dreadnoughts. It was accompanied by IV Scouting Group, composed of the light cruisers Stettin, München, Hamburg, Frauenlob, and Stuttgart, and 31 torpedo boats of I, III, V, and VII Flotillas, led by the light cruiser Rostock. The six pre-dreadnoughts of II Battle Squadron had departed from the Elbe roads at 02:45, and rendezvoused with the battle fleet at 5:00. The operation was to be a repeat of previous German fleet actions: to draw out a portion of the Grand Fleet and destroy it. #### Opening actions Shortly before 16:00, Hipper's force encountered Vice Admiral David Beatty's 1st Battlecruiser Squadron. At 16:00, Hipper ordered the signal "Distribution of fire from left" be hoisted on Lützow. The German ships were the first to open fire, at a range of approximately 15,000 yards (14,000 m). The two leading British battlecruisers, Lion and Princess Royal, concentrated their fire on Lützow, while Lützow engaged only Lion. The ship's gunners aimed their initial salvo at a range of 16,800 yards (15,400 m), well over their intended target. The ship fired semi-armor-piercing (SAP) shells, unlike the other German battlecruisers, which had loaded armor-piercing (AP) shells instead. The British rangefinders had misread the range to their German targets, and so the first salvos fired by the British ships fell a mile beyond their German opponents; Lion's gunners fired their opening salvo at 18,500 yards (16,900 m). In the span of three minutes, Lützow had fired four more salvos, alternating between the four forward and four aft guns, and had struck with the last one at 16:51. Lützow scored a second hit a minute later at 16:52. Eight minutes later, Lion scored the first hit on Lützow; a salvo from the British ship struck the battlecruiser on her forecastle, but no major damage was done. These two hits would prove to be very important, however, as Lützow took on more water due to damage sustained later in the battle, since they allowed water to enter the ship above the armored deck. Nearly simultaneously, Lützow dealt a tremendous blow to Lion; one of her 30.5 cm shells penetrated the roof of Lion's center "Q" turret and detonated the munitions that were stored inside. Only by the resolute actions of the turret commander—Major Francis Harvey, who ordered the magazine be flooded—did the ship avoid a catastrophic magazine explosion. Indeed, approximately 30 minutes after the turret was destroyed, the fire in the turret spread to the working chamber that was directly above the magazine; there it detonated propellant charges that had been stored there. The resulting explosion would have likely destroyed the ship if the ammunition magazine had not been flooded. At 17:03, the rearmost British battlecruiser, Indefatigable, was struck by several shells from her opponent, Von der Tann. The forward ammunition magazines were penetrated and set on fire; the resulting explosion tore the ship apart. Shortly thereafter, Lützow scored several more hits on Lion, though without serious damage being done. Lützow's gunnery officer, Günther Paschen, later regretted the decision to fire SAP shells, believing that had Lützow fired AP rounds, she would have destroyed Lion during this action. In the course of the first nineteen minutes of the battle, Lützow had fired thirty-one salvos at Lion, scoring six hits, forcing the latter to sheer out of line temporarily. From 17:10 to 17:16, Lützow resumed firing at Lion, but in the haze, her gunners believed they were engaging Princess Royal. During this period, Princess Royal opened fire on Lützow and scored two hits, the first of which exploded between the forward turrets and the second struck the belt. At 17:24, Lützow again opened fire at Lion and scored three more hits in the span of thirty seconds. In an attempt to regroup his ships, Admiral Beatty sought to turn his ships away by 2 degrees while the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships of the 5th Battle Squadron arrived on the scene and provided covering fire. As the British battlecruisers began to turn away, Seydlitz and Derfflinger were able to concentrate their fire on Queen Mary. Witnesses reported at least five shells from two salvos hit the ship, which caused an intense explosion that ripped the Queen Mary in half. Shortly after the destruction of Queen Mary, both British and German destroyers attempted to make torpedo attacks on the opposing lines. The British destroyers Nestor and Nicator each fired two torpedoes at Lützow, though all four missed. At 17:34, Lützow launched a torpedo at the battlecruiser Tiger without success. Lützow scored another hit on Lion at 17:57, followed by three more hits, one of which started a fire in the aft secondary battery. The leading ships of the German battle fleet had by 18:00 come within effective range of the British ships, and had begun trading shots with the British battlecruisers and Queen Elizabeth-class battleships. At 18:13, a 15 in (380 mm) shell from one of the Queen Elizabeths struck Lützow; two more hits came at 18:25 and 18:30. The ship was hit again at 18:45, probably by Princess Royal. The ship continued to engage the British battlecruisers as they steamed north toward the Grand Fleet, but had no success during this period. Later, at 19:05, she scored one hit on Lion. During the engagements between the combined German fleet and the British 1st Battlecruiser and 5th Battle Squadrons, Lützow had both of her wireless transmitters damaged; after that point, the only method of communication between ships was via searchlight. #### Battlefleets engage Shortly after 19:00, the German cruiser Wiesbaden had become disabled by a shell from the battlecruiser Invincible; the German battlecruisers made a 16-point turn to the northeast and made for the crippled cruiser at high speed. III Battle Squadron of the German fleet, which contained the most powerful battleships of the German navy, also altered course to assist Wiesbaden. Simultaneously, the British III and IV Light Cruiser Squadrons began a torpedo attack on the German line; while advancing to torpedo range, they smothered Wiesbaden with fire from their main guns. During the turn to the northeast, the British destroyers Onslow and Acasta approached to launch torpedoes at Lützow, though without success. Onslow was hit three times by Lützow's secondary battery and was forced to withdraw. Shortly thereafter, a second destroyer, Acasta launched a torpedo at Lützow that missed; in return, Lützow and Derfflinger fired a barrage of 15 cm shells at Acasta, hitting her twice. At 19:15, the German battlecruisers spotted the British armored cruiser Defence, which had joined the attack on Wiesbaden. Hipper initially hesitated, believing the ship was the German cruiser Rostock, but at 19:16, Kapitän zur See (KzS) Harder, Lützow's commanding officer, ordered his ships' guns to fire. The other German battlecruisers and battleships joined in the melee; Lützow fired five broadsides in rapid succession. In the span of less than five minutes, Defence was struck by several heavy-caliber shells from the German ships. One salvo penetrated the ship's ammunition magazines and, in a massive explosion, destroyed the cruiser. While Lützow and the rest of the fleet were concentrating on Defence, Lion scored two hits on Hipper's flagship, causing a serious fire. By 19:24, the 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron had formed up with Beatty's remaining battlecruisers ahead of the German line. The leading British ships spotted Lützow and Derfflinger, and began firing on them. In the span of eight minutes, Invincible scored eight hits on Lützow; these hits were mainly concentrated in the ship's bow and were the primary cause of the flooding that would eventually cause her to sink. In return, both Lützow and Derfflinger concentrated their fire on Invincible, and 19:33, Lützow's third salvo penetrated Invincible's center turret and ignited the magazine; the ship disappeared in a series of massive explosions. From this point onward, Lützow came under no further fire from the British battlecruisers, though she was flooding badly from two of the hits from Invincible that had struck below the waterline. By 19:30, the High Seas Fleet, which was by that point pursuing the British battlecruisers, had not yet encountered the Grand Fleet. Scheer had been considering retiring his forces before darkness exposed his ships to torpedo boat attack. He had not yet made a decision when his leading battleships encountered the main body of the Grand Fleet. This development made it impossible for Scheer to retreat, for doing so would have sacrificed the slower pre-dreadnought battleships of II Battle Squadron. If he chose to use his dreadnoughts and battlecruisers to cover their retreat, he would have subjected his strongest ships to overwhelming British fire. Instead, Scheer ordered his ships to turn 16 points to starboard, which would bring the pre-dreadnoughts to the relative safety of the disengaged side of the German battle line. #### Lützow withdraws and sinks The other battlecruisers followed the move, but Lützow had lost speed and was unable to keep up. Instead, the ship tried to withdraw to the southwest to escape the punishing British gunfire. By 20:00, flooding in the forward part of the ship had reached the magazine for the forward turret. The gun crew brought up as many shells and propellant charges as could be stored in the working chamber below the turret. Shortly before, at 19:50, Kommodore Andreas Michelsen, aboard the cruiser Rostock, dispatched the torpedo boats of I Half-Flotilla to assist Lützow. G39 came alongside and took Hipper and his staff aboard, in order to transfer him to one of the other battlecruisers. V45 and G37 began laying a smoke screen between the battered ship and the British line, but at 20:15, before it was finished, Lützow was struck in quick succession by four heavy-caliber shells. One pierced the ship's forward superfiring turret and temporarily disabled it. The shell detonated a propellant charge and the right gun was destroyed. The second hit disabled the electric training gear of the rearmost turret, which now had to be operated by hand. While Hipper was aboard G39, command of I Scouting Group temporarily fell to KzS Johannes Hartog. Lützow fired her last shot at 20:45, at which point the smoke screen had successfully hidden her from the British line. As the German fleet began to withdraw after nightfall, Lützow, steaming at 15 knots, attempted to pass behind the German line to seek the safety of the disengaged side. By 22:13, the last German ship in the line lost sight of Lützow, which was unable to keep up with the fleet. Scheer hoped that in the foggy darkness, Lützow could evade detection and successfully return to a German port. By 21:30, the ship was settling deeper into the sea. Water began to wash onto the deck and into the forecastle above the main armored deck; this would prove to be a significant problem. At midnight, there was still hope that the severely wounded Lützow could make it back to harbor. The ship was capable of 7 knots (13 km/h; 8.1 mph) up until around 00:45 when she began taking on more water. At times, the ship had to slow down to as little as 3 knots (5.6 km/h; 3.5 mph) to reduce pressure on the rear bulkhead in the torpedo flat. Critically, the forward main pumps were no longer usable, as the control rods had jammed. By 01:00, there was too much water in the hull for the pumps to handle. Water began to enter the forward generator compartments, which forced the crew to work by candlelight. Lützow was so low in the water by 01:30 that water began to flood the forward boiler room. By that point, almost all of the compartments in the forward part of the ship, up to the conning tower and below the main armored deck, were thoroughly flooded. Water had also entered the ship through shell holes in the forecastle above the armored deck; the majority of the upper portion of the ship forward of the forward-most barbette was flooded as well. The battlecruiser's crew attempted to patch the shell holes three times, but as the flooding worsened and the draft increased, water increasingly washed over the deck and inhibited progress on the repair work. The crew attempted to reverse direction and steam backwards, but this had to be abandoned when the bow became so submerged that the propellers were pulled partially out of the water; forward draft had increased to over 17 metres (56 ft). By 2:20, an estimated 8,000 tons of water was in the ship, and she was in serious danger of capsizing, so Harder gave the order to abandon ship. The torpedo boats G37, G38, G40, and V45 came alongside the stricken battlecruiser to evacuate the ship's crew, though six men were trapped in the bow and could not be freed. By 02:45 Lützow was submerged up to her bridge. G38 fired two torpedoes into the ship, and two minutes later she disappeared below the waves. The ship was approximately 60 km (37 mi) north-west of Horns Reef when she was scuttled. The position of the wreck is estimated to be . During the battle, Lützow had fired an estimated 380 main battery shells and 400 rounds from her secondary guns, as well as two torpedoes. In return, she was hit 24 times by British heavy-caliber shells. The ship's crew suffered 115 men killed and another 50 wounded, second only to Derfflinger, which lost 157 men killed and 26 wounded. In 2015, the survey ship HMS Echo conducted an exploration of the area while laying a tide gauge. During the search, Echo's sonar located Lützow on the sea floor, some eight miles from her last recorded position. Echo took sonar images of the wreck, which her commander stated would "ensure the ship's final resting place is properly recognised as a war grave." ## See also - German cruiser Lützow, for other warships named Lützow
145,492	Belton House	1,170,975,625	Country house in Belton near Grantham, Lincolnshire, England	[ "Country houses in Lincolnshire", "Cust family", "Dog monuments", "Gardens in Lincolnshire", "Grade I listed buildings in Lincolnshire", "Grade I listed houses", "Grade II* listed buildings in Lincolnshire", "Historic house museums in Lincolnshire", "National Trust properties in Lincolnshire", "South Kesteven District" ]	Belton House is a Grade I listed country house in the parish of Belton near Grantham in Lincolnshire, England, built between 1685 and 1687 by Sir John Brownlow, 3rd Baronet. It is surrounded by formal gardens and a series of avenues leading to follies within a larger wooded park. Belton has been described as a compilation of all that is finest of Carolean architecture, said to be the only truly vernacular style of architecture that England had produced since the Tudor period. It is considered to be a complete example of a typical English country house; the claim has even been made that Belton's principal façade was the inspiration for the modern British motorway signs which give directions to stately homes. For about three centuries until 1984, Belton House was the seat of the Brownlow family, which had first acquired land in the area in the late 16th century. Their heirs, the Cust family, were created Baron Brownlow in 1776. Despite his great wealth Sir John Brownlow, 3rd Baronet, chose to build a comparatively modest house rather than one of the grand Baroque palaces being built by others at the time. The contemporary, if provincial, Carolean style was the selected choice of design. Nevertheless, the new house was fitted with the latest innovations, such as sash windows for the principal rooms, and followed the latest thinking on house-planning, in seeking to separate those parts of the building that were for the use of the family from the areas where servants carried out their domestic duties. Successive generations made changes to the interior of the house which reflected their changing social position and tastes, yet the fabric and design of the house changed little. In August 1914, Belton House and its park were used as the assembly point for the newly-formed 11th (Northern) Division before its deployment in World War I, and in October 1915 it was used as the home depot and training ground of the Machine Gun Corps. During World War II, RAF Belton Park was established in the grounds of the house, as were two RAF Regiment squadrons, by November 1944 1,850 personnel were based at Belton. The Custs, like many previously wealthy English families, were faced with mounting financial problems. The seventh Baron opened the estate to the public. An adventure playground was built in the nearby woods to attract families to the house as a tourist attraction. However, the financial difficulties were too great and in 1984 they donated the house, with most of its contents, to the National Trust. The trust introduced new features and attractions to fund repairs and conservation. Further revenue is raised from the use of the property as a filming location, and from licensing the Marble Hall for civil weddings. It was visited by 340,290 people during 2021. ## History The Brownlow family, a dynasty of lawyers, began buying property in Lincolnshire to augment their income in 1598. Among these properties was the manor of Belton, 2 mi (3.2 km) distant from Grantham. Richard Brownlow, who established the family's wealth, began negotiations to acquire the manor from Sir Henry Pakenham in 1603 and secured its reversion to him six years later. The Pakenhams hosted King James I in the manor for a night in 1617. This occasion financially ruined the Pakenhams and led to the resignation of their interest in the property to Brownlow in exchange for a lifelong annuity. Brownlow neither much stayed at nor made much change to the Belton manor, preferring to reside at other properties. When he died, Brownlow was succeeded by his son Sir John Brownlow I, who himself died childless in 1679. John Brownlow had, however, become attached to two of his more distant blood relations: a great-nephew, also called John Brownlow, and a great-niece, Alice Sherard, who married in 1676 when both were aged 16. After inheriting the estates of their great-uncle, Alice and John Brownlow sought to enter London high society. To that end, they bought a town house in the newly fashionable Southampton Square in Bloomsbury and decided to build a new country house at Belton to flaunt their wealth. In 1684 they acquired labourers and materials for the house, hiring brickmakers, bricklayers, and stonemasons, and carefully demolished the old manor, which stood near the present orangery, to recycle its components. The cornerstone of what became Belton House was laid on 23 March 1685 and its exterior was largely completed by the latter half of the following year. The interiors of the house were completed in 1687. ### Private residence The Brownlows moved into Belton House in November 1688. On 29 October 1695, they hosted William III, who was reported to have enjoyed his stay so much that he was too hung over to eat any of the food provided on his visit to Lincoln the following day. Two years later, in July 1697, Sir John Brownlow II committed suicide at a relative's residence in Dorset. Ownership of Belton House passed to his brother, William, who was content to permit Alice to remain in occupation until her death in 1721, and she spent that time arranging advantageous marriages for her five daughters. One of those marriages was between her youngest daughter, Eleanor, and Sir John Brownlow III, William's son. John III, made Viscount Tyrconnel in 1718, inherited Belton House on Alice's death and refurnished the house. Sir John Brownlow III also died childless in 1754, and like Sir John Brownlow I focused his energies on a nephew, also named John, son of his sister Anne and Sir Richard Cust. The Cust family had family ties to the slave trade. They moved into a house in Grantham and received the Viscount Tyrconnel's patronage. Upon John III's death, Anne inherited Belton House and lived in it until 1766, when she gave it to John Cust—elected MP for Grantham in 1743 and then Speaker of the House of Commons from 1761 to 1770—to provide him a residence befitting his political station. Cust died in 1770, because of the "unusual fatigues" of his office, according to his monument at Belton, and Belton passed to his son, Brownlow Cust, who was created Baron Brownlow in 1776. Brownlow Cust made sweeping changes to Belton House. First, from 1770 to 1771, he arranged for repairs to its interiors and then hired architects James Wyatt and John Langworth to modernise the house over the rest of the century. In 1807, Brownlow Cust died and was succeeded by his son, John, created Earl Brownlow in 1815. The earl also made changes to Belton House and its grounds, employing Jeffry Wyatville, James Wyatt's nephew, from 1809 to 1820 and Anthony Salvin in the 1830s. On his death in 1853 he was succeeded by a grandson, who himself died in 1867 leaving Belton House, and the manor and estate of Ashridge in Hertfordshire, inherited in 1849 by the 1st Earl's oldest son, John Egerton, Viscount Alford, to another grandson, Adelbert Brownlow-Cust, 3rd Earl Brownlow. Although the 3rd Earl preferred to live at Ashridge or at Carlton House Terrace in London, he spent the rest of the 19th century reverting Belton House to its 17th-century appearance. The house entered the 20th century in a good state of repair and preservation, but that century was to present Belton and its estate with serious problems. In January 1921, the 3rd Earl died childless. As a consequence, his title became extinct and his estates were inherited by Adelbert Salusbury Cockayne-Cust, 5th Baron Brownlow. The diminishing value of the family's land and death duties for the 3rd Earl obliged the 5th Baron to sell Ashridge and its art collections. Further death duties were incurred on Adelbert's death in 1927, who passed the house to his son, Peregrine. The 6th Lord Brownlow was involved in the 1936 abdication of Edward VIII as his Lord-in-waiting. Edward VIII, who became the Duke of Windsor after the abdication, visited Belton in the 1930s with his mistress Wallis Simpson, whom Brownlow tried in vain to persuade to stay at Belton House in the course of the crisis. ### Belton House and the World Wars Belton Park held temporary encampments for the training of British Army units for many years before the start of World War I, but had never held any permanent facilities. At the beginning of the war, like many other British landowners, the 3rd Earl Brownlow offered the house and grounds of Belton and Ashridge to the Government for war service. The offer was accepted and in August 1914, Belton House and its park were used as the assembly point for the newly-formed 11th (Northern) Division before its deployment. A small town was erected on the Belton estate for the soldiers by April 1915 and included such amenities as a YMCA, a cinema and its own railway line. In October 1915, the home depot and training ground of the Machine Gun Corps were established in the southern part of Belton park. By 1922, the camp had closed and all the military buildings had been demolished. An archaeological dig at the site was undertaken by the Time Team in 2012. The years following World War I were severely testing for the owners of many great estates. Both indoor and outdoor staff had previously been plentiful, essential, and cheap, but were now in short supply. Millions of men had left private service to join the army, and very few returned. Female domestic staff had been called up for war service in factories, and now realised there was an easier and better paid existence outside the great country houses. Belton again saw war service during World War II. In March 1942 the depot for the RAF Regiment was established at the park as RAF Belton Park. It was housed in Nissen huts. Alongside the depot, Belton Park also held the RAF Regiment Officer Cadet Training Unit (OCTU) which provided officers with the professional skills necessary for service in the regiment. Two RAF Regiment squadrons were formed at Belton Park in 1942; 2788 Field Squadron in March and 2774 Field Squadron in May. By November 1944 1,850 personnel were based at Belton. When the war ended in the following year the RAF Regiment was reorganised and Belton Park became No. 1 Depot, continuing on as the OCTU. The RAF Regiment left Belton in August 1946, closing its depots and sub-depots in Lincolnshire. ### National Trust Following the wars, many thousands of country houses of great architectural value were demolished, or had whole wings razed to the ground. In 1955 alone one house was demolished every five days. In this respect Belton was fortunate to survive at all, as in addition to the family's problems, the house deteriorated to such an extent that in 1961 the 6th Baron employed the architect Francis Johnson to oversee a restoration program lasting three years. The roof was replaced, much of the panelling taken down and repaired, and new cornices installed. Attempts were also made to curtail serious infestations of dry rot. In the previous decade, Belton was designated a Grade I listed building, the highest possible grade reserved for structures of exceptional interest. Gervase Jackson-Stops, the architectural historian suggests, in his 1990 study The Country House in Perspective, that the main façade of the house was the inspiration for the British motorway signs () which indicate the proximity of stately homes. The seventh Baron attempted to retain the house and estate by opening to the public. An adventure playground was built in the nearby woods to attract families to the house as a tourist attraction. However, the financial difficulties were too great and in January 1984 he transferred ownership of the house, garden, and some of the contents to the National Trust, a charitable body experienced in the management of historic properties. An auction of the contents was held at Belton House by Christie's over three days 30 April – 2 May 1984, comprising 1,022 lots. The National Trust then purchased 1,317 acres (5.33 km<sup>2</sup>; 533 ha) of parkland and much of the remaining contents at a cost of £8 million (worth about £ today) with a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund. A priority for the Trust on their taking over Belton was the establishment of a restaurant, to augment the estate's income, and encourage people to spend more time at Belton and travel greater distances to visit. Though the house, its contents, and outbuildings were in an adequate state of repair at the time of the gift, they have since become part of an ongoing programme of conservation and restoration. At the same time, the National Trust has introduced new features and attractions such as a silver exhibition that displays a collection of silver amassed by the Brownlow family, dating from 1698. Further revenue is raised from the use of the property as a filming location, and from licensing the Marble Hall for civil weddings. The house featured in the 1988 TV adaptation of the 1987 children's novel Moondial and also as "Rosings Park" in the BBC's 1995 television version of Pride and Prejudice. It was visited by 340,290 people during 2021. ## Architecture Nikolaus Pevsner described Belton as "a house of fulfillment rather than innovation" while Nigel Nicolson called it "a summing-up of all that is best in the only truly vernacular [architectural] style in England since the late Tudors." Belton is a scaled-down version of Clarendon House, designed and constructed by Roger Pratt and demolished in 1683, which was considered by the architectural historian Sir John Summerson to be "the most influential house of its time among those who aimed at the grand manner". Following that example, Belton House was constructed with two storeys set over a semi-basement and with service wings, creating an "H"-shaped building two rooms deep and with pediments above the central facade on both sides. Belton House's exterior was constructed from 1,750,000 bricks, faced with Ancaster stone from a quarry at Heydour in Lincolnshire and a lighter ashlar from Ketton for the quoining. Neoclassical embellishments were added onto the facade by James Wyatt in 1777–78. The second floor has a complementary fenestration, with windows matching those on the first floor below. The very latest innovation, sash windows, was used on both floors. The semi-basement and attic storey used the more old-fashioned mullioned and transomed windows, indicating the lower status of the occupants of these floors. It was clearly emphasised from without that the two main floors of the house were for state and family use, and the staff and service areas were confined to the semi-basement and attic floors. This concept of keeping staff and domestic matters out of sight (when not required) was relatively new and had first been employed by Pratt in the design of Coleshill House in Berkshire. The contemporary social commentator Roger North lauded back stairs, of which Belton has two examples (5 and 14 on plan), as one of the most important inventions of his day. It is not known for certain who designed Belton House, but the architect now generally considered responsible for its design is William Winde. The house had previously been attributed to Sir Christopher Wren, and it has also been suggested, based on the house's similarity to Clarendon House, that Belton could have been designed by any competent draughtsman. The assumption that Winde was the architect is based on the stylistic similarity between Belton and Coombe Abbey, which was remodelled by Winde between 1682 and 1685. That Winde was the architect is further evidenced by his connections to several of the artisans who worked at Belton. In a letter dated 1690, Winde recommends a plasterer to another of his patrons based on his work at Coombe Abbey, Hampstead Marshall, and Belton, and he had previously worked with the carpenter Edward Willcox, who supplied the cupola. John and Alice Brownlow assembled one of the finest teams of craftsmen available at the time to work on the project. This was headed by the master mason William Stanton who oversaw the project and undertook work independently, for example the service wing. His second in command, John Thompson, had worked with Sir Christopher Wren on several of the latter's London churches, while the chief joiner John Sturges had worked at Chatsworth House under William Talman. The wrought-ironworker John Warren worked under Stanton at Denham Place, Buckinghamshire, and the fine wrought iron gates and overthrow at Belton may be his. Thus, so competent were the builders of Belton that Winde may have done little more than provide the original plans and drawings, leaving the interpretation to the on-site craftsmen. This theory is further demonstrated by the external appearance of the adjoining stable block. More provincial, and less masterful in proportion, it is known to have been entirely the work of Stanton. ### Interiors The plan of the rooms at Belton was outdated for a grand house of its time. Following the Stuart Restoration of 1660 and the influx of European ideas, it had become popular for large houses to follow the continental fashion of a suite of state rooms consisting of a withdrawing room, dressing room, and bedroom proceeding from either side of a central saloon or hall. These rooms were permanently reserved for use by a high ranking guest, such as a visiting monarch. While Belton does have a saloon at its centre, enfilades of state rooms of lessening grandeur do not flank it. This may have been due to the Brownlows' status as gentry, albeit wealthy, rather than aristocracy. When William III stayed at Belton House, he occupied the "Best bedchamber", a large room with an adjoining closet, directly above the saloon, that led directly from the second floor Great Dining Chamber. This design followed the older style of having reception rooms and bedrooms scattered over the two main floors. The layout used followed Roger Pratt's theory that guest and family rooms should be quite separate. As a consequence of this philosophy, the family occupied the rooms on the first and second floors of the west and east wings, with the state rooms in the centre. The great staircase, designed to be grand and imposing, rose to the east side of the house, and formed part of the guest's state route from the Hall and Saloon on the first floor to the dining room and bedroom on the second. The main entrance hall, reception and family bedrooms were placed on the ground and first floors above a low semi-basement containing service rooms. The two major entrances to the mansion in the centre of both the north and south facades were accessed by external staircases, originally a single flared flight on the north side and a double staircase on the south, each of which have since been replaced by single broad flights of steps. The principal room is the large Marble Hall (1) at the centre of the south front; this hall is the beginning of a grand procession of rooms, and corresponds to the former Great Parlour or Saloon (9) on the north front. The Marble Hall is flanked by the former Little Parlour (11, now the Tapestry Room) and the Great Staircase (2), while the Saloon is flanked by two withdrawing rooms (8, 10). The bedrooms are arranged in individual suites on both floors of the two wings (3, etc.) that flank the state centre of the house. The main staircase, set to one side of the Marble Hall, is one of the few things at Belton which is asymmetrically placed. It has a robust plaster-work ceiling incorporating the Brownlow crest by the London plasterer Edward Goudge, "now looked on as ye best master in England in his profession," William Winde reported in 1690. Bodily and spiritual needs were balanced symmetrically within the mansion: the kitchen (16) and the chapel (7) were both large two-storied halls, rising from the semi-basement to the first floor. This design not only provided a great and lofty space, but also allowed the servants to worship in the chapel without leaving the service floor, while their employers would worship from a private gallery, complete with fireplace, overlooking the chapel on the first floor. The chapel has a notable ceiling undertaken by Goodge, and an elaborate reredos. One of the most Carolean features of the house is the balustrade and cupola surmounting the roof, another element introduced to English architecture by Roger Pratt. The cupola at Belton does not light a lofty domed hall, as is often the case in Europe, but houses a staircase which gives access to a large viewing platform on top of a lead roof, concealed from the ground by the balustrade which tops the more conventional and visible hipped roof. From this vantage point, the owners of Belton could admire the perfect symmetry of their avenues and formal gardens spreading from the house. This feature of the house was removed by the architect James Wyatt when he modernised the house in the 18th century. It was restored to its original form in the 1870s by the 3rd Earl Brownlow. Some of Belton's many rooms have been altered over the last 300 years both in use and design. The Marble Hall (1), the first of the large reception rooms, serves as an entrance hall from the south entrance, and takes its name from a chequer board patterned floor of black and white marble tiles. By the time of Belton's conception, the great hall was no longer a place for the household to eat, but intended as a grand entrance to the house. The hall was originally hung with 28 portraits of Kings, Queens, and Emperors, from William the Conqueror to William III, intended to give the house an air of dynastic importance. The less numerous and far newer Brownlow family portraits were originally hung in the Great Dining Room immediately above. The room is fully panelled, and parts of the panelling contain lime wood embellishments attributed to Grinling Gibbons. In the early 19th century, this room, and some others, were re-modelled by Jeffry Wyatville, who in addition to graining and painting the panelling to imitate oak installed new doors. The Saloon (9), opens from the Marble Hall. This large panelled room is on an axis to the avenues of the formal north gardens. Originally known as the Great Parlour, this has always been the chief reception room of the house. It retains its original marble fireplace and has an ornate plaster ceiling which is a Victorian copy of the original ceiling by Goudge. The centrepiece of the room is a large Aubusson carpet made in 1839 for the 1st Earl Brownlow. Either side of the Saloon are two smaller drawing rooms (8, 10), which would originally have served as private withdrawing rooms from the more public activities which would have taken place in the Marble Hall and Saloon. One of these rooms, now called the Tyrconnel Room (10), was transformed into the state bedroom during the occupancy of Lord Tyrconnel in an attempt to create a more fashionable suite of Baroque state rooms on the first floor. After his death in 1754, it became a Billiard Room, until the 3rd Earl Brownlow had it refurnished more than a century later. Unusually, the floor is painted with the family arms and crest. The date of the floor is not known for certain but the early nineteenth century has been suggested. The final large reception room on the first floor is the Hondecoeter Room (16), so named because of the three huge oil paintings by Melchior d'Hondecoeter (1636–1695), depicting scenes of birds in courtyards, which are fitted into the neo-Carolean panelling. The panelling was introduced to the room by the 3rd Earl Brownlow in 1876, when it was furnished as the principal dining room of the mansion. The room was initially created as a library in 1808 from the upper part of the earlier kitchen which had originally risen two stories. The West staircase (14) was originally a service stairs, and would have been plainer in decor, but by the late nineteenth century it was in regular use by the family. Either side of the Marble Hall, lie the Great Staircase (2) and the Tapestry Room (11), which contains a collection of early eighteenth century Mortlake tapestries. The placing of the Great Staircase to the east of the Marble Hall is unusual, in that houses of this period usually put the staircase in the hall. The stairs rise in three flights around the west, north, and east walls to the former Great Dining Room above the Marble Hall. Thus the staircase served as a processional route between the three main reception rooms of the house. The Great Dining Room has been greatly altered and all traces of Carolean decoration removed. Originally a parlour, in 1778 James Wyatt transformed it into a drawing room with a vaulted ceiling; in 1876, its use was again changed, this time to a library. The room contains some 6000 volumes, a superb example of book collecting over 350 years. The Custs' passion for book collecting saw the original library on the ground floor, formerly a schoolroom, become too small for their needs and Wyatt created a new one in the early 1800s. This was itself replaced when the Great Dining Room was converted. When Lord Tyrconnel died in 1754 a catalogue of his library identified almost 2,300 books. Almost all of these remain in the Belton library today. Rupert Gunnis attributed the carved marble chimneypiece depicting two Roman goddesses to Sir Richard Westmacott. Leading from the Library is the Queen's Room, the former "Best Bed Chamber". This panelled room was redecorated in 1841 for the visit of Queen Adelaide, widow of William IV, when its former function as a state bedroom was resurrected. It contains the great canopied Rococo-style bed in which the Queen slept, complete with the royal monogram "AR" (Adelaide Regina) embroidered on the bedhead. Other rooms on the second floor are mostly bedrooms, which include the Chinese Room (directly above the Tyrconnel Room) with its original hand-painted 18th-century Chinese wallpaper, the Yellow Room (directly above the Blue Room), and the Windsor Bedroom (directly above the School Room), so-called following its use by Edward VIII during the 1936 abdication crisis. Today, Belton has a permanent exhibition devoted to that event. Another royal visitor, the future Charles III, also used the room frequently while a cadet at nearby RAF Cranwell. ## Gardens and park In 1690, Sir John Brownlow was granted permission to enclose an area of 1,000 acres (400 ha; 4.0 km<sup>2</sup>) to transform into a park, with a grant to keep deer. There is evidence to suggest that some of this area had been a park since at least 1580. The park was laid out with avenues, including the still surviving Eastern Avenue which led east from the house. Brownlow also had a large pond or lake dug and planted 21,400 ash trees, 9,500 oak trees, and 614 fruit trees. It is thought that William Winde may have advised on the layout of the gardens. Closer to the house were a series of more formal gardens, including canal ponds bordered by plantations containing symmetrical walks resembling the "rond-points" (circular clearings in a garden from which straight paths radiate) introduced by the landscape gardener André Le Nôtre. By the end of the eighteenth century, these formal parterres had been removed and the canal ponds filled in. Lord Tyrconnel was responsible for many of the architectural features which survive in the park and garden. Between 1742 and 1751, a series of follies, including a Gothic ruin, a cascade, and a prospect or belvedere known as the Bellmount Tower, were constructed for him. When built the tower had two small wings flanking each side, since removed. The 1st Earl Brownlow had Jeffry Wyatville turn his attention from the house to the park and Wyatville created the Italian Garden, embellished with the Orangery and, following its re-siting, the Lion Exedra. In 1838 Brownlow commissioned Anthony Salvin to undertake improvements to the estate in 1838. Salvin's additions included a public house, estate cottages, a hermitage and the boathouse. The gardens and park at Belton are listed at Grade I on Historic England's Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. The owners of Belton are buried in the village of Belton, in the parish church of St Peter and St Paul. The church stands close to the house. The Brownlow tombs are collectively one of the most complete sets of family memorials in England—continuous generation to generation for almost 350 years. ### Listing designations The estate at Belton has a number of listed buildings. The house itself is listed at Grade I, as are the stables, while the screen to the West Courtyard, the West Wing, and the brewhouse are listed at Grade II\. To the northwest of the house, the Italian Garden has a number of listed structures including; the Orangery at Grade II\ and steps and matching pairs of urns to the north, and south, the fountain, the terrace wall and the Lion exedra, all at Grade II. To the north of the house, on the terrace are two pairs of statues, and urns, eight further urns on the main garden axis, two cisterns in the Dutch garden, and a statue, all listed Grade II, while the culminating sundial is listed at Grade II\. The Belton Park Wilderness includes a number of listed features; its entrance gates are listed at Grade II\, while a boathouse, a Gothic folly, and a pumphouse are listed at Grade II. Listed features within the park include; the Bellmount Tower, and a temple, both listed at Grade II\*, a cascade at Boating House Lake, Anthony Salvin's boathouse, a ha-ha, an icehouse, a wellhead and a conduit and memorials to John Egerton, Viscount Alford, and some Brownlow family dogs, all at Grade II. Listed features at the perimeter of the park, all listed at Grade II except the South Lodge Gates, include the North Lodge and its adjacent screens, and walls, the South Lodge and its Grade I listed gates, and four boundary walls.
849,062	Peter Badcoe	1,169,445,706	Australian Victoria Cross recipient	[ "1934 births", "1967 deaths", "Australian Army officers", "Australian military personnel killed in the Vietnam War", "Australian military personnel of the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation", "Australian recipients of the Victoria Cross", "Foreign recipients of the Air Medal", "Foreign recipients of the Silver Star", "Graduates of the Officer Cadet School, Portsea", "Military personnel from Adelaide", "Recipients of the Gallantry Cross (Vietnam)", "Recipients of the National Order of Vietnam", "Vietnam War recipients of the Victoria Cross" ]	Peter John Badcoe, VC (11 January 1934 – 7 April 1967) was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in battle that could be awarded at that time to a member of the Australian armed forces. Badcoe, born Peter Badcock, joined the Australian Army in 1950 and graduated from the Officer Cadet School, Portsea, in 1952 as a second lieutenant in the Royal Australian Artillery. A series of regimental postings followed, including a tour in the Federation of Malaya in 1962, during which he spent a week in South Vietnam observing the fighting. During the previous year, Badcock had changed his surname to Badcoe. After another regimental posting, he transferred to the Royal Australian Infantry Corps, and was promoted to major. In August 1966, Badcoe arrived in South Vietnam as a member of the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam. He was initially a sub-sector adviser, but in December became the operations adviser for Thừa Thiên-Huế Province. In this role, between February and April 1967, he displayed conspicuous gallantry and leadership on three occasions while on operations with South Vietnamese Regional Force units. In the final battle, he was killed by machine-gun fire. He was highly respected by both his South Vietnamese and United States allies, and was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions. He was also awarded the United States Silver Star and several South Vietnamese medals. He was buried at Terendak Garrison Cemetery in Malaysia. In 2008, Badcoe's medal set was auctioned for A\$488,000 to Kerry Stokes in collaboration with the Government of South Australia. After going on display at the South Australian Museum and touring regional South Australia, it is now displayed in the Hall of Valour at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Buildings and awards have been named after Badcoe, including the rest and recreation centre in South Vietnam, an assembly room and library at Portsea, the main lecture theatre at the Royal Military College, Duntroon, and a perpetual medal for an Australian Football League match held on Anzac Day; as well as the electoral district of Badcoe in the South Australian House of Assembly. ## Early life and career Badcoe was born Peter John Badcock on 11 January 1934 in the Adelaide suburb of Malvern, South Australia. His father was Leslie Allen Badcock, a public servant, and his mother was Gladys Mary Ann May née Overton. He was educated at Adelaide Technical High School, before gaining employment as a clerk with the South Australian Public Service in 1950. Despite his father's opposition, Badcock held ambitions to join the Australian Army; and enlisted in the Regular Army on 10 June 1950. After a brief posting to the 16th National Service Battalion in early 1952, Badcock entered the Officer Cadet School, Portsea, on 12 July 1952, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Australian Artillery on 13 December that year. This was followed by a short posting to the 14th National Service Training Battalion, then a posting to the 1st Field Regiment in 1953. He returned to train national servicemen at Puckapunyal, Victoria, in 1955–1957. On 26 May 1956, he married Denise Maureen MacMahon in the Methodist Church at Manly, New South Wales. The couple had three daughters – Carey, Kim and Susanne. Badcock was posted back to the 1st Field Regiment in 1957–1958. A junior staff officer in the Directorate of Military Operations and Plans at Australian Army Headquarters from 1958 until 1961, he was promoted to temporary captain in 1958, and substantive captain in June 1960. On 6 February 1961, he was posted to the 4th Field Regiment, and the same year changed his surname to Badcoe. The couple decided to change their surname after their third daughter was born in order to make it easier for them. On training exercises, Badcoe was aggressive and energetic. He was also a quiet, gentle and retiring man who confided mainly in his wife and had a dry wit. His colleagues found him inscrutable. He avoided boisterous mess activities and preferred reading military history. Short and stocky, a teetotaller who did not smoke, he wore horn-rimmed spectacles and regaled his colleagues on military matters when off-duty. In June 1961, Badcoe was posted to the 103rd Field Battery as battery captain, and served a tour with them in the Federation of Malaya, attached to a British unit, in the aftermath of the Malayan Emergency. He was detached from Malaya to South Vietnam over the period 7–14 November 1962, and observed how that country was combating the Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese insurgency. During his visit, Badcoe sought opportunities to experience combat. He spent five days with an Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) battalion on operations in Quảng Ngãi Province, during which the unit had contacts with the enemy, including a pitched battle. During what was supposed to be a rest period, he arranged a helicopter flight to visit a Montagnard base in the Central Highlands. When his return to Malaya was delayed by an aircraft engine breakdown, he managed to join a heliborne operation of the 7th ARVN Division in the Mekong Delta. He returned to the 1st Field Regiment in November 1962 and remained with the unit until August 1965. At this point, Badcoe transferred from the artillery to the Royal Australian Infantry Corps, and on promotion to temporary major on 10 August 1965, was posted to the Infantry Centre at Ingleburn, New South Wales. Badcoe successfully applied for a posting with the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV), and attended adviser courses at the Intelligence Centre at Mosman, New South Wales, and Jungle Training Centre in Canungra, Queensland. He was promoted to provisional major in June 1966. ## Vietnam War Badcoe arrived in South Vietnam on 6 August 1966 as a member of the AATTV. He was posted as a sub-sector adviser in the Nam Hóa District of Thừa Thiên Province. Sub-sector advisers worked at the district level with two elements of the Territorial Forces, the Regional Force (RF) and Popular Force (PF), which were both forms of full-time provincial militia under control of the provincial chief, who was also the military sector chief. Each sector corresponded with a province, and each sub-sector with a district. The sector and sub-sector advisers had several responsibilities: to accompany the RF/PF, colloquially known as "Ruff-Puffs", on operations; to provide on-the-job training to the RF/PF; to oversee security in the hamlets; and to liaise with the ARVN troops operating in the sector or sub-sector. In his first week at Nam Hóa, Badcoe was advising an RF company on a clearing operation when it came under fire from VC irregulars in a treeline. As the company pressed forward, it came under fire from a bunker. Badcoe unsuccessfully tried to silence the bunker using his rifle and hand grenades, at which point the company commander suggested calling in close air support. Badcoe responded that air support was not necessary. He collected two jerrycans of petrol from a jeep following the company and then, circling around using cover, approached the bunker from outside its arc of fire. He poured both jerrycans over the bunker, backed off some distance and ignited it with a white phosphorus grenade, destroying the VC position and allowing the company to advance. Easily identified by the maroon paratroop beret he wore, Badcoe led from the front and gave the impression he believed himself invincible. According to the former AATTV adviser and military historian Ian McNeill, enthusiasm, courage and audacity were Badcoe's hallmarks, and those around him were often infected by his optimism. Badcoe was so fearless he appeared reckless, and was often cautioned by colleagues in this respect. Jim Pashen, a warrant officer serving with the AATTV, recalled Badcoe driving alone in a jeep from Huế to Quảng Trị, and being shot at by snipers as he passed by. Badcoe was also very interested in Vietnam, its people and their customs, and was particularly fascinated by Huế, the ancient royal city. He traded alcohol and souvenirs from the AATTV's canteen with US Marines to acquire equipment for RF units, and also donated food and supplies to an orphanage. In December 1966, Badcoe became the sector operations adviser at the provincial headquarters in Huế. This role generally involved planning, liaison and staff work, but Badcoe interpreted his duty statement flexibly and led local forces into combat whenever he got the chance. According to a fellow AATTV officer, Captain Barry Rissel, he was a "veritable tiger" in combat, a characteristic that led his US allies to dub him "The Galloping Major". At his first meeting with Badcoe, Corporal Chris Black described the scene: > An old, bright red beret sat jauntily on his head. His drab jungle greens were almost hidden under the most amazing collection of weapons I have ever seen on one man. A Swedish sub-machine gun, his favourite, hung over one shoulder. It was balanced on the other side by a snub-nosed grenade launcher. On his belt an Australian pistol hung heavily and in one hand he heft an American machine-gun. He lowered the armament to the floor, crossed the room, shook hands, refused a drink and talked about his boys. On 23 February 1967, Badcoe and his United States Marine Corps deputy, Captain James Custar, were advising an RF company operation in the Phu Thu District. About 660 yards (600 m) on their flank was a PF platoon accompanied by two United States Army advisers, Captain Clement and Sergeant Thomas. Badcoe and Custar began to hear intermittent rifle fire, coming from the direction of the flanking platoon. Custar was monitoring radio transmissions when he heard that Clement had been wounded and Thomas was in danger. Badcoe ran across the intervening fire-swept ground to reach the PF platoon, with the enemy fire intensifying as he approached. He discovered that Clement was lying 160 yards (150 m) ahead of the platoon, and had been mortally wounded while going to assist a wounded PF soldier. Thomas had tried to reach Clement and had in turn been wounded and was lying in the open between Clement and the platoon, which had pulled back. Badcoe observed that the enemy were dug in along a small rise, and appeared to be in about company-strength and readying for an attack. He gathered the PF platoon and led a frontal assault on the enemy position, firing as he went. Dodging automatic fire, he charged a machine-gun position and shot the crew with his rifle. Led by Badcoe, the PF platoon inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy. Once the PF platoon had consolidated its position, Badcoe went back, still under fire, to lift Clement and carry him out of the danger area. He then returned and assisted Thomas to a position from which he could be safely evacuated. The operation concluded successfully. Two weeks later, the sector RF reaction company was tasked to the Quảng Điền District sub-sector on 7 March in response to an attack on its district headquarters by a VC force of about two battalions. Quảng Điền District headquarters was in the eponymous village, about 16 miles (25 km) northwest of Huế. Badcoe was travelling in a vehicle convoy with his deputy and another US officer, when their vehicle veered off the road into a ditch. His deputy was killed and Badcoe left the vehicle and joined the company commander as they drove towards the village. By the time Badcoe and the company arrived, the village was occupied by the VC, and they were attacking the district headquarters from three sides. Badcoe quickly formed the company up into platoons, then led them through enemy fire to a position which flanked the VC. Forming them into an extended line, he then led them in an assault across open ground against the main VC force. In the face of this attack, the VC withdrew in disarray and the garrison of the district headquarters was saved. Badcoe's intervention prevented serious losses and the capture of the district headquarters. Badcoe became disillusioned with the war during his service in South Vietnam. He was particularly affected by an incident in February 1967 in which the ARVN regiment he was working with called in a napalm strike on a VC-occupied village, whose population was strongly supportive of the government, instead of attempting to attack and dislodge the VC. Badcoe and other advisers attempted to stop the use of napalm, but the ARVN divisional headquarters overruled them. A total of 40 civilians were killed or wounded, and Badcoe spent the next day-and-a-half arranging the removal of bodies and new accommodation for the survivors. He eventually concluded that the conflict was an "unwinnable war". On 7 April, Badcoe, who wrote frankly to his wife and children, penned a letter to them expressing his "unease and cynicism" about the conduct of the war and indicating that he wished to come home. At this time Badcoe was planning to take a short break on the Japanese island of Okinawa starting the following day, with an Australian Army friend who had been visiting him, observing operations. When he returned from the field early in the morning of 7 April, Badcoe was told that he was required to act as sector headquarters duty officer due to the illness of another adviser. He saw his friend off to Da Nang and returned to Huế where he commenced duty, planning to join his friend once he had completed his shift. He soon became aware that an operation was going badly for an ARVN force at the hamlet of An Thuan in Hương Trà District, about 7.5 miles (12 km) north of Huế. The operation involved the elite Hac Bao (Black Panther) divisional reaction company of the 1st ARVN Division, along with a squadron of armoured personnel carriers (APCs) and two RF companies. They were attempting to eliminate a VC force of about two companies which was holding well-entrenched positions at An Thuan. The ARVN force had been met with intense fire and had suffered heavy casualties. Badcoe realised that the force did not have any advisers, because one of the Hac Bao advisers was ill, and advisers were required to work in pairs. Without any advisers, the ARVN were unable to access close air support to dislodge the VC. Badcoe decided that he needed to go out to the ARVN force and assist them. He arranged for relief as the sector duty officer, grabbed his weapons and equipment, and collected Sergeant Alberto Alvarado, his US Army deputy adviser and radio operator. They sped in their jeep towards An Thuan. Upon arrival, they found the ARVN force preparing for another assault, which was to consist of the APCs followed by the Hac Bao company. Badcoe and his deputy climbed aboard an APC and joined the attack. About 820 feet (250 m) from An Thuan, the force was moving through the hamlet's cemetery and hostile fire increased markedly, from recoilless rifles, mortars, machine guns and small arms. The APCs drove through the cemetery and deployed to suppress the enemy fire. The Hac Bao company pressed forward through the cemetery, at which time Badcoe and Alvarado dismounted and joined them. During the last stages of the attack, the two advisers were leading the infantry when the enemy fire became so heavy that both the APCs and infantry began falling back through the cemetery. Badcoe began rallying the ARVN soldiers to renew the assault, and artillery was called in on the enemy positions. After this, Badcoe and Alvarado again pushed forward, attempting to encourage the ARVN troops to press home the attack. The final stages of the line of assault crossed dry, open rice paddy fields with no cover. Enemy fire converged on Badcoe, Alvarado and the ARVN troops, who again went to ground. On this occasion, Badcoe refused to fall back. He headed straight for an enemy machine-gun position that was causing devastation among the ARVN force. Forced to ground by the intense fire, Badcoe was soon joined by Alvarado. Badcoe lifted himself up to throw a hand grenade, but was pulled down by Alvarado as bullets cracked overhead. When he rose to throw again, he was cut down by machine-gun fire and killed instantly. Alvarado attempted to recover his body, but was shot in the leg. He then used his radio to call in close air support and more artillery to suppress the enemy fire. The Hac Bao company, supported by the APCs, then moved forward and captured the objective. A military funeral for Badcoe was held in Huế, the largest for any Allied soldier until that date. Badcoe was buried in the Terendak Garrison Cemetery in Malacca, Malaysia. The epitaph on his gravestone reads: "He lived and died a soldier". According to McNeill, Badcoe was highly respected by both South Vietnamese and US allies, and was an inspirational leader who had saved the lives of his comrades and turned defeat into victory on many occasions. ## Post-script For his courage and leadership on 23 February, 7 March, and 7 April 1967, Badcoe was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in battle that could be awarded at that time to a member of the Australian armed forces. The full citation for the award appeared in The London Gazette on 17 October 1967. It read, in part: > On 23rd February 1967 he was acting as an Advisor to a Regional Force Company in support of a Sector operation in Phu Thu District. He monitored a radio transmission which stated that the Subsector Adviser, a United States Army Officer, had been killed and that his body was within 50 metres of an enemy machine gun position; further, the United States Medical Adviser had been wounded and was in immediate danger from the enemy. Major Badcoe with complete disregard for his own safety moved alone across 600 metres of fire-swept ground and reached the wounded Adviser, attended to him and ensured his future safety. He then organised a force of one platoon and led them towards the enemy post. His personal leadership, words of encouragement, and actions in the face of hostile enemy fire forced the platoon to successfully assault the enemy position and capture it, where he personally killed the machine gunners directly in front of him. He then picked up the body of the dead officer and ran back to the Command post over open ground still covered by enemy fire. > > On 7th March 1967, at approximately 0645 hours, the Sector Reaction Company was deployed to Quang Dien Subsector to counter an attack by the Viet Cong on the Headquarters. Major Badcoe left the Command group after their vehicle broke down and a United States Officer was killed; he joined the Company Headquarters and personally led the company in an attack over open terrain to assault and capture a heavily defended enemy position. In the face of certain death and heavy losses his personal courage and leadership turned certain defeat into victory and prevented the enemy from capturing the District Headquarters. > > On 7th April 1967, on an operation in Huong Tra District, Major Badcoe was with the 1st A.R.V.N. Division Reaction Company and some armoured personnel carriers. During the move forward to an objective the company came under heavy small arms fire and withdrew to a cemetery for cover, this left Major Badcoe and his radio operator about 50 metres in front of the leading elements, under heavy mortar fire. Seeing this withdrawal, Major Badcoe ran back to them, moved amongst them and by encouragement and example got them moving forward again. He then set out in front of the company to lead them on; the company stopped again under heavy fire but Major Badcoe continued on to cover and prepared to throw grenades, when he rose to throw, his radio operator pulled him down as heavy small arms fire was being brought to bear on them; he later got up again to throw a grenade and was hit and killed by a burst of machine gun fire. Soon after, friendly artillery fire was called in and the position was assaulted and captured. > > Major Badcoe's conspicuous gallantry and leadership on all these occasions was an inspiration to all, each action, ultimately, was successful, due entirely to his efforts, the final one ending in his death. His valour and leadership were in the highest traditions of the military profession and the Australian Regular Army. Denise Badcoe received her husband's Victoria Cross from the Governor-General, Lord Casey, at Government House, Canberra, on 5 April 1968. Badcoe was awarded the United States Silver Star with bronze oak leaf cluster, Air Medal and Purple Heart, and was made a Knight of the National Order of Vietnam. South Vietnam also awarded him the Cross of Gallantry with Palm, Gold Star, and Silver Star, the Armed Forces Honor Medal, First Class, Vietnam Campaign Medal and Wound Medal, and he posthumously received the Vietnam Medal and Australian Defence Medal from Australia. The Official History of Australia's Involvement in Southeast Asian Conflicts 1948–1975 judged that Badcoe was "a dedicated career soldier" who "quickly acquired an understanding of the Vietnamese people and their customs along with an affectionate respect for the Vietnamese territorials he trained and led". Members of the AATTV received many decorations, and the unit gained the distinction of being "probably the mostly highly decorated unit for its size in the Australian Army". Only four Australians were awarded the Victoria Cross in Vietnam; all went to members of the AATTV, two of them posthumously. The soldiers' club at the 1st Australian Support Compound in Vung Tau was named the Peter Badcoe Club in his honour in November 1967. At Portsea, the assembly room and library was named after him, complete with a portrait and bronze plaque. After Portsea closed in 1985, the main lecture theatre in the Military Instruction Block at Royal Military College, Duntroon in Canberra was named after him. In 1998–1999, a rest area in Badcoe's honour was established near Lake George on the Remembrance Driveway between Canberra and Sydney. In 1999, the Ex-Military Rehabilitation Centre moved to the "Peter Badcoe VC Complex" at Edinburgh, South Australia. Badcoe's medal group and personal memoirs were offered for sale by auction in Sydney on 20 May 2008 and were sold for A\$488,000 to the media magnate and philanthropist Kerry Stokes in collaboration with the Government of South Australia. Badcoe's Victoria Cross and associated medals were displayed at the South Australian Museum in Adelaide, prior to being toured to 17 regional towns in South Australia between 21 March and 20 June 2009, before being displayed permanently at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra from 2016. His VC was the 71st of the 100 VCs awarded to Australians to be placed on public display there. Since 2004, the award for the player displaying the most courage, skill, self-sacrifice and teamwork in the Australian Football League match in Adelaide on Anzac Day each year has been called the Peter Badcoe VC Medal. The medal has been won by three times by Travis Boak of the Port Adelaide Football Club, and twice by Joel Selwood of the Geelong Football Club. In 2015, the Australian government repatriated the remains of 22 Australian soldiers buried at Terendak, but the Badcoe family asked that he remain buried there, in accordance with his express wishes. In 2016, the South Australian electoral district of Ashford was renamed Badcoe in his honour. In 2020, a 60-bed residential aged care facility named Peter Badcoe VC House was completed in Newcastle, New South Wales, by the Returned and Services League of Australia (New South Wales Branch) aged care arm, RSL LifeCare.
15,808,105	Verdeja	1,159,776,089	Series of Spanish light tanks from 1938 to 1954	[ "Light tanks of Spain", "Light tanks of the Cold War", "Light tanks of the interwar period", "Tanks introduced in 1938", "World War II light tanks" ]	Verdeja was the name of a series of light tanks developed in Spain between 1938 and 1954 in an attempt to replace German Panzer I and Soviet T-26 tanks in Spanish service. The program was headed by major Félix Verdeja Bardales and led to the development of four prototype vehicles, including a self-propelled howitzer armed with a 75 millimeters (3.0 inches) gun. It was designed as an advanced light tank and was one of the first development programs which took into account survivability of the crew as opposed to the protection of the tank itself. The tank was influenced by several of the light tanks which it was intended to replace, including the Panzer I and T-26, both of which were originally used during the Spanish Civil War. The Verdeja was considered a superior tank to the T-26 after a lengthy testing period, yet was never put into mass production. Three light tank prototypes were manufactured between 1938 and 1942, including the Verdeja 1 and the Verdeja 2. Interest in the vehicle's development waned after the end of the Second World War. Despite attempts to fit a new engine in the Verdeja 2 and convert the Verdeja 1 into a self-propelled artillery piece, ultimately the program was unofficially canceled in favor of adopting the U.S. M47 Patton tank in 1954 through the Mutual Defense Assistance Act. A prototype of the 75 millimetre self-propelled howitzer and of the Verdeja 2 were put on display in the early 1990s. ## Development Spain received its first tank in mid-1919, a French Renault FT, for testing purposes, and later received ten more tanks on 18 December 1921. The use of these tanks during the Rif War, including the first amphibious landing with tanks in Alhucemas, offered valuable experience for Spain's first indigenous armor program, the Trubia A4. The Trubia tank program, based on the FT, led to the development of four prototypes, but ultimately the program failed due to lack of interest from the national government. These prototypes influenced a subsequent indigenous attempt to produce a tank, named the Trubia-Naval. This design also failed to get past the prototype type stage. Due to the failure of Spanish efforts to produce a tank, and the ineffective attempts to procure foreign designs such as the Italian Fiat 3000, by the start of the Spanish Civil War there were only ten working FT light tanks available in the country, plus the four Trubia A4s, involved at the time in the siege of Oviedo. The shortage of armoured forces prompted the Soviet Union to supply the Popular Front and Nazi Germany and Italy to supply the Nationalist Front with light tanks. Between 1936 and 1939, the Germans provided the Nationalists with 122 Panzer Is and the Italians provided 155 L-3-35s. Meanwhile, the Soviets issued Republican Spain 281 T-26s and 50 BT-5s. The Nationalists quickly found out the light machine guns on their tanks could not penetrate the T-26's armor at over 150 metres (160 yd), and Republican tankers could routinely knock out Panzer Is and L-3-35s at ranges of up to 1,000 metres (1,100 yd). In order to re-equip Nationalist armored forces with the T-26, German Major Ritter von Thoma offered Spanish troops 500 pesetas for each tank captured. There were also attempts to up-gun the Panzer I with an Italian Breda 20 millimetre Model 1935 anti-aircraft gun, due to its high Muzzle velocity and low recoil. Despite four successfully converted vehicles, designated Panzer I Breda, there was no widespread program to retrofit the gun into the Panzer I. Instead, the Nationalists began to press captured T-26s into service against their previous owners, with the first Nationalist T-26 unit formed in June 1937. On 6 September 1937, Captain Félix Verdeja, commanding the maintenance company of the Nationalist Batallón de Carros de Combate ("Tank Battalion"), began to privately develop a new light tank. His position, with direct access to Panzer Is and T-26s, gave Verdeja direct evidence of the shortcomings of current tank models in terms of combat ability and maintenance issues. Verdeja established a future tank requiring the 45 millimetres (1.8 inches) gun fitted in the T-26; two coaxial light machine guns; a low profile, all-around armor greater than 15 millimetres (0.59 inches), with a turret mantlet plate of at least 30 millimetres (1.2 inches); road speed of 70 kilometres per hour (43 mph), combat range of 200 kilometres (120 mi), and a capable suspension and new track system. This latter requirement was based on experiences with existing light tanks, which frequently lost their tracks in combat. These requirements and solutions were presented in October 1938 to Colonel Díaz de la Lastra, commanding officer of the Agrupación de Carros de Combate. Although the project was approved, the program had to use scrap to build the first prototype due to a lack of resources and money. Despite early obstacles, including criticism from von Thoma, the program continued and Verdeja was awarded a warehouse in Zaragoza to continue with the construction of the prototype. The prototype was manufactured from spare parts and equipment scavenged from other light tanks, and featured a rectangular turret with 16 millimetres (0.63 inches) basic armor. The chassis was divided into four quarters, with the forward right half occupied by the engine, gear box, clutch and final drive, beside the driver. The rear half of the vehicle was taken up mostly by the turret basket and forty-six 45 millimetre rounds, as well as two 60 liter (13 Imp gal) fuel tanks. Turret space was used by the tank commander-gunner and the loader, as well as the 45 millimetre model 1932 anti-tank gun and two MG-13 machine guns. The main gun was originally commissioned as the Soviet 45 millimetre 19K anti-tank gun in March 1932, and featured heavier ammunition and a faster rate of fire than older anti-tank guns. Starting in 1934, a newer model began to be fitted into newly assembled T-26s. Apart from the gun, the tank commander's model 1932 panoramic periscope was also scavenged from a T-26. The vehicle was powered by a Ford Model 48 engine taken from a civilian automobile, displacing 3,622 cc (221 in<sup>3</sup>) and producing 85 hp (63 kW) at 2,000 rpm. The engine was paired with a brand-new radiator and exhaust system. The Verdeja prototype used the Panzer I's Aphon PG-31 gearbox, although this worked at excessive revolutions for the engine, offering less torque which made slopes greater than 40° difficult. Possibly the most unusual features of the Verdeja were the suspension and tracks. To prevent the tank's tracks slipping off the roadwheels, two track pieces were fitted together to create a central groove for the roadwheel to travel in. With a weight of under 5 tonnes (5.5 short tons) the Verdeja had a maximum speed of 70 kilometres per hour (43 mph) and a combat radius of 120 kilometres (75 mi). Following the prototype's success in testing between 10 January and 20 January 1939, Captain Verdeja was ordered to begin construction of the definitive model of the light tank. ### Verdeja 1 The appearance of the resulting Verdeja 1 prototype was close to that originally envisioned in Captain Verdeja's first designs. The vehicle's hull was elongated and the rear plate sloped, while the fuel capacity—and thus combat range—was increased, as was the ammunition capacity and the thickness of the armor. The vehicle was fabricated in Bilbao, the only city in Spain with a heavy vehicle assembly line. Due to the end of the Spanish Civil War and a shortage of funds, construction was postponed until May 1940. The prototype was completed three months later and delivered to the proving grounds in Carabanchel, Madrid, powered with basically the same Ford flathead V8 engine also used as the motive power of the three-tonne weight British Universal Carrier. A major external difference between the previous model and this prototype was the new, low-profile turret which allowed the 45 millimetre gun to depress and elevate from 8° to 70°. The original 45 millimetre model 1932 gun was exchanged with a new 45 millimetre Mark I tank gun fabricated by S.A. Placencia de las Armas, in Spain. However, the new prototype adopted the suspension and tracks from the original prototype. In essence, the main advantages of the new prototype were its low-profile, high elevation of the main gun and the increased sloping of the armor from 12° to 45°. The Verdeja 1 retained the original configuration by placing the engine in the front, to increase crew survivability. On arrival at Carabanchel, the vehicle was tested against the T-26 in mobility over different terrain types and in firepower. The vehicles were graded based upon a five-point scale for each test, which would be multiplied by a coefficient of importance for each test. During the testing the Verdeja traveled for some 500 kilometres (310 miles) without any maintenance problems, the only issue being the large consumption of water by the gasoline engine, due to the lack of an efficient radiator, and the loss of a rubber liner of one of the roadwheels. It was found that the maximum velocity of the Verdeja was either on par with similar vehicles in foreign service or superior, while the Verdeja proved itself capable of going over trenches almost 2 m wide and climbing slopes of 40°. In terms of armament, it was proved that the vehicle could withstand the recoil of the 45 millimetre high-velocity tank gun. One of the vehicle's disadvantages was that the tank commander's aiming device was designed for a 37 millimetre anti-tank cannon, adapted into the Verdeja due to the lack of time to manufacture one for the 45 millimetre Mark I. Testing concluded with the Verdeja receiving a total of 243 points, compared to the 205 points awarded to the T-26B. Testing completed, the prototype was returned and several problems were fixed, including engine deficiencies, the elevation of the sprocket and an increase to 10 millimetre of armor on all areas that had less. These changes made, the Verdeja returned to testing, this time scoring 261.98 points. Plans to produce one thousand Verdeja tanks were approved on 2 December 1940, divided into ten batches of one hundred tanks each. The Verdeja production prototype was to adopt the 120 horsepower (89 kW) Lincoln-Zephyr gasoline V12 engine, requiring a contract between the Spanish government and Ford Motor Ibérica, Ford's Spanish subsidiary. Simultaneously, in case of failure of talks between Ford and Spain, the government also began to contact a number of German companies, including Maybach. In order to begin production, the Tank Workshop in Zaragoza was to be expanded to allow final assembly of at least five tanks per month. Despite funding and two years of construction allotted, the factory construction and expansion was never completed. Other problems arose, including the failure to reach an agreement with Ford or Maybach. These factors, the poor economic situation in Spain, the lack of clients other than the Spanish Army and the lack of incentives for Spanish companies to partake in the construction program, led to the abandonment of the attempt to fabricate the Verdeja 1. Another attempt was undertaken at contracting the ADESA (Armamento de Aviación, S.A.) company, to manufacture two Verdeja light tanks for experimental purposes. Despite the failure to procure an engine, ADESA offered to construct 300 units, but these attempts failed and the program was abandoned by 1941. ### Verdeja 2 As the Verdeja 1 program dissolved, Captain Verdeja began to design a successor taking into consideration lessons learned during the opening campaigns of the Second World War. The new design featured a redesigned engine bay at the rear of the chassis, which meant moving the drive sprocket to the rear as well. The movement of the engine's location allowed for better cooling of the vehicle's motor and the fighting compartment, as well as allowing the turret to be moved forward. The vehicle's armor was also increased substantially by between five and ten millimetres. This new tank was not approved for production or further development due to continued postponement of the production of the Verdeja 1 for reasons which included offers by the German government to supply the Panzer IV's engine for the Verdeja 1. Although production of the new vehicle finally began in 1942, it was not until August 1944 that the Verdeja 2 prototype was delivered. The program was delayed by the incorporation of twenty Panzer IV Ausf. H's and ten Sturmgeschütz IIIs into the Spanish Army in late 1943, as well as failed attempts to procure one hundred more Panzer IVs and even Panthers and Tigers during 1944. With these new vehicles integrated into the army and the fiscal problems which plagued the Verdeja 1, the Verdeja 2 remained unimproved until 1950, when there was an attempt to fit a Pegaso Z-202 engine. Despite this, the Verdeja remained on factory grounds until 1973, when it was transferred to the Infantry Academy of Toledo. ### Comparative data ## Self-propelled howitzer Between the late 1940s and early 1950s there were a number of programs in Spain to develop a self-propelled howitzer based on an existing chassis. For example, during the early 1950s, Spanish engineers attempted to retrofit a R-43 105 millimeters (4.1 inches) L/26 howitzer into a StuG III. This required reconstruction of the turret's casemate, in a fashion similar to the Verdeja 75-millimeter self-propelled howitzer. Although one vehicle began conversion, the program was never finalized. There were similar programs to fit an 88-millimeter L/56 and a 122-millimeter L/46 howitzer thereafter, but these did not advance beyond the planning stage, either. One of the most successful programs was the attempt to produce a 75-millimeter self-propelled howitzer based on the chassis of the Verdeja 1 prototype. Beginning in 1945, now-Major Verdeja was ordered to begin designing this piece using a rapid-firing 75-millimeter L/40 howitzer designed by Sociedad Española de Construcción Naval. The availability of the required parts and the lack of complicated changes meant that the vehicle was quickly prepared and tested extensively. The fate of the self-propelled piece was much the same as that of the Verdeja 2, and the vehicle was left untouched at the proving grounds in Carabanchel until 1973, when it was moved to the Spanish base Alfonso XIII, housing the then Mechanized Infantry Regiment Wad Rass no 55. It was soon moved to another base, and finally delivered to the base of El Goloso, outside of Madrid, as a part of an armored vehicles museum. Major changes to the original Verdeja 1 included removing the turret and replacing it with a gun shield with 10 millimetre thick steel armor. This meant that much of the chassis' roof and rear wall was eliminated. The howitzer was designed as a monoblock steel tube, using a double-baffle muzzle brake, with twelve twists completing a full turn every forty calibers. As mounted, the howitzer could fire between 0.5° and 25°, and move 4.5° either left or right. The crew could stow eight rounds of ammunition in a ready-round stowage area near the walls of the gun shield on each side of the breech, allowing easy access to projectiles. Otherwise, the vehicle could store another 24 rounds in an auxiliary carriage. The carriage was based on the axles and wheels of a PaK 36 anti-tank gun. A unique feature of this prototype was a mechanical brake built into the idler-wheel to the rear of the chassis, guaranteeing the vehicle's stability when firing and avoiding damage to the transmission. ## Conclusions Ultimately the Verdeja program's end came with the arrival of military equipment from the United States, beginning in 1953. From 1954, the Spanish Army received 389 M47 Patton Tanks, replacing the T-26s, Panzer Is and Panzer IVs then in service. The Verdeja had become completely obsolete when compared to larger, more potent tanks such as the German Panther, the Soviet T-54 and the US M47. The T-54 had 200 millimetre of steel armor on the turret mantlet, far greater than the Verdeja 2's maximum armor thickness of 40 millimetres. The Soviet 45 millimetre model 1932 gun was replaced by the T-34's 76.2 millimetre gun, while the Germans adopted the 75 millimetre L/70 tank gun on the Panther. By 1950, Soviet tanks such as the T-54 were armed with the D-10T 100 millimetre tank gun, and American tanks adopted the 90 millimetre main gun. Although the Verdeja was Spain's most successful indigenous design, it was outclassed as foreign countries produced superior products. Furthermore, the need for self-propelled artillery was soon eliminated as the United States offered Spain M37 and M44 self-propelled howitzers. As a result, interest in the Verdeja dried up after 1954. Spain would not attempt another indigenous tank until the advent of the Lince main battle tank in the late 1980s. ## See also - Tanks in the Spanish Army - List of armoured fighting vehicles by country
39,241,299	Si Ronda	1,094,778,441	1930 film	[ "Dutch silent feature films", "Fictional outlaws", "Films directed by Lie Tek Swie", "Indonesian black-and-white films", "Lost Indonesian films", "Silat films", "Tan's Film films" ]	Si Ronda is a 1930 silent film from the Dutch East Indies which was directed by Lie Tek Swie and starred Bachtiar Effendi. Based on contemporary Betawi oral tradition, it follows the exploits of a bandit, skilled in silat (traditional Malay martial arts), known as Si Ronda. In the lenong stories from which the film was derived, Ronda was often depicted as a Robin Hood type of figure. The production, now thought lost, was one of a series of martial arts films released between 1929 and 1931. Si Ronda received little coverage in the media upon its release. A second adaptation of the tale, Si Ronda Macan Betawi, was made in 1978. ## Production Si Ronda was adapted from a lenong (a Betawi oral tradition similar to a stage play) popular with ethnic Chinese and native audiences of the time. The Ronda stories follow the Betawi bandit of the same name, who is skilled at silat (traditional martial arts) and reputed to take from the rich to give to the poor. The Indonesian film scholar Misbach Yusa Biran suggests that Ronda was selected for adaptation because of its potential action sequences. In the domestic cinema, such sequences had generally been inspired by American works and been well received by audiences. Similar stories to Si Ronda's include those of Si Jampang and Si Pitung; these stage plays centred on extraordinary men (referred to as jago) who, though living outside the law, generally fought for the common populace. Adaptations of the genre, manifested as bandit films, became popular in domestic cinema following the release of Si Tjonat by Batavia Motion Picture in 1929. This release was followed by the Wong brothers' Rampok Preanger (also 1929), and an adaptation of the Si Pitung stories in 1931. Not all films in this genre, which consisted of a quarter of all domestic releases for 1929–1931, maintained the heroic qualities of the central character: the Wongs' adaptation of Si Pitung, for instance, portrayed him as a simple bandit and not the Robin Hood figure of stage. Si Ronda was directed by Lie Tek Swie and produced by Tan Khoen Yauw of Tan's Film. The two had previously worked together on the company's highly profitable Njai Dasima in 1929. Cinematography was handled by A. Loepias. Shot in black-and-white, this silent film starred Bachtiar Effendi, a set decorator with Tan's, in his on-screen debut playing the title role. It also featured Momo, an actor who had appeared in the film Njai Dasima. ## Release and legacy Si Ronda was released in 1930; Effendi stated that it was released before Tan's Nancy Bikin Pembalesan (Nancy Takes Revenge), a sequel to Njai Dasima, began screening in May 1930. Dutch newspapers indicate that it had screened in Medan, North Sumatra, by 1932. Biran writes that the film received little coverage; he notes that Sinematek Indonesia has no news clippings related to Si Ronda. After Si Ronda, Lie and Tan collaborated on three further films. Lie left Tan's in 1932, reportedly as his approach no longer matched Tan's low-class target audience and caused the works to go over budget. Effendi continued to work with Tan's until 1932, when he left to head the cinema magazine Doenia Film. Momo continued acting until 1941, first with Tan's and later with Standard Film. The film is likely lost. The American visual anthropologist Karl G. Heider writes that all Indonesian films from before 1950 are lost. However, JB Kristanto's Katalog Film Indonesia (Indonesian Film Catalogue) records several as having survived at Sinematek Indonesia's archives. Another film based on the Ronda stories, titled Si Ronda Macan Betawi (Ronda the Betawi Tiger), was released in 1978. Directed by Fritz G. Schadt, it starred Dicky Zulkarnaen in the title role and Lenny Marlina as his lover. In this adaptation Ronda uses his silat skills to fight corrupt land owners and colonial government workers.
468,676	Battle of the Aegates	1,170,283,454	Naval battle between Carthage and Rome in 241 BC	[ "240s BC conflicts", "241 BC", "3rd century BC in the Roman Republic", "Military history of Sicily", "Naval battles of the First Punic War" ]	The Battle of the Aegates was a naval battle fought on 10 March 241 BC between the fleets of Carthage and Rome during the First Punic War. It took place among the Aegates Islands, off the western coast of the island of Sicily. The Carthaginians were commanded by Hanno, and the Romans were under the overall authority of Gaius Lutatius Catulus, but Quintus Valerius Falto commanded during the battle. It was the final and deciding battle of the 23-year-long First Punic War. The Roman army had been blockading the Carthaginians in their last strongholds on the west coast of Sicily for several years. Almost bankrupt, the Romans borrowed money to build a naval fleet, which they used to extend the blockade to the sea. The Carthaginians assembled a larger fleet which they intended to use to run supplies into Sicily. It would then embark much of the Carthaginian army stationed there as marines. It was intercepted by the Roman fleet and in a hard-fought battle, the better-trained Romans defeated the undermanned and ill-trained Carthaginian fleet, which was further handicapped by being laden with supplies and having not yet embarked its full complement of marines. As a direct result, Carthage sued for peace and agreed to the Treaty of Lutatius, by which Carthage surrendered Sicily to Rome and paid substantial reparations. Henceforth Rome was the leading military power in the western Mediterranean, and increasingly the Mediterranean region as a whole. ## Primary sources The main source for almost every aspect of the First Punic War is the historian Polybius (c. 200 – c.118 BC), a Greek sent to Rome in 167 BC as a hostage. His works include a now-lost manual on military tactics, but he is known today for The Histories, written sometime after 146 BC, or about a century after the Battle of the Aegates. Polybius's work is considered broadly objective and largely neutral as between Carthaginian and Roman points of view. Carthaginian written records were destroyed along with their capital, Carthage, in 146 BC and so Polybius's account of the First Punic War is based on several, now-lost, Greek and Latin sources. Polybius was an analytical historian and wherever possible personally interviewed participants in the events he wrote about. Only the first book of the 40 comprising The Histories deals with the First Punic War. The accuracy of Polybius's account has been much debated over the past 150 years, but the modern consensus is to accept it largely at face value, and the details of the battle in modern sources are almost entirely based on interpretations of Polybius's account. The modern historian Andrew Curry considers that "Polybius turns out to [be] fairly reliable"; while Dexter Hoyos describes him as "a remarkably well-informed, industrious, and insightful historian". Other, later, histories of the war exist, but in fragmentary or summary form, and they usually cover military operations on land in more detail than those at sea. Modern historians usually also take into account the later histories of Diodorus Siculus and Dio Cassius, although the classicist Adrian Goldsworthy states that "Polybius' account is usually to be preferred when it differs with any of our other accounts". Other sources include inscriptions, archaeological evidence, and empirical evidence from reconstructions such as the trireme Olympias. Since 2010 a number of artefacts have been recovered from the battle site, and their analysis and the recovery of further items are ongoing. ## Background ### Operations in Sicily In 264 BC, the states of Carthage and Rome went to war, starting the First Punic War. Carthage was a well-established maritime power in the western Mediterranean; mainland Italy south of the River Arno had recently been unified under Roman control. The immediate cause of the war was control of the Sicilian town of Messana (modern Messina). More broadly both sides wished to control Syracuse, the most powerful city-state on Sicily. ### Ships During this period the standard Mediterranean warship was the quinquereme, meaning "five-oared". The quinquereme was a galley, c. 45 metres (150 ft) long, c. 5 metres (16 ft) wide at water level, with its deck standing c. 3 metres (10 ft) above the sea, and displacing around 100 tonnes (110 short tons; 100 long tons). The galley expert John Coates suggested that they could maintain 7 kn (8.1 mph; 13 km/h) for extended periods. The modern replica galley Olympias has achieved speeds of 8.5 kn (9.8 mph; 15.7 km/h) and cruised at 4 knots (4.6 mph; 7.4 km/h) for hours on end. Average speeds of 5–6 knots (5.8–6.9 mph; 9.3–11.1 km/h) were recorded on contemporary voyages of up to a week. Vessels were built as cataphract, or "protected", ships, with a closed hull and a full deck able to carry marines and catapults. They had a separate "oar box" attached to the main hull which contained the rowers. These features allowed the hull to be strengthened, increased carrying capacity and improved conditions for the rowers. The generally accepted theory regarding the arrangement of oarsmen in quinqueremes is that there would be sets – or files – of three oars, one above the other, with two oarsmen on each of the two uppermost oars and one on the lower, for a total of five oarsmen per file. This would be repeated down the side of a galley for a total of 28 files on each side; 168 oars in total. The Romans had little prior naval experience; on the few occasions they had previously felt the need for a naval presence they had usually relied on small squadrons provided by their Latin or Greek allies. In 260 BC the Romans set out to construct a fleet and used a shipwrecked Carthaginian quinquereme as a blueprint for their own. As novice shipwrights, the Romans built copies that were heavier than the Carthaginian vessels, and thus slower and less manoeuvrable. The quinquereme provided the workhorse of the Roman and Carthaginian fleets throughout the Punic Wars, although hexaremes (six oarsmen per bank), quadriremes (four oarsmen per bank) and triremes (three oarsmen per bank) are also occasionally mentioned. So ubiquitous was the type that Polybius uses it as a shorthand for "warship" in general. A quinquereme carried a crew of 300: 280 oarsmen and 20 deck crew and officers; it would also normally carry a complement of 40 marines; if battle was thought to be imminent this would be increased to as many as 120. Getting the oarsmen to row as a unit, let alone to execute more complex battle manoeuvres, required long and arduous training. At least half of the oarsmen would need to have had some experience if the ship was to be handled effectively. As a result, the Romans were initially at a disadvantage against the more experienced Carthaginians. All warships were equipped with a ram, a triple set of 60-centimetre-wide (2 ft) bronze blades weighing up to 270 kilograms (600 lb) positioned at the waterline. Rams were made individually by the lost-wax method to fit immovably to a galley's prow, and secured with bronze spikes. Ideally one would attack an enemy ship from its side or rear, thus avoiding the possibility of being rammed oneself. Skill was required to collide with an opposing galley forcefully enough to break loose its timbers and cause it to founder, but not so forcefully as to embed one's own ram inextricably in the sinking enemy. Each vessel relied to a large extent on the other vessels in its squadron for protection, and tactics involved the manoeuvring of whole squadrons rather than individual ships; although battles sometimes broke down into a series of ship-on-ship combats which have been likened to aerial dogfights. ### 264–250 BC Largely because of the Romans' invention of the corvus, a device which enabled them to grapple and board enemy vessels more easily, the Carthaginians were defeated in large naval battles at Mylae (260 BC), Sulci (257 BC), Ecnomus (256 BC) and Cape Hermaeum (255 BC). Shortly after the last of these, the large majority of the Roman fleet was destroyed in a storm, with an estimated loss of 100,000 men; the instability of the Roman ships in heavy weather due to the presence of the corvus may have contributed to this disaster. In any event, they did not use the corvus thereafter. The Romans rapidly rebuilt their fleet, only to lose a further 150 ships to another storm in 253 BC. They rebuilt again, and in 250 BC blockaded the main Carthaginian base on Sicily of Lilybaeum with 200 warships. The Carthaginians regained command of the sea in 249 BC with victories over the blockading Roman fleet at Drepana and Phintias. These defeats so demoralized the Romans that they restricted their naval activities to small-scale operations for seven years. The absence of Roman fleets probably led Carthage to gradually decommission most of her navy. Goldsworthy states that the Carthaginian navy became inactive and considers it likely that few ships were kept in commission. Certainly they withdrew most of their warships from Sicily. The Carthaginian leadership preferred to expand their area of control in North Africa at the expense of the native Numidians. Hanno the Great was put in charge of operations in Africa in 248 BC and went on to conquer considerable territory by 241 BC. The historian Nigel Bagnall considers that during this period Carthage viewed Sicily as a secondary theatre. ## Prelude By 248 BC, the war had lasted 15 years, with many changes of fortune. It had developed into a struggle in which the Romans were attempting to decisively defeat the Carthaginians and, at a minimum, control the whole of Sicily. The Carthaginians were engaging in their traditional policy of waiting for their opponents to wear themselves out, in the expectation of then regaining some or all of their possessions and negotiating a mutually satisfactory peace treaty. Rome had gained control of most of Sicily and the Carthaginians retained only two cities on the island: Lilybaeum and Drepana; these were well-fortified and situated on the west coast, where they could be supplied and reinforced without the Romans being able to use their superior army to interfere. When Hamilcar Barca took command of the Carthaginians on Sicily in 247 BC he was only given a small army and the Carthaginian fleet was gradually withdrawn. Hostilities between Roman and Carthaginian forces declined to small-scale land operations, which suited the Carthaginian strategy. Hamilcar employed combined arms tactics in a Fabian strategy from his base at Eryx, north of Drepana. This guerrilla warfare kept the Roman legions pinned down and preserved Carthage's foothold in Sicily. Early in the blockade of Lilybaeum and Drepana, 50 Carthaginian quinqueremes gathered off the Aegates Islands, which lie 15–40 kilometres (9.3–24.9 mi) to the west of Sicily. Once there was a strong west wind they sailed into Lilybaeum before the Romans could react. They unloaded reinforcements – either 4,000 or 10,000 according to different ancient sources – and a large quantity of supplies. They evaded the Romans by leaving at night, evacuating the Carthaginian cavalry. The Romans had sealed off the landward approach to Lilybaeum with earth and timber camps and walls, and now made repeated attempts to block the harbour entrance with a heavy timber boom; due to the prevailing sea conditions they were unsuccessful. The two Carthaginian garrisons were kept supplied by blockade runners. These were light and manoeuvrable quinqueremes with highly trained crews and pilots who knew the shoals and currents of the difficult waters. Chief among the blockade runners was a galley captained by Hannibal the Rhodian, who taunted the Romans with the superiority of his vessel and crew. Eventually the Romans captured Hannibal, and his well-constructed galley. By 243 BC, after more than 20 years of war, both states were financially and demographically exhausted. Evidence of Carthage's financial situation includes their request for a 2,000-talent loan from Ptolemaic Egypt, which was refused. Rome was also close to bankruptcy and the number of adult male citizens, who provided the manpower for the navy and the legions, had declined by 17 per cent since the start of the war. ## New Roman fleet In late 243 BC, realizing they would not capture Drepana and Lilybaeum unless they could extend their blockade to the sea, the Roman Senate decided to build a new fleet. With the state's coffers exhausted, the Senate approached Rome's wealthiest citizens for loans to finance the construction of one ship each, repayable from the reparations to be imposed on Carthage once the war was won, and to donate slaves as oarsmen. The result was a fleet of approximately 200 quinqueremes, built, equipped, and crewed without government expense. The Romans modelled the ships of their new fleet on the vessel captured from Hannibal the Rhodian. By now, the Romans were experienced at shipbuilding and with a proven vessel as a model produced high-quality quinqueremes. Importantly, the corvus was abandoned, which improved the ships' speed and handling but forced a change in tactics on the Romans; they would need to be superior sailors, rather than superior soldiers, to beat the Carthaginians. The new Roman fleet was completed in 242 BC and the consul Gaius Lutatius Catulus, assisted by the praetor Quintus Valerius Falto, led it to Sicily. Arriving with the 200 quinqueremes and 700 transports laden with supplies and legionary reinforcements, Catulus seized the harbour of Drepana and the anchorages off Lilybaeum uncontested, as there were no Carthaginian ships to counter the Roman fleet. Catulus and Falto kept a strong squadron off each city whenever the weather permitted, to avoid any possibility of Carthaginian supplies getting past them, and to drill the crews in manoeuvres and exercises. They also ensured that the crews received good treatment, including an adequate diet, and created a fleet with crews at the peak of their ability. Impressed by the energy of Catulus and Falto, the Senate extended their terms of office beyond the normal one year, and they thus became proconsul and propraetor respectively. The garrisons of Lilybaeum and Drepana – and Hamilcar's army at Eryx – held fast, but without supplies from Carthage they could not hold out indefinitely. Carthage began to ready a fleet, fit out transports, gather supplies and train crews and marines to meet the Roman challenge. It took nine months to ready 250 warships and between 150 and 350 transports. Carthage was pressed for time as supplies in their blockaded strongholds were running out. They struggled to find the 100,000 men necessary to fully crew just the warships, and did not have sufficient time to provide the extended training necessary for the crews to work together effectively as teams. ## Battle The Carthaginian fleet was led by a commander named Hanno; he is distinguished from other Carthaginians named Hanno by being known as the son of Hannibal. This is possibly the general who had lost the Battles of Agrigentum and Ecnomus; although the historian John Lazenby considers it likely that he had been executed for his earlier failures. It is not known why the victors of Drepana, Adherbal and Carthalo, were not in command. The Carthaginian plan was to assemble their fleet of 250 quinqueremes and a large but unknown number of transports in secret off Hiera (Holy Island), the westernmost of the Aegates islands. There they would wait for a following wind, and rely on surprise and numbers to take them the 45 km (28 mi) to Lilybaeum before the Romans became aware and concentrated their fleet. This would have been a repeat of the successful Carthaginian feat with a smaller fleet several years before. They would then unload their cargoes, mostly grain, and embark much of the Carthaginian army to be used as marines on their quinqueremes. These would then configure themselves for fighting and seek out the Roman fleet. It is unclear, given the many transports available, why the Carthaginian warships were also laden with cargo; and why they were not already carrying marines taken from their forces in Africa. The Carthaginian fleet arrived off Hiera in early March 241 BC. The Carthaginian fleet was spotted by Roman scouts and Catulus abandoned the blockade. He took a full complement of soldiers from the besieging Roman army to act as marines on board his 200 quinqueremes. The Roman fleet then sailed and anchored off the island of Aegusa, 16 km (10 mi) from Sicily. Next morning, 10 March, the wind was blowing strongly from the west, and the current was running the same way. Hanno immediately set sail for Lilybaeum. Catulus measured the risk of attacking with the wind in his bow versus the risk of letting Hanno reach Sicily to relieve Lilybaeum, Drepana and Hamilcar's army. Despite the unfavourable conditions, the proconsul decided to intercept the Carthaginians and ordered his fleet to prepare for battle. He had the Roman ships stripped of their masts, sails and other unnecessary equipment to make them more seaworthy in the rough conditions. Catulus himself was unable to join the battle because of injuries suffered in an earlier engagement, so in the battle the ships were commanded by his second in command, Falto. The opposing fleets met to the west of the island of Phorbantia (modern Levanzo). Many fragments of lead anchors have been recovered from near the island of Levanzo, causing the archaeologist Sebastiano Tusa to speculate that the Roman fleet paused here and that its ships then deliberately cut their anchors, to reduce the weight they carried – each anchor weighed 270 kg (600 lb). The Romans formed a single line of ships and rowed into the wind, through a heavy swell, towards the Carthaginians. Having little choice, the Carthaginians lowered their sails and engaged. In the ensuing battle the Romans enjoyed far greater mobility, since their vessels were carrying only the bare necessities, while the Carthaginians were burdened with the equipment necessary for sustained travel and provisions for the Sicilian garrisons. The Carthaginian crews had also been hurriedly levied and so were inexperienced, and their ships were short of marines, as it had been intended that these would be supplemented from Hamilcar's soldiers. It was the second time that a Roman fleet had fought the Carthaginians without employing the corvus – the first time, at the Battle of Drepana, they were badly beaten – but they quickly gained the upper hand, using their ships' greater manoeuvrability to ram the Carthaginian vessels. The Roman ships were a match for their opponents, modelled as they were on one of the best of the Carthaginians', and their crews were superior. The Romans sank 50 Carthaginian ships, 20 of them with all hands, and 70 were captured along with 10,000 men. However, the battle was hard-fought, and the Romans lost 30 ships sunk and another 50 damaged. The rest of the Carthaginian fleet was saved only by an abrupt change in the direction of the wind, allowing them to flee; as the Romans had left their masts, sails and rigging ashore, they were unable to pursue. The Carthaginian remnants returned to Carthage, where their unsuccessful commander was crucified. ## Aftermath Catulus was granted a triumph to celebrate his victory, while Falto was granted a separate and slightly junior triumph. To celebrate the victory, Catulus built a temple to Juturna in the Campus Martius, in the area of Rome currently known as the Largo di Torre Argentina. After achieving this decisive victory over the Carthaginian fleet, Catulus continued the land operations in Sicily against Lilybaeum, Eryx and Drepana; which continued to be defended by Hamilcar Barca and his army. The Carthaginian Senate was reluctant to allocate the resources necessary to have another fleet built and manned. Carthage had taken nine months to fit out the fleet that was defeated, and if they took another nine months to ready another fleet, the Sicilian cities still holding out would run out of supplies and request terms. Strategically, therefore, Carthage would have to build a fleet capable of defeating the Roman fleet, and then raise an army capable of defeating the Roman armies in Sicily. Instead, the Carthaginian Senate ordered Hamilcar to negotiate a peace treaty with the Romans, which he left up to his subordinate commander, Gisco. The Treaty of Lutatius was signed in the same year as the Battle of the Aegates and brought the First Punic War to its end; Carthage evacuated Sicily, handed over all prisoners taken during the war, and paid an indemnity of 3,200 talents over ten years. Henceforth Rome was the leading military power in the western Mediterranean, and increasingly the Mediterranean region as a whole. The Romans had built over 1,000 galleys during the war; and this experience of building, manning, training, supplying and maintaining such numbers of ships laid the foundation for Rome's maritime dominance for 600 years. ## Marine archaeology Since 2010, 19 (24, as of August 2022) bronze warship rams have been found by archaeologists in the sea off the west coast of Sicily. Ten bronze helmets and hundreds of amphorae have also been found. The rams, seven of the helmets, and six intact amphorae, along with a number of fragments, have since been recovered. Inscriptions allowed four of the rams to be identified as coming from Roman-built ships, one from a Carthaginian vessel, with the origins of the others being unknown. It is possible that some of the Roman-built vessels had been captured by the Carthaginians earlier in the war and were crewed by them when they were sunk. It is believed that the rams were each attached to a sunken warship when they were deposited on the seabed. Six of the helmets were of the Montefortino type typically used by the legions, three with one or both bronze cheek pieces still attached; the seventh, badly corroded, was of a different design and may be Carthaginian. The archaeologists involved stated that the location of artefacts so far discovered supports Polybius's account of where the battle took place. Based on the dimensions of the recovered rams, the archaeologists who have studied them believe that they all came from triremes, contrary to Polybius's account of all of the warships involved being quinqueremes. However, they believe that the many amphora identified confirm that the Carthaginian ships were laden with supplies. ## Notes, citations and sources
18,557	Laurence of Canterbury	1,165,057,144	7th-century missionary, Archbishop of Canterbury, and saint	[ "619 deaths", "6th-century births", "7th-century Christian clergy", "7th-century Christian saints", "7th-century English bishops", "7th-century archbishops", "Archbishops of Canterbury", "Gregorian mission", "Kentish saints", "Year of birth unknown" ]	Laurence (died 2 February 619) was the second Archbishop of Canterbury, serving from about 604 to 619. He was a member of the Gregorian mission sent from Italy to England to Christianise the Anglo-Saxons from their native Anglo-Saxon paganism, although the date of his arrival is disputed. He was consecrated archbishop by his predecessor, Augustine of Canterbury, during Augustine's lifetime, to ensure continuity in the office. While archbishop, he attempted unsuccessfully to resolve differences with the native British bishops by corresponding with them about points of dispute. Laurence faced a crisis following the death of King Æthelberht of Kent, when the king's successor abandoned Christianity; he eventually reconverted. Laurence was revered as a saint after his death in 619. ## Early life Laurence was part of the Gregorian mission originally dispatched from Rome in 595 to convert the Anglo-Saxons from their native paganism to Christianity; he landed at Thanet, Kent, with Augustine in 597, or, as some sources state, first arrived in 601 and was not a part of the first group of missionaries. He had been a monk in Rome before his travels to England, but nothing else is known of his history or background. The medieval chronicler Bede says that Augustine sent Laurence back to Pope Gregory I to report on the success of converting King Æthelberht of Kent and to carry a letter with questions for the pope. Accompanied by Peter of Canterbury, another missionary, he set off some time after July 598, and had returned by June 601. He brought back with him Gregory's replies to Augustine's questions, a document commonly known as the Libellus responsionum, that Bede incorporated in his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum. Laurence is probably the Laurence referred to in the letter from Gregory to Bertha, queen of Kent. In that letter, Gregory praises Bertha for her part in the conversion of her husband, details of which Gregory says he received from Laurence the priest. It is known that Laurence returned to England with Mellitus and others of the second group of missionaries in the summer of 601, but there is no record of Peter being with them. ## Archbishop Laurence succeeded Augustine to the see of Canterbury in about 604, and ruled until his death on 2 February 619. To secure the succession, Augustine had consecrated Laurence before he died, even though that was prohibited by canon law. Augustine was afraid though that if someone did not step into the office immediately, it would damage the missionary efforts in Britain. However, Laurence never received a pallium from Rome, so he may have been considered uncanonical by the papacy. Bede makes a point of comparing Augustine's action in consecrating Laurence to Saint Peter's action of consecrating Clement as Bishop of Rome during Peter's lifetime, which the theologian J. Robert Wright believes may be Bede's way of criticising the practices of the church in his day. In 610 Laurence received letters from Pope Boniface IV, addressed to him as archbishop and Augustine's successor. The correspondence was in response to Laurence having sent Mellitus to Rome earlier in 610, to solicit advice from the papacy on matters concerning the English Church. While in Rome Mellitus attended a synod, and brought the synodical decrees back with him to Laurence. In 613 Laurence consecrated the monastery church built by Augustine in Canterbury, and dedicated it to saints Peter and Paul; it was later re-consecrated as St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury. Laurence also wrote to the bishops in the lands held by the Scots and by the Britons, urging them to hold Easter on the day that the Roman church celebrated it, instead of their traditional date, as part of the Easter controversy. The letter is also preserved in Bede's history. Laurence in 609 stated that Dagan, a native bishop, would not eat with Laurence or share a roof with the archbishop, due to the differences between the two Churches. ## Pagan reaction Æthelberht died in 616, during Laurence's tenure; his son Eadbald abandoned Christianity in favour of Anglo-Saxon paganism, forcing many of the Gregorian missionaries to flee the pagan backlash that followed Æthelberht's death. Among them in Gaul were Mellitus, who was Bishop of London, and Justus, who was Bishop of Rochester. Remaining in Britain, Laurence succeeded in reconverting Eadbald to Christianity. Bede relates the story that Laurence had been prepared to give up when he was visited by St Peter in a dream or vision. St Peter chastised Laurence and whipped him, and the marks of the whipping remained after the vision or dream ended. Laurence then displayed them to Eadbald, and the king was converted on the spot. Bede, however, hints that it was the death of some of the leaders of the pagan party in battle that really persuaded Laurence to stay. According to Benedicta Ward, a historian of Christianity, Bede uses the story of the whipping as an example of how suffering was a reminder of Christ's suffering for humans, and how that example could lead to conversion. Wright argues that another point Bede is making is that it is because of the intercession of St Peter himself that the mission continued. David Farmer, in the Oxford Dictionary of Saints, suggests that the whipping story may have been a blending of the Quo vadis story with some information given by Jerome in a letter. Modern historians have seen political overtones in the pagan reaction. The historian D. P. Kirby sees Eadbald's actions as a repudiation of his father's pro-Frankish policies. Alcuin, a later medieval writer, wrote that Laurence was "censured by apostolic authority". This may have been a letter from Pope Adeodatus I, commanding Laurence to stay in Kent. Kirby goes on to argue that it was Justus, not Laurence, who converted Eadbald, and this while Justus was archbishop, sometime around 624. Not all historians agree with this argument, however. Nicholas Brooks states that the king was converted during Laurence's archiepiscopate, within a year of him succeeding his father. The historian Barbara Yorke argues that there were two co-rulers of Kent after Æthelberht's death, Eadbald and a Æthelwald, and that Eadbald was converted by Laurence while Æthelwald was converted by Justus after his return to Rochester. Another factor in the pagan reaction was Laurence's objection to Eadbald's marriage to his father's widow, something that Christians considered to be unlawful. All efforts to extend the church beyond Kent encountered difficulties due to the attitude of King Rædwald of East Anglia, who had become the leading king in the south after Æthelberht's death. Rædwald was converted before the death of Æthelberht, perhaps at the urging of Æthelberht, but his kingdom was not, and Rædwald seems to have converted only to the extent of placing a Christian altar in his pagan temple. It proved impossible for Mellitus to return to London as bishop, although Justus did resume his duties at Rochester. ## Death and legacy Laurence died on 2 February 619, and was buried in the abbey of St Peter and Paul in Canterbury, later renamed St Augustine's; his relics, or remains, were moved, or translated, to the new church of St Augustine's in 1091. His shrine was in the axial chapel of the abbey church, flanking the shrine of Augustine, his predecessor. Laurence came to be regarded as a saint, and was given the feast day of 3 February. The ninth century Stowe Missal commemorates his feast day, along with Mellitus and Justus. A Vita (or Life) was written about the time of his translation, by Goscelin, but it is mainly based on information in Bede. His tomb was opened in 1915. Besides his feast day, the date of his translation, 13 September, was also celebrated after his death. Laurence's tenure as archbishop is mainly remembered for his failure to secure a settlement with the Celtic church, and for his reconversion of Eadbald following Æthelbert's death. He was succeeded as archbishop by Mellitus, the Bishop of London. ## See also - List of members of the Gregorian mission
531,287	Vesna Vulović	1,171,466,328	Serbian flight attendant (1950–2016)	[ "1950 births", "2016 deaths", "Burials at Belgrade New Cemetery", "Eastern Orthodox Christians from Serbia", "Fall survivors", "Flight attendants", "Overthrow of Slobodan Milošević", "People from Belgrade", "Serbian women activists", "Sole survivors", "Survivors of aviation accidents or incidents", "Survivors of terrorist attacks", "World record holders" ]	Vesna Vulović (Serbian Cyrillic: Весна Вуловић, ; 3 January 1950 – 23 December 2016) was a Serbian flight attendant who survived the highest fall without a parachute: 10.16 kilometres (6.31 miles). She was the sole survivor after an explosion tore through the baggage compartment of JAT Flight 367 on 26 January 1972, causing it to crash near Srbská Kamenice, Czechoslovakia (now part of Czech Republic). Air safety investigators attributed the explosion to a briefcase bomb. The Yugoslav authorities suspected that émigré Croatian nationalists were to blame, but no one was ever arrested. Following the bombing, Vulović spent days in a coma and was hospitalized for several months. She suffered a fractured skull, three broken vertebrae, broken legs, broken ribs, and a fractured pelvis. These injuries resulted in her being temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. Vulović made an almost complete recovery but continued to walk with a limp. She had no memory of the incident and had no qualms about flying in the aftermath of the crash. Despite her willingness to resume work as a flight attendant, Jat Airways (JAT) gave her a desk job negotiating freight contracts, feeling her presence on flights would attract too much publicity. Vulović became a celebrity in Yugoslavia and was deemed a national hero. Vulović was fired from JAT in the early 1990s after taking part in anti-government protests during the breakup of Yugoslavia, but avoided arrest as the government was concerned about the negative publicity that her imprisonment would bring. She continued her work as a pro-democracy activist until the Socialist Party of Serbia was ousted from power during the Bulldozer Revolution of October 2000. Vulović later campaigned on behalf of the Democratic Party, advocating Serbia's entry into the European Union. Her final years were spent in seclusion, and she struggled with survivor guilt. Having divorced, Vulović lived alone in her Belgrade apartment on a small pension until her death in 2016. ## Early life Vesna Vulović was born in Belgrade on 3 January 1950. Her father was a businessman and her mother was a fitness instructor. Driven by her love of the Beatles, Vulović travelled to the United Kingdom after completing her first year of university, hoping to improve her English-language skills. "I initially stayed with my parents' friends in Newbury," she recalled, "but wanted to move to London. It was there that I met up with a friend who suggested we go to Stockholm. When I told my parents I was living in the Swedish capital, they thought of the drugs and the sex and told me to come home at once." Upon returning to Belgrade, Vulović decided to become a flight attendant after seeing one of her friends in a flight attendant's uniform. "She looked so nice and had just been to London for the day," Vulović recalled. "I thought, 'Why shouldn't I be an air hostess? I could go to London once a month'." She joined JAT, the national flag carrier and dominant airline of Yugoslavia, in 1971. ## JAT Flight 367 The secondary crew of JAT Flight 367, flying from Stockholm to Belgrade with stopovers in Copenhagen and Zagreb, arrived in Denmark on the morning of 25 January 1972. According to Vulović, she was not scheduled to be on Flight 367, and JAT had confused her for another flight attendant also named Vesna. Nevertheless, Vulović said that she was excited to travel to Denmark because it was her first time visiting the country. The crew had the entire afternoon and the following morning to themselves. Vulović wished to go sightseeing but her colleagues insisted that they go shopping. "Everybody wanted to buy something for his or her family," she recalled. "So I had to go shopping with them. They seemed to know that they would die. They didn't talk about it, but I saw ... I felt for them. And the captain was locked in his room for 24 hours. He didn't want to go out at all. In the morning, during breakfast, the co-pilot was talking about his son and daughter as if nobody else had a son or daughter." Flight 367 departed from Stockholm Arlanda Airport at 1:30 p.m. on 26 January. The aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9, landed at Copenhagen Airport at 2:30 p.m., whereupon Vulović and her colleagues boarded the plane. "As it was late, we were in the terminal and saw it park," Vulović said. "I saw all the passengers and crew deplane. One man seemed terribly annoyed. It was not only me that noticed him either. Other crew members saw him, as did the station manager in Copenhagen. I think it was the man who put the bomb in the baggage. I think he had checked in a bag in Stockholm, got off in Copenhagen and never re-boarded the flight." Flight 367 departed from Copenhagen Airport at 3:15 p.m. At 4:01 p.m., an explosion tore through the DC-9's baggage compartment. The explosion caused the aircraft to break apart over the then-Czechoslovak village of Srbská Kamenice. Vulović was the only survivor of the 28 passengers and crew. She was discovered by villager Bruno Honke, who heard her screaming amid the wreckage. Her turquoise uniform was covered in blood and her stiletto heels had been torn off by the force of the impact. Honke had been a medic during the Second World War and was able to keep Vulović alive until rescuers arrived. Air safety investigators attributed Vulović's survival to her being trapped by a food cart in the DC-9's fuselage as it broke away from the rest of the aircraft and plummeted towards the ground. When the cabin depressurized, the passengers and other flight crew were blown out of the aircraft and fell to their deaths. Investigators believed that the fuselage, with Vulović pinned inside, landed at an angle in a heavily wooded and snow-covered mountainside, which cushioned the impact. Vulović's physicians concluded that her history of low blood pressure caused her to pass out quickly after the cabin depressurized and kept her heart from bursting on impact. Vulović said that she was aware of her low blood pressure before applying to become a flight attendant and knew that it would result in her failing her medical examination, but she drank an excessive amount of coffee beforehand and was accepted. Between 1962 and 1982, émigré Croatian nationalists carried out 128 terrorist attacks against Yugoslav civilian and military targets. Yugoslav authorities suspected that they were to blame for bringing down Flight 367. On the day of the crash, a bomb exploded aboard a train travelling from Vienna to Zagreb, injuring six. A man, describing himself as a Croatian nationalist, called the Swedish newspaper Kvällsposten the following day and claimed responsibility for the bombing of Flight 367. No arrests were ever made. The Czechoslovak Civil Aviation Authority later attributed the explosion to a briefcase bomb. ## Paralysis and recovery Following the crash, Vulović spent days in a coma, having fractured her skull and suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. She also suffered two broken legs and three broken vertebrae, one of which was crushed completely. Her pelvis was fractured and several ribs broken. Her injuries resulted in her being temporarily paralyzed below the waist. She had total amnesia from the hour preceding her fall until one month afterwards. Vulović's parents told her that she first learned of the crash about two weeks after it occurred. She fainted upon being shown a newspaper headline by her doctor and had to be tranquilized. The last thing that Vulović could remember from before the crash was greeting passengers as they boarded. The next thing she remembered was seeing her parents in her hospital room about one month later. Vulović underwent treatment in a Prague hospital until 12 March 1972, after which she was flown to Belgrade. She was offered a hypnotic injection to help her sleep during the flight back to Yugoslavia, but declined, explaining that she was not afraid of flying because she had no memory of the crash. In Belgrade, Vulović's hospital room was placed under 24-hour police protection because authorities feared that the perpetrators of the bombing would wish to kill her. The guards changed shifts every six hours, and no one was allowed in to see her except for her parents and doctors. Vulović's hospitalization lasted until June 1972, after which she travelled to Montenegro to recuperate at a seaside resort, where her doctors visited her every two or three days. Vulović underwent several operations to restore her movement. At first, she could only move her left leg, and one month thereafter, she was able to move her right. Vulović's parents had to sell both of their cars to pay for her treatment. Within ten months of her fall, Vulović had regained the ability to walk, but limped for the rest of her life, her spine permanently twisted. In total, she spent sixteen months recuperating. "Nobody ever expected me to live this long," she recounted in 2008. Vulović attributed her recovery to her "Serbian stubbornness" and "a childhood diet that included chocolate, spinach, and fish oil". ## Fame In September 1972, Vulović expressed willingness to resume working as a flight attendant. JAT felt that her presence on flights would attract too much publicity and instead gave her a desk job negotiating freight contracts. In Yugoslavia she was celebrated as a national hero. Her reputation as a "Cold War heroine" also extended to the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries. After the crash, Vulović was honored by Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito, and the Serbian folk singer Miroslav Ilić recorded a song titled "Vesna stjuardesa" ("Vesna the Stewardess"). She was soon made an honorary citizen of Srbská Kamenice. Honke, the man who found Vulović alive after the crash, had a granddaughter born six weeks after her fall; she was named Vesna in Vulović's honour. Vulović continued to fly regularly, stating that other passengers were surprised to see her on flights and wanted to sit next to her. Vulović's parents both died within a few years of the crash. In 1977, she married mechanical engineer Nikola Breka after a year of dating. Although she was advised by physicians that her injuries would not have an adverse effect on her reproductive function, Vulović experienced an ectopic pregnancy that nearly proved fatal and was never able to have children. In 1985, The Guinness Book of World Records recognized Vulović as the world record holder for surviving the highest fall without a parachute: 10,160 metres (33,330 ft; 6.31 mi). She was thus officially acknowledged as having surpassed the records of other fall survivors, such as Alan Magee, Juliane Koepcke, Nicholas Alkemade, and Ivan Chisov. She received the recognition at a London gala from musician Paul McCartney. In the early 1990s, Vulović and her husband divorced. She attributed the divorce to her chain smoking, which her husband disapproved of. Around the same time, Vulović was fired from JAT for speaking out against Serbian statesman Slobodan Milošević and taking part in anti-government protests. She avoided arrest because the government was concerned about the negative publicity that her imprisonment would bring. In response to her activism, pro-Milošević tabloids launched a smear campaign against her, claiming that Flight 367 had been shot down by a Czechoslovak surface-to-air missile and that she had fallen from a lesser height than previously believed. Vulović continued taking part in anti-government demonstrations throughout the 1990s. When Milošević and his Socialist Party of Serbia were ousted in the Bulldozer Revolution of October 2000, Vulović was among several celebrities who took to the balcony of Belgrade's city hall to make victory addresses. She later campaigned on behalf of the Democratic Party and advocated for Serbia's entry into the European Union, which she believed would bring economic prosperity. ## Later life and death Vulović told reporters that she did not think of her fall every day, but admitted to struggling with survivor's guilt. "Whenever I think of the accident, I have a prevailing, grave feeling of guilt for surviving it and I cry ... Then I think maybe I should not have survived at all." Vulović declined therapy to help cope with her experiences and instead turned to religion, becoming a devout Orthodox Christian. She stated that her ordeal had turned her into an optimist. "If you can survive what I survived," she said, "you can survive anything." In 2009, Peter Hornung-Andersen and Pavel Theiner, two Prague-based journalists, claimed that Flight 367 had been mistaken for an enemy aircraft and shot down by the Czechoslovak Air Force at an altitude of 800 metres (2,600 ft), far lower than the official altitude of 10,160 metres (33,330 ft). The two claimed that the Czechoslovak State Security had conjured up Vulović's record fall as part of a cover-up. They also hypothesized that the call received by Kvällsposten, claiming responsibility for the aircraft's downing, was a hoax. The Czech Civil Aviation Authority dismissed the journalists' claim, calling it a conspiracy theory. Hornung-Andersen conceded that the pair's evidence was only circumstantial. Vulović said that she was aware of the journalists' claims, but stated that because she had no memory of the event, she could not confirm or deny the allegations. Guinness World Records continues to list her as the record-holder for surviving the highest fall without a parachute. In the last years of her life, Vulović lived on a pension of €300 per month in her Belgrade apartment. "I don't know what to say when people say I was lucky," she remarked. "Life is so hard today." Vulović lamented that her mother and father might not have died prematurely had she not been aboard Flight 367, stating that the incident not only ruined her life, but also those of her parents. She only occasionally granted interviews and declined numerous requests, most notably from Oprah Winfrey and the BBC, saying that she was "tired" of discussing her fall. By the time she had reached her sixties, Vulović's deteriorating health prevented her from taking part in annual commemorations at Srbská Kamenice, which she had previously attended for many years. In December 2016, Vulović's friends became concerned for her well-being after she abruptly stopped answering telephone calls. On 23 December, locksmiths discovered her body in her apartment after forcing open the door. Vulović's friends said that she had struggled with heart ailments in the years leading up to her death. She was buried in Belgrade's New Cemetery on 27 December. ## See also - Free fall - List of sole survivors of aviation accidents or incidents - Ewa Wiśnierska - William Rankin
47,398,382	Killer Instinct Gold	1,158,770,916	1996 video game	[ "1990s horror video games", "1996 video games", "Killer Instinct games", "Nintendo 64 games", "Nintendo games", "Video game remakes", "Video games developed in the United Kingdom", "Video games scored by Robin Beanland", "Video games with pre-rendered 3D graphics" ]	Killer Instinct Gold is a 2.5D fighting game based on the arcade game Killer Instinct 2. The game was developed by Rare and released by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. As in other series entries, players control characters who fight on a 2D plane set against a 3D background. Players press buttons to punch and kick their opponent in chains of successive hits, known as combos. Large combo successions lead to stronger attacks and brutal, stylistic finisher moves underscored by an announcer. Charactersincluding a gargoyle, a ninja, and a femme fatalefight in settings such as a jungle and a spaceship. Killer Instinct Gold includes the arcade release's characters, combos, and 3D, pre-rendered environments, but excludes its full-motion video sequences and some voice-overs due to restrictions of the cartridge media format. The Gold release adds a training mode, new camera views, and improved audiovisuals. Rare was a prominent second-party developer for Nintendo in the 1990s, and their Killer Instinct series was produced as an exclusive partnership in response to the popularity of Mortal Kombat. Following the success of the 1995 Killer Instinct port for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Rare began a sequel for the same platform but transitioned development to its successor, the Nintendo 64, upon its unveiling. Gold was scheduled as a launch title for the new console but was delayed until its North American release in November 1996. It was released in other regions in May 1997. Gold was later included in Rare's 2015 Xbox One retrospective compilation, Rare Replay. Reviewers preferred the Nintendo 64 port over the arcade release, and appreciated its audiovisual enhancements, but felt that its graphical upgrades and memorization-based combo gameplay were insufficient when compared to fighting games like Tekken 2 and Virtua Fighter 2. Critics recommended Gold primarily for fans of the series and genre, but IGN reported that even fans were upset by changes in the combo system and the absence of several well-liked characters. Gold ultimately did not replicate the success of its Super NES predecessor, and the series remained dormant through its 2002 acquisition by Microsoft until its 2013 reboot. ## Gameplay Killer Instinct Gold is a port of the arcade fighting game Killer Instinct 2. Like other entries in the Killer Instinct series, two characters controlled by humans or artificial intelligence fight in one-on-one matches to deplete their opponent's health meter. While the characters move and attack on a 2D plane, the background is depicted in pre-rendered 3D and gives the appearance of depth. Players fight with a six-button setup: three punch buttons and three kick buttons, similar to the controls in Street Fighter II. Players can chain together a series of hits into "combos" for increased damage, with some combos requiring a specific, memorized sequences of button presses. Multiple hit combos lead to stronger attacks and brutal, stylistic finisher moves, or "Fatalities". Characters on the receiving end of a combo can interrupt the sequence with a "combo breaker" move. An announcer narrates major game moments with phrases like, "Awesome combo!" Gold features arcade, team, and tournament gameplay modes. The game's new "practice mode" lets players rehearse their skills and follow tutorials. In the new knockout tournament mode, players cycle through a preselected team of characters when their current character is eliminated. Gold features the same characters, combos, and environments available in the arcade Killer Instinct 2. Players can unlock new character appearances, gameplay difficulty levels, and an additional playable character. Gold and Killer Instinct 2's shared roster contains eleven characters in total: four new additions and seven returning from the previous title. Characters include a gargoyle, a ninja, and a femme fatale. Fights are set in spaceship, jungle, and castle settings, among others, and some backgrounds are interactive. Gold features new camera functions that automatically zoom to better frame the fight. The release also includes enhancements to the 3D backgrounds and an upgraded soundtrack, but excludes the full-motion video sequences and some voice-overs from the arcade release due to the Nintendo 64's cartridge media data storage restrictions. While Gold's backgrounds are fluidly animated in 60 frames per second, its character animations have fewer frames than its arcade equivalent. ## Development Killer Instinct Gold was developed by Rare during a time when the British company was becoming a prominent second-party developer and ally for Nintendo, the game's publisher. Rare modeled its Killer Instinct series on the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. As a departure from fighting game staples such as Street Fighter, both Killer Instinct and Mortal Kombat championed an aggressively fast pace of gameplay and placed less emphasis on patience and mastery. The Killer Instinct series began as an arcade game (1994) and became known as "Nintendo's version of Mortal Kombat" upon its release on the company's Super Nintendo Entertainment System (1995) and Game Boy (1995). The video game industry expected a sequel after the Super NES version's wide success, with over three million copies sold. Following market demand, Rare began development on a sequel for the arcade. They had a Super NES version in development, but transitioned to the newer Nintendo 64 after the console's announcement. The Killer Instinct development team split itself between the arcade version and the Nintendo 64 release that would become Killer Instinct Gold. The latter began work as soon as Rare received its Nintendo 64 development kit. The seven-person development team started work on the sequel with the ideas that did not fit into the original. They also incorporated feedback from Killer Instinct players. Killer Instinct 2's art, design, and programming changed continuously throughout development up until its release. Kevin Bayliss designed the characters and Chris Tilston developed the game engine with feedback from Nintendo's Ken Lobb. Rare used compression technology to fit the arcade version onto the smaller Nintendo 64 cartridge. While Killer Instinct was planned to showcase the Nintendo 64's power, the console was more limited than Rare's arcade setup, and Rare had to optimize the arcade version to run on the console. The arcade version used an animation to give the illusion of the camera panning horizontally, but the console version used static image files with less detail. Both the arcade and console versions use the same game engine and character roster. The game was originally scheduled to be one of the Nintendo 64's initial two launch titles, but missed its release window. Gold released in North America on November 25, 1996, and in other countries on May 9, 1997. Its soundtrack received a compact disc release, which was rare for Western video games in the 1990s. Rare, under contract, ultimately finished its Super NES port of Killer Instinct 2, but Nintendo chose not to release it. ## Reception In 1996, reviewers compared Gold favorably to Killer Instinct 2, but thought that its graphics were not sufficiently upgraded. In particular, IGN felt that the Killer Instinct 2 graphics appeared dated in Gold and gave it a "cheesy 80s feel". Compared with the arcade release, IGN and CVG noticed fewer animation frames. IGN preferred Gold's crisp music but would have liked more characters and distinctions from the arcade version. GameSpot named Gold the best entry in the series at the time, but other reviewers only recommended Gold for fans of the series and genre and those most desperate for a Nintendo 64 fighting game. AllGame described Killer Instinct Gold as best for players who want "Mortal Kombat on speed" with a "hyperactive Barry White" announcer. Within the fighting game genre, GameSpot considered Gold to be better than the other Nintendo 64 fighting game, Mortal Kombat Trilogy, but GamePro readers rated Gold below Tekken 2, also released that year. Next Generation and N64 Magazine agreed that Tekken 2 and Virtua Fighter 2 had outclassed Killer Instinct Gold. N64 Magazine concluded that even in the Nintendo 64's then-meager catalog of titles, Killer Instinct Gold did not distinguish itself, and thus had a lifespan of "weeks rather than months". Killer Instinct Gold waned from a celebrated announcement to a quiet European release. Reviewers highly praised the game's sound and environment backdrops, but noted blurriness in its character animations. IGN appreciated its stereo sound, special effects, and camera work. The characters appeared blurry, CVG wrote, because of "fuzzy anti-aliasing" when the camera zoomed in. Apart from this blur, GameSpot considered the graphics "near perfect". The graphics similarly impressed Game Informer but, as one reviewer commented, Gold had few other positive features. In contrast, GamePro praised the "lively" character animations over the "mildly annoying" backgrounds. While GamePro gave the game perfect ratings in controls and fun, Next Generation considered the controls almost as awkward as they were on the Super NES and ultimately wrote that the game was "not much fun". Many reviewers criticized how Gold's combo-based gameplay diminished the importance of skill. This shallow emphasis on "archaic" combo sequence memorization, said IGN, prevented creative improvisation. CVG wrote that Gold had little "flow": every match was focused on huge combos rather than small, strategic moves. Thus players were forced to train before they could effectively produce combos long enough to win matches. Multiple reviewers praised the game's training mode, which CVG also liked in its Super NES predecessor. Killer Instinct Gold was the fifth best-selling video game of the 1996 Christmas shopping season according to TRST data. ## Legacy After the 1996 Killer Instinct Gold did not sell as well as the Super NES version of the original, the series went dormant. IGN reported in 2010 that Killer Instinct Gold had upset series fans by changing the combo move sets and omitting "fan favorite" characters from the original. The website added that Rare knew that between all its franchises, Killer Instinct had the most fan interest in a new series entry. Microsoft purchased Rare in 2002, ending the acquisition's prominent alliance with Nintendo. Microsoft and Rare revived the series for the Xbox One platform in 2013. In 2014, GamesRadar retrospectively ranked Gold the 35th best game on the Nintendo 64 console. Killer Instinct Gold was later emulated for the Xbox One in Rare's 2015 compilation, Rare Replay. Nintendo Life wrote that Gold's graphics had not aged well. The New York Daily News reported that Killer Instinct Gold, while "underrated" in its time, had withered into an outdated frustration as the anthology's biggest letdown. Destructoid singled out Gold as the collection's worst title, as a "barebones" Killer Instinct 2. Twenty years after the original release, Retro Gamer wrote that while Killer Instinct was popular in arcades, it had been outdone by Tekken 2 and Virtua Fighter 2 by 1996, and ultimately proved mediocre in comparison.
29,510,763	Thyrotoxic periodic paralysis	1,173,166,314	Human disease	[ "Muscular disorders", "Thyroid disease" ]	Thyrotoxic periodic paralysis (TPP) is a rare condition featuring attacks of muscle weakness in the presence of hyperthyroidism (overactivity of the thyroid gland). Hypokalemia (a decreased potassium level in the blood) is usually present during attacks. The condition may be life-threatening if weakness of the breathing muscles leads to respiratory failure, or if the low potassium levels lead to abnormal heart rhythms. If untreated, it is typically recurrent in nature. The condition has been linked with genetic mutations in genes that code for certain ion channels that transport electrolytes (sodium and potassium) across cell membranes. The main ones are the L-type calcium channel α1-subunit and potassium inward rectifier 2.6; it is therefore classified as a channelopathy. The abnormality in the channel is thought to lead to shifts of potassium into cells, under conditions of high thyroxine (thyroid hormone) levels, usually with an additional precipitant. Treatment of the low levels of potassium in the blood, followed by correction of the hyperthyroidism, leads to complete resolution of the attacks. It occurs predominantly in males of Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Filipino, and Korean descent. TPP is one of several conditions that can cause periodic paralysis. ## Signs and symptoms An attack often begins with muscle pain, cramping, and stiffness. This is followed by weakness or paralysis that tends to develop rapidly, usually in late evening or the early hours of the morning. The weakness is usually symmetrical; the limb muscles closer to the trunk (proximal) are predominantly affected, and weakness tends to start in the legs and spread to the arms. Muscles of the mouth and throat, eyes, and breathing are usually not affected, but occasionally weakness of the respiratory muscles can cause life-threatening respiratory failure. Attacks typically resolve within several hours to several days, even in the absence of treatment. On neurological examination during an attack, flaccid weakness of the limbs is noted; reflexes are usually diminished, but the sensory system is unaffected. Mental status is not affected. Attacks may be brought on by physical exertion, drinking alcohol, or eating food high in carbohydrates or salt. This may explain why attacks are more common in summer when more people drink sugary drinks and engage in exercise. Exercise-related attacks tend to occur during a period of rest immediately after exercise; exercise may, therefore, be recommended to abort an attack. There may be symptoms of thyroid overactivity, such as weight loss, a fast or irregular heart rate, tremor, and perspiration; but such symptoms occur in only half of all cases. The most common type of hyperthyroidism, Graves' disease, may additionally cause eye problems (Graves' ophthalmopathy) and skin changes of the legs (pretibial myxedema). Thyroid disease may also cause muscle weakness in the form of thyrotoxic myopathy, but this is constant rather than episodic. ## Causes ### Genetics Genetic mutations in the L-type calcium channel α1-subunit (Ca<sub>v</sub>1.1) have been described in Southern Chinese with TPP. The mutations are located in a different part of the gene from those described in the related condition familial periodic paralysis. In TPP, the mutations described are single-nucleotide polymorphisms located in the hormone response element responsive to thyroid hormone, implying that transcription of the gene and production of ion channels may be altered by increased thyroid hormone levels. Furthermore, mutations have been reported in the genes coding for potassium voltage-gated channel, Shaw-related subfamily, member 4 (K<sub>v</sub>3.4) and sodium channel protein type 4 subunit alpha (Na<sub>4</sub>1.4). Of people with TPP, 33% from various populations were demonstrated to have mutations in KCNJ18, the gene coding for K<sub>ir</sub>2.6, an inward-rectifier potassium ion channel. This gene, too, harbors a thyroid response element. Certain forms of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)—especially B46, DR9, DQB1\*0303, A2, Bw22, AW19, B17, and DRW8—are more common in TPP. Linkage to particular forms of HLA, which plays a central role in the immune response, might imply an immune system cause, but it is uncertain whether this directly causes TPP or whether it increases the susceptibility to Graves' disease, a known autoimmune disease. ### Thyroid disease The most common underlying form of thyroid disease associated with TPP is Graves' disease, a syndrome due to an autoimmune reaction that leads to overproduction of thyroid hormone. TPP has also been described in people with other thyroid problems such as thyroiditis, toxic nodular goiter, toxic adenoma, TSH-producing pituitary adenoma, excessive ingestion of thyroxine or iodine, and amiodarone-induced hyperthyroidism. ## Mechanism The muscle weakness and increased risk of irregular heart beat in TPP result from markedly reduced levels of potassium in the bloodstream. Potassium is not in fact lost from the body, but increased Na<sup>+</sup>/K<sup>+</sup>-ATPase activity (the enzyme that moves potassium into cells and keeps sodium in the blood) leads to shift of potassium into tissues, and depletes the circulation. In other types of potassium derangement, the acid-base balance is usually disturbed, with metabolic alkalosis and metabolic acidosis often being present. In TPP, these disturbances are generally absent. Hypokalemia leads to hyperpolarization of muscle cells, making the neuromuscular junction less responsive to normal nerve impulses and leading to decreased contractility of the muscles. It is not clear how the described genetic defects increase the Na<sup>+</sup>/K<sup>+</sup>-ATPase activity, but it is suspected that the enzyme becomes more active due to increased thyroid hormone levels. Hyperthyroidism increases the levels of catecholamines (such as adrenaline) in the blood, increasing Na<sup>+</sup>/K<sup>+</sup>-ATPase activity. The enzyme activity is then increased further by the precipitating causes. For instance, increased carbohydrate intake leads to increased insulin levels; this is known to activate Na<sup>+</sup>/K<sup>+</sup>-ATPase. Once the precipitant is removed, the enzyme activity returns to normal levels. It has been postulated that male hormones increase Na<sup>+</sup>/K<sup>+</sup>-ATPase activity, and that this explains why males are at a higher risk of TPP despite thyroid disease being more common in females. TPP is regarded as a model for related conditions, known as "channelopathies", which have been linked with mutations in ion channels; the majority of these conditions occurs episodically. ## Diagnosis Hypokalemia (low blood potassium levels) commonly occurs during attacks; levels below 3.0 mmol/L are typically encountered. Magnesium and phosphate levels are often found to be decreased. Creatine kinase levels are elevated in two thirds of cases, usually due to a degree of muscle injury; severe elevations suggestive of rhabdomyolysis (muscle tissue destruction) are rare. Electrocardiography (ECG/EKG) may show tachycardia (a fast heart rate) due to the thyroid disease, abnormalities due to cardiac arrhythmia (atrial fibrillation, ventricular tachycardia), and conduction changes associated with hypokalemia (U waves, QRS widening, QT prolongation, and T wave flattening). Electromyography shows changes similar to those encountered in myopathies (muscle diseases), with a reduced amplitude of the compound muscle action potentials (CMAPs); they resolve when treatment has commenced. TPP is distinguished from other forms of periodic paralysis (especially hypokalemic periodic paralysis) with thyroid function tests on the blood. These are normal in the other forms, and in thyrotoxicosis the levels of thyroxine and triiodothyronine are elevated, with resultant suppression of TSH production by the pituitary gland. Various other investigations are usually performed to separate the different causes of hyperthyroidism. ## Treatment In the acute phase of an attack, administration of potassium will quickly restore muscle strength and prevent complications. However, caution is advised as the total amount of potassium in the body is not decreased, and it is possible for potassium levels to overshoot ("rebound hyperkalemia"); slow infusions of potassium chloride are therefore recommended while other treatment is commenced. The effects of excess thyroid hormone typically respond to the administration of a non-selective beta blocker, such as propranolol (as most of the symptoms are driven by increased levels of adrenaline and its effect on the β-adrenergic receptors). Subsequent attacks may be prevented by avoiding known precipitants, such as high salt or carbohydrate intake, until the thyroid disease has been adequately treated. Treatment of the thyroid disease usually leads to resolution of the paralytic attacks. Depending on the nature of the disease, the treatment may consist of thyrostatics (drugs that reduce production of thyroid hormone), radioiodine, or occasionally thyroid surgery. ## Epidemiology TPP occurs predominantly in males of Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Filipino, and Korean descent, as well as Thais, with much lower rates in people of other ethnicities. In Chinese and Japanese people with hyperthyroidism, 1.8–1.9% experience TPP. This is in contrast to North America, where studies report a rate of 0.1–0.2%. Native Americans, who share a genetic background with East Asians, are at an increased risk. The typical age of onset is 20–40. It is unknown why males are predominantly affected, with rates in males being 17- to 70-fold those in females, despite thyroid overactivity being much more common in women. ## History After several case reports in the 18th and 19th centuries, periodic paralysis was first described in full by the German neurologist Karl Friedrich Otto Westphal (1833–1890) in 1885. In 1926 the Japanese physician Tetsushiro Shinosaki, from Fukuoka, observed the high rate of thyroid disease in Japanese people with periodic paralysis. The first English-language report, in 1931, originated from Dunlap and Kepler, physicians at the Mayo Clinic; they described the condition in a patient with features of Graves' disease. In 1937 periodic paralysis was linked with hypokalemia, as well as precipitation of attacks with glucose and insulin. This phenomenon has been used as a diagnostic test. In 1974 it was discovered that propranolol could prevent attacks. The concept of channelopathies and the link with specific ion channel mutations emerged at the end of the 20th century.
32,862,366	Hours of Mary of Burgundy	1,148,320,939	Devotional illuminated manuscript made in Flanders around 1477	[ "15th-century illuminated manuscripts", "Black books of hours", "Illuminated books of hours", "Manuscripts of the Austrian National Library" ]	The Hours of Mary of Burgundy (German: Stundenbuch der Maria von Burgund) is a book of hours, a form of devotional book for lay-people, completed in Flanders around 1477, and now in the National Library of Austria. It was probably commissioned for Mary, the ruler of the Burgundian Netherlands and then the wealthiest woman in Europe. No records survive as to its commission. The book contains 187 folios, each measuring 225 by 150 millimetres (8.9 in × 5.9 in). It consists of the Roman Liturgy of the Hours, 24 calendar roundels, 20 full-page miniatures and 16 quarter-page format illustrations. Its production began c. 1470, and includes miniatures by several artists, of which the foremost was the unidentified but influential illuminator known as the Master of Mary of Burgundy, who provides the book with its most meticulously detailed illustrations and borders. Other miniatures, considered of an older tradition, were contributed by Simon Marmion, Willem Vrelant and Lieven van Lathem. The majority of the calligraphy is attributed to Nicolas Spierinc, with whom the Master collaborated on other works and who may also have provided a number of illustrations. The two best known illustrations contain a revolutionary trompe-l'œil technique of showing a second perspective through an open window from the main pictorial setting. It is sometimes known as one of the black books of hours, due to the dark and sombre appearance of the first 34 pages, in which the gilded letter was written on black panels. The book has been described as "undoubtedly [...] among the most important works of art made in the late middle ages...a milestone in the history of art and one of the most precious objects of the late middle ages". Given the dark colourisation and mournful tone of the opening folios, the book may originally have been intended to mark the death of Mary's father, Charles the Bold, who died in 1477 at the Battle of Nancy. Midway through its production, it is thought to have been recommissioned as a gift to celebrate Mary's marriage to Maximilian. Tonally, the early pages change from dark, sombre colours to a later sense of optimism and unity. ## Commission The book was for centuries known as the "Vienna Hours of Charles the Bold", and thought to have been intended to mark the death of Charles the Bold, ruler of the Burgundian Netherlands, at the Battle of Nancy on 5 January 1477, and thus as a book of mourning, intended for either his widow, Margaret of York, or his daughter, Mary. As Charles's sole heir, Mary became both the wealthiest woman in Europe and the last of her dynasty. The idea that it was originally a book of mourning is reinforced by the mournful appearance of the opening 34 pages, where the gold and silver lettering is placed on parchment that has been stained black, in a technique associated with the so-called black books of hours. Only seven of these Illuminated manuscripts survive today, all produced in the mid to late 15th century. Given their novel visual appeal, and the use of gold and silver leaf, they were more expensive and highly prized than more conventional books of hours, and produced for high-ranking members of the court of Philip the Good and Charles the Bold. The Burgundian court had a preference for dark, sombre colourisation and the extant works in this style were mostly commissioned for them. Only the wealthy nobility could have afforded such books, and the taste for mournful colours – often reflected in their dress style – was reflected in the black, gold and silver of these manuscripts. After page 35, the parchment is predominantly left white and the images are lighter in tone. Given this change, the intention for the book may have changed from mourning to celebration: that is, its purpose changed from being a commemoration of Charles's death to a token of honour for Mary's marriage to Maximilian of Austria. This is indicated by the items on the window sill next to her in the Virgin in the Church illustration. Traditionally, pearls represent purity, and a transparent veil signifies virtue, while red carnations were often used as symbols of love. Evidence that it was commissioned for Mary include the feminine gender endings in some of the prayers and the recurring pairs of gold armorial shields throughout the book, indicating that it was prepared for an upcoming marriage. Art historian Antoine De Schryver argues that this change of purpose and the pressure of completion for the wedding date of August 1477 explains why so many individual artists were involved. ## Attribution Work on the book is thought to have begun c. 1470. The Flemish artist Nicolas Spierinc, a favourite of the Burgundian court and Charles in particular, has been identified as the chief scribe of the elegant and complex calligraphy. There is speculation that the artist was active in Bruges at the end of the 15th century. He may have directed assistants to carry out some of the lettering, excepting key passages. An anagram of his name appears on the borders of the miniature on folio 94v, The Way to Calvary. The miniatures were completed by a team of at least nine artists and illustrators, including Simon Marmion, attributed a single illustration, Willem Vrelant and Lieven van Lathem. Van Lathem is attributed with the "Christ before Pilate" miniature, which seems influenced by Hand K of the Turin-Milan Hours (c. 1420). Most attention is given to the innovative images attributed to the Master of Mary of Burgundy, known to have been active in Flanders between 1469 and 1483, and who was greatly influenced by the innovations of contemporary northern European panel painting, particularly the melancholy of Hugo van der Goes and the illusionism of Jan van Eyck. The Master is thought to have been the primary illuminator responsible for a second book commissioned by the family, the "Prayer Book of Charles the Bold", now in Berlin. A majority have been specifically attributed to one of these artists, though there is some debate over a number. The illustrations can be characterised by the use of everyday devotional objects, including books, rosary beads and contemporary everyday settings, to frame images of divine saints and thereby bringing the sacred into domestic, earthly spaces. ## Design The book consists of 186 original folios of 22.5 × 16.3 cm and three folios that were later additions, which measure 21.2 × 15.2 cm. In total there are 20 full-page miniatures, 14 smaller miniatures, 24 calendar sheets, 14 historiated initials and 78 ornamental borders. The text is preoccupied with the litany, and intercessory prayers. The margins on almost every page are decorated with drollerie consisting of flowers, insects, jewels and sibyls, some of which were designed by Lieven van Lathem. Those most praised by art historians were created by the Master of Mary of Burgundy. The marginalia and drolleries are painted in such a way as to suggest that objects are sprinkled over the foil in a three-dimensional manner that suggest, according to art historian Otto Pächt, that they seem not so much "in the imaginary space of the picture, but in that of the real world". ## Miniatures The book contains 20 full-page miniatures and 16 small format illustrations. They are all of the highest quality and can be mostly attributed to individual artists or hands. There are noticeable changes in standards and style between the miniatures attributed to the Master of Mary of Burgundy and those attributed to other hands. There is some commonality between the images; the idealised facial types are similar, and thin cumulus clouds appear throughout. The Master's work is characterised by mixed colours that whiten toward the horizon, while in others they are saturated. He achieved the modelling of figures and objects by building layers of paint in thin but visible brush strokes, rather than hatching. His palette is noticeably darker than that of the other hands, mostly consisting of purples, browns and greys, with the areas around the figure's faces and hands coloured with black pigment. The art historian Thomas Kren says his miniatures in this book "constitute an art of profound emotion; subtle atmospheric effects; abundant, richly textured detail; and the most delicate draftsmanship. His miniatures convey a powerful sense of the moment". The book's best-known miniatures, the Virgin and Child, Christ nailed to the Cross, and the Crucifixion, are attributed to the Master. Folio 14v shows the Virgin Mary in a Gothic church seen through the window of a room containing Mary of Burgundy at her devotions, reading from an open book, with the Virgin appearing as if the embodiment of Mary's prayers. In Folio 43v, Christ lies on his cross, in an expansive view of Calvary, seemingly viewed through a window. In both, the background scene becomes the main focus, with the foreground image merely providing the setting for the 'main stage'. It is because of these two miniatures that the Master is seen as the main innovator in bringing about a new style of Flemish illumination in the 1470s and 1480s, earning him a great number of imitators. The colourisation is often extremely subtle, with some illustrations containing upwards of eighteen different shades. ### Virgin and Child Mary of Burgundy can be identified as the woman in the foreground of folio 14v from the facial similarity to documented contemporary drawings and paintings. She is shown as an elegant young princess, reading a book of hours. Her finger traces the text of what seem to be the words Obsecro te Domina sancta maria ("I Beseech Thee, Holy Mary"), a popular prayer of indulgence in contemporary manuscript illuminations of donors venerating the Virgin and Child. Mary is positioned in an intimate and private domestic setting, probably a private chapel or oratory, reading a book of hours draped in a green cloth. A small white dog, a symbol of faithfulness, rests on her lap. She wears a gold or brown velvet dress, and a long hennin, from which hangs a transparent veil. The window before her is opened through two timber boards adorned with glass. Its ledge contains a veil, rosary beads, a gold chain with ruby and four pearls, two red carnations as symbols of betrothal, and a crystal vase containing a large flowering iris, a late medieval symbol of purity. The Virgin and Child are visible through the open window as an "image within an image", as if as an apparition or the literal embodiment of the book she is reading. Thus Mary of Burgundy is placed in physical proximity to the Virgin, without the usual intercession of the saint. The holy family are seated in a Gothic church with a high vaulted ambulatory, before the high altar, in front of which is a lattice-patterned decorative carpet. Four angels sit at the corners of the carpet, each holding a gold candlestick marking the sacred space. Three court ladies, one looking outwards, are positioned to the left, kneeling with their hands clasped in prayer. One, probably Mary of Burgundy, wears a blue brocade and gown and holds a small book in her hands. The other two ladies seem to be her attendants. A male figure kneeling to the right is dressed in red and swings a censer of burning incense, while two other figures are positioned behind the high altar. The use of an open window was influenced by van Eyck's c. 1435 oil-on-panel painting the Madonna of Chancellor Rolin, where the pictorial space is divided into two areas; a foreground chiaroscuro interior which leads out, through arcades, to an expansive bright-lit exterior landscape. In the Vienna miniature, the artist achieves the transition from foreground to background by slowly diminishing the figures' scale and plasticity. The illustration has been compared in breadth of detail and style to van Eyck's Madonna in the Church, a small panel painting, which is yet twice the size of the Master's illumination. ### Christ nailed to the Cross Folio 43v, Christ nailed to the Cross, shows a biblical scene viewed through the elaborately carved stone window of a contemporary late 15th century setting. The foreground interior scene is empty of people, but can again be assumed to be an oratory, and contains an array of attributes and objects of devotion, including a prayer book with black chemise binding, prayer beads, a brocade cushion and a number of jewels. The background composition consists of a complex exploration of perspective. The artist employs a central axis and vanishing point to create an aerial perspective of sophistication previously unseen in northern illumination. As art historian Susie Nash notes, "Mary [of Burgundy], looking at her prayer book, would see on this page a depiction of the accoutrements of prayer she might also be currently be using in reality, set around the real prayer book in which they are depicted". The viewer is thus positioned, as if from the point of view of the reader of the book itself, outside of the main pictorial setting. The scene beyond the window contains a cast of characters numbering in the many hundreds, before an expansive landscape and threatening and gloomy sky. The vast panorama is achieved by the illuminator's skill in achieving depth, recession and scale. But the figure's distance from the viewer means that they are rendered in a rather vague and summary style. The figure of Christ seems modeled on a similar painting of the Crucifixion attributed to Gerard David, now in the National Gallery, London. The women, particularly at the front, wear a variety of exotic and extravagant headgear, of types also seen in the Virgin and Child, in folio 152v The Presentation in the Temple, from his Book of Hours of Engelbert of Nassau, and in attributed miniatures from the "Trivulzio Hours". In the scene, two crosses have already been erected, on top of two small mounds. But there is no third, larger mound, which should be positioned between those of the thieves and bearing Christ's cross. Because of this anomaly, Nash believes the viewer's perspective is deliberately misleading; the viewer is not looking out towards Golgotha, but is on Golgotha. Nash suggests that this explains why a praying figure is absent from the room before the window – Mary is participating in the actual event. She further notes that Mary Magdalene, usually closely associated with the crucifixion, is also missing, and speculates that Mary be playing the role normally associated with the Magdalene. The margins of the page are decorated with imaginative and somewhat whimsical flowers, insects and a jewel. The influence of van der Goes can be seen in the modelling of St John, who closely resembles the same figure in the earlier artist's The Fall of Man and The Lamentation of 1470–75. ### Crucifixion The Crucifixion miniature, folio 99v, shows Christ and the two thieves raised on their crosses over a vast crowd which forms around them in a circular shape. Christ's body is twisted in pain, and painted with particular detail and skill. His chest rises heavily as he gasps for breath, while his body is rendered in delicate proportion. The Virgin Mary, dressed in blue, and Mary Magdalene, dressed in red, kneel at the foot of his cross. According to Kren, the image achieves its immediacy through the "numerous figures in motion — writhing, gesturing, stepping, or just listening with head attentively inclined". As with the other miniatures attributed to the Master, a number of the figures look outwards, as if towards the viewer. The work shows a number of similarities to a Deposition in the J. Paul Getty Museum, also thought to be by the Master's hand. ## Provenance Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor, acquired the book around 1580; he spent much of the period 1578–81 in the Netherlands. It disappeared after his death in 1619. It is thought to have been acquired by the Austrian National Library in Vienna c. 1721–27. The library was looted by Napoleon's troops in 1809, and the book was taken to Paris. It was returned to Vienna in 1815, following Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. It remains in the National Library of Austria, classified as Codex Vindobonensis 1857.
12,963,102	Franco-Mongol alliance	1,156,091,946	13th century attempts at an alliance	[ "13th century in France", "13th-century crusades", "13th-century military alliances", "History of the foreign relations of France", "Hulagu Khan", "Military history of the Mongol Empire" ]	Several attempts at a Franco-Mongol alliance against the Islamic caliphates, their common enemy, were made by various leaders among the Frankish Crusaders and the Mongol Empire in the 13th century. Such an alliance might have seemed an obvious choice: the Mongols were already sympathetic to Christianity, given the presence of many influential Nestorian Christians in the Mongol court. The Franks (Western Europeans and those in the Crusader States of the Levant) were open to the idea of support from the East, in part owing to the long-running legend of the mythical Prester John, an Eastern king in an Eastern kingdom who many believed would one day come to the assistance of the Crusaders in the Holy Land. The Franks and Mongols also shared a common enemy in the Muslims. However, despite many messages, gifts, and emissaries over the course of several decades, the often-proposed alliance never came to fruition. Contact between Europeans and Mongols began around 1220, with occasional messages from the papacy and European monarchs to Mongol leaders such as the Great Khan, and subsequently to the Ilkhans in Mongol-conquered Persia. Communications tended to follow a recurring pattern: the Europeans asked the Mongols to convert to Western Christianity, while the Mongols responded with demands for submission and tribute. The Mongols had already conquered many Christian and Muslim nations in their advance across Asia, and after destroying the Nizaris of Alamut and the Muslim Abbasid and Ayyubid dynasties, for the next few generations fought the remaining Islamic power in the region, the Egyptian Mamluks. Hethum I, king of the Christian nation of Cilician Armenia, had submitted to the Mongols in 1247, and strongly encouraged other monarchs to engage in a Christian–Mongol alliance, but was only able to persuade his son-in-law, Prince Bohemond VI of the Crusader state of Antioch, who submitted in 1260. Other Christian leaders such as the Crusaders of Acre were more mistrustful of the Mongols, perceiving them as the most significant threat in the region. The Barons of Acre therefore engaged in an unusual passive alliance with the Muslim Mamluks, allowing Egyptian forces to advance unopposed through Crusader territory to engage and defeat the Mongols at the pivotal Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260. European attitudes began to change in the mid-1260s, from perceiving the Mongols as enemies to be feared, to potential allies against the Muslims. The Mongols sought to capitalize on this, promising a re-conquered Jerusalem to the Europeans in return for cooperation. Attempts to cement an alliance continued through negotiations with many leaders of the Mongol Ilkhanate in Persia, from its founder Hulagu through his descendants Abaqa, Arghun, Ghazan, and Öljaitü, but without success. The Mongols invaded Syria several times between 1281 and 1312, sometimes in attempts at joint operations with the Franks, but the considerable logistical difficulties involved meant that forces would arrive months apart, never able to coordinate activities in any effective way. The Mongol Empire eventually dissolved into civil war, and the Egyptian Mamluks successfully recaptured all of Palestine and Syria from the Crusaders. After the fall of Acre in 1291, the remaining Crusaders retreated to the island of Cyprus. They made a final attempt to establish a bridgehead at the small island of Ruad off the coast of Tortosa, again in an attempt to coordinate military action with the Mongols, but the plan failed, and the Muslims responded by besieging the island. With the Fall of Ruad in 1302, the Crusaders lost their last foothold in the Holy Land. Modern historians debate whether an alliance between the Franks and Mongols would have been successful in shifting the balance of power in the region, and if it would have been a wise choice on the part of the Europeans. Traditionally, the Mongols tended to see outside parties as either subjects or enemies, with little room in the middle for a concept such as an ally. ## Background (1209–1244) Among Western Europeans, there had long been rumors and expectations that a great Christian ally would come from the East. These rumors circulated as early as the First Crusade (1096–1099), and usually surged in popularity after the Crusaders lost a battle. A legend arose about a figure known as Prester John, who lived in far-off India, Central Asia, or perhaps even Ethiopia. This legend developed a life of its own, and some individuals who came from the East were greeted with expectations that they might be forces sent by the long-awaited Prester John. In 1210, news reached the West of the battles of the Mongol Kuchlug (d. 1218), leader of the largely Christian tribe of the Naimans. Kuchlug's forces had been battling the powerful Khwarezmian Empire, whose leader was the Muslim Muhammad II of Khwarezm. Rumors circulated in Europe that Kuchlug was the mythical Prester John, again battling the Muslims in the East. During the Fifth Crusade (1213–1221), as the Christians were unsuccessfully laying siege to the Egyptian city of Damietta, the legend of Prester John became conflated with the reality of Genghis Khan's rapidly expanding empire. Mongol raiding parties were beginning to invade the eastern Islamic world, in Transoxania and Persia in 1219–1221. Rumors circulated among the Crusaders that a "Christian king of the Indies", a King David who was either Prester John or one of his descendants, had been attacking Muslims in the East and was on his way to help the Christians in their crusades. In a letter dated June 20, 1221, Pope Honorius III even commented about "forces coming from the Far East to rescue the Holy Land". After Genghis Khan's death in 1227, his empire was divided by his descendants into four sections or Khanates, which degenerated into civil war. The northwestern Kipchak Khanate, known as the Golden Horde, expanded towards Europe, primarily via Hungary and Poland, while its leaders simultaneously opposed the rule of their cousins back at the Mongol capital. The southwestern section, known as the Ilkhanate, was under the leadership of Genghis Khan's grandson Hulagu. He continued to support his brother, the Great Khan, and was therefore at war with the Golden Horde, while at the same time continuing an advance towards Persia and the Holy Land. ## Papal overtures (1245–1248) The first official communications between Western Europe and the Mongol Empire occurred between Pope Innocent IV (fl. 1243–1254) and the Great Khans, via letters and envoys that were sent overland and could take years to arrive at their destination. The communications initiated what was to become a regular pattern in European–Mongol communications: the Europeans would ask the Mongols to convert to Christianity, and the Mongols would respond with demands for submission. The Mongol invasion of Europe ended in 1242, in part because of the death of the Great Khan Ögedei, successor to Genghis Khan. When one Great Khan died, Mongols from all parts of the empire were recalled to the capital to decide who should be the next Great Khan. In the meantime, the Mongols' relentless march westward had displaced the Khawarizmi Turks, who themselves moved west, eventually allying with the Ayyubid Muslims in Egypt. Along the way, the Ayyubids took Jerusalem from the Christians in 1244. After the subsequent loss at the Battle of La Forbie, Christian kings began to prepare for a new crusade (the Seventh Crusade), declared by Pope Innocent IV in June 1245 at the First Council of Lyon. The loss of Jerusalem caused some Europeans to look to the Mongols as potential allies of Christendom, provided the Mongols could be converted to Western Christianity. In March 1245, Pope Innocent IV had issued multiple papal bulls, some of which were sent with an envoy, the Franciscan John of Plano Carpini, to the "Emperor of the Tartars". In a letter now called the Cum non solum, Pope Innocent expressed a desire for peace, and asked the Mongol ruler to become a Christian and to stop killing Christians. However, the new Mongol Great Khan Güyük, installed at Karakorum in 1246, replied only with a demand for the submission of the pope, and a visit from the rulers of the West in homage to Mongol power: > You should say with a sincere heart: "I will submit and serve you." Thou thyself, at the head of all the Princes, come at once to serve and wait upon us! At that time I shall recognize your submission. If you do not observe God's command, and if you ignore my command, I shall know you as my enemy. A second mission sent in 1245 by Pope Innocent was led by the Dominican Ascelin of Lombardia, who met with the Mongol commander Baiju near the Caspian Sea in 1247. Baiju, who had plans to capture Baghdad, welcomed the possibility of an alliance and sent a message to Rome via his envoys Aïbeg and Serkis. They then returned a year later with Pope Innocent's letter, Viam agnoscere veritatis, in which he appealed to the Mongols to "cease their menaces". ## Christian vassals As the Mongols of the Ilkhanate continued to move towards the Holy Land, city after city fell to the Mongols. The typical Mongol pattern was to give a region one chance to surrender. If the target acquiesced, the Mongols absorbed the populace and warriors into their own Mongol army, which they would then use to further expand the empire. If a community did not surrender, the Mongols forcefully took the settlement or settlements and slaughtered everyone they found. Faced with the option of subjugation to or combat with the nearby Mongol horde, many communities chose the former, including some Christian realms. Christian Georgia was repeatedly attacked starting in 1220, and in 1243 Queen Rusudan formally submitted to the Mongols, turning Georgia into a vassal state which then became a regular ally in the Mongol military conquests. Hethum I of Cilician Armenia submitted in 1247, and over the following years encouraged other monarchs to enter into a Christian-Mongol alliance. He sent his brother Sempad to the Mongol court in Karakorum, and Sempad's positive letters about the Mongols were influential in European circles. ### Antioch The Principality of Antioch was one of the earliest Crusader States, founded in 1098 during the First Crusade. At the time of the Mongol advance, it was under the rule of Bohemond VI. Under the influence of his father-in-law, Hethum I, Bohemond too submitted Antioch to Hulagu in 1260. A Mongol representative and a Mongol garrison were stationed in the capital city of Antioch, where they remained until the Principality was destroyed by the Mamluks in 1268. Bohemond was also required by the Mongols to accept the restoration of a Greek Orthodox patriarch, Euthymius, as a way of strengthening ties between the Mongols and the Byzantines. In return for this loyalty, Hulagu awarded Bohemond all the Antiochene territories which had been lost to the Muslims in 1243. However, for his relations with the Mongols, Bohemond was also temporarily excommunicated by Jacques Pantaléon, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, though this was lifted in 1263. Around 1262 or 1263, the Mamluk leader Baibars attempted an attack on Antioch, but the principality was saved by Mongol intervention. In later years the Mongols were not able to offer as much support. In 1264–1265 the Mongols were able to attack only the frontier fort of al-Bira. In 1268 Baibars completely overran the rest of Antioch, ending the 170-year-old principality. In 1271, Baibars sent a letter to Bohemond threatening him with total annihilation and taunting him for his alliance with the Mongols: > Our yellow flags have repelled your red flags, and the sound of the bells has been replaced by the call: "Allâh Akbar!" ... Warn your walls and your churches that soon our siege machinery will deal with them, your knights that soon our swords will invite themselves in their homes ... We will see then what use will be your alliance with Abagha. Bohemond was left with no estates except the County of Tripoli, which was itself to fall to the Mamluks in 1289. ## Saint Louis and the Mongols Louis IX of France had communications with the Mongols throughout his own crusades. During his first venture to Outremer, he was met on December 20, 1248 in Cyprus by two Mongol envoys, Nestorians from Mosul named David and Marc, who brought a letter from the Mongol commander in Persia, Eljigidei. The letter communicated a more conciliatory tone than previous Mongol demands for submission, and Eljigidei's envoys suggested that King Louis should land in Egypt while Eljigidei attacked Baghdad, as a way of preventing the Muslims of Egypt and those of Syria from joining forces. Louis responded by sending the emissary Andrew of Longjumeau to the Great Khan Güyük, but Güyük died from drink before the emissary arrived at his court. Güyük's widow Oghul Qaimish simply gave the emissary a gift and a condescending letter to take back to King Louis, instructing him to continue sending tributes each year. Louis's campaign against Egypt did not go well. He captured Damietta, but lost his entire army at the Battle of Al Mansurah, and was himself captured by the Egyptians. His release was eventually negotiated in return for a ransom (some of which was a loan from the Templars) and the surrender of the city of Damietta. A few years later, in 1253 he sought allies among both the Ismaili Assassins and the Mongols. When he saw a letter from Hethum's brother, the Armenian noble Sempad, which spoke well of the Mongols, Louis dispatched the Franciscan William of Rubruck to the Mongol court. But the Mongol leader Möngke replied with only a letter via William in 1254, asking for the King's submission to Mongol authority. Louis attempted a second crusade (the Eighth Crusade) in 1270. The Mongol Ilkhanate leader Abaqa wrote to Louis IX offering military support as soon as the Crusaders landed in Palestine, but Louis instead went to Tunis in modern Tunisia. His intention was evidently to first conquer Tunis, and then to move his troops along the coast to reach Alexandria in Egypt. The French historians Alain Demurger and Jean Richard suggest that this crusade may still have been an attempt at coordination with the Mongols, in that Louis may have attacked Tunis instead of Syria following a message from Abaqa that he would not be able to commit his forces in 1270, and asking to postpone the campaign to 1271. Envoys from the Byzantine emperor, the Armenians and the Mongols of Abaqa were present at Tunis, but events put a stop to plans for a continued crusade when Louis died of illness. According to legend, his last word was "Jerusalem". ## Relations with the Ilkhanate ### Hulagu (1256–1265) Hulagu Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan, was an avowed shamanist, but was nevertheless very tolerant of Christianity. His mother Sorghaghtani Beki, his favorite wife Doquz Khatun, and several of his closest collaborators were Nestorian Christians. One of his most important generals, Kitbuqa, was a Nestorian Christian of the Naiman tribe. In 1238, the European kings Louis IX of France and Edward I of England rejected the offer of the Nizari Imam Muhammad III of Alamut and the Abbasid caliph Al-Mustansir for a Muslim–Christian alliance against the Mongols. They later joined the Mongols against all Muslims. Military collaboration between the Mongols and their Christian vassals became substantial in 1258–1260. Hulagu's army, with the forces of his Christian subjects Bohemond VI of Antioch, Hethum I of Armenia, and the Christian Georgians, effectively destroyed two of the most powerful Muslim dynasties of the era: the Abbasids in Baghdad and the Ayyubids in Syria. #### Fall of Baghdad (1258) The Abbasid Caliphate, founded by Abu al-‘Abbās ‘Abdu'llāh ibn Muhammad as-Saffāḥ, the great-great-grandson of Muhammad's uncle Abbas, in 749, had ruled northeastern Africa, Arabia, and the Near East, even though their rule had by 1258 shrunk to only southern and central Iraq. The Abbasids' seat of power for almost 500 years was Baghdad, a city considered to be the jewel of Islam and one of the largest and most powerful cities in the world. But under attack from the Mongols, the city fell on February 15, 1258, a loss often considered in the Muslim world as the single most catastrophic event in the history of Islam, the end of the Islamic Golden Age. The Christian Georgians had been the first to breach the walls, and as described by historian Steven Runciman, "were particularly fierce in their destruction". When Hulagu conquered the city, the Mongols demolished buildings, burned entire neighborhoods, and massacred nearly all the men, women, and children. But at the intervention of Doquz Khatun, the Christian inhabitants were spared. For Asiatic Christians, the fall of Baghdad was cause for celebration. Hulagu and his Christian queen came to be considered as God's agents against the enemies of Christianity, and were compared to the influential 4th-century Christian Emperor Constantine the Great and his revered mother, Empress Helena, an icon of the Christian church. The Armenian historian Kyrakos of Gandzak praised the Mongol royal couple in texts for the Armenian Church, and Bar Hebraeus, a bishop of the Syriac Orthodox Church, also referred to them as a Constantine and Helena, writing of Hulagu that nothing could compare to the "king of kings" in "wisdom, high-mindedness, and splendid deeds". #### Invasion of Syria (1260) After Baghdad, in 1260 the Mongols with their Christian subjects conquered Muslim Syria, domain of the Ayyubid dynasty. They took together the city of Aleppo in January, and in March, the Mongols with the Armenians and the Franks of Antioch took Damascus, under the Christian Mongol general Kitbuqa. With both the Abbasid and Ayyubid dynasties destroyed, the Near East, as described by historian Steven Runciman, "was never again to dominate civilization." The last Ayyubid sultan An-Nasir Yusuf died shortly thereafter, and with the Islamic power centers of Baghdad and Damascus gone, the center of Islamic power transferred to the Egyptian Mamluks in Cairo. However, before the Mongols could continue their advance towards Egypt, they needed to withdraw because of the death of the Great Khan. Hulagu was needed back at the capital and took the bulk of his forces with him, leaving a small force under Kitbuqa to occupy Palestine during his absence. Mongol raiding parties were sent south into Palestine towards Egypt, with small Mongol garrisons of about 1,000 established in Gaza. #### Battle of Ain Jalut Despite the cooperation between the Mongols and their Christian subjects in Antioch, other Christians in the Levant regarded the Mongol approach with unease. Jacques Pantaléon, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, saw the Mongols as a clear threat, and had written to the Pope to warn him about them in 1256. The Franks did, however, send the Dominican David of Ashby to the court of Hulagu in 1260. In Sidon, Julian Grenier, Lord of Sidon and Beaufort, described by his contemporaries as irresponsible and light-headed, took an opportunity to raid and plunder the area of the Beqaa Valley in Mongol territory. One of the Mongols killed was Kitbuqa's nephew, and in retaliation, Kitbuqa raided the city of Sidon. These events added to the level of distrust between the Mongols and the Crusader forces, whose own center of power was now in the coastal city of Acre. The Franks of Acre did their best to maintain a position of cautious neutrality between the Mongols and the Mamluks. Despite their long history of enmity with the Mamluks, the Franks acknowledged that the Mongols were a greater threat, and after careful debate, chose to enter into a passive truce with their previous adversaries. The Franks allowed the Mamluk forces to move northward through Christian territory to engage the Mongols, in exchange for an agreement that the Franks could purchase any captured Mongol horses at a low price. The truce allowed the Mamluks to camp and re-supply near Acre, and engage the Mongols at Ain Jalut on September 3, 1260. The Mongol forces were already depleted due to their main force withdrawing, so with the passive assistance of the Franks, the Mamluks were able to achieve a decisive and historic victory over the Mongols. The remainder of the Mongol army retreated to Cilician Armenia, where they were received and re-equipped by Hethum I. Ain Jalut marked a major turning point in the history of the Mongols, as it was the first major battle that they had lost, and set the western border for what had seemed an unstoppable expansion of the Mongol Empire. #### Papal communications In the 1260s, a change occurred in the European perception of the Mongols, and they became regarded less as enemies, and more as potential allies in the fight against the Muslims. As recently as 1259, Pope Alexander IV had been encouraging a new crusade against the Mongols, and had been extremely disappointed in hearing that the monarchs of Antioch and Cilician Armenia had submitted to Mongol overlordship. Alexander had put the monarchs' cases on the agenda of his upcoming council, but died in 1261 just months before the Council could be convened, and before the new crusade could be launched. For a new pope, the choice fell to Pantaléon, the same Patriarch of Jerusalem who had earlier been warning of the Mongol threat. He took the name Pope Urban IV, and tried to raise money for a new crusade. On April 10, 1262, the Mongol leader Hulagu sent through John the Hungarian a new letter to King Louis IX of France, again offering an alliance. The letter explained that previously, the Mongols had been under the impression that the pope was the leader of the Christians, but now they realized that the true power rested with the French monarchy. The letter mentioned Hulagu's intention to capture Jerusalem for the benefit of the pope, and asked for Louis to send a fleet against Egypt. Hulagu promised the restoration of Jerusalem to the Christians, but also still insisted on Mongol sovereignty, in the Mongols' quest for conquering the world. It is unclear whether or not King Louis actually received the letter, but at some point it was transmitted to Pope Urban, who answered in a similar way as his predecessors. In his papal bull Exultavit cor nostrum, Urban congratulated Hulagu on his expression of goodwill towards the Christian faith, and encouraged him to convert to Christianity. Historians dispute the exact meaning of Urban's actions. The mainstream view, exemplified by British historian Peter Jackson, holds that Urban still regarded the Mongols as enemies at this time. This perception began changing a few years later, during the pontificate of Pope Clement IV (1265–68), when the Mongols were seen more as potential allies. However, the French historian Jean Richard argues that Urban's act signaled a turning point in Mongol-European relations as early as 1263, after which the Mongols were considered as actual allies. Richard also argues that it was in response to this forming coalition between the Franks, Ilkhanid Mongols and Byzantines, that the Mongols of the Golden Horde allied with the Muslim Mamluks in return. However, the mainstream view of historians is that though there were many attempts at forming an alliance, the attempts proved unsuccessful. ### Abaqa (1265–1282) Hulagu died in 1265, and was succeeded by Abaqa (1234–1282), who further pursued Western cooperation. Though a Buddhist, upon his succession he married Maria Palaiologina, an Eastern Orthodox Christian and the illegitimate daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos. Abaqa corresponded with Pope Clement IV through 1267 and 1268, sending envoys to both Clement and King James I of Aragon. In a 1268 message to Clement, Abaqa promised to send troops to aid the Christians. It is unclear if this was what led to James's unsuccessful expedition to Acre in 1269. James initiated a small crusade, but a storm descended on his fleet as they attempted their crossing, forcing most of the ships to turn back. The crusade was ultimately handled by James's two sons Fernando Sanchez and Pedro Fernandez, who arrived in Acre in December 1269. Abaqa, despite his earlier promises of assistance, was in the process of facing another threat, an invasion in Khorasan by Mongols from Turkestan, and so could only commit a small force for the Holy Land, which did little but brandish the threat of an invasion along the Syrian frontier in October 1269. He raided as far as Harim and Afamiyaa in October, but retreated as soon as Baibars' forces advanced. #### Edward I's crusade (1269–1274) In 1269, the English Prince Edward (the future Edward I), inspired by tales of his great-uncle, Richard the Lionheart, and the second crusade of the French King Louis, started on a crusade of his own, the Ninth Crusade. The number of knights and retainers that accompanied Edward on the crusade was quite small, possibly around 230 knights, with a total complement of approximately 1,000 people, transported in a flotilla of 13 ships. Edward understood the value of an alliance with the Mongols, and upon his arrival in Acre on May 9, 1271, he immediately sent an embassy to the Mongol ruler Abaqa, requesting assistance. Abaqa answered positively to Edward's request, asking him to coordinate his activities with his general Samagar, whom he sent on an offensive against the Mamluks with 10,000 Mongols to join Edward's army. But Edward was able only to engage in some fairly ineffectual raids that did not actually achieve success in gaining new territory. For example, when he engaged in a raid into the Plain of Sharon, he proved unable to even take the small Mamluk fortress of Qaqun. However, Edward's military operations, limited though they were, were still of assistance in persuading the Mamluk leader Baibars to agree to a 10-year truce between the city of Acre and the Mamluks, signed in 1272. Edward's efforts were described by historian Reuven Amitai as "the nearest thing to real Mongol-Frankish military coordination that was ever to be achieved, by Edward or any other Frankish leader." #### Council of Lyon (1274) In 1274 Pope Gregory X convened the Second Council of Lyon. Abaqa sent a delegation of 13 to 16 Mongols to the Council, which created a great stir, particularly when three of their members underwent a public baptism. Abaqa's Latin secretary Rychaldus delivered a report to the Council which outlined previous European-Ilkhanid relations under Abaqa's father, Hulagu, affirming that after Hulagu had welcomed Christian ambassadors to his court, he had agreed to exempt Latin Christians from taxes and charges, in exchange for their prayers for the Khan. According to Rychaldus, Hulagu had also prohibited the molestation of Frank establishments, and had committed to return Jerusalem to the Franks. Rychaldus assured the assembly that even after Hulagu's death, his son Abaqa was still determined to drive the Mamluks from Syria. At the Council, Pope Gregory promulgated a new crusade in liaison with the Mongols, putting in place a vast program in his "Constitutions for the zeal of the faith", with four main elements: imposing a new tax for three years, forbidding trade with the Sarazins (Muslims), arranging the supply of ships by the Italian maritime republics, and the alliance of the West with both Byzantium and the Mongol Ilkhan Abaqa. Abaqa then sent another embassy, led by the Georgian Vassali brothers, to further notify Western leaders of military preparations. Gregory answered that his legates would accompany the crusade, and that they would be in charge of coordinating military operations with the Ilkhan. However, the papal plans were not supported by the other European monarchs, who had lost enthusiasm for the Crusades. Only one western monarch attended the Council, the elderly James I of Aragon, who could only offer a small force. There was fundraising for a new crusade, and plans were made, but never followed through. The projects essentially came to a halt with the death of Pope Gregory on January 10, 1276, and the money which had been raised to finance the expedition was instead distributed in Italy. #### Invasion of Syria (1280–1281) Without support from the Europeans, some Franks in Outremer, particularly the Knights Hospitaller of the fortress of Marqab, and to some extent the Franks of Cyprus and Antioch, attempted to join in combined operations with the Mongols in 1280–1281. The death of the Egyptian leader Baibars in 1277 led to disorganization in the Muslim territories, making conditions ripe for a new action by other factions in the Holy Land. The Mongols seized the opportunity, organized a new invasion of Syria, and in September 1280 occupied Bagras and Darbsak, followed by Aleppo on October 20. The Mongol leader Abaqa, taking advantage of his momentum, sent envoys to Edward I of England, the Franks of Acre, King Hugh of Cyprus, and Bohemond VII of Tripoli (son of Bohemond VI), requesting their support for the campaign. But the Crusaders were not organized enough themselves to be of much help. In Acre, the Patriarch's Vicar replied that the city was suffering from hunger, and that the king of Jerusalem was already embroiled in another war. Local Knights Hospitaller from Marqab (in the area which had previously been Antioch/Tripoli) were able to make raids into the Beqaa Valley, as far as the Mamluk-held Krak des Chevaliers in 1280 and 1281. Hugh and Bohemond of Antioch mobilized their armies, but their forces were prevented from joining those of the Mongols by Baibars' successor, the new Egyptian Sultan Qalawun. He advanced north from Egypt in March 1281, positioned his own army between the Franks and Mongols, and then further divided the potential allies by renewing a truce with the Barons of Acre on May 3, 1281, extending it for another ten years and ten months (a truce he would later breach). He also renewed a second 10-year truce with Bohemond VII of Tripoli on July 16, 1281, and affirmed pilgrim access to Jerusalem. In September 1281 the Mongols returned, with 19,000 of their own troops, plus 20,000 others including Armenians under Leo III, Georgians, and 200 Knights Hospitaller from Marqab, who sent a contingent even though the Franks of Acre had agreed a truce with the Mamluks. The Mongols and their auxiliary troops fought against the Mamluks at the Second Battle of Homs on October 30, 1281, but the encounter was indecisive, with the Sultan suffering heavy losses. In retaliation, Qalawun later besieged and captured the Hospitaller fortress of Marqab in 1285. ### Arghun (1284–1291) Abaqa died in 1282 and was briefly replaced by his brother Tekuder, who had converted to Islam. Tekuder reversed Abaqa's policy of seeking an alliance with the Franks, offering instead an alliance to the Mamluk Sultan Qalawun, who continued his own advance, capturing the Hospitaller fortress of Margat in 1285, Lattakia in 1287, and the County of Tripoli in 1289. However, Tekuder's pro-Muslim stance was not popular, and in 1284, Abaqa's Buddhist son Arghun, with the support of the Great Khan Kublai, led a revolt and had Tekuder executed. Arghun then revived the idea of an alliance with the West, and sent multiple envoys to Europe. The first of Arghun's embassies was led by Isa Kelemechi, a Christian Assyrian interpreter who had been head of Kublai Khan's Office of Western Astronomy and sent to Greater Iran at the order of the Great Khan. The embassy was sent because the Great Khan Kublai (Qubilai) ordered Arghun to free Holy Land and protect Christians. Kelemechi met with Pope Honorius IV in 1285, offering to "remove" the Saracens (Muslims) and divide "the land of Sham, namely Egypt" with the Franks. The second embassy, and probably the most famous, was that of the elderly cleric Rabban Bar Sauma, who had been visiting the Ilkhanate during a remarkable pilgrimage from China to Jerusalem. Through Bar Sauma and other later envoys, such as Buscarello de Ghizolfi, Arghun promised the European leaders that if Jerusalem were conquered, he would have himself baptized and would return Jerusalem to the Christians. Bar Sauma was greeted warmly by the European monarchs, but Western Europe was no longer as interested in the Crusades, and the mission to form an alliance was ultimately fruitless. England did respond by sending a representative, Geoffrey of Langley, who had been a member of Edward I's Crusade 20 years earlier, and was sent to the Mongol court as an ambassador in 1291. #### Genoese shipmakers Another link between Europe and the Mongols was attempted in 1290, when the Genoese endeavored to assist the Mongols with naval operations. The plan was to construct and man two galleys to attack Mamluk ships in the Red Sea, and operate a blockade of Egypt's trade with India. As the Genoese were traditional supporters of the Mamluks, this was a major shift in policy, apparently motivated by the attack of the Egyptian Sultan Qalawun on the Cilician Armenians in 1285. To build and man the fleet, a squadron of 800 Genoese carpenters, sailors and crossbowmen went to Baghdad, working on the Tigris. However, due to a feud between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, the Genoese soon degenerated into internal bickering, and killed each other in Basra, putting an end to the project. Genoa finally cancelled the agreement and signed a new treaty with the Mamluks instead. All these attempts to mount a combined offensive between the Franks and Mongols were too little and too late. In May 1291, the city of Acre was conquered by the Egyptian Mamluks in the siege of Acre. When Pope Nicholas IV learned of this, he wrote to Arghun, again asking him to be baptized and to fight against the Mamluks. But Arghun had died on March 10, 1291, and Pope Nicholas died as well in March 1292, putting an end to their efforts towards combined action. ### Ghazan (1295–1304) After Arghun's death, he was followed in rapid succession by two brief and fairly ineffective leaders, one of whom only held power for a few months. Stability was restored when Arghun's son Ghazan took power in 1295, though to secure cooperation from other influential Mongols, he made a public conversion to Islam when he took the throne, marking a major turning point in the state religion of the Ilkhanate. Despite being an official Muslim, however, Ghazan remained tolerant of multiple religions, and worked to maintain good relations with his Christian vassal states such as Cilician Armenia and Georgia. In 1299, he made the first of what were to be three attempts to invade Syria. As he launched his new invasion, he also sent letters to the Franks of Cyprus (Henry II, King of Cyprus; and the heads of the military orders), inviting them to come join him in his attack on the Mamluks in Syria. The Mongols successfully took the city of Aleppo, and were there joined by their vassal King Hethum II, whose forces participated in the rest of the offensive. The Mongols soundly defeated the Mamluks in the Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar, on December 23 or 24, 1299. This success in Syria led to wild rumors in Europe that the Mongols had successfully re-captured the Holy Land, and had even conquered the Mamluks in Egypt and were on a mission to conquer Tunisia in northern Africa. But in reality, Jerusalem had been neither taken nor even besieged. All that had been managed were some Mongol raids into Palestine in early 1300. The raids went as far as Gaza, passing through several towns, probably including Jerusalem. But when the Egyptians again advanced from Cairo in May, the Mongols retreated without resistance. In July 1300, the Crusaders launched naval operations to press the advantage. A fleet of sixteen galleys with some smaller vessels was equipped in Cyprus, commanded by King Henry of Cyprus, accompanied by his brother Amalric, Prince of Tyre, the heads of the military orders, and Ghazan's ambassador "Chial" (Isol the Pisan). The ships left Famagusta on July 20, 1300, to raid the coasts of Egypt and Syria: Rosette, Alexandria, Acre, Tortosa, and Maraclea, before returning to Cyprus. #### Ruad expedition Ghazan announced that he would return by November 1300, and sent letters and ambassadors to the West so that they could prepare themselves. After their own naval raids, the Cypriots attempted a major operation to re-take the former Syrian Templar stronghold of Tortosa. They prepared the largest force they could muster at the time, approximately 600 men: 300 under Amalric, and similar contingents from the Templars and Hospitallers. In November 1300 they attempted to occupy Tortosa on the mainland, but were unable to gain control of the city. The Mongols were delayed, and the Cypriots moved offshore to the nearby island of Ruad to establish a base. The Mongols continued to be delayed, and the bulk of the Crusader forces returned to Cyprus, leaving only a garrison on Ruad. In February 1301, Ghazan's Mongols finally made a new advance into Syria. The force was commanded by the Mongol general Kutlushka, who was joined by Armenian troops, and Guy of Ibelin and John, lord of Giblet. But despite a force of 60,000, Kutluskha could do little else than engage in some raids around Syria, and then retreated. Plans for combined operations between the Franks and the Mongols were again made for the following winter offensives, in 1301 and 1302. But in mid-1301 the island of Ruad was attacked by the Egyptian Mamluks. After a lengthy siege, the island surrendered in 1302. The Mamluks slaughtered many of the inhabitants, and captured the surviving Templars to send them to prison in Cairo. In late 1301, Ghazan sent letters to the pope asking him to send troops, priests, and peasants, to make the Holy Land a Frank state again. In 1303, Ghazan sent another letter to Edward I, via Buscarello de Ghizolfi, who had also been an ambassador for Arghun. The letter reiterated their ancestor Hulagu's promise that the Ilkhans would give Jerusalem to the Franks in exchange for help against the Mamluks. That year, the Mongols again attempted to invade Syria, appearing in great strength (about 80,000) together with the Armenians. But they were again defeated at Homs on March 30, 1303, and at the decisive Battle of Shaqhab, south of Damascus, on April 21, 1303. It is considered to be the last major Mongol invasion of Syria. Ghazan died on May 10, 1304, and Frankish dreams of a rapid reconquest of the Holy Land were destroyed. ### Oljeitu (1304–1316) Oljeitu, also named Mohammad Khodabandeh, was great-grandson of Ilkhanate founder Hulagu, and brother and successor of Ghazan. In his youth he at first converted to Buddhism, and then later to Sunni Islam with his brother Ghazan, and changed his first name to the Islamic Muhammad. In April 1305, Oljeitu sent letters to Philip IV of France, Pope Clement V, and Edward I of England. As had his predecessors, Oljeitu offered a military collaboration between the Mongols and the Christian nations of Europe, against the Mamluks. European nations prepared a crusade, but were delayed. In the meantime Oljeitu launched a last campaign against the Mamluks (1312–1313), in which he was unsuccessful. A final settlement with the Mamluks would only be found when Oljeitu's son Abu Sa'id signed the Treaty of Aleppo in 1322. ## Last contacts In the 14th century, diplomatic contact continued between the Franks and the Mongols, until the Ilkhanate dissolved in the 1330s, and the ravages of the Black Death in Europe caused contact with the East to be severed. A few marital alliances between Christian rulers and the Mongols of the Golden Horde continued, such as when the Byzantine emperor Andronicus II gave daughters in marriage to Toqto'a (d. 1312) and later to his successor Uzbek (1312–1341). After Abu Sa'id, relations between Christian princes and the Ilkhanate became very sparse. Abu Sa'id died in 1335 with neither heir nor successor, and the Ilkhanate lost its status after his death, becoming a plethora of little kingdoms run by Mongols, Turks, and Persians. In 1336, an embassy to the French Pope Benedict XII in Avignon was sent by Toghun Temür, the last Yuan emperor in Dadu. The embassy was led by two Genoese travelers in the service of the Mongol emperor, who carried letters representing that the Mongols had been eight years (since Archbishop John of Montecorvino's death) without a spiritual guide, and earnestly desired one. Pope Benedict appointed four ecclesiastics as his legates to the khan's court. In 1338, a total of 50 ecclesiastics were sent by the pope to Peking, among them John of Marignolli, who returned to Avignon in 1353 with a letter from the Yuan emperor to Pope Innocent VI. But soon, the Han Chinese rose up and drove the Mongols out of China, establishing the Ming Dynasty in 1368. In the early 15th century, Timur (Tamerlane) resumed relations with Europe, attempting to form an alliance against the Egyptian Mamluks and the Ottoman Empire, and engaged in communications with Charles VI of France and Henry III of Castile, but died in 1405. ### Cultural contacts In the cultural sphere, there were some Mongol elements in Western medieval art, especially in Italy, of which most surviving examples are from the 14th century, after the chance of a military alliance had faded. These included the depiction of textiles from the Mongol Empire and Mongol script in various contexts, the latter often anachronistic. Imports of textiles had a considerable influence on Italian textile design. Mongol military costume is sometimes worn by soldiers, typically those acting against Christian figures, as in martyrdoms or Crucifixion scenes. These were perhaps copied from drawings made of Mongol envoys to Europe, or ones brought back from Outremer. ## Views from historians Most historians describe the contacts between the Mongol Empire and the Western Europeans as a series of attempts, missed opportunities, and failed negotiations. Christopher Atwood, in the 2004 Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire, summed up the relations between Western Europe and the Mongols: "Despite numerous envoys and the obvious logic of an alliance against mutual enemies, the papacy and the Crusaders never achieved the often-proposed alliance against Islam." A few other historians argue there was an actual alliance, but do not agree on the details: Jean Richard wrote that an alliance began around 1263. Reuven Amitai stated that the closest thing to actual Mongol-Frankish military coordination was when Prince Edward of England attempted to coordinate activities with Abaga in 1271. Amitai also mentioned the other attempts towards cooperation, but said, "In none of these episodes, however, can we speak of Mongols and troops from the Frankish West being on the Syrian mainland at the same time." Timothy May described the alliance as having its peak at the Council of Lyon in 1274, but that it began to unravel in 1275 with the death of Bohemond, and May too admitted that the forces never engaged in joint operations. Alain Demurger, in his own book The Last Templar, said that an alliance was not sealed until 1300. There also continues to be debate about whether or not an alliance would have been a wise idea, and whether the Crusaders at that point in history were even relevant to the Persian-Mongol conflict. The 20th-century historian Glenn Burger said, "The refusal of the Latin Christian states in the area to follow Hethum's example and adapt to changing conditions by allying themselves with the new Mongol empire must stand as one of the saddest of the many failures of Outremer." This was similar to the view of Steven Runciman, who argued, "Had the Mongol alliance been achieved and honestly implemented by the West, the existence of Outremer would almost certainly have been prolonged. The Mameluks would have been crippled if not destroyed; and the Ilkhanate of Persia would have survived as a power friendly to the Christians and the West". However, David Nicolle, describing the Mongols as "potential allies", said that early historians were writing from the benefit of hindsight, and that overall the major players were the Mamluks and the Mongols, with Christians just "pawns in a greater game." ## Reasons for failure There has been much discussion among historians as to why the Franco-Mongol alliance never became a reality and why, despite all the diplomatic contacts, it stayed a chimera or fantasy. Many reasons have been proposed: one was that the Mongols at that stage in their empire were not entirely focused on expanding to the West. By the late 13th century, the Mongol leaders were several generations removed from the great Genghis Khan, and internal disruption was brewing. The original nomadic Mongols from the day of Genghis had become more settled, and had turned into administrators instead of conquerors. Battles were springing up that were Mongol against Mongol, which took troops away from the front in Syria. There was also confusion within Europe as to the differences between the Mongols of the Ilkhanate in the Holy Land, and the Mongols of the Golden Horde, who were attacking Hungary and Poland. Within the Mongol Empire, the Ilkhanids and the Golden Horde considered each other enemies, but it took time for Western observers to be able to distinguish between the different parts of the Mongol Empire. From the Mongol side, there were also concerns as to just how much clout the Franks could have brought to bear, especially as there was decreased interest in Europe in pursuing the Crusades. Court historians of Mongol Persia made no mention whatsoever of the communications between the Ilkhans and the Christian West, and barely mentioned the Franks at all. The communications were evidently not seen as important by the Mongols, and may have even been considered embarrassing. The Mongol leader Ghazan, a converted Muslim since 1295, might not have wanted to be perceived as trying to gain the assistance of infidels against his fellow Muslims in Egypt. When Mongol historians did make notes of foreign territories, the areas were usually categorized as either "enemies", "conquered", or "in rebellion". The Franks, in that context, were listed in the same category as the Egyptians, in that they were enemies to be conquered. The idea of "ally" was foreign to the Mongols. Some European monarchs responded positively to Mongol inquiries, but became vague and evasive when asked to actually commit troops and resources. Logistics also became more complex – the Egyptian Mamluks were genuinely concerned about the threat of another wave of Crusader forces, so each time the Mamluks captured another castle or port, instead of occupying it, they systematically destroyed it so that it could never be used again. This both made it more difficult for the Crusaders to plan military operations, and increased the expense of those operations. Monarchs in Western Europe often gave lip service to the idea of going on crusade, as a way of making an emotional appeal to their subjects, but in reality they would take years to prepare, and sometimes never actually left for Outremer. Internal wars in Europe, such as the War of the Vespers, were also distracting attention, and making it less likely for European nobles to want to commit their military to the Crusades, when they were more needed at home. The Europeans were also concerned about the long-term goals of the Mongols. Early Mongol diplomacy had been not a simple offer of cooperation, but straightforward demands for submission. It was only in later communications that Mongol diplomats started to adopt a more conciliatory tone; but they still used language that implied more command than entreaty. Even the Armenian historian Hayton of Corycus, the most enthusiastic advocate of Western-Mongol collaboration, freely admitted that the Mongol leadership was not inclined to listen to European advice. His recommendation was that even if working together, European armies and Mongol armies should avoid contact because of Mongol arrogance. European leaders were aware that the Mongols would not have been content to stop at the Holy Land, but were on a clear quest for world domination. If the Mongols had achieved a successful alliance with the West and destroyed the Mamluk Sultanate, they certainly would have eventually turned upon the Franks of Cyprus and the Byzantines. They also would have surely conquered Egypt, from which they could have continued an advance into Africa, where no strong state could have stood in their way until Morocco and the Islamic caliphates in the Maghreb. Lastly, there was not much support among the general populace in Europe for a Mongol alliance. Writers in Europe were creating "recovery" literature with their ideas about how best to recover the Holy Land, but few mentioned the Mongols as a genuine possibility. In 1306, when Pope Clement V asked the leaders of the military orders, Jacques de Molay and Fulk de Villaret, to present their proposals for how the Crusades should proceed, neither of them factored in any kind of a Mongol alliance. A few later proposals talked briefly about the Mongols as being a force that could invade Syria and keep the Mamluks distracted, but not as a force that could be counted on for cooperation. ## See also - Mongol invasion of Europe - France-Mongolia relations
902,567	U.S. Route 113	1,169,015,539	Highway in the United States	[ "Roads in Worcester County, Maryland", "Transportation in Kent County, Delaware", "Transportation in Sussex County, Delaware", "U.S. Highways in Delaware", "U.S. Highways in Maryland", "U.S. Route 13", "United States Numbered Highway System" ]	U.S. Route 113 (US 113) is a U.S. Highway that is a spur of US 13 in the U.S. states of Maryland and Delaware. The route runs 74.75 miles (120.30 km) from US 13 in Pocomoke City, Maryland, north to Delaware Route 1 (DE 1) in Milford, Delaware. In conjunction with DE 1, US 113 is one of two major north–south highways on the Delmarva Peninsula (with US 13) that connect Dover with Pocomoke City and the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The U.S. Highway is the primary north–south highway in Worcester County, Maryland, where it connects Pocomoke City with Snow Hill and Berlin. US 113 is one of three major north–south highways in Sussex County, Delaware, where it connects Selbyville, Millsboro, and Georgetown with Milford. While US 113 does not pass through Ocean City or the Delaware Beaches, the U.S. Highway intersects several highways that serve the Atlantic seaboard resorts, including US 50, Maryland Route 90 (MD 90), US 9, DE 404, DE 16, and DE 1. US 113 is a four-lane divided highway for its whole length. US 113 follows the corridor of a post road established in the late 18th century to connect the aforementioned towns on the Delmarva Peninsula with Wilmington and Philadelphia. The highway was improved as an all-weather road in the 1910s. In Maryland, the post road was designated one of the original state roads established by the Maryland State Roads Commission (MDSRC) in 1909. In Delaware, the highway was the Selbyville–Dover portion of the DuPont Highway, a roadway whose construction was a grand philanthropic measure of Thomas Coleman DuPont. The DuPont Highway, which was started by DuPont's company and finished by the Delaware State Highway Department (DSHD), spurred economic growth in the tourism and agriculture sectors in southern Delaware. The economic growth resulted in heavy traffic; US 113 was widened in both states in the early 1930s and again in the late 1940s. Bypasses of Dover and Pocomoke City were built in the mid-1930s; the bypassed section of highway in Dover became US 113 Alternate. Expansion of US 113 to a divided highway began in the 1950s in Dover. Much of the remainder of the U.S. Highway in Delaware was expanded in the 1960s; the final section of two-lane US 113 in that state was expanded in the mid-1990s. The Berlin bypass became the first section of US 113 in Maryland to be expanded to a divided highway in the mid-1950s. In the early 1970s, US 113 between Pocomoke City and Snow Hill was expanded to a divided highway and the Snow Hill bypass was constructed, replacing what would become US 113 Business. The U.S. Highway between Berlin and the Delaware state line was expanded to a divided highway around 2000. The Maryland State Highway Administration (MDSHA) upgraded the last remaining two-lane portions of US 113 between Snow Hill and Berlin to a four-lane divided highway, with completion in 2019. US 113's northern terminus was moved to Milford in 2004 after the U.S. Highway was superseded by DE 1 from Milford to Dover. The Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) plans to upgrade US 113 to a freeway in some areas. Originally, there had been plans to upgrade it all from Selbyville to Ellendale, but freeway bypasses of Milford and Millsboro were cancelled or altered due of community opposition. ## Route description US 113 serves as an important route carrying local and through traffic along with tourist traffic bound for the Delaware Beaches and Ocean City, Maryland, to the east; as such the highway experiences congestion in the summer months when tourism to the beach areas is at its highest. Access from US 113 to the beach areas is provided by US 9, DE 404, and DE 16 toward Lewes, Rehoboth Beach, and Dewey Beach; DE 26 toward Bethany Beach; DE 54 toward Fenwick Island; MD 90 toward northern Ocean City; US 50 toward downtown Ocean City; and MD 376 toward Assateague Island. US 113 also serves as a part of a primary hurricane evacuation route from the beach communities to inland areas to the north. In 2016, US 113 had an annual average daily traffic count ranging from a high of 38,505 vehicles at the US 9 intersection in Georgetown to a low of 6,070 vehicles between the southern terminus of US 113 Business and MD 12 in Snow Hill. All of US 113 is part of the National Highway System, a network of roads important to the country's economy, defense, and mobility. ### Maryland US 113 has a length of 37.49 miles (60.33 km) in Maryland, where the route is named Worcester Highway. The highway extends the north–south length of Worcester County and serves three of the county's four towns: Pocomoke City, Snow Hill, and Berlin. US 50 connects US 113 with the county's fourth town, Ocean City. Between Snow Hill and Berlin, the U.S. Highway is part of the Cape to Cape Scenic Byway, a Maryland Scenic Byway that comprises several highways in Worcester County. #### Pocomoke City to Snow Hill US 113 begins at the city limit of Pocomoke City at an intersection with US 13 (Ocean Highway), the main highway of the Delmarva Peninsula that connects Wilmington and Dover with Salisbury and Norfolk. Old Virginia Road (unsigned MD 250A) continues west to US 13 Business (Market Street). US 13 Business heads north through the Pocomoke City Historic District, which preserves buildings from Pocomoke City's late 19th century and early 20th century heyday as a river port and station on the main rail line of the Delmarva Peninsula. US 113 heads northeast from US 13 as a four-lane divided highway and intersects American Legion Drive (unsigned MD 359B), which leads to MD 359 (Bypass Road). The U.S. Highway crosses Town Branch, a tributary of the Pocomoke River, and leaves the Pocomoke City area after intersecting MD 756 (Old Snow Hill Road). US 113 parallels the left bank of the Pocomoke River and crosses many streams that drain into the river, including Pilchard Creek, Bachelors Branch, Mataponi Creek, Corkers Creek, and Hardship Branch. US 113 passes through Pocomoke State Forest, which preserves loblolly pine stands and bald cypress swamps along the Maryland Scenic River; by the Pocomoke River Wildlife Management Area, in which dove hunting regularly occurs; and by the Shad Landing unit of Pocomoke River State Park, which offers boating, fishing, and a nature center. Northeast of the state park entrance, US 113 Business (Market Street) splits to the northeast to directly serve the town of Snow Hill, which is the county seat of Worcester County and contains several museums and colonial era buildings of the river port at the head of navigation of the Pocomoke River. US 113 bypasses the town to the south and east, coming to a northbound weigh station a short distance past the US 113 Business intersection, and intersects MD 12 (Snow Hill Road), which connects Snow Hill with e Salisbury and Stockton, and MD 365 (Public Landing Road). The MD 365 junction is a superstreet intersection; MD 365 traffic must turn right, use U-turn ramps along US 113, and turn right again to continue on MD 365. North of MD 365, the highway crosses Purnell Branch of the Pocomoke River. US 113 has a grade crossing with the Snow Hill Line of the Maryland and Delaware Railroad and turns northeast again as the highway receives the other end of US 113 Business. #### Snow Hill to Berlin US 113 continues northeast, crosses Poorhouse Branch of the Pocomoke River, and passes west of Worcester Technical High School. North of its crossing of Five Mile Branch, the highway veers away from the Pocomoke River and enters the Atlantic seaboard watershed US 113 parallels the rail line before it intersects the rail line at an oblique grade crossing at Newark Road and crosses Marshall Creek, which flows into Newport Bay. The highway passes to the south of the village of Newark, which contains the Queponco Railway Station, a preserved Pennsylvania Railroad station. Further north, US 113 crosses Massey Branch. The highway crosses Porter Creek and Goody Hill Branch of Bassett Creek and passes through Ironshire, which contains the Federal-style plantation home Simpson's Grove. US 113 crosses Poplartown Branch of Beaverdam Creek, passes the historic Italianate-style plantation home Merry Sherwood, and enters the town of Berlin at its southern junction with MD 818 (Main Street). MD 818 heads north through the Berlin Commercial District, which contains several museums and preserves buildings from the late 19th century when Berlin was at the intersection of two railroad lines. East of the town center, US 113 crosses Hudson Branch of Trappe Creek and intersects MD 376 (Bay Street) and MD 346 (Old Ocean City Boulevard). The U.S. Highway passes west of Atlantic General Hospital as it leaves the town of Berlin just south of its cloverleaf interchange with US 50 (Ocean Gateway), which connects Ocean City with Salisbury and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. North of the interchange, within which the highways cross Kitts Branch, US 113 meets the northern end of MD 818 as it begins to closely parallel the Snow Hill Line. #### Berlin to Selbyville US 113 closely parallels the railroad west of Friendship to north of its right-in/right-out junction with MD 575 (Worcester Highway), an interchange only accessible to the northbound U.S. Highway. The route leaves the railroad track and meets MD 90 (Ocean City Expressway) at a partial cloverleaf interchange; MD 90 connects the northern part of Ocean City with US 50 west of Berlin. US 113 continues north to its interchange with the northern end of MD 575 and MD 589 (Racetrack Road), which leads to Ocean Pines and Ocean Downs, a harness racing track with a casino. The exit ramp from northbound US 113 intersects MD 575 a short distance south of its intersection with MD 589, and the southbound ramps connect with West Frontage Road (unsigned MD 575A), which serves St. Martin's Episcopal Church. US 113 continues through Showell, where the U.S. Highway crosses Church Branch, Middle Branch, and Birch Branch; these three streams together form Shingle Landing Prong of the St. Martin River, which empties into Isle of Wight Bay, a lagoon on the west side of Ocean City. Within Showell, the highway parallels Old US 113 (unsigned MD 575B), which is accessed at its south end with a right-in/right-out junction with southbound US 113 and full access via Shingle Landing Road. US 113 intersects MD 367 (Bishopville Road) at Bishop and has an oblique grade crossing with the rail line, then the route intersects the east end of MD 610 (Whaleyville Road). The U.S. Highway crosses Carey Branch, which flows into the Bishopville Prong of the St. Martin River, before it enters Delaware at the Transpeninsular Line, one of the lines surveyed as part of the 18th-century Penn–Calvert boundary dispute. ### Delaware US 113 has a length of 37.26 miles (59.96 km) in Delaware, where the route is named DuPont Boulevard. The highway extends the north–south length of Sussex County and into far southern Kent County. US 113 runs from Selbyville at the Maryland state line north to Milford, a city that lies in both Sussex and Kent counties. Between those municipalities, US 113 serves the towns of Frankford, Dagsboro, Millsboro, Georgetown, and Ellendale. The U.S. Highway intersects several east–west highways that connect US 113 with the Delaware beach towns to the east, including Lewes, Reboboth Beach, Dewey Beach, Bethany Beach, and Fenwick Island. The following includes a description of US 113's former course from Milford to Dover, most of which is now solely DE 1. #### Selbyville to Georgetown US 113 enters Sussex County to the east of the Great Cypress Swamp in the town of Selbyville, which was a center of strawberry production from the 19th century to the 1930s. The highway crosses Sandy Branch and intersects DE 54 (Cemetery Road/Cypress Road), which heads east to Fenwick Island. The U.S. Highway heads north parallel to the Maryland and Delaware Railroad to the town of Frankford, which was founded around a country store and the site of the Gothic Revival home of Captain Ebe Chandler. The highway crosses Vines Creek, the southernmost of several Indian River tributaries the route crosses, and passes along the western edge of the town. US 113 continues northwest parallel to the rail line, which north of Frankford is operated by the Delmarva Central Railroad as the Indian River Subdivision line. US 113 next comes to the town of Dagsboro, which is named for French and Indian War and American Revolutionary War general and major Sussex County landowner John Dagworthy. The highway crosses Pepper Creek and intersects DE 26 (Clayton Street/Nine Foot Road), which heads east to Bethany Beach, while it passes through the western fringe of the town. North of Dagsboro, US 113 crosses Whartons Branch before it intersects DE 20 (Dagsboro Road); the U.S. Highway and state highway run concurrently through the town of Millsboro, which was named for the cluster of mills around the head of navigation of the Indian River. The highways cross Iron Branch before they intersect DE 24 (Laurel Road/Washington Street) west of the town center. After crossing Betts Pond, DE 20 splits to the northwest as Hardscrabble Road as US 113 itself turns northwest toward the hamlet of Stockley. North of Stockley, US 113 intersects the western terminus of DE 24 Alternate (Speedway Road) west of Georgetown Speedway and passes west of the Sussex Correctional Institution. US 113 enters the town of Georgetown, which was founded as a more central county seat for Sussex County in 1791, at its junction with South Bedford Street, which is marked US 9 Truck and DE 404 Truck. The truck routes, which bypass the downtown area of Georgetown, join US 113 to return to their respective mainline highways on the west side of downtown. US 9 Truck ends at the intersection with US 9 (County Seat Highway/Market Street) on the west side of Georgetown. Along with DE 404, US 9 heads east toward Delaware Coastal Airport, the original county seat of Lewes, the Cape May–Lewes Ferry, Rehoboth Beach, and Dewey Beach. North of the center of town, US 113 intersects DE 18/DE 404 (Seashore Highway/Bridgeville Road), which head west toward Bridgeville and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The U.S. Highway meets North Bedford Street at the north town limit of Georgetown, where it passes east of a park and pool lot located at a church. #### Georgetown to Milford US 113 continues northwest through Redden State Forest, whose loblolly pines occupy several disjoint tracts between Georgetown and Ellendale. The state forest originated as a Pennsylvania Railroad hunting preserve in the early 20th century, and the hunting lodge, forester's house, and stable is preserved and today used as the Redden Forest Education Center east of the hamlet of Redden. In this community, the road has an intersection with Redden Road. The U.S. Highway also passes near McColley's Chapel and crosses Gravelly Branch, one of the headwaters of the Nanticoke River, north of Redden. US 113 curves north and passes by the Ellendale State Forest Picnic Facility, a picnic area accessible from the northbound direction that the Civilian Conservation Corps constructed in the late 1930s for tourists and long-distance travelers. West of the town of Ellendale, which flourished in the late 19th century as a railroad town at the junction of perpendicular rail lines, the highway intersects DE 16 (Beach Highway/Milton Ellendale Highway) and passes west of Teddy's Tavern, which was built in 1923 as the Blue Hen Garage to serve travelers on the DuPont Highway. North of Ellendale, US 113 enters the Delaware Bay watershed; the highway crosses Cedar Creek to the west of Hudson Pond and passes to the west of the unincorporated community of Lincoln at the intersection with Fitzgeralds Road/Johnson Road. The highway continues into the city of Milford, which was founded in the early 19th century at the head of navigation of the Mispillion River whose antebellum buildings, late 19th-century buildings, and shipbuilding heritage are preserved, respectively, in the North Milford, South Milford and Milford Shipyard Area historic districts. US 113 intersects DE 36 (Shawnee Road/Lakeview Avenue) on the southwest side of town before crossing the river into Kent County between two of its impoundments, Silver Lake to the east and Haven Lake to the west. The highway has a grade crossing of the Delmarva Central Railroad's Indian River Subdivision track and a junction with DE 14 (Milford Harrington Highway/Northwest Front Street). On the north side of Milford, US 113 passes the historic Walnut Farm and heads east of a park and pool lot at a local business before it intersects DE 1 Business (North Walnut Street) obliquely. DE 1 Business joins US 113 in a short concurrency that ends when both the state business loop and the U.S. Highway reach their respective northern terminus at a partial interchange with DE 1. There is no direct access from northbound US 113 to southbound DE 1 or from northbound DE 1 to southbound US 113. #### Former route from Milford to Dover Until 2003, US 113 continued north from Milford concurrently with DE 1 along four-lane divided Bay Road to Dover. Soon after US 113 joined DE 1, the roadway crossed Swan Creek to the east of Tub Mill Pond. The route headed north and intersected Thompsonville Road before crossing Old Baptist Church Branch. The U.S. Highway crossed the Murderkill River while passing to the east of the town of Frederica. At the north end of Frederica, the highway met the eastern end of DE 12 (Frederica Road). US 113 passed west of historic Barratt's Chapel, the birthplace of Methodism in the United States. The highway intersected Bowers Beach Road before it met the southern end of US 113 Alternate (Clapham Road) at a Y intersection in the village of Little Heaven. US 113 crossed the St. Jones River on the Barkers Landing Bridge and curved northwest at its intersections with the southern end of DE 9 (Bayside Drive) and the western end of Kitts Hummock Road. The highway became a freeway along the edge of Dover Air Force Base. US 113 had a diamond interchange with Old Lebanon Road, which served the Main Gate of the air force base to the northeast and base housing to the southwest. At the next interchange, a partial cloverleaf interchange with the eastern end of DE 10 (Lebanon Road) next to the military base's North Gate, US 113 exited onto Bay Road while DE 1 continued on the Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway. The U.S. Highway had ramps from northbound US 113 to northbound DE 1, from southbound US 113 to southbound DE 1, and from southbound DE 1 to US 113 just south of its partial interchange with the Puncheon Run Connector freeway, which connected DE 1 and US 113 with US 13 on the south side of Dover. US 113 entered the city of Dover and passed between the DelDOT headquarters to the west and the Blue Hen Corporate Center to the east, which was transformed into a corporate center from the defunct Blue Hen Mall in 1995. The route intersected Court Street (named Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard since 2013)/South Little Creek Road, with Court Street heading west to the Dover Green Historic District and Delaware Legislative Hall, before reaching its northern terminus at a Y intersection with US 13 and the northern end of US 113 Alternate (DuPont Highway). ## History ### Predecessor roads The original highway along much of the US 113 corridor was a post road established in the late 18th century that connected Horn Town on the Eastern Shore of Virginia with Snow Hill, Berlin, Selbyville, Georgetown, Milford, and Dover, ultimately leading to Wilmington and Philadelphia. The Dover–Milford portion of the post road followed the King's Highway established in the late 17th century to connect Dover with Lewes, the original county seat of Sussex County. South of Milford, the post road followed a stage road from Dover to Dagsboro constructed to connect the new county seat of Georgetown with Dover in the 1790s. A 1796 act of the Delaware General Assembly called for surveying a straighter 30-foot-wide (9.1 m) clear path in Sussex County from Milford through Georgetown and Dagsboro to the Maryland state line, a highway that became known as the State Road by the mid-19th century. In Maryland, the post road followed what is now MD 12 from the Virginia state line through Stockton to Snow Hill and the Old Stage Road from north of Showell to the Delaware state line, and a separate road connected Pocomoke City and Snow Hill. By 1898, the dirt road from Pocomoke City to Berlin via Snow Hill was the main thoroughfare of Worcester County. With few exceptions, these roads remained rudimentary and were impassible in bad weather and a nuisance in good weather, which limited the economic possibilities of those regions of Delaware and Maryland. The Good Roads Movement in the 1890s and 1900s spurred investment and advocacy for constructing all-weather roads that connected the population centers of the states, although the instigating forces in each state were different. State agencies in Maryland spearheaded the tasks of studying the issues and recommending increasingly effective courses of action. In Delaware, it was the philanthropic measure of a worldly man of one of Delaware's leading families that brought good roads to much of the state. #### Maryland state roads The Maryland Geological Survey was formed in 1896 to study the state's natural resources. Within two years, the agency determined that road building was an area that required extensive study and promotion, so the agency requested and received authorization from the Maryland General Assembly to create a Highway Division to study the state of highways in Maryland and propose engineering and legislative solutions to the state's transportation problems. One of those solutions passed by the General Assembly was the 1904 State Aid Highway Law, also known as the Shoemaker Law, which offered the counties and municipalities expert advice and technical assistance from the Maryland Geological Survey and funding for one half of the cost of macadam roads constructed by the county. The first improved highways along what became US 113 in Worcester County were constructed under the provisions of the 1904 law. Worcester County constructed three mile-long macadam roads that became US 113 with state aid: from the south town limit of Berlin to Hayes Landing Road in 1907, from the east town limit of Snow Hill to Purnells Mill Pond in 1907 and 1908, and from the north town limit of Berlin toward Showell in 1909 and 1910. However, as in the remainder of the state, the State Aid Road Law was insufficient to form a statewide or even countywide network of all-weather roads, so in 1908 the General Assembly passed the State Road Law, which established the Maryland SRC to take over the state-aid support of the Maryland Geological Survey's Highway Division and construct, using state or state-contracted forces, a statewide system of roads to connect Baltimore and the state's county seats to each other. The system proposed in 1909 included the Pocomoke City–Snow Hill and Snow Hill–Berlin roads. Due to a lack of satisfactory contractor bids, the Maryland SRC contracted Worcester County forces to construct the state road between Snow Hill and Berlin. The county began constructing a 12-foot-wide (3.7 m) macadam road between the ends of the state-aid sections in 1910. The section from Snow Hill to Newark was completed in 1911, and the remainder to Berlin was completed the following year. Construction on the Pocomoke City–Snow Hill road was started from the Pocomoke City end in 1911. The first three sections were completed as 12-foot-wide (3.7 m) macadam roads from Pocomoke City east to Outens Entrance in 1911, from Snow Hill west to Hardship Branch in 1912, and from Outens Entrance to Betheden Church in 1914. The final section, from Betheden Church to Hardship Branch, was constructed as a 14-foot-wide (4.3 m) concrete road. The highway from the state-aid section on the north side of Berlin to Showell was constructed as a 15-foot-wide (4.6 m) concrete road in 1917 and 1918. A 15-foot-wide (4.6 m) concrete road was built north from Showell along a new alignment to tie in with the southern end of the DuPont Highway at Selbyville in 1921. By 1923, the town of Snow Hill resurfaced its Main Street and turned it over to the Maryland SRC, and Berlin gave its concrete Main Street to the state for maintenance, completing the highway from Pocomoke City to the Delaware state line. #### DuPont Highway The Delaware General Assembly approved a state-aid road law in 1903, but the law was repealed in 1905. Instead, the driving force for the construction of what became the Delaware portion of US 113 was Thomas Coleman DuPont, who offered to fund and construct a modern highway from Selbyville to Wilmington as a philanthropic measure. Inspired by the great boulevards of Europe and cognizant of the need for a main north–south highway as the backbone of a well-laid-out system of roads in Delaware, DuPont envisioned a 200-foot (61 m) right-of-way that contained a 40-foot-wide (12 m) high-speed automobile highway flanked by dual trolley tracks, roadways for heavy vehicle traffic, unpaved roadways for horses above buried utility lines, and sidewalks at the outer edge of the right-of-way. The construction costs of the road would be recovered by trolley franchises and utility line rentals. After sections of the highway were built, they would be turned over without charge to the state, which would maintain the road. Despite these grand visions, in the end the DuPont Highway was constructed in Sussex County as a 14-foot (4.3 m) wide concrete roadway on the proposed 200-foot (61 m) right-of-way. The Delaware General Assembly passed the Boulevard Corporation Act of 1911, which authorized the formation of Coleman DuPont Road, Inc., to acquire land and construct a highway the length of the state. Construction of the first section of the highway began near Selbyville on September 18, 1911. By 1912, construction was interrupted by litigation challenging both the constitutionality of the law establishing the road building corporation and the need for DuPont to acquire such a large right-of-way. DuPont offered to make concessions, such as agreeing to pay up to five times the assessed value of a farmer's land five years after the road's completion and reducing the width of the corridor of land to be acquired to 100 feet (30 m). Construction on the highway resumed in 1915 after the litigation had taken its course. The first two sections of the highway, from Selbyville to Georgetown and from Georgetown to the Appenzellar farm 6 miles (9.7 km) south of Milford, were completed on May 24, 1917. The Delaware General Assembly created the DSHD in 1917 to lay out, construct, and maintain highways and to meet organizational requirements to receive federal aid through the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916. On July 20, 1918, DuPont reached an agreement with the state of Delaware for the newly formed DSHD to construct the remaining sections of the highway. DuPont would dissolve Coleman DuPont Road, Inc., and finance the remainder of construction up to \$44,000 per mile (\$27,000/km), which is equivalent to Error in convert: Needs the number to be converted (help) in . The highway department would complete the road to Milford along the lines designed by DuPont's company. DSHD would both design and construct the DuPont Highway north of Milford; the department decided on a 60-foot-wide (18 m) right-of-way for future sections of the highway. The portions from north of Ellendale to north of Milford, from Frederica to Little Heaven, and through Rising Sun were completed by 1920. All other portions of the DuPont Highway between Ellendale and Dover were under construction in 1920 and completed by 1923, the same year the last section of the entire Selbyville–Wilmington highway was completed near Odessa. Despite DuPont's grand boulevard not coming to fruition, he was a visionary who implemented key practices before they became standard in the decades after he initiated his project. After his death in 1930, DuPont was recognized for foreseeing that traffic on highways would approach the speed and volume of railroads and planning with provisions for future needs. Based on that vision, he designed his highway with a wide right-of-way and curves and grades adequate for high-speed traffic. The DuPont Highway was also innovative as one of the earliest roads to be constructed on a new alignment that passed close to towns but not directly through them, a development that was more convenient for through traffic and less disruptive to a town's residents. Up to that point, the use of bypasses had been limited to the railroads. South of Milford, the DuPont Highway was constructed entirely on new alignment except from Bedford Street north of Georgetown to Old State Road at Redden. The portion of the highway north of Milford, which DSHD designed, mostly overlaid the existing Milford–Dover highway. The two exceptions were through Frederica, where the State Road used Market Street, and between Milford and Frederica, where the State Road followed Jenkins Pond Road, Reynolds Road, Pritchett Road, and Milford Neck Road. ### Widening and early bypasses The DuPont Highway was a boon to southern Delaware, which had formerly been economically isolated from the large cities of the northeast. In conjunction with the rise of the automobile, the highway spurred the growth of the Delaware Beaches by greatly improving access to the coast for tourists from northern Delaware and adjacent portions of the Northeast megalopolis. Southern Delaware also developed into a major truck farming region due to having much greater access to urban markets. No longer fully reliant on the railroads to transport their goods, farmers in Sussex and Kent counties could market their fruits, vegetables, and broiler chickens directly to consumers in the north. However, the passenger and freight traffic induced by this increased economic integration and the automobile boom of the 1920s meant that these roads in Delaware and Maryland constructed in the 1910s and 1920s, which were built with widths of 12 to 15 feet (3.7 to 4.6 m), were no longer adequate for the traffic they served. In particular, by 1929 the Selbyville–Milford portion of the DuPont Highway was the only through highway in Delaware with a width of less than 16 feet (4.9 m). The highway's importance was further implied when the Pocomoke City to Dover highway became part of the United States Numbered Highway System. The Pocomoke City–Dover route was designated Route No. 113 in the preliminary system proposed in November 1925, and that number and course were confirmed in the system AASHO and the Bureau of Public Roads approved in November 1926. The U.S. Highway's original southern terminus was the intersection of Market Street and Sixth Street in Pocomoke City. US 113's northern terminus was the split between the two main north–south highways of southern Delaware at Coopers Corner north of Puncheon Run on the southern edge of Dover. #### Interwar period widening and bypasses In Delaware, the 14-foot-wide (4.3 m) DuPont Highway was widened to 18 feet (5.5 m) with the addition of 4-foot-wide (1.2 m) concrete shoulders from Selbyville to Georgetown in 1930 and from Georgetown to Milford in 1931. In 1931, the highway department identified the need to expand the highway to 20 feet (6.1 m) from Milford to Dover, and this widening was completed in 1933. In 1930, Governors Avenue was reconstructed as a 20-foot-wide (6.1 m) concrete road and extended to become the new route of US 13 through Dover. US 113 was then extended north along State Street to a new terminus at the junction of State Street and Governors Avenue on the south side of Silver Lake. In 1931, DSHD began construction on the first bypass of Dover. Much of the bypass would use Bay Road, the existing highway from modern DE 8 (North Little Creek Road) in Dover to Kitts Hummock on Delaware Bay. The Dover–Kitts Hummock road had been completed as a 12-foot-wide (3.7 m) concrete road in 1926. Two sections of new highway were planned from DE 8 to State Street north of downtown Dover and from the DuPont Highway in Little Heaven north to Bay Road at what is now DE 1's interchange with DE 9 (Bayside Drive) at the southern end of Dover Air Force Base. The new highway between Little Heaven and Bay Road would cross the St. Jones River at a site called Barkers Landing. Between December 1931 and the end of 1933, DSHD constructed a causeway across 3,150 feet (960 m) of the marsh on the east bank of the river, a process that required multiple applications of fill dirt and dynamite to create a stable surface for a modern highway. A 180-foot-long (55 m) Scherzer rolling lift bascule bridge with a 50-foot (15 m) clear opening was constructed across the St. Jones River in 1933 and 1934. Bay Road was widened and the new sections of highway were built with 20-foot-wide (6.1 m) concrete pavement starting in 1934. The new highway was constructed with provisions for later being expanded to a divided highway. US 113 was relocated to the Dover Bypass, which was also known as the Eastern Boulevard, north to US 13 (State Street) when the new highway opened by the last weekend of May 1935. DuPont Highway between Little Heaven and Dover and State Street in Dover were designated US 113 Alternate. The first improvements to US 113 in Maryland were the widening of 5 miles (8.0 km) of the Snow Hill–Berlin road with the addition of a pair of 2-foot-wide (0.61 m) macadam shoulders in 1926. By the end of 1930, the widening of the Snow Hill–Berlin road to 18 feet (5.5 m) was completed. State forces widened the Berlin–Delaware state line road to 18 feet (5.5 m) around 1930; this work included a curve modification at the railroad crossing north of Berlin. Widening of the Pocomoke City–Snow Hill road began in 1929. The first bypass along the route in Maryland was constructed to relieve congestion in Pocomoke City. The Public Works Administration, a New Deal federal program, partially funded the construction of a 20-foot-wide (6.1 m) concrete road along what is now MD 250A and MD 359 in 1935 and 1936. The original route of US 113 was redesignated MD 756 by 1946. #### Post–World War II reconstruction As early as 1933, two years before US 13 had been completed as a four-lane divided highway from Dover to Wilmington, Delawareans petitioned DSHD to extend the divided highway south to the Maryland state line at Selbyville or Delmar (US 13), a proposition DSHD acknowledged but deferred due to lack of funding, lack of proper planning, and higher priorities elsewhere in the state. Instead of adding divided highway in southern Delaware, DSHD needed to resolve the problem of the deterioration of 15- to 25-year-old concrete roads, such as those along the DuPont Highway. The department planned to address the issue by patching the concrete surface as needed, adding concrete shoulders, and applying a layer of bituminous concrete, more commonly known as asphalt concrete or blacktop, over the entire width of concrete to provide a wearing surface. The first highway to be so treated was US 113 from Frederica to Little Heaven, which was resurfaced and widened to 23 feet (7.0 m) in 1941. DSHD included the highways between Dover and Milford and between Milford and Selbyville among those that should be reconstructed and resurfaced in the following four years, but that work was postponed due to the near-total cessation of highway construction projects during United States involvement in World War II. DSHD was able to resume this mode of highway reconstruction, which also included widening bridges and culverts, in 1944. This reconstruction plan returned to US 113 in 1946, when the highway between Ellendale and Georgetown was placed under reconstruction. The sections from Selbyville to Dagsboro, from Dagsboro to Georgetown, and from Milford to Little Heaven were expanded beginning in 1947. The post-war reconstruction and widening of US 113 to 22 feet (6.7 m) from Selbyville to the Dover Bypass in Little Heaven was completed with work on the U.S. Highway's Ellendale–Milford segment in 1949. In 1934, MDSRC had recommended widening the entirety of US 113 from 15 to 18 feet (4.6 to 5.5 m) to 20 feet (6.1 m). Aside from the Pocomoke City Bypass, widening and reconstruction of the U.S. Highway in that state did not occur until after World War II. US 113 was widened and resurfaced from the north end of Berlin to the Delaware state line in 1947 and 1948 and from Pocomoke City to south of Snow Hill in 1948. The highway through Berlin was resurfaced in 1949. The U.S. route from the north end of Snow Hill to Newark was widened and resurfaced in 1951 and 1952. State forces reconstructed or widened seven bridges along the aforementioned widened sections in 1952 and 1953. US 113 through Snow Hill was reconstructed and widened in 1953 and 1954. The final two pieces of US 113 to be reconstructed were through Newark and Ironshire to the southern end of Berlin between 1954 and 1956. Instead of widening the existing highway, the U.S. Highway was built on mostly new alignment, with the northern segment through Ironshire constructed as the first carriageway of a future divided highway. The County Commissioners of Worcester County agreed to accept for maintenance the bypassed highways, Newark Road and Shire Drive, from Maryland SRC in March 1957. ### Divided highway expansion In 1940, DSHD initiated traffic surveys and studies to inform plans to construct a four-lane divided highway south from Dover. The studies, completed in 1942, found that US 13 from Delmar to Dover carried significantly more traffic than US 113 from Selbyville to Dover, so DSHD started planning for the divided highway to the Maryland state line to be along the US 13 corridor. However, DSHD also approved plans for expansion of US 113 to a divided highway from Milford to Little Heaven. DSHD completed the final link in the Dover–Delmar divided highway in 1957. As in Delaware, Maryland SRC prioritized completing expansion of US 13 to a four-lane highway from Virginia to Delaware, which was completed in 1966. By that time, only a small portion of US 113 around Berlin had been expanded to a divided highway. #### Delaware divided highways The first section of US 113 to be expanded to a divided highway was part of the new US 13 bypass of Dover. The latter highway's new four-lane course, which included a new bridge across the St. Jones River, was constructed starting in 1950 and opened to traffic April 16, 1952. As part of the project, the portion of US 113 from State Street north of Silver Lake to the new US 13 highway was expanded to a divided highway, and both U.S. Highways were marked on the expanded highway from State Street to their split at the modern intersection of US 13 and Bay Road. DSHD may have removed US 113 markers from north of Bay Road as early as 1965, and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) approved the northern terminus of the U.S. Highway being retracted from the north end of State Street to where US 13 meets Bay Road at their spring 1974 meeting. In conjunction, AASHTO approved removing US 113 Alternate from State Street north of US 13 and instead following US 13 to US 113's northern terminus. The first divided highway project on US 113 proper began in 1957. The U.S. Highway's second carriageway was completed from its junction with US 13 and South Little Creek Road to the southern end of Dover Air Force Base in 1959. The first segment of the original DuPont Highway south of Dover to be expanded to a divided highway was from Walnut Street at the north end of Milford to south of Frederica; the southbound roadway of the divided highway section was constructed between 1957 and 1959. The US 113 divided highway was extended around Milford when the southbound carriageway was built from Walnut Street south to near Lincoln between 1961 and 1963; the project included a pair of bridges over the east end of Haven Lake at the Kent–Sussex county line. The Frederica bypass was constructed as a four-lane divided highway between 1963 and 1965. US 113 was expanded to a divided highway from just north of the Maryland state line in Selbyville to DE 20 north of Dagsboro between 1965 and 1967. The highway's second carriageway was built from north of Dagsboro to Stockley between 1966 and 1968. US 113 was completed as a divided highway from Stockley to North Bedford Street on the northern edge of Georgetown in 1969. US 113's partial interchange with the Milford Bypass opened in 1971. #### Berlin and Snow Hill bypasses and Pocomoke to Snow Hill expansion The first divided highway project on US 113 in Maryland was the four-lane divided Berlin bypass, which was constructed between 1955 and 1957. A second carriageway was added to the existing highway from Hayes Landing Road to Main Street south of Berlin and for a short stretch north of Main Street on the north side of Berlin. Main Street through Berlin became MD 818 in 1958. When US 50's bypass of Berlin was built between 1957 and 1959, ramps from westbound US 50 to northbound US 113 and from eastbound US 50 to southbound US 113 were added. The remaining six ramps of the cloverleaf interchange and US 113's bridges across US 50 were completed in 1975 and 1976. US 113's southern terminus was moved to its present intersection after US 13's bypass of Pocomoke City was completed in 1961; the segment of highway between US 13 and MD 675 (now US 13 Business) became an extension of MD 250A. The original Pocomoke City bypass from US 13 to MD 756 was resurfaced with bituminous concrete in 1969, the same year work began to establish a four-lane divided highway from Pocomoke City to Snow Hill. The second, northbound carriageway of the highway was constructed from east of Pilchard Creek to Blades Road between 1969 and 1971 and from Blades Road to the south end of the Snow Hill bypass in 1970 and 1971. US 113 was relocated as a four-lane divided highway from its US 13 intersection to east of Pilchard Creek, over which a new bridge was built for the northbound carriageway, starting in 1972. The now-bypassed 1936 Pocomoke City bypass was redesignated MD 359 after the completion of the new bypass in late 1974. The two-lane Snow Hill bypass was built as the southbound carriageway of an eventual divided highway from its south end to MD 12 in 1971 and 1972 and from MD 12 to north of Snow Hill between 1973 and 1975; the latter section included a three-span bridge across Purnell Branch. The bypassed portion of US 113 through Snow Hill became MD 394 in 1976. MD 394 was redesignated US 113 Business after AASHTO approved the new designation at its spring 1997 meeting. ### Divided highway continuation Expansion of US 113 to a divided highway slowed in the 1970s. As with most major highway projects, the divided highway expansion projects received partial federal funding, and starting in 1970, those federally aided projects required environmental impact assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act. This new barrier slowed the completion of the divided highway between Milford to Dover. Maryland was subject to the same environmental assessment, but it was local activism that overcame state inaction in continuing divided highway construction along US 113 in that state. #### Completion of divided highway in Delaware The Negative Declaration for the expansion of US 113 from the north end of the Frederica bypass to US 113 Alternate at Little Heaven was issued in 1975, and construction began that same year. The Frederica–Little Heaven divided highway was completed in 1977. Design work for the divided highway from Little Heaven to Dover Air Force Base began as early as 1964, and considerable planning and design work was done before that work came to a halt in the 1970s. In addition to the environmental effects of the highway crossing a large marsh, which required DelDOT to produce a draft environmental impact statement, DelDOT needed to coordinate with the U.S. Coast Guard to construct a new bridge across the St. Jones River. US 113 was finally expanded to a divided highway, including a four-lane bridge across the St. Jones River, by 1985. The final stretch of two-lane US 113 in Delaware was eliminated when the second carriageway was added to the highway from North Bedford Street in Georgetown to north of Lincoln in 1995 and 1996. This expansion, in particular a section near Ellendale, was included in a Federal Highway Administration pavement study. #### Berlin to Selbyville expansion and relocation MDSHA conducted its first study on expanding US 113 north of Berlin to a divided highway in the early 1970s. Although US 113 was not expanded at that time, preparations for a future expansion were started, including acquisition of right of way along the proposed route. When MD 90 was built from US 50 to east of US 113 between 1973 and 1976, its interchange with the future course of US 113 was partially constructed. MDSHA conducted a second planning study in the late 1980s; in 1990, the agency decided to implement intersection improvements instead of constructing a divided highway. One particular improvement was reconstructing the highway immediately to the south of the Delaware state line to better tie into the divided highway in Delaware in 1989 and 1990. After the second study resulted in no further movement toward divided highway construction, locals formed the County Residents Action for Safer Highways (CRASH) in response to the significantly higher collision rates along the two-lane sections of US 113 compared to the state average. The high collision rate, which included 42 fatal crashes between 1980 and 1997, led CRASH to rally community support and intensely lobby MDSHA to expand US 113 to four lanes. MDSHA responded in 1995 by initiating the US 113 Planning Study, which recommended expanding US 113 to a divided highway from Berlin to the Delaware state line and from Snow Hill to Berlin. The agency needed to persuade other involved agencies to make the proposed expansion their top priority, because at the time traffic volumes on the highway did not meet the thresholds beyond which the highway would need to be expanded to a four-lane divided highway. US 113 was reconstructed from Berlin to the Delaware state line in three sections starting in 1998. The first section was constructed on a new alignment from north of MD 818 to south of MD 589 to quell objections from residents of Friendship over the divided highway passing through their community. This segment, work on which included finishing the MD 90 interchange 24 years after it was partially constructed, was completed in 2000. The second segment of US 113 reconstruction, from south of MD 589 to Jarvis Road, included two relocations from the old highway to reduce impacts to St. Martin's Episcopal Church and the community of Showell. The second section, including the interchange with MD 589, was placed under construction in 2000 and was completed in 2002. The divided highway was completed to the Delaware state line after the second carriageway was added along the existing alignment north of Jarvis Road between 2001 and 2003. Sections of old alignment of US 113, service roads, and reconstructed connections with other highways were designated MD 575 starting in 2000. In November 2001, the National Partnership for Highway Quality awarded its Special Recognition of a Small Project Award to the Maryland Department of Transportation for the department's use of a modified design-bid-build contract approach to reduce the time needed to complete the first segment of the US 113 expansion north of Berlin. ### Dover freeway, Milford truncation, and completion of Maryland divided highway US 113's role between Milford and Dover became secondary with the designation and extension of DE 1 throughout the state in conjunction with the proposed US 13 Relief Route, which is now the Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway from Dover Air Force Base to Christiana. DE 1 was assigned to the Milford Bypass and concurrently with DE 14 along the coastal highway south from Milford to the Maryland state line at Fenwick Island in 1973. DE 1 was co-signed with DE 14 through the Delaware beach communities until 1976, when DE 14 was truncated at Milford. The DE 1 designation was extended north by 1988 along US 113 from Milford to Dover and continuing north along US 13 toward Christiana to connect sections of the Relief Route as they were completed. In 1991, DelDOT enacted corridor preservation measures on DE 1, including its concurrency with US 113, from Dover Air Force Base to Nassau to prevent excessive development along the corridor so it can gradually be transformed into a freeway. #### Dover freeway upgrade and truncation The southernmost part of the Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway, from south of DE 10 to north of Bay Road, was placed under construction in 1990 and opened along with the Dover–Smyrna portion of DE 1 in 1993. US 113 traffic needed to use a temporary tie-in during construction, and after the new freeway opened, traffic on the U.S. Highway needed to use Exit 95 to transfer between the new freeway and Bay Road. The extension of the DE 1 freeway south through Dover Air Force Base was constructed later due to the need to coordinate negotiations with the military installation and to allow the base to remediate hazardous material sites, maintain security and access restrictions with construction of a new Main Gate, and reconstruct base housing on the west side of the highway. The Main Gate to Dover Air Force base was moved further east, and a diamond interchange was built between the Main Gate and the base housing area. The upgrade of US 113 and DE 1 through the military base was built in two phases, the first from 1996 to 1998 and the second in 1999 and 2000. The final piece of the Relief Route associated with US 113 was the Puncheon Run Connector, which would provide a direct connection between US 13 and DE 1 and US 113. The connector and its partial interchange with US 113 were built between 1998 and 2000. In 2003, the same year the last portion of the Relief Route was completed, DelDOT requested US 113 be eliminated from Milford to Dover in favor of the sole designation of DE 1 from Milford to Dover. AASHTO denied DelDOT's application at their spring 2003 meeting because the state did not address the status of US 113 Alternate. The organization approved DelDOT's application to also eliminate US 113 Alternate in addition to the Milford–Dover portion of US 113 at their annual meeting later in 2003. Bay Road became an unnumbered highway between Exit 95 at Dover Air Force Base and the old northern terminus of US 113 at US 13 in Dover. #### Snow Hill to Berlin expansion Following the expansion of US 113 from Berlin to the Delaware state line, MDSHA turned its attention toward the remaining 17 miles (27 km) of two-lane highway in Maryland between the southern end of the Snow Hill Bypass and the southern end of the existing divided highway at Hayes Landing Road south of Berlin. In 2005, MDSHA began construction on a five-phase, long-term project to expand US 113 between Snow Hill and Berlin to a four-lane divided highway to improve safety and service in the face of increasing seasonal traffic and development. Phase 1, which covered 4.0 miles (6.4 km) of the Snow Hill bypass from the southern terminus of US 113 Business to just north of MD 365, was completed in 2007. In 2015, MDSHA replaced the standard intersection between US 113 and MD 365 with a superstreet intersection. Phase 2 was divided into two sub-phases. Phase 2A, which covered the 2.5 miles (4.0 km) of US 113 from Goody Hill Road south of Ironshire to Hayes Landing Road, occurred from 2007 to 2009. Phase 2B, which covered the 1.8 miles (2.9 km) of highway between Massey Branch just north of Newark and Goody Hill Road, began in 2009 and was complete at the end of 2011. The service roads constructed during both parts of Phase 2 to restore access to properties cut off by the state establishing partial control of access on US 113 were designated segments of MD 921. Construction on Phase 3, which involved the 4.4 miles (7.1 km) of roadway between Five Mile Branch Road north of Snow Hill and Massey Branch, began in fall 2015. Phase 4 includes the 4.5-mile (7.2 km) section of US 113 between the northern end of Phase 1 near MD 365 north to the southern end of Phase 3 at Five Mile Branch Road north of Snow Hill. Construction on Phase 4 began in 2017. Construction on widening US 113 in Maryland to four lanes was finished in December 2019, which completed US 113 as a four-lane divided highway from Pocomoke City to Milford. ### Future upgrades Maryland and Delaware plan to continue to upgrade US 113 to introduce freeway elements and access control to improve service on the U.S. Highway. MDSHA has a Phase 5 in its US 113 divided highway project for the construction of an interchange between US 113 and MD 12 in Snow Hill. As of 2007, the interchange was planned to be a dumbbell interchange, a variation on the diamond interchange with roundabouts replacing the two intersections of the ramps with the crossroad. The work would include adding service roads to improve access among US 113, MD 12, Washington Street, and Brick Kiln Road. , Phase 5 was stalled in the design stage with no estimated completion date. The state has long-term plans to establish partial control of access on US 113 between Pocomoke City and the south end of the Snow Hill bypass. Once that project is complete, the only remaining stretch of US 113 in Maryland without access controls will be from Hayes Landing Road to the south end of the Berlin bypass. In 2001, the DelDOT conducted a feasibility study for a future north–south limited access highway in Sussex County. The Sussex County North–South Transportation Study explored routes along and between the US 13, US 113, and DE 1 corridors. The study took into account local, long distance, and seasonal traffic patterns; environmental, agricultural, and developmental impacts; connections with arterial highways; and the ability to build the limited-access highway in usable sections. The study recommended routing the limited-access highway along the US 113 corridor, using as much of the current US 113 route as possible. For its standing US 113 North/South Study, DelDOT has split the corridor into four areas: Millsboro–South, Georgetown, Ellendale, and Milford. #### Ellendale and Georgetown planning complete Improvements in the Ellendale and Georgetown areas have been environmentally cleared, which means design and engineering can proceed as funding becomes available. The Federal Highway Administration approved the Ellendale Area Environmental Assessment with a Finding of No Significant Impact in 2010. DelDOT plans to upgrade US 113 on its present alignment through the study area, which runs from south of Redden Road to north of DE 16. Along much of the route, service roads would be constructed parallel to the present highway to provide access to properties along US 113 and to connect with the local road system and reduce the number of contact points with US 113. Interchanges are planned at Redden Road and DE 16. The proposed interchange at DE 16 is in the design phase. The Federal Highway Administration approved the Georgetown Area Environmental Assessment with a Finding of No Significant Impact in 2014. As with the Ellendale area, DelDOT plans to upgrade US 113 along its present alignment from south of Avenue of Honor north of Millsboro to south of Redden Road. Interchanges are planned near Piney Grove Road and Avenue of Honor north of Millsboro; at Governor Stockley Road at Stockley; near Speedway Road, Alms House Road, and Kruger Road north of Stockley; at Shortly Road and South Bedford Street on the southern edge of Georgetown; at Arrow Safety Road in Georgetown; at US 9 in Georgetown; at DE 18/DE 404 in Georgetown; and at Wilson Road north of Georgetown. The U.S. Highway's intersection with DE 18/DE 404 has the highest crash rate and the highest level of traffic congestion in the study area, so that intersection will be replaced with an interchange first. US 113 will be expanded to six lanes throughout the corridor, and right-in/right-out access to adjoining businesses would be maintained, with efforts to reduce the number of contact points. The interchange at DE 18/DE 404 is currently in the design phase, with construction expected to begin in 2024. #### Millsboro–South plan reduction and Milford suspension Unlike in Ellendale and Georgetown, the Millsboro–South and Milford proposals faced strong opposition. In the Millsboro–South area, DelDOT's preferred alternative, the Blue Alternative, was an eastern bypass that would diverge from existing US 113 north of Selbyville; pass to the east of Frankford and Dagsboro, cross the Indian River, and parallel DE 24 west to rejoin US 113's present course north of Betts Pond north of Millsboro. US 113 would have had interchanges with DE 54 at its current junction, with DE 20 and DE 26 east of Dagsboro, with DE 24 east of Millsboro, with DE 30 north of Millsboro, and with DE 20 where the bypass rejoins the present course of US 113. However, DelDOT's preference faced opposition due to its cost, its land requirements, and a revelation that DelDOT was paying a pair of developers each month to not build on the path of the proposed bypass. In response to the payment scheme, Governor Jack Markell suspended further planning work on US 113 in Sussex County in January 2011. Markell indicated the project could resume if Sussex County legislators and DelDOT come up with a revised plan for the Millsboro–South area. In May 2011, Sussex County legislators proposed the U.S. Highway be upgraded fully along its current alignment, with the addition of a northeast bypass of Millsboro to connect US 113 and DE 24 that could be constructed mostly through state-owned land. Despite opposition to its preferred alternative, DelDOT completed the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Millsboro–South area in July 2013; the document recognized the significant opposition to the Blue Alternative. In 2015, DelDOT announced that the Blue Alternative was no longer being considered. Instead, US 113 would be upgraded along its current alignment as part of a Modified Yellow Alternative. However, unlike the original Yellow Alternative, which would upgrade US 113 to a freeway and featured several interchanges, US 113 would not become a freeway under the modified plan. Instead, only some crossroads would be eliminated, US 113 would be expanded to six lanes between its intersections with DE 20 on either side of Millsboro, and a two-lane northeast bypass of Millsboro proposed in 2011 would be built and connect with US 113 at a partial cloverleaf interchange near the northern US 113–DE 20 junction. In December 2016, DelDOT completed a Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement in which the Modified Yellow Alternative is the agency's preferred alternative. The Milford area study has been dormant since July 2007 due to community opposition to DelDOT's proposed alternatives through Lincoln and Milford. After studying various options that included upgrading the current alignment and constructing bypass routes to the west and east of Milford, DelDOT decided to move forward with a pair of eastern bypass alternatives in June 2007. Both alternatives head east from US 113's current alignment southwest of Lincoln, bypass the village to the south and east, have an interchange with DE 30 and Johnson Road, and meet DE 1 at an interchange south of the latter highway's interchange with the south end of DE 1 Business. On June 15, 2007, DelDOT announced it would move forward with plans to build the bypass despite the majority of the department's advisory group of community representatives opposing the bypass, far below the required 75 percent for consensus to have been achieved. On July 1, 2007, in response to DelDOT overriding its advisory group, the Delaware General Assembly passed Senate Bill 155, which prohibited DelDOT from proceeding with the US 113 North/South Improvements Project in the Milford and Lincoln areas and directed DelDOT to continue to work to achieve consensus on an acceptable bypass route. Citing a lack of community consensus, DelDOT abandoned its plans for the US 113 bypass of Milford in January 2008. ## Junction list \\|- ## Special routes US 113 has had two special routes: an existing business route through Snow Hill and a former alternate route between Little Heaven and Dover. ### Snow Hill business route U.S. Route 113 Business (US 113 Business) is a business route of US 113 in Maryland. The route follows Market Street for 4.16 miles (6.69 km) between junctions with US 113 on the south and north sides of Snow Hill. The business route is part of the Cape to Cape Scenic Byway from its southern intersection with MD 12 to US 113 north of Snow Hill. US 113 Business follows the original course of US 113 through Snow Hill. The portions of the highway outside Snow Hill were paved by 1912, and the town portion was resurfaced and became a state highway by 1923. The Snow Hill bypass was completed in 1975, and the bypassed portion of US 113 through the town became Maryland Route 394 in 1976. MD 394 was redesignated US 113 Business after AASHTO approved the new designation at its spring 1997 meeting. US 113 Business begins at an intersection with US 113 (Worcester Highway) south of Snow Hill. The business route heads northeast as two-lane undivided Market Street into the town limits and to the downtown area. US 113 Business passes near the neoclassical home Chanceford and by the Julia A. Purnell Museum, which displays the history and memorability of Snow Hill, including the namesake's needlework. The route passes the Georgian-style Samuel Gunn House and All Hallows Episcopal Church, an example of 18th-century church vernacular architecture, on either side of its junction with MD 12 (Church Street). MD 12 joins US 113 Business for a short concurrency through downtown Snow Hill, during which the two highways pass the Worcester County Courthouse and Makemie Memorial Presbyterian Church, an Isaac Pursell–designed High Victorian Gothic church honoring Francis Makemie, the founder of Presbyterianism in the United States. After MD 12 turns north onto Washington Street, the business route passes the Gothic Revival–style George Washington Purnell House and meets the west end of MD 365 (Bay Street) at the east end of downtown Snow Hill. US 113 Business crosses Purnell Branch, a tributary of the Pocomoke River, and leaves the town limits of Snow Hill just west of its northern terminus at US 113. Junction list ### Former Little Heaven–Dover alternate route U.S. Route 113 Alternate (US 113 Alternate) was an alternate route of US 113 that extended 9.10 miles (14.65 km) from US 113 and DE 1 in Little Heaven north to the intersection of US 13 and US 113 in Dover. US 113 Alternate followed the original path of the DuPont Highway between Little Heaven and US 13 in Dover. The DuPont Highway was paved through Rising Sun by 1920, and the entire length of the Selbyville–Wilmington highway was complete by 1923. When the U.S. Highway System was finalized in 1926, US 113's northern terminus was at Coopers Corner south of Dover, and US 13 followed State Street through the state capital. US 113 was extended north along State Street to the junction of State Street and Governors Avenue on the south side of Silver Lake after US 13 was placed on a reconstructed Governors Avenue in 1930. After US 113's bypass of Dover was completed in 1935, US 113 Alternate was established along US 113's former course from Little Heaven to Dover and along State Street and joined US 13 to cross Silver Lake to reach US 113's northern terminus at the intersection of DuPont Highway and State Street. The year after US 113 Alternate was assigned, State Street through Dover was reconstructed and widened and construction began on a new bridge for US 13 and US 113 Alternate across Silver Lake. The hazardous, narrow causeway was replaced with a four-lane, brick-lined, reinforced concrete triple-arch bridge, and State Street between the bridge and the beginning of the US 13 divided highway at US 113's northern terminus was widened to four lanes, in 1937. The intersection of US 113 and US 113 Alternate at Little Heaven was reconstructed as a directional intersection in 1956. After US 13's bypass of Dover was completed in 1952, the northern termini of US 113 and US 113 Alternate remained north of Dover until 1974, when AASHTO approved moving the northern terminus of US 113 to the junction of US 13 and Bay Road. The organization also approved removing US 113 Alternate from State Street north of US 13 and instead following US 13 to US 113's northern terminus. US 113 Alternate was removed as an alternate route in conjunction with the elimination of US 113 between Milford and Dover after AASHTO approved the moves at the organization's 2003 annual meeting. The portions of US 113 Alternate that were not concurrent with US 13 or DE 10 Alternate became unnumbered. US 113 Alternate began at an intersection with US 113 and DE 1 (Bay Road) in Little Heaven. Connections from southbound US 113 Alternate to northbound US 113 and DE 1 and from southbound US 113 and DE 1 to northbound US 113 Alternate were provided by Mulberrie Point Road. The highway headed northwest as two-lane undivided Clapham Road to the town of Magnolia, where the highway followed Main Street. There, US 113 Alternate intersected Walnut Street and passed by the late 18th-century Matthew Lowber House and the Queen Anne–style John B. Lindale House. The highway left Magnolia upon crossing Beaver Gut Ditch and continued northwest as South State Street, crossing Cypress Branch. The route came to the unincorporated village of Rising Sun, where it veered north and intersected DE 10 Alternate (Sorghum Mill Road). DE 10 Alternate joined US 113 Alternate in a concurrency north across Tidbury Creek to DE 10 Alternate's eastern terminus at their junction with DE 10 (Lebanon Road) in Highland Acres. US 113 Alternate continued north across Isaac Branch at Moores Lake and passed through Kent Acres before it entered the city of Dover just south of its underpass of the Puncheon Run Connector freeway and crossing of Puncheon Run. Just north of the stream and highway, the alternate route intersected US 13 (DuPont Highway). While South State Street continued north toward the Dover Green Historic District and Delaware Legislative Hall, US 113 Alternate turned northeast to run concurrently with US 13. The two highways crossed the St. Jones River and intersected Court Street (named Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard since 2013), which headed west toward the state capitol and east to provide access to US 113 (Bay Road). Immediately to the north of Court Street, US 113 Alternate and US 113 reached their joint termini at US 13's directional intersection with Bay Road; US 13 continued north along DuPont Highway. There was no direct access between US 113 Alternate and US 113 at the terminal intersection. Junction list ## See also ## Work cited
14,683,460	Carucage	1,154,365,558	12th-century English medieval tax	[ "1194 establishments in England", "Feudal duties", "Property taxes", "Taxation in medieval England" ]	Carucage was a medieval English land tax enacted by King Richard I in 1194, based on the size—variously calculated—of the taxpayer's estate. It was a replacement for the danegeld, last imposed in 1162, which had become difficult to collect because of an increasing number of exemptions. Carucage was levied just six times: by Richard in 1194 and 1198; by John, his brother and successor, in 1200; and by John's son, Henry III, in 1217, 1220, and 1224, after which it was replaced by taxes on income and personal property. The taxable value of an estate was initially assessed from the Domesday Survey, but other methods were later employed, such as valuations based on the sworn testimony of neighbours or on the number of plough-teams the taxpayer used. Carucage never raised as much as other taxes, but nevertheless helped to fund several projects. It paid the ransom for Richard's release in 1194, after he was taken prisoner by Leopold V, Duke of Austria; it covered the tax John had to pay Philip II of France in 1200 on land he inherited in that country; and it helped to finance Henry III's military campaigns in England and on continental Europe. Carucage was an attempt to secure new sources of revenue to supplement and increase royal income in a time when new demands were being made on royal finances. Although derived from the older danegeld, carucage was an experiment in revenue collection, but it was only levied for specific purposes, rather than as a regularly assessed tax. Also new was the fact later collections were imposed with the consent of the barons. However, the main flow of royal income was from other sources, and carucage was not collected again after 1224. ## Background In medieval England there was no clear separation between the king's household and the treasury. The main sources of royal income were the royal estates, feudal rights (such as feudal aids or feudal reliefs, which derived from the king's position as a feudal overlord), taxation, and fees and other profits from the judicial courts. In 1130, the records of revenues paid into the treasury show that about 40% came from royal estates, 16% from feudal rights, 14% from taxes, and 12% from the judicial courts. By 1194 revenue from the land came to about 37% of the total, about 25% came from feudal rights, taxation raised about 15%, and income from judicial sources about 11%. English taxation after the Norman Conquest of 1066 was based on the geld or danegeld, a national tax paid by all free men, those who were not serfs or slaves. The geld was based on the number of hides of land owned by the taxpayer, and could be demanded by the king and assessed at varying levels without the need for consultation with the barons or other subjects. During King Henry I's reign, an increasing number of exemptions, and the difficulties encountered in collecting the geld, lowered its importance to the Exchequer—the treasury of England. It is unclear whether the geld was collected at all during the reign of Henry's successor, King Stephen. Stephen's successor, King Henry II, collected the geld only twice, once in 1155 and again in 1161–1162. The geld was unpopular, and after 1162 Henry may have felt it politically expedient to stop collecting it. Most information about the carucage comes from the financial records associated with its collection, but there is no detailed description of the way it was collected or assessed, unlike the account of the workings of the Exchequer given in the Dialogue Concerning the Exchequer, written in about 1180. Government records such as the Pipe Rolls, the Memoranda Rolls, and other financial records, some of which are specific to the carucage, have survived, and include records of assessments and receipts for the sums collected. There are also occasional references to the tax in medieval chronicles, supplementing the information found in the financial records. ## Under Richard I Under Henry's son, King Richard I, a new land tax was collected, the first since 1162. It was organised by Hubert Walter, the Justiciar of England who was in charge of governing England while the king was gone. Like the geld, the carucage was based on the amount of land owned, thus targeting free men rather than serfs, who owned no land and were therefore exempt. First collected in 1194, and the first land tax collected in England since the geld, carucage was based on the size of the estate as measured in either hides or carucates (a unit of land that could be ploughed by an eight-ox plough-team in a year, which was normally considered equivalent to a hide). The original property assessment of the carucage was based on the Domesday Survey, a survey of land holdings in England that was completed by 1087. Collected again in 1198, and usually called the "great carucage", it was initially assessed at a rate of 2 shillings per carucate (estimated at 100 acres (40 ha) or 120 acres (49 ha)), but later an additional 3 shillings per carucate was imposed. This 1198 collection was to provide the king with money for his military campaigns in France, and raised about £1,000. A number of fines were subsequently imposed on taxpayers for evading payment, suggesting that the 1198 tax was not very successful. According to the late 12th century chronicler Roger of Howden, the main source for information on the 1198 carucage, assessments were carried out in county by a commission of two royal officials working in each hundred (a subdivision of a county). Each of these commissions included two local knights who would take sworn testimonies in each village from four villagers and the bailiffs or estate officials of those barons holding land in the village. The resulting assessments were recorded, and the sheriff, or chief royal official of the county, would receive the money and forward it to the treasury. Estate holders in the area were responsible for the payments from their estates, and when they were handed to the Exchequer a special procedure was followed to record the payments, which were then deposited into a dedicated set of accounts. These elaborate procedures were probably meant to avoid misappropriation of funds, but may not have been successful, as justices were later sent out to inquire into the commissioners' activities. As a result of their investigations, 23 counties paid fines to secure an end to royal inquiries and any arrears in payments. The lower clergy and bishops resisted Richard's attempt to impose the 1198 carucage on their estates. In response, Richard withdrew their access to his royal courts forcing them to buy it back for a sum greater than the carucage would have collected. ## Under John King John, Richard's brother and successor, collected the carucage only once, in 1200. John set the amount to be collected from each carucate at three shillings. Revenues from this taxation do not appear in the 1200 Pipe Roll, although the designation in official records of William of Wrotham and his assistants as receptores carucagii—"receivers of the carucage"—suggest that the money raised was paid into a special commission in the Exchequer. Whether lands were assessed by the system used in 1198 is unknown. The contemporary chronicler Ralph of Coggeshall noted that an "order went throughout England by the justices or the king" to collect the tax, which may imply that the King appointed justices to collect the tax instead of using the earlier system. The carucage was raised to pay John's feudal relief— the payment to an overlord on inheriting lands—for his 1199 inheritance of lands in France. The relief had been set by King Philip II of France, John's overlord, at 20,000 marks. Estimates of the amount raised by this carucage—about £3,000—are based on later revenues raised during the following reign. The Cistercian monasteries in the north of England resisted the tax, claiming that they were immune to taxation. John put pressure on them, as he was in the north when the tax was announced, but the various abbeys appealed to Hubert Walter, by then Chancellor. Walter secured from the abbeys the promise of a group payment of £1,000, but in June 1200 the King rejected the offer. In October, the King returned from Normandy and resumed pressure on the monasteries, ordering the confiscation of all Cistercian livestock on royal lands after two weeks if a settlement was not reached. At the end of November, through Walter's intercession, the King capitulated and agreed to a Cistercian immunity from this tax. ## Under Henry III John's son, King Henry III, assessed the carucage on three occasions, in 1217, 1220, and 1224. A new approach in 1217 and 1220 was to secure the consent of leading noblemen for the tax to be levied. The 1217 tax was once again assessed at 3 shillings per carucate. The assessment of the amount of lands held by each taxpayer involved having each landowner provide the information and swear an oath that it was correct. Like the 1200 tax, the 1217 tax was not recorded in that year's Pipe Roll, lending support to the possibility that the revenue from the tax was sent to a separate branch of the Exchequer. The 1217 carucage was only paid by laymen; the clergy made a donation in lieu of being taxed. The money raised was intended to defray the expense of the war being fought against Prince Louis of France, who had invaded England before the death of King John and was claiming the English throne. The 1220 carucage, which was imposed on both laymen and clergy, was collected by a special commission, and was paid not into the Exchequer, but to the Templar Order church in London, the New Temple. The Templars through their international organization functioned as bankers in and between countries. The three men appointed to the commission—William de Halliwell, a friar, William FitzBenedict, a London resident, and Alexander de Sawbridgeworth, an Exchequer clerk—were responsible for accounting for the money received, which amounted to £3,000. The time frame of the 1220 carucage collection was quite short; the orders for the assessments to be made were issued in August, but required the tax to be collected by Michaelmas in late September. The 1220 tax attempted to allow for variation in land values, exempting barren land from taxation. The system for the 1220 assessments was simpler than the 1217 levy, as plough-teams were counted to determine the land size rather than requiring oaths from taxpayers. This tax gathered around £5,500. There was some difficulty in its collection however, as some counties did not pay, and a number of barons refused to pay, at least at first. The 1220 carucage was levied to pay for the defence of Henry's lands in Poitou, southern France. The 1224 carucage was a tax levied only on the clergy, and the revenues from it did not appear in that year's Pipe Roll. It is likely that the clergy who owed the carucage also collected the tax. Records indicate that the bulk of the money raised was paid into the Wardrobe, the king's personal treasury, rather than the Exchequer. The 1224 assessment was based on plough-teams, and was imposed to pay for the restitution of the lost lands in France. ## Legacy The last carucage was imposed in 1224, after which most of the medieval government's revenue was raised by levying taxes on moveable or personal property, instead of on land; taxes on moveable property were first assessed in 1207. A probable reason for the abandonment of land taxes was the greater revenues raised by taxes on property and income. Carucage was an attempt to secure new sources of revenue to supplement existing sources of income. It was also intended to increase the royal revenues in the face of new demands placed upon them. Although derived from the older geld, carucage was an experiment in revenue collection, but it was only levied for specific purposes, rather than as a general tax regularly assessed. A novel feature was the consultation with the barons and other leading members of the ruling classes. Despite its intermittent use during the reigns of Richard I, John, and the early years of Henry III, the main source of royal income at that time remained scutage, feudal dues such as feudal reliefs or feudal aids, and royal rights such as the profits from the justice system.
31,307	Tau Ceti	1,173,823,201	Single yellow-hued star in the constellation Cetus	[ "Bayer objects", "Bright Star Catalogue objects", "Cetus", "Circumstellar disks", "Durchmusterung objects", "Flamsteed objects", "G-type main-sequence stars", "Gliese and GJ objects", "Henry Draper Catalogue objects", "Hipparcos objects", "Maunder Minimum", "Planetary systems with four confirmed planets", "Solar-type stars", "Stars with proper names", "Tau Ceti" ]	Tau Ceti, Latinized from τ Ceti, is a single star in the constellation Cetus that is spectrally similar to the Sun, although it has only about 78% of the Sun's mass. At a distance of just under 12 light-years (3.7 parsecs) from the Solar System, it is a relatively nearby star and the closest solitary G-class star. The star appears stable, with little stellar variation, and is metal-deficient relative to the Sun. It can be seen with the unaided eye with an apparent magnitude of 3.5. As seen from Tau Ceti, the Sun would be in the northern hemisphere constellation Boötes with an apparent magnitude of about 2.6. Observations have detected more than ten times as much dust surrounding Tau Ceti as is present in the Solar System. Since December 2012, there has been evidence of at least four planets—all likely super-Earths—orbiting Tau Ceti, and two of these are potentially in the habitable zone. There is evidence of up to an additional four unconfirmed planets, one of which would be a Jovian planet between 3 and 20 AU from the star. Because of its debris disk, any planet orbiting Tau Ceti would face far more impact events than Earth. Despite this hurdle to habitability, its solar analog (Sun-like) characteristics have led to widespread interest in the star. Given its stability, similarity and relative proximity to the Sun, Tau Ceti is consistently listed as a target for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) and appears in some science fiction literature. ## Name The name "Tau Ceti" is the Bayer designation for this star, established in 1603 as part of German celestial cartographer Johann Bayer's Uranometria star catalogue: it is "number T" in Bayer's sequence of constellation Cetus. In the catalogue of stars in the Calendarium of Al Achsasi al Mouakket, written at Cairo about 1650, this star was designated Thālith al Naʽāmāt (ثالث النعامات - thālith al-naʽāmāt), which was translated into Latin as Tertia Struthionum, meaning the third of the ostriches. This star, along with η Cet (Deneb Algenubi), θ Cet (Thanih Al Naamat), ζ Cet (Baten Kaitos), and υ Cet, were Al Naʽāmāt (النعامات), the Hen Ostriches. In Chinese astronomy, the "Square Celestial Granary" (Chinese: 天倉; pinyin: Tiān Cāng) refers to an asterism consisting of τ Ceti, ι Ceti, η Ceti, ζ Ceti, θ Ceti and 57 Ceti. Consequently, the Chinese name for τ Ceti itself is "the Fifth Star of Square Celestial Granary" (Chinese: 天倉五; pinyin: Tiān Cāng wǔ). ## Motion The proper motion of a star is its rate of movement across the celestial sphere, determined by comparing its position relative to more distant background objects. Tau Ceti is considered to be a high-proper-motion star, although it only has an annual traverse of just under 2 arc seconds. Thus it will require about 2000 years before the location of this star shifts by more than a degree. A high proper motion is an indicator of closeness to the Sun. Nearby stars can traverse an angle of arc across the sky more rapidly than the distant background stars and are good candidates for parallax studies. In the case of Tau Ceti, the parallax measurements indicate a distance of 11.9 ly. This makes it one of the closest star systems to the Sun and the next-closest spectral class-G star after Alpha Centauri A. The radial velocity of a star is the component of its motion that is toward or away from the Sun. Unlike proper motion, a star's radial velocity cannot be directly observed, but can be determined by measuring its spectrum. Due to the Doppler shift, the absorption lines in the spectrum of a star will be shifted slightly toward the red (or longer wavelengths) if the star is moving away from the observer, or toward blue (or shorter wavelengths) when it moves toward the observer. In the case of Tau Ceti, the radial velocity is about −17 km/s, with the negative value indicating that it is moving toward the Sun. The star will make its closest approach to the Sun in about 43,000 years, when it comes to within 10.6 ly (3.25 pc). The distance to Tau Ceti, along with its proper motion and radial velocity, together give the motion of the star through space. The space velocity relative to the Sun is 37.2 km/s. This result can then be used to compute an orbital path of Tau Ceti through the Milky Way. It has a mean galacto-centric distance of 9.7 kiloparsecs (32000 ly) and an orbital eccentricity of 0.22. ## Physical properties The Tau Ceti system is believed to have only one stellar component. A dim optical companion has been observed with magnitude 13.1. As of 2000, it was 137 arcseconds distant from the primary. It may be gravitationally bound, but it is considered more likely to be a line-of-sight coincidence. Most of what is known about the physical properties of Tau Ceti and its system has been determined through spectroscopic measurements. By comparing the spectrum to computed models of stellar evolution, the age, mass, radius and luminosity of Tau Ceti can be estimated. However, using an astronomical interferometer, measurements of the radius of the star can be made directly to an accuracy of 0.5%. Through such means, the radius of Tau Ceti has been measured to be 79.3%±0.4% of the solar radius. This is about the size that is expected for a star with somewhat lower mass than the Sun. ### Rotation The rotation period for Tau Ceti was measured by periodic variations in the classic H and K absorption lines of singly ionized calcium (Ca II). These lines are closely associated with surface magnetic activity, so the period of variation measures the time required for the activity sites to complete a full rotation about the star. By this means the rotation period for Tau Ceti is estimated to be 34 d. Due to the Doppler effect, the rotation rate of a star affects the width of the absorption lines in the spectrum (light from the side of the star moving away from the observer will be shifted to a longer wavelength; light from the side moving towards the observer will be shifted toward a shorter wavelength). By analyzing the width of these lines, the rotational velocity of a star can be estimated. The projected rotation velocity for Tau Ceti is v<sub>eq</sub> · sin i ≈ 1 km/s, where v<sub>eq</sub> is the velocity at the equator, and i is the inclination angle of the rotation axis to the line of sight. For a typical G8 star, the rotation velocity is about 2.5 km/s. The relatively low rotational velocity measurements may indicate that Tau Ceti is being viewed from nearly the direction of its pole. More recently, a 2023 study has estimated a rotation period of 46±4 d and a v<sub>eq</sub> sin i of 0.1±0.1 km/s, corresponding to a pole-on inclination of 7°±7°. ### Metallicity The chemical composition of a star provides important clues to its evolutionary history, including the age at which it formed. The interstellar medium of dust and gas from which stars form is primarily composed of hydrogen and helium with trace amounts of heavier elements. As nearby stars continually evolve and die, they seed the interstellar medium with an increasing portion of heavier elements. Thus younger stars tend to have a higher portion of heavy elements in their atmospheres than do the older stars. These heavy elements are termed "metals" by astronomers, and the portion of heavy elements is the metallicity. The amount of metallicity in a star is given in terms of the ratio of iron (Fe), an easily observed heavy element, to hydrogen. A logarithm of the relative iron abundance is compared to the Sun. In the case of Tau Ceti, the atmospheric metallicity is $\left[\frac{\text{Fe}}{\text{H}}\right] \approx -0.50$ dex, equivalent to about a third the solar abundance. Past measurements have varied from −0.13 to −0.60. This lower abundance of iron indicates that Tau Ceti is almost certainly older than the Sun. Its age had previously been estimated to be 5.8 Gyr, but is now thought to be around 9 Gyr. This compares with 4.57 Gyr for the Sun. However, age estimates for Tau Ceti can range from 4.4 to 12 Gyr, depending on the model adopted. Besides rotation, another factor that can widen the absorption features in the spectrum of a star is pressure broadening. The presence of nearby particles affects the radiation emitted by an individual particle. So the line width is dependent on the surface pressure of the star, which in turn is determined by the temperature and surface gravity. This technique was used to determine the surface gravity of Tau Ceti. The log g, or logarithm of the star's surface gravity, is about 4.4, very close to the log g = 4.44 for the Sun. ### Luminosity and variability The luminosity of Tau Ceti is equal to only 55% of the Sun's luminosity. A terrestrial planet would need to orbit this star at a distance of about 0.7 AU to match the solar insolation level of Earth. This is approximately the same as the average distance between Venus and the Sun. The chromosphere of Tau Ceti—the portion of a star's atmosphere just above the light-emitting photosphere—currently displays little or no magnetic activity, indicating a stable star. One 9-year study of temperature, granulation, and the chromosphere showed no systematic variations; Ca II emissions around the H and K infrared bands show a possible 11-year cycle, but this is weak relative to the Sun. Alternatively it has been suggested that the star could be in a low-activity state analogous to a Maunder minimum—a historical period, associated with the Little Ice Age in Europe, when sunspots became exceedingly rare on the Sun's surface. Spectral line profiles of Tau Ceti are extremely narrow, indicating low turbulence and observed rotation. The star's asteroseismological oscillations have an amplitude about half that of the Sun and a lower mode lifetime. ## Planetary system Principal factors driving research interest in Tau Ceti are its proximity, its Sun-like characteristics, and the implications for possible life on its planets. For categorization purposes, Hall and Lockwood report that "the terms 'solarlike star', 'solar analog', and 'solar twin' [are] progressively restrictive descriptions". Tau Ceti fits the second category, given its similar mass and low variability, but relative lack of metals. The similarities have inspired popular culture references for decades, as well as scientific examination. In 1988, radial-velocity observations ruled out any periodical variations attributable to massive planets around Tau Ceti inside of Jupiter-like distances. Ever more precise measurements continue to rule out such planets, at least until December 2012. The velocity precision reached is about 11 m/s measured over a 5-year time span. This result excludes hot Jupiters and probably excludes any planets with minimal mass greater than or equal to Jupiter's mass and with orbital periods less than 15 years. In addition, a survey of nearby stars by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera was completed in 1999, including a search for faint companions to Tau Ceti; none were discovered to limits of the telescope's resolving power. However, these searches only excluded larger brown dwarf bodies and closer orbiting giant planets, so smaller, Earth-like planets in orbit around the star, like those discovered in 2012, were not precluded. If hot Jupiters were to exist in close orbit, they would likely disrupt the star's habitable zone; their exclusion was thus considered positive for the possibility of Earth-like planets. General research has shown a positive correlation between the presence of planets and a relatively high-metallicity parent star, suggesting that stars with lower metallicity such as Tau Ceti have a lower chance of having planets. ### Discovery On December 19, 2012, evidence was presented that suggested a system of five planets orbiting Tau Ceti. The planets' estimated minimum masses were between 2 and 6 Earth masses, with orbital periods ranging from 14 to 640 days. One of them, Tau Ceti e, appears to orbit about half as far from Tau Ceti as Earth does from the Sun. With Tau Ceti's luminosity of 52% that of the Sun and a distance from the star of 0.552 AU, the planet would receive 1.71 times as much stellar radiation as Earth does, slightly less than Venus with 1.91 times Earth's. Nevertheless, some research places it within the star's habitable zone. The Planetary Habitability Laboratory has estimated that Tau Ceti f, which receives 28.5% as much starlight as Earth, would be within the star's habitable zone, albeit narrowly. The discovery team refined their methodology, improved their radial-velocity measurements, and published their new results in August 2017. They confirmed Tau Ceti e and f as candidates but failed to consistently detect planets b (which may be a false negative), c (whose weakly defined apparent signal was correlated to stellar rotation), and d (which did not show up in all data sets). Instead, they found two new planetary candidates, g and h, with orbits of 20 and 49 days. The signals detected from the candidate planets have radial velocities as low as 30 cm/s, and the experimental method used in their detection, as it was applied to HARPS, could in theory have detected down to around 20 cm/s. The updated 4-planet model is dynamically packed and potentially stable for billions of years. However, with further refinements, even more candidate planets have been detected. In 2019, a paper published in Astronomy & Astrophysics suggested that Tau Ceti could have a Jupiter or super-Jupiter based on a tangential astrometric velocity of around 11.3 m/s. The exact size and position of this conjectured object have not been determined, though it is at most 5 Jupiter masses if it orbits between 3 and 20 AU. A 2020 Astronomical Journal study by astronomers Jeremy Dietrich and Daniel Apai analyzed the orbital stability of the known planets and, considering statistical patterns identified from hundreds of other planetary systems, explored the orbits in which the presence of additional, yet-undetected planets are most likely. This analysis predicted three planet candidates at orbits coinciding with planet candidates b, c, and d. The close match between the independently predicted planet periods and the periods of the three planet candidates previously identified in radial velocity data supports the genuine planetary nature of candidates b, c, and d. Furthermore, the study also predicts at least one yet-undetected planet between planets e and f, i.e., within the habitable zone. This predicted exoplanet is identified as PxP-4. Since Tau Ceti is likely aligned in such a way that it is nearly pole-on to Earth (as indicated by its rotation), if its planets share this alignment and have nearly face-on orbits, they would be less similar to Earth's mass and more to Neptune, Saturn, or Jupiter. For example, were Tau Ceti f's orbit inclined 70 degrees from being face-on to Earth, its mass would be 4.18+1.12 −1.46 Earth masses, making it a middle-to-low end super-Earth. However, these scenarios aren't necessarily true; since Tau Ceti's debris disk has an inclination of 35±10, the planets' orbits could be similarly inclined. If the debris disk and f's orbits were assumed to be equal, f would be between 5.56+1.48 −1.94 and 9.30+2.48 −3.24 Earth masses, making it slightly more likely to be a mini-Neptune. On top of that, the lower the inclination of the planetary orbits the less stable they tend to be over a given time period, as the planets would have greater masses and therefore more gravitational pull which would in turn disturb the orbital stability of neighbouring planets. So, for example, if as estimated in the Korolik et al 2023 study Tau Ceti has a pole-on inclination of around 7 degrees, and the postulated planets do as well, then those planets' orbits would be verging on instability within just a 10 million year timeframe, and therefore it is extremely unlikely they would have survived for the billions of years that make up the lifetime of the star system. ### Tau Ceti e Tau Ceti e is a confirmed planet orbiting Tau Ceti that was detected by statistical analyses of the data of the star's variations in radial velocity that were obtained using HIRES, AAPS, and HARPS. Its possible properties were refined in 2017: it orbits at a distance of 0.552 AU (between the orbits of Venus and Mercury in the Solar System) with an orbital period of 168 days and has a minimum mass of 3.93 Earth masses. If Tau Ceti e possessed an Earth-like atmosphere, the surface temperature would be around 68 °C (154 °F). Based upon the incident flux upon the planet, a study by Güdel et al. (2014) speculated that the planet may lie outside the habitable zone and closer to a Venus-like world. ### Tau Ceti f Tau Ceti f is a confirmed super-Earth orbiting Tau Ceti that was discovered in 2012 by statistical analyses of the star's variations in radial velocity, based on data obtained using HIRES, AAPS, and HARPS. It is of interest because its orbit places it in Tau Ceti's extended habitable zone. However, a 2015 study implies that it has been in the temperate zone for less than one billion years, so there may not be a detectable biosignature. Few properties of the planet are known other than its orbit and mass. It orbits Tau Ceti at a distance of 1.35 AU (near Mars's orbit in the Solar System) with an orbital period of 642 days and has a minimum mass of 3.93 Earth masses. ### Debris disk In 2004, a team of UK astronomers led by Jane Greaves discovered that Tau Ceti has more than ten times the amount of cometary and asteroidal material orbiting it than does the Sun. This was determined by measuring the disk of cold dust orbiting the star produced by collisions between such small bodies. This result puts a damper on the possibility of complex life in the system, because any planets would suffer from large impact events roughly ten times more frequently than Earth. Greaves noted at the time of her research that "it is likely that [any planets] will experience constant bombardment from asteroids of the kind believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs". Such bombardments would inhibit the development of biodiversity between impacts. However, it is possible that a large Jupiter-sized gas giant (such as the proposed planet "i") could deflect comets and asteroids. The debris disk was discovered by measuring the amount of radiation emitted by the system in the far infrared portion of the spectrum. The disk forms a symmetric feature that is centered on the star, and its outer radius averages 55 AU. The lack of infrared radiation from the warmer parts of the disk near Tau Ceti implies an inner cut-off at a radius of 10 AU. By comparison, the Solar System's Kuiper belt extends from 30 to 50 AU. To be maintained over a long period of time, this ring of dust must be constantly replenished through collisions by larger bodies. The bulk of the disk appears to be orbiting Tau Ceti at a distance of 35–50 AU, well outside the orbit of the habitable zone. At this distance, the dust belt may be analogous to the Kuiper belt that lies outside the orbit of Neptune in the Solar System. Tau Ceti shows that stars need not lose large disks as they age, and such a thick belt may not be uncommon among Sun-like stars. Tau Ceti's belt is only 1/20 as dense as the belt around its young neighbor, Epsilon Eridani. The relative lack of debris around the Sun may be the unusual case: one research-team member suggests the Sun may have passed close to another star early in its history and had most of its comets and asteroids stripped away. Stars with large debris disks have changed the way astronomers think about planet formation because debris disk stars, where dust is continually generated by collisions, appear to form planets readily. ### Habitability Tau Ceti's habitable zone—the locations where liquid water could be present on an Earth-sized planet—spans a radius of 0.55–1.16 AU, where 1 AU is the average distance from the Earth to the Sun. Primitive life on Tau Ceti's planets may reveal itself through an analysis of atmospheric composition via spectroscopy, if the composition is unlikely to be abiotic, just as oxygen on Earth is indicative of life. The most optimistic search project to date was Project Ozma, which was intended to "search for extraterrestrial intelligence" (SETI) by examining selected stars for indications of artificial radio signals. It was run by the astronomer Frank Drake, who selected Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani as the initial targets. Both are located near the Solar System and are physically similar to the Sun. No artificial signals were found despite 200 hours of observations. Subsequent radio searches of this star system have turned up negative. This lack of results has not dampened interest in observing the Tau Ceti system for biosignatures. In 2002, astronomers Margaret Turnbull and Jill Tarter developed the Catalog of Nearby Habitable Systems (HabCat) under the auspices of Project Phoenix, another SETI endeavour. The list contained more than 17000 theoretically habitable systems, approximately 10% of the original sample. The next year, Turnbull would further refine the list to the 30 most promising systems out of 5000 within 100 light-years from the Sun, including Tau Ceti; this will form part of the basis of radio searches with the Allen Telescope Array. She chose Tau Ceti for a final shortlist of just five stars suitable for searches by the (now cancelled) Terrestrial Planet Finder telescope system, commenting that "these are places I'd want to live if God were to put our planet around another star". ## See also - Epsilon Eridani - List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs - List of potentially habitable exoplanets - List of nearest terrestrial exoplanet candidates - Tau Ceti in fiction
22,696,716	Bring Us Together	1,137,274,065	American political slogan	[ "Articles containing video clips", "Political catchphrases", "Richard Nixon 1968 presidential campaign" ]	"Bring Us Together" was a political slogan popularized after the election of Republican candidate Richard Nixon as President of the United States in the 1968 election. The text was derived from a sign which 13-year-old Vicki Lynne Cole stated that she had carried at Nixon's rally in her hometown of Deshler, Ohio, during the campaign. Richard Moore, a friend of Nixon, told the candidate's speechwriters he had seen a child carrying a sign reading "Bring Us Together" at the Deshler rally. The speechwriters, including William Safire, began inserting the phrase into the candidate's speeches. Nixon mentioned the Deshler rally and the sign in his victory speech on November 6, 1968, adopting the phrase as representing his administration's initial goal—to reunify the bitterly divided country. Cole came forward as the person who carried the sign and was the subject of intense media attention. Nixon invited Cole and her family to the presidential inauguration, and she appeared on a float in the inaugural parade. The phrase "Bring Us Together" was used ironically by Democrats when Nixon proposed policies with which they disagreed or refused to support. Cole declined to comment on Nixon's 1974 resignation, but subsequently expressed sympathy for him. In newspaper columns written in his final years before his 2009 death, Safire expressed doubt that Cole's sign ever existed. ## Background The 1968 presidential campaign was one of the most bitterly fought in the nation's history. Set among national divisions over the Vietnam War, social policy, and against the backdrop of riot and assassination, none of the campaigns made healing divisions a major theme—an early slogan by Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey, "United With Humphrey" had been scrapped. The incumbent president, Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson (often called L.B.J.) could give Humphrey little support because of his own unpopularity. By 1968, candidates were appealing to the electorate through television, rather than through whistle-stop train tours. Nevertheless, Nixon had included them in his past national campaigns—he had broken off one such tour in 1952 to make the Checkers speech, and in 1960, had stopped at Deshler. The rural Ohio village, about 45 miles (72 km) southwest of Toledo, was popular among whistle-stopping presidential candidates as two main lines of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad crossed there—other visitors in search of votes had included Al Smith, Harry Truman, and Barry Goldwater. Deshler voters would respond in 1968 by giving Nixon an overwhelming majority of their votes. ## Rally and sign Vicki Cole was an eighth-grader in Deshler; her father was the local Methodist minister, while her mother taught third grade. On October 22, 1968, the day of Nixon's stop in Deshler, Cole attended class as usual. During the morning session, one of her teachers announced that any girls interested in being "Nixonettes" (girls asked to cheer and provide atmosphere at the rally) should report to the fire station after school. Cole did so, along with her friend, Rita Bowman, and the girls were provided with paper red, white, and blue dresses (to be worn over other clothing) and signs. Cole's sign read "L.B.J. Convinced Us—Vote Republican". That afternoon, Cole attended the rally, wearing her dress and holding her sign. The Nixon train pulled in, and the police lowered the rope which kept the crowd clear of the tracks. In interviews, Cole related that as the crowd surged forward, she dropped her sign amidst the pushing and shoving. Cole stated, "I wanted a sign to wave. I had lost my own placard and as the crowd moved forward as the train approached I saw this sign lying in the street and I just picked it up and held it high, hoping Mr. Nixon would see it." Nixon gave a speech from the rear platform of the train. He praised the size of the crowd, stating, "There are four times as many people here than live in the town and more than the number that were here in 1960." The candidate asserted that though his opponent, Vice President Humphrey, claimed that Americans had never had it so good, he should tell that to the farmer. Nixon pledged that he would give special attention to agricultural issues and would make the secretary of agriculture a farmer's advocate to the White House. He promised to restore order: "The most important civil right is the right to be free from [local] violence." He noted the many youths in the crowd, stating, "Young Americans know their future is at stake. They don't want four more years of the same." He recalled that his father had hailed from Ohio: "his roots are here and mine are too!" As Nixon spoke, Cole observed him and thought he was a good family man, looking warm and friendly and appearing much as she expected him to. She later stated that she did not even look at the sign until she was teased about it by a classmate, who suggested the sign, "Bring Us Together Again" was about boys, not politics. She kept the dress but told the media she threw away the sign. ## Nixon speeches and inauguration Nixon speechwriter William Safire had been told of the sign by a friend of the candidate, Richard Moore, who left the train at campaign stops to mingle with the crowd and seek items of local color for the speechwriters to use. Safire stated in his book on the early days of the Nixon administration (originally published in 1975) that at Deshler, "Moore boarded the train with that mystic look that a writer gets when he has something delicious to work with, some piece of color that could be more than a gimmick." According to Safire in a 2007 column, Moore stuck his head into the compartment occupied by Nixon's speechwriters and stated, "There's a little kid out there with a hand-lettered sign that I think says 'Bring Us Together'." Safire wrote in that column that he inserted the phrase into Nixon's remarks for the speech to be given at the next stop. Nixon used the phrase in concluding a rally at New York's Madison Square Garden on October 31, 1968. Recalling the visit to Deshler, the Republican candidate stated, "There were many signs like those I see here. But one sign held by a teenager said, 'Bring Us Together Again'. My friends, America needs to be brought together." However, Nixon's use of the phrase received little coverage until after the election. Deshler school officials heard of the speech, and asked students about the sign, but no one came forward. Safire included the incident in a draft victory statement, which Nixon looked at before addressing the nation as president-elect. In his victory speech on November 6, Nixon recalled the sign: > I saw many signs in this campaign, some of them were not friendly; some were very friendly. But the one that touched me the most was one that I saw in Deshler, Ohio, at the end of a long day of whistle-stopping. A little town. I suppose five times the population was there in the dusk. It was almost impossible to see, but a teenager held up a sign, "Bring Us Together." And that will be the great objective of this administration at the outset, to bring the American people together. Reconciliation among the American people was also a theme of Humphrey's concession statement. "I have done my best. I have lost, Mr. Nixon has won. The democratic process has worked its will, so now let's get on with the urgent task of uniting our country." School officials again asked students about the sign after Nixon mentioned his visit to Deshler in the victory speech, and this time Cole came forward. She stated that she had not done so before as she had not written the sign. Reporters interviewed the girl in the principal's office. Cole stated she felt Nixon was the one who could bring the country together again. Being interviewed by reporters from Washington, New York, and Chicago, she indicated, was more fun than sitting in history class. The Toledo Blade investigated the matter, but could not ascertain who made the sign, or what happened to it after Cole discarded it. John Baer, village chief of police, stated, "I think this has to be the most important thing that has ever happened around here." Paul Scharf, editor of the Deshler Flag, stated he did not believe the mystery of the sign's origin or fate would ever be cleared up. Safire stated he was told by Moore that the sign stood out as obviously handmade and not produced by the local Nixon campaign. As early as November 7, the Northwest Signal, local paper for nearby Napoleon, Ohio, reported that Deshler merchants were considering taking up a collection to send Cole to Washington; the following day the paper editorialized that she, along with whoever actually made the sign, be sent to Washington to see the inauguration. On November 19, 1968, campaign special assistant and longtime Nixon advisor Murray Chotiner proposed inviting the Cole family to the inauguration and having Vicki Cole ride the theme float. The President-elect subsequently invited the family to attend the inauguration; they were brought to Washington by the Inaugural Committee. Vicki Cole carried a recreation of her sign on the theme float in the inaugural parade. Carla Garrity, a 14-year-old girl from Burbank, California, objected to Cole's invitation to the inauguration on the ground that Cole had done nothing to deserve it. In a letter to her congressman, Ed Reinecke, Garrity stated she had worked very hard for Nixon and other Republican candidates, "Therefore, I am very much against that 13-year old girl in Ohio who held up the sign 'Bring us Together' being invited to the inaugural. She didn't even read or write it!" Reinecke forwarded the letter to Nixon aide John Ehrlichman with the comment, "I suspect that Carla's reaction may be shared by other young people who worked in the Nixon campaign." Nixon assistant Charles E. Stuart replied to Reinecke, stating, "Vicki Lynne has been invited to the inauguration not because she carried the sign, or even because she made the sign, but rather because the sign which she did carry proved to be an inspiration to Mr. Nixon" and expressed his confidence the invitation would be well received by other young Nixon partisans. ## Political usage and aftermath The Inaugural Committee wanted to adopt "Bring Us Together" as the inaugural theme, appalling Safire, who said, "That wasn't the theme of the campaign." Safire and other aides felt the administration should seek to advance its agenda, rather than seeking consensus on policy, and White House Chief of Staff-designate H. R. Haldeman was able to change the theme to "Forward Together." Nevertheless, the phrase "Bring Us Together" was thrown in the face of the Nixon administration by Democrats each time something divisive was proposed, and was used as the title of a tell-all exposé by Leon Panetta after he was fired from the Nixon administration for dissenting from the White House's "Southern strategy" on civil rights policy. According to Safire, the use of the phrase against Nixon shows a slogan which evokes emotion can cut both ways. Nixon's advisors denied he had abandoned a desire to bring the American people together. However, they were divided between those who sought national unity, and those, such as campaign manager and Attorney General John N. Mitchell, who felt Nixon should concentrate on keeping the voters who had cast their ballots for him, and should seek to win over the voters who had favored third-party candidate Alabama Governor George Wallace, as the key to reelection in 1972. According to Safire, after taking office, Nixon and his advisors decided he need not bring the country together, but need only work to secure his reelection by appealing to voters who were not hostile to Nixon and his policies—they became known as the silent majority. Historian Stanley Kutler suggested in his book on the Nixon administration that Nixon's policies widened divisions in the US, but that the nation finally came together late in his presidency—to reject Nixon and demand his removal. In late 1970, Vicki Cole indicated in an interview Nixon was doing the best he could. During the 1972 campaign, Cole served as Ohio chair of a future voters organization for the Nixon campaign. She then left politics, devoting her spare time to training and showing horses. In 1974, Cole declined to comment on the resignation of President Nixon in the wake of the Watergate scandal, but stated in 1977 that she felt sympathy for him, though she believed his resignation was necessary. Safire, in his political dictionary published in 2008, recollected that when he asked Moore, some years after the inauguration, whether he had really seen the girl holding the sign, or whether he had imagined it, "his eyes took on a faraway look". In columns written in the final years before his 2009 death, Safire commented that the sign was "almost too good to be true", and said of Moore, "[h]e may have made that up". ## Notes and citations ### Explanatory notes
62,430,772	History of the Wales national football team (1876–1976)	1,173,866,264	Football team history	[ "History of the Wales national football team" ]	The Wales national football team is the third-oldest side in international association football. The team played their first match in March 1876, four years after Scotland and England had contested the first-ever international match. Wales played annual fixtures against Scotland, England, and later Ireland, and these were eventually organised into the British Home Championship, an annual competition between the Home Nations. Wales did not win their first championship until the 1906–07 tournament and this remained the nation's only triumph before the First World War. Wales improved considerably in the post-war period, and claimed three titles during the 1920s, although the team was often hindered by the reluctance of Football League clubs to release their players for international duty. The situation was so grave that, in the early 1930s, Wales were forced to select a team of lower league and amateur players which became known as "Keenor and the 10 unknowns", a reference to captain Fred Keenor and the relative obscurity of his teammates. By the late 1930s, Wales were again able to call upon their strongest side, and enjoyed their most successful period in the British Home Championship, winning four titles in the six years before the Second World War. When competitive football resumed after the war, Wales began facing opponents from farther afield and played matches against other European nations for the first time. The side also began competing in qualification groups for the FIFA World Cup, but failed to qualify for the 1950 and 1954 tournaments. Under manager Jimmy Murphy, Wales qualified for their first World Cup in the 1958 tournament and progressed from their group before being defeated by Brazil in the quarter-final. The side suffered a decline in the 1960s as the 1958 World Cup generation gradually retired. Dave Bowen replaced Murphy and managed the team for a decade on a part-time basis but enjoyed little success, failing to qualify for a World Cup or the early editions of the European Nations' Cup (later known as the European Championships). He did help the team to share the British Home Championship during the 1969–70 season, the last time Wales won the tournament before the competition was discontinued. In total, Wales won the championship twelve times, sharing five titles. Bowen left in 1974, having turned down the chance to manage full-time. He was replaced by Englishman Mike Smith who led the team to the quarter-finals of the 1976 European Championships in their centenary year, when they were defeated by Yugoslavia. ## Formation and early matches The first official international association football match was held in November 1872 between Scotland and England. Four years later, G. A. Clay-Thomas, a Welshman living in London, placed adverts in sports magazines The Field and Bell's Life proposing that a Welsh side be raised for a match against either Scotland or Ireland in rugby union. Llewelyn Kenrick, a solicitor who had helped to found Druids F.C. in North Wales, responded but instead pushed ahead with plans for a football match and accepted an invitation to play the Scottish national side. He helped establish the Football Association of Wales (FAW) in February 1876 to finalise arrangements for the forthcoming match, being appointed its first secretary. To qualify for selection, players were required to be Welsh or to have resided in the country for at least three years. Kenrick was criticised by some in South Wales for failing to notify players in the region of the forthcoming match, instead publishing notices in London-based journals. Unperturbed, he continued with his plans and trial matches were held to find suitable players for the match. The first Wales international football match was held on 2 March 1876 at Hamilton Crescent in Partick with the side wearing a kit consisting of white shirts, featuring the Prince of Wales' feathers, and black shorts. The Welsh side were outclassed by their more experienced opponents, suffering a 4–0 defeat. A second fixture between the two sides was arranged for the following year, and the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham became the venue for Wales' first home international. The Welsh side fell to a 2–0 defeat in the match. Wales returned to Scotland in 1878 but a fixture clash with the final of the Welsh Cup between Druids and Wrexham led many players to refuse to travel. Such was the desperation to find willing players that the secretary of the Scottish Football Association travelled to Wales and visited the homes of players in an attempt to raise a side. A squad was eventually assembled but, having travelled overnight to Glasgow and containing many players who were not of sufficient standard, the side were defeated 9–0. As of June 2020, the result remains Wales' worst defeat in international football. In 1879, Wales and England met for the first time in international football at a snow-covered Kennington Oval in South London. The poor weather conditions resulted in the match being shortened to 60 minutes and the relatively unknown status of the Welsh side led to a low turnout of spectators; newspaper reports estimate the crowd was in the low hundreds with some even writing there were fewer than 100 in attendance. In the match, William Davies scored Wales' first international goal but his side were defeated 2–1 following goals from Herbert Whitfeld and Thomas Sorby. The standard of the Welsh side was slowly improving and the side nearly held the visiting English side in March 1880. Having trailed 3–0, the Welsh side scored twice in the final ten minutes through William Roberts and John Roberts but were unable to equalise. William Roberts also scored Wales' goal against Scotland two weeks later in a 5–1 defeat. Wales travelled to Alexandra Meadows in Blackburn the following year to play England; John Vaughan scored the only goal of the game as Wales won their first international football match. Ireland were the final Home Nation to establish an international football team, playing their first fixture in February 1882 against England. Having suffered a 13–0 defeat in their first match, the Irish side travelled to the Racecourse Ground to meet Wales for the first time. The more experienced Welsh side also proved too strong for the Irish, John Price becoming the first Welshman to score a hat-trick in international football during a 7–1 victory. Buoyed by their win, the Welsh side met England a month later and recorded a second victory over their neighbours. England had taken a 2–1 lead but were reduced to ten men when Charles Bambridge suffered a shoulder injury. Wales pulled the score back to 3–3 before scoring twice in the final three minutes to claim a 5–3 victory. ## Start of the British International Championship With all the Home Nations competing regularly, the decision was taken to introduce a competitive tournament between the sides, and the British International Championship (later to become better known as the British Home Championship) was created in 1884. The inaugural tournament was won by Scotland who won all three of their ties. Having defeated Ireland 6–0 in their opening match, Wales went on to finish third after suffering successive defeats to England and Scotland. The early stages of the competition continued on the same lines; England and Scotland competed for the title, while Wales would finish third by defeating Ireland. In the first three years of competition, Wales' only points other than in matches against Ireland was a 1–1 draw with England in the 1884–85 tournament. In the 1886–87 edition, Wales finished bottom of the competition for the first time after losing all three of their matches, including a 4–1 defeat to Ireland in the nation's first victory in international football. Wales had struggled to raise a team for the match and included Wrexham defender Bob Roberts playing as the goalkeeper. FAW secretary Alexander Hunter also stepped in when Humphrey Jones withdrew late. Hunter had never played football at such a level and his performance was described as "glaringly deficient". In a reversal of the previous year's events, the Freeman's Journal wrote that a weakened Ireland team travelled to Wales for the 1887–88 British Home Championship. The publication reported that "some young gentlemen from Belfast" had claimed to represent Ireland and went on to lose the match 11–0, although there were only four debutants in the team on the day. The scoreline remains a record victory for Wales. Jack Doughty scored four goals, and the game was so one-sided that three Welsh players left the field before the match ended to ensure they were on time for their train home. After 5–1 defeats to both England and Scotland, Wales again finished third. Wales avoided defeat in a fixture against Scotland for the first time with a goalless draw in the 1888–89 British Home Championship. The feat was achieved despite local amateur Alf Pugh starting in goal for Wales after the original selection, James Trainer, failed to arrive at the match. Pugh played the first 30 minutes before Wrexham's Sam Gillam arrived and took his place, thus becoming the first substitute ever used in international football. The following year, Wales played a home fixture outside the nation for the first time when a meeting with Ireland was held in Shrewsbury in an attempt to draw a large crowd. Wales won the match 5–2. By the early 1890s, with the domestic game thriving in England, Wales were struggling to get players released for international fixtures, particularly for away matches against Ireland which required a three-day absence from a player's club due to ferry travel. As a result, Wales finished bottom of the British Home Championship five times during the decade, including three consecutive seasons between 1891 and 1893. Wales did record their highest placed finish to date in 1895 by coming second to England after drawing all three of their fixtures, inspired by the likes of James Trainer, Billy Lewis and a debuting Billy Meredith. Wales continued their good form at the start of the 1895–96 British Home Championship by defeating Ireland 6–0 with both Meredith and Lewis scoring braces. The team's optimism was short-lived, as they suffered a heavy 9–1 defeat to England in their following match, with Steve Bloomer scoring goals. Wales would finish the 19th century by losing nine of their final ten matches, only avoiding defeat in a 2–2 draw with Scotland in March 1897. The difficulties in calling up players from English teams became so pronounced the FAW put forward a motion that national teams be granted the right to overrule clubs on player selection, although this was rejected. An approach to the English governing body, The Football Association, was also ignored. ## New century The 1899–1900 British Home Championship revived hope for Wales as they finished as runners-up to Scotland, led largely by the goals of Meredith and Tom Parry. Although results were still disappointing, the standard of the Welsh side was thought to be improving rapidly as margins of defeat became smaller and several defeats to the English and Scottish sides between 1902 and 1905 were deemed unlucky by match reporters based on the run of play. The side also avoided defeat in an away fixture against the Scots in March 1904 after holding their opponents to a 1–1 draw. The following year, Wales defeated Scotland for the first time in the team's history when goals from Meredith, Grenville Morris and Walter Watkins secured a 3–1 victory, although Wales were unable to capitalise on the victory as they finished second to England in the 1905–06 British Home Championship after failing to win either of their remaining fixtures. Having missed the previous two years while serving a ban for his part in the 1905 English football bribery scandal, Meredith returned to play for Wales in the 1906–07 British Home Championship. In their first match, Wales defeated Ireland 3–2 in Belfast with Meredith scoring his side's second goal before Lot Jones scored the winning goal. Grenville Morris scored the only goal of the match to give Wales their third consecutive victory over Scotland. In Wales' final match, Lot Jones gave his side the lead at Craven Cottage before England equalised in the second half. England went on to draw their final game of the tournament against Scotland, handing Wales their first British Home Championship success. All 21 players used in the tournament were awarded a commemoration medal by the FAW for the achievement. The team's fortunes suffered a complete reversal in the 1907–08 Championship. After losing their opening match against Scotland, the side suffered a 7–1 home defeat to England in a match where three goalkeepers were used. The starting goalkeeper, Leigh Richmond Roose, was forced off with injury in the opening 15 minutes, leading to defender Charlie Morris taking over in his absence. At half-time, England agreed that Dai Davies, who was in the crowd for the game, could enter the game to replace Roose. A final defeat against Ireland resulted in Wales finishing bottom of the championship table one year after winning the tournament outright. Ted Robbins was appointed FAW secretary in 1909, while one of Wales' most prominent players of the era, goalkeeper Roose, entered a steady decline. Although considered "one of the greatest players of his generation", Roose had developed a reputation for eccentricity that began to prove costly at times. In March 1910, Wales suffered a 1–0 defeat to Scotland when Roose allowed a speculative shot into the net having had his back turned towards play, talking to a spectator. In November of the same year, Roose suffered a broken arm while playing for his club side but declared himself fit for the British Home Championship internationals in March 1911. A poor performance in a 2–2 draw with Scotland ultimately ended his international career as he was never selected for Wales again. Wales came within one match of winning a second title in 1912 and 1913, losing deciding matches against England on both occasions. In the final championship before the First World War, Wales finished bottom of the table with one point after recording one draw and two defeats. Robbins complained that English clubs had been "antagonistic" when asked to release players for international duty. In December 1914, the Home Nations took the decision to suspend the British Home Championship following the outbreak of the war. Eight players who had represented Wales in international football were killed during the conflict, including Roose. Wales' first fixtures at the end of the war were two friendly matches against England, organised to raise funds for the FAW. The matches were not considered full internationals, being titled victory matches instead. Wales won the first meeting, led by the 40-year-old Meredith, but were defeated in the return match a fortnight later. The British Home Championship returned for the 1919–20 season with Wales' first official post-war match ending in a 2–2 draw with pre-war champions Ireland in Belfast. A draw against Scotland was followed by a 2–1 victory over England, the first time Wales had defeated their neighbours in a competitive fixture since 1882. Goals from Stan Davies and Dick Richards secured victory for Wales, who had been reduced to ten men in the second half when Harry Millership went off injured, but the performance of the now 45-year-old Meredith drew headlines. Winning his final cap, 25 years after his debut, Meredith wept openly at the end of the match. He ended his international career as both Wales' most-capped player and record goalscorer having scored 11 times in 48 appearances. To secure the championship, the team still needed England to defeat Scotland. The Scots led 4–2 at half-time, but lost the match 5–4, handing the title to Wales. ## 1920s success and decline Wales were unable to defend their title in the 1920–21 season. Although losing 2–1 to Scotland in the opening game, a goalless draw with England and a 2–1 victory over Ireland did secure the side the runners-up spot. With club sides in Wales attracting record crowds, the national team often found itself losing out to the domestic game in terms of spectators. The victory over Ireland came on the same day Cardiff City hosted South Shields in the Football League Second Division; only 11,000 attended the national side's match in Swansea while more than 30,000 attended Cardiff's fixture. Disappointing results between 1922 and 1923 prompted a revamp of the team for the 1923–24 British Home Championship. One of the debutants in the team was Swansea Town's Willie Davies who scored in a 2–0 victory over Scotland in the opening game. Davies added a further goal again in Wales' second match, a 2–1 victory over England with Ted Vizard scoring the winning goal. A final win over Ireland, via a Moses Russell penalty, secured the title for Wales having beaten all three sides in the same tournament for the first time. The success was partly attributed to the team's star players being released to play, but the change was short-lived. Six players withdrew from the squad for the opening match of the 1924–25 tournament, a 3–1 defeat to Scotland. Wales' success did prompt England to agree to a Saturday fixture in Wales for the first time; Fred Keenor scored for Wales but the side fell to a 2–1 defeat. Only a goalless draw with Ireland stopped Wales finishing last, a year after winning the tournament. Squad withdrawals continued to be a problem for the Welsh side. When Wales were left short for the visit of Scotland in the 1925–26 Championship, Ted Robbins called up debutant Jack Lewis after following him to a train station in Newport where he was due to travel to Birmingham to play for Cardiff City. Defeats to Scotland and Ireland followed and Robbins was again forced to make a late addition for the final match against England: John Pullen had been travelling to London with Moses Russell and was persuaded to join up to win his first cap, alongside Charlie Jones. Wales went on to win the match 3–1. Wales recorded a third championship win of the decade during the 1927–28 tournament, despite starting the competition poorly: they conceded two goals in the first half against Scotland before Ernie Curtis and an own goal by Jimmy Gibson salvaged a point. Wales defeated England 2–1 before travelling to Belfast to play Ireland in the final match. The game was tied at 1–1 until Wilf Lewis secured the win for Wales by charging both the ball and opposition goalkeeper into the net. When Ireland defeated Scotland two weeks later, Wales were officially confirmed as winners. In 1929, the FAW received an invitation to tour Canada and selected a 20-man squad for the trip. Wales played 15 matches against regional teams in a little over a month on the tour, winning them all. Len Davies proved prolific during the tour, scoring seven of his side's goals in an 8–0 victory over Lower Mainland. Wales returned to one of the worst British Home Championship campaigns in their history. After suffering a 4–2 defeat to Scotland in the opening match, Wales endured a 6–0 defeat to England in their second fixture. The tournament ended with a severely depleted Wales side succumbing to a 7–0 defeat to Ireland in which Joe Bambrick scored six of his side's goals, the most any player has scored in a single match against Wales. The national side's poor results at the end of the 1920s were partly blamed on the deterioration of Welsh club sides. By the end of the decade, Cardiff City had been relegated to the Second Division, Aberdare Athletic had dropped out of the Football League and both Newport County and Merthyr Town had survived re-elections to avoid the same fate. ## Pre-war recovery In 1930, the Football League introduced a new ruling which prohibited its members from releasing players for international fixtures. The ruling was designed to force international matches to be scheduled on days that would not clash with Football League fixtures. Wales' first match under the ruling was the opening game of the 1930–31 British Home Championship against Scotland, who were largely unaffected as they drew the majority of their players from Scottish leagues. Wales were forced to call up a mixture of lower division and amateur players to field a side. Nine of Wales' eleven players made their international debut in the game; only captain Fred Keenor and goalkeeper Len Evans had previous international experience. As a result, the team was dubbed "Keenor and the 10 unknowns". Ahead of the match, Keenor asked Ted Robbins if he could have the players to himself for four hours before the game. Taking the team to relax and discuss tactics for the match, in his pre-match team talk he exhorted his teammates, "There's eleven of them and eleven of us, and there's only one ball, and it's ours." Despite their inexperience, the Welsh side held Scotland to a 1–1 draw having taken the lead after six minutes from a goal by Tommy Bamford. The display led to a Scottish newspaper describing the Welsh performance as "the pluckiest display in the history of international football". The Welsh public also responded by calling for the same side to remain for the following match against England, although Elvet Collins was replaced due to injury. There was no repeat of the result; the Welsh side lost 4–0 at the Racecourse Ground. A compromise between the Football League and the other Home Nations was reached in 1931, the sides being required to provide 21 days notice for a player's release, although the club were only obliged to release English players. The FAW would also be responsible for the wages and insurance of the players during the time away, a stipulation that placed increasing strain on the organisation's already stretched finances. In practice, the more inclusive ruling provided little improvement as the FAW's release requests for players were continually rejected; during the 1931–32 British Home Championship, Wales finished bottom after losing all their matches having used 26 players in only three games. This included Eddie Parris, who became the first black player to represent Wales. The FAW subsequently gave in to the Football League and agreed to hold matches in midweek to avoid a fixture clash. The decision proved astute as Wales defeated Scotland 5–2 in the opening game of the 1932–33 tournament. Fred Keenor won his 32nd and final international cap in the game, earning praise for his performance. A goalless draw with England and a 4–1 victory over Ireland secured Wales' fifth Home Championship title. Wales travelled to Paris, France, in May 1933 to play their first international fixture against an opponent other than the Home Nations. Tommy Griffiths scored Wales' goal in a 1–1 draw with France at the Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir. Buoyed by their championship victory, the Welsh team began their title defense in the 1933–34 British Home Championship by securing a 3–2 victory over Scotland in front of 40,000 fans at Ninian Park. A draw with Ireland in Belfast meant Wales required a victory over England to guarantee consecutive titles. The match was played at St James' Park in Newcastle with Wales taking an early lead through Tommy Mills. The tension of the match was so intense Mills nearly failed to return for the second half having been sick during half-time. Eric Brook equalised for England in the second half but, with less than ten minutes remaining, Dai Astley scored a header to give Wales victory and win the Home Championship in consecutive years for the only time in the nation's history. Wales failed to retain their title in the 1934–35 competition, finishing last, but narrowly missed out on another title in the 1935–36 British Home Championship. Needing a win against Ireland to secure the championship, Wales lost 3–2. The side recovered the following season and defeated England in a home fixture for the first time since 1882 with goals from Pat Glover and Seymour Morris. Glover again proved the match winner in Wales' second fixture, scoring both goals as the side defeated Scotland 2–1. Wales won their third title in five years by defeating Ireland 4–1 in their last fixture, Glover scoring two more to finish as top goalscorer with five goals in the competition. Wales also went on to share the 1938–39 British Home Championship title with both England and Scotland after all three sides attained four points in the final tournament before the outbreak of the Second World War. ## Wartime and new overseas competition The British Home Championship was postponed during wartime; Wales' final fixture before the start of the war was a 2–1 defeat against France. The side's first wartime fixture was a 1–1 draw with England in a charity match to raise money for the Red Cross. The following year, in 1940, Wales were hosted at Wembley Stadium for the first time having previously been considered unlikely to draw a crowd large enough to fill the ground. Wales won the match 1–0 through a goal by Bryn Jones. For the majority of the war, Wales played only fixtures against England, the two sides meeting fifteen times between 1939 and 1945. Wales' final wartime matches were against Scotland and Northern Ireland. As the war drew to a close, Wales were dealt a blow by the death of Ted Robbins in January 1946. Robbins had served as secretary of the FAW since 1909 and was credited as a major factor in the team's success in previous decades. The British Home Championship returned for the 1946–47 campaign and Wales' first competitive post-war fixture was against Scotland in October 1946. The wartime gap had increased public appetite for the sport and the break resulted in an entirely new generation of players being involved in the squad. One of the debutants, Trevor Ford, was on the scoresheet for Wales as the secured a 3–1 victory. Defeats to England and Northern Ireland resulted in a third-place finish. The following year, Wales began their campaign with a 3–0 defeat against England but defeated Scotland at Hampden Park for the first time. A win over Northern Ireland left Wales leading the group with only one match to be played. In the final match, England defeated Scotland to claim the championship by a single point. In 1949, the Wales national side embarked on their first overseas tour with matches against Belgium, Portugal and Switzerland. As all three opponents wore red shirts, the fixtures necessitated the first away kit in Wales' history. A yellow shirt with green collar and trim was adopted for the tour, featuring the Welsh Dragon on the pocket. The tour proved disastrous for the squad, as Wales lost all three fixtures and the squad was involved in a road accident when the team coach crashed during a tour of the Swiss Alps. Wales and the other Home Nations entered the FIFA World Cup for the first time in the 1950 tournament and the 1949–50 British Home Championship was used to determine qualification for the tournament. The added incentive resulted in a crowd of more than 60,000 attending Wales' opening fixture against England at Ninian Park, but they witnessed their side suffer a 4–1 defeat. A further defeat to Scotland ended Wales' hopes of qualification and only a goalless draw with Northern Ireland stopped the side finishing bottom of the group on goal difference. Before the Ireland match, Belgium had travelled to Cardiff to become the first overseas side to visit Wales for an international match. Trevor Ford scored a hat-trick in a 5–1 victory for Wales. Portugal and Switzerland also travelled to Wales in 1951, as Wales responded to their earlier defeats by winning both matches. During the following year's championship, Trevor Ford became Wales' joint-leading goalscorer when he scored a brace during a 4–2 defeat to England. Having entered the match on ten goals, his double resulted in him overtaking tying Astley's tally of twelve. The side celebrated their 75th anniversary by winning their first post-war British Home Championship, sharing the 1951–52 title with England. The two sides drew their first fixture and won their remaining matches to finish on five points each. Wales' final match of the competition was a 3–0 victory over Northern Ireland at Vetch Field, the first international match held at the ground in 25 years. The Welsh squad contained several young players born or brought up in the Swansea area, including Ford, Ivor Allchurch and Roy Paul, and the game was regarded as a homecoming match. Allchurch scored in the match to finish tied as the competition's top goalscorer. Wales struggled in the years immediately afterwards, finishing bottom of the Championship in consecutive seasons, including the 1953–54 tournament which saw the team fail to qualify for the 1954 FIFA World Cup. The period also included a disastrous European tour in 1953 during which Wales suffered a 6–1 defeat to France and a 5–2 defeat to Yugoslavia. ### Austria and The Battle of Wrexham In 1954, encouraged by the work of Walter Winterbottom as England manager, the FAW appointed the first manager of the Welsh national side in former captain Walley Barnes. His first match in charge of the side was against Austria in Vienna which attracted 60,000 spectators. Despite winning 2–0, the Austrians were infuriated by the physical style of the Welsh players, particularly forwards Ford and Derek Tapscott. This playing style was unfamiliar outside Britain, and the Austrian captain, Ernst Ocwirk, described the match as "the dirtiest game he'd ever seen". Yugoslavia travelled to Wales in September 1954 in a reverse of the two sides' fixture in 1953 and became the first foreign opposition to win in Wales, with a final score of 3–1, despite having trailed 1–0 at half-time. Wales' burgeoning involvement in continental football resulted in the FAW being accepted as members of the recently founded Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) in 1954. The 1955–56 British Home Championship brought some improvement for Wales as the side recorded their first victory over England in 17 years. The period also saw the emergence of John Charles as a regular for the national side. Charles and his brother Mel often played alongside another set of brothers, Ivor and Len Allchurch, becoming the first sets of brothers to play for Wales. John Charles quickly gained a reputation as the side's leading player, featuring as either a centre-half or centre-forward, and his performance in the victory over England led Western Mail reporter Dewi Lewis to describe him as "the perfect footballer if ever there was one". All four sides shared the British Home Championship title after finishing on three points, the only occurrence of a four-way tie in the competition's 100-year history. Wales narrowly missed out on winning the title having drawn 1–1 with Northern Ireland in their final game in which Roy Paul missed a penalty with Wales already leading 1–0. Ireland later equalised and the game ended as a draw. At the end of 1955, Austria travelled to Wales a year after their 2–0 victory. The Austrian team were eager to match the physicality of the Welsh side shown in the first meeting and the match descended into violent chaos. The French referee, Louis Fauquemberghe, who was unable to speak either German or English, had little control as both sides continually resorted to fouling each other resulting in injuries to eight players. The most serious were to Austria's Theodor Wagner, who suffered a fractured tibia, and Wales' Mel Charles, who left the field with ten minutes remaining after being heavily fouled. Roy Paul later described the scene in the Welsh dressing room after the match in his autobiography, writing "Our goalkeeper, Jack Kelsey, had scars on both legs. Derek Tapscott ... had a six-inch gash on his knee. ... John Charles leaned over his brother Melvyn with tears in his eyes. Melvyn lay silent, still dazed by a tackle which had sent him crashing to the ground." The national media were highly critical after the match; the Western Mail described the match as "a disgrace", while The Times correspondent wrote "there were times when the pitch resembled a battlefield, with players down here and there." ## 1958 FIFA World Cup ### Qualification and build-up Disappointing results against European teams prompted a change of approach by the FAW who appointed Manchester United coach Jimmy Murphy as manager in 1956. His start was inauspicious, with draws against Northern Ireland and Scotland before a 3–1 defeat to England in a match where Wales finished with nine players due to injuries. The British Home Championship was dropped as a qualifying format for the 1958 FIFA World Cup and replaced by randomly drawn qualifying groups. Wales were placed alongside Czechoslovakia and East Germany and started positively by defeating Czechoslovakia 1–0 in their first fixture, via a goal by Roy Vernon. Wales travelled to East Germany for their second game with a squad of only 12 players. John Charles was highly critical of the FAW's reluctance to travel with more than a bare minimum of players, later writing "There were more selectors than players. It was crazy. You've got to put the players first but with Wales it was the selectors first and the players second." Wales eventually suffered a 2–1 defeat to the largely amateur East Germans in the nation's first competitive fixture. The squad continued to Czechoslovakia but had lost three players to illness and injury. The FAW were still reluctant to call-up replacements and only an outcry from the press prompted Ray Daniel and Des Palmer to join up with the side. Nevertheless, Wales lost the match 2–0 which made qualification unobtainable. In the final group match, Palmer scored a hat-trick to defeat East Germany 4–1. A second opportunity at qualification emerged in December 1957 as the volatile political situation in Israel led to Turkey, Indonesia and Sudan withdrawing from matches against the nation for varying reasons. FIFA rules decreed that no team could qualify for a World Cup without playing a match, and so a play-off against a European qualifying group runner-up was arranged. Belgium was drawn first but also refused to play Israel leading to a second draw in which Wales were selected. The FAW accepted the offer and Wales travelled to Tel Aviv for the first leg, winning 2–0 after goals from Ivor Allchurch and Dave Bowen. The result was the first time Wales had won an international fixture outside Britain. Allchurch scored again in the second leg and a further goal from Cliff Jones secured Wales' first qualification to a major international tournament. In the group stage of the tournament, Wales were drawn alongside Mexico, Hungary and hosts Sweden. The side's preparations for the tournament were hampered by confusion over the availability of John Charles; having failed to qualify, the Italian Football Federation had instead organised a club tournament featuring Charles' side Juventus who were reluctant to release the player. Wales manager Jimmy Murphy prepared his team to play without Charles, but the player eventually secured his release and arrived in Sweden only three days before the start of the competition. The side was further weakened by the omission of Trevor Ford, the nation's record goalscorer. He had been banned from playing in Britain in 1956 after he revealed an illegal payments scandal in club football in his autobiography. Despite continuing to play abroad, he was overlooked for selection. Derek Tapscott had also fallen out with the FAW while Des Palmer missed out due to injury, leading to Colin Webster being selected in their stead. Wales played a single warm-up match before the tournament, defeating local amateur side Saltsjöbaden 19–0. ### Tournament Wales' opening game of the tournament was against Hungary. Although the Hungarian Golden Team had previously been considered one of the best teams in the world, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 had weakened the side as many of its players had fled the country. Nevertheless, Hungary quickly took the lead in the opening five minutes through József Bozsik. The Hungarian defensive efforts were largely focused on containing John Charles who received attention described as "rugged tactics" by The Times. Journalist Ian Wooldridge wrote that the Hungarian tactics were often "just inside or wildly outside the international laws of soccer". Charles scored an equaliser for Wales after 27 minutes, heading in from a corner to secure a 1–1 draw. In their second match, Wales played a Mexico side that had suffered a 3–0 defeat to Sweden in their opening game. The Welsh side entered the game as favourites but struggled to gain the advantage over their opponents. Ivor Allchurch gave Wales the lead in the first half but Mexico responded strongly and scored a late equaliser in the 89th minute with Wales having been reduced to 10 men after Colin Baker had been injured. In their final group match, Wales met Sweden who had already qualified for the quarter-finals and had rested several players as a result. The Swedes were still the stronger of the two teams but were unable to breach the Welsh defense and the match ended goalless. Wales finished the group stage with three points, tied for second with Hungary necessitating a play-off match between the two sides to determine which would advance. Wales faced Hungary needing a victory; Hungary's superior goal difference meant a draw would see them advance. Wales were dealt a blow when Lajos Tichy gave Hungary the lead after 30 minutes while John Charles was again the focus of the Hungarian defence, leaving the field on more than one occasion to receive treatment. Charles though, proved pivotal as he set up Ivor Allchurch for Wales' equalising goal. Terry Medwin scored a second for Wales and, despite finishing the match with 10 men following an injury to Ron Hewitt, the side held on to advance to the quarter-finals. Wales met Brazil, the winners of group 4, in the quarter-finals. Much of the build-up for Wales focused on John Charles' attempts to recover from injuries sustained against Hungary. Described by one reporter as having received "the most tremendous battering I have ever seen administered to a soccer player", Charles was unable to take his place in the side and was replaced by Colin Webster. Charles' absence proved costly as several chances were spurned with Brian Glanville of The Times remarking "Wales could have won because all sorts of very tempting centres were coming across the goal and John wasn't there to head them in." Brazil went on to win the match by a single goal, scored by Pelé. ## Post World Cup decline ### World Cup generation fades The success of the Welsh team in the World Cup resulted in huge demand for tickets for the side's opening match of the 1958–59 British Home Championship against Scotland, but the capacity home crowd at Ninian Park were left disappointed as Wales suffered a 3–0 defeat. Draws against England and Northern Ireland in the final two games left Wales bottom of the Championship, less than a year after their World Cup exploits. Wales began the 1960s by meeting the Republic of Ireland for the first time. The FAW had been against the Irish split and had resisted any attempts for the two sides to play for several years (England had played the Republic for the first time some 14 years earlier). Goals from Cliff Jones and Phil Woosnam won the match for Wales. A shared British Home Championship title in 1959–60 British Home Championship and a positive finish to the following year's campaign had raised hopes of Wales qualifying for the 1962 FIFA World Cup in Chile. Wales were drawn in a group with Spain and Austria, although Austria withdrew due to financial problems before the matches began. Wales met Spain for the first match with a depleted side, missing several players including John Charles and Cliff Jones. Spain won the fixture 2–1 before the two sides drew 1–1 in the second game in Madrid, Ivor Allchurch scoring Wales' goal. The result eliminated Wales from qualifying for the World Cup. The post-World Cup interest in the team remained positive despite the elimination and led to a crowd of 62,634 attending a match against England at Ninian Park, a new record crowd for Wales and a record attendance for the ground. The side were invited to tour South America in 1962, the first matches played by the team outside Europe. The side played two matches against reigning World Cup holders Brazil, losing both 3–1. The tour concluded with a 2–1 defeat to Mexico and the retirement of long-serving goalkeeper Jack Kelsey from international football. Wales entered the European Nations' Cup for the first time in the 1964 tournament (the Home Nations had not entered the inaugural edition in 1960). In the preliminary qualifying round, Wales were drawn against Hungary and suffered a 3–1 defeat in the first leg in Budapest. A 1–1 draw in the return leg resulted in the side's elimination at the first hurdle. In April 1964, manager Jimmy Murphy was forced to miss Wales' match against Northern Ireland after his wife was taken ill. Swansea Town manager Trevor Morris was placed in charge as Wales suffered a 3–2 defeat. Murphy never took charge of another match for Wales, resigning later in the year due to commitments at Manchester United. The FAW drew up a shortlist of Welsh candidates, which included former players Jack Kelsey, Ron Burgess and Tommy Jones. The role was eventually given to another former player, Dave Bowen, who had captained the team at the 1958 World Cup. Bowen took the job alongside his role as manager of Northampton Town. His first match in charge ended in victory when two late goals from Ken Leek secured a 3–2 win over Scotland in the 1964–65 British Home Championship. Wales' qualifying group for the 1966 FIFA World Cup included the Soviet Union, the 1964 European Nations' Cup finalists, Greece and Denmark. The campaign began poorly for Wales as they lost 1–0 to Denmark in Copenhagen before losing a controversial game against Greece in Athens. Welsh players Ken Leek and Wyn Davies were continually fouled which led to brawls between players breaking out on several occasions. The home crowd also made attempts to break onto the pitch to confront the Welsh players which led to clashes with local police. Wales would avenge the defeat five months later with a 4–1 victory over Greece at Ninian Park in the return fixture. Wales travelled to Moscow in May 1965, suffering a 2–1 defeat in John Charles' final international appearance. Dave Bowen was unavailable to manage Wales in their opening match of the 1965–66 British Home Championship due to club commitments. Ron Burgess took charge for the match, which ended in a goalless draw. Bowen returned for the return fixture against the Soviet Union in October 1965. His side recorded a surprise 2–1 victory over their previously unbeaten opponents, the only match the Soviet Union failed to win during qualifying, via goals by Roy Vernon and Ivor Allchurch. The result was not enough to secure qualification as, despite beating Denmark 4–2 in their final game, Wales finished as runners-up in the group behind the Soviets. Having failed to qualify for the World Cup, Wales instead embarked on another tour of South America in May 1966, playing two matches against Brazil and one against Chile. Ivor Allchurch made his final appearance for Wales in the 2–0 defeat to Chile in the final match of the tour. He retired as Wales' record appearance holder with 68 caps, and tied with Trevor Ford as the nation's record goalscorer with 23. ### Late 1960s struggles Like the early World Cups, the qualifying phase for the 1968 European Championships used the British Home Championship as a qualification group for the tour, the results of the 1966–67 and 1967–68 tournaments being combined to determine which one of the Home Nations would progress. Wales began the stage with a 1–1 draw against Scotland in October 1966 but ultimately finished third in the 1966–67 season after losing heavily to England and recording a goalless draw with Northern Ireland. For the 1967–68 championship, Wales adopted an all-red kit for the first time in the team's history. The team fared little better, losing to England and Scotland before recording their only victory of the Euro 1968 qualifying campaign by beating Northern Ireland 2–0. Wales recorded a creditable 1–1 draw with West Germany in April 1969 ahead of the qualifying campaign for the 1970 FIFA World Cup, but the side was hampered by withdrawals and refusals to release players for matches. Wales' first match was against reigning European champions Italy and Dave Bowen was forced to name several reserve players in the line-up, although the team only lost to a single goal by Gigi Riva. The side travelled to West Germany to play a return friendly against the side; Bowen was able to select only 13 players for the trip. Wales recorded a second 1–1 draw; Barrie Jones had given Wales the lead before Gerd Müller equalised late in the match. The qualifying campaign for the 1970 World Cup ended with two defeats to East Germany and another to Italy as Wales failed to gain a single point. Wales also finished bottom of the last British Home Championship of the decade with a single point. Wales' struggles during the late-1960s were blamed on several factors. The refusal of clubs to release players for international duty or not to allow a player to travel until the day before the match often disrupted the team. In his book Red Dragons: The Story of Welsh Football, Phil Stead writes that Dave Bowen often could "not pick a side until the day of the game because he was never sure who would be available." The final match of the 1970 World Cup qualification group against Italy was nearly forfeited as Wales struggled to name a squad. One player, Wrexham's teenage defender Gareth Davis, was contacted in the early hours of the morning and travelled overnight to make the team's flight to Rome. The organisation of the team by the FAW was also criticised. Gary Sprake later remarked that "the international set-up with Wales at this time was amateurish at best." Sprake later admitted to feigning injury under the guidance of his club manager Don Revie to avoid selection with the national side. John Toshack, who made his debut in 1969, made similar comments: "The whole set-up was a bit of a shambles ... some of the players with more fashionable clubs were not too concerned about turning up for the less glamorous games." An incident in 1969 drew considerable criticism of the FAW when the organisation failed to book enough seats for the ten travelling Welsh players and its members. When none of the officials offered to give up their seat, the crew declared that the last person to board the craft, winger Gil Reece, would have to disembark. A furious Reece was left at the airport and had to travel alone to Düsseldorf before crossing the border into East Germany. ## Departure of Bowen and arrival of Smith Wales began the 1970s in a more positive fashion, sharing the 1969–70 British Home Championship with England and Scotland. Wales had drawn with both before defeating Northern Ireland. The success was the final time Wales were victorious in the competition. The title was the twelfth time it had won the competition and the fifth time it had shared the title. The team's victory raised hopes of qualifying for the 1972 European Championships. Wales were drawn in a group alongside Czechoslovakia, Romania and Finland. The campaign began with a goalless draw against Romania before a 3–1 defeat to Czechoslovakia, having led 1–0 with 12 minutes remaining. Wales recovered with home and away victories over Finland but lost their remaining games to finish third, failing to qualify. In Wales' home victory over Finland, Trevor Hockey became the first player to represent the nation under a new parentage rule allowing players to represent countries other than their own birth nations. His father had been born in Abertillery, thus qualifying him for Wales under the new ruling. Wales' fortunes dipped alarmingly in the immediate years afterwards; the side finished bottom of the British Home Championship in four out of five seasons between 1971 and 1975, winning only one match. The team did perform slightly better during qualifying for the 1974 FIFA World Cup in which they were drawn against England and Poland. Wales lost to England in their opening game, failing to score for a sixth consecutive match, but surprised many by holding England to a draw in the return fixture at Wembley Stadium having taken an early lead through John Toshack. Wales met Poland in March 1973 and recorded a 2–0 victory through goals by Trevor Hockey and Leighton James. Shortly before half-time in the return match in Chorzów, Hockey became the first Welsh player to be sent off. The match deteriorated further in the second half as both sides committed fouls and several scuffles broke out between the sides. Terry Yorath commented that he felt his "physical well being was at risk" during the game, while The Times headline referred to the match as "a night of delinquency". In 1974, the FAW decided the Wales manager's job required a full-time occupant and offered Dave Bowen the position on a permanent basis. Bowen rejected the role, unwilling to leave his position with Northampton. The job was instead given to the FAW's head of coaching, Englishman Mike Smith. ### 1976 European Championships Smith's first test was the qualifying stage for the 1976 European Championships as Wales were drawn alongside Hungary, Austria and Luxembourg. In the opening match against Austria, Wales took the lead through Arfon Griffiths, but eventually lost 2–1. Griffiths scored again in Wales' next two matches, a 2–0 win over Hungary and a 5–0 win over Luxembourg. The side continued their good form by becoming the first British side to beat Hungary in the nation since 1909, winning 2–1 via goals by John Toshack and John Mahoney and inflicting Hungary's first competitive home defeat since 1959. A second victory over Luxembourg was Gary Sprake's final international appearance. Despite having been considered Wales' first choice goalkeeper for nearly a decade, he finished his career with 37 caps, later remarking "it was expected of you as a Leeds player that you put the club first." In the final match, Wales met Austria in Wrexham needing only a draw to guarantee progress from their group. Arfon Griffiths scored the only goal of the match as Wales secured a 1–0 victory. In March 1976, the national side celebrated their centenary year with a friendly against England at the Racecourse Ground, which ended in a 2–1 defeat. For the 1976 European Championships, the qualifying group winners advanced to the quarter-finals. Normally this round was played at the tournament finals, but the 1976 competition quarter-finals were played as two-legged home and away ties with the winners advancing to the semi-finals to be held in Yugoslavia. Wales were drawn against the host nation for the quarter-final tie with the first leg being played in Zagreb. The Yugoslavians took the lead after only 45 seconds through Momčilo Vukotić before adding a second early in the second half to win 2–0. The second leg was billed as one of the biggest matches in Wales' history, and the FAW (which had grown increasingly short of funds) considered an offer to move the game to Wembley Stadium to maximise profit. The FAW board was split after a vote, leaving the decision in the hands of president Terry Squire who ultimately chose Ninian Park as the venue. East German referee Rudi Glöckner was appointed for the match, and was infuriated when the flag of his home nation was not raised before the game. He controversially awarded Yugoslavia a penalty in the first half and disallowed a goal for Wales in the second, as the increasingly irate crowd made several attempts to enter the pitch. Missiles were aimed at Glöckner for the remainder of the match, which ended in a 1–1 draw and eliminated Wales from the competition. Violence flared again at the final whistle; Glöckner required a police escort from the pitch, Yugoslavia midfielder Jurica Jerković had a physical altercation with a Welsh fan who had run onto the pitch, and another Welsh fan was arrested after a corner flag, which had been thrown in anger at the referee, struck a policeman in the neck. As a result of the scenes during the match, Wales were initially handed a two-year ban from international football, although this was reduced on appeal to a fine of 20,000 Swiss francs and a requirement that home qualifying matches for UEFA Euro 1980 be held at least 200 kilometres (120 mi) from Cardiff. ## See also - List of Cardiff City F.C. internationals - List of Swansea City A.F.C. internationals
51,847,967	After the Deluge (painting)	1,151,344,782	Symbolist oil painting by English artist George Frederic Watts	[ "1891 paintings", "Paintings by George Frederic Watts", "Paintings depicting Hebrew Bible themes", "Sun in art", "Symbolist paintings", "Water in art" ]	After the Deluge, also known as The Forty-First Day, is a Symbolist oil painting by English artist George Frederic Watts, first exhibited as The Sun in an incomplete form in 1886 and completed in 1891. It shows a scene from the story of Noah's Flood, in which after 40 days of rain Noah opens the window of his Ark to see that the rain has stopped. Watts felt that modern society was in decline owing to a lack of moral values, and he often painted works on the topic of the Flood and its cleansing of the unworthy from the world. The painting takes the form of a stylised seascape, dominated by a bright sunburst breaking through clouds. Although this was a theme Watts had depicted previously in The Genius of Greek Poetry in 1878, After the Deluge took a radically different approach. With this painting he intended to evoke a monotheistic God in the act of creation, but avoid depicting the Creator directly. The unfinished painting was exhibited in Whitechapel in 1886, under the intentionally simplified title of The Sun. Watts worked on the painting for a further five years, and the completed version was exhibited for the first time at the New Gallery in 1891. Between 1902 and 1906 the painting was exhibited around the United Kingdom, and it is now in the collection of the Watts Gallery in Compton, Surrey. As Watts did not include After the Deluge in his gift to the nation of what he considered his most significant works, it is not among his better-known paintings. However, it was greatly admired by many of Watts's fellow artists, and has been cited as an influence on numerous other painters who worked in the two decades following its initial exhibition. ## Background George Frederic Watts was born in 1817, the son of a London musical instrument manufacturer. His two brothers died in 1823, and his mother in 1826, giving Watts an obsession with death throughout his life. Watts was apprenticed as a sculptor at the age of 10, and by his mid-teens was proficient enough as an artist to be earning a living as a portrait painter. At the age of 18 he gained admission to the Royal Academy schools, although he disliked their methods and his attendance was intermittent. From 1837, Watts was successful enough to devote himself full-time to painting. In 1843 Watts travelled to Italy where he remained for four years. On his return to London he suffered from melancholia, and painted many notably gloomy works. His skills were widely celebrated, and in 1856 he decided to devote himself to portrait painting. His portraits were extremely highly regarded, and in 1867 he was elected to the Royal Academy, at the time the highest honour available to an artist, although he rapidly became disillusioned with its culture. From 1870 onwards he became widely renowned as a painter of allegorical and mythical subjects; by this time, he was one of the most highly regarded artists in the world. In 1881 he added a glass-roofed gallery to his home at Little Holland House, which was open to the public at weekends, further increasing his fame. ## Subject After the Deluge depicts a scene from the story of Noah's Flood, in which Noah opens the window of the Ark to see that after forty days the rain has ended but the floodwaters have not yet subsided. Although his father's strict evangelical Christianity had instilled in Watts a strong dislike of organised religion, he had a deep knowledge of the Bible, and Noah and the Flood were both themes he regularly depicted throughout his career. Watts had a strong belief in the idea that modern society was prioritising wealth over social values, and that this attitude, which he described as "the hypocritical veiling of the daily sacrifice made to this deity", was leading to the decline of society. Hilary Underwood of the University of Surrey writes that Watts likely painted so many works on the theme of Noah as he saw modern parallels with the notion of the cleaning of a degenerate society while preserving those who still adhered to moral standards. Watts chose to depict the moment at which the sunlight became visible for the first time, after 40 days obscured by clouds. > And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen. And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made. ## Composition Watts illustrated the scene with a highly stylised seascape. Above the sea is a bright sunburst, with the light of the sun illuminating the surrounding clouds and bright rays projecting beyond the edges of the canvas. Watts's composition echoes J. M. W. Turner's 1843 treatment of the same topic, Light and Colour (Goethe's Theory)—The Morning after the Deluge—Moses Writing the Book of Genesis, in primarily depicting a circle of bright light. However, Turner's painting depicts recognisable human figures, and no work by Turner ever came as close to pure abstract art as Watts's composition. In this stage of his career Watts regularly painted images linking awe-inspiring natural events and the will of God. His focus on the Sun reflects his longstanding interest in it as a divine symbol; The Sacrifice of Noah, painted c. 1865, showed Noah sacrificing to the sun in thanks for his family's salvation. This interest in the Sun possibly came from Watts's acquaintance Max Müller, who had written extensively on solar theories of mythology (the belief that the religions of Europe, the Middle East and southern Asia were all ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European worship of the Sun). Writing after Watts's death, his widow Mary Seton Watts wrote that: > A visitor looking at After the Deluge remarked that into such a scheme of colour he felt it would not have been impossible to introduce the figure of the Creator. 'Ah no,' Mr Watts replied. 'But that is exactly what I could wish to make those who look at the picture conceive for themselves. The hand of the Creator moving by light and by heat to re-create. I have not tried to paint a portrait of the sun—such a thing is unpaintable—but I wanted to impress you with the idea of its enormous power.' Watts had previously depicted an orange sun above a flat sea in his 1878 work The Genius of Greek Poetry, but the theme and composition of After the Deluge was radically different. The Genius of Greek Poetry was intended to evoke pantheism, with figures representing the forces of nature in human form working and playing, while being watched by the large central figure of the Genius. After the Deluge was explicitly intended as a monotheistic image, evoking both the magnificence and the redemptive mercy of a single all-powerful God engaging in the act of creation. After the Deluge was exhibited in unfinished form in 1886 as The Sun at St Jude's Church, Whitechapel; Samuel Barnett, vicar of St Jude's, organised annual art exhibitions in east London in an effort to bring beauty into the lives of the poor; he had a close relationship with Watts, and regularly borrowed his works to display them to local residents. Following this exhibition Watts continued to work on the painting for a further five years. ## After completion The completed version of After the Deluge was exhibited at the New Gallery in 1891. On the occasion of its 1891 exhibition and at a later exhibition in 1897, also at the New Gallery, it was accompanied by an explanatory note (thought to have been written by Watts) explaining the image: > A transcendent power of light and heat bursts forth to re-create; darkness is chased away; the waters, obedient to the higher law, already disperse into vapoury mists and pass from the face of the earth. Between 1902 and 1906 it was exhibited around the country, being shown in Cork, Edinburgh, Manchester and Dublin, as well as at Watts's own gallery at Little Holland House. In 1904 it was transferred to the newly-opened Watts Gallery in Compton, Surrey, shortly before Watts's death later that year. Two years prior to this, Watts had returned to the theme of creation with The Sower of the Systems, which for the first time in one of his works directly depicted God, and which he described as representing "a great gesture into which everything that exists is woven". Although Watts painted landscapes throughout his life, he did not consider such paintings to be major works, and when between 1886 and 1902 he donated what he felt to be his 23 most significant non-portrait works to the nation for public display, no landscape paintings were included. As a consequence of its omission from these gifts to the nation, After the Deluge is not among his better-known works, although it was greatly admired by many of Watts's fellow artists. Walter Bayes wrote in 1907 that After the Deluge was "the sort of landscape that we connect with the name of Mr Watts, a landscape from which all that is coarse and material has been eliminated, and which offers a residuum that is a kind of sublimation of all the most poetic elements in nature". It has been cited as an influence on many works painted in the two decades following its completion, including paintings of the sun by Maurice Chabas, Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo and Edvard Munch. After the Deluge remains in the collection of the Watts Gallery.
12,395,051	The World Without Us	1,122,867,837	2007 non-fiction book by Alan Weisman	[ "2007 in the environment", "2007 non-fiction books", "English-language books", "Environmental non-fiction books", "Futurology books", "Human extinction", "Post-apocalyptic novels", "Thought experiments" ]	The World Without Us is a 2007 non-fiction book about what would happen to the natural and built environment if humans suddenly disappeared, written by American journalist Alan Weisman and published by St. Martin's Thomas Dunne Books. It is a book-length expansion of Weisman's own February 2005 Discover article "Earth Without People". Written largely as a thought experiment, it outlines, for example, how cities and houses would deteriorate, how long man-made artifacts would last, and how remaining lifeforms would evolve. Weisman concludes that residential neighborhoods would become forests within 500 years, and that radioactive waste, bronze statues, plastics, and Mount Rushmore would be among the longest-lasting evidence of human presence on Earth. The author of four previous books and numerous articles for magazines, Weisman traveled to interview academics, scientists and other authorities. He used quotations from these interviews to explain the effects of the natural environment and to substantiate predictions. The book has been translated and published in many countries. It was successful in the U.S., reaching \#6 on the New York Times Best Seller list and \#1 on the San Francisco Chronicle Best-Sellers list in September 2007. It ranked \#1 on Time and Entertainment Weekly's top 10 non-fiction books of 2007. ## Background The idea of exploring the effects of the depopulating of the Earth is an old one, having been a regular trope in science fiction novels for decades. Post-apocalyptic literature in general had often tried to imagine the fate of civilization and its artifacts after the end of humanity. Indeed, an extremely popular 1949 novel, Earth Abides, portrayed the breakdown of urban systems and structures after a pandemic, through the eyes of a survivor, who muses at the end of the first chapter: "What would happen to the world and its creatures without man? That he was left to see." The World Without Us applies a more ecological view to Earth Abides. Before writing it, the author, Alan Weisman, had written four books, including, Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World, in 1998, about the eco-village of Gaviotas in Colombia; and An Echo In My Blood, in 1999, about his family's history immigrating from Ukraine to the United States. He has worked as an international journalist for American magazines and newspapers, and at the time of writing the book was an Associate Professor of Journalism and Latin American Studies at the University of Arizona. The position required him to teach only one class in the spring semester, and he was free to travel and conduct research the rest of the year. The idea for The World Without Us was suggested to Weisman in 2004 by Josie Glausiusz, an editor at Discover. She had pondered the idea for several years and asked Weisman to write a feature on the subject after she re-read "Journey through a Doomed Land", an article he published in 1994 in Harper's Magazine about the state of Chernobyl eight years after abandonment. His Discover article, "Earth Without People", published in the February 2005 issue and re-printed in The Best American Science Writing 2006 anthology, describes how nature has thrived in the abandoned Korean Demilitarized Zone and how nature would overwhelm the built environment of New York City. To expand this into a book, Weisman's agent found an editor and publisher at St. Martin's Press. Among the 23-page bibliography are two articles he wrote for the Los Angeles Times Magazine ("Naked Planet" on the Antarctic ozone hole, and "The Real Indiana Jones" on the Mayan civilization) and one published in the Condé Nast Traveler ("Diamond in the Wild" on diamond mining encroaching on North America's largest wildlife preserve), as well as ''Discovers "Earth Without People". Additional research saw Weisman travel to England, Cyprus, Turkey, Panama, and Kenya. Interviews with academics quoted in the book include biologist E. O. Wilson on the Korean Demilitarized Zone, archaeologist William Rathje on plastics in garbage, forest botanist Oliver Rackham on vegetative cover across Britain, anthropologist Arthur Demarest on the crash of Mayan civilization, paleobiologist Douglas Erwin on evolution, and philosopher Nick Bostrom on Transhumanism. ## Synopsis The book is divided into 27 chapters, with a prelude, coda, bibliography and index. Each chapter deals with a new topic, such as the potential fates of plastics, petroleum infrastructure, nuclear facilities, and artworks. It is written from the point of view of a science journalist with explanations and testimonies backing his predictions. There is no unifying narrative, cohesive single-chapter overview, or thesis. Weisman's thought experiment pursues two themes: how nature would react to the disappearance of humans and what legacy humans would leave behind. To foresee how other life could continue without humans, Weisman reports from areas where the natural environment exists with little human intervention, like the Białowieża Forest, the Kingman Reef, and the Palmyra Atoll. He interviews biologist E. O. Wilson and visits with members of the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement at the Korean Demilitarized Zone where few humans have penetrated since 1953. He tries to conceive how life may evolve by describing the past evolution of pre-historic plants and animals, but notes Douglas Erwin's warning that "we can't predict what the world will be 5 million years later by looking at the survivors". Several chapters are dedicated to megafauna, which Weisman predicts would proliferate. He profiles soil samples from the past 200 years and extrapolates concentrations of heavy metals and foreign substances into a future without industrial inputs. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and implications for climatic change are likewise examined. With material from previous articles, Weisman uses the fate of the Mayan civilization to illustrate the possibility of an entrenched society vanishing and how the natural environment quickly conceals evidence. To demonstrate how vegetation could compromise human built infrastructure, Weisman interviewed hydrologists and employees at the Panama Canal, where constant maintenance is required to keep the jungle vegetation and silt away from the dams. To illustrate abandoned cities succumbing to nature, Weisman reports from Chernobyl, Ukraine (abandoned in 1986) and Varosha, Cyprus (abandoned in 1974). Weisman finds that their structures crumble as weather does unrepaired damage and other life forms create new habitats. In Turkey, Weisman contrasts the construction practices of the rapidly growing Istanbul, as typical for large cities in less developed countries, with the underground cities in Cappadocia. Due to a large demand for housing in Istanbul much of it was developed quickly with whatever material was available and could collapse in a major earthquake or other natural disaster. Cappadocian underground cities were built thousands of years ago out of volcanic tuff, and are likely to survive for centuries to come. Weisman uses New York City as a model to outline how an unmaintained urban area would deconstruct. He explains that sewers would clog, underground streams would flood subway corridors, and soils under roads would erode and cave in. From interviews with members of the Wildlife Conservation Society who developed the Mannahatta Project and with the New York Botanical Gardens Weisman predicts that native vegetation would return, spreading from parks and out-surviving invasive species. Without humans to provide food and warmth, rats and cockroaches would die off. Weisman explains that a common house would begin to fall apart as water eventually leaks into the roof around the flashings, erodes the wood and rusts the nails, leading to sagging walls and eventual collapse. After 500 years, all that would be left would be aluminum dishwasher parts, stainless steel cookware, and plastic handles. The longest-lasting evidence on Earth of a human presence would be radioactive materials, ceramics, bronze statues, and Mount Rushmore. In space, the Pioneer plaques, the Voyager Golden Record, and radio waves would outlast the Earth itself. Breaking from the theme of the natural environment after humans, Weisman considers what could lead to the sudden, complete demise of humans without serious damage to the built and natural environment. That scenario, he concludes, is extremely unlikely. He also considers transhumanism, the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, the Church of Euthanasia and John A. Leslie's The End of the World: the Science and Ethics of Human Extinction. Weisman concludes the book considering a new version of the one-child policy. While he admits it is a "draconian measure", he states, "The bottom line is that any species that overstretches its resource base suffers a population crash. Limiting our reproduction would be damn hard, but limiting our consumptive instincts may be even harder." He responded to criticism of this saying "I knew in advance that I would touch some people's sensitive spots by bringing up the population issue, but I did so because it's been missing too long from the discussion of how we must deal with the situation our economic and demographic growth have driven us too (sic)". ## Publication The book was first published on July 10, 2007, as a hardback in the United States by St. Martin's Thomas Dunne Books, in United Kingdom by Virgin Books and in Canada by HarperCollins. The paperback was released in July 2008. It has been translated and published in Denmark by Borgen as Verden uden os, France by Groupe Flammarion as Homo disparitus, in Germany by Piper as Die Welt ohne uns, in Portugal by Estrela Polar as O Mundo Sem Nós, in Italy by Einaudi as Il mondo senza di noi, in Poland by CKA as Świat bez nas, and in Japan by Hayakawa Publishing as Jinrui ga kieta sekai (人類が消えた世界; "A World where the Human Race has Disappeared"). Pete Garceau designed the cover art for the American release, which one critic said was "a thick layer of sugar-coated sweetness in an effort to not alarm potential readers. 'Yes, I am a book about the environment. But I'm harmless! No, really!' " The Canadian version, designed by Ellen Cipriano, is similar to the American version but with a photo illustration rather than the disarming cartoon illustration. Cover art for the international releases contrast the natural environment with a decaying built environment. Adam Grupper voiced the ten-hour-long, unabridged English language audiobook which was published by Macmillan Audio and BBC Audiobooks, and released simultaneously with the hardcover book. AudioFile gave the audio presentation its Earphones Award, called Grupper's reading sincere and balanced, and wrote, "Never veering into sensationalism, always objective and phlegmatic, Grupper takes what could be a depressing topic and makes it a book you just can't stop listening to". ## Reception As the book was released Weisman launched his book tour with stops throughout the United States, Canada and overseas to Lisbon and Brussels. Weisman did television interviews on The Daily Show and The Today Show and radio interviews on Weekend Edition, Talk of the Nation, The Diane Rehm Show, Living on Earth, Marketplace, and As It Happens. Meanwhile, the book debuted on the New York Times Best Seller list for non-fiction hardcovers at \#10 on July 29 and spent nine weeks in the top ten, peaking at \#6 on August 12 and September 9. In the Canadian market, it spent 10 weeks on The Globe and Mail'''s non-fiction best seller list, peaking at \#3 on August 11. The book reached \#1 on the San Francisco Chronicle Best-Sellers list for non-fiction on September 23 and spent 11 weeks on the USA Today's Top 150 Best-Selling Books, peaking at \#48. Reviewers at the Library Journal recommended the book for all environmental collections and the audiobook for most public and academic library audiobook collections. The book ranked \#1 on Time and Entertainment Weekly's top 10 non-fiction books of 2007 and was listed in the Hudson Booksellers' "Best Books published in 2007". In the Amazon.com "Best Books of 2007", it placed \#4 overall in the United States and \#1 in the non-fiction category in Canada. The writing style was positively received as being vivid and well-written, sometimes grim, but with appropriate language. Even an overall negative review by Michael Grunwald in The Washington Post remarked the writing was "always lucid, sometimes elegant". In The New York Times Book Review Jennifer Schuessler said Weisman has a "flirtation with religious language, his occasionally portentous impassivity giving way to the familiar rhetoric of eco-hellfire". Janet Maslin of The New York Times found the writing had "an arid, plain, what-if style" while being "strangely uniform in tone". On the reporting techniques, Kamiya wrote that "[Weisman's] science reporting, at once lucid and full of wonder ... is the heart and soul of this book" and that it is "written as if by a compassionate and curious observer on another planet". The Plain Dealer book editor Karen Long said Weisman "uses the precise, unhurried language of a good science writer and shows a knack for unearthing unexpected sources and provocative facts". Several critics found the lack of an anthropomorphic point of view hurt the book's relevance. Robert Braile in The Boston Globe wrote that it has "no real context ... no rationale for probing this fantasy other than [Weisman's] unsubstantiated premise that people find it fascinating". Michael Grunwald in The Washington Post also questioned the premise: "Imagining the human footprint on a post-human planet might be fun for dormitory potheads who have already settled the questions of God's existence and Fergie's hotness, but it's not clear why the rest of us need this level of documentary evidence". On the other hand, Alanna Mitchell in the Globe and Mail review found relevance in the context of society's passiveness to resource depletion combined with an anthropomorphic vanity. She writes the "book [is] designed to help us find the how of survival by shaking us out of our passive dance with death". The book's environmental focus was also criticized by some. Christopher Orlet of The American Spectator wrote that it is "a prime example of the wrongheaded, extremist views of the Greens". Braile agrees that the book could be "an environmentalist's nightmare, possibly fueling the cheap shots taken at the green movement ... by critics who say environmentalists care more about nature than people". Environmentalist Alex Steffen found the book presents nothing new, but that using the sudden and clean disappearance of humans provides a unique framework, although extremely unlikely and insensitive. Two critics who call the book a "Jeremiad" ultimately gave it a positive review. The Guardian says "we learn during the course of this book, to feel good about the disappearance of humanity from the Earth". Other critics hailed the environmental perspective. Chauncey Mabe of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel calls the book "one of the most satisfying environmental books of recent memory, one devoid of self-righteousness, alarmism or tiresome doomsaying". Tom Spears of the CanWest News Service concludes "it's more a portrait of ourselves, taken through an odd lens" and "[s]ometimes an obituary is the best biography". ## Genre The book is categorized as non-fiction science but some commentators emphasize it may be better described as speculative fiction. The World Without Us is grounded in environmental and science journalism. Like other environmental books, it discusses the impact that the human race has had on the planet. Weisman's thought experiment removes the judgments and sufferings of humans by focusing on a hypothetical post-human world. This approach to the genre, which "throw[s] the spotlight on the earth itself", was found to be creative and objective. There have been other books that address similar topics, such as Gregory Benford's 1999 book Deep Time: How Humanity Communicates Across Millennia. Science fiction writers such as H. G. Wells (The War of the Worlds, 1898) and John Wyndham (The Day of the Triffids, 1951) had earlier touched upon the possible fate of cities and other man-made structures after the sudden removal of their creators. Similar parallels in the decay of civilization are detailed in 1949 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by Berkeley English professor George R. Stewart, Earth Abides. Addressing his approach, Weisman said that eliminating the human element eliminated the "fear factor" that people are doing something wrong or that they will die; it is meant to be read as a fantasy, according to the author. Josie Appleton of Spiked related the book to "today's romanticisation of nature" in that it linked "the decadence and detachment of a modern consumerist society" with an ignorance of the efforts required to produce products so easily disposed. Appleton also felt the book countered the "Nature knows best" notion by highlighting the randomness of natural forces. Weisman's science journalism style uses interviews with academic and professional authorities to substantiate conclusions, while maintaining the "cool and dispassionate [tone]...of a scientific observer rather than an activist". Weisman said he purposely avoided the activist label: "Some of our finest science and nature writers only get read by people who already agree with them. It's nice to get some affirmation for whatever it is you believe is true, even if it's quite sobering, but I wanted to write something that people would read ... without minimizing the significance of what's going on, nor trivializing it, nor oversimplifying it." Richard Fortey compares the book to the works of Jared Diamond, Tim Flannery and E.O. Wilson, and writes that The World Without Us "narrowly avoids engendering the gloom-and-doom ennui that tends to engulf the poor reader after reading a catalogue of human rapacity". Mark Lynas in the New Statesman noted that "whereas most environmental books sag under the weight of their accumulated bad news, The World Without Us seems refreshingly positive". Demonstrating the optimism on the grim subject matter Appleton quotes an ecologist from the book saying "if the planet can recover from the Permian, it can recover from the human". ## In popular culture - The Earth After Us explores the geological legacy of the human species. - There Will Come Soft Rains, a 1920 poem by Sara Teasdale. - After Man: A Zoology of the Future considers the evolution of life on Earth 50 million years after the extinction of human beings. - The plot of Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov (a continuation of his Foundation Trilogy), includes Aurora, a habitable planet which was abandoned by people for thousands of years. That planet, however, was settled by people, and its limited ecology was maintained by them, leading to its deterioration in the absence of human beings. There have been several TV specials relating to the same topic: - Life After People shows what would happen if humans disappeared instantly. - Aftermath: Population Zero is the same as the above, but gives more detail into certain things. - The Future Is Wild, while not seeking to explain our disappearance, shows how life on Earth (without humans) would evolve 5, 100 and 200 million years in the future. The 2009 hip-hop song "The High Line" by Kinetics & One Love, inspired by The World Without Us, is a pro-green, anti-deforestation song that paints the picture of trees and plants reclaiming the buildings of New York City long after the presence of humans. Like author Alan Weisman, rapper Kinetics uses the High Line railway in Manhattan as an example of nature’s potential for reclamation of manmade structures. The 2013 video game The Last of Us, which takes place twenty years after an apocalyptic event, uses The World Without Us as inspiration for the look of the city settings. The 2017 video game NieR: Automata, which considers the Earth devoid of humanity for several hundreds of years, draws heavy inspiration from The World Without Uss depictions of cities and former civilisation habitats in its level design. In 2009 20th Century Fox purchased the rights to the book with the intent of creating a motion picture.
1,397,955	Icelandic Phallological Museum	1,173,822,953	Museum of penises and penis parts in Reykjavik, Iceland	[ "1997 establishments in Iceland", "Andrology", "Medical and health organizations based in Iceland", "Medical museums", "Museums established in 1997", "Museums in Reykjavík", "Natural history museums in Iceland", "Penis", "Sex museums", "Sexuality in Iceland" ]	The Icelandic Phallological Museum (Icelandic: Hið íslenzka reðasafn ), located in Reykjavík, Iceland, houses the world's largest display of penises and penile parts. As of early 2020 the museum moved to a new location in Hafnartorg, three times the size of the previous one, and the collection holds well over 300 penises from more than 100 species of mammal. Also the museum holds 22 penises from creatures and peoples of Icelandic folklore. In July 2011, the museum obtained its first human penis, one of many promised by would-be donors. Its detachment from the donor's body did not go according to plan and it was reduced to a greyish-brown shriveled mass that was pickled in a jar of formalin. The museum continues to search for "a younger and a bigger and better one." Founded in 1997 by since-then retired teacher Sigurður Hjartarson and now run by his son Hjörtur Gísli Sigurðsson, the museum grew out of an interest in penises that began during Sigurður's childhood when he was given a cattle whip made from a bull's penis. He obtained the organs of Icelandic animals from sources around the country, with acquisitions ranging from the 170 cm (67 in) front tip of a blue whale penis to the 2 mm (0.08 in) baculum of a hamster, which can only be seen with a magnifying glass. The museum claims that its collection includes the penises of elves and trolls, though, as Icelandic folklore portrays such creatures as being invisible, they cannot be seen. The collection also features phallic art and crafts such as lampshades made from the scrotums of bulls. The museum has become a popular tourist attraction with thousands of visitors a year and has received international media attention, including a Canadian documentary film called The Final Member, which covers the museum's quest to obtain a human penis. According to its mission statement, the museum aims to enable "individuals to undertake serious study into the field of phallology in an organized, scientific fashion." ## History The museum's founder Sigurður Hjartarson worked as a teacher and principal for 37 years, teaching history and Spanish at Reykjavík's Hamrahlid College for the last 26 years before his retirement. As a child, he owned a bull's pizzle, which was given to him to use as a cattle whip. He began collecting penises after a friend heard the story of the bull's penis in 1974 and gave him four new ones, three of which Sigurður gave to friends. Acquaintances at whaling stations began bringing him whale penises as well, and the collection grew from there, expanding through donations and acquisitions from various sources around Iceland. The organs of farm animals came from slaughterhouses, while fishermen supplied those of pinnipeds and the smaller whales. The penises of larger whales came from commercial whaling stations, although this source dried up after the International Whaling Commission implemented a global ban on commercial whaling in 1986. Sigurður was able to continue to collect whale penises by harvesting them from the 12–16 whales that fall victim to stranding on the Icelandic coast each year. He also obtained the penis of a polar bear shot by fishermen who found the animal drifting on drift ice off the Westfjords. Sigurður was assisted by his family, though not without some occasional embarrassment. His daughter Þorgerður recalls that she was once sent to a slaughterhouse to collect a specimen but arrived just as the workers were taking a lunch break: "Someone asked, 'What's in the basket?' I had to say, 'I'm collecting a frozen goat penis.' After that I said, 'I will never collect for you again.'" According to Sigurður, "Collecting penises is like collecting anything. You can never stop, you can never catch up, you can always get a new one, a better one." The collection was at first housed in Sigurður's office at the college until he retired from his teaching job. He decided, more as a hobby than a job, to put it on public display in Reykjavík and was awarded a grant from the city council of ISK 200,000 to support the opening of a museum in August 1997. By 2003, it was attracting 5,200 visitors a year, of which 4,200 were from abroad. He put the museum up for sale in 2003, but also offered it to the city of Reykjavík as a gift. However, he was unsuccessful in obtaining financial support from the state or city. When he retired in 2004, he could no longer afford the rent on the museum's premises. After his retirement, he moved along with his collection to Húsavík, a fishing village with a population of about 2,200 people located 298 miles (480 km) northeast of the capital. The museum was housed in a small building, formerly a restaurant, that was marked with a giant wooden penis and a stone phallus standing outside on the street. The village's inhabitants were at first skeptical of the new arrival, but came to accept it when they were persuaded that there was nothing pornographic about the museum. In 2012 he handed over the collection to his son, Hjörtur Gísli Sigurðsson (described by Slate as "the world's only hereditary penis-museum operator"). It was relocated from Húsavík to Reykjavík's main shopping street at Laugavegur 116. Its former location in Húsavík is now home to The Exploration Museum. An offer from a wealthy German to buy the museum for ISK 30 million (US \$232,000 / €186,000) and a proposal to move it to the United Kingdom were both turned down, as Hjörtur insists that "the museum has to be in Iceland." He intends to continue acquiring new penises because you can "always get a better, newer one ... a bigger size or better shape, you know?" According to University of Iceland anthropologist Sigurjón Baldur Hafsteinsson, Icelanders' tolerance of the museum is an indicator of how Icelandic society has changed since the 1990s, when a newly elected neoliberal government fostered a more open outlook on entertainment, creativity and tourism that has "enabled new ideas to emerge publicly". He has documented the significance of the museum's role in Icelandic culture in a book, Phallological museum. ## Collection According to the museum's website, the collection comprises 280 specimens from 93 species of animals. They range from some of the largest to some of the smallest penises in the animal world. Its largest exhibit is a portion of a blue whale's penis measuring 170 cm (67 in) long and weighing 70 kilograms (150 lb), which Iceland Review has dubbed "a real Moby Dick". The specimen is just the tip, as the entire organ, when intact, would have been about 5 m (16 ft) long and weighed about 350–450 kilograms (770–990 lb). The baculum of a hamster, only 2 mm (0.08 in) long, is the smallest item in the collection and needs a magnifying glass to be viewed. Sigurður has described the collection as the product of "37 years of collecting penises. Somebody had to do it." The museum also has a "folklore section" exhibiting mythological penises; its online catalogue lists specimens taken from elves, trolls, kelpies, and "The Nasty Ghost of Snæfell". Sigurður says that the elf's penis, which the museum's catalogue describes as "unusually big and old", is among his favourites. It cannot be seen, as Icelandic folklore holds that elves and trolls are invisible. The folkloric penises also include those of a merman, a one-legged, one-armed and one-eyed monster called a Beach-Murmurer, an Enriching Beach Mouse (said to draw "money from the sea to enrich her owner"), and an Icelandic Christmas Lad found dead at the foot of a mountain in 1985 and whose penis was presented to the museum by a former mayor of Reykjavík. The museum's website states that it enables "individuals to undertake serious study into the field of phallology in an organized, scientific fashion", giving due prominence to a field that until now has only been "a borderline field of study in other academic disciplines such as history, art, psychology, literature and other artistic fields like music and ballet." The museum aims to collect penis specimens from every mammal in Iceland. It also exhibits phallic artwork and penis-related objects or "phallobilia" such as lampshades made from the scrotums of bulls. Other exhibits range "from an 18th-century engraving depicting the circumcision of Christ to a 20th-century plastic penis pacifier." Most of the collection has been donated, and the only purchase to date has been an elephant's penis measuring nearly 1 m (3.3 ft) long. The penises are either preserved in formaldehyde and displayed in jars or are dried and hung or mounted on the walls of the museum. Sigurður has used a variety of techniques to preserve the penises, including preservation in formaldehyde, pickling, drying, stuffing and salting. One particularly large penis taken from a bull has been converted into a walking stick. Many of the museum's exhibits are illuminated by lamps made by Sigurður from rams' testicles. Sigurður has also carved wooden phalluses, which can be found adorning various objects around the museum, and has a bow tie decorated with images of phalluses that he wears on special occasions. Josh Schonwald of Salon described his impressions of the museum when he visited in 1998: > They were hanging on the walls, stuffed in jars, displayed with curatorial love – dried penises, penises embalmed in formaldehyde, massive penises displayed like hunting trophies. A tanned bull's penis, a smoked horse's penis. There were runty, shriveled penises of reindeer, foxes, minks and rats. There were seal and walrus penises with stiff penis bones – ensuring a perpetually erect state. There was the Big Penis – a 3-foot-long blue whale penis (which could have been an oar for a canoe). The museum is open every day and by July 2011 was attracting up to 11,000 visitors annually. Sixty percent of the museum's visitors are reported to be women, though according to the authors of the Rough Guide to Iceland, mentioning the museum "causes the staff at the tourist office to blush with embarrassment." The museum's guest book includes comments such as, "I've never seen so many penises–and I went to boarding school!" (from a New Zealand visitor), "They're bigger in the USA," (from someone from Wisconsin) and "Is there a vagina museum?" On this point, Sigurður has said, "I'm only collecting the male organ. Somebody else has to do the other job. I'd be interested in how they would preserve it. I think vaginas are better alive." (There used to be a pop-up museum called "Museum of Vaginal Imagination" in Rotterdam in the Netherlands and a Vagina Museum opened in London in 2017.) ### Human penis For many years, the museum sought to obtain a human penis. Sigurður was able to obtain human testicles and a foreskin from two separate donors; the foreskin was donated by Iceland's National Hospital after an emergency circumcision operation. The museum also contains sculptures of 15 penises based on the Iceland men's national handball team. As the team had won the silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the penises were made from a silvered material. According to Sigurður, they are not displayed in the same order as the individuals shown in the photograph that accompanies them. In an interview Hjartason suggested that "their wives would recognise them." According to Slate, these sculptures were created by Sigurður's daughter, Þorgerður Sigurðardóttir, and were based on her own experience rather than any knowledge of the team. The team's goalkeeper denies that the sculptures are casts. The museum has so far received pledges from four men—an Icelander, a German, an American and a Briton—to donate their penises. Canadian film-maker Zach Math comments that the American, Tom Mitchell, "is an ordinary guy but he has this quirk where he thinks of his penis as a separate entity from his body—Elmo. He has this dream that he wants it to be the most famous penis in the world." According to Sigurður, Mitchell "wanted to have his penis cut off even during his lifetime and then visit the museum." Mitchell sent a cast of his penis to serve as a substitute in the meantime, along with photographs of it dressed up as Santa Claus and Abraham Lincoln. The donor also tattooed his penis with the Stars and Stripes to make it look more appealing. He says that "I've always thought it'd be really cool for my penis to be the first true penis celebrity" and has made it the star of its own comic book, Elmo: Adventures of a Superhero Penis. The Icelandic donor was a 95-year-old man from nearby Akureyri who was said to have been a womaniser in his youth and wanted to donate his penis to the museum to ensure his "eternal fame". Sigurður said that, even at the age of 95, the donor remained active, "both vertically and horizontally". However, the donor was said to be concerned that "his penis is shrinking as he gets older and he is worried it might not make a proper exhibit." His penis was given priority over those of the non-Icelandic donors in accordance with the museum's mission to display the organs of Icelandic mammals. Removing and preserving it was not an easy proposition, as Sigurður explained: "The donor and the doctors are in agreement, it must be taken while the body is warm. Then bleed it and pump it up. If it cools you can't do anything, so [the donor] is eager to have it taken warm and treated to be preserved with dignity." In January 2011, the Icelandic donor died and his penis was surgically removed so that it could be added to the museum's collection. The penectomy was not entirely successful and left the penis "a greyish-brown, shrivelled mass". According to Sigurður, "I should have stretched it and sewn it at the back to keep it in more or less a normal position". Instead, it "went directly into the formaldehyde". Although disappointed with the results, Sigurður expressed confidence that "I will get a younger and a bigger and better one soon." Visitors' most common reaction to the preserved human penis is "that it's very old, you know, a bit shrunken, and the male members [sic] say 'oh, I hope mine will not look like this when I get old.'" Sigurður has considered donating his own penis to the museum when he dies but said that it depends on his wife: "If she dies first, my specimen would go in here. If I die first, well I can't say. She might say no." American writer and actor Jonah Falcon, known for his claim to an impressively sized penis, was invited by the museum via The Huffington Post to donate his member after his death. It was announced in May 2014 that Falcon had accepted the proposal, suggesting a display alongside a sperm whale to be called "Jonah and the whale", after the biblical story. In May 2022, the museum announced that it would display a plaster cast of Jimi Hendrix's erect penis, created in 1968 in Chicago by Cynthia Plaster Caster. The famous groupie, whose real name was Cynthia Albritton, donated the item to the museum in April, 2022, shortly before her death. ## Film The museum is the subject of The Final Member, a film by Canadian documentarians Zach Math and Jonah Bekhor. It profiles Sigurður and his quest to obtain a human penis for the museum, telling the story of the American and Icelandic donors and examining the quasi-taboo nature of the museum's collection. Bekhor says: "I wouldn't say it's a Rorschach test, but depending on how you react to it really says a lot about what your relationship is with that element of the human anatomy. It's a really interesting phenomenon and we're really curious to see how audiences respond." The film premiered on 1 May 2012 at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. ## See also - Vagina Museum
27,016,732	Sinistar: Unleashed	1,125,717,016	1999 action space shooter video game for Microsoft Windows	[ "1999 video games", "Multiplayer and single-player video games", "Science fiction video games", "Shoot 'em ups", "THQ games", "Video games developed in the United States", "Windows games", "Windows-only games" ]	Sinistar: Unleashed is a 1999 action space shooter video game for Microsoft Windows. It was designed by Marc Michalik and Walter Wright and developed at GameFX, a small studio composed of former members of Looking Glass Studios. Originally titled Out of the Void, development of the project began in 1997 and had no relationship with the Sinistar franchise. After licensing the franchise from Midway Games that year, GameFX shifted the focus of the game and developed it as a sequel to the original Sinistar, which was released by Williams in 1982. Like the previous installment, Sinistar: Unleashed focuses on the destruction of the Sinistar, a large bio-mechanical machine, powered by machines called the Sporg. To achieve this goal, the player has a variety of starships, power-ups and weapons. Unlike its predecessor, the game has full three-dimensional graphics and a wider control scheme. Sinistar: Unleashed features 29 levels, five of which are hidden; each level has a Sinistar. Sinistar: Unleashed received mixed reception when released. Critics lauded its audacity, as well as the addition of new features into the game. Several journalists felt that GameFX captured all the elements that represented a Sinistar game and stayed true to the franchise by feeling familiar to fans of the original game. However, critics faulted the boss designs and the repetitiveness of the gameplay. ## Gameplay Like its predecessor, Sinistar: Unleashed is an action space shooter video game. While the original Sinistar features graphics and gameplay in a two-dimensional space, the sequel features three-dimensional graphics and gameplay, giving the player the ability to maneuver and roam freely across six different axes. Sinistar: Unleashed features twenty-nine levels, five of which are hidden as a bonus; each level has a Sinistar. The bonus levels are timed missions that involve destroying or protecting a particular object. The player is given a starship, and the main mission is to fight an alien race called the Distilled Evil and their slaves, the Sporg. The Sporg are mining ships controlled by the Distilled Evil, tasked with powering the jumpgate, a portal through which the Sinistar (a bio-mechanical monster dedicated to destroying the player) appears. The jumpgate is stationed at the center of the level, and the Sporg power it with energy crystals collected from the asteroids that appear sparsely along the sector. The player must prevent the Sporg from completely powering the jumpgate. While completing the task, the player encounters several warships that attempt to protect the jumpgate. These enemies are indicated on the radar with a dynamic set of coordinates that turn from white to red as they approach. If the player succeeds, the jumpgate breaks and the level is finished. Otherwise, the Sinistar will arrive through the activated jumpgate, and the player must defeat it to progress further. The player has six different starships to choose from, as well as eight power-ups and nine weapons to destroy the mining ships and the Sinistar. The most powerful weapon is called the Sinibomb, which is designed to defeat the Sinistar, although it can also be used to destroy the jumpgate. The player obtains Sinibombs by harvesting crystals from asteroids in the same way Sporg do. ## Development Development of Sinistar: Unleashed, originally titled Out of the Void, began in 1997. It was handled by GameFX, a small game developer consisting of former members of Looking Glass Studios. It was initially designed to run only on a P200 with 3dfx acceleration, hardware which was beyond the reach of the average consumer at the time. Recognizing that the game could serve as a showpiece for their chip, 3dfx partnered with GameFX to support development. At first, the project had no connection, or gameplay similarities, to the Sinistar franchise. When the studio acquired the rights for the Sinistar franchise that year, it decided to refocus the development of the title to fit into the newly acquired property. It altered the game to introduce similarities to Sinistar, although the graphic structure remained unchanged. THQ revealed that the game was optimized for the then-recently released Pentium III processors from Intel to allow the "lighting and geometry transformation engine to process more detail faster." In the Computer Gamer's Bible, Mark L. Chambers and Rob Smith noted the technical design of Sinistar: Unleashed, writing that "developers have added accurate collision physics, and mining the asteroid field will require precise timing and good trigger finger." ## Release Sinistar: Unleashed was announced by THQ in February 1999, two years after the company licensed the Sinistar franchise from Midway Games. Two demos for the game were produced. The second, released in September 1999, included several gameplay and technical enhancements over the first, showcasing the initial two levels of the game. When announcing the game, C. Noah Davis, chief technology officer of THQ and general manager of GameFX, said "What made the original a classic is that it was easy to learn, yet difficult to master." He elaborated: "We are focused on capturing that magic using many elements of the original, while showcasing the universe using our proprietary GameFX Technology." IGN reported on September 3, 1999 that the game had gone gold, and it was released on September 15. ## Reception Sinistar: Unleashed received average reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings. Critics agreed that the developers stayed true to the original game and lauded the graphic enhancements as "unquestionably beautiful" and a "graphical powerhouse". Erik Wolpaw, writing for GameSpot, noted that the game suffered mostly from gameplay issues, such as the control design, which he called "overly complex for a mindless shooter". He added that although the developers succeeded in capturing the arcade essence of the previous game, this was "somewhat to the detriment of the final product." AllGame's reviewer was satisfied with the game's graphics but criticized how its bosses were designed, elaborating that "the Sinistars ... simply don't instill the same sense of sheer panic [as in the previous game]." Vincent Lopez of IGN noted the game's similarity to its predecessor and complimented its graphics and the addition of a wide variety of weapons as well as other technical features. However, he viewed the weapons as "more of a checklist than an actual asset." He stated that Sinistar: Unleashed "feels immediately familiar to fans of the original, while adding just enough new features (and a completely new graphic overhaul) to make this feel now-dated." Nash Werner of GamePro shared Lopez's views, explaining that GameFX and THQ "have released a modern 3D version" of the original Sinistar that "sports some of the best graphics ever seen in a space shooter", although he added that it had lost "some of the soul" that the original game had. Caryn Law, writing for Computer Games Strategy Plus, applauded THQ for including the original game's elements and rendering them with "jazzing" graphics. She criticized the plot and gameplay design, stating that "players want games that involve more than simply blowing things up." She also contended that Sinistar: Unleashed "hearkens back to the days when all you needed was keen hand–eye coordination and a pocket full of quarters." PC Zone praised the game, noting that "the rich, organic style lends the game a hypnotic atmosphere" and stating "with the Sinistars still taunting you as they did back in 1983, and the gameplay essentially unchanged, those who enjoyed the ageing classic will find Sinistar: Unleashed a worthy successor." John Lee, writing for NextGen, gave a somewhat mediocre review of the game, casting it as "a lot like one of those Baywatch babes—luscious to look at, but not much between the ears." He added that it was basically "another retro/nostalgia trip." GameSpy's Law concluded that Sinistar: Unleashed was "simply Sinistar dressed up in 3D graphics" and that it offered "nothing new in the way of a challenge."
615,373	Manned Orbiting Laboratory	1,170,208,970	Canceled U.S. Air Force human spaceflight program	[ "Abandoned military projects of the United States", "Cancelled American spacecraft", "Cancelled space stations", "Military space program of the United States", "Project Gemini", "Proposed crewed spacecraft", "Reconnaissance satellites of the United States" ]	The Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) was part of the United States Air Force (USAF) human spaceflight program in the 1960s. The project was developed from early USAF concepts of crewed space stations as reconnaissance satellites, and was a successor to the canceled Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar military reconnaissance space plane. Plans for the MOL evolved into a single-use laboratory, for which crews would be launched on 30-day missions, and return to Earth using a Gemini B spacecraft derived from NASA's Gemini spacecraft and launched with the laboratory. The MOL program was announced to the public on 10 December 1963 as an inhabited platform to demonstrate the utility of putting people in space for military missions; its reconnaissance satellite mission was a secret black project. Seventeen astronauts were selected for the program, including Major Robert H. Lawrence Jr., the first African-American astronaut. The prime contractor for the spacecraft was McDonnell Aircraft Corporation; the laboratory was built by the Douglas Aircraft Company. The Gemini B was externally similar to NASA's Gemini spacecraft, although it underwent several modifications, including the addition of a circular hatch through the heat shield, which allowed passage between the spacecraft and the laboratory. Vandenberg Space Launch Complex 6 (SLC-6) was developed to permit launches into polar orbit. As the 1960s progressed, the Vietnam War competed with the MOL for funds, and resultant budget cuts repeatedly postponed its first operational flight. At the same time, automated systems rapidly improved, narrowing the benefits of a crewed space platform over an automated one. A single uncrewed test flight of the Gemini B spacecraft was conducted on 3 November 1966, but the MOL was canceled in June 1969 without any crewed missions being flown. Seven of the astronauts selected for the MOL program transferred to NASA in August 1969 as NASA Astronaut Group 7, all of whom eventually flew in space on the Space Shuttle between 1981 and 1985. The Titan IIIM rocket developed for the MOL never flew, but its UA1207 solid rocket boosters were used on the Titan IV, and the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster was based on materials, processes and designs developed for them. NASA spacesuits were derived from the MOL ones, MOL's waste management system flew in space on Skylab, and NASA Earth Science used other MOL equipment. SLC-6 was refurbished, but plans to have military Space Shuttle launches from there were abandoned in the wake of the January 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. ## Background At the height of the Cold War in the mid-1950s, the United States Air Force (USAF) was particularly interested in the Soviet Union's military and industrial capabilities. Starting in 1956, the United States conducted covert U-2 spy plane overflights of the Soviet Union. Twenty-four U-2 missions produced images of about 15 percent of the country with a maximum resolution of 0.61 meters (2 ft) before the downing of a U-2 in 1960 abruptly ended the program. This left a gap in American espionage capabilities that it was hoped spy satellites would be able to fill. In July 1957 – before anyone had flown in space – the USAF Wright Air Development Center published a paper that considered the development of a space station equipped with telescopes and other observation devices. The USAF had already started a satellite program in 1956 called WS-117L. This had three components: SAMOS, a spy satellite; Corona, an experimental program to develop the technology; and MIDAS, an early warning system. The launch of Sputnik 1, the first satellite, by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957, came as a profound shock to the American public, which had complacently assumed American technical superiority. One benefit of the Sputnik crisis was that no government protested Sputnik's overflying their territory, thereby tacitly acknowledging the legality of satellites. While there was a big difference between the innocuous Sputnik and a spy satellite, it made it much harder for the Soviets to object to overflights by satellites from another country. In February 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered the USAF to proceed as quickly as possible with Corona as a joint Central Intelligence Agency-United States Air Force (CIA-USAF) interim project. In August 1958, Eisenhower decided to give responsibility for most forms of human space flight to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Deputy Secretary of Defense Donald A. Quarles transferred US\$53.8 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) that had been set aside for USAF space projects to NASA. This left the USAF with a few programs with direct military impact. One was a delta-wing, rocket-propelled glider that came to be called the Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar. The USAF remained interested in space, and in March 1959, the Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, General Thomas D. White asked the USAF Director of Development Planning to prepare a long-range plan for a USAF space program. One project identified in the resulting document was a "manned orbital laboratory". The USAF Air Research and Development Command (ARDC) issued a request to the Aeronautical Systems Division (ASD) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base on 1 September 1959 for a formal study to be conducted of a military test space station (MTSS). The ASD asked components of the ARDC for suggestions as to what sort of experiments would be suitable for an MTSS, and 125 proposals were received. A request for proposal (RFP) was then issued on 19 February 1960, and twelve firms responded. On 15 August 1960, General Electric, Lockheed Aircraft, Glenn L. Martin Company, McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, and General Dynamics shared US\$574,999 (equivalent to \$ in ) for a study of the MTSS. Their preliminary reports were submitted in January 1961, and final reports were received by July 1961. With these in hand, on 16 August 1961, the USAF submitted a request for US\$5 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) in funding for space station studies in fiscal year 1963, but no funding was forthcoming. In its 26 April 1961 project plan, Dyna-Soar was to be launched into space on a suborbital ballistic trajectory by a Titan I booster, its first piloted suborbital flight in April 1965, followed by its first piloted orbital flight in April 1966. In a 22 February 1962 memorandum to the Secretary of the Air Force, Eugene Zuckert, the Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, decided to fast track Dyna-Soar and save money by skipping the suborbital testing phase; the Dyna-Soar was now planned to be launched by a Titan III booster. The same 22 February 1962 memorandum gave tacit approval for the development of a space station. With this in hand, the USAF staff and the Air Force Systems Command (AFSC) began planning for a space station, which was now known as a Military Orbital Development System (MODS). By the end of May 1962, a proposed system package plan (PSPP) had been drawn up for MODS. For tracking purposes, it was given the numerical designation Program 287. MODS consisted of a space station, a modified NASA Gemini spacecraft that became known as Blue Gemini, and a Titan III launch vehicle. The space station was expected to provide a shirt-sleeve environment for a crew of four for up to 30 days. On 25 August 1962, Zuckert informed General Bernard Adolph Schriever, the commander of the AFSC, that he was to proceed with studies of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) as the director of the program. The name was chosen because NASA did not want the Department of Defense (DoD) to use the term "space station". On 9 November 1962, Zuckert submitted his proposals to McNamara. For fiscal year 1964, he requested US\$75 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) in funding for MODS and US\$102 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) for Blue Gemini. Since Project Gemini was now associated with national security, McNamara considered taking over the entire project from NASA, but after some negotiation with NASA, McNamara and NASA Administrator James E. Webb reached an agreement on collaboration on the project in January 1963. McNamara called for a review of whether Dyna-Soar had military capabilities that could not be met by Gemini, on 18 January 1963. In his 14 November 1963 response, the Director of Defense Research and Engineering (DDR&E), Harold Brown, examined options for a space station. He preferred a four-man station that would be launched separately and crewed by astronauts arriving in Gemini spacecraft. Crews would rotate every 30 days, with resupply of consumables arriving every 120 days. On 10 December 1963, McNamara issued a press release that officially announced the cancellation of Dyna-Soar, and the initiation of the MOL program. Soon after coming to office, the Kennedy administration tightened security regarding spy satellites in response to Soviet sensitivities. No administration official would even admit they existed until President Jimmy Carter did so in 1978. MOL was therefore a semi-secret project, with a public face but a covert reconnaissance mission, similar to that of the secret Corona spy satellite program, which went under the public name of Discoverer. ## Initiation On 16 December 1963, USAF Headquarters ordered Schriever to submit a development plan for the MOL. About US\$6 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) was spent on preliminary studies, most of which were completed by September 1964. McDonnell prepared a study of the Gemini B spacecraft, Martin Marietta of the Titan III booster, and Eastman Kodak of camera optics, the basic equipment of a satellite reconnaissance equipment. Other studies examined key MOL subsystems such as environmental control, electrical power, navigation, attitude control stabilization, guidance, communications and radar. The United States Under Secretary of the Air Force and the Director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), Brockway McMillan, asked the director of NRO Program A (the component of NRO responsible for the Air Force aspects of NRO activities), Major General Robert Evans Greer, to look into the MOL's potential reconnaissance capabilities. In all, US\$3,237,716 (equivalent to \$ in ) was expended on these studies. The most expensive was of the Gemini B spacecraft, which cost US\$1,189,500 (equivalent to \$ in ), followed by the Titan III interface, which cost US\$910,000 (equivalent to \$ in ). With these studies in hand, the USAF issued an RFP to twenty firms in January 1965. At the end of February 1965, Boeing, Douglas, General Electric and Lockheed were selected to carry out design studies. Covert NRO activities to be carried out by MOL were classified secret and given the code name "Dorian". In February 1969, the MOL was given a Keyhole (reconnaissance satellite) designation as KH-10 Dorian. As a black project (i.e. one that was secret and publicly unacknowledged), but one that was impossible to completely conceal, MOL needed some "white" (i.e. unclassified and publicly acknowledged) experiments as cover. An MOL Experiments Working Group was created under Colonel William Brady. Some 400 experiments proposed by several agencies were examined. These were consolidated and reduced to 59, and twelve primary and eighteen secondary ones were selected. A 499-page report on the experiments was issued on 1 April 1964. Although reconnaissance was its main purpose, "manned orbiting laboratory" was still an accurate description; the program hoped to prove that astronauts could perform militarily useful tasks in a shirt-sleeve environment in space for up to thirty days. The USAF recommended that the MOL use the Gemini B spacecraft with the Titan III booster. A program of six flights (one uncrewed and five crewed) was proposed, the first flight taking place in 1966. The program was costed at US\$1.653 billion (equivalent to \$ billion in ). The Science Advisor to the President, Donald Hornig, reviewed the USAF's submission. He noted that for the sophisticated reconnaissance missions proposed, a human-operated system was far superior to an automated one, but speculated that with sufficient effort, the gap between the two could be reduced. He also noted that while countries had not objected to satellites passing overhead, a crewed space station might be a different matter, but the Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, thought that this could be managed. There remained the question of whether the improved performance compared to the automated KH-8 Gambit 3 satellite then under development justified the cost. The Director of Central Intelligence, Admiral William Raborn agreed that it might. McNamara took the proposal to President Lyndon Johnson on 24 August 1965, who approved it, and issued an official announcement at a press conference the following day. In January 1965, Schriever had appointed Brigadier General Harry L. Evans as his deputy for MOL. Evans had previously worked with Schriever in the USAF Ballistic Systems Division. He had also been the Corona program manager, and had supervised SAMOS, MIDAS and SAINT, together with the early communications and weather satellite programs. As well as being Schriever's deputy, Evans became Zuckert's Special Assistant for MOL on 18 January 1965. In this role, he reported directly to Zuckert, and was responsible for liaison between MOL and other agencies such as NASA. In the wake of Johnson's announcement of the program, MOL was given the designation Program 632A. The USAF announced the appointment of Schriever as MOL director and Evans as vice director, in charge of the MOL staff at the Pentagon, with Brigadier General Russell A. Berg as deputy director, in charge of the MOL staff at the Los Angeles Air Force Station in El Segundo, California. The MOL System Program Office (SPO) was created in March 1964 under Brigadier General Joseph S. Bleymaier, the Deputy Commander of the AFSC Space Systems Division (SSD). By August 1965, the MOL had a staff of 42 military and 23 civilian personnel. Schriever retired from the Air Force in August 1966, and was succeeded as head of the AFSC and MOL Program Director by Major General James Ferguson. Evans retired from the Air Force on 27 March 1968, and was replaced by Major General James T. Stewart. Schriever and the Director of the NRO, Alexander H. Flax, signed a formal agreement covering MOL Black Financial Procedures on 4 November 1965. Under this agreement, the Deputy Director MOL would forward black budget cost estimates to the NRO Controller, who had the authority to obligate NRO funds. This was followed by a corresponding MOL White Financial Procedures Agreement, which was approved by Flax in December 1965 and signed by Leonard Marks Jr., the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Financial Management & Comptroller). This provided for a more regular channel, with funds going through the AFSC to its Space Systems Division (SSD) and thence to the MOL SPO. Thus far no definition contracts had been let, except for the Titan III expendable launch vehicle. On 30 September 1965, Brown released US\$12 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) in fiscal year 1965 funds and US\$50 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) in fiscal year 1966 funds for the MOL definition phase activities. Johnson had announced two MOL contractors: Douglas and General Electric. While the former had considerable technical and managerial experience from the Thor, Genie and Nike projects, General Electric had experience with large optical systems, and, perhaps more importantly, had over a thousand personnel immediately cleared for Dorian, while Douglas had very few. A US\$10.55 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) fixed-price contract was signed with Douglas on 17 October 1965. Contract negotiations with General Electric were also completed around this time, and the company was given US\$4.922 million (equivalent to \$ million in ), all but US\$0.975 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) of it in black budget funds. The Aerospace Corporation was given responsibility for general systems engineering and technical direction. Douglas selected five major subcontractors: Hamilton-Standard for environmental control and life support; Collins Radio for the communications; Honeywell for the attitude control; Pratt & Whitney for the electrical power; and IBM for data management. Aerospace and the MOL SPO concurred with all but the last, noting that while IBM had a technically superior bid to UNIVAC, its estimated cost was US\$32 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) compared to UNIVAC's US\$16.8 million (equivalent to \$ million in ). Douglas decided to let study contracts to both firms. ## Astronauts ### Selection To provide prospective astronauts for the X-15 rocket-powered aircraft, Dyna-Soar and MOL programs, on 5 June 1961 the USAF created the Aerospace Research Pilot Course at the USAF Experimental Flight Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The school was renamed the Aerospace Research Pilot School (ARPS) on 12 October 1961. Four classes were conducted between June 1961 and May 1963, the third class receiving instruction on Dyna-Soar as part of the course. The commandant of the ARPS, Colonel Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager, advised Schriever to restrict the selection of astronauts for the MOL to ARPS graduates. The program did not accept applications; 15 candidates were selected and sent to Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, for a week of medical evaluation in October 1964. The evaluations were similar to those conducted for the NASA astronaut groups. For the first three NASA astronaut groups in 1959, 1962 and 1963, the USAF had established a selection board to review candidates before forwarding their names to NASA. The Chief of Staff of the USAF, General John P. McConnell, informed Schriever that he expected the selection of MOL astronauts to follow the same procedure. A selection board was convened in September 1965, chaired by Major General Jerry D. Page. On 15 September 1965, the selection criteria for MOL was announced. Candidates had to be: - Qualified military pilots; - Graduates of the ARPS; - Serving officers, recommended by their commanding officers; and - Holding U.S. citizenship from birth. In October 1965, the MOL Policy Committee decided that MOL crew members would be designated "MOL Aerospace Research Pilots" rather than astronauts. The names of the first group of eight MOL pilots were announced on 12 November 1965 as a Friday night news dump to avoid press attention. - Major Michael J. Adams, USAF - Major Albert H. Crews Jr., USAF - Lieutenant John L. Finley, USN - Captain Richard E. Lawyer, USAF - Captain Lachlan Macleay, USAF - Captain Francis G. Neubeck, USAF - Major James M. Taylor, USAF - Lieutenant Richard H. Truly, USN. To prevent their return to the U.S. Navy, as would normally have occurred on graduation from ARPS, Finley and Truly were retained at ARPS as instructors until the announcement was made. In late 1965, the USAF began selecting a second group of MOL pilots. This time applications were accepted. Selection occurred at the same time as that for NASA Astronaut Group 5, many applying to both programs. Successful candidates were told that NASA or MOL had chosen them, with no explanation why they had been chosen by one and not the other. Over 500 applications were received, from which 100 names were forwarded to USAF Headquarters. The MOL Program Office selected 25, who were sent to Brooks Air Force Base for physical evaluation in January and February 1966. Five were selected, and their names were publicly announced on 17 June 1966: - Captain Karol J. Bobko, USAF - Lieutenant Robert L. Crippen, USN - Captain C. Gordon Fullerton, USAF - Captain Henry W. Hartsfield Jr., USAF - Captain Robert F. Overmyer, USMC. Bobko was the first graduate of the United States Air Force Academy to be selected as an astronaut. Eight other finalists for the second class had not yet completed ARPS. One was already attending; the other seven were sent to Edwards Air Force Base to join Class 66-B. They would be considered for the next MOL astronaut selection. The MOL Astronaut Selection Board met again on 11 May 1967, and recommended that four of the eight be appointed. The MOL Program Office announced names of those selected for the third group of MOL astronauts on 30 June 1967: - Major James A. Abrahamson, USAF - Lieutenant Colonel Robert T. Herres, USAF - Major Robert H. Lawrence Jr., USAF - Major Donald H. Peterson, USAF. Lawrence was the first African-American to be chosen as an astronaut. ### Training MOL astronauts only knew of the cover story that the program would be a space laboratory for military experiments, and did not learn of the reconnaissance role until after selection; they were advised to resign if they disliked the classified aspect. They received security clearances and were introduced to Sensitive Compartmented Information such as Dorian, Gambit, Talent (intelligence obtained from spy plane overflights) and Keyhole (intelligence obtained from satellites). Truly was amazed to learn that his country had not one but "two space programs: the public, what the public knew and [NASA] astronauts and all that jazz, and then this other world of capability that didn't exist". Phase I of crew training was a two-month introduction to the MOL program in the form of a series of briefings from NASA and the contractors. Phase II lasted for five months, and was conducted at the ARPS, where the astronauts were given technical training on the MOL vehicles and their operation procedures. This training was conducted in classrooms, in training flights, and in sessions on the T-27 space flight simulator. Phase III was continuous training on the MOL systems and providing crew input to them. The pilots spent most of their time in this phase. Phase IV was training for specific missions. Simulators were developed for each of the different MOL systems: Laboratory Module Simulator, Mission Payload Simulator, and Gemini B Procedures Simulator. Zero-G training was conducted in a Boeing C-135 Stratolifter reduced-gravity aircraft. A Flotation-Egress trainer allowed the astronauts to prepare for a splashdown and the possibility of the spacecraft sinking. NASA had pioneered neutral buoyancy simulation as a training aid to simulate the space environment. The pilots were given scuba diving training at the U.S. Navy Underwater Swimmers School in Key West, Florida. Training was then conducted on a General Electric simulator on Buck Island, near St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Water survival training was conducted at the USAF Sea Survival School at Homestead Air Force Base in Florida, and jungle survival training at the Tropical Survival School at Howard Air Force Base in the Panama Canal Zone. In July 1967, the pilots underwent training at the National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC) in Washington, D.C. ## Planned operations ### Reconnaissance From the MOL's regular 280-kilometer (150 nmi) orbit, the main camera had a circular field of view 2,700 meters (9,000 ft) across, although at top magnification it was more like 1,300 meters (4,200 ft). This was much smaller than many of the targets that the NRO was interested in, such as air bases, shipyards and missile ranges. The astronauts would search for targets using the tracking and acquisition telescopes, which had a circular view of the landscape about 12.0 km (6.5 nmi) across, with a resolution of about 9.1 meters (30 ft). The main camera would focus on the most important targets, providing a very high resolution image. The aim was to have the most interesting part of the target in the center of the image; due to the optics used, the image would not be as sharp around the edges of the frame. While surveillance targets were pre-programmed and the camera could operate automatically, astronauts could decide target priority for photographing. By avoiding cloudy areas and identifying more interesting subjects (an open missile silo instead of a closed one, for example), they would save film, the major limitation, since it had to be returned in the small Gemini B spacecraft. In cloudy areas like Moscow, it was estimated that the MOL would be 45 percent more efficient in its use of film than an automated satellite system through the ability to react to cloud cover, but for sunnier areas like the Tyuratam missile complex, this might be no more than 15 percent. The selective targeting afforded by human-guided surveillance would be more efficient than that obtained by robotic satellites. Of the 159 KH-7 Gambit photographs of the Tyuratam area, only 9 percent showed missiles on the launch pads, and of 77 photographs of missile silos, only 21 percent were with the doors open. The analysts identified 60 MOL targets in the complex. Only two or three could be photographed on each pass, but astronauts could select the most interesting ones on the spur of the moment, and photograph them with greater resolution than KH-7 Gambit. It was hoped that valuable technical information would thereby be obtained. The Air Force expected that an improved version of the MOL space station, known as Block II, expected to be available for the sixth crewed flight in July 1974, would add image transmission and geodetic system targeting. Astronauts would perform infrared, multispectral, and ultraviolet astronomy when they had time during an extended mission duration on twice-annual flights. After Block II, the MOL program managers hoped to build larger, permanent facilities. A planning document depicted 12-man and 40-man stations, both with self-defense capability. It described the 40-man, Y-shaped station as a "spaceborne command post" in synchronous orbit. With the "key requirement – post attack survivability", the station would be capable of "Strategic/tactical decision making" during a general war. ### Flight schedule ## Spacecraft The Gemini spacecraft originated at NASA in 1961 as a development of the Mercury spacecraft, and was originally called Mercury Mark II. The name "Gemini" was chosen in recognition of its two-man crew. The NASA Gemini spacecraft was redesigned for the MOL and named Gemini B, although the NASA Gemini spacecraft was never referred to as Gemini A. The astronauts would fly into space in the Gemini B capsule, which would be launched together with the MOL modules atop a Titan IIIM launch vehicle. Once in orbit, the crew would power down the capsule and activate and enter the laboratory module. After about one month of space station operations, the crew would return to the Gemini B capsule, power it up, separate it from the station, and perform reentry. Gemini B had an autonomy of about 14 hours once detached from MOL. Like the NASA Gemini, the Gemini B spacecraft would splash down in the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans and be recovered by the same DoD spacecraft recovery forces used by NASA's Project Gemini and Project Apollo. NASA had a paraglider under development to enable a Gemini spacecraft to paraglide to a dry-land touch-down, but was unable to get it working in time for Project Gemini missions. In March 1964, NASA attempted to get the USAF interested in using the paraglider with Gemini B, but after reviewing the troubled paraglider program, the USAF concluded that the paraglider still had too many problems to overcome, and it turned down the offer. The MOL laboratory module was intended to be used for a single mission only, with no provision for a later mission to dock and reuse it. Instead, its orbit would decay and it would be dumped in the ocean after 30 days. Externally Gemini B was quite similar to its NASA twin, but there were many differences. The most noticeable was that it featured a rear hatch for the crew to enter the MOL space station. Notches were cut into the ejection seat headrests to allow access to the hatch. The seats were therefore mirror images of each other instead of being the same. Gemini B also had a larger diameter heat shield to handle the higher energy of reentry from a polar orbit. The number of reentry control system thrusters was increased from four to six. There was no orbit attitude and maneuvering system (OAMS), because capsule orientation for reentry was handled by the forward reentry control system thrusters, and the laboratory module had its own reaction control system for orientation. The Gemini B systems were designed for long-term orbital storage (40 days), but equipment for long duration flights was removed since the Gemini B capsule itself was intended to be used only for launch and reentry. It had a different cockpit layout and instruments. As a result of the Apollo 1 fire in January 1967, in which three NASA astronauts were killed in a ground test of their spacecraft, the MOL was switched to use a helium-oxygen atmosphere instead of a pure oxygen one. At takeoff, the astronauts would breathe pure oxygen in their spacesuits while the cabin was pressurized with helium. It would then be brought up to a helium-oxygen mix. This was an option that had been provided for in the original design. Four Gemini B spacecraft were ordered from McDonnell, along with a boilerplate aerodynamically similar test article, at a cost of US\$168.2 million (equivalent to \$ million in ). In November 1965, NASA agreed to hand over Gemini spacecraft No. 2 and Static Test Article No. 4 to the MOL program. Gemini spacecraft No. 2, which had flown in the 1965 Gemini 2 mission, was refurbished as a prototype Gemini B spacecraft. ### Gemini B specifications - Crew: 2 - Maximum duration: 40 days - Length: 3.35 m (11.0 ft) - Diameter: 2.32 m (7 ft 7 in) - Cabin volume: 2.55 m<sup>3</sup> (90 cu ft) - Gross mass: 1,983 kg (4,372 lb) - RCS thrusters: 16 N × 98 N (3.6 lb<sub>f</sub> × 22.0 lb<sub>f</sub>) - RCS impulse: 283 s (2.78 km/s) - Electric system: 4 kWh (14 MJ) - Battery: 180 A·h (648,000 C) - Reference: ### Gemini B layout ## Space station The hatch in the Gemini B spacecraft's heat shield connected to a transfer tunnel that ran through the adaptor module. This contained the cryogenic hydrogen, helium and oxygen storage tanks, and housed the environmental control system, fuel cells, and four quad reaction control system thrusters and their propellant tanks. The transfer tunnel gave access to the laboratory module. The purpose-built laboratory module was divided into two sections, but there was no partition between the two, and the crew could move freely between them. It was 5.8 meters (19 ft) long and 3.05 meters (10.0 ft) in diameter. Both were octagonal in shape, with eight bays. In the "upper" half (as it would have been on the launch pad), Bays 1 and 8 contained storage compartments; Bay 2, the environmental control system; Bay 3, the hygiene/waste compartment; Bay 4, the biochemical test console and work station; Bays 5 and 6, the airlock; and Bay 7, a glovebox for handling liquids; below that, a secondary food console. In the "lower" half, Bay 1 contained a motion chair that measured the mass of the crew; Bay 2, two performance test panels; Bay 3, the environmental control system controls; Bay 4, a physiology test console; Bay 5, an exercise device; Bay 6, two emergency oxygen masks; Bay 7, a view port and instrument panel; and Bay 8, the main spacecraft control station. ### Space station specifications - Crew: 2 - Maximum duration: 40 days - Orbit: Polar - Length: 21.92 m (71.9 ft) - Diameter: 3.05 m (10.0 ft) - Habitable volume: 11.3 m<sup>3</sup> (400 cu ft) - Gross mass: 14,476 kg (31,914 lb) - Payload: 2,700 kg (6,000 lb) - Power: fuel cells or solar cells - Reaction control system: N<sub>2</sub>O<sub>4</sub> / MMH - Reference: ### Space station layout ## Spacesuits The MOL program's requirements for a spacesuit were a product of the spacecraft design. The Gemini B capsule had little room inside, and the MOL astronauts gained access to the laboratory through a hatch in the heat shield. This required a more flexible suit than those of NASA astronauts. The NASA astronauts had custom-made sets of flight, training and backup suits, but for the MOL the intention was that spacesuits would be provided in standard sizes with adjustable elements. The USAF sounded out the David Clark Company, International Latex Corporation, B. F. Goodrich and Hamilton Standard for design proposals in 1964. Hamilton Standard and David Clark each developed four prototype suits for the MOL. A competition was held at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in January 1967, and a production contract awarded to Hamilton Standard. At least 17 blue MOL MH-7 training suits were delivered between May 1968 and July 1969. A single MH-8 flight configuration suit was delivered in October 1968 for certification testing. The flight suit was intended to be worn during launch and reentry. The contract for the launch/reentry suit was followed by a second competition in September 1967 for a suit for extravehicular activity (EVA). This too was won by Hamilton Standard. The design was complicated by USAF concerns that a crew member might slip their tethers and float away. As a result, an astronaut maneuvering unit (AMU) was developed and integrated with the life support system as an integrated maneuvering and life support system (IMLSS). The design was completed by October 1968, and a prototype without cover garments was delivered in March 1969. The cover garments were never completed. ## Facilities ### Launch complex The military director of the NRO, Brigadier General John L. Martin Jr., suggested that MOL launches be made from Cape Kennedy, as launches from the West Coast implied a polar orbit, which in turn would lead to the assumption that the objective of the mission was reconnaissance. This was considered, but there were practical issues. MOL needed to be flown in a polar orbit, but a launch due south from Cape Kennedy would overfly southern Florida, which raised safety concerns. The TIROS weather satellites had performed a "dog leg" maneuver, flying east and then south to avoid southern Florida. This required special State Department approval, as it meant overflying Cuba. The loss of an MOL with a classified payload over Cuba would be not only a danger to life and property, but a serious security concern as well. Moreover, the dog leg maneuver would reduce the 14,000-kilogram (30,000 lb) orbital payload by 900 to 2,300 kilograms (2,000 to 5,000 lb), reducing the equipment that could be carried or the duration of the mission or both. The cost of construction of a Titan III facility, including the purchase of the land, was estimated to be US\$31 million (equivalent to \$ million in ), and the required supporting ground equipment would cost another US\$79 million (equivalent to \$ million in ). The announcement that the MOL would be launched from the Western Test Range caused an outcry in the Florida news media, which decried it as a wasteful duplication of facilities, given that the recently completed US\$154 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 41 was specifically built to handle Titan III launches. The Chairman of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics, Congressman George P. Miller from California, convened a special hearing on the MOL program on 7 February 1966. The first witness, the Associate Administrator of NASA, Robert Seamans, supported the MOL program, and the decision to launch satellites into polar orbit from the West Coast, and said that NASA planned to launch weather satellites from there. He was followed by Schriever, who detailed the issues involved. The arguments did not satisfy Floridians. Hearings in the House were followed by ones in the Senate before the Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences on 24 February 1966, chaired by the influential Senator Clinton P. Anderson. This time the witnesses were Seamans, Flax and John S. Foster Jr., Brown's successor as DDR&E. The logic of the arguments and the united front presented dampened criticism, and none of the nine members of the House from Florida opposed the 1966 MOL budget allocation. The USAF attempted to purchase the land to the south of Vandenberg Air Force Base for the new space launch complex from the owners, but negotiations failed to reach agreement on a suitable price. The government then went ahead and condemned the land under eminent domain, acquiring 5,829.4 hectares (14,404.7 acres) from the Sudden Ranch and 202.0 hectares (499.1 acres) from the Scolari Ranch for \$9,002,500 (equivalent to \$ in ). Ground was broken on the new Space Launch Complex 6 (SLC 6) on 12 March 1966. Work on preparing the site was completed on 22 August. This involved 1.1 million cubic meters (1.4 million cubic yards) of earthworks, and the construction of access roads, a water supply pipeline and a railroad siding. By this time, the design of the launch complex had progressed to the point at which it was possible to call for bids for its construction. Major items included a launch pad, umbilical tower, mobile services tower, aerospace ground equipment building, propellant loading and storage systems, launch control center, segment receipt inspection building, ready building, protective clothing building, and complex service building. Seven bids for the construction contract were received, and it was awarded to the lowest bidder, Santa Fe and Stolte of Lancaster, California. The contract was valued at US\$20.2 million (equivalent to \$ million in ). Construction work was overseen by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The launch control center, segment receipt inspection building and ready building were accepted by the USAF in August 1968. ### Easter Island In the event of an abort, the Gemini B spacecraft could have come down in the eastern Pacific Ocean. To prepare for this contingency, an agreement was reached with Chile on 26 July 1968 for the use of Easter Island as a staging area for search and rescue aircraft and helicopters. Works included resurfacing the 2,000-meter (6,600 ft) runway, taxiways and parking areas with asphalt, and establishing communications, aircraft maintenance and storage facilities, and accommodation for 100 personnel. ### Rochester A Camera Optical Assembly (COA) facility was constructed at Eastman Kodak in Rochester, New York. It included a new steel frame building and a masonry building with 13,120 square meters (141,200 sq ft) of test chambers, built at a cost of US\$32,500,000 (equivalent to \$ in ). The laboratory was dug into the ground so observers would not realize how large it was. ## Test flight An MOL test flight was launched from Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40 on 3 November 1966 at 13:50:42 UTC, on a Titan IIIC, vehicle C-9. The flight consisted of an MOL mockup built from a Titan II propellant tank, and Gemini spacecraft No. 2, which had been refurbished as a prototype Gemini B spacecraft. This was the first time an American spacecraft intended for human spaceflight had flown in space twice, albeit without a crew. The adapter connecting the Gemini spacecraft to the laboratory mockup contained three other spacecraft: two OV4-1 satellites and an OV1-6 satellite. The Gemini B spacecraft separated for a suborbital reentry, while the MOL mockup continued into low Earth orbit, where it released the three satellites. The simulated laboratory contained eleven experiments. The Manifold experimental package consisted of two micrometeoroid detection payloads, a transmitter beacon designated ORBIS-Low, a cell growth experiment, a prototype hydrogen fuel cell, a thermal control experiment, a propellent transfer and monitoring system to investigate fluid dynamics in zero gravity, a prototype attitude control system, an experiment to investigate the reflection of light in space, and an experiment into heat transfer. The spacecraft was painted to allow it to be used as a target for an optical tracking and observation experiment from the ground. Eight of the eleven experiments were successful. The hatch installed in the Gemini's heat shield to provide access to the MOL during crewed operations was tested during the capsule's reentry. The Gemini capsule was recovered near Ascension Island in the South Atlantic by the USS La Salle after a flight of 33 minutes. The laboratory mockup entered an orbit with an apogee of 305 kilometers (165 nmi), a perigee of 298 kilometers (161 nmi), and 32.8 degrees of inclination. It remained in orbit until its orbital decay on 9 January 1967. ## Public response With the 1966 Eighteen Nation Committee on Disarmament approaching, there were concerns about how the MOL was viewed by the international community. The United States insisted that the MOL was in line with the 17 October 1963 United Nations General Assembly resolution that the exploration and use of outer space should be used only "for the betterment of mankind". To allay Soviet fears that the MOL would carry nuclear weapons, the State Department suggested that Soviet officials be permitted to inspect it for them before launch, but Brown opposed this on security grounds. Public debate of the merits of the MOL program was hobbled by its semi-secret nature. Writing about the MOL as an outsider in 1967, Leonard E. Schwartz, a consultant to the Directorate for Scientific Affairs of the OECD, noted that the United States already had SAMOS satellites for reconnaissance and Vela satellites for surveillance of nuclear explosions, but without knowing their capabilities or those of MOL, could not evaluate the actual costs or benefits of the program. Publicly, the Air Force vaguely described the MOL as "an effective space building block of very substantial potential, a space resource capable of growth to follow-on tasks". "On completion", Brady declared in 1965, "we will have configured, acquired, and most important, conducted a manned military space operation thereby acquiring the crews, experience and equipment that will, if required, allow the Air Force to move into the near-earth space environment in an orderly and effective manner". The Soviet Union commissioned the development of its own military space station, Almaz. This project was initiated by chief-designer Vladimir Chelomey on 12 October 1964, but it was Johnson's announcement of the MOL program on 25 August 1965 that led to the Almaz project receiving official endorsement and funding on 27 October 1965. Three Almaz space stations flew as Salyut space stations between 1973 and 1976 before the crewed Almaz program was canceled in 1978. ## Delays and cost increases Within weeks of Johnson's announcement of the MOL program, it was facing budget cuts. In November 1965, Flax arbitrarily cut US\$20 million (equivalent to \$ in ) from the MOL program's fiscal year 1967 budget, bringing it down to US\$374 million (equivalent to \$ million in ). Brown learned that McNamara intended to limit the program to US\$150 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) in fiscal year 1967, the same allocation as in fiscal year 1966, in response to the rising cost of the Vietnam War. In August 1965, the first uncrewed qualification flight had been expected to take place in late 1968, with the first crewed mission in early 1970, on the assumption that engineering development would commence in January 1966. Since this was now unlikely, McNamara saw no reason to continue with the original budget. Brown examined the schedules, advising McNamara that a crewed mission in April 1969 would require a minimum of US\$294 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) in fiscal year 1967, and that the minimum budget that the MOL program required was US\$230 million (equivalent to \$ million in ), which would impose a delay of the first flight of three to eighteen months. McNamara was unmoved, and US\$150 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) was the sum requested in the budget submitted to Congress in January 1966. When the MOL engineering development phase commenced in September 1966, it became clear that the USAF estimates of project costs and those of the major contractors were a long way apart. McDonnell requested US\$205.5 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) for a fixed price plus incentive fee (FPIF) contract to design and build Gemini B, which the USAF budgeted at US\$147.9 million (equivalent to \$ million in ); Douglas wanted US\$815.8 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) for the laboratory vehicles which the USAF budgeted at US\$611.3 million (equivalent to \$ million in ); and General Electric sought US\$198 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) for work budgeted at US\$147.3 million (equivalent to \$ million in ). In response the MOL SPO reopened negotiations for systems not under contract, and halted the issuance of Dorian clearances to contractor personnel. This had the desired effect, and by December 1966, the major contractors had reduced their prices, bringing them closer to the USAF estimates. However, on 7 January 1967, the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) informed the MOL SPO that it intended to limit contracts in fiscal year 1968 to US\$430 million (equivalent to \$ million in ), which was US\$157 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) short of what the MOL SPO wanted, and US\$381 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) below what the contractors wanted. This meant that the prime contracts had to be renegotiated. Budget cuts were not the only reason for the project's schedule slipping. On 9 December 1966, Eastman Kodak advised that it would not be able to deliver the optical sensors by the original target date of January 1969 for a crewed mission in April 1969, and asked for a ten-month extension to October 1969, which pushed the date of the first crewed mission back to January 1970. Eventually, US\$480 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) was found for fiscal year 1968, with US\$50 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) obtained by reprogramming funds from other programs, and US\$661 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) agreed upon for fiscal year 1969. To accommodate this, the date of the first qualification flight was pushed back still further, to December 1970, with the first crewed mission in August 1971. On 17 May 1967, a US\$674,703,744 FPIF contract (equivalent to \$ in ) was signed with Douglas, which also received US\$13 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) in black budget funds. A US\$180,469,000 FPIF contract (equivalent to \$ in ) was signed with McDonnell the following day, and a US\$110,020,000 (equivalent to \$ in ) to General Electric, which was expected to receive another US\$60 million in black budget funds (equivalent to \$ million in ). The delays increased the projected costs of the MOL program to US\$2.35 billion (equivalent to \$ billion in ). Aware of the program's budgetary and political difficulties, the astronauts in early 1968 advised Bleymaier to eliminate the uncrewed qualification missions; the August 1971 crewed flight would be the first MOL launch and first operational mission. In March 1968, Congress appropriated US\$515 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) for fiscal year 1969, and the MOL SPO was directed to plan on the basis of a US\$600 million appropriation (equivalent to \$ million in ) for fiscal year 1970. This entailed yet another schedule slippage. On 15 July 1968, the MOL SPO convened a conference with major contractors in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and it was agreed to defer the first crewed mission from August to December 1971. ## Usefulness of humans A few months after MOL development began, the program began developing an automated MOL that replaced the crew compartment with film reentry vehicles. Human reconnaissance from space was tested on Gemini 5 in 1965, which conducted 17 USAF military experiments, including photographing missile launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base, and observations of the White Sands Proving Ground. NPIC—which reviewed all NASA astronaut photographs of Earth before release—found that the Gemini photographs were not useful, lacking data on what the camera was aimed at. As automated technology improved, however, those within the MOL program increasingly feared that astronauts were being eliminated. Al Crews said "it became obvious that all we were was a backup in case the unmanned reconnaissance system didn't work". Although Crippen did not think automation could completely replace astronauts, he agreed with Crews that automation technology was rapidly improving. In February 1966, Schriever commissioned a report examining humans' usefulness on the station. The report, which was submitted on 25 May 1966, concluded that they would be useful in several ways, but implied that the program would always need to justify the cost and difficulty of the MOL versus a robotic version. Although it did not fly until July 1966, the authors were aware of the capabilities and limitations of the KH-8 Gambit 3. It could not achieve the same resolution as the Dorian camera on MOL, and the automation necessitated a longer development time and added weight, but the Dorian camera had a resolution of 33 to 38 centimetres (13 to 15 in), could remain in orbit longer, and carry more film than earlier spy satellites. The report concluded that crewed systems had many advantages over automated ones, which lost up to half their images to cloud cover on a typical mission. A human could select the best angle for a photograph, and could switch between color and infrared, or some other special film, depending on the target. This was especially useful for dealing with camouflaged targets. The MOL also had the ability to change orbits, and could shift from its regular 280 km (150 nmi) orbit to a 370-to-560 km (200-to-300 nmi) one, giving it a view of the entire Soviet Union. The report's authors believed that an uncrewed MOL would more likely fail early missions and slowly improve, while a crewed MOL would be "self-healing" and crews would not repeat mistakes. Experience on Projects Mercury, Gemini and the X-15 had demonstrated that crew initiative, innovation and improvisation were often the difference between the success and failure of the mission. Because of the early failures, they predicted that uncrewed MOL would always be less successful overall than crewed MOL regardless of the number of missions. After crewed MOL perfected the system, the program could fly both uncrewed and crewed missions, the report stated. Debate also persisted about the value of the very high resolution (VHR) imaging being developed for MOL and KH-9 Hexagon, or whether the resolution provided by Gambit 3 was sufficient. After the Liberty incident in June 1967 and the Pueblo incident in January 1968, there was an increased focus on intelligence gathering by satellite. The Director of Central Intelligence, Richard M. Helms, commissioned a report on the value of VHR, which was completed in May 1968. It concluded that it would help identify smaller items and features, and increase the understanding of Soviet procedures and processes, and the capacities of some of its industrial facilities, it would not alter estimates of technical capabilities, or assessments of the size and deployment of forces. Whether the benefit justified the cost was unclear, but by 1968 USAF decided that the automated system's longer development time and less certain capability meant that first MOL missions required astronauts. Later ones could be crewed or automated as needed. ## Cancellation On 20 January 1969, Richard Nixon was sworn in as president. He instructed the director of the new Bureau of the Budget, Robert Mayo, and the Secretary of Defense, Melvin Laird, to find ways to cut defense spending. The MOL was an obvious target; an article in the Washington Monthly titled "How The Pentagon Can Save \$9 Billion", written by Robert S. Benson, a former Department of Defense employee, described the MOL as a program that "receives a half a billion dollars a year and ought to rank dead last on any rational scale of national priorities." Stewart briefed the new Deputy Secretary of Defense, David Packard, on the MOL, which Stewart described as the best path to VHR at the earliest date. Laird, who as a congressman had criticized McNamara for inadequately funding the MOL program, was favorably disposed towards the MOL program, as was Seamans, who was now the Secretary of the Air Force. On 6 March, Packard directed Foster to proceed on the basis of \$556 million for fiscal year 1970 (equivalent to \$ million in ). This entailed postponement of the first crewed mission to February 1972. The Bureau of the Budget did not accept Laird's decision. Mayo argued that the resolution provided by Gambit 3 was adequate, and proposed canceling both the MOL and Hexagon. An MOL mission was expected to cost \$150 million (equivalent to \$ million in ), but a Gambit 3 launch cost only \$23 million (equivalent to \$ million in ). The value of VHR, Mayo argued, was not worth the extra cost. On 9 April, Nixon reduced the MOL's funding to \$360 million (equivalent to \$ million in ), and canceled Hexagon. This meant further postponement of the first crewed flight, by up to a year, and the Bureau of the Budget continued to press for the MOL to be canceled. In a last ditch attempt to save the MOL, Laird, Seamans and Stewart met with Nixon at the White House on 17 May, and briefed him on the history of the program. Seamans even offered to find \$250 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) to continue the program from elsewhere in the USAF budget. They thought the meeting went well, but Nixon accepted the Bureau of the Budget's recommendation to reverse his decision to cancel Hexagon and to cancel the MOL instead. On 7 June 1969, Stewart ordered Bleymaier to cease all work on Gemini B, the Titan IIIM and the MOL spacesuit, and to cancel or curtail all other contracts. The official announcement that the MOL had been canceled was made on 10 June. Had it flown as scheduled, MOL would have been the world's first space station. Some believed that MOL should have launched astronauts before the optics were ready. Abrahamson later concurred that his and other MOL astronauts' advice to fly the first mission fully operational was a mistake. He learned while serving as Deputy Administrator of NASA in the early 1980s that launching anything, even "an empty can", made cancellation of a project less likely. Al Crews believed that automated systems were probably superior, and said that when he saw high-resolution photographs from Gambit 3 he knew that MOL would be canceled. Lew Allen, Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, reportedly said in 1981 that human spaceflight was not useful. He had helped to cancel MOL and, the general said, he would have canceled the Space Shuttle program too. Although describing his training as a payload specialist for STS-62-A as "the most exciting time of my life", Edward C. Aldridge, Jr.—NRO head during the mid-1980s—said in 2009 that MOL was canceled: > ... because we couldn't find where having men in that satellite was beneficial. In fact, it was harmful. You had to put a life support system in it. The cameras—that now we can talk about—that were on the satellite, people moving around in the satellite created 'noise.' You didn't want anybody around. So you look at the cost and the complexity, so the program was terminated. ## Legacy Following the MOL cancellation, a committee was formed to handle the disposal of its assets, valued at US\$12.5 million (equivalent to \$ million in ). The Acquisition and Tracking System, Mission Development Simulator, Laboratory Module Simulator, and Mission Simulator were transferred to NASA by the end of 1973. The MOL Program Office at the Pentagon closed on 15 February 1970, and the office in Los Angeles on 30 September 1970. The Director of Space Systems, Brigadier General Lew Allen, became the point of contact for contracts that were terminated, but those with Aerojet, McDonnell Douglas, and the United Technologies Corporation (UTC) were still open in June 1973. The Aerojet contract had only small claims totaling US\$9,888 (), but there remained reservations of US\$771,569 (equivalent to \$ in ) on the McDonnell Douglas contract due to a subcontractor dispute and California franchise tax. The UTC contract was still worth up to US\$51 million (equivalent to \$ million in ), the actual amount depending on how much work was attributable to the MOL, and how much to the ongoing work on Titan III. At the time the MOL was canceled, 192 service and 100 civilian personnel were employed on MOL activities. Within weeks, 80 percent of the service personnel were given new duty assignments. The civilians were reassigned to the Space and Missile Systems Organization (SAMSO). The service personnel included fourteen of the seventeen MOL astronauts. Finley had returned to the U.S. Navy in April 1968, and Adams had left in July 1966 to join the X-15 program. He flew in space on his seventh flight on 15 November 1967, only to be killed when his aircraft broke up. Lawrence had died in an F-104 crash at Edwards Air Force Base on 8 December 1967. All the remaining fourteen except Herres wanted to transfer to NASA. Deke Slayton, NASA Director of Flight Crew Operations, believed that he did not need more astronauts. George Mueller, NASA Deputy Administrator, wanted to maintain good relations with the USAF. Slayton took the seven MOL pilots 35 or younger as NASA Astronaut Group 7; all flew on the Space Shuttle, starting with Crippen on STS-1. NASA also took Crews as a test pilot, and he would fly NASA aircraft until 1994. Due to their exposure to highly classified information, those who did not transfer to NASA could not engage in combat for three years because of the risk of capture. Not being able to serve in Vietnam hurt their careers, and some soon left the military. The Titan III booster became a mainstay of the military satellite program. The Titan IIIC version was capable of lifting 9,100 kilograms (20,000 lb) into low Earth orbit; its successor, the Titan IIID developed for Hexagon, could lift 14,000 kilograms (30,000 lb), and the Titan IIIM developed for the MOL would have been able to lift 17,000 kilograms (38,000 lb). NASA's Saturn IB could lift 16,000 kilograms (36,000 lb), but the cost of a Titan IIIM launch was half that of Saturn IB. The Titan IIIM never flew, but the UA1207 solid rocket boosters developed for the MOL were eventually used on the Titan IV, and the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters were based on materials, processes, and the UA1207 design developed for MOL, with only minor changes. NASA also used work on the Gemini B spacesuits for the agency's own suits, MOL's waste management system flew on Skylab, and NASA Earth Science used other MOL equipment. The prototype IMLSS is in the National Museum of the United States Air Force. Six honeycombed borosilicate glass mirrors made by Corning for MOL, each with a diameter of 180 centimeters (72 in), were combined to make the Multiple Mirror Telescope in Arizona, the third largest optical telescope in the world at the time of its dedication. At the time of cancellation, work on Space Launch Complex 6 was 92 percent complete. The main task remaining was conducting acceptance tests. It was decided to complete the construction and tests, but not install the aerospace ground equipment, and then place the facility in caretaker status, with a caretaker crew provided by the 6595th Aerospace Test Wing. In 1972, the USAF decided to refurbish SLC 6 for use with the Space Shuttle. This cost more than anticipated, some US\$2.5 billion (equivalent to \$ billion in ), and the date of the first launch had to be postponed from June 1984 to July 1986. The airport runway at Easter Island developed for MOL was extended by another 430 meters (1,420 ft) to 3,370 meters (11,055 ft) to allow for an emergency Space Shuttle landing and a piggyback retrieval by a modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, at a cost of US\$7.5 million (equivalent to \$ million in ). Preparations were underway for STS-62-A, the launch of the from SLC 6, commanded by MOL astronaut Bob Crippen and Aldridge aboard, when the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred in January 1986. Plans for Space Shuttle launches from SLC 6 were abandoned, and none ever flew from there. No Space Shuttle was ever launched into a polar orbit. Starting in 2006, SLC 6 was used for Delta IV launches, including NRO KH-11 Kennan satellites. Some items of MOL equipment made their way to museums. The Gemini B spacecraft used in the only flight of the MOL program is on display at the Air Force Space and Missile Museum at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. A Gemini B spacecraft used for ground-based testing is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, (on loan from the National Air and Space Museum). Like the other Gemini B spacecraft, it is differentiated from the NASA Gemini spacecraft by the words "U.S. AIR FORCE" painted on it, with accompanying insignia, and by the circular hatch cut through its heat shield. Two MH-7 training spacesuits from the MOL program were discovered in a locked room in the Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 5 museum on Cape Canaveral in 2005. Crippen donated his MOL spacesuit to the National Air and Space Museum in 2017. In July 2015, the NRO declassified over eight hundred files and photos related to the MOL program. A book by the Center for the Study of National Reconnaissance oral historian Courtney V.K. Homer about the MOL program, Spies in Space (2019), was based upon the trove of documents released by the NRO and with interviews she conducted with Abrahamson, Bobko, Crippen, Crews, Macleay, and Truly.
30,253,685	The Man in the Moone	1,170,056,520	17th century Francis Godwin novel	[ "1630s science fiction novels", "1638 novels", "17th-century English novels", "British science fiction novels", "English novels", "English science fiction novels", "English-language novels", "Novels adapted into operas", "Novels published posthumously", "Novels set on the Moon", "Space exploration novels", "Works published under a pseudonym" ]	The Man in the Moone is a book by the English divine and Church of England bishop Francis Godwin (1562–1633), describing a "voyage of utopian discovery". Long considered to be one of his early works, it is now generally thought to have been written in the late 1620s. It was first published posthumously in 1638 under the pseudonym of Domingo Gonsales. The work is notable for its role in what was called the "new astronomy", the branch of astronomy influenced especially by Nicolaus Copernicus. Although Copernicus is the only astronomer mentioned by name, the book also draws on the theories of Johannes Kepler and William Gilbert. Godwin's astronomical theories were greatly influenced by Galileo Galilei's Sidereus Nuncius (1610), but unlike Galileo, Godwin proposes that the dark spots on the Moon are seas, one of many parallels with Kepler's Somnium sive opus posthumum de astronomia lunari of 1634. The story is written as a first-person narrative from the perspective of Domingo Gonsales, the book's fictional author. In his opening address to the reader the equally fictional translator "E. M." promises "an essay of Fancy, where Invention is shewed with Judgment". Some critics consider The Man in the Moone, along with Kepler's Somnium, to be one of the first works of science fiction. The book was well known in the 17th century, and even inspired parodies by Cyrano de Bergerac and Aphra Behn, but has been neglected in critical history. Recent studies have focused on Godwin's theories of language, the mechanics of lunar travel, and his religious position and sympathies as evidenced in the book. ## Plot summary Domingo Gonsales is a citizen of Spain, forced to flee to the East Indies after killing a man in a duel. There he prospers by trading in jewels, and having made his fortune decides to return to Spain. On his voyage home he becomes seriously ill, and he and a negro servant Diego are put ashore on St Helena, a remote island with a reputation for "temperate and healthful" air. A scarcity of food forces Gonsales and Diego to live some miles apart, but Gonsales devises a variety of systems to allow them to communicate. Eventually he comes to rely on a species of bird he describes as some kind of wild swan, a gansa, to carry messages and provisions between himself and Diego. Gonsales gradually comes to realise that these birds are able to carry substantial burdens, and resolves to construct a device by which a number of them harnessed together might be able to support the weight of a man, allowing him to move around the island more conveniently. Following a successful test flight he determines to resume his voyage home, hoping that he might "fill the world with the Fame of [his] Glory and Renown". But on his way back to Spain, accompanied by his birds and the device he calls his Engine, his ship is attacked by an English fleet off the coast of Tenerife and he is forced to escape by taking to the air. After setting down briefly on Tenerife, Gonsales is forced to take off again by the imminent approach of hostile natives. But rather than flying to a place of safety among the Spanish inhabitants of the island the gansas fly higher and higher. On the first day of his flight Gonsales encounters "illusions of 'Devils and Wicked Spirits'" in the shape of men and women, some of whom he is able to converse with. They provide him with food and drink for his journey and promise to set him down safely in Spain if only he will join their "Fraternity", and "enter into such Covenants as they had made to their Captain and Master, whom they would not name". Gonsales declines their offer, and after a journey of 12 days reaches the Moon. Suddenly feeling very hungry he opens the provisions he was given en route, only to find nothing but dry leaves, goat's hair and animal dung, and that his wine "stunk like Horse-piss". He is soon discovered by the inhabitants of the Moon, the Lunars, whom he finds to be tall Christian people enjoying a happy and carefree life in a kind of pastoral paradise. Gonsales discovers that order is maintained in this apparently utopian state by swapping delinquent children with terrestrial children. The Lunars speak a language consisting "not so much of words and letters as tunes and strange sounds", which Gonsales succeeds in gaining some fluency in after a couple of months. Six months or so after his arrival Gonsales becomes concerned about the condition of his gansas, three of whom have died. Fearing that he may never be able to return to Earth and see his children again if he delays further, he decides to take leave of his hosts, carrying with him a gift of precious stones from the supreme monarch of the Moon, Irdonozur. The stones are of three different sorts: Poleastis, which can store and generate great quantities of heat; Macbrus, which generates great quantities of light; and Ebelus, which when one side of the stone is clasped to the skin renders a man weightless, or half as heavy again if the other side is touched. Gonsales harnesses his gansas to his Engine and leaves the Moon on 29 March 1601. He lands in China about nine days later, without re-encountering the illusions of men and women he had seen on his outward journey and with the help of his Ebelus, which helps the birds to avoid plummeting to Earth as the weight of Gonsales and his Engine threatens to become too much for them. He is quickly arrested and taken before the local mandarin, accused of being a magician, and as a result is confined in the mandarin's palace. He learns to speak the local dialect of Chinese, and after some months of confinement is summoned before the mandarin to give an account of himself and his arrival in China, which gains him the mandarin's trust and favour. Gonsales hears of a group of Jesuits, and is granted permission to visit them. He writes an account of his adventures, which the Jesuits arrange to have sent back to Spain. The story ends with Gonsales's fervent wish that he may one day be allowed to return to Spain, and "that by enriching my country with the knowledge of these hidden mysteries, I may at least reap the glory of my fortunate misfortunes". ## Background and contexts Godwin, the son of Thomas Godwin, Bishop of Bath and Wells, was elected a student of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1578, from where he received his Bachelor of Arts (1581) and Master of Arts degrees (1584); after entering the church he gained his Bachelor (1594) and Doctor of Divinity (1596) degrees. He gained prominence (even internationally) in 1601 by publishing his Catalogue of the Bishops of England since the first planting of the Christian Religion in this Island, which enabled his rapid rise in the church hierarchy. During his life, he was known as a historian. ### Scientific advances and lunar speculation Godwin's book appeared in a time of great interest in the Moon and astronomical phenomena, and of important developments in celestial observation, mathematics and mechanics. The influence particularly of Nicolaus Copernicus led to what was called the "new astronomy"; Copernicus is the only astronomer Godwin mentions by name, but the theories of Johannes Kepler and William Gilbert are also discernible. Galileo Galilei's 1610 publication Sidereus Nuncius (usually translated as "The Sidereal Messenger") had a great influence on Godwin's astronomical theories, although Godwin proposes (unlike Galileo) that the dark spots on the Moon are seas, one of many similarities between The Man in the Moone and Kepler's Somnium sive opus posthumum de astronomia lunaris of 1634 ("The Dream, or Posthumous Work on Lunar Astronomy"). Speculation on lunar habitation was nothing new in Western thought, but it intensified in England during the early 17th century: Philemon Holland's 1603 translation of Plutarch's Moralia introduced Greco-Roman speculation to the English vernacular, and poets including Edmund Spenser proposed that other worlds, including the Moon, could be inhabited. Such speculation was prompted also by the expanding geographical view of the world. The 1630s saw the publication of a translation of Lucian's True History (1634), containing two accounts of trips to the Moon, and a new edition of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, likewise featuring an ascent to the Moon. In both books the Moon is inhabited, and this theme was given an explicit religious importance by writers such as John Donne, who in Ignatius His Conclave (1611, with new editions in 1634 and 1635) satirised a "lunatic church" on the Moon founded by Lucifer and the Jesuits. Lunar speculation reached an acme at the end of the decade, with the publication of Godwin's The Man in the Moone (1638) and John Wilkins's The Discovery of a World in the Moone (also 1638, and revised in 1640). ### Dating evidence Until Grant McColley, a historian of early Modern English literature, published his "The Date of Godwin's Domingo Gonsales" in 1937, it was thought that Godwin wrote The Man in the Moone relatively early in his life – perhaps during his time at Christ Church from 1578 to 1584, or maybe even as late as 1603. But McColley proposed a much later date of 1627 or 1628, based on internal and biographical evidence. A number of ideas about the physical properties of the Earth and the Moon, including claims about "a secret property that operates in a manner similar to that of a loadstone attracting iron", did not appear until after 1620. And Godwin seems to borrow the concept of using a flock of strong, trained birds to fly Gonsales to the Moon from Francis Bacon's Sylva sylvarum ("Natural History"), published in July 1626. All this evidence supports McColley's dating of "1626–29, with the probable years of composition 1627–28", which is now generally accepted. William Poole, in his 2009 edition of The Man in the Moone, provides additional evidence for a later dating. Godwin, he argues, most likely got his knowledge of the Jesuit mission in China (founded in 1601) from a 1625 edition of Samuel Purchas's Purchas his Pilgrimage. This book contains a redaction from Nicolas Trigault's De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas suscepta ab Societate Jesu (1615) ("Concerning the Christian expedition to China undertaken by the Society of Jesus"), itself the redaction of a manuscript by the Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci. Poole also sees the influence of Robert Burton, who in the second volume of The Anatomy of Melancholy had speculated on gaining astronomical knowledge through telescopic observation (citing Galileo) or from space travel (Lucian). Appearing for the first time in the 1628 edition of the Anatomy is a section on planetary periods, which gives a period for Mars of three years – had Godwin used William Gilbert's De Magnete (1600) for this detail he would have found a Martian period of two years. Finally, Poole points to what he calls a "genetic debt": while details on for instance the Martian period could have come from a few other sources, Burton and Godwin are the only two writers of the time to combine an interest in alien life with the green children of Woolpit, from a 12th-century account of two mysterious green children found in Suffolk. Poole sees this reference as strong evidence for Godwin's reliance on Burton. One of Godwin's "major intellectual debts" is to Gilbert's De Magnete, in which Gilbert argued that the Earth was magnetic, though he may have used a derivative account by Mark Ridley or a geographical textbook by Nathanael Carpenter. It is unlikely that Godwin could have gathered first-hand evidence used in narrating the events in his book (such as the details of Gonsales's journey back from the East, especially a description of Saint Helena and its importance as a resting place for sick mariners), and more likely that he relied on travel adventures and other books. He used Trigault's De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas (1615), based on a manuscript by Matteo Ricci, the founder of the Jesuit mission in Beijing in 1601, for information about that mission. Details pertaining to the sea voyage and Saint Helena likely came from Thomas Cavendish's account of his circumnavigation of the world, available in Richard Hakluyt's Principal Navigations (1599–1600) and in Purchas His Pilgrimage, first published in 1613. Information on the Dutch Revolt, the historical setting for the early part of Gonsales' career, likely came from the annals of Emanuel van Meteren, a Dutch historian working in London. ### English editions and translations McColley knew of only one surviving copy of the first edition, held at the British Museum (now British Library C.56.c.2), which was the basis for his 1937 edition of The Man in the Moone and Nuncius Inanimatus, an edition criticised by literary critic Kathleen Tillotson as lacking in textual care and consistency. H. W. Lawton's review published six years earlier mentions a second copy in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, V.20973 (now RES P- V- 752 (6)), an omission also noted by Tillotson. For the text of his 2009 edition, William Poole collated a copy in the Bodleian Library Oxford (Ashm. 940(1)) with that in the British Library. The printer of the first edition of The Man in the Moone is identified on the title page as John Norton, and the book was sold by Joshua Kirton and Thomas Warren. It also includes an epistle introducing the work and attributed to "E. M.", perhaps the fictitious Edward Mahon identified in the Stationers' Register as the translator from the original Spanish. Poole speculates that this Edward Mahon might be Thomas or Morgan Godwin, two of the bishop's sons who had worked with their father on telegraphy, but adds that Godwin's third son, Paul, might be involved as well. The partial revision of the manuscript (the first half has dates according to the Gregorian calendar, the second half still follows the superseded Julian calendar) indicates an unfinished manuscript, which Paul might have acquired after his father's death and passed on to his former colleague Joshua Kirton: Paul Godwin and Kirton were apprenticed to the same printer, John Bill, and worked there together for seven years. Paul may have simply continued the "E. M." hoax unknowingly, and/or may have been responsible for partial revision of the manuscript. To the second edition, published in 1657, was added Godwin's Nuncius Inanimatus (in English and Latin; first published in 1629). The third edition was published in 1768; its text was abridged, and a description of St Helena (by printer Nathaniel Crouch) functioned as an introduction. A French translation by Jean Baudoin, L'Homme dans la Lune, was published in 1648, and republished four more times. This French version excised the narrative's sections on Lunar Christianity, as so do the many translations based on it, including the German translation incorrectly ascribed to Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, Der fliegende Wandersmann nach dem Mond, 1659. Johan van Brosterhuysen (c. 1594–1650) translated the book into Dutch, and a Dutch translation – possibly Brosterhuysen's, although the attribution is uncertain – went through seven printings in the Netherlands between 1645 and 1718. The second edition of 1651 and subsequent editions include a continuation of unknown authorship relating Gonsales' further adventures. ## Themes ### Religion The story is set during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, a period of religious conflict in England. Not only was there the threat of a Catholic resurgence but there were also disputes within the Protestant Church. When Gonsales first encounters the Lunars he exclaims "Jesu Maria", at which the Lunars fall to their knees, but although they revere the name of Jesus they are unfamiliar with the name Maria, suggesting that they are Protestants rather than Catholics; Poole is of the same opinion: "their lack of reaction to the name of Mary suggests that they have not fallen into the errors of the Catholic Church, despite some otherwise rather Catholic-looking institutions on the moon". Beginning in the 1580s, when Godwin was a student at Oxford University, many publications criticising the governance of the established Church of England circulated widely, until in 1586 censorship was introduced, resulting in the Martin Marprelate controversy. Martin Marprelate was the name used by the anonymous author or authors of the illegal tracts attacking the Church published between 1588 and 1589. A number of commentators, including Grant McColley, have suggested that Godwin strongly objected to the imposition of censorship, expressed in Gonsales's hope that the publication of his account may not prove "prejudicial to the Catholic faith". John Clark has suggested that the Martin Marprelate controversy may have inspired Godwin to give the name Martin to the Lunars' god, but as a bishop of the Church of England it is perhaps unlikely that he was generally sympathetic to the Martin Marprelate position. Critics do not agree on the precise denomination of Godwin's Lunars. In contrast with Clark and Poole, David Cressy argues that the Lunars falling to their knees after Gonsales's exclamation (a similar ritual takes place at the court of Irdonozur) is evidence of "a fairly mechanical form of religion (as most of Godwin's Protestant contemporaries judged Roman Catholicism)". By the time The Man in the Moone was published, discussion on the plurality of worlds had begun to favour the possibility of extraterrestrial life. For Christian thinkers such a plurality is intimately connected to Christ and his redemption of man: if there are other worlds, do they share a similar history, and does Christ also redeem them in his sacrifice? According to Philipp Melanchthon, a 16th-century theologian who worked closely with Martin Luther, "It must not be imagined that there are many worlds, because it must not be imagined that Christ died or was resurrected more often, nor must it be thought that in any other world without the knowledge of the son of God, that men would be restored to eternal life". Similar comments were made by Calvinist theologian Lambert Daneau. Midway through the 17th century the matter appears to have been settled in favour of a possible plurality, which was accepted by Henry More and Aphra Behn among others; "by 1650, the Elizabethan Oxford examination question an sint plures mundi? ('can these be many worlds?' – to which the correct Aristotelian answer was 'no') had been replaced by the disputation thesis quod Luna sit habitabilis ('that the moon could be habitable' – which might be answered 'probably' if not 'yes')". ### Lunar language Godwin had a lifelong interest in language and communication (as is evident in Gonsales's various means of communicating with his servant Diego on St Helena), and this was the topic of his Nuncius inanimatus (1629). The language Gonsales encounters on the Moon bears no relation to any he is familiar with, and it takes him months to acquire sufficient fluency to communicate properly with the inhabitants. While its vocabulary appears limited, its possibilities for meaning are multiplied since the meaning of words and phrases also depends on tone. Invented languages were an important element of earlier fantastical accounts such as Thomas More's Utopia, François Rabelais's Gargantua and Pantagruel and Joseph Hall's Mundus Alter et Idem, all books that Godwin was familiar with. P. Cornelius, in a study of invented languages in imaginary travel accounts from the 17th and 18th centuries, proposes that a perfect, rationally organised language is indicative of the Enlightenment's rationalism. As H. Neville Davies argues, Godwin's imaginary language is more perfect than for instance More's in one aspect: it is spoken on the entire Moon and has not suffered from the Earthly dispersion of languages caused by the fall of the Tower of Babel. One of Godwin's sources for his Lunar language was Trigault's De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas. Gonsales provides two examples of spoken phrases, written down in a cipher later explained by John Wilkins in Mercury, or The Secret and Swift Messenger (1641). Trigault's account of the Chinese language gave Godwin the idea of assigning tonality to the Lunar language, and of appreciating it in the language spoken by the Chinese mandarins Gonsales encounters after his return to Earth. Gonsales claims that in contrast to the multitude of languages in China (making their speakers mutually unintelligible), the mandarins' language is universal by virtue of tonality (he suppresses it in the other varieties of Chinese). Thus the mandarins are able to maintain a cultural and spiritual superiority resembling that of the Lunar upper class, which is to be placed in contrast with the variety of languages spoken in a fractured and morally degenerate Europe and elsewhere. Knowlson argues that using the term "language" is overstating the case, and that cipher is the proper term: "In spite of Godwin's claims, this musical 'language' is not in fact a language at all, but simply a cipher in which the letters of an existing language may be transcribed". He suggests Godwin's source may have been a book by Joan Baptista Porta, whose De occultis literarum notis (1606) contains "an exact description of the method he was to adopt". ## Genre The book's genre has been variously categorised. When it was first published the literary genre of utopian fantasy was in its infancy, and critics have recognised how Godwin used a utopian setting to criticise the institutions of his time: the Moon was "the ideal perspective from which to view the earth" and its "moral attitudes and social institutions," according to Maurice Bennett. Other critics have referred to the book as "utopia", "Renaissance utopia" or "picaresque adventure". While some critics claim it as one of the first works of science fiction, there is no general agreement that it is even "proto-science-fiction". Early commentators recognised that the book is a kind of picaresque novel, and comparisons with Don Quixote were being made as early as 1638. In structure as well as content The Man in the Moone somewhat resembles the anonymous Spanish novella Lazarillo de Tormes (1554); both books begin with a genealogy and start out in Salamanca, featuring a man who travels from master to master seeking his fortune. But most critics agree that the picaresque mode is not sustained throughout, and that Godwin intentionally achieves a "generic transformation". Godwin's book follows a venerable tradition of travel literature that blends the excitement of journeys to foreign places with utopian reflection; More's Utopia is cited as a forerunner, as is the account of Amerigo Vespucci. Godwin could fall back on an extensive body of work describing the voyages undertaken by his protagonist, including books by Hakluyt and Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, and the narratives deriving from the Jesuit mission in Beijing. ## Reception and influence The Man in the Moone was published five months after The Discovery of a World in the Moone by John Wilkins, later bishop of Chester. Wilkins refers to Godwin once, in a discussion of spots in the Moon, but not to Godwin's book. In the third edition of The Discovery (1640), however, Wilkins provides a summary of Godwin's book, and later in Mercury (1641) he comments on The Man in the Moone and Nuncius Inanimatus, saying that "the former text could be used to unlock the secrets of the latter". The Man in the Moone quickly became an international "source of humour and parody": Cyrano de Bergerac, using Baudoin's 1648 translation, parodied it in L'Autre Monde: où les États et Empires de la Lune (1657); Cyrano's traveller actually meets Gonsales, who is still on the Moon, "degraded to the status of pet monkey". It was one of the inspirations for what has been called the first science fiction text in the Americas, Syzygies and Lunar Quadratures Aligned to the Meridian of Mérida of the Yucatán by an Anctitone or Inhabitant of the Moon ... by Manuel Antonio de Rivas (1775). The Laputan language of Jonathan Swift, who was a distant relation of Godwin's, may have been influenced by The Man in the Moone, either directly or through Cyrano de Bergerac. The Man in the Moone became a popular source for "often extravagantly staged comic drama and opera", including Aphra Behn's The Emperor of the Moon, a 1687 play "inspired by ... the third edition of [The Man in the Moone], and the English translation of Cyrano's work", and Elkanah Settle's The World in the Moon (1697). Thomas D'Urfey's Wonders in the Sun, or the Kingdom of the Birds (1706) was "really a sequel, starring Domingo and Diego". Its popularity was not limited to English; a Dutch farce, Don Domingo Gonzales of de Man in de maan, formerly considered to have been written by Maria de Wilde, was published in 1755. The book's influence continued into the 19th century. Edgar Allan Poe in an appendix to "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall" called it "a singular and somewhat ingenious little book". Poe assumed the author to be French, an assumption also made by Jules Verne in his From the Earth to the Moon (1865), suggesting that they may have been using Baudoin's translation. H. G. Wells's The First Men in the Moon (1901) has several parallels with Godwin's fantasy, including the use of a stone to induce weightlessness. But The Man in the Moone has nevertheless been given only "lukewarm consideration in different histories of English literature", and its importance is downplayed in studies of Utopian literature. Frank E. Manuel and Fritzie P. Manuel's Utopian Thought in the Western World (winner of the 1979 National Book Award for Nonfiction) mentions it only in passing, saying that Godwin "treats primarily of the mechanics of flight with the aid of a crew of birds", and that The Man in the Moone, like Bergerac's and Wilkins's books, lacks "high seriousness and unified moral purpose". Gonsales's load-carrying birds have also left their mark. The Oxford English Dictionary's entry for gansa reads "One of the birds (called elsewhere 'wild swans') which drew Domingo Gonsales to the Moon in the romance by Bp. F. Godwin". For the etymology it suggests ganzæ, found in Philemon Holland's 1601 translation of Pliny the Elder's Natural History. Michael van Langren, the 17th-century Dutch astronomer and cartographer, named one of the lunar craters for them, Gansii, later renamed Halley. ## Modern editions - The Man in the Moone: or a Discourse of a Voyage thither by Domingo Gonsales, 1638. Facsimile reprint, Scolar Press, 1971. - The Man in the Moone and Nuncius Inanimatus, ed. Grant McColley. Smith College Studies in Modern Languages 19. 1937. Repr. Logaston Press, 1996. - The Man in the Moone. A Story of Space Travel in the Early 17th Century, 1959. - The Man in the Moone, in Charles C. Mish, Short Fiction of the Seventeenth Century, 1963. Based on the second edition, with modernised text (an "eccentric choice"). - The Man in the Moone, in Faith K. Pizor and T. Allan Comp, eds., The Man in the Moone and Other Lunar Fantasies. Praeger, 1971. - The Man in the Moone, ed. William Poole. Broadview, 2009. . ### Monographs on The Man in the Moone - Anke Janssen, Francis Godwins "The Man in the Moone": Die Entdeckung des Romans als Medium der Auseinandersetzung mit Zeitproblemen. Peter Lang, 1981.
77,474	Nihonium	1,172,955,467	null	[ "Chemical elements", "Nihonium", "Synthetic elements" ]	Nihonium is a synthetic chemical element with the symbol Nh and atomic number 113. It is extremely radioactive; its most stable known isotope, nihonium-286, has a half-life of about 10 seconds. In the periodic table, nihonium is a transactinide element in the p-block. It is a member of period 7 and group 13. Nihonium was first reported to have been created in 2003 by a Russian–American collaboration at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, Russia, and in 2004 by a team of Japanese scientists at Riken in Wakō, Japan. The confirmation of their claims in the ensuing years involved independent teams of scientists working in the United States, Germany, Sweden, and China, as well as the original claimants in Russia and Japan. In 2015, the IUPAC/IUPAP Joint Working Party recognised the element and assigned the priority of the discovery and naming rights for the element to Riken. The Riken team suggested the name nihonium in 2016, which was approved in the same year. The name comes from the common Japanese name for Japan (日本, nihon). Very little is known about nihonium, as it has only been made in very small amounts that decay within seconds. The anomalously long lives of some superheavy nuclides, including some nihonium isotopes, are explained by the "island of stability" theory. Experiments support the theory, with the half-lives of the confirmed nihonium isotopes increasing from milliseconds to seconds as neutrons are added and the island is approached. Nihonium has been calculated to have similar properties to its homologues boron, aluminium, gallium, indium, and thallium. All but boron are post-transition metals, and nihonium is expected to be a post-transition metal as well. It should also show several major differences from them; for example, nihonium should be more stable in the +1 oxidation state than the +3 state, like thallium, but in the +1 state nihonium should behave more like silver and astatine than thallium. Preliminary experiments in 2017 showed that elemental nihonium is not very volatile; its chemistry remains largely unexplored. ## Introduction ## History ### Early indications The syntheses of elements 107 to 112 were conducted at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, Germany, from 1981 to 1996. These elements were made by cold fusion reactions, in which targets made of thallium, lead, and bismuth, which are around the stable configuration of 82 protons, are bombarded with heavy ions of period 4 elements. This creates fused nuclei with low excitation energies due to the stability of the targets' nuclei, significantly increasing the yield of superheavy elements. Cold fusion was pioneered by Yuri Oganessian and his team in 1974 at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, Soviet Union. Yields from cold fusion reactions were found to decrease significantly with increasing atomic number; the resulting nuclei were severely neutron-deficient and short-lived. The GSI team attempted to synthesise element 113 via cold fusion in 1998 and 2003, bombarding bismuth-209 with zinc-70; both attempts were unsuccessful. Faced with this problem, Oganessian and his team at the JINR turned their renewed attention to the older hot fusion technique, in which heavy actinide targets were bombarded with lighter ions. Calcium-48 was suggested as an ideal projectile, because it is very neutron-rich for a light element (combined with the already neutron-rich actinides) and would minimise the neutron deficiencies of the nuclides produced. Being doubly magic, it would confer benefits in stability to the fused nuclei. In collaboration with the team at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, California, United States, they made an attempt on element 114 (which was predicted to be a magic number, closing a proton shell, and more stable than element 113). In 1998, the JINR–LLNL collaboration started their attempt on element 114, bombarding a target of plutonium-244 with ions of calcium-48: <sup>244</sup> <sub>94</sub>Pu + <sup>48</sup> <sub>20</sub>Ca → <sup>292</sup>114\* → <sup>290</sup>114 + 2 + e<sup>−</sup> → <sup>290</sup>113 + ν<sub>e</sub> A single atom was observed which was thought to be the isotope <sup>289</sup>114: the results were published in January 1999. Despite numerous attempts to repeat this reaction, an isotope with these decay properties has never again been found, and the exact identity of this activity is unknown. A 2016 paper by Sigurd Hofmann et al. considered that the most likely explanation of the 1998 result is that two neutrons were emitted by the produced compound nucleus, leading to <sup>290</sup>114 and electron capture to <sup>290</sup>113, while more neutrons were emitted in all other produced chains. This would have been the first report of a decay chain from an isotope of element 113, but it was not recognised at the time, and the assignment is still uncertain. A similar long-lived activity observed by the JINR team in March 1999 in the <sup>242</sup>Pu + <sup>48</sup>Ca reaction may be due to the electron-capture daughter of <sup>287</sup>114, <sup>287</sup>113; this assignment is also tentative. ### JINR–LLNL collaboration The now-confirmed discovery of element 114 was made in June 1999 when the JINR team repeated the first <sup>244</sup>Pu + <sup>48</sup>Ca reaction from 1998; following this, the JINR team used the same hot fusion technique to synthesise elements 116 and 118 in 2000 and 2002 respectively via the <sup>248</sup>Cm + <sup>48</sup>Ca and <sup>249</sup>Cf + <sup>48</sup>Ca reactions. They then turned their attention to the missing odd-numbered elements, as the odd protons and possibly neutrons would hinder decay by spontaneous fission and result in longer decay chains. The first report of element 113 was in August 2003, when it was identified as an alpha decay product of element 115. Element 115 had been produced by bombarding a target of americium-243 with calcium-48 projectiles. The JINR–LLNL collaboration published its results in February 2004: <sup>243</sup> <sub>95</sub>Am + <sup>48</sup> <sub>20</sub>Ca → <sup>291</sup>115\* → <sup>288</sup>115 + 3 → <sup>284</sup>113 + <sup>243</sup> <sub>95</sub>Am + <sup>48</sup> <sub>20</sub>Ca → <sup>291</sup>115\* → <sup>287</sup>115 + 4 → <sup>283</sup>113 + Four further alpha decays were observed, ending with the spontaneous fission of isotopes of element 105, dubnium. ### Riken While the JINR–LLNL collaboration had been studying fusion reactions with <sup>48</sup>Ca, a team of Japanese scientists at the Riken Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science in Wakō, Japan, led by Kōsuke Morita had been studying cold fusion reactions. Morita had previously studied the synthesis of superheavy elements at the JINR before starting his own team at Riken. In 2001, his team confirmed the GSI's discoveries of elements 108, 110, 111, and 112. They then made a new attempt on element 113, using the same <sup>209</sup>Bi + <sup>70</sup>Zn reaction that the GSI had attempted unsuccessfully in 1998. Despite the much lower yield expected than for the JINR's hot fusion technique with calcium-48, the Riken team chose to use cold fusion as the synthesised isotopes would alpha decay to known daughter nuclides and make the discovery much more certain, and would not require the use of radioactive targets. In particular, the isotope <sup>278</sup>113 expected to be produced in this reaction would decay to the known <sup>266</sup>Bh, which had been synthesised in 2000 by a team at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in Berkeley. The bombardment of <sup>209</sup>Bi with <sup>70</sup>Zn at Riken began in September 2003. The team detected a single atom of <sup>278</sup>113 in July 2004 and published their results that September: <sup>209</sup> <sub>83</sub>Bi + <sup>70</sup> <sub>30</sub>Zn → <sup>279</sup>113\* → <sup>278</sup>113 + The Riken team observed four alpha decays from <sup>278</sup>113, creating a decay chain passing through <sup>274</sup>Rg, <sup>270</sup>Mt, and <sup>266</sup>Bh before terminating with the spontaneous fission of <sup>262</sup>Db. The decay data they observed for the alpha decay of <sup>266</sup>Bh matched the 2000 data, lending support for their claim. Spontaneous fission of its daughter <sup>262</sup>Db had not been previously known; the American team had observed only alpha decay from this nuclide. ### Road to confirmation When the discovery of a new element is claimed, the Joint Working Party (JWP) of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) assembles to examine the claims according to their criteria for the discovery of a new element, and decides scientific priority and naming rights for the elements. According to the JWP criteria, a discovery must demonstrate that the element has an atomic number different from all previously observed values. It should also preferably be repeated by other laboratories, although this requirement has been waived where the data is of very high quality. Such a demonstration must establish properties, either physical or chemical, of the new element and establish that they are those of a previously unknown element. The main techniques used to demonstrate atomic number are cross-reactions (creating claimed nuclides as parents or daughters of other nuclides produced by a different reaction) and anchoring decay chains to known daughter nuclides. For the JWP, priority in confirmation takes precedence over the date of the original claim. Both teams set out to confirm their results by these methods. #### 2004–2008 In June 2004 and again in December 2005, the JINR–LLNL collaboration strengthened their claim for the discovery of element 113 by conducting chemical experiments on <sup>268</sup>Db, the final decay product of <sup>288</sup>115. This was valuable as none of the nuclides in this decay chain were previously known, so that their claim was not supported by any previous experimental data, and chemical experimentation would strengthen the case for their claim, since the chemistry of dubnium is known. <sup>268</sup>Db was successfully identified by extracting the final decay products, measuring spontaneous fission (SF) activities and using chemical identification techniques to confirm that they behave like a group 5 element (dubnium is known to be in group 5). Both the half-life and decay mode were confirmed for the proposed <sup>268</sup>Db which lends support to the assignment of the parent and daughter nuclei to elements 115 and 113 respectively. Further experiments at the JINR in 2005 confirmed the observed decay data. In November and December 2004, the Riken team studied the <sup>205</sup>Tl + <sup>70</sup>Zn reaction, aiming the zinc beam onto a thallium rather than a bismuth target, in an effort to directly produce <sup>274</sup>Rg in a cross-bombardment as it is the immediate daughter of <sup>278</sup>113. The reaction was unsuccessful, as the thallium target was physically weak compared to the more commonly used lead and bismuth targets, and it deteriorated significantly and became non-uniform in thickness. The reasons for this weakness are unknown, given that thallium has a higher melting point than bismuth. The Riken team then repeated the original <sup>209</sup>Bi + <sup>70</sup>Zn reaction and produced a second atom of <sup>278</sup>113 in April 2005, with a decay chain that again terminated with the spontaneous fission of <sup>262</sup>Db. The decay data were slightly different from those of the first chain: this could have been because an alpha particle escaped from the detector without depositing its full energy, or because some of the intermediate decay products were formed in metastable isomeric states. In 2006, a team at the Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou, China, investigated the <sup>243</sup>Am + <sup>26</sup>Mg reaction, producing four atoms of <sup>266</sup>Bh. All four chains started with an alpha decay to <sup>262</sup>Db; three chains ended there with spontaneous fission, as in the <sup>278</sup>113 chains observed at Riken, while the remaining one continued via another alpha decay to <sup>258</sup>Lr, as in the <sup>266</sup>Bh chains observed at LBNL. In June 2006, the JINR–LLNL collaboration claimed to have synthesised a new isotope of element 113 directly by bombarding a neptunium-237 target with accelerated calcium-48 nuclei: <sup>237</sup> <sub>93</sub>Np + <sup>48</sup> <sub>20</sub>Ca → <sup>285</sup>113\* → <sup>282</sup>113 + 3 Two atoms of <sup>282</sup>113 were detected. The aim of this experiment had been to synthesise the isotopes <sup>281</sup>113 and <sup>282</sup>113 that would fill in the gap between isotopes produced via hot fusion (<sup>283</sup>113 and <sup>284</sup>113) and cold fusion (<sup>278</sup>113). After five alpha decays, these nuclides would reach known isotopes of lawrencium, assuming that the decay chains were not terminated prematurely by spontaneous fission. The first decay chain ended in fission after four alpha decays, presumably originating from <sup>266</sup>Db or its electron-capture daughter <sup>266</sup>Rf. Spontaneous fission was not observed in the second chain even after four alpha decays. A fifth alpha decay in each chain could have been missed, since <sup>266</sup>Db can theoretically undergo alpha decay, in which case the first decay chain would have ended at the known <sup>262</sup>Lr or <sup>262</sup>No and the second might have continued to the known long-lived <sup>258</sup>Md, which has a half-life of 51.5 days, longer than the duration of the experiment: this would explain the lack of a spontaneous fission event in this chain. In the absence of direct detection of the long-lived alpha decays, these interpretations remain unconfirmed, and there is still no known link between any superheavy nuclides produced by hot fusion and the well-known main body of the chart of nuclides. #### 2009–2015 The JWP published its report on elements 113–116 and 118 in 2011. It recognised the JINR–LLNL collaboration as having discovered elements 114 and 116, but did not accept either team's claim to element 113 and did not accept the JINR–LLNL claims to elements 115 and 118. The JINR–LLNL claim to elements 115 and 113 had been founded on chemical identification of their daughter dubnium, but the JWP objected that current theory could not distinguish between superheavy group 4 and group 5 elements by their chemical properties with enough confidence to allow this assignment. The decay properties of all the nuclei in the decay chain of element 115 had not been previously characterised before the JINR experiments, a situation which the JWP generally considers "troublesome, but not necessarily exclusive", and with the small number of atoms produced with neither known daughters nor cross-reactions the JWP considered that their criteria had not been fulfilled. The JWP did not accept the Riken team's claim either due to inconsistencies in the decay data, the small number of atoms of element 113 produced, and the lack of unambiguous anchors to known isotopes. In early 2009, the Riken team synthesised the decay product <sup>266</sup>Bh directly in the <sup>248</sup>Cm + <sup>23</sup>Na reaction to establish its link with <sup>278</sup>113 as a cross-bombardment. They also established the branched decay of <sup>262</sup>Db, which sometimes underwent spontaneous fission and sometimes underwent the previously known alpha decay to <sup>258</sup>Lr. In late 2009, the JINR–LLNL collaboration studied the <sup>249</sup>Bk + <sup>48</sup>Ca reaction in an effort to produce element 117, which would decay to elements 115 and 113 and bolster their claims in a cross-reaction. They were now joined by scientists from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Vanderbilt University, both in Tennessee, United States, who helped procure the rare and highly radioactive berkelium target necessary to complete the JINR's calcium-48 campaign to synthesise the heaviest elements on the periodic table. Two isotopes of element 117 were synthesised, decaying to element 115 and then element 113: <sup>249</sup> <sub>97</sub>Bk + <sup>48</sup> <sub>20</sub>Ca → <sup>297</sup>117\* → <sup>294</sup>117 + 3 → <sup>290</sup>115 + α → <sup>286</sup>113 + α <sup>249</sup> <sub>97</sub>Bk + <sup>48</sup> <sub>20</sub>Ca → <sup>297</sup>117\* → <sup>293</sup>117 + 4 → <sup>289</sup>115 + α → <sup>285</sup>113 + α The new isotopes <sup>285</sup>113 and <sup>286</sup>113 produced did not overlap with the previously claimed <sup>282</sup>113, <sup>283</sup>113, and <sup>284</sup>113, so this reaction could not be used as a cross-bombardment to confirm the 2003 or 2006 claims. In March 2010, the Riken team again attempted to synthesise <sup>274</sup>Rg directly through the <sup>205</sup>Tl + <sup>70</sup>Zn reaction with upgraded equipment; they failed again and abandoned this cross-bombardment route. After 450 more days of irradiation of bismuth with zinc projectiles, Riken produced and identified another <sup>278</sup>113 atom in August 2012. Although electricity prices had soared since the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, and Riken had ordered the shutdown of the accelerator programs to save money, Morita's team was permitted to continue with one experiment, and they chose their attempt to confirm their synthesis of element 113. In this case, a series of six alpha decays was observed, leading to an isotope of mendelevium: <sup>278</sup>113 → <sup>274</sup> <sub>111</sub>Rg + → <sup>270</sup> <sub>109</sub>Mt + → <sup>266</sup> <sub>107</sub>Bh + → <sup>262</sup> <sub>105</sub>Db + → <sup>258</sup> <sub>103</sub>Lr + → <sup>254</sup> <sub>101</sub>Md + This decay chain differed from the previous observations at Riken mainly in the decay mode of <sup>262</sup>Db, which was previously observed to undergo spontaneous fission, but in this case instead alpha decayed; the alpha decay of <sup>262</sup>Db to <sup>258</sup>Lr is well-known. The team calculated the probability of accidental coincidence to be 10<sup>−28</sup>, or totally negligible. The resulting <sup>254</sup>Md atom then underwent electron capture to <sup>254</sup>Fm, which underwent the seventh alpha decay in the chain to the long-lived <sup>250</sup>Cf, which has a half-life of around thirteen years. The <sup>249</sup>Bk + <sup>48</sup>Ca experiment was repeated at the JINR in 2012 and 2013 with consistent results, and again at the GSI in 2014. In August 2013, a team of researchers at Lund University in Lund, Sweden, and at the GSI announced that they had repeated the 2003 <sup>243</sup>Am + <sup>48</sup>Ca experiment, confirming the findings of the JINR–LLNL collaboration. The same year, the 2003 experiment had been repeated at the JINR, now also creating the isotope <sup>289</sup>115 that could serve as a cross-bombardment for confirming their discovery of the element 117 isotope <sup>293</sup>117, as well as its daughter <sup>285</sup>113 as part of its decay chain. Confirmation of <sup>288</sup>115 and its daughters was published by the team at the LBNL in 2015. ### Approval of discoveries In December 2015, the conclusions of a new JWP report were published by IUPAC in a press release, in which element 113 was awarded to Riken; elements 115, 117, and 118 were awarded to the collaborations involving the JINR. A joint 2016 announcement by IUPAC and IUPAP had been scheduled to coincide with the publication of the JWP reports, but IUPAC alone decided on an early release because the news of Riken being awarded credit for element 113 had been leaked to Japanese newspapers. For the first time in history, a team of Asian physicists would name a new element. The JINR considered the awarding of element 113 to Riken unexpected, citing their own 2003 production of elements 115 and 113, and pointing to the precedents of elements 103, 104, and 105 where IUPAC had awarded joint credit to the JINR and LBNL. They stated that they respected IUPAC's decision, but reserved determination of their position for the official publication of the JWP reports. The full JWP reports were published on 21 January 2016. The JWP recognised the discovery of element 113, assigning priority to Riken. They noted that while the individual decay energies of each nuclide in the decay chain of <sup>278</sup>113 were inconsistent, their sum was now confirmed to be consistent, strongly suggesting that the initial and final states in <sup>278</sup>113 and its daughter <sup>262</sup>Db were the same for all three events. The decay of <sup>262</sup>Db to <sup>258</sup>Lr and <sup>254</sup>Md was previously known, firmly anchoring the decay chain of <sup>278</sup>113 to known regions of the chart of nuclides. The JWP considered that the JINR–LLNL collaborations of 2004 and 2007, producing element 113 as the daughter of element 115, did not meet the discovery criteria as they had not convincingly determined the atomic numbers of their nuclides through cross-bombardments, which were considered necessary since their decay chains were not anchored to previously known nuclides. They also considered that the previous JWP's concerns over their chemical identification of the dubnium daughter had not been adequately addressed. The JWP recognised the JINR–LLNL–ORNL–Vanderbilt collaboration of 2010 as having discovered elements 117 and 115, and accepted that element 113 had been produced as their daughter, but did not give this work shared credit. After the publication of the JWP reports, Sergey Dimitriev, the lab director of the Flerov lab at the JINR where the discoveries were made, remarked that he was happy with IUPAC's decision, mentioning the time Riken spent on their experiment and their good relations with Morita, who had learnt the basics of synthesising superheavy elements at the JINR. The sum argument advanced by the JWP in the approval of the discovery of element 113 was later criticised in a May 2016 study from Lund University and the GSI, as it is only valid if no gamma decay or internal conversion takes place along the decay chain, which is not likely for odd nuclei, and the uncertainty of the alpha decay energies measured in the <sup>278</sup>113 decay chain was not small enough to rule out this possibility. If this is the case, similarity in lifetimes of intermediate daughters becomes a meaningless argument, as different isomers of the same nuclide can have different half-lives: for example, the ground state of <sup>180</sup>Ta has a half-life of hours, but an excited state <sup>180m</sup>Ta has never been observed to decay. This study found reason to doubt and criticise the IUPAC approval of the discoveries of elements 115 and 117, but the data from Riken for element 113 was found to be congruent, and the data from the JINR team for elements 115 and 113 to probably be so, thus endorsing the IUPAC approval of the discovery of element 113. Two members of the JINR team published a journal article rebutting these criticisms against the congruence of their data on elements 113, 115, and 117 in June 2017. ### Naming Using Mendeleev's nomenclature for unnamed and undiscovered elements, nihonium would be known as eka-thallium. In 1979, IUPAC published recommendations according to which the element was to be called ununtrium (with the corresponding symbol of Uut), a systematic element name as a placeholder, until the discovery of the element is confirmed and a name is decided on. The recommendations were widely used in the chemical community on all levels, from chemistry classrooms to advanced textbooks, but were mostly ignored among scientists in the field, who called it "element 113", with the symbol of E113, (113), or even simply 113. Before the JWP recognition of their priority, the Japanese team had unofficially suggested various names: japonium, after their home country; nishinanium, after Japanese physicist Yoshio Nishina, the "founding father of modern physics research in Japan"; and rikenium, after the institute. After the recognition, the Riken team gathered in February 2016 to decide on a name. Morita expressed his desire for the name to honour the fact that element 113 had been discovered in Japan. Japonium was considered, making the connection to Japan easy to identify for non-Japanese, but it was rejected as Jap is considered an ethnic slur. The name nihonium was chosen after an hour of deliberation: it comes from nihon (日本), one of the two Japanese pronunciations for the name of Japan. The discoverers also intended to reference the support of their research by the Japanese people (Riken being almost entirely government-funded), recover lost pride and trust in science among those who were affected by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, and honour Japanese chemist Masataka Ogawa's 1908 discovery of rhenium, which he named "nipponium" with symbol Np after the other Japanese pronunciation of Japan's name. As Ogawa's claim had not been accepted, the name "nipponium" could not be reused for a new element, and its symbol Np had since been used for neptunium. In March 2016, Morita proposed the name "nihonium" to IUPAC, with the symbol Nh. The naming realised what had been a national dream in Japanese science ever since Ogawa's claim. The former president of IUPAP, Cecilia Jarlskog, complained at the Nobel Symposium on Superheavy Elements in Bäckaskog Castle, Sweden, in June 2016 about the lack of openness involved in the process of approving new elements, and stated that she believed that the JWP's work was flawed and should be redone by a new JWP. A survey of physicists determined that many felt that the Lund–GSI 2016 criticisms of the JWP report were well-founded, but that the conclusions would hold up if the work was redone, and the new president, Bruce McKellar, ruled that the proposed names should be released in a joint IUPAP–IUPAC press release. Thus, IUPAC and IUPAP publicised the proposal of nihonium that June, and set a five-month term to collect comments, after which the name would be formally established at a conference. The name was officially approved in November 2016. The naming ceremony for the new element was held in Tokyo, Japan, in March 2017, with Naruhito, then the Crown Prince of Japan, in attendance. ## Isotopes Nihonium has no stable or naturally occurring isotopes. Several radioactive isotopes have been synthesised in the laboratory, either by fusing two atoms or by observing the decay of heavier elements. Eight different isotopes of nihonium have been reported with atomic masses 278, 282–287, and 290 (<sup>287</sup>Nh and <sup>290</sup>Nh are unconfirmed); they all decay through alpha decay to isotopes of roentgenium. There have been indications that nihonium-284 can also decay by electron capture to copernicium-284, though estimates of the partial half-life for this branch vary strongly by model. A spontaneous fission branch of nihonium-285 has also been reported. ### Stability and half-lives The stability of nuclei quickly decreases with the increase in atomic number after curium, element 96, whose half-life is over ten thousand times longer than that of any subsequent element. All isotopes with an atomic number above 101 undergo radioactive decay with half-lives of less than 30 hours: this is because of the ever-increasing Coulomb repulsion of protons, so that the strong nuclear force cannot hold the nucleus together against spontaneous fission for long. Calculations suggest that in the absence of other stabilising factors, elements with more than 103 protons should not exist. Researchers in the 1960s suggested that the closed nuclear shells around 114 protons and 184 neutrons should counteract this instability, and create an "island of stability" containing nuclides with half-lives reaching thousands or millions of years. The existence of the island is still unproven, but the existence of the superheavy elements (including nihonium) confirms that the stabilising effect is real, and in general the known superheavy nuclides become longer-lived as they approach the predicted location of the island. All nihonium isotopes are unstable and radioactive; the heavier nihonium isotopes are more stable than the lighter ones, as they are closer to the centre of the island. The most stable known nihonium isotope, <sup>286</sup>Nh, is also the heaviest; it has a half-life of 8 seconds. The isotope <sup>285</sup>Nh, as well as the unconfirmed <sup>287</sup>Nh and <sup>290</sup>Nh, have also been reported to have half-lives of over a second. The isotopes <sup>284</sup>Nh and <sup>283</sup>Nh have half-lives of 0.90 and 0.12 seconds respectively. The remaining two isotopes have half-lives between 0.1 and 100 milliseconds: <sup>282</sup>Nh has a half-life of 61 milliseconds, and <sup>278</sup>Nh, the lightest known nihonium isotope, is also the shortest-lived, with a half-life of 1.4 milliseconds. This rapid increase in the half-lives near the closed neutron shell at N = 184 is seen in roentgenium, copernicium, and nihonium (elements 111 through 113), where each extra neutron so far multiplies the half-life by a factor of 5 to 20. ## Predicted properties Very few properties of nihonium or its compounds have been measured; this is due to its extremely limited and expensive production and the fact it decays very quickly. Properties of nihonium mostly remain unknown and only predictions are available. ### Physical and atomic Nihonium is the first member of the 7p series of elements and the heaviest group 13 element on the periodic table, below boron, aluminium, gallium, indium, and thallium. All the group 13 elements except boron are metals, and nihonium is expected to follow suit. Nihonium is predicted to show many differences from its lighter homologues. The major reason for this is the spin–orbit (SO) interaction, which is especially strong for the superheavy elements, because their electrons move much faster than in lighter atoms, at velocities close to the speed of light. In relation to nihonium atoms, it lowers the 7s and the 7p electron energy levels (stabilising those electrons), but two of the 7p electron energy levels are stabilised more than the other four. The stabilisation of the 7s electrons is called the inert pair effect, and the separation of the 7p subshell into the more and less stabilised parts is called subshell splitting. Computational chemists see the split as a change of the second, azimuthal quantum number l, from 1 to 1/2 and 3/2 for the more and less stabilised parts of the 7p subshell, respectively. For theoretical purposes, the valence electron configuration may be represented to reflect the 7p subshell split as 7s<sup>2</sup> 7p<sub>1/2</sub><sup>1</sup>. The first ionisation energy of nihonium is expected to be 7.306 eV, the highest among the metals of group 13. Similar subshell splitting should exist for the 6d electron levels, with four being 6d<sub>3/2</sub> and six being 6d<sub>5/2</sub>. Both these levels are raised to be close in energy to the 7s ones, high enough to possibly be chemically active. This would allow for the possibility of exotic nihonium compounds without lighter group 13 analogues. Periodic trends would predict nihonium to have an atomic radius larger than that of thallium due to it being one period further down the periodic table, but calculations suggest nihonium has an atomic radius of about 170 pm, the same as that of thallium, due to the relativistic stabilisation and contraction of its 7s and 7p<sub>1/2</sub> orbitals. Thus, nihonium is expected to be much denser than thallium, with a predicted density of about 16 to 18 g/cm<sup>3</sup> compared to thallium's 11.85 g/cm<sup>3</sup>, since nihonium atoms are heavier than thallium atoms but have the same volume. Bulk nihonium is expected to have a hexagonal close-packed crystal structure, like thallium. The melting and boiling points of nihonium have been predicted to be 430 °C and 1100 °C respectively, exceeding the values for indium and thallium, following periodic trends. Nihonium should have a bulk modulus of 20.8 GPa, about half that of thallium (43 GPa). ### Chemical The chemistry of nihonium is expected to be very different from that of thallium. This difference stems from the spin–orbit splitting of the 7p shell, which results in nihonium being between two relatively inert closed-shell elements (copernicium and flerovium), an unprecedented situation in the periodic table. Nihonium is expected to be less reactive than thallium, because of the greater stabilisation and resultant chemical inactivity of the 7s subshell in nihonium compared to the 6s subshell in thallium. The standard electrode potential for the Nh<sup>+</sup>/Nh couple is predicted to be 0.6 V. Nihonium should be a rather noble metal. The metallic group 13 elements are typically found in two oxidation states: +1 and +3. The former results from the involvement of only the single p electron in bonding, and the latter results in the involvement of all three valence electrons, two in the s-subshell and one in the p-subshell. Going down the group, bond energies decrease and the +3 state becomes less stable, as the energy released in forming two additional bonds and attaining the +3 state is not always enough to outweigh the energy needed to involve the s-electrons. Hence, for aluminium and gallium +3 is the most stable state, but +1 gains importance for indium and by thallium it becomes more stable than the +3 state. Nihonium is expected to continue this trend and have +1 as its most stable oxidation state. The simplest possible nihonium compound is the monohydride, NhH. The bonding is provided by the 7p<sub>1/2</sub> electron of nihonium and the 1s electron of hydrogen. The SO interaction causes the binding energy of nihonium monohydride to be reduced by about 1 eV and the nihonium–hydrogen bond length to decrease as the bonding 7p<sub>1/2</sub> orbital is relativistically contracted. This is unique among the 7p element monohydrides; all the others have relativistic expansion of the bond length instead of contraction. Another effect of the SO interaction is that the Nh–H bond is expected to have significant pi bonding character (side-on orbital overlap), unlike the almost pure sigma bonding (head-on orbital overlap) in thallium monohydride (TlH). The analogous monofluoride (NhF) should also exist. Nihonium(I) is predicted to be more similar to silver(I) than thallium(I): the Nh<sup>+</sup> ion is expected to more willingly bind anions, so that NhCl should be quite soluble in excess hydrochloric acid or ammonia; TlCl is not. In contrast to Tl<sup>+</sup>, which forms the strongly basic hydroxide (TlOH) in solution, the Nh<sup>+</sup> cation should instead hydrolyse all the way to the amphoteric oxide Nh<sub>2</sub>O, which would be soluble in aqueous ammonia and weakly soluble in water. The adsorption behaviour of nihonium on gold surfaces in thermochromatographical experiments is expected to be closer to that of astatine than that of thallium. The destabilisation of the 7p<sub>3/2</sub> subshell effectively leads to a valence shell closing at the 7s<sup>2</sup> 7p<sup>2</sup> configuration rather than the expected 7s<sup>2</sup> 7p<sup>6</sup> configuration with its stable octet. As such, nihonium, like astatine, can be considered to be one p-electron short of a closed valence shell. Hence, even though nihonium is in group 13, it has several properties similar to the group 17 elements. (Tennessine in group 17 has some group-13-like properties, as it has three valence electrons outside the 7s<sup>2</sup> 7p<sup>2</sup> closed shell.) Nihonium is expected to be able to gain an electron to attain this closed-shell configuration, forming the −1 oxidation state like the halogens (fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, and astatine). This state should be more stable than it is for thallium as the SO splitting of the 7p subshell is greater than that for the 6p subshell. Nihonium should be the most electronegative of the metallic group 13 elements, even more electronegative than tennessine, the period 7 congener of the halogens: in the compound NhTs, the negative charge is expected to be on the nihonium atom rather than the tennessine atom. The −1 oxidation should be more stable for nihonium than for tennessine. The electron affinity of nihonium is calculated to be around 0.68 eV, higher than thallium's at 0.4 eV; tennessine's is expected to be 1.8 eV, the lowest in its group. It is theoretically predicted that nihonium should have an enthalpy of sublimation around 150 kJ/mol and an enthalpy of adsorption on a gold surface around −159 kJ/mol. Significant 6d involvement is expected in the Nh–Au bond, although it is expected to be more unstable than the Tl–Au bond and entirely due to magnetic interactions. This raises the possibility of some transition metal character for nihonium. On the basis of the small energy gap between the 6d and 7s electrons, the higher oxidation states +3 and +5 have been suggested for nihonium. Some simple compounds with nihonium in the +3 oxidation state would be the trihydride (NhH<sub>3</sub>), trifluoride (NhF<sub>3</sub>), and trichloride (NhCl<sub>3</sub>). These molecules are predicted to be T-shaped and not trigonal planar as their boron analogues are: this is due to the influence of the 6d<sub>5/2</sub> electrons on the bonding. The heavier nihonium tribromide (NhBr<sub>3</sub>) and triiodide (NhI<sub>3</sub>) are trigonal planar due to the increased steric repulsion between the peripheral atoms; accordingly, they do not show significant 6d involvement in their bonding, though the large 7s–7p energy gap means that they show reduced sp<sup>2</sup> hybridisation compared to their boron analogues. The bonding in the lighter NhX<sub>3</sub> molecules can be considered as that of a linear NhX<sup>+</sup> <sub>2</sub> species (similar to HgF<sub>2</sub> or AuF<sup>−</sup> <sub>2</sub>) with an additional Nh–X bond involving the 7p orbital of nihonium perpendicular to the other two ligands. These compounds are all expected to be highly unstable towards the loss of an X<sub>2</sub> molecule and reduction to nihonium(I): NhX<sub>3</sub> → NhX + X<sub>2</sub> Nihonium thus continues the trend down group 13 of reduced stability of the +3 oxidation state, as all five of these compounds have lower reaction energies than the unknown thallium(III) iodide. The +3 state is stabilised for thallium in anionic complexes such as TlI<sup>−</sup> <sub>4</sub>, and the presence of a possible vacant coordination site on the lighter T-shaped nihonium trihalides is expected to allow a similar stabilisation of NhF<sup>−</sup> <sub>4</sub> and perhaps NhCl<sup>−</sup> <sub>4</sub>. The +5 oxidation state is unknown for all lighter group 13 elements: calculations predict that nihonium pentahydride (NhH<sub>5</sub>) and pentafluoride (NhF<sub>5</sub>) should have a square pyramidal molecular geometry, but also that both would be highly thermodynamically unstable to loss of an X<sub>2</sub> molecule and reduction to nihonium(III). Again, some stabilisation is expected for anionic complexes, such as NhF<sup>−</sup> <sub>6</sub>. The structures of the nihonium trifluoride and pentafluoride molecules are the same as those for chlorine trifluoride and pentafluoride. ## Experimental chemistry The chemical characteristics of nihonium have yet to be determined unambiguously. The isotopes <sup>284</sup>Nh, <sup>285</sup>Nh, and <sup>286</sup>Nh have half-lives long enough for chemical investigation. From 2010 to 2012, some preliminary chemical experiments were performed at the JINR to determine the volatility of nihonium. The isotope <sup>284</sup>Nh was investigated, made as the daughter of <sup>288</sup>Mc produced in the <sup>243</sup>Am+<sup>48</sup>Ca reaction. The nihonium atoms were synthesised in a recoil chamber and then carried along polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) capillaries at 70 °C by a carrier gas to the gold-covered detectors. About ten to twenty atoms of <sup>284</sup>Nh were produced, but none of these atoms were registered by the detectors, suggesting either that nihonium was similar in volatility to the noble gases (and thus diffused away too quickly to be detected) or, more plausibly, that pure nihonium was not very volatile and thus could not efficiently pass through the PTFE capillaries. Formation of the hydroxide NhOH should ease the transport, as nihonium hydroxide is expected to be more volatile than elemental nihonium, and this reaction could be facilitated by adding more water vapour into the carrier gas. It seems likely that this formation is not kinetically favoured, so the longer-lived isotopes <sup>285</sup>Nh and <sup>286</sup>Nh were considered more desirable for future experiments. A 2017 experiment at the JINR, producing <sup>284</sup>Nh and <sup>285</sup>Nh via the <sup>243</sup>Am+<sup>48</sup>Ca reaction as the daughters of <sup>288</sup>Mc and <sup>289</sup>Mc, avoided this problem by removing the quartz surface, using only PTFE. No nihonium atoms were observed after chemical separation, implying an unexpectedly large retention of nihonium atoms on PTFE surfaces. This experimental result for the interaction limit of nihonium atoms with a PTFE surface (−ΔH(Nh) \> 45 kJ/mol) disagrees significantly with previous theory, which expected a lower value of 14.00 kJ/mol. This suggests that the nihonium species involved in the previous experiment was likely not elemental nihonium but rather nihonium hydroxide, and that high-temperature techniques such as vacuum chromatography would be necessary to further probe the behaviour of elemental nihonium. Bromine saturated with boron tribromide has been suggested as a carrier gas for experiments on nihonium chemistry; this oxidises nihonium's lighter congener thallium to thallium(III), providing an avenue to investigate the oxidation states of nihonium, similar to earlier experiments done on the bromides of group 5 elements, including the superheavy dubnium. ## See also
3,280,482	Ion Heliade Rădulescu	1,165,216,314	Romanian writer and politician (1802–1872)	[ "1802 births", "1872 deaths", "19th-century Romanian historians", "19th-century Romanian poets", "19th-century essayists", "19th-century journalists", "19th-century male writers", "19th-century memoirists", "19th-century philosophers", "19th-century short story writers", "19th-century translators", "Conservatism in Romania", "Eastern Orthodox philosophers", "English–Romanian translators", "Founding members of the Romanian Academy", "French–Romanian translators", "Grammarians from Romania", "Linguists from Romania", "Linguists of Romanian", "Male essayists", "Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Romania)", "Members of the Romanian Orthodox Church", "National Theatre Bucharest", "Neoclassical writers", "People from Târgoviște", "People of the Principality of Wallachia", "People of the Revolutions of 1848", "Presidents of the Romanian Academy", "Romanian Freemasons", "Romanian diplomats", "Romanian educational theorists", "Romanian essayists", "Romanian humorists", "Romanian literary critics", "Romanian magazine editors", "Romanian magazine founders", "Romanian male poets", "Romanian male short story writers", "Romanian memoirists", "Romanian newspaper editors", "Romanian newspaper founders", "Romanian people of the Crimean War", "Romanian philosophers", "Romanian printers", "Romanian schoolteachers", "Romanian short story writers", "Romanian textbook writers", "Romanian translators", "Romanian writers in French", "Romantic poets", "Spanish–Romanian translators", "Translators of the Bible into Romanian" ]	Ion Heliade Rădulescu or Ion Heliade (also known as Eliade or Eliade Rădulescu; ; January 6, 1802 – April 27, 1872) was a Wallachian, later Romanian academic, Romantic and Classicist poet, essayist, memoirist, short story writer, newspaper editor and politician. A prolific translator of foreign literature into Romanian, he was also the author of books on linguistics and history. For much of his life, Heliade Rădulescu was a teacher at Saint Sava College in Bucharest, which he helped reopen. He was a founding member and first president of the Romanian Academy. Heliade Rădulescu is considered one of the foremost champions of Romanian culture from the first half of the 19th century, having first risen to prominence through his association with Gheorghe Lazăr and his support of Lazăr's drive for discontinuing education in Greek. Over the following decades, he had a major role in shaping the modern Romanian language, but caused controversy when he advocated the massive introduction of Italian neologisms into the Romanian lexis. A Romantic nationalist landowner siding with moderate liberals, Heliade was among the leaders of the 1848 Wallachian revolution, after which he was forced to spend several years in exile. Adopting an original form of conservatism, which emphasized the role of the aristocratic boyars in Romanian history, he was rewarded for supporting the Ottoman Empire and clashed with the radical wing of the 1848 revolutionaries. ## Biography ### Early life Heliade Rădulescu was born in Târgoviște, into a family of Greek ancestry; he was the son of Ilie Rădulescu, a wealthy proprietor who served as the leader of a patrol unit during the 1810s, and Eufrosina Danielopol, a Greek woman, who was also educated in Greek. Three of his siblings died of bubonic plague before 1829. Throughout his early youth, Ion was the focus of his parents' affectionate supervision: early on, Ilie Rădulescu purchased a house once owned by the scholar Gheorghe Lazăr on the outskirts of Bucharest (near Obor), as a gift for his son. At the time, the Rădulescus were owners of a large garden in the Bucharest area, nearby Herăstrău, as well as of estates in the vicinity of Făgăraș and Gârbovi. After basic education in Greek with a tutor known as Alexe, Ion Heliade Rădulescu taught himself reading in Romanian Cyrillic (reportedly by studying the Alexander Romance with the help of his father's Oltenian servants). He subsequently became an avid reader of popular novels, especially during his 1813 sojourn in Gârbovi (where he had been sent after other areas of the country came to be ravaged by Caragea's plague). After 1813, the teenaged Rădulescu was a pupil of the Orthodox monk Naum Râmniceanu; in 1815, he moved on to the Greek school at Schitu Măgureanu, in Bucharest, and, in 1818, to the Saint Sava School, where he studied under Gheorghe Lazăr's supervision. Between his 1820 graduation and 1821, when effects of the Wallachian uprising led to the School ceasing its activities, he was kept as Lazăr's assistant teacher, tutoring in arithmetics and geometry. It was during those years that he adopted the surname Heliade (also rendered Heliad, Eliad or Eliade), which, he later explained, was a Greek version of his patronymic, in turn stemming from the Romanian version of Elijah. ### Under Grigore Ghica In 1822, after Gheorghe Lazăr had fallen ill, Heliade reopened Saint Sava and served as its main teacher (initially, without any form of remuneration). He was later joined in this effort by other intellectuals of the day, such as Eufrosin Poteca, and, eventually, also opened an art class overseen by the Croat Carol Valştain. This re-establishment came as a result of ordinances issued by Prince Grigore IV Ghica, who had just been assigned by the Ottoman Empire to the throne of Wallachia upon the disestablishment of Phanariote rule, encouraging the marginalization of ethnic Greeks who had assumed public office in previous decades. Thus, Prince Ghica had endorsed education in Romanian and, in one of his official firmans, defined teaching in Greek as "the foundation of evils" (temelia răutăţilor). During the late 1820s, Heliade became involved in cultural policies. In 1827, he and Dinicu Golescu founded Soțietatea literară românească (the Romanian Literary Society), which, through its program (mapped out by Heliade himself), proposed Saint Sava's transformation into a college, the opening of another such institution in Craiova, and the creation of schools in virtually all Wallachian localities. In addition, Soţietatea attempted to encourage the establishment of Romanian-language newspapers, calling for an end to the state monopoly on printing presses. The grouping, headquartered on central Bucharest's Podul Mogoșoaiei, benefited from Golescu's experience abroad, and was soon joined by two future Princes, Gheorghe Bibescu and Barbu Dimitrie Știrbei. Its character was based on Freemasonry; around that time, Heliade is known to have become a Freemason, as did a large section of his generation. In 1828, Heliade published his first work, an essay on Romanian grammar, in the Transylvanian city of Hermannstadt (which was part of the Austrian Empire at the time), and, on April 20, 1829, began printing the Bucharest-based paper Curierul Românesc. This was the most successful of several attempts to create a local newspaper, something Golescu first attempted in 1828. Publishing articles in both Romanian and French, Curierul Românesc had, starting in 1836, its own literary supplement, under the title of Curier de Ambe Sexe; in print until 1847, it notably published one of Heliade's most famous poems, Zburătorul. Curierul Românesc was edited as a weekly, and later as a bimonthly, until 1839, when it began to be issued three or four times a week. Its best-known contributors were Heliade himself, Grigore Alexandrescu, Costache Negruzzi, Dimitrie Bolintineanu, Ioan Catina, Vasile Cârlova, and Iancu Văcărescu. In 1823, Heliade met Maria Alexandrescu, with whom he fell passionately in love, and whom he later married. By 1830, the Heliades' two children, a son named Virgiliu and a daughter named Virgilia, died in infancy; subsequently, their marriage entered a long period of crisis, marked by Maria's frequent outbursts of jealousy. Ion Heliade probably had a number of extramarital affairs: a Wallachian Militia officer named Zalic, who became known during the 1840s, is thought by some, including the literary critic George Călinescu, to have been the writer's illegitimate son. Before the death of her first child, Maria Heliade welcomed into her house Grigore Alexandrescu, himself a celebrated writer, whom Ion suspected had become her lover. Consequently, the two authors became bitter rivals: Ion Heliade referred to Alexandrescu as "that ingrate", and, in an 1838 letter to George Bariţ, downplayed his poetry and character (believing that, in one of his fables, Alexandrescu had depicted himself as a nightingale, he commented that, in reality, he was "a piteous rook dressed in foreign feathers"). Despite these household conflicts, Maria Heliade gave birth to five other children, four daughters and one son (Ion, born 1846). ### Printer and court poet In October 1830, together with his uncle Nicolae Rădulescu, he opened the first privately owned printing press in his country, operating on his property at Cișmeaua Mavrogheni, in Obor (the land went by the name of Câmpul lui Eliad – "Eliad's Field", and housed several other large buildings). Among the first works he published was a collection of poems by Alphonse de Lamartine, translated by Heliade from French, and grouped together with some of his own poems. Later, he translated a textbook on meter and Louis-Benjamin Francoeur's standard manual of Arithmetics, as well as works by Enlightenment authors – Voltaire's Mahomet, ou le fanatisme, and stories by Jean-François Marmontel. They were followed, in 1839, by a version of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Julie, or the New Heloise. Heliade began a career as a civil servant after the Postelnicie commissioned him to print the Official Bulletin, and later climbed through the official hierarchy, eventually serving as Clucer. This rise coincided with the establishment of the Regulamentul Organic regime, inaugurated, upon the end of the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829, by an Imperial Russian administration under Pavel Kiselyov. When Kiselyov placed an order with Heliade for the printing of official documents, including the Regulament, the writer and his family were made prosperous by the sales. Nevertheless, Heliade maintained contacts with the faction of reformist boyars: in 1833, together with Ion Câmpineanu, Iancu Văcărescu, Ioan Voinescu II, Constantin Aristia, Ștefan and Nicolae Golescu, as well as others, he founded the short-lived Soţietatea Filarmonică (the Philharmonic Society), which advanced a cultural agenda (and was especially active in raising funds for the National Theater of Wallachia). Aside from its stated cultural goals, Soţietatea Filarmonică continued a covert political activity. In 1834, when Prince Alexandru II Ghica came to the throne, Heliade became one of his close collaborators, styling himself "court poet". Several of the poems and discourses he authored during the period are written as panegyrics, and dedicated to Ghica, whom Heliade depicted as an ideal prototype of a monarch. As young reformists came into conflict with the prince, he kept his neutrality, arguing that all sides involved represented a privileged minority, and that the disturbances were equivalent to "the quarrel of wolves and the noise made by those in higher positions over the torn-apart animal that is the peasant". He was notably critical of the radical Mitică Filipescu, whom he satirized in the poem Căderea dracilor ("The Demons' Fall"), and later defined his own position with the words "I hate tyrants. I fear anarchy". It was also in 1834 that Heliade began teaching at the Soţietatea Filarmonică'''s school (alongside Aristia and the musician Ioan Andrei Wachmann), and published his first translations from Lord Byron (in 1847, he completed the translation of Byron's Don Juan). The next year, he began printing Gazeta Teatrului Național (official voice of the National Theater, published until 1836), and translated Molière's Amphitryon into Romanian. In 1839, Heliade also translated Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote from a French source. The first collection of his own prose and poetry works saw print in 1836. Interested in the development of local art, he contributed a brochure on drawing and architecture in 1837, and, during the same year, opened the first permanent exhibit in Wallachia (featuring copies of Western paintings, portraits, and gypsum casts of various known sculptures). By the early 1840s, Heliade began expanding on his notion that modern Romanian needed to emphasize its connections with other Romance languages through neologisms from Italian, and, to this goal, he published Paralelism între limba română şi italiană ("Parallelism between the Romanian language and Italian", 1840) and Paralelism între dialectele român şi italian sau forma ori gramatica acestor două dialecte ("Parallelism between the Romanian and Italian Dialects or the Form or Grammar of These Two Dialects", 1841). The two books were followed by a compendium, Prescurtare de gramatica limbei româno-italiene ("Summary of the Grammar of the Romanian-Italian Language"), and, in 1847, by a comprehensive list of Romanian words that had originated in Slavic, Greek, Ottoman Turkish, Hungarian, and German (see Romanian lexis). By 1846, he was planning to begin work on a "universal library", which was to include, among other books, the major the philosophical writings of, among others, Plato, Aristotle, Roger Bacon, René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, John Locke, Gottfried Leibniz, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. ### 1848 Revolution Before Alexandru Ghica was replaced with Gheorghe Bibescu, his relations with Heliade had soured. In contrast with his earlier call for moderation, the writer decided to side with the liberal current in its conspiratorial opposition to Bibescu. The so-called "Trandafiloff affair" of early 1844 was essential in this process – it was provoked by Bibescu's decision to lease all Wallachian mines to a Russian engineer named Alexander Trandafiloff, a measure considered illegal by the Assembly and ultimately ending in Bibescu's decision to dissolve his legislative. These events made Heliade publish a pamphlet titled Măceșul ("The Eglantine"), which was heavily critical of Russian influence and reportedly sold over 30,000 copies. It was centered on the pun alluding to Trandafiloff's name – trandafir cu of în coadă (lit. "a rose ending in -of", but also "a rose with grief for a stem"). Making additional covert reference to Trandafiloff as "the eglantine", it featured the lyrics: In spring 1848, when the first European revolutions had erupted, Heliade was attracted into cooperation with Frăţia, a secret society founded by Nicolae Bălcescu, Ion Ghica, Christian Tell, and Alexandru G. Golescu, and sat on its leadership committee. He also collaborated with the reform-minded French teacher Jean Alexandre Vaillant, who was ultimately expelled after his activities were brought to the attention of authorities. On April 19, 1848, following financial setbacks, Curierul Românesc ceased printing (this prompted Heliade to write Cântecul ursului, "The Bear's Song", a piece ridiculing his political enemies). Heliade progressively distanced himself from the more radical groups, especially after discussions began on the issue of land reform and the disestablishment of the boyar class. Initially, he accepted the reforms, and, after the matter was debated within Frăţia just before rebellion broke out, he issued a resolution acknowledging this (the document was probably inspired by Nicolae Bălcescu). The compromise also set other goals, including national independence, responsible government, civil rights and equality, universal taxation, a larger Assembly, five-year terms of office for Princes (and their election by the National Assembly), freedom of the press, and decentralization. On June 21, 1848, present in Islaz alongside Tell and the Orthodox priest known as Popa Şapcă, he read out these goals to a cheering crowd, in what was to be the effective start of the uprising (see Proclamation of Islaz). Four days after the Islaz events, the revolution succeeded in toppling Bibescu, whom it replaced with a Provisional Government which immediately attracted Russian hostility. Presided over by Metropolitan Neofit, it included Heliade, who was also Minister of Education, as well as Tell, Ştefan Golescu, Gheorghe Magheru, and, for a short while, the Bucharest merchant Gheorghe Scurti. Disputes regarding the shape of land reform continued, and in late July, the Government created Comisia proprietăţii (the Commission on Property), representing both peasants and landlords and overseen by Alexandru Racoviţă and Ion Ionescu de la Brad. It too failed to reach a compromise over the amount of land to be allocated to peasants, and it was ultimately recalled by Heliade, who indicated that the matter was to be deliberated once a new Assembly had been voted into office. In time, the writer adopted a conservative outlook in respect to boyar tradition, developing a singular view of Romanian history from a consideration of property and rank in Wallachia. In the words of historian Nicolae Iorga: "Eliad had wanted to lead, as dictator, this movement that added liberal institutions to the old society that had been almost completely maintained in place". Like most other revolutionaries, Heliade favored maintaining good relations with the Ottoman Empire, Wallachia's suzerain power, hoping that this policy could help counter Russian pressures. As Sultan Abdülmecid I was assessing the situation, Süleyman Paşa was dispatched to Bucharest, where he advised the revolutionaries to carry on with their diplomatic efforts, and ordered the Provisional Government to be replaced by Locotenenţa domnească, a triumvirate of regents comprising Heliade, Tell, and Nicolae Golescu. Nonetheless, the Ottomans were pressured by Russia into joining a clampdown on revolutionary forces, which resulted, during September, in the reestablishment of Regulamentul Organic and its system of government. Together with Tell, Heliade sought refuge at the British consulate in Bucharest, where they were hosted by Robert Gilmour Colquhoun in exchange for a deposit of Austrian florins. ### Exile Leaving his family behind, he was allowed to pass into the Austrian-ruled Banat, before moving into self-exile in France while his wife and children were sent to Ottoman lands. In 1850–1851, several of his memoirs of the revolution, written in both Romanian and French, were published in Paris, the city where he had taken residence. He shared his exile with Tell and Magheru, as well as with Nicolae Rusu Locusteanu. It was during his time in Paris that he met with Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, the anarchist philosopher who had come to advance a moderate small-scale property project (to counter both economic liberalism and socialism). Heliade used this opportunity to make the Romanian cause known to the staff of Proudhon's La Voix de Peuple. Major French publications to which he contributed included La Presse, La Semaine, and Le Siècle, where he also helped publicize political issues pertaining to his native land. Heliade was credited with having exercised influence over historian Élias Regnault; Nicolae Iorga argued that Regnault's discarded his own arguments in favor of a unified Romanian state to include Transylvania (a concept which Heliade had come to resent), as well amending his earlier account of the 1848 events, after being exposed to "Eliad's propaganda". While claiming to represent the entire body of Wallachian émigrés, Heliade had by then grown disappointed with the political developments, and, in his private correspondence, commented that Romanians in general were "idle", "womanizing", as well as having "the petty and base envies of women", and argued that they required "supervision [and] leadership". His fortune was declining, especially after pressures began for him to pay his many debts, and he often lacked the funds for basic necessities. At the time, he continuously clashed with other former revolutionaries, including Bălcescu, C. A. Rosetti, and the Golescus, who resented his ambiguous stance in respect to reforms, and especially his willingness to accept Regulamentul Organic as an instrument of power; Heliade issued the first in a series of pamphlets condemning young radicals, contributing to factionalism inside the émigré camp. His friendship with Tell also soured, after Heliade began speculating that the revolutionary general was committing adultery with Maria. In 1851, Heliade reunited with his family on the island of Chios, where they stayed until 1854. Following the evacuation of Russian troops from the Danubian Principalities during the Crimean War, Heliade was appointed by the Porte to represent the Romanian nation in Shumen, as part of Omar Pasha's staff. Again expressing sympathy for the Ottoman cause, he was rewarded with the title of Bey. According to Iorga, Heliade's attitudes reflected his hope of "recovering the power lost" in 1848; the historian also stressed that Omar never actually made use of Heliade's services. Later in the same year, he decided to return to Bucharest, but his stay was cut short when the Austrian authorities, who, under the leadership of Johann Coronini-Cronberg, had taken over administration of the country as a neutral force, asked for him to be expelled. Returning to Paris, Heliade continued to publish works on political and cultural issues, including an analysis of the European situation after the Peace Treaty of 1856 and an 1858 essay on the Bible. In 1859, he published his own translation of the Septuagint, under the name Biblia sacră ce cuprinde Noul şi Vechiul Testament ("The Holy Bible, Comprising the New and Old Testament"). As former revolutionaries, grouped in the Partida Naţională faction, advanced the idea of union between Wallachia and Moldavia in election for the ad hoc Divan, Heliade opted not to endorse any particular candidate, while rejecting outright the candidature of former prince Alexandru II Ghica (in a private letter, he stated: "let them elect whomever [of the candidates for the throne], for he would still have the heart of a man and some principles of a Romanian; only don't let that creature [Ghica] be elected, for he is capable of going to the dogs with this country"). ### Final years Later in 1859, Heliade returned to Bucharest, which had become the capital of the United Principalities after the common election of Alexandru Ioan Cuza and later that of an internationally recognized Principality of Romania. It was during that period that he again added Rădulescu to his surname. Until his death, he published influential volumes on a variety of issues, while concentrating on contributions to history and literary criticism, and editing a new collection of his own poems. In 1863, Domnitor Cuza awarded him an annual pension of 2,000 lei. One year after the creation of the Romanian Academy (under the name of "Academic Society"), he was elected its first President (1867), serving until his death. In 1869, Heliade and Alexandru Papiu-Ilarian successfully proposed the Italian diplomat and philologist Giovenale Vegezzi Ruscalla as honorary member of the Academy. By then, like most other 1848 Romantics, he had become the target of criticism from the younger generation of intellectuals, represented by the Iaşi-based literary society Junimea; in 1865, during one of its early public sessions, Junimea explicitly rejected works by Heliade and Iancu Văcărescu. During the elections of 1866, Heliade Rădulescu won a seat in the Chamber as a deputy for the city of Târgovişte. As Cuza had been ousted from power by a coalition of political groupings, he was the only Wallachian deputy to join Nicolae Ionescu and other disciples of Simion Bărnuţiu in opposing the appointment of Carol of Hohenzollern as Domnitor and a proclamation stressing the perpetuity of the Moldo-Wallachian union. Speaking in Parliament, he likened the adoption of foreign rule to the Phanariote period. The opposition was nevertheless weak, and the resolution was passed with a large majority. Among Ion Heliade Rădulescu's last printed works were a textbook on poetics (1868) and a volume on Romanian orthography. By that time, he had come to consider himself a prophet-like figure, and the redeemer of his motherland, notably blessing his friends with the words "Christ and Magdalene be with you!" His mental health declining, he died at his Bucharest residence on Polonă Street, nr. 20. Heliade Rădulescu's grandiose funeral ceremony attracted a large number of his admirers; the coffin was buried in the courtyard of the Mavrogheni Church. ## Heliade and the Romanian language ### Early proposals Heliade's most influential contributions are related to his interest in developing the modern Romanian language, in which he synthesized Enlightenment tenets and Romantic nationalist ideals of the 1848 generation. At a time when Romanian was being discarded by the educated in favor of French or Greek, he and his supporters argued in favor of adapting Romanian to the requirements of modernization; he wrote: "Young people, preoccupy yourselves with the national language, speak and write in it; prepare yourselves for its study, for its cultivation, – and cultivating a language means to write in it about all sciences and arts, about all eras and peoples. The language alone unites, strengthens and defines a nation; preoccupy yourselves with it first and foremost, as, through this, you shall be carrying out the most fundamental of policies, you shall be laying the foundation of nationality". Heliade inaugurated his series of proposals for reforming the language in 1828, when his work on Romanian grammar called for the Cyrillic script to be reduced to 27 letters, reflecting phonetic spelling (for this rule, Heliade cited the example of the Latin alphabet as used in Ancient Rome). Soon after, he began a campaign in favor of introducing Romance neologisms, which he wanted to adapt to Romanian spelling. By that time, Romanians in various regions had grown aware of the need to unify the varieties of Romanian and create a standard Romanian lexis: this notion was first supported by the Transylvanians Gheorghe Şincai and Petru Maior, whose proposal was to unite Romanians around the issue of the choice of liturgical language, both Orthodox and Greek-Catholic (see Transylvanian School). Heliade, who first proposed a language regulator (an idea which was to be employed in creating the Romanian Academy), expanded on this legacy, while stressing that the dialect spoken in Muntenia, which had formed the basis of religious texts published by the 16th century printer Coresi, serve as the standard language. In addition, he advocated aesthetical guidelines in respect to the standard shape of Romanian, stressing three basic principles in selecting words: "proper wording", which called for vernacular words of Latin origin to be prioritized; "harmony", which meant that words of Latin origin were to be used in their most popular form, even in cases where euphony had been altered by prolonged usage; and "energy", through which Heliade favored the primacy of the shortest and most expressive of synonyms used throughout Romanian-speaking areas. In parallel, Heliade frowned upon purist policies of removing widely used neologisms of foreign origin – arguing that these were "a fatality", he indicated that the gains of such a process would have been shadowed by the losses. These early theories exercised a lasting influence, and, when the work of unifying Romanian was accomplished in the late 19th century, they were used as a source of inspiration: Romania's major poet of the period, Mihai Eminescu, himself celebrated for having created the modern literary language, gave praise to Heliade for "writing just as [the language] is spoken". This assessment was shared by Ovid Densusianu, who wrote: "Thinking of how people wrote back then, in thick, drawly, sleepy phrases, Heliade thus shows himself superior to all his contemporaries, and ... we can consider him the first prose writer who brings in the note of modernity". ### Italian influence A second period in Heliade's linguistic researches, inaugurated when he adopted Étienne Condillac's theory that a language could be developed from conventions, eventually brought about the rejection of his own earlier views. By the early 1840s, he postulated that Romanian and Italian were not distinct languages, but rather dialects of Latin, which prompted him to declare the necessity of replacing Romanian words with "superior" Italian ones. One of his stanzas, using his version of the Romanian Latin alphabet, read: Approximated into modern Romanian and English, this is: The target of criticism and ridicule, these principles were dismissed by Eminescu as "errors" and "a priori systems of orthography". During their existence, they competed with both August Treboniu Laurian's adoption of strong Latin mannerisms and the inconsistent Francized system developed in Moldavia by Gheorghe Asachi, which, according to the 20th century literary critic Garabet Ibrăileanu, constituted "the boyar language of his time". Ibrăileanu also noted that Asachi had come to admire Heliade's attempts, and had praised them as an attempt to revive the language "spoken by Trajan's men" – in reference to Roman Dacia. While defending the role Moldavian politicians in the 1840s had in shaping modern Romanian culture, Ibrăileanu argued that practices such as those of Heliade and Laurian carried the risk of "suppressing the Romanian language", and credited Alecu Russo, more than his successors at Junimea, with providing a passionate defense of spoken Romanian. He notably cited Russo's verdict: "The modern political hatred aimed at [Russia] has thrown us into Italianism, into Frenchism, and into other -isms, that were not and are not Romanianism, but the political perils, in respect to the enslavement of the Romanian soul, have since passed; true Romanianism ought to hold its head up high". The literary critic George Călinescu also connected Heliade's experimentation to his Russophobia, in turn reflecting his experiences as a revolutionary: "Hating Slavism and the Russians, who had striven to underline [Slavic influences in Romanian], he said to himself that he was to serve his motherland by discarding all Slavic vestiges". Călinescu notably attributed Heliade's inconsistency to his "autodidacticism", which, he contended, was responsible for "[his] casual implication in all issues, the unexpected move from common sense ideas to the most insane theories". Overall, Heliade's experiments had marginal appeal, and their critics (Eminescu included) contrasted them with Heliade's own tenets. Late in his life, Heliade seems to have acknowledged this, notably writing: "This language, as it is written today by people who can speak Romanian, is my work". One of the few authors to be influenced by the theory was the Symbolist poet Alexandru Macedonski, who, during his youth, wrote several pieces in Heliade's Italian-sounding Romanian. Despite Heliade's thesis being largely rejected, some of its practical effects on everyday language were very enduring, especially in cases where Italian words were borrowed as a means to illustrate nuances and concepts for which Romanian had no equivalent. These include afabil ("affable"), adorabil ("adorable"), colosal ("colossal"), implacabil ("implacable"), inefabil ("ineffable"), inert ("inert"), mistic ("mystical"), pervers ("perverse" or "pervert"), suav ("suave"), and venerabil ("venerable"). ## Literature ### Tenets Celebrated as the founder of Wallachian Romanticism, Heliade was equally influenced by Classicism and the Age of Enlightenment. His work, written in a special cultural context (where Classiciasm and Romanticism coexisted), took the middle path between two opposing camps: the Romantics (Alecu Russo, Mihail Kogălniceanu and others) and the Classicists (Gheorghe Asachi, Grigore Alexandrescu, George Baronzi etc.). George Călinescu defined Heliade as "a devourer of books", noting that his favorites, who all played a part in shaping his style and were many times the subject of his translations, included: Alphonse de Lamartine, Dante Aligheri, Ludovico Ariosto, Torquato Tasso, Voltaire, Jean-François Marmontel, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and François-René de Chateaubriand. His poetic style, influenced from early on by Lamartine, was infused with Classicism during his middle age, before he again adopted Romantic tenets. Initially making use of guidelines set by Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux in respect to poetry, he came to oppose them after reading Victor Hugo's Romantic preface to Cromwell (without ever discarding them altogether). Like the Classicists, Heliade favored a literature highlighting "types" of characters, as the union of universal traits and particular characteristics, but, like the Romantics, he encouraged writers to write from a subjective viewpoint, which he believed to be indicative of their mission as "prophets, ... men who criticize, who point out their society's plagues and who look on to a happier future, waiting for a savior". Through the latter ideal of moral regeneration, Heliade also complimented the Romantic stress on "national specificity", which he adopted in his later years. At the same time, he centered much of his own literary work on non-original material, either by compiling it from various translations or by translating from a single source – having his focus on creating the basis for further development by introducing samples of untapped literary genres and styles to Romanian literature. While several of Heliade's contributions to literature have been considered to be of low importance, many others, above all his Romantic poem Zburătorul, are hailed as major accomplishments. Zburătorul, borrowing from Romanian mythology its main character (the eponymous incubus-like being who visits nubile girls at night) also serves to depict the atmosphere of a Wallachian village from that period. According to George Călinescu, the poem's value partly relies on its depiction of lust through the girls' eyes: "lacking the rages of Sappho and Phaedra. The puberty crisis is explained through mythology and cured through magic". An 1837 essay of his, centered on a debate regarding the translation of Homer's works into Romanian, featured a series of counsels to younger writers: "This is not the time for criticism, children, it is the time for writing, so write as much and as good as you can, but without meanness; create, do not ruin; for the nation receives and blesses the maker and curses the destroyer. Write with a clear conscience". Paraphrased as "Write anything, boys, as long as you go on writing!" (Scrieţi, băieţi, orice, numai scrieţi!), this quote became the topic of derision in later decades, and was hailed as an example of Heliade's failure to distinguish between quality and quantity. The latter verdict was considered unfair by the literary historian Şerban Cioculescu and others, who argued that Ion Heliade Rădulescu's main goal was to encourage the rapid development of local literature to a European level. Although he recognized, among other things, Heliade's merits of having removed pretentious boyar discourse from poetry and having favored regular rhyme, Paul Zarifopol accused him and Gheorghe Asachi of "tastelessness" and "literary insecurity". He elaborated: "Rădulescu was arguably afflicted with this sin more than Asachi, given his unfortunate ambitions of fabricating a literary language". Heliade's name is closely connected with the establishment of Romanian-language theater, mirroring the activities of Asachi in Moldavia. Ever since he partook in creating Soţietatea Filarmonică and the Bucharest Theater, to the moment of his death, he was involved in virtually all major developments in local dramatic and operatic art. In August 1834, he was one of the intellectuals who organized the first show hosted by Soţietatea Filarmonică, which featured, alongside a cavatina from Vincenzo Bellini's Il pirata, Heliade's translation of Voltaire's Mahomet. In subsequent years, members of the association carried out the translation of French theater and other foreign pieces, while encouraging Romanian-language dramatists, an effort which was to become successful during and after the 1840s (when Constantin Aristia and Costache Caragiale entered their most creative periods). Heliade himself advocated didacticism in drama (defining it as "the preservation of social health"), and supported professionalism in acting. ### Historical and religious subjects Ion Heliade Rădulescu made extensive use of the Romantic nationalist focus on history, which he initially applied to his poetry. In this instance as well, the goal was to educate his public; he wrote: "Nothing is worthy of derision as much as someone taking pride in his parents and ancestors and nothing more worthy of praise than when the ancestors' great deeds serve as a model and an impulse for competition among descendants". The main historical figure in his poetry is the late 16th century Wallachian Prince Michael the Brave, the first one to rally Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania under a single rule: celebrated in Heliade's poem O noapte pe ruinele Târgoviştii ("A Night on the Ruins of Târgovişte"), he was to be the main character of a lengthy epic poem, Mihaiada, of which only two sections, written in very different styles, were ever completed (in 1845 and 1859 respectively). Other historical poems also expanded on the ideal of a single Romanian state, while presenting the 1848 generation as a model for future Romanian politicians. Throughout the 1860s, one of Heliade's main interests was an investigation into the issues involving Romanian history during the origin of the Romanians and the early medieval history of the Danubian Principalities. At a time when, in Moldavia, the newly surfaced Chronicle of Huru traced a political lineage of the country to the Roman Empire through the means of a narrative which was later proven to be entirely fictional, Heliade made use of its theses to draw similar conclusions regarding Wallachia. His conservative views were thus expanded to the level of historiographic thesis: according to Heliade, boyars had been an egalitarian and permeable class, which, from as early as the times of Radu Negru, had adopted humane laws that announced and welcomed those of the French Revolution (he notably claimed that the county-based administration was a democratic one, and that it had been copied from the Israelite model as depicted in the Bible). The ideal he expressed in a work of the period, Equilibru între antithesi ("A Balance between Antitheses") was moderate progressivism, with the preservation of social peace. In Tudor Vianu's view, partly based on earlier assessments by other critics, Equilibru, with its stress on making political needs coincide with social ones through the means of counterweights, evidenced strong influences from Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's thought, as well as vaguer ones from that of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Nonetheless, his system parted with Hegelianism in that, instead of seeking a balance between the Geist and existence, it considered the three states of human progress (Thesis, antithesis, synthesis) the reflection of a mystical number favored throughout history. In parallel, Heliade worked on a vast synthesis of his own philosophy of history, based on his interpretation of Biblical theology. His 1858 work, Biblice ("Biblical Writings"), was supposed to form the first of four sections in a Christian history of the world. Referring to this project, Călinescu defined Heliade's ideas as "interesting, no matter how naïve at times, in general Voltairian and Freemason [in shape]". Biblicele partly evidenced Heliade's interests in the Talmud and Zohar-like gematria – with emphasis placed on the numbers 3, 7, and 10 – , as well as ample references to the Sephirot. One of his original thoughts on the matter was a reference to "deltas" (triangles) of deities – Elohim-Spirit-Matter and Spirit-Matter-the Universe. A portion of Heliade Rădulescu's poems also draw on religious themes and discourse. According to George Călinescu, the poet had attempted to create a parallel to both The Divine Comedy and the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, with a style influenced by Lamartine and Victor Hugo. ### Satire and polemics Heliade was aware of the often negative response to his work: in a poem dedicated to the memory of Friedrich Schiller, he expanded on the contrast between creation and social setting (in reference to mankind, it stressed Te iartă să faci răul, iar binele nici mort – "They forgive the evil committed against them, but never the good"). A noted author of satire, he used it as a vehicle to criticize social customs of his day, as well as to publicize personal conflicts and resentments. As a maverick, he attacked political figures on both sides: conservatives who mimicked liberalism were the subject of his Areopagiul bestielor ("The Areopagus of the Beasts"), while many other of his post-1848 prose and poetry pieces mocked people on the left wing of liberalism, most notably C. A. Rosetti and his supporters. During and after his exile, his conflicts with Cezar Bolliac and Ion Ghica also made the latter two the target of irony, most likely based on Heliade's belief that they intended to downplay his contributions to the Wallachian Revolution of 1848. His autobiographical pieces, marked by acid comments on Greek-language education, and, in this respect, similar to the writings of his friend Costache Negruzzi, also display a dose of self-irony. The enduring polemic with Grigore Alexandrescu, as well as his quarrel with Bolliac, formed the basis of his pamphlet Domnul Sarsailă autorul ("Mr. Old Nick, the Author"), an attack on what Heliade viewed as writers whose pretensions contrasted with their actual mediocrity. In other short prose works, Ion Heliade Rădulescu commented on the caricature-like nature of parvenu Bucharesters (the male prototype, Coconul Drăgan, was "an ennobled hoodlum", while the female one, Coconiţa Drăgana, always wished to be the first in line for the unction). In various of his articles, he showed himself a critic of social trends. During the 1830s, he reacted against misogyny, arguing in favor of women's rights: "Who has made man create himself unfair laws and customs, in order for him to cultivate his spirit and forsake [women] into ignorance...?". In 1859, after the Jewish community in Galaţi fell victim to a pogrom, he spoke out against Antisemitic blood libel accusations: "Jews do not eat children in England, nor do they in France, nor do they in Germany, nor do they do so wherever humans have become humans. Where else are they accused of such an inhumane deed? Wherever peoples are still Barbaric or semi-Barbaric". A large portion of Heliade's satirical works rely on mockery of speech patterns and physical traits: notable portraits resulting from this style include mimicking the manner of Transylvanian educators (with their strict adherence to Latin etymologies), and his critique of the exophthalmos Rosetti (with eyes "more bulged than those of a giant frog"). Without sharing Heliade's views on literature, the younger Titu Maiorescu drew comparisons with his predecessor for launching into similar attacks, and usually in respect to the same rivals. ## In cultural reference A monument to Ion Heliade Rădulescu, sculpted by the Italian artist Ettore Ferrari, stands in front of the University building in central Bucharest. In addition to naming a lecture room after him, the Romanian Academy has instituted the Ion Heliade Rădulescu Award – in 1880, it was awarded to Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, for his Cuvinte den bătrâni, and worth 5,000 gold lei. Ten years after, the prize was the center of a scandal, involving on one side the dramatist Ion Luca Caragiale and, on the other, the cultural establishment formed around members of the National Liberal Party, including Hasdeu and Dimitrie Sturdza. The latter disapproved of Caragiale's anti-Liberal stance and his association with Junimea, as well as to his anti-nationalism, dislike of didacticism, and alleged cosmopolitanism. They thus refused to grant him the prize. A high school in his native Târgovişte bears the name Ion Heliade Rădulescu, as does a village in the commune of Ziduri, Buzău County. The grave of Take Ionescu, an influential political figure and one-time Prime Minister of Romania who was Heliade's descendant, is situated in Sinaia Monastery, in the immediate vicinity of a fir tree planted by Heliade and his fellow 1848 revolutionaries. In his 1870 poem Epigonii ("The Epigones"), Mihai Eminescu paid tribute to early Romanian-language writers and their contributions to literature. An entire stanza is dedicated to Heliade: During the early 1880s, Alexandru Macedonski and his Literatorul attempted to preserve Heliade's status and his theories when these were faced with criticism from Junimea; by 1885, this rivalry ended in defeat for Macedonski, and contributed to the disestablishment of Literatorul. Although a Junimist for a large part of his life, Ion Luca Caragiale himself saw a precursor in Heliade, and even expressed some sympathy for his political ideals. During the 1890s, he republished a piece by Heliade in the Conservative Party's main journal, Epoca. One of Caragiale's most significant characters, the Transylvanian schoolteacher Marius Chicoş Rostogan, shares many traits with his counterparts in Heliade's stories. Developing his own theory, he claimed that there was a clear difference between, on one hand, the generation of Heliade Rădulescu, Ion Câmpineanu, and Nicolae Bălcescu, and, on the other, the National Liberal establishment formed around Pantazi Ghica, Nicolae Misail and Mihail Pătârlăgeanu – he identified the latter grouping with hypocrisy, demagogy, and political corruption, while arguing that the former could have found itself best represented by the Conservatives. Comments about Heliade and his Bucharest statue feature prominently in Macedonski's short story Nicu Dereanu, whose main character, a daydreaming Bohemian, idolizes the Wallachian writer. Sburătorul, a modernist literary magazine of the interwar period, edited by Eugen Lovinescu, owed its name to Zburătorul, making use of an antiquated variant of the name (a form favored by Heliade). During the same years, Camil Petrescu made reference to Heliade in his novel Un om între oameni, which depicts events from Nicolae Bălcescu's lifetime. In his Autobiography, the Romanian philosopher Mircea Eliade indicated that it was likely that his ancestors, whose original surname was Ieremia'', had adopted the new name as a tribute to Heliade Rădulescu, whom they probably admired.
2,209,101	Gobrecht dollar	1,168,332,717	US silver dollar coin (1836–1839)	[ "Currencies introduced in 1836", "Eagles on coins", "Goddess of Liberty on coins", "United States dollar coins", "United States silver coins" ]	The Gobrecht dollar, minted from 1836 to 1839, was the first silver dollar struck for circulation by the United States Mint after production of that denomination had been halted in 1806 (the last previous silver dollars were struck in 1804 but dated 1803). The coin was struck in small numbers to determine whether the reintroduced silver dollar would be well received by the public. In 1835, Director of the United States Mint Samuel Moore resigned his post, and Robert M. Patterson assumed the position. Shortly after, Patterson began an attempt to redesign the nation's coinage. After Mint Chief Engraver William Kneass suffered a stroke later that year, Christian Gobrecht was hired as an engraver. On August 1, Patterson wrote a letter to Philadelphia artist Thomas Sully laying out his plans for the dollar coin. He also asked Titian Peale to create a design for the coin. Sully created an obverse design depicting a seated representation of Liberty and Peale a reverse depicting a soaring bald eagle, which were adapted into coin designs by Gobrecht. After the designs were created and trials struck, production of the working dies began in September 1836. After a small quantity was struck for circulation, the Mint received complaints regarding the prominent placement of Gobrecht's name on the dollar, and the design was modified to place his name in a less conspicuous position. In January 1837, the legal standard for the percentage of precious metal in silver coins was changed from 89.2% to 90%, and the Gobrecht dollars struck afterwards reflect this change. In total, 1,900 Gobrecht dollars were struck during the official production run. Production of the Seated Liberty dollar, which utilized the same obverse design as the Gobrecht dollar, began in 1840. In the 1850s, Mint officials controversially re-struck the coins without authorization. ## Background ### 1804 dollar The first silver dollars struck by the United States Mint were minted in 1794. In 1804, the Mint unofficially ended production of silver dollars because many of the coins produced since that denomination had first been struck in 1794 were exported for their silver content to Eastern Asia, especially Canton (modern day Guangzhou). In 1806, then Secretary of State James Madison issued an order officially halting mintage of the coins. In 1831, Mint Director Samuel Moore noticed a reversal; a large shipment of Spanish dollars had recently been shipped from Canton to the United States. Later that year, President Andrew Jackson, at Moore's request, lifted the prohibition. No further action was taken until the summer of 1834, when officials suggested that proof coin sets be prepared as gifts for Asian dignitaries. After examining Mint records, personnel incorrectly concluded that the last Draped Bust dollars minted were dated 1804, so they chose that date for the coins. It is unknown why the current date was not used, but numismatic historian R.W. Julian suggests the coins were predated to prevent coin collectors from becoming angered when they would be unable to obtain the newly dated coins, which were struck in very small numbers. It is unknown precisely how many 1804 dollars were struck, though eight are known to be extant. ### Design Later, in 1835, Mint officials began preparations for a series of silver dollars which, unlike the 1804 dollar, were intended to enter circulation in order to determine whether the denomination would be well received by the public. In June 1835, Moore resigned his post as director, and was replaced by Robert M. Patterson. Shortly thereafter, Director Patterson approached two well-known Philadelphia artists, Titian Peale and Thomas Sully, to create a design that would be used to overhaul most of the American coins then in production. Mint Chief Engraver Kneass prepared a sketch based on Patterson's conception, but soon suffered a stroke, leaving him partially incapacitated. Following Kneass' stroke, government officials approved Patterson's urgent request that Philadelphia medallist Christian Gobrecht be hired immediately to fulfill the duties of engraver; Director Moore requested the same prior to his resignation, but no action was taken immediately. In a letter dated August 1, 1835, Patterson proposed that Sully create a Seated Liberty figure for the obverse, suggesting that the "figure be in a sitting posture—sitting, for example, on a rock." Patterson also suggested that the seated figure should hold in her right hand a pileus atop a liberty pole to be "emblematic of Liberty". Numismatic historian Don Taxay notes the similarity between Patterson's Seated Liberty concept and designs already in use on British copper coinage: "Liberty thus emerged as a refurbished Britannia, her trident replaced by a staff and pileus." In the same letter, Patterson also informed Sully of his vision for the reverse, which Peale would execute: "I propose an Eagle flying, and rising in flight, amidst a constellation, irregularly dispersed, of 24 stars [representing the number of states then forming the Union], and carrying in its claws a scroll with the words E PLURIBUS UNUM". Patterson preferred a soaring eagle because he believed that the heraldic eagle commonly used on American coins, which he dismissed as a "mere creature of imagination", was unappealing as a design. According to a common story, the flying eagle seen on the Gobrecht dollar was modeled after Peter, the Mint's pet eagle, who was taxidermied after his death by becoming caught in a coining press and remains on display at the Mint to this day. In September 1835, Thomas Sully received from Patterson a set of British coins and medals to help guide him while creating the Seated Liberty design. Sully sent Patterson three rough sketches near the beginning of October, and those were given to Gobrecht, who in turn set about making a copper engraving of the design. Gobrecht completed the engraving on October 14, and Patterson presented prints created from it to several government officials in an effort to gain their approval. President Jackson, Treasury Secretary Levi Woodbury, and the rest of the cabinet all approved of the design. On October 17, while Jackson and his cabinet were reviewing the design, Woodbury wrote Patterson giving permission to proceed with creating dies for the new coins based on the prints. In January 1836, die trials were conducted in soft metal. These pieces were then circulated among the public for suggestions. Patterson then authorized production of a steel obverse die; the reverse could not yet be created because Peale had yet to complete his design to Patterson's satisfaction. While Peale continued his work, Gobrecht began work on a design for a gold dollar, which occupied much of his time at the Mint. On April 9, Patterson wrote a letter to the Treasury secretary in which he included several of Peale's drawings; Patterson viewed one of the designs as the best created to date. Despite the director's approval of the design, he instructed Peale to continue until Patterson was satisfied. This was evidently achieved, because Patterson had Gobrecht to begin work on a reverse die in June. In August, Patterson sent a uniface striking of the reverse die to President Jackson, who approved designs for both sides of the coin ## Production In September 1836, Chief Coiner Adam Eckfeldt began sinking the working dies that would be used to strike the coins. However, before production could begin, Patterson ordered that Gobrecht's name be added to the dollar. His name appeared as "C. GOBRECHT F", short for "Christian Gobrecht Fecit", meaning "Christian Gobrecht made it". The Gobrecht dollar was first struck in December 1836. Several pieces were produced and distributed throughout Philadelphia. Despite a positive reception for the overall design, many criticized the prominent display of Gobrecht's name on the coin. Gobrecht requested that his name be removed entirely from the face of the coin; instead, the engraver was instructed to change its size and placement at the behest of Patterson. When the full-scale production began, the reverse eagle was surrounded by 26 stars rather than 24 as Patterson had originally requested of Sully, as the states of Arkansas and Michigan had been admitted to the Union since Patterson's letter was penned in 1835. Some of the Gobrecht dollars produced were struck with 'medal alignment', meaning that the obverse and reverse images both face upward when the coin is rotated around its vertical axis. For the 1837 production (which kept the 1836 date), Patterson ordered that the coins be struck in coin alignment, the opposite of medal alignment, and the practice with current US coins (the two faces both are upright when the coin is rotated about its horizontal axis). An act of January 18, 1837, officially changed the legal standard for silver coins from 89.2% to 90% silver. Numismatic historian Walter Breen asserts that those pieces struck before the passage of this act are technically patterns (or coins created to test their design, composition or other points), as they were not authorized by Congress. In total, 1,000 pieces dated 1836 were struck in 89.2% silver and 600 in 90% silver. Gobrecht dollars struck prior to passage of the act weighed 26.96 grams (0.951 oz), while those struck later weighed 26.73 grams (0.943 oz). Persistent public demand for the new coins prompted Woodbury to contact Patterson, requesting more silver dollars. In 1838, the design was modified to remove the stars from the reverse. Throughout the production run, a number of different Gobrecht dollar patterns, which differed from the general issues, were struck. A small number were struck bearing the date of 1838 that did not bear Gobrecht's initials in any form. In total, 300 dollars of this type dated 1839 were struck for circulation, all in medal alignment. Patterson's trial issue had evidently been a success, as full-scale production of the Seated Liberty dollar began in 1840. The Seated Liberty dollar utilized an obverse design based on that of the Gobrecht dollar, though the reverse was altered from a soaring to a heraldic eagle. ### Restrikes Following an increase in coin collecting among the public in the mid-nineteenth century, there arose considerable demand for older American coins. Mint Director James Ross Snowden began selling restrikes of Gobrecht dollars and trading them for rare medals (especially those depicting or relating to former President George Washington), which were then added to the Mint's coin collection, then known as a coin cabinet. The money generated from selling the restrikes went toward purchasing new items for the coin cabinet. The restrikes created under Snowden's tenure were likely struck in 1859 and 1860, but the practice was largely halted after the eruption of a public scandal; other Mint employees were creating and selling restrikes of early American coins for their own profit. All Gobrecht dollar restrikes, when tilted on their axis, depict the reverse eagle flying level, rather than upward as it is depicted on the coins struck during the official production run. It is unknown precisely why the orientation of the eagle was altered, though it is believed by many numismatists that Snowden did this intentionally to make restrikes distinguishable from originals. Numismatic historian Walter Breen suggests that Snowden simply used the alignment because that was the same used on the Flying Eagle cent, which began production in 1856. Mint Engraver James B. Longacre, its designer, had borrowed Gobrecht and Peale's eagle reverse for the one-cent coin's obverse.
16,050,905	Walter de Coventre	1,171,254,478	14th-century Scottish ecclesiastic	[ "1370s deaths", "14th-century Scottish Roman Catholic bishops", "14th-century births", "Bishops of Dunblane", "Kingdom of Scotland expatriates in France", "University of Orléans alumni", "University of Paris alumni" ]	Walter de Coventre (died 1371 or 1372) was a 14th-century Scottish ecclesiastic. There is no direct evidence of his birthdate, his family, or his family's origin, although he may have come from the region around Abernethy (in modern-day Perth and Kinross), where a family with the name de Coventre is known to have lived. Walter appeared in the records for the first time in the 1330s, as a student at the University of Paris. From there he went on to the University of Orléans, initially as a student before becoming a lecturer there. He studied the arts, civil law and canon law, and was awarded many university degrees, including two doctorates. His studies were paid for, at least partially, by his benefices in Scotland. Despite holding perhaps more than five benefices at one stage, he did not return to Scotland until the late 1350s. Following his return to Scotland, Walter soon became Dean of Aberdeen Cathedral. From there he became engaged in high-level ecclesiastical affairs with the Scottish church and political affairs with the Earl of Mar. Sometime before June 1361, the cathedral chapter of Dunblane elected him Bishop of Dunblane. He went to France to secure confirmation from the Pope at Avignon, who authorised his consecration. Walter was bishop for 10 years after returning home to Scotland. Records of his episcopate are thin, but there are enough to allow a modest reconstruction of his activities: he presided over legal disputes, issued a dispensation for an important irregular marriage, attended parliaments, and acted as an envoy of the Scottish crown in England. He died in either 1371 or 1372. ## Background Walter de Coventre was typical of a new class of men in 14th-century Scotland, the university-educated career cleric from the lower nobility. Such men often acquired university education through their family resources, through the patronage of more substantial nobles, or through church influence, particularly support from the pope and his court. Patronage gave access to the resources needed to finance the considerable expense of a 14th-century university education, particularly through the presentation of benefices, gifts of land or income made by the church. Scotland had no universities in de Coventre's time, requiring travel either to England or Continental Europe to acquire a university education. Continental Europe, particularly France, was the favoured destination, partly because of bad relations between Scotland and England. After their university education, some Scottish graduates chose to remain abroad and teach at a foreign university or to serve the papacy; most returned to Scotland and offered their services to the king, a magnate, or an ecclesiastical institution. The ultimate reward for such services was a bishopric, which brought wealth, prestige, and a "job for life". Walter de Coventre's life is not well documented. There are no biographies, and no histories or chronicles devote any space to him. His activities can be traced only through a small number of incidental references in legal deeds, church documents and papal records. No modern historian has written a monograph about him, and the most extensive attempt to reconstruct his life in modern literature is a two-page entry in D. E. R. Watt's Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Graduates to A.D. 1410 (1977). James Hutchison Cockburn, in his Medieval Bishop of Dunblane and their Church (1959) devoted seven less extensively sourced pages, but they emphasized the analysis of a few events during de Coventre's episcopate, and the events of his time. During most of de Coventre's recorded lifetime Scotland was ruled by King David II. Coming to the throne at age five, King David was driven into exile in France at the age of ten. In the 1330s, civil war raged in Scotland as those loyal to David fought Edward Balliol and his English backers. In some sense, the conflict became a side-show of the Hundred Years' War, and David resided at Château Gaillard in northern France for much of his exile, until he could return to Scotland in 1341. In 1346, in response to a plea from France to come to its aid, David led an army into England only to be taken prisoner at Neville's Cross; he remained in captivity until he was ransomed in 1357. David's exile in France corresponded with Walter's own period in that country, prompting one historian to suggest that Walter was part of David's court while both were in northern France, and that Walter subsequently benefited from the relationship. ## Biography ### Origins and personal background James Hutchison Cockburn, a historian of Dunblane's medieval bishops, assumed that Walter's surname derived from the town of Coventry in England. D. E. R. Watt has suggested that the medieval settlement of Coventre or Covintrie near Abernethy in the diocese of Dunblane was the origin of the name. There is no direct evidence of de Coventre's family, but two other men bearing the name "de Coventre" are known to have been active during Walter's lifetime. A "John de Coventre" is found registered as a student at the University of Paris on 21 January 1331. Before December 1341, when he resigned, John de Coventre held the parish church of Inverarity, Angus, in the diocese of St Andrews. On 7 December 1345, a William de Coventre, also from the diocese of Dunblane, held a canonry and prebends (a cathedral priesthood with stipends) in the diocese of Ross and the Collegiate Church of Abernethy, when he was granted the church of Inverarity that had previously been held by John de Coventre. William thus appears to have succeeded John (and later Walter succeeded William) to all of these benefices. Watt suggested that all three were brothers, John the first-born, William the second-born, and Walter the youngest of the three. He further suggested that the family was probably closely connected to Margaret de Abernethy, heiress of the old lay abbots and lords of Abernethy. Margaret had patronage over both the church of Abernethy and, as probable owner of the barony of Inverarity, the church there. ### Early life #### Education De Coventre received a B.A. under John de Waltirstone from the University of Paris by Lent, 1333. Although he had probably completed a Licentiate in the Arts and a Master of Arts by 1335, because of gaps in the Paris records it is not certain that he was a Master until April 1345. He moved on to study civil law at the University of Orléans, and by 24 March 1337, he was serving as the proctor of the Scottish Nation in Orléans. By 7 December 1345, he had received a Licentiate in Civil Law. On 20 December 1348 he was at Avignon as an envoy of his university, and while there he obtained a grace regarding his own benefice holding from Pope Clement VI. On 7 October 1349, Pope Clement granted an indult to Walter allowing him to be absent from his cure while he continued his studies at Orléans. He may already have been a Doctor of Civil Law by that point, because in the following year, on 22 November 1350, he is found as such acting as the Regent of Orléans presenting a candidate for licence. Having studied civil law for the highest qualification available, de Coventre moved on to canon law. By 28 March 1351, he possessed a Bachelorate in Decrees (canon law). This was perhaps why on 16 April 1353, he obtained from Pope Innocent VI another grace for himself. Precisely when he obtained his doctorate is unclear, but he was D. U. J. (doctor utriusque juris), Doctor of Both Laws, by 4 September 1359. #### Benefices Walter's first known benefices were a canonry (with prebend) in the Collegiate Church of Abernethy and a prebend in the diocese of Ross, northern Scotland, which he was holding by 12 April 1345. None of these benefices, neither parish nor office, are known by name. While Walter would retain his Ross benefice until becoming Bishop of Dunblane, he lost his Abernethy benefice at some point between 20 December 1348 and 28 March 1351. During that period he obtained another unnamed prebend in exchange for the Abernethy prebend. Walter is only the second known canon of Abernethy Collegiate Church. On 12 April 1345, he was granted a canonry in the diocese of Dunkeld with expectation of a prebend, but does not appear to have obtained this in practice, although he did obtain a different Dunkeld canonry with prebend on 12 May 1352. This he retained until his consecration as Bishop of Dunblane in 1361. Walter also obtained a fourth prebend in this period. He had been pursuing a benefice in the diocese of St Andrews, and while he was granted this on 28 March 1351, the grant was still not effective by 16 April 1353, when he was granted a prebend in the diocese of Moray instead. This was not effective either, but Walter did eventually obtain a St Andrews diocese benefice, namely the church of Inverarity in Angus, which had become vacant on the death of its incumbent, William de Coventre, probably Walter's older brother. On 7 December 1345, Walter was appointed (provided) as Archdeacon of Dunblane, his most substantial benefice to date, but the appointment does not appear to have been carried through. Walter obtained one more benefice during this period. On 20 December 1348, he was made Dean of Aberdeen Cathedral, a high-ranking office which Walter was not technically eligible to hold without a papal grace, being only a sub-deacon in orders. The deanery had been made vacant by the death of the long-serving Gilbert Fleming. Although in July the Pope had given it as an extra prebend for Annibald de Ceccano, Cardinal Bishop of Tusculum, this had been cancelled by 20 December, when it was given to Walter instead. These benefices provided an income without the obligation to perform any pastoral services. Their revenues were assigned to pay for his studies, leaving poorly paid vicars to carry out the pastoral work. Walter remained as a teacher and official at Orléans, perhaps without returning to Scotland at all, until the late 1350s, by when he would have been absent from his native country for more than 25 years. In an Aberdeen document dated 12 July 1356, it was noted that he was still absent from his post. ### Bishop of Dunblane #### Return to Scotland and episcopal election Walter cannot be traced back in Scotland with certainty before his appearance as a witness to a charter of Thomas, Earl of Mar, on 9 July 1358. He may have returned a year earlier, as a document dated sometime between November 1357 and April 1359 records him in the sheriffdom of Forfar (royal demesne in Angus) assisting a justice ayre. He appears again on 4 September 1359, witnessing another charter of Earl Thomas at the latter's residence of Kildrummy Castle. Following the death in 1361 of William de Cambuslang, Bishop of Dunblane, Walter was elected by the Dunblane cathedral chapter to be the new bishop. On his election, Walter possessed no benefices in the diocese, and had had none since giving up his Abernethy prebend a decade before. However, it was probably the diocese of his birth, and he had almost become archdeacon of the diocese in 1345. Walter, bishop-elect, travelled to the papal court at Avignon, and was provided (appointed) as bishop by Pope Innocent on 18 June 1361. The papal letter of provision expressed displeasure that the chapter (by electing) and Walter (by accepting the election) were ignoring a previous papal reservation of the bishopric. Pope Innocent quashed the election, but nevertheless agreed to appoint (provide) Walter to the bishopric. Walter may have been consecrated soon after, probably by 23 August. It was on that date that he presented a roll of petitions to the Pope on behalf of several Scotsmen, including Michael de Monymusk, future Bishop of Dunkeld. On 20 September, Bishop Walter made a "promise of services" to the papacy, the first payment of which was delivered to Avignon in 1363 by Walter's proctor. #### Early episcopate Walter had returned to Scotland by 30 June 1362, when his presence is attested at Partick near Glasgow. The document in which Walter is mentioned recorded that William Rae, Bishop of Glasgow, along with his cathedral chapter, agreed to put a dispute to arbitration. The remainder of his episcopate is not well documented. His only surviving episcopal deed was issued at Abernethy on 8 February 1365. The deed authorised the reduction of canons at Abernethy Collegiate Church from ten to five, adding the consent of the patroness Margaret, Countess of Angus. These details are also recorded in a papal letter to the Bishop of St Andrews in 1373: > Recently a petition of the secular Prior and Chapter [of Abernethy] for confirmation described how the [Collegiate] Church was founded by lay patrons for a prior and five canons. At a later date some of the patrons were eager to augment its rents, and the number of canons was hopefully raised to ten. No such augmentation took place, and because of wars, fires and ruin the Prior and Chapter were brought to straits. Bishop Walter, therefore, with the assent of the patrons and King David, reduced the canons to five. The changes were confirmed by the Pope on 31 October 1375, several years after Bishop Walter's death. A document of Inchaffray Abbey, preserved in the original (as opposed to a later copy), recorded that Bishop Walter had been involved in settling a dispute involving Inchaffray, an abbey which lay in his diocese. Inchaffray's dispute was with Naomhán Mac Eóghainn (Nevin MacEwen) and his wife Mairead (Mariota). Under Abbot Symon de Scone, previous Abbot of Inchaffray, the abbey had given some lands in exchange for 40 marks to Mairead's father Maol Mhuire (Malmoran) of Glencarnie. Under the new abbot, Abbot John, the abbey sought the return of those lands. The case appears to have gone to Bishop Walter's consistorial court, which he held at the chapel of Innerpeffry. Here Naomhán and Mairead agreed to accept a payment of 40 marks in exchange for returning the documents of ownership given to them by the abbot and for acknowledging the abbey's ownership. The couple pledged to honour the agreement by swearing an oath on the chapel's Gospels. The case then proceeded to a hearing held under Robert Stewart, Earl of Strathearn and High Steward of Scotland (later King Robert II), at Perth, where the couple were forced under the threat of severe penalties to swear again never to renew their claim. The decision was sealed by the witnesses, including Bishop Walter, at a Perth church on 30 November 1365. #### Final years On 13 March 1366, Walter was commissioned by the papacy to authorise dispensation for the irregular marriage between John Stewart, Earl of Carrick (much later King Robert III) and Annabella Drummond. Bishop Walter attended at least five meetings of the Scottish national parliament during his episcopate. He was present at the Scone parliament of 27 September 1367, which discussed royal revenues and relations with the English crown. He was also present at the Scone parliament of June 1368, and the Perth parliament of 6 March 1369; the latter discussed royal business, relations with the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Norway, and law and order in the Scottish Highlands. Robert Stewart, Thomas, Earl of Mar, Uilleam III, Earl of Ross, and other Highland lords, were ordered to impose greater control in their regions. Bishop Walter took part in two parliamentary committees, the first a clerical committee devoted to general business, and the second a judicial committee authorised to review earlier legal judgments in the kingdom. The parliament's discussions on Anglo-Scottish relations preceded peace negotiations later in the year, at which Bishop Walter was one of the Scottish envoys. There was some urgency behind the matter, in view of the impending end to the five-year Anglo-Scottish truce agreed by King Edward III of England on 20 May 1365. King David travelled to London, where he resided in May and June, in order to take part in the negotiations. Walter and the rest of the embassy, which included four other bishops, were in London by June 1369, the month in which Edward agreed to a new truce. When it was ratified by the Scots at Edinburgh on 20 July, Bishop Walter was again present, as a witness. Walter attended the Perth parliament of 18 February 1370, and was named as one of the members of a special committee "for the deliberation concerning the consideration of common justice". He is mentioned for the last time swearing fealty to the new king, Robert II, at his accession parliament at Scone on 27 March 1371. Walter de Coventre must have died later in 1371 or in very early 1372, because on 27 April 1372, the Pope appointed Andrew Magnus to the vacant bishopric of Dunblane.
4,266	Binary search algorithm	1,170,087,932	Search algorithm finding the position of a target value within a sorted array	[ "2 (number)", "Articles with example pseudocode", "Search algorithms" ]	In computer science, binary search, also known as half-interval search, logarithmic search, or binary chop, is a search algorithm that finds the position of a target value within a sorted array. Binary search compares the target value to the middle element of the array. If they are not equal, the half in which the target cannot lie is eliminated and the search continues on the remaining half, again taking the middle element to compare to the target value, and repeating this until the target value is found. If the search ends with the remaining half being empty, the target is not in the array. Binary search runs in logarithmic time in the worst case, making $O(\log n)$ comparisons, where $n$ is the number of elements in the array. Binary search is faster than linear search except for small arrays. However, the array must be sorted first to be able to apply binary search. There are specialized data structures designed for fast searching, such as hash tables, that can be searched more efficiently than binary search. However, binary search can be used to solve a wider range of problems, such as finding the next-smallest or next-largest element in the array relative to the target even if it is absent from the array. There are numerous variations of binary search. In particular, fractional cascading speeds up binary searches for the same value in multiple arrays. Fractional cascading efficiently solves a number of search problems in computational geometry and in numerous other fields. Exponential search extends binary search to unbounded lists. The binary search tree and B-tree data structures are based on binary search. ## Algorithm Binary search works on sorted arrays. Binary search begins by comparing an element in the middle of the array with the target value. If the target value matches the element, its position in the array is returned. If the target value is less than the element, the search continues in the lower half of the array. If the target value is greater than the element, the search continues in the upper half of the array. By doing this, the algorithm eliminates the half in which the target value cannot lie in each iteration. ### Procedure Given an array $A$ of $n$ elements with values or records $A_0,A_1,A_2,\ldots,A_{n-1}$sorted such that $A_0 \leq A_1 \leq A_2 \leq \cdots \leq A_{n-1}$, and target value $T$, the following subroutine uses binary search to find the index of $T$ in $A$. 1. Set $L$ to $0$ and $R$ to $n-1$. 2. If $L>R$, the search terminates as unsuccessful. 3. Set $m$ (the position of the middle element) to the floor of $\frac{L+R}{2}$, which is the greatest integer less than or equal to $\frac{L+R}{2}$. 4. If $A_m < T$, set $L$ to $m+1$ and go to step 2. 5. If $A_m > T$, set $R$ to $m-1$ and go to step 2. 6. Now $A_m = T$, the search is done; return $m$. This iterative procedure keeps track of the search boundaries with the two variables $L$ and $R$. The procedure may be expressed in pseudocode as follows, where the variable names and types remain the same as above, `floor` is the floor function, and `unsuccessful` refers to a specific value that conveys the failure of the search. `function binary_search(A, n, T) is` ` L := 0` ` R := n − 1` ` while L ≤ R do` ` m := floor((L + R) / 2)` ` if A[m] < T then` ` L := m + 1` ` else if A[m] > T then` ` R := m − 1` ` else:` ` return m` ` return unsuccessful` Alternatively, the algorithm may take the ceiling of $\frac{L+R}{2}$. This may change the result if the target value appears more than once in the array. #### Alternative procedure In the above procedure, the algorithm checks whether the middle element ($m$) is equal to the target ($T$) in every iteration. Some implementations leave out this check during each iteration. The algorithm would perform this check only when one element is left (when $L=R$). This results in a faster comparison loop, as one comparison is eliminated per iteration, while it requires only one more iteration on average. Hermann Bottenbruch published the first implementation to leave out this check in 1962. 1. Set $L$ to $0$ and $R$ to $n-1$. 2. While $L \neq R$, 1. Set $m$ (the position of the middle element) to the ceiling of $\frac{L+R}{2}$, which is the least integer greater than or equal to $\frac{L+R}{2}$. 2. If $A_m > T$, set $R$ to $m-1$. 3. Else, $A_m \leq T$; set $L$ to $m$. 3. Now $L=R$, the search is done. If $A_L=T$, return $L$. Otherwise, the search terminates as unsuccessful. Where `ceil` is the ceiling function, the pseudocode for this version is: `function binary_search_alternative(A, n, T) is` ` L := 0` ` R := n − 1` ` while L != R do` ` m := ceil((L + R) / 2)` ` if A[m] > T then` ` R := m − 1` ` else:` ` L := m` ` if A[L] = T then` ` return L` ` return unsuccessful` ### Duplicate elements The procedure may return any index whose element is equal to the target value, even if there are duplicate elements in the array. For example, if the array to be searched was $[1,2,3,4,4,5,6,7]$ and the target was $4$, then it would be correct for the algorithm to either return the 4th (index 3) or 5th (index 4) element. The regular procedure would return the 4th element (index 3) in this case. It does not always return the first duplicate (consider $[1,2,4,4,4,5,6,7]$ which still returns the 4th element). However, it is sometimes necessary to find the leftmost element or the rightmost element for a target value that is duplicated in the array. In the above example, the 4th element is the leftmost element of the value 4, while the 5th element is the rightmost element of the value 4. The alternative procedure above will always return the index of the rightmost element if such an element exists. #### Procedure for finding the leftmost element To find the leftmost element, the following procedure can be used: 1. Set $L$ to $0$ and $R$ to $n$. 2. While $L < R$, 1. Set $m$ (the position of the middle element) to the floor of $\frac{L+R}{2}$, which is the greatest integer less than or equal to $\frac{L+R}{2}$. 2. If $A_m < T$, set $L$ to $m+1$. 3. Else, $A_m \geq T$; set $R$ to $m$. 3. Return $L$. If $L < n$ and $A_L = T$, then $A_L$ is the leftmost element that equals $T$. Even if $T$ is not in the array, $L$ is the rank of $T$ in the array, or the number of elements in the array that are less than $T$. Where `floor` is the floor function, the pseudocode for this version is: `function binary_search_leftmost(A, n, T):` ` L := 0` ` R := n` ` while L < R:` ` m := floor((L + R) / 2)` ` if A[m] < T:` ` L := m + 1` ` else:` ` R := m` ` return L` #### Procedure for finding the rightmost element To find the rightmost element, the following procedure can be used: 1. Set $L$ to $0$ and $R$ to $n$. 2. While $L < R$, 1. Set $m$ (the position of the middle element) to the floor of $\frac{L+R}{2}$, which is the greatest integer less than or equal to $\frac{L+R}{2}$. 2. If $A_m > T$, set $R$ to $m$. 3. Else, $A_m \leq T$; set $L$ to $m+1$. 3. Return $R - 1$. If $R > 0$ and $A_{R-1}=T$, then $A_{R-1}$ is the rightmost element that equals $T$. Even if $T$ is not in the array, $n-R$ is the number of elements in the array that are greater than $T$. Where `floor` is the floor function, the pseudocode for this version is: `function binary_search_rightmost(A, n, T):` ` L := 0` ` R := n` ` while L < R:` ` m := floor((L + R) / 2)` ` if A[m] > T:` ` R := m` ` else:` ` L := m + 1` ` return R - 1` ### Approximate matches The above procedure only performs exact matches, finding the position of a target value. However, it is trivial to extend binary search to perform approximate matches because binary search operates on sorted arrays. For example, binary search can be used to compute, for a given value, its rank (the number of smaller elements), predecessor (next-smallest element), successor (next-largest element), and nearest neighbor. Range queries seeking the number of elements between two values can be performed with two rank queries. - Rank queries can be performed with the procedure for finding the leftmost element. The number of elements less than the target value is returned by the procedure. - Predecessor queries can be performed with rank queries. If the rank of the target value is $r$, its predecessor is $r-1$. - For successor queries, the procedure for finding the rightmost element can be used. If the result of running the procedure for the target value is $r$, then the successor of the target value is $r+1$. - The nearest neighbor of the target value is either its predecessor or successor, whichever is closer. - Range queries are also straightforward. Once the ranks of the two values are known, the number of elements greater than or equal to the first value and less than the second is the difference of the two ranks. This count can be adjusted up or down by one according to whether the endpoints of the range should be considered to be part of the range and whether the array contains entries matching those endpoints. ## Performance In terms of the number of comparisons, the performance of binary search can be analyzed by viewing the run of the procedure on a binary tree. The root node of the tree is the middle element of the array. The middle element of the lower half is the left child node of the root, and the middle element of the upper half is the right child node of the root. The rest of the tree is built in a similar fashion. Starting from the root node, the left or right subtrees are traversed depending on whether the target value is less or more than the node under consideration. In the worst case, binary search makes $\lfloor \log_2 (n) + 1 \rfloor$ iterations of the comparison loop, where the $\lfloor \rfloor$ notation denotes the floor function that yields the greatest integer less than or equal to the argument, and $\log_2$ is the binary logarithm. This is because the worst case is reached when the search reaches the deepest level of the tree, and there are always $\lfloor \log_2 (n) + 1 \rfloor$ levels in the tree for any binary search. The worst case may also be reached when the target element is not in the array. If $n$ is one less than a power of two, then this is always the case. Otherwise, the search may perform $\lfloor \log_2 (n) + 1 \rfloor$iterations if the search reaches the deepest level of the tree. However, it may make $\lfloor \log_2 (n) \rfloor$ iterations, which is one less than the worst case, if the search ends at the second-deepest level of the tree. On average, assuming that each element is equally likely to be searched, binary search makes $\lfloor \log_2 (n) \rfloor + 1 - (2^{\lfloor \log_2 (n) \rfloor + 1} - \lfloor \log_2 (n) \rfloor - 2)/n$ iterations when the target element is in the array. This is approximately equal to $\log_2(n) - 1$ iterations. When the target element is not in the array, binary search makes $\lfloor \log_2 (n) \rfloor + 2 - 2^{\lfloor \log_2 (n) \rfloor + 1}/(n + 1)$ iterations on average, assuming that the range between and outside elements is equally likely to be searched. In the best case, where the target value is the middle element of the array, its position is returned after one iteration. In terms of iterations, no search algorithm that works only by comparing elements can exhibit better average and worst-case performance than binary search. The comparison tree representing binary search has the fewest levels possible as every level above the lowest level of the tree is filled completely. Otherwise, the search algorithm can eliminate few elements in an iteration, increasing the number of iterations required in the average and worst case. This is the case for other search algorithms based on comparisons, as while they may work faster on some target values, the average performance over all elements is worse than binary search. By dividing the array in half, binary search ensures that the size of both subarrays are as similar as possible. ### Space complexity Binary search requires three pointers to elements, which may be array indices or pointers to memory locations, regardless of the size of the array. Therefore, the space complexity of binary search is $O(1)$ in the word RAM model of computation. ### Derivation of average case The average number of iterations performed by binary search depends on the probability of each element being searched. The average case is different for successful searches and unsuccessful searches. It will be assumed that each element is equally likely to be searched for successful searches. For unsuccessful searches, it will be assumed that the intervals between and outside elements are equally likely to be searched. The average case for successful searches is the number of iterations required to search every element exactly once, divided by $n$, the number of elements. The average case for unsuccessful searches is the number of iterations required to search an element within every interval exactly once, divided by the $n + 1$ intervals. #### Successful searches In the binary tree representation, a successful search can be represented by a path from the root to the target node, called an internal path. The length of a path is the number of edges (connections between nodes) that the path passes through. The number of iterations performed by a search, given that the corresponding path has length $l$, is $l + 1$ counting the initial iteration. The internal path length is the sum of the lengths of all unique internal paths. Since there is only one path from the root to any single node, each internal path represents a search for a specific element. If there are $n$ elements, which is a positive integer, and the internal path length is $I(n)$, then the average number of iterations for a successful search $T(n) = 1 + \frac{I(n)}{n}$, with the one iteration added to count the initial iteration. Since binary search is the optimal algorithm for searching with comparisons, this problem is reduced to calculating the minimum internal path length of all binary trees with $n$ nodes, which is equal to: $I(n) = \sum_{k=1}^n \left \lfloor \log_2(k) \right \rfloor$ For example, in a 7-element array, the root requires one iteration, the two elements below the root require two iterations, and the four elements below require three iterations. In this case, the internal path length is: $\sum_{k=1}^7 \left \lfloor \log_2(k) \right \rfloor = 0 + 2(1) + 4(2) = 2 + 8 = 10$ The average number of iterations would be $1 + \frac{10}{7} = 2 \frac{3}{7}$ based on the equation for the average case. The sum for $I(n)$ can be simplified to: $I(n) = \sum_{k=1}^n \left \lfloor \log_2(k) \right \rfloor = (n + 1)\left \lfloor \log_2(n + 1) \right \rfloor - 2^{\left \lfloor \log_2(n+1) \right \rfloor + 1} + 2$ Substituting the equation for $I(n)$ into the equation for $T(n)$: $T(n) = 1 + \frac{(n + 1)\left \lfloor \log_2(n + 1) \right \rfloor - 2^{\left \lfloor \log_2(n+1) \right \rfloor + 1} + 2}{n} = \lfloor \log_2 (n) \rfloor + 1 - (2^{\lfloor \log_2 (n) \rfloor + 1} - \lfloor \log_2 (n) \rfloor - 2)/n$ For integer $n$, this is equivalent to the equation for the average case on a successful search specified above. #### Unsuccessful searches Unsuccessful searches can be represented by augmenting the tree with external nodes, which forms an extended binary tree. If an internal node, or a node present in the tree, has fewer than two child nodes, then additional child nodes, called external nodes, are added so that each internal node has two children. By doing so, an unsuccessful search can be represented as a path to an external node, whose parent is the single element that remains during the last iteration. An external path is a path from the root to an external node. The external path length is the sum of the lengths of all unique external paths. If there are $n$ elements, which is a positive integer, and the external path length is $E(n)$, then the average number of iterations for an unsuccessful search $T'(n)=\frac{E(n)}{n+1}$, with the one iteration added to count the initial iteration. The external path length is divided by $n+1$ instead of $n$ because there are $n+1$ external paths, representing the intervals between and outside the elements of the array. This problem can similarly be reduced to determining the minimum external path length of all binary trees with $n$ nodes. For all binary trees, the external path length is equal to the internal path length plus $2n$. Substituting the equation for $I(n)$: $E(n) = I(n) + 2n = \left[(n + 1)\left \lfloor \log_2(n + 1) \right \rfloor - 2^{\left \lfloor \log_2(n+1) \right \rfloor + 1} + 2\right] + 2n = (n + 1) (\lfloor \log_2 (n) \rfloor + 2) - 2^{\lfloor \log_2 (n) \rfloor + 1}$ Substituting the equation for $E(n)$ into the equation for $T'(n)$, the average case for unsuccessful searches can be determined: $T'(n) = \frac{(n + 1) (\lfloor \log_2 (n) \rfloor + 2) - 2^{\lfloor \log_2 (n) \rfloor + 1}}{(n+1)} = \lfloor \log_2 (n) \rfloor + 2 - 2^{\lfloor \log_2 (n) \rfloor + 1}/(n + 1)$ #### Performance of alternative procedure Each iteration of the binary search procedure defined above makes one or two comparisons, checking if the middle element is equal to the target in each iteration. Assuming that each element is equally likely to be searched, each iteration makes 1.5 comparisons on average. A variation of the algorithm checks whether the middle element is equal to the target at the end of the search. On average, this eliminates half a comparison from each iteration. This slightly cuts the time taken per iteration on most computers. However, it guarantees that the search takes the maximum number of iterations, on average adding one iteration to the search. Because the comparison loop is performed only $\lfloor \log_2 (n) + 1 \rfloor$ times in the worst case, the slight increase in efficiency per iteration does not compensate for the extra iteration for all but very large $n$. ### Running time and cache use In analyzing the performance of binary search, another consideration is the time required to compare two elements. For integers and strings, the time required increases linearly as the encoding length (usually the number of bits) of the elements increase. For example, comparing a pair of 64-bit unsigned integers would require comparing up to double the bits as comparing a pair of 32-bit unsigned integers. The worst case is achieved when the integers are equal. This can be significant when the encoding lengths of the elements are large, such as with large integer types or long strings, which makes comparing elements expensive. Furthermore, comparing floating-point values (the most common digital representation of real numbers) is often more expensive than comparing integers or short strings. On most computer architectures, the processor has a hardware cache separate from RAM. Since they are located within the processor itself, caches are much faster to access but usually store much less data than RAM. Therefore, most processors store memory locations that have been accessed recently, along with memory locations close to it. For example, when an array element is accessed, the element itself may be stored along with the elements that are stored close to it in RAM, making it faster to sequentially access array elements that are close in index to each other (locality of reference). On a sorted array, binary search can jump to distant memory locations if the array is large, unlike algorithms (such as linear search and linear probing in hash tables) which access elements in sequence. This adds slightly to the running time of binary search for large arrays on most systems. ## Binary search versus other schemes Sorted arrays with binary search are a very inefficient solution when insertion and deletion operations are interleaved with retrieval, taking $O(n)$ time for each such operation. In addition, sorted arrays can complicate memory use especially when elements are often inserted into the array. There are other data structures that support much more efficient insertion and deletion. Binary search can be used to perform exact matching and set membership (determining whether a target value is in a collection of values). There are data structures that support faster exact matching and set membership. However, unlike many other searching schemes, binary search can be used for efficient approximate matching, usually performing such matches in $O(\log n)$ time regardless of the type or structure of the values themselves. In addition, there are some operations, like finding the smallest and largest element, that can be performed efficiently on a sorted array. ### Linear search Linear search is a simple search algorithm that checks every record until it finds the target value. Linear search can be done on a linked list, which allows for faster insertion and deletion than an array. Binary search is faster than linear search for sorted arrays except if the array is short, although the array needs to be sorted beforehand. All sorting algorithms based on comparing elements, such as quicksort and merge sort, require at least $O(n \log n)$ comparisons in the worst case. Unlike linear search, binary search can be used for efficient approximate matching. There are operations such as finding the smallest and largest element that can be done efficiently on a sorted array but not on an unsorted array. ### Trees A binary search tree is a binary tree data structure that works based on the principle of binary search. The records of the tree are arranged in sorted order, and each record in the tree can be searched using an algorithm similar to binary search, taking on average logarithmic time. Insertion and deletion also require on average logarithmic time in binary search trees. This can be faster than the linear time insertion and deletion of sorted arrays, and binary trees retain the ability to perform all the operations possible on a sorted array, including range and approximate queries. However, binary search is usually more efficient for searching as binary search trees will most likely be imperfectly balanced, resulting in slightly worse performance than binary search. This even applies to balanced binary search trees, binary search trees that balance their own nodes, because they rarely produce the tree with the fewest possible levels. Except for balanced binary search trees, the tree may be severely imbalanced with few internal nodes with two children, resulting in the average and worst-case search time approaching $n$ comparisons. Binary search trees take more space than sorted arrays. Binary search trees lend themselves to fast searching in external memory stored in hard disks, as binary search trees can be efficiently structured in filesystems. The B-tree generalizes this method of tree organization. B-trees are frequently used to organize long-term storage such as databases and filesystems. ### Hashing For implementing associative arrays, hash tables, a data structure that maps keys to records using a hash function, are generally faster than binary search on a sorted array of records. Most hash table implementations require only amortized constant time on average. However, hashing is not useful for approximate matches, such as computing the next-smallest, next-largest, and nearest key, as the only information given on a failed search is that the target is not present in any record. Binary search is ideal for such matches, performing them in logarithmic time. Binary search also supports approximate matches. Some operations, like finding the smallest and largest element, can be done efficiently on sorted arrays but not on hash tables. ### Set membership algorithms A related problem to search is set membership. Any algorithm that does lookup, like binary search, can also be used for set membership. There are other algorithms that are more specifically suited for set membership. A bit array is the simplest, useful when the range of keys is limited. It compactly stores a collection of bits, with each bit representing a single key within the range of keys. Bit arrays are very fast, requiring only $O(1)$ time. The Judy1 type of Judy array handles 64-bit keys efficiently. For approximate results, Bloom filters, another probabilistic data structure based on hashing, store a set of keys by encoding the keys using a bit array and multiple hash functions. Bloom filters are much more space-efficient than bit arrays in most cases and not much slower: with $k$ hash functions, membership queries require only $O(k)$ time. However, Bloom filters suffer from false positives. ### Other data structures There exist data structures that may improve on binary search in some cases for both searching and other operations available for sorted arrays. For example, searches, approximate matches, and the operations available to sorted arrays can be performed more efficiently than binary search on specialized data structures such as van Emde Boas trees, fusion trees, tries, and bit arrays. These specialized data structures are usually only faster because they take advantage of the properties of keys with a certain attribute (usually keys that are small integers), and thus will be time or space consuming for keys that lack that attribute. As long as the keys can be ordered, these operations can always be done at least efficiently on a sorted array regardless of the keys. Some structures, such as Judy arrays, use a combination of approaches to mitigate this while retaining efficiency and the ability to perform approximate matching. ## Variations ### Uniform binary search Uniform binary search stores, instead of the lower and upper bounds, the difference in the index of the middle element from the current iteration to the next iteration. A lookup table containing the differences is computed beforehand. For example, if the array to be searched is [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11], the middle element ($m$) would be 6. In this case, the middle element of the left subarray ([1, 2, 3, 4, 5]) is 3 and the middle element of the right subarray ([7, 8, 9, 10, 11]) is 9. Uniform binary search would store the value of 3 as both indices differ from 6 by this same amount. To reduce the search space, the algorithm either adds or subtracts this change from the index of the middle element. Uniform binary search may be faster on systems where it is inefficient to calculate the midpoint, such as on decimal computers. ### Exponential search Exponential search extends binary search to unbounded lists. It starts by finding the first element with an index that is both a power of two and greater than the target value. Afterwards, it sets that index as the upper bound, and switches to binary search. A search takes $\lfloor \log_2 x + 1\rfloor$ iterations before binary search is started and at most $\lfloor \log_2 x \rfloor$ iterations of the binary search, where $x$ is the position of the target value. Exponential search works on bounded lists, but becomes an improvement over binary search only if the target value lies near the beginning of the array. ### Interpolation search Instead of calculating the midpoint, interpolation search estimates the position of the target value, taking into account the lowest and highest elements in the array as well as length of the array. It works on the basis that the midpoint is not the best guess in many cases. For example, if the target value is close to the highest element in the array, it is likely to be located near the end of the array. A common interpolation function is linear interpolation. If $A$ is the array, $L, R$ are the lower and upper bounds respectively, and $T$ is the target, then the target is estimated to be about $(T - A_L) / (A_R - A_L)$ of the way between $L$ and $R$. When linear interpolation is used, and the distribution of the array elements is uniform or near uniform, interpolation search makes $O(\log \log n)$ comparisons. In practice, interpolation search is slower than binary search for small arrays, as interpolation search requires extra computation. Its time complexity grows more slowly than binary search, but this only compensates for the extra computation for large arrays. ### Fractional cascading Fractional cascading is a technique that speeds up binary searches for the same element in multiple sorted arrays. Searching each array separately requires $O(k \log n)$ time, where $k$ is the number of arrays. Fractional cascading reduces this to $O(k + \log n)$ by storing specific information in each array about each element and its position in the other arrays. Fractional cascading was originally developed to efficiently solve various computational geometry problems. Fractional cascading has been applied elsewhere, such as in data mining and Internet Protocol routing. ### Generalization to graphs Binary search has been generalized to work on certain types of graphs, where the target value is stored in a vertex instead of an array element. Binary search trees are one such generalization—when a vertex (node) in the tree is queried, the algorithm either learns that the vertex is the target, or otherwise which subtree the target would be located in. However, this can be further generalized as follows: given an undirected, positively weighted graph and a target vertex, the algorithm learns upon querying a vertex that it is equal to the target, or it is given an incident edge that is on the shortest path from the queried vertex to the target. The standard binary search algorithm is simply the case where the graph is a path. Similarly, binary search trees are the case where the edges to the left or right subtrees are given when the queried vertex is unequal to the target. For all undirected, positively weighted graphs, there is an algorithm that finds the target vertex in $O(\log n)$ queries in the worst case. ### Noisy binary search Noisy binary search algorithms solve the case where the algorithm cannot reliably compare elements of the array. For each pair of elements, there is a certain probability that the algorithm makes the wrong comparison. Noisy binary search can find the correct position of the target with a given probability that controls the reliability of the yielded position. Every noisy binary search procedure must make at least $(1 - \tau)\frac{\log_2 (n)}{H(p)} - \frac{10}{H(p)}$ comparisons on average, where $H(p) = -p \log_2 (p) - (1 - p) \log_2 (1 - p)$ is the binary entropy function and $\tau$ is the probability that the procedure yields the wrong position. The noisy binary search problem can be considered as a case of the Rényi-Ulam game, a variant of Twenty Questions where the answers may be wrong. ### Quantum binary search Classical computers are bounded to the worst case of exactly $\lfloor \log_2 n + 1 \rfloor$ iterations when performing binary search. Quantum algorithms for binary search are still bounded to a proportion of $\log_2 n$ queries (representing iterations of the classical procedure), but the constant factor is less than one, providing for a lower time complexity on quantum computers. Any exact quantum binary search procedure—that is, a procedure that always yields the correct result—requires at least $\frac{1}{\pi}(\ln n - 1) \approx 0.22 \log_2 n$ queries in the worst case, where $\ln$ is the natural logarithm. There is an exact quantum binary search procedure that runs in $4 \log_{605} n \approx 0.433 \log_2 n$ queries in the worst case. In comparison, Grover's algorithm is the optimal quantum algorithm for searching an unordered list of elements, and it requires $O(\sqrt{n})$ queries. ## History The idea of sorting a list of items to allow for faster searching dates back to antiquity. The earliest known example was the Inakibit-Anu tablet from Babylon dating back to c. 200 BCE. The tablet contained about 500 sexagesimal numbers and their reciprocals sorted in lexicographical order, which made searching for a specific entry easier. In addition, several lists of names that were sorted by their first letter were discovered on the Aegean Islands. Catholicon, a Latin dictionary finished in 1286 CE, was the first work to describe rules for sorting words into alphabetical order, as opposed to just the first few letters. In 1946, John Mauchly made the first mention of binary search as part of the Moore School Lectures, a seminal and foundational college course in computing. In 1957, William Wesley Peterson published the first method for interpolation search. Every published binary search algorithm worked only for arrays whose length is one less than a power of two until 1960, when Derrick Henry Lehmer published a binary search algorithm that worked on all arrays. In 1962, Hermann Bottenbruch presented an ALGOL 60 implementation of binary search that placed the comparison for equality at the end, increasing the average number of iterations by one, but reducing to one the number of comparisons per iteration. The uniform binary search was developed by A. K. Chandra of Stanford University in 1971. In 1986, Bernard Chazelle and Leonidas J. Guibas introduced fractional cascading as a method to solve numerous search problems in computational geometry. ## Implementation issues > Although the basic idea of binary search is comparatively straightforward, the details can be surprisingly tricky When Jon Bentley assigned binary search as a problem in a course for professional programmers, he found that ninety percent failed to provide a correct solution after several hours of working on it, mainly because the incorrect implementations failed to run or returned a wrong answer in rare edge cases. A study published in 1988 shows that accurate code for it is only found in five out of twenty textbooks. Furthermore, Bentley's own implementation of binary search, published in his 1986 book Programming Pearls, contained an overflow error that remained undetected for over twenty years. The Java programming language library implementation of binary search had the same overflow bug for more than nine years. In a practical implementation, the variables used to represent the indices will often be of fixed size (integers), and this can result in an arithmetic overflow for very large arrays. If the midpoint of the span is calculated as $\frac{L+R}{2}$, then the value of $L+R$ may exceed the range of integers of the data type used to store the midpoint, even if $L$ and $R$ are within the range. If $L$ and $R$ are nonnegative, this can be avoided by calculating the midpoint as $L+\frac{R-L}{2}$. An infinite loop may occur if the exit conditions for the loop are not defined correctly. Once $L$ exceeds $R$, the search has failed and must convey the failure of the search. In addition, the loop must be exited when the target element is found, or in the case of an implementation where this check is moved to the end, checks for whether the search was successful or failed at the end must be in place. Bentley found that most of the programmers who incorrectly implemented binary search made an error in defining the exit conditions. ## Library support Many languages' standard libraries include binary search routines: - C provides the function `bsearch()` in its standard library, which is typically implemented via binary search, although the official standard does not require it so. - C++'s Standard Template Library provides the functions `binary_search()`, `lower_bound()`, `upper_bound()` and `equal_range()`. - D's standard library Phobos, in `std.range` module provides a type `SortedRange` (returned by `sort()` and `assumeSorted()` functions) with methods `contains()`, `equaleRange()`, `lowerBound()` and `trisect()`, that use binary search techniques by default for ranges that offer random access. - COBOL provides the `SEARCH ALL` verb for performing binary searches on COBOL ordered tables. - Go's `sort` standard library package contains the functions `Search`, `SearchInts`, `SearchFloat64s`, and `SearchStrings`, which implement general binary search, as well as specific implementations for searching slices of integers, floating-point numbers, and strings, respectively. - Java offers a set of overloaded `binarySearch()` static methods in the classes and in the standard `java.util` package for performing binary searches on Java arrays and on `List`s, respectively. - Microsoft's .NET Framework 2.0 offers static generic versions of the binary search algorithm in its collection base classes. An example would be `System.Array`'s method `BinarySearch`<T>`(T[] array, T value)`. - For Objective-C, the Cocoa framework provides the `NSArray -indexOfObject:inSortedRange:options:usingComparator:` method in Mac OS X 10.6+. Apple's Core Foundation C framework also contains a `CFArrayBSearchValues()` function. - Python provides the `bisect` module that keeps a list in sorted order without having to sort the list after each insertion. - Ruby's Array class includes a `bsearch` method with built-in approximate matching. ## See also - – the same idea used to solve equations in the real numbers
11,580,398	Cyclone Gonu	1,172,719,336	North Indian Ocean super cyclonic storm in 2007	[ "2007 North Indian Ocean cyclone season", "2007 in Iran", "Articles containing video clips", "Super cyclonic storms", "Tropical cyclones in 2007", "Tropical cyclones in Iran", "Tropical cyclones in Oman", "Tropical cyclones in Pakistan", "Tropical cyclones in the United Arab Emirates" ]	Super Cyclonic Storm Gonu was an extremely powerful tropical cyclone that became the strongest cyclone on record in the Arabian Sea. The second named tropical cyclone of the 2007 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Gonu developed from a persistent area of convection in the eastern Arabian Sea on June 1, 2007. With a favorable upper-level environment and warm sea surface temperatures, it rapidly intensified to attain peak winds of 240 km/h (150 mph) on June 4, according to the India Meteorological Department. Gonu weakened after encountering dry air and cooler waters, and early on June 6, it made landfall on the easternmost tip of Oman, becoming the strongest tropical cyclone to hit the Arabian Peninsula. It then turned northward into the Gulf of Oman, and dissipated on June 7, after making landfall in southern Iran, the first landfall in the country since 1898. Intense tropical cyclones like Gonu are extremely rare in the Arabian Sea, and most storms in this area tend to be small and dissipate quickly. The cyclone caused 50 deaths and about \$4.2 billion in damage (2007 USD) in Oman, where the cyclone was considered the nation's worst natural disaster. Gonu dropped heavy rainfall near the eastern coastline, reaching up to 610 mm (24 inches), which caused flooding and heavy damage. In Iran, the cyclone caused 28 deaths and \$216 million in damage (2007 USD). ## Meteorological history Toward the end of May 2007, the monsoon trough spawned a low-pressure area in the eastern Arabian Sea. By May 31, an organized tropical disturbance was located about 645 km (400 mi) south of Mumbai, India, with cyclonic convection, or thunderstorm activity, and a well-defined mid-level circulation. The disturbance initially lacked a distinct low-level circulation; instead it consisted of strong divergence along the western end of a surface trough of low pressure. A favorable upper-level environment allowed convection to improve, and by late on June 1, the system developed to the extent that the India Meteorological Department (IMD) classified it as a depression. It tracked westward along the southwestern periphery of a mid-level ridge over southern India. Convection continued to organize, and early on June 2, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) classified the storm as Tropical Cyclone 02A, about 685 km (425 mi) southwest of Mumbai. Upon first forming, the system contended with the entrainment of dry air to the northwest of the storm, which was expected to limit intensification. The storm steadily intensified, and early on June 2 the IMD upgraded it to deep depression status. Later in the day the IMD classified the system as Cyclonic Storm Gonu about 760 km (470 mi) southwest of Mumbai, India. As a mid-latitude trough developed over Pakistan, Gonu turned to the north and northeast, though it resumed a westward track after ridging built to the north of the storm. With a solid area of intense convection, it rapidly intensified to attain severe cyclonic status early on June 3, and with good outflow the JTWC upgraded it to the equivalent of a minimal hurricane. The dry air ultimately had a smaller impact on the intensification than previously estimated. A well-defined eye developed in the center of convection, and after moving over a local increase in ocean heat content, Gonu rapidly deepened. Late on June 3, the IMD upgraded the storm to Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Gonu. With warm waters, low amounts of vertical wind shear, and favorable upper-level outflow, Gonu strengthened further to attain peak 1-min sustained winds of 270 km/h (170 mph) and gusts to 315 km/h (195 mph), about 285 km (175 mi) east-southeast of Masirah Island on the coast of Oman. The IMD upgraded it to Super Cyclonic Storm Gonu late on June 4, with peak 3-min sustained winds reaching 240 km/h (150 mph) and an estimated pressure of 920 mbar. This made it the first super cyclonic storm in the Arabian Sea on record. After the storm maintained peak winds for about six hours, the IMD downgraded Gonu to very severe cyclonic storm status late on June 4. Gonu's eye became cloud-filled and ragged, and the cyclone gradually weakened due to cooler water temperatures and drier air as it approached the Arabian Peninsula. Due to land interaction with Oman, the inner core of deep convection rapidly weakened, and over a period of 24 hours the intensity decreased by 95 km/h (60 mph). According to the IMD, Cyclone Gonu crossed the easternmost tip of Oman near Muscat early on June 6, with winds of 143 km/h (89 mph). Although the winds continued to gradually decrease, overall organization increased slightly in the hours prior to landfall; Gonu maintained a well-defined low-level structure with a weak eye. After emerging into the Gulf of Oman, the cyclone briefly re-intensified slightly, possibly due to the warm waters. However, increasing wind shear and entrainment of dry air from the Arabian Peninsula continued to remove deep convection from its eastern semicircle. On June 6, the cyclone turned to the north-northwest, and later that day the JTWC downgraded Gonu to tropical storm status. The IMD followed suit by downgrading Gonu to severe cyclonic storm status, and later to cyclonic storm status early on June 7. Gonu crossed the Makran coast in Iran six hours later, and the IMD stopped issuing advisories on the cyclone. This made it the first tropical cyclone on record to hit the country since 1898. After landfall, Gonu persisted as a remnant low over Iran through June 8. ## Preparations The Oman Chairman of the National Committee for Civil Defence, General Malek Bin Sulaiman Al Ma'amari, remarked the nation had already developed a contingency plan, which included the activation of army and police personnel after the storm's passage. Significant damage was expected, especially in northeastern areas, along with up to 150 mm (6 in) of rainfall and very strong winds. Officials recommended citizens evacuate from potentially affected areas, and about 7,000 people were forced to leave Masirah Island due to the threat of high surf and strong winds. Overall, more than 20,000 people evacuated to emergency shelters. A state of emergency was declared for the nation. The Omani national weather service warned that the cyclone was expected to be worse than the destructive cyclone that hit Masirah Island in 1977. The Mina al Fahal oil terminal closed for over three days due to the threat of the storm. Omani officials closed government offices for two days and declared a five-day-long national holiday. Most businesses near the coastline were closed prior to the announcement. Authorities at Muscat International Airport (then named as "Seeb International Airport") and Salalah International Airport canceled all flights after 2000 UTC on June 5 due to the cyclone. In Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, both members of OPEC, no official warnings had been issued due to Gonu. The storm was not expected to disrupt oil supplies from these two nations. However, oil prices rose early on June 5 because of concerns of disruptions caused by Gonu, as well as the threat of nationwide strikes in Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer. Crude oil for July delivery rose \$1.13, or 1.7 percent, to \$66.21 Monday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest close in 15 days. Futures reached \$66.48, the highest intraday price since April 30. The contract was at \$65.95 a barrel, down 26 cents, in after-hours electronic trading at 9:43 a.m. Tuesday in Singapore. Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service, said he doubted the increase could be attributed to Gonu. "I don't know if you can really attribute any of the gain to the cyclone", he said. "It's an excuse, as opposed to a reason, for the rise in prices." In Pakistan, officials recommended fishermen remain within 50 km (30 mi) of the coastline, due to anticipated rough waves in the open ocean. Naval authorities in the United States warned ships to avoid the cyclone in the Arabian Sea. The Iran Department of Meteorology declared storm warnings for the country's southeastern coastline; the agency anticipated moderate to severe precipitation and gusty winds. Prior to the arrival of the cyclone, about 40,000 people, including around 4,000 students at the International University of Chabahar, evacuated coastal areas of the country to at least 1 km (0.6 mi) inland. All flights in and out of the Konarak Airport were canceled during a 48-hour period. Additionally, all hospitals in Sistan and Baluchestan Province were put on red alert. The Iran chapter of the Red Cross advanced the delivery of necessary relief supplies. ## Impact Across its path, Cyclone Gonu caused heavy damage and many fatalities. About seven hours before passing near the northeastern Oman coastline, Gonu began affecting the country with rough winds and heavy precipitation; rainfall totals reached 610 mm (24 in) near the coast. Gonu produced strong waves along much of the coastline, leaving many coastal roads flooded. There was a 5.1 meter (17 foot) storm surge and a 200 m (660 ft) incursion of seawater inland at Ras al-Hadd; other areas along the coast had similar levels. ### Oman Strong winds knocked out power and telephone lines across the eastern region of the country, leaving thousands isolated until the lines were repaired hours later. The cyclone caused extensive damage along the coastline, including in the city of Sur and the village of Ras al Hadd at the easternmost point of the Omani mainland. In Muscat, winds reached 100 km/h (60 mph), leaving the capital city without power. Strong waves and heavy rainfall flooded streets and some buildings. Police workers in the city sent text messages to keep people away from flooded streets to prevent electrocutions. Little damage was reported to the oil fields of the nation. The liquefied natural gas terminal in Sur, which handles 10 million tonnes of gas each year, was badly hit by the storm and could not be operated. Overall, the cyclone killed 50 people in the country; by the fourth day after it struck the country, 27 people had been reported missing. Around 20,000 people were affected, and damage in the country was estimated at around \$4.2 billion (2007 USD). ### United Arab Emirates Fierce waves pushed large amounts of water to coastal areas in Fujairah of the United Arab Emirates, forcing roads to be closed and traffic diverted. Civil defence and police were on duty to manage the road closures, while municipal workers pumped the excess water off the roads. The road connecting Kalba and Fujairah was closed due to the road being submerged by water. The waves along the coastline were reported to be 10 m (32 ft) high, which destroyed about a dozen fishing boats. About 300 boats were moved from the water or emptied of equipment, and overall damage to the port of Fujairah was reported as severe. A boat sank by the port, leaving its ten passengers missing. ### Iran Upon striking Iran, Gonu dropped moderate to heavy rainfall, including 74 mm (2.91 in) in the city of Chabahar. Winds reached 111 km/h (69 mph), which caused power outages and damaged some homes made of clay; the power outage led to some fires across the city. The rainfall flooded at least 40 houses, and resulted in the temporary closure of several major roads. Gonu produced a storm tide of 2 m (6.5 ft) in some locations, with many homes near the coastline receiving damage. In Jask, heavy rainfall overflowed a river, killing three people in a vehicle caught in the water. Flooding from the rainfall also destroyed a dam in Nikshahr County. Throughout the country, the cyclone caused 28 deaths, including 20 from drowning; damage in Iran was estimated at 2 billion (2007 IRR, \$216 million 2007 USD). ### Pakistan Gonu caused strong gusty winds and torrential rainfall along Pakistan's Arabian Sea coast from Karachi to Gwadar. The cyclone was reported to have sunk a number of boats off the eastern coast of Gwadar. It was feared that fishing launches that had ventured into the open sea may have been stranded. At least three houses and one school were destroyed and 210 anchored fishing boats were badly damaged anchored in the coastal town of Sar Bandar in Baluchistan province ## Aftermath Flights to and from Muscat resumed after three days while Fujairah reopened on June 7 after it was closed the day before. The cyclone caused little impact to oil facilities along its path; after the initial price rises, oil dropped over US\$2 per barrel as a result. Across the northern Arabian Sea, the passage of Gonu produced stronger winds and significant upwelling – an oceanographic phenomenon that involves the replacement of the nutrient-depleted surface water with deeper nutrient-rich water; the passage caused a significant increase in phytoplankton. Additionally, the cyclone delayed the arrival of the Indian Ocean south-west monsoon in the Western Ghats in India. In Oman, production of desalinated water was interrupted, as both of Oman's desalination plants failed. The first, Ghubrah, lost supplies of natural gas, halting production; while the second, Barka, sustained a damaged switchgear due to flooding. These plants provided water to Muscat's 631,000 residents and surrounding areas, triggering severe water shortages across eastern Oman. To rectify the situation, officials used water tanks. The water returned to near normal in five days, as the two plants returned to service. Additionally, electricians worked quickly to repair the power outages across the region. Five days after Gonu hit, utilities were restored to most of Muscat and the coastal provinces. The Omani army assisted residents in returning to their houses. Even though the Omani government did not request any international aid, the United States offered assistance through naval ships in the area; this was eventually rejected. The country lost an estimated \$200 million (2007 USD) in oil exports. In the months after the storm, the government allocated funds for the removal of debris and trees, as well as restoration of roads in tourist areas. Additionally, the National Committee for Civil Defence set up 139 buildings to provide temporary housing for 8,192 people. Services such as water and electricity were gradually restored, and people returned to their homes. By two weeks after the storm's passage, most of those remaining in shelters were from Qurayat, one of the most severely affected villages. After the passage of the cyclone, the Iran chapter of the Red Cross and its volunteers worked in conjunction with the military to distribute relief supplies to villages using trucks and helicopters. The branch in Sistan and Baluchestan Province distributed over 10,000 blankets, 1,300 tents, 400 clothing items, 82,000 loaves of bread, and 87,000 bottles of water to affected citizens. In total, 61,558 families received aid from the Red Cross in Iran. The Iranian government provided monetary relief to the affected people. Officials worked to restore roads, bridges, and power systems in the affected areas, although repairs were more difficult in some locations; by a week after the storm, several villages remained surrounded by floodwaters. ## Records Cyclone Gonu set several intensity records. When it became a very severe cyclonic storm on June 3, Gonu became the strongest tropical cyclone on record in the Arabian Sea. It was the only super cyclonic storm, which is a tropical cyclone with 3-minute sustained winds of at least 220 km/h (135 mph), in the region, until Cyclone Kyarr 12 years later. The JTWC estimated peak 1-minute sustained winds of 270 km/h (170 mph), the highest 1-minute sustained winds of any cyclone in the North Indian Ocean until Cyclone Fani 12 years later. On June 6, Gonu made landfall in extreme eastern Oman with winds of 150 km/h (95 mph), making it the strongest tropical cyclone on record to strike the Arabian Peninsula. With a damage total of \$4.2 billion (2007 USD) and 50 deaths, Gonu became the worst natural disaster on record in Oman. Additionally, the storm was only the second cyclonic storm on record to strike Iran, with the other one doing so on June 4, 1898. ## See also - Tropical cyclones in 2007 - List of the most intense tropical cyclones - Timeline of the 2007 North Indian Ocean cyclone season - List of Arabian Peninsula tropical cyclones - 1970 Bhola cyclone – Deadliest tropical cyclone recorded worldwide - 1999 Odisha cyclone – Most intense storm in the North Indian Ocean - Cyclone Phet (2010) - Cyclone Chapala (2015) - Cyclone Megh (2015) - Cyclone Kyarr (2019) - Cyclone Amphan (2020) – One of the most intense tropical cyclones ever recorded in the basin
52,806,746	Jason Sendwe	1,163,691,020	Congolese politician (1917–1964)	[ "1917 births", "1960s assassinated politicians", "1964 deaths", "1964 murders in Africa", "African and Black nationalists", "Assassinated Democratic Republic of the Congo politicians", "Democratic Republic of the Congo Protestants", "Deputy Prime Ministers of the Democratic Republic of the Congo", "Luba people", "People from Haut-Lomami", "People murdered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo", "People of the Congo Crisis" ]	Jason Sendwe (1917 – 19 June 1964) was a Congolese politician and a leader of the Association Générale des Baluba du Katanga (BALUBAKAT) party. He served as Second Deputy Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Republic of the Congo) from August 1961 until January 1963, and as President of the Province of North Katanga from September 1963 until his death, with a brief interruption. Sendwe was born in 1917 in Mwanya, Kabongo Territory, Belgian Congo, to a Baluba family. He was educated in Methodist schools and nursing institutions. Unable to become a doctor due to a lack of medical schools in the Congo, he found work as a minister, teacher, and nurse. He became involved in several cultural organisations, and in 1957 founded BALUBAKAT to fight for the interests of the Baluba. He espoused nationalism and believed that the Congo should remain a united country after Belgian rule. In May 1960, shortly before the country's independence, he was elected to the newly constituted Chamber of Deputies. Sendwe sought to obtain control over the government of Katanga Province, but lost a power struggle against his rival, Moïse Tshombe, and the Confédération des associations tribales du Katanga (CONAKAT) party. Regardless, Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba nominated him for the office of State Commissioner for Katanga. In early July 1960 Tshombe announced the secession of an independent State of Katanga. Sendwe opposed the breakaway state and rejected Tshombe's entreaties for him to join the rebel government, rupturing relations between the two men. Invested with the responsibilities of State Commissioner by the Senate, Sendwe unsuccessfully attempted to restore central government control over Katanga. After a period of turmoil he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister in August 1961 with the hope that he could use his political influence to win the central government support in Katanga. Four months later he was made Commissioner-General Extraordinaire for the province, nominally giving him complete authority over the area. Sendwe's political prospects were severely damaged in December 1962 when the Senate censured him and forced his subsequent resignation from the deputy premiership. In early 1963, he increasingly focused his activities in Katanga, as the province acceded to central authority and Tshombe fled into exile. The territory was divided into new political units against Sendwe's wishes. Despite his dissatisfaction, he assumed office as President of North Katanga in September. In January 1964 he lost his position as president of BALUBAKAT. In June Simba rebels overthrew his government and killed him, though it is unclear who held ultimate responsibility for his death. Sendwe's demise greatly demoralised the Baluba, and his reputation drifted into obscurity. ## Early life Jason Sendwe was born in 1917 in Mwanya, Kabongo Territory, Belgian Congo to a Baluba family. The Luba were a large ethnic group indigenous to the Katanga and Kasaï regions of the Congo. Sendwe was a childhood friend of Moïse Tshombe. He received six years of primary schooling from Methodists in Kabongo and four years of secondary education at the Kanene Methodist Mission in Kamina. For five years he took nursing courses in Stanleyville and at the École officielle pour Infirmiers à Élisabethville. He completed his studies at the École des Assistants Indigènes de Léopoldville, graduating as a nurse. His aspirations to become a doctor were curtailed by the lack of medical schools in the Congo. He worked as a minister and teacher at the Kanene Methodist Mission, and in 1942 entered the service of the colonial administration as a clerk. Sendwe later became a nurse and then a medical assistant, working in Élisabethville, Mutshatsha, Kongolo and Kabongo. He was a founding member and treasurer of the Amitiés Belgo-Congolaises cultural organisation, treasurer of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, councillor of the Association Saint-Luc, councillor of the Foyer social Léopold III, and served on the council of the Church of Christ in the Congo. Sendwe married and had eight children. ## Entry into politics In 1957 Sendwe founded and became president of the Association Générale des Baluba du Katanga (BALUBAKAT), with the stated aim of encouraging unity among the Baluba of the Katanga Province. According to journalist Évariste Kimba, he was able amass much of their support through his "dynamism" and frequent interactions with the population. Three tenants underlined his political philosophy: protection of the Baluba, achievement of Congolese independence, and the primacy of conciliation in settling disputes. In 1958 Sendwe attended the Brussels Expo, working as a medical assistant at the African Personnel Reception Center. Afterwards he joined the short-lived Mouvement pour le Progres National Congolais, a party formed by attendees of the exposition. On 5 February 1959 Sendwe brought BALUBAKAT into Tshombe's Confédération des associations tribales du Katanga (CONAKAT) party on the condition that it be able to maintain a significant amount of autonomy. He initially shared the xenophobic stances of CONAKAT, but soon grew concerned that its hostility toward immigrants would extend to incoming Baluba. Sendwe was also worried by Tshombe's close connections to the Belgians and was repulsed by the prominence of several of his political rivals within the party's ranks. BALUBAKAT began to form two trends, one sympathetic to CONAKAT, and the other supportive of the Mouvement National Congolais (MNC). The latter was led by Sendwe. In October he sent a letter to Baudouin, King of the Belgians, urging him to oppose efforts at "dismantling the immense country" created by his predecessors. In November 1959 Sendwe withdrew BALUBAKAT from CONAKAT. He subsequently negotiated the formation of a "Cartel Katangais" between BALUBAKAT and two other organisations to compete against CONAKAT in the December 1959 municipal elections. Sendwe met with Baudouin on 25 December. By January 1960 Sendwe had decided he would pursue Congolese independence with aim of creating a federal state with a robust central government, in contrast to CONAKAT's vision of a confederation. That month he went to Brussels to participate in the Belgo-Congolese Round Table Conference, a meeting to discuss the political future of the Belgian Congo. The conference resolved with the Belgian government acceding to Congolese demands for the colony's independence on 30 June 1960. ## Rise to prominence In the national elections before the Republic of the Congo's independence on 30 June 1960, Sendwe was elected to the Chamber of Deputies with 20,282 votes from the Élisabethville constituency. CONAKAT won a slight majority of the seats in the Katanga Provincial Assembly, and could thus determine the composition of the provincial government. Sendwe ordered the BALUBAKAT deputies to abstain from sitting; when the assembly convened on 5 June it did not have a quorum to vote on the provincial portfolios. CONAKAT offered Sendwe the office of Katanga Vice-president and the responsibility of several ministries, but he refused to negotiate. On 15 June the Belgian Parliament modified the Congo's provisional constitution to reduce the number of deputies necessary for a quorum to vote on a government. Cartel Katangais representatives subsequently declared that they would wait for the Congolese central government's decision after independence. That same day Sendwe signed a deal with MNC leader Patrice Lumumba to create a coalition in Parliament to support a government under Lumumba. In exchange, BALUBAKAT would get some ministerial portfolios and Sendwe would be nominated to be the State Commissioner for Katanga. On 19 June a BALUBAKAT delegation led by Prosper Mwamba Ilunga covertly travelled to Léopoldville to meet with Lumumba. They encouraged him to dismiss Sendwe if he did not follow his instructions, and expressed their disapproval of Sendwe's decision to instruct the BALUBAKAT deputies to boycott the Katanga Provincial Assembly. On 23 June the Cartel Katangais declared its preferred Katangese government, which placed Sendwe as Provincial President. In the meantime CONAKAT voted in its own government. Despite this, Lumumba, as Prime Minister, nominated Sendwe to be the State Commissioner for Katanga. The President of the Katanga Provincial Assembly, Charles Mutaka, threatened secession if the appointment were confirmed. In early July Tshombe went forward with the secession of the province with Belgian backing but actively sought Sendwe's support, hoping to build a coalition that would bring the latter in as vice-president of an independent Katanga. Sendwe rejected the idea, rupturing relations between them. The Senate initially rejected all of Lumumba's nominees for state commissioner. However, on 22 July the body, in a move meant to convey its wish that central government authority be reestablished in Katanga, voted to confirm Sendwe's appointment, 42 to 4 with 7 abstentions. After assuming the role of State Commissioner of Katanga, Sendwe vainly attempted restoring central government control over the province. His attempts to do so as well as his aim of brokering an understanding between BALUBAKAT and CONAKAT at the national level were frustrated by the Belgian government, which perceived Sendwe as an instrument of the Lumumba Government, with whom they had tense relations. Sendwe was chosen to lead part of the army into northern Katanga to reestablish the central government's authority, but this plan dissolved following Lumumba's dismissal by President Joseph Kasa-Vubu in September. Lumumba's demise caused political turmoil, and Sendwe was appointed by the Chamber to as rapporteur on a reconciliation commission tasked with brokering a political agreement between Kasa-Vubu and Lumumba. Meanwhile, northern Katangese rejected Tshombe's leadership and the secession in favour of Sendwe, who they saw as a proponent of nationalism and a protector of the Baluba. Sendwe also enjoyed a substantial amount of popularity around Élisabethville, posing a significant political threat to Tshombe. However, many in the central government saw him as having been too close with the deposed prime minister. On 19 October, three days after Tshombe concluded a deal with Colonel Joseph-Désiré Mobutu to—in Mobutu's words—"neutralise" Lumumba, Sendwe was incarcerated by central government officials. The United Nations (UN) secured his release on the basis of parliamentary immunity. With its sponsorship, Sendwe toured northern Katanga to promote peace, and received an ecstatic welcome from the Baluba. He encouraged the Baluba to maintain public order and place their confidence in the UN. For the most part, his tour improved security in the region, but his presence in Manono from 2–3 November heightened tensions in the area. Tshombe denounced him as a "public danger". While the central government was negotiating the transfer of Lumumba to Katanga (where he would be executed upon arrival), Tshombe repeatedly asked to receive Sendwe. Though initially agreeing to the plan, central government officials later backed away from their commitment to hand him over. In December Sendwe attended a Francophone-African conference in Brazzaville where foreign diplomats attempted to provide mediation between the Congolese factions. In early 1961 he appealed to the UN to go on another pacification tour of northern Katanga, receiving their approval on 8 January. However, the next day forces of the rival Free Republic of the Congo invaded the area and BALUBAKAT declared its own administration of the region as the "Province of Lualaba". Sendwe attempted to broker a political compromise and secure Belgian political and commercial acceptance of the new province. He celebrated its creation in a tour of the area in February. Meanwhile, he travelled to Belgium in February and in May he participated in the Conference of Coquilhatville, successfully convincing the other Congolese delegates to give recognition to Lualaba. He undertook another pacification trip in northern Katanga in July. On 2 August a new Congolese central government was formed under Cyrille Adoula. Sendwe was appointed Second Deputy Prime Minister, as he was viewed as the only figure with enough political clout in Katanga to challenge Tshombe. Other nationalists in Parliament wanted him to assume the premiership, but he preferred to focus his political energies on Katanga instead of the national level, where he had less support. An état d’exception (state of emergency) was proclaimed on 28 November by the central government in Katanga. Sendwe was appointed Commissioner-General Extraordinaire for the province, nominally giving him absolute authority over the area. He devoted much of his time to attending to the needs of Baluba in refugee camps in Élisabethville and Albertville. Between March and July 1962 he attempted to negotiate a deal between the central government and the Katangese secessionists, generally taking a moderate stance and even suggesting a reconciliation between BALUBAKAT and CONAKAT. In July he also came into conflict in the pursuance of his responsibilities with fellow BALUBAKAT member Antoine Omari, who had been tasked by the government with reestablishing local administration, as Omari attempted to grant power to local BALUBAKAT members who wanted to split Katanga Province. Over time the central government hardened its attitude against Katanga, and Belgium gradually withdrew its support for it. With the secession's prospects weakening, Sendwe hoped to obtain control over the province. Though he had the support of most of the Katanga Baluba and the BALUBAKAT deputies in Parliament, the Adoula Government sought to divide Katanga to weaken it. At the same time, BALUBAKAT officials in northern Katanga wanted an exclusive polity in the region under the domination of their own party. The Adoula Government also wanted to use Sendwe vis-à-vis his regional popularity as a counterweight to Tshombe, without granting him control of the entirety of Katanga. ## Political demise By the end of 1962 Sendwe was at the peak of his political aspirations, being able to exert great power and influence over the new province of North Katanga (formerly Lualaba). However at 22:00 on 23 December, his son became involved in a youth gang street brawl. Sendwe arrived on the scene and ordered some accompanying soldiers to intervene. In the process they assaulted Senator Pierre Medie, who had come to support his own son. On 28 December, in the Senate, Sendwe attempted to defend his actions during the street altercation, being frequently interrupted by angry cries from the majority of the senators. Before he was able to complete his defence, they passed a motion of censure against him, 45 votes to four with four abstentions. This formally compelled him to resign as Deputy Prime Minister on 21 January 1963, causing him to withdraw from national to local politics. His departure heralded the removal of the last of the Lumumbists from the government. In early 1963 Katanga was reintegrated into the Congo as multiple provinces and Tshombe agreed to cooperate with government officials. Sendwe vied for control of the region, leading to ethnic clashes in Jadotville in April in which approximately 74 people were killed. Nevertheless, he negotiated a deal with Tshombe's Minister of Interior, Godefroid Munongo, to allow for the return of the Baluba in the Élisabethville refugee camp to their homes. After Tshombe fled the country, Sendwe sought to extend his constituency beyond the Baluba to establish control over the whole of Katanga. He questioned the legality of the existence of North Katanga as a separate political entity and continued to push for the reunification of Katanga Province. However, his removal from the central government and the rejection of his unity proposal by the North Katanga Provincial Assembly forced him to relax his goals. On 18 May the état d’exception was retracted in Katanga and he was discharged from his post as Commissioner-General Extraordinaire. In July Sendwe moved to Albertville to rebuild his political base. He blocked the repatriation of the Baluba refugees in the local camp; the UN feared this was so he could use the refugees to boost his support. The Adoula Government was pleased by Sendwe's relocation, wanting to be rid of him in Léopoldville. Soon after he arrived, rumours emerged that North Katanga Provincial President Mwamba Ilunga had arrested him. This sparked unrest as rural Baluba and customary chiefs began to protest, triggering Mwamba Ilunga's resignation. BALUBAKAT deputies in Parliament lobbied for Sendwe to replace him, and at an August BALUBAKAT party congress—with Mwamba Ilunga's acceptance—ruled that Sendwe should be given the provincial presidency. On 21 September the provincial assembly elected Sendwe President of North Katanga Province and invested him with the public health portfolio. The situation in North Katanga under Sendwe quickly became disastrous, driven by his alcoholism, poor management of public funds, nepotism, lack of a government programme, and numerous attempts to use his position to deprecate his rivals. Problems were exacerbated by the withdrawal of UN peacekeeping forces and destructive floods. By the end of the year corruption was rampant, civil servants were receiving pay on an irregular basis, and much of the population was impoverished. Further, BALUBAKAT became an increasingly ethnic, exclusively Baluba organisation. Sendwe's management of North Katanga perturbed other government officials and Adoula began seeking a way to remove him from office. Fortunat Kabange Numbi, an ally of Adoula and a BALUBAKAT deputy in Parliament, considered a solution with Albertville businessmen that involved granting Sendwe an executive position at a company in exchange for his resignation. The proposal was rejected by Mwamba Ilunga and others, who chose instead to revise BALUBAKAT's organisation. They changed the party's name to Parti Progressiste Congolais (PPCo) to distance it from its ethnic connotation and called a congress in January 1964 to vote in new leadership. Sendwe attended the first meeting but then denounced the event and banned it, which was reversed at the order of the Deputy Prime Minister. Sendwe lost his seat as party president in a vote of 28–3. He failed to secure any significant party office, and was relegated to the position of adviser to the PPCo. On 15 March the provincial assembly, in a special session sponsored by President Kasa-Vubu, dismissed Sendwe from his post as Provincial President and replaced him with Kabange. Sendwe argued on legal technicality that his removal was unlawful, denounced the PPCo, and declared that only his government had popular support. On 27 April the provincial assembly reached a compromise, re-electing Sendwe President of North Katanga but revising his government, stripping him of the public health portfolio and making Kabange Provincial Vice-president. He was re-inaugurated the following day. He pledged to strengthen North Katanga's institutions and territorial integrity, protect political parties that sought to further "superior interests" of the Congo, and encourage friendly relations between BALUBAKAT and CONAKAT. He also announced his intention to increase economic cooperation with other provinces and establish cooperatives for merchants and consumers. Meanwhile, a radical leftist BALUBAKAT activist, Laurent-Désiré Kabila, planned a rebellion in North Katanga to overthrow Sendwe and Kabange. ## Death On 27 May 1964 a coup in Albertville by Simba rebels, led by Kabila, overthrew Sendwe's government. Sendwe was accused of embezzling public funds and detained. While the rebel leaders debated what to do with him, including executing him, Sendwe escaped, and spent the next few days trying to reestablish his authority as the rebels' control crumbled. On 30 May, a small government force under the command of Colonel Louis Bobozo recaptured the town and recovered Sendwe—who claimed to have been nearly buried alive by the rebels. Sendwe was under the false impression that Mwamba Ilunga had stoked the rebellion and had him arrested. Unrest persisted in Albertville. Sendwe failed to calm the situation and attacked his rivals and non-Baluba ethnicities. On 19 June the population revolted and the government evacuated. Sendwe attempted to flee but was hampered by government troops and was killed by rebels. Questions about his death were raised in several newspapers, and the central government released an official report about it two weeks later. There are various theories about how and why Sendwe was killed. According to journalist Ian Goodhope Colvin, Sendwe was driving towards Fizi with an American missionary when his car was stopped by Simba rebels. In this account, his police escort fled and he and his companion were murdered. According to political scientist Jean Omasombo Tshonda, he was arrested by ANC soldiers at Muswaki while attempting to escape by train and then forced to return to Albertville. Driving with several relatives, he went into the city to try and calm the Simbas, assuring them of his Lumumbist credentials by shouting (in a reportedly drunken manner), "Lumumba is my brother! Mulele is my brother! All of you, you are my brothers!" The rebels then shot him and some of his companions on Kangomba hill. Political scientist Erik Kennes examined various testimonies concerning Sendwe's death. One witness held Saidi Saleh Mukidadi, a local politician, responsible for the death. Political scientist Kabuya Lumuna Sando concluded that ANC defectors shot Sendwe. Kennes questioned the validity of the latter claim, noting that most ANC elements had retreated from the area and that no other witnesses reported dissident soldiers forming part of the Simbas' ranks. Simba leader Gaston Soumialot accused Mobutu of organising the murder. Other observers believed that the ANC soldiers' actions indicate central government involvement. Kabuya, noting the allegedly newer clothing worn by the soldiers who had prevented Sendwe's departure, posited that the ANC men were clandestine government operatives. He argued that Mobutu, head of the ANC at the time, wanted Sendwe dead to make rapprochement with Tshombe easier. There is a rumour that the execution was carried out by several Bayombe under orders from Kabila. Kennes reasoned that this was unlikely because Kabila did not have Sendwe killed the first time Albertville was seized and was not present when the city fell on 19 June. ## Legacy Throughout his career, Sendwe was the undisputed national leader of the Katangese Baluba and the primary opponent of Tshombe during the Katangese secession. He hastened the end of the secession through his success in negotiating with national and international figures. According to British journalist Ian Goodhope Colvin, Sendwe's death deprived Adoula of a figure who could guarantee him Katangese support, forcing him to welcome Tshombe back into the country. His murder also disillusioned many Baluba in North Katanga with the Simbas' cause, and as a result many abstained from joining their rebellion. BALUBAKAT collapsed in his wake. In November 1966 Mobutu, having become president, posthumously awarded Sendwe for dying "in defence of the country's honour". An avenue and a hospital in Lubumbashi were named after him. After his death, Sendwe drifted into obscurity and by the 21st century there was little memory of him in northern Katanga. The Union des fédéralistes et des républicains indépendants (UFERI) recalled his legacy in its rhetoric. Due to the party's militant reputation, the public associated UFERI with the violent actions of BALUBAKAT, thus limiting its ability to proliferate a positive image of Sendwe. In 2011 a congress of the "Luba People" declared that Sendwe was among "our valiant martyrs". There is little study of him in Congolese historiography.
1,034,779	The Man Trap	1,173,797,403	null	[ "1966 American television episodes", "American television series premieres", "Fiction about shapeshifting", "Star Trek: The Original Series (season 1) episodes", "Television episodes about vampires", "Television episodes directed by Marc Daniels", "Television episodes written by George Clayton Johnson" ]	"The Man Trap" is the first episode of season one of the American science fiction television series Star Trek. Written by George Clayton Johnson and directed by Marc Daniels, it featured design work by Wah Chang and first aired in the United States on September 8, 1966. In the episode, the crew visit an outpost on planet M-113 to conduct routine medical exams on the residents using a Tricorder, only to be attacked by a shapeshifting alien who kills by extracting salt from the victim's body. This was the first Star Trek episode to air on television, although the sixth to be filmed; it was chosen as the first of the series to be broadcast by the studio due to the horror plot. "The Man Trap" placed first in the timeslot with a Nielsen rating of 25.2 for the first half-hour and 24.2 for the remainder. It aired two days earlier on Canadian network CTV. ## Plot The USS Enterprise arrives at planet M-113 to provide supplies and medical exams for the only known inhabitants of the planet, Professor Robert Crater (Alfred Ryder) and his wife Nancy (Jeanne Bal), who operate an archaeological research station there. Captain Kirk, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Leonard McCoy, and Crewman Darnell (Michael Zaslow) transport to the surface as Kirk teases McCoy about his affection for Nancy ten years earlier. They arrive in the research station, and each of the three men sees Nancy differently: McCoy as she was when he first met her, Kirk as she should look accounting for her age, and Darnell as an attractive blonde woman whom he met on a pleasure planet. When Nancy goes out to fetch her husband, she beckons Darnell to follow her. Professor Crater is reluctant to be examined, telling Kirk that they only require salt tablets. Before McCoy can complete the examination, they hear a scream from outside. They find Darnell dead, with red ring-like mottling on his face, a plant root in his mouth, and Nancy standing over him saying she was unable to stop Darnell from tasting the plant. On board Enterprise, Spock analyzes the plant. He confirms that it is poisonous, but that mottling is not a symptom. McCoy conducts a medical exam and, together with Spock, determines that all the salt was drained from Darnell's body. In response, Kirk transports back down to the planet with McCoy and two crewmen, Green (Bruce Watson) and Sturgeon (John Arndt). Kirk tells Professor Crater that he and his wife should stay aboard the Enterprise until they find out what killed Darnell. Crater then runs off trying to find Nancy. Nancy kills both Sturgeon and Green; their faces show the same mottling as Darnell. Nancy assumes the form of Green, and meets Kirk and McCoy. They beam back up to the ship with Sturgeon's body. "Green" roams the corridors, stalking several crew members, killing one. It shapeshifts into the form of McCoy after confirming that the real McCoy has taken a sedative to sleep. Meanwhile, Spock confirms that scans show only one person, Crater, on the planet; Kirk and Spock beam down to capture him. They find Green's body before Crater tries to frighten them away with phaser fire. After they stun him with a phaser beam, the dazed Crater reveals that the real Nancy was killed by the creature – the last member of a long-dead civilization of shape-shifters who feed on salt – a year earlier. The creature continued to take on the appearance of Nancy out of affection for Crater, and he has been feeding it, comparing it to the "now-extinct buffalo". Kirk informs Enterprise of the creature's intrusion, as the landing party and Crater transport back to the ship. Crater refuses to help them identify the creature, so Kirk orders the fake "McCoy" to administer truth serum. Kirk arrives in sickbay to find Crater dead and Spock injured; Spock's Vulcan blood made him incompatible with the creature's needs. Back in its "Nancy" form, the creature goes to McCoy's quarters. Kirk arrives with a phaser to provoke the creature into attacking. McCoy gets in the way, giving the creature the opportunity to attack Kirk. The creature reverts to its natural appearance and starts to feed on Kirk. McCoy opens fire with his phaser. The creature changes back into the shape of "Nancy" to plead for its life as McCoy continues firing and kills it. As Enterprise leaves orbit, Kirk comments to Spock that he was thinking about the buffalo. ## Production ### Writing "The Man Trap" appeared in Gene Roddenberry's original pitch for Star Trek as the title of a show with a different plot: the crew face several apparitions that are "wish-fulfilment traps which become as real as flesh and blood"; the traps increase in subtlety until the crew struggle to differentiate between apparition and reality. Lee Erwin, who had previously worked on The Lieutenant with Roddenberry, was commissioned to produce a treatment; an outline featuring a salt-devouring vampire was handed in on April 8, 1966. Meanwhile, George Clayton Johnson had been assigned a storyline, tentatively titled "Chicago II", in which the crew of the Enterprise visit a planet where the culture was that of 1920s mob-era Chicago, which later evolved into "A Piece of the Action". Johnson was hired after story editor John D. F. Black recommended him to the producers. Johnson decided to use the 1953 science fiction novel The Syndic by Cyril M. Kornbluth as the basis for the story. Roddenberry felt that Johnson's treatment did not match his vision for Star Trek, but did not want to lose him entirely, and asked him to write "The Man Trap". Erwin was paid in full for his version, and given a separate "kill fee" because it would not be used. Roddenberry wanted to see more action, so the creature's ability to create apparitions was added to the script from the original pitch. Stan Robertson at NBC suggested to Roddenberry that they might wish to get medical advice over whether the draining of a chemical from a person would kill them instantly. To find out, Roddenberry asked Kellam de Forest Research, who said that, while it had never happened in reality, a quick death would be likely. Johnson suggested that the creature in "The Man Trap" could be the last of its species. He compared its situation to the reduction in numbers of American bison. Roddenberry found the idea intriguing. Erwin was paid a further fee to terminate his contract, and Johnson wrote a first draft teleplay titled "Damsel With a Dulcimer." While writing, Johnson consulted Black, who advised him to place the creature on the Enterprise quickly to increase the pace of the episode. This draft was delivered on May 23, but NBC felt that hallucinations were being overused; the same plot device had appeared in the pilot episode "The Cage". Johnson wrote a further draft on May 31, which reduced the number of apparitions, and was well received by Robert H. Justman. Roddenberry and Justman made further tweaks; one was to restore the name "The Man Trap" from Erwin's original treatment, another removed a scene which introduced McCoy's apprehension when using the transporter. Johnson further edited the script, but complained about the change in name. After a second edit by Johnson, it was passed from Justman to story editor Black. While the former felt that the script still needed work, Black felt it was nearly ready. Following Black's review, Roddenberry re-wrote the script between June 16 and 21. Johnson felt this re-write had "downgrad[ed] the story." Black later said that Roddenberry removed a large part of Johnson's work, and that Johnson's original work was better than Roddenberry's edited version. Johnson was pleased with the final episode, although he was concerned that viewers might not understand Star Trek after watching "The Man Trap" owing to differences in characterization between this episode and the rest of the series. He admitted that he did not like Spock and was concerned that the character would not be understood after this episode. Roddenberry was pleased with Johnson's work, and offered him further writing work on "What Are Little Girls Made Of?", which had been written by Robert Bloch. Roddenberry only wanted Johnson to "polish" the script; Johnson, feeling he was unable to improve it without starting from scratch, turned down the offer, but expressed the desire to work on the show again. He later wrote a story outline titled "Rock-A-Bye Baby, or Die!" in which the Enterprise would have become a childlike sentient being who idolizes Kirk as its father. This was not commissioned, so "The Man Trap" was Johnson's only work on the franchise. ### Guest appearances Jeanne Bal was cast as Nancy Crater, McCoy's former love interest; the actress had previously guest-starred in Perry Mason and was one of the main performers in the sitcom Love and Marriage. Alfred Ryder was well known for his numerous appearances in similar genre series such as The Wild Wild West and The Outer Limits. After his appearance as Robert Crater in "The Man Trap", he appeared in the science fiction series The Invaders. Actors playing two of the crewmen who died on screen later appeared in other episodes of Star Trek. Michael Zaslow, seen in "The Man Trap" as Darnell, appeared in "I, Mudd", and later had a long-running role in the soap opera Guiding Light as Roger Thorpe. John Arndt appeared in four further episodes of the original series. ### Direction and filming All previous episodes of Star Trek had overrun their filming schedules, and the producers were concerned that not enough time had been allotted to each production. Marc Daniels was recruited as director of "The Man Trap"; among his varied directing credits were episodes of I Love Lucy for Desilu Productions. Pre-production began during the six scheduled filming days for "The Enemy Within", but that episode ran long. Filming for "The Man Trap" commenced around 3:20 p.m. on June 22 and continued until 7:10 p.m. Several futuristic-looking salt shakers were sourced for scenes in "The Man Trap", but due to concerns that they would not be recognized, they were instead used from "The Man Trap" onward as McCoy's tools in sickbay. The first full day of filming on June 23 was predominantly shot on the set representing the bridge of the Enterprise. Two small establishing shots were postponed until the filming of the next episode. The following day, corridor scenes were filmed, as was the climactic scene featuring the creature's death. At that point, Daniels estimated that he was only a third of a day behind schedule. After a break for the weekend, production resumed on June 27 for scenes in the botany lab, the briefing room and sickbay. One of Grace Lee Whitney's favorite sets to work on throughout the series was the lab, which was the sickbay redecorated, as she enjoyed working with George Takei. The animated plant in that scene was a hand puppet controlled from under the table, and Whitney later recalled that the operator could see right up her skirt throughout the shoot and would occasionally try to grope her using the puppet. For the sickbay scenes when Spock bleeds, Daniels decided that Vulcans should have green blood. Roddenberry disliked the idea and unsuccessfully attempted to have it corrected in post-production. By the end of the fifth day of shooting, Daniels estimated that he was now only half an hour behind schedule. Days six and seven were spent on the sets used to show the surface of M-113; while the design of the planet did not match Johnson's vision, he was pleased with it nonetheless. The ruins were constructed out of cardboard boxes covered in gunite (a spray-on, cement-like product) to give them a rocky appearance. Production wrapped on June 30, at 2:55 p.m. Bob Justman later referred to Daniels as the "savior" of the series for delivering "The Man Trap" on schedule, and when the director for "The Naked Time" dropped out, Daniels took over and shot the episode back to back with "The Man Trap" a quarter of a day faster than the schedule. By the end of the original series, Daniels had filmed more episodes than any other director. During the production of "The Man Trap", Daniels introduced a system in which actors unneeded on a shoot went to a "cast table" area to practice upcoming scenes rather than return to their dressing rooms. Producers felt that this both sped up the filming process and improved the quality of performances. The cast table system continued to be used throughout the production of the original series, even when Daniels was not directing. In post-production, Justman recommended adding an opening narration. Roddenberry agreed and wrote new lines for a Captain's log. Alexander Courage recorded the music for this episode on August 19, the same day as the "Theme from Star Trek", using a 25-piece orchestra. While Roddenberry liked the theme, he hated the music created specifically for "The Man Trap". The optical effects were created more quickly than usual; Howard A. Anderson, Jr. took two months, three times faster than for some episodes. The overall production costs for "The Man Trap" came in under-budget at \$185,401. ### The creature The producers spent some time considering the creature's appearance. Justman suggested to Gene Roddenberry that it could be some sort of "terrifying, young lady" with a similar appearance to the green skinned Orion slave girl seen in "The Cage", but blue skinned and with orange hair. While Roddenberry thought that the idea was good, he already had an agreement with NBC that it would be an animal. Johnson envisaged the creature as a refugee with "ashen skin" wearing "gunnysack clothing". Daniels had some apprehension about using a monster-of-the-week format, asking "Do you go for cheap thrills or a more intelligent approach?" He said that the crew decided to "treat everything as if it were real" in order to help the audience buy into it. It was Johnson who suggested the creature should be a shapeshifter, having used the idea in an episode of The Twilight Zone he wrote called "The Four of Us Are Dying". The creature was designed by Wah Chang. Dancer Sandra Gimpel wore the costume on-screen. Gimpel had previously appeared as a Talosian in "The Cage". The head of the creature costume was sculpted in clay then covered in a plaster cast. Once the cast was removed, liquid latex was applied to create a flexible single-piece mask, which was then painted. Chang added a white wig and attached glass lenses to the mask for eyes. Once Gimpel was wearing the mask, cuts were made into its wrinkles to offer the actress some limited vision while wearing it. Gloves were modified by Chang to give the fingers the appearance of tentacles with suction cups. William Ware Theiss created the rest of the costume out of a fur bodysuit. Johnson praised both Chang and Gimpel, saying that while the latter embodied the character, the design work meant that, in the final scene, it was as if the crew had to kill a "helpless dog". After filming, the costume was kept in Justman's office, becoming the first in an ever-growing number of alien costumes accumulated there. It reappeared on-screen in "The Squire of Gothos". Although referred to officially as the "M-113 creature", during production it was called the "salt sucker" and fans of the show have taken to referring to the alien as the "salt vampire". #### Later appearances Don Lanning was part of the team working on the creature effects for the 2009 film Star Trek. He was the key sculptor for the production, and personally revamped some of the aliens from the original series, including the salt vampire seen in "The Man Trap". He described the original design as "hokey", and said that he tried to change it to "something organic". The new version of the creature was unused in the film, which pleased Lanning. The creature did return in Star Trek Online, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Rather than a single salt vampire, the 20-player PvE mission "Mine Trap" saw a Romulan colony overrun with them. A salt vampire also makes an appearance in an episode of the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks. In December 2019, an animated version of the creature made a brief appearance in the opening scenes of the Star Trek: Short Treks episode "Ephraim and Dot". ## Themes In his book The Influence of Star Trek on Television, Film and Culture, Lincoln Geraghty wrote that episodes such as "The Man Trap" demonstrated a recurring theme within the series: the more barren the planet, the more likely that characters will be in danger. Other episodes which he said supported this view included "The Cage" and "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" Geraghty also pointed out that elsewhere in the original series, the predominant view was that alien predators such as the salt vampire were a lower life form which should be destroyed. He said that in "The Man Trap", the alternative argument is presented: that such creatures should not be killed. However, Geraghty felt that the writers tried to prevent viewers from feeling sympathy for the creature by revealing its true appearance as it died. Paula M. Block and Terry J. Erdmann also discussed the killing of the creature in their book Star Trek: The Original Series 365, saying that it was "the right thing to do", but suggested that the nature of the death would have troubled McCoy for some time after the event although this was not shown in the series. A vampiric alien is a recurring idea in science fiction television series, such as the Blake's 7 episode "Sand", the Babylon 5 episode "Soul Hunter" and the television film Babylon 5: The River of Souls. The theme had already been used in written form, in Gustave Le Rouge's 1908 French science fiction work Le Prisonnier de la Planète Mars. Block and Erdmann also discussed another part of the episode where Spock is in charge on the bridge and Uhura begins to flirt with him, calling it a "quintessential scene of the series" due to the characters' sexual interest in each other. They suggested this may have been the inspiration for the Spock/Uhura relationship introduced in the 2009 reboot film Star Trek. Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura, later said that she felt there were hints of an Uhura/Spock relationship in other episodes of the original series. ## Reception ### Broadcast A month prior to the premiere of Star Trek, Desilu held a screening for NBC executives to help decide which episode to broadcast first, and several stories were considered. Executives were concerned that "Mudd's Women", one potential choice, would have reviewers discussing "space hookers"; they felt another possibility, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", contained too much exposition, even though it was filmed as a second pilot. The final choice was between "The Man Trap" and "The Naked Time". Justman felt that "The Naked Time" would make it easier for viewers to understand the characters, but later agreed with NBC's decision to show "The Man Trap" first. In the book Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, he suggests that it was "scarier and more exploitable than the others". "The Man Trap" was the sixth episode produced. Although Roddenberry initially disagreed with NBC's decision, he and production executive Herbert Franklin Solow came to believe it was the correct choice. Shatner also disagreed with the network, feeling that "The Man Trap" was the worst episode out of those available. The episode was the first episode of Star Trek broadcast in the United States, on NBC on September 8, 1966. "The Man Trap" formed part of NBC's "Sneak a Peek Week", in which the network showed the premiere episodes of several new shows in prime time slots, ahead of the rival channels ABC and CBS, who were still showing repeats from the previous season. Leading into Star Trek was the first episode of Tarzan showing Ron Ely, and leading out was Richard Mulligan's The Hero. "The Man Trap" placed first in its timeslot, with Nielsen ratings of 25.2 during the first half-hour; some 46.7 percent of all American televisions in use at the time were tuned in to the episode. In the same timeslot, The Tammy Grimes Show on ABC and My Three Sons on CBS received ratings of 14.1 and 9.4 respectively. During the second half of the episode, the rating for "The Man Trap" dropped to 24.2, with 42.2 percent of televisions tuned in. Bewitched on ABC increased that network's rating to 15.8, and CBS's Thursday night movie increased their rating to 10.7. The following episodes saw a drop in ratings after "The Man Trap". "Charlie X" was broadcast the following week; the studio did not want that episode to run second, but "Where No Man Has Gone Before" was the only other completed story. It placed second in the timeslot during the first half hour, with a rating of 19.1 and an overall share of 35.9 percent of viewers. It was beaten by My Three Sons on CBS with a rating of 19.2. During the second half hour, Star Trek was pushed into third with a rating of 12.3 by the Thursday night movie on CBS and the season premiere of Bewitched, which was also the first episode of that series broadcast in color. The following week, with "Where No Man Has Gone Before", the series returned to the top place with a 19.9 rating during the first half hour, and second in the second half hour to Bewitched. The Trendex rating report for the first few weeks of Star Trek saw it ranked in 33rd spot for the period with an average rating of 18.7. #### Overseas broadcasts and re-releases The episode was not the first to be broadcast in the United Kingdom, which instead premiered Star Trek on BBC One with "Where No Man Has Gone Before" on July 12, 1969. The episodes continued to be broadcast in a different order than they had appeared in the United States. "The Man Trap" was shown nearly three months later on October 4 as the 13th episode. This was during the period when the channel was still broadcasting only in black and white; it was not until "Arena" on November 15 that the series was shown in color. During subsequent repeats of Star Trek, the channel reverted to NBC's schedule and showed "The Man Trap" as the first episode. Canadian network CTV aired episodes of the first season of Star Trek on Tuesday nights instead of Thursdays and so ran "The Man Trap" on September 6, 1966, two days before NBC. Airing American programs early was a common practice among Canadian broadcasters in order to avoid direct competition for viewers and advertisers with American border stations airing the same program at the same time. The practice became obsolete once simultaneous substitution of commercials was permitted. A high-definition remastering of "The Man Trap", which introduced new special effects and starship exteriors as well as enhanced music and audio, was shown for the first time in the United States on September 29, 2007, in broadcast syndication. The episode was made available to over 200 local stations across the United States with the rights to broadcast Star Trek. ### Critical reception In 1966, The Hollywood Reporter said the episode was a "winner", with a lot of suspense and science fiction gadgets. In an interview published in the 1988 book The Star Trek Interview Book, Johnson claimed that the response of critics to "The Man Trap", and the initial episodes of Star Trek in general, was "complete bewilderment". In previewing the broadcast of "The Man Trap", The Daily Reporter said that Star Trek had the "usual far-fetched suppositions" present in other science fiction works, but praise was given to the acting skills of Shatner and the plots of the initial episodes. The Edwardsville Intelligencer called the reveal of the creature in the episode "the kicker of a great sci-fi plot". Daily Variety columnist Jack Hellman gave the episode an unfavorable review over its "lack of meaningful cast leads", who "move around with directorial precision with only violence to provide the excitement." The weekly edition of the magazine offered a similar opinion, stating that the Enterprise "trudged along for a long hour with hardly any relief from violence, killing, ugly stuff and a distasteful monster". Among more recent reviews, Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode an "A−" rating, describing it as "done very well" with a plot that is dark and ambiguous. Torrie Atkinson and Eugene Myers reviewed the episode in 2009 for Tor.com, saying that it suitably introduced the characters, although certain elements of the show were not yet in place. These included the lack of the death of a redshirted character, as the crewmen who died in "The Man Trap" did not wear red shirts, along with the lack of red and yellow alerts, instead referred to as general quarters three and four in this episode. The duo added that the episode demonstrated that the series was "something special", and that it remained more culturally diverse than modern television. They gave it a rating of four out of six. Ryan Britt, also writing for Tor.com, said that "The Man Trap" was not a good introduction to the series, but praised the screen time given to Rand, Uhura and Sulu. He added that the latter two were more interesting in this episode than they would be at any point until the start of the movie franchise. Britt said that "The Man Trap" was different than the rest of the series, and more akin to The Twilight Zone owing to the background of the writer. In Hollywood.com's ranking of all 79 episodes of The Original Series, Christian Blauvelt placed "The Man Trap" as 73rd, calling the creature "incredibly pointless". It was also listed as one of the show's "cheesiest classic creatures" by Wired magazine in 2007; however, Rolling Stone magazine listed it as the tenth best villain in the franchise. The Guardian noted "The Man Trap" as an episode about a salt-eating shape-shifter, on the 50th anniversary of Star Trek'''s first public broadcast in 2016. In 2018, PopMatters ranked this the 7th best episode of the original series. Star Trek news site Trek.Report gave the episode a ranking of 3 of 5, noting that actions of the crew were not affected by the "Prime Directive", a later addition to the franchise's canon. ## Home media release and other adaptations The first adaptation of "The Man Trap" was as a re-working into a short story by author James Blish as part of the novelization Star Trek. This book contained seven short stories, each based on an episode of The Original Series, and was published in January 1967. The adaptation of "The Man Trap" appeared as the third story in the book, although it was named "The Unreal McCoy". The first home media release of "The Man Trap" was on Compact Cassette from Startone Productions in 1982. A further release on LaserDisc took place in 1985, alongside "Charlie X". Further releases of all episodes of the series were made on VHS and Betamax. The episode was released on DVD paired with "The Naked Time" as part of the general release of the series in 1999. There were no other extras added to that series of releases, except the DVD containing "Turnabout Intruder". "The Man Trap" was later released within a DVD box set of the first season in 2004; all three seasons of The Original Series'' were released as full-season box sets that year. The episode was included in the remastered season one release on DVD and Blu-ray in 2009. ## Annotations
765,328	William Hayden English	1,157,530,513	19th-century American politician	[ "1822 births", "1880 United States vice-presidential candidates", "1896 deaths", "19th-century American politicians", "American lawyers admitted to the practice of law by reading law", "American people of English descent", "American people of French descent", "Burials at Crown Hill Cemetery", "Democratic Party (United States) vice presidential nominees", "Democratic Party members of the Indiana House of Representatives", "Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Indiana", "Hanover College alumni", "Members of the Sons of the American Revolution", "People from Scott County, Indiana", "Politicians from Indianapolis", "Speakers of the Indiana House of Representatives", "Writers from Indianapolis" ]	William Hayden English (August 27, 1822 – February 7, 1896) was an American politician. He served as a U.S. Representative from Indiana from 1853 to 1861 and was the Democratic Party's nominee for Vice President of the United States in 1880. English entered politics at a young age, becoming a part of Jesse D. Bright's conservative faction of the Indiana Democratic Party. After four years in the federal bureaucracy in Washington, from 1845, he returned to Indiana and participated in the state constitutional convention of 1850. He was elected to the Indiana House of Representatives in 1851 and served as its speaker at the age of twenty-nine. After a two-year term in the state house, English represented Indiana in the federal House of Representatives for four terms from 1853 to 1861, working most notably to achieve a compromise on the admission of Kansas as a state. English retired from the House in 1861, but remained involved in party affairs. In the American Civil War he was a War Democrat, supporting the Union war effort. As well as pursuing a political career, he was an author and businessman. He owned an opera house, was president of a bank, and developed many residential properties. English was successful in business, and became one of the wealthiest men in Indiana. After nearly two decades in the private sector, English returned to political life as the Democratic nominee for vice president in 1880. English and his presidential running mate, Winfield Scott Hancock, lost narrowly to their Republican opponents, James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur. ## Family and early career William Hayden English was born August 27, 1822 in Lexington, Indiana, the only son of Elisha Gale English and his wife, Mahala (Eastin) English. Both his parents were Kentucky natives from slaveholding families of English and French Huguenot ancestry. They moved to southern Indiana in 1818. Elisha English quickly became involved in local politics as a Democrat, serving in the state legislature as well as building a prominent business career. William English was educated in the local public schools, later attending Hanover College. He left college after three years and began to read law. In 1840, English was admitted to the bar at the age of eighteen and soon built a practice in his native Scott County. He started early in politics as well, attending the state Democratic convention that same year and giving speeches on behalf of the Democratic presidential candidate, Martin Van Buren. From the end of 1842, English was mentored by Lieutenant Governor Jesse D. Bright, who helped him rise within Bright's faction of the party. The following year, the Indiana House of Representatives selected English as their clerk. In 1844, he worked the campaign trail, this time in the service of presidential candidate James K. Polk. ## Politics and marriage As a reward, after Polk took office in 1845, he granted English a patronage appointment as a clerk in the federal Treasury Department in Washington, D.C. English held this position for four years, during which time he met Emma Mardulia Jackson. They married in November 1847. They had two children: William Eastin and Rosalind. English attended the 1848 Democratic National Convention in Baltimore, where he supported Lewis Cass, the eventual presidential nominee. With the election of the Whig Party's candidate, Zachary Taylor, to the presidency, a Whig party member replaced English at the Treasury Department. He secured a job as clerk to the United States Senate's Claims Committee through party connections; serving until 1850 in Washington. English and his wife then returned to Indiana, where he worked as secretary to the Indiana constitutional convention. Democrats were in the majority at the convention, and their proposals were incorporated into the new law, including increasing the number of elective offices, guaranteeing a homestead exemption, and restricting voting rights to white men. Free blacks had formerly had suffrage in the state. The voters approved the new constitution by a large majority. In August 1851, English won his first election to the state House of Representatives. As it was the first meeting of the legislature under the 1851 constitution, English's knowledge of it contributed to his election as speaker of the House at the age of twenty-nine. The House had a Democratic majority and, at Bright's direction, English worked for the election of Graham N. Fitch, a member of Bright's faction of the party, to the U.S. Senate. The legislature chose a different Democrat, John Pettit, instead. Holding the office of Speaker increased English's influence throughout the state; in 1852, the Democrats chose him as their nominee for the federal House of Representatives from the newly reconfigured 2nd district. The Democrats were victorious in the election that October, sweeping all but one House seat. English defeated his Whig opponent 55% – 45% and joined the 33rd Congress when it convened in Washington in 1853. English's time in Congress, much like the rest of his political career, can be seen as pragmatic. While he morally abhorred slavery, he condemned abolitionists and believed in the notion of “popular sovereignty,” which argued that the people of a state or territory should choose for themselves whether to have slavery. He explained his opinion in a speech in 1854: "Sir, I am a native of a free State [sic], and have no love for the institution of slavery. Aside from the moral question involved, I regard it as an injury to the State where it exists....But sir, I never can forget that we are a confederacy of States, possessing equal rights, under our glorious Constitution. That if the people of Kentucky believe the institution of slavery would be conducive to their happiness, they have the same right to establish and maintain that we of Indiana have to reject it; and this doctrine is just as applicable to States hereafter to be admitted as to those already in the Union." ## Congress ### Kansas–Nebraska Act The House of Representatives convened for the 33rd Congress in December 1853. At that time, the simmering disagreement between the free and slave states heated up with the introduction of the Kansas–Nebraska Act, proposed by Illinois Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, which would open the Kansas and Nebraska territories to slavery, an implicit repeal of the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Intended to quiet national agitation over slavery by shifting the decision to local settlers, Douglas's proposal instead inflamed anti-slavery sentiment in the North by allowing the possibility of slavery's expansion to territories held as free soil for three decades. English, a member of the Committee on Territories, thought the bill was unnecessary and disagreed with its timing; when the committee approved the bill, English wrote a minority report to that effect. He was not altogether opposed to the principle of popular sovereignty, however, believing that "each organized community ought to be allowed to decide for itself". Northern Democrats divided almost evenly on the bill, but English, despite his stated reservations, was among those who voted for it. In doing so, he said that Congress was bound to respect the decision of the territories' residents and pledged to uphold their decisions. President Franklin Pierce signed the bill into law on May 30, 1854. `The Kansas–Nebraska Act was grossly unpopular across the North. The reaction ultimately killed the Whig Party, weakened northern Democrats, and brought about a new party, the Republicans. Only 3 of 42 free-state representatives were reelected after voting for it; English was one of them. English was a conservative Democrat, and his southern Indiana district, while not pro-slavery, also had little sympathy for abolitionism. He was reelected again in 1856, when the Democrats regained the House majority in the 35th Congress. The Speaker, James Lawrence Orr, assigned English to the Post Office and Post Roads Committee, but the issue of Kansas claimed more of his time.` ### English Bill In December 1857, in an election boycotted by free-state partisans, Kansas adopted the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution and petitioned Congress to be admitted as a slave state. President James Buchanan, a Democrat, urged that Congress take up the matter, and the Senate approved a bill to admit Kansas. The bill was defeated in the House, 112–120. English found the process by which the pro-slavery Kansans forced through their constitution inadequate, and voted against admission. Congress continued to debate the matter for months without resolution. English and Georgia Democrat Alexander H. Stephens came up with a compromise measure, later called the English Bill. The English Bill offered Kansas admission as a slave state, but only if the people endorsed that choice in a referendum. The Bill also required Kansans to renounce the unusually large grant of federal lands they had requested in the Lecompton Constitution. The Kansas voters could, thus, reject Lecompton by the face-saving measure of turning down the smaller land grant. Congress passed the English Bill, and Kansans duly rejected their pro-slavery constitution by a ratio of six to one. Some of English's political allies, including Bright (now a senator), would have preferred that Kansas be admitted as a slave state, but the decision was popular enough in his district to allow English to be reelected in 1858 with a majority of 56% to 44%. ## Business career English declined to run for reelection in 1860 but he gave several speeches advocating compromise and moderation in the growing North-South divide. After Abraham Lincoln's election that year, English urged Southerners not to secede. After southern secession occurred and the Civil War began, Governor Oliver P. Morton offered English command of a regiment, but he declined iI since he had no military knowledge or interests. English, however, supported Morton's (and indirectly Lincoln's) war policies and considered himself a War Democrat. English lent money to the state government to cover the expenses of outfitting the troops and served as provost marshal for the 2nd congressional district. After retiring from Congress, English spent a year at his home in Scott County before he relocated to Indianapolis, the state capital. English and ten associates (including James Lanier) organized the First National Bank of Indianapolis in 1863, the first bank in that city chartered under the new National Bank Act. He remained president of that bank until 1877, including the difficult period during the Panic of 1873, when many other banks folded. English's business interests included other industries as well. He became the controlling shareholder of the Indianapolis Street Railway Company and remained in charge of the company until 1876, when he sold his shares. Having also sold his shares of the bank by 1877, English turned most of his investment capital to real estate. By 1875, he had ordered construction of 75 houses along what is now English Avenue. His wife, Emma, died two years later, in 1877. he survived her by 19 years. When he died in 1896, he owned 448 properties, most of them in Indianapolis. In 1880, English constructed English's Opera House, which, according to the 1994 Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, quickly became known as the city's finest. The building was modeled after the Grand Opera House in New York and seated 2,000 people. It opened on September 27, 1880, with a performance of Hamlet starring Lawrence Barrett. By that time, English was involved in politics once more. He turned over management of the Opera House to his son, William Eastin English, who was interested in the theater and had just married an actress, Annie Fox. English Sr. later added a hotel to the Opera House, and both operated until 1948. ## Vice-presidential candidate After leaving the House of Representatives, English remained in touch with local politics, and served as chairman of the Indiana Democratic Party. His son had been elected to the state house in 1879, and the elder English was still consulted on political matters. Although he had not sought elected office since 1858, he had raised his national profile in 1879 through several interviews and letters to friendly newspapers. English attended the 1880 Democratic National Convention in Cincinnati as a member of the Indiana delegation, where he favored presidential candidate Thomas F. Bayard of Delaware, whom he admired for his support of the gold standard. The first ballot was inconclusive, with Bayard in second place. Major General Winfield Scott Hancock of Pennsylvania led the voting, and on the second ballot was nominated for President. The Indiana delegation held back their votes from Hancock until the crucial moment, and as a reward, the delegates unanimously selected English for the vice-presidential nomination. He was not expected to add much to the ticket outside of Indiana, but the party leaders thought his popularity in that swing state would help Hancock against James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur, the Republican nominees. The Republicans believed that the real reason for English's nomination was his willingness to use his personal fortune to finance the campaign, as Democratic campaign coffers were low. English gave a brief speech accepting the nomination, then replied more formally in a letter a month later. In that letter, English called the disputes of the Civil War settled, and promised a "sound currency, of honest money", the restriction of Chinese immigration, and a "rigid economy in public expenditure". He characterized the election as one between > the people endeavoring to regain the political power which rightfully belongs to them, and to restore the pure, simple, economical, constitutional government of our fathers on the one side, and a hundred thousand federal office-holders and their backers, pampered with place and power, and determined to retain them at all hazards, on the other. Hancock and the Democrats expected to carry the Solid South, which, with the disenfranchisement of black Southerners following the end of Reconstruction, was dominated electorally by white Democrats. In addition to the South, the ticket needed to add New York and a few of the Midwestern states to their total to win the election; national elections in that era were largely decided by closely divided states there. The practical differences between the parties were few, and the Republicans were reluctant to attack Hancock personally because of his heroic reputation. The one policy difference the Republicans were able to exploit was a statement in the Democratic platform endorsing "a tariff for revenue only". Garfield's campaign used this statement to paint the Democrats as unsympathetic to the plight of industrial laborers, who benefited from the high protective tariff then in place. The tariff issue cut Democratic support in industrialized Northern states, which were essential in establishing a Democratic majority. The October state elections in Ohio and Indiana resulted in Republican victories there, discouraging Democrats about the federal election to come the following month. There was even some talk among party leaders of dropping English from the ticket, but English convinced them that the October losses owed more to local issues, and that the Democratic ticket could still carry Indiana, if not Ohio, in November. In the end, English was proven wrong: the Democrats and Hancock failed to carry any of the Midwestern states they had targeted, including Indiana. Hancock and English lost the popular vote by just 7,018. The electoral vote, however, had a much larger spread: 214 for Garfield and Arthur, compared to 155 for Hancock and English. ## Post-election career and legacy English resumed his business career after the election. He also became more interested in local history, joining a reunion of the survivors of the 1850 state constitutional convention, which met at his opera house in 1885. He became the president of the Indiana Historical Society and wrote two volumes, which were published at his death: Conquest of the Country Northwest of the River Ohio, 1778–1783; and Life of General George Rogers Clark. He served on the Indianapolis Monument Commission in 1893, and helped to plan and finance the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument there. He died at his home in Indianapolis on February 7, 1896. English was interred in Crown Hill Cemetery with his wife, who had died in 1877. Although many of the buildings he constructed have been demolished, English, Indiana, the county seat of Crawford County, is named after him, as is English Avenue in Indianapolis. Identical statues of English stand in front of the Scott County Courthouse in Scottsburg, Indiana, and at the Crawford County Fairgrounds in English. His son William served in Congress from 1884 to 1885. His grandson, William English Walling, the son of his daughter Rosalind, was a co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. An extensive collection of English's personal and family papers is housed at the Indiana Historical Society in Indianapolis, where it is open for research.
26,321,288	Mesopropithecus	1,172,209,794	Extinct genus of small to medium-sized lemur from Madagascar	[ "Fossil taxa described in 1905", "Holocene extinctions", "Lemur genera", "Prehistoric primate genera", "Subfossil lemurs" ]	Mesopropithecus is an extinct genus of small to medium-sized lemur, or strepsirrhine primate, from Madagascar that includes three species, M. dolichobrachion, M. globiceps, and M. pithecoides. Together with Palaeopropithecus, Archaeoindris, and Babakotia, it is part of the sloth lemur family (Palaeopropithecidae). Once thought to be an indriid because its skull is similar to that of living sifakas, a recently discovered postcranial skeleton shows Mesopropithecus had longer forelimbs than hindlimbs—a distinctive trait shared by sloth lemurs but not by indriids. However, as it had the shortest forelimbs of all sloth lemurs, it is thought that Mesopropithecus was more quadrupedal and did not use suspension as much as the other sloth lemurs. All three species ate leaves, fruits, and seeds, but the proportions were different. M. pithecoides was primarily a leaf-eater (folivores), but also ate fruit and occasionally seeds. M. globiceps ate a mix of fruits and leaves, as well as a larger quantity of seeds than M. pithecoides. M. dolichobrachion also consumed a mixed diet of fruits and leaves, but analysis of its teeth suggests that it was more of a seed predator than the other two species. Although rare, the three species were widely distributed across the island yet allopatric to each other, with M. dolichobrachion in the north, M. pithecoides in the south and west, and M. globiceps in the center of the island. M. dolichobrachion was the most distinct of the three species due to its longer arms. Mesopropithecus was one of the smallest of the known extinct subfossil lemurs, but was still slightly larger than the largest living lemurs. Known only from subfossil remains, it died out after the arrival of humans on the island, probably due to hunting pressure and habitat destruction. ## Classification and phylogeny Mesopropithecus is a genus within the sloth lemur family (Palaeopropithecidae), which includes three other genera: Palaeopropithecus, Archaeoindris, and Babakotia. This family in turn belongs to the infraorder Lemuriformes, which includes all the Malagasy lemurs. Mesopropithecus was named in 1905 by Herbert F. Standing using four skulls found at Ampasambazimba. He noted that the animal had characteristics of both Palaeopropithecus and the living sifakas (Propithecus). In 1936, Charles Lamberton defined Neopropithecus globiceps (based on one skull from Tsirave) and N. platyfrons (based on two skulls from Anavoha). He thought that Neopropithecus was a separate, intermediate genus between Mesopropithecus and Propithecus. In 1971, paleoanthropologist Ian Tattersall merged N. platyfrons into N. globiceps and Neopropithecus into Mesopropithecus. Until 1986, Mesopropithecus was only known from cranial (skull) remains from central and southern Madagascar, and because these are similar to teeth and skulls of living indriids, particularly those of Verreaux's sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi), Mesopropithecus was often assigned to the family Indriidae. For example, in 1974, Tattersall and Schwartz labeled Mesopropithecus as a sister group to sifakas. With the discovery of an associated skeleton of M. dolichobrachion near Ankarana in 1986, it became clear that Mesopropithecus shared distinct traits with sloth lemurs. Unlike the indriids, but like the sloth lemurs, they had elongated forelimbs and other adaptations for arboreal suspension (hanging in trees), linking them most closely to family Paleaeopropithecidae. A comparison of these morphological traits between the sloth lemurs and indriids suggest that Mesopropithecus was the first genus to diverge within the sloth lemur family. ### Species Three species are recognized within Mesopropithecus: - M. pithecoides, described in 1905, was the first species to be formally named. Its specific name, pithecoides, derives from the Greek word pithekos, meaning "monkey" or "ape", and the Greek suffix -oides, meaning "like" or "form", and reflects Standing's impression that the animal resembled monkeys in form. It was a small to medium-sized lemur, weighing approximately 10 kg (22 lb) and having an intermembral index (ratio of limb proportions) of 99. Its skull was similar to that of M. globiceps, but had a broader snout and was more robust, particularly in its sagittal and nuchal crests (ridges on the skull for muscle attachments) and massive zygomatic arches (cheekbones). Its skull length averaged 98 mm (3.9 in), ranging from 94.0 to 103.1 mm (3.70 to 4.06 in). It was predominantly folivorous (leaf-eating), but also consumed some fruit and (rarely) seeds. It was moderately abundant on the high, central plateau of Madagascar. It shared its range with the larger sloth lemurs, Palaeopropithecus maximus and Archaeoindris fontoynontii. One sample of its subfossil remains has been radiocarbon dated, yielding a date of 570–679 CE. - M. globiceps was discovered in 1936 and originally classified in its own genus, Neopropithecus. The name globiceps comes from its prominent forehead and derives from the Latin word globus, meaning "ball", and the Neo-Latin suffix -ceps, meaning "head". Like M. pithecoides, it was a small to medium-sized lemur, weighing approximately 11 kg (24 lb) and having an intermembral index of 97. It had the most narrow snout and gracile skeleton of the Mesopropithecus species, similar to but smaller than M. pithecoides, making it more like the living sifakas. Its teeth were similar to but larger than those of living sifakas, except for its lower premolars, which were shorter, and the M3 (third upper molar), which was moderately constricted by the cheek and tongue. Its skull length averaged 94 mm (3.7 in), ranging from 93.4 to 94.8 mm (3.68 to 3.73 in). It was a mixed feeder, eating fruit, leaves, and a moderate amount of seeds, having a diet similar to that of the living indri (Indri indri). Although its forelimbs were more like those of living indriids, its hindlimbs and axial skeleton (skull, spine, and ribs) were more specialized for suspension, as in Palaeopropithecus and Babakotia. It was found in the south and west of Madagascar. Three samples of its subfossil remains have been radiocarbon dated, yielding dates of 354–60 BCE, 58–247 CE, and 245–429 CE. - M. dolichobrachion was discovered in 1986 and formally described in 1995. It was found in the caves of Ankarana, northern Madagascar, around the same time that the first remains of Babakotia were unearthed. The species name dolichobrachion is Greek, coming from dolicho- ("long") and brachion ("arm"), and means "long-armed". It was a medium-sized lemur, slightly larger than the other two members of its genus, weighing approximately 14 kg (31 lb). It differed significantly from the other two in its limb proportions and its postcranial morphology. Most notably, it was the only species in the genus to have forelimbs that were longer than the hindlimbs, due to a substantially longer and more robust humerus (yielding an intermembral index of 113), as well as more curved phalanges (finger and toe bones). For these reasons, it is thought to have been more sloth-like in its use of suspension. This was further supported by a study of a single lumbar vertebra. This vertebra was similar to that of Babakotia in having a moderately reduced, dorsally oriented spinous process and a transverse processes (plates of bone that protrude from the vertebrae) that points to the side (laterally). The vertebra was intermediate in length when compared with other sloth lemurs, and its laminae (two plates of bone that connect to the spinous process) were not as broad as seen in Palaeopropithecus. In M. dolichobrachion, skull length averaged 102 mm (4.0 in), ranging from 97.8 to 105.5 mm (3.85 to 4.15 in). The only notable difference from the two other species in its teeth was that the third upper molar had a relatively wider trigon and smaller talon (groups of cusps on the molar teeth). It was a mixed feeder, eating leaves, fruits, and seeds. This species was more of a seed predator than the other two species, but was not as specialized as closely related Babakotia radofilai. M. dolichobrachion was rare and shared its range with two other sloth lemurs, Babakotia radofilai and Palaeopropithecus maximus. It was the most distinct member of its genus and was geographically restricted to the extreme north of the island. ## Anatomy and physiology The genus Mesopropithecus includes some of the smallest of the recently extinct subfossil lemurs, but all species were still noticeably larger than all living (extant) lemurs. They ranged in weight from 10 to 14 kg (22 to 31 lb). They were also the least specialized of the sloth lemurs, more closely resembling living indriids in both skull and postcranial characteristics. Skull length ranged from 93.4 to 105.5 mm (3.68 to 4.15 in). The dentition and cranial proportions, however, more closely resembled those of the sifakas. The dental formula of Mesopropithecus was the same as in the other sloth lemur and indriids: either or . Mesopropithecus had a four-toothed toothcomb, like all indriids and most other sloth lemurs. It is unclear whether one of the permanent teeth in the toothcomb is an incisor or canine, resulting in the two conflicting dental formulae. Like other sloth lemurs and indriids, Mesopropithecus had rapid tooth development. Despite the similarities, there are several features that distinguish Mesopropithecus skulls from those of living indriids. The skull, including the zygomatic arch, is more robustly built. The temporal lines join together anteriorly into a sagittal crest and there is a distinct nuchal ridge that joins the rear of the zygomatic arch. The skull has a more rounded braincase, slightly smaller and more convergent orbits, more pronounced postorbital constriction (narrowing of the skull behind the eye sockets), more robust postorbital bar (bone that encircles the eye socket), a steeper facial angle, more robust and cranially convex zygomatic bone, and a broader, squared snout. The upper incisors and canines are larger. The more robust mandible (lower jaw) and mandibular symphysis (point where the two halves of the lower jaw meet) suggest a more folivorous diet, which requires extra grinding. The orbits are as large (in absolute size) as those in smaller living indriids, which suggests low visual acuity. Mesopropithecus and its closest sloth lemur relative, Babakotia, did share a few ancestral traits with indriids, unlike the largest sloth lemurs, Palaeopropithecus and Archaeoindris. These include the aforementioned four-toothed toothcomb, an inflated auditory bulla (bony structure that encloses part of the middle and inner ear), and an intrabullar ectotympanic ring (bony ring that holds the eardrum). While the skull of Mesopropithecus most closely resembles that of modern sifakas, the postcranial skeleton is quite different. Rather than having elongated hindlimbs for leaping, Mesopropithecus had elongated forelimbs, suggesting they predominantly used quadrupedal locomotion, slow climbing, with some forelimb and hindlimb suspension. In fact, they were the most quadrupedal of the sloth lemurs, having an intermembral index between 97 and 113, compared to the lower value for indriids and higher values for the other sloth lemurs. (In arboreal primates, an intermembral index of 100 predicts quadrupedalism, higher values predict suspensory behavior, and lower values predict leaping behavior.) Wrist bones found in 1999 further demonstrate that Mesopropithecus was a vertical climber and the most loris-like of the sloth lemurs. Analysis of a lumbar vertebra of M. dolichobrachion further supported this conclusion. Our understanding of the morphology of Mesopropithecus has not always been so complete. Until recently, important pieces of the skeleton had not been discovered, including the radius, ulna, vertebrae, hand and foot bones, and the pelvis. In 1936, Alice Carleton mistakenly associated postcranial remains of the diademed sifaka (Propithecus diadema) from Ampasambazimba with Mesopropithecus pithecoides and came to the false conclusion that its morphology was like that of a monkey. This mistaken attribution was corrected in 1948 by Charles Lamberton. ## Distribution and ecology Mesopropithecus species appear to have been generally rare within their wide range. Collectively, the three species have been found in the north, south, west, and center of Madagascar, although they appear to have been geographically separated (allopatric) from each other. Subfossil discoveries indicate that they lived in the same region (sympatric) with other sloth lemurs in the north and center of Madagascar. The subfossil remains of M. globiceps have been found at seven subfossil sites on Madagascar: Anavoha, Ankazoabo Cave, Belo sur Mer, Manombo-Toliara, Taolambiby, Tsiandroina, Tsirave. The subfossil remains of both M. pithecoides and M. dolichobrachion have only been found at one site each, Ampasambazimba and Ankarana respectively. M. pithecoides from the central plateau was a specialized leaf-eater (folivore), but the other two species had a more mixed diet, eating fruits and seeds in addition to leaves. The level of seed predation varies between the three species, with tooth wear indicating that M. dolichobrachion exhibited the greatest level of seed predation within the genus. ## Extinction Because Mesopropithecus died out relatively recently and is only known from subfossil remains, it is considered to be a modern form of Malagasy lemur. It may have been among the last subfossil lemurs to go extinct, possibly surviving until 500 years ago, although radiocarbon dating places the most recent remains at 570–679 CE for a M. pithecoides from Ampasambazimba. The arrival of humans roughly 2,000 years ago is thought to have sparked the decline of Mesopropithecus through hunting, habitat destruction, or both.
20,206	Manchester	1,171,961,342	City and metropolitan borough in England	[ "1st-century establishments in Roman Britain", "79 establishments", "Cities in North West England", "Former civil parishes in Greater Manchester", "Manchester", "Metropolitan boroughs of Greater Manchester", "Populated places established in the 1st century", "Towns in Greater Manchester" ]	Manchester (/ˈmæntʃɪstər, -tʃɛs-/ ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 at the 2021 census. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The two cities and the surrounding towns form one of the United Kingdom's most populous conurbations, the Greater Manchester Built-up Area, which has a population of 2.87 million. The city borders the boroughs of Trafford, Stockport, Tameside, Oldham, Rochdale, Bury, and Salford. The history of Manchester began with the civilian settlement associated with the Roman fort (castra) of Mamucium or Mancunium, established in about AD 79 on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell. Historically part of Lancashire, areas of Cheshire south of the River Mersey were incorporated into Manchester in the 20th century, including Wythenshawe in 1931. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a manorial township, but began to expand "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century. Manchester's unplanned urbanisation was brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, and resulted in it becoming the world's first industrialised city. Manchester achieved city status in 1853. The Manchester Ship Canal opened in 1894, creating the Port of Manchester and linking the city to the Irish Sea, 36 miles (58 km) to the west. Its fortune declined after the Second World War, owing to deindustrialisation, and the IRA bombing in 1996 led to extensive investment and regeneration. Following considerable redevelopment, Manchester was the host city for the 2002 Commonwealth Games. The city is notable for its architecture, culture, musical exports, media links, scientific and engineering output, social impact, sports clubs, and transport connections. Manchester Liverpool Road railway station was the world's first inter-city passenger railway station. At the University of Manchester, Ernest Rutherford first split the atom in 1917, Frederic C. Williams, Tom Kilburn and Geoff Tootill developed the world's first stored-program computer in 1948, and Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov first isolated graphene in 2004. Manchester has a large urban sprawl which forms from the city centre into the other neighbouring authorities which include The Four Heatons, Failsworth, Prestwich, Stretford, Sale, Droylsden, Old Trafford, and Reddish. The city is also contiguous with Salford and its borough but is separated from it by the River Irwell. This urban area is cut off by the M60 aka the Manchester Outer Ring Road which runs in a circular around the city and these areas. It joins the M62 to the northeast and the M602 to the west as well as the East Lancashire Road and A6 among other A-roads. ## Toponymy The name Manchester originates from the Latin name Mamucium or its variant Mancunio and the citizens are still referred to as Mancunians (/mænˈkjuːniən/). These names are generally thought to represent a Latinisation of an original Brittonic name. The generally accepted etymology of this name is that it comes from Brittonic \mamm- ("breast", in reference to a "breast-like hill"). However, more recent work suggests that it could come from \mamma ("mother", in reference to a local river goddess). Both usages are preserved in Insular Celtic languages, such as mam meaning "breast" in Irish and "mother" in Welsh. The suffix -chester is from Old English ceaster ("Roman fortification", itself a loanword from Latin castra, "fort; fortified town"). ## History ### Early history The Brigantes were the major Celtic tribe in what is now known as Northern England; they had a stronghold in the locality at a sandstone outcrop on which Manchester Cathedral now stands, opposite the bank of the River Irwell. Their territory extended across the fertile lowland of what is now Salford and Stretford. Following the Roman conquest of Britain in the 1st century, General Agricola ordered the construction of a fort named Mamucium in the year 79 to ensure that Roman interests in Deva Victrix (Chester) and Eboracum (York) were protected from the Brigantes. Central Manchester has been permanently settled since this time. A stabilised fragment of foundations of the final version of the Roman fort is visible in Castlefield. The Roman habitation of Manchester probably ended around the 3rd century; its civilian settlement appears to have been abandoned by the mid-3rd century, although the fort may have supported a small garrison until the late 3rd or early 4th century. After the Roman withdrawal and Saxon conquest, the focus of settlement shifted to the confluence of the Irwell and Irk sometime before the arrival of the Normans after 1066. Much of the wider area was laid waste in the subsequent Harrying of the North. In the Domesday Book of 1086, Manchester is recorded as within the hundred of Salford and held as tenant in chief by a Norman named Roger of Poitou, later being held by the family of Grelley, lord of the manor and residents of Manchester Castle until 1215 before a Manor House was built. By 1421 Thomas de la Warre founded and constructed a collegiate church for the parish, now Manchester Cathedral; the domestic premises of the college house Chetham's School of Music and Chetham's Library. The library, which opened in 1653 and is still open to the public today, is the oldest free public reference library in the United Kingdom. Manchester is mentioned as having a market in 1282. Around the 14th century, Manchester received an influx of Flemish weavers, sometimes credited as the foundation of the region's textile industry. Manchester became an important centre for the manufacture and trade of woollens and linen, and by about 1540, had expanded to become, in John Leland's words, "The fairest, best builded, quickest, and most populous town of all Lancashire". The cathedral and Chetham's buildings are the only significant survivors of Leland's Manchester. During the English Civil War Manchester strongly favoured the Parliamentary interest. Although not long-lasting, Cromwell granted it the right to elect its own MP. Charles Worsley, who sat for the city for only a year, was later appointed Major General for Lancashire, Cheshire and Staffordshire during the Rule of the Major Generals. He was a diligent puritan, turning out ale houses and banning the celebration of Christmas; he died in 1656. Significant quantities of cotton began to be used after about 1600, firstly in linen/cotton fustians, but by around 1750 pure cotton fabrics were being produced and cotton had overtaken wool in importance. The Irwell and Mersey were made navigable by 1736, opening a route from Manchester to the sea docks on the Mersey. The Bridgewater Canal, Britain's first wholly artificial waterway, was opened in 1761, bringing coal from mines at Worsley to central Manchester. The canal was extended to the Mersey at Runcorn by 1776. The combination of competition and improved efficiency halved the cost of coal and halved the transport cost of raw cotton. Manchester became the dominant marketplace for textiles produced in the surrounding towns. A commodities exchange, opened in 1729, and numerous large warehouses, aided commerce. In 1780, Richard Arkwright began construction of Manchester's first cotton mill. In the early 1800s, John Dalton formulated his atomic theory in Manchester. ### Industrial Revolution Manchester was one of the centres of textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution. The great majority of cotton spinning took place in the towns of south Lancashire and north Cheshire, and Manchester was for a time the most productive centre of cotton processing. Manchester became known as the world's largest marketplace for cotton goods and was dubbed "Cottonopolis" and "Warehouse City" during the Victorian era. In Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, the term "manchester" is still used for household linen: sheets, pillow cases, towels, etc. The industrial revolution brought about huge change in Manchester and was key to the increase in Manchester's population. Manchester began expanding "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century as people flocked to the city for work from Scotland, Wales, Ireland and other areas of England as part of a process of unplanned urbanisation brought on by the Industrial Revolution. It developed a wide range of industries, so that by 1835 "Manchester was without challenge the first and greatest industrial city in the world". Engineering firms initially made machines for the cotton trade, but diversified into general manufacture. Similarly, the chemical industry started by producing bleaches and dyes, but expanded into other areas. Commerce was supported by financial service industries such as banking and insurance. Trade, and feeding the growing population, required a large transport and distribution infrastructure: the canal system was extended, and Manchester became one end of the world's first intercity passenger railway—the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Competition between the various forms of transport kept costs down. In 1878 the GPO (the forerunner of British Telecom) provided its first telephones to a firm in Manchester. The Manchester Ship Canal was built between 1888 and 1894, in some sections by canalisation of the Rivers Irwell and Mersey, running 36 miles (58 km) from Salford to Eastham Locks on the tidal Mersey. This enabled oceangoing ships to sail right into the Port of Manchester. On the canal's banks, just outside the borough, the world's first industrial estate was created at Trafford Park. Large quantities of machinery, including cotton processing plant, were exported around the world. A centre of capitalism, Manchester was once the scene of bread and labour riots, as well as calls for greater political recognition by the city's working and non-titled classes. One such gathering ended with the Peterloo massacre of 16 August 1819. The economic school of Manchester Capitalism developed there, and Manchester was the centre of the Anti-Corn Law League from 1838 onward. Manchester has a notable place in the history of Marxism and left-wing politics; being the subject of Friedrich Engels' work The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844; Engels spent much of his life in and around Manchester, and when Karl Marx visited Manchester, they met at Chetham's Library. The economics books Marx was reading at the time can be seen in the library, as can the window seat where Marx and Engels would meet. The first Trades Union Congress was held in Manchester (at the Mechanics' Institute, David Street), from 2 to 6 June 1868. Manchester was an important cradle of the Labour Party and the Suffragette Movement. At that time, it seemed a place in which anything could happen—new industrial processes, new ways of thinking (the Manchester School, promoting free trade and laissez-faire), new classes or groups in society, new religious sects, and new forms of labour organisation. It attracted educated visitors from all parts of Britain and Europe. A saying capturing this sense of innovation survives today: "What Manchester does today, the rest of the world does tomorrow." Manchester's golden age was perhaps the last quarter of the 19th century. Many of the great public buildings (including Manchester Town Hall) date from then. The city's cosmopolitan atmosphere contributed to a vibrant culture, which included the Hallé Orchestra. In 1889, when county councils were created in England, the municipal borough became a county borough with even greater autonomy. Although the Industrial Revolution brought wealth to the city, it also brought poverty and squalor to a large part of the population. Historian Simon Schama noted that "Manchester was the very best and the very worst taken to terrifying extremes, a new kind of city in the world; the chimneys of industrial suburbs greeting you with columns of smoke". An American visitor taken to Manchester's blackspots saw "wretched, defrauded, oppressed, crushed human nature, lying and bleeding fragments". The number of cotton mills in Manchester itself reached a peak of 108 in 1853. Thereafter the number began to decline and Manchester was surpassed as the largest centre of cotton spinning by Bolton in the 1850s and Oldham in the 1860s. However, this period of decline coincided with the rise of the city as the financial centre of the region. Manchester continued to process cotton, and in 1913, 65% of the world's cotton was processed in the area. The First World War interrupted access to the export markets. Cotton processing in other parts of the world increased, often on machines produced in Manchester. Manchester suffered greatly from the Great Depression and the underlying structural changes that began to supplant the old industries, including textile manufacture. ### Blitz Like most of the UK, the Manchester area was mobilised extensively during the Second World War. For example, casting and machining expertise at Beyer, Peacock & Company's locomotive works in Gorton was switched to bomb making; Dunlop's rubber works in Chorlton-on-Medlock made barrage balloons; and just outside the city in Trafford Park, engineers Metropolitan-Vickers made Avro Manchester and Avro Lancaster bombers and Ford built the Rolls-Royce Merlin engines to power them. Manchester was thus the target of bombing by the Luftwaffe, and by late 1940 air raids were taking place against non-military targets. The biggest took place during the Christmas Blitz on the nights of 22/23 and 24 December 1940, when an estimated 474 tonnes (467 long tons) of high explosives plus over 37,000 incendiary bombs were dropped. A large part of the historic city centre was destroyed, including 165 warehouses, 200 business premises, and 150 offices. 376 were killed and 30,000 houses were damaged. Manchester Cathedral, Royal Exchange and Free Trade Hall were among the buildings seriously damaged; restoration of the cathedral took 20 years. ### Post-Second World War Cotton processing and trading continued to fall in peacetime, and the exchange closed in 1968. By 1963 the port of Manchester was the UK's third largest, and employed over 3,000 men, but the canal was unable to handle the increasingly large container ships. Traffic declined, and the port closed in 1982. Heavy industry suffered a downturn from the 1960s and was greatly reduced under the economic policies followed by Margaret Thatcher's government after 1979. Manchester lost 150,000 jobs in manufacturing between 1961 and 1983. Regeneration began in the late 1980s, with initiatives such as the Metrolink, the Bridgewater Concert Hall, the Manchester Arena, and (in Salford) the rebranding of the port as Salford Quays. Two bids to host the Olympic Games were part of a process to raise the international profile of the city. Manchester has a history of attacks attributed to Irish Republicans, including the Manchester Martyrs of 1867, arson in 1920, a series of explosions in 1939, and two bombs in 1992. On Saturday 15 June 1996, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) carried out the 1996 Manchester bombing, the detonation of a large bomb next to a department store in the city centre. The largest to be detonated on British soil, the bomb injured over 200 people, heavily damaged nearby buildings, and broke windows 1⁄2 mile (800 m) away. The cost of the immediate damage was initially estimated at £50 million, but this was quickly revised upwards. The final insurance payout was over £400 million; many affected businesses never recovered from the loss of trade. ### Since 2000 Spurred by the investment after the 1996 bomb and aided by the XVII Commonwealth Games, the city centre has undergone extensive regeneration. New and renovated complexes such as The Printworks and Corn Exchange have become popular shopping, eating and entertainment areas. Manchester Arndale is the UK's largest city-centre shopping centre. Large city sections from the 1960s have been demolished, re-developed or modernised with the use of glass and steel. Old mills have been converted into apartments. Hulme has undergone extensive regeneration, with million-pound loft-house apartments being developed. The 47-storey, 554-foot (169 m) Beetham Tower was the tallest UK building outside of London and the highest residential accommodation in Europe when completed in 2006. It was surpassed in 2018 by the 659-foot (201 m) South Tower of the Deansgate Square project, also in Manchester. In January 2007, the independent Casino Advisory Panel licensed Manchester to build the UK's only supercasino, but plans were abandoned in February 2008. On 22 May 2017, an Islamist terrorist carried out a bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in the Manchester Arena; the bomb killed 23, including the attacker, and injured over 800. It was the deadliest terrorist attack and first suicide bombing in Britain since the 7 July 2005 London bombings. It caused worldwide condemnation and changed the UK's threat level to "critical" for the first time since 2007. Birmingham has historically been considered to be England or the UK's second city, but in the 21st century claims to this unofficial title have also been made for Manchester. ## Government The City of Manchester is governed by the Manchester City Council. The Greater Manchester Combined Authority, with a directly elected mayor, has responsibilities for economic strategy and transport, amongst other areas, on a Greater Manchester-wide basis. Manchester has been a member of the English Core Cities Group since its inception in 1995. The town of Manchester was granted a charter by Thomas Grelley in 1301, but lost its borough status in a court case of 1359. Until the 19th century local government was largely in the hands of manorial courts, the last of which was dissolved in 1846. From a very early time, the township of Manchester lay within the historic or ceremonial county boundaries of Lancashire. Pevsner wrote "That [neighbouring] Stretford and Salford are not administratively one with Manchester is one of the most curious anomalies of England". A stroke of a baron's pen is said to have divorced Manchester and Salford, though it was not Salford that became separated from Manchester, it was Manchester, with its humbler line of lords, that was separated from Salford. It was this separation that resulted in Salford becoming the judicial seat of Salfordshire, which included the ancient parish of Manchester. Manchester later formed its own Poor Law Union using the name "Manchester". In 1792, Commissioners – usually known as "Police Commissioners" – were established for the social improvement of Manchester. Manchester regained its borough status in 1838, and comprised the townships of Beswick, Cheetham Hill, Chorlton upon Medlock and Hulme. By 1846, with increasing population and greater industrialisation, the Borough Council had taken over the powers of the "Police Commissioners". In 1853, Manchester was granted city status. In 1885, Bradford, Harpurhey, Rusholme and parts of Moss Side and Withington townships became part of the City of Manchester. In 1889, the city became a county borough, as did many larger Lancashire towns, and therefore not governed by Lancashire County Council. Between 1890 and 1933, more areas were added to the city, which had been administered by Lancashire County Council, including former villages such as Burnage, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Didsbury, Fallowfield, Levenshulme, Longsight, and Withington. In 1931, the Cheshire civil parishes of Baguley, Northenden and Northen Etchells from the south of the River Mersey were added. In 1974, by way of the Local Government Act 1972, the City of Manchester became a metropolitan district of the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester. That year, Ringway, the village where the Manchester Airport is located, was added to the city. In November 2014, it was announced that Greater Manchester would receive a new directly elected mayor. The mayor would have fiscal control over health, transport, housing and police in the area. Andy Burnham was elected as the first mayor of Greater Manchester in 2017. ## Geography At , 160 miles (260 km) northwest of London, Manchester lies in a bowl-shaped land area bordered to the north and east by the Pennines, an upland chain that runs the length of northern England, and to the south by the Cheshire Plain. Manchester is 35.0 miles (56.3 km) north-east of Liverpool and 35.0 miles (56.3 km) north-west of Sheffield, making the city the halfway point between the two. The city centre is on the east bank of the River Irwell, near its confluences with the Rivers Medlock and Irk, and is relatively low-lying, being between 35 to 42 metres (115 to 138 feet) above sea level. The River Mersey flows through the south of Manchester. Much of the inner city, especially in the south, is flat, offering extensive views from many highrise buildings in the city of the foothills and moors of the Pennines, which can often be capped with snow in the winter months. Manchester's geographic features were highly influential in its early development as the world's first industrial city. These features are its climate, its proximity to a seaport at Liverpool, the availability of water power from its rivers, and its nearby coal reserves. The name Manchester, though officially applied only to the metropolitan district within Greater Manchester, has been applied to other, wider divisions of land, particularly across much of the Greater Manchester county and urban area. The "Manchester City Zone", "Manchester post town" and the "Manchester Congestion Charge" are all examples of this. For purposes of the Office for National Statistics, Manchester forms the most populous settlement within the Greater Manchester Urban Area, the United Kingdom's third-largest conurbation. There is a mix of high-density urban and suburban locations. The largest open space in the city, at around 260 hectares (642 acres), is Heaton Park. Manchester is contiguous on all sides with several large settlements, except for a small section along its southern boundary with Cheshire. The M60 and M56 motorways pass through Northenden and Wythenshawe respectively in the south of Manchester. Heavy rail lines enter the city from all directions, the principal destination being Manchester Piccadilly station. ### Climate Manchester experiences a temperate oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb), like much of the British Isles, with warm summers and cold winters compared to other parts of the UK. Summer daytime temperatures regularly top 20°C, quite often reaching 25°C on sunny days during July and August in particular. In more recent years, temperatures have occasionally reached over 30°C. There is regular but generally light precipitation throughout the year. The city's average annual rainfall is 806.6 millimetres (31.76 in) compared to a UK average of 1,125.0 millimetres (44.29 in), and its mean rain days are 140.4 per annum, compared to the UK average of 154.4. Manchester has a relatively high humidity level, and this, along with abundant soft water, was one factor that led to advancement of the textile industry in the area. Snowfalls are not common in the city because of the urban warming effect but the West Pennine Moors to the north-west, South Pennines to the north-east and Peak District to the east receive more snow, which can close roads leading out of the city. They include the A62 via Oldham and Standedge, the A57, Snake Pass, towards Sheffield, and the Pennine section of the M62. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Manchester was −17.6 °C (0.3 °F) on 7 January 2010. ### Green belt Manchester lies at the centre of a green belt region extending into the wider surrounding counties. This reduces urban sprawl, prevents towns in the conurbation from further convergence, protects the identity of outlying communities, and preserves nearby countryside. It is achieved by restricting inappropriate development within the designated areas and imposing stricter conditions on permitted building. Due to being already highly urban, the city contains limited portions of protected green-belt area within greenfield throughout the borough, with minimal development opportunities, at Clayton Vale, Heaton Park, Chorlton Water Park along with the Chorlton Ees & Ivy Green nature reserve and the floodplain surrounding the River Mersey, as well as the southern area around Manchester Airport. The green belt was first drawn up in 1961. ## Demographics Historically the population of Manchester began to increase rapidly during the Victorian era, estimated at 354,930 for Manchester and 110,833 for Salford in 1865, and peaking at 766,311 in 1931. From then the population began to decrease rapidly, due to slum clearance and the increased building of social housing overspill estates by Manchester City Council after the Second World War such as Hattersley and Langley. The 2012 mid-year estimate for the population of Manchester was 510,700. This was an increase of 7,900, or 1.6 per cent, since the 2011 estimate. Since 2001, the population has grown by 87,900, or 20.8 per cent, making Manchester the third fastest-growing area in the 2011 census. The city experienced the greatest percentage population growth outside London, with an increase of 19 per cent to over 500,000. Manchester's population is projected to reach 532,200 by 2021, an increase of 5.8 per cent from 2011. This represents a slower rate of growth than the previous decade. The Greater Manchester Built-up Area in 2011 had an estimated population of 2,553,400. In 2012 an estimated 2,702,200 people lived in Greater Manchester. An 6,547,000 people were estimated in 2012 to live within 30 miles (50 km) of Manchester and 11,694,000 within 50 miles (80 km). Between the beginning of July 2011 and end of June 2012 (mid-year estimate date), births exceeded deaths by 4,800. Migration (internal and international) and other changes accounted for a net increase of 3,100 people between July 2011 and June 2012. Compared with Greater Manchester and with England, Manchester has a younger population, with a particularly large 20–35 age group. There were 76,095 undergraduate and postgraduate students at Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Manchester and Royal Northern College of Music in the 2011/2012 academic year. Of all households in Manchester, 0.23 per cent were Same-Sex Civil Partnership households, compared with an English national average of 0.16 per cent in 2011. The Manchester Larger Urban Zone, a Eurostat measure of the functional city-region approximated to local government districts, had a population of 2,539,100 in 2004. In addition to Manchester itself, the LUZ includes the remainder of the county of Greater Manchester. The Manchester LUZ is the second largest within the United Kingdom, behind that of London. ### Religion Since the 2001 census, the proportion of Christians in Manchester has fallen by 22 per cent from 62.4 per cent to 48.7 per cent in 2011. The proportion of those with no religious affiliation rose by 58.1 per cent from 16 per cent to 25.3 per cent, whilst the proportion of Muslims increased by 73.6 per cent from 9.1 per cent to 15.8 per cent. The size of the Jewish population in Greater Manchester is the largest in Britain outside London. ### Ethnicity In terms of ethnic composition, the City of Manchester has the highest non-white proportion of any district in Greater Manchester. Statistics from the 2011 census showed that 66.7 per cent of the population was White (59.3 per cent White British, 2.4 per cent White Irish, 0.1 per cent Gypsy or Irish Traveller, 4.9 per cent Other White – although the size of mixed European and British ethnic groups is unclear, there are reportedly over 25,000 people in Greater Manchester of at least partial Italian descent alone, which represents 5.5 per cent of the population of Greater Manchester). 4.7 per cent were mixed race (1.8 per cent White and Black Caribbean, 0.9 per cent White and Black African, 1.0 per cent White and Asian, 1.0 per cent other mixed), 17.1 per cent Asian (2.3 per cent Indian, 8.5 per cent Pakistani, 1.3 per cent Bangladeshi, 2.7 per cent Chinese, 2.3 per cent other Asian), 8.6 per cent Black (5.1 per cent African, 1.6 per cent other Black), 1.9 per cent Arab and 1.2 per cent of other ethnic heritage. Kidd identifies Moss Side, Longsight, Cheetham Hill, Rusholme, as centres of population for ethnic minorities. Manchester's Irish Festival, including a St Patrick's Day parade, is one of Europe's largest. There is also a well-established Chinatown in the city with a substantial number of Chinese restaurants and supermarkets. The area also attracts large numbers of Chinese students to the city who, in attending the local universities, contribute to Manchester having the third-largest Chinese population in Europe. Ethnicity of Manchester, from 1971 to 2021: Ethnicity of school pupils ## Economy The Office for National Statistics does not produce economic data for the City of Manchester alone, but includes four other metropolitan boroughs, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, in an area named Greater Manchester South, which had a GVA of £34.8 billion. The economy grew relatively strongly between 2002 and 2012, when growth was 2.3 per cent above the national average. The wider metropolitan economy is the third largest in the United Kingdom. It is ranked as a beta world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. As the UK economy continues to recover from its 2008–2010 downturn, Manchester compares favourably according to recent figures. In 2012 it showed the strongest annual growth in business stock (5 per cent) of all core cities. The city had a relatively sharp increase in the number of business deaths, the largest increase in all the core cities, but this was offset by strong growth in new businesses, resulting in strong net growth. Manchester's civic leadership has a reputation for business acumen. It owns two of the country's four busiest airports and uses its earnings to fund local projects. Meanwhile, KPMG's competitive alternative report found that in 2012 Manchester had the 9th lowest tax cost of any industrialised city in the world, and fiscal devolution has come earlier to Manchester than to any other British city: it can keep half the extra taxes it gets from transport investment. KPMG's competitive alternative report also found that Manchester was Europe's most affordable city featured, ranking slightly better than the Dutch cities of Rotterdam and Amsterdam, which all have a cost-of-living index of less than 95. Manchester is a city of contrast, where some of the country's most deprived and most affluent neighbourhoods can be found. According to 2010 Indices of Multiple Deprivation, Manchester is the 4th most deprived local council in England. Unemployment throughout 2012–2013 averaged 11.9 per cent, which was above national average, but lower than some of the country's comparable large cities. On the other hand, Greater Manchester is home to more multi-millionaires than anywhere outside London, with the City of Manchester taking up most of the tally. In 2013 Manchester was ranked 6th in the UK for quality of life, according to a rating of the UK's 12 largest cities. Women fare better in Manchester than the rest of the country in comparative pay with men. The per hours-worked gender pay gap is 3.3 per cent compared with 11.1 per cent for Britain. 37 per cent of the working-age population in Manchester have degree-level qualifications, as opposed to an average of 33 per cent across other core cities, although its schools under-perform slightly compared with the national average. Manchester has the largest UK office market outside London, according to GVA Grimley, with a quarterly office uptake (averaged over 2010–2014) of some 250,000 square ft – equivalent to the quarterly office uptake of Leeds, Liverpool and Newcastle combined and 90,000 square feet more than the nearest rival, Birmingham. The strong office market in Manchester has been partly attributed to "northshoring" (from offshoring), which entails the relocation or alternative creation of jobs away from the overheated South to areas where office space is possibly cheaper and the workforce market less saturated. ## Landmarks Manchester's buildings display a variety of architectural styles, ranging from Victorian to contemporary architecture. The widespread use of red brick characterises the city, much of the architecture of which harks back to its days as a global centre for the cotton trade. Just outside the immediate city centre are a large number of former cotton mills, some of which have been left virtually untouched since their closure, while many have been redeveloped as apartment buildings and office space. Manchester Town Hall, in Albert Square, was built in the Gothic revival style and is seen as one of the most important Victorian buildings in England. Manchester also has a number of skyscrapers built in the 1960s and 1970s, the tallest being the CIS Tower near Manchester Victoria station until the Beetham Tower was completed in 2006. The latter exemplifies a new surge in high-rise building. It includes a Hilton hotel, a restaurant and apartments. The largest skyscraper is now Deansgate Square South Tower, at 201 metres (659 feet).The Green Building, opposite Oxford Road station, is a pioneering eco-friendly housing project, while the recently completed One Angel Square, is one of the most sustainable large buildings in the world. The award-winning Heaton Park in the north of the city borough is one of the largest municipal parks in Europe, covering 610 acres (250 ha) of parkland. The city has 135 parks, gardens, and open spaces. Two large squares hold many of Manchester's public monuments. Albert Square has monuments to Prince Albert, Bishop James Fraser, Oliver Heywood, William Gladstone and John Bright. Piccadilly Gardens has monuments dedicated to Queen Victoria, Robert Peel, James Watt and the Duke of Wellington. The cenotaph in St Peter's Square is Manchester's main memorial to its war dead. Designed by Edwin Lutyens, it echoes the original on Whitehall in London. The Alan Turing Memorial in Sackville Park commemorates his role as the father of modern computing. A larger-than-life statue of Abraham Lincoln by George Gray Barnard in the eponymous Lincoln Square (having stood for many years in Platt Fields) was presented to the city by Mr and Mrs Charles Phelps Taft of Cincinnati, Ohio, to mark the part Lancashire played in the cotton famine and American Civil War of 1861–1865. A Concorde is on display near Manchester Airport. Manchester has six designated local nature reserves: Chorlton Water Park, Blackley Forest, Clayton Vale and Chorlton Ees, Ivy Green, Boggart Hole Clough and Highfield Country Park. ## Transport ### Rail Manchester Liverpool Road was the world's first purpose-built passenger and goods railway station and served as the Manchester terminus on the Liverpool & Manchester Railway – the world's first inter-city passenger railway. It is still extant and its buildings form part of the Science & Industry Museum. Two of the city's four main line termini did not survive the 1960s: Manchester Central and Manchester Exchange each closed in 1969. In addition, Manchester Mayfield station closed to passenger services in 1960; its buildings and platforms are still extant, next to Piccadilly station, but are due to be redeveloped in the 2020s. Today, the city is well served by its rail network although it is now working to capacity, and is at the centre of an extensive county-wide railway network, including the West Coast Main Line, with two mainline stations: Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Victoria. The Manchester station group – comprising Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Victoria, Manchester Oxford Road and Deansgate – is the third busiest in the United Kingdom, with 44.9 million passengers recorded in 2017/2018. The High Speed 2 link to Birmingham and London is also planned, which if built will include a 12 km (7 mi) tunnel under Manchester on the final approach into an upgraded Piccadilly station. Recent improvements in Manchester as part of the Northern Hub in the 2010s have been numerous electrification schemes into and through Manchester, redevelopment of Victoria station and construction of the Ordsall Chord directly linking Victoria and Piccadilly. Work on two new through platforms at Piccadilly and an extensive upgrade at Oxford Road had not commenced as of 2019. Manchester city centre, specifically the Castlefield Corridor, suffers from constrained rail capacity that frequently leads to delays and cancellations – a 2018 report found that all three major Manchester stations are among the top ten worst stations in the United Kingdom for punctuality, with Oxford Road deemed the worst in the country. ### Metrolink (tram) Manchester became the first city in the UK to acquire a modern light rail tram system when the Manchester Metrolink opened in 1992. In 2016–2017, 37.8 million passenger journeys were made on the system. The present system mostly runs on former commuter rail lines converted for light rail use, and crosses the city centre via on-street tram lines. The network consists of eight lines with 99 stops. A new line to the Trafford Centre opened in 2020. Manchester city centre is also serviced by over a dozen heavy and light rail-based park and ride sites. ### Bus The city has one of the most extensive bus networks outside London, with over 50 bus companies operating in the Greater Manchester region radiating from the city. In 2011, 80 per cent of public transport journeys in Greater Manchester were made by bus, amounting to 220 million passenger journeys each year. After deregulation in 1986, the bus system was taken over by GM Buses, which after privatisation was split into GM Buses North and GM Buses South. Later these were taken over by First Greater Manchester and Stagecoach Manchester. Much of the First Greater Manchester business was sold to Diamond North West and Go North West in 2019. Go North West operate a three-route zero-fare Manchester Metroshuttle, which carries 2.8 million commuters a year around Manchester's business districts. Stagecoach Manchester is the Stagecoach Group's largest subsidiary and operates around 690 buses. ### Air Manchester Airport serves Manchester, Northern England and North Wales. The airport is the third busiest in the United Kingdom, with over double the number of annual passengers of the next busiest non-London airport. Services cover many destinations in Europe, North America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia (with more destinations from Manchester than any other airport in Britain). A second runway was opened in 2001 and there have been continued terminal improvements. The airport has the highest rating available: "Category 10", encompassing an elite group of airports able to handle "Code F" aircraft, including the Airbus A380 and Boeing 747-8. From September 2010 the airport became one of only 17 airports in the world and the only UK airport other than Heathrow Airport and Gatwick Airport to operate the Airbus A380. A smaller City Airport Manchester exists 9.3 km (6 mi) to the west of Manchester city centre. It was Manchester's first municipal airport and became the site of the first air traffic control tower in the UK, and the first municipal airfield in the UK to be licensed by the Air Ministry. Today, private charter flights and general aviation use City. It also has a flight school, and both the Greater Manchester Police Air Support Unit and the North West Air Ambulance have helicopters based there. ### Canal An extensive canal network, including the Manchester Ship Canal, was built to carry freight from the Industrial Revolution onward; the canals are still maintained, though now largely repurposed for leisure use. In 2012, plans were approved to introduce a water taxi service between Manchester city centre and MediaCityUK at Salford Quays. It ceased to operate in June 2018, citing poor infrastructure. ### Cycling Cycling for transportation and leisure enjoys popularity in Manchester and the city also plays a major role in British cycle racing. ## Culture ### Music Bands that have emerged from the Manchester music scene include Van der Graaf Generator, Oasis, the Smiths, Joy Division and its successor group New Order, Buzzcocks, the Stone Roses, the Fall, the Durutti Column, 10cc, Godley & Creme, the Verve, Elbow, Doves, the Charlatans, M People, the 1975, Simply Red, Take That, Dutch Uncles, Everything Everything, Pale Waves, and the Outfield. Manchester was credited as the main driving force behind British indie music of the 1980s led by the Smiths, later including the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets, and James. The later groups came from what became known as the "Madchester" scene that also centred on The Haçienda nightclub developed by the founder of Factory Records, Tony Wilson. Although from southern England, the Chemical Brothers subsequently formed in Manchester. Former Smiths frontman Morrissey, whose lyrics often refer to Manchester locations and culture, later found international success as a solo artist. Previously, notable Manchester acts of the 1960s include the Hollies, Herman's Hermits, and Davy Jones of the Monkees (famed in the mid-1960s for their albums and their American TV show), and the earlier Bee Gees, who grew up in Chorlton. Another notable contemporary band from near Manchester is the Courteeners consisting of Liam Fray and four close friends. Singer-songwriter Ren Harvieu is also from Greater Manchester. Its main pop music venue is Manchester Arena, voted "International Venue of the Year" in 2007. With over 21,000 seats, it is the largest arena of its type in Europe. In terms of concertgoers, it is the busiest indoor arena in the world, ahead of Madison Square Garden in New York and The O2 Arena in London, which are second and third busiest. Other venues include Manchester Apollo, Albert Hall, Victoria Warehouse and the Manchester Academy. Smaller venues include the Band on the Wall, the Night and Day Café, the Ruby Lounge, and The Deaf Institute. Manchester also has the most indie and rock music events outside London. Manchester has two symphony orchestras, The Hallé and the BBC Philharmonic, and a chamber orchestra, the Manchester Camerata. In the 1950s, the city was home to a so-called "Manchester School" of classical composers, which was composed of Harrison Birtwistle, Peter Maxwell Davies, David Ellis and Alexander Goehr. Manchester is a centre for musical education: the Royal Northern College of Music and Chetham's School of Music. Forerunners of the RNCM were the Northern School of Music (founded 1920) and the Royal Manchester College of Music (founded 1893), which merged in 1973. One of the earliest instructors and classical music pianists/conductors at the RNCM, shortly after its founding, was the Russian-born Arthur Friedheim, (1859–1932), who later had the music library at the famed Peabody Institute conservatory of music in Baltimore, Maryland, named after him. The main classical music venue was the Free Trade Hall on Peter Street until the opening in 1996 of the 2,500 seat Bridgewater Hall. Brass band music, a tradition in the north of England, is important to Manchester's musical heritage; some of the UK's leading bands, such as the CWS Manchester Band and the Fairey Band, are from Manchester and surrounding areas, and the Whit Friday brass-band contest takes place annually in the neighbouring areas of Saddleworth and Tameside. ### Performing arts Manchester has a thriving theatre, opera and dance scene, with a number of large performance venues, including Manchester Opera House, which feature large-scale touring shows and West End productions; the Palace Theatre; and the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester's former cotton exchange, which is the largest theatre in the round in the UK. Smaller venues include the Contact Theatre and Z-arts in Hulme. The Dancehouse on Oxford Road is dedicated to dance productions. In 2014, HOME, a new custom-built arts complex opened. Housing two theatre spaces, five cinemas and an art exhibition space, it replaced the Cornerhouse and The Library Theatre. Since 2007 the city has hosted the Manchester International Festival, a biennial international arts festival with a focus on original work, which has included major new commissions by artists, including Bjork. A government statement in 2014 announced a £78 million grant for a new "large-scale, ultra-flexible arts space" for the city. Later the council stated it had secured a further £32 million. The £110 million venue was confirmed in July 2016. The theatre, to be called The Factory, after Manchester's Factory Records, will provide a permanent home for the Manchester International Festival. It is due to open at the end of 2019. ### Museums and galleries Manchester's museums celebrate Manchester's Roman history, rich industrial heritage and its role in the Industrial Revolution, the textile industry, the Trade Union movement, women's suffrage and football. A reconstructed part of the Roman fort of Mamucium is open to the public in Castlefield. The Science and Industry Museum, housed in the former Liverpool Road railway station, has a large collection of steam locomotives, industrial machinery, aircraft and a replica of the world's first stored computer program (known as the Manchester Baby). The Museum of Transport displays a collection of historic buses and trams. Trafford Park in the neighbouring borough of Trafford is home to Imperial War Museum North. The Manchester Museum opened to the public in the 1880s, has notable Egyptology and natural history collections. Other exhibition spaces and museums in Manchester include Islington Mill in Salford, the National Football Museum at Urbis, Castlefield Gallery, the Manchester Costume Gallery at Platt Fields Park, the People's History Museum and the Manchester Jewish Museum. The municipally owned Manchester Art Gallery in Mosley Street houses a permanent collection of European painting and one of Britain's main collections of Pre-Raphaelite paintings. In the south of the city, the Whitworth Art Gallery displays modern art, sculpture and textiles and was voted Museum of the Year in 2015. The work of Stretford-born painter L. S. Lowry, known for "matchstick" paintings of industrial Manchester and Salford, can be seen in the City and Whitworth Manchester galleries, and at the Lowry art centre in Salford Quays (in the neighbouring borough of Salford), which devotes a large permanent exhibition to his works. ### Literature Manchester is a UNESCO City of Literature known for a "radical literary history". Manchester in the 19th century featured in works highlighting the changes that industrialisation had brought. They include Elizabeth Gaskell's novel Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life (1848), and studies such as The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 by Friedrich Engels, while living and working here. Manchester was the meeting place of Engels and Karl Marx. The two began writing The Communist Manifesto in Chetham's Library – founded in 1653 and claiming to be the oldest public library in the English-speaking world. Elsewhere in the city, the John Rylands Library holds an extensive collection of early printing. The Rylands Library Papyrus P52, believed to be the earliest extant New Testament text, is on permanent display there. Letitia Landon's poetical illustration Manchester to a vista over the city by G. Pickering in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1835, records the rapid growth of the city and its cultural importance. Charles Dickens is reputed to have set his novel Hard Times in the city, and though partly modelled on Preston, it shows the influence of his friend Mrs Gaskell. Gaskell penned all her novels but Mary Barton at her home in 84 Plymouth Grove. Often her house played host to influential authors: Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Charles Eliot Norton, for example. It is now open as a literary museum. Charlotte Brontë began writing her novel Jane Eyre in 1846, while staying at lodgings in Hulme. She was accompanying her father Patrick, who was convalescing in the city after cataract surgery. She probably envisioned Manchester Cathedral churchyard as the burial place for Jane's parents and the birthplace of Jane herself. Also associated with the city is the Victorian poet and novelist Isabella Banks, famed for her 1876 novel The Manchester Man. Anglo-American author Frances Hodgson Burnett was born in the city's Cheetham Hill district in 1849, and wrote much of her classic children's novel The Secret Garden while visiting nearby Salford's Buile Hill Park. Anthony Burgess is among the 20th-century writers who made Manchester their home. He wrote here the dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange in 1962. Dame Carol Ann Duffy, Poet Laureate from 2009 to 2019, moved to the city in 1996 and lives in West Didsbury. ### Nightlife The night-time economy of Manchester has expanded significantly since about 1993, with investment from breweries in bars, public houses and clubs, along with active support from the local authorities. The more than 500 licensed premises in the city centre have a capacity to deal with more than 250,000 visitors, with 110,000–130,000 people visiting on a typical weekend night, making Manchester the most popular city for events at 79 per thousand people. The night-time economy has a value of about £100 million, and supports 12,000 jobs. The Madchester scene of the 1980s, from which groups including the Stone Roses, the Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets, 808 State, James and the Charlatans emerged, was based around clubs such as The Haçienda. The period was the subject of the movie 24 Hour Party People. Many of the big clubs suffered problems with organised crime at that time; Haslam describes one where staff were so completely intimidated that free admission and drinks were demanded (and given) and drugs were openly dealt. Following a series of drug-related violent incidents, The Haçienda closed in 1997. ### Gay village Public houses in the Canal Street area have had an LGBTQ+ clientele since at least 1940, and now form the centre of Manchester's LGBTQ+ community. Since the opening of new bars and clubs, the area attracts 20,000 visitors each weekend and has hosted a popular festival, Manchester Pride, each August since 1995. ## Education There are three universities in the City of Manchester. The University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University and Royal Northern College of Music. The University of Manchester is the second largest full-time non-collegiate university in the United Kingdom, created in 2004 by the merger of Victoria University of Manchester, founded in 1904, and UMIST, founded in 1956, having developed from the Mechanics' Institute founded, as indicated in the university's logo, in 1824. The University of Manchester includes the Manchester Business School, which offered the first MBA course in the UK in 1965. Manchester Metropolitan University was formed as Manchester Polytechnic on the merger of three colleges in 1970. It gained university status in 1992, and in the same year absorbed Crewe and Alsager College of Higher Education in South Cheshire. The Cheshire campus permanently closed in 2019. The University of Law, the largest provider of vocation legal training in Europe, has a campus in the city. The three universities are grouped around Oxford Road on the southern side of the city centre, which forms Europe's largest urban higher-education precinct. Together they have a combined population of over 80,000 students as of 2022. One of Manchester's notable secondary schools is Manchester Grammar School. Established in 1515, as a free grammar school next to what is now the cathedral, it moved in 1931 to Old Hall Lane in Fallowfield, south Manchester, to accommodate the growing student body. In the post-war period, it was a direct grant grammar school (i.e. partially state funded), but it reverted to independent status in 1976 after abolition of the direct-grant system. Its previous premises are now used by Chetham's School of Music. There are three schools nearby: William Hulme's Grammar School, Withington Girls' School and Manchester High School for Girls. In 2019, the Manchester Local Education Authority was ranked second to last out of Greater Manchester's ten LEAs and 140th out of 151 in the country LEAs based on the percentage of pupils attaining grades 4 or above in English and mathematics GCSEs (General Certificate of Secondary Education) with 56.2 per cent compared with the national average of 64.9 per cent. Of the 63 secondary schools in the LEA, four had 80 per cent or more pupils achieving Grade 4 or above in English and maths GCSEs: Manchester High School for Girls, The King David High School, Manchester Islamic High School for Girls, and Kassim Darwish Grammar School for Boys. ## Sport Two Premier League football clubs bear the city's name – Manchester City and Manchester United. Manchester City's home is the City of Manchester Stadium in east Manchester, built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games and then reconfigured as a football ground in 2003. Manchester United and Lancashire County Cricket Club, although commonly associated with Manchester, are based in the neighbouring metropolitan borough of Trafford. Sporting facilities built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games include the City of Manchester Stadium, National Squash Centre and Manchester Aquatics Centre. Manchester has competed twice to host the Olympic Games, beaten by Atlanta for 1996 and Sydney for 2000. The National Cycling Centre includes a velodrome, BMX Arena and Mountainbike trials, and is the home of British Cycling, UCI ProTeam Team Sky and Sky Track Cycling. The Manchester Velodrome, built as a part of the bid for the 2000 games, has become a catalyst for British success in cycling. The velodrome hosted the UCI Track Cycling World Championships for a record third time in 2008. The National Indoor BMX Arena (2,000 capacity) adjacent to the velodrome opened in 2011. The Manchester Arena hosted the FINA World Swimming Championships in 2008. Manchester hosted the World Squash Championships in 2008, the 2010 World Lacrosse Championship, the 2013 Ashes series, 2013 Rugby League World Cup , 2015 Rugby World Cup and 2019 Cricket World Cup. ## Media ### Print The Guardian newspaper was founded in the city in 1821 as The Manchester Guardian. Until 2008, its head office was still in the city, though many of its management functions were moved to London in 1964. For many years most national newspapers had offices in Manchester: The Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, The Sun. At its height, 1,500 journalists were employed, earning the city the nickname "second Fleet Street". In the 1980s the titles closed their northern offices and centred their operations in London. The main regional newspaper in the city is the Manchester Evening News, which was for over 80 years the sister publication of The Manchester Guardian. The Manchester Evening News has the largest circulation of a UK regional evening newspaper and is distributed free of charge in the city centre on Thursdays and Fridays, but paid for in the suburbs. Despite its title, it is available all day. Several local weekly free papers are distributed by the MEN group. The Metro North West is available free at Metrolink stops, rail stations and other busy locations. An attempt to launch a Northern daily newspaper, the North West Times, employing journalists made redundant by other titles, closed in 1988. Another attempt was made with the North West Enquirer, which hoped to provide a true "regional" newspaper for the North West, much in the same vein as the Yorkshire Post does for Yorkshire or The Northern Echo does for the North East; it folded in October 2006. ### Television Manchester has been a centre of television broadcasting since the 1950s. A number of television studios have been in operation around the city, and have since relocated to MediaCityUK in neighbouring Salford. The ITV franchise Granada Television has been based in Manchester since 1954. Now based at MediaCityUK, the company's former headquarters at Granada Studios on Quay Street with its distinctive illuminated sign were a prominent landmark on the Manchester skyline for several decades. Granada produces Coronation Street, local news and programmes for North West England. Although its influence has waned, Granada had been described as "the best commercial television company in the world". With the growth in regional television in the 1950s, Manchester became one of the BBC's three main centres in England. In 1954, the BBC opened its first regional BBC Television studio outside London, Dickenson Road Studios, in a converted Methodist chapel in Rusholme. The first edition of Top of the Pops was broadcast here on New Year's Day 1964. From 1975, BBC programmes including Mastermind, and Real Story, were made at New Broadcasting House on Oxford Road. The Cutting It series set in the city's Northern Quarter and The Street were set in Manchester as was Life on Mars. Manchester was the regional base for BBC One North West Region programmes before it relocated to MediaCityUK in nearby Salford Quays. The Manchester television channel, Channel M, owned by the Guardian Media Group operated from 2000, but closed in 2012. Manchester is also covered by two internet television channels: Quays News and Manchester.tv. The city had a new terrestrial channel from January 2014 when YourTV Manchester, which won the OFCOM licence bid in February 2013. It began its first broadcast, but in 2015, That's Manchester took over to air on 31 May and launched the freeview channel 8 service slot, before moving to channel 7 in April 2016. ### Radio The city has the highest number of local radio stations outside London, including BBC Radio Manchester, Hits Radio Manchester, Capital Manchester and Lancashire, Greatest Hits Radio Manchester & The North West, Heart North West, Smooth North West, Gold, Radio X, NMFM (North Manchester FM) and XS Manchester. Student radio stations include Fuse FM at the University of Manchester and MMU Radio at the Manchester Metropolitan University. A community radio network is coordinated by Radio Regen, with stations covering Ardwick, Longsight and Levenshulme (All FM 96.9) and Wythenshawe (Wythenshawe FM 97.2). Defunct radio stations include Sunset 102, which became Kiss 102, then Galaxy Manchester), and KFM which became Signal Cheshire (later Imagine FM). These stations and pirate radio played a significant role in the city's house music culture, the Madchester scene. ## International relations Manchester has formal twinning arrangements (or "friendship agreements") with several places. In addition, the British Council maintains a metropolitan centre in Manchester. - Amsterdam, Netherlands (2007) - Bilwi, Nicaragua - Chemnitz, Germany (1983) - Córdoba, Spain - Faisalabad, Pakistan (1997) - Los Angeles, United States (2009) - Rehovot, Israel - Saint Petersburg, Russia (1962) - Wuhan, People's Republic of China (1986) - Melbourne, Australia - Osaka, Japan Manchester is home to the largest group of consuls in the UK outside London. The expansion of international trade links during the Industrial Revolution led to the introduction of the first consuls in the 1820s and since then over 800, from all parts of the world, have been based in Manchester. Manchester hosts consular services for most of the north of England. ## See also - List of Freemen of the City of Manchester - Manchester dialect - Symbols of Manchester, including the city's worker bee motif - Tampere
5,025,187	Alabama Centennial half dollar	1,138,523,391	US commemorative coin	[ "Currencies introduced in 1921", "Eagles on coins", "Early United States commemorative coins", "Economy of Alabama", "Fifty-cent coins", "United States silver coins" ]	The Alabama Centennial half dollar, or Alabama half dollar, was a commemorative fifty-cent coin struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1921 as a belated acknowledgement of the 100th anniversary of Alabama's admission to the Union in 1819. The coin was created by Laura Gardin Fraser, the first woman credited with designing a coin. Alabama Congressman Lilius Bratton Rainey introduced legislation for a commemorative coin at the request of the state's centennial commission. The bill originally provided for commemorative quarters but was amended to provide for halves instead. The bill moved quickly through the legislative process and became the Act of May 10, 1920, with the signature of President Woodrow Wilson. The half dollars were not issued until October 1921, apparently because the initial decision to depict President Wilson, a Democrat, on the coin might be reversed depending on the results of the 1920 presidential election. After Republican Warren G. Harding won the presidency, the sponsors of the issue chose to depict William Bibb, the State of Alabama's first governor, and Thomas Kilby, its governor at the time of the centennial, thus making Governor Kilby the first living person to appear on a U.S. coin. To boost sales, a symbol, 2X2 (recognizing Alabama as the 22nd state) was included in the design for a minority of the coins; these are generally more expensive today. ## Inception Alabama was admitted to the Union in 1819, and celebrated its centennial in 1919. The Alabama Centennial Commission sponsored local celebrations in the state in 1919 and 1920, but was beginning to wind down its operations before it began the push for a centennial coin. Numismatists Anthony Swiatek and Walter Breen later speculated that the members heard of other states which had received or which sought a commemorative coin, and, out of local pride, wanted the same for Alabama. The coin would also help with fundraising, and the proceeds were to be used for "historical and monumental" purposes. Commission members persuaded local congressman Lilius Bratton Rainey to push for passage of a bill authorizing a coin. In 1920, commemorative coins were not sold by the government—Congress, in authorizing legislation, usually designated an organization which had the exclusive right to purchase them at face value and vend them to the public at a premium. Although not mentioned in the legislation, in the case of the Alabama Centennial half-dollar, the centennial commission was the authorized group. ## Legislation Rainey introduced legislation for an Alabama Centennial half-dollar in the House of Representatives on February 28, 1920, with the bill designated as H.R. 12824. It was referred to the Committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures, of which Indiana Congressman Albert Vestal was the chairman. That committee held hearings on the bill on March 26, 1920, as well as on the coinage proposal that would become the Pilgrim Tercentenary half dollar, with the Alabama coin the first order of business. Congressman Rainey, in his bill, had asked for 100,000 quarter dollars, and while addressing the committee stated that the sole criticism of his coinage proposal in the Alabama press was one article suggesting he should have asked for double the amount. The choice of denomination came as a surprise to committee member William A. Ashbrook of Ohio, a coin collector, who asked why Rainey was not asking for half dollars, as other states had. Rainey was amenable to that, and also accepted Ashbrook's discouragement when the Alabamian wanted to double the authorized number of coins. The committee voted to recommend Rainey's bill, with an amendment to provide for half dollars instead of quarters, and then proceeded to consider the Pilgrim proposal. Vestal had two days previously written to Treasury Secretary David F. Houston about the Pilgrim coin, and Houston responded that while his department had not opposed the Maine Centennial (previously approved by the committee) or Alabama coinage bills, the Treasury had concerns that issuing large numbers of different designs would aid fraudsters. Vestal issued a report on behalf of his committee on March 27, 1920, indicating his committee's support for the Alabama bill once amended, and attaching the note from Secretary Houston. The three coinage bills—Maine Centennial, Alabama Centennial, and Pilgrim Tercentenary—were considered in that order by the House of Representatives on April 21, 1920. As the Maine piece was considered, Ohio's Warren Gard asked questions about the bill's provisions, though he did not object to its passage. When the Alabama bill came to the floor, Vestal yielded time for a statement in favor from Rainey, which began with a brief explanation of the bill followed by a much longer paean to the glorious history of his home state, and his conclusion drew applause. Gard then questioned Vestal, and learned that another coin, the Pilgrim one, was next on the House's agenda. Gard expressed his concerns about commemorative coins, "but for the life of me I can not see what advantage there is for a State celebration to gather up a lot of coins with a particular stamp on them. It seems to me rather to cheapen the national coin. because it looks like an old-fashioned medal at a county fair rather than the half-dollar of the daddies, to use the old expression. I think that these propositions are open to serious objection, which, of course, should be voiced to the Secretary of the Treasury." Vestal agreed to pass on Gard's concerns to Secretary Houston, and the Alabama bill passed without dissent, to be followed by the Pilgrim one, again after questioning from Gard. The following day, April 22, 1920, the House notified the Senate of its passage of the Alabama bill. It was referred to the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency; on April 28, Connecticut's George P. McLean reported it back with a recommendation it pass. On May 3, McLean asked that the three coin bills (Maine, Alabama and Pilgrim) be considered by the Senate immediately, rather than waiting their turns, but Utah Senator Reed Smoot objected: Smoot's attempt to bring up an anti-dumping trade bill had just been objected to by Charles S. Thomas of Colorado. Smoot, however, stated if the bills had not been reached by about 2:00 pm, there would probably not be any objection. When McLean tried again to advance the coin bills, Kansas' Charles Curtis asked if there was any urgency. McLean replied that as the three coin bills were to mark ongoing anniversaries, there was a need to have them authorized and get the production process started. All three bills passed the Senate without opposition and the Alabama bill was enacted with the signature of President Woodrow Wilson on May 10, 1920. ## Preparation Alabama Governor Thomas Kilby had a three-member commission headed by Marie Bankhead Owen decide what design the state should recommend for the coins, and it solicited proposals from the public, but rejected all submissions. On June 1, 1920, Owen proposed to Kilby that one side have a depiction of the Alabama Capitol building and the other jugate heads of James Monroe (president at the time of Alabama's admission in 1819) and Woodrow Wilson (president in 1919). Kilby sent the proposal, which included rough sketches, to the Director of the Mint, Raymond T. Baker, who forwarded it to the Commission of Fine Arts for its opinion. Its sculptor-member, James Earle Fraser, designer of the Buffalo nickel, disliked the capitol as a subject, feeling that buildings never translated well to coins. When this went back through channels to Owen, her committee reconsidered the building, and on June 24 she wrote to Baker substituting a design based on the Seal of Alabama, focused upon the eagle that was then a part of it, and if that was not acceptable, Owen suggested the design of the half-dollar current in 1819. There the matter rested for an entire year. Swiatek and Breen described the Alabama half-dollar as caught up in the presidential election of 1920, as a Republican administration might not be willing to put the Democrat Wilson on a coin, or might insist on the new incumbent appearing, something likely to dampen sales in Alabama, part of the Democratic Solid South. The Republican, Ohio Senator Warren G. Harding, won the election and was inaugurated in March 1921. On June 29, 1921, Owen wrote to Baker, suggesting a new pair of honorees for the coin: Kilby, the state's chief executive at the time of the 1919 centennial, and the State of Alabama's first governor, William Bibb. Cartoonist Frank Spangler of the Montgomery Advertiser prepared sketches of the new design. At James Fraser's suggestion, the plaster models were created by his wife, Laura Gardin Fraser, who was a noted sculptor in her own right. She shipped her completed work to the Commission of Fine Arts on September 22, 1921, and gained members' approval; the models were then sent to the Philadelphia Mint for use in making coinage dies. Laura Fraser thus became the first woman to design a coin, not only of the U.S., but of any country. ## Design The obverse of the coin features jugate busts of Bibb, Alabama's first governor as a state, and the incumbent in 1919, Kilby. In so appearing, Kilby became the first living person depicted on a U.S. coin. Anthony Swiatek, in his volume on commemoratives, averred that the issuance was not controversial at the time, as the Act of May 16, 1866, that forbids the depiction of living people on currency was deemed to refer to paper money only, but Q. David Bowers wrote that the portrayal caused contemporary comment, for the position of the federal government (excepting some paper money issues of the 19th century) was that living people should not appear on U.S. money. A total of 22 stars flank the busts, symbolic of Alabama being the 22nd state; a message reinforced on those pieces bearing the inscription 2X2 in the obverse field. The X in that inscription alludes to the St. Andrew's cross on the flag of Alabama. The date, the names of the governors, and various other wordings appear towards the rim of the obverse. The reverse features an eagle, possessing arrows and a shield, but no olive branch to symbolically counter the instruments of war; matched branches and arrows are often present in heraldic depiction of eagles on coins. The eagle's beak holds an end of a ribbon on which is inscribed the Alabama state motto, "HERE WE REST" about which Swiatek and Breen, in their 1988 book jibed, "no pun intended about the sleepy Deep South". Bowers complained that the centennial dates on the reverse, plus the 1921 for the year of striking, lead to "a bewildering confusion of dates to the casual observer". Numismatic historian Don Taxay deemed the half-dollar "one of the most successful portrait coins in the commemorative series. The heads of Bibb and Kilby are true, and yet contain more than a touch of the ideal. They are beautifully related to each other. The eagle is equally fine". Art historian Cornelius Vermeule considered the Alabama coin "a good example of the trite motifs, partly real and partly symbolic, that go into one of these statehood commemoratives". He suggested that the use of the jugate portraits "recall that this classical device was first revived in American coinage on the Washington-Lafayette silver dollar of 1900." Vermeule concluded that "vigorous lettering has saved uninteresting portraits from weakening the reverse and the defiant eagle of the obverse is handled in a spirit worthy of Saint-Gaudens." ## Production, distribution, and collecting James Fraser had suggested to Fine Arts Commission chairman Moore that the Alabama committee be told that the Missouri Centennial half dollar issuers were having "2★4" placed on some of their coins, symbolizing Missouri being the 24th state and creating a second variety for collectors to obtain. Owen already knew of this, and "2X2" was placed on the obverse. A total of 6,006 half dollars was struck in October 1921, with six of them placed aside at Philadelphia for inspection and testing at the 1922 meeting of the annual Assay Commission. Alabama half dollars were first placed on sale on October 26, 1921, the day of President Harding's visit to Birmingham, Alabama, where he as a Mason laid the cornerstone for the city's new Masonic temple, and as president addressed a segregated crowd, urging improvement of race relations. Coins were sold from specially-built booths constructed just off the city's sidewalks. It is uncertain whether these coins bore the 2X2 or not. Official records show that all the coins struck in October were of the 2X2 variety, and this was long accepted by numismatic historians. However, one coin collector recalled buying two of the half dollars that day, and over fifty later, all of the plain variety, and averred that none of the 2X2 could have been sold in Birmingham on the first day. As Owen wrote that the first 5,000 received bore the mark, Swiatek concluded that 1,000 of the October mintage was of the plain variety, all that was for sale in Birmingham. In December, 64,038 more were minted, with 38 set aside for assay. These were recorded to be of the plain variety. Both 2X2 and plain coins were struck from the same die; the mark was ground off to allow coinage of plain pieces. Both varieties were sold by the centennial commission for \$1, and primarily went to citizens of Alabama; banks throughout the state vended them. When they could not be sold, 5,000 of the plain variety were returned to the Mint and melted. Although the 2X2 coins are only a tenth of the total mintage, they are considerably more common than that, as people were aware of their scarcity, with more saved and fewer spent in hard times. Bowers suggested that the mintage figures may be incorrect, and the 2X2 nearly as common as the plain variety. According to the deluxe edition of R. S. Yeoman's A Guide Book of United States Coins published in 2015, the Alabama half lists for between \$85 and \$650 without 2X2 and between \$170 and \$850 with, dependent on condition. A specimen of the plain in exceptional condition sold for \$7,344 in 2014. ## See also - Early United States commemorative coins - Half dollar (United States coin)
24,226,096	Brazilian cruiser Bahia	1,163,297,072	Brazilian Scout cruiser	[ "1909 ships", "Bahia-class cruisers", "Maritime incidents in Brazil", "Maritime incidents in July 1945", "Naval magazine explosions", "Ships built by Armstrong Whitworth", "Ships built on the River Tyne", "World War I cruisers of Brazil", "World War II cruisers of Brazil", "World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean" ]	Bahia was the lead ship of a two-vessel class of cruisers built for Brazil by the British company Armstrong Whitworth. Crewmen mutinied in November 1910 aboard Bahia, Deodoro, Minas Geraes, and São Paulo, beginning the four-day Revolta da Chibata (Revolt of the Lash). Brazil's capital city of Rio de Janeiro was held hostage by the possibility of a naval bombardment, leading the government to give in to the rebel demands which included the abolition of flogging in the navy. During the First World War, Bahia and its sister ship Rio Grande do Sul were assigned to the Divisão Naval em Operações de Guerra (Naval Division in War Operations), the Brazilian Navy's main contribution in that conflict. The squadron was based in Sierra Leone and Dakar and escorted convoys through an area believed to be heavily patrolled by U-boats. Bahia was extensively modernized in the mid-1920s. It received three new Brown–Curtis turbine engines and six new Thornycroft boilers, and it was converted from coal-burning to oil. The refit resulted in a striking aesthetic change, with the exhaust being trunked into three funnels instead of two. The armament was also modified, adding three 20 mm (0.79 in) Madsen autocannons, a 7 mm (0.28 in) Hotchkiss machine gun, and four 533 mm (21.0 in) torpedo tubes. In the 1930s, it served with government forces during multiple revolutions. In the Second World War, Bahia was once again used as a convoy escort, sailing over 100,000 nautical miles (190,000 km; 120,000 mi) in the span of about a year. On 4 July 1945, it was acting as a plane guard for transport aircraft flying from the Atlantic to Pacific theaters of war. Bahia's gunners were firing at a kite for anti-aircraft practice when one aimed too low and hit depth charges stored near the stern of the ship, resulting in a massive explosion that incapacitated the ship and sank it within minutes. Only a few of the crew survived the blast, and fewer still were alive when their rafts were discovered days later. ## Construction and commissioning Bahia was part of a large 1904 naval building program by Brazil. Also planned as part of this were the two Minas Geraes-class dreadnoughts, ten Pará-class destroyers, three submarines and a submarine tender. With a design that borrowed heavily from the British Adventure-class scout cruisers, Bahia's keel was laid on 19 August 1907 in Armstrong Whitworth's Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne yard. Construction took about a year and a half, and she was launched on 20 January 1909 with Madame Altino Correia being the sponsor on behalf of Madame Dr. Araugo Pinho. The process of fitting out pushed its completion date to 2 March 1910, after which it sailed to Brazil and arrived in Recife on 6 May. The new cruiser—the third ship of the Brazilian Navy to honor the state of Bahia—was commissioned into the navy shortly thereafter on 21 May 1910. As a class, Bahia and Rio Grande do Sul were the fastest cruisers in the world when they were commissioned, and the first in the Brazilian Navy to utilize steam turbines for propulsion. ## Mutiny Brazil's economy was suffering from a severe recession at the same time Bahia was commissioned. This economic hardship, the racism prevalent in all branches of the Brazilian armed forces, and the severe discipline enforced on all navy ships, spawned a mutiny known as the Revolta da Chibata (Revolt of the Lash) among sailors on the most powerful ships. Unhappy with the violent treatment they were receiving, black sailors on the dreadnought battleship Minas Geraes began planning an uprising early in 1910, choosing João Cândido Felisberto—an experienced sailor later known as the "Black Admiral"—as their leader. In mid-November, a sailor was sentenced to be flogged in front of his fellow sailors, even though the practice had been banned by law. The punishment was administered and continued even after the sailor fainted, infuriating the nascent mutineers. Although they were not ready and could not revolt immediately, they quickened their preparations and rebelled on 21 November, earlier than originally planned. They killed several officers and the captain of Minas Geraes, while other officers were forced off the ship. The revolt quickly expanded to the battleship São Paulo, the elderly coastal defense ship Deodoro, and Bahia. While joining the revolt, the crew of the scout cruiser murdered one of their officers. During this time, discipline on the rebelling ships was not relaxed; daily drills were conducted and Felisberto ordered all liquor to be thrown overboard. The crews of the torpedo boats remained loyal to the government, and army troops moved to the presidential palace and the coastline, but neither group could stop the mutineers. The fact that many who manned Rio de Janeiro's harbor defenses were sympathetic to the mutineers' cause, coupled with chance that the capital might be bombarded by the mutinous ships, forced the National Congress of Brazil to give in to the rebels' demands. These included the abolition of flogging, improved living conditions, and the granting of amnesty to all mutineers. The government also issued official pardons and a statement of regret; its submission resulted in the rebellion's end on 26 November, when control of the four ships was handed back to the navy. ## First World War In the opening years of the First World War, the Brazilian Navy was sent out to patrol the South Atlantic with French, British and American naval units, although its ships were not supposed to engage any threat outside territorial waters as Brazil was not at war with the Central Powers. The country also tried to ensure that it remained totally neutral; Bahia and Rio Grande do Sul were sent to Santos in August 1914 to enforce neutrality laws when it was reported that the German raider Bremen was lying in wait off that port for British and American merchant ships. Brazil joined the Entente and declared war on the Central Powers on 26 October 1917. On 21 December 1917, the Brazilian Navy—at the behest of the British—formed a small naval force with the intent of sending it to the other side of the Atlantic. On 30 January 1918, Bahia was made the flagship of the newly organized Divisão Naval em Operações de Guerra (Naval Division in War Operations, abbreviated as DNOG), under the command of Rear Admiral Pedro Max Fernando Frontin. The other ships assigned to the squadron were Bahia's sister Rio Grande do Sul, Pará-class destroyers Piauí, Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte and Santa Catarina, tender Belmonte, and tugboat Laurindo Pita. The DNOG sailed for the British colony of Sierra Leone on 31 July. Since other allied countries helped with logistics, little was provided by Brazil aside from the ships themselves and the men crewing them. Despite the threat of a U-boat attack, they were forced to stop several times so Belmonte could transfer necessities such as coal and water to the other ships. They reached Freetown safely on 9 August and remained in the port until 23 August when they departed for Dakar. While on this section of the voyage, Bahia, Rio Grande do Sul, Rio Grande do Norte, Belmonte and Laurindo Pita spotted an apparent torpedo heading for Belmonte, but it missed. Rio Grande do Norte then fired several shots and depth-charged what the force believed to be a U-boat. While the official Brazilian history of the ship definitively claims to have sunk a submarine, author Robert Scheina notes that this action was never confirmed, and works published about U-boat losses in the war do not agree. After arriving in Dakar on 26 August, the DNOG was tasked with patrolling a triangle with corners at Dakar, Cape Verde and Gibraltar; the Allies believed that this area was rife with U-boats waiting for convoys to pass through. As such, the Brazilian unit's mission was to patrol for mines laid by German minelaying submarines and to make sure that convoys passing through would be safe. Complications arose when both Bahia and Rio Grande do Sul had problems with their condensers, a matter which was made much worse by the hot, tropical climate in which the ships were serving. In early September, the squadron was struck by the Spanish flu pandemic. The contagion began aboard Bahia, spread to the other ships of the squadron and remained present for seven weeks. At one point, 95% of some of the ships' crews were infected; 103 died overseas, and 250 died in Brazil after returning there. On 3 November, Bahia, three of the four destroyers, and the tugboat were sent to Gibraltar for operations in the Mediterranean Sea. They arrived on 9 or 10 November, escorted by the American destroyer Israel, but the fighting ceased on the 11th when the Armistice with Germany was signed. Sometime in early 1919, Bahia, accompanied by four destroyers, voyaged to Portsmouth, England; they then traveled across the English Channel to Cherbourg, arriving there on 15 February. The commander of the squadron, Admiral Pedro Max Fernando Frontin, met with the Maritime Prefect prior to the commencement of "social events"; these lasted until 23 February, when the ships moved to Toulon and Frontin journeyed overland to Paris. The DNOG was dissolved on 25 August 1919. ## Modernization and inter-war years In 1925–26, Bahia underwent significant modernization. The original five turbines were replaced by three Brown–Curtis turbines, while the original ten boilers were replaced by six Thornycroft oil-burning boilers, which necessitated the addition of a third funnel. The former coal bunkers, along with some of the space freed up by the decrease in boilers, were converted to hold 588,120 litres (155,360 US gal) of oil. These modifications resulted in Bahia's top speed increasing to 28 knots (52 km/h). All of the boats on board were replaced, and three 20 mm (0.79 in) Madsen guns, a 7 mm (0.28 in) Hotchkiss machine gun, and four 533 mm (21.0 in) torpedo tubes were added to give the ship a defense against aircraft and more power against surface ships, respectively. Still, in 1930 The New York Times labeled Bahia and the other warships in Brazil's navy as "obsolete" and noted that nearly all were "older than the ages considered effective by powers signatory to the Washington and London Naval Treaties." On 28 June 1926, the Ludington Daily News reported that Bahia would pay a visit to Philadelphia, accepting an invitation from the United States government to participate in the sesquicentennial celebrations. In mid-1930, Bahia and Rio Grande do Sul—under the command of Heráclito Belford Gomes—escorted Brazil's President-elect Júlio Prestes to the United States. Traveling on board the Brazilian-Lloyd ocean liner Almirante Jacequay, Prestes was returning American then-President-elect Herbert Hoover's visit to Brazil in December 1928. The cruisers USS Trenton and Marblehead met the three ships about 100 miles (160 km) off Sandy Hook and honored Prestes with a 21-gun salute. After spending five hours in the Ambrose Channel due to fog, Prestes traveled on a launch to a pier, during which Bahia rendered one 21-gun salute and Fort Jay offered two. After arriving ashore, he traveled to City Hall before speeding down to Washington, D.C. He stayed in the United States for eight days before departing for France on the White Star Line's . Bahia and Rio Grande do Sul were berthed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard for the visit. During the Brazilian Revolution of 1930, Bahia served with Rio Grande do Sul—until that ship defected—and five or six destroyers off the coast of Santa Catarina; they were once again commanded by Belford Gomes. Two years later, when the state of São Paulo rebelled in the Constitutionalist Revolution, Bahia—under the command of Frigate Captain Lucas Alexandre Boiteux—and other vessels blockaded the rebel-held port of Santos. Bahia was under repair from 1934 into 1935. In November 1935, Bahia and Rio Grande do Sul sailed to Natal, the capital of Rio Grande do Norte, to lend support against another rebellion. As part of their mission, they were ordered to sink the steamship Santos on sight, as several escaping leaders of the revolution were on board. From 17 to 22 May 1935, Bahia and Rio Grande do Sul—joined at an unknown point by the Argentine battleships Rivadavia and Moreno, the heavy cruisers Almirante Brown and Veinticinco de Mayo, and five destroyers—escorted São Paulo, with Brazilian President Getúlio Vargas embarked, up the Río de la Plata (River Plate) to Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. Vargas was returning visits from the presidents of Argentina and Uruguay, Agustín Pedro Justo and Gabriel Terra. Vargas and Justo planned to be present at the opening session of the Pan-American Commercial Conference on 26 May, and open a Chaco War peace conference, before São Paulo conveyed Vargas to Montevideo, Uruguay for meetings with Terra. On 2 March 1936, Bahia escorted Veinticinco de Mayo, which had the Argentine Navy Minister Rear Admiral Eleazar Videla embarked, and Almirante Brown in the last part of their journey to Rio de Janeiro. ## Second World War After Brazil's entrance into the Second World War on 21 August 1942, which took effect on 31 August, Bahia was used extensively during the Atlantic campaign for escorts and patrols; sources conflict as to the actual number—either 67 and 15 or 62 and 11. In total, it traveled 101,971 nmi (188,850 km; 117,346 mi) in 358 days, and played a role in shepherding over 700 merchant ships. It and Rio Grande do Sul were labeled by the United States Naval Institute's magazine Proceedings as being "oversized destroyers" that were "relatively slow". Bahia was modernized again twice during the war, in both 1942 and 1944; these modernizations were not as extensive as those of the 1920s. Two of its 47 mm (1.9 in) guns were replaced with 76 mm (3.0 in) L/23 AA guns, its Madsen guns were replaced with seven Oerlikon 20 mm cannons in single mounts, and a director for these guns was installed. Two depth charge tracks were added, improved range-finders were added to the 120 mm (4.7 in) guns, and sonar and radar were fitted, in addition to other minor modifications. The Brazilian Navy's official history of the ship reports these modifications, but does not specify which were undertaken in which year. On 3 June 1943, while Bahia was escorting the convoy BT 12, it located an underwater mine and destroyed it using a 20 mm (0.79 in) Madsen gun. On 10 July, while at , Bahia received a sonar contact and depth-charged what the Brazilian Navy's official history of the ship reports might have been the German submarine , which was sunk later that month in the same area (off Rio de Janeiro) by American and Brazilian aircraft. In November 1944, Bahia joined the American light cruiser Omaha and destroyer escort Gustafson in escorting the troopship General M. C. Meigs, which was carrying the 4th transportation of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force's troops heading to Italy. ### Loss Allied warships were assigned to patrol in the Atlantic as rescue ships at the end of hostilities in the European theater, stationed near routes frequented by military transport aircraft carrying personnel from Europe to the continuing war in the Pacific. Bahia was one such ship, stationed northeast of Brazil around near the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago on 4 July 1945. Crewmen were conducting anti-aircraft target practice, firing the ship's 20 mm guns at a kite that was being towed behind the ship. One of them shot it down, but also accidentally hit the depth charges on the stern; the ship lacked guide rails that would normally prevent the guns from being aimed at the ship. The resulting explosion knocked out all power on the ship and sank it in about three minutes. The survivors of the blast endured four or five days of no food, high temperatures, and full exposure to the sun on their makeshift rafts. The New York Times reported that some were driven mad by these conditions and simply jumped into the water, where they were devoured by sharks. From this point on, sources vary greatly. According to an article in Time magazine, Bahia's loss was not discovered until 8 July, when 22 survivors were picked up by the freighter Balfe. Naval historian Robert Scheina contends that the disaster was revealed when Rio Grande do Sul arrived on station four days after the sinking to take Bahia's place and could not find it. Sources also disagree on the number rescued and final death toll. The official history of the ship gives 36 rescued and 336 dead, and the Navios de Guerra Brasileiros gives 36 and 339. Contemporaneous news articles also published varying numbers; The Evening Independent stated that the ship carried 383 men, though it did not give any more information. The New York Times gave figures of 28 saved and 347 lost, while the St. Petersburg Times gave 32 and 395. Sources do agree that four American sound technicians were killed. Rescued crewmen believed that they had hit a mine which detonated one of the ship's magazines. Vice Admiral Jorge Dodsworth Martins, Brazil's chief of naval intelligence, thought that Bahia could have been mined or torpedoed by , which surrendered under strange circumstances in Mar del Plata, Argentina on 10 July (some two months after Germany's surrender), but the Argentine Naval Ministry stated that it would have been impossible for the submarine to travel from the site of the sinking to Mar del Plata in six days (4–10 July). was also heading to Argentina seeking asylum, and it was also accused of sinking Bahia, but military investigations by the US and Brazilian navies concluded that the cruiser had been sunk due to the gunnery accident. ## See also - USS Indianapolis (CA-35), a U.S. heavy cruiser, also sunk in July 1945, whose survivors endured circumstances similar to Bahia's.
57,585	Casablanca (film)	1,172,329,572	1942 American romance film	[ "1940s English-language films", "1942 films", "1942 romantic drama films", "American World War II propaganda films", "American black-and-white films", "American films based on plays", "American historical romance films", "American romantic drama films", "Articles containing video clips", "Best Picture Academy Award winners", "Casablanca (film)", "Films about anti-fascism", "Films about refugees", "Films about the French Resistance", "Films adapted into television shows", "Films directed by Michael Curtiz", "Films produced by Hal B. Wallis", "Films scored by Max Steiner", "Films set in 1940", "Films set in 1941", "Films set in Casablanca", "Films set in Paris", "Films shot in California", "Films whose director won the Best Directing Academy Award", "Films whose writer won the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award", "Films with screenplays by Howard Koch (screenwriter)", "Films with screenplays by Julius J. Epstein", "Films with screenplays by Philip G. Epstein", "United States National Film Registry films", "War romance films", "Warner Bros. films", "World War II films made in wartime" ]	Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, and starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid. Filmed and set during World War II, it focuses on an American expatriate (Bogart) who must choose between his love for a woman (Bergman) and helping her husband (Henreid), a Czechoslovak resistance leader, escape from the Vichy-controlled city of Casablanca to continue his fight against the Germans. The screenplay is based on Everybody Comes to Rick's, an unproduced stage play by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison. The supporting cast features Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Dooley Wilson. Warner Bros. story editor Irene Diamond convinced producer Hal B. Wallis to purchase the film rights to the play in January 1942. Brothers Julius and Philip G. Epstein were initially assigned to write the script. However, despite studio resistance, they left to work on Frank Capra's Why We Fight series early in 1942. Howard Koch was assigned to the screenplay until the Epsteins returned a month later. Principal photography began on May 25, 1942, ending on August 3; the film was shot entirely at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California, with the exception of one sequence at Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles. Although Casablanca was an A-list film with established stars and first-rate writers, no one involved with its production expected it to stand out among the hundreds of pictures produced by Hollywood yearly. Casablanca was rushed into release to take advantage of the publicity from the Allied invasion of North Africa a few weeks earlier. It had its world premiere on November 26, 1942, in New York City and was released nationally in the United States on January 23, 1943. The film was a solid if unspectacular success in its initial run. Exceeding expectations, Casablanca went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, while Curtiz was selected as Best Director and the Epsteins and Koch were honored for Best Adapted Screenplay. Its reputation has gradually grown, to the point that its lead characters, memorable lines, and pervasive theme song have all become iconic, and it consistently ranks near the top of lists of the greatest films in history. In 1989, the United States Library of Congress selected the film as one of the first for preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". ## Plot In December 1941, American expatriate Rick Blaine owns a nightclub and gambling den in Casablanca. "Rick's Café Américain" attracts a varied clientele, including Vichy French and Nazi German officials, refugees desperate to reach the neutral United States, and those who prey on them. Although Rick professes to be neutral in all matters, he ran guns to Ethiopia in 1935 and fought on the Loyalist side in the Spanish Civil War. Petty crook Ugarte boasts to Rick of letters of transit obtained by murdering two German couriers. The papers allow the bearers to travel freely around German-occupied Europe and to neutral Portugal. Ugarte plans to sell them at the club and persuades Rick to hold them. Before he can meet his contact, Ugarte is arrested by the local police under Captain Louis Renault, the unabashedly corrupt prefect of police. Ugarte dies in custody without revealing that Rick has the letters. Then the reason for Rick's cynical nature—former lover Ilsa Lund—enters his establishment. Spotting Rick's friend and house pianist, Sam, Ilsa asks him to play "As Time Goes By". Rick storms over, furious that Sam disobeyed his order never to perform that song again, and is stunned to see Ilsa. She is accompanied by her husband, Victor Laszlo, a renowned fugitive Czechoslovak Resistance leader. A flashback reveals Ilsa left Rick without explanation when the couple were planning to flee as the German army neared Paris, embittering Rick. Laszlo and Ilsa need the letters to escape, while German Major Strasser arrives in Casablanca to prevent just that. When Laszlo makes inquiries, Signor Ferrari, an underworld figure and Rick's friendly business rival, divulges his suspicion that Rick has the letters. Laszlo returns to Rick's cafe that night and tries to buy them. Rick refuses to sell, telling Laszlo to ask his wife why. They are interrupted when Strasser leads a group of German officers in singing "Die Wacht am Rhein". Laszlo orders the house band to play "La Marseillaise". When the bandleader looks to Rick, the latter nods, and Laszlo begins to sing. Patriotic fervor grips the crowd, and everyone joins in, drowning out the Germans. Afterwards, Strasser has Renault close the club on a flimsy pretext. Later, Ilsa confronts Rick in the deserted café; when he refuses to give her the letters, she threatens him with a gun but then confesses that she still loves him. She explains that when they met and fell in love in Paris in 1940, she believed her husband had been killed attempting to escape from a concentration camp. Then she learned that Laszlo was alive and hiding near Paris. She left Rick without explanation to nurse her sick husband. Rick's bitterness dissolves. He agrees to help, letting her believe she will stay with him when Laszlo leaves. When Laszlo unexpectedly shows up, having narrowly escaped a police raid on a Resistance meeting, Rick has waiter Carl spirit Ilsa away. Laszlo, aware of Rick's love for Ilsa, tries to persuade him to use the letters to take her to safety. When the police arrest Laszlo on a trumped-up charge, Rick persuades Renault to release him by promising to set him up for a much more serious crime: possession of the letters. To allay Renault's suspicions, Rick explains that he and Ilsa will use the letters to leave for America. When Renault tries to arrest Laszlo as arranged, however, Rick forces him at gunpoint to assist in their escape. At the last moment, Rick makes Ilsa board the plane to Lisbon with Laszlo, telling her that she would regret it if she stayed, "Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life." Strasser, tipped off by Renault, drives up alone. When Strasser attempts to stop the plane, Rick shoots him dead. Policemen arrive. Renault pauses, then orders them to "round up the usual suspects." He suggests to Rick that they join the Free French in Brazzaville. As they walk away into the fog, Rick says, "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." ## Cast The play's cast consisted of 16 speaking parts and several extras; the film script enlarged it to 22 speaking parts and hundreds of extras. The cast is notably international: only three of the credited actors were born in the United States (Bogart, Dooley Wilson, and Joy Page). The top-billed actors are: - Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine - Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund. Bergman's official website calls Ilsa her "most famous and enduring role". The Swedish actress's Hollywood debut in Intermezzo had been well received, but her subsequent films were not major successes until Casablanca. Film critic Roger Ebert called her "luminous", and commented on the chemistry between her and Bogart: "she paints his face with her eyes". Other actresses considered for the role of Ilsa included Ann Sheridan, Hedy Lamarr, Luise Rainer, and Michèle Morgan. Producer Hal Wallis obtained the services of Bergman, who was contracted to David O. Selznick, by lending Olivia de Havilland in exchange. - Paul Henreid as Victor Laszlo. Henreid, an Austrian actor who had emigrated in 1935, was reluctant to take the role (it "set [him] as a stiff forever", according to Pauline Kael), until he was promised top billing along with Bogart and Bergman. Henreid did not get on well with his fellow actors; he considered Bogart "a mediocre actor"; Bergman called Henreid a "prima donna". The second-billed actors are: - Claude Rains as Captain Louis Renault - Conrad Veidt as Major Heinrich Strasser. Veidt was a refugee German actor who had fled the Nazis with his Jewish wife, but frequently played Nazis in American films. He was the highest paid member of the cast despite his second billing. - Sydney Greenstreet as Signor Ferrari - Peter Lorre as Signor Ugarte Also credited are: - Curt Bois as the pickpocket. Bois had one of the longest careers in cinema, spanning over 80 years. - Leonid Kinskey as Sascha, the Russian bartender infatuated with Yvonne. Kinskey told Aljean Harmetz, author of Round Up the Usual Suspects: The Making of Casablanca, that he was cast because he was Bogart's drinking buddy. He was not the first choice for the role; he replaced Leo Mostovoy, who was deemed not funny enough. - Madeleine Lebeau as Yvonne, Rick's soon-discarded girlfriend. Lebeau was a French refugee who had left Nazi-occupied Europe with her husband Marcel Dalio, who was a fellow Casablanca performer. She was the last surviving cast member until her death on May 1, 2016. - Joy Page, the step-daughter of studio head Jack L. Warner, as Annina Brandel, the young Bulgarian refugee - John Qualen as Berger, Laszlo's Resistance contact - S. Z. Sakall (credited as S. K. Sakall) as Carl, the waiter - Dooley Wilson as Sam. Wilson was one of the few American-born members of the cast. A drummer, he had to fake playing the piano. Even after shooting had been completed, producer Wallis considered dubbing over Wilson's voice for the songs. Notable uncredited actors are: - Marcel Dalio as Emil the croupier. Dalio had been a star in French cinema, appearing in Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion and La Règle du Jeu - Helmut Dantine as Jan Brandel, the Bulgarian roulette player married to Annina Brandel - Gregory Gaye as the German banker who is refused entry to the casino by Rick - Torben Meyer as the Dutch banker who runs "the second largest banking house in Amsterdam" - Corinna Mura as the guitar player who sings "Tango Delle Rose" (or "Tango de la Rosa") and later accompanies the crowd on "La Marseillaise" - Frank Puglia as a Moroccan rug merchant - Richard Ryen as Colonel Heinze, Strasser's aide - Dan Seymour as Abdul the doorman - Gerald Oliver Smith as the Englishman whose wallet is stolen - Norma Varden as the Englishwoman whose husband has his wallet stolen Much of the emotional impact of the film, for the audience in 1942, has been attributed to the large proportion of European exiles and refugees who were extras or played minor roles (in addition to leading actors Paul Henreid, Conrad Veidt and Peter Lorre), such as Louis V. Arco, Trude Berliner, Ilka Grünig, Ludwig Stössel, Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, and Wolfgang Zilzer. A witness to the filming of the "duel of the anthems" sequence said he saw many of the actors crying and "realized that they were all real refugees". Harmetz argues that they "brought to a dozen small roles in Casablanca an understanding and a desperation that could never have come from Central Casting". Even though many were Jewish or refugees from the Nazis (or both), they were frequently cast as Nazis in various war films, because of their accents. Jack Benny may have appeared in an unbilled cameo, as was claimed by a contemporary newspaper advertisement and in the Casablanca press book. When asked in his column "Movie Answer Man", critic Roger Ebert first replied, "It looks something like him. That's all I can say." In a later column, he responded to a follow-up commenter, "I think you're right. The Jack Benny Fan Club can feel vindicated". ## Writing The film was based on Murray Burnett and Joan Alison's unproduced play Everybody Comes to Rick's. The Warner Bros. story analyst who read the play, Stephen Karnot, called it (approvingly) "sophisticated hokum" and story editor Irene Diamond, who had discovered the script on a trip to New York in 1941, convinced Hal Wallis to buy the rights in January 1942 for \$20,000 (), the most anyone in Hollywood had ever paid for an unproduced play. The project was renamed Casablanca, apparently in imitation of the 1938 hit Algiers. Casablanca also shares many narrative and thematic similarities with Algiers (1938), which itself is a remake of the acclaimed 1937 French film Pépé le Moko, directed and co-written by Julien Duvivier. The original play was inspired by a trip to Europe made by Murray Burnett and his wife in 1938, during which they visited Vienna shortly after the Anschluss and were affected by the antisemitism they saw. In the south of France, they went to a nightclub that had a multinational clientele, among them many exiles and refugees, and the prototype of Sam. In The Guardian, Paul Fairclough wrote that Cinema Vox in Tangier "was Africa's biggest when it opened in 1935, with 2,000 seats and a retractable roof. As Tangier was in Spanish territory [sic], the theatre's wartime bar heaved with spies, refugees and underworld hoods, securing its place in cinematic history as the inspiration for Rick's Cafe in Casablanca." The scene of the singing of "La Marseillaise" in the bar is attributed by the film scholar Julian Jackson as an adaptation of a similar scene from Jean Renoir's film La Grande Illusion five years prior. The first writers assigned to the script were twins Julius and Philip Epstein who, against the wishes of Warner Bros., left at Frank Capra's request early in 1942 to work on the Why We Fight series in Washington, D.C. While they were gone, the other credited writer, Howard Koch, was assigned; he produced thirty to forty pages. When the Epstein brothers returned after about a month, they were reassigned to Casablanca and—contrary to what Koch claimed in two published books—his work was not used. The Epstein brothers and Koch never worked in the same room at the same time during the writing of the script. In the final budget for the film, the Epsteins were paid \$30,416, () and Koch earned \$4,200 (). In the play, the Ilsa character is an American named Lois Meredith; she does not meet Laszlo until after her relationship with Rick in Paris has ended. Rick is a lawyer. The play (set entirely in the cafe) ends with Rick sending Lois and Laszlo to the airport. To make Rick's motivation more believable, Wallis, Curtiz, and the screenwriters decided to set the film before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The possibility was discussed of Laszlo being killed in Casablanca, allowing Rick and Ilsa to leave together, but as Casey Robinson wrote to Wallis before filming began, the ending of the film > "set up for a swell twist when Rick sends her away on the plane with Laszlo. For now, in doing so, he is not just solving a love triangle. He is forcing the girl to live up to the idealism of her nature, forcing her to carry on with the work that in these days is far more important than the love of two little people." It was certainly impossible for Ilsa to leave Laszlo for Rick, as the Motion Picture Production Code forbade showing a woman leaving her husband for another man. The concern was not whether Ilsa would leave with Laszlo, but how this outcome would be engineered. According to Julius Epstein, he and Philip were driving when they simultaneously came up with the idea for Renault to order the roundup of "the usual suspects", after which all the details needed for resolution of the story, including the farewell between Bergman and "a suddenly noble Bogart", were rapidly worked out. The uncredited Casey Robinson assisted with three weeks of rewrites, including contributing the series of meetings between Rick and Ilsa in the cafe. Koch highlighted the political and melodramatic elements, and Curtiz seems to have favored the romantic parts, insisting on retaining the Paris flashbacks. In a telegram to film editor Owen Marks on August 7, 1942, Wallis suggested two possible final lines of dialogue for Rick: "Louis, I might have known you'd mix your patriotism with a little larceny" or "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship". Two weeks later, Wallis settled on the latter, which Bogart was recalled to dub a month after shooting had finished. Bogart's line "Here's looking at you, kid", said four times, was not in the draft screenplays, but has been attributed to a comment he made to Bergman as she played poker with her English coach and hairdresser between takes. Despite the many writers, the film has what Ebert describes as a "wonderfully unified and consistent" script. Koch later claimed it was the tension between his own approach and Curtiz's that had accounted for this. "Surprisingly, these disparate approaches somehow meshed, and perhaps it was partly this tug of war between Curtiz and me that gave the film a certain balance." Julius Epstein later noted the screenplay contained "more corn than in the states of Kansas and Iowa combined. But when corn works, there's nothing better". The film ran into some trouble with Joseph Breen of the Production Code Administration (the Hollywood self-censorship body), who opposed the suggestions that Captain Renault extorted sexual favors from visa applicants, and that Rick and Ilsa had slept together. Extensive changes were made, with several lines of dialogue removed or altered. All direct references to sex were deleted; Renault's selling of visas for sex, and Rick and Ilsa's previous sexual relationship were implied elliptically rather than referenced explicitly. Also, in the original script, when Sam plays "As Time Goes By", Rick exclaims, "What the —— are you playing?" This line was altered to "Sam, I thought I told you never to play ..." to conform to Breen's objection to an implied swear word. ## Production Although an initial filming date was selected for April 10, 1942, delays led to production starting on May 25. Filming was completed on August 3. It went \$75,000 over budget for a total cost of \$1,039,000 (), above average for the time. Unusually, the film was shot in sequence, mainly because only the first half of the script was ready when filming began. The entire picture was shot in the studio except for the sequence showing Strasser's arrival and close-ups of the Lockheed Electra (filmed at Van Nuys Airport) and a few short clips of stock footage views of Paris. The street used for the exterior shots had recently been built for another film, The Desert Song, and redressed for the Paris flashbacks. The film critic Roger Ebert called Wallis the "key creative force" for his attention to the details of production (down to insisting on a real parrot in the Blue Parrot bar). The difference between Bergman's and Bogart's height caused some problems. She was two inches (5 cm) taller than Bogart, and claimed Curtiz had Bogart stand on blocks or sit on cushions in their scenes together. Later, there were plans for a further scene, showing Rick, Renault and a detachment of Free French soldiers on a ship, to incorporate the Allies' 1942 invasion of North Africa. It proved too difficult to get Claude Rains for the shoot, and the scene was finally abandoned after David O. Selznick judged "it would be a terrible mistake to change the ending". The background of the final scene, which shows a Lockheed Model 12 Electra Junior airplane with personnel walking around it, was staged using little person extras and a proportionate cardboard plane. Fog was used to mask the model's unconvincing appearance. ### Direction Wallis's first choice for director was William Wyler, but he was unavailable, so Wallis turned to his close friend Michael Curtiz. Roger Ebert has commented that in Casablanca "very few shots ...are memorable as shots", as Curtiz wanted images to express the story rather than to stand alone. He contributed relatively little to development of the plot. Casey Robinson said Curtiz "knew nothing whatever about story ...he saw it in pictures, and you supplied the stories". Critic Andrew Sarris called the film "the most decisive exception to the auteur theory", of which Sarris was the most prominent proponent in the United States. Aljean Harmetz has responded, "...nearly every Warner Bros. picture was an exception to the auteur theory". Other critics give more credit to Curtiz. Sidney Rosenzweig, in his study of the director's work, sees the film as a typical example of Curtiz's highlighting of moral dilemmas. Some of the second unit montages, such as the opening sequence of the refugee trail and the invasion of France, were directed by Don Siegel. ### Cinematography The cinematographer was Arthur Edeson, a veteran who had previously shot The Maltese Falcon and Frankenstein. Particular attention was paid to photographing Bergman. She was shot mainly from her preferred left side, often with a softening gauze filter and with catch lights to make her eyes sparkle; the whole effect was designed to make her face seem "ineffably sad and tender and nostalgic". Bars of shadow across the characters and in the background variously imply imprisonment, the crucifix, the symbol of the Free French Forces and emotional turmoil. Dark film noir and expressionist lighting was used in several scenes, particularly towards the end of the picture. Rosenzweig argues these shadow and lighting effects are classic elements of the Curtiz style, along with the fluid camera work and the use of the environment as a framing device. ## Soundtrack The music was written by Max Steiner, who wrote scores for King Kong and Gone with the Wind. The song "As Time Goes By" by Herman Hupfeld had been part of the story from the original play; Steiner wanted to write his own composition to replace it, but Bergman had already cut her hair short for her next role (María in For Whom the Bell Tolls) and could not reshoot the scenes that incorporated the song, so Steiner based the entire score on it and "La Marseillaise", the French national anthem, transforming them as leitmotifs to reflect changing moods. Even though Steiner disliked "As Time Goes By", he admitted in a 1943 interview that it "must have had something to attract so much attention". Dooley Wilson, who played Sam, was a drummer but not a pianist, so his piano playing was performed by Jean Plummer. Particularly memorable is the "duel of the anthems" between Strasser and Laszlo at Rick's cafe. In the soundtrack, "La Marseillaise" is played by a full orchestra. Originally, the opposing piece for this iconic sequence was to be the "Horst Wessel Lied", a Nazi anthem but this was still under international copyright in non-Allied countries. Instead "Die Wacht am Rhein" was used. The "Deutschlandlied", the national anthem of Germany, is used several times in minor mode as a leitmotif for the German threat, e.g. in the scene in Paris as it is announced that the German army will reach Paris the next day. It is featured in the final scene, giving way to "La Marseillaise" after Strasser is shot. Other songs include: - "It Had to Be You", music by Isham Jones, lyrics by Gus Kahn - "Shine", music by Ford Dabney, lyrics by Cecil Mack and Lew Brown - "Avalon", music and lyrics by Al Jolson, Buddy DeSylva and Vincent Rose - "Perfidia", by Alberto Dominguez - "The Very Thought of You", by Ray Noble - "Knock on Wood", music by M. K. Jerome, lyrics by Jack Scholl, the only original song. Very few films in the early 1940s had portions of the soundtrack released on 78 rpm records, and Casablanca was no exception. In 1997, almost 55 years after the film's premiere, Turner Entertainment in collaboration with Rhino Records issued the film's first original soundtrack album for release on compact disc, including original songs and music, spoken dialogue, and alternate takes. The piano featured in the Paris flashback sequences was sold in New York City on December 14, 2012, at Sotheby's for more than \$600,000 to an anonymous bidder. The piano Sam "plays" in Rick's Café Américain, put up for auction with other film memorabilia by Turner Classic Movies at Bonhams in New York on November 24, 2014, sold for \$3.4 million. ## Release Although an initial release date was anticipated for early 1943, the film premiered at the Hollywood Theater in New York City on November 26, 1942, to capitalize on Operation Torch (the Allied invasion of French North Africa) and the capture of Casablanca. It went into general release on January 23, 1943, to take advantage of the Casablanca Conference, a high-level meeting in the city between British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and American President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Office of War Information prevented screening of the film to troops in North Africa, believing it would cause resentment among Vichy supporters in the region. ### Irish and German cuts On March 19, 1943, the film was banned in Ireland for infringing on the Emergency Powers Order preserving wartime neutrality, by portraying Vichy France and Nazi Germany in a "sinister light". It was passed with cuts on June 15, 1945, shortly after the EPO was lifted. The cuts were made to dialogue between Rick and Ilsa referring to their love affair. A version with only one scene cut was passed on July 16, 1974; Irish national broadcaster RTÉ inquired about showing the film on TV, but found it still required a dialogue cut to Ilsa expressing her love for Rick. Warner Brothers released a heavily edited version of Casablanca in West Germany in 1952. All scenes with Nazis were removed, along with most references to World War II. Important plot points were altered when the dialogue was dubbed into German. Victor Laszlo was no longer a Resistance fighter who escaped from a Nazi concentration camp. Instead, he became a Norwegian atomic physicist who was being pursued by Interpol after he "broke out of jail". The West German version was 25 minutes shorter than the original cut. A German version of Casablanca with the original plot was not released until 1975. ## Reception ### Initial response Casablanca received "consistently good reviews". Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote, "The Warners ... have a picture which makes the spine tingle and the heart take a leap." He applauded the combination of "sentiment, humor and pathos with taut melodrama and bristling intrigue." Crowther noted its "devious convolutions of the plot" and praised the screenplay quality as "of the best" and the cast's performances as "all of the first order". The trade paper Variety commended the film's "combination of fine performances, engrossing story and neat direction" and the "variety of moods, action, suspense, comedy and drama that makes Casablanca an A-1 entry at the b.o." The review observed that the "[f]ilm is splendid anti-Axis propaganda, particularly inasmuch as the propaganda is strictly a by-product of the principal action and contributes to it instead of getting in the way". Variety also applauded the performances of Bergman and Henreid and noted, "Bogart, as might be expected, is more at ease as the bitter and cynical operator of a joint than as a lover, but handles both assignments with superb finesse." Some reviews were less enthusiastic. The New Yorker rated Casablanca only "pretty tolerable" and said it was "not quite up to Across the Pacific, Bogart's last spyfest". At the 1,500-seat Hollywood Theater, the film grossed \$255,000 over ten weeks (equivalent to \$ in ). In its initial American release, Casablanca was a substantial but not spectacular box-office success, earning \$3.7 million (equivalent to \$ in ). A 50th-anniversary re-release grossed \$1.5 million in 1992. According to Warner Bros. records, the film earned \$3,398,000 domestically and \$3,461,000 in foreign markets. ### Enduring popularity In the decades since its release, the film has grown in reputation. Murray Burnett called it "true yesterday, true today, true tomorrow". By 1955, the film had brought in \$6.8 million, making it the third-most-successful of Warners' wartime movies, behind Shine On, Harvest Moon and This Is the Army. On April 21, 1957, the Brattle Theater of Cambridge, Massachusetts, showed the film as part of a season of old movies. It proved so popular that a tradition began in which Casablanca would be screened during the week of final exams at Harvard University. Todd Gitlin, a professor of sociology who had attended one of these screenings, has said that the experience was "the acting out of my own personal rite of passage". The tradition helped the film remain popular while other films that had been famous in the 1940s have faded from popular memory. By 1977, Casablanca had become the most frequently broadcast film on American television. Ingrid Bergman's portrayal of Ilsa Lund in Casablanca became one of her best-known roles. In later years she said, "I feel about Casablanca that it has a life of its own. There is something mystical about it. It seems to have filled a need, a need that was there before the film, a need that the film filled." On the film's 50th anniversary, the Los Angeles Times called Casablancas great strength "the purity of its Golden Age Hollywoodness [and] the enduring craftsmanship of its resonantly hokey dialogue". Bob Strauss wrote in the newspaper that the film achieved a "near-perfect entertainment balance" of comedy, romance, and suspense. Roger Ebert, wrote of Casablanca in 1992, "There are greater movies. More profound movies. Movies of greater artistic vision or artistic originality or political significance. ... But [it is] one of the movies we treasure the most ... This is a movie that has transcended the ordinary categories." In his opinion, the film is popular because "the people in it are all so good" and it is "a wonderful gem". Ebert said that he had never heard of a negative review of the film, even though individual elements can be criticized, citing unrealistic special effects and the stiff character of Laszlo as portrayed by Paul Henreid. The critic Leonard Maltin considers Casablanca "the best Hollywood movie of all time". According to Rudy Behlmer, the character of Rick is "not a hero ... not a bad guy" because he does what is necessary to appease the authorities and "sticks his neck out for nobody". Behlmer feels that the other characters are "not cut and dried" and come into their goodness over the course of the film. Renault begins as a collaborator with the Nazis who extorts sexual favors from refugees and has Ugarte killed. Even Ilsa, the least active of the main characters, is "caught in the emotional struggle" over which man she really loves. By the end, however, "everybody is sacrificing". Behlmer also emphasized the variety in the picture. "It's a blend of drama, melodrama, comedy [and] intrigue." A remembrance written for the film's 75th anniversary published by The Washington Free Beacon said, "It is no exaggeration to say Casablanca is one of the greatest films ever made," making special note of the "intellectual nature of the film" and saying that "while the first time around you might pay attention to only the superficial love story, by the second and third and fourth viewings the sub-textual politics [of communitarianism and anti-isolationism] have moved to the fore". A few reviewers have expressed reservations. To Pauline Kael, "It's far from a great film, but it has a special appealingly schlocky romanticism ..." Umberto Eco wrote that "by any strict critical standards ... Casablanca is a very mediocre film". He viewed the changes that the characters manifest as inconsistent rather than complex. "It is a comic strip, a hotchpotch, low on psychological credibility, and with little continuity in its dramatic effects." However, he added that because of the presence of multiple archetypes that allow "the power of Narrative in its natural state without Art intervening to discipline it", it is a film reaching "Homeric depths" as a "phenomenon worthy of awe". On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, of critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of . The website's consensus reads, "An undisputed masterpiece and perhaps Hollywood's quintessential statement on love and romance, Casablanca has only improved with age, boasting career-defining performances from Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman." On Metacritic, the film has a perfect score of 100 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". It is one of the few films in the site's history to achieve a perfect aggregate score. In the November/December 1982 issue of Film Comment, Chuck Ross wrote that he retyped the Casablanca screenplay, reverting the title to Everybody Comes to Rick's and changing the name of Sam the piano player to Dooley (after Dooley Wilson, who played the character), and submitted it to 217 agencies. The majority of agencies returned the script unread (often because of policies regarding unsolicited screenplays) or did not respond. However, of those which did respond, only 33 specifically recognized it as Casablanca. Eight others observed that it was similar to Casablanca, and 41 agencies rejected the screenplay outright, offering comments such as "Too much dialogue, not enough exposition, the story line was weak, and in general didn't hold my interest." Three agencies offered to represent the screenplay, and one suggested turning it into a novel. ### Influence on later works Many subsequent films have drawn on elements of Casablanca. Passage to Marseille (1944) reunited actors Bogart, Rains, Greenstreet, and Lorre and director Curtiz in 1944, and there are similarities between Casablanca and a later Bogart film, To Have and Have Not (also 1944). Parodies have included the Marx Brothers' A Night in Casablanca (1946), Neil Simon's The Cheap Detective (1978), and Out Cold (2001). Indirectly, it provided the title for the 1995 neo-noir film The Usual Suspects. Woody Allen's Play It Again, Sam (1972) appropriated Bogart's Casablanca character as the fantasy mentor for Allen's character. The film was a plot device in the science-fiction television movie Overdrawn at the Memory Bank (1983), based on John Varley's story. It was referred to in Terry Gilliam's dystopian Brazil (1985). Warner Bros. produced its own parody in the homage Carrotblanca, a 1995 Bugs Bunny cartoon. The film critic Roger Ebert pointed out the plot of the film Barb Wire (1996) was identical to that of Casablanca. In Casablanca, a novella by Argentine writer Edgar Brau, the protagonist somehow wanders into Rick's Café Américain and listens to a strange tale related by Sam. The 2016 musical film La La Land contains allusions to Casablanca in the imagery, dialogue, and plot. Robert Zemeckis, director of Allied (2016), which is also set in 1942 Casablanca, studied the film to capture the city's elegance. The 2017 Moroccan drama film Razzia, directed by Nabil Ayouch, is mostly set in the city of Casablanca, and its characters frequently discuss the 1942 film. ### Awards and honors Because of its November 1942 release, the New York Film Critics decided to include the film in its 1942 award season for best picture. Casablanca lost to In Which We Serve. However, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences stated that since the film went into national release at the beginning of 1943, it would be included in that year's nominations. Casablanca was nominated for eight Academy Awards, and won three. As Bogart stepped out of his car at the awards ceremony, "the crowd surged forward, almost engulfing him and his wife, Mayo Methot. It took 12 police officers to rescue the two, and a red-faced, startled, yet smiling Bogart heard a chorus of cries of 'good luck' and 'here's looking at you, kid' as he was rushed into the theater". When the award for Best Picture was announced, producer Hal B. Wallis got up to accept, but studio head Jack L. Warner rushed up to the stage "with a broad, flashing smile and a look of great self-satisfaction," Wallis later recalled. "I couldn't believe it was happening. Casablanca had been my creation; Jack had absolutely nothing to do with it. As the audience gasped, I tried to get out of the row of seats and into the aisle, but the entire Warner family sat blocking me. I had no alternative but to sit down again, humiliated and furious ... Almost forty years later, I still haven't recovered from the shock." This incident led Wallis to leave Warner Bros. in April. In 1989, the film was one of the first 25 films selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 2005, it was named one of the 100 greatest films of the last 80 years by Time magazine (the selected films were not ranked). Bright Lights Film Journal stated in 2007, "It is one of those rare films from Hollywood's Golden Age which has managed to transcend its era to entertain generations of moviegoers ... Casablanca provides twenty-first-century Americans with an oasis of hope in a desert of arbitrary cruelty and senseless violence." The film also ranked at number 28 on Empire's list of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time, which said, "Love, honour, thrills, wisecracks and a hit tune are among the attractions, which also include a perfect supporting cast of villains, sneaks, thieves, refugees and bar staff. But it's Bogart and Bergman's show, entering immortality as screen lovers reunited only to part. The irrefutible [sic] proof that great movies are accidents." Screenwriting teacher Robert McKee maintains that the script is "the greatest screenplay of all time". In 2006, the Writers Guild of America, West agreed, voting it the best ever in its list of the 101 greatest screenplays. The film has been selected by the American Film Institute for many of their lists of important American films: ## Interpretation Casablanca has been subjected to many readings; semioticians account for the film's popularity by claiming that its inclusion of stereotypes paradoxically strengthens the film. Umberto Eco wrote: > Thus Casablanca is not just one film. It is many films, an anthology. Made haphazardly, it probably made itself, if not actually against the will of its authors and actors, then at least beyond their control. And this is the reason it works, in spite of aesthetic theories and theories of film making. For in it there unfolds with almost telluric force the power of Narrative in its natural state, without Art intervening to discipline it ... When all the archetypes burst in shamelessly, we reach Homeric depths. Two clichés make us laugh. A hundred clichés move us. For we sense dimly that the clichés are talking among themselves, and celebrating a reunion. Eco also singled out sacrifice as a theme, "the myth of sacrifice runs through the whole film". It was this theme that resonated with a wartime audience who were reassured by the idea that painful sacrifice and going off to war could be romantic gestures done for the greater good. Koch also considered the film a political allegory. Rick is compared to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who gambled "on the odds of going to war until circumstance and his own submerged nobility force him to close his casino (partisan politics) and commit himself—first by financing the Side of Right and then by fighting for it". The connection is reinforced by the film's title, which means "white house". Harvey Greenberg presents a Freudian reading in his The Movies on Your Mind, in which the transgressions that prevent Rick from returning to the United States constitute an Oedipus complex, which is resolved only when Rick begins to identify with the father figure of Laszlo and the cause that he represents. Sidney Rosenzweig argues that such readings are reductive and that the most important aspect of the film is its ambiguity, above all in the central character of Rick; he cites the different names that each character gives Rick (Richard, Ricky, Mr. Rick, Herr Rick and boss) as evidence of the different meanings that he has for each person. ## Home media Casablanca was initially released on Betamax and VHS by Magnetic Video and later by CBS/Fox Video (as United Artists owned the distribution rights at the time). In 1989, the Criterion Collection released a Laserdisc release sourced from a nitrate print that includes supplements such as an audio commentary by Ronald Haver, a treatment for an unreleased sequel and wartime footage of the city of Casablanca. Criterion would issue a CLV version of this in 1991 with only the film and commentary. It was next released on laserdisc in 1991, and on VHS in 1992—both from MGM/UA Home Entertainment (distributing for Turner Entertainment Co.), which at the time was distributed by Warner Home Video. It was first released on DVD in 1998 by MGM, containing the trailer and a making-of featurette (Warner Home Video reissued the DVD in 2000). A subsequent two-disc special edition, containing an audio commentary by Roger Ebert, documentaries, Carrotblanca and a newly remastered visual and audio presentation, was released in 2003. An HD DVD was released on November 14, 2006, containing the same special features as the 2003 DVD. Reviewers were impressed with the new high-definition transfer of the film. A Blu-ray release with new special features came out on December 2, 2008; it is also available on DVD. The Blu-ray was initially only released as an expensive gift set with a booklet, a luggage tag and other assorted gift-type items. It was eventually released as a stand-alone Blu-ray in September 2009. On March 27, 2012, Warner released a new 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition Blu-ray/DVD combo set. It includes a brand-new 4K restoration and new bonus material. This 4K restoration was completed at Warner Bros. Digital Imaging from a nitrate print, because the original negative no longer exists. ## Remakes and unrealized sequels Almost from the moment Casablanca became a hit, talk began of producing a sequel. One titled Brazzaville (in the final scene, Renault recommends fleeing to that Free French-held city) was planned, but never produced. A newspaper article at the time mentioned that Bogart and Greenstreet "will continue their characterizations from the first film, and it's likely that Geraldine Fitzgerald will have an important role". Since then, no studio has seriously considered filming a sequel or outright remake. François Truffaut refused an invitation to remake the film in 1974, citing its cult status among American students as his reason. Attempts to recapture the magic of Casablanca in other settings, such as Caboblanco (1980), "a South American-set retooling of Casablanca", and Havana (1990) have been poorly received. Stories of a Casablanca remake or sequel nonetheless persist. In 2008, Madonna was reported to be pursuing a remake set in modern-day Iraq. In 2012, both The Daily Telegraph and Entertainment Weekly reported on efforts by Cass Warner, granddaughter of Harry Warner and friend of the late Howard Koch, to produce a sequel featuring the search by Rick Blaine and Ilsa Lund's illegitimate son for the whereabouts of his biological father. ## Adaptations On radio, there were several adaptations of the film. The two best-known are a thirty-minute adaptation on The Screen Guild Theater on April 26, 1943, starring Bogart, Bergman, and Henreid, and an hour-long version on the Lux Radio Theater on January 24, 1944, featuring Alan Ladd as Rick, Hedy Lamarr as Ilsa, and John Loder as Laszlo. Two other thirty-minute adaptations were aired, one on Philip Morris Playhouse on September 3, 1943, and the other on Theater of Romance on December 19, 1944, in which Dooley Wilson reprised his role as Sam. On television, there have been two short-lived series based upon Casablanca, both sharing the title. The first Casablanca aired on ABC as part of the wheel series Warner Bros. Presents in hour-long episodes from 1955 to 1956. It was a Cold War espionage program set contemporaneously with its production, and starred Charles McGraw as Rick and Marcel Dalio, who had played Emil the croupier in the movie, as the police chief. The second Casablanca, broadcast on NBC in April 1983, starred David Soul as Rick and was canceled after three weeks. The novel As Time Goes By, written by Michael Walsh and published in 1998, was authorized by Warner. The novel picks up where the film leaves off, and also tells of Rick's mysterious past in America. The book met with little success. David Thomson provided an unofficial sequel in his 1985 novel Suspects. Julius Epstein made two attempts to turn the film into a Broadway musical, in 1951 and 1967, but neither made it to the stage. The original play, Everybody Comes to Rick's, was produced in Newport, Rhode Island, in August 1946, and again in London in April 1991, but met with no success. The film was adapted into a musical by the Takarazuka Revue, an all-female Japanese musical theater company, and ran from November 2009 through February 2010. CasablancaBox, written by Sara Farrington and directed by Reid Farrington, premiered in New York in 2017 and was an imagined "making of" the film. It was nominated for two 2017 Drama Desk awards, Unique Theatrical Experience and Outstanding Projection Design. The New York Times described it as "a brave, almost foolhardy undertaking, presenting the backstage drama during the making of Casablanca". ## Colorization Casablanca was part of the film colorization controversy of the 1980s, when a colorized version aired on the television network WTBS. In 1984, MGM/UA hired Color Systems Technology to colorize the film for \$180,000. When Ted Turner of Turner Broadcasting System purchased MGM/UA's film library two years later, he canceled the request, before contracting American Film Technologies (AFT) in 1988. AFT completed the colorization in two months at a cost of \$450,000. Turner later reacted to criticism of the colorization, saying, "[Casablanca] is one of a handful of films that really doesn't have to be colorized. I did it because I wanted to. All I'm trying to do is protect my investment." The Library of Congress deemed that the color change differed so much from the original film that it gave a new copyright to Turner Entertainment. When the colorized film debuted on WTBS, it was watched by three million viewers, not making the top-ten viewed cable shows for the week. Although Jack Matthews of the Los Angeles Times called the finished product "state of the art", it was mostly met with negative critical reception. It was briefly available on home video. Gary Edgerton, writing for the Journal of Popular Film & Television criticized the colorization, stating that "Casablanca in color ended up being much blander in appearance and, overall, much less visually interesting than its 1942 predecessor." Bogart's son, Stephen, said, "if you're going to colorize Casablanca, why not put arms on the Venus de Milo?" ## Inaccuracies and a misquote Several unfounded rumors and misconceptions have grown up around the film, one being that Ronald Reagan was originally chosen to play Rick. This originated in a press release issued by the studio early on in the film's development. By that time the studio already knew that he was going into the Army and he was never seriously considered. George Raft claimed that he had turned down the lead role but studio records make it clear that Wallis was committed to Bogart from the start. Another story is that the actors did not know until the last day of shooting how the film was to end. Koch later acknowledged: > When we began, we didn't have a finished script ... Ingrid Bergman came to me and said, "Which man should I love more ...?" I said to her, "I don't know ... play them both evenly." You see we didn't have an ending, so we didn't know what was going to happen! While rewrites did occur during filming, Aljean Harmetz's examination of the scripts has shown that many of the key scenes were shot after Bergman knew how the film would end; any confusion was, according to critic Roger Ebert, "emotional", not "factual". The film has several logical flaws, one being the two "letters of transit" that enable their bearers to leave Vichy French territory. Ugarte says the letters had been signed by (depending on the listener) either Vichy General Weygand or Free French General de Gaulle. The French subtitles on the official DVD read Weygand; the English ones specify de Gaulle. Weygand had been the Vichy delegate-general for the North African colonies until November 1941, a month before the film is set. De Gaulle was the head of the Free French government in exile, so a letter signed by him would have provided no benefit. The letters were invented as a MacGuffin by Joan Alison for the original play and never questioned. In the same vein, though Laszlo asserts that the Nazis cannot arrest him, saying, "This is still unoccupied France; any violation of neutrality would reflect on Captain Renault", Ebert points out, "It makes no sense that he could walk around freely. ... He would be arrested on sight." No uniformed German troops were stationed in Casablanca during World War II, and neither American nor French troops occupied Berlin in 1918. A line closely associated with Casablanca—"Play it again, Sam"—is not spoken in the film. When Ilsa first enters the Café Américain, she spots Sam and asks him, "Play it once, Sam, for old times' sake." After he feigns ignorance, she responds, "Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By'." Later that night, alone with Sam, Rick says, "You played it for her, you can play it for me", and "If she can stand it, I can! Play it!"
2,676,764	Oryzomys couesi	1,117,936,063	Semiaquatic rodent in the family Cricetidae	[ "Fauna of the Rio Grande valleys", "Mammals described in 1877", "Mammals of Colombia", "Mammals of Mexico", "Oryzomys", "Rodents of Central America", "Taxa named by Edward Richard Alston" ]	Oryzomys couesi, also known as Coues's rice rat, is a semiaquatic rodent in the family Cricetidae occurring from southernmost Texas through Mexico and Central America into northwestern Colombia. It is usually found in wet habitats, such as marshes, but also lives in drier forests and shrublands. Weighing about 43 to 82 g (1.5 to 2.9 oz), O. couesi is a medium-sized to large rat. The coarse fur is buff to reddish above and white to buff below. The hindfeet show some specializations for life in the water, such as reduced ungual tufts of hair around the digits. It has 56 chromosomes. There is much geographic variation in size, proportions, color, and skull features. Oryzomys couesi is active during the night and builds nests of vegetation that are suspended among reeds about 1 m (3.3 ft) above the ground. It is an excellent swimmer and dives well, but can also climb in vegetation. An omnivore, it eats both plant and animal food, including seeds and insects. It breeds throughout the year; females give birth to about four young after a pregnancy of 21 to 28 days. The species may be infected by several different parasites and by two hantaviruses. The species was first described in 1877, the first of many related species from the region described until the 1910s. In 1918, Edward Alphonso Goldman consolidated most into the single species Oryzomys couesi and in 1960 Raymond Hall united this taxon with its United States relative, the marsh rice rat (O. palustris), into a single widespread species; subsequently, many related, localized species retained by Goldman were also included in this taxon. After studies of the contact zone in Texas, where O. couesi and the marsh rice rat meet, were published in 1979 and underscored the distinctness of the two, they were again regarded as separate. Since then, some of the peripheral forms of the group, such as Oryzomys antillarum from Jamaica and Oryzomys peninsulae from the Baja California Peninsula, have been reinstated as species. Nevertheless, O. couesi as currently constituted is likely a composite of several species; a 2010 study, using DNA sequence data, found evidence to recognize separate species from the Pacific and eastern sides of the distribution of O. couesi and two additional species from Panama and Costa Rica. Generally, Oryzomys couesi is common and of no conservation concern, and it is even considered a plague species in places, but some populations are threatened. ## Taxonomy Oryzomys couesi and at least six more narrowly distributed species with peripheral distributions together form the O. couesi group within the genus Oryzomys. The eighth species of the genus, the marsh rice rat (O. palustris) is the only member of its own group (unless western populations are classified as a separate species, O. texensis). Oryzomys previously included many other species, which were reclassified in various studies culminating in contributions by Marcelo Weksler and coworkers in 2006 that removed more than forty species from the genus. All are placed in the tribe Oryzomyini ("rice rats"), a diverse assemblage of over a hundred species, and on higher taxonomic levels in the subfamily Sigmodontinae of the family Cricetidae, along with hundreds of other species of mainly small rodents. ### History Edward Alston first described Oryzomys couesi in 1877, using three specimens from Mexico and Guatemala. He named the animal Hesperomys couesi, placing it in the now-defunct genus Hesperomys, and noted similarities to the marsh rice rat (then called Hesperomys palustris) and two species now placed in Tylomys. The specific name, couesi, honors American naturalist Elliott Coues, who had done much work on North American rodents. In 1893, Oldfield Thomas wrote that the species, by then placed in the genus Oryzomys as Oryzomys couesi, had caused much confusion about its identity, because the three specimens (one from Cobán, Guatemala, and two from Mexico) used by Alston in fact belonged to two or three different species. He restricted the name couesi to the animal from Guatemala, and introduced the new name Oryzomys fulgens for one of the Mexican animals. Several other related species were described from the early 1890s onwards and in 1901 Clinton Hart Merriam united many of those into a palustris-mexicanus group of species, which also included the marsh rice rat. Edward Alphonso Goldman revised North American Oryzomys in 1918 and consolidated many forms into a single species Oryzomys couesi, with ten subspecies distributed from southern Texas and western Mexico south to Costa Rica. He placed it in an Oryzomys palustris group with the marsh rice rat and several species with more limited distributions, which he regarded as related to O. couesi but distinctive enough to be classified as separate species. In the 1930s, a few more forms related to O. couesi were described. As then recognized, the ranges of the marsh rice rat, a United States species, and Oryzomys couesi meet in southern Texas. In 1960, Raymond Hall reviewed specimens from this contact zone and found no grounds on which to separate the two species; thus, he reduced O. couesi to a subspecies of the marsh rice rat. Other workers continued this lumping and by 1971 all other species Goldman had placed in the O. palustris group were classified under the marsh rice rat, together with Oryzomys azuerensis from Panama, described as a species in 1937. Additional studies of the palustris–couesi contact zone in Texas published in 1979, using more specimens and characters, indicated that the two species are in fact easily distinguishable there; therefore, O. couesi has since been regarded as a species distinct from the marsh rice rat. Afterward, some of the other forms synonymized under O. couesi or O. palustris were resurrected as separate species—Oryzomys nelsoni from the Marías Islands, western Mexico, and Oryzomys antillarum from Jamaica. In 2009, Michael Carleton and Joaquin Arroyo-Cabrales reviewed western Mexican Oryzomys, reaffirmed the distinctness of O. nelsoni, and reinstated O. peninsulae from the tip of the Baja California Peninsula and O. albiventer from interior Mexico as species. Still, O. couesi included 22 synonyms, and Carleton and Arroyo-Cabrales wrote that further research on O. couesi and related species would certainly result in the recognition of additional species. A 2010 study by Delton Hanson and colleagues used DNA sequence data from the mitochondrial gene cytochrome b (Cytb) and two nuclear markers, exon 1 of the interphotoreceptor retinoid-binding protein gene (Rbp3) and intron 2 of alcohol dehydrogenase gene 1 (Adh1-I2) to study relationships among populations of the marsh rice rat and O. couesi. The Cytb data placed all studied specimens of O. couesi in a clade sister to the marsh rice rat; the mean genetic distance between the two groups was 11.30%, much larger than the distance between sister species in the related genera Melanomys and Nectomys (7.48% and 7.52%, respectively). Within the O. couesi clade, two populations from Panama and Costa Rica were successively basal to the other specimens, which fell into two large subclades—one containing animals from the Pacific seaboard from western Mexico to El Salvador and the other containing rats from the eastern seaboard from Texas to Nicaragua. The Panamanian and Costa Rican populations differed by 6.53% to 11.93% from the others and the western and eastern subclades differed by 4.41% on average. Data from both of the slower-evolving nuclear markers Rbp3 and Adh1-I2 also placed examples of Oryzomys in two main clades, but did not recover the western and eastern groups of O. couesi as separate clades. In addition, Adh1-I2 placed the Costa Rican population within the marsh rice rat clade and placed some western O. couesi specimens closer to the marsh rice rat than to the O. couesi group. The combined dataset supported the western and eastern clades within O. couesi and placed the Costa Rican population marginally closer to the marsh rice rat than to O. couesi. Using the genetic species concept, the authors suggested that the four groups they found within O. couesi should be recognized as distinct species. If this suggestion is followed, the eastern subclade would retain the name Oryzomys couesi, the western group would be named Oryzomys mexicanus, and the appropriate names for the Panamanian and Costa Rican species remain unclear. ### Western Mexico to El Salvador Populations of Oryzomys couesi from Jalisco, western Mexico, east to El Salvador form a single Cytb clade, which Hanson and colleagues proposed to recognize as the species Oryzomys mexicanus. These animals differ by 4.4% from Oryzomys couesi in the strict sense, which occurs to the north and east, are separated by mountain ranges from the latter, harbor different species of hantavirus, and according to Merriam (1901) have more robust skulls, with larger molars, stronger zygomatic arches (cheekbones), and better developed ridges along the margins of the interorbital region of the skull (between the eyes). Within the "Oryzomys mexicanus" clade, Cytb sequence differences average 2.06% and western (Jalisco to Oaxaca) and eastern (Chiapas and El Salvador) groups form distinct subclades; Hanson and colleagues recognized these as different subspecies, mexicanus in the west and zygomaticus in the east. As defined by Carleton and Arroyo-Cabrales in 2009, the subspecies Oryzomys couesi mexicanus occurs along the Pacific coast from central Sonora to southeastern Oaxaca and inland along rivers into central Michoacán, southern Morelos, southern Puebla, and northwestern Oaxaca. It usually lives below 1,000 m (3,300 ft) altitude, but has been found at 1,525 m (5,003 ft) in Jalisco. This distributional pattern is similar to that of other western Mexican rodents such as Sigmodon mascotensis, Hodomys alleni, Peromyscus perfulvus, and Osgoodomys banderanus and has been recognized as a distinct biogeographic zone in some reviews. O. c. mexicanus occurs close to three other Oryzomys species—O. albiventer, O. peninsulae, and O. nelsoni—which are larger and different in some proportions and details of coloration. Joel Asaph Allen first described Oryzomys mexicanus as a full species in 1897 from specimens from Jalisco. In the same publication, he also described Oryzomys bulleri from nearby Nayarit, but he did not compare the two with each other. Merriam added a second species from Nayarit, Oryzomys rufus, in 1901, noting that it was smaller and more reddish than mexicanus. Goldman synonymized the three as O. couesi mexicanus in 1918 and in 2009 Carleton and Arroyo-Cabrales concurred, arguing that the differences between rufus and mexicanus were age-related and within the normal range of variation of the animal. Another subspecies, Oryzomys couesi lambi, was described by Burt in 1934 from central coastal Sonora, which extended the range of the species by 400 mi (640 km) at the time. This form is dark gray-brown, much darker than mexicanus, and has a shorter tail and weaker jugals. Carleton and Arroyo-Cabrales wrote that it is similar to mexicanus, but that further research is needed to determine whether it should be recognized as a subspecies. Large O. couesi from northern Sinaloa may also belong to this form. Goldman wrote that mexicanus was very similar to nominate couesi, but usually with paler fur; the upperparts are more buffy than in couesi and the underparts are usually white, but may be buffy, the normal color in couesi. Oryzomys zygomaticus was first described by Merriam in 1901 as a separate species similar to mexicanus, but with the zygomatic arches broadly spreading and curved downward. Goldman, who reduced it to a subspecies of couesi, recorded it from southwestern Guatemala and nearby Chiapas and described it as slightly paler than O. c. couesi but darker than O. c. mexicanus. Three specimens from central El Salvador have Cytb sequences similar to those of zygomaticus, but in The Mammals of El Salvador (1961), Burt and Stirton recorded only the subspecies couesi from the country, while noting that specimens from some localities were slightly paler than others. ### Interior Mexico Goldman grouped four subspecies of couesi from the interior plateaus of central Mexico together—albiventer, crinitus, aztecus, and regillus. Three of those (albiventer from Jalisco, crinitus from the Distrito Federal, and aztecus from Morelos) were described by Merriam in 1901, and Goldman had himself described regillus from Michoacán in 1915. According to Goldman, aztecus is pale and large-toothed, crinitus is large, dark and large-toothed, regillus is large and dark, and albiventer is large and relatively pale. In their 2009 review of western Mexican Oryzomys, Carleton and Arroyo-Cabrales classified Oryzomys albiventer as a separate species from lowland mexicanus on the basis of clear morphometric differentiation and offered some comments on the status of crinitus, regillus, and aztecus, including the holotypes of the three forms in their morphometric analyses. The holotypes of regillus and aztecus were at the upper end of the range of variation in their large series of mexicanus from the western lowlands, and crinitus clustered with specimens of O. peninsulae from the tip of the Baja California Peninsula. They suggested that regillus and aztecus may represent no more than robust upland populations of mexicanus, but could not exclude the possibility that they represent a different species. That crinitus, which occurs at over 2,000 m (6,600 ft) altitude in the Valley of Mexico, was the same species as peninsulae from the lowlands of the Baja California Peninsula they could not accept and they recommended further research to determine the relationships of crinitus. A specimen from inland Michoacán has Cytb data characteristic of mexicanus, but Hanson and colleagues did not have data for other interior Mexican Oryzomys. The holotype of the species Oryzomys fulgens, which Thomas had described in 1893, has no more precise locality than "Mexico", but the Valley of Mexico has been suggested as its origin. It is a large, coarse-furred, bright reddish, long-tailed species with a broad skull with widely spreading zygomatic arches. Goldman wrote that it was similar to crinitus, but more intensely colored, and differed in the form of the interorbital region; he retained it as a separate species pending further investigations. Carleton and Arroyo-Cabrales noted that archival research may yet uncover the precise origin of O. fulgens, which could establish it as an older name for one of the other central Mexican Oryzomys. ### Texas to Nicaragua Oryzomys populations from Texas to Nicaragua form a single Cytb clade, within which the average sequence divergence is 1.28%, and Hanson and colleagues proposed that the name Oryzomys couesi be restricted to this clade. These populations correspond to two subspecies recognized by Goldman (O. c. aquaticus and O. c. couesi) and an island form he retained as a species (O. cozumelae). Two other subspecies Goldman recognized, O. c. richmondi and O. c. peragrus, and a third, O. c. pinicola, that was described after Goldman's paper occur in the same region, but have not been studied genetically. The northernmost populations of Oryzomys couesi, those in southernmost Texas and nearby Tamaulipas, Mexico, are classified as the subspecies aquaticus, which was described as a separate species, Oryzomys aquaticus, in 1891. Here the range of O. couesi meets that of the marsh rice rat; in parts of Kenedy, Willacy and Cameron counties, Texas, and in far northeastern Tamaulipas, the two are sympatric (occur in the same places). In the contact zone, couesi occurs further inland, while the marsh rice rat lives along the coast. In experimental conditions, the two fail to interbreed and genetic analysis yields no evidence of gene flow or hybridization in the wild. Compared to populations further to the south, aquaticus is larger and paler and has a more robust skull. Specimens from Tamaulipas are slightly darker than those from Texas. The Cytb sequences of specimens of aquaticus form a separate group, but cluster among specimens of O. c. couesi from further south. The form peragrus is known from further south in Mexico, in the Río Verde basin of San Luis Potosi, the state of Hidalgo, and far northern Veracruz. Late Pleistocene fossils of this form have been found in Cueva de Abre, Tamaulipas. According to Goldman, it is intermediate in color between O. c. aquaticus and O. c. couesi, but has a skull similar to that of aquaticus. Goldman united populations ranging from northern Veracruz through eastern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua south to far northwestern Costa Rica in the nominate subspecies, Oryzomys couesi couesi. He placed six other names as full synonyms of this form, which has its type locality in Guatemala—Oryzomys jalapae Allen and Chapman, 1897, from Veracruz; Oryzomys jalapae rufinus Merriam, 1901, from Veracruz; Oryzomys teapensis Merriam, 1901, from Tabasco; Oryzomys goldmani Merriam, 1901, from Veracruz; Oryzomys jalapae apatelius Eliot, 1904, from Veracruz; and Oryzomys richardsoni Allen, 1910, from Nicaragua. According to Goldman, individual variation within the subspecies is large, which has led to the large number of published synonyms, but populations from all parts of its range are essentially similar. The subspecies Oryzomys couesi pinicola was described in 1932 from a pine ridge in western British Honduras (now Belize); it is smaller and darker than nominate couesi, which also occurs in Belize, and has a more delicate skull. In 1901, Merriam described the Oryzomys of the island of Cozumel as a separate species, Oryzomys cozumelae, and Goldman kept it as such because of its large size, dark fur, and long tail. In 1965, however, Knox Jones and Timothy Lawlor judged the differences between cozumelae and mainland couesi trivial and found that cozumelae was inside the range of variation of mainland Oryzomys populations; accordingly, they demoted the island form to a subspecies. Mark Engstrom and colleagues, writing in 1989, reaffirmed this conclusion. For an island form, this population is highly genetically variable. In its Cytb sequence data, it falls among populations of nominate couesi. Oryzomys couesi is also found on Turneffe Atoll off the coast of Belize and Roatán off Honduras. The Oryzomys of the eastern lowlands of Nicaragua was described as a separate species, Oryzomys richmondi, by Merriam in 1901, and Goldman retained it as a subspecies of O. couesi on the basis of its distinctly dark fur. In reviewing Nicaraguan Oryzomys in 1986, Jones and Engstrom did not keep richmondi as separate, because they thought the difference in color too small for the recognition of subspecies. Oryzomys dimidiatus, a small, dark Oryzomys with gray underparts, occurs with O. couesi in southeastern Nicaragua. According to Jones and Engstrom, rice rats from the island of Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua are distinctive in their large skull and small external measurements, with an especially short tail, soft fur that is orange-brown above and buffish below, and lack of sphenopalatine vacuities (openings in the roof of the mesopterygoid fossa, the gap behind the end of the bony palate). They considered that this population probably represented a separate subspecies, but declined to propose a new name because they had only one adult specimen. In Nicaragua, O. couesi occurs up to an altitude of 1,250 m (4,100 ft). ### Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia Oryzomys from Costa Rica have historically been referred to O. c. couesi, but Hanson and colleagues found that two specimens from Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre Mixto Maquenque, northeastern Costa Rica, differed as much from other O. couesi (11.93% Cytb sequence divergence) as O. couesi differed from the marsh rice rat (11.30%). They suggested that these animals represented a species distinct from O. couesi, but were unable to resolve the correct name for the species because they could not examine samples of dimidiatus or richmondi. Oryzomys is rare in Panama. Panamanian Oryzomys were first described by Goldman in 1912, who introduced the name Oryzomys gatunensis for a specimen from Gatún in the Canal Zone. In 1918, Goldman kept the animal as a separate species, remarking that it was similar to richmondi, but distinctive in the well-developed ridges along the margins of the interorbital region, the short interparietal bone (part of the roof of the braincase), and the long nasal bones. In 1937, Bole described another species of Panamanian Oryzomys, Oryzomys azuerensis from Paracoté, Veraguas Province. It is a brown form, lacking the reddish tones of nearby populations, and has a broad skull with a short rostrum (front part) and ridges on the interorbital region like those of gatunensis. Although Goldman recommended to him that gatunensis and azuerensis both be treated as subspecies of couesi, Bole described azuerensis as a species because it did not seem intermediate between the geographically closest forms, gatunensis and couesi, and was separated by a large gap from the nearest known populations of O. couesi in northwestern Costa Rica and southeastern Nicaragua. In a 1966 review of Panamanian mammals, Charles Handley reduced both gatunensis and azuerensis to subspecies of the marsh rice rat (in which O. couesi was included at the time), and when O. couesi was reinstated as a separate species these forms went with it. Specimens from near the type locality of azuerensis differ by about 7% in their Cytb sequences from other O. couesi, which suggests that they may represent a separate species. However, Hanson and colleagues did not reinstate azuerensis as a species, because they could not examine samples of gatunensis. Oryzomys couesi was first reported from Colombia in 1987, when Philip Hershkovitz reported on its occurrence at Montería in Córdoba Department, northwestern Colombia. The Colombian specimen is ochraceous in color throughout and according to Hershkovitz almost identical to specimens from Guatemala, but distinctive in that the upper lip is white. He suggested that O. couesi may also be discovered in the Pacific lowlands of the Chocó in western Colombia. ### Common names Several common names have been proposed for Oryzomys couesi and the synonyms currently associated with it. Eliot in 1905 and Goldman in 1918 gave separate common names for each of the species and subspecies they recognized. Many authors have used "Coues' Rice Rat" or some variation thereof for O. couesi, but "Coues' Oryzomys" has also been used. ## Description Oryzomys couesi is a medium-sized to large rat with coarse fur that is buff to reddish above, becoming paler towards the sides and cheeks and darker on the rump and face. The underparts are white to buff. The fur is shorter, brighter, and more intense in color than in the marsh rice rat. The snout ends bluntly and the moderately large eyes show reddish eyeshine. The small ears are black on the outside and the inside is covered with short, gray to buff or red hairs. The long tail is dark brown above and white to light brown below. The feet are long and stout. On the forefeet, the ungual tufts (tufts of hair on the digits) are present. Many of the pads on the hindfeet are reduced, as are the ungual tufts, and small interdigital webs may be present in at least some specimens. Some of these traits are common adaptations to life in the water in oryzomyines. As in most other oryzomyines, females have eight mammae. Head and body length is 98 to 142 mm (3.9 to 5.6 in), tail length is 107 to 152 mm (4.2 to 6.0 in), hindfoot length is 27 to 33 mm (1.1 to 1.3 in), ear length is 13 to 18 mm (0.51 to 0.71 in), and body mass is 43 to 82 g (1.5 to 2.9 oz). Studies in Texas and El Salvador found that males are slightly larger than females. The stomach has the characteristic pattern of sigmodontines (unilocular-hemiglandular): it is not split in two chambers by an incisura angularis and the front part (antrum) is covered by a glandular epithelium. The gall bladder is absent, a synapomorphy (shared-derived character) of Oryzomyini. The karyotype includes 56 chromosomes and a fundamental number of 56 autosomal arms (2n = 56, FNa = 56). The autosomes include 26 pairs of acrocentric chromosomes, with a long and a very short arm, and one medium-sized submetacentric pair, with one arm shorter than the other. The X chromosome is either acrocentric, with a long and a short arm, or subtelocentric, with a long and a vestigial arm. The form of the sex chromosomes has been used to distinguish the marsh rice rat from Oryzomys couesi, but there are no consistent differences between the two. As is characteristic of Sigmodontinae, Oryzomys couesi has a complex penis, with the baculum (penis bone) ending in three cartilaginous digits at its tip. The outer surface of the penis is mostly covered by small spines, but there is a broad band of nonspinous tissue. The papilla (nipple-like projection) on the dorsal (upper) side of the penis is covered with small spines, a character Oryzomys couesi shares only with Oligoryzomys and the marsh rice rat among oryzomyines examined. On the urethral process, located in the crater at the end of the penis, a fleshy process (the subapical lobule) is present; it is absent in all other oryzomyines with studied penes except the marsh rice rat and Holochilus brasiliensis. ### Skull The nasal and premaxillary bones do not extend back beyond the point where the lacrimal, frontal, and maxillary bones meet. The zygomatic plate, the flattened front part of the zygomatic arch, is broad and develops a notch at its front end. The plate's back margin is located before the first upper molar. The jugal bone, part of the zygomatic arch, is reduced, as usual in oryzomyines. The sphenopalatine foramen, a foramen (opening) at the side of the skull above the molars, is small; it is much larger in the marsh rice rat. The narrowest part of the interorbital region is towards the front and the edges are lined by prominent shelves. The parietal bones extend to the sides of the braincase. The interparietal bone is narrow and wedge-shaped, so that the parietal and squamosal bones meet extensively. The incisive foramina, openings in the front part of the palate, reach backward between the molars. The palate is long, extending substantially beyond the third molars, the usual condition in oryzomyines. The back part, near the third molars, is usually perforated by prominent posterolateral palatal pits, which are recessed into fossae (depressions). Sphenopalatine vacuities are usually absent, but have been reported in some populations. There is no alisphenoid strut, an extension of the alisphenoid bone that in some oryzomyines separates two foramina in the skull. The condition of the arteries in the head is highly derived. The subsquamosal fenestra, an opening in the back part of the skull determined by the shape of the squamosal bone, is present. The squamosal lacks a suspensory process that contacts the tegmen tympani, the roof of the tympanic cavity, a defining character of oryzomyines. There are some openings in the mastoid bone. In the mandible (lower jaw), the mental foramen, an opening just before the first molar, opens sidewards, not upwards as in a few other oryzomyines. The upper and lower masseteric ridges, which anchor some of the chewing muscles, join at a point below the first molar and do not extend forward beyond that point. The capsular process, a raising of the bone of the back of the mandible that houses the back end of the incisor, is large. ### Teeth The dental formula is (one upper and one lower incisor and three upper and three lower molars on each side of the jaws), as usual in muroid rodents. The upper incisors are opisthodont, with the chewing edge located behind the vertical plane of the teeth. The molars are bunodont, with the cusps higher than the connecting crests, and brachydont, low-crowned, as in most other oryzomyines. Many accessory crests, including the mesoloph on the upper molars and the mesolophid on the lower molars, are present, another trait O. couesi shares with most but not all other oryzomyines. The flexi and flexids (valleys between the cusps and crests) at the labial (outer) side of the molars are closed by cingula (ridges). On the first and second upper molars, the flexi do not extend to the midline of the molars. The anterocone, the front cusp of the upper first molar, is not divided in two by an indentation at its front (anteromedian flexus). A crest, the anteroloph, is present behind the labial cuspule. As in most oryzomyines, the upper molars all have one root on the inner (lingual) side and two on the outer (labial) side; in addition, the first upper molar usually has another small labial root. On the first lower molar, the labial and lingual conules of the anteroconid, the frontmost cusp, are separated by an anteromedian fossette. The second lower molar bears a crest, the anterolophid, before the two cusps, the protoconid and metaconid, that form the front edge of the molar in some other oryzomyines. There is a distinct ridge (anterolabial cingulum) at the outer front (anterolabial) edge of the molar, before the protoconid. The third lower molar also bears an anterolophid and an anterolabial cingulum. The first lower molar has large roots at the front and back of the tooth and two smaller ones in between, at the labial and lingual side. The second and third lowers molars have two large roots, one at the front and one at the back. ### Postcranial skeleton As usual in oryzomyines, there are twelve ribs. The first rib articulates with both the last cervical (neck) and first thoracic (chest) vertebrae, a synapomorphy of the Sigmodontinae. Anapophyses, processes at the back of a vertebra, are absent from the fifth lumbar. Between the second and third caudal vertebrae, hemal arches (small bones) are present with a spinous back border. The entepicondylar foramen is absent, as in all members of the Sigmodontinae; if present, as in some other rodents, this foramen perforates the distal (far) end of the humerus (upper arm bone). ## Ecology and behavior The distribution of Oryzomys couesi extends from southern Texas and central Sonora, but not the central plateau of Mexico, through Central America south and east to northwestern Colombia; see under "Taxonomy" for details. The species has also been found in late Pleistocene cave deposits in Mexico and Honduras. It is common in watery habitats, such as marshes and small streams, but also occurs in forests and shrublands with sufficient cover. In addition, it is found in sugarcane and rice fields. In Texas, it occurs in marsh vegetation along resacas (oxbow lakes) and in Veracruz, it has even been found on the dry coastal plain among shrubs. It occurs from 2,300 m (7,500 ft) altitude down to sea level. On Cozumel, the proportion of juveniles and females is higher near roads that function as habitat edges. Cozumel rice rats rarely cross roads, which may isolate subpopulations on the island. Oryzomys couesi lives on the ground and is semiaquatic, spending much time in the water, as Alston in his original description already recognized, but is also a good climber. A study in Costa Rica found that O. couesi is an excellent swimmer, diving well and using its tail to propel itself. It is probably able to forage underwater, which may help differentiate its niche from that of the ecologically similar cotton rat Sigmodon hirsutus, which also swims well, but does not dive. When disturbed, O. couesi will enter the water and swim away. It is primarily active during the night. Oryzomys couesi builds globular nests of woven vegetation suspended among reeds, about 1 m (3.3 ft) above the water or the ground; in Texas, larger individuals make larger nests. It does not usually make its own runways in vegetation, but may use those of other rodents, such as cotton rats. Population densities range from 5 to 30 per ha (2 to 12 per acre). On Cozumel, density is around 14.5 to 16.5 per ha (5.9 to 6.7 per acre), but shows large seasonal variation. In western Mexico, one study found densities of 3 per ha (1.2 per acre) in cloud forest and 1 per ha (0.4 per acre) in a disturbed area. In 24 hours, male Texas O. couesi move up to 153 m (502 ft) and females up to 126 m (413 ft). The diet includes both plant material, including seeds and green parts, and animals, including small fish, crustaceans, snails, insects like ants and beetles, and other invertebrates. It probably breeds around the year and after a pregnancy of 21 to 28 days, the female produces litters of two to seven young, with an average of 3.8, according to Reid's Mammals of Central America & Southeast Mexico. In 28 pregnant females from Nicaragua, litter size varied from one to eight, averaging 4.4. The young become reproductively active when seven weeks old and the life cycle is short. The introduced snake Boa constrictor preys on O. couesi on Cozumel. Parasites recorded on O. couesi in Veracruz include unidentified ticks, mites, fleas, and fly larvae. The flea Polygenis odiosus was found on an Oryzomys couesi from Cozumel. Out of ten O. couesi in San Luis Potosí, five each were infected by the nematode worms Hassalstrongylus musculi and H. bocqueti, with about 25 worms per rat, and two were infected by one or two cestodes of the genus Raillietina. The mites Eubrachylaelaps circularis and Gigantolaelaps boneti have been found on Oryzomys couesi in Oaxaca, the sucking louse Hoplopleura oryzomydis in Nicaragua, the mites Laelaps oryzomydis, Echinonyssus microchelae, Ornithonyssus bacoti, Prolistrophorus frontalis, and Prolistrophorus bakeri in Colima, and the apicomplexan Eimeria couesii in Mexico. The species is infected by two hantaviruses—Catacamas virus in Honduras and Playa de Oro virus in western Mexico—which are related to the Bayou virus infecting the marsh rice rat, a common cause of hantavirus infections in the United States. No hantavirus infections in humans have been linked to O. couesi hantaviruses, however. Chiapas O. couesi easily survive experimental infection with several arboviruses, including the Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus, suggesting that the species may serve as a reservoir for that virus. ## Conservation status The IUCN lists Oryzomys couesi as "Least Concern", because it is a widely distributed, common species with broad habitat tolerance that occurs in many protected areas. Habitat destruction, such as drainage of wetlands, may threaten some populations. In many areas, it is so common that it is considered a plague species. Populations even persist in the Valley of Mexico, as evidenced by a photograph published in 2006. However, the species is listed as threatened in Texas, where its distribution is very limited, because of habitat loss. In 1979, Benson and Gehlbach estimated the size of the Texas population to be about 15,000. A 2001 study predicted that climate change would drive the Texas population to extinction, because no suitable habitats would continue to exist. The Cozumel population has declined substantially since the mid-1980s, perhaps due to habitat disturbance and predation by introduced species.
167,807	Stanley Bruce	1,169,593,376	Australian politician (1883–1967)	[ "1883 births", "1967 deaths", "20th-century Australian politicians", "Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge", "Ambassadors of Australia to the Netherlands", "Australian Fellows of the Royal Society", "Australian Freemasons", "Australian Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour", "Australian members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom", "Australian ministers for Foreign Affairs", "Australian monarchists", "Australian nationalists", "Australian peers", "Australian people of Irish descent", "Australian people of Scottish descent", "Australian recipients of British honours", "Australian recipients of the Military Cross", "British Army personnel of World War I", "Chancellors of the Australian National University", "High Commissioners of Australia to the United Kingdom", "Leaders of the Nationalist Party of Australia", "Members of the Australian House of Representatives", "Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Flinders", "Members of the Cabinet of Australia", "Military personnel from Melbourne", "Nationalist Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia", "People educated at Melbourne Grammar School", "People from Toorak, Victoria", "Politicians from Melbourne", "Prime Ministers of Australia", "Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1914–1918 (France)", "Royal Fusiliers officers", "Stewards of Henley Royal Regatta", "Treasurers of Australia", "United Australia Party members of the Parliament of Australia", "Viscounts created by George VI", "Worcestershire Regiment officers" ]	Stanley Melbourne Bruce, 1st Viscount Bruce of Melbourne, CH MC PC FRS (15 April 1883 – 25 August 1967) was an Australian politician, statesman and businessman who served as the eighth prime minister of Australia, from 1923 to 1929, holding office as the leader of the Nationalist Party. He previously served as the treasurer of Australia from 1921 to 1923. Born into a briefly wealthy Melbourne family, Bruce studied at the University of Cambridge and played a leading role in his family's softgoods firm following the suicide of his father John Munro Bruce. He served on the front lines of the Gallipoli Campaign in World War I and returned to Australia wounded in 1917, becoming a spokesman for government recruitment efforts. He gained the attention of the Nationalist Party and prime minister Billy Hughes, who encouraged a political career. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1918, becoming member of parliament (MP) for the seat of Flinders. He was appointed as treasurer in 1921, before replacing Hughes as prime minister in 1923. He established an anti-socialist coalition government with the agrarian Country Party, working closely with Country leader Earle Page in an arrangement that pioneered the modern Liberal–National coalition. In office, Bruce pursued an energetic and diverse agenda. He comprehensively overhauled federal government administration and oversaw its transfer to the new capital city of Canberra. He implemented various reforms to the Australian federal system to strengthen the role of the Commonwealth, and helped develop the forerunners of the Australian Federal Police and the CSIRO. Bruce's "men, money and markets" scheme was an ambitious attempt to rapidly expand Australia's population and economic potential through massive government investment and closer ties with Great Britain and the rest of the British Empire. However, his endeavours to overhaul Australia's industrial relations system brought his government into frequent conflict with the labour movement, and his radical proposal to abolish the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration in 1929 prompted members of his own party into crossing the floor to defeat the government. In the resounding loss at the 1929 election, Bruce lost his own seat, making him the only sitting prime minister to lose his seat until John Howard's defeat at the 2007 election. Although he returned to parliament in 1931, Bruce's service in the Lyons government was brief. Instead he pursued an international career, accepting appointment as High Commissioner to the United Kingdom in 1933. Bruce became an influential figure in British government circles and at the League of Nations, emerging as a tireless advocate for international co-operation on economic and social problems, especially those facing the developing world. Particularly passionate on improving global nutrition, Bruce was one of the key figures in the establishment of the Food and Agriculture Organization, serving as the first chairman of its governing council. He was the first Australian to sit in the House of Lords, as well as the first Chancellor of the Australian National University. Although his diplomatic career went largely unnoticed in Australia, he continued throughout his life in London to vociferously advocate for Australian interests (particularly during World War II) and asked that his remains be scattered over Canberra when he died. ## Early life Stanley Melbourne Bruce was born on 15 April 1883 in St Kilda, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne, and was the youngest of five children. He disliked his given name and throughout his life preferred to be known by his initials "S.M.", even among close friends. His wife called him simply "S". When he became prime minister he issued a note to the press asking newspapers to use his initials and not his given name. Bruce's father, John Munro Bruce, was born to Scottish parents in County Leitrim, Ireland, and had emigrated to Australia in 1858 at the age of 18. His mother, Mary Ann Henderson, was Irish and had married her cousin John after emigrating to Australia in 1872 at the age of 24. John Bruce became a talented businessman with "a flair for buying and selling", which would secure him a partnership in an established Melbourne importing firm that in 1868 became known as Paterson, Laing and Bruce. As his wealth grew, John Bruce became influential in colonial Victoria's social and political life. An avid golfer, he was one of the founders of the Royal Melbourne Golf Club. He was prominent in the liberal protectionist political movement within the state and an early supporter of future prime minister Alfred Deakin. John Bruce's success ensured that Stanley Bruce, his sister Mary and his brothers Ernest, William and Robert were born into affluence. Shortly after Stanley Bruce's birth the family relocated to the stately Wombalano manor, built by John Bruce, in Toorak. However, John Bruce was an aloof and remote figure in the lives of his children, as his son Stanley later recounted. Despite their family's Presbyterian background, Stanley Bruce was sent to Melbourne Church of England Grammar School (now Melbourne Grammar School) and subsequently Stanley Bruce would come to identify principally as Anglican. Bruce was an average student but extremely active in the sporting life of the school, captain of its Australian football team, and then of the school itself in 1901. Today, the school honours him with his own house, Bruce House, the colours of which are scarlet and white. The house's mascot is a lion, symbolising Bruce's bravery. The economic depression of the 1880s and 1890s hit the Bruce family fortunes hard. John Bruce lost much of his fortune in the Victorian bank collapse of 1894 and incurred large debts to buy out his partners in the importing business in 1897. The family suffered a great deal more tragedy over the coming decades. Stanley's brother William committed suicide in 1899, shortly after seeking treatment for mental illness. Just two years later John Bruce took his own life during a business trip to Paris; he had suffered from depression as a result of the great pressures on his business and finances. His sister Mary endured a long illness before succumbing in 1908, and his mother died too in 1912. Finally, Bruce's beloved brother Ernest the recipient, like Stanley, of an MC for bravery, shot himself in 1919, suffering from physical and mental injuries sustained during his military service in World War I. In the aftermath of his father's death in 1901, the family fortunes were at a low ebb and Bruce went into the family business after leaving high school. The young Bruce was ambitious and determined to get an education. With loaned money, he moved to the United Kingdom with his mother and sister and enrolled in Trinity Hall, Cambridge in 1902. He was a popular if average student, heavily involved in the athletic life of the college, including as a member of the Cambridge rowing crew that won the Boat Race in 1904. Rowing remained one of his great passions, and he continued to coach crews (including several for the Henley Royal Regatta) and write on the subject for much of his life. Ernest Bruce had remained in Australia to take charge of the family's business interests. In 1906, he lobbied the directors of the company to have his brother Stanley take over the chairmanship of Paterson, Laing and Bruce, and was ultimately successful. Despite being just 23, he proved an able chairman, and with Stanley in London managing the exporting and financial interests, and Ernest managing the importation and sales operations in Melbourne, the financial fortunes of the business and the family rapidly recovered. During these years, Bruce also trained and worked as a solicitor and then as a barrister in the London with the firm of Ashurst, Morris, Crisp & Co. His work for the firm took him to Mexico in 1908 and Colombia in 1912, which fostered an interest in international affairs. By 1912 Bruce was a businessman and a successful barrister, and it was in this year Ethel Dunlop Anderson travelled to England and was reacquainted with Bruce, whom she had known as a child. Aged 32, Ethel was of similar Scottish-Irish ancestry and hailed from a prominent squatter family of Victoria. She shared many of Bruce's interests, especially golf, and his political outlook. They married in July 1913 in a quiet ceremony. Theirs was a close-knit relationship – they would have many acquaintances but a small circle of close friends, and their relationship was one of mutual devotion. But the death of all but one member of his immediate family in just over a decade, and the fact that the Bruces would bear no children of their own, deeply affected Bruce. His brother Ernest's daughter, Helen Bruce, came to play a large part in his life and was to become the main beneficiary of his Will but Bruce "was left with a sense of insecurity and melancholy". ## Military service Bruce returned briefly to Australia in 1914, swapping positions within the company with his brother Ernest. World War I broke out in August of that year. Bruce and his brothers sought to enlist in defence of the Empire, but all three of them would choose to serve in the British Army rather than the Australian Imperial Force. It was easier to obtain officer commissions in the British Army and the family had a close association with (and for many of them, long periods of residency in) Great Britain. Bruce enlisted and received a commission as a lieutenant on 7 February 1915 and was attached to the 2nd Battalion, Royal Fusiliers in Egypt, which was then assigned to the British 29th Division. The 29th subsequently joined operations in Turkey along with Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) troops that year under Sir Ian Hamilton, commander of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (MEF). First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill had devised a strategy of capturing the Dardanelles from Turkey to allow naval access to Allied Russia. However allied naval forces were unable to secure passage through the narrow straits, and the MEF under Hamilton devised a plan to wrest control through amphibious landings. This was the beginning of the now infamous Gallipoli Campaign. Bruce's regiment landed at Cape Helles in mid-1915, where he fully distinguished himself in the construction of trenches and as an able commander. His battalion suffered heavy casualties over the coming months, and Bruce himself was wounded on 3 June by a shot to the arm, though it was this injury that spared him from a major assault by his battalion on 4 June in which many of his peers perished. He later reflected that he must have been kept on earth for some purpose. He returned to the front lines and his division moved to the new front at Suvla Bay, where it was involved in particularly heavy fighting and sustained trench warfare throughout August and September. Bruce received the Military Cross and the Croix de Guerre for his service during these months, and rose to the rank of captain on 5 August. He was wounded again on 26 September, this time by a shot to the knee, which left him crippled for several years and forced him to return to England to recuperate, while the rest of his regiment were transferred to France after the abandonment of the Gallipoli campaign. Although it had been the agreement before the war that Ernest would stay and manage Paterson, Laing and Bruce while his brothers were serving, Ernest Bruce decided to enlist in the British Army in 1915. Hence, in September 1916 Bruce sought to resign his commission and return to Australia to resume management of the family business. The War Office refused his request but granted him leave to return to Australia while recuperating from his injuries. As a decorated soldier on crutches with a gift for public speaking, he was enlisted to become a spokesperson for government recruitment in Australia. His success and popularity in this role brought the attention of the Nationalist League and then Prime Minister Billy Hughes, who lobbied the British government on his behalf and succeeded in convincing the War Office to allow Bruce to relinquish his commission in June 1917. Having served with many of his countrymen he returned to Australia with a renewed sense of pride and mission in the country of his birth. But having borne witness to the catastrophic loss of life in the Gallipoli Campaign and the death of most of his army comrades, as well as having suffered through the loss of most of his family, at age 34 Bruce was imbued with "a driving ambition to make something of a life which providence had spared". ## Early years in politics Bruce's popularity as a speaker for government recruitment efforts also earned him the attention of the National Union of Victoria, an influential group of Melbourne businessmen who provided much of the financing for the federal Nationalist Party. As Sir William Irvine had recently resigned from parliament to become Chief Justice of Victoria, there was to be a by-election for the Division of Flinders in 1918, which the National Union asked Bruce to stand for. The Nationalist preselection for the seat attracted many candidates, and Sir Edward Mitchell, one of Australia's leading constitutional lawyers, was presumed to be the front runner. Mitchell proved to be a disappointing speaker, and Bruce won preselection with the help of the National Union. A deal arranged by acting Prime Minister William Watt prevented the newly formed Country Party from challenging Bruce in what was a partly rural seat, stretching from Dandenong out into the rural areas south and east of Melbourne. In the by-election of 11 May, Bruce easily defeated his Labor opponent Gordon Holmes. Speaking to the delegates in Dandenong, Bruce summed up his political philosophy: > A plain soldier and business man. I am no politician, nor have I any desire to be one. In the course of my commercial career it has been my fate to have had much experience of politicians and their ways. What I have seen in the course of that experience has given me little respect either for the professional politician or his methods. I am desirous of seeing this country governed in the ways of clear common sense and good sound business principles, and I think that desire of mine is heartily shared by the vast majority of the population. Bruce's early years in parliament were unremarkable and his energies were primarily focused on the affairs of Paterson, Laing and Bruce. However, in 1921 he attracted the attention of his parliamentary colleagues over the matter of the Commonwealth Line. Nationalist Prime Minister Billy Hughes, now a peace-time leader, had declined in popularity within the party due to his left-wing domestic policies. The Commonwealth Line had been created by the Hughes government as a state-owned concern to ship Australian goods during World War I when British and domestic commercial shipping were unavailable. However its post-war existence was extensively criticised by Bruce as inappropriate and inefficient, and many of his economically conservative colleagues agreed. Bruce also distinguished himself as one of Australia's two representatives to the League of Nations in 1921 in Geneva, at which he passionately advocated for disarmament and greater international co-operation, despite his general scepticism with regards to the League's mission and potential for success. ### Treasurer, 1921–1923 Returning from Europe in October 1921, he was invited by Prime Minister Billy Hughes to join his government as Minister for Trade and Customs. Bruce was not interested – he was the head of one of Australia's largest importing houses and thus had a serious conflict of interest with the portfolio, as well as being very busy running the affairs of that business. But he countered by stating that he might feel obliged to accept if the position of Treasurer was offered, knowing that it had already been promised to Walter Massy-Greene. To Bruce's surprise, Hughes agreed, although Massy-Greene was to remain the number two in the government and Minister for Defence. Bruce had only been in parliament for three years, yet his business background was highly desirable to Hughes, who was facing growing criticism from the pro-business figures of the party. These figures had become increasingly suspicious of Hughes and his interventionist approach to the economy. Influential party figures such as Senator George Pearce and the National Union had also identified Bruce as their preferred choice for the treasury. Bruce and Hughes clashed in both style and ideology. Bruce found Hughes' management of the government capricious and chaotic, and felt that little was accomplished in Cabinet or in party meetings so long as Hughes headed them. But he was a strong counterweight to the domineering Hughes, resisting several of his more expensive proposals or acting as the voice of reason to talk Hughes down from several of his more outlandish ideas. His tenure would ultimately be short, presiding over just one budget in 1922, which was conservative and tax-cutting. The Opposition criticised the budget for its failure to limit rising government spending and indebtedness. The budget included many concessions to rural interests and the recently formed Country Party, which appeared as a major threat to Nationalist Party dominance going into the 1922 elections in December. Yet Bruce endeared himself to many of his colleagues with his amiable personal style, his forceful voice in Cabinet against Hughes, and his conservative views, which were more in line with the majority of the party. ## Prime Minister, 1923–1929 The Nationalists lost eleven seats and their majority in the Australian House of Representatives in the 1922 election. Only three of these seats were picked up by the Labor Party though, and Labor still lacked the numbers to form government in their own right. Rather, a breakaway anti-Hughes Liberal Party took five government seats, while the Country Party increased their number to 14 and now held the balance of power. The only politically realistic option for the Nationalists to stay in office was to come to an agreement with the Country Party. However, Country Party leader Earle Page refused to support a Nationalist government with Hughes as prime minister, and negotiations throughout January and February failed to break the impasse. Rather than risk being defeated in the legislature, which might have resulted in the Governor-General asking Labor to form government, Hughes surprised his colleagues by announcing his intention to resign on 2 February. With deputy leader Walter Massy-Greene having lost his seat at the 1922 election, Hughes now sent for Bruce to take over as leader of the party. After some reluctance, Bruce finally agreed, although Hughes later regretted the decision and became one of the new prime minister's most outspoken detractors. Bruce moved quickly to secure a working majority for his government. He convinced Hughes' long time political ally George Pearce to join his ministry and shored up the support of the other former National Labor members of the Nationalist Party whom had walked out of the Labor Party with Hughes in 1916. He appointed William Watt as Speaker of the House, effectively removing one of his key opponents from the benches, a tactical manoeuvre that became common in Australian politics thereafter. But his most lasting political achievement was the negotiation of what became known as the Coalition – an arrangement of electoral and political co-operation between the Nationalists (and their successors) and the Country Party. Although differing greatly in character and background, the orderly and diplomatic Bruce forged a strong working relationship with the intelligent but irascible Country Party leader Page. Bruce had to pay a very high price for this relationship, however. As part of the Coalition agreement, the Country Party received five seats in a Cabinet of 11. Page also became Treasurer and ranked second in the Cabinet. The Nationalists also made major concessions on rural development and taxation policy – compromises that stirred some resentment among some members of Bruce's party. Page, who would serve as Treasurer and de facto Deputy Prime Minister throughout Bruce's tenure, would become a great admirer of Bruce, stating, "He was a leader who impressed his colleagues with his sincerity and his capacity, and earned their loyalty as the reward for his wisdom and integrity." Bruce took office on 9 February. His appointment as prime minister marked an important turning point in Australian political history. He was the first prime minister who had not been involved in the movement for Federation, who had not been a member of a colonial or state parliament, and who had not been a member of the original 1901 federal parliament. He was, in addition, the first prime minister to head a cabinet consisting entirely of Australian-born ministers. Yet Bruce himself was frequently caricatured in public as "an Englishman who happened to have been born in Australia". He drove a Rolls-Royce, wore white spats, and was often seen as distant and lacking the common touch: characteristics that did little to personally endear him to the Australian public. ### "Men, money and markets" In 1923 Australia was prosperous by comparison with other developed nations of the period, having quickly rebounded economically after World War I. Unemployment and inflation were relatively low by international standards, and Commonwealth revenues had grown significantly since Australia became a federation. Australia was a vast and richly resourced country with fewer than six million inhabitants, and Bruce made it his government's priority to develop Australia's economy. In his first speech to the House of Representatives as prime minister, he outlined a comprehensive vision for Australia that centred on economic development, reform of the federal system, increased Commonwealth powers over industrial relations, a greater voice for Australia within the British Empire and the establishment of a national capital. He summarised this vision as a program of "men, money and markets". According to Bruce, men were needed to allow Australia's extensive resources to be developed. In 1923, much of Australia's land was virtually unoccupied, and Bruce believed Australia had the potential to be one of the most fertile and productive nations in the world, which could sustain populations upward of 100 million over time – more than 16 times the population of his time. Despite dissenting voices from scientists, who noted that poor climate, soils and water availability were significant barriers to large populations, the Bruce-Page government enacted policies to encourage large numbers of British to migrate to Australia. Under the auspices of the new Development and Migration Commission, £34 million in loans took place over the decade starting in 1924 to facilitate immigrant settlement through improvements to rural infrastructure, land access, and subsidising immigrant journeys ("passages"). Estimates as high as half a million British immigrants over ten years were predicted at the start of the policy, whereas just over 200,000 travelled to Australia during that time period. Bruce's settlement plan rested on rural growth. Migrants were often selected on the basis of their willingness to work on the land; state and Commonwealth governments concentrated their investment on rural development and encouraged returned servicemen to take up farms on the periphery of settled areas. Despite this, a majority of these migrants settled in urban areas, as Australia's rural areas were far more remote and difficult to work (than for example England's) and many of those taking advantage of the assistance scheme were urban workers or family and friends of those already settled. Immigration from outside Great Britain and her dominions was considered unpalatable – the Bruce government upheld the White Australia policy by placing strong restrictions on immigration from other areas, notwithstanding its population growth targets. In his campaign speech for the 1925 election, Bruce stated: > It is necessary that we should determine what are the ideals towards which every Australian would desire to strive. I think those ideals might well be stated as being to secure our national safety, and to ensure the maintenance of our White Australia Policy to continue as an integral portion of the British Empire. We intend to keep this country white and not allow its people to be faced with the problems that at present are practically insoluble in many parts of the world. Money was borrowed from Britain to fund the state's programs and at an unprecedented rate. Over £230 million was extended in loans from the City of London to state and Commonwealth treasuries during the 1920s. A further £140 million arrived through private investment. Bruce's plan for Australian economic development needed a much stronger role for the Commonwealth government than had been traditionally accepted. Both he and Page were "conspicuously national rather than federal in their outlook" and sought major changes to federal-state relations in order implement their development policy. > Increasingly our problems are becoming national in character ... Our financial resources are curtailed and there is an immediate repercussion throughout the Commonwealth. All our problems are common problems. None can be prosperous unless all are prospering. I am more convinced that we have to look at all our problems with the eyes of a nation and not as individuals. Where a great problem confronts a State it may be solved by the co-operation of the Commonwealth for the benefit of the States, and the benefit and advancement of the whole of Australia. The Bruce–Page plan of May 1923 put in motion efforts to coordinate state-federal operations in several areas, particularly infrastructure and rural development schemes. The Main Roads Development Act of 1923 was one of the first and most important legislative accomplishments in this vein. The act leveraged Section 96 of the Constitution of Australia to grant financial assistance to the states by employing it to fund road construction and maintenance according to the plans of the federal transportation portfolio – in effect allowing the Commonwealth to operate directly in what was constitutionality the exclusive domain of the state governments. The Act would provide a precedent for many types of "special purpose payments" that became a common feature of Australian federal fiscal relations. Despite some major successes, Bruce was more frequently frustrated by a lack of progress in many key areas of intergovernmental co-operation. The states could not be induced to standardise electrical power schemes, nor unify on track gauges, nor national health insurance despite years of work and solid arguments in favour. Although men and money had been secured, the markets component of the Bruce plan was never fully realised. At the 1923 Imperial Conference, Bruce lobbied consistently for the Conservative government of Stanley Baldwin to make changes to Great Britain's trading arrangements to give preference to dominion products over imports from other nations. He argued for Empire-wide economic trading arrangements that filled domestic demands by production from member states before seeking supplemental imports from other countries and empires. Baldwin and the Conservatives attempted to introduce such a scheme in Britain; however, the British public feared higher prices for basic products (particularly food), and this fear was a factor in the Conservative government's defeat in the December 1923 election. Baldwin's successor Ramsay MacDonald repudiated the plan, much to Bruce's chagrin, and attempts to revive negotiations foundered as economic conditions worsened throughout the decade. World agricultural prices stalled in the mid-1920s as European and American agricultural production recovered to pre-war levels, and Australian exports were crowded out of markets as the decade progressed. In 1927, Earle Page handed down the first budget in deficit for the coalition government, and Bruce recognised that Australia's economic position was deteriorating. Federal and state debt that year totalled just over £1 billion, of which £305 million were war debts and the rest had been spent on development that had failed had deliver high returns. Nearly half of the total debt was owed to overseas lenders, principally those in London. Economic growth was slow, and far lower than the levels hoped. Exports and revenues were falling behind government needs, and investors had begun to express alarm at Australia's level of debt. Bruce persisted with his plans and believed that growing Australian exports were the key to rectifying the problems, thus justifying further investment and encouragement of population growth. The government did act to try to manage the debt problem. By the mid-1920s, states were borrowing at unsustainable rates to fund their own programs to compensate for dwindling revenues. In response, Bruce proposed that the responsibility for all government debts, Commonwealth and state, and the authority to acquire new debt, should be handed over to a National Loan Council in which all states would have one vote and the Commonwealth would have two votes and the casting vote. He also moved to abolish per capita payments to the states, to be replaced by a funding formula tied more to financial need. These two changes formed the Financial Agreement of 1927, the provisions of which were approved by referendum in 1928. These changes would prove to be amongst the most significant in Australian constitutional history, as the states had now lost much of their financial independence. Faced with severe financial pressures and an increasing reliance upon Commonwealth transfer payments, after some resistance the states consented, although vertical fiscal imbalance between the states and the Commonwealth continued to be an enduring feature of Australian federal relations. ### Modernising government Bruce set about applying his business principles to his cabinet, putting his experience as both a corporate manager and rowing coach to use in a cabinet system that was orderly and practical. He implemented a formal system whereby a proper agenda for cabinet meetings would be formulated, and the minister responsible for each item would circulate papers to bring other members up to speed on the issue. His decision-making procedures ensured that his colleagues were informed and actively participated in decisions – or if they disagreed, gave leave for cabinet members to absent themselves from meetings to preserve cabinet solidarity. In this respect Bruce earned the quick respect and approval of his colleagues, and in many respects came to dominate cabinet through his industriousness and knowledgability. Cabinet minister George Pearce would later conclude that Bruce was the best of the prime ministers that he served or opposed in his 38-year parliamentary career. Bruce also greatly strengthened the research and information-gathering capacity of the executive, and sought to make decisions and policy on the basis of the best available evidence and information. A record 22 Royal Commissions reported to the Bruce government, as well as scores of other inquiries and research projects undertaken by the Commonwealth in a wide range of areas, particularly on economic, industrial and agricultural matters. Recognising that investment in science was essential to expanding the opportunities for agricultural and economic development in Australia, Bruce established the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), now known as the CSIRO. He established the Bureau of Economic Research in 1929 and for the first time economists were regularly employed to advise the government on what had been until then exclusively political issues. By the time he left office, he had put in place extensive structures to provide information to the prime minister and the executive branch on most major areas of policy, a major development in the professional capacity of the Australian prime minister. Under Bruce the Australian government also moved to its new permanent home in the planned federal city of Canberra. Plans for a new federal capital had been circulated since the time of Federation, and a site on the Molonglo River was selected in 1913. Design and construction had proceeded slowly due to World War I as well as funding and management problems. Bruce was a committed advocate of the new capital, however, stating: "For the purposes of Federation it was essential that there should be some central point of nationhood, suitable to Australia as a nation ... and sooner or later there would have to be a national capital, overriding State boundaries and State prejudices." This came to pass on 9 May 1927 when the Federal Parliament moved to its new premises in Canberra; Bruce had moved himself and his wife to The Lodge a few days earlier. At the Federal Parliament's opening ceremony, Bruce decided that voices of the clerks of the House of Representatives and the Senate were too heavily accented, and determined that he would personally welcome the Duke of York and co-open the new building – a move that was criticised by several parliamentarians. The business of transferring government and cabinet operations to the new capital proceeded slowly over 1927 and 1928. This was an administrative task that occupied a significant proportion of the government's time in those years, with many departments only very gradually transferring from Melbourne, much to Bruce's consternation. ### Imperial overtures Loyal to the concept of the British Empire, Bruce envisaged strengthening it through mutual economic development, greater political co-operation, and common policies on defence, trade and foreign affairs. His first trip abroad as prime minister was for the 1923 Imperial Conference in London. Bruce put forward a wide range of proposals for stronger co-operation between Great Britain and her dominions in a wide range of areas, particularly in the areas of trade, defence and the formulation of a common foreign policy. He particularly desired a greater role for the dominions in imperial affairs, including a collective decision-making body for common questions of defence and foreign affairs. He took exception to a lack of involvement in foreign policy decisions made by Britain that would have significant ramifications for Australia. In 1922, in what became known as the Chanak Crisis, British brinkmanship over Turkey's aggressive manoeuvres to redefine its border with Greece had escalated to the point where the British cabinet had threatened war against Turkey. This threat included military participation of dominions in an intervention, though no dominion government had been informed of the developments in Turkey. Although a diplomatic end to the crisis was eventually found, dominion leaders were angered at having almost been committed to a military conflict without any consultation. Bruce pushed for greater consultation and voice for the dominions, and succeeded in having Richard Casey appointed as a permanent political liaison in London who would have access to British government decisions and act as a conduit between Westminster and Melbourne. He also successfully lobbied for the creation of a Dominion Office separated out from the Colonial Office to acknowledge the different state of affairs that now existed in the Empire. However, while fellow dominions generally agreed that the imperial system should be modified, not all shared his vision for closer collaboration and strong ties. Canada and the Union of South Africa were instead seeking greater independence from London, and there was little enthusiasm for many of Bruce's more ambitious plans for inter-empire trade and policy co-operation. Despite Australia's greater representation in London after 1923, Bruce's hope for collective imperial decision-making was dashed once more with the British decision to recognise the Soviet Union in 1924. This act dismayed the fervently anti-communist Bruce, who disagreed with the decision ideologically and on the grounds that once again the dominions had not been consulted. Ultimately, though, the differences between Britain's and her dominions' opinions on the matter were too great to be reconciled. Instead, Britain signed the General Treaty with the Soviet Union only on her own behalf, marking the first major split between Britain and Australia on a matter of foreign policy. Despite its applicability solely to European security arrangements, Bruce had criticised Britain's signing of the Locarno Treaties in 1925 without dominion consultation; though the eventual treaty was not binding on the dominions. The 1926 Imperial Conference confirmed that Britain and her dominions were rapidly diverging in interests and that greater independence – not greater co-operation – was the most practical solution. Bruce recognised the empire had reached a turning point, but despite his optimism for a reinvigorated imperial system, there was little interest from other governments. His plan for greater economic and defensive co-operation was discussed, as well as a revival of imperial preference in trading arrangements, but such ideas were now politically unpalatable in Britain and failed to develop. His attitudes were almost the opposite of those held by the leaders of Canada, South Africa and the Irish Free State. As Prime Minister Baldwin remarked at the conference, "If you, Mr Bruce, would use the word 'Empire' a bit less and you Mr McGilligan would use it a bit more, then we would make better progress." Ultimately proposals for greater independence won out, and 1926 Imperial Conference recognised through the Balfour Declaration that dominions were essentially independent entities that freely associated as the British Commonwealth of Nations, though after much negotiation it stopped short of using the terms nation or state. Governors-General were redefined as representatives only of the British monarch, not the British government, and were obliged now to act only on the advice of their respective dominion governments. These changes were both symbolically and practically significant in the transformation of the dominions from colonies to independent nations. Bruce had mixed feelings about these developments; on the one hand he believed that the Empire was still a strong and vital international organisation playing a positive role in international affairs, but on the other hand he was disappointed that other member nations did not share his vision or commitment to maintaining its integrity and unity. Bruce did have some successes at the conference, however, expanding the work of the Imperial Economic Committee and increasing inter-empire co-operation in technical and scientific areas. ### Industrial relations Strikes and industrial unrest were frequent in the aftermath of World War I, arising from discontent over poor conditions and the rise of militant labour organisations like the Communist Party of Australia and the Industrial Workers of the World. The problems were made worse in Australia due to the overlapping system of industrial courts that had evolved since Federation. Although federal arbitration was intended for industrial disputes that impacted upon multiple states or federal employees, courts had through several judgments greatly expanded the potential jurisdiction of federal arbitration, and the system had developed into a duality with both state and federal tribunals weighing into a wide range of industrial disputes. This was exploited by both unions and employers, who pursued matters in the courts they felt most likely to be favourable and switched between different jurisdictions to arrive at the best combination of state and federal conditions. Protracted disputes arose as employers and employees pursued disputes in different courts or refused to recognise the rulings of one in favour of the other. Billy Hughes and several of his predecessors had sought resolution to the problem through greater Commonwealth powers, but all referendums to expand Commonwealth industrial powers had failed at the ballot box. Bruce's attitudes towards industrial relations were varied, and he was initially unsympathetic to either employer or employee complaints, believing the best resolutions to be those brokered between businesses and their employees. He frequently called upon both sides to embrace a spirit of co-operation. The situation became acute when waterfront workers led by the Seamen's Union went on strike in 1925. This had severe and immediate effect on the Australian economy, reliant as it was on sea transportation for its imports and exports, a situation the Prime Minister recognised as untenable. With the union disregarding Commonwealth rulings on the dispute, Bruce rushed through the Navigation Act and the Immigration Act. The first allowed British and foreign shipping not working under Australian industrial awards to operate in Australian waters (although British vessels working in Australia would soon initiate a strike of their own). The second allowed the Commonwealth to deport any foreign-born person whom a special tribunal found guilty of "disrupting the industrial life of the community". Key foreign-born strike leaders were immediately targeted for deportation, but New South Wales Premier Jack Lang refused to allow state police to serve summonses on two leading union leaders. Bruce responded with the Peace Officers Act, which re-established a Commonwealth police force. These heavy-handed tactics drew outrage from the Labor Party, which challenged the Prime Minister to seek approval from the people. This Bruce did, and the elections of 1925 were Australia's first "red scare" election. He campaigned for industrial peace and an increased Commonwealth role in securing it, but also denounced "foreign agitators" and "class war" in appealing for law and order on the waterfront. He openly challenged pre-existing federal arrangements, stating on the campaign trail that Australia "should now consider whether that great historic instrument, the Constitution, meets the needs of to-day in the light of the developments which have taken place". The campaign was a success and the Bruce government was easily re-elected, increasing by 11 seats its majority over a disheartened ALP, whose leader Matthew Charlton was in poor health. "My government was returned to power on a clear issue and with a definite mission ... to introduce measures for the preservation of industrial peace", Bruce declared during his second term, and called a referendum to amend the Australian Constitution and bring industrial relations under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Commonwealth. Attempts to amend the constitution for this purpose had been rejected narrowly in 1911, 1913 and 1919, but against a background of ongoing industrial strife, Bruce made clear the problems of mixed jurisdiction, confusing dual-awards, and insufficient regulatory and enforcement powers at the Commonwealth level. Controversially, he also formulated an "essential services" question to be put at the same time, giving the government the power to protect the public from any "actual or probable disruption to essential services". These proposals drew hostile reception from many quarters – even from future conservative prime minister Robert Menzies – and both the Australian Labor Party and conservative groups were divided in opinion on the amendments, with the ALP eventually taking no fixed position on the questions. But by September the issue had drawn so much controversy and ill-feeling that it was no surprise for many commentators that the proposals failed to attract sufficient popular support to overcome the high bar for constitutional change. The problems of industrial unrest continued to flare up, and the waterfront remained a flashpoint. In a review of the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act in 1928, Bruce required industrial courts to consider the economic effects of its awards in addition to the welfare of worker. Immediate problems followed when a new award for waterside workers in 1928 worsened conditions for workers on economic grounds. New industrial action led by the Waterside Workers Federation broke out. In Melbourne these turned to riots, claiming casualties and at least one fatality. Reviving the "red scare" pitch for the 1928 election campaign, Bruce pushed the Transport Workers Act through parliament in response, which gave the executive unprecedented regulatory power in industrial relations. All waterfront workers now required federal licenses, or "dog collars" as they were derisively known, to work. The act allowed the Commonwealth government to effectively control who worked on the docks and nearly destroyed the Waterside Workers Federation, earning the government deep unpopularity among organised labour. At the 1928 election Bruce's government was returned to power, but it now had a majority of just nine – a fragile result, given the growing propensity for Nationalist member defections. Most of the Nationalists' parliamentary gains from 1925 had been wiped out. James Scullin had assumed the leadership of the ALP earlier in the year, upon the retirement of Charlton, and the party was invigorated as a consequence. Bruce was undeterred, though, and became convinced that unless costs of production for industry in Australia could be lowered and industrial peace secured, Australia was heading towards a major economic crisis. This doctrine was the basis of his appeals to the public for the next year and a half. ### Maritime industries crisis As early as 1927 economic indicators were signalling the onset of a recession in Australia. By 1929, the evidence was unavoidable that recession was becoming depression as a resulting of rapidly deteriorating international conditions. In that year, prices for Australian exports fell by nearly a third and GDP had fallen by 10%, with no attendant fall in the cost of living. Australia's debt now stood at £631 million – the interest payments on which were equivalent to nearly half of Australia's export receipts, a situation difficult to sustain even in a positive economic climate. Investors and banks recognised the risk and Australia's credit access was rapidly drying up. Bruce's grand economic development plans had increased the national debt significantly yet had delivered only marginal economic expansion in the short term. To make matters worse for the government, industrial unrest was a persisting problem, particularly in the economically key states of New South Wales and Victoria. The opposition had become more potent as well: Scullin was widely recognised as one of the parliament's most gifted and articulate members; even his opponents respected his personal probity. Scullin forecast that the Australian economy was highly vulnerable given its indebtedness, and was on a course for severe depression if government finances were not turned around dramatically. Furthermore, the Prime Minister's own party was breaking down underneath him. There had been no official party platform yet agreed to, and individual members had a wide degree of latitude to determine the issues they ran on, leading to frequent government defections on legislation. The government's existing nine-seat majority shrank during 1928 and 1929 over various issues, as a result of by-elections, and several leading figures who had previously worked with Bruce became increasingly sharp critics of him. Hughes and Edward Mann were two of the government's most ardent opponents in 1929. Worsening economic conditions had put further pressure on industrial relations, with unemployment rising and employers seeking to cut costs. Strikes of sugar mill workers in 1927, waterside workers in 1928, and then transport and timber industry workers in 1929 continued to disrupt economic operations. The worst came with ongoing disputes between miners and mine owners on the coalfields of New South Wales had culminated in riots and lockouts in 1929, and intervention by the Bruce government failed to produce a settlement. Notably, in March 1929 Newcastle-based mine owner John Brown locked out workers from his mines at Pelaw Main and Richmond Main to try to force acceptance of lower wages. Attorney-General John Latham pursued legal action against Brown for illegally using coercive industrial tactics, but Bruce intervened to stop the prosecution, believing the case to be doubtful and that dropping it would give the government a chance to negotiate an end to the dispute. The mine-owners refused to accede to government-brokered negotiations anyway, and the government was seen to have been siding with rich businesses and applying double standards, undermining Bruce's own credibility as an impartial leader and law-and-order prime minister. Bruce and the conservatives in parliament became increasingly convinced that "economic deterioration [was] the product, rather than the possible cause, of worsening industrial relations." Exasperated, the Prime Minister made a dramatic move and presented an ultimatum to the Australian state governments: either they should voluntarily hand their powers of industrial regulation to the federal government, or the federal government would divest itself of its industrial powers and dismantle federal arbitration. The announcement came as a major shock to all sides of politics, not least the members of Bruce's own cabinet, most of whom had not been informed of the dramatic change in policy until the day it was announced to the states. Bruce calculated that the states would not give up their powers, and thus the move was one designed to sanction the end of Commonwealth arbitration. For Bruce, the only inconceivable outcome now was that the status quo of dual jurisdiction remained unchanged. The opposition to the proposal, which the Prime Minister introduced to the parliament as the Maritime Industries Bill, was swift and fierce. In 1929 over 150 unions and 700,000 workers were covered by Commonwealth awards over a wide range of industries – although there was dissatisfaction in the coal and timber sectors, most were happy with their arrangements and feared worse pay and conditions if moved back to state awards. He defended his actions as being necessary to create certainty and end the duplication that had caused so many problems in recent years. Other government decisions in 1929 had attracted controversy as well. Page handed down his last budget on 22 August, which hinted at the burgeoning debt crisis and introduced a new tax on entertainment and theatres to help cover the deficit. The tax was very unpopular with the public, and the entertainment industry mounted a vocal campaign to stop it. Bruce, supported by the Brigden Report of 1929, also raised concern that protective tariffs were too high and were in need of reform – a position controversial with the powerful protected industries. The second reading of the Maritime Industries Bill passed by only four votes, with Hughes, Edward Mann and George Maxwell voting against the government. Hughes moved an amendment to the bill that stipulated it should only take effect after being approved by the people at a referendum or general election. Bruce ruled out any referendum, stating that the amendment would constitute a vote of confidence in his government and urged his party to vote it down. Nationalist MP Walter Marks and Independent MP William McWilliams joined the opposition, giving the opposition a one-vote majority. Bruce and his supporters now lobbied the Speaker, Sir Littleton Groom to make a deliberative vote in committee to tie the numbers, leaving the Committee chairman James Bayley with the casting (and presumably pro-government) vote. Groom refused, citing long-standing Westminster (though not Australian) parliamentary tradition of the speaker's impartiality. Groom's bitterness at having been dismissed by Bruce from the job of Attorney-General in 1925 had a significant bearing on his later decision. A snap election was called, with Bruce taking his case to the people that dramatic action on industrial relations was needed. Opposition Leader Scullin forcefully attacked the government, blaming the Prime Minister for an industrial environment that was adversarial and punitive, stressing that Commonwealth arbitration had safeguarded many rights of workers and was completely workable with conciliation and proper consultation. Scullin also criticised the government for the growing debt problem and economic malaise, which for some years he had predicted would lead to a major economic crisis. In the event, the government was soundly defeated on 12 October, losing more than half its seats in parliament. To add to his humiliation, Bruce was defeated in his own seat of Flinders by Labor challenger Jack Holloway. On paper, there was no indication that Bruce was in any danger of losing his seat; he held Flinders with a reasonably safe majority of 10.7 percent in 1928. However, on the second count Holloway picked up enough preferences from an independent Liberal candidate to give him the victory. Bruce was the first sitting prime minister to lose his own seat, a feat which would not be repeated until 2007. He was measured in defeat however, stating, "The people have said they do not want my services, and I am going into the banishment to which they have sent me." ## Return to cabinet, 1931–1933 Bruce returned to England after his defeat to holiday and attend to his business. Sir John Latham, took over as leader of the Nationalists. With the stock market crash in 1929 and the onset of the Great Depression in Australia, Bruce commented to his colleagues that their defeat was probably fortunate. But he ardently defended his government's record, maintaining that the economic crisis was inevitable and that his own policies were justified attempts to try to strengthen the Australian economy. It was this defence that he mounted in April 1931 when he announced he would return to politics and seek to regain his seat of Flinders at the next election. By now the Nationalists had regrouped as the United Australia Party (UAP) under Joseph Lyons, who had defected with several others from the embattled Scullin government. In November 1931 the Scullin government was defeated in parliament over its controversial Premiers' Plan, catching Bruce by surprise as he was in England attending to Paterson, Laing and Bruce affairs when a new election was called. The Scullin government was subsequently defeated in a landslide, losing a then-record 32 seats; the two Labor factions were cut down to only 18 seats between them. With Holloway having abandoned Flinders to run in the much friendlier Melbourne Ports, Bruce was returned in absentia to his old seat, regaining it with a swing of 18.5 percent. He was appointed assistant treasurer in the new Lyons government, Lyons having taken the treasury portfolio personally. Lyons leaned heavily on Bruce and Latham in his first six months of government, though Bruce had by now set his sights on international affairs rather than the domestic crisis. Bruce led the Australian delegation to the 1932 Imperial Economic Conference in Ottawa. He redoubled his efforts to improve Australian economic prospects with the empire, and the conference agreed to a limited form of his long-sought imperial preference scheme that would give Australia greater access and competitiveness in imperial markets over five years, an achievement for which Bruce received much praise from the Lyons government. The closer trading arrangements of the Ottawa Agreements would set the pattern for Australian-British trade relations until Britain's entry in the European Common Market in 1973. After the success of the Imperial Economic Conference, Lyons appointed Bruce to London as Resident Minister in the United Kingdom – it was to remain his and Ethel's home for the rest of their lives. His first task in London was to renegotiate the terms of Australia's burgeoning government debts, the repayment of which was crippling Depression-era Australia. Over two years, he negotiated with the Westminster Bank and the British Government for loan conversions worth £84 million, which saved Australia millions of pounds in interest over several years and along with the Ottawa Agreements were significant in helping alleviate the Australian government's budgetary difficulties. Bruce was asked at several points during the 1930s to return to Australia by UAP backers and other political figures, who hoped that he could replace Lyons as prime minister. He himself had questioned Lyons' health and capacity to execute the role effectively, but he showed little interest in returning. In 1938 and 1939 Bruce was approached by senior UAP figures and Lyons himself to return to Australia and assume the leadership of the government, which was struggling under the ailing Lyons, but he either flatly declined or set conditions for his return (such as an all-party government behind him) that were impossible to meet. ## High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, 1933–1945 In September 1933, Bruce was appointed by Lyons to replace the ailing Sir Granville Ryrie as High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, giving him ambassadorial rank. He formally resigned from parliament on 7 October 1933. Bruce would excel in the new post, becoming a trusted confidant among Conservative politicians and a familiar face in British government circles, which led to him at one point considering entering British politics formally. Bruce was particularly close to Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, with whom he frequently consulted, and was notably influential in pressing for Edward VIII's abdication in 1936. His importance and power in London was due in part to the free rein that Lyons gave him – a rarity in the history of the position. Combined with the turmoil and frequent ministerial changes within the Commonwealth Department of External Affairs, Bruce was generally credited as Australia's most influential and credible international representative during his posting, often determining matters of foreign policy in his own right. ### League of Nations Bruce represented Australia at the League of Nations and successfully lobbied for Australia to participate as a member of the League Council from 1933 to 1936. He opposed action against Japan following the invasion of Manchuria in 1933, concerned as to Australia's trading relationship with Japan and the potential future threat it posed to peace in the Pacific. He also attempted to steer the League away from sanctioning member nations, believing it yet lacked the military or economic sway to do so effectively and feared the breakdown of the League – a prospect that loomed after Germany and Japan departed the body in 1933. During the Abyssinia Crisis, Bruce again counselled against partial sanctions, believing them the worst option as they would not stop the Ethiopian invasion and yet would alienate Italy – then a potential ally against a rearming Nazi Germany. He further argued for much greater rearmament efforts in the United Kingdom and France to provide greater military capacity to enforce future decisions by the League. Bruce assumed the presidency of the League of Nations Council in 1936 at the height of the crisis and after the failure of the Hoare–Laval Pact between France, Italy and Britain, but further attempts to forestall the invasion failed. He presided as League Council President during the Rhineland Crisis, although once again attempts to respond to fascist aggression failed. Although this did not shake his conviction in the potential of the League, he saw it doomed to failure without fundamental reforms to its structure and system of sanctions. He was nominated by Turkey to chair the 1936 Montreux Conference, which was far more successful in negotiating international agreement on passage through the Turkish Straits – an issue of particular relevance to Bruce as a veteran of the Gallipoli campaign. Despite the turmoil of his presidency, the League historian F.P. Walters would later describe Bruce as "the best, perhaps, of the many first-rate chairmen who presided over the Council, Conferences, or Committees of the League". By 1937 Bruce's attention had shifted to social and economic co-operation, which he believed had far greater potential for success and was of greater importance to humanity at large. He had taken a leading role in promoting agriculture, nutrition and economic co-operation through the League of Nations, working intensively with Frank L. McDougall and John Boyd Orr throughout the decade. In 1937 he presented a plan of "economic appeasement", which built on this work and aimed to ease international tensions by reviving international trade and improving living standards in Europe through better working conditions, lower food prices, rural credits and housing assistance. Barriers to trade would gradually be reduced while European nations still recovering from the depression would be reintegrated into the international economy. In doing so he made a firm link between international trade and international peace, believing it key to unlocking world economic potential. Foreshadowing the logic of the Marshall Plan, Bruce argued that unrelieved economic and social hardship threatened to push other nations towards fascism or communism. > I feel very strongly that it will be impossible to find a solution to the political problems of Europe and remove the present nightmare conditions unless something is done to improve the economic position ... it is vital for the prestige and future wellbeing of the League that it should afford active leadership towards bringing about economic appeasement. The plan was supported by Secretary-General Joseph Louis Anne Avenol, who like Bruce recognised that the League was rapidly becoming moribund and that a major change of direction was needed, although neither was successful in convincing key states in contributing to the plan. Critically, new British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain could not be convinced by Bruce to invest further into the development of the League, and the body began to lose its political impetus as war loomed. He would continue to press for League reform in the lead up to the war. The Bruce committee to advise on League reform was formed in 1939 in the aftermath of the partition of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany and the apparent failure of Chamberlain's appeasement policy. This committee, which met in July and August 1939, proposed a significant expansion of Bruce's earlier ideas to the League, bringing a wide range of economic and social programs under its purview as a means of fostering international co-operation. Their work, however, would be rendered moot by the outbreak of World War II. ### World War II In the events leading up to World War II, Bruce and Lyons had been supporters of the British under Chamberlain and the policy of appeasement exercised with regards to the reoccupation of the Rhineland, the Anschluss and the Munich Crisis. Even during the "phoney war", Bruce continued to advocate the implementation of a more durable international system to enforce peace through mutual disarmament, the expansion of transnational trade, and global organisations capable of addressing the pressing social and economic questions that he felt were the recurrent causes of international conflict. He had become a close confidant of senior Conservative Party figures Anthony Eden and Neville Chamberlain in this period, and was strident in advancing the opinion of Australia (and the dominions more broadly) that negotiation and compromise with Nazi Germany was preferable to war. Bruce actively participated in the negotiations for the Munich Agreement. When Lyons died in April 1939, Earle Page and Richard Casey personally appealed for Bruce to return to Australia and take over once more as prime minister at the head of the UAP. Bruce demurred, however, and made it the condition of his return that he be allowed to sit in parliament as an independent and lead an all-party unity government. Such conditions were politically impossible to meet, and Robert Menzies was elected as the new leader of the UAP. Britain's declaration of war against Germany on 3 September 1939 was followed within hours by Australia's Prime Minister Menzies stating that because of Britain's declaration Australia too was now at war with Germany. Winston Churchill's accession as British Prime Minister in May 1940 brought Bruce into frequent conflict with the British government. Churchill saw the dominions as still semi-dependent colonies who were at London's command whereas Bruce saw the Empire as a kind of international partnership and the dominions as rightful parties to the decision-making process. Britain's preoccupation with the European theatre alarmed Australian politicians, given the tenuous position of Far Eastern possessions and the looming possibility of Japanese invasion. After a string of defeats in the Far East, particularly the Fall of Singapore, the Australian government was finally successful in having Bruce accredited to the British War Cabinet and Pacific War Council as an Australian (and dominion) representative. However, Bruce soon became embroiled in the disputes over Churchill's autocratic leadership style and his lack of consultation with the cabinet over war decisions. He was regularly left out of cabinet communique or not invited to meetings, much to his displeasure. With the fear of Japanese invasion mounting in Australia throughout 1942, Bruce directly confronted Churchill on a number of occasions over Far East policy and the continuing lack of consultation with Australia and his own cabinet. Churchill usually responded by rebuffing him or pointedly excluding him further from government business. Although outwardly relenting in the face of pressure exerted by the dominions for representation in war decisions, Churchill routinely marginalised or ignored that representation. Bruce persisted in this difficult arrangement until May 1944 when he became completely disillusioned and resigned, choosing other forums in which to represent Australia in London. In spite of his tempestuous relationship with Churchill, Bruce was held in high regard by many cabinet members, particularly future prime ministers Clement Attlee and Anthony Eden, and his dogged determination to advance dominion interests during the war years earned him high praise from John Curtin and the other dominion prime ministers. ## Food and Agriculture Organization, 1946–1951 By the war's end in 1945, Bruce had become tired of the High Commission posting and hinted to Curtin's successor Ben Chifley that he would not object to being replaced in the position. In the last years of the war he had envisaged a post-war order based on a continuing alliance of the four powers – the United States, the British Empire, the Soviet Union and China – that could evolve into a new international body with a similar function as the League of Nations, but with a stronger role and authority in international matters. Bruce had rejoined Frank McDougall and John Boyd Orr in these years in reviving their proposals for international co-operation on nutrition and agriculture. He wrote and made representations at all levels on the subject, and became a leading voice once more advocating the creation of an international body to examine social and economic questions, much as he had done during his years with the League of Nations. The efforts of McDougall, Bruce and Orr finally paid off when their work came to the attention of Eleanor Roosevelt, and subsequently the American government, and their proposals would find expression at the Food and Agriculture Conference that Franklin Roosevelt convened in Hot Springs, Virginia, in May 1943. This conference agreed to the establishment of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which became an associated institution with the United Nations when it was established formally in October 1945. As the war in Europe drew to a close and the United Nations Charter was promulgated in June 1945, Bruce's name was among those being considered to become the first Secretary-General of the United Nations, with American Secretary of State Dean Acheson and British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden actively supporting his candidacy. Bruce, however, was now 62 and indicated that he felt himself too old for the position, instead preferring a less demanding role considering economic and social questions. In 1946 he assumed the chairmanship of the FAO Preparatory Commission on World Food Proposals, which had the mission of establishing a "world food board" to coordinate international policy on nutrition and develop a system to eliminate global agricultural shortages. He proposed many international schemes as part of this work, particularly a world food reserve and special pricing mechanisms to reallocate and release food to where it was most needed in times of need. Bruce's Commission also placed a high emphasis on agricultural modernisation, international development aid, commodity agreements and price stability to help starving developing nations in its findings presented in 1947. The proposals were never adopted, as the costs and challenges to national sovereignty proved too difficult to overcome politically. Undeterred, Bruce was elected Chairman of the newly formed FAO Council in November 1947, working once more with John Boyd Orr, now Secretary-General of the FAO. Acute shortages of cereals and livestock were rampant following severe droughts in Europe, and the international food supply system was under serious strain after the devastation of the war. Bruce and the council worked in these years to distribute fertiliser and agricultural machinery, as well as improve nutrition, especially in less developed nations. More than two-thirds of the world was undernourished in 1949 and Bruce felt it imperative for the council to bring these stark facts to the developed nations. A landmark agreement on technical aid between the FAO and the United Nations was reached in November 1949, and the FAO received the funding and logistical capacity to act on the food shortage crisis and the problems of poor nutrition in the developing world. Bruce and the FAO were successful in these years in supporting the recovery of world agricultural output. By 1951 this had exceeded pre-war levels, and general levels of nutrition were rising internationally, but by the time Bruce stepped down in that year neither had improved fast enough to keep pace with the post-war population boom. The Council faced major obstacles in supporting the improvement of conditions in the developing world as governments there began diverting resources to arms programs as independence, post-colonial and Cold War conflicts multiplied. Frustrated by continuing world conflict and the lack of commitment from the developed world to support the lofty but very difficult aims of the FAO, both Bruce and Orr resigned from the FAO disappointed by its modest gains and insufficient powers to alleviate world food problems. ## Later life Bruce occupied a range of positions in his later years, sharing his time between the United Kingdom and Australia. He had been Chairman of the Finance Corporation of Industry since 1946 and continued in the role until 1957, providing finance to projects of benefit to the British national economy. Bruce helped establish the program in Australia in 1954 and on a Commonwealth basis in 1956. He became the first Chancellor of the newly established Australian National University in 1952, and took an active interest in its development, especially as a research centre for the study of Asia and the Pacific. Bruce concluded that Australia's position in the world had changed as a result of World War II, commenting: > [Australia] has become a bridgehead between East and West. It is now vital that Australia should understand the problems of the East, that she should do whatever is in her power to alleviate those problems, and that she should interpret the nature of those problems to the rest of the world. The residential college Bruce Hall was named in his honour, and he remained active in the life of the university until his retirement from the position in 1961. Bruce sat as director on many corporate boards in retirement, notably the National Bank of Australia, P&O and the National Mutual Life Association. In 1947 he became the first Australian to sit in the House of Lords (Sir John Forrest had been granted a peerage but died before it could be invested). Having been elevated to the peerage as Viscount Bruce of Melbourne by long-time colleague Clement Attlee, he would be an active participant in the chamber, attending regularly until his death. Bruce used it as a platform to continue to campaign on international and national social and economic questions, and to promote recognition and representation for Australia within the Commonwealth, though by this time Australian and British interests were becoming increasingly far apart, and the British Empire was rapidly disintegrating. He also continued to lobby the British government in these years to increase its commitment to third world development and the FAO. An avid golfer his whole life, Bruce became the first Australian captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews in 1954. From 1948 to 1952 he was President of Leander Club, while continuing to coach rowing at Cambridge University sporadically, and frequently appeared at public events both in Australia and in England. ## Death Bruce remained active and in good health right through his retirement despite the gradual onset of deafness, but the death of his wife Ethel in March 1967 took a deep toll on him. He died on 25 August 1967 at the age of 84. He was the last surviving member of Billy Hughes' Cabinet. His memorial service was held at St Martin-in-the-Fields and was widely attended, including by representatives of the Royal Family. His ashes were scattered over Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra. The Canberra suburb of Bruce, and the electoral Division of Bruce based in south-east Melbourne, were both named for him. ## Legacy and evaluation Despite his many accomplishments both at home and abroad, Bruce's post-prime ministerial career was not well known in Australia, and most still harboured memories of his harsh anti-union legislation and his government's landslide defeat in 1929. His public persona was one of an aloof man, too English for Australia in style and bearing. Upon his death in 1967, The Age of his hometown Melbourne remarked that "for most Australians, he is little more than a shadow." Bruce spent much of his life and career in the United Kingdom, the country that conversely held him in high regard, but never forgot his Australian roots and for much of his career was a tireless advocate for its interests. In contrast to his image as a member of the British aristocratic elite, he spent much of his later career working for solutions to the problems facing the world's poorest. Bruce was high-minded and ambitious in setting an agenda – as prime minister he pursued complex and aspiring schemes of economic, social and administrative development, including grandiose solutions to the problem of industrial relations and an egalitarian reworking of the British Empire. In his diplomatic career he pursued better treatment for the Commonwealth and programs through the League of Nations and United Nations that would address world questions of pressing social and economic concern, culminating in his most ambitious work to eliminate world hunger through the Food and Agriculture Organization. The Australian government even nominated Bruce for the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition for these efforts. Yet his schemes frequently bordered on the idealistic, and he was frequently disappointed at the limited degree to which he could practically implement his ideas. As Bruce himself would concede in later life, he was overly ambitious by nature and "forever buying into things that aren't really my concern". But despite his lack of public recognition in Australia, peers and historians have long recognised the abiding impact Bruce had both as prime minister and internationalist, leading his successor as Chancellor of the Australian National University Sir John Cockcroft to conclude in 1962 that Bruce was "probably the outstanding Australian of our time". The Melbourne Sun agreed with the assessment, stating upon his death that Bruce was "probably the least remembered but the most extraordinary of our Prime Ministers". ## See also - First Bruce Ministry - Second Bruce Ministry - Third Bruce Ministry
52,942,774	Withypool Stone Circle	1,168,060,221	Late neolithic stone circle in Somerset, England	[ "Archaeological sites in Somerset", "Buildings and structures in Somerset", "History of Somerset", "Megalithic monuments in England", "Scheduled monuments in Somerset", "Stone circles in England" ]	Withypool Stone Circle, also known as Withypool Hill Stone Circle, is a stone circle located on the Exmoor moorland, near the village of Withypool in the southwestern English county of Somerset. The ring is part of a tradition of stone circle construction that spread throughout much of Britain, Ireland, and Brittany during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, over a period between 3300 and 900 BCE. The purpose of such monuments is unknown, although archaeologists speculate that the stones represented supernatural entities for the circle's builders. Many monuments were built in Exmoor during the Bronze Age, but only two stone circles survive in this area: the other is Porlock Stone Circle. The Withypool ring is located on the south-western slope of Withypool Hill, on an area of heathland. It is about 36.4 metres (119 feet 5 inches) in diameter. Around thirty small gritstones remain, although there may originally have been around 100; there are conspicuous gaps on the northern and western sides of the monument. The site was rediscovered in 1898 and surveyed by the archaeologist Harold St George Gray in 1905. ## Location Withypool Stone Circle is located on the south-western slope of Withypool Hill; some sources refer to it as Withypool Hill Stone Circle. The site is 381 metres (1,250 feet) above sea level. It is 670 metres (730 yards) east of Portford Bridge, and 4.4 kilometres (2.7 miles) south/south-west of Exford. The site slopes down from east to west. The topsoil is peaty with heather. A range of different Bronze Age round barrows, a type of tumulus, are visible at different points in the surrounding landscape. There is a lone tumulus 262 metres (287 yards) to the north-east of the circle, on the summit of Withypool Hill, although this is so eroded that it can no longer be seen from Withypool Stone Circle itself. The three Brightworthy Barrows can be seen from the circle in a north-west direction. Other Bronze Age barrows visible from the circle are the Green Barrow, the Old Barrow, the Twitchen Barrows, the three Wam Barrows of Winsford Hill, and the barrow on top of Sherdon. Also visible from the circle is a scatter of over thirty stones on the Westwater Allotment; these are up to 0.5 m (1.6 ft) long and in 1988 two were reported as being standing. Elsewhere on Withypool Common is a collection of six stones arranged in a rough circle, which may have represented another stone circle or perhaps the kerbstones from a since-destroyed round cairn. ## Context While the transition from the Early Neolithic to the Late Neolithic in the fourth and third millennia BCE saw much economic and technological continuity, there was a considerable change in the style of monuments erected, particularly in what is now southern and eastern England. By 3000 BCE, the long barrows, causewayed enclosures, and cursuses which had predominated in the Early Neolithic were no longer built, and had been replaced by circular monuments of various kinds. These include earthen henges, timber circles, and stone circles. Stone circles are found in most areas of Britain where stone is available, with the exception of the island's south-eastern corner. They are most densely concentrated in south-western Britain and on the north-eastern horn of Scotland, near Aberdeen. The tradition of their construction may have lasted for 2,400 years, from 3300 to 900 BCE, with the major phase of building taking place between 3000 and 1,300 BCE. These stone circles typically show very little evidence of human visitation during the period immediately following their creation. This suggests that they were not sites used for rituals that left archaeologically visible evidence, but may have been deliberately left as "silent and empty monuments". The archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson suggests that in Neolithic Britain, stone was associated with the dead, and wood with the living. Other archaeologists have suggested that the stones might not represent ancestors, but rather other supernatural entities, such as deities. ### Stone circles in Exmoor There are only two known prehistoric stone circles on Exmoor: Withypool and Porlock Stone Circle. The archaeologist Leslie Grinsell suggested that the circular stone monument on Almsworthy Common was "probably" the remains of a stone circle, although more recent assessments regard it one of the stone settings, a different form of monument which is more common across Exmoor. Archaeologists have dated these circles to the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age, and have noted that they are comparable to the stone circles found further south, on Dartmoor. In contrast to the two known Exmoor circles, over seventy such monuments have been identified on Dartmoor. This may be because Exmoor, unlike Dartmoor, has no natural granite. Instead it has Devonian slates and Hangman Grits, both of which easily break up into small slabs, resulting in a general shortage of big stones on Exmoor. This scarcity of large stones may explain why Neolithic and Bronze Age communities used small stones, termed miniliths, in the two Exmoor circles and in other monuments within the region. There are nevertheless other constructions in the area, such as the clapper bridge at Tarr Steps and the three-metre Long Stone at Challacombe, which do use locally sourced large megaliths. This suggests that larger stones would have been available had the sites' builders desired, and that the use of miniliths was therefore deliberate. Exmoor also has a henge, near Parracombe, although it has been damaged by ploughing. Alongside this, the moor bears a profusion of other Bronze Age monuments, including between 300 and 400 round barrows, standing stones, linear stone rows, and stone settings. The creation of these different monument types might also explain why so few stone circles were apparently created here. Most of the surviving prehistoric stone monuments on Exmoor are located on those areas of moorland outside the limits of medieval and post-medieval agriculture. For this reason it is likely that the surviving sites are not a reliable indicator of the original extent of these sites. ## Description The stone circle measures 36.4 metres (119 feet 5 inches) in diameter. In 1905, there were 37 stones remaining in the circle. At the time there were conspicuous gaps on the northern and western sides of the ring; the stones perhaps in these areas may have been removed for use as road metal. There are ground depressions where some of these stones have been removed. In 1915 it was reported that one had been removed but that three additional stones had been found in the circle. By 1988, Martin J. F. Fowler reported that there were only 29 stones in the circle. Conversely, the following year the archaeologist Aubrey Burl reported 30 stones, of which three had fallen and 27 remained standing. Originally it may have included around 100 stones, spaced about one metre (3 feet 3 inches) apart. The stones themselves are small: on average they measure 10 cm (3.9 in) in height, 30 cm (one foot) in width, and 10 cm (3.9 in) in depth. The largest protrudes about 0.5 metres (1 foot 8 inches) from the ground. Most are incomplete, and likely have been broken since the original erection of the circle. It is not known if all the stones in the circle come from the same natural rock, but a sample from one stone was examined and found to be a hard, pale grey gritstone, likely taken from the nearby Pickwell Down grits. There are conspicuous quartz veins in many of the circle's stones. ### Investigation The site was accidentally rediscovered in 1898 when Archibald Hamilton was riding across Withypool Heath. His horse stumbled on one of the stones, and on further investigation he located other stones within the bracken. After the bracken on the heath was burned by farmers, Hamilton returned to pay closer attention to the circle. He contacted Colonel Bramble, the Vice President of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, who put him in touch with the archaeologist Harold St George Gray. Gray accompanied Hamilton on a visit to the site in August 1905, when he made a complete survey of the ring. Gray published his findings in a 1906 volume of the Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, in which he drew comparisons between the site and two Cornish stone circles that he had recently surveyed, Fernacre and Stannon Stone Circle. He suggested that the circle had been the site of cremations, the cremated human remains then being buried within the nearby tumuli. In August 1915, Gray returned to the site. He noted that the circle was in largely the same condition as before, but that the ling and whortleberry bushes around the site were more stunted than they had previously been. Between 1982 and 1985, Fowler visited Withypool Stone Circle alongside other prehistoric stone monuments in Exmoor for a catalogue published in a 1988 edition of the Proceedings. The site has been designatedas a scheduled monument since 1925, and is thus accorded legal protection under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
23,218,433	Rhodotus	1,171,113,824	Genus of fungus	[ "Agaricales genera", "Fungi described in 1785", "Fungi of Africa", "Fungi of Asia", "Fungi of Europe", "Fungi of New Zealand", "Fungi of North America", "Fungi of Oceania", "Inedible fungi", "Physalacriaceae", "Taxa named by René Maire" ]	Rhodotus is a genus in the fungus family Physalacriaceae. There are two species in the genus with the best known, Rhodotus palmatus, called the netted rhodotus, the rosy veincap, or the wrinkled peach. This uncommon species has a circumboreal distribution, and has been collected in eastern North America, northern Africa, Europe, and Asia; declining populations in Europe have led to its appearance in over half of the European fungal Red Lists of threatened species. Typically found growing on the stumps and logs of rotting hardwoods, mature specimens may usually be identified by the pinkish color and the distinctive ridged and veined surface of their rubbery caps; variations in the color and quantity of light received during development lead to variations in the size, shape, and cap color of fruit bodies. The unique characteristics of R. palmatus have made it difficult for taxonomists to agree on how it should be classified, resulting in an elaborate taxonomical history and an extensive synonymy. First named Agaricus palmatus by Bulliard in 1785, it was reclassified into several different genera before becoming Rhodotus in 1926. The familial placement of the genus Rhodotus within the order Agaricales has also been subject to dispute, and the taxon has been transferred variously to the families Amanitaceae, Entolomataceae, and Tricholomataceae. More recently, molecular phylogenetics analysis has helped determine that Rhodotus is most closely related to genera in the Physalacriaceae. ## History and etymology The type species of genus Rhodotus was originally described as Agaricus palmatus in 1785 by French botanist Jean Bulliard; mycologist Elias Magnus Fries later included it under the same name in his Systema Mycologicum. It was transferred to the then newly described genus Rhodotus in a 1926 publication by French mycologist René Maire. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin palmatus, meaning "shaped like a hand"—possibly a reference to the resemblance of the cap surface to the lines in the palm of a hand. Common names for R. palmatus include the netted rhodotus, the rosy veincap, and the wrinkled peach. ### Synonymy French botanist Claude Gillet called the species Pleurotus subpalmatus in 1876. A 1986 paper reported that the species Pleurotus pubescens, first described by American mycologist Charles Horton Peck in 1891, was the same as Rhodotus palmatus, making their names synonymous. According to the same publication, another synonym is Lentinula reticeps, described by William Alphonso Murrill in 1915, who thought it to be synonymous with Agaricus reticeps (described by Montagne in 1856), Agaricus reticulatus (Johnson, 1880), Agaricus alveolatus (Cragin, 1885), Pluteus alveolatus (Saccardo, 1887), and Panus meruliiceps (Peck, 1905). ## Taxonomy The placement of the genus Rhodotus in the order Agaricales is uncertain, and various authors have offered solutions to the taxonomic conundrum. In 1951, Agaricales specialist Rolf Singer placed Rhodotus in the Amanitaceae because of similarities between the tribes Amaniteae and Rhodoteae, such as spore color and ornamentation (modifications of the spore wall that result in surface irregularities), structure of the hyphae and trama, and chlamydospore production during culture growth. In 1953, French mycologists Robert Kühner and Henri Romagnesi placed Rhodotus in the family Tricholomataceae—a traditional "wastebasket taxon"—on the basis of spore color. In 1969, Besson argued for the placement of Rhodotus with the Entolomataceae after studying the ultrastructure of the spores. By 1986, Singer had revised the placement of Rhodotus in his latest edition of The Agaricales in Modern Taxonomy, noting that "It has formerly been inserted in the family Amanitaceae but is obviously closer to tribus Pseudohiatuleae of the Tricholomataceae." Tribe Pseudohiatuleae included such genera as Flammulina, Pseudohiatula, Cyptotrama, and Callistodermatium. In 1988, a proposal was made to split the Tricholomataceae into several new families, including a family, Rhodotaceae, to contain the problematic genus. The use of molecular phylogenetics has helped to clarify the proper taxonomic placement of Rhodotus. Studies of the ribosomal DNA sequences from a wide variety of agaric fungi have corroborated Kühner and Romagnesi's placement of Rhodotus in the Tricholomataceae as then understood. A large scale phylogenetic analysis published in 2005 showed Rhodotus to be in the "core euagarics clade", a name given to a grouping of gilled mushrooms corresponding largely to the suborder Agaricineae as defined by Singer (1986), but also including taxa that were traditionally classified in the Aphyllophorales (e.g., Clavaria, Typhula, Fistulina, Schizophyllum, etc.) and several orders of Gasteromycetes (e.g., Hymenogastrales, Lycoperdales, Nidulariales). These results corroborated a previous study which showed Rhodotus to be part of a clade containing species such as Cyptotrama asprata, Marasmius trullisatus, Flammulina velutipes, Xerula furfuracea, Gloiocephala menieri, and Armillaria tabescens. The genera containing these latter species have been reassigned to the family Physalacriaceae; as of 2009, both Index Fungorum and MycoBank also list Rhodotus as belonging to the Physalacriaceae. Follow up molecular genetics surveys of Physalacriaceae fungi in China identified Rhodotus asperior as the second member of the Rhodotus genus. ## Characteristics The fruit body of Rhodotus has a cap, and stem without a ring or volva. The cap initially assumes a convex shape before flattening somewhat with age, and typically reaches widths of 2–6 centimeters (0.8–2.4 in). The edges of the cap are rolled inwards, and the cap surface typically has a conspicuous network of lightly colored ridges or veins that outline deep and narrow grooves or pits—a condition technically termed sulcate or reticulate. Between the ridges, the surface color is somewhat variable; depending on the lighting conditions experienced by the mushroom during its development, it may range from salmon-orange to pink to red. The texture of the cap surface is gelatinous, and the internal flesh is firm but rubbery, and pinkish in color. The gills have an adnate attachment to the stem, that is, broadly attached to the stem along all or most of the gill width. The gills are thick, packed close to each other, with veins and color similar to, but paler than, the cap. Some of the gills do not extend the full distance from the edge of the cap to the stem. These short gills, called lamellulae, form two to four groups of roughly equal length. The stem is 1.5–3.0 cm (0.6–1.2 in) tall and 0.4–0.6 cm (0.16–0.24 in) thick (usually slightly larger near the base), and may be attached to the underside of the cap in a central or lateral manner. Like the cap color, stem size is also affected by the type of light received during fruit body maturation. In nature, Rhodotus palmatus is sometimes seen "bleeding" a red- or orange-colored liquid. A similar phenomenon has also been observed when it is grown in laboratory culture on a petri dish: the orange-colored drops that appear on the mat formed by fungal mycelia precede the initial appearance of fruit bodies. The mature fruit body will turn green when exposed to a 10% aqueous solution of iron(II) sulfate (FeSO<sub>4</sub>), a common mushroom identification test known as iron salts. ### Microscopic features In deposit, the spore color of Rhodotus palmatus has been described most commonly as pink, but also as cream colored. Viewed microscopically, the spores of Rhodotus have a roughly spherical shape, with dimensions of 6–7.2 by 5.6–6.5 μm; the spore surface is marked with numerous wart-like projections (defined as verrucose), typically 0.5–0.7 μm long. The spores are non-amyloid—unable to take up iodine stain in the chemical test with Melzer's reagent. The spore-bearing cells, the basidia, are club-shaped and 4-spored, with dimensions of 33.6–43.2 by 5.6–8 μm. Although this species lacks cells called pleurocystidia (large sterile cells found on the gill face in some mushrooms), it contains abundant cheilocystidia (large sterile cells found on the gill edge) that are 27.2–48 by 4.8–8 μm in size. Clamp connections are present in the hyphae. The outer cellular layer of the cap cuticle is made of bladder-shaped, thick-walled hyphae, each individually supported by a small stalk that extends down into a "gelatinized zone". Chlamydospores are asexual reproductive units made by some fungi that allow them to exist solely as mycelium, a process which helps them survive over periods unsuitable for growth; Rhodotus was shown experimentally to be capable of producing these structures in 1906. The chlamydospores of Rhodotus are thick-walled cells that develop from single hyphal compartments, and have dimensions of 12–8 by 8–6 micrometres (0.00031–0.00024 in). ### Edibility Depending on the source consulted, the edibility of Rhodotus palmatus is typically listed as unknown or inedible. The species has no distinguishable odor, and a "bitter" taste, although one early description referred to the taste as "sweet". ### Antimicrobial activity As part of a Spanish research study to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of mushrooms, Rhodotus palmatus was one of 204 species screened against a panel of human clinical pathogens and laboratory control strains. Using a standard laboratory method to determine antimicrobial susceptibility, the mushroom was shown to have moderate antibacterial activity against Bacillus subtilis, and weak antifungal activity against both Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Aspergillus fumigatus. ## Habitat and distribution Rhodotus palmatus is saprobic, meaning it obtains nutrients from decomposing organic matter. It grows scattered or clustered in small groups on rotting hardwoods, such as basswood, maple, and especially elm; in Europe it is known to grow on horse chestnut. The mushroom prefers low-lying logs in areas that are periodically flooded and that receive little sunlight, such as areas shaded by forest canopy. A pioneer species in the fungal colonization of dead wood, it prefers to grow on relatively undecayed substrates. It is often found growing on dark-stained wood, especially the dried-out upper parts of trunks that have lost their bark. R. palmatus tends to fruit in cooler and moister weather, from spring to autumn in the United States, or autumn to winter in Britain and Europe. Described as having a circumboreal distribution, R. palmatus has been reported from Canada, Iran, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, the area formerly known as the USSR, Korea, Japan, and New Zealand. In the United States it has been found in Indiana, and elsewhere in eastern North America. Although often described as "rare", a 1997 study suggests that it may be relatively common in Illinois. It has been suggested that an increase in the number of dead elms, a byproduct of Dutch elm disease, has contributed to its resurgence. ### Light requirements Light at the red end of the visible spectrum has been observed to be required for the development of R. palmatus fruit bodies, contrary to the typical requirement for blue light seen with many other mushroom species. Fruiting occurs in the presence of green, yellow or red light with wavelengths above 500 nm, but only when blue light (under 500 nm) is absent. Consequently, phenotypic variations observed in the field—such as size, shape, and cap color—may be influenced by differing conditions of light color and intensity. For example, specimens grown in the laboratory under green light had fruit bodies with short, straight stems and pale orange, large caps with well-developed ridges and pits, an appearance similar to specimens found in the field that were growing under a canopy of green leaves. Laboratory-grown specimens under amber light had bright orange, small caps with less pronounced reticulations; similarly, field specimens found in the fall, after the leaves had fallen, were more orange to orange-pink in color. ## Conservation status In the 1980s in Europe, increases in the levels of air pollution, as well as changing land use practices coincided with reports of declines in the populations of certain mushrooms. Consequently, a number of fungal conservation initiatives were started to better understand fungal biodiversity; as of October 2007, 31 European countries have produced fungal Red Lists of threatened species. Rhodotus palmatus is a candidate species in over half of the European fungal Red Lists, and is listed as critically endangered, endangered, or near threatened (or the equivalent) in 12 countries. In the Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, it is considered by the Environmental Protection Ministries (a branch of government charged with implementing the Convention on Biological Diversity) to be regionally extinct, reported as "extinct or probably extinct". It was one of 35 fungal species to gain legal protection in Hungary in 2005, making it a fineable offense to pick them.
1,414,022	Ellen Wilkinson	1,166,615,427	British politician (1891–1947)	[ "1891 births", "1947 deaths", "20th-century British women politicians", "Alumni of the University of Manchester", "Barbiturates-related deaths", "British Secretaries of State for Education", "British suffragists", "Chairs of the Labour Party (UK)", "Communist Party of Great Britain members", "Deaths from bronchitis", "Deaths from congestive heart failure", "Deaths from emphysema", "Deaths from pneumonia in England", "Drug-related deaths in England", "English Methodists", "English anti-fascists", "English socialists", "Female members of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom", "Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies", "Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies", "Members of the Fabian Society", "Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom", "Ministers in the Attlee governments, 1945–1951", "Ministers in the Churchill wartime government, 1940–1945", "National Union of Distributive and Allied Workers-sponsored MPs", "People from Chorlton-on-Medlock", "People from Middlesbrough", "Trade unionists from Manchester", "UK MPs 1924–1929", "UK MPs 1929–1931", "UK MPs 1935–1945", "UK MPs 1945–1950" ]	Ellen Cicely Wilkinson (8 October 1891 – 6 February 1947) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Minister of Education from July 1945 until her death. Earlier in her career, as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Jarrow, she became a national figure when she played a prominent role in the 1936 Jarrow March of the town's unemployed to London to petition for the right to work. Although unsuccessful at that time, the March provided an iconic image for the 1930s and helped to form post-Second World War attitudes to unemployment and social justice. Wilkinson was born into a poor though ambitious Manchester family and she embraced socialism at an early age. After graduating from the University of Manchester, she worked for a women's suffrage organisation and later as a trade union officer. Inspired by the Russian Revolution of 1917, Wilkinson joined the British Communist Party, and preached revolutionary socialism while seeking constitutional routes to political power through the Labour Party. She was elected Labour MP for Middlesbrough East in 1924, and supported the 1926 General Strike. In the 1929–31 Labour government, she served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the junior Health Minister. She made a connection with a young female member and activist Jennie Lee. Following her defeat at Middlesbrough in 1931, Wilkinson became a prolific journalist and writer, before returning to parliament as Jarrow's MP in 1935. She was a strong advocate for the Republican government in the Spanish Civil War, and made several visits to the battle zones. During the Second World War, Wilkinson served in Churchill's wartime coalition as a junior minister, mainly at the Ministry of Home Security where she worked under Herbert Morrison. She supported Morrison's attempts to replace Clement Attlee as the Labour Party's leader; nevertheless, when he formed his postwar government, Attlee appointed Wilkinson as Minister of Education. By this time, her health was poor, a legacy of years of overwork. She saw her main task in office as the implementation of the wartime coalition's 1944 Education Act, rather than the more radical introduction of comprehensive schools favoured by many in the Labour Party. Much of her energy was applied to organising the raising of the school-leaving age from 14 to 15. During the exceptionally cold weather of early 1947, she succumbed to a bronchial disease, and died after an overdose of medication, which the coroner at her inquest declared was accidental. ## Life ### Background, childhood and education #### Early years Ellen Wilkinson was born on 8 October 1891, at 41 Coral Street in the Manchester district of Chorlton-on-Medlock. She was the third child and second daughter of Richard Wilkinson, a cotton worker who became an insurance agent, and his wife, Ellen, née Wood. Richard Wilkinson was a pillar of his local Wesleyan Methodist church, and combined a strong sense of social justice with forthright views on self-help; rather than espousing working-class solidarity his view, according to Ellen, was: "I have pulled myself out of the gutter, why can't they?" Entirely self-educated, he ensured that his children received the best schooling available, encouraged them to read widely, and inculcated strong Christian principles. At the age of six Ellen began attending what she described as "a filthy elementary school with the five classes in one room". A series of childhood illnesses kept her at home for two years, but she used the time learning to read. On her return to school she made rapid progress, and at the age of 11 won a scholarship to Ardwick Higher Elementary Grade School. Outspoken and often rebellious, after two years she transferred to Stretford Road Secondary School for Girls, an experience she later remembered as "horrid and unmanageable". She made up for the school's shortcomings by reading, with her father's encouragement, the works of Haeckel, Thomas Huxley and Darwin. Teaching was one of the few careers then open to educated working-class girls, and in 1906 Ellen won a bursary of £25 that enabled her to begin her training. For half the week she attended the Manchester Day Training College, and during the other half taught at Oswald Road Elementary School. Her classroom approach—she sought to interest her pupils, rather than impose learning by rote—led to frequent clashes with her superiors, and convinced her that her future did not lie in teaching. At the college, where she was encouraged to read more widely and to engage with the issues of the day, she discovered socialism through the works of Robert Blatchford. By this time she was impatient with religion; socialism provided a timely and attractive substitute. At 16 she joined the Longsight branch of the Independent Labour Party (ILP), and at one of her first branch meetings encountered Katherine Bruce Glasier, whose crusading brand of socialism made a deep impact. Thirty years later Wilkinson told her colleague George Middleton that Glasier had "brought me into the Socialist movement ... It always makes me humble to think of her indomitable courage". After meeting the suffragist Hannah Mitchell, Wilkinson took up the cause of women's suffrage, the major women's rights issue of the day. Although initially engaged in everyday tasks such as distributing leaflets and putting up posters, she made a considerable impression on Mitchell, who later remembered her as "brilliant and gifted". #### University Determined to carve a career for herself outside teaching, in 1910 Wilkinson sat for and won the Jones Open History Scholarship, which gave her a place at Manchester University. There, she found many opportunities to extend her political activities. She joined the university's branch of the Fabian Society, and eventually became its joint secretary. She continued her suffragist work by joining the Manchester Society for Women's Suffrage, where she impressed Margaret Ashton, the first woman member of Manchester City Council, by her efforts in the North Manchester and Gorton constituencies. Through these and other campaigning activities Wilkinson met many of the contemporary leaders of the radical left—the veteran campaigner Charlotte Despard, the ILP leader William Crawford Anderson, and Beatrice and Sidney Webb among others. She also came under the influence of Walton Newbold, an older student who later became the United Kingdom's first Communist MP. The two were briefly engaged, and although this was soon broken off, they remained close political associates for many years. In her final year at university Wilkinson was co-opted to the executive committee of the University Socialist Federation (USF), an inter-institutional organisation formed to bring together socialist-minded students from all over the country. This brought her new contacts, who would typically meet at Fabian summer schools to hear lectures by ILP leaders such as Ramsay MacDonald and Arthur Henderson, and trade union activists such as Ben Tillett and Margaret Bondfield. Amid these distractions she continued to study hard, and won several prizes. In the summer of 1913 she sat her finals and was awarded her BA degree—not the First Class honours that her tutors had predicted, but an Upper Second. Wilkinson rationalised thus: "I deliberately sacrificed my First ... to devote my spare time to a strike raging in Manchester". ### Early career #### Trade union organiser On leaving university in June 1913, Wilkinson became a paid worker for the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). She helped to organise the Suffrage Pilgrimage of July 1913, when more than 50,000 women marched from all over the country to a mass rally in Hyde Park, London. She began to develop a fuller understanding of the mechanics of politics and campaigning, and became an accomplished speaker, able to hold her own even in the most hostile public meetings. When the First World War began in August 1914, Wilkinson, like many in the Labour movement, condemned it as an imperialist exercise that would result in the deaths of millions of workers. Nevertheless, she took the role of honorary secretary of the Manchester branch of the Women's Emergency Corps (WEC), a body which found suitable war work for women volunteers. With the advent of war the NUWSS became divided between pro-war and pro-peace factions. They ultimately separated, the peacemongers (including Wilkinson's Manchester branch) eventually aligning themselves with the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WIL), and included Agnes Harben. With little suffrage activity to organise, Wilkinson looked for another job, and in July 1915 was appointed as a national organiser for the Amalgamated Union of Co-operative Employees (AUCE), with particular responsibility for the recruitment of women into the union. In this post she fought for equal pay for equal work, and for the rights of unskilled and lower-paid workers when these interests conflicted with those of the higher-paid craft unions. She organised a series of strikes to attain these goals with notable successes in Carlisle, Coatbridge, Glasgow and Grangemouth. She was less successful in managing a lengthy dispute at the Longsight print works in Manchester, in the summer of 1918, where opponents described her tactics as "unreasonable guerrilla warfare". As a result of her actions Wilkinson briefly lost her job at the union, only to be swiftly reinstated after protests by members and after apologising for her role in the strike. From 1918 she served as her union's nominee on several Trade Boards—national consultative bodies which attempted to set minimum wage rates for low-paid workers. In 1921 AUCE amalgamated with the National Union of Warehouse and General Workers to form the National Union of Distributive and Allied Workers (NUDAW). Wilkinson's work for the union brought new alliances, and useful new friendships—including one with John Jagger, the union's future president. She remained an active Fabian, and after the Fabian Research Department became the Labour Research Department in 1917, served on the new body's executive committee. Through these connections she became a member of the National Guilds League (NGL), an organisation that promoted industrial democracy, workers' control and producer associations in a national system of guilds. She maintained her connection with the WIL, whose 1919 conference adopted a non-pacifist stance that justified armed struggle as a means of defeating capitalism. After visiting Ireland for the WIL in 1920 she became an outspoken critic of the British government's actions there, in particular its use of the "Black and Tans" as a paramilitary force. She gave evidence about the conduct of British forces in Ireland at the Congressional Committee of Investigation in Washington in December of that year. She called for an immediate truce and the release of republican prisoners. #### Communism Along with many others in the Labour movement, Wilkinson's attitudes were radicalised by the Russian Revolution of 1917. She saw communism as the shape of the future, and when the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was formed in the summer of 1920, Wilkinson was one of a group of ILP members with Marxist leanings who became founder members. For the next few years the CPGB was the main focus of her political activity, although she kept her membership in the Labour Party, which at the time accepted dual CPGB/Labour memberships. In 1921 Wilkinson attended the Red International of Labour Unions Congress and the Second Congress of Communist Women in Moscow, where she met several Russian communist leaders, including the Defence Minister Leon Trotsky, and Nadezhda Krupskaya, the educationist who was Lenin's wife; Wilkinson considered Krupskaya's speech the best at the Congress. The main outcome of the gathering was the foundation of the Red International of Labour Unions, often known as the "Profintern". The aim of this organisation was to seek revolutionary change through industrial action, leading to the overthrow of world capitalism. At home, although she failed to persuade her union, NUDAW, to affiliate to the Profintern, Wilkinson continued to promote Russian achievements, especially its emancipation of women workers. In November 1922, at a meeting celebrating the fifth anniversary of the Russian Revolution, Wilkinson said that the Russian people could look forward with hope, and asked whether the same could be said of the people condemned to live their lives in the slums of Manchester. However, Wilkinson found herself increasingly at odds with communists in Manchester, over the party's industrial and wider international strategies. #### Seeking elective office Wilkinson was an early and lifetime supporter of the National Council of Labour Colleges, established in 1921 with NUDAW backing with the aim of educating working-class students in working-class principles. She became a NUDAW-sponsored parliamentary candidate, and in 1923, while still a CPGB member, sought nomination as the Labour Party's parliamentary candidate for the Gorton constituency. She was unsuccessful, but in November 1923 the Gorton ward elected her to Manchester City Council; Hannah Mitchell, her co-worker in prewar suffrage campaigns, was a fellow councillor. In her short council career—she served only until 1926—Wilkinson's main areas of concern were unemployment, housing, child welfare and education. When the prime minister, Stanley Baldwin, called a general election for December 1923, Wilkinson was adopted as Labour's parliamentary candidate for Ashton-under-Lyne. She made no secret of her Communist affiliations, stating that "we shall have only one class in this country, the working class". In a three-way contest she came third, behind the Conservative and the Liberal candidate. The general election resulted in a hung parliament, and a minority Labour government under Ramsay MacDonald took office. During its short term in power, the Labour Party proscribed the Communist Party and outlawed dual membership. Faced with a choice, Wilkinson left the CPGB, citing the party's "exclusive and dictatorial methods which make impossible the formation of a real left wing among the progressives of the Trade Unions and the Labour Party". After this, she was selected as Labour's candidate for the constituency of Middlesbrough East. ### Middlesbrough MP #### In opposition, 1924–29 On 8 October 1924 MacDonald's Labour government resigned, after losing a confidence vote in the House of Commons. The latter stages of the ensuing general election were dominated by the controversy surrounding the Zinoviev letter, which generated a "Red Scare" shortly before polling day and contributed to a massive Conservative victory. Labour's representation in the House of Commons fell to 152, against the Conservatives' 415; Wilkinson was the only woman elected in the Labour ranks, winning Middlesbrough East with a majority of 927 over her Conservative opponent. Wilkinson's arrival in the House of Commons attracted considerable press comment, much of it related to her bright red hair and the vivid colours of her clothing. She informed MPs: "I happen to represent in this House one of the heaviest iron and steel producing areas in the world—I know I do not look like it, but I do". The Woman's Leader described her as a "vigorous, uncompromising feminist and an exceedingly tenacious, forcible and hard-headed politician". A policeman once attempted to prevent Wilkinson from entering the House of Commons' smoking room based on her sex; Wilkinson responded, "I am not a lady - I am a Member of Parliament." As an unofficial spokesperson for women's rights, Wilkinson encouraged open debate on birth control, reprimanding Catholic trades unionist Bertha Quinn for calling it a 'crime' at a Labour Women's convention in 1925. Wilkinson went on to achieve one of her first parliamentary victories in that same year, when she persuaded the government to correct anomalies affecting widows in its Pensions Bill. In March 1926, she combined with Lady Astor from the Conservative benches to attack the government's proposed decrease in expenditure on women's training centres. Wilkinson's ODNB biographer, Brian Harrison, acknowledges that while "women's issues" were often to the fore in her speeches, she was primarily a socialist rather than a feminist, and if forced to decide between them would have chosen the former. During the nine days' duration of the May 1926 General Strike, Wilkinson toured the country to press the strikers' case at meetings and rallies. She was devastated when the Trades Union Congress called off the strike. Early in June she joined George Lansbury and other leading Labour and union figures on the platform at an Albert Hall rally which raised around £1,200 for the benefit of the miners, who continued on strike despite the TUC decision. Wilkinson's reflections on the strike were recorded in A Workers' History of the Great Strike (1927), which she co-authored with Raymond Postgate and Frank Horrabin, and in a semi-autobiographical novel, Clash, which she published in 1929. She also visited the United States in August 1926 to raise financial support for the miners, provoking criticism from the Conservative prime minister Baldwin who denied that the lockout was causing hardship. Throughout her career Wilkinson was an opponent of imperialism. In February 1927 she attended the Founding Congress of the League Against Imperialism in Brussels, where she met and befriended the Indian nationalist leader Jawaharlal Nehru. In 1927 she was elected to the Labour Party's National Executive, which gave her a voice in the formulation of party policy. Her advance was noted with approval by Beatrice Webb, who saw in her a future candidate for high office—ahead of more senior Labour women such as Margaret Bondfield and Susan Lawrence. A tireless campaigner for women's equality, she challenged the caricature of voteless younger women as 'flappers'. On 29 March 1928 Wilkinson voted in the House of Commons for the bill that became the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928, granting the vote to all women aged 21 or over. During the debate she said: "[W]e are doing at last a great act of justice to the women of the country ... just as we have [previously] opened the door to the older women, tonight we are opening it to those who are just entering on the threshold of life and in whose hands is the new life of the future country that we are going to build". #### In government, 1929–31 In May 1929 Baldwin called a general election. As a member of Labour's National Executive, Wilkinson helped to draft her party's manifesto, although her preference for a list of specific policy proposals was overruled in favour of a lengthy statement of ideals and objectives. In Middlesbrough she was re-elected with an increased majority over her Conservative and Liberal opponents. Overall, Labour emerged from the election as the largest party, with 288 members (nine of whom were women), while the Conservatives and Liberals won 260 and 59 respectively. MacDonald formed his second minority administration, and included two women in ministerial posts: Margaret Bondfield as Minister of Labour and Susan Lawrence as Parliamentary Secretary (junior minister) at the Ministry of Health. Wilkinson was not given office, but was made Lawrence's Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS), an indication that she was marked for future promotion. Almost from its inception the second MacDonald administration was overwhelmed by the twin crises of rising unemployment and the world trade recession that followed the financial crash in the latter part of 1929. The Labour Party was divided; the Chancellor, Philip Snowden, favoured a strict curb on public expenditure, while others, including Wilkinson, believed that the problem was not over-production, but under-consumption. The solution, she argued, lay in increasing, not squeezing, the spending power of the poorest in society. On the issue of unemployment, Wilkinson supported Oswald Mosley's "Memorandum", a plan for economic reconstruction and public works that was rejected by the government on the grounds of cost; Mosley resigned from the government in protest. With Wilkinson's assistance, the Mental Treatment Act 1930 received the Royal Assent on 30 June 1930. In the same year she co-sponsored a bill to limit shopworkers' hours to 48 a week, and poured scorn on Conservatives opposing the measure who seemed, she said, to think that all shop work was carried out in the "soothing atmosphere" and "exquisite scents" of Jermyn Street and Bond Street. The bill was referred to a parliamentary committee, but got no further. As the parliament progressed, it became increasingly difficult to promote social legislation in the face of the mounting financial crisis and the use by the Conservative-dominated House of Lords of its statutory delaying powers. The divisions in the Labour Party became more acute during 1931, as the government struggled to meet the May Report's recommended expenditure cuts of £97 million, the majority (£67 million) to be found from reductions in unemployment costs. The government collapsed on 23 August 1931. To implement the required cuts, MacDonald and a small number of Labour MPs formed a National Government with the Conservatives and Liberals, while the bulk of the Labour Party, including Wilkinson, went into opposition. In the general election that followed in October the Labour Party was utterly routed, retaining only 52 of its parliamentary seats. In Middlesbrough East Wilkinson's vote was nearly the same as her 1929 total, but against a single candidate representing the National Government she was defeated by over 6,000 votes. ### Out of parliament, 1931–35 Wilkinson rationalised Labour's defeat in a Daily Express article, arguing that the party had lost because it was "not socialist enough", a theme she built on in numerous radical newspaper and journal articles. In a less serious vein she published Peep at Politicians, a collection of humorous pen-portraits of parliamentary colleagues and opponents. She wrote that Winston Churchill was "cheerfully indifferent as to whether any new [ideas] he acquires match the collection he already possesses", and described Clement Attlee as "too fastidious for intrigue, and too modest for over-ambition". Her second novel, The Division Bell Mystery, set in the House of Commons, was published in 1932; Paula Bartley, Wilkinson's biographer, acknowledges that Wilkinson was not a first-class novelist, but "the autobiographical topicality of [her] books made them very appealing". In 1932 Wilkinson was invited by the India League to join a small delegation, to report on conditions in India. During the three-month visit she met Gandhi, then in prison, and became convinced that his co-operation was essential to any prospect of peace in the subcontinent. On her return home she delivered her conclusions in an uncompromising report, The Condition of India, published in 1934. She visited Germany shortly after Hitler came to power in 1933, and published a pamphlet, The Terror in Germany, that documented early incidents of Nazi outrage. She collaborated with a refugee from Hitler's Germany, Edward Conze, to produce a major book, Why Fascism?, which condemned the Labour Party's gradualism and focus upon parliament as well as the failure of communist strategy, arguing for the need for grassroots workers' unity and revolution to check the threat of fascism across Europe. Meanwhile, her parliamentary prospects had been revived by her selection as Labour candidate for Jarrow, a Tyneside shipbuilding town. Jarrow had been devastated early in the 1930s by the run-down and closure of Palmers shipyard, the town's main source of employment. Early in 1934 Wilkinson led a deputation of Jarrow's unemployed to meet the prime minister, MacDonald, in his nearby Seaham constituency, and received sympathy but no positive action. She was unimpressed by the government's Special Areas Act, passed late in 1934 and designed to assist distressed areas such as Jarrow; she thought the legislation provided inadequate funding, and benefited employers more than workers. ### Jarrow MP #### Jarrow March In the November 1935 general election the National Government, led by Baldwin since MacDonald's retirement earlier that year, won convincingly, although Labour increased its House of Commons representation to 158. Wilkinson was returned at Jarrow with a majority of 2,350. Although the poverty in the town was acute, there were hopes that its chronic unemployment would shortly be alleviated by the erection of a large steelworks on the derelict shipyard site. However, the scheme was opposed by the steelmasters represented by the British Iron and Steel Federation (BISF), who thought that any increase in steel production should be handled by expanding their existing facilities. On 30 June 1936 Wilkinson asked Walter Runciman, the responsible minister, "to induce the Iron and Steel Federation to pursue a less selfish policy than it is pursuing at present". Her request was ignored, and the matter delayed indefinitely by the appointment of a committee to consider the general development of the iron and steel industry—a committee, a Times letter-writer noted, dominated by BISF members. A deputation from Jarrow's town council met Runciman to protest against the decision, but were told that "Jarrow must find its own salvation." According to Wilkinson, Runciman's dismissive phrase "kindled the town". Under the general leadership of its chairman, David Riley, the town council began preparations for a demonstration in the form of a march to London to present a petition to the government. Marches of the unemployed, generally termed "hunger marches", had been taking place since the early 1920s, often under the auspices of the communist-led National Unemployed Workers' Movement. This political dimension had associated such marches in the public mind with far-left propaganda. The Jarrow council determined to organise its march free of political connotations, and with the backing of every section of the town. This did not prevent Hensley Henson, the Bishop of Durham, from denouncing it as "revolutionary mob pressure" and condemning the action of James Gordon, the Bishop of Jarrow, who gave the march his blessing. Even within the Labour Party, Wilkinson found the leadership's attitude lukewarm, fearful of possible association with revolutionary socialism. On 5 October 1936 a selected group of 200 set out from Jarrow Town Hall on the 282-mile march, aiming to reach London by 30 October for the start of the new session of parliament. Wilkinson did not march all the way, but joined whenever her various commitments allowed. At that year's Labour Party conference, held in Edinburgh, she hoped to rouse enthusiasm but instead heard herself condemned for "sending hungry and ill-clad men across the country". This negative attitude was mirrored by some of the local parties on the route of the march; in such areas, Wilkinson recorded with irony, the Conservatives and Liberals saw to the marchers' needs. On 31 October the marchers reached London, but Baldwin refused to see them. On 4 November, Wilkinson presented the town's petition to the House of Commons. Signed by 11,000 citizens of Jarrow, it concluded: "The town cannot be left derelict, and therefore your Petitioners humbly pray that His Majesty's Government and this honourable House should realise the urgent need that work should be provided for the town without further delay." In the brief discussion that followed, Runciman opined that "the unemployment position at Jarrow, while still far from satisfactory, has improved during recent months". In reply, a Labour backbencher commented that "the Government's complacency is regarded throughout the country as an affront to the national conscience". The marchers returned to Jarrow by train, to find their unemployment benefit reduced because they had been "unavailable for work" had any vacancies arisen. The historians Malcolm Pearce and Geoffrey Stewart suggest that the success of the Jarrow march lay in the future; it "helped to shape [post-Second World War] perceptions of the 1930s", and thus paved the way to social reform. According to Vernon, it planted the idea of social justice into the minds of the middle classes. "Ironically and tragically," Vernon says, "it was not peaceful crusading, but the impetus of rearmament which brought industrial activity back to Jarrow". Wilkinson published an account of Jarrow's travails in her final book, The Town that was Murdered (1939). "Jarrow's plight", she wrote, "is not a local problem. It is the symptom of a national evil". #### International and domestic concerns In November 1934, as a representative of the Relief Committee for the Victims of Fascism, Wilkinson visited the northern Spanish province of Asturias to report on the crushing of the Oviedo miners' uprising. She was forcibly ejected from the country. Despite being banned from Germany as an undesirable, Wilkinson continued to visit the country covertly, and as a correspondent for the Sunday Referee was the first to report Hitler's intention to march into the Rhineland, in March 1936. Spain, however, came to occupy a special place in her opposition to the spread of fascism. When a section of the Spanish army under General Francisco Franco attacked the elected Popular Front coalition government to precipitate the Spanish Civil War, Wilkinson set up the Spanish Medical Aid Committee and the National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief. She later argued in parliament against the British government's non-intervention policies which, she insisted, "worked on the side of General Franco". She returned to Spain in April 1937 as a member of an all-women delegation led by the Duchess of Atholl, and afterwards wrote of feeling "a helpless, choking rage", as she witnessed the effects of aerial bombing on undefended villages. On a further visit, in December 1937, she was accompanied by Attlee, now leader of the Labour Party, and Philip Noel-Baker, a fellow Labour MP. Having observed the near-starvation of schoolchildren in Madrid, on her return to Britain she set up a "Milk for Spain" fund, together with other humanitarian initiatives. Although she had long broken her formal ties with the British Communist Party, Wilkinson retained strong links with other communist organisations at home and abroad. Her association with leading communists such as Willi Münzenberg and Otto Katz is revealed in British intelligence files held on her. However, she was not prepared to risk losing her parliamentary seat, and thus kept her rebellious behaviour within bounds. In 1937, Wilkinson was one of a group of Labour figures—Aneurin Bevan, Harold Laski and Stafford Cripps were others—who founded the left-wing magazine Tribune; in the first issue she wrote of the need to fight unemployment, poverty, malnutrition and inadequate housing. Mindful of the dependence of many low-income families on credit, she introduced a bill to regulate hire purchase agreements, at the time a subject of frequent abuse, and with all-party support she secured the passage of the Hire Purchase Act 1938. Wilkinson was a strong opponent of the National Government's appeasement policies towards the European dictators. In the House of Commons on 6 October 1938 she condemned the actions of the prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, in signing the Munich Agreement: "Only by throwing away practically everything for which this country cared and stood could he rescue us from the results of his own policy". On 24 August 1939, as parliament considered the recently signed Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Wilkinson attacked Chamberlain's failure to ally with Russia in a common front against Hitler. "Time after time", she told the Commons, "we have had the prime minister ... putting the narrow interests of his class and of the rich, before the national interest". ### Second World War Wilkinson supported Britain's declaration of war on Germany, on 3 September 1939, although she was critical of Chamberlain's conduct of the war. In May 1940, when Churchill's all-party coalition replaced Chamberlain's National Government, Wilkinson was appointed Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Pensions. She transferred to the Ministry of Home Security in October 1940, as one of Herbert Morrison's three Parliamentary Secretaries, with responsibilities for air raid shelters and civil defence. When aerial bombardment of British cities began in the summer of 1940, many Londoners used Underground stations as improvised shelters, often living there for days in conditions of increasing squalor. By the end of 1941 Wilkinson had supervised the distribution of more than half a million indoor "Morrison shelters"—reinforced steel tables with wire mesh sides, under which a family could sleep at home. Dubbed the "shelter queen" by the press, Wilkinson toured the bombed cities frequently, to share hardships and raise morale. More controversially, she approved the conscription of women into the Auxiliary Fire Service for fire-watching duty, a policy that provoked considerable opposition from women, who felt that their domestic duties were a sufficient burden. Even Wilkinson's own union, NUDAW, disapproved of the measure, but Wilkinson stood firm. The discipline of working in a ministerial post, together with the influence of Morrison and her alienation from communism, turned Wilkinson away from many of her former left-wing stances. She supported Morrison's decision in January 1941 to suppress the communist newspaper The Daily Worker on the grounds of its anti-British propaganda, and voted for the wartime legislation that banned strikes in key industries. Now accepted within the mainstream of the Labour Party, she served on several key policy committees, and in June 1943 became vice-chairman of the party's National Executive. She succeeded to the chair when the incumbent, George Ridley, died in January 1944. In the 1945 New Year Honours she was appointed a Privy Counsellor, only the third woman (after Margaret Bondfield and Lady Astor) to receive this honour. In April 1945, she was part of a parliamentary delegation that travelled to San Francisco to begin work on the establishment of the United Nations. ### Postwar career #### Leadership manoeuvres Wilkinson had formed a close relationship with Morrison, personally and politically, before and during their wartime ministerial association. She thought that he, rather than the sedate Attlee, should be leading the Labour Party, and had promoted his leadership credentials in 1935 and 1939. In 1945, Morrison informed Attlee that he intended to seek the leadership "in the interests of party unity". In the general election held in July that year Labour won a landslide victory, with 393 seats against the Conservatives' 213. This did not prevent Wilkinson and others from continuing to press for a change of leader, but Attlee forestalled further action by quickly accepting the King's invitation to form a government. He showed no resentment towards either Morrison or Wilkinson; the former was appointed Lord President of the Council and deputy prime minister, while Wilkinson was made Minister of Education, with a seat in the cabinet. Emmanuel Shinwell, who became Minister of Fuel and Power, later commented that "it is not bad tactics to make one's enemies one's servants". #### Minister of education Wilkinson was the second woman, after Margaret Bondfield, to achieve a place in the British cabinet. As Minister of Education she saw as her main task the implementation of the 1944 Education Act passed by the wartime coalition. This Act provided universal free secondary education, and raised the minimum school leaving age from 14 to 15 with effect from 1947. It said nothing about how secondary education should be organised; Labour's education specialist, James Chuter Ede, who had put the Act through Parliament along with Rab Butler, felt this should be decided at a local authority level. Many experts felt that children should take an examination — the "11-plus" — which would determine whether their secondary education would be in a grammar (academic), technical or "modern" school. However, many in the Labour Party saw this tripartite arrangement as perpetuating elitism, and wanted a scheme based on "multilateral" schools, or what later became known as the "comprehensive" system (Chuter Ede preferred this). The system envisaged large schools under a single roof, each with a range of appropriate courses of study for different levels of ability, and flexible movement between courses as children's aptitudes changed. Wilkinson believed, however, that such a major reconstruction was unachievable at that time, and limited herself to more attainable reforms. Her cautious attitude disappointed and angered some of the Labour left wing and teachers' representatives, who considered that a great opportunity to incorporate socialist principles into education had been missed. Wilkinson, however, was persuaded to the view that selection at 11 would allow all those with higher IQs, irrespective of class background, to obtain a grammar school education. Wilkinson made her first priority the raising of the school leaving age. This required the recruitment and training of thousands of extra teachers, and creating classroom space for almost 400,000 extra children. Under the Emergency Training Scheme (ETS), ex-servicemen and women were given grants to train as teachers on an accelerated one-year programme; more than 37,000 had been or were being trained by the end of 1946. The rapid expansion of school premises was achieved by the erection of temporary huts—some of which became long-term features of schools. Wilkinson was determined that the higher leaving age be implemented by 1 April 1947—the date set by the 1944 Act—and in the face of parliamentary scepticism insisted that her plans were on track. Final cabinet approval to honour the April date was given on 16 January 1947. Other reforms during Wilkinson's tenure as minister included free school milk, improvements in the school meals service, an increase in university scholarships, and an expansion in the provision of part-time adult education through county colleges. In October 1945 she went to Germany to report on how the destroyed German education system could best be reactivated. She was astonished by the speed with which, five months after its defeat, the country's schools and universities were reopening. Other trips included visits to Gibraltar, Malta and Czechoslovakia. In November 1945 she chaired an international conference in London that led to the establishment, a year later, of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In one of her final speeches in parliament, on 22 November 1946, she emphasised that UNESCO stood for "standards of value ... putting aside the idea that only practical things matter". She prophesied that the organisation "will do great things", and urged the government to give it its full backing. #### Illness and death Wilkinson suffered for most of her life from bronchial asthma, which she aggravated over the years by heavy smoking and overwork. She had often been ill during the war, and had collapsed during a visit to Prague in 1946. On 25 January 1947 she attended the opening of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. The winter of 1946–47 was exceptionally cold, and the ceremony was held out of doors. Shortly afterward, Wilkinson developed pneumonia; on 3 February she was found in her London flat in a coma, and on 6 February 1947 she died in St Mary's Hospital, Paddington. At the inquest the coroner gave the cause of death as "heart failure following emphysema, with acute bronchitis and bronchial pneumonia, accelerated by barbiturate poisoning". Wilkinson had been taking a combination of drugs for several months, to combat both her asthma and insomnia; the coroner believed she had inadvertently taken an overdose of barbiturates. With no evidence to indicate that the overdose was deliberate, he recorded a verdict of accidental death. Despite this, speculation that Wilkinson had committed suicide has persisted, the reasons cited being the failure of her personal relationship with Herbert Morrison and her likely fate in a rumoured cabinet reshuffle. In their 1973 biography of Morrison, Bernard Donoughue and G. W. Jones suggest that, given Wilkinson's poor health, the burdens of her ministerial office became too much for her. However, the lack of conclusive evidence divides historians about Wilkinson's intention to take her own life. ## Appraisal and legacy Wilkinson's short stature and distinctive red hair, combined with her uncompromising politics, gave rise to popular nicknames such as the "Fiery Particle" and "Red Ellen". With her bright, fashionable clothes and her forceful manner, she was easily noticeable—an obituarist wrote that "wherever there was a row going on in support of some good or even fairly good cause, that rebellious redhead was sure to be seen bobbing about in the heart of the tumult". In her later career, ambition and pragmatism led her to temper her earlier Marxism and militancy and work within mainstream Labour Party policy; she came to believe that parliamentary democracy offered a better route to social progress than any alternative. Yet, Vernon says, "she never lost her resolute independence of thought, and sought power not for self glory but to succour the weak of the world". In a tribute published when Wilkinson's death was announced, the former Conservative MP Thelma Cazalet-Keir summed up her personality: "Ellen Wilkinson was as far removed from being a bore as it is possible for any human being to be. Whatever she did, wherever she went, she created an atmosphere of excitement and interest ... and not just because of her red hair and green dress". In the course of her career Wilkinson contributed to reforms in numerous policy areas: women's equal suffrage, women civil servants' equal pay, provision of air raid shelters for city dwellers, and protection of hire purchase borrowers' rights. The historian David Kynaston cites as her greatest practical achievement her success in meeting the timetable for the raising of the school leaving age; her successor as education minister, George Tomlinson, recorded how hard she had fought to avoid postponement of the reform, and expressed his sorrow that she died before the set date. Wilkinson was sometimes criticised for extending her efforts too widely; a local newspaper, the North Mail, complained in May 1937 that "Miss Wilkinson is working for too many causes to do justice to Jarrow". Nevertheless, her book The Town that was Murdered brought to public notice the plight of Jarrow and the broader consequences of unbridled capitalism on working-class communities; the book, Harrison observes, "educated the nation". Wilkinson never married, although she enjoyed numerous close friendships with men. Apart from her early engagement to Walton Newbold, she was close to John Jagger for many years, and in the early 1930s enjoyed a brief romantic attachment with Frank Horrabin. Her long association with Morrison began in her early Fabian days; Morrison was very reticent about this friendship, choosing not to mention Wilkinson in his 1960 autobiography despite their close political association. Vernon says that the relationship almost certainly became "more than platonic", but as Wilkinson's private papers were destroyed after her death, and Morrison maintained silence over the matter, the full nature and extent of their friendship remains uncertain. Labour MP Rachel Reeves has noted differing opinions among their respective biographers, but cites a recollection by wartime Minister P. J. Grigg as suggesting a friendship that was more than platonic. On 25 January 1941 Wilkinson received the freedom of the town of Jarrow, and in May 1946 was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Manchester. Her name has been commemorated in The Ellen Wilkinson School for Girls in Ealing, west London, in the Ellen Wilkinson Primary School and Children's Centre in Newham, east London, and in the Ellen Wilkinson Estate, a 1950s Felling Urban District Council housing project at Wardley, once part of her Jarrow constituency, now in Gateshead Metropolitan Borough. In addition, the Ellen Wilkinson High School in Ardwick, which incorporated Wilkinson's old school, bore her name for some years before its closure in 2000. The Ellen Wilkinson Building in the University of Manchester's campus houses parts of the Manchester Institute of Education and other departments. A blue plaque records the site of Wilkinson's birthplace at 41 Coral Street, and another, in the main quadrangle of the old university buildings, records Wilkinson's attendance there in 1910 to 1913. In October 2015 Wilkinson was shortlisted by a Manchester town hall panel as one of six candidates to be the subject of the city's first female statue in over a century. In October 2016, Wilkinson was chosen in a public vote to become the first female statue in Middlesbrough. Her name and image and those of 58 other women's suffrage supporters are etched on the plinth of the statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square, London that was unveiled in April 2018. Ellen Wilkinson was shortlisted in 2015 for the WoManchester Statue. Although Emmeline Pankhurst was decisively selected, Ellen Wilkinson polled strongly. The statue now sits in St Peter's Square, Manchester. The book First in the Fight dedicates a chapter to Ellen Wilkinson along with the other nineteen women considered for the statue. ## Books by Ellen Wilkinson - Co-authored with Frank Horrabin and Raymond Postgate. - Co-authored with Edward Conze - Co-authored with Edward Conze
25,948,545	2009 U.S. Open Cup final	1,161,114,885	2009 final of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup	[ "2009 U.S. Open Cup", "2009 in sports in Washington, D.C.", "D.C. United matches", "Seattle Sounders FC matches", "Soccer in Washington, D.C.", "U.S. Open Cup finals" ]	The 2009 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final was played on September 2, 2009, at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington, D.C. The match determined the winner of the 2009 U.S. Open Cup, a tournament open to amateur and professional soccer teams affiliated with the United States Soccer Federation. This was the 96th edition of the oldest competition in United States soccer. The match was won by Seattle Sounders FC, who defeated D.C. United 2–1. Clyde Simms scored D.C. United's only goal. Fredy Montero and Roger Levesque scored Seattle's two goals as the club became the second expansion team in Major League Soccer (MLS) history to win the tournament in their inaugural season. D.C. United entered the tournament as the competition's defending champions. They had previously won the tournament in 1996 as well. Both Sounders FC and D.C. United had to play through two qualification rounds for MLS teams before entering the official tournament. Prior to the final, there was a public dispute between the owners of the two clubs regarding the selection of D.C. United to host it at their home field, RFK Stadium. As the tournament champions, Sounders FC earned a berth in the preliminary round of the 2010–11 CONCACAF Champions League. The club also received a \$100,000 cash prize, while D.C. United received \$50,000 as the runner-up. ## Road to the final The U.S. Open Cup is an annual American soccer competition open to all United States Soccer Federation affiliated teams, from amateur adult club teams to the professional clubs of Major League Soccer (MLS), which has teams in the United States and Canada. In 2009, Major League Soccer was allowed to enter eight of its U.S.-based teams in the tournament. The top six MLS teams from the previous season qualified automatically, while the remaining two spots were determined by preliminary qualification matches. The eight MLS entries began play in the third round of the tournament. In 2009, MLS expanded into the Seattle market adding a new team to the league, Seattle Sounders FC. As an expansion team, they had to play through the qualification matches before entering the tournament. Likewise, D.C. United did not finish among the top six 2008 MLS teams, and therefore had to play through qualification rounds before entering the official tournament. ### Sounders FC Prior to their first qualification match against Real Salt Lake, Sounders FC coach Sigi Schmid asserted that the U.S. Open Cup was important to the club and that they were playing to win. Sounders FC played U.S. Open Cup home games at the Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila, Washington. The facility is smaller than the club's home stadium for league matches, Qwest Field, but Sounders FC representatives preferred the atmosphere at Starfire for smaller cup matches. On April 28, 2009, Sounders FC defeated Real Salt Lake 4–1 in their first qualification match. Sebastian Le Toux scored two goals, and Roger Levesque had three assists in front of a sold-out crowd at Starfire. Sounders FC hosted their second qualification match on May 26, 2009, also at Starfire, this time against the Colorado Rapids. Reserve player Kevin Forrest scored the only goal in the match as Seattle defeated the Rapids 1–0, securing their entry into the third round of the official cup competition as one of the eight teams representing MLS. On July 1, 2009, Sounders FC traveled to Portland and defeated the Timbers of the USL First Division, the team's historic rival, 2–1 in front of a sold-out crowd. Roger Levesque and Stephen King both scored for Seattle. The following week, in a quarterfinal match at Starfire, Sounders FC defeated visiting Kansas City 1–0 on a penalty kick in the 89th minute scored by Sebastien Le Toux. Three weeks later, on July 21, Sounders FC won their semifinal match 2–1 over the Houston Dynamo at Starfire. Seattle took the lead for good when Stephen King scored a goal five minutes into extra time, sending Sounders FC to the cup final. ### D.C. United MLS clubs were first included in the U.S. Open Cup tournament in 1996. D.C. United won the tournament that year, and repeated their success in 2008. In 2009, the club began its title defense in the MLS qualification rounds. This meant that they had to win six games instead of the four needed to obtain the cup in 2008. In their first qualifying match on March 28, 2009, they hosted FC Dallas at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. They defeated Dallas 2–0, with Fred and Brandon Barklage scoring in the 21st and 66th minutes, respectively. D.C. United's second qualification match was also played at RFK Stadium, on May 20, 2009. In a high-scoring match against the New York Red Bulls, D.C. won 5–3. Chris Pontius scored two of United's five goals, qualifying D.C. for the third round of the official tournament. On June 30, 2009, D.C. United began official cup competition against the Ocean City Barons of the USL Premier Development League. The match, hosted by United at Maryland SoccerPlex in Boyds, Maryland, ended with D.C. on top 2–0. As a fourth-tier club, the Barons lineup had featured amateur players while United's included only three regular starters. The match remained scoreless for 74 minutes before D.C. took the lead on a penalty kick by late substitution Christian Gomez. One week later, on July 7, D.C. United hosted their quarterfinal match at the SoccerPlex again and defeated the Harrisburg City Islanders of the USL Second Division 2–1. On July 21, 2009, D.C. United hosted another lower tier team in their semifinal match at the SoccerPlex. This time they defeated the Rochester Rhinos of the USL First Division 2–1. The match was tied 1–1 until the 82nd minute when Boyzzz Khumalo's goal propelled D.C. into the cup final. ## Pre-match ### Venue selection Both Seattle Sounders FC and D.C. United submitted bids to U.S. Soccer to host the final. D.C. United's bid included a proposal to host the match at RFK Stadium, their home stadium in Washington, D.C. with a capacity of 45,596. Sounders FC's bid proposed to host the match at Qwest Field, their home stadium in Seattle, with a capacity of 32,400 for soccer matches. The procedure for selecting the winning bid was kept private. When D.C. United's bid was chosen, Sounders FC general manager Adrian Hanauer expressed skepticism that it had been better than the Seattle bid. He further noted that if Seattle had hosted the match, it likely would have sold out. This prompted a reply from D.C. United president Kevin Payne, who argued that D.C. United had won the bidding process fairly, and said that he was offended by Hanauer's comments. Following this public disagreement, D.C. United launched a marketing campaign to sell more match tickets, which included a new web site, WeWinTrophies.com, which chronicled the club's history of titles as an original MLS franchise. The campaign also included an open letter in local newspapers stating that Sounders FC and its fans did not think D.C. deserved to host the match and declared D.C. fans as "the standard" for support in the league. Videos from local celebrities were posted on the team's official blog urging fans to attend the final. Ticket discounts and special pricing on concessions for the match were also announced as part of the special marketing effort for the cup final. ### Analysis Prior to meeting in the U.S. Open Cup final, Sounders FC and D.C. United had met only once, on June 17 at Qwest Field in Seattle. In that meeting, Sounders FC squandered a 3–1 second half lead by allowing D.C. United to score two goals late in the match. It ended in a 3–3 tie. Since 1996, when MLS teams were first included in the tournament, the home team had won nine times and lost only twice in the final match. Commenting on what his team brings to the game, Sounders FC coach Sigi Schmid stated, "We bring a clean slate. We haven't had any negative experiences in championship games, so we want to just build up a positive legacy for our team and we know we have a chance to make some history for our team. Every player knows that and that's something we want to try and do." D.C. United had previously won the U.S. Open Cup twice in 1996 and 2008 and this was their fourth appearance ever in the tournament final. D.C. United president Kevin Payne simply stated, "We want to win anything we enter." Sounders FC general manager Adrian Hanauer commented on his club's desire to win the cup and a berth into the CONCACAF Champions League, "That's one step towards our stated goal of competing in the world club championships, because the winner of the CONCACAF Champions League wins a spot in the World Club Championships." ## Match The 2009 U.S. Open Cup Final was played on September 2 at RFK Stadium in Washington D.C. A total of 17,329 fans attended the match, well below the stadium's available capacity. Approximately 200 Sounders FC fans sat together in the upper deck. Both the travel distance and the mid-week scheduling made it difficult for Seattle fans to attend. Live television coverage was provided nationally by Fox Soccer Channel. ### First half Both clubs had used a mix of reserve players and starting (first choice) players in previous tournament matches, but for the final neither team used reserve players in their starting lineups. Seattle took the field in a 4-4-2 formation while D.C United was in a 3-4-3 formation. The match kicked off at 7:37 pm local time. Five minutes into the match, D.C. United first-year player Chris Pontius had the first chance of the evening as he pushed past Sounders FC defender Leonardo González to receive a diagonal pass from Clyde Simms. However, due to the difficult shooting angle, Pontius' shot was wide of the far post. In the 10th minute, Sounders FC forward Fredy Montero had a close range shot on goal, but D.C. goalkeeper Josh Wicks parried the shot away. Seven minutes later, Christian Gomez had a goal scoring opportunity with a direct free kick from 28 yards (26 m), but his low kick curled just wide of the target. In the 18th minute, Seattle midfielder Sebastian Le Toux played a ball in to teammate Freddie Ljungberg, whose shot on goal was barely saved by Wicks, who kicked out a foot to block the shot. Just before halftime, Le Toux crossed to an unmarked Montero, whose direct header on goal was just in reach of Wicks, who again made the save to keep the score level, 0–0. Seattle outshot D.C. 9–6 in the first half. ### Second half As the players took the field for the second half, D.C. coach Tom Soehn decided to replace Fred, who had been a non-factor in the first half, with Santino Quaranta. In the 60th minute, Gomez, Pontius and Luciano Emilio combined inside Seattle's 18-yard box for a United opportunity, but Pontius mishit the shot, which resulted in an easy save for Seattle's goalkeeper, Kasey Keller. Seven minutes later, another failed D.C. United opportunity resulted in a Sounders FC counterattack, where Freddie Ljungberg's shot was saved by Wicks. The rebound rolled in front of Fredy Montero, who dove feet first and kicked the ball into the goal, giving Sounders FC a 1–0 lead. Following the goal, frustrated D.C. United goalkeeper Josh Wicks stomped on Montero's leg while he was still on the ground. After consulting with the fourth official, referee Alex Prus showed Wicks a red card for his behavior, dismissing him from the match. United's backup goalkeeper, Milos Kocic, was substituted for Christian Gomez after the incident, and D.C. played with 10 men for the remainder of the match. Despite being down a man, D.C. United controlled possession of the ball as the match progressed towards full-time. Just four minutes before full-time, Seattle's Sebastian Le Toux pushed D.C. defender Dejan Jakovic off the ball, dribbled in towards goal, and then provided a centering pass to teammate Roger Levesque who scored, extending the Seattle lead to 2–0. With time ticking away, United desperately threw every man forward and managed to narrow the scoring difference to one in the 89th minute when Simms kicked home a loose ball after a Quaranta free kick. During the five minutes of stoppage time, D.C. continued with repeated crosses and shots attempting to get an equalizer. In the end, Sounders FC was able to withstand D.C.'s late push for a 2–1 victory, becoming the second MLS expansion team in league history (Chicago Fire was the first) to win the U.S. Open Cup in their inaugural season. Players and coaches ran onto the field after the final whistle, jumped up and down together and hurried to a corner of the field to acknowledge the Sounders FC fans cheering in the upper deck. ### Match details ### Statistics Overall ## Post match In the post-game press conference, Josh Wicks discussed his ejection, saying: "It was a mistake on my part and I've got to learn my lesson. The fourth official made a call and the ref made the final decision. That was it. I've got no excuses for it. Tremendously, very, very disappointing." One month after the stomping incident, U.S. Soccer announced that Wicks would be suspended from the U.S. Open Cup tournament for five matches. After the victory, many Sounders FC fans gathered at King County International Airport to greet the team as they returned to Seattle. The trophy was put on display at several events around Seattle in the weeks following Sounders FC's victory. On September 19, the cup was presented to Sounders FC fans to carry in the March to the Match prior to a Sounders FC league game at Qwest Field against Chivas USA. By winning the U.S. Open Cup tournament, Sounders FC earned a berth in the preliminary round of the 2010–11 CONCACAF Champions League. Seattle also received the winner's \$100,000 cash prize, while D.C. United received \$50,000 as the tournament runner-up. Kevin Forrest, whose game-winning goal against Colorado allowed Sounders FC to qualify for the tournament, received a share of the prize money and a medal, despite being released by the team before the final. In January 2010, the club's success in the U.S. Open Cup tournament was listed among the many reasons the Washington State Senate passed a resolution honoring Sounders FC. On October 5, 2010, Seattle returned to the final and defeated the Columbus Crew 2–1 to repeat as U.S. Open Cup champion. This time Sounders FC hosted the final at Qwest Field, drawing an attendance of 31,311 which broke the 81-year-old record for the event.
57,799	Stephen Crane	1,169,654,296	American novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist	[ "1871 births", "1900 deaths", "19th-century American journalists", "19th-century American male writers", "19th-century American novelists", "19th-century American poets", "19th-century American short story writers", "19th-century deaths from tuberculosis", "American male journalists", "American male novelists", "American male poets", "American male short story writers", "American people of English descent", "American realism novelists", "American war correspondents", "American war novelists", "Burials at Evergreen Cemetery (Hillside, New Jersey)", "Claverack College alumni", "Crane family of New Jersey", "Hearst Communications people", "Novelists from New Jersey", "Shipwreck survivors", "Syracuse Orangemen baseball players", "The Pennington School alumni", "Tuberculosis deaths in the German Empire", "War correspondents of the Spanish–American War", "Writers from Newark, New Jersey" ]	Stephen Crane (November 1, 1871 – June 5, 1900) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism and Impressionism. He is recognized by modern critics as one of the most innovative writers of his generation. The ninth surviving child of Methodist parents, Crane began writing at the age of four and had several articles published by the age of 16. Having little interest in university studies though he was active in a fraternity, he left Syracuse University in 1891 to work as a reporter and writer. Crane's first novel was the 1893 Bowery tale Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, generally considered by critics to be the first work of American literary Naturalism. He won international acclaim in 1895 for his Civil War novel The Red Badge of Courage, which he wrote without having any battle experience. In 1896, Crane endured a highly publicized scandal after appearing as a witness in the trial of a suspected prostitute, an acquaintance named Dora Clark. Late that year he accepted an offer to travel to Cuba as a war correspondent. As he waited in Jacksonville, Florida, for passage, he met Cora Taylor, with whom he began a lasting relationship. En route to Cuba, Crane's vessel, the SS Commodore, sank off the coast of Florida, leaving him and others adrift for 30 hours in a dinghy. Crane described the ordeal in "The Open Boat". During the final years of his life, he covered conflicts in Greece (accompanied by Cora, recognized as the first woman war correspondent) and later lived in England with her. He was befriended by writers such as Joseph Conrad and H. G. Wells. Plagued by financial difficulties and ill health, Crane died of tuberculosis in a Black Forest sanatorium in Germany at the age of 28. At the time of his death, Crane was considered an important figure in American literature. After he was nearly forgotten for two decades, critics revived interest in his life and work. Crane's writing is characterized by vivid intensity, distinctive dialects, and irony. Common themes involve fear, spiritual crises and social isolation. Although recognized primarily for The Red Badge of Courage, which has become an American classic, Crane is also known for his poetry, journalism, and short stories such as "The Open Boat", "The Blue Hotel", "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky", and The Monster. His writing made a deep impression on 20th-century writers, most prominent among them Ernest Hemingway, and is thought to have inspired the Modernists and the Imagists. ## Biography ### Early years Stephen Crane was born on November 1, 1871, in Newark, New Jersey, to Jonathan Townley Crane, a minister in the Methodist Episcopal church, and Mary Helen Peck Crane, daughter of a clergyman, George Peck. He was the fourteenth and last child born to the couple. At 45, Helen Crane had suffered the early deaths of her previous four children, each of whom died within one year of birth. Nicknamed "Stevie" by the family, he joined eight surviving brothers and sisters—Mary Helen, George Peck, Jonathan Townley, William Howe, Agnes Elizabeth, Edmund Byran, Wilbur Fiske, and Luther. The Cranes were descended from Jaspar Crane, a founder of New Haven Colony, who had migrated there from England in 1639. Stephen was named for a putative founder of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, who had, according to family tradition, come from England or Wales in 1665, as well as his great-great-grandfather Stephen Crane (1709–1780), a Revolutionary War patriot who served as New Jersey delegate to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Crane later wrote that his father, Dr. Crane, "was a great, fine, simple mind", who had written numerous tracts on theology. Although his mother was a popular spokeswoman for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and a highly religious woman, Crane wrote that he did not believe "she was as narrow as most of her friends or family." The young Stephen was raised primarily by his sister Agnes, who was 15 years his senior. The family moved to Port Jervis, New York, in 1876, where Dr. Crane became the pastor of Drew Methodist Church, a position that he retained until his death. As a child, Crane was often sickly and afflicted by constant colds. When the boy was almost two, his father wrote in his diary that his youngest son became "so sick that we are anxious about him." Despite his fragile nature, Crane was an intelligent child who taught himself to read before the age of four. His first known inquiry, recorded by his father, dealt with writing; at the age of three, while imitating his brother Townley's writing, he asked his mother, "how do you spell O?" In December 1879, Crane wrote a poem about wanting a dog for Christmas. Entitled "I'd Rather Have –", it is his first surviving poem. Stephen was not regularly enrolled in school until January 1880, but he had no difficulty in completing two grades in six weeks. Recalling this feat, he wrote that it "sounds like the lie of a fond mother at a teaparty, but I do remember that I got ahead very fast and that father was very pleased with me." Dr. Crane died on February 16, 1880, at the age of 60; Stephen was eight years old. Some 1,400 people mourned Dr. Crane at his funeral, more than double the size of his congregation. After her husband's death, Mrs. Crane moved to Roseville, near Newark, leaving Stephen in the care of his older brother Edmund, with whom the young boy lived with cousins in Sussex County. He next lived with his brother William, a lawyer, in Port Jervis for several years. His older sister Helen took him to Asbury Park to be with their brother Townley and his wife, Fannie. Townley was a professional journalist; he headed the Long Branch department of both the New-York Tribune and the Associated Press, and also served as editor of the Asbury Park Shore Press. Agnes, another Crane sister, joined the siblings in New Jersey. She took a position at Asbury Park's intermediate school and moved in with Helen to care for the young Stephen. Within a couple of years, the Crane family suffered more losses. First, Townley and his wife lost their two young children. His wife Fannie died of Bright's disease in November 1883. Agnes Crane became ill and died on June 10, 1884, of meningitis at the age of 28. ### Schooling Crane wrote his first known story, "Uncle Jake and the Bell Handle", when he was 14. In late 1885, he enrolled at Pennington Seminary, a ministry-focused coeducational boarding school 7 miles (11 km) north of Trenton. His father had been principal there from 1849 to 1858. Soon after her youngest son left for school, Mrs. Crane began suffering what the Asbury Park Shore Press reported as "a temporary aberration of the mind." She had apparently recovered by early 1886, but later that year, her son, 23-year-old Luther Crane, died after falling in front of an oncoming train while working as a flagman for the Erie Railroad. It was the fourth death in six years among Stephen's immediate family. After two years, Crane left Pennington for Claverack College, a quasi-military school. He later looked back on his time at Claverack as "the happiest period of my life although I was not aware of it." A classmate remembered him as a highly literate but erratic student, lucky to pass examinations in math and science, and yet "far in advance of his fellow students in his knowledge of History and Literature", his favorite subjects. While he held an impressive record on the drill field and baseball diamond, Crane generally did not excel in the classroom. Not having a middle name, as was customary among other students, he took to signing his name "Stephen T. Crane" in order "to win recognition as a regular fellow". Crane was seen as friendly, but also moody and rebellious. He sometimes skipped class in order to play baseball, a game in which he starred as catcher. He was also greatly interested in the school's military training program. He rose rapidly in the ranks of the student battalion. One classmate described him as "indeed physically attractive without being handsome", but he was aloof, reserved and not generally popular at Claverack. Although academically weak, Crane gained experience at Claverack that provided background (and likely some anecdotes from the Civil War veterans on the staff) that proved useful when he came to write The Red Badge of Courage. In mid-1888, Crane became his brother Townley's assistant at a New Jersey shore news bureau, working there every summer until 1892. Crane's first publication under his byline was an article on the explorer Henry M. Stanley's famous quest to find the Scottish missionary David Livingstone in Africa. It appeared in the February 1890 Claverack College Vidette. Within a few months, Crane was persuaded by his family to forgo a military career and transfer to Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, in order to pursue a mining engineering degree. He registered at Lafayette on September 12, and promptly became involved in extracurricular activities; he took up baseball again and joined the largest fraternity, Delta Upsilon. He also joined both rival literary societies, named for (George) Washington and (Benjamin) Franklin. Crane infrequently attended classes and ended the semester with grades for four of the seven courses he had taken. After one semester, Crane transferred to Syracuse University, where he enrolled as a non-degree candidate in the College of Liberal Arts. He roomed in the Delta Upsilon fraternity house and joined the baseball team. Attending just one class (English Literature) during the middle trimester, he remained in residence while taking no courses in the third semester. Concentrating on his writing, Crane began to experiment with tone and style while trying out different subjects. He published his fictional story, "Great Bugs of Onondaga," simultaneously in the Syracuse Daily Standard and the New York Tribune. Declaring college "a waste of time", Crane decided to become a full-time writer and reporter. He attended a Delta Upsilon chapter meeting on June 12, 1891, but shortly afterward left college for good. ### Full-time writer In the summer of 1891, Crane often camped with friends in the nearby area of Sullivan County, New York, where his brother Edmund occupied a house obtained as part of their brother William's Hartwood Club (Association) land dealings. He used this area as the geographic setting for several short stories, which were posthumously published in a collection under the title Stephen Crane: Sullivan County Tales and Sketches. Crane showed two of these works to Tribune editor Willis Fletcher Johnson, a friend of the family, who accepted them for the publication. "Hunting Wild Dogs" and "The Last of the Mohicans" were the first of fourteen unsigned Sullivan County sketches and tales that were published in the Tribune between February and July 1892. Crane also showed Johnson an early draft of his first novel, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. Later that summer, Crane met and befriended author Hamlin Garland, who had been lecturing locally on American literature and the expressive arts; on August 17 he gave a talk on novelist William Dean Howells, which Crane wrote up for the Tribune. Garland became a mentor for and champion of the young writer, whose intellectual honesty impressed him. Their relationship suffered in later years, however, because Garland disapproved of Crane's alleged immorality, related to his living with a woman married to another man. Stephen moved into his brother Edmund's house in Lakeview, a suburb of Paterson, New Jersey, in the fall of 1891. From there he made frequent trips into New York City, writing and reporting, particularly on its impoverished tenement districts. Crane focused particularly on The Bowery, a small and once prosperous neighborhood in the southern part of Manhattan. After the Civil War, Bowery shops and mansions had given way to saloons, dance halls, brothels and flophouses, all of which Crane frequented. He later said he did so for research. He was attracted to the human nature found in the slums, considering it "open and plain, with nothing hidden." Believing nothing honest and unsentimental had been written about the Bowery, Crane became determined to do so himself; this was the setting of his first novel. On December 7, 1891, Crane's mother died at the age of 64, and the 20-year-old appointed Edmund as his guardian. Despite being frail, undernourished and suffering from a hacking cough, which did not prevent him from smoking cigarettes, in the spring of 1892 Crane began a romance with Lily Brandon Munroe, a married woman who was estranged from her husband. Although Munroe later said Crane "was not a handsome man," she admired his "remarkable almond-shaped gray eyes." He begged her to elope with him, but her family opposed the match because Crane lacked money and prospects, and she declined. Their last meeting likely occurred in April 1898, when he again asked her to run away with him and she again refused. Between July 2 and September 11, 1892, Crane published at least ten news reports on Asbury Park affairs. Although a Tribune colleague stated that Crane "was not highly distinguished above any other boy of twenty who had gained a reputation for saying and writing bright things," that summer his reporting took on a more skeptical, hypocrisy-deflating tone. A storm of controversy erupted over a report he wrote on the Junior Order of United American Mechanics' American Day Parade, entitled "Parades and Entertainments." Published on August 21, the report juxtaposes the "bronzed, slope-shouldered, uncouth" marching men "begrimed with dust" and the spectators dressed in "summer gowns, lace parasols, tennis trousers, straw hats and indifferent smiles." Believing they were being ridiculed, some JOUAM marchers were outraged and wrote to the editor. The owner of the Tribune, Whitelaw Reid, was that year's Republican vice-presidential candidate, and this likely increased the sensitivity of the paper's management to the issue. Although Townley wrote a piece for the Asbury Park Daily Press in his brother's defense, the Tribune quickly apologized to its readers, calling Stephen Crane's piece "a bit of random correspondence, passed inadvertently by the copy editor." Hamlin Garland and biographer John Barry attested that Crane told them he had been dismissed by the Tribune. Although Willis Fletcher Johnson later denied this, the paper did not publish any of Crane's work after 1892. ### Life in New York Crane struggled to make a living as a free-lance writer, contributing sketches and feature articles to various New York newspapers. In October 1892, he moved into a rooming house in Manhattan whose boarders were a group of medical students. During this time, he expanded or entirely reworked Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, which is about a girl who "blossoms in a mud-puddle" and becomes a pitiful victim of circumstance. In the winter of 1893, Crane took the manuscript of Maggie to Richard Watson Gilder, who rejected it for publication in The Century Magazine. Crane decided to publish it privately, with money he had inherited from his mother. The novel was published in late February or early March 1893 by a small printing shop that usually printed medical books and religious tracts. The typewritten title page for the Library of Congress copyright application read simply: "A Girl of the Streets, / A Story of New York. / —By—/Stephen Crane." The name "Maggie" was added to the title later. Crane used the pseudonym "Johnston Smith" for the novel's initial publication, later telling friend and artist Corwin Knapp Linson that the nom de plume was the "commonest name I could think of. I had an editor friend named Johnson, and put in the 't,' and no one could find me in the mob of Smiths." Hamlin Garland reviewed the work in the June 1893 issue of The Arena, calling it "the most truthful and unhackneyed study of the slums I have yet read, fragment though it is." Despite this early praise, Crane became depressed and destitute from having spent \$869 for 1,100 copies of a novel that did not sell; he ended up giving a hundred copies away. He would later remember "how I looked forward to publication and pictured the sensation I thought it would make. It fell flat. Nobody seemed to notice it or care for it... Poor Maggie! She was one of my first loves." In March 1893, Crane spent hours lounging in Linson's studio while having his portrait painted. He became fascinated with issues of the Century that were largely devoted to famous battles and military leaders from the Civil War. Frustrated with the dryly written stories, Crane stated, "I wonder that some of those fellows don't tell how they felt in those scraps. They spout enough of what they did, but they're as emotionless as rocks." Crane returned to these magazines during subsequent visits to Linson's studio, and eventually the idea of writing a war novel overtook him. He would later state that he "had been unconsciously working the detail of the story out through most of his boyhood" and had imagined "war stories ever since he was out of knickerbockers." This novel would ultimately become The Red Badge of Courage. From the beginning, Crane wished to show how it felt to be in a war by writing "a psychological portrayal of fear." Conceiving his story from the point of view of a young private who is at first filled with boyish dreams of the glory of war and then quickly becomes disillusioned by war's reality, Crane borrowed the private's surname, "Fleming," from his sister-in-law's maiden name. He later said that the first paragraphs came to him with "every word in place, every comma, every period fixed." Working mostly nights, he wrote from around midnight until four or five in the morning. Because he could not afford a typewriter, he wrote carefully in ink on legal-sized paper, seldom crossing through or interlining a word. If he did change something, he would rewrite the whole page. While working on his second novel, Crane remained prolific, concentrating on publishing stories to stave off poverty; "An Experiment in Misery," based on Crane's experiences in the Bowery, was printed by the New York Press. He also wrote five or six poems a day. In early 1894, he showed some of his poems or "lines" as he called them, to Hamlin Garland, who said he read "some thirty in all" with "growing wonder." Although Garland and William Dean Howells encouraged him to submit his poetry for publication, Crane's free verse was too unconventional for most. After brief wrangling between poet and publisher, Copeland & Day accepted Crane's first book of poems, The Black Riders and Other Lines, although it would not be published until after The Red Badge of Courage. He received a 10 percent royalty and the publisher assured him that the book would be in a form "more severely classic than any book ever yet issued in America." In the spring of 1894, Crane offered the finished manuscript of The Red Badge of Courage to McClure's Magazine, which had become the foremost magazine for Civil War literature. While McClure's delayed giving him an answer on his novel, they offered him an assignment writing about the Pennsylvania coal mines. "In the Depths of a Coal Mine," a story with pictures by Linson, was syndicated by McClure's in a number of newspapers, heavily edited. Crane was reportedly disgusted by the cuts, asking Linson, "Why the hell did they send me up there then? Do they want the public to think the coal mines gilded ball-rooms with the miners eating ice-cream in boiled shirt-fronts?" Sources report that following an encounter with a male prostitute that spring, Crane began a novel on the subject entitled Flowers of Asphalt, which he later abandoned. The manuscript has never been recovered. After discovering that McClure's could not afford to pay him, Crane took his war novel to Irving Bacheller of the Bacheller-Johnson Newspaper Syndicate, which agreed to publish The Red Badge of Courage in serial form. Between the third and the ninth of December 1894, The Red Badge of Courage was published in some half-dozen newspapers in the United States. Although it was greatly cut for syndication, Bacheller attested to its causing a stir, saying "its quality [was] immediately felt and recognized." The lead editorial in the Philadelphia Press of December 7 said that Crane "is a new name now and unknown, but everybody will be talking about him if he goes on as he has begun." ### Travels and fame At the end of January 1895, Crane left on what he called "a very long and circuitous newspaper trip" to the west. While writing feature articles for the Bacheller syndicate, he traveled to Saint Louis, Missouri, Nebraska, New Orleans, Galveston, Texas and then Mexico City. Irving Bacheller would later state that he "sent Crane to Mexico for new color," which the author found in the form of Mexican slum life. Whereas he found the lower class in New York pitiful, he was impressed by the "superiority" of the Mexican peasants' contentment and "even refuse[d] to pity them." Returning to New York five months later, Crane joined the Lantern (alternately spelled "Lanthom" or "Lanthorne") Club organized by a group of young writers and journalists. The club, located on the roof of an old house on William Street near the Brooklyn Bridge, served as a drinking establishment of sorts and was decorated to look like a ship's cabin. There Crane ate one good meal a day, although friends were troubled by his "constant smoking, too much coffee, lack of food and poor teeth," as Nelson Greene put it. Living in near-poverty and greatly anticipating the publication of his books, Crane began work on two more novels: The Third Violet and George's Mother. The Black Riders was published by Copeland & Day shortly before his return to New York in May, but it received mostly negative criticism, if not abuse, for the poems' unconventional style and use of free verse. A piece in the Bookman called Crane "the Aubrey Beardsley of poetry," and a commentator from the Chicago Daily Inter-Ocean stated that "there is not a line of poetry from the opening to the closing page. Whitman's Leaves of Grass were luminous in comparison. Poetic lunacy would be a better name for the book." In June, the New York Tribune dismissed the book as "so much trash." Crane was pleased that the book was "making some stir." In contrast to the reception for Crane's poetry, The Red Badge of Courage was welcomed with acclaim after its publication by Appleton in September 1895. For the next four months, the book was in the top six on various bestseller lists around the country. It arrived on the literary scene "like a flash of lightning out of a clear winter sky," according to H. L. Mencken, who was about 15 at the time. The novel also became popular in Britain; Joseph Conrad, a future friend of Crane, wrote that the novel "detonated... with the impact and force of a twelve-inch shell charged with a very high explosive." Appleton published two, possibly three, printings in 1895 and as many as eleven more in 1896. Although some critics considered the work overly graphic and profane, it was widely heralded for its realistic portrayal of war and unique writing style. The Detroit Free Press declared that The Red Badge would give readers "so vivid a picture of the emotions and the horrors of the battlefield that you will pray your eyes may never look upon the reality." Wanting to capitalize on the success of The Red Badge, McClure Syndicate offered Crane a contract to write a series on Civil War battlefields. Because it was a wish of his to "visit the battlefield—which I was to describe—at the time of year when it was fought," Crane agreed to take the assignment. Visiting battlefields in Northern Virginia, including Fredericksburg, he would later produce five more Civil War tales: "Three Miraculous Soldiers," "The Veteran," "An Indiana Campaign," "An Episode of War" and "The Little Regiment." ### Scandal At the age of 24, Crane, who was reveling in his success, became involved in a highly publicized case involving a suspected prostitute named Dora Clark. At 2 a.m. on September 16, 1896, he escorted two chorus girls and Clark from New York City's Broadway Garden, a popular "resort" where he had interviewed the women for a series he was writing. As Crane saw one woman safely to a streetcar, a plainclothes policeman named Charles Becker arrested the other two for solicitation; Crane was threatened with arrest when he tried to interfere. One of the women was released after Crane confirmed her erroneous claim that she was his wife, but Clark was charged and taken to the precinct. Against the advice of the arresting sergeant, Crane made a statement confirming Dora Clark's innocence, stating that "I only know that while with me she acted respectably, and that the policeman's charge was false." On the basis of Crane's testimony, Clark was discharged. The media seized upon the story; news spread to Philadelphia, Boston and beyond, with papers focusing on Crane's courage. The Stephen Crane story, as it became known, soon became a source for ridicule; the Chicago Dispatch quipped that "Stephen Crane is respectfully informed that association with women in scarlet is not necessarily a 'Red Badge of Courage.' " A couple of weeks after her trial, Clark pressed charges of false arrest against the officer who had arrested her. The next day, the officer physically attacked Clark in the presence of witnesses for having brought charges against him. Crane, who initially went briefly to Philadelphia to escape the pressure of publicity, returned to New York to give testimony at Becker's trial despite advice given to him from Theodore Roosevelt, who was Police Commissioner at the time and a new acquaintance of Crane. The defense targeted Crane: police raided his apartment and interviewed people who knew him, trying to find incriminating evidence in order to lessen the effect of his testimony. A vigorous cross-examination took place that sought to portray Crane as a man of dubious morals; while the prosecution proved that he frequented brothels, Crane claimed this was merely for research purposes. After the trial ended on October 16, the arresting officer was exonerated, and Crane's reputation was ruined. ### Cora Taylor and the Commodore shipwreck Given \$700 in Spanish gold by the Bacheller-Johnson syndicate to work as a war correspondent in Cuba as the Spanish–American War was pending, the 25-year-old Crane left New York on November 27, 1896, on a train bound for Jacksonville, Florida. Upon arrival in Jacksonville, he registered at the St. James Hotel under the alias of Samuel Carleton to maintain anonymity while seeking passage to Cuba. While waiting for a boat, he toured the city and visited the local brothels. Within days he met 31-year-old Cora Taylor, proprietor of the downtown bawdy house Hotel de Dream. Born into a respectable Boston family, Taylor (whose legal name was Cora Ethel Stewart) had already had two brief marriages; her first husband, Vinton Murphy, divorced her on grounds of adultery. In 1889, she had married British Captain Donald William Stewart. She left him in 1892 for another man, but was still legally married. By the time Crane arrived, Taylor had been in Jacksonville for two years. She lived a bohemian lifestyle, owned a hotel of assignation, and was a well-known and respected local figure. The two spent much time together while Crane awaited his departure. He was finally cleared to leave for the Cuban port of Cienfuegos on New Year's Eve aboard the SS Commodore. The ship sailed from Jacksonville with 27 or 28 men and a cargo of supplies and ammunition for the Cuban rebels. On the St. Johns River and less than 2 miles (3.2 km) from Jacksonville, Commodore struck a sandbar in a dense fog and damaged its hull. Although towed off the sandbar the following day, it was beached again in Mayport and again damaged. A leak began in the boiler room that evening and, as a result of malfunctioning water pumps, the ship came to a standstill about 16 miles (26 km) from Mosquito Inlet. As the ship took on more water, Crane described the engine room as resembling "a scene at this time taken from the middle kitchen of hades." Commodore's lifeboats were lowered in the early hours of the morning on January 2, 1897, and the ship ultimately sank at 7 a.m. Crane was one of the last to leave the ship in a 10-foot (3.0 m) dinghy. In an ordeal that he recounted in the short story "The Open Boat", Crane and three other men (including the ship's Captain) foundered off the coast of Florida for a day and a half before trying to land the dinghy at Daytona Beach. The small boat overturned in the surf, forcing the exhausted men to swim to shore; one of them died. Having lost the gold given to him for his journey, Crane wired Cora Taylor for help. She traveled to Daytona and returned to Jacksonville with Crane the next day, only four days after he had left on the Commodore. The disaster was reported on the front pages of newspapers across the country. Rumors that the ship had been sabotaged were widely circulated but never substantiated. Portrayed favorably and heroically by the press, Crane emerged from the ordeal with his reputation enhanced, if not restored, after the battering he had received in the Dora Clark affair. Meanwhile, Crane's affair with Taylor blossomed. Three seasons of archaeological investigation were conducted in 2002–04 to examine and document the exposed remains of a wreck near Ponce Inlet, FL conjectured to be that of the SS Commodore. The collected data, and other accumulated evidence, finally substantiated the identification of the Commodore beyond a reasonable doubt. ### Greco-Turkish War Despite contentment in Jacksonville and the need for rest after his ordeal, Crane became restless. He left Jacksonville on January 11 for New York City, where he applied for a passport to Cuba, Mexico and the West Indies. Spending three weeks in New York, he completed "The Open Boat" and periodically visited Port Jervis to see family. By this time, however, blockades had formed along the Florida coast as tensions rose with Spain, and Crane concluded that he would never be able to travel to Cuba. He sold "The Open Boat" to Scribner's for \$300 in early March. Determined to work as a war correspondent, Crane signed on with William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal to cover the impending Greco-Turkish conflict. He brought along Taylor, who had sold the Hotel de Dream in order to follow him. On March 20, they sailed first to England, where Crane was warmly received. They arrived in Athens in early April; between April 17 (when Turkey declared war on Greece) and April 22, Crane wrote his first published report of the war, "An Impression of the 'Concert' ". When he left for Epirus in the northwest, Taylor remained in Athens, where she became the Greek war's first woman war correspondent. She wrote under the pseudonym "Imogene Carter" for the New York Journal, a job that Crane had secured for her. They wrote frequently, traveling throughout the country separately and together. The first large battle that Crane witnessed was the Turks' assault on General Constantine Smolenski's Greek forces at Velestino. Crane wrote, "It is a great thing to survey the army of the enemy. Just where and how it takes hold upon the heart is difficult of description." During this battle, Crane encountered "a fat waddling puppy" that he immediately claimed, dubbing it "Velestino, the Journal dog". Greece and Turkey signed an armistice on May 20, ending the 30-day war; Crane and Taylor left Greece for England, taking two Greek brothers as servants and Velestino the dog with them. ### Spanish–American War After staying in Limpsfield, Surrey, for a few days, Crane and Taylor settled in Ravensbrook, a plain brick villa in Oxted. Referring to themselves as Mr. and Mrs. Crane, the couple lived openly in England, but Crane concealed the relationship from his friends and family in the United States. Admired in England, Crane thought himself attacked back home: "There seem so many of them in America who want to kill, bury and forget me purely out of unkindness and envy and—my unworthiness, if you choose", he wrote. Velestino the dog sickened and died soon after their arrival in England, on August 1. Crane, who had a great love for dogs, wrote an emotional letter to a friend an hour after the dog's death, stating that "for eleven days we fought death for him, thinking nothing of anything but his life." The Limpsfield-Oxted area was home to members of the socialist Fabian Society and a magnet for writers such as Edmund Gosse, Ford Madox Ford and Edward Garnett. Crane also met the Polish-born novelist Joseph Conrad in October 1897, with whom he would have what Crane called a "warm and endless friendship". Although Crane was confident among peers, strong negative reviews of the recently published The Third Violet were causing his literary reputation to dwindle. Reviewers were also highly critical of Crane's war letters, deeming them self-centered. Although The Red Badge of Courage had by this time gone through fourteen printings in the United States and six in England, Crane was running out of money. To survive financially, he worked at a feverish pitch, writing prolifically for both the English and the American markets. He wrote in quick succession stories such as The Monster, "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky", "Death and the Child" and "The Blue Hotel". Crane began to attach price tags to his new works of fiction, hoping that "The Bride", for example, would fetch \$175. As 1897 ended, Crane's money crisis worsened. Amy Leslie, a reporter from Chicago and a former lover, sued him for \$550. The New York Times reported that Leslie gave him \$800 in November 1896 but that he'd repaid only a quarter of the sum. In February he was summoned to answer Leslie's claim. The claim was apparently settled out of court, because no record of adjudication exists. Meanwhile, Crane felt "heavy with troubles" and "chased to the wall" by expenses. He confided to his agent that he was \$2,000 in debt but that he would "beat it" with more literary output. Soon after the USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898, under suspicious circumstances, Crane was offered a £60 advance by Blackwood's Magazine for articles "from the seat of war in the event of a war breaking out" between the United States and Spain. His health was failing, and it is believed that signs of his pulmonary tuberculosis, which he may have contracted in childhood, became apparent. With almost no money coming in from his finished stories, Crane accepted the assignment and left Oxted for New York. Taylor and the rest of the household stayed behind to fend off local creditors. Crane applied for a passport and left New York for Key West two days before Congress declared war. While the war idled, he interviewed people and produced occasional copy. In early June, he observed the establishment of an American base in Cuba when Marines seized Guantánamo Bay. He went ashore with the Marines, planning "to gather impressions and write them as the spirit moved." Although he wrote honestly about his fear in battle, others observed his calmness and composure. He would later recall "this prolonged tragedy of the night" in the war tale "Marines Signaling Under Fire at Guantanamo". After showing a willingness to serve during fighting at Cuzco, Cuba, by carrying messages to company commanders, Crane was officially cited for his "material aid during the action". He continued to report upon various battles and the worsening military conditions and praised Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders, despite past tensions with the Commissioner. In early July, Crane was sent to the United States for medical treatment for a high fever. He was diagnosed with yellow fever, then malaria. Upon arrival in Old Point Comfort, Virginia, he spent a few weeks resting in a hotel. Although Crane had filed more than twenty dispatches in the three months he had covered the war, the World'''s business manager believed that the paper had not received its money's worth and fired him. In retaliation, Crane signed with Hearst's New York Journal with the wish to return to Cuba. He traveled first to Puerto Rico and then to Havana. In September, rumors began to spread that Crane, who was working anonymously, had either been killed or disappeared. He sporadically sent out dispatches and stories; he wrote about the mood in Havana, the crowded city sidewalks, and other topics, but he was soon desperate for money again. Taylor, left alone in England, was also penniless. She became frantic with worry over her lover's whereabouts; they were not in direct communication until the end of the year. Crane left Havana and arrived in England on January 11, 1899. ### Death Rent on Ravensbrook had not been paid for a year. Upon returning to England, Crane secured a solicitor to act as guarantor for their debts, after which Crane and Taylor relocated to Brede Place. This manor in Sussex, which dated to the 14th century and had neither electricity nor indoor plumbing, was offered to them by friends at a modest rent. The relocation appeared to give hope to Crane, but his money problems continued. Deciding that he could no longer afford to write for American publications, he concentrated on publishing in English magazines. Crane pushed himself to write feverishly during the first months at Brede; he told his publisher that he was "doing more work now than I have at any other period in my life". His health worsened, and by late 1899 he was asking friends about health resorts. The Monster and Other Stories was in production and War Is Kind, his second collection of poems, was published in the United States in May. None of his books after The Red Badge of Courage had sold well, and he bought a typewriter to spur output. Active Service, a novella based on Crane's correspondence experience, was published in October. The New York Times reviewer questioned "whether the author of 'Active Service' himself really sees anything remarkable in his newspapery hero." In December, the couple held an elaborate Christmas party at Brede, attended by Conrad, Henry James, H. G. Wells and other friends; it lasted several days. On December 29 Crane suffered a severe pulmonary hemorrhage. In January 1900 he had recovered sufficiently to work on a new novel, The O'Ruddy, completing 25 of the 33 chapters. Plans were made for him to travel as a correspondent to Gibraltar to write sketches from Saint Helena, the site of a Boer prison but at the end of March and in early April he suffered two more hemorrhages. Taylor took over most of Crane's correspondence while he was ill, writing to friends for monetary aid. The couple planned to travel on the continent but Conrad, upon visiting Crane for the last time, remarked that his friend's "wasted face was enough to tell me that it was the most forlorn of all hopes." On May 28, the couple arrived at Badenweiler, Germany, a health spa on the edge of the Black Forest. Despite his weakened condition, Crane continued to dictate fragmentary episodes for the completion of The O'Ruddy. He died on June 5, 1900, at the age of 28. In his will he left everything to Taylor, who took his body to New Jersey for burial. Crane was interred in Evergreen Cemetery in Hillside, New Jersey. ## Fiction and poetry ### Style and technique Stephen Crane's fiction is typically categorized as representative of Naturalism, American realism, Impressionism or a mixture of the three. Critic Sergio Perosa, for example, wrote in his essay, "Stephen Crane fra naturalismo e impressionismo," that the work presents a "symbiosis" of Naturalistic ideals and Impressionistic methods. When asked whether or not he would write an autobiography in 1896, Crane responded that he "dare not say that I am honest. I merely say that I am as nearly honest as a weak mental machinery will allow." Similarities between the stylistic techniques in Crane's writing and Impressionist painting—including the use of color and chiaroscuro—are often cited to support the theory that Crane was not only an Impressionist but also influenced by the movement. H. G. Wells remarked upon "the great influence of the studio" on Crane's work, quoting a passage from The Red Badge of Courage as an example: "At nightfall the column broke into regimental pieces, and the fragments went into the fields to camp. Tents sprang up like strange plants. Camp fires, like red, peculiar blossoms, dotted the night.... From this little distance the many fires, with the black forms of men passing to and fro before the crimson rays, made weird and satanic effects." Although no direct evidence exists that Crane formulated a precise theory of his craft, he vehemently rejected sentimentality, asserting that "a story should be logical in its action and faithful to character. Truth to life itself was the only test, the greatest artists were the simplest, and simple because they were true." Poet and biographer John Berryman suggested that there were three basic variations, or "norms", of Crane's narrative style. The first, being "flexible, swift, abrupt and nervous", is best exemplified in The Red Badge of Courage, while the second ("supple majesty") is believed to relate to "The Open Boat", and the third ("much more closed, circumstantial and 'normal' in feeling and syntax") to later works such as The Monster. Crane's work, however, cannot be determined by style solely on chronology. Not only does his fiction not take place in any particular region with similar characters, but it varies from serious in tone to reportorial writing and light fiction. Crane's writing, both fiction and nonfiction, is consistently driven by immediacy and is at once concentrated, vivid and intense. The novels and short stories contain poetic characteristics such as shorthand prose, suggestibility, shifts in perspective and ellipses between and within sentences. Similarly, omission plays a large part in Crane's work; the names of his protagonists are not commonly used and sometimes they are not named at all. Crane was often criticized by early reviewers for his frequent incorporation of everyday speech into dialogue, mimicking the regional accents of his characters with colloquial stylization. This is apparent in his first novel, in which Crane ignored the romantic, sentimental approach of slum fiction; he instead concentrated on the cruelty and sordid aspects of poverty, expressed by the brashness of the Bowery's crude dialect and profanity, which he used lavishly. The distinct dialect of his Bowery characters is apparent at the beginning of the text; the title character admonishes her brother saying: "Yeh knows it puts mudder out when yes comes home half dead, an' it's like we'll all get a poundin'." ### Major themes Crane's work is often thematically driven by Naturalistic and Realistic concerns, including ideals versus realities, spiritual crises and fear. These themes are particularly evident in Crane's first three novels, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, The Red Badge of Courage and George's Mother. The three main characters search for a way to make their dreams come true, but ultimately suffer from crises of identity. Crane was fascinated by war and death, as well as fire, disfigurement, fear and courage, all of which inspired him to write many works based on these concepts. In The Red Badge of Courage, the main character both longs for the heroics of battle but ultimately fears it, demonstrating the dichotomy of courage and cowardice. He experiences the threat of death, misery and a loss of self. Extreme isolation from society and community is also apparent in Crane's work. During the most intense battle scenes in The Red Badge of Courage, for example, the story's focus is mainly "on the inner responses of a self unaware of others". In "The Open Boat", "An Experiment in Misery" and other stories, Crane uses light, motion and color to express degrees of epistemological uncertainty. Similar to other Naturalistic writers, Crane scrutinizes the position of man, who has been isolated not only from society, but also from God and nature. "The Open Boat", for example, distances itself from Romantic optimism and affirmation of man's place in the world by concentrating on the characters' isolation. While he lived, Stephen Crane was denominated by critical readers a realist, a naturalist, an impressionist, symbolist, Symboliste, expressionist and ironist; his posthumous life was enriched by critics who read him as nihilistic, existentialist, a neo-Romantic, a sentimentalist, protomodernist, pointilliste, visionist, imagist and, by his most recent biographer, a “bleak naturalist.” At midcentury he was a “predisciple of the New Criticism”; by its end he was “a proto-deconstructionist anti-artist hero” who had “leapfrogged modernism, landing on postmodernist ground.” Or, as Sergio Perosa wrote in 1964, “The critic wanders in a labyrinth of possibilities, which every new turn taken by Crane's fiction seems to explode or deny.” One undeniable fact about Crane's work, as Anthony Splendora noted in 2015, is that Death haunts it; like a threatening eclipse it overshadows his best efforts, each of which features the signal demise of a main character. Allegorically, "The Blue Hotel," at the pinnacle of the short story form, may even be an autothanatography, the author's intentional exteriorization or objectification, in this case for the purpose of purgation, of his own impending death. Crane's "Swede" in that story can be taken, following current psychoanalytical theory, as a surrogative, sacrificial victim, ritually to be purged. Transcending this "dark circumstance of composition," Crane had a particular telos and impetus for his creation: beyond the tautologies that all art is alterity and to some formal extent mimesis, Crane sought and obviously found "a form of catharsis" in writing. This view accounts for his uniqueness, especially as operative through his notorious "disgust" with his family's religion, their "vacuous, futile psalm-singing". His favorite book, for example, was Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi, in which God is mentioned only twice—once as irony and once as "a swindle." Not only did Crane call out God specifically with the lines "Well then I hate thee / righteous image" in "The Black Riders" (1895), but even his most hopeful tropes, such as the "comradeship" of his "Open Boat" survivors, make no mention of deity, specifying only "indifferent nature." His antitheism is most evident in his characterization of the human race as "lice clinging to a space-lost bulb," a climax-nearing speech in "The Blue Hotel," Ch. VI. It is possible that Crane utilized religion's formal psychic space, now suddenly available resulting from the recent "Death of God", as a milieu for his compensative art. ### Novels Beginning with the publication of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets in 1893, Crane was recognized by critics mainly as a novelist. Maggie was initially rejected by numerous publishers because of its atypical and true-to-life depictions of class warfare, which clashed with the sentimental tales of that time. Rather than focusing on the very rich or middle class, the novel's characters are lower-class denizens of New York's Bowery. The main character, Maggie, descends into prostitution after being led astray by her lover. Although the novel's plot is simple, its dramatic mood, quick pace and portrayal of Bowery life have made it memorable. Maggie is not merely an account of slum life, but also represents eternal symbols. In his first draft, Crane did not give his characters proper names. Instead, they were identified by epithets: Maggie, for example, was the girl who "blossomed in a mud-puddle" and Pete, her seducer, was a "knight". The novel is dominated by bitter irony and anger, as well as destructive morality and treacherous sentiment. Critics would later call the novel "the first dark flower of American Naturalism" for its distinctive elements of naturalistic fiction. Written thirty years after the end of the Civil War and before Crane had any experience of battle, The Red Badge of Courage was innovative stylistically as well as psychologically. Often described as a war novel, it focuses less on battle and more on the main character's psyche and his reactions and responses in war. It is believed that Crane based the fictional battle in the novel on that of Chancellorsville; he may also have interviewed veterans of the 124th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, commonly known as the Orange Blossoms, in Port Jervis, New York. Told in a third-person limited point of view, it reflects the private experience of Henry Fleming, a young soldier who flees from combat. The Red Badge of Courage is notable in its vivid descriptions and well-cadenced prose, both of which help create suspense within the story. Similarly, by substituting epithets for characters' names ("the youth", "the tattered soldier"), Crane injects an allegorical quality into his work, making his characters point to a specific characteristic of man. Like Crane's first novel, The Red Badge of Courage has a deeply ironic tone which increases in severity as the novel progresses. The title of the work is ironic; Henry wishes "that he, too, had a wound, a red badge of courage", echoing a wish to have been wounded in battle. The wound he does receive (from the rifle butt of a fleeing Union soldier) is not a badge of courage but a badge of shame. The novel expresses a strong connection between humankind and nature, a frequent and prominent concern in Crane's fiction and poetry throughout his career. Whereas contemporary writers (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau) focused on a sympathetic bond on the two elements, Crane wrote from the perspective that human consciousness distanced humans from nature. In The Red Badge of Courage, this distance is paired with a great number of references to animals, and men with animalistic characteristics: people "howl", "squawk", "growl", or "snarl". Since the resurgence of Crane's popularity in the 1920s, The Red Badge of Courage has been deemed a major American text. The novel has been anthologized numerous times, including in the 1942 collection Men at War: The Best War Stories of All Time, edited by Ernest Hemingway. In the introduction, Hemingway wrote that the novel "is one of the finest books of our literature, and I include it entire because it is all as much of a piece as a great poem is." Crane's later novels have not received as much critical praise. After the success of The Red Badge of Courage, Crane wrote another tale set in the Bowery. George's Mother is less allegorical and more personal than his two previous novels, and it focuses on the conflict between a church-going, temperance-adhering woman (thought to be based on Crane's mother) and her single remaining offspring, who is a naive dreamer. Critical response to the novel was mixed. The Third Violet, a romance that he wrote quickly after publishing The Red Badge of Courage, is typically considered as Crane's attempt to appeal to popular audiences. Crane considered it a "quiet little story." Although it contained autobiographical details, the characters have been deemed inauthentic and stereotypical. Crane's second to last novel, Active Service, revolves around the Greco-Turkish War of 1897, with which the author was familiar. Although noted for its satirical take on the melodramatic and highly passionate works that were popular of the nineteenth century, the novel was not successful. It is generally accepted by critics that Crane's work suffered at this point due to the speed which he wrote in order to meet his high expenses. His last novel, a suspenseful and picaresque work entitled The O'Ruddy, was finished posthumously by Robert Barr and published in 1903. ### Short fiction Crane wrote many different types of fictional pieces while indiscriminately applying to them terms such as "story", "tale" and "sketch". For this reason, critics have found clear-cut classification of Crane's work problematic. While "The Open Boat" and "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" are often considered short stories, others are variously identified. In an 1896 interview with Herbert P. Williams, a reporter for the Boston Herald, Crane said that he did "not find that short stories are utterly different in character from other fiction. It seems to me that short stories are the easiest things we write." During his brief literary career, he wrote more than a hundred short stories and fictional sketches. Crane's early fiction was based in camping expeditions in his teen years; these stories eventually became known as The Sullivan County Tales and Sketches. He considered these "sketches", which are mostly humorous and not of the same caliber of work as his later fiction, to be "articles of many kinds," in that they are part fiction and part journalism. The subject matter for his stories varied extensively. His early New York City sketches and Bowery tales accurately described the results of industrialization, immigration and the growth of cities and their slums. His collection of six short stories The Little Regiment covered familiar ground with the American Civil War, a subject for which he became famous with The Red Badge of Courage. Although similar to Crane's noted novel, The Little Regiment was believed to lack vigor and originality. Realizing the limitations of these tales, Crane wrote: "I have invented the sum of my invention with regard to war and this story keeps me in internal despair." The Open Boat and Other Stories (1898) contains seventeen short stories that deal with three periods in Crane's life: his Asbury Park boyhood, his trip to the West and Mexico in 1895, and his Cuban adventure in 1897. This collection was well received and included several of his most critically successful works. His 1899 collection The Monster and Other Stories was similarly well received. Two posthumously published collections were not as successful. In August 1900 The Whilomville Stories were published, a collection of thirteen stories that Crane wrote during the last year of his life. The work deals almost exclusively with boyhood, and the stories are drawn from events occurring in Port Jervis, where Crane lived from the age of six to eleven. Focusing on small-town America, the stories tend toward sentimentality, but remain perceptive of the lives of children. Wounds in the Rain, published in September 1900, contains fictional tales based on Crane's reports for the World and the Journal during the Spanish–American War. These stories, which Crane wrote while desperately ill, include "The Price of the Harness" and "The Lone Charge of William B. Perkins" and are dramatic, ironic and sometimes humorous. Despite Crane's prolific output, only four stories—"The Open Boat", "The Blue Hotel", "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky", and The Monster—have received extensive attention from scholars. H. G. Wells considered "The Open Boat" to be "beyond all question, the crown of all his work", and it is one of the most frequently discussed of Crane's works. ### Poetry Crane's poems, which he preferred to call "lines", are typically not given as much scholarly attention as his fiction; no anthology contained Crane's verse until 1926. Although it is not certain when Crane began to write poetry seriously, he once said that his overall poetic aim was "to give my ideas of life as a whole, so far as I know it". The poetic style used in both of his books of poetry, The Black Riders and Other Lines and War is Kind, was unconventional for the time in that it was written in free verse without rhyme, meter, or even titles for individual works. They are typically short in length; although several poems, such as "Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind", use stanzas and refrains, most do not. Crane also differed from his peers and poets of later generations in that his work contains allegory, dialectic and narrative situations. Critic Ruth Miller claimed that Crane wrote "an intellectual poetry rather than a poetry that evokes feeling, a poetry that stimulates the mind rather than arouses the heart". In the most complexly organized poems, the significance of the states of mind or feelings is ambiguous, but Crane's poems tend to affirm certain elemental attitudes, beliefs, opinions and stances toward God, man and the universe. The Black Riders in particular is essentially a dramatic concept and the poems provide continuity within the dramatic structure. There is also a dramatic interplay in which there is frequently a major voice reporting an incident seen ("In the desert / I saw a creature, naked, bestial") or experienced ("A learned man came to me once"). The second voice or additional voices represent a point of view which is revealed to be inferior; when these clash, a dominant attitude emerges. ## Legacy In four years, Crane published five novels, two volumes of poetry, three short story collections, two books of war stories, and numerous works of short fiction and reporting. Today he is mainly remembered for The Red Badge of Courage, which is regarded as an American classic. The novel has been adapted several times for the screen, including John Huston's 1951 version. By the time of his death, Crane had become one of the best known writers of his generation. His eccentric lifestyle, frequent newspaper reporting, association with other famous authors, and expatriate status made him somewhat of an international celebrity. Although most stories about his life tended toward the romantic, rumors about his alleged drug use and alcoholism persisted long after his death. By the early 1920s, Crane and his work were nearly forgotten. It was not until Thomas Beer published his biography in 1923, which was followed by editor Wilson Follett's The Work of Stephen Crane (1925–1927), that Crane's writing came to the attention of a scholarly audience. Crane's reputation was then enhanced by faithful support from writer friends such as Joseph Conrad, H. G. Wells and Ford Madox Ford, all of whom either published recollections or commented upon their time with Crane. John Berryman's 1950 biography of Crane further established him as an important American author. Since 1951 there has been a steady outpouring of articles, monographs and reprints in Crane scholarship. Today, Crane is considered one of the most innovative writers of the 1890s. His peers, including Conrad and James, as well as later writers such as Robert Frost, Ezra Pound and Willa Cather, hailed Crane as one of the finest creative spirits of his time. His work was described by Wells as "the first expression of the opening mind of a new period, or, at least, the early emphatic phase of a new initiative." Wells said that "beyond dispute", Crane was "the best writer of our generation, and his untimely death was an irreparable loss to our literature." Conrad wrote that Crane was an "artist" and "a seer with a gift for rendering the significant on the surface of things and with an incomparable insight into primitive emotions". Crane's work has proved inspirational for future writers; not only have scholars drawn similarities between Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms and The Red Badge of Courage, but Crane's fiction is thought to have been an important inspiration for Hemingway and his fellow Modernists. In 1936, Hemingway wrote in Green Hills of Africa that "The good writers are Henry James, Stephen Crane, and Mark Twain. That's not the order they're good in. There is no order for good writers." Crane's poetry is thought to have been a precursor to the Imagist movement, and his short fiction has also influenced American literature. "The Open Boat", "The Blue Hotel", The Monster and "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" are generally considered by critics to be examples of Crane's best work. Several institutions and places have endeavored to keep Crane's legacy alive. Badenweiler and the house where he died became something of a tourist attraction for its fleeting association with the American author; Alexander Woollcott attested to the fact that, long after Crane's death, tourists would be directed to the room where he died. Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library has a collection of Crane and Taylor's personal correspondence dating from 1895 to 1908. Near his brother Edmund's Sullivan County home in New York, where Crane stayed for a short time, a pond is named after him. The Stephen Crane House in Asbury Park, New Jersey, where the author lived with his siblings for nine years, is operated as a museum dedicated to his life and work. Syracuse University has an annual Stephen Crane Lecture Series which is sponsored by the Dikaia Foundation. Columbia University purchased much of the Stephen Crane materials held by Cora Crane at her death. The Crane Collection is one of the largest in the nation of his materials. Columbia University had an exhibit: 'The Tall Swift Shadow of a Ship at Night': Stephen and Cora Crane, November 2, 1995 through February 16, 1996, about the lives of the couple, featuring letters and other documents and memorabilia. ## Selected works - Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893) - The Red Badge of Courage (1895) - The Black Riders and Other Lines (1895) - George's Mother (1896) - The Open Boat and Other Tales of Adventure (1898) - War Is Kind (1899) - Active Service (1899) - The Monster and Other Stories (1899) - Wounds in the Rain (1900) - Great Battles of the World (1901) - The O'Ruddy'' (1903)
568,048	Fighting in ice hockey	1,168,238,863	Condoned fighting in ice hockey	[ "Aggression", "Banned sports tactics", "Ice hockey penalties", "Violence in ice hockey" ]	Fighting is an established tradition in North American ice hockey, with a long history that involves many levels of amateur and professional play and includes some notable individual fights. Fights may be fought by enforcers, or "goons" (French: Bagarreurs)—players whose role is to fight and intimidate—on a given team, and are governed by a system of unwritten rules that players, coaches, officials, and the media refer to as "the code". Some fights are spontaneous, while others are premeditated by the participants. While officials tolerate fighting during hockey games, they impose a variety of penalties on players who engage in fights. Unique among North American professional team sports, the National Hockey League (NHL) and most minor professional leagues in North America do not eject players outright for fighting (although they may do so for more flagrant violations as part of a fight) but major European and collegiate hockey leagues do, and multi-game suspensions may be added on top of the ejection. Therefore, the vast majority of fights occur in the NHL and other North American professional leagues. Physical play in hockey, consisting of allowed techniques such as checking and prohibited techniques such as elbowing, high-sticking, and cross-checking, is linked to fighting. Although often a target of criticism, it is a considerable draw for the sport, and some fans attend games primarily to see fights. Those who defend fighting in hockey say that it helps deter other types of rough play, allows teams to protect their star players, and creates a sense of solidarity among teammates. The debate over allowing fighting in ice hockey games is ongoing. Despite its potentially negative consequences, such as heavier enforcers (or "heavyweights") knocking each other out, administrators at the professional level have no plans to eliminate fighting from the game, as most players consider it essential. Most fans and players oppose eliminating fights from professional hockey games, but considerable opposition to fighting exists, and efforts to eliminate it continue. ## History Fighting has been a part of ice hockey since the sport's rise in popularity in 19th century Canada. There are a number of theories behind the integration of fighting into the game; the most common is that the relative lack of rules in the early history of hockey encouraged physical intimidation and control. Other theories include the poverty and high crime rates of local Canada in the 19th century. There was also an influence from working-class lacrosse players, who transitioned to ice hockey when lacrosse adopted an amateur-only policy in Canada, and who were accustomed to a violently aggressive form of play. The implementation of some features, such as the blue lines in 1918, actually encouraged fighting due to the increased level of physical play. Creation of the blue lines allowed forward passing, but only in the neutral zone. Therefore, puck handlers played at close quarters and were subject to a great deal of physical play. The emergence of enforcers, who protected the puck handlers and fought when necessary, followed shortly thereafter. In 1922, the NHL introduced Rule 56, which formally regulated fighting, or "fisticuffs" as it was called in the official NHL rulebook. Rather than ejecting players from the game, as was the practice in amateur and collegiate hockey, players would be given a five-minute major penalty. Rule 56 and its language also filtered down to the minor professional and junior leagues in North America. Promoters such as Tex Rickard of Madison Square Garden, who also promoted boxing events, saw financial opportunities in hockey fights and devised marketing campaigns around the rivalries between various team enforcers. In the current NHL rulebook, the archaic reference to "fisticuffs" has been removed; fighting is now governed under Rule 46 in the NHL rulebook. Referees are given considerable latitude in determining what exactly constitutes a fight and what penalties are applicable to the participants. Significant modifications from the original rule involve penalties which can be assessed to a fight participant deemed to have instigated the fight and additional penalties resulting from instigating a fight while wearing a face-shield. Although fighting was rarer from the 1920s through the 1960s, it was often brutal in nature; author Ross Bernstein said of the game's early years that it "was probably more like rugby on skates than it was modern hockey." Star players were also known to fight for themselves during the Original Six era, when fewer teams existed than in later years. However, as the NHL's expansion in the late 1960s created more roster spots and spread star players more widely throughout the league, enforcers (who usually possess limited overall skill sets) became more common. Multiple fights during the era received significant media attention. In an NHL preseason game between the Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues in 1969, Bruins defenceman Ted Green and Blues left wing Wayne Maki engaged in a bloody stick-swinging fight. The fight, initiated by Maki, resulted in Green sustaining a skull fracture. In 1978, World Hockey Association Birmingham Bulls enforcer Dave Hanson, known for his 11-year professional career, fought Hall of Famer Bobby Hull and in the process got Hull's wig caught in his knuckles. The incident landed Hanson in the news, and irate Winnipeg fans attempted to assault him on his way out of the arena. Hanson appeared in the 1977 movie Slap Shot, a comedy about hockey violence. The rise of the "Broad Street Bullies" in the 1973–74 and 1974–75 Philadelphia Flyers served as an example for future NHL enforcers. The average number of fights per game rose above 1.0 during the 1980s, peaking at 1.17 in 1983–84. That season, a bench-clearing brawl broke out at the end of the second period of a second-round playoff matchup between the Quebec Nordiques and the Montreal Canadiens. A second bench-clearing brawl erupted before the third period began, provoked by the announcement of penalties; a total of 252 penalty minutes were incurred and 11 players were ejected. This game is commonly referred to as the Good Friday Massacre. North American competitive amateur leagues serve as a training ground and emulate the practices and conduct of professional leagues. Around age 12 players begin to be chosen for size and toughness, play becomes rough, and less-violent players drop out in large numbers. 34% of Toronto amateur skaters aged 12–21 reported being in at least one fist-fight during the 1975–76 season with the likelihood of fighting increasing with player age and competitive level. Coaches of the time trained players to fight in self-defence or against players who commit flagrant fouls. Players did not consider fist-fights to be violent, reserving this term for acts which were more likely to cause injury. Among professional players, those who refused to fight were seen as untrustworthy and a challenge to team morale and such players could gain a reputation for being easily intimidated. Those who fought excessively were seen as displaying a lack of judgement and "game sense". Many NHL teams signed enforcers to protect and fight for smaller offensive stars. Fights in the 1990s included the Brawl in Hockeytown in 1997, in which the Colorado Avalanche and Detroit Red Wings engaged in nine fights, including bouts between Darren McCarty and Claude Lemieux and goaltenders Patrick Roy and Mike Vernon. The following year, a game between the Avalanche and Red Wings involved a fight between goaltenders Chris Osgood and Roy after which they received minor, major, and game misconduct penalties. In 2004, a Philadelphia Flyers – Ottawa Senators game resulted in five consecutive brawls in the closing minutes of the game, including fights between many players who are not known as enforcers and a fight between Flyers goaltender Robert Esche and Senators goaltender Patrick Lalime. The game ended with an NHL record 419 penalty minutes, and an NHL record 20 players were ejected, leaving five players on the team benches. The officials took 90 minutes to sort out the penalties that each team had received. <table> <thead> <tr class="header"> <th><p>Hockey fights per NHL season</p></th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr class="odd"> <td><p>Season</p></td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td><p>2014–15</p></td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td><p>2013–14</p></td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td><p>2012–13</p></td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td><p>2011–12</p></td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td><p>2010–11</p></td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td><p>2009–10</p></td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td><p>2008–09</p></td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td><p>Source:</p> <ul> <li>Lockout shortened year</li> </ul></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> By 2009–10, the number of fights in the NHL declined to .58 per game. A further decrease in the frequency of fighting happened over the next five seasons. The 2014–15 season had 0.32 fights per game, as teams placed a greater emphasis on skating ability and fewer young players became enforcers. ## Rules and penalties Rules of the NHL, the North American junior leagues, and other North American professional minor leagues punish fighting with a five-minute major penalty. What separates these leagues from other major North American sports leagues is that they do not eject players simply for participating in a fight. However, fighting is frequently punishable by ejection in European leagues and in Olympic competition. The rulebooks of the NHL and other professional leagues contain specific rules for fighting. These rules state that at the initiation of a fight, both players must definitely drop their sticks so as not to use them as a weapon. Players must also "drop" or shake off their protective gloves to fight bare-knuckled, as the hard leather and plastic of hockey gloves would increase the effect of landed blows. Players should not remove their own helmet before engaging in a fight due to risk of head injury or else both of the opposing players get an extra two penalty minutes. Players must also heed a referee warning to end a fight once the opponents have been separated. Failure to adhere to any of these rules results in an immediate game misconduct penalty and the possibility of fines and suspension from future games. In the NHL, when a player is fined, his lost pay goes towards the NHL emergency assistance fund. A fined coach's lost pay goes to the NHL Foundation. ### North American professional leagues In the NHL, American Hockey League (AHL), ECHL, Southern Professional Hockey League, and other notable minor leagues, officials punish combatants with five-minute major penalties for fighting (hence the phrase "five for fighting"). A player is automatically ejected and suspended if the player tries to leave the bench to join a fight, or for using weapons of any kind (such as using a skate to kick an opponent, using a stick to hit an opponent, wrapping tape around one's hands, or spitting), as they can cause serious injury. A player who receives two instigator penalties or participates in three fights in a single game is also ejected automatically. Furthermore, his coach can be suspended up to ten games for allowing players to leave the bench to join a fight. A player who commits three major penalties (including fighting) during a game is automatically ejected, suspended, and fined. A player ejected for three major penalties in a game, or for use of weapons, cannot be replaced for five minutes. In 2003, the ECHL added an ejection, fine, and suspension of an additional game for any player charged as an instigator of a fight during the final five minutes of the third period or any overtime. The NHL and AHL adopted the rule in 2005–06, and the NHL includes a fine against the ejected player's head coach. In 2014, the AHL added a major penalty counter. A player who commits ten major penalties for fighting is suspended one game, and will be suspended one game on each such penalty for his 11th to 13th, and two games for his 14th and further penalties. If the opposing fighter is also charged with an instigator penalty, the fighting major will not count towards suspension. In 2023, the ECHL toughened the game misconduct penalty leading to ejection. The ejection penalty will now be assessed for two fighting majors in the same game, unless another player in the fight commits an instigator penalty or if the fight occurs during or shortly after a face-off. ### Collegiate, European, and Olympic In Division I and Division III National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) hockey, the fighters are given a Game Disqualification, which is an ejection from the game and a suspension for as many games as the player has accrued Game Disqualifications during the course of a season. For example, if a player engages in a fight having already received a Game Disqualification earlier in the season, he is ejected from that game and suspended for his team's next two games. This automatic suspension has made fighting in college hockey relatively rare. Fighting is strictly prohibited in European professional hockey leagues and in Olympic ice hockey. The international rules (by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF)) specify in rule 141 – Fighting the following penalties (among others): - Match penalty (the player is ejected from the game and another player serves 5 minutes in addition to any other penalties imposed in the penalty box) for a player who starts fisticuffs. - Minor penalty (2 minutes) for a player who retaliates with a blow or attempted blow. - Game misconduct penalty (ejection from the game) in addition to any other penalties for any player who is the first to intervene in fisticuffs which are already in progress. - Double minor penalty (4 minutes), major penalty and game misconduct penalty (5 minutes and ejection from the game), or match penalty (at the discretion of the referee) for a player who continues fisticuffs after being told by officials to stop. - Misconduct penalty (10 minutes; second misconduct penalty in one game means automatic ejection) for a player who intentionally takes off his gloves in fisticuffs. Despite the bans, there have been fights in European leagues. In 2001, a game between the Nottingham Panthers and the Sheffield Steelers in the British Superleague saw "some of the worst scenes of violence seen at a British ice hockey rink". When Sheffield enforcer Dennis Vial crosschecked Nottingham forward Greg Hadden, Panthers enforcer Barry Nieckar subsequently fought with Vial, which eventually escalated into a 36-man bench-clearing brawl. Referee Moray Hanson sent both teams to their locker rooms and delayed the game for 45 minutes while tempers cooled and the officials sorted out the penalties. Eight players and both coaches were ejected, and a British record total of 404 penalty minutes were incurred during the second period. The league handed out 30 games in suspensions to four players and Steelers' coach Mike Blaisdell and a total of £8,400 in fines. Russia's Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) had a bench-clearing brawl between Vityaz Chekhov and Avangard Omsk in 2010. Officials were forced to abandon the game as there were only four players left. Thirty-three players and both teams' coaches were ejected, and a world record total of 707 penalty minutes were incurred during the game. The KHL imposed fines totaling 5.7 million rubles (\$191,000), suspended seven players, and counted the game as a 5–0 defeat for both teams, with no points being awarded. The Punch-up in Piestany was a notable instance of fighting in international play. A 1987 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships game between Canada and the Soviet Union was the scene of a bench-clearing brawl that lasted 20 minutes and prompted officials to turn off the arena lights in an attempt to stop it, forcing the IIHF to declare the game null and void. The fighting was particularly dangerous as fighting was a surprise and a custom unknown to the Soviet players, some of whom escalated the fighting beyond what was considered acceptable in North America. Both teams were ejected from the tournament, costing Canada an assured medal, and the Soviet team was barred from the end-of-tournament dinner. ## Enforcers The role of "enforcer" on a hockey team is unofficial. Enforcers occasionally play regular shifts like other players, but their primary role is deterring opposing players from rough play. Coaches often send enforcers out when opposing enforcers are on the ice or any time when it is necessary to check excessively physical play by the opposing team. Enforcers, particularly those with questionable playing skills, can be colloquially referred to as goons (a term also occasionally used for a related position, the pest, who may not fight but will agitate an opponent with rough play and goad the opponent into a fight). ## Causes There are many reasons for fights during a hockey game. Some reasons are related to game play, such as retaliation, momentum-building, intimidation, deterrence, attempting to draw "reaction penalties", and protecting star players. There are also some personal reasons such as retribution for past incidents, bad blood between players, and simple job security for enforcers. Fights often start in response to an opponent's rough play. A North American study of 1975–1983 (the period of peak fighting) found that players used fist-fights to either "stick up for oneself" and save face from attempts at intimidation, or to act in self-defence from actual or perceived dirty tricks. ### Game-related reasons Of the many reasons for fighting, the foremost is retaliation. When players engage in play that members of the opposing team consider unscrupulous, a fight can ensue. The fight may be between the assailant and the victim, between the assailant and an enforcer from the victim's team, or between opposing enforcers. Fights that occur for retaliation purposes can be in immediate response to an on-ice incident, to incidents from earlier in the game, or to actions from past games. Enforcers who intend to start a fight have to consider their timing due to the Instigator rule. For example, putting the opposing team on a power play due to penalties incurred from fighting is less advisable when the game is close. Enforcers sometimes start fights to build game momentum and provide a psychological advantage over the opposing team. These fights usually involve two enforcers, but may involve any player who is agitating the opposition. This type of fight raises morale on the team of the player who wins, and often excites the home crowd. For that reason, it can also be a gamble to start a fight for momentum; if an enforcer loses the fight, the momentum can swing the wrong way. Intimidation is an important element of a hockey game and some enforcers start fights just to intimidate opposing players in hopes that they will refrain from agitating skilled players. For example, in the late 1950s, Gordie Howe helped establish himself as an enforcer by defeating Lou Fontinato, a notable tough guy who tallied over 1,200 penalty minutes in his career. Fontinato suffered a broken nose from the fight. After that incident, Howe got a lot more space on the ice and was able to score many goals over the span of his career because he intimidated other players. Conversely, games in European professional leagues are known to be less violent than North American games because fighting is discouraged in Europe by ejection and heavy fines. Since the penalties for fighting are so severe, the enforcers are less able to intimidate opposing players with fighting and said players take more liberties on the ice. For teams that face each other frequently, players may fight just to send the message to the opposing players that they will be the target of agitation or aggression in future games. Teams that are losing by a considerable margin often start these fights near the end of the game when they have nothing to lose. Enforcers may start fights with more skilled players to draw what is called a "reaction penalty", an undisciplined reaction to aggressive play on the part of the enforcer. This practice is also known to be difficult due to the Instigator rule. Another reason is the protection of star skaters and defenceless goalies. Fighting within the game can also send a message to players and coaches from other teams that cheap shots, dirty plays, and targeting specific players will not be tolerated and there will be consequences involved. Fighting can provide retribution for a team's player getting targeted or injured. Overall, fighting is sometimes seen as a beneficial policing that the game needs to keep players in line. Over the history of hockey, many enforcers have been signed simply to protect players like Wayne Gretzky, who was protected by Dave Semenko, Marty McSorley, and others, and Brett Hull, who was protected by Kelly Chase and others. Many believe that without players protecting each other, referees would affect the game play by having to call more penalties, and the league would have to suspend players for longer periods. ### Personal reasons Many young enforcers need to establish their role early in their career to avoid losing their jobs. Due to the farm systems that most professional hockey leagues use, enforcers who get a chance to play at the level above their current one (for example, an AHL player getting a chance to play in an NHL game) need to show other players, coaches, and fans that they are worthy of the enforcer role on the team. Players and coaches enjoy being with enforcers who fight for their teams, not for themselves. There are also times when players and even entire teams carry on personal rivalries that have little to do with individual games; fights frequently occur for no other reason. A rivalry that produced many fights was between the Detroit Red Wings and the Colorado Avalanche during the 1990s. ## Effect on game Statistics indicate that fights are detrimental to teams' play, or have inconsequential benefits. Since the 1979–80 season, teams in the bottom three of fighting-related major penalties have finished at the top of the regular-season standings 10 times and have won the Stanley Cup 11 times, while teams in the top three have won the regular season and Stanley Cup only twice each. One statistical analysis calculated that winning a fight benefited a team by about 1⁄80 of a win in the standings. Two others showed that fights increase scoring, but do so evenly for both teams so do not significantly affect wins. ## Efforts to ban fighting The Canadian Academy of Sport Medicine announced in Position Statement in 1988 that "Fighting does cause injuries, which range from fractures of the hands and face to lacerations and eye injuries. At present, it is an endemic and ritualized blot on the reputation of the North American game." Criticism often arises after single acts of violence committed during fights. For example, on March 21, 2007, Colton Orr of the New York Rangers fought with Todd Fedoruk of the Philadelphia Flyers and ended up knocking Fedoruk unconscious. Fedoruk already had titanium plates in his face from a fight earlier in the season with Derek Boogaard. The resulting media coverage of the incident renewed calls for a fighting ban. Some players acknowledge that there is no harm in discussing the issue; however, most players and administrators continue to insist that fighting stay as a permanent element of organized ice hockey. Some league administrators, such as former NHL senior vice-president and director of hockey operations Colin Campbell, have been circulating the idea of banning fighting in response to incidents such as the Fedoruk–Orr fight. Sports journalists have articulated the idea with increasing frequency that fighting adds nothing to the sport and should be banned. Among the reasons they cite are that it is unsportsmanlike, is a "knee-jerk" reaction that detracts from the skillful aspects of the game, and that it is simply a waste of time. The Journal of Sport and Social Issues''' Ryan T. Lewinson and Oscar E. Palma believe that fighting shows a lack of discipline on the part of participants, as well as a lack of fairness in certain cases, including when fighters have a size disparity. However, supporters of fighting say it provides a means of security for players, that fighting is a tool players use to keep opposing players in check; essentially allowing players to police which hits and dirty plays are unacceptable. Various politicians and hockey figures have expressed opposition to fighting. In 2012, David Johnston, the Governor General of Canada, said that fighting should not be part of the sport. IIHF president René Fasel has protested against fighting, deeming it "Neanderthal behavior". Wayne Gretzky, considered by many to be the greatest hockey player of all time, has often spoken out against fighting. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, at a 2007 press conference broadcast on CBC Sports, said, "Fighting has always had a role in the game ... from a player safety standpoint, what happens in fighting is something we need to look at just as we need to look at hits to the head. But we're not looking to have a debate on whether fighting is good or bad or should be part of the game." Community members often become involved in the debate over banning fighting. In December 2006, a school board trustee in London, Ontario, attended a London Knights game and was shocked by the fighting and by the crowd's positive reaction to it. This experience led him to organize an ongoing effort to ban fighting in the Ontario Hockey League, where the Knights compete, by attempting to gain the support of other school boards and by writing letters to OHL administrators. On the advice of its Medical Health Officer, the Middlesex-London Health board has supported recommendations to ban fighting across amateur hockey and to increase disciplinary measures to ensure deterrence. The first known death directly related to a hockey fight occurred when Don Sanderson of the Whitby Dunlops, a top-tier senior amateur team in Ontario's Major League Hockey, died in January 2009, a month after sustaining a head injury during a fight: Sanderson's helmet came off during the fight, and when he fell to the ice, he hit his head. His death renewed calls to ban fighting among critics. In reaction, the league has stated that they are reviewing the players' use of helmets. Fighters such as Bob Probert and Boogaard have been posthumously diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative disease of the brain caused by repeated brain trauma. While the NHL took steps to limit head trauma from blindslide hits, it was criticized for doing nothing to reduce fighting, which consists of repeated deliberate blows to the head. It is unknown whether Boogaard's death was mainly attributed from his repeated head trauma from fighting and hits or from a possible addiction to painkillers while simultaneously abusing alcohol. His brain has been sent to Boston University for further testing. ### Rules in-game to discourage fighting Since the 1970s, three rules have curtailed the number and scope of fights in the NHL. In 1971, the league created the "Third Man In" rule which attempts to eliminate the bench-clearing brawl by providing for the ejection of the first player who joins a fight already in progress, unless a match penalty is being assessed to a player already engaged in that fight. Another rule automatically suspends the first player from each team that leaves the bench to join a fight when it is not their shift. In 1992, the "Instigator" rule, which adds an additional two-minute minor penalty to the player who starts a fight, was introduced. Beginning in the 2016–17 season, the American Hockey League imposed a fighting major counter, similar to the National Basketball Association's unsportsmanlike technical foul counter and soccer's accumulated cards. A player who collects ten major penalties for fighting during the season will be suspended one game, and will be suspended one game for each fighting major for the next three penalties (the 11th, 12th, and 13th fighting majors). A player is suspended two games for his 14th and subsequent major penalty for fighting. If one player involved in the fight is charged with an instigator penalty, the opponent will not have the fighting major count towards suspension. The ECHL added the rule in 2019–20. ## Etiquette There are several informal rules governing fighting in ice hockey that players rarely discuss but take quite seriously. The most important aspect of this etiquette is that opposing enforcers must agree to a fight, usually via a verbal or physical exchange on the ice. This agreement helps both players avoid being given an instigator penalty, and helps keep unwilling participants out of fights. Enforcers typically only fight each other, with only the occasional spontaneous fight breaking out between one or two opponents who do not usually fight. There is a high degree of respect among enforcers as well; they will respect a rival who declines a fight because he is playing with injuries, a frequent occurrence, because enforcers consider winning a fight with an injured opponent to be an empty victory. This is also known as granting a "free pass". Enforcer Darren McCarty described fighters as being divided into "heavyweights" and "light heavyweights", and said that players in the latter category "end up dancing with some guys who could end (their) career with a single punch." Long-standing rivalries result in numerous rematches, especially if one of the enforcers has to decline an invitation to fight during a given game. This is one of the reasons that enforcers may fight at the beginning of a game, when nothing obvious has happened to agitate the opponents. On the other hand, it is bad etiquette to try to initiate a fight with an enforcer who is near the end of his shift, since the more rested player will have an obvious advantage. Another important aspect of etiquette is simply fighting fairly and cleanly. Fairness is maintained by not wearing equipment that could injure the opposing fighter, such as face shields, gloves, or masks, and not assaulting referees or linesmen. Finally, whatever the outcome of the fight, etiquette dictates that players who choose to fight win and lose those fights gracefully. Otherwise, they risk losing the respect of their teammates and fans. Sportsmanship is also an important aspect when it comes to fights. While an enforcer may start a fight in response to foul play, it is generally not acceptable to start a fight to retaliate against an opponent who scored fairly. ## Tactics Fighting tactics are governed by several actual rules and enforcers will also adopt informal tactics particular to their style and personality. One tactic adopted by players is known as "going for it", in which the player puts his head down and just throws as many punches as he can, as fast as he can. In the process, that player takes as many punches as he delivers, although some of them are to the hard forehead. Fighters usually must keep one hand on their opponent's jersey since the ice surface makes maintaining balance very difficult. For this reason, the majority of a hockey fight consists of the players holding on with one hand and punching with the other. Other examples include Gordie Howe's tactic of holding the sweater of his opponent right around the armpit of his preferred punching arm so as to impede his movement. Probert, of the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks, was known to allow his opponents to punch until they showed signs of tiring, at which time he would take over and usually dominate the fight. Some consider long-time Buffalo Sabres enforcer Rob Ray to be the reason that hockey jerseys are now equipped with tie-down straps ("fight straps") that prevent their removal; he would always remove his jersey during fights so his opponents would have nothing to grab on to. This is commonly referred to as the "Rob Ray Rule". ## Officials' role Throughout a game, the referee and linesmen have a role in preventing fights through the way they are managing the game—calling penalties, breaking up scuffles before they escalate, etc. Despite an official's best efforts, though, fights do occur and once they do, the referee and linesmen have a certain set of responsibilities to follow in order to safely break up the fight. None of these responsibilities are written in the NHL's rule book, but often are guided by "common sense", according to officials. In a single fight situation the linesmen will communicate with each other as to which player they will take during the fight, clear out any sticks, gloves, or other equipment that has been dropped and wait for a safe time to enter the fight, which they will do together. If both players are still standing while the linesmen enter, the linesmen will approach from each side (never from behind), bring their arms over the combatants' arms and wrap them around, pushing downwards and breaking the players apart. If the players have fallen, the linesmen will approach from the side (never over the skates), getting in between the two players. One linesman will use his body to shield the player on the bottom from the other player while his partner will remove the top player from the fight. Most linesmen will allow a fight to run its course for their own safety, but will enter a fight regardless if one player has gained a significant advantage over his opponent. Once the players have been broken up, the linesmen then escort the players off the ice. During this time the referee will keep other players from entering the fight by sending them to a neutral area on the ice and then watching the fight and assessing any other penalties that occur. In a multiple fight situation the linesmen will normally break up fights together, one fight at a time using the same procedures for a single fight. The linesmen will communicate with each other which fight to break up. In a multiple fight situation the referee will stand in an area of the ice where he/she can have a full view of all the players and will write down—on a pad of paper commonly known as a "riot pad"—the numbers of the players that are involved in the fights, watching for situations that warrant additional penalties, such as players removing opponents' helmets, players participating in a second fight, players leaving a bench to participate in a fight, or third players into a fight. The referee will not normally break up a fight unless the linesmen need assistance, or a fight is occurring where a player has gained a significant advantage over the other player, leading to concerns of significant injury. ## See also - Gordie Howe hat trick
352,699	Shah Rukh Khan	1,173,790,954	Indian actor, producer and television personality (born 1965)	[ "1965 births", "20th-century Indian male actors", "21st-century Indian Muslims", "21st-century Indian male actors", "Film producers from Delhi", "Filmfare Awards winners", "Hindi film producers", "Indian Premier League franchise owners", "Indian game show hosts", "Indian male film actors", "Indian male television actors", "Indian male voice actors", "Indian people of Hindkowan descent", "International Indian Film Academy Awards winners", "Jamia Millia Islamia alumni", "Living people", "Male actors from Delhi", "Male actors in Hindi cinema", "Officiers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres", "People from New Delhi", "Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts", "Red Chillies Entertainment", "Screen Awards winners", "Shah Rukh Khan", "St. Columba's School, Delhi alumni", "Zee Cine Awards winners" ]	Shah Rukh Khan (; born 2 November 1965), also known by the initialism SRK, is an Indian actor and film producer who works in Hindi films. Referred to in the media as the "Baadshah of Bollywood" and "King Khan", he has appeared in more than 90 films, and earned numerous accolades, including 14 Filmfare Awards. He has been awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India, as well as the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and Legion of Honour by the Government of France. Khan has a significant following in Asia and the Indian diaspora worldwide. In terms of audience size and income, several media outlets have described him as one of the most successful film stars in the world. Many of his films thematise Indian national identity and connections with diaspora communities, or gender, racial, social and religious differences and grievances. Khan began his career with appearances in several television series in the late 1980s, and made his Bollywood debut in 1992 with Deewana. He was initially recognised for playing villainous roles in the films Baazigar (1993) and Darr (1993). Khan established himself by starring in a series of top-grossing romantic films, including Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), Mohabbatein (2000), Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001), Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), Veer-Zaara (2004) and Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006). He earned critical acclaim for his portrayal of an alcoholic in Devdas (2002), a NASA scientist in Swades (2004), a hockey coach in Chak De! India (2007) and a man with Asperger syndrome in My Name Is Khan (2010). Further commercial successes came with the romantic dramas Om Shanti Om (2007) and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008), and with his expansion to comedies in Chennai Express (2013) and Happy New Year (2014). Following a brief setback and hiatus, Khan made a career comeback with the action film Pathaan (2023), which became the second-highest-grossing Hindi release. As of 2015, Khan is co-chairman of the motion picture production company Red Chillies Entertainment and its subsidiaries, and is the co-owner of the Indian Premier League cricket team Kolkata Knight Riders and the Caribbean Premier League team Trinbago Knight Riders. The media often label him as "Brand SRK" because of his many endorsement and entrepreneurship ventures. He is a frequent television presenter and stage show performer. Khan's philanthropic endeavours have provided health care and disaster relief, and he was honoured with UNESCO's Pyramide con Marni award in 2011 for his support of children's education and the World Economic Forum's Crystal Award in 2018 for advocating for women's and children's rights in India. He regularly features in listings of the most influential people in Indian culture, and in 2008, Newsweek named him one of their fifty most powerful people in the world. In 2022, Khan was voted one of the 50 greatest actors of all time in a readers' poll by Empire, and in 2023, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. ## Early life and family ### Parents Shah Rukh Khan's father, Mir Taj Mohammed Khan, was an Indian independence activist from Peshawar who campaigned alongside the Khudai Khidmatgar, a nonviolent resistance movement led by Abdul Ghaffar Khan that sought a united and independent India. Mir was a follower of Abdul Ghaffar Khan, and affiliated with the Indian National Congress. He was also the cousin of the major general in the Indian National Army Shah Nawaz Khan. According to Khan his paternal grandfather, Mir Jan Muhammad Khan, was an ethnic Pashtun (Pathan) from Afghanistan. However, his paternal cousins in Peshawar later clarified that the family speaks Hindko and is originally from Kashmir, from where they settled in Peshawar centuries back, contradicting the claim that his grandfather was a Pashtun from Afghanistan. As of 2010, Khan's paternal family was still living in the Shah Wali Qataal area of Peshawar's Qissa Khwani Bazaar. In 1946, Mir moved to Delhi to study law at Delhi University. When the partition of India occurred in 1947, he was forced to stay in Delhi, and did not return to Peshawar until many years later. Khan's mother, Lateef Fatima, a magistrate, was the daughter of a senior government engineer. His parents were married in 1959. ### Early life Khan was born on 2 November 1965 into a Muslim family in New Delhi. He spent the first five years of his life in Mangalore, where his maternal grandfather, Iftikhar Ahmed, served as the chief engineer of the port in the 1960s. Khan has described himself on Twitter as "half Hyderabadi (mother), half Pathan (father), and some Kashmiri (grandmother)". Khan grew up in the Rajendra Nagar neighbourhood of New Delhi. His father had several business ventures including a restaurant, and the family lived a middle-class life in rented apartments. Khan attended St. Columba's School in central Delhi where he excelled in his studies and in sports such as hockey and football, and received the school's highest award, the Sword of Honour. Initially Khan aspired to pursue a career in sports, however owing to a shoulder injury in his early years meant that he could no longer play. Instead, in his youth, he acted in stage plays and received praise for his imitations of Bollywood actors, of which his favourites were Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, and Mumtaz. One of his childhood friends and acting partners was Amrita Singh, who became a Bollywood actress. Khan enrolled at Hansraj College (1985–88) to earn his bachelor's degree in economics, but spent much of his time at Delhi's Theatre Action Group (TAG), where he studied acting under the mentorship of theatre director Barry John. After Hansraj, he began studying for a master's degree in mass communication at Jamia Millia Islamia, but left to pursue his acting career. He also attended the National School of Drama in Delhi during his early career in Bollywood. His father died of cancer in 1981, and his mother died in 1991 from complications of diabetes. After the death of their parents, his older sister, Shahnaz Lalarukh (born 1960) fell into a depressed state and Khan took on the responsibility of caring for her. Shahnaz continues to live with her brother and his family in their Mumbai mansion. ## Acting career ### 1988–1992: Television and film debut Khan's first starring role was in Lekh Tandon's television series Dil Dariya, which began shooting in 1988, but production delays led to the Raj Kumar Kapoor directed 1989 series Fauji becoming his television debut instead. In the series, which depicted a realistic look at the training of army cadets, he played the leading role of Abhimanyu Rai. This led to further appearances in Aziz Mirza's television series Circus (1989–90) and Mani Kaul's miniseries Idiot (1992). Khan also played minor parts in the serials Umeed (1989) and Wagle Ki Duniya (1988–90), and in the English-language television film In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones (1989). His appearances in these serials led critics to compare his look and acting style with those of the film actor Dilip Kumar, but Khan was not interested in film acting at the time, thinking that he was not good enough. Khan changed his decision to act in films in April 1991, citing it as a way to escape the grief of his mother's death. He moved from Delhi to Mumbai to pursue a full-time career in Bollywood, and was quickly signed to four films. His first offer was for Hema Malini's directorial debut Dil Aashna Hai, and by June, he had started his first shoot. His film debut was in Deewana, which was released in June 1992. In it he starred alongside Divya Bharti as the second male lead behind Rishi Kapoor. Deewana became a box office hit and launched Khan's Bollywood career; he earned the Filmfare Best Male Debut Award for his performance. Also released in 1992 were Khan's first films as the male lead, Chamatkar, Dil Aashna Hai, and the comedy Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman, which was his first of many collaborations with the actress Juhi Chawla. His initial film roles saw him play characters who displayed energy and enthusiasm. According to Arnab Ray of Daily News and Analysis, Khan brought a new kind of acting as he was "sliding down stairs on a slab of ice, cartwheeling, somersaulting, lips trembling, eyes trembling, bringing to the screen the kind of physical energy ... visceral, intense, maniacal one moment and cloyingly boyish the next." ### 1993–1994: Anti-hero Among his 1993 releases, Khan garnered the most appreciation for portraying villainous roles in two box office hits: a murderer in Baazigar, and an obsessive lover in Darr. Baazigar, in which Khan played an ambiguous avenger who murders his girlfriend, shocked Indian audiences with an unexpected violation of the standard Bollywood formula. In The Cambridge Companion to Modern Indian Culture, Sonal Khullar called the character "the consummate anti-hero". His performance in Baazigar, which would be his first of many appearances with actress Kajol, won Khan his first Filmfare Award for Best Actor. In 2003, the Encyclopaedia of Hindi Cinema stated that Khan "defied the image of the conventional hero in both these films and created his own version of the revisionist hero". Darr marked the first of Khan's many collaborations with filmmaker Yash Chopra and his company Yash Raj Films. Khan's stammering and the use of the phrase "I love you, K-k-k-Kiran" were popular with audiences. Malini Mannath of The Indian Express argued that he "walks away with the acting honours in yet another negative role". For Darr he received a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role, also known as the Best Villain Award, but lost to Paresh Rawal for Sir. Also in 1993, Khan performed a nude scene with Deepa Sahi in Maya Memsaab, although parts of it were censored by the Central Board of Film Certification. The ensuing controversy prompted him to eschew such scenes in future roles. In 1994, Khan played a love-struck musician in Kundan Shah's comedy-drama film Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa opposite Deepak Tijori and Suchitra Krishnamurthy, which he later professed was his favourite role. His performance earned him a Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance, and in a retrospective review from 2004, Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com referred to it as Khan's best performance, calling him "spontaneous, vulnerable, boyish, mischievous and acting straight from the heart". Also in 1994, Khan won the Filmfare Best Villain Award for his role as an obsessive lover in Anjaam, co-starring Madhuri Dixit. At the time, playing antagonistic roles was considered risky to a leading man's career in mainstream Hindi cinema. Arnab Ray subsequently credited Khan for taking "insane risks" and "pushing the envelope" by choosing to play such characters, through which he established his career. The director Mukul S. Anand called him "the new face of the industry" at the time. ### 1995–1998: Romantic roles Khan starred in seven films in 1995, the first of which was Rakesh Roshan's melodramatic thriller Karan Arjun. Co-starring Salman Khan and Kajol, it became the second-highest-grossing film of the year in India. His most significant release that year was Aditya Chopra's directorial debut, the romance Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, in which he played a young Non-resident Indian (NRI) who falls in love with Kajol's character during a trip across Europe. Khan was initially reticent to portray the role of a lover, but this film is credited with establishing him as a "romantic hero". Lauded by both critics and the public, it became the year's highest grossing production in India and abroad and was declared an "all time blockbuster" by Box Office India, with an estimated lifetime gross of ₹2 billion (US\$61.68 million) worldwide. It is the longest-running film in the history of Indian cinema; it is still showing at the Maratha Mandir theatre in Mumbai after more than 1000 weeks as of early 2015. The film won ten Filmfare Awards, including the second of Khan's Best Actor Awards. The director and critic Raja Sen said, "Khan gives a fabulous performance, redefining the lover for the 1990s with great panache. He's cool and flippant, but sincere enough to appeal to the [audience]. The performance itself is, like the best in the business, played well enough to come across as effortless, as non-acting." In 1996, all four of Khan's releases failed critically and commercially, but the following year, his starring role opposite Aditya Pancholi and Juhi Chawla in Aziz Mirza's romantic comedy Yes Boss earned him accolades that included a Filmfare Best Actor nomination. Later in 1997, he starred in Subhash Ghai's diasporic-themed social drama Pardes, portraying Arjun, a musician facing a moral dilemma. India Today cites it as one of the first major Bollywood pictures to succeed in the United States. Khan's final release of 1997 was the second collaboration with Yash Chopra in the popular musical romance Dil To Pagal Hai. He portrayed Rahul, a stage director caught in a love triangle between Madhuri Dixit and Karisma Kapoor. The film and his performance met with critical praise, winning Khan his third Best Actor Award at Filmfare. Khan performed the lead role in three films and made one special appearance in 1998. In his first release of the year, he played a double role opposite Juhi Chawla and Sonali Bendre in Mahesh Bhatt's action comedy Duplicate, the first of his many collaborations with Yash Johar's production company Dharma Productions. The film was not well received, but India Today lauded Khan for his energetic performance. The same year, Khan won critical praise for his performance as an All India Radio correspondent who develops an infatuation for a mysterious terrorist (Manisha Koirala) in Dil Se.., the third instalment of Mani Ratnam's trilogy of terror films. In his final release of the year, he portrayed a college student in Karan Johar's romance Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, in which he was involved in a love triangle along with Kajol and Rani Mukerji. The writer Anjana Motihar Chandra has referred to the picture as the blockbuster of the 1990s, a "pot-pourri of romance, comedy, and entertainment." Khan won the Best Actor award at the Filmfare Awards ceremony for the second consecutive year, although he and several critics believed his performance to have been overshadowed by that of Kajol. The roles in this phase of his career, and the series of romantic comedies and family dramas that followed, earned Khan widespread adulation from audiences, particularly teenagers, and according to author Anupama Chopra, established him as an icon of romance in India. He continued to have frequent professional associations with Yash Chopra, Aditya Chopra, and Karan Johar, who moulded his image and made him into a superstar. Khan became a romantic leading man without ever actually kissing any of his co-stars, although he broke this rule in 2012, after strong urging by Yash Chopra. ### 1999–2003: Career fluctuations Khan's only release in 1999 was Baadshah, in which he starred opposite Twinkle Khanna. Although the film underperformed at the box office, it earned him a Filmfare Award nomination for Best Performance in a Comic Role, which he lost to Govinda for Haseena Maan Jaayegi. Khan became a producer in 1999 in a collaboration with the actress Juhi Chawla and the director Aziz Mirza for a production company called Dreamz Unlimited. The company's first production, Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani (2000), starring Khan and Chawla, was a commercial failure. It was released one week after Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai, starring Hrithik Roshan, then a newcomer, who critics believed overshadowed Khan. Swapna Mitter of Rediff.com spoke of Khan's predictable mannerisms, saying "Frankly, it's high time he innovated his act a little." Khan did a supporting role in Kamal Haasan's Hey Ram (2000), which was made simultaneously in Tamil and Hindi. He thereby made his Tamil debut by playing the role of an archaeologist named Amjad Khan. He performed free of charge as he wanted to work with Haasan. On Khan's performance, T. Krithika Reddy of The Hindu wrote, "Shah Rukh Khan, as usual comes up with an impeccable performance." In 2001, Dreamz Unlimited attempted a comeback with Khan portraying the title role in Santosh Sivan's historical epic Aśoka, a partly fictionalised account of the life of emperor Ashoka. The film was screened at the Venice Film Festival and the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival to a positive response, but it performed poorly at Indian box offices. As losses continued to mount for the production company, Khan was forced to close srkworld.com, a company that he had started along with Dreamz Unlimited. In December 2001, Khan suffered a spinal injury while performing an action sequence for a special appearance in Krishna Vamsi's Shakti: The Power. He was subsequently diagnosed with a prolapsed disc, and attempted multiple alternative therapies. None of these provided a permanent solution to the injury, which caused him severe pain while shooting several of his films. By the beginning of 2003, his condition had worsened to the point that he had to undergo anterior cervical discectomy and fusion surgery at Wellington Hospital, London. Khan resumed shooting in June 2003, but he reduced his workload and the number of film roles he accepted annually. Successes during this time included Aditya Chopra's Mohabbatein (2000), and Karan Johar's family drama Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001), which Khan cites as a turning point in his career. Both films co-starred Amitabh Bachchan as an authoritarian figure, and presented ideological struggles between the two men. Khan's performances in the films were met with wide public appreciation, and he was awarded his second Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor for Mohabbatein. Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... remained the top-grossing Indian production of all time in the overseas market for the next five years. In 2002, Khan played the title role as a rebellious alcoholic opposite Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's period romance Devdas. At a cost of over ₹500 million (US\$10.29 million), it was the most expensive Bollywood film ever made at the time, and became a box office success, earning approximately ₹1.68 billion (\$35 million) worldwide. The film earned numerous accolades including 10 Filmfare Awards, with Best Actor for Khan, and a BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language. Khan next starred in Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), a comedy-drama written by Karan Johar and set in New York City, which became the second-highest-grossing film domestically and the top-grossing Bollywood film in external markets that year. Co-starring with Jaya Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan, and Preity Zinta, Khan received critical praise for his portrayal of Aman Mathur, a man with a fatal heart disease, with critics praising his emotional impact upon audiences. Conflict broke out between Khan and the other partners of Dreamz Unlimited over the failure to cast Juhi Chawla in their 2003 production of Aziz Mirza's Chalte Chalte, and they parted ways, despite the film's success. ### 2004–2009: Comeback 2004 was a critically and commercially successful year for Khan. He transformed Dreamz Unlimited into Red Chillies Entertainment, adding his wife Gauri as a producer. In the company's first production, he starred in Farah Khan's directorial debut, the masala film Main Hoon Na. A fictionalised account of India–Pakistan relations, it was viewed by some commentators as a conscious effort to move away from the stereotypical portrayal of Pakistan as the constant villain. Khan then played an Indian Air Force pilot who falls in love with a Pakistani woman (Preity Zinta) in Yash Chopra's romance film Veer-Zaara, which was screened at the 55th Berlin Film Festival to critical praise. It was the highest earning film of 2004 in India, with a worldwide gross of over ₹940 million (US\$20.74 million), and Main Hoon Na was the second-highest earner with ₹680 million (US\$15.01 million). In his final release of 2004, Khan starred as a NASA scientist who patriotically returns to India to rekindle his roots in Ashutosh Gowariker's social drama Swades (meaning "Homeland"), which became the first Indian picture to be shot inside the NASA research centre at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Film scholar Stephen Teo refers to the picture as an example of "Bollywoodised realism", displaying a transcendence in conventional narrative and audience expectation in Hindi cinema. In December 2013, The Times of India reported that Khan found filming the picture such an emotionally overwhelming and life-changing experience that he had still not viewed the film. Derek Elley of Variety found Khan's performance "unsettling" as "a self-satisfied expatriate determined to bring Western values to poor Indian peasants", but several film critics, including Jitesh Pillai, believed it to have been his finest acting to date. He was nominated for the Filmfare Best Actor Award for all three of his 2004 releases and eventually won the award for Swades. Filmfare later included his performance in the 2010 issue of Bollywood's "Top 80 Iconic Performances". In 2005, Khan starred in Amol Palekar's fantasy drama, Paheli. The film was India's submission for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 79th Academy Awards. He later collaborated with Karan Johar for the third time in the musical romantic drama Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006), in which he played an unhappily married man who has an extramarital affair with a married woman. The film, which featured an ensemble cast including Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Rani Mukerji, Preity Zinta and Kirron Kher, emerged as India's highest-grossing film in the overseas market, earning more than ₹1.13 billion (US\$25.62 million) worldwide. Both his roles in Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna and the action film Don, a remake of the 1978 film of the same name, earned Khan Best Actor nominations at the Filmfare Awards, despite his performance as the titular character in Don being negatively compared to that of Amitabh Bachchan in the original film. In 2007, Khan portrayed a disgraced hockey player who coaches the Indian women's national hockey team to World Cup success in Yash Raj Films' semi-fictional Chak De! India. Bhaichand Patel notes that Khan, who had a background in the sport playing for his university's hockey team, essentially portrayed himself as a "cosmopolitan, liberal, Indian Muslim". Faring well in both India and abroad, Khan garnered another Filmfare Award for Best Actor for his performance, which Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN considers to have been "without any of his typical trappings, without any of his trademark quirks", portraying Kabir Khan "like a real flesh-and-blood human being". Filmfare included his performance in their 2010 issue of the "Top 80 Iconic Performances". In the same year, Khan starred alongside Arjun Rampal, Deepika Padukone and Shreyas Talpade in Farah Khan's reincarnation melodrama Om Shanti Om, portraying a 1970s junior artiste who is reborn as a 2000s era superstar. The film became the highest grossing Indian motion picture of 2007, both domestically and abroad. Om Shanti Om earned Khan his second nomination of the year for Best Actor at Filmfare. Khalid Mohammed from Hindustan Times wrote, "the enterprise belongs to Shah Rukh Khan, who tackles comedy, high drama and action with his signature style—spontaneous and intuitively intelligent". Khan collaborated for the third time with Aditya Chopra on the romantic drama Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008) opposite Anushka Sharma, at that time a newcomer. He played Surinder Sahni, a shy man with low self-esteem, whose love for his young arranged wife (Sharma) causes him to transform himself into Raj, a boisterous alter-ego. Rachel Saltz of The New York Times believed the dual role to have been "tailor-made" for Khan, giving him the opportunity to display his talents, although Deep Contractor from Epilogue thought Khan displayed greater strength in the role of Surinder and weakness in the role of monologue-prone Raj. In December 2008, Khan suffered a shoulder injury while filming a small role in Mudassar Aziz's Dulha Mil Gaya. He underwent extensive physiotherapy sessions at the time but the pain left him almost immobile and he had arthroscopic surgery in February 2009. He performed a special appearance in the 2009 film Billu, playing Bollywood superstar Sahir Khan—a fictionalised version of himself, wherein he performed musical item numbers with actresses Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, and Deepika Padukone. As head of the film's production company, Red Chillies, Khan made the call to change the title of the film from Billu Barber to Billu after hairdressers across the country complained that the word "barber" was derogatory. The company covered up the offending word on billboards that had already been installed with the original title. ### 2010–2014: My Name Is Khan and expansion to action and comedy After refusing the role that subsequently went to Anil Kapoor in Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire (2008), Khan began shooting My Name Is Khan (2010), his fourth collaboration with director Karan Johar and his sixth with Kajol. The film is based on a true story and set against the backdrop of perceptions of Islam after the 11 September attacks. Khan plays Rizwan Khan, a Muslim suffering from mild Asperger syndrome who sets out on a journey across America to meet the country's president, in a role that film scholar Stephen Teo sees as a "symbol of assertive rasa values" and another example of Khan representing NRI identity in global Bollywood. To provide an accurate portrayal of a sufferer without disparagement, Khan spent several months researching his role by reading books, watching videos and talking to people affected by the condition. Upon release, My Name is Khan became one of the highest grossing Bollywood films of all time outside India, and earned Khan his eighth Filmfare Award for Best Actor, equalling the record for the most wins in the category with actor Dilip Kumar. Jay Wesissberg from Variety noted how Khan portrayed the Asperger's sufferer with "averted eyes, springy steps, [and] stuttered repetitions of memorized texts", believing it to have been a "standout performance sure to receive the Autism Society's gold seal of approval". In 2011, Khan starred alongside Arjun Rampal and Kareena Kapoor in Anubhav Sinha's superhero film Ra.One, his first work in this subgenre, as a favour to his children. The film follows the story of a London-based videogame designer who creates a villainous character who escapes into the real world. It was billed as Bollywood's most expensive production; it had an estimated budget of ₹1.25 billion (US\$26.78 million). Despite negative media coverage of the film's box office performance, Ra.One was a financial success with a gross of ₹2.4 billion (US\$51.42 million). The film, and Khan's portrayal of a dual role, received mixed reviews; while most critics praised his performance as the robotic superhero G.One, though they criticised his portrayal of the videogame designer Shekhar. Khan's second release of 2011 was Don 2, a sequel to Don (2006). To prepare for his role, Khan exercised extensively and performed most of the stunts himself. His performance earned him positive reviews from critics; Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India said, "Shah Rukh remains in command and never loses his foothold, neither through the dramatic sequences nor through the action cuts". The year's highest grossing Bollywood production abroad, it was showcased at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival. Khan's only release in 2012 was Yash Chopra's last picture, the romantic drama Jab Tak Hai Jaan, which saw him once again in a romantic role, starring opposite Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma. CNN-IBN considered the overall performance by Khan to have been one of his finest to date, but believed that Khan's first screen kiss of his career with Katrina Kaif, twenty years his junior, was an awkward one. Jab Tak Hai Jaan was a moderate financial success earning over ₹2.11 billion (US\$39.49 million) worldwide. The film was showcased at the 2012 Marrakech International Film Festival in Morocco, along with Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham..., Veer-Zaara, and Don 2. At the following Zee Cine Awards, Khan performed a tribute to the late Yash Chopra along with Kaif, Sharma, and several of Chopra's other past heroines. In 2013, Khan starred in Rohit Shetty's action comedy Chennai Express for Red Chillies Entertainment, a film which earned mixed critical reviews and a fair amount of criticism for its perceived disparagement of South Indian culture, although the film included a tribute to Tamil cinema star Rajinikanth. The critic Khalid Mohamed thought that Khan overacted in the film and criticised him for "re-rendering every old trick in the acting book". Despite the criticism, the film broke many box office records for Hindi films in both India and abroad, surpassing 3 Idiots to briefly become the highest grossing Bollywood film of all time, with a gross of almost ₹4 billion (US\$68.26 million) in worldwide ticket sales. On International Women's Day in 2013, The Times of India reported that Khan had requested a new convention with the name of his lead female co-stars appearing above his own in the credits. He claimed that the women in his life, including his co-stars, have been the reason for his success. In 2014, the actor was featured in Farah Khan's ensemble action comedy Happy New Year, which co-starred Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan and Boman Irani; his third collaboration with the director. Although Khan's unidimensional character was criticised, the film became a major commercial success grossing ₹3.8 billion (US\$64.85 million) worldwide. ### 2015–present: Career setbacks, hiatus and resurgence Khan next appeared alongside Kajol, Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon in Rohit Shetty's action comedy Dilwale (2015). The film garnered mixed reviews, though it was financially profitable with a gross of ₹3.7 billion (US\$57.68 million). Namrata Joshi of The Hindu commented, "With Dilwale, Rohit Shetty goes hopelessly wrong despite much that he had at his disposal, including a power-packed cast and producer", and felt that the attempt to repackage Khan and Kajol had backfired. He then took on dual parts of a superstar and his doppelgänger fan in Maneesh Sharma's action thriller Fan (2016). Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian considered the film to be "exhausting, bizarre yet watchable" and thought that Khan was aptly "creepy" as the obsessive admirer. The film underperformed at the box office, and trade journalists attributed this failure to the film's non-conformity to mainstream formula. Later that year, Khan portrayed the supporting part of a therapist to an aspiring cinematographer (Alia Bhatt) in Gauri Shinde's coming-of-age film Dear Zindagi. In Rahul Dholakia's action crime film Raees (2017), Khan took on the part of the titular anti-hero—a bootlegger turned mobster in 1980s Gujarat. In a typical mixed review, Pratim D. Gupta of The Telegraph thought Khan's performance to be "inconsistent, intense and power-packed at times, but often slipping out of character into his usual mix of stock mannerisms". Commercially, the film was a modest success, earning about ₹3.08 billion (US\$47.3 million) worldwide. Khan returned to the romantic genre with the role of a tourist guide who falls in love with a traveller (Anushka Sharma) in Imtiaz Ali's Jab Harry Met Sejal (2017). In a review for Mint, Uday Bhatia criticised Khan's pairing with Sharma, 22 years his junior, writing that Khan had performed "similar gestures of love decades ago to actors his own age". The film proved to be a box office flop. He reunited with Sharma and Katrina Kaif in Aanand L Rai's romantic drama Zero (2018), in which he played Bauua Singh, a dwarf involved in a love triangle. The film received mixed reviews with praise directed to Khan's performance. Writing for Hindustan Times, Raja Sen commended his "dominating performance and tremendous energy" and Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost called him an "excellent fit" for the role for allowing his "naturally energetic personality, comic timing and charm to take flight". Commercially, it failed to do well. According to a Box Office India report, Khan's stardom was impacted by his films failing to do well. Following the release of Zero, Khan took a four-year break from full-time acting, which was partly caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in India. He took the time off to attempt a career comeback. He reunited with Deepika Padukone in Yash Raj Films' action thriller Pathaan (2023), set in the YRF Spy Universe, in which he played an exiled field agent assigned to stop a terrorist attack in India. Critic Sukanya Verma took note of Khan's "weathered intensity, grizzly charisma and trademark wit", which she thought lend the film "a sense of purpose that evades mindless acts of mayhem". Kaveree Bamzai termed it a "much-needed makeover" of Khan into an action star. Pathaan broke several box-office records, thus re-establishing Khan's stardom. Grossing over ₹10 billion (US\$130 million), it emerged as the highest-grossing film of Khan's career and Hindi cinema's second-biggest grosser. Khan will star in two other films in 2023: Atlee's Jawan, an action thriller in which he will play a dual role; and in Rajkumar Hirani's Dunki, a social drama about illegal immigration. ## Other work ### Film production and television hosting Khan co-produced three films from 1999 to 2003 as a founding member of the partnership Dreamz Unlimited. After the partnership was dissolved, he and Gauri restructured the company as Red Chillies Entertainment, which includes divisions dealing with film and television production, visual effects, and advertising. As of 2015, the company has produced or co-produced at least nine films. Either Khan or Gauri are usually given production credits, and he has appeared in most of the films, either in the lead role, or in a guest appearance. Khan was involved in several aspects of the making of Ra.One (2011). Aside from acting, he produced the film, volunteered to write the console game script, dubbed for it, oversaw its technical development, and wrote the digital comics based on the film's characters. Khan has occasionally done playback singing for his films. In Josh (2000) he sang the popular song "Apun Bola Tu Meri Laila". He also sang in Don (2006) and Jab Tak Hai Jaan (2012). For Always Kabhi Kabhi (2011), which was produced by Red Chillies, Khan participated in the lyrical composition. In addition to his early television serial appearances, Khan has hosted numerous televised awards shows, including the Filmfare, Zee Cine, and Screen Awards. In 2007, he replaced Amitabh Bachchan for one season as the host of Kaun Banega Crorepati, the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and a year later, Khan began hosting Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain?, the Indian version of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?. In 2011, he returned to television, appearing on Imagine TV's Zor Ka Jhatka: Total Wipeout, the Indian version of Wipeout; scenes featuring Khan were shot at the Yash Raj Studios in Mumbai. Contrary to his earlier television anchoring jobs, Zor Ka Jhatka: Total Wipeout performed poorly. It aired for only one season and became the lowest rated show hosted by a Bollywood star. In 2017, Khan began hosting TED Talks India Nayi Soch, a talk show produced by TED Conferences, LLC which started aired on STAR Plus. ### Stage performances Khan is a frequent stage performer and has participated in several world tours and concerts. In 1997, he performed in Asha Bhosle's Moments in Time concert in Malaysia, and returned the following year to perform with Karisma Kapoor for the Shahrukh–Karisma: Live in Malaysia concert. The same year, he participated in The Awesome Foursome world tour across the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States along with Juhi Chawla, Akshay Kumar and Kajol, and resumed the tour in Malaysia the following year. In 2002, Khan featured with Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Preity Zinta, and Aishwarya Rai in the show From India With Love at Manchester's Old Trafford and London's Hyde Park; the event was attended by more than 100,000 people. Khan performed alongside Rani Mukherji, Arjun Rampal and Ishaa Koppikar in a 2010 concert at the Army Stadium in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The next year he joined Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra in the Friendship Concert, celebrating 150 years of India–South Africa friendship in Durban, South Africa. Khan started an association with the "Temptations" series of concert tours by singing, dancing, and performing skits alongside Arjun Rampal, Priyanka Chopra, and other Bollywood stars in Temptations 2004, a stage show that toured 22 venues across the world. The show played to 15,000 spectators at Dubai's Festival City Arena. In 2008, Khan set up Temptation Reloaded, a series of concerts that toured several countries, including the Netherlands. Another tour was held with Bipasha Basu and others in 2012 in Jakarta, and in 2013 another series of concerts visited Auckland, Perth and Sydney. In 2014, Khan performed in SLAM! The Tour in the US, Canada, and London, and also hosted the Indian premiere of the live talent show, Got Talent World Stage Live. ### Ownership of IPL cricket team In 2008, Khan, in partnership with Juhi Chawla and her husband Jay Mehta, acquired ownership rights for the franchise representing Kolkata in the Twenty20 cricket tournament Indian Premier League (IPL) for US\$75.09 million, and named the team Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). As of 2009, KKR was one of the richest teams in the IPL, with a brand value of US\$42.1 million. The team performed poorly on the field during the first three years. Their performance improved over time, and they became the champions for the first time in 2012 and repeated the feat in 2014. The Knight Riders hold the record for the longest winning streak by any Indian team in T20s (14). Khan performed alongside Sunidhi Chauhan and Shriya Saran at the opening ceremony of the IPL 2011 season, where they danced to Tamil songs. He appeared again in 2013 alongside Katrina Kaif, Deepika Padukone and Pitbull. In May 2012, the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) banned him from the Wankhede Stadium for five years for getting into an argument with the security staff after a match between KKR and the Mumbai Indians. Khan had, however, stated that he acted only after children, including his daughter, were being "manhandled" by the security staff and that the officials were extremely high-handed and aggressive in their behaviour, he had been abused with communal indecent comment. Later MCA officials had accused him of being drunk in one version of the story, hitting the guard and of completely uncharacteristically abusing a female supporter of Mumbai Indians after the match in another version of the story, which Khan had maintained it was done to support their action and for cheap publicity. Wankhede guard later contradicted MCA officials' claim and said Shah Rukh Khan had not hit him. Khan later apologised to his fans after his team won the final match. MCA revoked the ban in 2015 and in 2016, Mumbai Police informed that no 'cognisable offence' was made out against Khan and they had come to the conclusion that Shah Rukh Khan was not drunk and did not use abusive language before minors at the Wankhede Stadium in 2012. ## In the media Khan receives a considerable amount of media coverage in India, and is often referred to as "King Khan", "The Baadshah of Bollywood", or "The King of Bollywood". Anupama Chopra cites him as an "ever present celebrity", with two or three films a year, constantly running television ads, print ads, and gigantic billboards lining the streets of Indian cities. He is the object of a sometimes fanatical following, with a fan base estimated to exceed one billion. Newsweek named Khan as one of their fifty most powerful people globally in 2008 and called him "the world's biggest movie star". In 2011 he was described as "the biggest movie star you've never heard of...perhaps the world's biggest movie star, period" by Steven Zeitchik of the Los Angeles Times and has been called the world's biggest movie star in other international media outlets. According to a popularity survey, 3.2 billion people around the world know Khan, more than who know Tom Cruise. In a 2022 readers' poll by Empire magazine, Khan was listed as one of the 50 greatest actors of all time. The magazine attributed his success to the "outrageous amounts of [his] charisma and absolute mastery of [his] craft. Comfortable in almost every genre going, there's pretty much nothing he can't do." In 2023, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and he topped the list per a readers poll. Khan is one of the wealthiest celebrities in India, topping the Forbes India's "Celebrity 100 list" in 2012, 2013 and 2015. His wealth has been estimated at US\$400–600 million. Khan owns several properties in India and abroad, including a apartment in London, and a villa on the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. Khan frequently appears on listings of the most popular, stylish and influential people in India. He has regularly featured among the top ten on The Times of India's list of the 50 most desirable men in India, and in a 2007 poll by the magazine Eastern Eye he was named the sexiest man in Asia. Khan is often referred to as "Brand SRK" by media organisations because of his many brand endorsement and entrepreneurship ventures. He is one of the highest paid Bollywood endorsers and one of the most visible celebrities in television advertising, with up to a six per cent share of the television advertisement market. Khan has endorsed brands including Pepsi, Nokia, Hyundai, Dish TV, D'decor, LUX and TAG Heuer. Books have been published about him, and his popularity has been documented in several non-fiction films, including the two-part documentary The Inner and Outer World of Shah Rukh Khan (2005), and the Discovery Travel & Living channel's ten-part miniseries Living with a Superstar—Shah Rukh Khan (2010). In 2007, Khan became the third Indian actor to have his wax statue installed at London's Madame Tussauds museum, after Aishwarya Rai and Amitabh Bachchan. Additional versions of the statue were installed at Madame Tussauds' museums in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, New York and Washington. Khan has been brand ambassador of various governmental campaigns, including Pulse Polio and the National AIDS Control Organisation. He is a member of the board of directors of the Make-A-Wish Foundation in India, and in 2011 he was appointed by UNOPS as the first global ambassador of the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council. He has recorded a series of public service announcements championing good health and proper nutrition, and joined India's Health Ministry and UNICEF in a nationwide child immunisation campaign. In 2011, he received UNESCO's Pyramide con Marni award for his charitable commitment to provide education for children, becoming the first Indian to win the accolade. In 2014, Khan became the ambassador for Interpol's campaign "Turn Back Crime". In 2015, Khan received a privileged degree from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. In 2018, Khan was honoured by the World Economic Forum with their annual Crystal Award for his leadership in championing children's and women's rights in India. In April 2020, Khan announced a series of initiatives to help the government of India and the state governments of Maharashtra, West Bengal and Delhi mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic as well as relief measures for thousands of underprivileged people and daily wage labourers affected by the lockdown. He offered his 4-storey personal office space to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to be used as a quarantine centre for coronavirus patients. ## Awards and recognitions Khan is one of the most decorated Bollywood actors. He has received 14 Filmfare Awards from 30 nominations and special awards, including winning eight for Best Actor; he is tied for the most in this category with Dilip Kumar. Khan has won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor for his performances in Baazigar (1993), Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), Devdas (2002), Swades (2004), Chak De! India (2007) and My Name Is Khan (2010). Although he has never won a National Film Award, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2005. The Government of France has awarded him both the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2007), and the fifth degree of the French Legion of Honour, the Chevalier Légion d'honneur (2014). Khan has received five honorary doctorates; the first from The University of Bedfordshire in 2009, the second from The University of Edinburgh in 2015, the third from Maulana Azad National Urdu University in 2016, and his latest from The University of Law and La Trobe University in 2019. ## Personal life Khan married Gauri Chibber, a Punjabi Hindu, in a traditional Hindu wedding ceremony on 25 October 1991, after a six-year courtship. They have a son Aryan (born 1997) and a daughter Suhana (born 2000). In 2013, they became parents of a third child, a son named AbRam, who was born through a surrogate mother. Both his elder children have expressed interest in entering the entertainment industry; Khan has stated that Aryan, who studied filmmaking at the USC School of Cinematic Arts in California, aspires to become a writer-director, while Suhana, who served as assistant director for Khan's film Zero (2018), is studying drama and acting at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts for higher education. Suhana made her acting debut in November 2019, in a short film titled "The Grey Part of Blue." According to Khan, while he strongly believes in Islam, he also values his wife's religion. His children follow both religions; at his home the Qur'an is situated next to the murti of Hindu deities. Although Khan was given the birth name Shahrukh Khan, he prefers his name to be written as Shah Rukh Khan, and is commonly referred to by the initialism SRK. ## See also - Khans of Bollywood - List of awards and nominations received by Shah Rukh Khan
18,711,188	Fez (video game)	1,173,491,230	2012 video game	[ "2012 video games", "Articles containing video clips", "BlitWorks games", "IOS games", "Independent Games Festival winners", "Indie games", "IndieCade winners", "Linux games", "MacOS games", "Microsoft XNA games", "Nintendo Switch games", "Perspective video games", "PlayStation 3 games", "PlayStation 4 games", "PlayStation Network games", "PlayStation Vita games", "Puzzle-platform games", "Retro-style video games", "Seumas McNally Grand Prize winners", "Single-player video games", "Video game controversies", "Video games developed in Canada", "Video games scored by Richard Vreeland", "Windows games", "Xbox 360 Live Arcade games" ]	Fez is a 2012 indie puzzle-platform game developed by Polytron Corporation and published by Trapdoor. The player-character Gomez receives a fez that reveals his two-dimensional (2D) world to be one of four sides of a three-dimensional (3D) world. The player rotates between these four 2D views to realign platforms and solve puzzles. The objective is to collect cubes and cube fragments to restore order to the universe. The game was called an "underdog darling of the indie game scene" during its high-profile and protracted five-year development cycle. Fez designer and Polytron founder Phil Fish gained celebrity status for his outspoken public persona and his prominence in the 2012 documentary Indie Game: The Movie, which detailed Fez's final stages of development and Polytron's related legal issues. Fez met critical acclaim upon its April 2012 release for Xbox Live Arcade. The game was ported to other platforms following the expiration of a yearlong exclusivity agreement. Reviewers commended the game's emphasis on discovery and freedom, but criticized its technical issues, in-game navigation, and endgame backtracking. They likened the game's rotation mechanic to the 2D–3D shifts of Echochrome, Nebulus, Super Paper Mario, and Crush. Fez won awards including the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and Eurogamer's 2012 Game of the Year. It had sold one million copies by the end of 2013, and it influenced games such as Monument Valley, Crossy Road, and Secrets of Rætikon. A planned sequel was canceled when Fish abruptly left game development. ## Gameplay Fez is a two-dimensional (2D) puzzle platform game set in a three-dimensional (3D) world. The player-character Gomez lives peacefully on a 2D plane until he receives a red fez and witnesses the breakup of a giant, golden hexahedron that tears the fabric of spacetime and reveals a third dimension. After the game appears to glitch, reset, and reboot, the player can rotate between four 2D views of the 3D world, as four sides around a cube-like space. This rotation mechanic reveals new paths through the levels by connecting otherwise inaccessible platforms, and is the basis of Fez's puzzles. For example, floating platforms become a solid road, discontinuous ladders become whole, and platforms that move along a track stay on course. The object of the game is to collect cubes and cube fragments, which accrete to restore order to the universe. In search of these cubes, Gomez traverses the game environment by jumping between ledges. Other platforming elements change with the level themes, including crates that activate switches, bombs that reveal passages, and pistons that launch Gomez airborne. The exploratory parts of the game feature a series of arcane codes and glyphs, treasure maps and chests, and secret rooms. Players are left without guidance to determine whether game elements are decipherable subpuzzles or simply false signals. These sorts of puzzles include hidden warp gates, enigmatic obelisks, invisible platforms, sequences of tetrominos, a ciphered alphabet, and QR codes. One of the game's recurring themes is an ancient civilization that attempted to make sense of their dimensionality, as told through artifacts. Fez has no enemies, bosses, or punishments for failure—the player-character quickly respawns upon falling to his death. The game's designer described Fez as a "'stop and smell the flowers' kind of game". It prioritizes puzzle-solving and patience over the platforming genre's traditional interest in dexterity. Fez features a pixelated art style and a limited color palette reminiscent of the 8-bit era. Its homage includes Tetris tetrominos inscribed on the walls and in the sky, The Legend of Zelda treasure chest animations, Super Mario Bros. mushroom levels, travel by pipe, and floating platforms. The game's settings include forests, factories, a coastal lighthouse, an urban city, and a library. Fez's New Game Plus mode adds a first-person perspective feature and lets the player revisit areas to collect "anti-cubes" from harder puzzles. This second half of the game is more challenging and focuses on code cracking. ## Development Fez's five-year development cycle is known for its protracted length and amount of public exposure. Nathan Grayson of VG247 likened its rocky history to "an indie Duke Nukem Forever", and Polygon reviewer Arthur Gies noted its standing reputation as an "underdog darling of the indie game scene". Its designer, Phil Fish, became renowned in a way unusual for game developers due to his prominence in the 2012 documentary Indie Game: The Movie. Apart from Fez, which was released to wide acclaim, Fish himself became known for his outspoken and acerbic public persona. Fez began as a collaboration between Canadian indie developers Fish and Shawn McGrath. They worked on McGrath's idea for a puzzle game in which a 3D space was viewed from four 2D angles. Although their partnership broke down due to creative differences, the entirety of Fez's design, story, and art descends from this game mechanic. Fish continued to work on the project in his spare time and solicited for a programmer on DeviantArt, where he found Renaud Bédard. Fez was first announced in July 2007 on The Independent Gaming Source. It was nominated for two awards at the 2008 Game Developers Conference Independent Games Festival (GDC IGF). When Fish's employer did not permit him time off to attend the awards, he quit. Fish later recalled this moment as "when [he] became indie". The game won "Excellence in Visual Art", and its presence created a surge of public interest in Fez that rode a concurrent swell of interest in indie game development as a whole. Fish received a Canadian government loan to open Polytron Corporation as a startup company and began full-time work on Fez. In July 2009, Polytron announced that Fez would launch in early 2010 as an Xbox Live Arcade exclusive. Development continued with an experimental spirit until the company ran out of money. Fish borrowed from friends and family to keep the company open and considered canceling the project before the nearby Québécois developer-publisher Trapdoor offered to help. Fish felt that the Trapdoor partnership rescued the game. Fez won multiple awards in 2011 and was a "PAX 10" selection at the 2011 Penny Arcade Expo. Fish is shown preparing for Fez's booth at PAX East 2011, an earlier show, in the 2012 documentary film Indie Game: The Movie. The film chronicles the game development stories of several indie developers. As a subplot, the film presents Fish amidst a legal dispute with a former business partner that jeopardizes Fez's future. Game Informer called Fish the film's "most memorable developer", and Rock, Paper, Shotgun wrote that Fish is portrayed as theatrical in a way that exacerbates his already outspoken reputation. Eurogamer said that the part when Fish resolves to kill himself if he does not release his game is "the film's most startling moment". Near the end of Fez's development, Fish told a Gamasutra reporter that he had received positive feedback from IGF Chairman Brandon Boyer and Braid designer Jonathan Blow, but that he felt "burnt out". The final game included almost none of the original work from the first two years of development. After several delays, Fez was submitted for certification in February 2012. Fez was released on April 13, 2012, and sold 200,000 copies during its yearlong exclusivity to the Xbox Live Arcade platform. Fish rebuked Polytron's co-publisher, Microsoft Studios, for botching the game's release by way of lackluster publicity. Several months later, Polytron entered a high-profile dispute with Microsoft over the cost of patching Fez. Nearly a year after Fez's launch, Fish announced a Windows PC port for release on May 1, 2013. OS X and Linux ports debuted on September 11, 2013, and PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita ports by BlitWorks debuted on March 25, 2014. Ouya and iOS ports were also announced; the iOS release began development in April 2017 and was released in December 2017. No Android release is planned. Bédard stayed to port the Windows release before joining Toronto's Capybara Games. He credited Polytron's long development cycle to his own inexperience in game development (compounded by the team's small size and difficulty in setting reasonable milestones), the game's scope, and Fish's perfectionism. Fish had hoped that players would discuss Fez's nuances online after its release. Players collaborated online for a week to solve the final "monolith" puzzle by using a cryptanalytic attack known as brute force. Ars Technica described the apparent end to Fez's harder puzzles as "anticlimactic", but Fish told Eurogamer in March 2013 that hidden in-game secrets remain to be found. More than three years after its digital launch, Fez received a physical release designed by Fish and limited to a signed edition of 500 in December 2015. The deluxe package included the soundtrack and a stylized red notebook with gold foil inlay. Though Bédard had moved on to another company, he continued to work on the game in secret. In August 2016, he released a final patch for the computer releases of Fez that included performance improvements, as a result of a unified codebase under an open source software library, and features such as a speedrun mode. A Nintendo Switch version was released on April 14, 2021. ### Design Bédard wrote Fez in Microsoft Visual C# Express and XNA Game Studio Express. He coded the level editor and the game engine, Trixel, which converts 2D tiles ("triles") into four-sided 3D voxels ("trixels"). Fish made 2D pixel art in Photoshop for each side of the trixel, which Bédard's custom software compiled into 3D game assets. Fish would then design levels in the level editor by extruding surfaces, a process he found "overwhelming" but akin to playing with Lego blocks. In their workflow, Fish first proposed ideas that Bédard would implement. The two would then discuss and fine-tune the addition—they worked well together. The game came to adopt Metroidvania mechanics, with "secret passages, warp gates, and cheat codes". Fish cited Myst as an inspiration and compared its open world, nonlinear narrative, and "obtuse metapuzzles" to Fez's own alphabet, numeric system, and an "almost unfairly hard to get ... second set of collectibles". He was also inspired by the Nintendo Entertainment System games of his youth (particularly those of the Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda series), Hayao Miyazaki's signature "open blue sky", "feel-good" atmosphere, and Fumito Ueda's Ico. Fish sought to emulate Ico's feeling of nostalgic and isolated loneliness, and Ueda's development philosophy wherein all nonessential game elements are removed ("design by subtraction"). Fish made a personal challenge of designing a game without relying on "established mechanics". As such, Fez was always a peaceful game that never contained an antagonist. ### Music Rich Vreeland, also known as Disasterpeace, composed the game's chiptune-esque electronic soundtrack. Despite his background in chiptune, Vreeland limited his use of that genre's mannerisms in the score. He worked with soft synth pads and reverb to push the score closer to a 1980s synthesizer sound. He also reduced reliance on percussion and incorporated distortion techniques like bitcrushing and wow. Vreeland opted for slower passages with varying tempos that could "ebb, flow, and breathe with the player". He left some portions of Fez without music. Vreeland worked on its soundtrack at night for about 14 months while scoring Shoot Many Robots. Brandon McCartin of Aquaria contributed the game's sound effects. Vreeland's first composition for the game ("Adventure") became the soundtrack's first track. He wrote it after meeting Bédard but before discussing the soundtrack with Fish, and based the composition on Fez audio created prior to his arrival. Vreeland wanted to use tape recorders for their distinctive sound, but potential audio synching issues with this method led him to employ digital recording. Portions of the soundtrack dynamically change between several dozen constituent elements and react to the game environment. For example, the "Puzzle" track's elements change musical key based on the in-game time of day. Certain tracks were intended to imitate real-world sounds, such as those of bats, thunderstorms, taiko, and water falling from stalactites. Other tracks expanded from improvisations. Vreeland was also inspired by The Lord of the Rings Shire theme, 1980s horror media, the soundtrack of demoscene game Jasper's Journeys, the Legend of Zelda dungeon music, the Mass Effect soundtrack, Tangerine Dream, and Steve Reich. "Continuum" is a synthesized rendition of Frédéric Chopin's Prelude, Op. 28, No. 4. Instruments used in recording include the Sonic Charge Synplant, minimoog, "synthetic flute", and Boomwhacker. The soundtrack was released in a digital format on April 20, 2012. Pre-orders for the soundtrack topped the Bandcamp charts. Kirk Hamilton of Kotaku wrote that Fez's sound effects evoked Jim Guthrie's Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP audio. Janus Kopfstein of The Verge called the work "fantastic" and described it as a cross between a "1980s Vangelis synth odyssey" and a submerged vinyl record from an arcade. Game Informer's Matt Miller wrote that the soundtrack contributed to Fez's "80s Nostalgia vibe". Eurogamer described the music as "lush, spooky, and electrifying", and Edge compared it to "Holst put through a Mega Drive". Oli Welsh of Eurogamer wrote that the music matched the game's themes of "hidden depth". Welsh heard influences of 1960s English psychedelia (Pink Floyd, Soft Machine), 1970s Krautrock (Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk), 1980s synth (Jean Michel Jarre, Vangelis), and Erik Satie. He added that the soundtrack's contribution to Fez was "incalculable". Damian Kastbauer of Game Developer used Vreeland's soundtrack to show that a retrogaming aesthetic in sound and visuals could be both "futuristic and nostalgic" and provide the "right 'voice' to support the game's design intentions". Game Developer listed Vreeland in their 2012 Power 50 for his work on the soundtrack, which they described as "atmospheric, pensive, and maybe even a little bit melancholy". In keeping with Fez's theme of secrets, images visible only through spectrogram were embedded into the soundtrack audio. Vreeland released a remix album, FZ: Side F, a year later on April 20, 2013. It features tracks from other artists, including Jim Guthrie. Vreeland later released another remix album, FZ: Side Z, and all three albums were included in the August 2013 Game Music Bundle 5. ## Reception Reviews upon Fez's original release were "generally favorable", according to review aggregator Metacritic. Later releases received "universal acclaim". Each release was consistently among the top-rated releases for each platform's year. GameRankings ranks Fez within its top 100 highest-rated Xbox 360 games, top 20 PC games, and top 20 PlayStation 4 games. While in development, Fez had won the 2012 GDC Independent Games Festival's Seumas McNally Grand Prize, the 2011 Indiecade Best in Show and Best Story/World Design, the 2011 Fantastic Arcade Audience Choice Award, and the 2008 GDC Independent Games Festival's Excellence in Visual Art. Eurogamer gave Fez their highest rating and named the "perfect, wordless sci-fi parable" their 2012 Game of the Year. Digital Spy listed Fez eighth in its Best Games of 2012, ahead of high-budget games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and Halo 4. Fez was chosen as the 2012 game of the year by Diamond Trust of London developer Jason Rohrer and Halo 4 lead game designer Scott Warner. The Windows PC port was Metacritic's tenth best-reviewed video game of 2013. Jake Kleinman of Inverse called it one of the best indie games of all time. The New York Times called Fez Fish's "tribute to 1980s gaming ... lovingly, almost excessively, devoted to the golden age of Nintendo". Arthur Gies of Polygon described its aesthetics as "so retro it hurts", citing its pixelated look, chiptune soundtrack, and ways of clueing the player without explicit guidance. Gies felt that though "8-bit nostalgia" was outmoded, Fez showed an understanding of its influences and was the "most authentic" of the style. Jeremy Parish of 1UP.com called the game's minimalism "admirable" and likened its art style to that of Cave Story. Kotaku described Fez's nostalgic manner as "the video game aesthetic". Oli Welsh of Eurogamer lamented how "retro pixel art" became an indie game cliché during the game's development, but felt that Fez transcended such stereotypes through its dedication to the wonderment of early Nintendo titles. "Fish clearly worships the Nintendo of his boyhood", he wrote. Welsh likened Fez to a 1970s, peace-loving, surrealist version of 2001: A Space Odyssey as imagined by Shigeru Miyamoto, and foresaw its social status as "the darling of a certain indie clique" with "studied hipster cool". Edge described the game as "a place built from gaming's history", whose playfulness makes it "an unexpected heir to Super Mario Bros." with levels like well-crafted toys, and IGN's video review said the game "drags the 8-bit era into the future". Robert Purchese of Eurogamer called the game "timeless", falling in line with other Nintendo games. Journalists likened Fez's rotation mechanic to the 2D–3D shifts of games like Echochrome, Super Paper Mario, and Crush. Early in development, Fish himself said that the idea is "nothing mind-blowing" and that the game could have been made "at any point in the last 15 years". Polygon's Gies preferred how Echochrome used the perspective mechanic, and Tom McShea of GameSpot considered Fez's mechanic a gimmick. Matt Miller of Game Informer thought that Fez realized the mechanic's potential better than other perspective-shifting games, and further commended Fez's puzzle design and pacing up until the endgame. Miller also compared its story to that of the novella Flatland, whose protagonist similarly discovers the complexities of another dimension. 1UP.com's Parish said that Fez's rotation mechanic was deeper than that of Super Paper Mario and not as dependent on M. C. Escher themes as Echochrome. Edge felt that the mechanic was "far less self-conscious" and "more harmonious" than in Echochrome and Crush. The magazine wrote that Fez's indoor puzzles were its best. Eurogamer's Welsh compared the game's "wraparound platforming" to the 1980s game Nebulus and described the rotation mechanic as among the console generation's "most unusual technical challenges". Reviewers commended the game's emphasis on discovery and freedom, but found its reliance on backtracking, particularly in the endgame, tedious. Parish of 1UP.com wrote that open-world action games like Metroid Prime all have these issues. Edge compared Fez's esoteric tricks to an older age of game development that packed games with Easter eggs, secrets, and codes, citing titles such as Exile and Jet Set Willy. The magazine also came to appreciate the 3D map. IGN's Mitch Dyer contrasted the game's riddles to the Metal Gear Solid codec frequency puzzle. Jeffrey Matulef of Eurogamer related his experience to the feeling of first playing the 1994 Myst, and The New York Times called Fez "a Finnegans Wake of video games" for its codebreaking that "makes the player feel like John Nash as portrayed by Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind". Game Informer recommended Fez for completionists who seek challenges. Polygon's Gies was uncertain as to whether the game's technical frame rate issues were intentional, and described this dilemma as having a "certain genius". Other reviewers noted its technical faults: Game Informer as minor, and 1UP.com as "easily the glitchiest game I've played on my 360". Fez sold 20,000 copies in its first day, 100,000 in less than two months, 200,000 within a year, and, after the Humble Bundle, one million by the end of 2013. It was Xbox Live's 13th best-selling Arcade title of 2012. Fez was cited as an inspiration for 2014 indie games Monument Valley, Crossy Road, and Secrets of Rætikon, as well as more modern titles such as Tunic. ## Canceled sequel Fez 2 was announced as "one more thing" at the end of the June 2013 Horizon indie game press conference, held during the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo. The project was canceled a month later following a Twitter argument between Fish and video game journalist Marcus Beer. In an episode of Beer's GameTrailers show Invisible Walls, the journalist criticized Fish's response to questions about Microsoft's Xbox One self-publishing policy change. Fish replied on Twitter with condemnation for the industry's negativity and, in a final tweet, announced both Fez 2's cancellation and his exit from the industry. The news came as a surprise to the rest of his company, which has not commented on upcoming projects other than ports since the sequel's cancellation. Polygon listed Fish in their top 50 newsmakers of 2013 for the social power of his "caustic use of Twitter".
30,863,387	Say Say Say	1,173,235,593	1983 single by Paul McCartney featuring Michael Jackson	[ "1981 songs", "1983 singles", "2023 singles", "Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles", "Cashbox number-one singles", "Columbia Records singles", "European Hot 100 Singles number-one singles", "Kygo songs", "Male vocal duets", "Michael Jackson songs", "Music published by MPL Music Publishing", "Music videos directed by Bob Giraldi", "Number-one singles in Italy", "Number-one singles in Norway", "Number-one singles in Spain", "Number-one singles in Sweden", "Parlophone singles", "Paul McCartney songs", "RPM Top Singles number-one singles", "Song recordings produced by George Martin", "Songs written by Michael Jackson", "Songs written by Paul McCartney", "Sony Music singles" ]	"Say Say Say" is a song by Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson, released in October 1983 as the lead single from McCartney's 1983 album Pipes of Peace. Produced by George Martin, it was recorded during production of McCartney's 1982 Tug of War album, about a year before the release of "The Girl Is Mine", the pair's first duet from Jackson's album Thriller (1982). After its release in October 1983, "Say Say Say" became Jackson's seventh top-ten hit inside a year. It was a number-one hit in the United States (his sixth number-one single there), Canada, Norway, Sweden and several other countries, reached number two in the United Kingdom, and peaked within the top ten in Australia, Austria, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Switzerland and over 20 other nations. In 2013, Billboard magazine listed the song as the 41st biggest hit of all time on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. It has also been voted the ninth-best collaboration of all time in a Rolling Stone readers poll. The single was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America in December 1983, representing sales of 1,000,000 copies. The single was promoted with an influential music video directed by Bob Giraldi. The short film centres around two con artists called "Mac and Jack" (played by McCartney and Jackson). ## Background, recording and composition McCartney biographer Ray Coleman asserted that the majority of the song's lyrics were written by Jackson and given to McCartney the next day. Recording began at AIR Studios in London in May 1981. At the time, McCartney was recording Tug of War, his second solo album after the breakup of his group Wings. Jackson stayed at the home of McCartney and his wife Linda during the recording sessions, and became friends with both. While at the dining table one evening, Paul McCartney brought out a booklet that displayed all the songs to which he owned the publishing rights. "This is the way to make big money," the musician informed Jackson. "Every time someone records one of these songs, I get paid. Every time someone plays these songs on the radio, or in live performances, I get paid." McCartney's words influenced Jackson's later purchase of ATV Music Publishing in 1985. McCartney played several instruments on "Say Say Say", including percussion, synthesizer and guitar (though it isn’t mentioned in the credits for the track). The harmonica was played by Chris Smith, the rhythm guitar was played by David Williams, Nathan Watts played bass and drums were played by Ricky Lawson. The song was engineered by former Beatles sound engineer, Geoff Emerick. The production of "Say Say Say" was completed in February 1983, after it had been refined and overdubbed at Cherokee Studios in California. George Martin, who had worked with the Beatles, produced the song. He said of his experience with Jackson: "He actually does radiate an aura when he comes into the studio, there's no question about it. He's not a musician in the sense that Paul is ... but he does know what he wants in music and he has very firm ideas." Jackson also spoke of the experience in his autobiography, Moonwalk. The younger singer revealed that the collaboration boosted his confidence, as Quincy Jones—producer of Thriller—was not present to correct his mistakes. Jackson added that he and McCartney worked as equals, stating, "Paul never had to carry me in that studio." According to Musicnotes.com by Alfred Music Publishing, "Say Say Say" was performed in common time, with a dance beat of 116 beats per minute. It is in the key of B minor and sung in a vocal range from F<sub>3</sub> to B<sub>4</sub>. The lyrics to "Say Say Say" reflect an attempt to "win back" a girl's affection; Deseret News considered the song to be a "pleading kind of love song". ## Release and reception Following the release of Thriller and most of its singles, "Say Say Say" was released on 3 October 1983 by Parlophone in the UK and Columbia Records in the US. It remained atop Billboard's Hot 100 for six weeks and became Jackson's seventh top ten hit of 1983, breaking a record that until then was held jointly by The Beatles and Elvis Presley. As of 2023, it remains McCartney’s final number one single on the Hot 100, either in a group or solo. Also in the US, "Say Say Say" reached number two on the R&B chart (behind "Time Will Reveal" by DeBarge) and number three on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. Billboard also stated that the recording earned "top spot as Jackson's best-performing Hot 100 chart single" after leading the US charts for six weeks. Although the song had peaked at number ten in the UK, it began to fall steadily; McCartney subsequently held an early weekday live television interview, where he discussed the song's music video. This, along with screenings of the video on Top of the Pops (which normally played only singles that were rising in the charts), The Tube and Noel Edmonds' The Late, Late Breakfast Show, helped propel the song to number two on the UK Singles Chart. "Say Say Say" reached number one in Norway and Sweden, and the single also reached the top ten in Austria, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. With wholesale shipments of at least one million units, the single was later certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. "Say Say Say" received mixed reviews from music critics. The lyrics were named the worst of 1983 by The Buffalo News's Anthony Violanti, while the Lexington Herald-Leader stated in a review of Pipes of Peace that, aside from "Say Say Say" and "The Man", "McCartney waste[d] the rest of the album on bathos and whimsy". The Los Angeles Times' Paul Grein also reviewed the McCartney album and opined that the singer had redeemed himself with the success of the "spunky" song "but plunged back into wimpdom with 'No More Lonely Nights'". Journalist Whitney Pastorek compared the song to McCartney's 1982 duet with Stevie Wonder, "Ebony and Ivory". She asserted that "Say Say Say" was a better song, and had a better "though slightly more nonsensical" music video, adding that the song had no "heavy-handed social content". Penn State's The Daily Collegian described the track as a good song, despite its ad nauseam broadcasts. Deseret News stated that the "pleading love song" had a "masterful, catchy hook". In a Rolling Stone review, the track was described as an "amiable though vapid dance groove". The reviewer, Parke Puterbaugh, added that it was an "instantly hit-bound froth-funk that tends, after all, toward banality". Music critic Nelson George stated that "Say Say Say" would not have "deserved the airplay it received without McCartney and Jackson". Salon.com later described the song as a "sappy duet" and said that McCartney had become a "wimpy old fart" to the music public. Billboard listed "Say Say Say" as Michael Jackson's all-time biggest Hot 100 single. In a 2007 article, a writer for the magazine Vibe listed "Say Say Say" as the 22nd greatest duet of all time. The writer commented that the song was "a true falsetto fantasy" and that it was "still thrilling to hear the sweet-voiced duo trade harmonies on the chorus". In 2005, Dutch musicians Hi Tack sampled "Say Say Say" on their debut single, "Say Say Say (Waiting 4 U)". The song featured Jackson's vocals from the original recording, plus McCartney's "Baby". ### 2015 version On 6 October 2015, McCartney released a new version of the song in which the vocal roles of him and Jackson are reversed. It was remixed by Steve Orchard and Mark "Spike" Stent. On the new version, which is over three minutes longer than the original, the opening of the first is sung by Jackson instead of McCartney. Orchard said of the remix: "Paul remembered that there were two unused lead vocal performances by Michael and himself. We rearranged the vocal sequence and inverted the original performance so that Michael opened the first verse instead of Paul, to give the song a different take to the original version." More specifically, Jackson sings the parts that McCartney had in the original, and vice versa, for much of the song. The track appears on the 2015 re-issue of Pipes of Peace. A radio edit of the new remix was released for streaming on 30 October 2015, while an instrumental version of it is available for download at paulmccartney.com. The radio edit was also later included on the anthology Pure McCartney. To coincide with the release of the recording, McCartney released a new music video on his Facebook page on 6 October 2015. Directed and choreographed by Ryan Heffington, it featured a group of young dancers, filmed in black and white in Los Angeles neighbourhoods, with moves that are reminiscent of Michael Jackson's. ## Personnel "Say Say Say" - Paul McCartney – vocals - Michael Jackson – vocals - Chris Hammer Smith – harmonica - David Williams – rhythm guitar - Nathan Watts – bass - Bill Wolfer – keyboards - Linda McCartney, Eric Stewart – backing vocals - Ricky Lawson – drums - Jerry Hey, Ernie Watts, Gary E. Grant, Gary Herbig – horns "Ode to a Koala Bear" - Paul McCartney – vocals, bass, piano, electric guitar - Chris Laurence – bass - Paul Robinson – drums - Linda McCartney, Eric Stewart – backing vocals ## Music video ### Production, plot, and reception The music video (or "short film") for "Say Say Say" was filmed in October 1983 and was directed by Bob Giraldi, who had previously directed Michael Jackson's music video for "Beat It". Cameo appearances in the video are made by McCartney's then wife Linda, as well as Jackson's older sister La Toya. Rolling Stone quoted Bob Giraldi who recounted McCartney's nervousness about the project: > "Paul was terribly insecure about appearing next to Michael, in terms of dance" ... "And who wouldn't, if you're going to go onstage and be choreographed next to Michael Jackson?" "In all my years of working in film and commercials, I've worked with some of the worst divas and superstars of all time," said Giraldi. "Paul and Michael were not that." According to La Toya Jackson, during filming of the video, the McCartneys were staying at a property named Sycamore Valley Ranch, five miles from the town of Los Olivos, California, in the Santa Ynez Valley. Jackson visited them and expressed interest in someday buying the property. In 1988, he would do so, renaming it Neverland Ranch. The saloon portion was filmed at the 1880 Union Hotel in Los Alamos. McCartney flew in specifically for the filming. The video cost \$500,000 to produce. In the short film, the duo play "Mac and Jack", a pair of medicine show con men who sell a "miracle potion". The salesman (McCartney) offers Jackson the potion, and claims that it is "guaranteed to give you the strength of a raging bull". Jackson drinks the potion and challenges a large man to arm-wrestle. Unbeknownst to a watching crowd, the man—along with Linda—is also in on the scam. After Jackson wins the rigged contest, the crowd of people surge forward and buy the potion. Mac and Jack then donate all of the money earned from the scam to an orphanage. After this scene, McCartney and Jackson star as vaudeville performers who sing and dance at a bar. On stage, the duo appear in clown makeup at one point and quickly go through a number of costume changes. Jackson flirts with a young woman portrayed by his real-life sister La Toya. When law-enforcement officers appear at the back of the venue, Mac quickly starts a small fire onstage and Linda hollers "FIRE!", emptying the venue and allowing the group to escape via backstage (yet somehow finding time to change into tuxedoes first). The video ends with Paul, Linda, and Michael as they drive off into the sunset. La Toya, who was handed a bunch of flowers by McCartney, is left at the roadside. The video also features appearances by director Giraldi as a pool shark who is conned by McCartney, Sonny Barnes (whose cameo was wrongly attributed to Mr. T) as the carriage driver, and Art Carney as an audience member for the vaudeville show. Giraldi said of Jackson and McCartney, "Michael didn't outdance Paul, and Paul didn't outsing Michael". He added that production of the video was hard work because "the egos could fill a room". The video introduced both dialogue and storyline, an element extended upon in Michael Jackson's Thriller. In a 1984 study of music videos conducted by the National Coalition on Television Violence, the Jacksons were rated "very violent", citing Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean", "Thriller" and "Say Say Say" as well as Jermaine Jackson's "Dynamite" and the Jacksons' "Torture". In a list compiled by Billboard at the end of 1984, the music video was named the fourth best of the year, and the rest of the top four were also short films by Jackson. The Manchester Evening News later described the "Say Say Say" video as an "anarchic caper" that "plays out like an Emir Kusturica feature". PopMatters stated that the music videos of "Say Say Say" and "Goodnight Tonight" turned "a pair of otherwise forgettable songs into something worth watching". Steven Greenlee of The Boston Globe reflected that the video was both "horrifying and compelling", and stated the ridiculousness of a potion which could aid Jackson in beating somebody at arm wrestling. He added, "It's even harder to believe that the two of them didn't get the pulp beaten out of them in that bar for dressing like a pair of Chess King employees." The "Say Say Say" video was later included on the DVDs The McCartney Years and Michael Jackson's Vision. ### Themes Two authors later reviewed the short film and documented two central themes. The first is a "Child/Man" theme; the role of both a boy and an adult, which writer James M. Curtis states Jackson plays throughout the music video for "Say Say Say". Curtis writes that the bathroom scene involving the shaving foam is reminiscent of boys copying their fathers. He adds that the scene marks "the distinction between Michael's roles as a Child and as a Man". The writer also highlights the part where the singer supposedly becomes strengthened with a miracle potion, a further play on the "Child/Man" theme. Furthermore, Curtis observes that Paul and Linda McCartney seem to act as if they are Jackson's parents in the short film. The author also notes that in a scene where Jackson is handed a bouquet of flowers from a girl, it is a reversal of one from City Lights, a 1931 film starring Charlie Chaplin, whom the singer greatly adored. The second of the two main themes in the music video is of African American history and culture, as some of the vaudeville scenes in the short film acknowledge minstrel shows and blackface. Author W. T. Lhamon writes that the video is set in the Great Depression, and that McCartney and Jackson "convey a compactly corrupt history of blackface" as they con their way to riches with the Mac and Jack show. Lhamon was critical of the pair and of the video because he felt that the African American theme had not been made explicitly known. The author expressed his view that aspects of the short film were historically out-of-synch with interracial relations. He stated, "Nearly everything in the video is backward. Mack's white hand continually helping black Jack on board, for instance, reverses the general process I have shown of blacks providing whites with their sustaining gestures." Lhamon added, "In a just world, Jackson should be pulling McCartney onto the wagon, not the other way around." ## Track listing \; UK 7" single 1. "Say Say Say" (with Michael Jackson) – 3:55 2. "Ode to a Koala Bear" – 3:45 \; US 12" single 1. "Say Say Say" (John "Jellybean" Benitez Remix) (with Michael Jackson) – 5:40 2. "Say Say Say" (John "Jellybean" Benitez Remix Instrumental) (with Michael Jackson) – 7:00 3. "Ode to a Koala Bear" – 3:45 \; 2015 transparent vinyl reissue 1. "Say Say Say" (2015 Remix) (with Michael Jackson) – 7:00 2. "Say Say Say" (John "Jellybean" Benitez Remix Instrumental) (with Michael Jackson) – 7:00 \; Digital streaming 1. "Say Say Say" (2015 Remix / Radio Edit) (with Michael Jackson) – 3:41 \*; Digital download – via paulmccartney.com 1. "Say Say Say" (2015 Remix / Radio Edit Instrumental) (with Michael Jackson) – 3:41 ## Charts ### Weekly charts ### Year-end charts ### Decade-end charts ### All-time charts ## Certifications ## Kygo version On March 31, 2023, Norwegian DJ Kygo released a remake of the song. ### Charts #### Weekly charts #### Monthly charts ## See also - List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of 1983 - List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of 1984 - "Say Say Say (Waiting 4 U)" by Hi Tack

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